Fun with Photoshop
If I don't post before then, have a Happy Earth Day, everyone.
Friday, April 20, 2007
On Leadership
I've actually got nothing against cheerleaders. Indeed, these days, a good bit of cheerleading in high school and college is essentially a variant of gymnastics, and I think it's accurate to call cheerleaders athletes in those cases. Also, while it's not my shot of whiskey, I've got nothing per se against anyone who believes in team/school spirit. Live and let live...
But there's a difference between being honest with the American people and the American military, as opposed to getting ever more shrill even as yesterday's rhetoric is tossed aside/swept under the rug in the hope that it won't be noticed.
Talk about mass delusion. It's not like the rest of the world--not to mention the Iraqis themselves--aren't getting a clear-as-a-bell picture of the hellhole that is our handiwork in Mesopotamia. And the "but things are better than when Saddam was..." argument no longer cuts it. Saddam's dead, and may he rot/suffer in hell. Iraq, whether we like it or not, reflects George W. Bush's worldview. It's his baby.
And, as is the case with most things of his, it's mighty ugly.
I've actually got nothing against cheerleaders. Indeed, these days, a good bit of cheerleading in high school and college is essentially a variant of gymnastics, and I think it's accurate to call cheerleaders athletes in those cases. Also, while it's not my shot of whiskey, I've got nothing per se against anyone who believes in team/school spirit. Live and let live...
But there's a difference between being honest with the American people and the American military, as opposed to getting ever more shrill even as yesterday's rhetoric is tossed aside/swept under the rug in the hope that it won't be noticed.
Talk about mass delusion. It's not like the rest of the world--not to mention the Iraqis themselves--aren't getting a clear-as-a-bell picture of the hellhole that is our handiwork in Mesopotamia. And the "but things are better than when Saddam was..." argument no longer cuts it. Saddam's dead, and may he rot/suffer in hell. Iraq, whether we like it or not, reflects George W. Bush's worldview. It's his baby.
And, as is the case with most things of his, it's mighty ugly.
Spring Cleaning in Hell
Graphic from Tildology
Tild beat me by a couple of months on creating a suitable picture, but with the Catholic Church's cancellation of Limbo
(and, presumably, the promotion of Limbo's denizens to Paradise), I believe that opens some space in eternal damnation. Hell--no pun intended--I'd say there's a whole empty circle to fill.
I propose we move everyone down exactly one ring...and I think I've got just the right tenants for a now empty 9th Circle. And lets make it a LONG TERM lease...like "in perpetuity."
Graphic from Tildology
Tild beat me by a couple of months on creating a suitable picture, but with the Catholic Church's cancellation of Limbo
(and, presumably, the promotion of Limbo's denizens to Paradise), I believe that opens some space in eternal damnation. Hell--no pun intended--I'd say there's a whole empty circle to fill.
I propose we move everyone down exactly one ring...and I think I've got just the right tenants for a now empty 9th Circle. And lets make it a LONG TERM lease...like "in perpetuity."
Reality Bites
In his dreams, he's thephilosopher king, um maximum leader, um, "The Decider."
Off script, not so much.
Transcript.
Video.
Conclusion:
Update: First Draft has more of Bush's channeling of his inner nitwit yesterday.
In his dreams, he's the
Off script, not so much.
Transcript.
Video.
Conclusion:
Update: First Draft has more of Bush's channeling of his inner nitwit yesterday.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Rove: "Iraq was Osama's Idea"
It's small justice, but deep down Karl Rove KNOWS that if the dictionary definition of "wanker" included a picture, it'd be a close up of his ugly mug:
In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.
“I think it was Osama bin Laden’s,” Rove replied.
No, Karl, it was you and your buddies' idea, and y'all sure-as-hell didn't give two shits about a war of aggression when it only meant a few American deaths...
...and, let's face it, neither Karl nor most of the GOP gave or gives a crap about Iraqi deaths...they barely count as props.
