They Kill Us For Their Sport

Washington, "where the very few wealthy and powerful have a seat at the table and the rest of us are on the menu."

Don't miss the Moose-Ball Mousse, Sarah Palin's homemade dessert that's a snap to make - lightly-killed moose cojones, rolled in ice, then served with a rich gumbo of lies.

McCain's Mooseketeer

Whatever Palin's Been Inhalin' is now the drug of choice for Republicans everywhere. McCain's Mooseketeer has issued her clarion call to the clueless to come and watch the Grand Old Soap Opera of her life - see Track Palin ready himself to set off for Iraq to fight for the "surge", watch the new baby stare off into the distance, wonder at the sex life of the pregnant Bristol, drool for a chance to hang with the gallant and handsome First Dude, and thrill to the precocious cuteness of Piper Palin as she licks things.

I regret to say that McCain's choice to add Palin to the ticket is by any measure bold, risky and brilliant. With this move - and the apparent success of "his" surge, McCain lays out a claim to leadership and evidence of superior canniness.

Palin By Comparison

At Least God Is On Her Side: "'Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers out on a task that is from God.

That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.'"

"Just prior to discussing Iraq, Alaska's governor asked the audience to pray for another matter -- a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in the state. 'I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,' she said."

Somebody like Palin surely must have a preacher lurking in the dim background and - walla!!!, there he is, Pastor Kalnins:

"Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."

Thank heaven for little girls. They grow up in the most unusual ways.

I just can't fathom how much fun we're about to have.

John McCain's Heart

President Palin: "'She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?' said Lyda Green, the president of the State Senate, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. 'Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?'"

An Anchorage Daily News editorial states that, "It's stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be a heartbeat away from the presidency."

Uhhh... What Am I Supposed To Do Everyday?

Get Her Done, America !!: "'As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?"

Damn straight, girly ! - you should demand that information on your first day in office.

Leighton Woodhouse, Communications Director at Brave New Films, writing in HuffPo, says that "the McCain campaign is doing what the GOP always does when it has to fight for working class voters in a debate that Republicans can't win on its merits: they are reverting to symbolic politics, a role for which Palin is tailor-made."

To use Sarah's wonderfully vapid, Hiltonesque new phrase, "absolutely, yup, yup."

Woodhouse's evolved prediction is that "The McCain campaign is going to trot Palin out whenever they need to make the case that they feel America's pain. They're going to contrast her story to Obama's, and even to Biden's (not the part about being a scrappy kid from Scranton, but the part about being in the Senate for a million years)."

"They're going to turn any question about Palin's 'experience,' whether from a Dem or from a journalist, into another elitist attack on working class culture, another example of snooty, brainiac liberals condescending to ordinary Americans. And to boot, a bunch of good old boys picking on Mrs. Mom."

...it's eerily like that scene from the cable series Mad Men, where they discuss the affect of the "Official Evidence of Cancer" on cigarette advertising and how the entire health issue is now moot - everyone's fucked, so no cigarette can be healthier than another. Checkmate.

Back in the U.S. We Are

The Obama sensation is different than anything in American politics. Here we have “candidate as vessel”, filling up with the dreams of legions of citizens. Here is a guy whose growing gravitas is being secured by raw hope for a way out of the Great American Failure that we are living through. We are as refugees, slogging endlessly through waist-deep water toward a frightfully distant dry purchase.

If some people don't recognize any of this then perhaps their fate is to never make it to the crest of the hill to see what is beyond the shining city.

If they could see Novamerica, they'd grab some booze and join us – but perhaps their eyes do not see.

The Anatomy of a McCain Deception

"As only Mother Teresa can, she prevailed upon me to take this baby and another baby to the United States for medical care.'':

"As was pointed out yesterday by the Christian Science Monitor, the McCain campaign was called out for lying about the purported urging of Cindy McCain by Mother Teresa herself to adopt two children at her orphanage back in 1991. Turns out, McCain never met or even spoke with Mother Teresa on that trip.

Once confronted by the Monitor about the deception, the campaign quickly erased such claims from the website, as it did with Cindy's family recipes, which were proved to be lifted from the Food Network."

"Seems that Rick Warren told Larry King on Monday night that the Mother Teresa story was one of three times during Saturday's forum that McCain teared-up. They're liars and actors."

Lost and Found

Righties Pissed That Obama's Brain Works As It Should: "'Expanded access to prenatal education and heath care facilities will far more likely serve the very real state interest in preventing increasing numbers of children from being born into lives of pain and despair.'"

Right Wingers Ruin Bank, Blame Schumer

Nice Try By Swift-Boat Kill Squad : "Copies of the employee letter were distributed to the press by CRC Public Relations whose clients include the National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee."

Seems like the Republicans are all over this one.

Ugly Girl

It was all real swell until western news media pounced and made it all ugly.

Watch "The King and I" - a known classic of American cinema, and revel in female star Deborah Kerr singing some of the most beautiful songs ever written. NOT. It was somebody else singing - Marni Nixon, whose beauty was not required, and whose accomplishments as an actress perhaps not yet revealed. So?

We're such slobs it's hard to believe we used to be decent Americans - before the various Contessa Brewers and the packs of Obermanns were let loose to drum up audiences whenever and however possible. You know and I know that to keep seeing those 6 zeros in their paychecks they'd drop their pants in a second. So torturing a little chinese girl with false shame is a cakewalk for these low feeders.

Ask Chuck

Prince Charles warns that Genetically Modified Food crops risk causing the biggest-ever environmental disaster: "Millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness.'"

He's way into this issue...

"Look at India's Green Revolution. It worked for a short time but now the price is being paid.

