Upload Outrage - Vista rats you out

Download Uproar: RIAA goes after personal use: "The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from a legally bought CD are 'unauthorized copies' of copyrighted recordings."

According to the ruling in the recent "Jammie Thomas" internet-downloading case, copies of copyrighted music on a hard drive and in a folder that is shared with people other than the "copy owner", is a violation of the law - even if no copying from the folder has occurred.

I think that it is a defensible ruling if the intent of the "copy owner" is to make the material available for downloading or copying by other people, or it is reasonable to assume that the person would be aware that this would occur. But it is less defensible where the "copy owner" reasonably did not expect that others would download or copy the copyrighted material from the shared folder.


But it's so much bigger than this...


The entire world has made up its mind - people want their music on a portable MP3 player.

If it is illegal to copy a CD to an iPod or Zune, then who needs to buy a CD? It is cheaper to buy music directly from the internet.

There goes your CD business you massively stupid RIAA old-time fucks.


And it's bigger and worse even than that...


We like to think our PC tries to protect us and our stuff. Uh uh, think again. That's the old days.

Somebody's figured out that the public is a pain in the ass and won't pay much for security - but business will pay serious money to be protected from the public. So screw the public.

It's so much more lucrative to create Windows Vista, an operating system with a "New Electronic Deal", where your computer finks on you - literally rats you out, whenever you do something that causes some business to lose a buck - or miss the opportunity to get more of your bucks. And that list of "crimes" gets bigger by the minute.

But we all continue to click "I agree with these terms" all the time - like it doesn't affect us; like we really plan to pull out at the last minute. Yeah right.

A Breathtaking Dereliction

"Hey! Let's measure it!!": "'There have been a lot of different measurements regarding the moat,' zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said Thursday. 'Today we went out and measured the moat ourselves.'"

"Measured the moat ourselves"???? Who in hell has been measuring it up to now? Is this guy for real?

And the online comments about this story boggle the mind. The tirade of visciousness directed at the 3 young male victims - absent any clear indication of their complicity or involvement, is unacceptable. One online commenter chimed in with "According to unnamed sources, when the "Tiger Whisperer" came in to find out what happened, the Tiger said "Who says you can't get good Mexican Food in San Francisco!"

For me, the 2 clear facts are that a beautiful Siberian tiger is a treasure, and that the most valuable animal at the zoo is always the visitor.

Heterosexual Domestic Partners and Gay Domestic Partners To Lose Rights

Woops! Republicans Target Me ??? Bad Plan: "The Florida proposal, according to its opponents, will affect not only gay couples but also heterosexual domestic partners, legally recognized in some areas of the state, and will mean insurance programs, hospital visitations and death benefits, and other citizens' rights would be terminated."

Anita and Matthew Stavor, a pesty couple of rightie mouth-breathers, want a surge of anti-gay anger to fill the poll booths. But threatening all old folks in Florida - whose retirement options can include choosing a Domestic Partner arrangement - stinks on ice.

I'm straight, getting older and planning retirement, and if I was in Florida, and the Liberty Council started to fuck with my rights, I'd go ballistic - and they'd know about it!

Romney Flops - Flips Out

Romney Says He Was With Alice When She Was 10 Feet Tall, So He Didn't Notice That Martin Luther King Was Not Beneath Him: "'My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.'"

"Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was not true. "Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King."

Did I hear Mitt say, "Did march, didn't march, doesn't mean squat. Martin Luther King should have lightened up. Like Clarence Thomas said about being a Supreme Court Justice, 'There’s no money in it, no privacy, no big houses, and from an ego standpoint, it does nothing for me.' "

Apple Sets Price of Integrity

Corporate Dons Toasting the Cheap Rates: "“It’s great for the individual critic to be paid to be quiet, but the public is worse off if we lose the ability to get more information in the marketplace of ideas..."

"...Nicholas M. Ciarelli, who operated a Web site for Apple rumors called Think Secret, was sued by Apple for publishing trade secrets in January 2005. In a brief statement Thursday on his site, Mr. Ciarelli said that he had reached a settlement with Apple and that he would stop publishing Think Secret."

Integrity HALF-OFF - Today Only !!!

If you drag a million bucks through my trailer court I don't know for certain if I can vouch for the integrity of my response either.

Clarence Won't Get His Wings After All

Republican Quality On Parade For All To See: Clarence Thomas hates his job.: " 'There’s not much that entices about the job,' Thomas said, answering questions from the public that provided a rare glimpse of the man behind the office. 'There’s no money in it, no privacy, no big houses, and from an ego standpoint, it does nothing for me.' "

A Republican Giant of defining proportions that the world will surely note and long remember.

" 'Thomas, 59, said the position is satisfying because he feels he’s serving the public, and he’s honored by it, 'but I wouldn’t say I like it.'

'I like sports,' Thomas said. 'I like to drive a motor home.' "

Do you know anyone who would want their child to emulate this schlubb?

"He Thinks I'm Dim"

Peggy Noonan on Huckabee: "His rise is not a cause of collapse but an expression of it":
"That guy is using the cross so I'll like him. That doesn't tell me what he thinks of Jesus, but it does tell me what he thinks of me. He thinks I'm dim. He thinks I will associate my savior with his candidacy. Bleh."...

When Huckabee said that the cross in the background was just a shelf, he spoke as a calculating liar.

..."Ken Mehlman, the former Republican chairman, once bragged in my presence that in every ad he did he put in something wrong--something that went too far, something debatable. TV producers, ever hungry for new controversy, would play the commercial over and over as pundits on the panel deliberated over its meaning. This got the commercial played free all over the news.

The cross is the reason you saw the commercial. The cross made it break through."...

..."Like Mr. Bush, his approach to politics seems, at bottom, highly emotional, marked by great spurts of feeling and mighty declarations as to what the Lord wants. The problem with this, and with Bushian compassionate conservatism, which seems to have an echo in Mr. Huckabee's Christianism, is that to the extent it is a philosophy, it is not a philosophy that allows debate. Because it comes down to "This is what God wants." This is not an opener of discussion but a squelcher of it. It doesn't expand the process, it frustrates it."

Clinton-Hatred Bags Another Sucker

Huckabee Tries to Shoot the Messenger: "'Dear Wayne,' Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond, after having read the victims' letters. 'My desire is that you be released from prison.' And no amount of spinning can change that, or the conclusion that Huckabee allowed his judgment to be swayed by the bleating of a collection of right-wing zealots who put their hatred of Bill Clinton over the well being of the public (Dumond's victim was a distant relative of Clinton, and the daughter of a major Clinton donor). "

From the Cold, Dead Hands of Children

Guns for Tots - The NRA Children:

I think we owe thanks to the NRA and all the conservatives for getting guns into the hands of as many young people as possible.

And I'd like to see a special high-five to all the American citizens that vote for the politicians who make this all possible.

And a real special shout-out to all the cops around the country that use tasers because they know - as we should but don't, that if everybody has guns, cops have to shoot you or tase you - there is no longer a third choice on the American streets.

But the Big Award goes to me, and to you, for letting America slip beneath the waves.

On The Back Of A Turtle

Huckabee Aims To Cram Creationism Down Your Child's Throat: "Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints. "

This is the main reason I could never support Huckabee. He should be challenged at every opportunity on this point.

Huckabee "bristled Tuesday when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools."...

..."That's an irrelevant question to ask me—I'm happy to answer what I believe, but what I believe is not what's going to be taught in 50 different states," Huckabee said. "Education is a state function. The more state it is, and the less federal it is, the better off we are."

I'm Imus. No, I'm Imus, No, I'm Imus, No, I'm...

