Economics Wrap-Up

Jobless Rate Hits Four-Year High (Nothing to add to that.) GM, Other Automakers on Road to Grim Year in Sales U.S. sales fall 13% in July. Companies blame pickup trucks, SUVs and tighter credit. GM reports a huge quarterly loss. Parasite Runs Business into Ground, Receives More Money & Free Plane Rides If just one of these bloodsucking "executive" leeches were to receive anything besides the keys to the vault & the company plane when they are "replaced" for utter gross incompetence, it might give someone, somewhere (not us, mind you) the slightest reason to think that there truly is a free market, & that people who make "bad decisions" were actually suffering as a result. (Those who made the "decision" to be born poor, non-white or both, of course, are punished every day by predatory capitalists & the police, to name but two groups who punish but are seldom punished.) Today's case in point is the sad tale of one David Sambol, prexy (but not for much longer) of Countrywide Financial Corp., whose mortgage-related fuck-ups resulted in Bank of America taking the outfit over, to prevent further collapse of America's financial house of cards. You've probably heard the whining refrain of glibertarians world-wide: "They take the risks, they should be well-rewarded." The corollary, that they should be forced to work as greeters for Wal*Mart at no-benefit minimum wage, or be forced to dig ditches eight hrs. a day (We'd love to see one of these bloated parasites try some physical labor, & then watch as his heart exploded.) if they totally screw up, causing thousands to lose their jobs, never seems to be mentioned, let alone carried out. Mr. Sambol, after running Countrywide into the ground & causing layoffs of thousands, has been rewarded by Bank of America w/ the following: Severance Package: $28 million in cash & stock Extras: BofA pays his country club dues & for financial consulting services through the end of 2009. And: Use of the Countrywide Gulfstream IV, which he appears to be using to take his family on a nice little three-week safari to Africa before he leaves his position. This seems to have been the straw that broke some camel's back, & inspired "a person w/ knowledge of Countrywide's flight operations" to squeal to The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper™©. How many laid-off Countrywide employees rec'd. anything remotely close to this sort of severance package? Most of those laid-off (What a euphemism that is!) were doubtless living paycheck to paycheck. Last yr. Bloodsucker Sambol earned $10.3 million, but he'll be getting almost three times that to go away. How many of those thrown under the bus got three times their salaries or wages when they got their pink slips?

Annals of Religion (Not)

Each Sat. a. m. on our way to Starbucks (maybe we should switch to the Dunkin' Donuts across the blvd.) we steal the Daily News (yes, there is a paper in L. A. besides the incredible shrinking one) from a business that probably won't be using it on Sat., so we can do the NYT Sat. crossword. Voracious print fetishist that we are, we take a minute or two to scan the entire mess. Sometimes it's worth the wasted minutes. As it turns out, in this case it wasn't, because we couldn't find the printed in the murdered-tree version item about which we wanted to whine on their crummy website. Incompetent bastards. Not even worth stealing!

What Happened On This Date? No One Cares? Too Bad

Don't believe that Fourth of July crap; it wasn't until this date (at least they did get the yr. correct) in 1776 that the Continental Congrefs started signing the Declaration of Independence. Other signatures: In 1939, Albert Einstein signed the letter to FDR urging the creation of destruction, that is, an atomic weapons research project. Deaths This Date: One hundred yrs. later (1876) "Wild Bill" Hickok got plugged while playing poker in now HBO-famed Deadwood, Dakota Territory. The hand he was holding, aces & eights, has become known as the "Dead Man's Hand." 1923, Fatso Warren G. Harding went under in San Francisco, making "Silent Cal" Coolidge the prez. 1934, Kraut President Paul von Hindenburg died, giving Adolf Hitler complete control of Germany. Militaria: JFK was thrown overboard from PT-109 when it was rammed by the Nipponese destroyer Amagiri in the Solomons, leading to (or helping) his becoming president, which lead to his assassination. In 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox rec'd. light damage from North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, allowing LBJ to lie about what happened & eventually to send huge numbers of American forces & material to be wasted in South Vietnam. In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, allowing any George Bush you can think of to lie & cheat in order to start a couple of wars.

Dickwad of The Wk.

Just Another Blog's™ official position on Hollywood, movies viewed anywhere but from the comfort of one's domicile, & especially the Oscars™ is: Who cares, who needs 'em, why bother, etc. That said, some self-righteous puke in the Op-Ed page of the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper (a little larger today because of wknd. sales & movie advertising) wrote a screed about Heath Ledger & his Oscar™ possibilities. As someone w/o much sympathy for anyone but ourself, we know wretched assholery when we see it. Maybe you can recognize it as well. Here the "it" is Ledger's performance as The Joker.

It has all the subtlety of a hangover -- exactly what I'd expect from someone who headed home every night to a pill party.

Excuse the living fuck out of us, Mr. Eric P. Lucas (The "P." Does it stand for Prick or Pretentious?) "a writer in Seattle," but we, at least, were laboring under the impression that Ledger had one fucking hell of a sleep problem, & while he may have visited too many doctors & pharmacies, had too many prescriptions, & took his work too seriously, or worked too hard or whatever, unless you're sure he was just popping pills for kicks, we really don't think that his attempts (however misguided) to get some rest can be correctly described as a "pill party."

Lucas doesn't seem to have much grasp of the concept of cause & effect either.

The preeminent example is the deification of Hendrix. How many young men pick up a guitar to emulate him, and wind up under a bridge with a bottle of Colt 45 picking out a wobbly solo on a tinny set of strings? I see them every day in downtown Seattle.