"I have been to the Punjab where you have seen the disasters that have taken place as result of the over demand on irrigation because of the hybrid seeds and grains that have been produced which demand huge amounts of water.

"The water table has disappeared. They have huge problems with water level, with pesticide problems, and complications which are now coming home to roost.

"Look at western Australia. Huge salinisation problems. I have been there. Seen it."

I mean WAY into it...

On the Ground, In Country, Like a Rock Star !

...our sainted on-air bloviators, soaring high above reality, deliver the cliches we all need to get through the day.

The Righteous Trinity: Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity

The Shooter's Reading list: "Inside the house, officers found 'Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder' by radio talk show host Michael Savage, 'Let Freedom Ring' by talk show host Sean Hannity, and 'The O'Reilly Factor,' by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of 'the liberal movement,' and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning."

And there he is again, Michael Savage, the real deal in human tripe.

Rollin' Fat

Ornish Sees Fat On Hearts - Percival Lowell Saw Canals On Mars:

"I don't know about you, but it seems amiss to me for the media to portray this as a pro-Atkins study, really, since most of us consider Atkins to be meat-based, and shouldn't the media help us to better understand the science?"

There's a large pile of mis-directed glee in this article.

If this is what Kathy Freston knows - if this is what she thinks is true, then she knows nothing.

The edge is so far beyond the faded Dean Ornish model that it is spectacular to read this organized rant pretending otherwise.

Fear of meat is not an uplifted or valuable reason for anything; it's merely fear of meat.

Follow the actual facts and you will get to the actual edge.

He Had A Hunch

The Beautiful George Carlin: "George grew tougher and sharper over the years, putting more of himself, and his intellect, at the service of his always nimble, always adventurous comedy mind. And, while his comedy was dark, his spirit with his peers was generous."

I saw him once on a TV talk show where former Hollywood bombshell Lana Turner was one of the guests. It became immediately clear that, for some reason, she had a big dislike for him and at one point said to the other host that George actually was scaring her - his look included long-hair and roughly mantained, hippie-like clothing. George seemed to be taken aback by her obvious revulsion, and so was I - bigtime. But it was suddenly and unmistakably very clear to me that she was a monster and that he was my brilliant, powerful and beautiful knight in the blessed New Order.

Life jumped out of him like radiation, and sometimes when I saw him in the later years - older than I thought many of us would ever become, I would be reminded of these lines from a Russian poet:

Into the distance disappear
the mounds of human heads

I dwindle, go unnoticed now

But in affectionate books,
in children's games

I will rise from the dead
to say, "the sun!"

Ultimately, for me, his beauty was his hunch about life - that it was never too hot to touch, and that everything mattered.

How To Look Sick

John McCain is Ann Coulter's Dick: "Time Magazine columnist Joe Klein said that John McCain's comments Tuesday that Barack Obama is willing to lose a war to win an election were the most scurrilous he had ever heard by a major party candidate."

At first I thought it was just me; maybe I was twisting what I'd heard, but then I heard it again and realized how absolutely outrageous it is for this little boy-toy runt to think he can get away with saying crap like that.

His wife can build him another little fake lake to fish in, and ply him with more free booze and scoot him around Red America on her jet, but she doesn't have enough alchohol profits in her bag to buy the humanity and common sense this guy sorely needs.

Barbara Bush might say, "I am done with him." I say fire him from everything and get him a job "selling fish to tourists in tee-shirts" and let's get back to the future.

Something Happened To Liberty

One of the Greatest Stories Seldom Told: "Tobey Maguire is attached to Universal's 'The Crusaders,' a drama about the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case."

The story of the long, plotted, pathway to the Brown case is one of the most fantastic and glorious stories you will ever hear.

If they do it right, we will all be introduced to the amazing group of people - spread out over a century, whose cleverness, brilliance, and motivation saved all of us - whites from an eternity of raw blame and guilt, and blacks from the bleak future of secondness.

I can't wait.

If You Get Screwed - You Stay Screwed

Republicans Plan On Attacking Your Daughter. Going To Stand For It ???: "...this provision would threaten the funding of organizations and health facilities if they do not hire people who would refuse to provide birth control and defines abortion so broadly that it would include many types of birth control, including oral contraception."

I hope they don't come to my door and try to talk their nonsense to my kid. My reaction would be very ugly indeed.

And a glass of Chard for my cat

Pill-Popping Pets: "'He's agile,' Allan says. 'He's healthy. He's a good-looking animal.' Michelle adds, 'We love him to death.' That is why they had no choice, she says. The dog simply had to go on psychoactive drugs."

This is a great article and a fascinating topic.

Over the past five thousand and more years almost every civilization at some point experienced animals as volitional players on the human stage - and often as dear and feared gods, before whom we cowered.

I still feel the power of that past. I look to my cats in awe, treasuring them as god-like sublime perfections, and I have never doubted the reality of their passions and their sorrows and their sacred “umwelt”.

Show me the bush that they can eat when they are particularly troubled, and I will get it for them. Show me the medication that can help them deal with situations beyond their control, and I will get it for them. But I always know that their senses should not be unduly disturbed or their faculties diminished. We are interfering and, even though our motives are clean, we must do no harm.

Oops, gotta go - time to feed the Sphinx.

Google: We Can't Figure Out How To Make Money On Web Video, Either

Pock-marked Greed-monkees Are Selling Pictures of Your Girlfriend's Ass and You Don't Even Know It!: "How much longer are we going to have to hear the words 'genius', 'rocket scientist', and so on used to describe a bunch of spam-monetizing, content-stealing ad peddlers?", asks commenter clickbot.

