Hollywood Progressive Institute

The One Ringtone I Would Buy

2006-05-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

Hilarious, They Might Be Giants craft the perfect ringtone (mp3) (the kids love 'em!) for our times:

"Call connected through the NSA/Complete transmission through the NSA/Suspending your rights through the duration of the permanent war"

Perfect.

(available for purchase through xingtone.com)

The Handmaid's Tale

2006-05-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Good news Women-Citizens! Your Government is concerned about the health of your as-yet-to-be-conceived as we now move into the "life begins when a woman/incubator is of childbearing years" years with the concept of "Pre-Pregnancy"...

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

That's right Women-Citizens, your government is just worried that you aren't taking proper care of yourself in your pre-pregnant state!

So if you see a healthy young woman without a child and she's drinking, smoking, doing drugs, not eating right, taking medications, mountain climbing, not wearing a helmet while riding her bike, dying her hair, or anything else that could cause harm to her or her pre-conceived child (eggs?) be sure to tell someone in authority!

The recommendations aim to "increase public awareness of the importance of preconception health" and emphasize the "importance of managing risk factors prior to pregnancy," said Samuel Posner, co-author of the guidelines and associate director for science in the division of reproductive health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issued the report.

Prior to pregnancy? That's their standard? So basically from birth to menopause women should consider themselves 'pre-pregnant' and act accordingly.

See, it really is about who wants to control your body and make you a second class citizen. Do you honestly think men would allow anyone to tell us crap like this? HA!

Sad, But True

2006-05-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

File Under: Our Media Sucks

Why Would A Republican Need an iPod?

2006-05-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

They don't: creativity is for commie liberal fags. So why do they need a 'republican branded' iPod? iPods are made by loser liberal intellectuals.

Everyone wants to be cool... too bad homophobia, class warfare, racism and xenophobia never are.

Big Babies

2006-05-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

What babies...

Skewering comedy skit angers Bush and aides

Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert's biting routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner won a rare silent protest from Bush aides and supporters Saturday when several independently left before he finished.

"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.

Colbert "crossed the line"? Are they nuts? Colbert didn't even come close to the line. You know what? A. Bush has no sense of humor, B. He can't take criticism (I blame Barb), C. You tell him what he wants to hear like he's some spoiled child so of course he can't handle it when reality intrudes on his little world. Big baby. Tell him to have a drink, do a line and calm down.

"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."

He's angry? He's angry? Who cares? I'm f@#king angry and Bush is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people so who cares if he gets a little angry.

Colbert's routine was similar to what he does on his show, the Colbert Report, but much longer on the topic of Bush, suggesting that the president is out of touch with reality. Aides and reporters, however, said that it did not overshadow Bush's own funny routine, which featured an impersonator who told the audience what Bush was thinking when he spoke dull speech lines.

In fact, some aides crowed over reports that the president easily bested Colbert in the reviews of both comedy acts.

Yeah, those reviews where Bush 'easily bested' Colbert? Out of the same media outlets that Colbert called on the carpet the other night. Colbert stood in front of Bush and the media and told them some pretty inconvenient truths that didn't match their images of themselves and now they're crying like spoiled brats. Good.

As far as I'm concerned? What Colbert did was just shy of that guy alone in Tiananmen Square stopping a column of tanks. It was the great "truth to power" moment that has gone not just unreported, but criticized by people that should no better.

Dandy Don No Longer...

2006-04-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

More like Don Rumsfeld, Super Dick:

A full 10 seconds of silence passed after a reporter asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld what the intense secrecy and security surrounding their visit to Iraq signified about the stability of the country three years after the U.S.-led invasion. Rice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.

"I guess I don't think it says anything about it," he snapped. He went on to say that President Bush had directed him and Rice to go to Iraq to "meet with the new leadership, and it happens that they are located here," a reference to the heavily fortified Green Zone where U.S. officials -- and many Iraqi leaders -- live and work.

Awwww, some nasty terrorists went and runied Little Don's war game. What did you think was gonna happen jackass? Warfare as we know it changed and you didn't get the memo: invasions will always be met with insurgencies (hell even the French did it!) and they're much more effective thanks to technology... and the vast amount of weapons floating around the world.

Again: what a dick.

The Trillion Dollar War

2006-04-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Now this is a scary sort of graphic that shows the cost of the whole Iraqi-escapade at over a trillion $$$. Nice.

Weird Fact of the Day...

2006-04-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Did you know that 'the base,' as in "Christian fundamentalists are George Bush's base," is 'al Qaida' in Arabic.

Weird.

Adrian's Boys Stick It To Bush

2006-04-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hilarious:

George Bush can’t get no satisfaction — after Mick Jagger grabbed his hotel room.

The Rolling Stone splashed out £3,600 a night for the suite days before the US leader tried to book it.

Now Mick, 62, who has been a fierce critic of the Bush-led war in Iraq, is refusing to give it up.

The veteran rocker hired the luxury Royal Suite at the five-star Imperial Hotel in Vienna, Austria, for June when the Stones are due to play a gig in the city.

Bush’s aides then tried to book it to tie in with a summit meeting.

But Mick put his foot down and insisted he was keeping the booking.

A source close to the millionaire singer said last night: "White House officials had wanted to reserve the suite and all the other rooms on the first floor.

"But Mick and the Stones had already booked every one of them.

"Bush's people seemed to be under the impression that they would just hand over the suites but there was no way Mick was going to do that."

Of course they assumed that: they think they're better than everyone. Kudos to Mick!

Breaking News: Scientology to Declare War on KNBC

2006-04-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my, local pseudo-news organization KNBC has a slideshow of 49 celebrity Scientologists up on their website! But earning their 'pseudo' status I think some of these are wrong (Rob Thomas is not a SciTi according to Brando) and they count lots of "former" ones to get their list to 49. Funny list though.

Anyone get the feeling Scientology is just in the news a little too much?

Every TV In The West Wing...

2006-04-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Not such a shocker is it?

Republicans said Mr. Bolten has been focused on finding a new White House press secretary with good contacts in the Washington news media and a deep understanding of how they work.

Mr. Snow is the host of his own radio program and comes from the news operation that flashes from every television in the West Wing.

Or is that what folks here call 'synergy'?

Well, It Was Your Money...

2006-04-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

Think of what we could have done with all that lovely money...

The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found.

Boy winning sure is expensive.

Weirdly poetic talking about 'treasure'(???) like that...

Playing A Dangerous Game

2006-04-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value

Oy. This guy is finally calling the Bushies out by finally saying what we all know: they have the oil and we shouldn't f@#k with them.

In statements likely to rattle world oil markets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said developed countries, not producing countries like Iran, are benefiting the most from the current high prices.

"The global oil price has not reached its real value yet. The products derived from crude oil are sold at prices dozens of times higher than those charged by oil-producing countries," state-run Tehran radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"The developed nations are the biggest beneficiary of the added value of oil products," he said.

The president, who is embroiled with the West and the United Nations over Tehran's nuclear program, stopped short of saying Iran would use oil as a weapon, a tactic much feared by his antagonists on the nuclear issue. Nor did he say what oil prices should be.

Oil prices leapt above $72 a barrel Wednesday, settling at a record high for the third straight day.

I'll say it again: Oy.

Personally? I think Ahmadinejad is fundamentalist who believes his god is telling him what to do and will protect him. Bush? I don't know: half the time I believe he's the same way, the other half I see him as just some dry-drunk failed business man who just looks after his friends and has no idea how 98% percent of people actually live. This is a bad combination.

Tricksy Little FBI Agents!

2006-04-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Apparently agents tricked Jack Anderson's 79 year old widow into signing a release so they could have access to his records (who are they scrubbing them for???).

More over at TPMMuckracker.com. Hey, we may live in a world were we enjoy TV shows & movies where FBI agents trick "bad guys" but we don't live in a world where Jack Anderson's widow is one of those kind of folks.

FBI Wants Jack Anderson's Papers

2006-04-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a real shocker:

Jack Anderson turned up plenty of government secrets during his half-century as an investigative reporter, and his family hoped to make his papers available to the public after his death last December--but the government wants to see and possibly confiscate them first.

The FBI believes the columnist's files may contain national security secrets, including documents that would aid in the prosecution of two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who have been charged with disclosing classified information.

Lawyers for the family are preparing a letter saying no to the FBI, said the columnist's son, Kevin Anderson.

"He would absolutely oppose the FBI rifling through his papers at will," Anderson said.

Although some of the documents may be classified, he said, they contain only "embarrassing top secrets--hammers that cost a thousand dollars and things like that."

Anderson said it was unlikely his father had papers relevant to the AIPAC case, since he had done little original reporting after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1990.

Good for the family. Kudos to them.

This story originaly appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education and they had some good bits:

Were he alive today, Jack Anderson "would probably come out of his skin at the thought of the FBI going through his papers," said Kevin N. Anderson, the journalist's son. If papers were taken -- even if some were stamped "declassified" and returned -- that would "destroy any academic, scholarly, and historic value" of the archive, Kevin Anderson adds.

Hey, they would never do that... would they?

The FBI would not comment for this article.

The Andersons are the not the only ones who are incensed. Observers of academic freedom and libraries say that the FBI's request is part of a renewed emphasis on secrecy in government, which has focused on libraries and archives in particular. Recently, librarians have been concerned about scores of documents that have been reclassified at the National Archives, and librarians have long been concerned about freedom of information since the passage of the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI's interest in the Anderson archive is "deeply disturbing and deeply in conflict with the academy's interests in freedom of inquiry, research, and scholarship," said Duane E. Webster, the executive director of the Association of Research Libraries.

Now all the FBI dudes I know are good dudes, but the institution? And their masters? Well they've done some awfully sketchy stuff.

