The Birther Saga Returns!

In 1946, one year after the end of the Second World War, a young, ambitious veteran defeated a three-term sitting senator from his own party, Robert M. La Follete, Jr. of Wisconsin. The reason for his victory? He claimed that La Follete had not only being a coward for not enlisting in the war after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, but for making obscene profits while he was gallantry fighting for his country. The belief that La Follete was a war profiteer damaged his career, and was swiftly defeated. The name of the newly-elected nominee for the state of Wisconsin was Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Ironically enough, Robert was 46 years of age and serving his third term when the attacks took place, and that McCarthy himself, invested money in the stock market whilst serving his country, raking in $42,000 in 1943. Those facts didn't matter in the end. What stuck was the repeated spin that La Follete's very patriotism was suspect. McCarthy's brash, brazen and disgusting attacks on an opponent's character have been apart of his rise to power and prominence, even back to when he was running for local office in his home state, as the internet magazine on law, Legal Affairs, documents:

The 10th Judicial District was largely rural, and McCarthy, in his three-month campaign in 1939, visited farmers and their families. He knew how to talk to them about crops and climate. He sent out thousands of postcards showing a little boy holding a baseball bat, captioned: "Let's Play Ball." But more potent than these Currier & Ives methods was his attack on Werner's weak spot. The standard biographical source for lawyers, the Martindale-Hubbell directory, listed Werner's date of birth as 1866, which would have made him 73. As a candidate in 1916, Werner had added seven years to his age in order to seem more mature. But now the deception, repeated in edition after edition, backfired. Joe ran ads in the local papers accusing Werner of lying about his age. Werner produced a birth certificate that showed he was born on July 24, 1872, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, which made him 66 in February 1939. But he was not as effective in broadcasting his defense as McCarthy was in attacking him. Shortly before the election, Joe ran an ad under the headline: "What About This Age Question?" In April 1939, McCarthy won, by 15,164 votes to Werner's 11,219. Once again, the lesson was: Dirty tricks work. At 30, Joe McCarthy was the youngest man ever elected a circuit judge in Wisconsin. 

McCarthy's bully-boy strategy of destroying an opponent by fabricating the most outrageous and malicious slanders, half-truths and false accusations imaginable without even a hint of remorse or shame, and how repeating said smears ad nauseum  until they become the truth, lives on in our political climate to this day. From Saxby Chambliss tearing down the career of thrice amputated war veteran and then-sitting Senator from Georgia Max Cleland, to Karl Rove using John Kerry's service in the Vietnam War to question his own patriotism, the politics of character assassination serve as a reminder that they work and have gotten others elected.

Which brings me to Donald Trump and the resurgence of the Birther bullshit. Yes, just when you thought this sad and shameful bit of thinly-veiled racism had finally been put to bed by President Obama himself when he released, to the press, his birth certificate, "The Donald" makes his un-inglorious return to the 24-hour cable news circuit whilst shilling for the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

On Tuesday morning, Trump appeared via telephone on CNBC, where he argued that questions about Obama's birthplace have not been adequately answered, despite Obama releasing a copy of his birth certificate over a year ago.
"Nothing has changed my mind," he said.
Trump was skeptical about a recently unearthed promotional booklet from Obama's former literary agency that erroneously reported the president was born in Kenya. After the discovery of the booklet reignited rumors that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen, the author of his biography quickly came forward and said the mistake was a simple fact-checking error.
Trump, however, was not convinced. "Look, a publisher come out last week and had a statement about Obama given to them by Obama when he was doing a book as a young man, a number of years ago, in the 90s," he said. "Now amazingly, the publisher is 'oh we made a mistake.'"
"[Obama was] a young man doing a book, and he said what he believed to be the truth."
Unsatisfied with Obama's birth certificate, the authenticity of which he said many people have "serious doubts" about, he called for Obama to provide his academic transcripts from Columbia, Harvard and Occidental College.
"A lot of people want to see his college transcripts," Trump said. "They're not looking at his marks, his grades. ... They want to see, what does he say about place of birth. Now, those transcripts have disappeared, nobody seems to be able to get them."

I'm not about to re-hash this matter, mostly because i've pointed out the obvious several times before on this blog. What I will say is that if you're looking for Mitt to distance himself from this nonsense, don't waste your time. He won't, and neither will the rest of the Republican Party. In secret, they know this line of attack is reprehensible and ludicrous in almost every conceivable way.  But they're hunting bigger game: the game plan has been to use coded words to paint President Obama as "foreign", or a president "who isn't like us," or "one of us." This line of personal attack is one i'm sure ol' Tailgunner Joe would be proud of.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize? Boooooooo!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 24 hrs., you have already heard the news that President Obama, just nine months into his young presidency, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. With this award, he joins a very select group of former U.S. Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Jimmy Carter in 2002) who have been awarded the Peace Prize.