An Everyman Hero:

From Mediabistro: "6:00 A.M.: Charles McCord opens the program. "The Imus in the Morning program has returned to the air following a hiatus of nearly 8 months." Wild applause from the live audience assembled in Times Square's Town Hall.
6:06 A.M.: Imus debuts to the sound of "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project (famous for also being the Chicago Bulls theme song).
6:07 A.M.: Imus announces today's guests: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sen. John McCain, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sen. Chris Dodd, James Carville, Mary Matalin.
6:09 A.M.: Levon Helm performs.
6:14 A.M.: New "Imus in the Morning" jingle.
6:10 A.M.: "I want to take a second to introduce this new incarnation of 'Imus in the Morning' and the cast." They are: Bernard McGuirk, Rob Bartlett, Tony Powell, Cara Foster, Larry Kinney, Lou Ruffino.
6:20 A.M.: "I want to take a second to talk about what happened back on April 12th. ... what it means ... what it means for this program and what it means for the young women out of Rutgers.
"In thinking about what happened... I didn't see appoint in going on some Larry King tour to offer a bunch of lame excuses for making a reprehensible remark about innocent people who did not deserve to be made fun of.
"I think what happened is about what should have happened. I think one has to realize ...that you don't get to decide nor should you how the news media is going to treat you a remark you make. ..."Every time that I got pissed off about that I reminded myself that if I hadn't said what I said then I wouldn't be having this discussion. ...
Les Moonves could not have been more honorable and decent and honest in dealing with me. ...6:23 A.M.: "Whether you're a good person or not is completely unrelated and it doesn't give you any license to make any kind of remark you feel like making, and doesn't minimize the impact it has on who you make it about. ..."6:25 A.M.: Describes meeting with Rutgers basketball team as close to a life-changing experience.
6:28 A.M.: "As I was talking to these young women, I realized that, other than placing in context for them who I was and that I wasn't some vicious racist and this is what we did for a living -- make fun of people -- that was so irrelevant to how they felt. ... It sounded to me as I listened to myself talk and as I looked at them, it just sounded like one lame excuse after another. ...
"They didn't think I was calling them prostitutes, but they didn't think it was funny either.
"One woman was this close to my face, just screaming. You could feel her heart break. And I realized how fortunate it was that I was fired. If I had been there apologizing and offering these excuses and still had my job, they would have thought that I was there to save my job and that may have been true. But I was there to save my life. I had already lost my job ... They forgave me, they accepted my apology and they said that they would never forget. And I said that I would never forget."
6:32 A.M.: "I analogized it to being an alcoholic and a drug addict, which I also am. If you get into recovery, which I am, for 20 some years now, you have an opportunity to be a better person and to have a better life than you ordinarily would have. And that's true in this situation because it was demonstrated to these young women that there are consequences for things you say. Would I rather have not gone through it? ... Absolutely."
6:33 A.M.: "We now have the opportunity to have a better program, to obviously diversity the cast -- I mean that just makes sense. But the program is not going to change. ... It is a great radio program. It's on a better radio station. ... I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me. And no one else will say anything on my program that will make anyone else think that I didn't deserve a second chance."
6:34 A.M.: Imus takes national media to task. "They said we were going to have an ongoing discussion about race relations in this country as soon as I left the room. ... I must have missed that."6:35 A.M.: "Not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I'm back on the radio!"
6:38 A.M.: At the end of Imus' speech, he plays Montgomery Gentry's "Some People Change":
Here's to the strong; thanks to the brave.Don't give up hope: some people change.Against all odds, against the grain,Love finds a way: some people change.Some people change.
6:45 A.M.: Goodwin: "I'm so excited you're back." Imus tells her at 6:55 that she's "a great friend."
6:47 A.M.: Salutes Sean Hannity and Opie & Anthony for their support during Imus' tough time.6:48 A.M.: "We signed for five years because that's how long it's going to take to get even with everybody."
6:49 A.M.: Someone wrote Imus a letter and said, "Since the Rutgers team forgave you, can't you forgive" those whom Imus feels betrayed him. Imus: "I probably can." But: "I didn't think that these various folks who I was making famous and rich had a lot of courage. I don't know what you think about Al Sharpton, but if I'm going to pick somebody to be in a foxhole with, I pick him before I pick a lot of them people."
7:01 A.M.: Any reason MSNBC still has its Imus page up?
7:36 A.M.: Sen. John McCain tells Imus, "Glad to have you back."

"I Want To 'Hang the Ten' In Malibu"

Ashcroft Suffering From "Premature Explanation" - Meant "Surfboarding", Not Waterboarding: "It’s not something I can make a decision on,” said Ashcroft.

..."After the debate, McCain reminded people that Japanese soldiers were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding."

Confused, Ashcroft vows to "take some curls" and "hang ten more" at Trancas after church.

Scumbag Utah Trooper acted reasonably, say Head Scumbags

Fascist Murderer Cops On Duty In Utah: In addition to the criminal cop who double-tased the motorist, here's another real scumbag: Lance Davenport of the Utah Highway Patrol, who has no problem defending the tasering of a man who refused to sign a ticket - as I have refused to do at least once in Marin County, California.

"A Utah trooper who used a Taser to subdue a stubborn motorist who was walking away from him during a traffic stop felt threatened and acted reasonably, state officials said Friday."

Time after time, tasers are torture devices when used by most police officers. If they pulled this on me or someone in my family, I would go after that person without hesitation and with no limitation and I wouldn't stop until I was satisfied.

"We prosecuted Japanese officers for subjecting prisoners to waterboarding in World War II"

I Can't Wait To Be Waterboarded: John Ashcroft "...responded to questions from the audience. The first question came from a woman who asked if Ashcroft would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding.

'The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do,' he said."

Whatever the fuck that means ?

"Ashcroft apparently believes that torture should be allowed as long as it doesn’t kill him.

Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and William Delahunt (D-MA) have introduced the 'American Anti-Torture Act of 2007' to make clear no U.S. government agency feels it can apply the Ashcroft standard while interrogating detainees. They write:

'Waterboarding is not 'simulated drowning.' It is drowning. It involves restraining a detainee — usually by strapping him or her to a board — with the head placed lower than the feet. The face or mouth is often covered or stuffed with rags and water is poured over the face to force inhalation. The victim’s lungs fill with water until the procedure is stopped or the victim dies. Waterboarding has been considered torture — even by our own government — until recently. Indeed, we prosecuted Japanese officers for subjecting prisoners to waterboarding in World War II.'"

"Show me better facts and I'll gladly change my mind." - Phill Sawyer

"Don't Celebrate Turnaround in Iraq Just Yet": "Thomas E. Ricks: Well, that's the big question. Are the warring sides standing down until Uncle Sam gets out of the way? The Sunnis have largely stopped fighting while they seek to cut a deal to get a place at the table in post-Saddam Iraq. And the Shiites have stopped fighting the Americans for at least six months, they say -- and why not? With the Sunnis standing down, Uncle Sam would be focusing all his firepower on the Shiites. But what if the Sunnis get sick of waiting? And what happens when U.S. forces start declining in number next year?"...

...(a question posed to Rick) "Boonsboro, Md.: When will it be okay to state that we are winning in Iraq and all the naysayers ("the war is lost") were wrong? Even the New York Times is admitting things are going well.

Thomas E. Ricks: Well, things are going better. I just got back from Baghdad last week, and it was clear that violence has decreased. But it hasn't gone away. It is only back down to the 2005 level -- which to my mind is kind of like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth.

I interviewed dozens of officers and none were willing to say we are winning. What they were saying is that at least now, we are not losing. But to a man, they were enormously frustrated by what they see as the foot-dragging of the Baghdad government."

"I am writing about someone I used to know."

"Like a lot of sensitive, gifted boys, he drifted into magic." - Steve Martin's self-penned 'Biography':

"'The appeal of writing', he added, was that 'I feel like I can get to the point where I know I did the best I can. I really love the sense of finality in writing, the sense of getting it right in a way that only I can know about. In comedy, if they’re not laughing, there’s no doubt.'...

"...he taught himself to play as a teenager from a Pete Seeger instruction book, practicing alone in his car with windows rolled up even on hot summer nights...

...he picked up the banjo and played a bluegrass song he had been learning. 'When I play music, it’s like an alternate form of living,' he said."

The Ann Hole

The Vagina Diatribes: "Perfected: The Ann Coulter Song (And The Barely Political Business Model)...

All the personal attacks on Ann show how we are deeply afraid of her."

Afraid ? Of What ?

She's a bomb that's already exploded. The danger is over.

If I had the time I'd train her to bark for you.

But if all you're looking for is an aging, neutered moll with enough cash to be obnoxious to store clerks, she's your bimbo. "

Small In So Many Ways

Prince Threatens To Sue Own Fans Over Fansites: He is so fucked-up on this issue that it's almost breathtaking. Getting sued by this little schlubb will be a badge of honor.

For a guy that uses no notes that aren't on the scale and uses no words not in the dictionary, the upwardly grabby little idiot somehow believes he should own what your eyes can see and what your ears can hear.

The honorable thing might be to steal everything he owns and give it to homeless kids. Then scream in his face until he cries.

How small is he going to get? "

"Waterboarding is torture, period"

Cleanse this stain from our national honor: "'Waterboarding is torture, period,' Malcolm Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, told a House constitutional subcommittee. I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor."

Then we hear from the less-than-men that the GOP coughs up in defense of its barbarity.

"Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said at the panel's hearing that he is against torture but that 'sometimes we have to take measures to protect the innocent that we do not like.'

'Severe interrogations are sometimes part of doing that,' said Franks, the ranking Republican on the panel..."

"...Nance described the experience as a 'slow motion suffocation' that provides enough time for the subject to consider what's happening: 'water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feeling your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs.
The victim is drowning.'

Republican Rep. Trent Franks, Arizona, is a vile man with a diseased thought process.

