Wanna know why I'm a liberal?

Michael J. Fox and Rush Limbaugh.

That's why I'm a liberal.

Fucking sick of everything

"There's only one party in America today, with two wings: the conservative wing, known as Democrats, and the reactionary wing, known as Republicans."

-Gore Vidal

That about covers it

John Cole of Balloon Juice sums up the conservative crapweasel attitude about homosexuality:

“Homosexuality is wrong and the root of all evil and homosexual marriage will be the downfall of Western Society so we must amend the Constitution to ban it and we will use homosexuals as campaign props every two years, but oh, by the way, we hate the sin and not the sinner, and even then the sin doesn’t bother us that much as long as you stay in the closet and do whatever you want as long as we don’ know about it and we are fine with that but recognize we will still call you out in public as evil and scream about gay adoptions so we can get elected but if any of us are gay we should be allowed to keep that private and oh, by the way, you are not normal because the bible says so.”

Yup. That's about right.

Unfortunately, when I hear "Christians" like those on FreeRepublic talk about the evils of homosexuality, I can't help thinking of Kissing Hank's Ass.

Reflections on the situation in Iraq, courtesy of FreeRepublic

If we are forced to abandon this democracy project, the failure isn't ours -- it's the Iraqi's, especially the Sunnis and Shiites. To some extent, it's also Europe's fault (including the UK's) by forcing together people who clearly don't belong in the same country.

The Iraqi country Sunnis are Deliverance cretins times 5.

The Democrats and what passes today as the establishment U.S. news media have gone to great lengths to sabotage our efforts in Iraq, blunt the domestic war on terrorism and encourage every anti-American faction in the world. This has been done partly for partisan politics and partly in behalf of a delusional ideology that believes lice-infested savages and psychopathic dictators will respond to reason.

Modern Christians are civilized. We are trying to coax these people into the family of civilized man. If we were old school Christians they're men and boys would be dead and their women undergoing a seed change. As they would like very much to do to us if they could.

It may have worked better if the Dims/Pinkos/MSM/Jew-Haters/Iranians/Syrians hadn't been throwing wrenches in the works at every f%#king turn. Then again, it's possible they're not ready for democracy. Churchill suggested WWII might have been averted had a constitutional monarchy been established in Germany after WWI instead of a liberal democracy. The same may hold true in the Arab world.

Kill 'em all and let their god (if they have any) sort them out!
I'm getting tired of this shit! Why should we be allowed to be kicked around?

Bonus quote, about Barack Obama at a book signing:

There is one other aspect to Osama Obama that will preclude him from being elected POTUS. Call it crass, but the guy's picture could fit right in with the 9/11 hijackers photo's. A good portion of the electorate is going to take one look at this guy in the primary and say "he ain't from around here"....

Mind-blowing delusional quote of the day

On the recent outings of closeted gay Republicans:

"I am really disgusted by this.

An individual's private sexual preferences is not a matter for the public arena and not something we should be discussing about anyone. What the hell ever happened to the concept of "in private"? We're not even talking behavior - this is just the preferences we're talking about. That is private, unless an individual wants to make it public him/herself.

I blame Bill Clinton for dragging this subject into the public arena."

-random commenter at Little Green Footballs

The mind bobbles.

Not rocket surgery

Bill O'Reilly last night was all up in arms because some school district was going to celebrate Gay and Lesbian History Month. So he has this dour "gay activist" on (who started out by proclaiming that he was a Republican) to respond to his indignation. The guy timidly said something about other "History Month" celebrations that try to highlight the accomplishments of people traditionally left out of the history books.

But the difference, says Bill, is that gay is something you *do*, not something you *are.*

The "activist" didn't let out a peep.

Here's one way it could have gone, just off the top of my head:

"Bill, being gay is definitely something you are. Were you straight before you had sex? Of course you were. It's not about who you have sex with - it's about who you love. And as long as there are those who are willing to demonize gay people for political gain, [as his comments are illustrated by b-roll of transvestites in a gay pride parade] we feel it's important to highlight the accomplishments of gay and lesbian people in our society."

