Friday, October 31, 2008

We Like This Rob Rogers Guy

Stop Torturing This Innocent Animal, Hallow e'en Freaks!!

Feline Frolics Continue

Who's the pussy now, humanoids? Cheetahs loose on a plane, & a liger administers "jungle justice" to his oppressor.

Cats Poop on Whole Thing

Even our newly revamped operations have their mysteries, so we must link you to this heartwarming story.

This Date in History (Other Than Hallow e'en)

1926: Harry Houdini dies in Detroit from the effects of a ruptured appendix. 1938: A day after his "War of the Worlds" radio adaptation scared the crap out of thousands, Orson Welles said he was sorry, but couldn't believe what a bunch of gullible fucking saps Americans are. (Not an exact quote.) 1941: The destroyer U. S. S. Reuben James was torpedoed off Iceland by a Kraut U-Boat, killing some 100 American sailors. This over a month before the United Snakes was pulled into WWII (The Big One) by the Nipponese. 1984: Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh security guards.

Boo!

Wishing all an unhappy Hallow e'en, rather than a "happy" one. What is that, really? "Happy Hallow e'en?" Like, "Enjoy your Memorial Day thinking of dead people?" In the spirit of Hallow e'en, we're wishing you all to be tortured by a psycho-/socio-path w/ a saw! No offense or anything. Just saying. In the spirit, y'know? Or at least that you end up like one of these pumpkinheads.
Thanks to DB for the photo.

Pardon Our Dust (Or, "Dust Our Pumice") While We Remodel

The squirrels that power our little operation during the summer months took their nuts & went into hibernation at the first sign of rain this wk., so we had to take a day to get the winter gerbils (or any other amusing rodentia that run like a maniac in a wheel in their cage) up & running. We can promise that there will be more items & info than we've been offering these last few months of struggle in the streets; these hamsters or whatever they are (Weasels? Are weasels rodents?) run like nobody's effin' beeswax. (How old are we ? Ninety? Sheesh. "Beeswax," our ass.) This is especially vital as the most frightening day of the yr., 4 November, approaches. We're quaking in fear, if you must know.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Whence Joe The Fucking Plumber? An Open Letter

In our wanderings (ask not, lest you be answered) we came across this swell idea, from 1 October of this yr. Was that before Joe The Plumber? So long ago, we can no longer remember. But this fool-proof plan doesn't seem to have panned out well for McCain (or against liar Obama). We do hear that Joe's starting a C & W career.

On The Comedy Front

The goofy actress/singer Victoria Jackson is at it. Quotes from her blog:
"We must in all seriousness ask if Barack Hussein Obama could be a Muslim terrorist sympathizer or a Marxist mole. His closest friends include Communists, domestic and Muslim terrorists, racists and convicted felons. In his book Audacity of Hope, Barack Hussein Obama says, "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." "It is ironic and ominous that just 7 [sic] years after Islamic fundamentalist terrorists blew up the World Trade Center, that America may be about to elect a President with three Islamic names - Barack Hussein Obama - who has an Islamic education (in Indonesia), and strong Islamic ties and leanings."
Actual quote from Ms. Jackson:
I pray that our country will have a revival, and that God will forgive us for our rejection of Him. He blessed our country because we worshipped Him. But, now our public places have kicked him out, and subsequently, (or coincidentally?), our nation is being attacked by our enemies.
Sure, 'cause our "enemies" wouldn't attack otherwise, would they? Another actual quote:
Why am I voting for the fantastic McCain/Palin ticket? Simply because my "world view" is based on the belief that The Bible is the inerrant, holy, Word of God, and the Republican stance on abortion, marriage, government control, taxes, education, health care, charity, military, defense, democracy and freedom - lines up closest with the Bible's message.
Or, watch her babble at the Hollywood Congress of Republicans. Yes. There is one.

The End

Disgraced former Republican Congressional "Leader" Tom DeLay (You know, the schmuck who turned to politics when those communist regulators at the E. P. A. decided he should stop poisoning people & the environment.) today on "Hardball":
"The American people are going to figure it out & and vote against Barack Obama."
Not even attempting to get votes for Sen. McCain, just hoping for votes against Sen. Obama. It is totally over. Buh-bye.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Everybody Talks, But Nobody Does Anything

In NY/NJ/PA & VT, it's ugly.
"It looked like a mini blizzard in October," said Joe Orlando, spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. "We're salting the roads and we haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet." Up to a foot of snow was possible in parts of upstate New York, with wind blowing at 25 mph and gusting to 40 mph, and as much as 9 inches of snow was forecast in Vermont's mountains, the weather service said. Up to 13 inches of snow had fallen by Tuesday afternoon in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.
Here in what is known as The Southland, we are enjoying the third warmest October in recorded history. Of course that means no rain, & the region will be up in flames by X-mess.

Annals of Irony

Headline from the LAT:
Hume tires of 'bitter' politics 'This stuff exhausts me,' the Fox newsman says of all the rancor as he prepares for semi-retirement.
Brit Hume, you shar-pei from hell, the very first thing you could do would be to push "Psychiatrist, heal thyself" poster boy Charles Krauthammer off your set & tell him to keep on going. Then never have Wiliiam Kristol on again. That'll cut down the "bitter" & the "rancor" considerably.

Hume is more circumspect about other aspects of the network's coverage, such as the hour that commentator Sean Hannity gave earlier this month to Obama critics such as Andy Martin, a self-styled Internet columnist with a history of anti-Jewish comments. The anchor demurred when asked his opinion of the program, saying he hadn't seen it, though he added that he wouldn't have had Martin on his program.

As he prepares to anchor his last presidential campaign, Hume said he's eager to immerse himself in a more spiritual life after dwelling for so long in the secular. The anchor described himself as a "nominal Christian" until 10 years ago, when his son Sandy committed suicide at age 28. I feel like I was really kind of saved when my son died by faith and by the grace of God, and that's very much on my consciousness," said Hume, who plans to get more involved in his wife's Bible study group.

Ah yes, the man of gawd who flees to the safety of Jeezis, when the shit hits the fan. Do you wonder what Brit did to his son to make him kill himself? We sure do.

Religious Wrap-Up

The schism between the Roberts Schuller, per the Times, was that Pops Schuller wants to dump his son Robert A., & replace him w/ "different pastors, and even businessmen, from around the country and Latin America." Sounds great to us. You can't have enough businessmen in the pulpit (or in prison, but that's something else) especially Latin American businessman. All of whom, we are quite sure, are the most honest group imaginable. Not a briber or murderer in their midst. Just cronies of the gov't., allies of the military, & exploiters of their own people. Praise Jesus. Can't wait to hear their sermons.

InstaMoron

We were amused (though not very) by a short item in The NYT yesterday in which the author felt that
The most important function of a vice president is to serve as a spare president. Using the spare president in the ordinary course of business is as unwise as driving on one’s spare tire. Spares should be kept pristine, for when they are really needed.
We wouldn't compare a person occupying a job to a spare tire, & the above analogy is even lamer than that. Who could have written this tripe, which also ends agreeing that Gov. Sarah Palin was right in her "The Vice-President runs the Senate" statement. So we looked, & (Horrors!!) it was one Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a "professor of law at the University of Tennessee." Others may know him as "Instapundit," proprietor of one of the lamest sites on the web. (We thought we were tuning out poop here, but there's no comparison.)