Here, you eat Bernini; I'll eat Rafael

The Golden Gate Bridge Is A Sacred Piece of America: I would rather give up my right to walk across the bridge than sacrifice any more of the sublime beauty of its original form.

To put it fucking mildly, erecting a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge "would alter the look of the historic span, bridge officials said Monday."

"The main visual difference in the railing proposals are whether the designs call for vertical or horizontal stripes. The study did not determine which design would be most effective in preventing suicides, Currie said."

We are different than those human beings who built such a treasure, but we know the beauty that is right before our eyes, and the higher voice within us knows that our part of the story is to pass it forward without harm and intact.

"Leave the bridge alone !!!"

"Barack, you'll love this plane."

"I fixed it up real good for 'ya": "This was not Obama's regular campaign plane, which is being overhauled. It was a loaner, having previously been used by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY."

Well, that was right nice, don't you think?

..."As the pilot struggled to re-gain control of the pitch of the plane - the angle of the nose of the plane - Obama was told that he and the other 44 passengers on board might have to assume the brace position upon landing, bending forward with their heads between their knees.

That ultimately did not happen, but..."

"...National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker told ABC News' Dennis Powell yesterday that the incident 'is extremely serious in this particular case.'

An inflatable slide in the tail cone of the plane had deployed, making control of the plane tough. "There are hydraulic lines back there," Rosenker says. 'There are control cables that deal with the elevators and other area's of control surfaces for the aircraft, and could potentially make it extremely difficult if not impossible to fly the aircraft."

! Gulp !

Webb's "Thrilling, Frightening Masculinity"

The Love Vote: "There's nothing like the love nerds have for the one a-hole jock that's nice to them."

So true and so amazing. Webb hates - really hates, the elites. He has detailed thoughts on this issue and they all quicken to a fine-edged Scot-Irish rage where we're all back at Hadrian's wall - we Celts on the ground and us Romans on the bullwarks, trading insults, itching for blood.

I don't really see Webb eager to join the nerds, but nerds for Obama rings true.

Screw This Pooch

How did this country become so colossally retarded?: James Dobson and the other anti-Christs of the right "should be strapped to a gurney in a sanitarium with a Lithium I.V."

..."Nor is it the place of a news organization to stick him on TV as an authority, simply because morons listen to what he says."

"This intellectual shitkicker may have puffed himself up enough to think he's got enough moral highground to evaluate the authenticity of the candidates..."

"In the best of all possible worlds, candidates and news organizations wouldn't pander to the dumb vote. The moron vote. The ignorant vote. Instead they would say: screw 'em."

Obama On The Mount

He takes the breath away: "'If we scrub language of all religious content, we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice. Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address without reference to 'the judgments of the Lord.' Or King's I Have a Dream speech without references to 'all of God's children.' Their summoning of a higher truth helped inspire what had seemed impossible, and move the nation to embrace a common destiny'"...

..."Indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition"

We're back !!!!

In Praise of the Cat

The Most Beautiful Creatures In The World: "Cats are known to have traveled hundreds of miles to find their owners in new homes to which they themselves have never been. Scientists have not been able to find a physiological or psychological explanation for this ability."

Poor People Turn Off Advertisers

"Our culture is directed towards making things worse" - from Ben Cohen's interview with Matt Taibbi.

"Poverty certainly is something you don't get a whole lot of information about, for the simple reason that poor people turn off advertisers."

"I knew one guy who was doing a story and it involved a murder in a small town in Georgia, and there were a lot of poor people involved who were characters in this story, and they were talking a lot on camera in his version of the story. When he took it to his editors they told him to re-cut the story, and take the poor people out and have him do stand ups instead so that he would be on camera more and the poor inarticulate people would be on camera less. This is something that goes on all the time in the media, and it's not because they have a political bias against the idea that there are lots of poor people in this country, it is just that it is a fact of economic life that when people see wealth on TV, they are inclined to buy more and when they see depressing images, they are inclined to buy less. That's why golf, for instance, is such a popular sport on television because it is a sport where you tend to see lots of upper class people in upper class settings in country clubs, and you'll notice that corresponding advertisements for golf are always luxury cars and luxury perfumes and colognes and those sorts of things. And you can't sell those things when you have a lot of people without teeth on TV, it's just a fact of life. That's why you have that, it's strictly an economic thing."...

The Coast of the Auburn Mane

"This guy's not a documentary, he's an opera. Somebody should write it." - Peggy Noonan speaking of Bill Clinton:
Peggy Noonan can hear the native tongues of home, and sing to us a glimpse of its "far-flinging Gods."

There's another kingdom out among the 3 visible, acknowledged worlds of America; beyond the East Coast of the famous families, the Left Coast of brazen and wanton tugging at the leash, and the venerated blessedness of the Heartland. Less visible, harder to reach, but more real by a long stroke, is that home within us where life flows as a song - pouring forth with words thrilled to be spoken, describing gloriful affirmation and protective confirmation.

It's another Coast altogether, and from it's edge - as with all coasts, the past and the future go both ways.

It's All In The Game

What If Obama Isn't A Game Changer?: "University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. There are four elements needed for a major political shift, Sabato argues:
'(1) A crisis of confidence that causes Americans to reconsider their voting patterns; (2) new voters brought into the electorate that change the composition of the voting public; (3) a successful Presidency that confirms the gamble voters take in the first election breaking with past practice; and (4) successor Presidencies from the new coalition that continue and build upon the successes of the breakthrough President.'"

A tall order; very sobering. A lot has to happen, and a lot of that has to happen in sync with a whole lot of other things.

The Instant Messenger

Crushing the Stones of Mercury: It's as if one can feel a deep resonation in the earth - an old tremor of an older presence - out there, behind and around us, an aging Mercury stirring in suprise and unpreparedness to face attack amid the gathering momentum of yet greater hordes of attackers.