The Gerrymander That Ate America

2006-04-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Now I have to give it to Slate, that is a funny title. Too bad the article isn't funny at all:

It's hard to find a defender of the current process: It's engineered to favor not only incumbents, but also typically the most ideological ones who derive their power from pandering to party extremists. House incumbents seeking re-election now have a 98 percent chance of winning, up from the lower 90s in the 1990s. It's a system in which party operatives manipulate sophisticated computer software to maximum effect, shuffling voters across district boundaries to guarantee their candidates have the best chance of winning election every two years.

Wow: House incumbents have a 98% chance of being re-elected. Were the even the Soviets that brazen? It's hard to think of anyone short of Sadam and Kim Jong Il that are that bad... and it's only a difference of 2%. Why do folks in the House hate democracy so much?

"As a mapmaker, I can have more of an impact on an election than a campaign, than a candidate," says Republican consultant David Winston, who drew House seats for the GOP after the 1990 U.S. Census. "When I, as a mapmaker, have more of an impact on an election than the voters, the system in out of whack."

At least David here knows there's a problem... do our so-called 'representatives'? I say we turn every single one of them out onto the streets...

Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who once embraced such tactics as a key to helping his party take control of Congress, now backs any redistricting reform plan that involves "citizens who do not have an interest in maximizing [political] leverage." Under the current system, Gingrich reasons, Democrats "get to rip off the public in the states where they control and protect their incumbents, and we get to rip off the public in the states we control and protect our incumbents, so the public gets ripped off in both circumstances. ...In the long run, there's a downward spiral of isolation."

Me? I'm thinking Civil War in this country in the next 50 years... either that or it'll look like 'Roadwarrior.'

The ability for legislators to gerrymander has always been fundamentally dangerous to our democracy and I really worry.

Why We Really Went To War

2006-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sure it's in an editorial, but hey at least someone is saying it out loud:

As China, U.S. Vie for More Oil, Diplomatic Friction May Follow

Wasn't about Saddam (well a little), wasn't about WMD, wasn't that we needed the oil for ourselves... it was because China and India, the 2 largest populations on the planet, are rapidly industrializing and becoming voracious consumers.

Think of next week's meeting between President Bush and China's President Hu Jintao as a summit of the planet's most voracious energy user and the planet's fastest-growing energy user. In a world of limited oil resources, that could strain U.S.-China relations as much as any issue.

China's oil industry has wooed countries that the United States has tried to isolate for political reasons -- such as Sudan, Iran and Burma -- potentially undermining the isolation efforts. Three of China's major oil companies have been aggressively pursuing long-term supply arrangements in such places as Venezuela, Nigeria, Gabon and Angola.

Even Saudi Arabia, despite its long-standing tight relationship with U.S. oil companies, is turning toward China and is today its largest oil supplier. In 2004, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, became one of just five companies to win the right to explore for natural gas in the uninviting desert known as the Empty Quarter, edging out U.S. companies interested in the area. The kingdom has invested in Chinese refinery projects, and in January, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz visited Hu in Beijing.

But wait, this is the best bit...

"Saudi Arabia is taking a Chinese wife," said Charles W. Freeman Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia who has extensive diplomatic experience in China. "The Saudis are not divorcing us. In Islam you can have more than one wife and they can manage that."

But can the United States? Many U.S. policymakers are nervous about China's quest for energy supplies around the world.

Hey, aren't you watching BIG LOVE? All we have to do is move to somewhere out of the way in Utah (which is pretty much the whole state outside of downtown Salt Lake) and we'll be cool.

"I can tell you that nothing has really taken me aback more as secretary of state than the way that the politics of energy is -- I will use the word 'warping' -- diplomacy around the world," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 5. "It is sending some states that are growing very rapidly in an all-out search for energy -- states like China, states like India -- that is, really sending them into parts of the world where they've not been seen before, and challenging, I think, for our diplomacy."

... And yet more proof that I was right all along in thinking that Condoleezza Rice knows nothing about how the world works and was useless once the Soviet Union fell apart.

What We Don't Know

2006-04-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but between a being super sick, crazy busy at work and suffering from a certain amount of self-diagnosed liberal-outrage-fatigue, posting has fallen by the wayside.

But then came this. I don't see it getting a lot of attention, but when I heard the Attorney General on NPR yesterday I couldn't believe it...

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales left open the possibility yesterday that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on telephone calls occurring solely within the United States -- a move that would dramatically expand the reach of a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

In response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Gonzales suggested that the administration could decide it was legal to listen in on a domestic call without supervision if it were related to al-Qaeda.

"I'm not going to rule it out," Gonzales said.

... I just don't trust these people. They've done everything wrong in the 'war on terror' (oy) since word go, but this is getting really Orwellian:

In yesterday's testimony, Gonzales reiterated earlier hints that there may be another facet to the NSA program that has not been revealed publicly, or even another program that has prompted dissension within the government. While acknowledging disagreements among officials over the monitoring efforts, Gonzales disputed published reports that have detailed the arguments.

"They did not relate to the program the president disclosed," Gonzales testified. "They related to something else, and I can't get into that."

Did you get that? The arguments between political appointees and career government folk who do their job (the type the Republicans demonize everytime they talk about 'the bureaucracy') are not over the wireless wiretapping we know about but something completely different these people are up to!

Un-f@#king-believable.

WWJT: Who Would Jesus Torture?

2006-03-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

Now this is weird: you always hear about how a Secular society without 'god' or religion, we would be totally without values and society would fall apart? Well it turns out that a Secular society actually wins out in a big way over the values of religious folk:

Is the American public apathetic about charges its government uses and sponsors torture in its fight against terrorism?

Not apathetic, according to surveys. Fact is, a majority of Americans actually approve of the use of torture under some circumstances. What’s more, according to one survey, Catholics approve of its use by a wider margin than the general public.

"This may be a reaction to 9/11, the horrible loss of life and the atrocities of those acting in the name of Islam," says Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., member of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy. "Some people feel the situation is out of control. They feel a vulnerability and a temptation to respond in kind. We have to resist that."

Yes, that's it: meet atrocity with atrocity... completely the opposite of what that Jesus fella told you to do.

Here are the numbers for 'NEVER' on the question "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Catholics	26%
White Protestant	31%
White evangelical	31%
Secular	41%
Total	32%

Hmmm, seems like religious folk listen more to 24's Jack Bauer more than Jesus.

Fair Elections? In the U.S.? Apparently Not...

2006-03-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

So the Economist had a really interesting passage about 'elections' in the U.S. recently:

The best way to make Americans interested in politics is to make the races more competitive. Participation jumped in 2004 because the presidential race looked both close and important. Which points to the most glaring problem of all with American democracy—partisan redistricting. Virtually all the states allow their politicians to gerrymander the boundaries of their districts, creating absurdly-shaped patterns. This makes races pathetically predictable: 98% of congressmen are re-elected, a ratio Leonid Brezhnev might have admired (though even the Soviet fixer would surely have felt the 100% outcome for California's incumbents in 2004 was a tad too obvious). It also drives politicians to the extremes, as they court their real electors, party activists in the primaries.

98% of congressmen get re-elected. Read that one again: even the Soviets weren't that brazen.

What have we become folks, what have we become?

Ladies, You Have To Ask Bill Napoli

2006-03-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

Bill Napoli Knows Best

File Under: Funny Sad. Check ouy MinimumSecurity.net for more comic goodness

From the 'Not Voting for Hillary' File

2006-03-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

A lot of folks have written to Salon stating their opposition to Hillary and, well, the consensus seems to be this: she's being set up by the Right Wing Media and will take a beating. I have to agree. Check 'em out...

Judgement Call

2006-03-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

And this cartoon is EXACTLY why I never trust folks on 'The Right' that rant and rave about how pious they are or how the Bible must be followed exactly. Perfect cartoon.

Zbigniew Brzezinski On Iraq

2006-03-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

Really interesting talk with Zbigniew Brzezinski at NPR... really worth a listen.

Nick Madigan: Minding Scientology

2006-03-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

Ho, ho it seems the Scientology bug has bitten A LOT of people lately, not the least of which is the Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan who does Minding the Media on KCRW...

At first blush, the idea that Tom Cruise might have gotten an episode of South Park yanked off the air because it spoofed his favorite cult, Scientology, didn't seem like a big deal. Movie stars have pulled rank in Hollywood for decades, and the studios that rely on them for box-office dollars are not in the habit of denying them anything.

But the problem with the coverage of Cruise's connection to Scientology is that very few reporters in Hollywood take the trouble to look into what Scientology actually is. They simply parrot the line that a few celebrities are members, so it must be cool.

The other day on TV, an editor from US Weekly gushed that there was "no evidence" Cruise had silenced Comedy Central's program. Of course there wasn't, buddy. He's not likely to leave a paper trail, is he?

If those celebrity reporters had done their homework, they would have found that the so-called Church of Scientology has a long history of trying to silence its critics, many of them former members. Some of the faithful have ended up dead, including the son of founder L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer who decided in the late 1940's that there was more money in religion than in pulp novels.

Uh, oh... careful Nick, them's fightin' words.

Hubbard determined that recruiting celebrities was the best way to spread his galactic gospel. A Los Angeles Times story in June 1990 said that Hubbard told his disciples to "target prominent individuals as their 'quarry' and bring them back like trophies."

"The church has a special branch that ministers to prominent individuals, providing them with first-class treatment," the Times story said. In other words, they are not treated like run-of-the-mill disciples, some of whom have reported being subjected to extortion, persecution and other abuses. Not to mention the exorbitant fees they are charged for courses that are supposed to lead to an ultimate state that will "clear" them of unhappiness.

OH! Kid gloves are off and Nick is a swingin'!!

Robert Vaughn Young handled the media for the Scientology empire for 20 years, before abandoning the organization in 1989. Four years later, in an article in Quill, the magazine of the Society for Professional Journalists, Young wrote that he had used "secret directives" from Hubbard "on how to handle reporters, how to deal with police and government agencies, how to create front groups, and how to discredit or destroy a person or a group."

"Scientology," he wrote, "stands ready and able to unleash an assault on the journalist that can include private detectives and lawsuits."