Op-Ed Highlights

William Kristol is, if nothing else, consistent. Whatever the problem, to Bloody Bill war is the answer.
“My center is giving way. My right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I attack!” That’s the message supposedly sent by General Ferdinand Foch of France to his commanding general, Joseph Joffre, during the crucial First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. The French and British counterattacks succeeded. The German Army, after advancing for a month, was forced back.
Sure, it took another three yrs. to end that war, but it's doubtful that would have bothered Bill had he been alive then. He likes war. He wants John Sidney McCain III to go to war; here, there & everywhere.
Situation not-so-excellent. Time for McCain to attack — or, rather, finally to make his case. The heart of that case has to be this: reminding voters that when they elect a president, they’re not just electing a super-Treasury secretary or a higher-level head of Health and Human Services. They’re electing a commander in chief in time of war. The McCain campaign intends, I gather, to return to the commander in chief theme with an event in Florida Wednesday showcasing former secretaries of state and retired senior military officers. But why not showcase young Iraq vets instead? These young soldiers and marines can testify eloquently to the success of the surge that John McCain championed, and to the disaster and dishonor that would have followed Barack Obama’s preferred path of withdrawal.
Yes, the magical "surge." Apparently a "surge" in bribery, but a surge nonetheless. Maybe our troops could just come home & we can keep pumping money into Iraq. No blood for oil, just the Treasury. And you'd have to wonder hat those vets will say if some one shows them Sidney III's voting record on veterans' issues. But, w/ a wk. (which may still be an eternity) to go, the race looks to be over. Monday, or over the wknd., this reporter heard John McCain refer to "the Obama presidency." Not "an Obama presidency," but "the." McCain knows it's over. As does Jonah Goldberg, who re-types the daily talking points, possibly w/o any help from mommy Lucianne, though we suspect he rec'd. some help from Mark Levin, one of the gnomes lurking about NationalReviewOnline. Levin, an extremely annoying & irritating crypto-fascist, pretty much gave out the same line on his radio program last night. One novelty Jonah adds: That touch of racism so many of you out there like so much.
Note: If Obama wins next week, all three of his preconditions will have been met, and his colleagues in the House and Senate are itching like junkies for a new New Deal. Only in a country of amnesiacs could one claim that socialized medicine is a "new idea." Blowing away the dust and cobwebs from ancient wares doesn't make them new. Save for his skin color, Obama doesn't represent anything novel. Rather, he symbolizes a return to an older vision of the United States that was seen as the "wave of the future" eight decades ago. I for one have no desire to go back to that future.
We have a great desire to see that future implemented, instead of put off again by the forces of capitalist repression, more Great Depressions, & so forth. And just for the hell of it, you can read at Slate what the reality is behind these claims of Marxist socialism. P. S.: We must wonder at the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper™©. There may be an excess of editors, even now. Print title of Goldberg's column: "Something old is new again" Web title of same: "Obama's not 'new' Don't think that policies Obama is touting haven't been touted before." Alternate Web title: "Obama's stale liberalism."

Monday, October 27, 2008

E-Mail Fun

Don't vote for the schwartze, he'll let that nasty Ahmadinejad have a second holocaust. Seems that Gov. Moosedroppings was on this over a month ago.
"John McCain and I are committed to drawing attention to the danger posed by Iran's nuclear program and we will not waver in our commitment," Palin told a crowd of 9,000 supporters in Blaine, MN. "I will continue to call for sustained action to prevent Iranian President Ahmadinejad from getting these weapons that he wants for a second holocaust." In an interview last week with ABC News' Charles Gibson in Fairbanks, Palin spoke of the need to ensure "that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them."
So now the Pennsylvania Republican Party disagrees w/ both their & Gov. Palin's earlier statements?
Political consultant Bryan Rudnick, identified as the strategist who helped write the message, was reached Saturday night and confirmed he no longer works for the party, which employed him a few weeks ago as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters. "I had authorization from party officials" to send the e-mail, Rudnick said, but he declined to say who had signed off on it. "I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," he said. The e-mail also accuses Obama of teaching members of the community group ACORN "to commit voter registration fraud" during his years as a community activist.
Might as well get that one in there too, eh, Bryan?

Scientific Polls

Lies, damned lies, statistics & polls, the list goes on... Even less useful than a scientific poll is a random, unweighted poll offered on the Internet for any ninny to click. So this is merely interesting. We found a completely non-scientific poll today in Parade, the rotogravure (What is this, 1959?) insert that is stuffed into the L. A. Times. (One part that hasn't shrunk to nothingness yet; we suspect that Parade pays to have itself in major metropolitan papers, so we're probably stuck therewith for a while.) Parade being about as middle-brow, middle middle-class, & middle-aged as one can get, we might assume that its readers are just the sort of reactionary fence-sitters who might remain, even at this date, undecided. And reactionary. So the non-scientific Internet poll (we reëmphasize) had some surprising (To us, but what do we know?) results.
Who's More 'Presidential'? In a recent issue of PARADE, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about 10 traits shared by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, two of our greatest Presidents. We asked readers to vote on whether the current candidates had those qualities. Here are some of the results*.
McCain – Obama
Courage to stay strong
49% – 51%
Learns from errors
50% – 50%
Willingness to change
34% – 66%
Self-control
36% – 64%
Understands people's concerns
33% – 67%
Strong moral compass
40% – 60%
A gift for inspiring others
31% – 69%
*Results accurate as of Oct. 8, 2008.
Assuming these "qualities" or "traits" are what matters to the masses, looks as if there's a clear winner in the real American heartland.

Let's Have a War on Science, While We're At It

Christopher "Hater" Hitchens has a screed about Gov. Palin & her religio-scientific views. They are to laugh, as we noted yesterday or whenever. (Mr. Hitchens was perhaps inspired by the same NYT article we were. We work on wknds., however, unlike Mr. Hitchens.)
This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.
Go cat go. As one of the educated & cultured, we're happy that Hitchens' fear that the Moooslims will cut off his liquor have been moderated a bit, & that he realizes McCain/Palin are not the people to keep Sharia law out of the Constitution.

Hoping That The Children Aren't Our Future

Don't trust anyone under 30! An entire generation of Disney-ized "princesses" & macho male consumers in training are rising up beneath us, & it's not going to be a pretty princess deal when you're counting on these spoiled rug rats to take care of you in your dotage.
Since television was deregulated in the early 1980s, marketing strategies have taken over all aspects of kids' lives. From bedsheets to clothes and shoes to the lunch box they carry -- they're all linked to media, to popular culture. The message is, this is what's desirable, this is what you should be. And look at what they were offered: For boys, there was GI Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. For girls, there was My Little Pony, Care Bears, Disney's princesses. Gender roles were very much part of that marketing. There was a whole new escalation in gender division when children began to become a market. [...] To me, this is objectification of both boys and girls -- allowing little human beings to be treated as if they were objects. Girls learn to judge boys by how well they meet that objective definition of mindless, unfeeling machoism. And boys learn to judge girls by how sexy they are. This is why we may be seeing a generation in which relationships are often played out as interactions between caricatures of sexual stereotypes, why you can have friends with benefits and "hooking up."
Says one Diane E. Levin, a professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston, & the co-author, with Jean Kilbourne, of "So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids." Ah. Yet another left-wing feminist academic complaining about the traditional sex roles that have made our families & nation great!

The Ameican Eagle Flexes Its Wings

8 reportedly killed in U.S. raid inside Syria U.S. Air Strike Kills 20 People in Pakistan So, John McCain, now it is "OK" to attack other sovereign nations in defense of our Iraqi & Afghan colonies?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The Coming American War: Religious or Civil?

Just inquiring, that's all.

Annals of Cognitive Dissonance

We seldom refer anyone to long-haired lout Charles "Chuck" Johnson's page, but it would seem Chuckles isn't one of those "Muslims are terrible, & the bible is the holy revealed etc." types. Maybe. Oh, see how quickly things change?

Eat Our Fuck, Music Division

A useless no-doubt twenty-nothing from the Onion's A. V. Club has it all figured out.
There was always something overtly seedy about the West Coast version of the punk movement that set it apart from the brainier New York scene or the politicized, art-school-beholden UK edition. Though the members of the band X were every bit as socially and culturally engaged as their inter- and intracontinental punk brethren, they also embraced L.A. skuzz, singing songs about motel rooms and adult books, and brandishing their name as both a warning and a come-on.
"Brainier New York scene." We're doubled up w/ laughter, or, as the twenty-nothings say, "ROTFLMAO." (Makes it easier to embrace your inner skuzz, too.) We've usually gone along w/ the concept that suburbia (L. A.) makes for even greater alienation, therefore better cretin music, but we may just be a collection of seedy low-lifes. Pass that 40, wouldja? Also, a chance to loot a picture from many yrs. gone. Seedy? These youthful innocents? Please.