Golly, we just don't know. Does the act of picking up a guitar, inspired by a great player & musical innovator, lead directly to wandering under bridges w/ a Colt 45? Better close the music stores & confiscate all copies of Guitar Hero. (Playing Guitar Hero may cause you to play the Boozing While Picking on Tinny Strings video game.)

Here's the giveaway:

It's a simple thing to find help for drug and alcohol abuse these days. Millions have done it, including me, and though not easy, it represents the only way to live with the integrity we owe ourselves, our families and the world around us.

Lucas did it, he's better than all these loser creative successes who died before the age of 80. Of course, any one w/ the merest fraction of a brain knows that the word "integrity" has been completely devalued by puds like this. It's simple to get help, but it's not easy. (?) As well as Hendrix, Eric. P. mentions Janis Joplin, Jackson Pollack, Hank Williams, James Dean & Dylan Thomas. (What? No Lizard King?) Just how simple was finding help in their days?

Later deaths on the Lucas list include Kurt Cobain. If we (again) aren't mistaken, Cobain (the only one mentioned who purposefully committed suicide) had very painful stomach problems that led to his opiate addiction. And maybe a bit of depression. In other words, he was physically & mentally ill, & self-medicating. But to Lucas, w/ his AA bullshit,

Some drank themselves to death, some overdosed, some ran their cars off the road. As the saying goes in AA, the stories are the same, only the details are different

seems to think it's all a "moral" issue, that devalued, cliched words like "courage" & "integrity" are all it takes to suck it up & straighten up. (That & "surrendering yourself to a higher power," even if your higher power is a doorknob – yes, they actually say that to people who don't buy into gawd & the ancient wretched morality of AA – quite a load of integrity there.) We won't waste time explaining that booze & dope troubles are generally a subset of mental illness (That's right, a chemical imbalance in the brain, so it's physiological illness as well) let alone the agents, managers & other enablers that surround popular, wealthy cultural workers. None of that an excuse, mind you, but a much clearer explanation than Lucas's "Don't give him an Oscar™© because he was cowardly & dishonest" shtick.

And speaking of the "details,"

"Hendrix's creative journey was cut short by an accidental overdose of sleeping pills." (Nine sleeping pills, accompanied by barrels of wine; he choked to death in his own vomit.) The Hendrix monument at a cemetery south of Seattle says nothing at all about his death. It's as if the angels just took him away to the big amplifier pile in the sky.

Barrels of wine? Surely Jimi's monument is the only one ever to neglect the cause of death. Most of the cemetery visits we make are to read the tragic headstones: Died of Cancer, Shot By A Jealous Husband, Murdered By The Police, Hit By A Drunken Driver, Slipped On Some Snow & Hit Her Head, Gnawed To Death By A Pit Bull, ad nauseum. Families & loved ones want to remember the gory details.

Take your tough love of whatever you call this garbage & stuff it up your ass, E.P. Lucas!! Preferably sideways, schmuck.

"There Was a Rumor/About a Tumor"

Today's historical horrors: In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, aged 25, killed 14 people from the tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, shooting them down w/ a rifle as if they were game animals. In 1944, an uprising against Nazi occupation erupted in the Warsaw ghetto. It took two months for the Nazis to suppress it. In 1936, the Berlin Olympic Games™© were opened w/ a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler. In a related & relevant side note, the Beijing Olympic Games©™ will open a wk. from today.

McCain Nation? WTF?

Is the idea behind "McCain Nation" like Saudi Arabia, where the entire fucking country is named after the royal family that owns it, &, apparently all the resources & people therein? Or is it just another sad attempt by the McCain campaign (if you can call it that w/ a straight face) to appear "hep?" We thought the phrase "Woodstock Nation" was mighty stupid when we first heard it, and all other uses of "nation" in such a context have just been worse (w/ the possible exception of Raider Nation). Nationalism is not a good thing, in case you've not been informed.

For sheer amusement purposes, you may click here & type a Zone Improvement Postal Code in the box, to see how close the nearest "National Event Day" is. We found a whopping 14 w/in 100 miles of central Los Angeles (90001). Heh heh.

P. S.: We s'pect Cinderella Stepford Hensley McCain will only be showing up on a DVD (or, in the case of the McCain "campaign" & its supporters, a VHS tape). Don't get too excited at the prospect of looking into those limpid blue contacts in person.

What? You Want a Living Wage?

The fat cats at Wal*Mart are shaking in their booties at the prospect (probably unfounded) that the election of Senator Arrogant Obama to the presidency may lead to easier unionization of Wal*Mart's wage-slaves.

About a dozen employees who attended meetings in seven states said executives argued employees would have to pay hefty union dues and get nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation. They also warned that unionization could force the company to cut jobs as labor costs rise, the Journal reported.

Or, better working conditions & higher pay. Um, no, because Wal*Mart management would rather die from choking on its own vomit than cut its pay or "return to stockholders" in exchange for living wages, health care, paid overtime or whatever for the "associates." (What a repugnant, condescending term for people who are paid hourly, & as little as possible. Another laugher is "team member." Please!)

"If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval," David Tovar, the Wal-Mart spokesman, told the Journal.

Wal-Mart Watch, a union-backed group that often takes issue with labor practices at the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer, argued that the meetings were just the latest example of bad behavior toward employees.

"Today's Wall Street Journal story demonstrates once again that Wal-Mart intimidates its workers," Executive Director David Nassar said in an e-mailed statement.