I've heard the talk about the campfire (I, myself, have ashed the same question):
"What's he done this early on to deserve this award?"
"The nominations for the award end on February 2, Obama had been in office for a week and a half! What gives?"
"There are more people out there who have actually made accomplishments in steering the world towards peace, so why did they get the shaft?"

First, the Nobel Peace Prize is usually awarded, not for one's accomplishments, but for one's actions to bring about peace in the world, and to highlight the causes of the times. For example, take all the many people have won it for trying to bring about peace in the Middle East (Carter, Yasser Arafat, Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat of Egypt etc.), and we're no closer to having Israelis and Palestinians lay down their past grudges and weapons and work together to coexist in the same strip of land they are fighting and dying for.
Second, what ha Obama done to win this award? Here's what the people who give out the award, have to say:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

In other words, he's not Bush Jr., where his idea of diplomacy could be equated to playing a game of Cowboys and Indians, and his attitude towards human rights were like that of his feeling about the Constitution he swore to uphold and defend - 'who gives a flying fuck, i'm the motherfucking President of the United States bitches, so I can do whatever the fuck I want, so suck on it, you damn foreigners!'

That's why he won the award. And it was well earned.

And one would beleive that everyone would feel a sense of pride that a sitting U.S. President has won this award, and set aside scoring political and partisan points with their respective base and congratulate the President on his achievement, right?

Well, with the Obstructionist Party...uh, I meant the Party of No...whoops, I mean the party that caters to un-Reconstructed Southern crackers...Ok, this isn't coming out right, let's rewind and start over...

It turns out with the Republican party, partisanship doesn't take a vacation (nailed it this time!).

Instead of going into some rant against the GOPricks, I'll just let one of my favorite songs from the British alternative rock band, Radiohead, express what I want to say in song.

I don't know why you bother
Nothing's ever good enough for you.
I was there, it wasn't like that.
You've come here just to start a fight
You had to piss on our parade,
You had to shred our big day
You had to ruin it for all concerned,
In a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah!

Hypocrite, opportunist
Don't infect me with your poison
A bully in a china shop
When I turn 'round you stay frozen to the spot
You had the pointless snide remarks
Of hammerheaded sharks
The pot will call the kettle black
It's a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah!

For a party that loves to hold claims on putting country first, they're like the kid who's mad that his prom date stood him up, so he pisses in the glass punch bowl to make everyone else's night miserable, because as the saying goes, "misery loves company."

The Outrage Game: Memorial Day Edition

Never a dull moment with partisan hack extraordinaire Matt Margolis of Blogs For Victory.com. Today's faux outrage against President Obama? He went golfing on Memorial Day!

Really, Barry? Really? According to a White House pool report, posted on Drudge Report:

Subject: Pool report 5/25/09

POTUS is, reportedly, golfing with Marvin Nicholson. No actual glimpses of the presidential golf game. Aides say POTUS paused at 3 p.m. to observe a moment of silence.

The jerk won’t let Memorial Day get in the way of his golf… sounds like Bill Clinton, who passed up the chance to get Osama bin Laden so his golf game wouldn’t get interrupted.

The president's agenda on Memorial Day:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama begins Memorial Day hosting a breakfast at the White House for families who have lost loved ones in military service. The Gold Star family members will be honored in the State Dining Room.

Later this morning, the president will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

Afterward, Obama will deliver remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington.

Now it is true that the president played some golf today, but Matty left out one important detail: this was after he performed his mandatory rituals on Memorial Day!

FORT BELVOIR, Va., May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama relaxed on the links Monday after taking part in a Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery.

Aids said the president spent about 4 1/2 hours on the course at Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Va., out of sight of a pool reporter who was kept in a roped-off area of the base PX food court. He then returned to the White House.

Obama's aides said the president paused at 3 p.m. to observe a moment of silence.

Obama ventured out on the course despite rain falling as his motorcade arrived on base. It wasn't disclosed who accompanied the president on his outing.

So not only did President Obama play some golf after taking part in the traditional Memorial Day service in Arlington, he even paused his golf game at 3p.m. to honor a moment of silence for the fallen veterans of the U.S. Military, just like he asked all Americans to do the same.