"Tom Brokaw calls this moment in the news media “the second big bang.” “We are creating a new universe, and it has all kinds of new laws and science and physics coming into play as well, in this information world,” he told me. “And you’ve got planets out there colliding with each other, new life forms taking shape; others have drifted too close to the sun, and they’ve burned up. And we don’t know how it’s all going to settle down. And it has, now and forevermore, a radiant effect.”"

The Messenger is dying; long live Instant Mercury...!

Whack a McMole

Democrats pound McCain for Dismissive Crack: "“If it's working Senator, do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?”

McCain replied: “No, but that's not too important."

"Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.

Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airdales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished only by his misdeeds and malfeasance, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file."

Enough is enough !!

Uh uh.

They cleaned John Kerry's files like a fish, so now "they" get a massive two-fisted Politconoscopy Examination in Gitmo.

That might be enough.

Rural Whites Are Bitter - "They're mad!"

Here Come The Scots-Irish Again - Staggering Across Our Foreheads With More Late-Roman Tales Of Blood and Booze and Losing: "'He was right,' Webb tells me of Barack Obama's infamous comment that rural whites are 'bitter.' 'They're mad.'"

On the the white working class: "No other group has been so denigrated, attacked, and even feared by America's ever more interconnected ruling elites. Had I not gone to law school, I never would have fully comprehended ... the ingrained condescension of the nation's elites towards my culture."

They're crazy mother-fuckers to be sure and to be sure they are part of America - deep into it; America wouldn't smell the same or act the same without them.

"There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit."

"He has no character. He is a fake": "Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.'"...

..."This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake."

Ross Perot... "McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory. After he came home, Carol [first wife] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history."

I don't want this prick anywhere near something of value.

The Guy in the Next Stall...

...Just Made His Dick Move: Oh gad !! It's time to flush and leave, because it's Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and he's in high snit because Democrats won't let Republican clowns stuff more rightie judges into the judicial system.

"The thing is, McConnell's maneuverings didn't really punish the Democrats. The person who ended up getting punished was the poor Senate clerk, who McConnell forced to read 'the entire 500 page global warming bill' out loud. McConnell's actions can thus be rightly considered to be 'a total dick move.'"

Hopefully, some stall-worthy character can help him make his dick stop moving - Larry Craig?

Checking In With Chubby

Tucker Carlson Hasn't Learned The Faberge Balloon Lesson: "So the best thing Tucker said to me, after he said, 'I eat at least one steak a day...I don't eat bread.' He followed that quote with this, 'There are three things I love. Cookies, alcohol, and Marlboro Reds.'"

A Blunderer of Historic Proportions

When Did You Get Your First Clue, General ?: "Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, who is scathing in his assessment that the Bush administration 'led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions.'"

Yes, General, and you followed him. There is a whole universe of thought that tries to understand the moral dimension of your choice. No verdict yet, so you can continue to lead men into battle with some degree of impunity.

"During a videoconference with his national security team and generals, Sanchez writes, Bush launched into what he described as a 'confused' pep talk:

'Kick ass!' he quotes the president as saying. 'If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can't send that message. It's an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.

There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!'

A White House spokesman had no comment."

Your president is a mad man! Say it out loud. It's OK.

Evidentally we can accept that horrible fact - just as we accept the reality of 80 year-old blue-haired matrons cruising down the freeway at 70 miles per hour.

From One Miserable Creature To Another

Bob Dole Dumps: "'There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues. No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique...

...When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me.' Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years...

...You’re a hot ticket now, but don’t you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?

Bob Dole"

What Kind Of Weave Is This Webb ?

Is Jim Webb World-Wide Ready, Or Too Good For All This Leadership Stuff?: "Webb, an idiosyncratic, free-thinking, independent-minded politician, is being pushed for a position that steamrolls those qualities. Worse, he's being pushed for the position because people love what an idiosyncratic, free-thinking, independent-minded politician he is. It's like celebrating a former alcoholic's sobriety by taking him out for a drink."

You don't take a Scot-Irish brawler out for a drink, period, unless maybe first you take him out to the prairie and make him pound rails before first call.

But Webb may be a polished jewel of a human and we should probably keep our eyes pealed - he may be the real thing: the natural turn of the page.

The Admiral's Son

Some Vietnam POW Activists Called Him ‘Songbird’ McCain and ‘Manchurian Candidate’:

This needs to get clearer, real quick - left alone, it will be a stink machine.

"Dr. JAMES LUCIER, former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff: But We do know that when he was there [in the Vietnamese prison], he cooperated with the communist news services in giving interviews there, ah, not flattering to the United States.

USRY: Information shows that he made over 32 tapes of propaganda for the Vietnamese government. Certainly, you do what you need to do to stay alive. Nobody would fault anybody for that. But there comes a point in time when enough is enough.

TERRIBLE ACTOR AND REPUBLICAN U.S. CONGRESSMAN ROBERT "B-1 BOB" DORNAN: They made those transcriptions, and in the transcriptions, I heard a POW who heard them comin’ into his cell and said, 'Oh, my God, is that Admiral McCain’s son? Is that the admiral’s son? Is that Johnny — telling us that our principal targets are schools, orphanages, hospitals, temples, churches?' That was Jane Fonda’s line. Where are those transcriptions? Believe me — they’re in the archives of the museum, the bragging military phony museum in Hanoi. McCain could not have wanted those [to] turn up in the middle of a presidential race."

"They call McCain 'Songbird,' and say he received special treatment. Some in the POW community even believe he was brainwashed like Raymond Shaw, the character played by Laurence Harvey in 'The Manchurian candidate,' who was used as a tool by the communists to destroy America from within..."