The Journal, citing figures from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive politics, said that 12 years ago, 98 percent of Wal-Mart's political donations went to Republicans. Now, with Democrats appearing poised to gain more clout in Washington, the Journal said the 48 percent of its $2.2 million in political contributions go to Democrats and 52 percent to Republicans.

Ah, the tide turns, & so does Wal*Mart. There oughta be a law. Or a purge.

Nostalgie de la Boue

Old late pal English Frank (who roomed w/ Ron Wood when they were both nothing – E. F. was wise enough to remain nothing) gets a post-mortem mention in the recently remodeled LACITYBEAT. And a nice job they've done remodeling. Most useful new item: "Wonkette's Weekette," in which the wk.'s best from Wonkette is summed up, saving the time & trouble of actually visiting there. But let's wallow in that boue:

"...I’d bring Gary Leonard and there’d be a riot because he has enemies. The whole English Frank thing, you know. He takes pictures of everything and Frank was his friend, so he took photos of him before he died. It was not exploitative at all.” Frank was a fabled small-time Hollywood promoter of the 1980s, who, when he needed dental work, staged a “Concert for Bagladentures.”

Frank, you bastard, you English El Duce (another sorely missed) you are missed more than ever in these dismal times. One of Frank's other claims to fame was that he has been deported from Australia. Their loss, Los Angeles's gain. Also in the CITYBEAT, a Jeff Simmons platter is re-issued.

Another screwhead anomaly from the Straight vault re-released by CCM, this minor acid rock masterpiece is sufficiently well-loved by connoisseurs and crusties to make the original vinyl a pricey collector’s item. Simmons had been a journeyman songwriter and musician before absorption into the Mothers of Invention with Chunga’s Revenge in 1970, the same year he released this second of two albums on Zappa’s other surrealist boutique label. Outfitted by nature with a standard-issue suburban rocker-brat voice, Simmons ululates like a junior-grade Beefheart through a series of urban-blues vignettes and walleyed satires like “I’m in the Music Business” that resemble nothing else in rock but the crazed anti-commercial slabs then being flung out the door at Bizarre/Straight. Even by such bark-at-the-moon standards, this album radiates weirdness like tonal Strontium-90. –Ron Garmon

Many yrs. ago (almost 38, since you asked) when hanging w/ The (second-edition) Mothers as they cranked it out on stage at the Fillmore West, Your Editor had the thrill of lighting Jeff's cigarette for him, as the show must go on & he couldn't stop slapping his bass to assuage his nicotine desire. ("What? And leave show business?") As good a reason as any to buy the re-issue, we'd say.

Ishmael Reed on Michael Jackson as a Function of Calif.

From Mr. Reed's new book, Mixing It Up Taking on the Media Bullies and Other Reflections, as excerpted in the Incredible Shrinking Dog-Trainer©™:

"California, where I live, is the Mecca of losing oneself, and becoming something different from what you began as. Out here a steroid-pumped B actor who has rented his face to some elderly social Darwinists can become governor. Brooklyn-born men and women become swamis and adopt Buddhism as a hobby. . . . And the current president, born to a patrician New England family, who was AWOL from his National Guard duties, enjoys dressing up as Tom Mix or Chuck Yeager. Jackson isn't a freak; Jackson is an American."

Well, he's a freaky American.

Bandwagon Jumped, Or About To Be

We're still not sure if we're on the former Brooklyn Bums (said w/ affection, or affectation) bandwagon, even though said L. A. Dodgers are seven & three over the last ten games & just acquired Manny Ramirez, the whack job & ball-whacker, from Boston's World Champion Red Sox. We're definitely on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bandwagon. Best record in the majors, & winning on the road, as indicated by the three game sweep of the Beantown bozos at Fenway that was concluded last night. Freeway Series? Not fucking likely. As of now. We'll see how the Bums do against the division-leading Snakes of Arizona over the wknd. before climbing the rest of the way onto their proverbial bandwagon.

Annals of (Canadian) Crime

Hokey Smokes!! In its entirety:

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A passenger sleeping on a Greyhound bus was killed and decapitated by his seatmate on Wednesday night as the vehicle rolled across the Canadian prairies, witnesses said. "All of a sudden, we all heard this scream, this bloodcurdling scream," said Garnet Caton, who was sitting just in front of the victim, in an interview with CBC Television. "The attacker was standing up right over top of the guy with a large hunting knife — a survival, Rambo knife — holding the guy and continually stabbing him, stabbing him, stabbing him in the chest area," Caton said. The attack continued as other passengers fled the bus and waited for police on a desolated stretch of the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, said Caton, who helped bar the bus door to prevent the attacker from leaving. 'No rage in him' "He calmly walks up to the front (of the bus) with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," Caton said. "There was no rage in him ... It was just like he was a robot or something," Caton said. Caton said the victim was stabbed up to 50 times. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer said the attack occurred while the vehicle was en route from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba. CBC reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took the attacker into custody. Authorities declined to provide other details of what they described as a "major incident."

What a species we are. To our mind, a single act like this invalidates all the "good" anyone has done anywhere.

The Curse of K-Lo

No sooner had high-functioning Down Syndrome sufferer Kathryn Jean Lopez (Think we're being "cruel?" Of course we are, but look at the photo below & remind yourself just how cruel the truth can be. And, you have to be a dimbulb to wear one of those flag lapel pins. What's the matter, can't remember where you are, or of which country you're a citizen, K-Lo?) started pimping Alaska Governor & former pageant queen Sarah Palin to be John Sidney McCain III's veep than this came out.