But since Matt wants to play the outrage game, let me throw him a 'what's worse scenario:'

What's worse? Obama playing a few founds of golf after he completed his traditional duties.......

....Or former President Bush playing the guitar and his Secretary of State Condelezza Rice going shoe shopping while the citizens of New Orleans were drowning in their homes and dying when Hurricane Katrina hit?

Please, spare me your false outrage, you fucking hypocrite.

New Rule: Hannity Needs to Look Into a Mirror

The next time he goes off on one of his self-righteous, holier-than-thou, reverse racism "reports".

This week, conservative commentator Sean Hannity was confronted about his own racist past on a Thursday edition of Hannity & Colmes by Malik Shabazz, of the New Black Panther Party.

Shabazz responded, “Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?”

Hannity waved his arm around. “I don’t know anybody named – this is nonsense. I don’t…” Then Hannity changed his tune. “Sir, sir… That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey.”

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, “I’m not running for president.”

“A neo Nazi, you backed his career,” Shabazz said.

Hannity answered, “That is an absolute, positive, lie and you’ve been reading the wrong websites (presumably, he meant ours), my friend. Good try.”

As noted by Max Blumenthal of The Nation magazine, Hannity did have relations with one Hal Turner, back when he wasn't the pompous, nationally syndicated jackass we all know and love today.

Turner was once a prominent activist in New Jersey's Republican Party. To area conservatives, he was best known by his moniker for call-ins to the Sean Hannity Show, "Hal from North Bergen." For years, Hannity offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner's occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants. Hannity also chatted with him off-air, allegedly offering encouragement to Turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit and homosexual leanings. Turner has boasted that Hannity once invited Turner and his son on to the set of Fox News's Hannity and Colmes. Today, Turner lurks on the fringes of the far right, spouting hate-laced tirades on his webcast radio show. Hannity, meanwhile, remains mum about his former alliance with the neo-Nazi, homing in instead on the supposed racism of black and Latino Democrats.......

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa," according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People's Project. Instead of rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls. On December 10 of the following year, Turner called Hannity's show to announce his campaign to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives from New Jersey, and to attack his presumptive opponent, Democratic Representative Robert Menendez, as a "left-wing nut."

Normally, Hannity's past dealings with a white supremacist would be swept under the rug, and it has been for quite sometime....that is until Hal Turner himself announced on his own blog that Sean had a relationship with him and said that they were friends at one time!

Yes, we were friends and yes, Sean agreed with some of my views.
Recently, Barak Obama has come under serious scrutiny for attending a church whose Reverend Wright espouses anti-American and racist views. One media outlet that has been especially critical of Obama has been the show "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News Channel.....I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn't know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.

But, wait, there's more from Turner!

When Hannity took over Bob Grant's spot on 77 WABC in New York City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other a bit and at some point, I can't remember exactly when, Sean gave me the secret "Guest call-in number" at WABC so that my calls could always get on the air.

When I utlized that call-in number, Sean would very often come onto that line during commercial breaks so we could chat before I went on the air. Our off-the-air chats grew to an exchange of other phone numbers, me giving Sean my home and cellular number and Sean giving me his direct dial-in number at Fox News channel.

But that's not the worst of it, folks!

I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won't go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own! Suffice it to say that my recollection is that when Sean and I spoke by phone, while no one else was listening, he and I exchanged the kinds of views that most White, Irish-Catholic guys hold, but won't speak in public.

In my opinion, based on my first hand experience, I believe Sean Hannity is, in fact, a Hal Turner sort of guy. It seems to me that a big difference between Sean and me is that I am willing to say publicly what I think about savage Black criminals, diseased, uneducated illegal aliens and the grotesque cultural destruction wrought by satanic jews while Sean and many others keep quiet to protect their paychecks.

Another big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do well to remember this fact.

Sadly enough, even with this whopper, i'm betting that there's still gonna be some right-wingers who will find some inane way to defend this son of a bitch, unaware that they're the same people who were pissing and moaning about Obama's comment about his white grandmother.

Go figure.

The Waterboarding Debate - Or How the Neocons Don't Give a Damn About International Law

In this installment on my blog, I must ask the following question: are Bush supporters really this ignorant or that brainwashed from drinking the Red State kool-aid? I know I shouldn't be surprised by the logic (or lack thereof) seeping from the hardcore fringe right, but when it comes to the issue of defending waterboarding because a Bush crony said that it's not torture (if a Bush crony says it, then it must be considered true!), I just scratch my head in total amazement over how these fucking morons could defend and endorse such a tactic.