Religion Round-Up

It's the Day of Our Father, The Lord, paternalists & hierarchy fans, why not look at what up w/ forces of demonic activity. Literally.
Ms. Palin declined an interview, and the McCain campaign did not respond to specific questions about her faith. Thus, it is difficult to say with certainty what she believes. What is known, however, is that Ms. Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as “spiritual warfare.” Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that “spiritual warriors” must “battle” them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism. The movement’s fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders’ claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians.
This may go some distance toward explaining what Gov. Moosemanure of Alaska meant by "pro-AmeriKKKa parts of this great nation." Or whatever she said. We (we're guessing we're part of the "problem" here in sunny, kooky SoCal) are possessed by DEMONS!!! Do not, however, be scared by "spiritual warfare." They don't want to demonize you. It's another biblical code.
“The term ‘spiritual warfare’ sounds scary as all get-out if you’re not biblically literate,” said George Otis Jr., president of the Sentinel Group, in Seattle, which has helped spread the movement by producing video documentaries of spiritual warfare at work. “It’s taken from the sixth chapter of Ephesians, which talks about that the weapons of our warfare are not of this world,” Mr. Otis said. “Which means, we don’t respond with guns or violence. If we’ve got a problem with somebody, we’ll go pray.”
Of course. Prayer is very powerful, too.
Bishop Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan preacher shown on the YouTube video anointing her as she ran for governor, is celebrated internationally as an effective spiritual warrior who led a prayer movement that drove a witch out of his town in Kenya. The removal of the witch, Bishop Muthee says, resulted in a drop in crime, alcoholism and traffic accidents.
You could run a witch out of town w/ prayer. Although we do suspect something occurred on a less spiritual plane in Bishop Muthee's neighborhood. AmeriKKKa prefers to deal w/ its witches, Jews & the like by burning at the stake, if possible, or at the least a good dunking. This may explain some of "First Dude" (WTF?) Todd Palin's Secession Fever. When the shit hits the fan, Alaska will be the place to be! Might as well start breaking relations w/ the lower 48 now.
The second [YouTube vid] showed Ms. Palin at an event in June praising the African preacher’s prayer as “awesome” and “very, very powerful.” She is also seen nodding as her former pastor from Wasilla prays over her and declares that Alaska is “one of the refuge states in the Last Days,” a piece of prophecy popular in some prayer networks that predicts that as the “end times” approach, people will flock to Alaska for its abundant open space and natural resources.
This would be the first time someone so sadly & openly deluded would be so close to the leadership of the "Free World," unless Bushie-Boy is just keeping his eschatological fantasies well hidden. One other similarity w/ Gee Dub:
The governor’s relationships with practitioners of spiritual warfare appear to go back many years. Mary Glazier, an Alaska Native who helped bring together the prayer warrior networks in the state, told a prayer conference in June that Ms. Palin “became a part of our prayer group out in Wasilla” when she was 24, and that “God began to speak” to her about entering politics.
God on your side. Jesus Crap, we thought we were finished, but there's even more on the hierarchical front. Plenty o' patriarchiality as well. Many of these religio-cash cow operations are handed down, father to first-born son, & it doesn't always work out well. (Richard Roberts ring a bell?) Same w/ Robert Schuller's "Hour of Power," which you may or not watch from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. (Note the rhyming & alliteration, always a sign of a top-notch outfit that not suckering senile & demented simpletons.) His son (also Robert) has gotten the bum's rush from the head bum.
Robert A. Schuller, known to congregants as Robert II, had been groomed to take over for his father since 1996. He had followed in his father's footsteps almost exactly, attending the same college, Hope College in Holland, Mich. He also founded his own Orange County church, in San Juan Capistrano, before coming to the Crystal Cathedral seven years ago. Like his father, he also writes religious books -- 13 at last count, according to the church's website. In recent months, however, the younger Schuller had disappeared from the television program, replaced by reruns featuring his father.
Bring on the estate tax. And some property tax for this Crystal abomination. And finally, if you like, a peek at Catho-hypocrisy. Nothing new there, but it's recent & relevant.

Friday, October 24, 2008

From The Scaredy-Cat File

Not to insult the feline population at all, mind you. But the religious rabid weasels who provide the actual foam to their already-foaming-at-the-mouth followers are either starting Depends™ use before the rest of their demographic, or they're simply exploiting the Christian Right base's baseless fears.
Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts. All are plausible scenarios if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign conversation called "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America," produced by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family Action.
No, no, not the Boy Scouts!! Not attacks on the freedoms of Christian Evangelicals!!

Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, a Pentecostal publication, titled one of his recent weekly e-mails to readers, "Life As We Know It Will End If Obama is Elected."

Strang said gay rights and abortion rights would be strengthened in an Obama administration, taxes would rise and "people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms."

Separately, a group called the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has posted a series of videos on its site and on YouTube called "7 Reasons Barack Obama is not a Christian."

The commission accuses Obama of "subtle diabolical deceit" in saying he is Christian, while he believes that people can be saved through other faiths.

(Just who exactly is emboldening the Christian attacks on everybody else's freedoms & rights? We'd like to know that.)
But among the strongest pieces this year is Focus on the Family Action's letter which has been posted on the group's Web site and making the e-mail rounds. Signed by "A Christian from 2012," it claims a series of events could logically happen based on the group's interpretation of Obama's record, Democratic Party positions, recent court rulings and other trends. Among the claims: • A 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court that results in rulings like one making gay marriage the law of the land and another forcing the Boy Scouts to "hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys." (In the imagined scenario, The Boy Scouts choose to disband rather than obey). • A series of domestic and international disasters based on Obama's "reluctance to send troops overseas." That includes terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that kill hundreds, Russia occupying the Baltic states and Eastern European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic, and al-Qaida overwhelming Iraq. • Nationalized health care with long lines for surgery and no access to hospitals for people over 80.
That last one's in the Democratic Platform, isn't it? We distinctly remember the floor fight.

It's a Visual Medium

New Air Force Approach: Nukes May Be Dangerous

Can't fool those four-star boys for too long. No more nukes criss-crossing the country unless someone knows where they are from now on. Or from next September on. Nothing will happen between then & now, will it?
The Air Force announced the plan for Global Strike Command, to be headed by a three-star general, as part of a broader revamp to sharpen the focus on its nuclear mission.
Glad they're sharpening that focus. Eyes may not have been on the ball for a while.
Gates also ordered a review into the Pentagon's management of nuclear weapons, headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, which found a "dramatic and unacceptable" decline in the Air Force's commitment to its nuclear mission.
See? And to what the fuck were they committing, then? The usual bombing of villages & slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan?
Schlesinger's report recommended redesignating the Air Force's Space Command as Air Force Strategic Command and giving it responsibility for the service's nuclear mission. But Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, said officials had been concerned the space and nuclear missions could be too much for one command and decided instead to create a separate command dedicated to nuclear issues. "Our road map reflects a back to basics approach," Schwartz said. Currently, the Air Force's Space Command oversees nuclear missiles, while Air Combat Command oversees nuclear bombers. The new command should start operating by next September and be responsible for nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles, Donley said.
Up in the air, Junior Birdmen!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Note to Sarah Palin

Dear Gov. Palin: You announced today on telebision that an "elitist" is "somebody who thinks they're better than somebody else." Please note that many people are, objectively, better than you & "Joe the Plumber" combined. One way to tell who is "better" than you are is comparing education. Various JCs & a degree in broadcast journalism from the U. of Idaho, or Occidental, Columbia & Harvard Law (just as an example, of course). Who's objectively "better?" And who's just bitter? Hope you enjoy those free clothes. And we really hope that you pay all the taxes on them. Sincerely, Malignant "Chas." Bouffant

Editorial Statement

We are sickened, appalled & (worst of all) terminally bored by virtually everything happening in the world of the world. Stop it already. All of you. Just go away somewhere & stop bothering decent people. (That's us.)