Now, one of the bright new stars in the Republican Party has suddenly become tarnished. The state legislature this week voted to hire an independent investigator to see whether Ms. Palin abused her office by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. "This is a governor who was almost impervious to error," says Hollis French, a Democratic state senator. "Now she could face impeachment, in a worst-case scenario."

Gov. Palin appears to have been paying a bit more than standard Republican lip service to "good government," but power corrupts all.

On July 11 of this year, Ms. Palin fired Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Mr. Monegan then complained that she and her husband had pressured him to fire Mr. Wooten. Ms. Palin, in a statement, denied that, saying she had removed the commissioner she had appointed 18 months earlier because she wanted "a new direction."

Below: A photo of the former pageant queen & her goateed (Just fucking stop w/ those things already!! They were over about two wks. after they started, in the mid-'80s.) husband at her inauguration as governor in December 2006. Photo: Al Grillo/AP

Annals of Posthumous Nepotism & Bitterness, Or: "Nice Work If You Can Get It"

Gee, too fucking bad that our immediate paternal ancestor wasn't well-known & "respected" in a field or company we would have been interested in when he died young, isn't it? We were only sixteen then (it happened 10 days before our seventeenth birthday) but that wouldn't have been too young to start, would it?

Russert, 22, a May graduate of Boston College with a degree in history and communications, will cover the youth vote through the national political conventions and the general election, the network said. Russert said he would be an at-large correspondent reporting for many of NBC’s outlets, including “NBC Nightly News,” TODAY, MSNBC and msnbc.com.

How many 22 yr.-olds start their careers as "at-large correspondents" for one of the major news-gathering organizations? Not too fucking many, that is, none. Maybe by "at large" they mean Luke is expected to swell up like his late father, the pudge. Do you think they're just paying him Big Tim's old salary, as well? Or did Big Tim have something on an executive or two at NBC Universal? That would explain a lot more than this. Bitterly Yours, M. Bouffant

Self Expression or "Civility?" Which Do You Favor?

Some self-righteous dipshit who thinks he's hot fucking shit because he has an occasional column in the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper©™ (Sports & Business today remain @ 6 pp. each, no "Guide" this Thursday, or ever again) is all a-twitter because anonymous commenters are "coarsening" & "discouraging" "healthy civic discussion."

By midafternoon Wednesday, the washingtonpost.com forum had been flooded with nearly 1,400 messages. A few ventured toward rational discussion of Obama and his overseas travels, but the forum also overflowed with ignorance, profanity, impertinence and racism. It was just one message board attached to a single story. But it provided unfortunate proof that, despite its power to inform and connect people across cultures and time zones, the Internet all too often discourages, or coarsens, a healthy civic discussion. It's hard to say from the few minutes I could stomach of the online forum which of the anonymous contributors deserved the award for Most Offensive. It might have been Daman1, who described Obama as a backer of Kwanzaa and called the annual celebration of African heritage "a made-up holiday to celebrate the first time Dr. J dunked from the foul line." Or perhaps the top offender might have been Dianne72, who complained about "the 'whitey' rants of Michelle Shaniqua Obama. Doesn't she realize that it was whitey's affirmative action policies that got her where she is today?" Those gentle souls, with their concocted and racially charged stereotypes, had company from a platoon of other name-callers, including soonipi6, who railed over "the most corrupt, most insidious, most fascist, most criminal collection of Republicans I have witnessed in my 63 years as an American."

We certainly wonder what's wrong w/ soonipi6's statement. Name-calling, or simple fact? Just Another Blog's™ editorial staff has only been suffering in this world of shit & pain into which it never asked to be born for a mere 54 yrs. (sadly, as an American all that time) & it's never seen a collection of Republicans (or Democrats) more corrupt, insidious, fascist, or criminal than the current collection; this includes the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41 & Clinton admins., all of whom combined cannot equal the sheer perfidy of Bush 43's cabal. Tell us, Mr. Rainey, how is a perhaps subjective, but certainly close to any objective truth, analysis of this crop of Republicans in any way comparable to the juvenile racism of the two others you quoted? Another effort by the mainstream old media to be balanced, objective & "fair?" That's why your pathetic fucking newspaper is disappearing around you, dimbulb. If your selections reflect the majority of the coarse discourse, it seems as if the right wingers are cretinous, racist idiots, & the leftists are angry but righteous. Why not just a little note to that effect, rather than dragging the left into what is essentially a rightist phenomenon? You stupid bastard. (Did we already call him that?) And Rainey, you obnoxious, fuckfaced, prissy, oversensitive moron, when the body politic is suffering under the "most corrupt, most insidious, most fascist, most criminal collection of Republicans I have witnessed in my 63 years as an American," it's probably an excellent idea to be as anonymous as possible, considering that Bush's Gestapo can & does listen to & read everything said or typed over the 'phones & interwebs, the "laws" notwithstanding. Of course, thanks to the miracles of technology, it can all be traced back to the coarseners anyway, but not before their entire lives (credit ratings, book, weapon & other purchases, health records, you name it) have been laid out for the FBI or worse to use against them. Why shouldn't we attempt to be as anonymous as possible until we've been traced back to our bunkers? Mr. Civil Discourse continues:

"The people who post on these sites have become accustomed to behaving like beasts because they can, because no one is really monitoring them," said Keen, whose polemic on the dangers of the Internet, "The Cult of the Amateur," is due in paperback next month. "It's creating this civic vulgarity that we don't need." Webmasters could begin to fix the problem and heighten the level of discussion by requiring folks who want to share their views to also agree to publication of their real names. If you're not willing to put your name beside that lovely screed, maybe it really isn't fully fit for human consumption.