But, waterboarding is not torture, and I have no idea why Democrats want terrorists to be coddled, not interrogated.
-Matt Margolis

Uh, Matt, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, Human Right Watch, and the U.S. Department of State, it is.
From the UN Convention Against Torture:

Article 2
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

From Human Rights Watch:

The Convention Against Torture prohibits practices that constitute the intentional infliction of “severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental.” The federal torture statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, similarly prohibits acts outside the United States that are specifically intended to cause “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.”

Waterboarding is torture. It causes severe physical suffering in the form of reflexive choking, gagging, and the feeling of suffocation. It may cause severe pain in some cases. If uninterrupted, waterboarding will cause death by suffocation. It is also foreseeable that waterboarding, by producing an experience of drowning, will cause severe mental pain and suffering. The technique is a form of mock execution by suffocation with water. The process incapacitates the victim from drawing breath, and causes panic, distress, and terror of imminent death. Many victims of waterboarding suffer prolonged mental harm for years and even decades afterward.

Waterboarding, when used against people captured in the context of war, may also amount to a war crime as defined under the federal war crimes statute 18 U.S.C. § 2441, which criminalizes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions (in international armed conflicts), and violations of Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions (in non-international armed conflicts). Waterboarding is also an assault, and thus violates the federal assault statute, 18 U.S.C. § 113, when it occurs in the “special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,” a jurisdictional area which includes government installations overseas. In cases involving the U.S. armed forces, waterboarding also amounts to assault, and cruelty and maltreatment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Under the laws of the land, U.S. personnel who order or take part in waterboading are committing criminal acts—torture, assault, and war crimes—which are punishable as felony offenses.

Get that, Matt? Not only is considered torture, but it it also considered illegal under international law.......but hey, when has a little thing like the law stopped your hero Bush and his gang of thugs from getting what they want?

For a gang of so-called Christian Conservatives, they sure aren't conducting themselves in a Christian manner.

The 'War on G.I. Joe' - another fictitious display of outrage from the right-wing

First it was the phony 'War on Christmas' baloney, courtesy of media blowhard Bill O'Reilly.
Then came the Brokeback Mountain controversy from the Christain Right and the right-wing shock jocks.
Last year, there was the Superman Returns saga over how the Man of Steel was now being portrayed as an international figure instead of an American one.
And just last week, O'Reilly was bent out of shape over J.K. Rowing outing Albus Dumbledore of the Harry Potter book series as a homosexual.
And now, the new pseudo outrage the right-wingers are concerning themselves with is Paramount's decision to give the action-figure G.I. Joe a whole new look for the silver screen.

Hollywood now proposes that in a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line, Joe's -- well, "G.I." -- identity needs to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels." The IGN Entertainment news site reports Paramount is considering replacing our "real American hero" with "Action Man," member of an "international operations team."

Paramount will simply turn Joe's name into an acronym.

The show biz newspaper Variety reports: "G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer."

Well, thank goodness the villain -- no need to offend anyone by making our villains Arabs, Muslims, or foreign dictators of any stripe these days, though apparently Presbyterians who talk like Scottie on "Star Trek" are still OK -- is a double-crossing arms dealer. Otherwise one might be tempted to conclude the geniuses at Paramount believe arms dealing itself is evil.

Yes. The right wingers are outraged about the equivalent of a male Barbie Doll getting a new face lift for the big-screen adaptation. And, as expected, the travesty reached the ears of the rabid, daydreaming Bush fanatics at Blogs for Bush.com, and its crackpot editor, Mark Noonan.

For crying out loud - "GI Joe" is as American as baseball and apple pie...do the people at Paramount really think the kiddies want stories of Euro-weenies rather than real American fighting men and women? With a wealth of new-minted heros in Iraq to be used to educate and inspire a new generation of American youth, Hollywood wants to opt for a version of the UN's blue helmeted international jokes...

Wrong, Noonan. Hollywood wants to make a bucket load of money, both domestically and globally.

Rush Limbaugh is an innocent bystander! And those who exposed him are just trying to silence him!

Here's a nice case of right wing lunacy to begin the month of October: all of us are now aware of how conservative radio talk show host/drug addict/America's no. 1 doucebag Rush Limbaugh stepped in it - again.

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.

Amazing. Veterans of the Iraq War who now choose to speak out against it are being lectured by this gutless coward????? The same man who joined the ranks of other Vietnam era draft dodgers such as Bush Jr., Cheney, and DeLay, by claiming that he had a boil on his ass that prevented him from running??