... ... ...

The reek of the leader's son anchor's many stories throughout history - including the vast Bush Soap Opera in which we have all lived as hapless extras.

I'm not in the least interested in going through the blasphemy of Admiral McCain's son.

Farcical Fred - Not Yet A Thetan

Fred Thompson was whacking material for righties - another movie star from the Republican Worship Collection.

Every unscripted word that came out of his mouth was predictable, ordinary, and drenched in adolescent bile.

He should become a star on Hollywood Boulevard - and be stepped on often.

McCain - Master of the Hole

I am sick to death of false pride and dishonorable honor and the mumbo-jumbo of men like McCain. He is anethema, paddling furiously, yet stuck on a sawyer forever.

To value his contribution is to mistake popping corn for the sudden rush of ideas. Sure, it's fun to watch, but so is porn.

I Wonder What My Father Knew

Toni Morrison is a National Treasure: "Song of Solomon should be required reading for all African-American boys. How did you know what is in our heads?" asks Ira Levi from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"That was a leap for me. I really wanted to do that book, about the education of a middle-class black man, about his ancestry, and I couldn't. And then my father died, and it was earthshaking for me. I remember saying to myself, I wonder what my father knew about these men? And I have to tell you, I felt access. I knew I could get there if I thought about him."

McCain - Welcome To The Charming Years

John McCain - How Far He's Fallen: "'McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal -- that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay.'"

Thanks for keeping this alive. McCain lies as easily as he pisses and I'm glad you aren't letting him get away with it.

AND, special high-fives for cross-referencing that little rodent Mark Salter with the very startling presentation by student Jean Rohe at a New School commencement ceremony some time ago. His written reply to her remarks - and to the entire graduating class, was the height of small - and wrong as only the right can be, including his assholian zinger that "Very Unlikely Any Of You Will Ever Possess...One Small Fraction Of The Character Of John McCain".

It comes down to this for me: McCain's a mean little man that killed for country A. He killed for no decent reason. He killed against the teachings of his religion. He went to another land and killed people he didn't know. He killed people who were not trying to do anything but stop him from being in their country and killing them.

Nothing worth anything can come from this man.

Let's Do Something Subversive

Cusack aims to offend: "'There's hopefully an exuberance to the movie because I think being subversive should feel good,' Cusack said. 'It should be fun to throw a brick.'"

"'I think the movie should be kind of offensive,' Cusack told Reuters about the film, which will be released in New York and Los Angeles theaters on May 23."

"John Cusack is outraged over the Iraq war, so the U.S. actor channeled his anger into a low-budget political satire -- complete with a chorus line of scantily clad female amputees -- that he hopes will offend."

Ben Stein is Way Out of Shelf-life.

Yet here he is again - one of the gargoyles of the Reagan years, promising to deliver a way out of our confusion, but merely delivering another new dizziness.

This time he's celebrating and selling an erosion of professionalism that usually signals a culture losing it's clarity of being.

What exactly are the standards when News Programs are staffed by upscale gypsies and carni workers selling glimpses of sideshow freaks - and how could it be otherwise when the ironclad goal is delivering audiences to advertisers - not information to audiences?

Staying rational is hard work. Expelling Ben Stein's ideas is easy as pi.

A Banging, Rocking Washer

...Perpetually Stuck On Spin Cycle: Camille Paglia chimes in, "If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Hillary is reconstituting the toxic hierarchy of her childhood household, with her on top instead of her drill-sergeant father. All those seething beta males are versions of her sad-sack brothers, who got the short end of the Rodham DNA stick."

"The White House should not be a banging, rocking washer perpetually stuck on spin cycle."

"The men you always see under her are to a person passive-aggressive, sadistic, mean, little, petty beta-male pieces of work who would not naturally succeed in a common male-type hierarchy. By that I mean an environment that values straightforward achievement rather than the darker political arts." - Chris Richard, Agoura Hills, Calif.

"You Cunt"

New Book: McCain Once Physically Attacked Fellow Congressman:
"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father," joked the future Republican Party's Presidential nominee

Sure, he's just a boy toy for Cindy, but as he says, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

Here Come The Tarmac !

Hillarious Sniper Fire: Reaganette Peggy Noonan writes that what struck her as "the best commentary on the Bosnia story came from a poster called GI Joe who wrote in to a news blog:

'Actually Mrs. Clinton was too modest. I was there and saw it all. When Mrs. Clinton got off the plane the tarmac came under mortar and machine gun fire. I was blown off my tank and exposed to enemy fire. Mrs. Clinton without regard to her own safety dragged me to safety, jumped on the tank and opened fire, killing 50 of the enemy.' Soon a suicide bomber appeared, but Mrs. Clinton stopped the guards from opening fire. 'She talked to the man in his own language and got him [to] surrender. She found that he had suffered terribly as a result of the policies of George Bush. She defused the bomb vest herself.' Then she turned to his wounds. 'She stopped my bleeding and saved my life. Chelsea donated the blood.'

Made me laugh. It was like the voice of the people answering back. This guy knows that what Mrs. Clinton said is sort of crazy. He seems to know her reputation for untruths. He seemed to be saying, 'I get it.'..."

"...That's what the Bosnia story was about. Her fictions about dodging bullets on the tarmac either confirmed what you already knew or revealed in an unforgettable way what you feared..."

Yes, and I don't relish a revelation this disconcerting.

