Saturday, February 10, 2007

King Dick and Queen Shrub?
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Hmmm...seems as if some people are making a decent case.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Word
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I can't count the number of times I've tried to put into words, either here or in comments elsewhere, why a to-hell-with-the-South attitude is a foolish, and losing strategy.

Bob Moser did just that in the latest issue of The Nation--and, of course, it's better than anything I might've been able to come up with. It's a long article, but damn if it's not worth reading in full.

However, if you're strapped for time, here's the conclusion:

And yet a stubborn belief in the poor, backward, reactionary cracker South of myth still shapes and distorts American politics. By surrendering the region, Democrats have simultaneously abandoned the old hope of a durable national progressive majority. They have passively allowed right-wingers to build a mighty fortress for the defense of free-market excess in a region that is home to almost half--47 percent--of the Americans who call themselves populists. They have allowed economic, racial and cultural divisions to fester. And now, even with the Republicans' Southern strategy wearing thin, they are lurching toward an even more dramatic break with the South.

It ain't wise, and it ain't right. I can't say it better than Chris Kromm, director of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina. "For Democrats to turn their back on a region that half of all African-Americans and a growing number of Latinos call home, a place devastated by Hurricane Katrina, plant closings, poverty and other indignities--in short, for progressives to give up on the very place where they could argue they are needed most--would rightfully be viewed as a historic retreat from the party's commitment to justice for all."


Yes.
Ah, Diplomacy
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What's a nice way of saying "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" ?

This.
Boy, That Nancy Pelosi Sure is Selfish...

I hear that the poor, underfunded Defense Department offered her plenty of choices when it came to aircraft:

I hear Hastert sometimes used this
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Or this
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And this one comes with backup transportation
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So you might have to stop and refuel--or find another hill--along the way...is that too much to ask when OUR TROOPS ARE FIGHTING A WAR?

I mean, after all, the Defense Department has to make do with an office building that's OVER 60 years old!
Please Don't...It Only Encourages Them
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It's good to see the internet/blogosphere point out just who Bill Donohue really is: a bigoted, bloviating blowhard.

For talk show bookers and reporters on deadline, he's a never-ending sideshow who comes ever ready to hurl expressions of indignation and opprobrium at anyone who might have offended him.

Sideshow? More like freak show.

The fact that he gets any consideration at all from yer CNN's and Faux Noise channels speaks volumes as to what's become THEIR business. Hint: it's not about keeping the public informed.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy of the Enemy is...um...It's Hard Work
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Infinite regression of stupid

"Young democracy:"

Iraqi and American troops arrested the second-highest official in the Iraqi Health Ministry today, accusing him of funneling millions of dollars to rogue Shiite militants who kidnapped and killed Iraqi civilians.

Iraqi officials accused Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili of using government ambulances to ferry weapons and militants across Sadr City, hiding them from American raids.

The United States military said in a statement that the arrested official was suspected of using his position to run a rogue unit of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to the renegade cleric Moktada al-Sadr, that killed political opponents and that he paid militants with American money intended to revive for Iraq’s decaying medical system.

The military said the official was accused of flooding the agency’s payroll with militants and using health ministry “facilities and services for sectarian kidnapping and murder.”


He probably killed more than a few American soldiers, too...with money provided by the Bush administration. Way to go, team.

Oh, and I see that the followup to "Surge," Operation-We've-Got-to-Evacuate-The-Green-Zone-Right-Fucking-NOW, Damnit! is officially in the planning stage. They just need to find a scapegoat.

I hear they're in consultation with anti-Semite/homophobe Bill Donohue on how to do that...
El Salvador: "Freer" Than Norway
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Death Squad Victims Celebrating The Heritage Foundation's Decision

Link (El Salvador is 29th, Norway is 30th).
*
Doughy Anniversary
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Pantload in Hell

You know, what's sad is that Jonah is such a pathetic excuse for a human being that he missed the entire point of Juan Cole's statement--here, read it for yourself. Indeed, this human Twinkie, this empty-calories-on-two-feet puts on his 'but-I'm-the-real-victim-here' face ("the vitriol and bullying of this crowd is something to behold.")

Gee, Jonah: should we send you a cotton handkerchief to cry into? Maybe we can get one caked with the blood of victims of Operation Enduring Clusterfuck.

Oh...and mommy's VERY angry with you...

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Noise Machine
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Never has the term been more apt than over the past few days re: wingnuttia's collective case of the vapors over Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

I'm sure everyone stopping by has seen or read about this elsewhere, so my .000002 cents might not be worth even that much, but...to paraphrase an expression I first saw at James Wolcott's site, Bill Donohue truly is but an oily stain that coincidentally possesses the power of speech, while, this time paraphrasing Molly Ivins, if Michele Malkin was any dumber, we'd have to water her twice a day.

