self similar

ok ok what's all this then

2007-12-17T14:14:00.000-05:00

I am lazy and I suck at blogging. And sometimes, there's just too much going wrong for me to even get angry and rant about it. Oh well...so I just read over my last few posts, some interesting things have happened since. FISA - today's actually the day for Dodd to attempt the filibuster. Harry Reid has once again played the weakest strategy possible, and put the worst of all available bills up for debate, while shooting down one which had been vetted by the Justice Dept. Brilliant. God I hate him. Here's what an actual Democrat has to say about the situation, should you want to read.

The Iran thing - luckily, what I was hoping would happen on this issue is pretty much exactly what did happen, a few posts ago when I pleaded out loud to myself that prominent people would start calling the bogus info out without hiding anonymously in a way that would make them easy to immediately dismiss. The U.S. of course had exactly NO dirt on Iran, and in the face of the latest NIE, the bloodthirsty among our leaders and Presidential candidates had to shut the fuck up with their nonsense about this 4th-rate "power" being a threat to us. This is a fun link in relation to all that blather.

Also, it used to be the case that I simply accused the Dems in the House and Senate of colluding with the Repbulicans on issues such as torture and domestic spying with no proof other than the obvious appearance that this was what had happened. Well, now we know that is exactly what happened, and that explains why it all looked like that was what had happened. Even Nancy Freakin' Pelosi was briefed about waterboarding and more extreme techniques. Nobody objected. Nobody questioned it. One anonymous fucktard had the gaul to ask simply if we were being "hard enough" on those we interrogated. And completely lost in this whole argument is the fact that no matter how many times the more mentally ill among us try to bring up the whole 'Jack Bauer and the ticking time bomb' scenario to justify their crimes - 9 times out of 10 the person we've captured and are torturing /sexually humiliating is a random, innocent person we rounded up for the sake of increasing the numbers attached to our casualty counts. As if we just landed in Afghanistan or Iraq and knew right off the bat who was who. We grabbed people, stuffed them into cages, and had to torture them in the first place to even figure out if they were important enough to torture further! It would take too long to describe how wrong it all is, but bottom line - the Democratic party has failed in the most grave manner I've been around to witness, ever in my lifetime, on this issue. Nobody who was actually briefed about this should be keeping their job. They should all go home and tell their mothers that they have failed at life.

Hm, what else?? Here is a link to the one and only Daily Kos diary I've written. And here is a link to a diary written about that diary (thanks Pontificator!). I've been barely writing about the Presidential campaign, other than to praise Dodd a while back for actually doing something useful. Well, he proceeded to lose my support by being nearly xenophobic about immigration and surrounding issues. Plus his stance against youth voters caucusing in Iowa was weird and troubling as well. Funniest thing I've learned about any of the candidates in the past week - in college people knew Barack Obama as "Barry" - according to Eugene Washington of the WPost. Hehe, Barry. Yeah...maybe now that I've summarized all of this crap I'll actually feel like posting regularly again. Weee!

Shut the Fuck Up!

2007-11-06T02:31:00.000-05:00

Charles Schumer, New York's Senior Senator, has a shameful, doo-doo-riddled Op-Ed in the NYTimes today. For the counterpoint to Schumer's idiocy, see here. Atrios' description of Schumer, et al's logic being overly simplified in the sense that "...it's as if they thought they were playing tic tac toe instead of chess" is absolutely correct. Schumer "hopes" that a law will be passed declaring waterboarding to be illegal. Well, guess what? It won't. Why? Because half of you IDIOTS who were around in 2002-2003 AGREED to this shit and simply can't come out against it now without being trashed by Bush & his sycophants who have the dirt on you. There is NO OTHER valid explanation for this offense. Great, I now want to see Charles Schumer primaried. How stupid does he think his constituents are? Mukasey's refusal to categorize waterboarding as 'torture' by definition is "unsatisfactory" to Schumer, but he thinks that we are worse off now because -

There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who oppose Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around. My colleagues who oppose his confirmation have gone out of their way to praise his character and qualifications. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, for one, commended Judge Mukasey as “a brilliant lawyer, a distinguished jurist and by all accounts a good man.

This is the best he can come up with? That Sheldon (and think about the name Sheldon, for a minute...) Whitehouse (and think about the last name Whitehouse, for a minute...) says he's a "brilliant lawyer", and - ??? Great. What the fuck does it matter how "brilliant" he is if all that's going to happen is that he is going to put his brilliance to work in the service of the wants and perceived needs of George Bush? If this guy won't go on record stating that he knows what the technique involves, and that it is most certainly a method of torture, then stick a fucking fork in him already. Do we really want a "brilliant lawyer" who refuses to set a legal definition of torture for himself and thus the Justice Department he would control, out there doing everything they can on behalf of George Bush? I hope that Schumer and Diane Feinstein pay a serious price for this strategic error. This issue exemplifies why the country hates the current Congress. They act like they're in the minority and simply can't stand up to the President. Bull fucking shit. There are simply too many of them who were briefed on this and said "OK" for them to stand up to it all, EVEN NOW. And, as soon as we find out exactly who they are, present topical company included, real progressives must do what they can to exact some revenge. Support for giving George Bush the OK to torture is not OK.

Oh well

2007-11-05T23:02:00.000-05:00

Stephen Colbert's run for the Presidency of South Carolina has ended, with a shameful 13-3 vote against him by the people who decide stuff like that there. The S.C. Democratic party, to name names. Wusses couldn't handle the sheer heroism / hubris. The article describes this historic campaign as merely a promotion to sell more copies of "I Am America; And So Can You", but it was far more diabolical in nature. The whole point for Colbert was to win at least one delegate in the state so that he could lord this technicality over the Democratic convention in Boulder. Which would, of course, have been awesome. He could have told them to eat it the way he did to the D.C. press corps back in '06. Sigh.

Iran isn't trying to make nuclear weapons fever - catch it!

2007-11-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

Good. Jeez, this really is scary. Prominent experts who know that Iran is not engaged in an attempt to make nukes feel the need to remain anonymous when discussing the subject. Here we go again. That means that people's livelihoods are being threatened again if they dare speak out against Bush and Cheney. At least they are doing so in some capacity, but this is not going to be nearly enough to stop the war machine. Real people with recognizable names HAVE to step forward and call the White House out on being a bunch of crazy people. Only real humans can stop this, anonymous quotes, no matter how accurate, cannot do what needs to be done.

What a guy!

2007-11-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

Jon Stewart will pay his writers' salaries (and those of the Colbert Report) while they are on strike. That way they can lobby for more pay, work and make money, and absolutely bury everyone else ratings-wise since they will be pretty much alone in producing new material - all in one go. Brilliant move on Stewart's part!

Chris Dodd YAY! Harry Reid BOOOO. BOO HISS.

2007-10-19T11:22:00.000-05:00

This could be very exciting, if you're into this type of thing...which I am, so shut up, okay? With this 'hold' on the FISA "reform" bill that's sliming its way through the Senate, Dodd has become my official favorite Presidential candidate. Except for Colbert, of course. Favorite of the Dems. I had been into Barack, and I do still like the guy. Tavis Smiley did a great interview with him last night that I was quite happy to watch. But he's done a few things I can't get over. 1) He refused to pledge that we'd be out of Iraq by the end of his first term, if he were President. WHY did he say this? Dear God, what a stupid thing to say. 2) He wants to leave troops in Iraq, to do...um, something. Stupid. Don't leave a few thousand people in a hostile, seething Iraq set to explode like a powder keg on steroid-laced crack. That is the most sure-fire way to get us re-involved in the war after we've pulled out. Dodd this whole time has kind of been in the background as the sort of candidate who doesn't really stand out right away. He's funny looking, serious, kinda old, etc. But his every vote and action in the Senate during this campaign has been dead right, and he is taking that to another level by personally putting himself on the line to prevent a bill passing into law which would immunize Telecoms which colluded with the fascists in the Bush administration to spy on American citizens without a warrant or proper legal authorization. OF COURSE these bastards should be punished with mammoth fines, and crashing stock prices. As should anyone and everyone in the Bush admin who furthered this idiotic, unnecessary venture into big-brotherhood.

And, if you read the link above, you'll notice that Harry Reid seems intent on trying to break Dodd's hold on the bill so that it can move forward. IDIOT!! I want to punch his old face. Seriously, I read some SHIT like that and it makes me just plain straight up hate the guy. What a useless old sack. I hate him. But, Dodd has also pledged to filibuster, should Reid break the hold. Dodd is becoming my political hero really quickly here. He seems to be the only candidate aware that people HATE George Bush, and only HATE Congress as much as they do because they are so craven and cowardly, basically refusing to stop or stand up to him. Dodd is leading by example, so he gets my support.