"I would put him at a second level wannabe kiss ass"

"If you put it in writing and press that send button your butt can be on the line" - Yet John Matel Is As Safe As A Rightie In Crawford, Texas - Guess Why...:

"Being a retired civil servant, let me give you my take on this post, this guy is well connected, he has his ticket punched, 10 to 1 he is very close to the top and is required to make very little interaction with the locals. I would put him at a second level wannabe kiss ass. Second, if he did not want someone to see his letter - he cited the military, then why did he release it? Supposedly he is a smart guy and any internet savy person automatically knows that if you put it in writing and press that send button your butt can be on the line.

Not to sound paranoid, but considering the machinations of this administration why should I believe anything from anyone who supports their view. Frankly there is too much factual evidence from those on the ground, the grunts, and I believe them more than anyone else, that contradicts even the slightest reason to have an open embassy there." - arkansawtravler, on HuffPo

The "Nasty Man"

Rudy's Torture Talk: "John McCain, who is understandably appalled by the casual advocacy of torture, noted that Giuliani and the others in the GOP field come by their faux toughness without benefit of military service. This is a fair point, because as both McCain and Colin Powell have noted, all a POW has going for him is the hope of reciprocity. If we don't torture, maybe they won't, either.

This means nothing to Giuliani. He rebutted McCain with one of his signature your-mother-wears-a-mustache responses. McCain, he said, has "never run a city, never run a state, never run a government." Yes, but he has been tortured.

McCain's experience, though, makes no impression on Giuliani. He likened "intensive questioning," the term of art for a wee bit of torture, to what he practiced as New York's U.S. attorney and then mayor: "If I didn't use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of Mafia guys running around New York right now."

Is he serious? Did he waterboard the Gambinos? Did he deprive the Genovese family of sleep? Did he hang the Colombos by their thumbs? Did he bombard the Luccheses with opera from a regional company?

You could dismiss Giuliani's statements as campaign hot air and leave it at that. But to those who know something about his time as mayor, it is reminiscent of Giuliani's scary lack of empathy for victims and a concomitant inability to distinguish critics from enemies. These are the qualities that made him so unpopular in New York's black community (and elsewhere), and prompted Ed Koch to title his book about Giuliani The "Nasty Man."

I doubt Giuliani had Orson Swindle in mind when he trivialized sleep deprivation as a pillowless night on a bumpy campaign flight. But he should have had a somber appreciation for the realities of torture and not, as he did, make it sound like a scene out of a movie. Swindle laughed when he heard Giuliani's comment. "He obviously doesn't understand what he's talking about," Swindle said.

It's a habit."

Rudy can be stopped, but it might be very messy.

Rudy The Water-Boarder

"A small man in search of a balcony", according to Jimmy Breslin.

"Now, intensive questioning works."

America now means that place where - once upon a time, it was possible to see God smiling on our efforts.

For Whom the Writer's Strike...

"Let your life be a friction against the machine", said Henry David Thoreau. The writers strike should not be seen as the usual, ordinary petition by workers for greater pay and benefits, but as a battle in the new war by Big Rich against the individual.

"The fact is, this fight is very much about the future of our relationship to giant corporations. As individuals, as artists, as workers, as citizens. It is not a fight between one group of unlikable shallow and out of touch people on the coast and another. It is a fight for the value of work itself in a changing world."

It is a deadly fight for control of our identities and for a stake in the future of our culture.

The CNN Loon

Tom Friedman Drops the Dime on Lou Dobbs: In the student's question, "he references Dobbs and asks about 'the nativist spirit' and protectionism, asks about the way issues are presented, and whether this is all more about mindset than about policy.

Friedman, three time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of bestsellers "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" and more recently "The World is Flat" (which sold a million and a half copies, far more than Dobbs' viewership -- or ours, by the way), begins his answer. "One of the problems", he begins, explaining that we need leaders who can explain the complexity, not who will just stir the pot, "is we have politicians that are making us stupid, who are throwing sand in our eyes." But then he goes on: "And then you have a blithering idiot like Lou Dobbs, in my view, who's using the platform of CNN in...the frame of a news show. This is not news. And so we have a political class not making sense of the world for people and that's why the public...is so agitated."

Peter Paul Mounts Anything

Getting Money is Paul's Plan: "Mr. Paul has a criminal past that includes a guilty plea for cocaine possession and trying to defraud the Cuban government of millions of dollars in 1979. He has been seeking attention for his claims against the Clintons, and he sued Mrs. Clinton in California."...

But it does not interfere with his general malfeasing...

"A 13.4-minute video accusing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of campaign finance fraud is being shown on college campuses and has generated significant Web attention."...

According to a Clinton spokesperson, “Peter Paul is a professional liar who has four separate criminal convictions, two for fraud. His video repackages a series of seven-year-old false claims about Senator Clinton that have already been rejected by the California state courts, the Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee.”

Increasing the scratch is the favored pastime of most GOP drudgebunnies.

"I Will Fuck Up The World Mightily"

Rudy Licks 1967 Stamp - Acts Weird All Day: "This is the world we live in. It's not this happy, romantic-like world where we'll negotiate with this one, or we'll negotiate with that one and there will be no preconditions, and we'll invite Ahmadinejad to the White House, we'll invite Osama bin Laden to the White House," Giuliani said.

'Hillary and Obama are kind of debating whether to invite them to the inauguration or the inaugural ball,' he added."

Great leadership manner.

Butterballs in Print

Lucianne Goldberg Poured Ink on her Blue Dress and Jonah Began to Form: "There is, supposedly, a Chinese proverb that goes, 'How is it that a toad this large comes to stand in front of me?'

One of the clammy fantasies of people like Jonah Goldberg - and a great aching desire of all deep-dish American Conservatives, has been to convince ordinary people that Liberals were the Actual, Genuine Fascists of the 20th Century.

Mission Unaccomplished.

Jonah's strained writing, reeking of gibberish, allows him to jog alongside the GOP bus with the other rightie losers - like the pools of small fish that converge at the anus of a whale.

And that's why Lucianne named him Jonah."

The Judith Miller Movie

It's like 'Behind The Green Door' - only it smells like fish

Trying to glam up Judith Miller is almost insulting.

The only way this works is if the movie delivers Miller as an Uber Toppen Hanna Reich landing her airborne beemer in a Berlin maze of rubble and road - rushing into the bunker for that one last chance at a date with the big guy.

Glenn Beck Pisses Off God - Righties Burn To The Ground

Beck Dumps It - Then Forced To Eat It: " 'I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.' "

Ooops. He shoulda shut his mouth - his favorite God evidentally didn't cotton to that kind of remark, so within hours a whole bunch of GOP schmucks would lose their homes in the San Diego infernos.

Beck is a criminal and he will burn to ashes in his own time. Check his record. It's the story of a foul and failed junior gladiator with a head full of so much hatred and sin that he is barely a soul.

As Rush Limbaugh suggested, "We're going to find out where your kids go to school."

Since Beck pimps himself as a religious sort, pehaps he'll enjoy things better when it's all visited on his kids. That's why I wouldn't worry too much about the fate of this creep. It's all on automatic.

Pray for his family.

"I doubt very much that we would've taken that animal away," says SPCA Spokeswoman

Local animal official disagrees with decision to take dog from Ellen DeGeneres' hairdresser: " 'Ellen has a fabulous reputation - her interest in animal welfare is well-known and well-documented,' said Pasadena Humane Society & SPCA spokeswoman Ricky Whitman.

DeGeneres and her partner, actress Portia de Rossi, adopted Iggy, a Brussels Griffon mix, from Mutts and Moms, a volunteer, non-profit dog rescue organization in Pasadena on Sept. 20. But, after Iggy and the kitties didn't mix, DeGeneres gave the dog to her hairdresser, whose 11- and 12-year-old daughters bonded with it..."

"..Sunday, the agency sent a representative to the hairdresser's home and took the dog..."

"...Though the local humane society has the same policy, saying adopted dogs who aren't working out should be returned to the shelter rather than given away, Whitman says her group 'would've handled this very differently.'

'I doubt very much that we would've taken that animal away,' she said. 'From what I've read, the family is just devastated. Ellen is certainly devastated. That's not what you want. You want people who have animals to be happy, and you want animals to be in wonderful environment.' "

Hicks, Applebees, Ah Shucks, and Much Much More

Mickey Finn vs. Huck Finn:

At a quick glance, Giuliani - the slightly scary soprano wannabee, appears to be the most attractive candidate the GOP could choose. Granted, he will be soft with the uber-rightie mouthbreathers, but with his undeniable attractiveness to some traditional Democrats he will be able to carve some moderates away from Hillary, giving him an actual chance in the general election.