No, when it was minimal casualties, followed by carrier landings, commander codpiece, and Mission Accomplished speeches, it was all good fun...well, until it blew up in their face. Dumbasses.
No, it wasn't bin Laden's idea...but you couldn't have handed him a nicer gift if you'd gotten down on bended knee and presented it on a silver platter. Worse still, you continue to allow people to die, just because to admit failure would be...such an ego deflation.
Sick.
It's small justice, but deep down Karl Rove KNOWS that if the dictionary definition of "wanker" included a picture, it'd be a close up of his ugly mug:
In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.
“I think it was Osama bin Laden’s,” Rove replied.
No, Karl, it was you and your buddies' idea, and y'all sure-as-hell didn't give two shits about a war of aggression when it only meant a few American deaths...
...and, let's face it, neither Karl nor most of the GOP gave or gives a crap about Iraqi deaths...they barely count as props.
No, when it was minimal casualties, followed by carrier landings, commander codpiece, and Mission Accomplished speeches, it was all good fun...well, until it blew up in their face. Dumbasses.
No, it wasn't bin Laden's idea...but you couldn't have handed him a nicer gift if you'd gotten down on bended knee and presented it on a silver platter. Worse still, you continue to allow people to die, just because to admit failure would be...such an ego deflation.
Sick.
Today's Special Is...
Grilled Alberto. But I wouldn't recommend it. It's void of any nutritional value...like a certain turkey, not to mention the prop he was carrying.
Grilled Alberto. But I wouldn't recommend it. It's void of any nutritional value...like a certain turkey, not to mention the prop he was carrying.
Shrub and the Roberts Five
This one's for the ladies in the audience...
From Hullabaloo--if you've got the time, this article is well worth reading: a woman recounts the circumstances that led to her late-term abortion. Short version: no, it wasn't a matter of convenience, and no, promiscuity had nothing to do with it (as if that's a reason to deny women health care anyway).
Wingnuttia sure can be twisted...
This one's for the ladies in the audience...
From Hullabaloo--if you've got the time, this article is well worth reading: a woman recounts the circumstances that led to her late-term abortion. Short version: no, it wasn't a matter of convenience, and no, promiscuity had nothing to do with it (as if that's a reason to deny women health care anyway).
Wingnuttia sure can be twisted...
Cross-Species Embarrassment
The soft bigotry of low expectations doesn't get any softer or lower than The Attorney General of the United States of America, Alberto Gonzales, who wouldn't in a million years manage to garner a positive job review. Geez. He and his boss are uniquely unsuited and not qualified for the offices they hold...
The soft bigotry of low expectations doesn't get any softer or lower than The Attorney General of the United States of America, Alberto Gonzales, who wouldn't in a million years manage to garner a positive job review. Geez. He and his boss are uniquely unsuited and not qualified for the offices they hold...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
"Bush's Bubble"
It's a chronic condition.
Dan Froomkin discusses Bubble-Shrub. You know, bubbles have a way of popping, even if there's no one around with a push pin.
It's a chronic condition.
Dan Froomkin discusses Bubble-Shrub. You know, bubbles have a way of popping, even if there's no one around with a push pin.
Selective Skinflint-ery
Da Po' Blog and YRHT point to Senator Landrieu blowing the lid off the $110 billion dollar lie, insurance claim payments being counted as "aid," and so on. Kind of makes you sick...except of course that this is par for the course when it comes to Team Bush.
Meanwhile: they can't waste lives or money fast enough in Mesopotamia.
Mission Accomplished.
Da Po' Blog and YRHT point to Senator Landrieu blowing the lid off the $110 billion dollar lie, insurance claim payments being counted as "aid," and so on. Kind of makes you sick...except of course that this is par for the course when it comes to Team Bush.
Meanwhile: they can't waste lives or money fast enough in Mesopotamia.
Mission Accomplished.
Flat Surge
So, now that "Surge" has fizzled, what's next? The New Coke Strategery?
Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores — the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.