Just to continue with the Iran theme

2007-10-10T02:13:00.000-05:00

I linky now to Maureen Dowd for the first time in like, forever omygod. She's particularly and notoriously dangerous in presidential elections and as much as I find about 90% of what she writes to be superficial crap with a slightly late-to-the-party flavor, this column about the folly of Hillary Clinton's 'yes' vote on the Kyl-Lieberman bill to label Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "terrorist organization", and more importantly, linking them with attacks against US soldiers/interests in Iraq, is spot-on. Remarkably few media figures have been willing to go after Hillary for this, simply noting Edwards' and Obama's criticisms of her.

Of course, the bill is ridiculous on its face, but not nearly so much as Hillary's pathetic excuse that "labeling them a terrorist organization gives us the authority to impose sanctions on their leadership. ...I consider that part of a very robust diplomatic effort.” Diplomatic. Yeah, you freakin' idiot, that's diplomacy Bush/Cheney-style. Glad to know you plan to continue down this blind alley towards more violence and war. And for once, I applaud Dowd's stereotyping in calling Hillary out on trying to be "manly" with her votes and rhetoric. She thinks supporting Jim Webb's amendment which would demand Congressional authorization for any and all attacks on Iran will save her from this terrible decision, but it won't. In Bush and Cheney's minds, they already had justification based on the original Iraq war authorization. The language they constantly employ about Iran directly attacking US troops is no joke. Well its a joke in a sense, but they are not joking and they use this terminology very specifically for real reasons. For Hillary to vote for a bill not only declaring Iran's military to be "terrorists" but which ties an officially commissioned part of the Iranian government to our list of "enemies" in Iraq was absolutely deplorable. An unqualified abomination.

Considering the rationale she gives now for her vote in favor of war with Iraq; "If I had only known..." blah di blah, Dowd rightly brings in John Edwards stating, "...six months from now if [Bush] goes to war in Iran, are we going to hear her once again say if only I had known then what I know now?”

Unfortunately, it turns out that Barack Obama sponsored a bill labeling the RG as "terrorists" back in April. Now this is sketchy to me, because I've been following the guy's campaign pretty closely and never even heard of this. HOWEVER, it leaves out the language tying the RG to attacks in Iraq, which is significant because those are specifically the grounds that Bush and Cheney will cite as their justification for a new war, should they possess the required level of mania to actually go that route. So, while this was an unfortunate attempt to out-maneuver the Republicans on Obama's part, he wouldn't have done quite as much damage. But still, not a good sign. Obama was right in his statements about Afghanistan and Pakistan as they relate to Al Qaeda in the past, but trying to mimic the Repugs here was a big mistake. The Iran issue is just as manufactured as the Iraq issue was back in late 2002 and early 2003. Plain and simple, its bullshit.

By now, there is not a Dem. candidate for President that I'm not annoyed with. I had higher hopes for Obama, and I'm still watching, but I don't want to support someone who is making more of an effort in this day and age to be a reconciler than they are at stringing these bastards up in the public square. And no one is doing that. I don't believe in letting the past be the past. The past as its interpreted affects the future in innumerable ways. I want George Bush and Dick Cheney and EVERY SINGLE PERSON who helped them do what they have done to all of us to stand trial and hopefully, go to jail. I'm sick of this shit. Sick to death.

And as things stand now, it looks like Mrs. Clinton will be the next president. I hope there is someone who wants it bad enough to get in her way. And as long as its not Joe Biden, I'm cool with it.

Idiocy abounds on Iran

2007-09-24T14:42:00.000-05:00

It really feels as though the 'product roll-out' of conflict with Iran is reaching a crescendo, becoming increasingly fevered and irrational as a consequence, or more likely, by design. First of all, the idea that Ahmadinejad should be barred from speaking here, that Universities should feel morally ashamed to have him speak, is the most collectively childish position the US media and body politic have offered up with such force in quite a while. As Josh Marshall said, "Grow Up." This 'debate' is just plain embarrassing.

We are about to, possibly, declare war on Iran, with somehow even less evidence of wrongdoing on Iran's part or justification for our position than there was with Iraq! Escalation of tensions with Iran has been a predictable, self-fulfilling prophecy as a consequence of the invasion of occupation of Iraq. To my mind, this is most blatantly evidenced by the fact that anyone who didn't want such a thing to happen, and who had their mind set on invading Iraq, would have been simply nuts to fail to initiate immediate, improved relations and increased aid with a neighboring government which would inevitably become the ally of Iraq's new government once the Shia majority voted. The only reason not to take action to secure improved relations with Iran, regardless of who was in charge of what there was the lunatic hope of the NeoCons, based on their wholesale misunderstanding of Islamic culture and regional political, social and ethnic matters, that a US - friendly Iraq would immediately destabilize Iran. It should be noted that Ahmadinejad is not in charge of Iran's military forces, and despite Columbia University President Lee Bollinger referring to him as having "...all the signs of being a petty and cruel dictator" (certainly true at times, but so does our President), he is the democratically elected President of Iran - his political rule is not questionable in the sense that Saddam Hussein's was. Or any of the (Sunni) Saudi government, for that matter. I just mention them since there is actual proof that Saudis [1] support the (Sunni) insurgents in Iraq with money and weaponry. As opposed to (Shia) Iran who have relations with some (Shia) groups in Iraq including Muqtada Al-Sadr's Madhi Army - who are not as easily classified as "the enemy" (since they are friendly with the government we support and prop up there!) as the insurgents - who are not Al-Qaeda but rather the remnants of the disbanded Iraqi army and a large range of Sunnis sympathetic to the Baath party which the US removed from power.

That's all kind of jumbled, but I'll summarize: we're accusing Iran of assisting the Iraqi "terrorists" in attacking US troops. We have no tangible evidence of this, every so-called 'smoking gun' in this vein of reporting has turned out to be crap. We know that the government of Iran is not allied with Iraq's Sunni insurgency, while we also know that they have received at least some amount of aid by individuals from Saudi Arabia who are not, as far as I can tell, being rounded up by their own government and prosecuted. What am I missing here? Other than the creepily cozy relationship between the Bush royal family and the Saudi royal family? Wait, nothing? Oh, ok. Not to say that certain Iranians haven't ever done anything nasty in Iraq, I'm sure there have been isolated incidents, as there have been with individuals from many different nations. Iraq has truly drawn in a lot of foreign fighters, but analysis consistently shows they are a majority of Saudis. But we never hear an ominous word about them on the nightly news. We're worried about Iran befriending the new Iraqi government on the one hand, while we want to turn around and also claim that increasingly normalized relations between the two are progress and a sign that things are going better. Amazing.

As far as the argument that Iran is seeking to make nuclear weapons, I covered that largely in my last post, but since I've heard this repeated today, at least 500 times while watching coverage of Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia on MSNBC, there's simply no evidence, again. "Experts" on the news keep claiming, year after year, that Iran is several years off from being able to make a weapon, but that they are a dire threat now who must be confronted. Nonsense! Ridiculous. As far as the data at this link from my post below shows, Iran has for around a year now, had the capacity to produce weapons, but according to IAEA inspections, has done no such thing. It is complete nonsense when some "expert" goes on TV and says that Iran can't yet make nukes but has shown intention to develop and use them. They could have already, but haven't - bottom line.

This leaves us on the brink of war with a country because of Iran's sponsorship of "terrorism", and because one of their more significant public spokesmen has made confusing and ill-advised comments about the holocaust in combination with his attempts to discuss the Israel / Palestine conflict. It is alleged that Ahmadinejad has said that Israel should by "...wiped off the map", but this turns out to be a case of selective translation and confusion of metaphors. Obviously, Ahmadinejad is not an ally of the right-wing Israeli government and its policies regarding the occupied territories. Few in the Muslim world are, no matter what sect or ethnicity. Then there is the allegation that Ahmadinejad has denied that the holocaust took place. Whether he has said exactly that or things which imply it or rely on the truth thereof to reinforce subsequent points, it is true that he does seem genuinely sympathetic to the point of view that the holocaust has been greatly historically exaggerated, at least. And this is certainly a contemptible, awful view for such a powerful person to hold. Today at Columbia, he stated that "given that" the holocaust happened, it happened in Europe, so why are Palestinians paying for Europeans' slaughter of the Jewish people? Which is subsequently quite a difficult point to argue, regardless of what ignorant, ahistorical views he might hold.

As far as terrorism, it is difficult to truly analyze. The global weapons trade on the whole is a strange example of the entire world, pretty much, coming together; democracy or dictatorship, rich or poor, and terrorizing ourselves and each other for the profit of a very small few, at the expense of millions of lives per year all across the globe. There are no glass houses here, and no perfect throwers of righteous stones. I'm sure Iran does business of all kinds with Hezbullah for various purposes, some nefarious and some not at all. I'm sure they fund terrorists in the occupied territories, and do all kinds of shady stuff. Most of the local governments do. But Iran has never invaded another country, and has at least 20,000 Jewish citizens who are represented in the government. The idea that an Iranian-led slaughter of Jews is at hand is insanely hyperbolic. No such thing is happening or is about to happen.