What's more amazing, or un-amazing, is that the rank-and-file lapdogs, ranging from the GOP blogsites, to the Fox Propaganda Network, are actually defending this idiot's comments, and some of the wingnuts are even blaming........wait for it.......Hillary Clinton and George Soros for Oxycontin's act of random idiocy on the air!

Unfortunately, as folks around the country saw this play out on their television sets and newspapers, few were at all familiar with the organization behind the smear campaigns, or that this same group started the firestorm which ended with radio host Don Imus being terminated by NBC and CBS in April.

Maybe more importantly, even fewer citizens are aware that this organization is linked directly to Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as billionaire leftist George Soros.

It gets even better from here, folks.

CAP is heavily funded by the aforementioned billionaire financier George Soros, and in turn works closely with Media Matters to remove potential roadblocks (like Don Imus) from Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House. According to Bill O’Reilly, some of the money Soros gives to CAP eventually finds its way into the coffers of Media Matters, though Media Matters disputes this................

Is the picture becoming clearer? Hillary and her backers have created an advocacy network whose expressed goal is to take down all of her critics in the media.

In fact, after Imus was fired by NBC and CBS, Media Matters published a 6,000-word article entitled “It’s Not Just Imus,” listing other political enemies of the Clintons such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

Yes, the picture is becoming clearer.........just how is it that the liberals are labeled 'conspiracy theorists' when the nutters on the right are coming up with inane shit like this?

And yet, even with the original recording of the incident and the transcript of the remark, the ever-faithful right-wingers are still in denial about it ever being said, even going as far as to say that poor Rush is being taken out of context!

This kind of insanity really shouldn't be new to me, or to any of the Americans who aren't dumbed-down ditto-heads. Hell, it's the kind of Orwellian-type thinking (up is down, ignorance is strength, etc.) that this country has had to endure ever since the current administration set the standard that anyone who dares disagree with the GOP or the plan of action is either un-American or unpatriotic. i just can't figure out what's more pathetic here - Rush Limbaugh himself, or the shrinking minority of die-hard wingnuts/Bushbots who defend him and easily punish those who exposeed the jackass.

Either way, it's just another episode of the three-ringed freakshow that is the right-wing world.

The Religious Right and contraception/abortion: Ignorance is bliss

If you want to know just how stupid and ignorant the right-wing Christian zealots (and the Catholic Church) are, check out this discussion on abortion and contraception.

At any rate, we won't set our sights on contraception AFTER we get abortion banned because our sights are ALREADY set on contraception...though we have a lot of work to do among Catholics, first, because after Vatican II it was mistakenly assumed by most Catholics that contraception was no big deal. It is, of course, a big deal and now the Church is starting to re-emphasise that if you don't want children, don't have sex.

First Noonan, abortion is not - I repeat - is not going away for the following reasons:

1st reason: it's noting short of political suicide! Unless the GOP can manage to win an election (without resorting to the tricks they pulled in Ohio in 2004) without the majority of women who support abortion, there is no way you guys will overturn Roe vs. Wade.
2nd reason: God forebid this abortion is outlawed, it will only be a matter of time before the pressure of protesters force govt. to make it legal again.
3rd reason: you're only putting women in more risk to turn to the old days of getting an abortion..........and we really don't want to go down that road.

Second, just telling someone to not to have sex isn't the be-all-end-all treatment against unwanted pregnancy and preventing STD's. People (especially young people) need to be educated about the risks of having sex and they need to hear all the choices that are given to them, not just your own.
And third, Mark, ".......but contraception is wrong........." what bullshit, contraception's the thing that would prevent me from Jonathan Jr. or from having VD, and btw: who the fuck are you to shove your holier-than-thou views onto others, from a man who lives in...........Las Vegas, a place riddled with gambling, prostitution, and sex?
Noonan, just remember: "Judge not, least ye be judged."

I'm not dead, i'm just really busy

Hey everyone! No, i'm not dead people, i've just been one busy seventeen year-old: the June issue of The Ranch Review is all sent off, my SAT testing is complete, and all I have left are my End-of-course exams, and then.......summer.

It turns out that a lot has happened over two weeks, so let me try and get caught up with current events.

Paris Hilton's had a bad week: First, the twenty-something enters prison, then after three days, she gets out of jail because he's suffering from "medical problems", and now a judge today sentenced Ms. Hilton back to jail! That didn't sit to well with Paris.

Paris Hilton was just ordered back to jail in Lynwood to serve out the remainder of her sentence! She'll get credit for at least 5 days already served.