Today's Stolen Editorial Cartoon

This Date in Lying History

Twenty-five yrs. ago today, Ronald Reagan's stupidity led to the deaths of over two hundred AmeriKKKan Marines, sailors & soldiers. An idiot on The New York Times op-ed page claims that if only we'd stood up like men, instead of pulling out like sissies, we might not have had the attacks of 11 September 2001.
Had we stood our ground 25 years ago instead of pulling out after the bombing, it is possible that 9/11 would not have happened. Likewise, anyone who thinks we can pull back into a shell now and hope terrorism will go away simply isn’t looking at the lessons history offers. People ask if we are accomplishing anything in Iraq and Afghanistan. I say yes. Terrorists no longer have a safe haven in Afghanistan. If we pull out of Iraq before the time is right, guess who moves in: Iran. The same Iran that trained the Hezbollah bombers who killed 241 of my comrades on that October morning in Beirut. Do we want to look back 25 years from now and regret not having stayed the course again?
Oh, stay that course. Does it occur to this ninny that if the AmeriKKKan gov't. hadn't stuck its nose into Lebanon, or stationed troops in Saudi Arabia, or any of the many other foolish things done in the Middle East in "our" name, we might not have to deal w/ any of this crap? The concept of "fighting them there, so we won't have to fight them here" is absurdly stupid. And rather offensive, in that somehow foreign countries should be militarily attacked merely so so-called terrorists won't threaten our precious country. The very assault on a Moooslim country makes for more terrorists & more likelihood that we will be fighting "them over here." Afghanistan no longer a safe haven for terrorists? What? No mention of Pakistan right next door, we see. Should we pull out of Iraq next wk., or in a hundred yrs., there'll still be tribal & religious bloodshed, & Iran will still want to (& probably be able to) fill any power gap that exists there. An opportunity handed to Iran by the Bush Admin., by the way. Al Qaeda managed to bring down the Soviet Empire by bogging it down in Afghanistan, where AmeriKKKa certainly seems to be bogged down now. And were caught in the quicksand of Iraq as well. How much longer is the Bush Empire going to last, what w/ two wars & global financial meltdown? The author of the op-ed piece, Randy Gaddo, is the director of Parks, Recreation and Library Services for Peachtree City, Ga. We can only fear for the young people of Peachtree City, that a violent, blood-crazed ignoramus like Mr. Gaddo is in anyway in charge of their futures. We must ask ourselves, does Mr. Gaddo like to keep the coloreds out of the public pools so he won't have to fight them in the honky parts of town? Assuming that the coloreds are even allowed in Peachtree City, of course.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

What's In A Name?

All kinds of stuff. Letters, mostly. Here's a name some of us may remember: McCarthy. And a schmuck who bears it, though he's probably no relation (Wikipedia says only an adopted daughter. Guess Joe was as limp as his politics.) doing his best to smear anyone he can find w/ the "commie" appellation. Up to & including Senator Obama's address book. Just idiotic. These stupid bastards are now recycling the '50s (granted, a much happier time for their ilk) w/ "commies, pinkos, fellow travelers" & you name it. None of which resonates w/ anyone under about 45, let's guess. And none of it really scares anyone under about 70. Yes, even though the Soviet Union has disappeared under a pile of Moooslims, & China (the Chicoms, to Mr. McCarthy) have fully learned the wonders of unfettered free-market capitalism w/ a party face, the moles are still burrowing their way into Andrew McCarthy's AmeriKKKa.
In 1951, the legendary liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas insisted that, though communism might be a threat abroad, the movement in this country was a mere “bogeyman” that had been “thoroughly exposed” and “crippled as a political force.” We now know that even as he wrote those words, communists had covertly infiltrated the U.S. government at high levels and that, as a political force, the movement was just getting started. The Klonskys and Ayers were still on the horizon.
Just one clue for you, McCarthyite. This is a free & democratic country. (No, not even we can say that w/ a straight face.) And if the people decide that the way things have been for the last few yrs. isn't working & they might want to vote in someone who isn't a obvious neofascist, that's their right. If they want to vote in Chairman Mao from the fucking grave, it's their right. And your fucking bullshit won't make a dime's worth of difference. By the way, Mr. National Review, have you pissed away so much of Buckley's money that you can't afford to do some investigation of your own about this new Communist menace to AmeriKKKa? The constant refrain of "why won't Obama come clean?" is officially older than the hills. Find something he should come clean about. Please.

White Riot?

Well? A colored person responds to the burning (Heh-heh!) question of the day.

Will angry white people riot if Barack Obama wins the election? There may be some people who think this is an absurd question. I honestly don't know. But it is no more absurd than asking it about blacks.

Some outside agitators would like to think honkies may just rise up.
"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."
More money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, then, eh? There does seem to be trouble in the white supremacist community, however. They say so themselves. Bill White, of the American National Socialist Workers Party, says:
“There’s a real problem in what’s called the ‘white movement.’ One, there’s a lot of people who are just mentally ill, and we deal with those a lot. No. 2, there are people who have serious sexual problems.”
No fucking shit, Sherlock? Mentally ill perverts? My, my. Or is that no shit, Shylock?
A landlord of low-income tenants of all races, he devotes as much of his energy to attacking rival leaders he hopes to purge from the supremacist leadership as he does attacking Jews and blacks.
Cheesis K. Rist, the guy's a mother-fucking parasitical landlord & he's bitching about other people? He chose to be a bloodsucking landlord, & if there's any justice, he'll die of rat bites in a one-room slum apartment. One of his own, we hope.

Tax Up-Date

The trouble w/ rich people & taxes.
The previously unreported study estimates that taxpayers whose true income was between $500,000 and $1 million a year understated their adjusted gross incomes by 21 percent overall in 2001, compared to an 8 percent underreporting rate for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and even lower rates for those earning less. (The "net misreporting rate" as the IRS calls it, includes both underreported income and inflated deductions.) In all, because of their higher noncompliance rates, those with true incomes of $200,000 or more received 25 percent of all income, but accounted for 40 percent of net underreported income and 42 percent of underreported tax in 2001, the new analysis finds.
Note well: That was in 2001, before the Bush Admin.'s plans to redistribute income upward & entitle the filthy rich to continue their cheating ways. It is therefore this web log's opinion that tax increases on the upper crust should be proportional to the amount they already cheat us. Plus a few percentage points for punishment. Sounds fair to us. Assuming we don't choose to feed them all to our pets.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Latest Palin Poop

This sort of thing happens in the more thinly-populated states all the time.

AP: Palin children traveled on state expenses

VP hopeful charged state for children's travel, amended expense reports

This sort of thing, not as often.
RNC appears to shell out $150K for Palin fashion
Nope, just a "works w/ her hands" kind of gal. Elite? Where would you get an idea like that? We anxiously await a Palin/Bachmann ticket in 2012. Hell, it's not too late to dump the grump & go w/ the witches now, is it?

R. I. P., Dolemite

(How can you not "rest" in peace?) Anyway, one of the greats, & (w/ those Jamican toasters) one of the originators of what you honkies call "rap" music, Rudy Ray Moore, passed from this mortal coil Sunday night. Our favorite line from Dolemite?
He said, "Move over, and let me pass. Before they hafta pull these Triple-A's out yo muthatfuckin ass."
We'll leave w/ the end of Dolemite, & offer it back to Mr. Moore in tribute.

They had his funeral. Carried him down to the graveyard. Dolemite was dead, but his dick was still hard. The preacher said, "Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust." Said, "I'm glad this little bad muthafucka called Dolemite is no longer here with us!"

Approved for hunkies obit. Slightly darker version.

Compare & Distract

Who is stupider this week, Jonah Goldberg or David Brooks?

Don't Let Us Stop You. Go Ahead.

Another surprise from the "Duh!" file. A recent study noted that those least likely to be happy in the U. S. of A. were middle-aged, as opposed to the young or wretched. Our conclusion was, "No shit, most middle-aged people, as opposed to the puerile or decrepit, have jobs. We'd be unhappy too." Further proof arrives in a study from left-wing academics (pardon our redundancy) that indicates 16 or 17% more of you goofy-ass workers are offing yourselves. Rats in a cage chewing each other to death, when you get right down to it.
More research is needed to identify the forces that are causing people ages 40 to 64 to take their own lives and to develop prevention strategies that might stem the tide, Baker said. In the meantime, she wrote, public health officials should take note of "a change in the epidemiology of suicide'' that has made middle-aged whites "a new high-risk group for suicide.''
Maybe, maybe not. We've a suspicion.
Before 1999, the U.S. suicide rate had declined for 13 years. The new numbers are especially puzzling because other research has found that for most people, middle age "is a time of relative security and emotional well-being,'' Baker and her colleagues wrote in their paper.
Started in 1999, did it? About the time the right wing was going nuts trying to smear Clinton, followed by the right wing stealing as many elections as it could, & eight yrs. of...(We dare not speak its name.) That could certainly lead to a death-wish. Check also w/ the L. A. Times, which goes the extra mile & gets statements from other academics not involved w/ the study. And gives a different rate for the increase than Bloomberg does.