A large part of the US media narrative about why Ahmadinejad, and subsequently Iran, is so dangerous is the conflation of the two above-mentioned points of view, with alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. One of these claims (that Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the map") is demonstrably untrue ('wiped off the map' is simply not an operative metaphor in Persian), and that the holocaust is "a myth" which he has actually suggested. The argument is that he is developing nuclear weapons (which Iran is demonstrably not currently doing, despite their capacity to do so) in order to "wipe Israel off the map" (which he never said) because their country was placed over top of Palestine as a result of the "mythical" holocaust. It adds up to a terrifying scenario if you take each point and simply believe it in the most non-analytical manner possible, but it doesn't hold up as a cohesive whole under scrutiny.

So the argument for war with Iran boils down to - they support Hezbullah, and their President, who isn't in charge of their military, takes seriously the idea that the holocaust either didn't take place or has been exaggerated. Do we strategically think Iran is worse for supporting Hezbullah and being friends with their natural allies in now Shia-ruled Iraq than we think Saudi Arabia is for at least their passive support of the Sunni insurgents who are the actual "enemy" in Iraq? Why? What the hell does Hezbullah have to do with the war in Iraq? As far as Iran supplying weapons to the Madhi army - well that's the fucking free market at work, isn't it? Entirely predictable. Free trade, motherfuckers. Besides, however many weapons Iran has sold to various Shia militias, it still can't be nearly as many as we've simply lost or failed to secure in the first place. We have a larger role (just one example) in supplying the insurgency with the ability to kill our troops than Iran has had. The US seems to not understand that we have no business being in Iraq, let alone threatening Iran or others for their handling of the disastrous outgrowths of our bad foreign policy decisions.

[1] So far limited to "private citizens" - and while this CS Monitor article doesn't apparently research whether any of those citizens have significant ties to either the government or terrorist networks, it does restate Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal's pledge to intervene in Iraq on behalf of the Sunnis should the US withdraw and ethnic cleansing begin

France talking war with Iran???

2007-09-16T22:59:00.000-05:00

Ugh, how annoying it is to have a genuine right wing government in France now! A French foreign minister is warning the world at large, one can only assume at the behest of Nicolas Sarkozy, to "prepare for the worst, and the worst is war."

Come on, y'all. The whole 'starting senseless wars in the middle east' thing has worked out unbelievably well for US, true, but don't be caught out trying so hard to be like us. Its very unbecoming. Let's see what countries, exactly, despite this guy's mentioning of "Our good friends, the Germans..." are on board for a war with Iran. Even with US Naval and Air Force support. What the hell are they hoping to accomplish? You could pay them off for so much less! Don't be like Joe Lieberman.

This article is very optimistic, from Iran's point of view, about how long it would take Iran to create a viable nuclear weapon, and how many they could make with what they already have. And while the info within seems alarming, they have apparently had the ability to build several bombs per year for about a year now but have not in fact done so. Why all the alarm now? They are signatories of the Nonproliferation Treaty, if they were serious about a program that they knew couldn't avoid detection, which almost no effective program really can, they would publicly withdraw. And as loony as he may be, the president of Iran was democratically elected. You can't even pretend to make the 'spreading Democracy' argument here. Do France and Germany know something the rest of the world doesn't know?

War with Iran would be all about preventing them, through increasingly restrictive measures, from doing something they've had the ability to do for a while now but haven't, with nothing in particular offered in return. NeoCons simply do not know how to haggle. I can't wait until smirking, playground-bully antagonism is no longer an accurate description of anyone's foreign policy views about legitimate problems of security and diplomacy.

important

2007-08-04T22:13:00.000-05:00

now this is news. i h a d n o i d e a h e w a s i n d e e p p u r p l e . ngh, nnnnggggguuuhhhh.

what were they waiting for?

2007-07-31T20:58:00.000-05:00

Finally, the UN authorizes a peacekeeping force for Darfur. It's only been, what, 5 years? More? Eeek!!! It shouldn't take that long to make a decision like this. A small force (it's est. that about 26,000 will be sent) is all that was ever needed, and thousands upon thousands of lives could have been saved. But too late is better than never, and here's to the lives that are going to be spared as a result.

what the?

2007-07-30T11:10:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty scary article about Lake Superior. Something strange seems to be happening to it - water level has dropped a foot (!!!) in the past year (!), it's warming at an alarming rate; faster than the area in general has warmed in the past 30 years...

I guess I really didn't know how large the Great Lakes are - Lake Superior is said to be about the size of South Carolina. That's a big lake! How could such a large body of water be changing so quickly, at much faster rates than even the least conservative estimates that global warming would specify? I'm guessing some sort of strange geothermal development. Maybe the water is being warmed from below, and some has drained out of the bottom, rather than evaporating off on top. But really, I don't know jack sh#t about any of this, that just seems like a fun guess to me. Either way its pretty sketchy though...

Feel safer

2007-07-12T14:14:00.000-05:00

Oh my god, this is just insane! What the hellllllll?

He's not as big in Britain...

2007-07-12T01:29:00.001-05:00

Well at least the story of New York City firefighters leveling serious criticisms which cut to the heart of Rudolph Giuliani's supposed 'strength' - leadership, is front page news in some country (at the time of the writing of the post it was the main story on the BBC News website). I just looked at the New York Times website front page as it will appear tomorrow morning, barring some emergency or whatever, and the headline is "Bush to Declare Progress in Iraq on Some Benchmarks". Don't bother reading the article unless you want to bore yourself. While not a complete suckjob, it doesn't simply convey the President's point of view and then immediately trash him, which is the only form I could imaging proper coverage of this issue assuming. I mean, wasn't it just two days or so ago that it was announced that Iraq had in fact, officially achieved exactly none of the benchmarks which were supposed to have been met by now? (hint - yes, yes it was) And the picture on the front page is some baseball crap. Yup.

I worry greatly about Giuliani's candidacy, and I think he will end up the Republican nominee. He has already weathered scandals which would have ended many candidacies. Polls this far out don't really mean much other than name recognition, but that means a lot more on the R side than it does on the D side of things. Giuliani is banking on the idea that enough people out there want to hear someone talk like George Bush, without being George Bush, to get him elected. And he really may be right about that. Even when part of the mythology of Rudy & the Firefighters! is effectively neutralized, the US media pays scant attention to the matter. "These must be liberal, extremist firefighters", I'm sure we'll eventually hear. If this guy can retain support despite the divorces (one with his third cousin), his affair which got him kicked out of Gracie Mansion, the subsequent public humiliation of his former wife and children, his own children's refusal to support him, his support of limited gay rights, his 'support' of abortion rights (don't forget his pledge to nominate Supreme Court justices along the lines of Roberts and Alito - the guy is actually trying to win both sides of the abortion debate here), being directly associated with Bernie Kerik, Thomas Ravenel and David Vitter, and complete lack of any real foreign policy or national security experience (including his being caught having no idea what the difference is between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam and repeated referencing of Al-Qaeda / government ties in Iran!), then you've got to start to believe that this guy is politically indestructible. Will all of this crap eventually catch up with him?

It may, but then who? Romney? His support is a shell. He has lots of money, and very few actual supporters. And he strapped his dog to the roof of his car for a 12 hour drive! I'm sure you all know about that one by now though. Thompson? Somehow I just don't see it happening. The Republicans have an almost cute sort of desperate hope that he will swoop them all away into the rapture with a stunning display of Reaganesque charisma. However, with his disquieting looks (he resembles a reanimated corpse even more than McCain does), dreadful public speaking abilities, abysmal record as a Senator and lobbying work for various causes unpopular with the conservative base, he has a lot of baggage to overcome. And let's face it, he just doesn't have that "I'm a f*ck$ng hero and I will SCREAM IT IN YOUR FACE OVER AND OVER!" quality that Rudy has. As Richard Nixon said of Thompson while he was effectively working, on Nixon's side, as a mole during Watergate, he is "...dumb as hell," as opposed to being deliberately insane in the way Rudy and Romney are. McCain is right out. Its going to be Rudy. And he will be really tough to beat. And he could, very realistically, be even more dangerous than George Bush & Co.

Conservatives re-assert themselves, with QGusto!!!

2007-06-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

I was just watching the Daily Show, and Lewis Black did his 'Back in Black' segment the topic of which was; conservative takes on the 'new media'. He cited 'Conservapedia'...pretty much describes itself. The next one was the new conservative YouTube, which is called QubeTV. And the logo of the company, well just look at it...

Somehow, I suspect there's a mole somewhere in this operation!

I mean really...

While the whole point of the segment was that nearly all of the vids on QubeTV were simply links directly to YouTube, I think he missed the real story. Although that is pretty funny too.

what is it?