See? That wasn't difficult, was it?

Damn, people on the left are, by and large, a bunch of whining, weak, clueless, spineless appeasers. Start standing up for yourself, or I have no use for you.

UPDATE: Exception to the above: Russ Feingold. Go Russ.

We're all fucked

As of today, here's the deal.

The President can designate you (or anyone else) as an enemy combatant. If so, you can be held without trial indefinitely, without charges. If you are at some point tried in a military court (so you can be executed for war crimes), you won't be shown the evidence against you, you will have a court-appointed lawyer, and you can't appeal. Hearsay can be used as testimony, as can information beaten out of witnesses. Speaking of that, the President can decide what does and what does not constitute "torture" of you under rules that will not be disclosed to the public.

Basically, you're fucked.

Welcome to the world, baby.

UPDATE: Shocker - Fox News is already lying about the Military Commissions Act.

No one ever listens to my predictions

The 2008 Republican nominee for President will be a scary hard-righter like Rick Santorum, Tom Tancredo, or someone worse we haven't heard of yet. And he will win.

Crapweasel logic

Science is the new religion. Those leftists deny God's truth, so they need to worship something else. It's just a bunch of claptrap - why should we believe these so-called "scientists" anyway? What do they know? All this talk about "global warming" - hey, there was snow on my car yesterday morning, and it's only mid-October!

By the way, *my* religion is right.

Spoke too soon

"He's entitled to a defense of some sort, and a trial of some sort."

-Lying crapweasel Dean Esmay, pontificating on his idea of the legal rights of a convert to Islam who is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II.

Don't you just love the phrase "of some sort" there? Seems to me like you either have a proper defense and a fair trial, or you don't. I'm just a commie fascist sympathizer who wants to crown Osama bin Laden King of America, so don't mind me. Still, I wouldn't want Dean-O in charge of deciding what "sort" of defense and trial all his enemies get. Michael Moore, for instance, would probably be hauled before Judge Kim du Toit and summarily eviscerated by jackals, in a scene that would make the witch trial in "Monty Python" look like "Twelve Angry Men."

Sickening Quote of the Day (Hour? Minute?)

"I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate."

-President Bush, news conference, Oct. 11

Heard around

Right-wing crapweasels should thank their lucky stars every day for Bill Clinton. For without Clinton, they would still be trying to blame everything on Carter.

Rock bottom, then 50 feet of crap

This week I've learned that it's scientifically impossible for the Republicans to hit rock bottom. There is no bottom for them. I used to joke, ruefully, that the President could reach into Dakota Fanning's chest on national TV, pull out her still-beating heart, and then eat it, and suffer no ill effects. But now with the crapweasel right-wingers trying to find ways to defend child predators and blame the victims, it's clear that they have no values, no standards - no center.

Will this cause them to lose the House or Senate this year? Nope. Because to paraphrase a commenter on Balloon Juice, the Reps are drowning, but the Dems don't have enough sense to toss them an anvil.

Lying crapweasels still get under my skin

Well I see that some people over at a certain lying crapweasel weblog are stirring up the Terri Schiavo pot again, claiming that some new therapy could have saved the vegetative Terri. No matter that the claim is absolutely untrue - that's never stopped them before. After all, they claimed, with absolutely no evidence, to be sure that Michael Schiavo killed his wife by somehow (they don't know how) causing her original injury.

Boy does that take me back. After all, how dare Michael Schiavo to spend years caring for his wife. How dare he try experimental treatments that took months but got no results. How dare he train to become an emergency room nurse to learn how to better care for Terri. How dare he start dating again, at the urging of the in-laws who would so viciously turn on him later. How dare he pursue a malpractice suit against his wife's doctors, the $1 million settlement of which was used for her care. And most of all, how dare he spend years of his life trying to carry out her wishes that she not sit for decades as a brainless husk in a hospital bed, being used as a cruel prop in a depraved political game.