There were other tactics. In Clearwater, Florida, where the church maintains a huge base, Scientologists planted spies in the 1970's in the newsrooms of the Clearwater Sun and St. Petersburg Times, both newspapers reported.

Ooof! You don't hear that kind of talk in the media... ever! Can Nick deliver the knock out blow?

I should note that a person close to me spent 30 years as a Scientologist, and it wrecked his life. He ended up penniless, chain-smoking and neglectful of his children. When he got chest pains, he ignored them, believing that only Scientology could provide healing. Finally, a heart attack killed him.

He was my brother, and his name was Tom, too.

... and the crowd goes silent.

Bravo Nick. Bravo.

John Ashcroft: DC's Newest Lobbyist!

2006-03-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

That's right, old John decided to forgo his singing career for the much more lucrative one of lobbying. The most distressing point?

After three decades in public office in Missouri and Washington, Mr. Ashcroft, 63, says he has decided to make up for lost time financially. Before joining the Bush administration, Mr. Ashcroft was a United States senator, and the governor and attorney general in Missouri.

His most recent federal financial disclosure statement showed Mr. Ashcroft to be comfortable but not particularly wealthy, with a portfolio valued at $500,000 to $1.5 million and a state of Missouri pension. He is also eligible for a federal pension.

So after having a salary that topped out at $175,700 as attorney general, Mr. Ashcroft is running his firm and hitting the speakers' circuit, speaking nearly once a week for a $75,000 fee. In addition, Mr. Ashcroft has been given equity stakes in private companies that have hired him, betting on a future gain should they go public. The firm did not disclose the companies.

... sorta speechless, especially considering that the article notes Ashcroft used the word 'integrity' "scores of times" during the 1 hour interview. What a wanker.

Death & Taxes: A Visual Guide

2006-03-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

File Under: Death & Taxes

Wonder where your taxes go? Well this handy Visual Guide lays it out. Nicely done. Follow the link to a HUGE version.

Wouldn't it be great if we could pick where we want our Taxes to go?

Alec Baldwin had an interesting point on the Huffington Post:

As another member told me later that day, "Defend the seas and deliver the mail. That's all these guys want to pay for. Literally."

Supposedly it's our money... isn't it?

Must See TV

2006-03-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Frustration

A tip of the hat to AmericaBlog for pointing out one of the great speeches on Government abuse to appear on mainstream TV in a looong time. Too bad it was by a fictional character.

Why do fictional characters always give the best speeches?

Worth your time.

Enough of the D.C. Dems

2006-03-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

The frustration is building as Molly Ivin's column reflects our discussion...

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I do love that woman.

Revolting People

2006-03-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Brits Menace Jay

Alright, so I couldn't find any audio, but I found this nifty pic and this description:

Baltimore in 1770 is the setting for the third series of Andy Hamilton and Jay Tarses’s comedy, Revolting People.

Shopkeeper Samuel Oliphant is still trying to cope with his three troublesome children and the two British soldiers billeted under his roof (including Sergeant McGurk, who’s had more bits shot off him than Nelson).

Meanwhile, war is brewing as the Americans prepare to fight for the right to rule themselves.

So to Jay & Rachel: have fun, we'll see you when you get back!

Beasts of Burden

2006-03-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

So here it is, my proposal to help shore up American Families at this critical juncture in American history: the Family & Strong Communities Act.

The proposal is a simple one: if a woman becomes pregnant, men will be responsible up to, but not exceeding, 60% of their total wages from the 3rd trimester of the pregnancy to the child's 18th birthday. Once determined to be the father, which can be enforced by law, no man will be allowed to be unemployed for more than 2 weeks. That's it.

This can be its own law or an amendment attached to any bill at any level, state or federal, that seeks to make abortion illegal.

Now pregnancies will no longer be 'unwanted' since everyone will be paying for them in one form or another.

Just Overheard

2006-03-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Here in DC and a friend who works on the Hill and she said there is an old saying:

Politics is show business for ugly people

Thank you Sally, that's hilarious!

"Electricity Deregulation: High Cost, Unmet Promises"

2006-03-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

"Competition a 'Myth' as Prices Spiral Upward"

Front page of the Washington Post today folks (here in DC blogging from the heart of Darkness), so on to the good stuff...

Maryland and District consumers angry at the record electric bills they will receive this summer might want to recall the promises made by proponents of deregulation seven years ago. If they do, they'll be even angrier.

At the time, in 1999, evangelists for deregulation described a competitive, efficient and lower-priced system of energy delivery that, for the most part, remains a fantasy in the Mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country today, according to industry experts.

Beware 'Evangelists' of any flavor boys & girls

The District, Maryland and Virginia, along with much of the nation, are wrestling with the ramifications of deregulation at the same time that the cost of producing electricity is skyrocketing. But as energy prices have soared, electricity rates have gone up more in deregulated states than in regulated ones.

And remember "If a deal sounds to good to be true... " well, you know the rest.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers in Maryland have had artificially low rates for six years because of caps set in the 1999 deal that allowed deregulation to go through, so the sudden 72 percent increase announced last week is a rude awakening.

"With something of that magnitude, I thought, God, it can't be," said Don Dunn, a 77-year-old retired businessman in Howard County on a fixed income. "My gut reaction was, gee, the whole thing is an error."

Dunn, who spent about $700 on electricity last year, is wondering how he can afford more even as property taxes are rising. While he is worrying that he might have to give up the two-story brick home in Ellicott City where he has lived for more than 40 years, deregulation has turned out well for BGE's parent company.

Sorry, Mr. Dunn: no one rides for free. You have our sympathies.

Residential customers -- especially those in Maryland facing an average $743 yearly increase in their BGE bills -- are left wondering what deregulation was for, if not to reduce prices.

Oh come on! It was for profit! You knew it, but you thought you were gonna get an even better deal and that just never happens. Never ever. You wanted all the good stuff, but didn't listen and now it is time to pay the pipper. Literally.

In Annapolis, the outcry from voters has sent lawmakers into a frenzy to respond to the rate increase.

Sen. Leo E. Green (D-Prince George's), a longtime opponent of electric deregulation, blamed its failure on false promises from energy companies in the 1990s.

And he wants to blame voters and legislators, but folks don't like when elected officials tell them they were wrong. But they were wrong.

Deregulation has not worked as envisioned in any of the 20 states that have undertaken it, said Kenneth Rose, an Ohio energy consultant who advises state utility regulators.

"Those of us who were in favor of the competition that deregulation promised, and I was one of them, haven't had our hopes realized," he said. "Not at all. It was Enron in California where I first thought something is not working here."

Because apparently there is more than one sucker born every minute and 2 are more than enough to take them. And your concern about California? Falls on deaf ears: you did nothing for us so prepare to reap the whirlwind.

For state governments that bought into deregulation, the remorse has been acute.

"I think everyone is just looking at Maryland and getting sick to their stomach," said Elizabeth A. Noel, the D.C. people's counsel. "This is not what was supposed to happen. . . . Nobody intended this."

Oh please. You got taken by some con men... what are you prepared to do now?

Among the promises of deregulation was competition -- homeowners and businesses would be able to pick their own energy providers, creating price competition with local power companies. In Maryland, that has not happened. Part of the blame, experts say, lies in the way Maryland deregulated. The 1999 rate caps, which are coming off this summer, imposed a falsely low rate that no BGE competitor could match, preventing competition.

"We were sold a myth called competition," said Del. Patrick L. McDonough (R-Baltimore County). "We will find Jimmy Hoffa in Maryland before we find competition."

Yeah, and only tourists are dumb enough to play 3 card monty in NYC.

Again: it was a rigged game, the power companies knew what they were doing so what are you prepared to do? And watching the Road to the Final Four doesn't count.

Good luck citizens, you are apparently out there all on your own.

Cruella de Ville (R-FL)

2006-03-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

File Under: Scary

Could this possibly be the same woman? According to the press it is...

Whichever way she goes, that is one bizarre looking woman.

Credit Cards & Homeland Security...

2006-03-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

Someone please tell me this is a joke... long story short, a retired couple decided to pay off their credit card (isn't that what you're supposed to do? No? Always thought so), so they sent in a check for $6,522... and the bill wasn't paid. When they called to find out why? That's when things go sideways...

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Alarms go off if you try to get out of debt??? Now that is an -ism way beyond fascism.

Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.

But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to others," he said.

Again: please tell me this is a joke.

Thanks to Americablog for the story.

Thank You Sweet Baby Jesus!

2006-02-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Good News: News-fox Daryn Kagan and Drug addict Rush Limbaugh have broken up!

Bad News: Daryn Kagan has been permanently fouled by Rush Limbaugh and has lost her 'news-fox' status.

Defending the Indefensible: Neoconservatism

2006-02-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

Oh Francis, where to start with you and your flawed philosophy?

As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at.

You know what? I don't hate saying it: WE TOLD YOU SO. Loser.

The United States still has a chance of creating a Shiite-dominated democratic Iraq, but the new government will be very weak for years to come; the resulting power vacuum will invite outside influence from all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran.

And this new Iraq will be called "Iran Jr." and be an Islamic state with lots and lots of oil.

There are clear benefits to the Iraqi people from the removal of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and perhaps some positive spillover effects in Lebanon and Syria.

Uh, the U.S. Government put that guy in power, helped prop him up and gave him lots and lots of pretty weapons to attack Iran with... so we certainly didn't have a problem with him for awhile.

But it is very hard to see how these developments in themselves justify the blood and treasure that the United States has spent on the project to this point.

GRRRRRR. It gives me NO pleasure to say it this time but, we told you so... you stupid stupid F@#k. Their blood is on you hands. Schmuck.

The so-called Bush Doctrine that set the framework for the administration's first term is now in shambles.

Well thank the sweet Baby Jesus for small favors, but little too little and all that...