Real Voter Fraud

"Voter fraud," that is, where someone ineligible to vote registers & votes, or where someone registers twice or more & votes in several different localities, almost never happens in these United States. Here, however, we find a kind of voter fraud, the Republican kind, where people are tricked into changing their registration.
The 70,000 voters YPM has registered for the Republican Party this year will help combat the public perception that it is struggling amid Democratic gains nationally, give a boost to fundraising efforts and bolster member support for party leaders, political strategists from both parties say. Those who were formerly Democrats may stop receiving phone calls and literature from that party, perhaps affecting its get-out-the-vote efforts. They also will be given only a Republican ballot in the next primary election if they do not switch their registration back before then. Some also report having their registration status changed to absentee without their permission; if they show up at the polls without a ballot they may be unable to vote.
Not mentioned in the article is that a larger Republican registration enables voter suppression, & fooling around w/ actual votes. It can be claimed that w/ all the "Republicans" registered, it's not so unlikely that a precinct or whatever would have gone for the R candidate. In extra irony, we see that the voter fraud that hardly ever happens (but Republicans like to claim is perpetrated by Democrats) has happened. It was the very owner of the firm changing people's registrations. Imagine that.
"We contacted people at the addresses where he registered, and they have no idea who he is," said Dave Demerjian, head deputy of the public integrity unit at the L.A. County district attorney's office. Goldfine said his client does business in many states, traveling frequently, and his permanent address has been his parents' Los Angeles County home, where he received mail and registered to vote.
We anxiously await Senator McCain's hysterical fit concerning this "threat to the fabric of democracy." Oh? There won't be one? Why not? Oh, Oh, we get it. OK. Note also today's NYT, wherein some op-ed liberal whines about this stuff too. Opening paragraphs follow.
It never ends. The Republican Party never gets tired of spraying its poison across the American political landscape. So there was a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, telling Chris Matthews on MSNBC that the press should start investigating members of the House and Senate to determine which ones are “pro-America or anti-America.”
Seriously (no, really, we're calling for bloodshed here) if those bastards steal yet another election, we will have to have a civil war. Make no mistake, "real" Americans, we will squash you like the cockroaches you are. Let's see how Rep. Bachmann feels when we decide she's not much of an American. See how she likes Gitmo.

This Date in World History

1805: Adm. Nelson's British fleet won the battle of Trafalgar. Nelson died of injuries sustained in the battle.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Time's Up

As is our patience w/ all things political. Impressed that My Lai cover-up author Colin "Killer" Powell endorsed Obama? Whatever.

Sweet Sarah's Boys

Above: The sort of idiot we'll have to fight for the title of "Real American." Note number of Anglos (& bottle blondes) in the Indiana crowd. Photo: Michael Conroy/AP Guess what? The typical Sarah Palin supporter is a total loser (male) who doesn't even understand why people like him should be kept as far as possible from gov't. or anything else that requires reading or comprehension.
And Ms. Palin tells ’em, peppering her rallies with references to guy-themed stuff — hunting, fishing, hockey. She introduced her husband, Todd, as Alaska’s First Dude. “He is a guy who knows how to work with his hands,” she said to loud applause.
Wow, Todd, & every other human being since the dawn of human beings, & also chimpanzees, and the other apes, can all work w/ their hands. We're really impressed. Work w/ those hands, Todd.
She has been widely attacked, even by a growing number of conservatives, as being essentially unserious and uncurious. “She doesn’t think aloud. She just ...says things,” the Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote Friday. “She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation.” [...] “Katie Couric and Tina Fey are going to do their thing, but it doesn’t bother me at all,” said Rob McLain, an insurance agent from Avon, Ind., who attended a packed Palin rally at an amphitheatre in Indiana on Friday night. Mr. McLain wore a “Proud to be voting for a hot chick” button and was joined by his wife, Shannan (“Read my lipstick” button on lapel), and his 6-week-old son, Jaxon (“Nobama” button on beanie). “The criticism is part of the process,” Mr. McLain said, adding of Ms. Palin, “Who can’t trust a mother?”
A better question would be, "Who can?" And, what kind of ninny conflates Tina Fey & Katie Couric?
There is a kind of “conservative feminism” here, and several men cite the appeal of Ms. Palin as a can-do caretaker. She can be glimpsed lugging an overstuffed bag of books, papers and baby supplies onto her plane and bottle feeding her infant son, Trig. “I love the idea of someone like her being allowed into the White House,” said Matt Cude, who drove three-hours to Weirs Beach from Jericho, Vt. It would be “absolutely fantastic,” he said, both for women and for the country.
She can carry a book bag & bottle feed Twig. She's already got a head start on Cheney. Allow her in that White House!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Cinderella & Sidney McCain Up-Date

Dig this. The McCain campaign sent a letter to The N. Y. Times asking them to go easy on Cindy McC, as referenced below. Then they complained when The Times apparently spiked the juicy parts, as requested by the campaign. More on McCain's war record from "former counsel to the president" (Of what, exactly?) John Dean. Sick & tired of politics, elections, & all ideologies other than our own. Enough. No, wait a minute. We really thought ol' J. Sidney III wasn't to blame in this mess, but...

From Pullman, Wash.

University of Spoiled Children Trojans: 69 Washington State University Cougars: 0

No, It Never Stops

We've found more outrage. Shocking, simply shocking. This harpy (Seriously, is there a "women can get away w/ this kind of crap" directive at the McCain & RNC operations?) is all over the tube, & now she's claiming that population changes can lead to an area becoming less "real."
McCain senior adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer, a self-described "proud resident of Oakton, Virginia," said on MSNBC that "Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into Northern Virginia, and that's really what you see there. But the rest of the state, real Virginia, if you will, I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message."
Unless these people are ready to fight over what exactly constitutes a "real" American, we'd advise them to close their pie-holes forthwith.

Let's Have A Fucking War Then, Crackers!

Cheers to a Tommy Christopher (Birth name? We doubt it.) at something called AOLNews (?) who has made available (w/ video of the poor man's pitbull avec lipstick, Rep. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman) two statements on a subject dear to our heart: Anti-AmeriKKKanism. Is it our imagination, or do the Republicans prefer to have women make these bizarre sorts of charges? We'll give you Mme. Gov. Mooseburgers paraphrase right here, saving your aging fingers & tiring keyboards.
Palin also made a point of mentioning that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country, of which North Carolina is one. No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.
Amplification from the pool reporter who filed the story is here. The "tell" here is the Palin spokesmodel trying to weasel her way out of it:
In an e-mail, Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt emphasized that the Alaska governor was not insulting D.C., she was merely highlighting the virtues of far-flung cities and towns across the nation. "She was reinforcing the message that the best of our America isn't confined to our nation's capitol," Schmitt wrote.
Uh, Tracey, "our America?" Isn't that what you're supposed to try to avoid? Because let us just tell you, you gap-toothed cousin-fuckers, you can keep your "AmeriKKKa." The dry dusty plains, abandoned factories & decaying swamps are all yours, real AmeriKKKans. And if you two-bit punks want to fight us for any of our land, that's just fine, 'cause we'll squash every last one of you between the Armies of each Coast & Chicago that will roll you bitter cracker gun-worshippers up into one ugly pile somewhere in Kansas. You want another Civil War, War Between the States, War of Northern Aggression, whatever you want to call it, we're ready to roll any time. Any time at all. Anything to get you to shut your yaps once & for all. What w/ our elitist educations & so on, it'll be a slam-dunk. Seriously. Let's take it outside & have a war about this, loudmouths.