Hilton left the courtroom in tears, screaming, "Mom, Mom, Mom." Hilton was also heard saying "It's not right."

One witness said that Paris was "physically escorted" out of the courtroom by a female deputy.

Hilton's mother was later seen pacing the hallways, telling reporters, "I'm paralyzed right now." Paris' father Rick is still in the courtroom.

As someone once said: don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Here's a video of the utter madness of the paparazzi when Hilton was taken to court by the local authorities.



Right-wingers really are stupid: Like you didn't already know this. By far, the dumbest thing i've read this week - Mark Noonan takes a page from the Religious Rights poster-child nutjob Sam Brownback in denying evolution because his religion says it's bullshit. Not only does the discussion about evolution go out the window (as well as the facts that other posters made), but it brings out a lunatic out of the debate who based ALL of his opinions of the matter......on the Bible. The stuff posted from Jeremiah reminded me of reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

"The bible, Jeremiah, is a book of man-made renderings. Man, in his need for comfort and reassurance on a sometimes hostile planet, invented a father-like figure to oversee his daily life. A supreme being that would bestow blessings as a reward for good behavior or issue punishment for bad conduct. If this gives particular consolation to an individual, I see nothing wrong with that."


At May 31, 2007 06:17 PM

Let's pick your statements apart piece by piece shall we!

#1. "The bible, Jeremiah, is a book of man-made renderings"

First of all, CO, the bible, CO, is not just a book, it is the infallible Word of Almighty God, based primarily on His instruction as to how we should live! Which is a life pleasing to Him!
The Criteria herein, through the work required for Jesus Christ, Lies the the key to a successfully happy and joyful life, and are proof of His presence within this world is real, and the Faith it requires to sustain each and every life. Words by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--

Words by the [Father].
"The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18

Words by the [Son].
The Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 8:13

Words by the [Holy Spirit]
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Acts 13:2

Notice anything in the last two verses? The key is FAITH.

#2.
"Man, in his need for comfort and reassurance on a sometimes hostile planet, invented a father-like figure to oversee his daily life."

Ivented???? That's pretty shallow there, CO! On top of that it's a pretty dangerous statement to be making too! Every life, CO, is at the mercy of Almighty God, and alot of people have made that mistake all too many times, Just ask the rich man in Hell, remember him? When he lifted up his eyes out of Hell, begging for a drop of water just to cool his tongue!!!!!!!

#3. "A supreme being that would bestow blessings as a reward for good behavior or issue punishment for bad conduct."

You state it as if taking life for grantit. That's a sad depressing way to look at it, doncha think?
You still don't get it do you! God gave you a CHOICE. He even sent His ONLY Son Jesus Christ to DIE, a cruel, CRUEL DEATH!!! He loved you that much, so you would believe and want to appreciate and love Him!!!!

Do you want to serve Him?...Or, Do you want to reject Him and be [eternally] lost, Forever and ever to never see peace again?

#4."If this gives particular consolation to an individual, I see nothing wrong with that."

Then why do you so ignorantly, INSIST, on God as being someone made-up????????????

CO, you may not give a hoot about other people and their relationship with Christ, But I do!!

But you will, one of these days, only then, your worries will have just begun!!

Posted by: Jeremiah at May 31, 2007 07:26 PM

Now granted, I am a Christian, but I don't dive into the depths of denial because a book (which was written and interpreted by Man, not by God) told me otherwise.

And the idiot of the week goes to: Gary Shefield, for this idiotic and racist comment regarding why there are few African-Americans playing baseball.

In an interview with GQ magazine that's currently on newsstands, the typically outspoken Tigers designated hitter said Latin players have replaced African-Americans as baseball's most prevalent minority because they are easier to control.

"I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. … [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them," he told the magazine.

"Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man.

Wrong, jackass. Latinos are playing baseball because it has become a popular sport in places like Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin-American countries, it's not because they can be controlled. I would expect to hear this comment coming from a racist redneck, but haring the kind of comments come from my ethnic background is disheartening and disturbing.

Hoffman gets 500th save, Padres break out brooms against Los Angeles: What an exciting three days of Padres baseball! First, the Padres win with a run and a pair of hits. Then Trevor Hoffman reaches a milestone, not even reached by Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith: his 500th career save. And last night, down by four, the Padres come from behind in the last of the 9th to win 6-5, sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers at PETCO Park.

Now don't tell me that the Padres are, in the month of June, the National League's hottest team.

The Count was right about Leo

Let me tell you point blank what I think about Leo Pusateri . He is a piss poor parent. The worst kind of parent. Anybody who has a child in Iraq or Afghanistan and supports this war and this President doesn't give a shit about his children.