I'd say lock each of them in a room with a loaded pistol and a bottle of whiskey...but that'd be a waste of good booze.
On Winning Hearts & Minds
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Flat Soccer Balls: NOT a good gift idea.

Sort of like "the vision thing" redux, this from Salon (hey, the ad-view is actually working today!) speaks volumes:

On a hot summer morning in 2004, Garett Reppenhagen dragged himself out of his cot at a rudimentary Army base, 40 miles north of Baghdad, for a briefing on the day's combat mission...

What the lieutenant told them, however, had nothing to do with the enemy. They were going to hand out soccer balls to Iraqi kids in the surrounding villages. Reppenhagen was surprised. "You do so much crappy shit over there that when you get a mission to actually help people, it's encouraging," he said...

At Forward Operating Base Warhorse, Reppenhagen and his fellow soldiers encountered a five-ton truck stacked with large cardboard boxes. They began to unload the truck and open the boxes. There were maybe 50 soccer balls in each box. But the balls had not been inflated. They were all flat. Reppenhagen scoured the boxes. No pumps. What was worse, nobody had bothered to pack the needles to inflate the balls...


The line of the article, though, goes to spokesperson Christian T. Kubik. When asked about this rather dubious mission, he replied:

"To focus on the air in the balls, or lack thereof, undermines the American spirit of generosity and completely misses the point of giving."

OK.
Wingnuts: Your President NEEDS You!
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Best of all, you don't even have to join the military, thus preserving your 1-A chickenhawk status:

Senior military officers, including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have told President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the new Iraq strategy could fail unless more civilian agencies step forward quickly to carry out plans for reconstruction and political development.

Be among the first of your political persuasion to experience, first hand, the joy of liberation that for the last almost four years you've been insisting is so, well, liberating for the "Iraqi people." Better still, the "Iraqi people" will no longer be merely an intangible entity, but a living, breathing populace that you can get up close and personal with...

But...you might want to consider getting more life insurance, if you know what I mean:

State Department officials say they are using both incentives and subtler pressures to induce employees to go to Iraq.

But from the standpoint of personal security, taking those jobs — many of them, by definition, outside the relative safety of the Green Zone — is widely seen as an unattractive career option.


Hey--it's for a GOOD cause: sure, you might become just another bloody pulp/stain, but you can expire with comfort: your dear leader's maintained a semblence of credibility for yet another day...or hour.
Pennies From Heaven...Adjusted for Inflation
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That makes for pallets of cash, that, more or less literally, has been thrown away.

Again, contrasting with the flood of New Orleans, this administration had to be shamed into dropping pallets of MREs and bottled water to its OWN CITIZENS.

Also, TPM points to this very astute observation:

If our future were truly at stake -- if we really, really had to win in Iraq -- we would never stand for the president's piddling surge proposal, because it's just not going to be enough to fix the situation. To really stabilize the situation on the ground in Iraq would require a military draft and sending several hundred thousand more troops to Iraq for a period of years.

Once again, I'll reiterate: if this administration can't--or won't--fix New Orleans and the United States Gulf Coast, only a fool, or a Republican, could possibly believe it can fix Mesopotamia.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

A Whole New Meaning to "Hillbilly Armor"
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"Lance Corporal/Gunner, you ride up on top"

Support the troops?

U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace admitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday equipment will be a problem when U.S. forces in Iraq are increased.

During testimony over the $481.4 billion fiscal 2008 defense budget, Pace said the military has about 41,000 armored vehicles in Iraq -- fewer than will be needed "to cover all of the troops that are deploying."

Pace said it will be July before enough equipment is in place.


$481 billion, and they can't buy enough armored vehicles? Geez...
FUV
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James T. Phillips likens tailgaters and roadragers to a certain talking chimp in DC:

I was thinking about the President's dilemma the other day as I was driving north on Route 95, headed to my home in southern Maine. When I pulled off the Interstate onto the Spur Road, my thoughts were interrupted by a different sort of miscreant, a road warrior as pushy and belligerent as George W. Bush, but much more dangerous to me as I reacted locally, while thinking globally. I glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed a black SUV pull around the vehicle behind me, then swerve back into the right lane only inches from my car. The driver of the SUV was in a hurry, and I was in his way...

The Counseling Center of the University of South Florida reports:
"[s]tatistics show that 250,000 people [in the United States] have died in traffic since 1990. It is believed that two-thirds of these deaths are at least partially caused by aggressive driving, although only 218 were found to be a direct cause of angry drivers [road rage]. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 66 percent of all annual traffic fatalities are caused by aggressive driving actions, such as passing on the right, running red lights and tailgating."
Road rage incidents of the red-faced, mano-y-mano, vulgar variety have killed a few hundred people since 1990, but road outrageous has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent victims. The driver of the black SUV might not have been angry, but he sure was impatient when he committed the act of "aggressive driving"--tailgating--against me and my car.