Must not have been one of McCain's walking neighborhoods...or, at the very least, it's not one anymore.
So, now that "Surge" has fizzled, what's next? The New Coke Strategery?
Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores — the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.
Must not have been one of McCain's walking neighborhoods...or, at the very least, it's not one anymore.
Who Needs Medical Professionals?
...when theAsshole Roberts Five can determine a woman's fate?
A Supreme Court majority of one basically went on record today as saying an adult woman has fewer rights than a fetus.
If an adult woman's health or life is at risk due to complications resulting from pregnancy, well, today SCOTUS said "fuck you, it doesn't matter if, as Ginsburg notes in dissent, 'a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' could be performed. No, fuck you--we only care about the fetus."
But once born, that concern fades faster than unwatered flowers in Louisiana summer heat. Especially if the child grows up to be...an adult woman.
Third-class citizenship, courtesy of Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia. Hmmm...K-RATS. Sounds about right.
...when the
A Supreme Court majority of one basically went on record today as saying an adult woman has fewer rights than a fetus.
If an adult woman's health or life is at risk due to complications resulting from pregnancy, well, today SCOTUS said "fuck you, it doesn't matter if, as Ginsburg notes in dissent, 'a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' could be performed. No, fuck you--we only care about the fetus."
But once born, that concern fades faster than unwatered flowers in Louisiana summer heat. Especially if the child grows up to be...an adult woman.
Third-class citizenship, courtesy of Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia. Hmmm...K-RATS. Sounds about right.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Priorities
Them golf holes don't play themselves...
They've had almost TWO YEARS to come up with a national emergency response plan in light of their somnambulant response to Katrina, Rita, and the flood.
And they spent that time...lollygagging.
Pitiful. Particularly in light of the fact that this shouldn't be all that difficult. It's a question of will...and competence.
This administration has neither.
Them golf holes don't play themselves...
They've had almost TWO YEARS to come up with a national emergency response plan in light of their somnambulant response to Katrina, Rita, and the flood.
And they spent that time...lollygagging.
Pitiful. Particularly in light of the fact that this shouldn't be all that difficult. It's a question of will...and competence.
This administration has neither.
35 Years...and Counting
As much as I love the Gret Stet, and the South in general, there are some things that make me hang my head in shame:
Around midday today, Central Time, two men in Angola Prison in Louisiana will quietly mark the moment, 35 years ago exactly, when the bars of solitary confinement cells closed behind them. They will likely spend the moment in their 6 by 9 concrete cells reading, or writing letters to their hundreds of supporters around the world. And most of America and the rest of the world will still have never heard of them, or that in the United States of America, it is still possible to spend a life sentence in solitary confinement without interruption and without any real means of appeal. Americans shamefully imagine such things happen offshore in places like Guantanamo, or in totalitarian countries half a world away. Not here, though. Certainly not here.
Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are those men, who along with Robert King, are known as the Angola Three. (King established his innocence and was released in 2001 after almost 30 years in solitary.) Collectively, the three of them have spent 100 years in solitary confinement. Wallace asked this week, "Where is the justice?"
It was also on this day in 1972, that Brent Miller, a young, white, newlywed prison guard, was discovered in a pool of his own blood, stabbed 32 times. Brent Miller was a popular, athletic, handsome local boy who dreamed of leaving Angola with his young wife as soon as he could get a job in the nearby paper mill or up in Oklahoma. He never got a chance.
And based on long-lost evidence uncovered by a new team of attorneys and investigators over the past year and a half, it is clear Miller hasn't received justice, either. Woodfox and Wallace were placed in solitary and under suspicion of the murder the day it happened, and were later convicted of Miller's murder following trials highlighted by key testimony by inmate witnesses who were promised items such as cigarettes and the warden's recommendation of a pardon for their testimony. One of the state's inmate eyewitness was a legally blind certified sociopath. Another inmate repeatedly confessed to the murder to his fellow inmates and assured them that the prison administration knew he was guilty, but wanted to make examples of Woodfox and Wallace, known activists and Black Panthers.