The doctrine (elaborated, among other places, in the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States) argued that, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, America would have to launch periodic preventive wars to defend itself against rogue states and terrorists with weapons of mass destruction; that it would do this alone, if necessary; and that it would work to democratize the greater Middle East as a long-term solution to the terrorist problem.

Yes, Democracy at the point of a gun and all that good stuff. We should also back it up to you Neocons and the Project for the New American Century wanting to create a SuperPower noone would dare challenge: the New Rome... and we know what happened to those dudes.

But successful pre-emption depends on the ability to predict the future accurately and on good intelligence, which was not forthcoming, while America's perceived unilateralism has isolated it as never before.

No, we had good intelligence: but it was ignored. Again: Schmuck.

It is not surprising that in its second term, the administration has been distancing itself from these policies and is in the process of rewriting the National Security Strategy document.

He fails to say "The way they distance themselves from everything they screw up: by blaming Clinton, gays and the press"

But it is the idealistic effort to use American power to promote democracy and human rights abroad that may suffer the greatest setback.

As it well it should: when you go messing around with people's lives you should be as realistic as possible. Idealism is fine in a philosophy class, but when you're gonna send someone else's kid to fight and possibly die in a foreign country, you better damn well know what you're doing.

Perceived failure in Iraq has restored the authority of foreign policy "realists" in the tradition of Henry Kissinger.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire...

The administration's second-term efforts to push for greater Middle Eastern democracy, introduced with the soaring rhetoric of Bush's second Inaugural Address, have borne very problematic fruits. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood made a strong showing in Egypt's parliamentary elections in November and December.

Hey, you want democracy? Then you gotta accept the good with the bad... like we (and the Europeans) accept the Bush/Cheney administration.

While the holding of elections in Iraq this past December was an achievement in itself, the vote led to the ascendance of a Shiite bloc with close ties to Iran (following on the election of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran in June).

Again: Iran Jr, home of a future Islamic state.

But the clincher was the decisive Hamas victory in the Palestinian election last month, which brought to power a movement overtly dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

That's democracy: it ain't pretty, but what are you gonna do? Who knows, maybe Hamas will learn that it's easy to throw rocks when you're not in power, but once you're the man you have to worry about how much broken widows actually cost.

In his second inaugural, Bush said that "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," but the charge will be made with increasing frequency that the Bush administration made a big mistake when it stirred the pot, and that the United States would have done better to stick by its traditional authoritarian friends in the Middle East.

Well, first off that line sounds good, but means very little: it was there to make him look presidential so don't give it too much weight. Second, remember: The U.S. Goverment has undermined democratic leaders and institutions in the Middle East for a long time (ever heard of Mossadeq?) and much of what you see in there is the result of what the CIA calls 'Blowback' (the uninteded consequences of covert operations) so get used to it.

Indeed, the effort to promote democracy around the world has been attacked as an illegitimate activity both by people on the left like Jeffrey Sachs and by traditional conservatives like Pat Buchanan.

The reaction against democracy promotion and an activist foreign policy may not end there. Those whom Walter Russell Mead labels Jacksonian conservatives — red-state Americans whose sons and daughters are fighting and dying in the Middle East — supported the Iraq war because they believed that their children were fighting to defend the United States against nuclear terrorism, not to promote democracy. They don't want to abandon the president in the middle of a vicious war, but down the road the perceived failure of the Iraq intervention may push them to favor a more isolationist foreign policy, which is a more natural political position for them. A recent Pew poll indicates a swing in public opinion toward isolationism; the percentage of Americans saying that the United States "should mind its own business" has never been higher since the end of the Vietnam War.

Well that's what happens when their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and children keep getting killed or maimed for what, increasingly, looks like a not too noble cause. Hey, look: folks keep waving the flag and putting those magnets on the backs of their cars because, despite all the evidence, they don't want to believe that, despite all the evidence, that (a) their government would lie to them and (b) it would start an unjust war. But it does that time and time again.

So congrats and reap the whirlwind sunshine.

(sorry, there's lots more and each line is sillier than the one before. Read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions)

CSI: Corpus Cristi

2006-02-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

So the so-called "facts" that the 'merican people have been offered by nice lady who runs the ranch (and much, much later by the White House) where Cheney shot his buddy just don't add up. Thanks to the general silliness of the major networks, we're all essentially ballistics and crime scene experts, so with that in mind lots of folks have chimed in with their analysis of the 'fact' that Cheney shot his buddy from 30 yards away... so check out the following:

Firedoglake: Calling All Math/Hunting/Medical/Crime Scene Reconstruction Experts

TalkingPointsMemo: story #1 and story #2

Even Jesus' General gets into the act with his typical manly hardness as he sends his 'Magic BB theory' to Arlen Specter:

The police report says that Whittington was 30 yards away when Dick shot him. It also notes that the elderly gentleman was hit in the face, chest and neck. Agents of the Ministry of Truth characterize the shooting as a "peppering." Taken all together, these things would suggest that the shot was fairly well dispersed.

Unfortunately, a more detailed look at the facts reveals something else. Our Deputy Leader was using 28 gauge shotgun shells loaded with 3/4 oz of #7-1/2 shot. That particular load carries approximately 262 BBs. The doctor caring for the wounded man said that he removed about 200 BBs. That means about 4/5ths of the shot in the load struck the man in an area no larger than about 18 inches in diameter.

That seems like an awfully tight pattern at 30 yards. It can only be explained by the existence of a magic BB that would ride herd on the other BBs, keeping them as bunched up as possible.

Yesterday, we learned that one of the BBs penetrated the elderly gentleman's hunting vest, shirt, skin, muscle, rib cartilage, and possibly bone, coming to rest in his heart. I'm no physicist, but that seems like a lot of energy to expend for a .095" BB weighing 1/345th of an ounce. I suggest that a better explanation would be that once the bb hit the skin, it began burrowing into the elderly gentleman's body. Since regular shot doesn't have claws for burrowing, a magic BB is the only possible explanation.

The General: manly to the core.

There you have it: a tight pattern of BBs at 30 yards? The penetrated the man's clothing at 30 yards? Hmmm, me thinks there is something rotten in the state of Texas... oh, wait! Could it possibly involve Dick spending time with another woman? Though you have to give it to Dick, who goes hunting with another dude and 2 women? Cheney is, apparently, more progressive than we gave him credit for.

Lame

2006-02-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

This relates to the previous post:

Q: Scott, was it Karl Rove's idea that Katharine Armstrong contacted the local press? I know that they spoke on the phone.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think Mrs. Armstrong has said how that idea came about.

Q: So did they discuss it while they were on the phone?

MR. McCLELLAN: Not that I know of, no.

Q: Could you find out for us?

MR. McCLELLAN: I just said I don't believe so.

Translation? "No."

Unbelievable...

Must See TV

2006-02-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

Thank the Sweet Baby Jesus for The Daily Show and Crooks & Liars. If you missed the Daily Show last night, the opening piece on Dick Cheney shooting his friend in the face was amazing. Must see TV.

Hero of The Day: Joey Cheek

2006-02-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

I love stories like this: U.S. Gold Medalist Donates Award to Darfur Refugees. Basically during his press conference after winning the gold medal in the 500 meter speed skating, Cheek told the press they weren't getting the "I've-worked-long-and-hard-and-love-my-country" bit, but instead told them he was using his time to highlight the genocide in Darfur. Take a listen to the story @ NPR.

Civilized Discourse

2006-02-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, Conservatives continue to raise the level of discourse in Washington D.C.:

In a speech in Puerto Rico sponsored by the Federalist Society, Scalia blasted away Monday at those who believe that the meaning of the Constitution evolves over time. "That's the argument of flexibility, " Scalia said, "and it goes something like this: 'The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break.' But you would have to be an idiot to believe that."

Antonin Scalia folks: he thinks you're a moron and should be living like its 1776...

Scalia filed a long dissent in Lawrence, arguing that "homosexual sodomy" wasn't a fundamental right when the Constitution was written and therefore can't be a fundamental right today. The majority's decision, he said, was nothing other than "the product of a court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda."

There's more @ Seattlepi.com. As always, read and think for yourselves.

Why Does NASA Hate the Bible?

2006-02-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

How dare they!

Astronomers said Wednesday they have spotted evidence of two mega solar systems — giant stars enveloped by what appear to be huge disks of planet-forming dust.

Cloudy disks around stars are believed to represent current or future planetary systems. Our sun is surrounded by the Kuiper Belt, a disk containing dust, comets and other bodies.

LIES! Everyone knows that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." And this was only about 10,000 years ago, so there will have NO talk of 'Mega Solar Systems'! (although they do sound pretty neat and the graphic is really cool) It makes God angry and makes him allow terrorists to kill Americans and send hurricaines to destroy us! Don't you know anything?

"Our data suggest that the planet-forming process may be hardier than previously believed, occurring around even the most massive stars," Joel Kastner, of the Rochester Institute of Technology, said in a statement.

[snip]

The new stars were measured to be 30 to 70 times more massive than the sun. Because of the stars' size, scientists said the surrounding debris disks are larger versions of the Kuiper Belt and probably contain about 10 times more mass.

Your data suggest only one thing: only God can create planets! So we'll have more of your devil-spawn Sciency-type reasoning! It's in the Bible people!

Why am I posting this? Because the danger is much, much closer than you think so let's meet the folks that want a new Dark Ages. "Christian Patriot missles"? You can't make this stuff up...

Teach the Controversy: Storktelligent Design!

2006-02-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

File Under: Logical Extension

Ok, so this was published a few months ago, but I just came across it. You have to see the graphic showing how the stork actually delivers the baby. Hilarious.

Tom Paine

2006-02-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Get thee to Tom Paine for a must read article by Robert Dreyfuss on the Neo-Con plan to create the new Cold-War...against an enemy that is "a few hundred strong."

The Pentagon’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review, the fancy name for the Defense Department’s “big think” strategy that is supposed to come out every four years, has to be seen as the Bush administration’s ultimate Plan for Empire.