Here's another clue for you, old media crapbrain: Unless webmasters take down the names & numbers of those wish to express themselves, & have the would-be commenters completely investigated before allowing them to type, a requirement to use "real names" is easily defeated by fabricating a "real" sounding name: John Smith, Mary Jones, or any other name selected from the 'phone book or any other source. "James Rainey," for example. How'd you like some of this profane, ignorant, racist impertinence (Is "impertinence" like being "uppity?") posted over your name, Rainey. Fuck you, the horse you rode in on, & your stinking, lousy column, bee-atch!! Yours for coarse, anonymous, vulgarity, impertinence & hate, we remain, as B/4, Malignant "Chas." Bouffant

Trig's "Mom" For McCain's Veep

At NRO (That's NationalReviewONLINE, not National Reconnaissance Office, we think.) editor Kathryn Jean Lopez lets us know why Big John McCain should pick Alaska goobernator Sarah Palin.

John McCain could save lives with his vice-presidential pick. “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection. Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?” That’s Alaska’s Republican governor, Sarah Palin, talking about her infant son, Trig, born with Down Syndrome. When Todd and Sarah Palin learned last December that their baby would have Down Syndrome, they not only saved a life but made a decision that would touch the lives of families living with similar gifts across the country.

Our first question is: "Trig?" Short for "Trigger?" Or "Trigonometry?" Or some sort of super-Aryan/Norse name? Second: "What is normal and what is perfect?" We'd like to hear a bit of K-Lo's or Gov. Palin's attitude toward gay people. We doubt that "normal" would enter into it. Don't you?

According to a study cited in the New York Times last year, “About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.” (Emphasis added.) Most American women are given prenatal tests. At 44, Governor Palin is a bit young and relatively new to the political scene yet. These are no small considerations when electing someone who could assume the role of president (Democrats: Check out your nominee with that reservation . . . ). But if the youngest life she and her husband care for can wake up a nation that’s blind to the eugenics in its midst, a routine part of medicine today, she and John McCain would be offering human rights and dignity a great, honorable service. In contrast to Barack Obama, who would let the survivors of botched abortion attempts be killed, the Palins could serve as a great clarifier for voters this fall — and an education.

"A bit young & relatively new to the political scene." And, at 44, a bit old to be having children, especially as she already has four. Not quite a "quiverful" yet, but she's trying. We're glad that K-Lo is so concerned w/ human rights & dignity. Certainly the National Review has been in the forefront of desegregation, equal rights & the dignity of man since its founding in the mid-'50s as an organ to free "negroes" from Jim Crow. And the best reason to pick someone as a veep is to stop the slaughter of unborn Down syndrome womb babies. One other place where Down syndrome children are hoped for? Why, the inbred little world of Warren Jeffs' FLDS, where the teen-age brides hope their children will have Down syndrome, both because the children are easier to handle/control (remember, they have a ton of rug rats to tend, what w/ all those other wives & their children) & because they'll get checks from the gov't. because the children are disabled. We thought it was lib-ruls who wanted a dumbed-down electorate dependent on gov't. money, but it appears we're wrong again. Or there's been one of those "flip-flops" down at the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

China Becoming "More American" Every Day

Remember Sam Brownback, the rabid Catho-Republican from Kansas? No, we don't either, but the name is familiar. Whoever he is, he's in a hissy fit about the Chicoms snooping on people in China. It's their country. Don't they have the right to see what their guests are doing?

Brownback, who staged an unsuccessful campaign for president this year, released documents that he said were notices to the hotels on Internet security. The authenticity of the documents could not be checked and portions were redacted.

Really? Couldn't be confirmed as authentic, you say?

Brownback has been a critic of China on human rights issues and has been among U.S. lawmakers calling on President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympics opening ceremonies, largely to highlight allegations of Beijing's supply of arms to Sudan in return for oil. Those weapons have been used to carry out genocide in Darfur, according to China critics.

China has called human rights allegations nothing more than "noise pollution" and is hoping the Olympic Games will boost its international image.

Say, how did Senator Sam vote on the "PATRIOT" Act, anyway? Even while the Chicoms are watching you, they're cutting your access to anything they might not want you watching or reading, in coöperation w/ the nasty rich aristocrats who run the IOC as their personal cash cow. Birds of a feather, eh?

Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based media watchdog, said it was increasingly concerned that there would be many cases of censorship during the Olympics. "We condemn the IOC's failure to do anything about this, and we are more skeptical about its ability to ensure that the media are able to report freely," the group said in a statement. [...] Chinese officials assured news organizations "complete freedom to report" when bidding for the games seven years ago. The International Olympic Committee received further such assurances in April. But Kevan Gosper, a senior member of the IOC, said this week that the promise will apply only to sites related to "Olympic competitions."

Space Is The Place

Sun Ra by Baron Wolman

They're Doing It Again

From the outright (now debunked) lie to the fabulously fantastic/imaginary, John Sidney McCain III, his $520.00 loafers (Are they more outrageous than John Edwards' alleged haircut?) & his campaign are now accusing Sen. Obama of being "popular." He does have his nerve, doesn't he?