2007-05-27T14:44:00.000-05:00

seriously, what is the problem that men around the world have with men who like men? things are bad in the US sure, but read this article about gay activists in Russia. what the fuck? holding a rally to ask permission to have a gay pride parade is still enough to cause riots in most countries. and instead of having laws, politicians and police to keep order, gays in Russia have all of those elements working directly against them. much like things were once here (and still are in too many places), but in a society with even more of a tolerance for violence than ours. its truly sad, and hey, isn't Russia a country where these silly clowns are famous? what is it about men who love other men that makes people use words like "pervert", "satanic", etc? why?

oddest part of the article:

Richard Fairbrass, a gay singer with the British pop group Right Said Fred, was punched in the face and kicked by anti-gay activists while speaking to Reuters in an interview.
"We understand this is a gay event and so we came down here today," Fairbrass said before being hit. Blood dripped from his face after the attack.

i think i remember those guys being pretty buff, hopefully he got in a couple good punches of his own. i mean, shit man, he's getting punched and kicked - while being interviewed by Reuters! what is wrong with people?

sad vindication

2007-05-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I had to shut the fuck up for a while. But now its time to blah blah again, because there are things afoot I need to scream about some, in whatever way would prevent complaints from the neighbors. A little while ago, back in, ummm, December, I was ranting about the need to remove Harry Reid from the leadership role, as I have been prone to do ever since Harry Reid became the Dem. Senate leader. I wish this was a longer video clip, but Keith Olbermann gives all the necessary vitriol the Dems have coming and more here.

Again on display in this episode, if this happens as it is set to play out, is Harry Reid's magical ability to give away teh farm for free, before anyone's even offered to buy. What, what...how is this happening? Stephen Colbert was being too generous when he described Reid one night as being "...hung like an aphid." The clip linked above doesn't have a lot of the money quotes from Keith's rant, but among other things he called for the removal of Reid, Hoyer and Pelosi from their positions "if this is the best they can do."

Amazing. Somehow the whole dialog is now about 'what's going to happen in September?' Ooooooh, September! The special pixie faerie month when magical things will happen...somehow, in some way different than they are right now! IDIOTS! How many elections are there between now and September? None. How many seats will change between now and then? Depends how many sitting officeholders die over the summer! Weee. September will come, things will be the same, and the same god damned thing will happen again.

Ooohh, this went up during the time I spent writing this post. There's a bit more here, full video segment in the comments, and hopefully some of the more candid Dkos discussion than has been on display recently. Sometimes you do have to get mad at your own. I know its important to elect a Dem in '08, but these are the kind of decisions that will characterize a politician from their happening on out. Right now the only candidates using at least the correct analytical framework about the current Iraq situation are Dodd and Edwards. Tonight was too long for Hillary and Obama to make people wait for a forceful statement about the need to cease giving the accursed George W. Bush what he wants every time he throws a tantrum. The Dems have myriad tools as their disposal to undercut the Republicans, cut the funding by a date specific - via refusal to vote on any appropriations bill which doesn't either include mandatory withdrawal timelines or reinforcement of timelines which have already been made law. While the latter is unlikely to occur, there is no excuse for not attempting the former, time and time again, until the clock runs out, or Bush caves. What about this isn't completely obvious to our elected officials?

Finally!

2006-12-19T15:08:00.000-05:00

There will be a Second Ave. Subway! And all along I just thought it was a BS rumor that wouldn't die, oh me of little faith! I'll probably be old and grey by the time its opening but whatever. Now, if someone could just fix the Brooklyn subway system in general so that you can actually get from place to place in a useful manner. There needs to be an Astoria - LIC - Greenpoint - Williamsburg - Park Slope line. Scrap the G if need be and make something better. It sucks as is.

Arrrghhh, why???

2006-12-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

Why, why why did Harry Reid remain the Senate Minority Leader after the awful job he did corralling the Dems on the Military Commissions Act? Everyone got all warm and fuzzy after the elections and forgot that this guy is basically a clown who gets something right every once in a while. Similarly to how he bargained away the Dems' right to a fillibuster during voting on the MCA, he is now, arrrggghhhh!!! saying that he is open to the idea of a "surge" of troops in Iraq. IDIOT!!! There is NO, none, not any public support for this. There is no bargaining chip on the other side being played to draw out such a concession. And there is no, zero, none, not any anticipated benefit from doing so, just increased casualties on both sides. What is with giving into incredibly unpopular points of view, which also happen to be incredibly bad ideas, out of some sense of a need to "play nice" with the fucking ignominious Republicans? Reid says that the surge would be backed with plans to begin troop withdrawals by early 2008. Yeah, that's what always happens. Escalating in the hopes that if you escalate enough, it will create "order". Not going to happen in Iraq, and last time I checked, George W. Bush will still be President in early 2008, meaning there will be no withdrawing of jack shit until early 2009 when someone else takes over. Provided that person hasn't promised to stay forever and fight as some sort of romantic gesture to appease John McCain. And by that I mean to say, I believe that John McCain has no chance in '08 as long as he advocates this ridiculous and incredibly harmful idea that we need more troops in Iraq in order to keep people around the world from knowing that we've "lost". Everyone knows it already, and the public won't support it. Lucky for him though, the Dems are almost always ready to just give in before a real fight even occurs, no matter what the voting public wants.

Increasing the size of US forces in Iraq will simply lead to more troops there. It will not precipitate a drop in violence that will result in a grand withdrawal and "victory". It just means we get that much closer in terms of Vietnam analogies. And again, Reid, who is about to assume the role of Senate Majority Leader, is just giving this point away to the Republicans for NO strategic reason.

ahhh Ken Starr

2006-12-04T10:51:00.001-05:00

Faithfully protecting us unwashed Americans from the blowjobs and bong-hits that we are unable to protect ourselves from. Thanks, Ken!

hope it was fun while it lasted

2006-11-28T19:44:00.000-05:00

How am I supposed to not comment on this? I know the dudes from Queens who got way shot up in a strip club parking lot are grabbing all the headlines right now, but whenever something scandalous happens in Minnesota, its usually weird enough to pay attention to. I take a certain amount of comfort in the fact that a scandal like this can even occur these days. Take their weird poll too; I answered 'not sure' to both questions. It was very rewarding.

They have only begun to annoy us

2006-11-22T09:46:00.000-05:00

Oh dear God, I can already feel a thousand retarded sound bites and sour, self-serving "woe is me" slogans coming on. Its always been obvious that Marshall Wittmann has a man-crush the size of a red dwarf star on Joe Lieberman, but now he's officially managed to climb into bed with Droopy as his new spokesman. Its a thought almost too horrible to contemplate. The Times goes out of their way to praise Wittmann, while also, perhaps unintentionally, illustrating what a logically-challenged, anchorless sucker he is for anyone who can properly use the word "independent" in a sentence.

To say that Mr. Wittmann defies classification is like saying Paris Hilton defies modesty. But in his peripatetic soul, he is a Washington Original, a man without a political country going to work for a senator without a political party...a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between — including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position.

Yeah, try to make sense of that. Wait, don't, thinking too much about it may cause your brain to dribble slowly out of your eye sockets. He "defies classification"? I don't know. I would classify him simply as a gross opportunist with no core beliefs who's main goal in life seems to be to demonstrate that he is capable of supporting and advocating nearly anything at any given time. Or is he an overgrown baby, as evidenced by his need to refer to himself in the third person as "the Bull Moose", with so feeble an intellect that he can't actually forumlate a core belief system? Maybe it is harder than I thought. Either way, its no surprise that he's ended up working for Lieberman. I've mined this territory before, but I can't resist referring to Matt Taibbi's letter to Wittmann (who was threatening to run for head of the DNC to stave off the candidacy of Howard Dean) from early last year which opens thusly -

Dear Fuckhead,
No, I don't think you should run for the chair of the Democratic Party. I think you should get into your car, check into the nearest dingy motel, eat one last cheeseburger and blow your brains out.

Come on, Mr. Moose! Taibbi is an independent, can't you get behind this one?

He will also be forced to suspend [his website] the Bull Moose. “The Moose is now in hibernation,” Mr. Wittmann said, adding that he is not certain if moose in fact hibernate. (They do not.)

Marshall Wittmann; the hibernating moose of American politics. Would Dick Cheney please take this guy on a hunting trip?

Greatness

2006-11-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

How cool, Eric Alterman gives some recognition to this article about Eqbal Ahmad, one of my intellectual heroes under whom I was lucky enough to study briefly at school. For the four or five people who read this silly blog, if you haven't already, read Eqbal's 'Terrorism: Theirs and Ours' article, its prescient to a degree that few other, if any, scholars would have been able to achieve. It always surprises me how relatively unknown Ahmad has remained, considering how many things he was dead right about, which was, as far as I can tell, nearly everything he bothered to spend time talking about.

Near the end of the Nation article, one of Eqbal's former students recalls his story about visiting the site of the Haymarket Riot - she may have been in the class that I was in I don't remember, but I do remember that story well. What a great in-person storyteller he was...