HOW DARE HE.

Blue fingers

A commenter on the Washington Monthly, responding to new polls which appear to indicate that the Iraqi public wants the U.S. military to leave their country, proposed something that really resonated with me: why not let the Iraqis themselves vote on our presence there? All the rightwing crapweasels were celebrating the blue-fingered Iraqi populace in the past - why not make them put their money where their fingers are? Why shouldn't the Iraqis have more say in our activities in their country than we do? Whose country is it, anyway?

Learned helplessness

I've figured out one of the main reasons I just don't have the strength to write about this stuff much anymore: I've come to the upsetting conclusion that we're just getting the government that we deserve. If we don't have the decency and common sense to stop this shit - to, as my mother says, sit down with ourselves and say 'no more' - then maybe we don't deserve to have it end.

"You...said that humanity was a flawed creation. And that people still kill one another for petty jealousy and greed. You said that humanity never asked itself why it deserved to survive.

Maybe you don't."

- Cylon Sharon (Boomer), Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship"

Bush is the rock

How is it possible that Matt Groening has covered every conceivable topic during the run of "The Simpsons"? And with considerable wit and insight, to boot.

---------------------------------
HOMER: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.

LISA: That's specious reasoning, Dad.

HOMER: ... Thank you, dear.

[Lisa grabs a rock from the lawn, shows it to Homer]

LISA: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.

HOMER: Oh, how does it work?

LISA: It doesn't work.

HOMER: Uh-huh.

LISA: It's just a stupid rock.

HOMER: Uh-huh.

LISA: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?

[Homer thinks for a moment, then pulls out some money]

HOMER: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

----------------------------------------
I think you can work out the rest of the metaphor for yourself.

There are weapons that are simply thoughts

I was going to just link to this, the latest example of Keith Olbermann's brilliance and courage. But I thought it deserved to be reprinted here, because he says what I don't have the strength to right now:

This hole in the ground

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.

All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and -- as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul -- two more in the Towers.

And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.

I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.

However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast -- of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds -- none of us could have predicted this.

Five years later this space is still empty.

Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.

Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.

Five years later this country's wound is still open.

Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.

Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.

It is beyond shameful.

At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."

Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't.

Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all.

Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists are clearly, still winning.

And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it.

And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city, and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution.

The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.

Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President -- and those around him -- did that.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."

They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by implication."

The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense."

Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country.

Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11.

Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own administration.

Yet what is happening this very night?

A mini-series, created, influenced -- possibly financed by -- the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes.

The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.

How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you -- or those around you -- ever "spin" 9/11?

Just as the terrorists have succeeded -- are still succeeding -- as long as there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero.

So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans.

This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country) suggests, even television programs can be powerful things.

And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."

In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm. Suddenly his car -- and only his car -- starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien. Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot -- but he turns out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen manipulating a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the human machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves."

And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men.

"For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children, and the children yet unborn."

When those who dissent are told time and time again -- as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus -- that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?

We have not forgotten, Mr. President.

You have.

May this country forgive you.

9/11

Conservatives are of course ecstatic that CNN is re-running all its actual coverage of 9/11 on the fifth anniversary Monday.

For them, 9/11 is a combination security blanket and abusive father, and they can't get enough of it. Can't get enough. And that sickens me beyond my capacity to express.

All ranted out

I'm thinking seriously about shutting down this site. Nothing left to say, really. Doesn't everyone get to the point where they just don't have any strength left? That's how I feel now. I'm tapped out. No one listens, no one talks without shouting, no one cares. I've bled out.

Reminds me of a story that I don't think I recounted when it happened. My mother called me the day after Election Day 2004 (whose outcome, amazingly, I could understand much better than that in 2000) to see how I was handling things.

Mom: I just called to make sure you didn't have your head in the oven.
Me: I have an electric oven.