It lays out a Thirty Years' War-type battle plan for an expanding U.S. military presence worldwide, to fight a war against an enemy which is, at most, a few hundred strong.

Officially, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld calls it “The Long War,” a propaganda term designed to echo “the Cold War,” and the Pentagon intends to brainwash Americans into supporting a generation-long struggle that will lay the groundwork for an American hegemony in the 21st century.

It is, indeed, the Project for a New American Century.

According to The New York Times, alongside the QDR, the Pentagon has developed its own (classified) counterterrorism strategy. It is this mission, designed to combat an enemy that the Bush administration describes as equal in magnitude to the threat posed by German Nazism or Soviet communism, which is driving both the QDR and the huge expansion of the budget for the Defense Department and the U.S. intelligence community over the next few years.

The QDR is the neoconservatives’ mythical World War IV, in line-item form.

Remember...if you're in the business of war?

"You need war for business!"

More later...

Infographic: Wiretapping Intelligence

2006-02-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

Infographic Fun!

Once again the Onion comes through and tells us what the government has learned through its Domestic Surveillance program. Good times, good times.

Bush Co.: Cronyism At All Levels

2006-02-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

Wow. You just can't make up thje following story, so I'll just give you some bullets:

Young George Deutsch goes and works for Bush as a "war room" campaign staffer (they love war, these folks) and gets rewarded with a position as a presidential appointee at NASA.

NASA!!! Can you f@#king believe that?!?

Anyways, Deutsch just can't help himself and starts messing in areas he shouldn't. Like limiting reporters' access to a top climate scientist, threatening that same scientist, and forcing NASA webmasters to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang.

Plus, as I recall, he asked scientists to only speak of the Big Bang "theory" in their documents and talks.

Well it seems the little schmuck was more than just some wacky zealot (just like those folks rioting in the middle east); he was also a liar and a fraud.

Turns out he didn't graduate from Texas A&M like his resume says he did.

Hilarious.

The real question here is one that Nick, the Scientific Activist asks:

Instead of the story being about a 24-year-old lying, it should be about this: How did this guy, who already had dubious qualifications, make it into NASA with such an obvious lie on his resume? To work for a federal agency, including NASA, extensive background checks are usually required.

Oh, Nick, don't you know? All that matters is loyalty to Bush Co.

If you give them checks? You're automatically in...no questions asked!

More details on this little jackass over at TalkingPointsMemo.com

Exxon: You Can't Quit Us

2006-02-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

These guys have us by the short hairs and they know it...

Exxon: America will always rely on foreign oil

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The United States will always rely on foreign imports of oil to feed its energy needs and should stop trying to become energy independent, a top Exxon Mobil Corp. executive said on Tuesday.

"Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any time period relevant to our discussion today," Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill said, referring to what he called the "misperception" that the United States can achieve energy independence.

The comments, in a speech at an energy conference in Houston, come a few days after U.S. President George W. Bush declared America was addicted to Middle Eastern oil and promised to help the country kick the habit.

Many in the United States believe America should wean itself off oil imports from the Middle East, fearing it makes the country dangerously dependent on an unstable region.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company, however, says hoping to end foreign oil imports is not only a bad idea, but also impossible.

"Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap," McGill said. "No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term."

Instead of trying to achieve energy independence, importing nations like the U.S. should be promoting energy interdependence, McGill said.

Nice. We should try to prove this bastard wrong.

Why We Fight -- Continued

2006-02-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Truly amazing.

The Pentagon has unveiled a record budget request of $439.3 billion for the coming year, a 7 percent increase over last year's budget and the fifth year in a row the defense budget has increased. The increase will help fund new fighter jets, destroyers, hundreds of unmanned aircraft, as well as 14,000 additional Special Forces personnel seen as vital in fighting the war on terror. This year's budget seeks $84.2 billion for weapons programs, about an $8 billion increase.
Despite the big price tag, the budget request does not include funding for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the White House usually seeks from Congress in separate budget requests. Recently, the White House said it anticipates it will need an additional $120 billion to fund the war on terror for this calendar year — $70 billion of that amount will be requested in two weeks time. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon calculates it has spent $251 billion on the war on terror.

If you haven't seen "Why We Fight" yet, please do so ASAP.

What Isolationism?

2006-02-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

This is exactly what I was wondering this the other night:

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush worked himself into a lather about the dangers of "retreating within our borders." His speech bulged with ominous references to ostensibly resurgent isolationists hankering to "tie our hands" and leave "an assaulted world to fend for itself." Turning inward, the president cautioned, would provide "false comfort" because isolationism inevitably "ends in danger and decline."

But who exactly are these isolationists eager to pull up the drawbridges? What party do they control? What influential journals of opinion do they publish? Who are their leaders? Which foundations bankroll this isolationist cause?

The president provided no such details, and for good reason: They do not exist. Indeed, in present-day American politics, isolationism does not exist. It is a fiction, a fabrication and a smear imported from another era.

Isolationism survives in contemporary American political discourse because it retains utility as a cheap device employed to impose discipline. Think of it as akin to red-baiting -- conjuring up bogus fears to enforce conformity in the realm of foreign policy. In that regard, the beleaguered Bush, his standing in public opinion polls tumbling, is by no means the first president to sound the alarm about supposed isolationists subverting American statecraft.

That's our President: making up enemies and threats to smear his opponents and fake out 'his base.'

Newly discovered memo

2006-02-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Evidently, some Brit has found a memo documenting a meeting between Bush and Tony Blair from January 31, 2002 -- a full two months before the Iraq invasion. The most awesome highlight:

Mr Bush told the Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours". Mr Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]".

You can read the full article in The Guardian. God knows it'll never find its way into U.S. papers.

"God Help This Country..."

2006-02-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

In Why We Fight, we learn that Eisenhower apparently said "God help this country when someone sits at this desk who doesn't know as much about the military as I do." Oy. That was one smart man.

You MUST See This Movie

2006-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Fantastic. Amazing. Truly worth your time and effort.

Here in Hollywood? It is playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5: 11:30am | 2:00pm | 4:30pm | 7:00pm | 9:30pm

"Dude, Where's My Party?"

2006-02-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

This strip perfectly illustrates my frustration with the Democratic Party, it's 'advisors' (f@#k you Begala et al.,!), and attendant hangers on.

If we want to win we gotta fucking stand up for ourselves when the other side attacks and show people that Democrats actually believe in things that are worth believing in.

It is time to clean out the 'Republican-lite' types (Hillary, I am talking to you and Joe Leiberman). The problems with the Democrats are easy to fix and Ward Sutton has been kind enough to list the most obvious ones right here.

"Political Debates of Tomorrow"

2006-02-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

The sad thing? It already feels like this is the case.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Why are you not reading Sutton Impact?

The SOTU Decoded

2006-02-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

The good folks over at The Nation have decoded the "State of The Union."

I love this definition:

Bipartisanship, n.
1. When conservative Republicans work with moderate Republicans to pass legislation that Democrats hate.
2. Another name for date rape [Grover Norquist, Third Level, Hell].

Ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth...

Kucinich TruthDigs It!

2006-02-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

TruthDig has a podcast interview with Dennis Kucinich about last night's State of The Union and the man tells it like it is.

What the president promised was more war. And it's disheartening to see that he hasn't gotten the message that all his underpinnings of the war have been knocked out. They're standing totally on lies. We really need a new policy in Iraq that enables us to get out of Iraq and bring our troops home. A majority of Americans want us to leave Iraq this year, yet what we heard tonight was a commitment to war with no end, and war we cannot win.

The president is committed to victory, but that kind of arrogance is sure to lead to catastrophe not only for the people of Iraq, but for the men and women who bravely serve this country. And I want to say that withdrawal is not retreat. There is a need for a new approach, involving the international community, not the United States trying to dictate unilaterally the future of Iraq.

The man tells it like it is and we ♥s him for it.

The Scariest Place In America?

2006-02-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Utah Town Has Question About President: 'What's Not to Like?'
Stunning. Simply stunning.

Not only is Utah the nation's most Republican state, "there's a sense of loyalty and patriotism that kind of overcomes the tendency toward cynicism that is evident in the rest of the country right now," he says.

In Randolph, though -- where Bush received 95.6 percent of the vote and support for him continues to be nearly unanimous -- the mind-set is even more specific to a place that seems less a part of the modern United States than insulated from it. It isn't just mustard, but everything.

There have been no funerals here from Bush's war on terrorism. There are no unemployment lines, no homeless people sleeping in doorways, no sick people being turned away from a hospital because of a lack of insurance, no crime to speak of, no security fence needed around the reservoir, no metal detectors at the schools.

Terrorist threats? That's anywhere but here. Iraq? That's somewhere over there. Hurricane Katrina? That was somewhere down there. Illegal immigrants? Not here, where everyone is fond of Ramon, who came long ago from Mexico and is married to the Catholic woman, who is the one non-Mormon everyone mentions when the conversation turns to religious diversity. As for racial diversity, everyone says there are three African Americans in the county, including the twins on the high school cheerleading squad, which also includes a Hispanic, according to the superintendent of schools, Dale Lamborn, which means "we've probably got the most diverse cheerleading squad in the state."

So scary.

A Sad Day

2006-01-31T19:49:00.000-08:00

Today, Coretta Scott King died.

Samual Alito joined The Supreme Court.

This is the time we live in.

The Con Is On

2006-01-30T14:26:00.000-08:00

Greg over at This Modern World nails so-called 'Democratic Strategists':

Democratic strategists aren't morons, they’re geniuses.

After all, these guys have found a way to make a killing on the Democratic "woe is me" mentality without ever having to accomplish the task they claim to be good at : winning elections. It's a pretty damn good racket they've got going. Mix equal parts harsh reality ("Republicans are unbeatable") and flattery ("Americans agree with Democrats") which naturally lead your mark to the solutions that you’re about to sell ("I can help you craft the perfect message"). Like any good con, the last thing you want is for your victim to get the self-confidence they need to see they're getting played, so every time there's some good news, you've gotta make sure to use it to beat down your "client's" self-esteem even more. ("We shouldn’t politicize this issue") And as long as you can safely straddle that line between "We're doomed" and "We're doing great", you can lose all the elections you want and still get hired again.