He cares more about his president then he does his own child and to me that makes him a worthless parent and a worthless human being.

I couldn't agree with you more, Count.

I came to this conclusion when I posted about why he's bitching about Al Gore but not about the Army Times reporting that the troops serving in Iraq don't need a bigger pay raise. This was his response:

1. Try to stay on topic.

2. Bush wouldn't complain about a larger increase in pay than he proposed if your defeatocrat friends wouldn't be threatening to cut military funding at every turn of the corner (and don't give me that B.S. that you're not a democrat--you hang out at D.U.).

I'd be trying to conserve money, too.

Don't be talking to me about supporting the troops.

You and yours may just as well hold a friggen gun to their head, and threaten to pull the trigger, since that's what you and yours have been doing lo' these many months.

Talk about torture and stress. It's not like they have enough, and you go and pile it on with your worthless piece of crap political posturing and threatening to cut off their funding.

Screw you!!

Don't ever--ever come on this blog again and talk about Bush not supporting the troops!

I decided to ignore his ranting and provide more examples of Bush not giving a shit about our troops.

Jonathan said...

"(and don't give me that B.S. that you're not a democrat--you hang out at D.U.). "

Wrong, I read D.U. - barely, because I don't have the luxury to do it(responsibilities to school)everyday, and btw: i'm not a member. I've never signed up for D.U., you condescending prick.

What's the matter, Leo? Hard to accept that Bush only uses the soldiers as either a photo-op or for political posturing?

Well, here are more examples of Bush not supporting the troops:

Wieghtman testifying about privatization of Walter Reed

two soldiers killed in friendly fire, not in combat

injured troops being deployed

veterans disabilities being downgraded

neglection at Walter Reed #18

sending troops to war without the right amount of troops needed

Who supports the troops now?
It sure as hell isn't the Commander-In-Chief.

5/25/2007 10:59:00 AM

Unfortunately, Leo couldn't handle the truth, so he deleted it.

Count Istavan was right........Leo, you don't care.

I could really care less at this point, whether or not you support the war. I believed that you would be pissed that for all the talk of Bush claiming to support the troops, that you would be mad as hell that he's only using them for a photo-op, but I guess your unwavering loyalty to Bush trumps your own son and the troops.

You sir, are a fucking creep.

Mark Noonan: Blind Loyalty Before Country

So this week's bitch over at Blogs for Bush.con are the 11 GOP senators who placed country before party (or voters before country, however you want to look at it) telling the Shrub in office, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.”

Unfortunately, that didn't sit too well with Mark Noonan. For those who don't understand bullshit speak, I will translate, from time to time, what Noonan is saying to what he really meant.

For you "moderates" out there - go ahead and vote against victory; heck, switch parties, if that will make you feel better. For us on our side of the aisle, we're more than willing to see zero GOPers in Congress in 2009 if that is the price of victory in 2008.

Translation: dead American soldiers and my party's future doesn't mean jack shit to me, as long as Dear Leader keeps his head up firmly in his ass and continues to lead the troops and the country over a fucking cliff, then so be it.

This is war, not politics - and all of the political straddling and calculation of all the "moderates" in America isn't worth...well, it isn't worth something which rhymes with "spit".

Translation: to hell with with what americans say about the war, their opinons aren't worth two squirts of piss! Besides, there's only one opinion that really matters......and that's the one coming from Dear Leader's mouth!

We fight until victory or until our fellow Americans so far remove us from the direction of affairs that we lack any power to influence events.

Comment: Mark, that day is coming sooner than you think.

2. To the blood of the Iraqi dead: Look, you saw what we defeatists engineered in Saigon in 1975. You should know by now that if a war goes on more than a year, then we'll be working for American defeat because war is hard and we don't like it much and we especially don't like it while President Bush is in charge.

Comment: Uh Mark, the Vietnam War lasted 16 years and cost us the lives of 58,208 American soldiers, but I guess those numbers don't really matter when you're fucking shitfaced from all the White House talking points you've been drinking, eh?

3. To our enemies: You win. We're too chicken to fight you for long and if you'll please just blow up Americans in moderate annual numbers, then we'll be ok with it forever.

Translation: i'm too much of a fucking pussy to fight in a war that I support so much. Also, I have nothing new to say, so i'll just repeat some bullshit scare tactics I overheard Dick Cheney talking about on Meet the Press.