I found this part of the article somewhat incoherent though -

Islamic fundamentalists, although they had little trouble raising their voices, only spoke for a minority; the majority of Muslims, Ahmad believed, had their faces turned to the future even as they remained rooted in the past. As he pointed out, the political heroes of the Muslim world in the twentieth century had been "secular, generally Westernized individuals": Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Pakistan, Sukarno in Indonesia, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia and the nine "historic chiefs" of the Algerian Revolution. Even the PLO, he added, claimed to represent a "secular and democratic" polity, and "two of its three most prominent leaders [Marxist leaders George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh] are Christian."

Accurate as this analysis was for much of the twentieth century, it seems incongruous today when much of the region that so concerned Ahmad seethes with a passion that is defiantly unsecular. Muslim anger has, of course, been stoked by America's war in Iraq and by Israel's brutal policies toward Palestine and Lebanon. Still, this cannot explain why radical Islam (with its various branches, tendencies and strategies) has managed to co-opt the anti-imperial struggle in the Muslim world--and why, by contrast, the Third World Marxism that Ahmad embodied so brilliantly has been unable to offer existential comfort or a successful political program to the masses.

I think that the history of all of this bears out Ahmad's view in the first place. Most of the writings of secular Muslim scholars still proclaim that violent jihadists are a loud and deadly minority, and I think that there should be much more effort within the US media to echo the truth of this. Guns and bombs and anti-"evildoers" slogans are not going to be what silences the violence. Political solutions to genuine problems such as poverty, unemployment, class disparity and totalitarian rule engineered by secular Muslims will be. It should come as little surprise to anyone that Third World Marxism hasn't swept through the Middle East and magically, nonviolently solved these deeply embedded problems through rhetorical force alone. The author's problem here is that their view of the Muslim world seems largely informed by the US media. Come on, this is a big no-no here! The US media only covers those who are "seething", and only discusses violence in an after-the-fact "oh my God look at the carnage!" manner. Americans don't know or understand jack crap about this part of the world on the whole, as evidenced most grossly by originally fairly high levels of support for the invasion of Iraq based on the idea that we would be welcomed there. And really, to believe such a thing, you had to know just about nothing about Iraq, US Foreign Policy history, and the Islamic World all at once. It will be a great step in the direction of peace and understanding for our country when the US media starts giving real air time to the views of informed, educated Muslims. Not to say there haven't been well educated terrorists, there have, such as Mohammed Atta. But the author notes Eqbal Ahmad's educational credentials without noting the lack of access to education the most poor - and therefore violent - segments of the Muslim world experience. A whole generation of Iraqis will feel this in an especially painful manner despite all of the manufactured "look at all the schools we're building" stories that were bouncing around for a while. Intellectuals are fleeing the country in great numbers, the infrastructure is way messed up, and the ongoing violence makes the learning of anything short of immediate survival techniques nearly impossible. That's why these problems aren't getting visibly better despite increased attention - we are actively making them worse through bad policy and willful ignorance.

Defense Poodle

2006-11-10T19:26:00.000-05:00

So if anyone wonders if there will be any real change what with the resignation of crazy Don Rumsfeld, don't hold your breath for too long. You can hold it a little. As that will be the extent to which BushCo. will change with this. Robert Gates isn't a NeoCon per se, but he's not that far from being one. The Iran-Contra scandal; he was apparently about shoulder-deep. At least. Tristero over at Hullabaloo gives just about all the inf o you really need to know about the guy though as an appointee. Regardless of whatever work he did for the CIA, he hasn't been involved with the US Military since the 60's in any employed capacity. Which makes me worry that he shares one of Rumsfeld's worst characteristics - complete unfamiliarity with the inner-workings of and political forces within the military. At least he wouldn't share crazy Don's hatred of the CIA (& vice versa) which is important right now. The Defense Department headed by Rummy has been nothing but antagonistic towards the CIA, and this makes for extra-bad government all around.

He hasn't been appointed due to his qualifications, surprise surprise. Bush is flailing around these days, looking for anything to grasp onto. His attention has turned to his father's allies which makes a lot of sense. They were in this territory before, and managed to keep from impaling themselves on a guerilla war through hubris and misplaced confidence. The NeoCons always cited as a flaw of Bush Sr.'s Iraq policy that he and his advisors encouraged a Shia uprising against Saddam and then abandoned them to be slaughtered in the aftermath of the Gulf War. They thought via their alliance with Ahmad Chalabi, that they could right this wrong. But by now, Bush is asking around, saying "...anyone remember exactly how we did that the first time? Could you go over there and do it again, purdy please?" When he learns (and he really does appear to still not understand this) that the 'Insurgents' are the Sunni who had ruled the country previously under Saddam, and that this time they would be left to be crushed by the Shia government which will precipitate when we leave, along with whatever influence Iran brings to bear in the interest of having a Shia ally next door, it will reaffirm his faith in himself as a strategic genius. He will have "balanced out" his father's screwups, rather than potentially fomenting the ascension of an extreme totalitarian state allied with, rather than a counter-balance to, Iran.

Death of a nursery rhyme

2006-11-10T10:16:00.000-05:00

Holy crap! How long before we get to see Rush Limbaugh's exaggerated Stevie Wonder impersonation?

and the results are...Awesome!!!

2006-11-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! Couldn't have gone much better overall. Only real sore spot is f-in' Lieberman's lying ass getting sent back by CT voters for whatever reason - name recognition primarilly I'm guessing. Dems control the House! Yay, hooray for subpeona power! Dems WILL control the Senate by 1 vote! Yay hooray for being able to force Bush's hand finally! Don Rumsfeld is goooone. Don't expect any of his disastrous policies to change right away, but still! The lapdogs and attack poodles are trying to spin this as a victory primarilly for "conservative Dems" but this is pure crap-ola. Obvious to anyone paying attention, but most people don't really pay attention. Dems won 6 governorships, kicked a great deal of ass in State Legislatures - there is only 1 Republican Congressman now remaining in the entire Northeast! Hehe, that's right, FUCK YOU you spineless, pea-brained fans of George Bush! FUCK you with a red-hot pitchfork.

A Common Struggle

2006-11-07T14:09:00.000-05:00

Billy Bragg pens a nice 'Comment Is Free' OpEd in the Guardian. Its about immigration and cultural identity in England, but largely applies here as well to the current "debate" over Immigration.

To counter those who exploit fear in order to divide communities, we urgently need to highlight the common threads that bind us as a society.

he says. Too bloody right. What a cool guy he is...

Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

2006-11-03T15:38:00.000-05:00

You must read the Stewart / Colbert interview (excerpts here) by Modo in Rolling Stone. I'm still mad at Modo, but this is all so cute! Highlights of the interview:

_____________________________________________

MODO: Your shows are like mirrors within mirrors, using a cycle of fakery to get to the truth. You've tapped into a sense in society that nothing, from reality shows to Bushworld, is real anymore. Do you guys ever get confused by your hall of mirrors?
STEWART: I didn't know we were going to have to be high to do this interview.
_____________________________________________

COLBERT and STEWART in unison: His dad was a goat-herder!
_____________________________________________

MODO: The other night you were joking that Bush could woo CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux with a down-home combination of "wild flowers and date rape.''
__________________________________________

The Big Empty

2006-11-03T15:04:00.000-05:00

Shiver me timbers, fer how long have Aye wished upon the evenin' starrr that there were no blasted fish in the Ocean? If I can just make it to 2048 my wish could come true! Marrrrk your calendars! Ar.

Another closet case explodes in public

2006-11-02T22:20:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

So awesome. Fu-u-u-u-u-ck this guy.

update 11/3 - HA! He was "meth curious". Ha! And of course the rest of his story just logically follows from there. Who hasn't semi-accidentally bought meth off their "masseuse" who is of course someone for whom you have a clash-of-civilizations-level hatred? Damn, this guy is a laugh machine! And, he kinda looks like Mark Foley, except more like Skeletor...

Kill Them

2006-11-01T03:21:00.000-05:00

Blah blah John Kerry said blah blah.

This post by Kos is 100% grrreat. Not so much even in terms of the content, but the tone. I watched bunch of news shows today, CNN & MSNBC. They were uniformly depressing especially in dealing with Kerry's "blunder" or whatever yesterday. God, I watched this SHIT and found myself eventually just yelling at my television "Are You That DUMB Really???" This was directed particularly at Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs. I can't think of two more STUPID people who have such a proportion of influence on the mainstream media as these two. Seriously by now it just hurts whenever these people talk. People care about Iraq, not this silly ancillary semantic game of Blah blah John Kerry said blah blah.

Science fiction... ... ...has betrayed them!

2006-10-27T16:30:00.000-05:00

This shit is hilarious. These guys can't even get being a SciFi nerd right. Or a LOTR nerd for that matter. Which should surprise no one really, but at least hopefully self-congratulatory conservatives who are/were into this stuff will just shut the fuck up about it from now on. God, talk about annoying! "The Cylons are like the Islamofascists and yada yada imaretard!"

BSG has got to be the hands down best-looking show on TV. Quality of content varies a bit, but it sure is shot and edited all purdy.