It all seems so clear that Giuliani is the most dangerous Republican to run against - except perhaps for this unknown force out there with the name Huckabee. This guy's chances are difficult to assess, but his appeal to many progressives is revealing something about the electorate in general that may be a bedeviling force for Democrat’s chances in the election. On so many core issues Huckabee is the antithesis of the progressive’s dream world. He publicly states a disbelief in evolution, a hard-right absolutist stance on reproductive choice; would probably acquiesce to the incarceration of active, practicing gays if he could, and I suspect that he would bring progressive government to a halt using means far harsher than his genial smile would suggest.

So what is Huckabee doing on the sunny side of the polls? Well, I think it is 3 things - with a chaser. He has a great face, he has a very pleasant manner of speaking, and he can talk about healthcare better than most of the competition - so far anyway. And to finish it all off, he has the best name in the game.

Baptists Tell Romney - "You're a Cultist!"

The garden of Eden was located in southern Illinois : "They probably have no idea that the faith calls for belief in Jesus's having come to America hundreds of years ago, or that the garden of Eden was located in southern Illinois, or that the American Indians are actually 'lost tribes' of Israelites. Likewise, they are probably unaware that until the late 1970's, black people were considered as a matter of church doctrine to be morally incapable of reaching the highest realms of the hereafter. "

We definitely need to get back to some old-fashioned Scientology !

"There is a way around everything if you are smart enough"

Actress Deborah Kerr Dies at Age 86: "'I have never had a fight with any director, good or bad,' she said toward the end of her career. 'There is a way around everything if you are smart enough.'"

The 3 movies with Deborah Kerr that I remember most - and liked best, are:

"Heaven Knows Mr. Allison"
"The King and I"
"An Affair to Remember"

Wingnut Champ - the Culture of Stupidity

Bush Family Planning Appointee Called Contraceptives Part Of The ‘Culture Of Death’: "Orr railed against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. “It’s not about choice,” said Orr. “It’s not about health care. It’s about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.”"

She is wrong, radical, and unintelligent. A natural choice for this president.

"Statement on Orr from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA):
This appointment is absurd. Dr. Orr’s support of unproven abstinence-only programs would in itself raise flags about her commitment to comprehensive family planning for low-income girls and women. But in 2000, Dr. Orr said that requiring insurers to cover family planning supplies and services — a policy that promotes access to contraception in many states and the federal employee health program — is “about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.” This leaves little doubt about where she has stood on contraception access. […]
I’m no longer surprised by this kind of decision — ideology firmly holds the reins over reproductive health in this White House. But this lack of commitment to comprehensive reproductive health, combined with cramped budgets, is an insult and a disservice to the millions of low-income people who rely on Title X for family planning and preventive health services."

GOP Senator Mitch McConnell Lies To Reporter

McConnell knew of e-mails about boy: "Hebert asked the senator whether his office was attempting to get reporters to look into Frost's background. 'No,' McConnell answered.

The senator was then asked, 'What was the deal with the e-mail from your staffer?' McConnell replied: 'There was no involvement whatsoever.' "...

Teaching point: That was the 'lying' part.

..."The initial e-mails sent by Stewart were aimed at alerting reporters that bloggers were raising questions about the boy, Graeme Frost of Baltimore, and his family's financial circumstances..."

"...Stewart said he informed McConnell of his personal role in the matter around Thursday."

How The Republicans Win The Election

The Fact: "Honestly, in most respects, I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city, she's never run a state. She's never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people. So I'm trying to figure out where the experience is here.

It would seem to me that in a time of difficult problems and war we don't want on the job training for an executive. The reality is that... having the responsibility of the safety and security of millions of people on your shoulders is not something Hillary has ever had any experience with."

Gulp...

Let's Hit Hillary With 15 Year Old Charge

GOP targeting Clinton on anything it can think of: " 'Gerth told The Hill that he learned of the incident in 2006 when he interviewed a former campaign aide present at the tape playing. He has not revealed the aide’s identity.' "...

..."Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty. She received memos about the status of various press inquiries; she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack."...

...“The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill,” Gerth and Van Natta wrote in reference to Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. “Bill’s supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions.”A GOP official said, “Hillary Clinton’s campaign hypocrisy continues to know no bounds. It is rather unbelievable that Clinton would listen in to conversations being conducted by political opponents, but refuse to allow our intelligence agencies to listen in to conversations being conducted by terrorists as they plot and plan to kill us. Team Clinton can expect to see and hear this over and over again over the course of the next year.' "

Let's hear from the 'witness' and then let's see what they've got. Then make them eat it.

Limbaugh: "We're going to find out where your kids go to school"

Limbaugh Threatens Reporter: "Limbaugh said his target was a reporter, whose name he said he would not 'mention,' who was writing 'a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it.'"

"Limbaugh continued: 'We found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, 'You know what?' We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house..."

There's no need to knock. It's a new freedom; just go on in and punch Limbaugh's head until it says something congenial.

Guerillas Killing Gorillas

Again and again and again we read of the soon to be complete eradication and extinction of the marvelous creatures known as the Mountain Gorillas, yet we all know that we will do nothing about it; we will devote outrage and sneers only; not solutions, because we won't really do what could be done and what needs to be done.

We are the shameful species.

We all know what will happen. The Gorillas will go silently, and it will be duly noted with a 3 or 4 paragraph story at the bottom of page 2 of the New York Times, with small pictures of Jane Goodall, Charles Darwin, and the front of the Intelligent Design Museum - where the flag will be tightly at full mast.

"For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the Earth."- Henry Beston

'Mission Accomplished'

General Wants "Victory Declaration": "Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the Joint Special Operations Command’s operations in Iraq, is the chief promoter of a victory declaration and believes that AQI has been all but eliminated, the military intelligence official said."...

..."McChrystal happens to also be one of the military generals who also fiercely advocated the declaration of 'Mission Accomplished.' In April 2003, McChrystal assessed that 'major combat' was over in Iraq: 'I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over,' Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. He said U.S. forces are moving into a phase of 'smaller, albeit sharper fights.'"...

..."Gen. James Jones, the author of a detailed report on Iraqi security forces, said that 98 percent or more of the fighting is an internal civil conflict among Iraqis. All of which suggests that the basis for this declaration of 'mission accomplished' is just as misplaced as the last one."...

"...the Pentagon recommended McChrystal be 'held accountable' for 'misleading behavior' as a central player in the Pat Tillman affair."

The Republican landscape is rife with incompetence as far as the eye can see; the biggest throng of incompetent individuals the modern world has ever seen. Clarence on the Court, W in the Oval Office, Ollie North; now Stanley McChrystal - where do we get these guys? How'd we end up with Stan and Ollie when we so obviously need the likes of Ike and Omar?

Who the fuck let these dogs out?????

We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations

“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” Abizaid said: “We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”

Stand By For Further Blasphemes

Jeff Gerth, meet Judith Miller: "Isn't former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth writing the definitive book about Hillary Clinton sort of like Judith Miller deciding to write the definitive book about Iraq's WMDs? It just doesn't add up....

If you don't think Gerth's corner-cutting contributed to the paper's troubles -- if you think ambitious insiders at the Times didn't take notice of Gerth's star run when he was lauded and rewarded for writing accusatory stories that couldn't withstand close scrutiny and often didn't even make sense -- then I don't think you understand how the Beltway media's star system works."

"Gore Is The Evidence Of The Crime" say GOP Mouthbreathers

He Exists !!! And That Is The Crime Of The Century: "The worst thing about Mr. Gore, from the conservative point of view, is that he keeps being right."

Gore has no right to be right!

Democrats Reject Laura Ingraham Syphillis Story

But GOP spreads a lie designed to drive the "elite limousine liberal" and "Democrats hate regular people" narratives: "Republicans are circulating a new smear"

We needn't bother trying to have a response to the GOP blitherfest about the NASCAR vaccination flap. They're trying to plant a flower on this swell new turd they've found. It's wonderfully distracting watching the conservatives grasping for another chance to massage the tender parts of their fast-disappearing followers. Having already blown everything men can blow - including the war, the deficit, the road to health care and retirement, they're reaching down and around playing the Larry Craig card in one of the greatest outdoor men's rooms ever built - the NASCAR stadium. Well, gents, it won't work. It looks like it will. But it won't. As the 10 year mist lifts, the American that works hard and plays loud is absofuckinlutely tired of being the Republican's "Screwed Pooch".

A Vast Gray Area Covered With Politics

Dr. William M. Gray - Your basic Cato wannabee, a rightie buttboy that loves to bitch-slap his better-thinking colleagues whenever a news factoid seems to agree with his wingnut bloviations.

"Warm water and cool water essentially rise and fall in a rhythm lasting decades. Although then, when pressed on his theory of how thermohaline circulation has caused recent warming of the planet and would soon cause cooling, he conceded that he hasn't yet published the idea in any peer-reviewed journal. He is working on it, he says. In the same interview, Gray is reported as saying that "global warming hysteria" is motivated, in part, by the desire among scientists, government leaders and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to "organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government could best lead (and control) us to a better world!"