Bama Go Boom, God Damnit

"I Coulda Been A Contender"
Speaking about Reverend Wright on Olbermann's program:

"He's an African-American man, who, because of his life experience continues to have a lot of anger and frustration, and will express that in ways that are very different from me and my generation, partly because I benefited from the struggles of that early generation. And so, part of what we're seeing here is a transition from the past to the future. And I hope that our politics represents the future.

...and on CNN:

And part of what I think I see in Reverend Wright is somebody who grew up in the '60s, had very different life experiences than I had, has continued to harbor a lot of anger and frustration about discrimination that he may have experienced. And, so, his life experiences have been very different than mine. And part of what is going on within the African-American community is a transition, in which some of the rhetoric and statements and -- and frustrations of the past have given way to opportunities that I have experienced, and -- which is part of the reason why I speak in very different terms. And that's part of what our campaign has been about, is to surface some of these issues and to be able to move forward and get beyond them."

Obama will escape the mincemeat machine if he can make those words sing. But he is up against the negative, narcotic forces of the media, aligned against anyone or anything that might threaten it's control of the culture.

Losing It

Honey, I Shrunk The Spitzer:
"Reaction Formation is when an individual's behavior or actions are the exact opposite of what he feels at his core (or possibly unconscious) level. In Spitzer's case, it means that the corruption fighter in his core was -- or needed to be -- corrupt. The more corrupt he was, or felt he was, the more he had to fight corruption in others -- and fight it with a tenacity and ruthlessness that was fueled in fact, by his own failings. Classically, he even denounced and went after prostitution rings -- kind of like a priest railing against sin and then taking a boy to bed. The outward purity and rigidity is a defense mechanism that helps him to feel better about his inner needs.

Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior (as opposed to a full-fledged obsessive-compulsive disorder) is the attempt to control internal chaos or obsessive thoughts. In Spitzer's case, he might have been trying to control his apparent sexual needs -- and, maybe more importantly, his need to push the limits into dangerous territory. By focusing on control or perfectionism, the individual offsets or distracts from the unconscious danger. So, by behaving in a strict, ordered, manner (always wearing white shirts, for instance), the Governor appeared to be the opposite of what, internally, he really was."

Middle Aged Conservatives Should Be Exposed At Birth

Steve King, Republican Congressman: Al-Qaida Will Be "Dancing In The Streets" If "Hussein" Obama Wins:

He represents the quivering pile of conservative Americans who fear and hate. He speaks the words that catch in their throat and he leads them in their quest for respite. They never get it. He is a fake. He sells their weakness back to them. They are ill-served.

Dead Ahead

Hey, what's to eat?: This is not good. The bees are in crises around the world - heading directly toward a gigantic failure in agriculture. We can't eat tuna without poisoning ourselves, and now the salmon are facing total collapse. Thank goodness we've got good leadership. Dick Cheney's plan is to die. George Bush's plan is to trust Dick. And the rest of us are trying to figure out why the waiter can't bring us any food. Yep, this is not good.

Mother Tucker Will Never Die !

He'll be back for another round of butterball wisdom and dark vanity from the soul of an old tot:

He's not going anywhere. To my utter dismay I find that a lot of women find him attractive - enough so that they would rather him not be cancelled. Well ladies, you get it both ways: boohoo and don't worry. He's gone only for a minute, retooling his hair and his trans-fat waistline, ready to pounce back into your living room with another round of butterball wisdom and dark vanity from the soul of an old tot. Translation: he gets a new show and tries yet again to disprove Victor Hugo's claim that, "one cannot resist an idea whose time has come."

As long as there are no great minds in the public view, rodents like this guy will continue to get face time with the American citizenry.

Such be the republic at the moment.

Obama Will Absorb McCain

This Is Not A Gamble; It's The Armed Prayer Of A Rich Nation: "“Very early in this campaign, I said I would meet not just with our friends but also with our enemies, not just with leaders we like but leaders we don't,” Obama said. “Washington, when I said this, they said, 'Oh, you can't do that.' I said, 'Watch me; I will.'”"

This will mean that he must be uniquely great, and I am voting that he is..

John McCain's "Very Weird Behavior"

"Blonde's For McCain" campaign hits snag: "Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum comments: 'Look, there's no two ways about it it: this is very weird behavior. If there were really no story here, McCain wouldn't be avoiding reporters. He'd be yukking it up and insisting to a sympathetic press corps that he was the subject of a comically thin hit job from the Times. Instead he's acting almost like a caricature of a guilty man. What's going on here?'"

"Over the parapet; life, romance!" - Robert Service

"Bombs away !" - John McCain

McCain's from another era, when doing it for "Country A" was enough of a reason to kill.

NOW is Then, Left Out Too Long

Women's Rights Head Kicked in the Balls by a Bunch of Kennedys: "In a rant that was described as greater-than-scathing, the head of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women ripped into Sen. Ted Kennedy on Monday for "betraying" woman by not endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton."

Uh oh. Remember, this is the wacko portion of the history of an organization. The official title of her statement is: "Psychological Gang Bang of Hillary is Proof We Need a Woman President."

I respect her right to be a jerk, but remember, "history loves company."

A Thetan is a Thespian After Its Money is Removed

...and a Californian is Someone That's Been Dumped by a Venusian: In Scientology, "When a person dies – or, in Scientology terms, when a thetan abandons its physical body – they go to a "landing station" on the planet Venus, where the thetan is re-implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California. Says Hubbard, "If you can get out of that, and through that, and wander around through the cities and find some girl who looks like she is going to get married or have a baby or something like that, you're all set. And if you can find the maternity ward to a hospital or something, you're OK. And you just eventually just pick up a baby..."

"...All matter, energy, space, and time exists solely because thetans agree that it exists." - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Well, of course that all makes perfect sense.