Lovely

2006-10-21T02:53:00.000-05:00

Its those nice Norwegian gay animals!

pigs in space

2006-10-18T19:28:00.000-05:00

This story is not getting very much news coverage but its big, and its really just insane as well. I mean, really. Which is the first galaxy that wants to fuck with us? Ha ha, just kidding. The weapons that the US will eventually develop and deploy will be pointed right back here at Earth. Plenty of enemies here, thank you very much.

update 10/20 - this NYTimes editorial weighs in.

'Cid Jones, wacky torturer

2006-10-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

Dammitall, the CIA has resumed MKULTRA, it appears, and we're only finding out now!?! I've been asking around for over a year! 'course, I don't really "know" anyone who could have confirmed such a thing, but still...

The Padilla case (sorry so much wikipedia, but hey, its easy...) it just never ceases to be mind-bogglingly FUCKED UP!!! First they use him to help set the precedent to kill Habeas Corpus, then somewhere in there they started dosing him, then they royally fucked up the prosecution. The only thing left that needs to happen to this guy is an actual black metal trapezoid of considerable size labeled "16 tons" falling on his head out of nowhere.

Shadyside

2006-10-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Ha! Screw Mark Foley, this is how conservative politicians should mess with young, impressionable men.

Is it just me, or is there a strange convergence taking place in the plotlines of Republican politics and the Sopranos? Seriously, they're all so repressed and insane that I would certainly have guessed that there were a number of sick predators amongst them. But they've really gone much more 'Johnnycakes' than even I would have guessed...

Closer to the truth

2006-10-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

No consolation here, but the recent "unnecessary death" tolls for Iraqi civilians putting the number in the low tens of thousands - I don't even have a specific source here, I just remember seeing several newscasts/debates in which 20 - 30,000 was tossed around as an accurate number - have been obvious bullshit to anyone paying any attention. The widely-cited Lancet story from fall 2004 that civilian deaths had topped 100,000 was tossed aside with relative speed. And though the methodology is arguably not ideal (and what methodology could be? the US is too cowardly to keep count, and the Iraqi gov't has no ability to do it) it was also based on more solid math than the out-of-one's-ass numbers that get held up as "news" in the American press. Well, here's the Lancet again making some waves with a new estimate of a staggering 600,000 unnecessary civilian deaths to date. The Wall Street Journal, the NY Times and the Wash. Post are all going to be running this figure tomorrow if this DKos diary is correct. The US, if this is true or even reasonably accurate, has killed 2.5% of the population of Iraq since our invasion. Let that number sink in for a while.

It should be noted that "unnecessary deaths" does not mean direct violence, although it includes those figures as well. These are deaths which would have been preventable outside of a state of war, had the US never invaded. This can be anything from elderly people dying of heat due to lack of power, increased infant mortality due to the destruction & misuse of hospitals, etc across the board. Not that any of that makes any one of these lives any less precious.

2.5% of the country of Iraq, dead. That's war, folks.

update - what she says

New York's next Governor

2006-10-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

On gay marriage: "We will make it law in New York."

the Children

2006-10-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

In light of some recent stories, you gotta feel really good about the fact that this piece of legislative dung passed the House recently on a voice vote. Its about time!

How long before the Republicans introduce legislation specifically allowing for the torture of children? Current laws are probably too "vague", the nation needs some brilliant Republican to step up and delineate exactly where "naughty" and "torture" overlap each other...

Politicians

2006-09-28T17:47:00.000-05:00

the first 8 months...

2006-09-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

This segment from Countdown is 10x as compelling as anything in Farenheit 9/11. It is must watchy.

Weakness

2006-09-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

Disgusting

I could just scream

Here's more. I don't understand Hunter's caveat at the end, we all know that the Bush administration is fine with rape and sexual humiliation as interrogation techniques. and as a great way to "let off some steam" according to Rush Limbaugh. you can parse these things too much, especially when you are talking about rape and torture being codified into our laws. and when you are talking about the transfer of the ability to interpret the Geneva Conventions from the Judicial to the Executive Branch, making George Bush the official arbiter as to what is and isn't rape and torture.

Harry Reid has to go as Senate Minority leader. If you can't get a filibuster together to prevent codifying rape and torture into law, you just don't have what it takes. Looks like in this case Reid bargained away the right to even attempt a filibuster, for NOTHING. The Dems. who ~~refused to~~ let it be known beforehand that they would not support a filibuster in this case must be outed as soon as possible, and hung the fuck out to dry.

update - here are the ones up for re-election this fall

Be really angry

2006-09-26T09:58:00.000-05:00

Keith again. Seriously, this is amazing. Although his reference to Tokyo Rose is historically inaccurate.

Ew

2006-09-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

Ew.

Lopsided debate

2006-09-25T09:17:00.000-05:00

If you care, and if you haven't seen it yet, watch Bill Clinton vs. Chris Wallace. Oh, its beautiful! "You've got that little smirk on your face, you think you're so clever..." This is how its done! Don't just fight, win, and make the other guy look like an idiot. Then sit back and start asking questions of your own.

I can't tell if this is good news or not...

2006-09-25T09:04:00.000-05:00

For $4000 you can now get hypoallergenic cats from a San Diego based company. They claim its nothing weird, just selective breeding with cats who happen to have low concentrations of a certain protein that causes allergic reactions.

The Allerca kittens which are sold spayed or neutered will also come with a micro chip installed as pet insurance.

That's a puzzling sentence, no? What the hell does that mean, 'pet insurance'? What does a microchip have to do with it? So you can track the cat by satellite? I guess that's a good idea, but really, what branch of law enforcement is going to use their equipment to track runaway cats?

No idea, but write about it anyway!

2006-09-20T16:58:00.000-05:00

The folks at Gawker are getting their stupid on today. With no background and no context they generalize that Liberal magazines are as or more intollerant than hyperconservative magazines. Why? Because the idiot Brendan Nyhan (formerly of the fact-challenged 'Spinsanity' website) wrote a bunch of totally false, baseless shit which he was then called out on. And yeah, various "liberal" commentors really let him have it, and he deserved it too. Then you find fancier-than-thou people who, while totally liberal, are uncomfortable being called such or identifying as such (I guess the Gawker people are getting Ana Marie Cox disease or something...), condemning the "left" for not allowing "even-handed"-ness in the discourse. Meaning, not allowing false accusations to stand unchallenged. Which "the left" should just shut up and accept, right?

God y'all are retarded. Put down the coke tray, ok, and try reading before you make yourselves look stupid! Whatever, its not like anyone reads Gawker for political insight. But still, its just annoying to have read this story / exchange from the get-go, and then see it twisted this way in some bullshit attempt at bipartisanship. All just to defend an ill-qualified 'journalist' who got his facts all wrong in the first place. Ughhh.

another war

2006-09-19T09:54:00.000-05:00

Looks like this is happening, and has been for a little while to varying degrees. Combine what you see at that link now with this bit about the Navy receiving "Prepare to deploy" orders...

We're getting all the same hysteria, baseless accusations of nearly weaponized nukes ready to be deployed, yada yada. We're going to war with Iran, because George Bush thinks it will save his Presidency. I really, really hope this ends up not happening, it will be an unprecedented disaster, especially if some of our (tenuous at best) allies in the region decide this is too much for them. And there is no doubt that some of them will be making such a decision.

update - it just gets better and better, weeeee

Yyyyyyyyikes!!!!

2006-09-18T15:09:00.000-05:00

Ugh, just look. It would hurt too much to really write about...

How does he do it?

2006-09-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

Willie Nelson has one iron liver! He's gotta find a way to pay off the cops though, seriously. I guess they got a grumpy one. Oh well, I don't think that this is the kind of thing that really does Willie Nelson any harm, he'll just float into court, talk all smooth and nice and they'll let him go. I mean, really, can't we add in some age limits for arrests within the drug laws? Can anyone seriously make a case that he's going to do anything other than sit around on his bus and get retarded with his friends? Maybe he should look into a private plane or helicopter...submarine where appropriate. I would be willing to be that his bus is a bit conspicuous...I imagine a lot of swirly stuff on the sides, those awesome cheesy paintings on the windows, a huge leaf with Willie's name written over top. Time to ditch the 'pull-me-over-mobile' dude.

I must have missed the first two...

2006-09-14T15:43:00.000-05:00

"It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening." Thus spoke George the Abomination in the Oval Office to a closed group of religious nutcases / conservative "journalists" seeking reassurance that HE hasn't abondoned them and their nuttery. Indeed he hasn't! But he's starting to sound like Harry Potter or some such shit - "...the fourth nexus of the third awakening of the second coming..." or what-the-fuck-ever. Who talks like this? And, why isn't Bush using this same creepy rhetoric when he talks about Iraq to the rest of the country?

I for one would like to formally request that Shrub interrupt my regularly scheduled programming to explain to me, in great detail, everything he knows about the "Third Awakening". Really, tell us all, George, and don't leave anything out. Let your words ring out to the whole nation! What do you have to be afraid of, what with God on your side and all that crap?