The point here, of course, isn't that Democrats shouldn't get advice from strategists but that they shouldn't keep hiring the same losers over and over again. For those of us on the outside looking in, it's heartbreaking to see that the incestuous circles of politicos in D.C. exist more to keep friends and relatives employed than advancing some meaningful public policy. I know you guys vacation in Martha's Vineyard together and your kids attend the same private school, but being cool isn't enough to undo the fact that a lot of these guys really suck at their jobs.

Wow. The harsh truth about the Con that hurts us all...

I've been thinking about this for a long time and it was never more clear than after watching Paul Begala's weird appearance on Colbert the other night: I wouldn't trust him to watch my cat...much less run a campaign.

State Of The Union... Place Your Bets!

2006-01-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

Oh I like the sound of this one:

Guessing how long it will take before President Bush invokes 9/11 in a speech is one of our favorite diversions at the Huffington Post. The over/under is usually around 90 seconds. Will he best that during his upcoming State of the Union address? Given all the pomp and circumstance, it's not likely.

90 seconds? Too soon... and how many times will he invoke it? The war isn't going well and there are scandals aplenty, I think he has to make us afraid again (especially using the Iran Nuclear boogeyman).

So the questions are: how long will it take him to mention Sept. 11th and how many times will he do it? I look forward to hearing your guesses...

Does This Explain Republican Thinking?

2006-01-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

Oy. Who didn't see this coming?

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged in a document made public on Thursday that information spread by the Pentagon to influence foreign peoples and enemies increasingly seeps back home and is "consumed by our domestic audience."

I don't think he's just talking about Fox News here, people.

The Pentagon argued the "psychological operations" information was truthful. But the research organization that obtained the document through the Freedom of Information Act described it as propaganda planted overseas that inevitably made its way back to the United States.

You know, it's more 'truthy,' less facty.

The document, marked "secret," was titled "Information Operations Roadmap," and laid out the need for the Pentagon to improve its capabilities in psychological operations, electronic warfare, military deception and other areas.

"Secretary Rumsfeld's road map says the American people can't be protected from the Pentagon's psychological operations abroad but it doesn't matter as long as he's not targeting the American public. It's the collateral damage theory of propaganda," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington.

I hate to dwell, but Secretary Rumsfeld's 'roadmaps' have a real habit of driving everyone (except for defense contractors) straight into really BIG ditches.

Now for the really, really weird part:

The document stated that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP (psychological operations), increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa."

Chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said he rejected the notion the Pentagon was comfortable with the notion of propaganda "bleeding back" from overseas to the United States. "We're not OK with it," Di Rita said.

"First of all, we're not lying. We're talking about truthful, accurate information, so that's baloney," Di Rita said.

Wait... what the f@#k? The information is 'truthful' (truthy?) and 'accurate,' but at the same time propaganda, and they're not okay with it 'bleeding back' to us the American People?

May I ask why not?

"No you may not"

Okay then.

Mr. Orwell? Your table is ready, so sorry for the wait, sir...

Google Fun For All!

2006-01-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

Need a smile? Go to Google and type in 'failure.' Then hit 'Google Search.'

It's more fun if you hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky.'

Good times, good times.

Protest Fun For Everyone!

2006-01-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Future American lawyers to be proud of... and Alberto Gonzales.

Sounds like things didn't go so well for old Al Gonzales during a speach at Georgetown Law the other day as students blocked him with a banner that read: "Those who would sacrafice Liberty for Safety deserve neither - Ben Franklin."

(I don't know who this 'Ben Franklin' character is, but I think Homeland Security should pay him a little visit and teach him what being an American really means.)

One student apparently had this to say to Al during the Q & A period:

"When you're a law student, they tell you if say that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue... to say over and over again "it's lawful", and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough."

Hmmm, did anyone hear these details in Mainstream Media?

Did Chris Matthews do his job and call them 'terrorist sympathizers' yet?

A Few Thoughts

2006-01-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson

"Religions are all alike - founded upon fables and mythologies." - Thomas Jefferson

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government." - Thomas Jefferson

"In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people." - James Madison

" The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity." - John Adams

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin

Who were these people and why don't they know the founding fathers meant this to be a 'Christian' nation?

Not. Backing. Hillary.

2006-01-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

That Molly Ivins... whatta woman! I have been saying it for weeks, but I am so glad someone of her stature has gone on record as saying: Not. Backing. Hillary. As far as I'm concerned she may be a nice woman, but she's a Republican and they can have her. As for Ivins?

I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

Absolutely. Enough is enough. Tired of candidates who tell people what they want to hear rather than what they should hear because they think we can't handle the truth or we're big babies and will vote for the other schmuck.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

Me too. Been saying that for months now... I'm done. Pointing out the hypocrites & liars in the White House, Congress & Media should be like shooting fish in a barrel but all I hear is the deafening sound of silence.

Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this — that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.

[snip]

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.

That, ladies & gentlemen, is what one calls "a woman on fire" and Democratic candidates would do well to do every f@#king thing she says. Now who do I send this message to?

Sutton Impact: Republican Talking Points

2006-01-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

File Under: Republican Hypocrisy

Unfortunately there are a ton of such examples and the press (or 'mainstream media' or so-called 'liberal media') never, ever, calls them on any of them.

Why does it seem that these days 'Conservative commentator/Personality' is just another word for 'hypocrite'? And why does everyone on TV seem to along with all this madness?

Sutton has bunch of them... check 'em out for yourself and tell me if he's wrong.

Why We Fight: The Q & A

2006-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

So going to see this film once I get back from the weekend, but here's a little snippit from an interview in the Village Voice:

The film argues that the forces now at play in Iraq aren't a few years old or 15, but 50 or 60. Why is that perspective so rare even among progressives in the U.S.?

There's a tendency to lay all our problems at the feet of George W. Bush, to want to see him as taking a radical departure from the traditions of U.S. foreign policy. But Bush wasn't born overnight: He's the product of decades of movement by this country away from its origins and ideals, and toward something more aggressive, more arrogant, more imperial. The Iraq war certainly isn't the first time that the reasons we were given to go to war have turned out not to be the real reasons why we went. Ultimately I think it's a political distraction for us to be obsessed with Bush or any other single figure. The larger forces that the film examines are those—including the military- industrial complex—that are undoing the very fabric of the democracy we're fighting for. It's what Eisenhower meant when he said, "We must avoid destroying from within that which we are trying to protect from without."

It'll be playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 starting Friday.

Cell Phones & the Spanish-American War

2006-01-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

In our quest for 'more efficient' government (which does not mean 'privitize'), comes this completely weird story:

3 Percent Fee On Cell Phones Started 107 Years Ago
Call To Repeal Tax Under Way

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There is a call to repeal a cell phone tax most people probably don't even know they are paying, NewsChannel5 partner ONN reported.

Anybody who has ever tried to decipher a cell phone bill knows how tough it can be. One of the charges is a 3 percent fee on every cell phone bill in America. The origin of the tax predates the invention of the cellular phone by nearly a century.

Annie Brinkman and her friend, Stacey Lemle, don't know it, but every time they use their cell phones, they are supporting the war effort -- the Spanish-American War.

The 1898 war involved Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.

The fee began as a luxury tax on phones at the turn of the 19th Century. And we're all still paying for it today.

Phone bills don’t specify that the tax originates from the Spanish-American War. It is labeled as the federal excise tax, which amounts to 3 percent of every monthly bill.

"When you say it's a federal excise tax, you know, most of the time, oh it's the federal excise tax," said Laura Merritt of Verizon Wireless. "And that's just understood that it's a tax you pay. Where exactly those funds go is something that's a mystery to all of us."

It's not such a mystery anymore. And now, at least three federal courts have ruled the tax illegal. Many cell phone companies support a repeal of that tax. But they say they are caught in the middle.

"We're required to continue collecting that tax from our customers until the IRS tells us to stop doing that," said Merritt.

Some lawmakers are demanding cell phone companies stop collecting the tax and refund three years worth of fees.

But for now, every time you make a cell phone call, you'll continue to pay for a war fought more than 107 years ago.

As opposed to using your cell phone and not supporting the current war because today's Republicans think you can finance multiple wars while repealing taxes. Though you have to wonder how people will react when a tax is specifically designed to support a war...

According to the Web site www.mywireless.org, you can ask the IRS for a refund of up to three years of past taxes. You can also contact members of Congress to ask them to repeal the tax altogether.

Yeah, you can ask... but that may just get you labeled as a 'trouble maker' and who needs that at tax time.

(thanks to Gizmodo for the story!)

Rude Boy

2006-01-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

The Rude Pundit tells us what he thinks about Al Gore's "speechifying" yesterday. (Warning: He is as rude as advertised, and I, for one, thank him for it.)

Why We Fight: Redux

2006-01-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Eugene Jarecki was on the Daily Show last night and I have to say...he seems like a thoughtful dude: I am really, really looking forward to seeing this film.

From the website:

"Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called WHY WE FIGHT that explored America's reasons for entering the war," Jarecki notes. "Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it's crucial to ask the questions: 'Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing for us?'"

Those Films Capra made? Apparently produced at Fox & Disney.

It's a magical world, isn't it?

"Medicare Drug Program: Dream and Nightmare"

2006-01-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

Whoops, the Bush Administration just lost NPR's Daniel Schorr because of the Medicare debacle - now officially a fiasco. Have a listen...

Why We Fight

2006-01-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

Just heard about this movie, and wondering if folks know anything about it?

Starts on the 20th, apparently...

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Why did Dwight D. Eisenhowser hate America so much?