Not Like You Or Me: Poor Little Rich Girl Cindy McCain

Not in the least bit surprising, a hit piece on the former Cindy Lou Who. Following are the most telling parts of the first half.
She initially seemed like an ideal political partner, giving Mr. McCain a home state, money and contacts that jump-started his career. [...] Those close to Mrs. McCain say she aspires to be like another blonde, glamorous figure married to an older man: Diana, the Princess of Wales.
Just don't be like Queen Nancy.
The two often relax in separate places: Mr. McCain prefers the family’s ranch in the Arizona desert, while Mrs. McCain’s refuge is a high-rise condominium on the Pacific. (Her husband is “not a beach person,” she recently told Vogue.) [...] The separation had a political upside: Mr. McCain, initially considered something of a carpetbagger, boasted that his family lived in Arizona. He flew home on weekends, but spent part of them campaigning.
It's almost as if Republicans are kidding or something when they say they stand for family values.
Below: Cinderella Hensley Stepford McCain at a hospital in Nha Trang, Vietnam, on June 19, 2008. Photo: Chitose Suzuki/AP

Friday, October 17, 2008

"Real" Americans: Dumb as Fucking Rocks, But Thinning the Herd

Here's another surprise, from this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (one of our favorite publications): Those non-elitist plumbers, unemployed factory workers, & cousin-fuckers in the innards of our nation, the Midwest & South (Darkest AmeriKKKa) are actually this stupid.
Most car surfing injuries and deaths occurred in August, and 74 percent of the incidents occurred in the Midwest and the South.
Gee, we so wish we could be "real" patriotic Americans like those people. Honest to fucking gawd, we're just about in favor of a literacy test for voters in certain areas. If not a literacy test, at least require that these "real" Americans not be mouth-breathers.

Annals of Humour, Vice Presidential Candidate Division

Click here, & then zip your cursor & click merrily on the various objects. (Our favorite is the red 'phone, but we're nihilists around here.) Other funnies from the same source:
Campaigning in one of the swing state's conservative strongholds, Palin said Obama hasn't been forthcoming about his ties to ACORN, the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now. The group faces allegations of voter registration fraud in Ohio and other states. Obama has said he doesn't have any significant links to the group. "You deserve to know," Palin told thousands surrounding her stage in a suburban community park. "This group needs to learn that you here in Ohio won't let them turn the Buckeye State into the Acorn State."
Know what exactly? This is as tiresome as all get out. If the McCain/Palin campaign has any evidence of any "ties" between ACORN & Obama & Bill Ayers or Frosty the goddamned Snowman, let them come forth w/ those ties, rather than demanding that Sen. Obama prove a negative.

We ♥ L. A.

We knew there was something that set Los Angeles apart from other major cities besides the fact that wilderness (natural, not cultural) is often a mere hike away. Tim Rutten, in the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper™©, adds other factoids.

Putting aside for the moment the simple historical fact that our natural disasters -- earthquakes, floods and droughts, as well as fires -- predate development, there is another way to look at this. Alone among the world's great cities, Los Angeles does not exist at the confluence of great rivers, on the shore of a fine natural harbor or astride some important traditional trade route. It never was the historical seat of some great power.

It exists because it has a magnificent climate and a fascinatingly beautiful natural setting, and because a bunch of ruthless, steely-eyed guys with their avarice on overdrive realized that they could get rich selling good weather and open space, if they willed a city into being. They succeeded beyond even their counting-house fantasies; the result was Los Angeles, which is unique among the world's great cities in that -- until the construction of Disney Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels -- it lacked a single inarguably distinguished public building but possessed the world's finest store of fine domestic architecture.

Ah, that explains it. There's no actual reason for the City of The Angels (Haw-haw!!) to be here. We could quibble w/ that last clause, but we won't be bothering today. (Ok, just one: "Store of fine domestic architecture?" What is this, a wine cellar? And have we done well "storing" all that architecture?)

Liberal Conspiracy, Not Bias

The Liberal Bible (on page A1 of both the New York & National dead-tree edition) & the Liberal Catechism (merely on the first page of Sports) have both chosen to shine the liberal spotlight on a controversy from the world of high school football, that Times from Northern California, our Times from the Southland. One could certainly compare & contrast here. But we just wonder what's up? Is this A-11 formation a liberal deal of some sort? That is implied in the NYT take on it.
To its proponents, the A-11 represents the logical and inevitable evolution of a game that is becoming faster and more spread out at all levels. The alignment diminishes, or eliminates, the need for a traditional offensive line, where players can weigh 300 pounds even in high school. And, coaches say, it reduces injury because it involves glancing blows more than smash-mouth collisions.
Glancing blows? Instead of smash-mouth football? Obviously, this is a liberal move to turn our young men into weaklings. The only reason we've triumphed so far in the war on terror is that our boys play football, & the Islamists prefer soccer, which doesn't even allow them to use their hands. Talk about obscurantist. W/o macho sports teams & the culture around them, where will we get the next generation of warriors for the "long war" we face against the enemy?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

There Will Always Be An England

Singer Christina Aguilera and perpetual party girl Paris Hilton were also at the club in Mayfair, downing champagne. Miss Hilton apparently did her best to attract a prince, but to no avail. Prince William chatted with her only briefly before walking away and Harry tried to ignore her sexy dance, according to witnesses - a good thing too, as his girlfriend Chelsy Davy was there.
And from the comments:

Paris Hilton sounds so desperate doing sexy dances in front of men who are already taken. How she thinks she can compete I've no idea. - Tess Fenwick, London, UK, 16/10/2008 16:49

"Soldiers from William's regiment die every day, while he plays the soldier at clubs. God, poor Diana, what her son has become. Worse than his father. - Anon, London" Actually Anon - that's the Labour Government's fault- They are killing off the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan... and killing the people of Iraq and Afghanistan too. The Conservatives don't seem to mind too much. ...and nobody could be worse than Charlieboy. He will end the Commonwealth. - Jonathan, Redditch England, 16/10/2008 16:45

Can't even have a story about some toffs & royals out boozing w/o dragging politics into it. No wonder the Republicans are afraid we'll become more like Europe.

Sports Wrap-Up

And we mean it! No Raider coverage this yr. A season summed up by an anonymous editor at the L. A. Times:
L. A. Season ends with a series of lowlights, instead of first Series appearance in 20 years

Obama: "Uninformed & Patently Stupid"

We dived just a bit deeper into the tundra of "Canada" Free Press, where we encountered the Obama = Marx article. (Immediately below.) Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much Canadian content in the Free Press. Another sample from the same typist:
As it stands now, ACORN’s admitted voter fraud may just hand Obama the election. There has been massive ACORN-created voter fraud reported—and being investigated—in virtually all of the US’ swing states. If so, the days of the US Republic will—officially—be over. By no stretch of the imagination is this an exaggeration. And Obama claims he wasn’t aware of either ACORN’s voter fraud or Ayers terrorism? If so, we may soon have the most uninformed—if not patently stupid—presidents in our nation’s history. But, it is not the case and Obama knew and knows exactly what he’s doing. One can only surmise that William Ayers may end up being Obama’s Secretary of Defense.
Yikes. Most frightening part: She (still) realizes that it might be considered an "exaggeration," so she emphasizes that it really isn't an exaggeration. Really.

O! Obama!

As opposed to unfettered, free-market, laissez-faire capitalism,
Communism has never worked in any country in which it has been tried. In practice, Communism—the ultimate goal of liberalism—affords [sic] everything to and for the power elite and little to nothing for everyone else. It also does away with the concept of meritocracy—unless of course one is a member of the aforementioned power elite. However, more and more this is what Democrat [sic]presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama seems to be proposing.
Isn't "power elite" redundant? And if we're going to question writing, let's question it at the American Thinker, where they question who wrote Sen. Obama's book, Dreams from My Father. Their suspect is both surprising & to be expected. Thanks to Brother Brick for both of these splendid items.