Be angry

2006-09-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

listen to Keith

Why Hillary isn't Joe Lieberman

2006-09-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

Glad to see this New York Times editorial actually delving into at least some level of complexity in analyzing the issue of "support for the war in Iraq". Most sources in the US are still at functionally retarded level in describing all of this.

Not at all to say that HRC is my first choice for the Dems to run for Pres. But if she were the nominee, "war vote" or not, HELL YES I would vote for her! Despite the overall point of this editorial, Hillary still needs to hear some serious rebuking for supporting the general idea that it was ever conceivably possible for the US to swoop across the ocean and into Iraq and just install a fully functioning Democracy sheerly due to our will and desire to do so. Anyone who believed in this silly narrative should lose their political license, if you asked me. But there is no such thing and we don't live in such a world. And right now, no matter what she believed, electing a woman president would be a nice about-face to the rest of the world showing that the US is ready to change and throw off some of our more rotten ideological baggage.

Overall point being: Hillary hasn't betrayed core Democratic ideals - other than in somehow voicing support for the idea that the US could simply re-shape Iraq via the prism of the brain of George Bush - and she is a far more intelligent politician than Joementum has ever dreamed of being. Her views on foreign policy in terms of her off-the-cuff statements, are worrisome at times. However I have a feeling that she would be very likely to surround herself with people of the utmost comptetence. It may be very easy to underestimate what a large effect the correct Cabinet appointments can have on a presidency. On domestic policy, other than the bullshit pandering attempts regarding flag burning and silly video game content-outrage (yawwwwnnn), she is nearly perfect. And at this point in the country's history, that is key. People are going to be quite angry when, after the fact, they realize that the Domestic was the realm in which their paranoia was warranted, rather than the foreign.

Ok

2006-08-24T00:43:00.000-05:00

Something I did not know about at all. Not sure what to do with this knowledge...

Oh shit

2006-08-22T22:33:00.000-05:00

A.Q. Khan has been diagnosed with cancer.

Listen to what the Pakistani government says about this man, who George W. Bush has cited numerous times as being a glorious casualty for the "other side" in the War on Terra.

Since the state of health of Dr AQ Khan is of public interest, the government of Pakistan would like to hold out an assurance that the best specialist medical care is being provided to Dr AQ Khan in consultation with his family and personal doctors," the statement from the Ministry of Information said.

Even though Bush says, "The United States, working with Great Britain, Pakistan, and other nations, has exposed and disrupted a major black-market operation in nuclear technology led by A.Q. Khan", the guy lives in Pakistan as a hero, and the US isn't even able to directly interview him to ask about how many other people he gave nuclear technology to. This is one of the past century's greatest criminals, his whereabouts are known, and...pfft. Time is running out now to ever get that interview, or to ever learn some important things that this guy will otherwise take to his grave. We're still trying to make lucrative weapons deals with them, so I guess things like dishing out nuclear technology to whoever can be overlooked.

Oh snap

2006-08-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Want to see someone get their ass handed to them? Paul Hackett gives it to Congressional hopeful Van Taylor. A nice illustration of the abject emptiness of the logic which forms the basis of our Iraq policy.

Also, someone tell this guy about the word 'foment'...

Disaster

2006-08-22T12:42:00.000-05:00

This is going to ruffle some feathers here and there. And completely goop up some other feathers. And ruin a lot of people's vacations. And a lot of people's and various creature's lives. War is so immoral. Wars of choice are indefensible.

Um, what?

2006-08-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

I am usually a fan of Eric Alterman, although he can be a whiny little bitch at times...like in today's posting at Altercation. He starts off well enough, ridiculing the idiot Joe Klein for simultaneously admitting that as a "liberal" he 1) supports Bush's domestic spying / wiretapping program, and 2) has no idea what it means or is comprised of. Then Dr. A. moves on to dissing Oliver Stone for giving viewers of his 9/11 movie the impression that we are actually doing the right thing in Iraq as a response to the attacks. So that's all well and good. But then we get this drivel -

On the topic of buzz, I was thumbing through the new Vanity Fair last night, and I noticed that many of the ads were glorifying junkies and pimps and violent-looking rappers who might as well be pimps, getting oral pleasure in front of their homeys. As a parent, as well as a human being, I’m deeply disgusted. I think liberals should make a bigger deal out this kind of thing. Look at this awful company, which is one of the aforementioned advertisers. Why are right-wing hypocrites like the smut-peddling Rupert Murdoch the only people who are comfortable voicing their anger about this kind of thing? (One possible reason: Are these guys going to come beat me up now?)

Ok where to start? How about with...what a bunch of horseshit! "Liberals" are supposed to get angry about "violent-looking" rappers?? Does Alterman know what that sounds like he's saying? And has anyone out there, anywhere, ever seen Rupert Murdoch object to any kind of content whatsoever? The man is responsible for more questionable TV programming than any other human being in the history of time! Why on Earth would a knowledgeable person like Alterman hold him up as an example of someone who successfully polices content in the mass media? It boggles the mind.

"Liberals", for the most part, cheesey losers like HRC and Joementum and Tipper Gore aside, don't go around objecting to pictures of "violent-looking" rappers on the pages of glossy magazines because they tend not to give a flying shit about moralizing to other people about what kind of art / advertising / whatever they should like or not. That type of prudish bullshit is stricly for conservative peons (the big cons. have no problem with the worst of the worst of this type of stuff no matter what they say in public, believe me...) and the above-mentioned sellouts of actual liberal values. Its BUILT IN to the term Liberal for chrissakes! As for "glorifying junkies" - Alterman, as a serious Grateful Dead fan, can shut the fuck up. What organization in the history of America has glorified being a junkie more than the Deadhead "subculture"? This guy's idol is one of the biggest junkies in history. Heal thyself, Dr. Alterman! Also, I don't know if its just me, but I went to the site he links to above, and couldn't find anything particularly objectionable there. I'm sure if I dug through every link and article I could find something annoying, but I expected to see, like, a baby being eaten or some shit based on his breathless condemnation. WTF?

So, my answer to Alterman here is that "Liberals" don't make a big deal of of things like this because, basically, there are actual problems in the world that need people's attention. Ads in Vanity Fair are NOT among them. They are not even remotely close to being among them. And, furthermore, people who do object to stuff like this vociferously are a joke to the vast majority of the country, and the world for that matter. I thought Alterman wanted Democrats to actually win at something? The "lamest person alive" contest shouldn't be where we start competing!

Opportunity knocks your house down

2006-08-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen it watch new Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi burn a hole into the collective brains of 150 million right wing idiots on this clip.

This is the most devastating comedy I've seen in a while, this guy is good. Heheheh.

Graveyard

2006-08-10T16:11:00.000-05:00

Agghh, this is just straight up scary as hell. I mean, the fact that this 'dead zone' in the Pacific is 4 times(!) as large this year as it was last year is bad, bad news. I wonder if this is one of many and we have yet to discover others...

Either way, what a harrowing story.

Tired? Lonely? Depressed?

2006-08-08T10:57:00.000-05:00

Yesss? Well, here is some good news for you! The new way to deal with it is to totally obliterate your ability to receive external sensory input. Of course! Why did no one think of this before? If you have any experience with this stuff, you may be as amazed as I am that they are recommending shots of this, as opposed to say, a pill or having someone fire a dart at you from medium range. Whatever works, I guess, but I think there are going to be some serious negative reactions to this once the method spreads into the larger population...

Or maybe America is slowly going to turn into a bunch of drooling zombies stumbling around with no awareness of what's going on around them. How would we tell the difference? They would be happier zombies?

Better Insults Now!

2006-08-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

More like this please. Of course it falls to Matt Taibbi to call a Mansion a Yacht. Too few political commentators really take the time out to think about how to properly insult and demean other political commentators who are just totally and completely wrong most of the time. Like David Brooks. The making fun of whom is always, always highly rewarding.

Taibbi notes that Brooks has in common with D.C. centrist Democrat idiots the need to be incredibly cautious and image conscious about everything. He explains this in a touching, sentimental manner...

Both prefer a policy of being "cautious soldiers," "incrementalists" who shun upheavals and vote the status quo, although they subscribe to this policy for different reasons. Brooks worships the status quo because he has no penis and wants to spend the rest of his life buying periwinkle bath towels without troubling interruptions of conscience. The DLC, a nonprofit created in the mid-1980s to help big business have a say in the Democratic Party platform, supports the status quo because they are paid agents of the commercial interests that define it...

Being "nice" is a central part of the Brooks yuppie's guilt-proofing self-image rationale; so long as you're the kind of guy who lets people merge on highways, stands politely in line at Starbucks, doesn't put garish Christmas decorations on his lawn and pays his taxes, you're not really doing anything wrong. It gets a little tiring after a while, hearing people who vote for wars tell you how nice they are...