A "Protection Release"

2006-01-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hilarious and brilliant:

Mr. Bush, I've decided the price is too high for my conscience. If Gitmo - and the torture and denial of due process accompanying it - is a necessary part of protecting me, I hereby officially release you from the obligation. I'm opting out of this protection racket you've set up. Think of me as just one less tile on the human shield you've created, using the safety and fear of American citizens to hide behind while you seize more power.

After years of soul-searching, I've decided to take my chances in a risky and unpredictable world - one from which your administration can't fully insulate me anyway, even with the best of intentions - than to live my life duct-taped and "safe" in a wire-tapped American closet where I'm not free to tell you I think you're a nincompoop and a danger to humankind.

Besides, I've seen New Orleans on TV. Color me unimpressed with your ability to protect me while you strip away my rights. Even if I were willing to cower and cringe and hurl my notorious "freedoms" in your lap willynilly, you'd hardly be the "protector" first on my speed dial. (Don't believe me? Check out my calls in the bloated vacuum bag attached to your illegal NSA operations.)

There's more, check it out. Genius.

The Answer To Adrian's Frustration...

2006-01-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

Regular HPI attendee's will know of Adrian's frustration with Brando & myself when we talk about the 'Powers That Be' and Brando's post today on Noam Chomsky nails it.

Remember kid's the definition of 'Conspiracy' refers the act of real individuals and/or groups conspiring about something.

Coyotes Of Chicago

2006-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Not politics, but I thought this was interesting:

The owners of the Chicago Bears might want to consider a new mascot for their team. The city is pretty much bear-free—save the local zoo—but there is at least one pack of coyotes living right downtown in the Loop, and there may be thousands of coyotes residing in the Chicagoland area.

[snip]

Scientists believed that, given the pressures of living amid the nine-million people of greater Chicago, coyotes would not be able to maintain defined territories or preserve the complex social structure of the packs they typically live in. "But they do," said Gehrt. "And it looks no different in an urban area than it would out in the country. They carved out territories in completely developed areas."

We're used to them here in Hollywood, but Chicago?? Weird.

The Colbert Report

2006-01-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

If you're not watching the Colbert Report, you really have to start. Simply put? Genius. Tuesday night's show was AMAZING and kudos to all involved (especially HPI's own Krafty!). Click over to Comedy Central and see an OUTSTANDING 'interview' with Carl "the One not on the wrong side this time" Bernstein and Colbert's The Word on 'Sleeper Cell: Sexagaterrorists'... It's the news, only more truthy less facty.

Lobbying By The Numbers

2006-01-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

The good folks over at Think Progress continue to do the good lord's work with a chart on Lobbying. Scariest numbers?
Amount spent on federal lobbying, 1999 = 1.5 billion
Amount spent on federal lobbying, 2004 = $2.1 billion
Percent increase in federal lobbying from 1999-2004 = 40%

Wait, who's my lobbyist again?

No Jesusland In Isreal???

2006-01-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Finally someone is holding Pat Robertson responsible for being a total jackass: Israel pulls plug on Pat Robertson deal:

Israel won't do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday, putting into doubt plans to develop a large Christian tourism center in northern Israel.

Avi Hartuv, spokesman for Israel's tourism minister, said officials are furious with Robertson's suggestion that the stroke was retribution for Sharon's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. "We can't accept this kind of statement," Hartuv said.

I wonder if that is God's will? Nah, probably just the fault of the ACLU, feminists and liberals.

These Aren't Your Old Man's Conservatives...

2006-01-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Look I am an unabashed fan of Bob Scheer, but about the title of his article,"Betraying the Reagan Revolution," I have to ask: how do you betray something that was morally bankrupt to begin with?

Oh what a tangled web these no-longer-young Republicans weave when first they practice to deceive!

Bob Scheer folks, the People's Poet!

The scope of the scandal swirling around DeLay was perhaps best described by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, now a lobbyist: "Tom DeLay sent Buckham downtown to set up shop and start a branch office on K Street," Armey told The New York Times, referring to the row of lobby firms famously headquartered there. "The whole idea was: 'What's in it for us?'"

The Dick Armey folks! Oh this whole scandal just keeps on giving... lots of good stuff, so check it out for yourselves.

Congressman, Lobbyists, & Jack Abramoff... Oh My!

2006-01-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

Tired of reading? Then take a listen as NPR does a nice job running down the Republican "Pay to Play" corruption scandal that continues to grow in DC. Of course it mentions all our favorites: Gingrich, DeLay, Grover Norquist, Rick Santorum, et al. No Dems, just lots and lots of Republicans selling out the American people to powerful interests.

What will we tell the children?!?

Can you TruthDig It?

2006-01-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

Bob Scheer rides again! Been meaning to mention this since I am a big fan of Left, Right & Center (podcast that baby!), but I encourage you all to check out TruthDig a new online journal Scheer edits.

The Iraq Index

2006-01-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

The Iraq Index
.

Okay, sure it's from the December 19th edition, but the Iraq Index (PDF) is worth a look... and it's even out of date: the word is some 17 soldiers killed this weekend.

4 Reasons to Be Glad Bush Is Still President

2006-01-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

I know, I know: what is a liberal/progressive doing saying this? Well the LA Weekly breaks it down...

Iraq. The deteriorating situation in Iraq is the inevitable outcome of a poorly conceived, incompetently executed and predictably doomed flight of foreign policy fancy...

[snip]

Bushonomics. Another bed that Bush made. This president has spent more than any other in history while slashing taxes for all his clubhouse buddies — and their buddies and their buddies’ buddies. Between massive tax cuts, two costly wars, hurricane and 9/11 relief, the usual mess of pork and a huge new entitlement program for pharmaceutical companies called the prescription drug plan, Bush triumphantly undid one of the biggest legislative successes of conservatism: Clinton’s balanced budget...

[snip]

Scandals. Another silver lining in the dark clouds over Washington is that it might be a swiftly breaking storm. It’s taken less than five years for the Republican Idea to reveal itself as a grotesque falsehood. Now we’ve got great seats as a whole host of first-term crimes hatch into second-term scandals. The Plame Game, Jack Abramoff’s web of Republican intrigue, Bill Frist’s financial indiscretions, domestic spying, the cronyism exposed by Brownie’s heck of a job during Katrina — these were ineptitudes and overreaches of Nixonian dimension that, for the sake of the country, need vigorous public exposure...

[snip]

Schadenfreude. It might be bad form to gloat, but watching Bush fail is at least civic-minded gloating. The parade of poor policies that was Bush’s first term was the result of a broken legislative process that wrote poor laws to please narrow constituencies. It’s an approach to government that must be discredited, so watching the Bush presidency fall apart is more than just satisfying; it’s important.

I'm willing to go along with that... schadenfreude. Love it. I agree. But before we start enjoying the next few years too much:

After five years, the point is made. Everyone convincible is convinced. Those content to deem the president a smirking chimp, a dry drunk, a bumbling moron or — more politely — the worst or most dangerous president in history have had their moment. Duly noted. But Bush is still president, and about half the country supports him. It’s not enough to point fingers. Democrats and progressives must make a counteroffer to the American people. Talking politics for one week without ever mentioning the word Bush would be a good start. Can you do it?

And there's one more thought about Liberals/Progressives 'counting our chickens before they hatch':

“I earned capital in the campaign,” boasted George W. Bush, after the 2004 election. “Political capital. And now I intend to spend it.” Just so. The year began with the president cockily planning to cram through a big anti–New Deal agenda. But as conservative thinker Peter Viereck once observed, “Reality is that which, when you don’t believe in it, doesn’t go away.” And in 2005, Bush faced a lot of reality. The mess in Iraq, public rejection of his Social Security plan, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job,” the indictments of Libby and DeLay and Abramoff — all this (and much, much more) turned Dubya’s political capital into Enron stock. The guy who ended 2004 as Time’s “Person of the Year” had, by this December, morphed into the chump on Newsweek’s “Bush in the Bubble” cover. But before you get too giddy pondering Dubya’s inexorable ruin — unpopularity, impeachment, eternal disgrace! — remember that his second term is less than 12 months old and our media can’t hump the story of his failing presidency for another three years. So steel yourselves, comrades: Once Bush’s approval ratings go up a few more points to 50 percent, we’ll be bombarded with headlines calling him “The Comeback Kid” and declaring that, once again, Prince Hal’s been misunderestimated.

Yep, leave it to the 'liberal' media to save Bush.

Terminator 4: The Transformation... ?

2006-01-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

'Lucky' enough to be driving home last night and tuned into Arnold's State of The State speech last night and... well, it was bizzare. Truly, truly bizzare. He just kept saying "I say Build IT!" and buying everything in sight: new hospitals, new courts, new prisons (??), new schools, new highways, new public transportation, hell let's just say he wants to buy a new state... but NOT raise taxes to do it.

Kos gives a nice little synopsis of what this means, but it was crazy as he just went on the craziest spending spree I've ever seen. Weird.

Here's the transcript...

If You Only Read One Article Today...

2006-01-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

It should be Bush's War On Professionals by Sidney Blumenthal over on Salon.com. Completely worth your time and effort.

Abramoff-A-Go-Go

2006-01-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

The nice folks over @ Think Progress do the Good Lord's work on the Abramoff scandal that promises to be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving all year long... this rabbit hole is deep, but as lots of folks are pointing out, he didn't give a dime to Democrats no matter what Scott McClellan and Chris Matthews say.

The War on Poverty?

2006-01-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

Somehow the 'War on Poverty' has gone very, very wrong... (why is this the one current U.S. 'war' that is the most successful?)

Harper's Review of 2005

2006-01-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Oy... did 2005 really suck that bad?

431 to 1

2006-01-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

Those damn commie pinko liberals over at the New York Times had this to say in the Editorial Another Marie Antoinette Moment:

The same report, by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center, and United for a Fair Economy, a group seeking to narrow the gap between rich and poor, found that in 2004 the ratio of C.E.O. pay to worker pay at large companies had ballooned to 431 to 1. If the minimum wage had advanced at the same rate as chief executive compensation since 1990, America's bottom-of-the-barrel working poor would be enjoying salad days, with legal wages at $23.03 an hour instead of $5.15.