The McCain campaign officials say they are not worried that voters may perceive the ad as another negative attack from their candidate. Or as sour grapes that their candidate, who has traveled widely, does not seem to draw such large crowds. “I’d love to think that John McCain was a big international celebrity, but he’s not," Davis said. "We see him more as a global leader than a global celebrity.”

In our modern world, when the barriers between the trivial & the awesome have fallen, to paraphrase Richard Meltzer (& he didn't mean awesome in the trivialized contemporary sense) is there even a difference between "global leader" & "global celeb?" Does anyone believe John S. McCain III could draw 200,000+ Krauts in his "global leader" capacity? And just where does McCain's flunky get off referring to McCain as a "global leader?" Only place McBush is leading is to 100 yrs. in Iraq & the bomb-bomb-bombing of Iran. Slow down, boys, he hasn't been elected yet, as so many would remind us about Sen. Obama. Sour grapes? Rotten, stinky, you couldn't even mush them into wine grapes would be more like it.

And Counting...

Our long national nightmare will be over eventually: Countdown to Dem convention: 26 days Countdown to GOP convention: 33 days Countdown to Election Day 2008: 97 days Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 174 days

Shorter Jonah Goldberg

From yesterday's Incredible Shrinking Newspaper©™ (Sports & Business holding steady @ 6 pp. each.) we bring you the shorter, but not sweeter Jonah: Niggers Nigras The coloreds Negroes are uppity & racist. The United States has always lived up to to its ideals, give or take a few hundred years. ESPN is part of the international liberal media conspiracy. "Liberalism" consists of "the "stench of self-congratulation," & "gloating," & is "self-indulgent." Giving the "violent" Black Power salute led directly to the terrorist murders at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Do whip over to the link & scan the comments. The people are wise to him, w/ a very few exceptions.

No Terminator Jokes This Time

Nope, we're going straight for the "son-of a-Nazi" references here! We s'pose most Californians are aware of Arnold's plot to cut State employee pay to the Federal minimum wage (not even the Calif. min. wage, which is, of course, higher than the Federal min.) while the budget crisis continues, as it does virtually every yr. (Change the fucking 2/3 majority requirement for a budget to be passed, lawmakers, & before next yr.'s go-round!!) Please don't let that steroid damaged prick & his fellow Republican scum-bunnies balance their budget on the backs of state workers or (even worse) disabled losers like the editorial staff here who need dat money fum de gubmint!!! Click & sign, if you'd like to make your opinion known & receive a pile of fund-raising spam from the Donkey Party. (Not what you think, sickening pervs!!)

Hypocrites & Homos in The War of Terror

Below: Monica Goodling, the archetypal blond right wing Xtian lackey. How long until she's a "consultant" for Fox News? Photo: Pete Souza/Chicago Tribune. The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper©™ (Sports: 6 pp.; Business: 6 pp. No more horse racing info, & no more of the cursory stock coverage they had been providing.) today covers the most recent Justice Dep't. report on hiring & firing of U. S. Attys., & brings S-E-X into it.

In the second of a series of reports on the politically charged tenure of former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, the department's inspector general found that two former Justice aides used sexual orientation as a litmus test in deciding whom they would hire or fire.

The report describes an alleged "sexual relationship" between a career prosecutor and a U.S. attorney, who were not named. Margaret M. Chiara, the former U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., said in an interview with The Times that she now believed she was fired because of the erroneous belief that she was having a relationship with career prosecutor Leslie Hagen.

The NYT mentions this as well, but not at the length the ISN does, & the WaPo gives it only one line.

Good contrasts from the ISN:

Goodling also sought out the advice of the White House and other Republicans in filling vacant immigration judge positions. Goodling -- who declined to be interviewed by the authors of the report -- previously testified that, based on advice from Sampson, she incorrectly had believed that it was legal to consider political factors in selecting judges.

Emphasis ours. Goodling wouldn't talk to the DoJ people investigating this, yet:

Lawyers for Goodling released a statement saying that her testimony before Congress had brought to light many of the abuses included in Monday's report. They described the testimony as "among the most candid and meticulous that has
been seen on Capitol Hill in decades."

Please. Just stop it, lawyer boy.

The WaPo reports:

John M. Dowd, an attorney for Goodling, said yesterday that she deserved praise, not scorn, for her "exceptional candor" with Congress last year. "Each and every one of the core conclusions of the OIG/OPR report . . . is consistent with and indeed derived from Ms. Goodling's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee," he said.

It should be noted that Ms. Goodling testified before Congrefs under a grant of immunity. Odd that she was so forthcoming then (about her own activities) yet wouldn't speak to the Justice Dep't. investigators when there was no immunity involved.

There's more fun though. From the NYT:

In Ms. Goodling’s notes from the interviews, she would give a shorthand assessment of how well they fared on threshold political issues, as in the notation for one candidate who she wrote was aptly conservative on “god, guns + gays.”

Would that be the same "god, guns + gays" that Sen. Obama was given such a hard time about, when he claimed that certain bitter groups clung to those same Gs, even as the economy fell down around them? Where would he get an idea like that?

And where would the Bush admin. get an idea like this?

According to the report, officials at the White House first developed a method of searching the Internet to glean the political leanings of a candidate and introduced it at a White House seminar called The Thorough Process of Investigation. Justice Department officials then began using the technique to search for key phrases or words in an applicant’s background, like “abortion,” “homosexual,” “Florida recount,” or “guns.”

The WaPo gives us some numbers:

Thirty-four candidates told investigators that Goodling or one of her deputies raised the topic of abortion in job interviews and 21 said they discussed same-sex marriage, the report said. Another job applicant said he admired Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, only to watch Goodling "frown" and respond, "But she's pro-choice."