You get the picture. A GOP schlubb.

Salt Lake Silly

Romney As The Decider: "Asked whether he would call off the Drug Enforcement Agency from raids in states that have approved medical marijuana use, Romney responded loudly, 'No.'"

Asking the freedom-loving audience, people whose bottom line is personal privacy, if they would vote for him, the crowd responded loudly, "NO !"

What Happens in Vegas Stays on Tape

Video Fears Grip Vegas as "Terrorist's Win" Over a Weak President: E'Fucking Gad!, everywhere in the world the entire terrorist culture has laughed in astonishment as the Great Satan "voluntarily and with great abandon" begins shutting down its freedoms - like city lights going out one by one through a long dark night, and injects fear into every corner of everyday life.

Not even in the grand tent of Osama Vader was it expected that America's Right-Wing would really embrace darkness and use the cover of fear for the creation of a modern police state.

"The RTC says the closed-circuit television surveillance network would help ensure the safety of bus passengers and employees by supplying live, continuous real-time video feeds. The RTC plans to share the video feeds with Metro Police."...

"The RTC says the money for the system comes from a Homeland Security Department grant. It's expected to be up and running by February 2008."

The General Is Specific

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, says that "there is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight."

But what would he know.

Judge Gives Kids A Sock To The Gut

Anyone Want To Pound This Nail?: Try whacking at Stewart Dimmock, the truck driving brainer who stopped British children from learning about and believing that global warming is a fact - with special thanks to Neo-fucktard High Court Judge Michael Burton.

Dimmock criticized the British government's use of the film in schools, saying, "It was about time someone got off their backside and say, 'Oh, you're wrong.'" Yet he admitted, "I'm not an expert on global warming, then or now. I'm just a lorry driver."

Oh, he's so much more than that - he's the conservative brain trust of England.

The ruling resurrected the heated debate over the film's arguments between Gore's supporters and climate change skeptics.

His spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said that Gore was "deeply gratified that the court upheld the fundamental thesis of the film" and "affirmed it as a valid educational tool."

As for the errors, Kreider said, "Of the thousands of facts, the judge seemingly only took issue with a handful. We've got peer review studies that back up those facts. There were a couple of cases where we feel the film wasn't quoted accurately."

Let's all give a round of applause to High Court Judge Michael Burton, the biggest piece of shit currently bloviating from the British bench. Hear! Hear!

"He's the Real Deal"

Grudging Respect For A Prime Mover: Robert Hood, warden from 2002 to 2005, says that Yousef Ramzi, who was the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, "was a special case. He never left his cell because he did not want to face the indignity of a strip search required for recreation. 'He has that Charlie Manson look,' says Hood of Yousef. 'He has some charisma about him. He's in [prison] uniform, but you know that there's a powerful person you're looking at,' Hood says. Told that Yousef has begun leaving his cell and now claims to be a Christian, Hood says, 'He's playing a game with someone. If he's doing that, he's doing it for the reaction....He is the real deal.' "

A Malkin Is What You Use To Wipe Your Coulter

Michelle Malkin Is Rolling Around In This Slander Like A Pig In Muck: "As it turns out, the Frosts say, Graeme attends the private school on scholarship. The business that the critics said Mr. Frost owned was dissolved in 1999. The family’s home, in the modest Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, was bought for $55,000 in 1990 and is now worth about $260,000, according to public records. And, for the record, the Frosts say, their kitchen counters are concrete."

Go read this viper's website and you will see the bottom of the barrel. She is the face on the barroom floor.

Features : Radar Online : Click Rick

Features : Radar Online : Click Rick: "it's much harder to damage your career by consistently supporting war and cruelty than by consistently supporting peace and love. The default position is 'bombs away.' "

American Intelligence Community Takes I.Q. Dip

Qaeda Goes Dark After a Major U.S. Fuckup: "The founder of a Web site known as clandestineradio.com, Nick Grace, tracked the shutdown of Qaeda's Obelisk system in real time. 'It was both unprecedented and chilling from the perspective of a Web techie. The discipline and coordination to take the entire system down involving multiple Web servers, hundreds of user names and passwords, is an astounding feat, especially that it was done within minutes,' Mr. Grace said yesterday."

They are brilliant as we are brilliant; they are dedicated as we are dedicated, and we underestimate their abilities at our own great peril.

No Soup For You

Dems' Poster Child Faces a Firestorm: "'Last year, the Frost's made $45,000 combined,' Manley said. 'Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined depending on Halsey's ability to find work.'"

FoxPackers Lining Up For A Thrustfest

Fox's Judge Andrew Napolitano Is A Flaming Idiot: "Fox legal correspondent Judge Andrew Napolitano declared that Obama was 'disrespecting the American flag' to appeal 'to a hard-left audience.' (Strangely, Napolitano voiced the very opposite opinion during the same segment. 'I don't think it makes you less patriotic at all,' he said. 'I don't wear the pin, and I'm a patriot.' Huh?)"

"It's What Comes From the Heart, Not the Clothing"

The Lapel Pin crises:

"What matters, said Gen. Tony McPeak, who is endorsing White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama , is what 'comes from the heart, not the clothing…the difference between petty symbolism and real substance, real courage, real judgement.' "

Works for me.

Private Armies, Various Anthems

I am creating artificial life, declares some guy: Mr. Venter has created "chassis on which you could build almost anything. It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons".

Here come the private armies, singing the various anthems.

McCain Is Confused By Reality

McCain Bounces A Quarter Off His Brain - Complains Of Sore Thoughts: "The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."

"Sycophant Savior" says Rightie Rag

"He has failed his country" screams The American Conservative magazine !

The October 8, 2007 issue of this rightwing magazine gets no criticism from Republicans for its cover story, titled "Sycophant Savior" - a breathtaking stabfest directed at General Petraeus, but MoveOn.org gets dragged through broken glass by every shit-throwing GOP monkey with a keyboard.

"He has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly."

Geewhiz rightie mouthbreathers, isn't that like totally disrespecting the troops to bash their general so blatantly? Doesn't this mean - using wingnut logic, that now we have to perp-walk you monkeys across the country until nothing remains but charred carbon footprints?

"There is only one plausible explanation for Petraeus’s terminating a surge that has (he says) enabled coalition forces, however tentatively, to gain the upper hand. That explanation is politics—of the wrong kind."

"Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter..."

Might even have to tase you bro'!

"I'm going to hunt you down"

Bill O'Reilly: "If I could strangle these people and not go to hell and get executed, I would.":

"I'm hunting them down. And that means everybody"

"...I'm going to go right where they live. Every corrupt media person in this country is on notice, right now. I'm coming after you..."

"...You're all on notice out there. I'm coming for you."

______________________________________

"This furious masterbator needs powerful mental setups," says FBI analyst:

Bill O’Reilly to Tony Snow: "You can combine how I deal with cancer with how I deal with the White House press corps. Because they’re both insidious, invasive. They both have to be wiped out... You know, you put little microbes and David Gregory’s face on the cover."

New York's famous "Bill the Butcher" was not a barely sanitary, noxious thug; he is.

The GOP's Dirtiest '08 Donors

Republican Rogues' Gallery: "Asher was convicted in 1986 of arranging $300,000 worth of payoffs and political contributions for a no-bid contract in Pennsylvania and spent a year in jail. His co-defendant, state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, called a press conference and shot himself in the head in front of the gathered media outlets."

I am not Hagel; I have never been Hagel

I can't kick this feeling that one should be careful; you don't know where it's been:

"'The Republican Party has won two elections on the issue of fear and terrorism,' Senator Chuck Hagel said. 'It's going to try again.'"

I agree, but why is he putting a cork in it and skipping out.

Iranian Leader To Be Buried At Ground Zero

Plans To Shoot Ahmadinejad From A Nearby Rooftop Favored By Huge Majority Of Americans: "'It is unacceptable for Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who refuses to renounce and end his own country's support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation's history.' " - Hillary Clinton

Pull his pants down and deball him.

He's Not Snorey, Just Incredibly Stinky?

Representative Peter King Cuts A Big One For Guiliani: "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement.'"

What filter does a New York republican use to be able to say, "Yup, Pete's the one I want to represent me."

Wolves Ate Our Nation

Alan Greenspan's Inconvenient Truth: "...it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,' he says."

'Crazy Al' Witnesses The Feast: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan criticized President George W. Bush for pursuing an economic agenda driven by politics rather than sound policy, with little concern for future consequences....

...'The Bush administration turned out to be very different from the reincarnation of the Ford administration that I had imagined. Now, the political operation was far more dominant,' Greenspan, 81, wrote...