Commies! Why do they hate America so much? Damn their Black MainStreamMedia-♥s? Don't they know that this kind of talk just helps the terrorists?

In the go-go days of the Internet bubble, these kinds of statistics were easy to ignore because it felt as if anyone could be the next millionaire and surely the rising tide would lift all boats. Now corporate profits are being wrung in large part from cost cutting like reductions to worker health care and retirement, layoffs and plant closings.

It would be nice to see corporate America put more effort - and money - into quality control and fair living wages for workers and less into exorbitant pay packages and bonuses for corporate chieftains.

Like Brando likes to points out everyone seems to think that they're a millionaire-in-training... but probably aren't.

Santa Gave Chalabi A Lump of Coal

2005-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

Hilarious:

The politician and onetime administration and U.S. newspaper source, Ahmed Chalabi, "appears to have suffered a humiliating defeat at the recent Iraq polls," NBC News reports today, according to the uncertified preliminary results.

It said that preliminary results in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad indicate that Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress scored a minuscule 0.36 percent of the votes.

Wait, you help get us into a war and you can't even steal an election? Too funny (funny ha ha that is)

The best part?

"The election results in Iraq may present Chalabi’s ardent U.S. supporters with a quandary: Chalabi, as well as other losing candidates, is alleging fraud in the election, even though the Bush administration hailed the vote as a historic step for democracy in Iraq," NBC reports. Indeed, the country is now in political turmoil over this.

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Tom DeLay: Still On The 'Naughty' List

2005-12-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

And here is your lump of coal Hot Tub: Appeals Court Won't Speed Up DeLay Trial...

A Texas appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay to get a speedy trial on a money-laundering charge lodged against the powerful Republican lawmaker.

DeLay had sought an quick trial on the charge in the hopes that an acquittal would allow him to return to his post as U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader next month.

Maybe there is a Santa... HO HO HO!

An Interesting Scenario, But...

2005-12-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

Also a darn Rude one: Rape David Brooks To Save America.

I'll say this though, once you get past the rape bit, you have to admit he does have a point.

Breaking: Rove Implicated In Leak!

2005-12-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

... That your mom & dad are really santa:

WASHINGTON, DC—The recent leak revealing Santa Claus to be "your mommy and daddy" has been linked to President Bush's senior political adviser and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

"If this devastating leak, which severely undermines the security of children everywhere and has compromised parent-child relations, came from the highest levels of the White House, that is an outrage," said former Bush counterterrorism adviser and outspoken Bush Administration critic Richard Clarke.

The identity of the mythical holiday gift-giver, previously known only in grown-up circles, was published in the popular Timbertoes cartoon in the December issue of Highlights For Children. Jean Abrams, a conservative firebrand known to have close ties to Bush appointees in the Department of Education, revealed "Santa" to be a code name for anonymous parental gift-giving.

Oh what will we tell the children?!?

Re-Posted: Avoid These Elves

2005-12-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays (all of 'em) from your friends at the Hollywood Progressive Institute!

Guess Who Isn't Going To Jail?

2005-12-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

Scooter that's who:

The Veep Still Loves His Scooter
Want proof that loyalty and friendship mean more than politics in the Bush administration? Then go no further than Vice President Dick Cheney 's Christmas party last week, where ex-aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, ousted after his indictment in the CIA spy-outing case, was given a hero's welcome. "He was warmly received, and he looked terrific," says a partygoer. "Everyone was happy to see him." Libby arrived with his wife and sans attorney and went through the photo line just like everybody else. And while he shunned talk about his case, "everyone wished him well," says our tipster.

Why do these people these people hate America and out our spies?

Mad As Hell

2005-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

Watched NETWORK again last night... so timely. Amazing that someone hasn't made a re-make of it (are you listening Senors Soderbergh & Clooney?). So here are 2 thoughts from that movie today, first from the 'mad prophet' Howard Beale:

And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this tube? So, listen to me! Television is not the truth! Television is a goddamned amusement park, that's what television is! television is a circus, a carnival, a travelling troupe of acrobats and story-tellers, singers and dancers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion-tamers and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! If you want truth, go to God, go to your guru, go to yourself because that's the only place you'll ever find any real truth! But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell! We'll tell you Kojack always gets the killer, and nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry: just look at your watch -- at the end of the hour, he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear!

We deal in illusion, man! None of it's true! But you people sit there -- all of you -- day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds -- we're all you know. You're beginning to believe this illusion we're spinning here. You're beginning to think the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We're the illusions! So turn off this goddam set! Turn it off right now! Turn it off and leave it off. Turn it off right now, right in the middle of this very sentence I'm speaking now!

And then there's the malevolent response:

JENSEN: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal -- that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars! Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic, subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably deter- mined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.

HOWARD: Why me?

JENSEN: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

I wonder who would play Howard Beale today? Actually Jay would be my pick...

Ho Ho Ho. Bah Humbug.

Its Official

2005-12-16T12:42:00.000-08:00

Trent Lott: HYPOCRITE.

Dear Trent,

Why do you hate American Business so much? Why don't you trust the market to take care of your needs? Ass.

###

Dear Insurance Industry,

How stupid are you? Screwing over Trent Lott, while a dream of mine, is just asking for trouble. I can't believe you let this get to the press, but thanks!

God's Great Mistake

2005-12-15T09:28:00.000-08:00

Once again reason & humor triumph over fundamentalism: behold the rise of 'Incompetent Design' (also known as 'The Other I.D.'):

Don Wise, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation's foremost proponent of ID. No, Wise isn't getting ready to testify on behalf of the school board in Dover, PA. Rather, he advocates for a different version of the acronym: "incompetent design."

Wise cites serious flaws in the systems of the human body as evidence that design in the universe exhibits not an obvious source of, but a sore lack of, intelligence.

"Teach the Controversy! Teach the Controversy!"

So is there intelligence in the design?
Yes! No, no there isn't. The thing that perhaps is closest to all of us is our own skeleton, and there are certainly all kinds of stupidity in our design. No self-respecting engineering student would make the kinds of dumb mistakes that are built into us.
All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student.
Look at the teeth in your mouth. Basically, most of us have too many teeth for the size of our mouth. Well, is this evolution flattening a mammalian muzzle and jamming it into a face or is it a design that couldn't count accurately above 20?
Look at the bones in your face. They're the same as the other mammals' but they're just squashed and contorted by jamming the jaw into a face with your brain expanding over it, so the potential drainage system in there is so convoluted that no plumber would admit to having done it!
So is this evolution or is this plain stupid design?

"Teach the... wha, huh?"

Take that losers.

"But what will we tell the children?!?"

Tell them that, clearly, God flunked Industrial Design in college and they should pay better attention to that 'science' thing you're trying to keep them from.

If you were to redesign things, how would you make design intelligent?
Well, for one thing I would put fewer teeth in our mouths. I would put fewer bones in our face, so that it could drain properly. I would straighten up the pelvis so we wouldn't have to have that bend. I would certainly take out the appendix so we don't have that problem and the tonsils, too.
And I did have one other. Some guy from Texas listed a number of things with this and he said, "Actually I would write more, but I have to go pee in Morse code, because some idiot designed my aging prostate."
Intelligent designers and, in fact, everybody from the creationists and so on back to the beginning of the last century used to talk about the wonderful design of the eye—which somehow has all your receptor cells behind a membrane curtain!
I mean, evolutionarily all of these things make sense but in terms of a reasonable, intelligent design? They're idiocy. So, the argument is there is no intelligence there in a lot of these things.

"Oh what will we tell the children?!?"

How about God wasn't really paying that much attention when he was designing them and they shouldn't be so surprised when parts fail or don't work properly? Or some of those penguins in that movie you touted so much were actually 'gay' (God clearly loves gay penguins 'cuz he keeps making them) and that movie actually demonstrates the power of evolution and instinct far more than it does 'family values.'

I believe that democracy was meant to keep us free
I believe that Jesus Christ was who he's meant to be
I believe a living Elvis will soon appear on my TV

For there's a reason for the choices we make
We're all a part of God's great mistake

I know we have a future out beyond the stars
I know that there are farmers who were taken off to Mars
I know there is a thing from outer space kept in a big glass jar

Well there's a reason that we fall for the fake
And there's a reason for the choices we make
We're all a part of God's great mistake

I believe in all those people having unprotected sex
I believe that I will die with or without that cigarette
I believe we all should slow right down and stare at every car we wreck

For there's a reason for the choices we make
And there's a reason that we fall for the fake
Yeah there's a reason for the choices we make
We're all a part of God's great mistake

Our thanks to Big Country ladies and gentlemen!

The Fox In the Hen House

2005-12-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

Charlie Reina, former Fox News Channel producer, spills the beans on how FOX cultivates and creates conflicts that aren't there:

It’s no surprise, of course, that this phony call to arms, this “Christmas (ergo, Christians) Under Attack” hysteria, emanates from the bowels of Fox News Channel. The network is, after all, ground zero in the culture wars that polarize so much of America these days. Make no mistake about it: Fox is on a mission. Its slogans say, “Fair and Balanced” and “We Report, You Decide.” But in the six years that I worked there, what I heard most from Fox management were mission statements – about turning things around, taking news back from the liberals, and giving “middle America” a voice long denied it by the “east coast media elite.” In other words, using its news report to bring about change -- in the media and, ultimately, in the direction of American culture.

As FNC’s man at the top, Roger Ailes, knows well from his years as a political operative, there is no more effective wartime strategy than to divide and conquer. That’s why so much of his network’s programming is confrontational. The “us against them” gambit animates not only FNC’s night-time entertainment shows, like “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity & Colmes,” but the network’s daytime “news” report, where anchors regularly browbeat guests who are on the wrong (Democrat or liberal) side of issues.

Sadly? Not shocking just sad. So sad.