This isn't justice, nor is Burl Cain's ludicrous ego-trip-for-Jaysus approach to the matter:
...current warden Burl Cain offered to release Woodfox and Wallace back into the general population if they renounced their political views and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. (The megalomaniacal Cain is to media attention what a lobotomized moth is to an incandescent bulb; he wrote a book and has done hundreds of interviews about his "reformist" approach to penology, which involves converting prisoners to Christianity and holding the hands of those being executed so that his face would be the last they'd see before Christ's.)
Meanwhile...the sands of time continue to flow...
As much as I love the Gret Stet, and the South in general, there are some things that make me hang my head in shame:
Around midday today, Central Time, two men in Angola Prison in Louisiana will quietly mark the moment, 35 years ago exactly, when the bars of solitary confinement cells closed behind them. They will likely spend the moment in their 6 by 9 concrete cells reading, or writing letters to their hundreds of supporters around the world. And most of America and the rest of the world will still have never heard of them, or that in the United States of America, it is still possible to spend a life sentence in solitary confinement without interruption and without any real means of appeal. Americans shamefully imagine such things happen offshore in places like Guantanamo, or in totalitarian countries half a world away. Not here, though. Certainly not here.
Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are those men, who along with Robert King, are known as the Angola Three. (King established his innocence and was released in 2001 after almost 30 years in solitary.) Collectively, the three of them have spent 100 years in solitary confinement. Wallace asked this week, "Where is the justice?"
It was also on this day in 1972, that Brent Miller, a young, white, newlywed prison guard, was discovered in a pool of his own blood, stabbed 32 times. Brent Miller was a popular, athletic, handsome local boy who dreamed of leaving Angola with his young wife as soon as he could get a job in the nearby paper mill or up in Oklahoma. He never got a chance.
And based on long-lost evidence uncovered by a new team of attorneys and investigators over the past year and a half, it is clear Miller hasn't received justice, either. Woodfox and Wallace were placed in solitary and under suspicion of the murder the day it happened, and were later convicted of Miller's murder following trials highlighted by key testimony by inmate witnesses who were promised items such as cigarettes and the warden's recommendation of a pardon for their testimony. One of the state's inmate eyewitness was a legally blind certified sociopath. Another inmate repeatedly confessed to the murder to his fellow inmates and assured them that the prison administration knew he was guilty, but wanted to make examples of Woodfox and Wallace, known activists and Black Panthers.
This isn't justice, nor is Burl Cain's ludicrous ego-trip-for-Jaysus approach to the matter:
...current warden Burl Cain offered to release Woodfox and Wallace back into the general population if they renounced their political views and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. (The megalomaniacal Cain is to media attention what a lobotomized moth is to an incandescent bulb; he wrote a book and has done hundreds of interviews about his "reformist" approach to penology, which involves converting prisoners to Christianity and holding the hands of those being executed so that his face would be the last they'd see before Christ's.)
Meanwhile...the sands of time continue to flow...
He's Wankerific
Derbs' dreams.
Derbyshire is on an extended trip down fantasy lane...again.
Maybe stick to reading Walter Mitty instead of living it.
If only Bruce Lee were around to kick his ass for real.
Derbs' dreams.
Derbyshire is on an extended trip down fantasy lane...again.
Maybe stick to reading Walter Mitty instead of living it.
If only Bruce Lee were around to kick his ass for real.
More Violence on the TV Screens
A friend of mine pointed out that earlier this week the Pentagon released a classified document they'd previously withheld from people investigating the No Gun Ri massacre...not that this in any way mitigates the ugly and horrific actions of Cho Seung-hui, but my friend and I both wonder if it might have been a factor in setting him off...
And, as others, like Dependable Renegade, note, consider that 34 people killed is probably about average for Iraq (ok, actually about half an average day), anyway, the point of course isn't that the Blacksburg tragedy is ho-hum, but just the opposite: it's awful. And it's awful in Iraq, despite the ever more nonsensical denials from Team Bush.