She and her aides regularly gave candidates for career civil service jobs a form designed for political appointees that sought information on party affiliation and financial contributions. When job seekers sometimes raised objections, Goodling replied that the form was a mistake, showing that she was "aware that it was improper," the report said.

Not to forget the S-E-X part, again from the ISN:

One official told investigators about a conversation in which he told Goodling that he had heard the rumors that the women were lesbians. He said Goodling responded to that news "by putting her head in her hands and asking why no one had told her about this information before."

And:

A former public affairs officer who became the Justice Department's liaison with the White House, Goodling testified under a grant of immunity before the House Judiciary Committee that she had "crossed a line" and allowed political and other impermissible factors to affect her hiring decisions.

Public affairs officer. What more need one say. Just think "Dana Perino."

The latest disclosures include a finding that Goodling rejected the application of a career terrorism prosecutor for a job at Justice Department headquarters because his wife was active in local Democratic politics. The report said a less-qualified candidate was hired.

The War of Terror. As long as the current administration doesn't have to hire experienced people w/ Democratic wives, or gay people who speak Arabic, they'll be taking it to the enemy!!

Earthquake Update

We're used to this sort of foolishness around here. We felt it, even in Santa Monica, many miles from the epicenter, neither serious damages nor serious injuries were reported, nothing to see here, move along. On a personal note, we were of course quite disappointed that the apocalypse hadn't arrived. We continue to hope that it was merely a pre-shock, or that an aftershock will be larger & meaner.

5.6 Quake in L. A.!!!!!!

Right Wing Marching Orders (Licenses Included)

The Knoxville UU Church shooter, Jim Adkisson, seems to have been getting his paranoid concepts directly from the world of Rabid Weasel talk radio & the books written by the hosts thereof.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV

...said Adkisson wrote that he was angered by "his lack of being able to obtain a job," a reduction in his food stamp allotment, and "the liberal movement." Owen explained the liberal movement, as defined by Adkisson, included liberal philosophies and issues pertaining to gays.

Rightist logic: "My food stamp allotment is being reduced, I'm gonna go shoot me some lib-ruls."

Knoxville Police Department Investigator Steve Still wrote in the search warrant that Adkisson "admitted to shooting McKendry and several others at the church."

Adkisson went on a rampage at the church, Still wrote, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets."

Adkisson, who had served in the military, said "that because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement he would then target those that had voted them in office," the search warrant states.

It will surprise most lib-ruls that there is a "liberal movement," let alone that it has any "leaders." And if anyone has tied America's hands in the war of terror, it's G. W. Bush, by tying up virtually all American forces not in Afghanistan in the Iraq occupation.

Still seized three books from Adkisson's home, including "The O'Reilly Factor," by television commentator Bill O'Reilly; "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder," by radio personality Michael Savage; and "Let Freedom Ring," by political pundit Sean Hannity.

No, really? Since when is Hannity a "political pundit?" He's a telebision/radio hack like O'Reilly & Weiner (Savage).

And click here for a bit of information about what a "law-abiding citizen," you know, the kind who should be able to own guns, for self-defense (maybe killing "liberals" is considered self-defense by certain smaller-penised elements of our society) Mr. Adkisson was.

The Adkissones' marriage disintegrated eight years ago after Adkisson had been drinking heavily and then put a gun to Alexander's head, said Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas.

According to Anderson County Court records, as their marriage went awry, Jim David Adkisson said he had an option.

That choice was to blow his wife's brains out and then do the same to himself, an order of protection in Anderson County Chancery Court shows.

Yet this guy who

"...always had the attitude the government was trying to get him,'' Smallwood said. "He disliked blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him.

"He's a very intelligent man but he couldn't get in the mainstream and hold a job,'' Smallwood said.

was able to purchase

...the shotgun "about a month ago" at a pawn shop. Owen declined to identify the pawn shop, but police said the business is located in Anderson County.

How many more of these incidents will it take before the lib-ruls stop tying our hands w/ their gun regulations, constitutional rights other than the Second Amendment? When will we be free to continue the war of terror w/ our hands free, & our spirit proud? Here are a couple of licenses to get you started.

Annals of The Great October Revolution & McCain's Real Age?

From the former Soviet Union's number one tabloid, PRAVDA, we get this headline:

Communists worship only ten percent of Lenin’s embalmed body State Duma deputy Vladimir Medinsky is certain that the Russian authorities have at least four highly serious reasons to bury the body of Vladimir Lenin, the mummy of which is currently resting in Lenin’s Tomb on Moscow’s Red Square. “Let us not deceive ourselves with illusions of preserving Lenin’s body at Mausoleum. There is only ten percent of his body resting there,” the official said.

Also noted in PRAVDA: McCain is even older than previously believed. We quote:

"We need to improve their behavior," McCain told ABC television when asked about his threat to exclude Russia from the Group of Eight if he wins the White House in November. The 77-year-old candidate harshly criticized Russia’s foreign policy.

77? What happened to 71? But who would know better than the KGB?

Novak Hit & Run Clarified

It was only last wk. that we said Washington weasel-dick Robert "The Prince of Darkness" Novak was either demented or an out & out liar.

It may well have been dementia. We still believe him to be a liar, but the brain tumor he's about to die of could have been pressing on his optic nerve, lessening his peripheral vision so that Novak couldn't see the pedestrian he ran over while driving his black convertible Corvette™, either before he hit the guy or when the victim was "sort of splayed into the windshield."