Mark, when you and your neo-conservative possy have been wrong about everything about Iraq for 5 years, isn't time to stop making predictions on how Bush's strategy (Stay the Course, take 4) is going to eventually fuck up, ditch the rhetoric on how we're going to win (without any definable goals or without any hint of a fucking plan), and just admit that you were wrong?

From the looks of Noonan's last post, it appears he's going to ride his saddle of ignorance into the sunset.

Good luck dude, let's see how far that 'el get ya.

Another example of a Bush apologist placing blind loyalty to a president over his country.

To Leo.....

Remember when I blogged about Leo Pusateri calling me out for supposedly calling Chimpy an idiot and a coward (which I didn't, i said he was "incompetent" and "intellectually-challenged")?

Well I've decided to respond to Mr. Pusateri's comments.

Leo? I hope you're reading this blogs, cause I have a few misconceptions I need to clear up with your post, which by the way, was flattering:

First, I said that the Shrub was incompetent, not stupid. I'm not sure if you realize this, but incompetent and stupid are not the same thing. Here's the definition of stupid:

1. lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.
2. characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless: a stupid question.

Now, the definition of incompetent:

1. not competent; lacking qualification or ability; incapable: an incompetent candidate.
2. characterized by or showing incompetence: His incompetent acting ruined the play.

Second, let me explain why I called the president incompetent and intellectually challenged. I called Bush incompetent because all the studying he did in Harvard and Yale and his terms as Governor of Texas couldn't help him fight a war with competence, or rebuild New Orleans, or hire qualified officials to high-ranking positions of power (Alberto Gonzalez and Michael Brown ring any bells, Leo?). I called Bush intellectually challenged cause, if you've listened to the man for five minutes, you'd see he couldn't string together a coherent sentence if his life depended on it.

Thirdly, no one called Bush a coward, but I did find it ironic that you invoked Bush's service to the National Guard, which is honorable work, which I would have given him credit for.......if the Shrub hadn't gone AWOL on his service as Salon.com reported in 2004.

Bush flew for the last time on April 16, 1972. Upon entering the Guard, Bush agreed to fly for 60 months. After his training was complete, he owed 53 months of flying.

But he flew for only 22 of those 53 months.

Upon being accepted for pilot training, Bush promised to serve with his parent (Texas) Guard unit for five years once he completed his pilot training.

But Bush served as a pilot with his parent unit for just two years.

In May 1972 Bush left the Houston Guard base for Alabama. According to Air Force regulations, Bush was supposed to obtain prior authorization before leaving Texas to join a new Guard unit in Alabama.

But Bush failed to get the authorization.

In requesting a permanent transfer to a nonflying unit in Alabama in 1972, Bush was supposed to sign an acknowledgment that he received relocation counseling.

But no such document exists.

He was supposed to receive a certification of satisfactory participation from his unit.

But Bush did not.

He was supposed to sign and give a letter of resignation to his Texas unit commander.

But Bush did not.

He was supposed to receive discharge orders from the Texas Air National Guard adjutant general.

But Bush did not.

He was supposed to receive new assignment orders for the Air Force Reserves.

But Bush did not.

On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his "permanent address."

But he wrote down a post office box number for the campaign he was working for on a temporary basis.

On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his Air Force specialty code.

But Bush, an F-102 pilot, erroneously wrote the code for an F-89 or F-94 pilot. Both planes had been retired from service at the time. Bush, an officer, made this mistake more than once on the same form.

On May 26, 1972, Lt. Col. Reese Bricken, commander of the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, informed Bush that a transfer to his nonflying unit would be unsuitable for a fully trained pilot such as he was, and that Bush would not be able to fulfill any of his remaining two years of flight obligation.

But Bush pressed on with his transfer request nonetheless.

Bush's transfer request to the 9921st was eventually denied by the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, which meant he was still obligated to attend training sessions one weekend a month with his Texas unit in Houston.

But Bush failed to attend weekend drills in May, June, July, August and September. He also failed to request permission to make up those days at the time.

Now, this list goes on for a while, but hopefully, you get the point: Bush cut and ran from the Guard.

Lastly, Leo, let me translate what you told me, to what you're actually saying:

Well, Jonathan--I must forgive you for your shallow thinking.

Translation: I've got nothing on this kid.

I mean, as a 16 year old and a probable victim of indoctrination by liberal teachers,

Translation: Acting like a condescending prick will really put this snot-nosed brat in his place!

your life's experience has not allowed you to see reality.

Translation: I am in no way aware of what either irony or hypocrisy mean.

Glad I could clear some of these misconceptions up for you, Leo!