...Greenspan's frustration extended to Congress, which let spending get out of control, he wrote. ' 'Deficits don't matter,' to my chagrin, became part of the Republicans' rhetoric,' he said. 'The Republicans in Congress lost their way. They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.' ''

Safer? "Sir, I don’t know, actually."

GOP Ripping America to Shreds:

"Buy time?" asked an angry Senator Chuck Hagel, the Republican from Nebraska who announced Monday he would retire from the Senate next year. "For what?"...

..."The greatest risk for United States policy is not that we are incapable of making progress, but that this progress may now be largely beside the point, given the divisions that now afflict Iraqi society" said Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana Republican whose voice on foreign policy is influential and whose support for the mission is clearly wavering."...

"...asked whether the current strategy in Iraq is "making America safer." General Petraeus first retreated to an explanation that he is doing his best "to achieve our objectives in Iraq."

But when pressed again, he said: "Sir, I don’t know, actually."

It’s the Government of Nothing

Ryan C. Crocker, the American Ambassador to Iraq, Lied to the American People on September 11, 2007: “What’s happened over the last couple of years is stunning,” he said, describing his visits to neighborhoods that he last saw in 2003. “What has happened to middle-class, upper-class neighborhoods — the violence, the population shifts, the displacement, the tens of thousands of Iraqis that have been killed. You’re just not going to overcome that in a few weeks or indeed in a few months...

...If stability is to come, it will take years."

Crocker's loyalty to Bush's leadership is another in an eon's long history of the wrong stuff. For conservatives, loyalty is a big deal. For me, truth and justice is the big deal. There is no honor in serving a lie.

"It’s the government of nothing,” said Adel al-Subeihawi, a tribal leader on Sadr City ’s eastern edge. "No oil. No water. No electricity."

Emergency Cancellation Archimedes

On second thought, America really shouldn't be talking to other nations if W is doing the talking.

It's best that a certain strain of us progressives stay in the woods untill this is all over. And then come out with true, spiritual, and wise green awareness, and with children who know the world, not just the west.

There Is No Texas In Islam

Here's the pitch! - and it's a...: "I invite you to embrace Islam... There are no taxes in Islam..."

It's beginning to be unsettling; not just interesting, having to think about the contemporary currency of the western idea in the competition for space on this very small planet.

Tomorrow He Plans To Piss On His Shoe

Bush Sprints To His Crashsite: "Speech Delayed To Fill Empty Seats…Calls 'APEC' 'OPEC,' Calls Australian Troops Austrian Troops… Testy Exchange With S. Korea’s President…Goes Out Wrong Exit"

Nice try W.

But it still doesn't hold a candle to you in Europe a few years ago, in a room full of world leaders, lounging in your chair like a pretzel-legged adolescent as you smacked your lips and ate your food with your mouth open - all the while making snarly, insipid comments. How dare you.

You should be executed for being you.

Things You Learn From Blondes

"We live in a technologically remarkably sophisticated world, but we deal with it like superstitious savages." - Hugh Hefner

"Anything you do—whether kissing, licking, or touching—do it in circles." - Yvonne K. Fulbright, Ph.D., author of Touch Me There!

Shutting Down Big Dumpers

Comcast Will Kill You If You Piss Them Off: "To trigger a disconnection warning, customers would be downloading the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four full-length movies every day. Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas declined to reveal specific bandwidth limits."

If there are 2 teenagers in your home, you'll hit these limits real soon now.

Comcast is way more stupid than previously thought.

The Fantastic Freedom Institute

Freedom Is More Than A Gay-free Men's Room: "What's 'fantastic' about Bush's plans is that he wants to propagate freedom without seeming to understand the fundamentals of liberty". . .

". . . freedom belongs to "We the People," not "They the Politicians." We are the deciders, it's our government and we have a right to know. Before he builds himself an institute -- magical, marvelous or otherwise -- what would be fantastic is if George Bush finished his term by demonstrating he understood as much."

Spitting On Michelle

Geraldo Rivera Michelle Malkin Marriage Plans On Hold: "'Michelle Malkin is the most vile, hateful commentator I've ever met in my life,' he says. 'She actually believes that neighbors should start snitching out neighbors, and we should be deporting people. 'It's good she's in D.C. and I'm in New York,' Rivera sneers. 'I'd spit on her if I saw her.'"

Yeah, but you'd date her, right? Right.

Skulking Around

All Sleaze Out In Force: “Ashcroft, who looked like he was near death, sort of puffed up his chest,” Goldsmith recalls. “All of a sudden, energy and color came into his face, and he said that he didn’t appreciate them coming to visit him under those circumstances, that he had concerns about the matter they were asking about and that, in any event, he wasn’t the attorney general at the moment; Jim Comey was. He actually gave a two-minute speech, and I was sure at the end of it he was going to die. It was the most amazing scene I’ve ever witnessed.”

After a bit of silence, Goldsmith told me, Gonzales thanked Ashcroft, and he and Card walked out of the room. “At that moment,” Goldsmith recalled, “Mrs. Ashcroft, who obviously couldn’t believe what she saw happening to her sick husband, looked at Gonzales and Card as they walked out of the room and stuck her tongue out at them. She had no idea what we were discussing, but this sweet-looking woman sticking out her tongue was the ultimate expression of disapproval. It captured the feeling in the room perfectly.”

Thugs.

Trading Small Kids For Big Bucks

Safety Agency Gutted By GOP: "'It is a complete disaster,' said the official, one of nearly a dozen who spoke anonymously because the agency had instructed employees not to talk to reporters. 'There is just no other word for it.'...”

“'...This is the toy lab for all of America — for all of the United States government!' said Robert L. Hundemer, the one agency employee who routinely tests toys, as he held up his arms in the air. 'We do what we can.'"

Treasonous

Bush's Idiots Killed America's Influence In The World: "The head of the British army during the Iraq invasion described former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's approach as 'intellectually bankrupt,' according to comments published Saturday. Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, who retired in August 2006 as chief of the general staff, said Rumsfeld was 'one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq,'..."

"...For Rumsfeld and his supporters 'it was an ideological article of faith that the coalition soldiers would be accepted as a liberating army,' Jackson wrote."

What it all means is that U. S. national security is vulnerable when the leadership is defeated - as surely it is when its thinking is so visibly and fatally flawed. The U. S. is in grave danger under the conservative managment of the Republican party. This is what we should be angry about.

The Late Paul Addis

Burning Man's Burning Man Burned :

"an attention whore has made a plea for attention"

Thinking of this schmuck Paul Addis as an artist is not enjoyable, possible or likely.

No Standards - Plenty of Hypocrisy

"Hypocrisy is better than no standards at all":

That delightful declaration of fact from "former" gambling addict, moral leader and physical slob William Bennett says it best and clearest.

Scott Reed, a republican party strategist, applied words to the obvious:

"'The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,'” said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an interview on Tuesday morning. 'You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.'"

Hypocrisy is the only intellectual activity not frowned upon by the leading conservative republicans and, indeed, is all they strive to achieve.

The Air-conditioned Bureaucrats

Who Do You Trust for a Real View of Iraq?: "Once again experienced military leaders will be overruled by air-conditioned bureaucrats..."

Yippee! Here comes Patreus with his report. "What's it say General? Any way out, or do you just have condolences for those who are about to die?"

Putting a Sack On Peggy

Learning to Loathe Yourself: "Notice how Noonan can see a tank and a woman and side with the tank because she doesn't like the look on the woman's face."

Peggy Noonan is all over the map. One day she's bleating ferociously about the sorry fate of manliness; the next - as if the setup is not obvious, she delivers a heartfelt comparison of any democrat to the swagger of a firefighter - the two points together illuminating her interior, earthier musings.

Her soothing words seem to drip down one's throat, many of them with the odor of lost points or the taste of bad arguments and smarmy philosophies.

"And then it struck me, suddenly, like a slow-moving vehicle: That's how you get a job as a conservative pundit. Figure out what makes you different from a white, male, protestant businessman, and hate your own guts for it.

If you're black, hate civil rights. If you're a woman, hate feminism. If you grew up poor, despise the poor. If you're a visible minority, demand more profiling. If you're gay, say you're cured. If you're Jewish, praise anti-Semites, if you're Christian, praise war."...

Maybe she was once a good speechwriter, but no more. Now she's just a bizarre diversion as one glances at her words yet one more time to see if they've all, finally, been replaced with the actual Hallmark cards from which they spring.

You Can Think, But Maybe You Can't Live, Outside The Box

I Guess We Picked A Bad Time To Quit Crack: "Among economists who saw hypocrisy in wealthy investors and Wall Street traders urging speedy Fed intervention -- a turnabout from their usual stance -- was Richard Yamarone, chief economist for Argus Research in New York.