Obama Knows; Bush Blows

Bush Did What Obama Recommended Because It Was A Smart Move: Barack Obama set the agenda: "But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. ... If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will.'"

And Bush did act - just the way he said he wouldn't, but just the way that Obama recommended.

You know why?

Because Obama has his head screwed on correctly, and that's a big plus.

The Republican Ass Problem

Glenn Beck: I Drink The Blood Of Small People Who Are Different Than Me

It's heartening to know that even when we are off having a great time with our friends and family, Beck's ass is doing our work for us, making him conscious of his painful anus every stinking minute of his very low life.

Now that's what I call swell.

Ramses the Next

Hillary "might as well be promoting choral singing in the face of Beatlemania."

The merest chance for us to be a greater generation than we are; to be a surpassing nation, is just too alluring; just too gorgeous, for us not to embrace this incredible opportunity. With Obama there is a feeling in one's soul that there is indeed a chance for American excellence in this new century.

Tucker Carlson, Ethical Oaf

The Butterball That Enabled The Meathead : "In 1999, during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary race, Tucker Carlson interviewed Bush, then Governor of Texas, for Talk magazine. Carlson reported that Bush mocked soon-to-be-executed Texas death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker and "cursed like a sailor."

Bush's communications director Karen Hughes publicly disputed this claim. Asked by Salon about the response to his article on Bush, Carlson characterized it as "very, very hostile. The reaction was: You betrayed us. Well, I was never there as a partisan to begin with. Then I heard that (on the campaign bus, Bush communications director) Karen Hughes accused me of lying. And so I called Karen and asked her why she was saying this, and she had this almost Orwellian rap that she laid on me about how things she'd heard — that I watched her hear — she in fact had never heard, and she'd never heard Bush use profanity ever. It was insane. I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness." - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is surely my favorite anecdote involving Tucker Carlson, though it truly irks me to contribute to any effort to humanize this viper.

The Ass Delivers The Shit

Rush Limbaugh, Anal Poisoner: "A source close to Limbaugh says the right-wing gadfly was merely using a 'time-honored' synonym for 'brown-nosing.' But if you Google the term ['anal poisoning"], the only people who seem to be using it are proprietors of porn sites."

Someday, when the money wall collapses and the truth oozes forth, Limbaugh will finally have the tomb he deserves.

Housing Meltdown

Wipeout !! To Hit Retiring Boomers Hard: "Home prices could sink an additional 25% over the next two or three years, returning values to their 2000 levels in inflation-adjusted terms. That's even with the Federal Reserve's half-percentage-point rate cut on Jan. 30.

While a 25% decline is unprecedented in modern times, some economists are beginning to talk about it. 'We now see potential for another 25% to 30% downside over the next two years,' says David A. Rosenberg, North American economist for Merrill Lynch (MER), who until recently had expected a much smaller slide."

This sucks muddy rocks big time !

Coulter Finds New Map To Be All Over

Ann's Plan -"I Will Campaign for Hillary If It’s McCain": "'If you're looking at substance rather than whether it's an R or a D after his name...If he's our candidate, then Hillary's going to be our girl, Sean, cause she's more conservative than he is. I think she would be stronger on the war on terrorism. I absolutely believe that.'"

Another tortured staccato burst from the Annster.

"A President Like My Father"

Caroline Kennedy: "For the first time, I believe I have found the man": "Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible."

..."As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility."

..."I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

I'm down with Caroline's every word. She is so right. As "The New York Observer" said, Obama is "transformative".

Ted Kennedy Invented the V-2 !!!!

Jonah Goldberg to Base! Under Attack by Commie-Nazis!: "Here's the Goldberg Thesis:

Liberals are like Fascists because Fascists told people to do things and so do Liberals. The End."

This rodent's thinking process is a very messy and wholly unordinary procedure akin to masturbation. It's not really very dangerous - I mean, nobody dies, but nothing ever goes very well either. Of course there's no proof of this, except for his own words.

Chrisball - No Strikes, No Balls

Chris Matthews Bends Over For The Paycheck; Meanders, Eventually Apologizes: About Hillary Clinton, Chris Matthews recently stated on MSNBC's Morning Joe program that, "The reason she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front-runner, is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be Senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win it on the merits..."

A clammy, amazingly harsh and judgmental stab - a near psychiatric example of one individual's furious, unhealthy need to spew bile at Hillary Clinton.

Then, in the words of fictitious observers, "the phone rang; the money was mentioned, camera access was mentioned, and all the hallway doors slammed shut but for two: Fix-It and Unknown.

Bobbin' an weavin' like a squirming piglet angling for his spot at the teats, he acted quickly to remove anything in the way of his access to the money and the fame."

"On the particular point, if I'd said the only reason John McCain has come so far is that he got shot down over North Vietnam and captured by the enemy, I'd be brutally ignoring the courage and guts he showed in bearing up under his captivity. Saying that Senator Clinton got where she's got simply because her husband did what he did to her is just as callous, and I can see now that it comes across just as nasty. Worse yet, just as dismissive.

Finally, if anyone doesn't know this, I love politics. I love politicians. I like and respect people with the guts to put their name, their very being out there for public approval so that they can lead our country. And that goes for Hillary and Barack and John and all the rest who are willing to fight to take on the toughest job in the world."

Upton Sinclair offered more than a hunch, saying, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

The Anti-Chrisball Vote

Speaking From Chris Matthews' Ass:

"The reason she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front-runner, is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be Senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win it on the merits..."