Tailgating is an outrageous crime. The thousands of annual deaths caused by the impatience of tailgaters were not accidents. Bullies morphed into killers playing a deadly game of bumper cars, these auto-fascists' of the road--intent on overtaking and occupying space they believe to be theirs--have destroyed more than the crumpled machines now scattered in pieces throughout the junkyards of America. They have also destroyed innocent lives, and the futures of the families who bury their dead.

I was lucky when the driver of the black SUV failed to smash into my car. I could have been another homeland statistic.

Road outrageous is a dangerous and deadly ailment that has killed more people in America during the past sixteen years than all the deaths suffered by Americans in wars and terrorist attacks during the same period. Yet, one simple cure to the domestic problem of too many Americans dying on the roads of America--if also prescribed by President Bush as a tonic for his failing foreign policy--would save thousands of Americans, here and over there: Back off.

Tailgaters and George W. Bush should slow down, and back off.


And it'd be nice if we had the option of choosing public transit, too. Decent, reliable public transportation would also provide something that's generally considered a hallmark of an "enlightened," Western society: freedom of choice.

(as a side benefit, it would allow some real enforcement of drunk driving laws).
"Brownian Motion"
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Eugene Robinson's pun/description of the "Road Home Lunacy" will catch everyone's eye, but it's his conclusion that hits the nail on the head and drives it home with one blow:

To escape the death dance of Brownian motion, New Orleans needs force applied in one coherent direction. I have an idea: If Gen. David H. Petraeus is as smart and tough as the president says he is, if he's good enough to save Baghdad, the president should immediately send him to New Orleans instead -- or explain why policing a civil war in Iraq takes priority over resurrecting a great American city.

Of course, that's also a double-edged sword: if they can't--or WON'T--resurrect New Orleans, how in hell does anyone expect them to fix the Godzilla-on-steroids mess that is Iraq?
A Match Made in Heaven?
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"Certified, one hundred percent homosexual free" Ted Haggard has been "urged...to go into secular work."

Maybe he should look for a position with the M&M/Mars company...

(h/t First Draft)

Update: Oh, almost forgot...or maybe Ted can be a manly man for Dial (note: last link opens an audio file)

Monday, February 05, 2007

Prince Sure Does Get Around


At the Super Bowl on Sunday...in the Iraqi Parliament the next...and a wanted criminal to boot...
Happy 4th Anniversary, Colin!
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Satan hopes you enjoy the fruit basket, in keeping with his traditional approach towards anniversaries (though I'm sure the 'modern' gift of an "appliance" could be just as easily arranged).

And you won't BELIEVE what he's got set up for your eternal soul, when...well, you know.
At the Movies: Portrait of a Pathetic Loserman
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(h/t Glenn Greenwald and WIIIAI)

In capital letters: W-A-N-K-E-R:

In another conversation, he told me that he was reading “America Alone,” a book by the conservative commentator Mark Steyn, which argues that Europe is succumbing, demographically and culturally, to an onslaught by Islam, leaving America friendless in its confrontation with Islamic extremism.

“The thing I quote most from it is the power of demographics, in Europe particularly,” Lieberman said. “That’s what struck me the most. But the other part is a kind of confirmation of what I know and what I’ve read elsewhere, which is that Islamist extremism has an ideology, and it’s expansionist, it’s an aggressive ideology. And the title I took to mean that we Americans will have ultimate responsibility for stopping this expansionism.”

Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was “Behind Enemy Lines,” in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, “Yeah!” and “All right!”


Come to think of it, I'd expect Shrub to do much the same thing...except he probably doesn't go to the movies.
Oh, Like You Expect Me to Believe...
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...that Little Lord Shrubleroy so much as glanced at his D.O.A. Budget. Yeah, right.

I think this is likely a more accurate rendition
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So...you gonna ask Condi if you can take a bathroom break?
Genius Has Limits, but Racist and Stupid is Boundless
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John Derbyshire, a self-described "reformed drunk at a temperance meeting," also displays his prototypical "ugly-American" with the zeal of the converted in describing New Orleans as "the blackest American city I have been in."

OK. Well, Derb, maybe you should just take your pasty, pedophiliac, limey-assed dentist's nightmare of a face out of our country and express ship it back to wherever you came from. Fucking twit.

A while back I recall seeing a You Tube clip of a younger Derb getting his ass kicked by Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon. Unfortunately, the edited clip is no longer available, but you can click here, then fast forward to roughly the one minute mark (actually about 1:14)...too bad it's just a movie.

More here, here, and here.

Derbyshire is a very typical racist: a person who proudly displays profound ignorance on his sleeve and declares it intelligence.