'My mother always told me those who play with fire get burned. Here, that apparently doesn't hold true. Someone is making my mother out to be a liar, and that's not a good thing.'"

Barton Biggs, a former Morgan Stanley strategist who runs the $1.5 billion hedge fund Traxis Partners LLC in New York says, "'People are losing faith in credit, so the economy is seizing up,' he said. 'That's why it's important that the Fed cut rates and get confidence back in the system.'

What a calamitous fall can be imagined from living on the thinnest shell at the highest apogee ever imagined.

Mourning Joe Scarborough

This Cup 'a Joe is Half Empty

He is so wrong on so many things. It seems he knows it, but knows also that his ratings depend on him chewing up the scenery or blowing up an icon or... whatever it takes. His pontifications are overwhelmingly underwhelming and his caustic crap directed at Clinton, Joe Wilson, any moral lefty, is standard GOP junk slung from some of the beadiest eyes in the racket.

Imus could get it right whenever he wanted to do so, but Joe is just flailing away at the pinata du jour - hoping to get some of that highly prized "negative attraction" that causes people he doesn't like, doesn't represent, and doesn't understand, to tune in and give him ratings that he can convert to money.

The Imus Lynch Party

Al Sharpton Clings To The Bottom: Pat Buchanan sees clearly that "Imus threw himself on the mercy of the court of elite opinion – and that court, pandering to the mob, lynched him. Yet, for all his sins, he was a better man than the lot of them rejoicing at the foot of the cottonwood tree."

Great article - read it. I completely agree with Pat's statement above.

"I'd Ride His Dick In A Heartbeat!" gushes Matthews

Chris Matthews Cums: "“I thought in listening to the president, I was listening to one of the great neoconservative minds,” gushed Matthews."

Day after day, hovering on the edge of drooling idiocy, Matthews sucks up the available room air, brow-beating his guests to the point of prosecution in his unsane quest to find a nice set of GOP balls.

Here Come the Consequences

New immigration rules will force undocumented workers to be fired: "What happened: New rules proposed Friday by the Bush administration will require employers to fire employees unable to clear up problems with their Social Security numbers 90 days after they've been notified of such discrepancies in what are called no-match letters.

What it means: Hiring undocumented workers has been illegal for two decades, but until now, employers were not held liable for fraudulent documents. Employers who fail to comply will face fines and sanctions.

What's next: The new rules take effect in 30 days. "

I guess we'll be pickin' our own fucking grapes from now on.

Ooops, We Own It

Empires of Absent Mind: Rome and the USA: "'We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.' This is the famous explanation given by Victorian classicist and historian JR Seeley for the British Empire.

However debatable, it could equally be applied to the Roman republic. By 146 BC, the Romans found themselves the undisputed masters of the Mediterranean world. But they had achieved this without ever really intending to, and consequently they were unprepared to take on that mantle.

'Rome and America were founded upon the same myth, and it has shaped their destiny.'This is the position that the United States of America finds itself in today. Like the Roman republic, the US is now the policeman of the western world. Its armed forces are unstoppable, its influence is everywhere and just like the Romans, it got there by mistake. "

hmmm... there was some stuff that happened after it got there.

Bling You Can Drink

Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?: "Two years ago, scientists at the University of Texas reported in an eight-year study that for every can of diet soda that a person drank, he raised his risk of being overweight by 41%, compared to a 30% increase in drinkers of regular, sugared drinks.

Earlier this year, another study of diet-soda drinkers came to a similar conclusion, this time about metabolic syndrome, the dangerous constellation of risk factors, such as obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, that increases the likelihood of heart disease. In this report, part of the 60-year-old Framingham Heart Study, researchers found that soda drinkers, regardless of whether they consumed diet or regular beverages, had a 48% higher risk of metabolic syndrome than non-soda drinkers."

One's 40 gazillion year-old body knows more about what it needs than 40 year-old corporate scientists - charged as they are with finding new ways to lure the appetite of the crowd. Let your stomach inform your desire, not the marketing professionals at Betty Crocker's corporate bunker.

Gingrich Decorates His Usual Bullshit With Some Truth

Gingrich Opens Mouth and Says: "
'None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war' ..."

"What I'm trying to start is a new dialogue that is evidence-based," Gingrich said Thursday. "It doesn't start from the right wing, it doesn't start from the left wing," he said, but is an effort to get politicians and voters to "look honestly at the evidence of what isn't working and tell us how to change it. ..."

As usual, this all sounds great, but will distort to its true shape as he begins to explain what he sees as 'evidence'.

"...'We have got to get past this partisan baloney, where I'm not allowed to say anything good about Hillary Clinton because 'I'm not a loyal Republican,' and she's not allowed to say anything good about me, or she's not a 'loyal' Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country.'"

He's right of course. There's something within him that without fail will destroy any attempt he makes at amity; whether its days or weeks later, he will sabotage the good and bring on the bad.

Secretary of Defense Smelt It

And Thinks The President Dealt It: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that he was discouraged by the departure of the major Sunni Arab bloc from Iraq’s coalition government, and noted that the Bush administration may have misjudged the difficulty of achieving reconciliation among Iraq’s sectarian factions."

Ya think ??

"In one of his bluntest assessments of the progress of the administration’s Iraq strategy, Mr. Gates said: 'I think the developments on political side are somewhat discouraging at the national level. And clearly the withdrawal of the Sunnis from the government is discouraging. My hope is that it can all be patched back together.' "

Yes, that is a blunt assessment. Bush probably toked up a blunt when Gates told him.

Mitt Wants To Control Your Daughter's Vagina

Here's What a Dirtbag Would Say:

"'I, like you, hope to reclassify the most commonly used forms of contraceptives as abortions.'"...

Oh, come on, you know you want to drown him! You know you really can't believe that a civilized man said something like that in the twenty-first century. You know that if he gets anywhere near the White House that you want him arrested and executed on the spot.

..."In fact, he told the crowd, he already had some practice redefining contraception, stating, 'I vetoed a so-called emergency contraception bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without prescription or parental consent.' " ...

..."In their affair with the 'Right to Life' movement, the candidates are being unfaithful to the American public that is devoted to family planning. And like any cheater, they're doing their best to avoid directly answering questions such as: Do you support couples having access to safe and effective birth control options, including emergency contraception?" Considering that even 80 percent of self-described "pro-life" voters and a majority of Republican voters strongly support contraception, these candidates should soon figure out how risky an affair it is. ..."

Ding! Time to pay attention. This fucktard has plans for your wife, mother and daughters. He thinks about how they fuck, and he wants to tell them how, when and where to do it. Do whatever you can to stop him.

Soup of the Day

Cheney's new bullshitters hit the campaign trail: "We have all heard the administration praise the work of the tribal sheiks in turning against al Qaeda. Well, this is just a euphemism for the Sunni insurgency. That's who has turned against al Qaeda.

And why? Because they offered America terms in 2003 to do this. And it's taken America four years of war to come round to the Sunnis' terms. And, principally, that means cutting the Iraqi government out of the loop. By achieving these successes, America is building Sunni militias. Yes, they're targeting al Qaeda, but these are also anti- government forces opposed to the very government that America created."

The "suddenly Famous O'Hanlon/Pollack" have all new friends today.

The World According To Mother Tucker

Tucker Carlson "...wouldn't like to be asked rude questions, like 'why didn't you ever let the TV audience know that your dad was running the Scooter Libby defense fund?'". ...

(from a comment from Maxcat06 on HuffPo 8-1-07)

Hope it's true so that the laughtrack kicks in.

Neotard Glenn Beck Can't Read Or Think

Right-Wing Radio Is Killing Our Soldiers For Profit: "Unless the Iraqi government takes advantage of the 'breathing space' that U.S. forces are providing, Mullen said, 'no amount of troops in no amount of time will make much of a difference.'"

Righties are pushing the war because they can't stop.

Richard Branson: "I smoked drugs with my son."

Real Life Confounds Very Boring People:

"I went with my son on his gap year. We had some nights where we laughed our heads off for eight hours."

"I don't think smoking the occasional spliff is all that wrong. I'd rather my son did it in front of me than behind closed doors."

In the interview with Piers Morgan for GQ magazine, the entrepreneur also admitted trying cocaine and ecstasy.

He said: "I took ecstasy once. But it didn't have a massive effect on me". Of cocaine, he said: "I suspect I've tried it, yes."...

..."Peter Stoker, director of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: 'Richard Branson as a parent should know better than to take health-endangering drugs with his child.'"

Peter Stoker is a lamebrain who is saying what he is saying because he doesn't know what else to say; this passes as a substitute for intelligence.

Republican Support Collapses Among Youth

Youth Abandons the GOP Coulter-fest:
"A new Democracy Corps/Greenberg Quinlan Rosner survey finds young people 'profoundly alienated from the Republican party and its perceived values.'