Sarah Speaks, Jaws Drop

Oh, the questions this sort of statement raises. Like, why did Allah's sheep get more of those resources than we did? What if the guy who made the invocation at the rally a few days ago about G-d getting his cosmic ass whupped by Hindu [sic] was right, & G-d's been slacking lately? If G-d's blessing America, why doesn't America have all the fuggin' oil & gas? We ain't kissin' no holy ass that won't give us all the fuel we need for our SUVs. Oh, the statement itself? Like you couldn't guess.
"God has so richly blessed this land, not just with the oil and the gas, but with wind and the hydro, the geothermal and the biomass," Palin said. "We'll tap into those." Palin said some of the countries the U.S. relies on for energy use their resources "as a weapon." And she said the billions spent each year on oil imports should be circulated within the country "for the sake of the nation's security." "We need to drill here and drill now," Palin said as the crowd chanted "drill baby, drill." A protester at the back of the crowd shouted "No blood for oil."
We'd actually prefer it if the Sky Fairy would "bless" us w/ candidates able to use common sense & reason, but we've been neglecting our prayers recently. And does G-d really want us to dump all those burned hydrocarbons into our "spacious skies?"

Econ Wrap-Up

People (media, & the loudmouth morons of the financial community, that is) seem very happy that there are big banks to buy failing banks, making even bigger banks. Proves the fundamental soundness of "our" economy, they claim. Consolidation is a good thing, because it makes for more competiti...No, wait, that's not it...The good thing is, that...that these banks will really be too big to fail (like GMChrysler, for example) & they'll still be able to do whatever they desire, knowing that the gummint will be there to bail them out. What a relief for our free markets. Imagine. The eventual result of "demand-side," "trickle-down," unfettered free market economy is, is... TA-DA: Socialism!! OK, not really. The whole fucking system, whether run by Wall Street, or Wall Street execs taking a sabbatical in Washington, is still run by pathetic aging male Anglos in suits, ties & the same mind-set.

Class Warfare at The New York Times

From the first page of "Business Day" in yesterday's National Edition.
Next Victim Of Turmoil: Your Salary What, then, will the next stage of the downturn be about? It is likely to revolve around the worst slump in worker pay since — you knew this was coming — the Great Depression. This slump won’t be anywhere near as bad as the one during the Depression, but it also won’t be like anything the country has experienced in a long time. Income for the median household — the one in the dead middle of the income distribution — will probably be lower in 2010 than it was, amazingly enough, a full decade earlier. That hasn’t happened since the 1930s. Already, median pay today is slightly lower than it was in 2000, and by 2010, could end up more than 5 percent lower than its old peak. [...] What will make this recession different, no matter how deep or shallow it is, is that it’s following an expansion in which most families received little or no raise. The median household made $50,200 last year, slightly less than the $50,600 that the equivalent household earned in 2000, according to the Census Bureau. That’s the first time on record that income failed to set a new record in an economic expansion.
You are so screwed, America. On the other side of the aisle (& the other side of the first page of Business Day) we are cheered by this.
Banks’ Bailout Unlikely to Crimp Executive Pay He said he did not think the Treasury plan went far enough, but he praised it as attacking the “perverse incentives” that led to the crisis. Compensation experts say that the provisions, though politically prudent to appease public anger, will probably have little real impact on how financial executives are paid in coming years. They predict banks will simply pay higher taxes and will find other creative ways of paying their executives as they see fit. Some say there could even be a sudden surge in compensation as soon as the government program ends, in a few years, leading to eye-popping numbers down the road. “Congress’s record of regulating executive pay has been unblemished by success,” said Kevin J. Murphy, a finance professor at the University of Southern California, pointing to perverse outcomes of past efforts.
Whew. We were worried that the driving forces behind our fabulous economy wouldn't be adequately compensated for all they do.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Is There No Decency? Must All Be Shared, in the Public Eye?

Nancy Reagan (who wanted to be Queen, but had to settle for being First Lady for eight yrs.) fell down & broke her pelvis recently. Terrible, we wish her the best, but look at the sappery this inspires.

We'll See You in Court

In Nebraska, it's another of those "legislative member spills beans before retiring" deals. Not exactly a "Why the hell didn't this old bastard say, let alone do, something about all the awful behavior he's blabbing about now?" moment, but not unamusing.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers filed the lawsuit last year seeking a permanent injunction against God. He said God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."
Praise Jah that someone, at last, is trying to establish some responsibility & accountability for some of the crap that's been going on lately. What if, for example, it were true that God threw the election of '00 & really did choose George W. Bush to be president, because God knew he would be allowing Bin Laden to attack us for our immoralities & lesbian witchcraft or whatever the eff Falwell & Robertson said. And God made the wrong choice. That might be worth a few zillion dollars.

Life on the Trail

From here.
Wednesday's debate may be his last chance to win this race. By John Dickerson Posted Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008, at 7:32 PM ET To get a sense of what John McCain is going through on the eve of the last presidential debate with 20 days before Election Day and Barack Obama leading in the polls, I decided to put some pressure on myself: I delayed working on this story until 45 minutes before my deadline. To approximate the string of people in McCain's ear offering advice, I turned on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Be the happy warrior! Attack! Talk about Ayers! Don't mention Ayers! Fire your campaign staff! ACORN! I then put Wagner on my iTunes. I'm finding it very hard to concentrate. If we're all lucky, I may just give up and end this piece right here.
No such luck. WARNING: The phrase "media filter" is used later in the piece, w/o apparent irony. And it's long. Therefore, in the public interest, we will skip to the outro, letting a paid professional wrap it up for us.

McCain never really explains why his ability to fight, to buck his party, or to do unpopular things is going to improve anyone's life. Yes, he's been tested more, and endured more in life, than Barack Obama. But voters want to know: How's that help me? McCain has got one more night to make the case.

On the other hand, we heard a person on the radio last night who believes that Sen. McCain is a maverick who doesn't go along w/ the party & "reaches across the aisle" because (Get this!) "his North Vietnamese torturers beat the fight out of him." That explains that.

20 Yrs. Ago Today

Kirk Gibson hit his big deal gimping homer against the Oaktown As. Not looking as if there'll be any such miracle for the former Bums of Brooklyn tonight.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

No, Canada

It appears our cousins, friends & neighbors to the north will be allowing conservative Steven Harper to continue in office. Although it's not as bad as it initially sounds.
But the Conservative Party leader was expected to fall short of winning the parliamentary majority he sought by calling early elections. That would force him to continue relying on the opposition to pass legislation, as he has since first winning power in 2006.
Though a lack of comprehension of the parliamentary process seems to be keeping the Canucks from effectively dealing w/ their problem.
The party winning the most seats generally forms the government, with its leader becoming prime minister. The opposition parties could unite and topple Harper if they won enough seats for a majority, but analysts said that was unlikely because the parties have no tradition of forming such coalitions.
Wise up, neighbors.

One Hundred Yrs. Ago

The Chicago Cubs won their most recent (never say last) World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Not that it does a heck of a lot for the Dodgers, but....