Violence will not, and cannot, solve problems. It won't work on a personal level, it won't work on a national or global level. It's time we all realized this.
A friend of mine pointed out that earlier this week the Pentagon released a classified document they'd previously withheld from people investigating the No Gun Ri massacre...not that this in any way mitigates the ugly and horrific actions of Cho Seung-hui, but my friend and I both wonder if it might have been a factor in setting him off...
And, as others, like Dependable Renegade, note, consider that 34 people killed is probably about average for Iraq (ok, actually about half an average day), anyway, the point of course isn't that the Blacksburg tragedy is ho-hum, but just the opposite: it's awful. And it's awful in Iraq, despite the ever more nonsensical denials from Team Bush.
Violence will not, and cannot, solve problems. It won't work on a personal level, it won't work on a national or global level. It's time we all realized this.
Monday, April 16, 2007
White Dick's Burden
Juan Cole on Mr. It-Depends-on-What-You-Mean-by-Last-Throes:
Cheney is still living in a day of the white man's burden (you have to wonder whether the history of White/Native American relations in Wyoming shaped his views on these things.)
By all means read the entire post if you've got the time. Cole convincingly demonstrates how out-of-touch (and not to mention incompetent) this administration genuinely is...
Juan Cole on Mr. It-Depends-on-What-You-Mean-by-Last-Throes:
Cheney is still living in a day of the white man's burden (you have to wonder whether the history of White/Native American relations in Wyoming shaped his views on these things.)
By all means read the entire post if you've got the time. Cole convincingly demonstrates how out-of-touch (and not to mention incompetent) this administration genuinely is...
Cockburn on Imus: "Far More Boring than Jewelry Sales on QVC"
That's sort of my own opinion, as noted below. Here's more from Counterpunch:
In the end it was all to no avail. The execs at MSNBC and at CBS, saw the big advertisers peel away, and instantly threw in the towel. Imus was history - at least until he gets a show on Sirius just down the dial from Howard Stern and Dave Marsh.
And in the larger context of things-of Anne Coulter, of O'Reilly the Loofah King, of Limbaugh, of Howard Stern, of Cynthia Tucker and Juan Williams; of blacks paid by whites to dump on other blacks like Cynthia McKinney, of Chris Rock chanting the F word, of women-dissing rapper? One listens to the fuss about Imus and thinks, okay -- but this is only one tiny square in our dirty national quilt. We live in a racist, profit-driven culture that is getting more degraded by the hour. War is at the apex of that degradation, and indeed these ceremonies of degradation are an integral part of the war machine, which drives the whole show along. Back in February Imus snarled into his mike, "It might be good to start with somebody who is willing to take three big ones and drop one on Mecca, one on Jeddah and one on Saudi-one on Riyadh." No one asked him to apologize for that one. Take that, you towel heads.
That's sort of my own opinion, as noted below. Here's more from Counterpunch:
In the end it was all to no avail. The execs at MSNBC and at CBS, saw the big advertisers peel away, and instantly threw in the towel. Imus was history - at least until he gets a show on Sirius just down the dial from Howard Stern and Dave Marsh.
And in the larger context of things-of Anne Coulter, of O'Reilly the Loofah King, of Limbaugh, of Howard Stern, of Cynthia Tucker and Juan Williams; of blacks paid by whites to dump on other blacks like Cynthia McKinney, of Chris Rock chanting the F word, of women-dissing rapper? One listens to the fuss about Imus and thinks, okay -- but this is only one tiny square in our dirty national quilt. We live in a racist, profit-driven culture that is getting more degraded by the hour. War is at the apex of that degradation, and indeed these ceremonies of degradation are an integral part of the war machine, which drives the whole show along. Back in February Imus snarled into his mike, "It might be good to start with somebody who is willing to take three big ones and drop one on Mecca, one on Jeddah and one on Saudi-one on Riyadh." No one asked him to apologize for that one. Take that, you towel heads.
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