“I know Bob will confront this challenge with the same courage with which he has taken on the political establishment in Washington for decades,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Sure, John. Here's a perfect example of His Princely Majesty "taking on the political establishment in Washington," by serving as Dick Cheney's mouthpiece. (Take that any way you'd like, vulgarians.)

Novak was criticized after he was the first to publicly reveal the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in a 2003 column. His column came out eight days after Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, said the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, said Novak’s record of reporting and commenting on American elections “has never failed to demonstrate keen insight and a peerless political acumen.”

“I want to join the many wishing Bob all the best as he confronts this challenge and a speedy recovery as he looks to resume his work,” Blunt said in a statement.

Any statements from anyone to the left of Attila the Hun? No? OK, let's move along then.

Guns for the "Law-Abiding" Who Hate Homos & Liberals

No report yet as to what, if any, kind of criminal record accused Tennessee Valley UU Church shooting suspect 58-yr.-old Jim D. Adkisson had. Google™ it here.

Police said they took the precautions because they had reports that Adkisson was a former member of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. They recovered a handgun at the residence as well as a letter from the state of Tennessee saying Adkisson's food stamps were going to be reduced.

But he served his country. And was receiving food stamps. (Let this serve as a warning to Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services employees thinking of taking away The Editor's measly food stamp allotment, just because he's been granted Social Security disability payments.)

Adkisson, who told police he had no relatives, planned to be killed by police, Owen said.

"He indicated also in that letter that he expected to be in there shooting people until the police arrived and he fully expected to be killed by the responding police," he said.

But attendees were able to tackle him and hold him until police arrived.

Bill Haslem, the mayor of Knoxville, hailed the parishioners for their courage.

"It’s a tragedy for our city, particularly for this church congregation, but the way they reacted both in terms of supporting and in terms of subduing the shooter has really made a horrible situation better because it really could have been much worse," he told FOX News on Monday.

The two slain church members were identified as Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger.

McKendry, 60, a burly usher "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us," church member Barbara Kemper said.

Didn't take a bunch of "carrying" church-goers to stop the allegedly gay & liberal hating Adkisson. Just one man w/ enough guts to stand up & take a load of shot for others (not un-Christian, surprising for a Xtian) & some more to tackle him. Bear in mind as well that Adkisson was completely ready to commit "suicide by cop." Or by armed church goers. The idea that spree killers will be dissuaded by the possibility of their potential victims being armed is again shown to be bullshit. We're betting that most "carriers" would have been among those cowering under the pews anyway. They live in fear, & should probably die that way as well.

Knoxville police said 58-year-old Jim Adkisson left a four page note, expressing frustration over his inability to get a job and anger at what he described as “the liberal movement.”

The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, which was the target of Sunday morning’s shooting, has been an advocate for racial and gender equality as well as gay rights. Investigators said it appears the gunman chose this church intentionally and that the case is being investigated as a “hate crime.”

Please note that The Editor here, as well as being a food stamp parasite, is one of those loners w/ problems w/o any close (geographically or otherwise) relatives. Just sayin', y'know. Not a threat, but a warning.

Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb – India & Istanbul?

What hath the Beach Boys wrought? ("Barbara Ann" not actually their composition, but...) We've already mentioned our Carlinian desire for tragedy in Beijing. Is this all merely an introduction to a bigger bang? VOA News:

High-level security officials met in India, following serial bomb blasts in two large cities. An estimated 25 explosions in Bangalore and Ahmedabad on Friday and Saturday killed more than 45 people and wounded about 100 others.

A typing Ant reports on death, horror, maiming & the like in Istanbul.

Many were injured in the second blast after they rushed to the area to help the casualties of the first explosion in the working class Gungoren neighborhood, witnesses said. The blasts were about 10 minutes apart. "There is no doubt that this is a terror attack," Gov. Muammer Guler told reporters. "The fact that there was a crowd in the area has increased the number of casualties," he added.

We like people who think ahead & maximize potential. Kurds, jihadis, whomever. More destructive power to them.

This Day in History

1974: The Nix is recommended for impeachment by the House Judiciary Committee, due to the political scandals known as "Watergate." 1953: Armistice ends the Korean Police Action. 1996: Bombing @ Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta during the Summer Olympics. The anarcho-nihilist in us hopes something similar will occur soon in Communist China. And most important, culturally & otherwise:

July 27, 1940 Bugs Bunny's debut On this day in 1940, Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in "A Wild Hare." The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, "A Wild Hare" featured Bugs as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd. Cartoon animation first appeared in 1908 in France, followed quickly by American cartoons. In 1909, a newspaper cartoon artist named Winsor McCay created Gertie the Dinosaur, the first animated character to appear regularly on the screen. In 1918, McCay produced The Sinking of the Lusitania, the first feature-length cartoon. A variety of recurring cartoons developed by the late teens and early '20s, and these characters became more popular after the development of sound pictures in the late 1920s. Walt Disney introduced the Silly Symphonies cartoons and created Mickey Mouse and his gang. By the mid-1930s, Disney was making feature-length musical cartoons like "Sleeping Beauty."

Under the direction of animation director Tex Avery, Warner Bros. developed its own set of cartoon stars, including Bugs, Elmer, Tweety, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and many others. Bugs was animated by Chuck Jones, and his famous accent came from legendary voice man Mel Blanc. Blanc started with Warner Bros. in 1937, creating the voices (or sounds) for Bugs, Road Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird, among other characters.