From the Columns

J. Goldberg: Continues to be an idiot. E. Robinson: Belabors the obvious. Though how is it that the obvious is never apparent to the Republican base?
Now that it's election time, the party -- as usual -- is trying to convince Americans that it stands on the side of the little guy. Sarah Palin has been trotted out to convince everyone that the party cares deeply about the eternal roster of cultural issues -- God, guns, gays, abortion, etc. If McCain and Palin were elected, the party would doubtless return these issues to the storage locker until the next election, at which point they would be dusted off once more. [...] I defy anyone to give a coherent explanation of what today's Republican Party, under George Bush and now John McCain, wants to do except perpetuate itself in power. When a political party reaches the point of lurching incoherence, the most effective cure is a good, long spell in the wilderness. Americans should help Republicans out by sending them home to get their act together.
It is this reporter's opinion that a good long spell in the torments of eternal hellfire would be more appropriate. But what do we know? E. J. Dionne: Worried that those base (Aren't they, though?) Republicans are moving the proverbial Overton window, & relegitimizing the extra-drooly right.
Yet culture war politics is relatively mild compared with the far-right appeals that are emerging this year. It is as if McCain's loyalists overshot the '60s and went back to the '50s or even the '30s. What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of the far right, a phenomenon that began to take shape with some of the earliest attacks on Bill Clinton in the 1990s. False claims that Obama is Muslim, that he trained to overthrow the government and that he was educated in Wahhabi schools are a standard part of the political discussion. These fake stories come from voices on the ultra right that have dabbled in other forms of conspiracy, including classic anti-Semitism. McCain and his campaign do not pick up the most extreme charges. They just fan the flames by suggesting that voters don't really know who Obama is, hinting at a sinister back story without filling in the details.
Not that endorsements or whatever mean a damn thing, but Mr. Dionne, no doubt in his capacity as a full-fledged member of the cocktail weenie circuit in the Washington "village," brings us this tidbit about another defection from the McCain camp.
When Christopher Buckley, a novelist and former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush, announced last week that he would vote for Obama (his first vote ever for a Democrat), he referred to words once spoken to him by his late father. "You know," the conservative hero William F. Buckley Jr. said, "I've spent my entire lifetime separating the right from the kooks."
Too bad Bill didn't really take his task completely to heart. Unless some of the zillion pro-segregation pieces National Review published weren't "kooky," just, well, right? And to keep it even, if not fair, last words from the Hammer of Kraut (which is usually striking the Anvil of Idiocy):
Until now. Today, on the threshold of the presidency, Obama concedes the odiousness of these associations, which is why he has severed them. But for the years in which he sat in Wright's pews and shared common purpose on boards with Ayers, Obama considered them a legitimate, indeed unremarkable, part of social discourse. Do you? Obama is a man of first-class intellect and first-class temperament. But his character remains highly suspect. There is a difference between temperament and character. Equanimity is a virtue. Tolerance of the obscene is not.
"Shared common purpose on boards w/ Ayers?" Was that the Weather Underground Board of Advisers? No? Then it doesn't count, Charles. We refuse to tolerate any further obscenity from you.

Big Sister Is Watching. And Winking.

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Re-Birth of The Cool

Mostly as an excuse to run this shot of Bird & Miles wailing (we assume; it might have been their crummiest gig ever)we refer you all to a not-entirely dull & pointless item in today's L. A. Times, concerning "hot" & "cool" in American culture & even politics.
Three-score years ago, or thereabouts, some cats named Miles, Dizzy and Charlie brought forth upon this continent (OK, actually it was the Three Deuces club in New York) a new musical style, conceived in heroin addiction and dedicated to the proposition that white people can't dance to fast rhythms. Bebop jazz was born, soon followed by its close cousin, beatnik culture. Together, they forged a new attitude that would define popular culture in the second half of the American Century. That attitude, of course, was cool, or "cool pose" as the sociologists call it, and it has come back to haunt us this season, though no longer decked out in goatee and Jean Genet beret.
Everything seems to be coming back to haunt us lately. Why is that? Are those chickens over there? We didn't know they could fly like that.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Can We Call Him A Limey Drunk?

Silly drunk (Is he still a Limey, or did he sell out his motherland for a mess of American pottage?) Christopher Hitchens vitriolizes the current campaigns, while revealing what a scaredy-pants he is. Is he worried that "civilization" under Sharia Law will cut off his single-malt?
I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign.
As if there were the slightest possibility of a "capitulationist" ticket of any sort being nominated by any party we can imagine. And just how big is that "surrender faction" here in the U. S. of A.? A few thousand fundamentalist Muslims & some "peace-at-any-price" Quakers? Mr. Hitchens, read yourself once in a while. It's good practice, even for someone as experienced at slinging crap as you.

Random Boring Notes From Nowhere...& Anywhere

This will make the bail-out/rescue an even trillion, right? Why no, we misunderstood the text at the top of gmail™©, which read: U.S. Treasury to inject $250 billion into banks. Huh?...Turns out it's from the already committed $700,000,000,000.00. Whattaya know. Is there anyone w/ any money left? Anywhere?...The longest presidential campaign in remembered subjective history drags toward an almost perceptible conclusion somewhere in the not too far future, pretty much unchanged since the last time we pretended we gave a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about any of this, w/ the exception that the right's rabid weasels have begun screeching about "voter fraud," hoping to establish a case that Obama couldn't possibly be the winner, remember, shhh...he's black, you know...or a defense for the voter suppression they'll engage in...blah blah...Do you ever ask yourself, "Why do I keep bothering? What difference could it possibly make?"...Or do you sometimes find yourself holding your breath waiting for the Bush Admin.'s last-chance-at-anything "October Surprise?"...Looks like those fuckers who made the planes that sneaked up on our boyz at Pearl Harbor many yrs. ago still have some money, if no one else does, as Mitsubishi UFJ has just bought into Morgan Stanley, w/ the "assurance" of our gov't. Did you get a firm handshake on that one, Mitsubishi?
The announcement came after federal officials assured Mitsubishi UFJ late Sunday that its planned investment would be protected, according to people involved in the talks. The Treasury’s assurances amount to another extraordinary move by the government and could serve as a model for future deals. The tense, weekend talks were so critical to the financial markets that they drew in both the Treasury and the Japanese government. Mitsubishi and the Japanese government pressed the Treasury Department to guarantee that if the United States were to inject money into Morgan Stanley at a later time — a step the Treasury has ruled out for now — the move would not wipe out Mitsubishi’s investment.
Happy 13th!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Just a Taste of Crap From Tammy Bruce

Ms. Bruce was comparing the candidates' wives. Ms. Obama, as we all know, was "never proud of her country" (well, never as proud as, if you want to be specific) until hubby Barack was nominated. Meanwhile, Mme. McCain is a "successful" woman, who's given a lot to charity. (And taken a few pills from charity as well.) There you have the conservative definition of "success." Inherit from your daddy. That's all it takes. Conservatives just can't understand why there aren't more successful people. And Ms. Bruce would like to add that it's all about "character & candor." Takes one hell of a lot of "character" to steal drugs from your charity for old people, doesn't it? And that happened somewhat more recently than anything that Ayers dude did. We can't wait until McCain & his family have been sent back to the Washington they so despise & so want to fix (having squandered so many opportunities in the last 26 yrs.) & all these drooling idiots start drooling all over themselves & their keyboards about the coming socialist revolution. This is going to be funny. In a sad way. Ms. Bruce adds that the purchase of a half-hour of television time later in the month by Sen. Obama is because he wants to be on tee vee. Sure.

Nation Worships Stupidity

It's official. We are a nation of idiots, we like being that way, & we want to be even dumber. We're not just referring to the "Them smart people is lookin' down their noses at us reg'lar folks" attitude that elitist Republicans try to sell to their ignorant fool supporters, it's stuff like this.
"The situation is becoming urgent. The data show that a majority of the top young mathematicians in this country were not born here." Writing in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Mertz and colleagues described their analysis of data from international math competitions going back to 1974. They also looked at surveys of U.S. students. "It is deemed uncool within the social context of USA middle and high schools to do mathematics for fun; doing so can lead to social ostracism. Consequently, gifted girls, even more so than boys, usually camouflage their mathematical talent to fit in well with their peers," they wrote.
Yes, we're giving up leadership on the world stage in math, & virtually everything that comes from math, 'cause "it's too hard" & "only nerds do that." Why should any one have the slightest loyalty to a country & culture that is all too willing to cut off its own nose to spite its face?

Further Theo-Fascism From The Campaign Trail

Who do these Republicans choose for their intros & prayers at campaign events? Why, religious types, of course. The religious types who believe that there are other gawds (how ecumenical of them) & that "our" (Xian AmeriKKKa's) gawd is menaced by other gawds. Not much of a fucking gawd that you losers worship, is it?
Unhelpful for establishing the tone McCain sought in Davenport was the Rev. Arnold Conrad, past pastor of the Grace Evangelical Free Church. His prayer before McCain arrived at the convention center blocks from the Mississippi River appeared to dismiss faiths other than Christianity and cast the election as a referendum on God himself. "I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons," Conrad said. "And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day," he said.
St. Nick on a stick! Really, what goes through their minds? Are all the dirty foreigners praying for Sen. Obama, "for a variety of reasons?" We're betting that fear of Sen. McCain bombing the living shit out of their countries is one reason they're praying for his opponent. Let's see if their gawd(s) will protect them when Jeezis's Avenger gets in the White House. And what kind of a gawd needs morons to pray to him w/ advice? Can't His Holy Fucking Majesty in the Sky figure out what needs to be done w/o some retired loser trying to bend his ear?