"They’re blaming Chris Matthews":

"PAT BUCHANAN: This is an astonishing development. Look, the pollsters were dead wrong. They were predicting 7-8 to a dozen points for Obama. The press was dead wrong. We had virtually canonized Obama and said he had been born in Bethlehem and now you’ve got a race where Hillary Clinton is running three or four points ahead of this fella. Something has happened. There is a hidden vote here somewhere, or my guess is this: The New Hampshire voters said, look, the press has been telling us Obama’s the second coming. We don’t think so. The press has been telling us she’s gone, and the women came out and said, no, she’s not. What New Hampshire did was stand up and body slam the national establishment, the press corp., the pollsters, the whole bunch that came in here as well as Barack Obama’s folks who must be in a state of shock tonight.

RACHEL MADDOW: Pat, I will tell you that on the influential -perhaps influential on the left — Web site, talking points memo today, do you want to know who they’re blaming for women voters breaking for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama? Who they’re blaming for this late showing for Hillary Clinton? They’re blaming Chris Matthews. People are citing specifically Chris not only for his own views but also as a symbol for what the mainstream media…

MATTHEWS: What Web site?

MADDOW: Talkingpointsmemo.com."

Donna Brazile Pissed at Bill

...And For Good Reason: "I could understand his frustration at this moment. But, look, he shouldn't take out all his pain on Barack Obama. It's time that they regroup. Figure out what Hillary needs to do to get her campaign back on track. It sounds like sour grapes coming from the former commander in chief. Someone that many Democrats hold in high esteem. For him to go after Obama, using a fairy tale, calling him as he did last week. It's an insult. And I will tell you, as an African-American, I find his tone and his words to be very depressing."

We lost the Silver, we lost the Gold

Time to Think Again: Stanley Fish writes that the humanities and arts "“restore the wonder which those who have glimpsed the human condition have always felt, and which our scientific civilization, with its gadgets and discoveries, obscures.”"...

"...Kronman is not so much mounting a defense of the humanities as he is mounting an attack on everything else. Other spokespersons for the humanities argue for their utility by connecting them (in largely unconvincing ways) to the goals of science, technology and the building of careers. Kronman, however, identifies science, technology and careerism as impediments to living a life with meaning. The real enemies, he declares, are “the careerism that distracts from life as a whole” and “the blind acceptance of science and technology that disguise and deny our human condition.” These false idols, he says, block the way to understanding. We must turn to the humanities if we are to “meet the need for meaning in an age of vast but pointless powers,” for only the humanities can help us recover the urgency of “the question of what living is for.”

The late Pope John knew full well that reverence for - and the pursuit of, the arts and the humanities is part of our holy life. I loved that he knew that.

Jacking-off In A Rush

Limbaugh Wants To Find 2 Guys That Masturbate: "We're going to find out... !!":
"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. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what? You are no different than Al Goldstein. You both masturbate."

There are very few things more instructive than watching a Faberge Balloon insult a dime-store hatpin.

What's interesting is not the ridiculousness of the confrontation. It's realizing yet one more time that not enough of us use the power we have to bring down a tyrant.

Ron Paul / Google / Yuk

Ron Paul is Anethema - Don't Sleep Until He's Off The Stage: "The New Hampshire Attorney General has determined that anti-Mormon push polls employed earlier this fall were organized by the polling firm Moore-Information, Inc.

Moore Information has not yet confirmed the sponsor of the poll, but the firm lists presidential candidate Ron Paul as one of its clients. Paul is the only presidential client listed on Moore's website."

Google this creep and learn of the kind of thinking he employs. Read the Ron Paul newsletters. Read the bills he sponsored in Congress. Stay away from this man.

Let's Take The Fork In The Road

Arianna thinks Bill took Hillary down: "Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate..."

"...But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering."

Maybe, but for me it was definitely those 2 weeks. They were a kiss of death. I was completely amazed at how she did almost nothing to counter the negative aftermath of the Philadelphia debate. It was an absolute disaster for her to appear so defeated and unable to react - and it stayed like that for an incredibly long time, as if she were paralyzed.

Peggy Gets With Obama

Peggy Noonan: "He did it with a classy campaign, an unruffled manner, and an appeal on the stump that said every day, through the lines: Look at who I am and see me, the change that you desire is right here, move on with me and we will bring it forward together."

Stunning, and nearly transcendently beautiful. It is hard to resist the longing she so clearly evokes.

But with Hillary, the view is more prosaic: "There's something about her that makes you look, watch, think, look again, weigh and say: No.

She started out way ahead, met everyone, and lost."

"My Heart Is With the Big Cats"

An Emotional Quagmire - Zoo opens to tourists and curious onlookers: "'I came to mourn the death of Tatiana,' said Susan Pettitt, a Santa Clara resident who has visited the zoo each week for the past three years. She brought a card, a stuffed tiger and three photos she had taken of Tatiana, and placed them in front of the statue.

'She was a fun-loving tiger who would greet you when you came,' Pettitt said. 'It's going to be weird that she's not here. I know today I won't see them, but my heart is with the big cats.'"

Booze, Cigarettes and Tons of Grass

Why booze and cigarettes are essential for good journalism - Slate Magazine: "please do not bring any alcoholic beverages into the newsroom."

I'm from the rock world of years ago and I have never had to take a drug test. I'd like to think I would pee on their shoes instead, but I've never had to face the choices - job or grass, because, well, I was raised right. Back in '69 we smoked dope at the job; all day. We turned out some of the best recordings ever made by humans, and we loved life a lot.

Over the years the idiots took over the country and the Security-Guard mentality seeped into family life and into the souls of otherwise great individuals.

Of course, I can't stand to talk to any of them because they're lying to themselves likkity-split, their kids are nervous wrecks, and all I see is that nothing good can ever come of resisting the breadth of life.

Go for the higher law and do what you know you must do, because if we don't live our life, nobody will.

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.