Key finding: 'Young people react with hostility to the Republicans on almost every measure and Republicans and younger voters disagree on almost every major issue of the day.'

...the disconnect we see between the Republicans and our nation’s youth runs so deep, that it likely will not only outlive the Bush administration, but potentially haunt the Republicans for many years to come."

Banging the Headboard for Bush

Judith Miller and the Battle for the Bulge: "And who could ever forget the coup de grace?

'The first sign of a 'smoking gun,' they argue, may be a mushroom cloud.'

Judith Miller went on to write several more propaganda pieces for the Bush Administration doing everything in her 'journalistic' power to sell her fellow citizens on the imminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein's WMDs, and the need for the United States to strike preemptively against the regime. She teamed up again with Gordon, who has become a darling on the television news circuit, to write the September 13, 2002 piece, 'White House Lists Iraq Steps to Build Banned Weapons,' which only expanded on their earlier falsehoods. Several members of Congress mentioned the story of the nuclear threat as a reason for voting to authorize the war."

Famous news squish Chris Mathews regularly tans himself in the glow of the likes of Judith Miller, empathizing as she too aches for the Bush crotch-bulge so notoriously and raptureously celebrated by Mathews in his infamous, embarrassing 2003 on-air stroking of Bush's member-in-chief, as it landed - with it's owner, on a well-placed aircraft carrier.

For me, it's the very special pork-operated righties, like Katherine Harris, Mark Foley and Judith Miller, that paint the clearest picture of the moral core of contemporary GOP nonsense.

"On April 21, 2003, Judith Miller, now working as an embedded reporter with the U.S. military's MET Alpha, wrote the story, 'Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert.' In this piece of propaganda, Miller claims without evidence or proof that the Iraqis destroyed or shipped to Syria their vast stockpiles of WMDs. Miller's anonymous source was a guy claiming to be an 'Iraqi scientist,' and she tells her readers that she 'was permitted to see him from a distance at the sites where he said that material from the arms program was buried. Clad in nondescript clothes and a baseball cap, he pointed to several spots in the sand where he said chemical precursors and other weapons material were buried.' "

Where'd The Wheels Go?, asks Bush

The Apollo 13 President: '"He should know history will not be kind unless he can come up with a plan that protects the troops and stabilizes the region,' Voinovich said he told Karl Rove, whom Bush dubbed 'the architect' of his 2004 re-election.

Voinovich added that other Republicans are close to speaking out against the President’s current strategy.

"'I won’t mention anyone’s name. But I have every reason to believe that the fur is going to start to fly, perhaps sooner than what they may have wanted.'

In private, Voinovich is more blunt, using a profanity to describe the White House’s handling of Iraq by charging the administration 'fucked up' the war.'"

He's not smart enough - or sober enough, to fuck up anything. He's just standing in the doorway, unknowing, unhelpful, and unsane.

The Joy of Payed Sex...

...is not having to care: "Vitter, a married father of four, last month urged colleagues to devote more federal spending to programs urging sexual abstinence among teens. The best way to avert teen pregnancy, he wrote, is 'by teaching teenagers that saving sex until marriage and remaining faithful afterwards is the best choice for health and happiness.'

In a June 2006 Senate speech supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, Vitter said it was 'well overdue that we in the Senate focus on nurturing, upholding, preserving and protecting such a fundamental social institution as traditional marriage.'"

Again we're forced to vizualize yet another right-wing Republican hypocrite panting furiously in illegal sexual encounters.

"This president has lost contact with reality"

The Empty Character of George W. Bush: "He must be made to change course as water changes course. You build up the banks, and secure the altered direction, so that there is only one way for him to flow. Every other path must be obstructed."...

"A war on terror conceived, as Cheney's experiment has been conceived, as a global war of extermination that ends with the killing of the last terrorist, in fact creates more terrorists than it destroys. A global war on terror means a war to the end of time. It is, in essence, a totalitarian idea.

The global war on terror is a pure product of the mind of Cheney working on the mind of Bush."...

"This president has lost contact with reality, in any ordinary sense of the words 'lost,' 'contact,' and 'reality'."

David Bromwich's thoughts are right on the mark.

Huckabee Blames Chubby People

Mike Huckabee Thinks Your Fat Wife And Your Fat Brother Are To Blame For Ruining Healthcare in America:

Huckabee thinks science is wrong. He thinks you are wrong. He thinks Michael Moore is wrong. He does not believe in the Theory of Evolution. Most likely Mike Huckabee doesn't believe in anything an intelligent person might believe. Those that follow this jerk can be dismissed out of hand.

"'Frankly, Michael Moore is an example of why the health care system costs so much in this country. He clearly is one of the reasons that we have a very expensive system. "...

...""No wonder the Republicans are in such trouble - their entire plan to fix the health care system in this country is to tell people to lose weight," she said. "Maybe if Mike Huckabee and his Republican friends stopped sucking up to health-insurance campaign contributors they wouldn't feel the need to blame Americans for this crisis. Just because he stopped eating Twinkies by the bushel doesn't make that an outline for a national health care plan.

"There's nothing worse than a reformed smoker _ or Twinkie eater for that matter _ preaching conversion."

You Don't Get What You Need, Only What You Can Pay For

"Patients may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford":

Read about one of the great Republican doctors:

"Sunday's Los Angeles Times featured a particularly lurid case of medical profiteering in the form of one Dr. Prem Reddy, who owns eight hospitals in Southern California. I do not begrudge any physician a comfortable lifestyle -- good doctoring is hard work -- but Dr. Reddy dwells in a 15,000 square foot mansion featuring gold-plated toilets and keeps a second home, valued at more than $9 million, in Beverly Hills, as well as a $1.4 million helicopter for commuting.

The secret behind his $300 million fortune? For one thing, he rejects the standard hospital practice of making contracts with insurance companies because he feels that these contracts unduly limit his reimbursements. (In a battle between Aetna and Reddy, it would be hard to know which side to cheer for.) In addition, he's suspended much-needed services such as chemotherapy, a birthing center and mental health care as insufficiently profitable. And his hospitals are infamous for refusing to treat uninsured patients, like a patient with kidney failure and a 16-month-old baby with a burn.

But Dr. Reddy -- who is, incidentally a high-powered Republican donor -- has a principled reason for his piratical practices. 'Patients,' the Los Angeles Times reports him saying, 'may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford.' He dismisses as 'an entitlement mentality' the idea that everyone should be getting the same high quality health care. This is Bush's vaunted principle of 'private medicine' at its nastiest: You don't get what you need, only what you can pay for."

Does anybody know this asshole's GPS coordinates - and how to arm a surface-to-surface missle ?

Dr. Gupta Self-destructs

Dr. Sanjay Gupta Trades His Reputation For A Chance To Bash Universal Healthcare:

To see this professional, with a heretofore gold-standard reputation among the TV watching public, unveil a tortured and irresponsible view of our country's healthcare system, is breathtaking and sad. There is too much at stake, and no time to spare, on politicized healthcare.

It's a fact: to deny healthcare is to kill. Gupta accepts the denying of healthcare.

"...what was most striking to me during the Moore-Gupta face-off on Larry King Live was when Gupta showed the heart of his bias, a bias against having our government guarantee universal health care.

Gupta says to Moore, 'You criticize the government so soundly. But you're willing to hand over one of our most precious commodities, our health care in this country, to the government.'

Moore rebutted, 'I actually love our government ... It does a great job of administrating Social Security ... the problem is who we've put in power who holds office.' "...

..."Michael, one of the best examples of health care, at least some sort of universal health care, would be Medicare. I think you would agree with that. It's going to go bankrupt by 2019. It's going to be $28 trillion in debt by 2075...would you say that this is going to be still a working system 20 years from now?

Is this some evidence that our government can't be directed to fix our broken health care system? Economist-blogger Dean Baker doesn't think so:

CNN's health care analyst is now telling people that Medicare is going bankrupt. What does this mean?Medicare's costs are projected to exceed its revenue and drain the surplus from its trust fund in a bit over a decade, but this has been true at several points in the past. Did Congress tell tens of millions of beneficiaries to get lost? No, Congress appropriated the money needed to keep the program going......If Dr. Gupta meant to imply that Medicare, as a government program is uniquely inefficient, then he is way off the mark. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Table 13) per beneficiary costs have risen in nominal dollars by 519.5 percent since 1980. By contrast, the cost per enrollee of private insurance has risen by 676.6 percent over this same period.

That gets at the heart of Gupta's bias.

The pressures on Medicare's finances are not the fault of our government, but of skyrocketing health care costs across the board.

Yet Gupta's cherry-picks his facts to attack a government guarantee of universal care, and raise the prospect of dismantling Medicare, just like how conservatives sought to do the same with Social Security."