Let's be clear about what we're dealing with here. These people are professional communicators. They don't repeatedly use words like "purge" and "fundamentalist" -- terms obviously associated with communism and Islamic terrorism -- by accident. They know exactly what they're doing. It's an authoritarian tactic and it should piss you off...

The DLC are the lowest kind of scum; we're talking about people who are paid by the likes of Eli Lilly and Union Carbide to go on television and call suburban moms and college kids who happen to be against the war commies and jihadists.

I don't have much to add to that. Its always fun to read Mr. T., he really knows how to hurl people's bullshit right back at them.

Difficult to talk about

2006-07-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

This exchange at Altercation between Eric Alterman and a reader is most informative. I read it yesterday, but its been bouncing around in my head as I interacted with various people here and there who had various points of view regarding the current Israeli / Hizbullah conflict.

Its so complicated and difficult. People are so polarized about it, and this is exactly the time when people need to put that whole way of thinking aside. This isn't X vs. Y.

This is humanity abusing itself, and only humanity can stop it, acting together, without any polarization.

the Children

2006-07-25T14:55:00.000-05:00

Ah ha ha ha! Ah hah hah haha ha. Ah. Yeah.

I hate to refer anyone to this website, but this is hilarious. Kids are smart.

oh its so bad

2006-07-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

This is so depressing. Horrific! Damn.

"This will not be the kinder, gentler, American way of war. This will be an Old Testament conflict with no quarter given."

This statement could apply also to the larger picture of Israel and Lebanon right now, certainly, but its really about the Shiite / Sunni conflict in Iraq which the US' invasion & occupation has brought to a boiling feverish frothy state. There are larger implications in the linked story within the linked story that I had not even thought of at all. And, there are a few important points that it makes which shouldn't be missed.

"The insurgency in Iraq is Sunni, which many in Washington have yet to figure out. They are fighting us because we provide a focal point for rallying the Sunni people inside and outside of Iraq.

As soon as we leave, the full force of the insurgency will fall upon the Shiite government of Iraq. It already has started. The suicide car bombings that have killed so many Iraqi civilians are mistakenly tagged as terrorist attacks, when in reality they are attacks against Shiites by the Sunni insurgency."

This is part of what sucks about America right now. Americans have a hard time understanding how little American-style nationalism there is in places like "Iraq" and "Iran". Its a whole different state of mind in terms of what kind of an ism it is. That's all pretty scary on its own, but then when you throw in the low grade and rising warfare taking place not too far away on the Israeli / Lebanese border (which, if you want to see some awful, awful footage of go ahead and look. These are some really disturbing pictures, really don't look at them unless you want to feel incredibly horrible) - people have got to realize that we're heading into bad territory here. The human race is in trouble!

Yeah. Things have only begun to get ugly. How in the world is everyone going to pull back and get control of themselves in these two situations? What a nightmare it will be if these two conflicts start to seriously feed into one another. Things could ignite in a very bad way.

Crazy

2006-07-18T16:58:00.000-05:00

Yeah, if you haven't had your daily dose of the rantings of an insane person, give it a listen. Wowza.

Here's one to watch

2006-07-17T22:23:00.003-05:00

Interesting, very interesting, NYC's new plan to "end" homelessness. I'm not even kidding, I think its really actually cool, but I don't know how much I trust Bloomberg to do it. As in, I don't at all trust Bloomberg to really do it. I intend to keep on top of this one and track its progress though. The idea is at once both fucked up and highly ambitious. All of the makeshift homeless housing throughout the whole NYC area is removed, sanitized, secured - no more access. Rapidly. People get sort of rounded up and routed into shelters / treatment programs / emergency & social services. This article is a bit strange in that they claim they are going to build "12,000 units of supportive housing" in order to address the situation. Yet the articles estimates the NYC homeless population at a tiny 3800. Can that be right? Well anyways, there will be enough room, if this is actually put into practice, for each of them and a couple imaginary friends as well.

I don't know, we'll see. Here's Bloomberg doing something useful - Two years ago, Mr. Bloomberg pledged to create the 12,000 units of supportive housing, in addition to 21,000 built over the previous two decades. On Monday, he said the money had been secured to keep his promise, most of it through a $1 billion agreement with the state that was reached in November. He also said that the city would funnel an extra $10 million into HomeBase, which helps people to stay where they live by interceding with landlords to head off eviction, making temporary loans for rent or helping obtain needed job referrals, health care or other services.

And here's Bloomberg doing something useless - "To rid our society of homelessness we must first liberate ourselves from the chains of conventional wisdom, from the fetters of political correctness, from the tyranny of the advocates and their unwillingness to admit that we’re ever making progress"

Right, as if the whole problem is those damn hippies who advoate on behalf of homeless people. They're the ones who force people onto the streets. So, you know, we'll see. Easier said than done. I hope it works, but this is about more than just the creation of housing units. This is about serious medical treatment being provided to the lowest of the lower class for free, in NYC, where how many people actually earning a good living still don't have health care? How long are people going to stand for that, no matter how much money it actually saves in the bigger picture, or how humane it is? I guess it depends on the economy. Or, it could actually help things and people will notice quality of life improvement all around. No holding of breath is warranted yet.

Thoughts take flight

2006-07-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Inanimate object can now be controlled by thought. The system is called BrainGate, and its going to be used for victims of paralysis and other degenerative nerve condidions. Just have to marvel every once in a while at what can be done with the brain...maybe some day soon people will even be able to control their own behavior!!! Or, um wait...that may be too much to ask. Magically moving objects with no exertion of force may be as far as this idiom can be stretched...

Finally

2006-07-07T13:54:00.000-05:00

Real progress with bionic limbs! I always kind of trusted as a child in a feeling that I had that eventually no harm I did to my body would matter. Why? Becaue by the time I was grown up, I could just replace it all with futuristic and, most likely, better functioning components.

I didn't really think it through all the way at the time, its hard for a kid to understand what some crap like that would actually cost. But still, it seems that most logistical problems have been either solved or resolved to the point where bionic limbs are going to be an increasingly widely seen option. I want a left hand, with a wrist portion that has a little panel that opens up with buttons inside. It sounds so fun!

eggs!

2006-07-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Oh man I love this thing. Whatever the hell it is, I love it.

note, i think its better with the sound off...

cleaning compulsion?

2006-07-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

Isn't that just another way of saying 'uncontrollable meth habit'? Really, 47 days of rehab to treat "...a compulsive habit of wiping down plastic surfaces on planes and at hotels."

Only plastic?

File under WTF

2006-07-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty funny story. I for one don't think that Putin's explanation really helps the situation at all, its actually somewhat scary.

"He added that he had already forgot the boy’s name."

Ha!

update - Here's more weird Putin bloviating, hehe. Damn, what is up with this guy today? Political dialogue in Russia is starting to sound positively American...

"...I never thought that I would end up here..."

2006-07-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

I love this country, I do. July 4th, 2006 eh? Well, there is a lot wrong in the world, and precious little heading in the right direction. But its always a nice feeling to watch the Macy's fireworks display surrounded by Chinese expatriots who, for the most part, don't speak a word of English. Chatham square, Chinatown, where I'm house sitting right now - its an interesting corner of the city. Near where the Chinatown buses depart for Philadelphia, Albany, Washington, etc. Everything is hardcore Chinese here. Lots of sad, sort-of-alive sea creatures inhabit murky tanks in the restaurant windows. The "Golden Unicorn" just down the street! I never hear a word of English, except when I walk past the bus areas where, every day, I am asked "where are you going!" by a frantic bus company employee. Jeez, I recognize her by now, can't she tell I walked by her 3 times just yesterday? Well, I'm sure they have other things to keep track of. I was refused food service at a nearby restaurant here one night several months ago. After completing the order in front of me, the guy behind the counter just looked at me in disgust, picked up a newspaper, and started reading as if I wasn't there. I didn't make too much effort to get his attention, it was quite obvious that I was there, I just left. Went to the Vietnamese place - they're less bitter for some reason.

Happy birthday, America. You're how old? Ooh, you're not looking too well...you need some rest. No, really.

Being here its like I'm in some kind of suspended animation. Most of my friends out of town for the holiday, I've pretty much kept to myself over the long weekend. And its easy here since I think I may actually be nearly invisible to most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. So bustling here, such busy-ness. Whatever, its great to be back in this fabulous apartment, its so...spacious. Seriously, my room in Brooklyn could fit inside of this apartment 10 times over. Plus by now its like a toaster oven, too much really these days. What will I do when this week is over? Its always an unsettling feeling to be "in search of..." ... a home. But, its still infinitely better than being homeless. Well, there's a big difference between being homeless in Western Massachussets and being homeless on the streets of New York City. Being in such a stage of transition - house hunting, job hunting, band hunting, cat hunting - its hard to sit back and take account of what I do have. But its a good thing to do none the less.

"I stayed at home on the 4th of July
and I pulled the shades so I didn't have to see the sky
and I decided to have a bed-in
but I forgot to invite anybody..."
- galaxie 500