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I think I’d like to waste some time trying to help you all waste time. So here are some tidbits that have been hovering around me today.

First: I motioned a while ago how the RIAA was complaining because a defendant in a file swapping case demanded that a neutral third party pull the data off her hard drive instead of a party chosen by Sony and the RIAA themselves. Well, the judge does not agree and he tells them so oh oh ooooh. Take that you RIAA babies!

Next up: It’s The Google!

Then: Wanna know why the current Congress is considered by some to be the worst in history? Then read “The Worst Congress Ever: How Our National Legislature has Become a Stable of Thieves and Perverts—in Five Easy Steps” in Rolling Stone. Yes, Rolling Stone! If politics trumps music in a music magazine, you know our government sucks. I haven’t finished reading the story yet, but I found out about it because the author was on Democracy Now this morning. Read the transcript, if you desire.

Meanwhile: Wired has a fun bit about Hemingway’s six-word short story and how it led them to commission new six-word stories from other writers. I dig Alan Moore’s! These are kind of like sudden or flash fiction, but shorter.

Finally: I re-visited a site I had scribbled down on a Post-It some time ago, and remembered why I had done that. It’s the site of Kazu Kibuishi, whose art I love. It was mostly Copper that drew my eye. Wow, I wish I could draw that well! (The first Copper comic, “R. Pack Fantasy,” is at the bottom of the page, and the newer one go backward from there.)

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I’m late to the game on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, so instead of ranting myself, I’ll let the tack-sharp Keith Olbermann do it for me.

Thanks, again, to Alan for sending me this.

Permalink Comments Off on “…May This Country Forgive You.”Comments Off on “…May This Country Forgive You.” By

Actually, I don’t mind saying, “Mr. President, may this country tar and feather you and call you mean names.”

Or go to Crooks and Liars, which has a transcript, QuickTime, and WMV. Thanks to Alan for this.

So if yesterday’s post contained good news, and the post before that contained bad news, this post contains some mixed news.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released reports yesterday (on Friday, a day you come out with stuff to bury it in the news—I learned that on The West Wing!) concluding that, among other already known facts, Iraq and Saddam Hussein had no connection to Al Qaeda. Okay, so duh. But considering Bush just used that excuse again defending himself (see yesterday’s post), it’s pretty helpful that official documentation came out concluding this.

Why is this mixed news? The good news is that Bush and his cadre of nasty little friends are, little-by-little, getting caught for their misdeeds. The bad news is that their misdeeds have pulled the wool over the eyes of most Americans, making them look stupid, and, worse, causing insane amounts of harm to America in the form of disastrous anti-American sentiment and tens of thousands of deaths through unnecessary war.

You can read about the Senate reports at Reuters [story no longer available] and, before they start charging for it in the archives, at the Los Angeles Times[story no longer available… at least for free]. The Times buries a very interesting and important fact in the last paragraphs of the article (another tactic to make sure most people don’t get the info):

The Senate report also offers new theories as to why Hussein’s regime was unable to convince U.N. inspectors before the U.S. invasion that it no longer had stocks of illegal weapons.

A recent CIA analysis concluded that Hussein was stunned by the aggressiveness of weapons inspections after the 1991 Gulf War, and ordered the covert destruction of undeclared weapons and documents.

In the process, Hussein destroyed the very records U.N. inspectors sought a decade later when putting pressure on Iraq to account for its illicit weapons.

“The result was that Iraq was unable to provide proof when it tried at a later time to establish compliance,” the report said, citing the CIA study.

Of course, Bush and friends knew that already, you can be sure of that, but how could we have possibly gone to war in Iraq without ignoring all the facts?

The Times story also has this fantastic comparison of senior administration officials statement and facts from the new report:

PREWAR CLAIMS VERSUS REPORT FINDINGS

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee found no evidence connecting Iraq to weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda:

* * * * * *

On connections between Iraq and terrorists

“We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of Al Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time.”

Condoleezza Rice, Sept. 25, 2002

“We are especially concerned about Iraq because of the developments we see with respect to [Hussein’s] weapons of mass destruction, because he has in the past, for example, had a relationship with terrorist organizations, has provided sanctuary in Iraq for terrorist organizations of various kinds.”

Vice President Dick Cheney, Sept. 9, 2002

Committee finding:

“According to debriefs of multiple detainees—including Saddam Hussein and former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz—and captured documents, Saddam did not trust Al Qaeda or any other radical Islamist group and did not want to cooperate with them. Hussein reportedly believed, however, that Al Qaeda was an effective organization because of its ability to successfully attack U.S. interests.”

* * * * * *

On Iraq’s desire and ability to acquire nuclear weapons

“Saddam Hussein promised the U.N. that he would destroy and cease further development of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, and that he would submit to unrestricted inspections. He has flatly broken these pledges, producing chemical and biological weapons, aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapons program and working to develop long-range ballistic missiles.”

Vice President Dick Cheney, Sept. 27, 2002

Committee findings:

“Postwar findings do not support the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) judgment that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Information obtained after the war supports the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s (INR) assessment in the NIE that the intelligence community lacked persuasive evidence that Baghdad had launched a coherent effort to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program.”

“Postwar findings do not support the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) assessment that ‘Iraq has biological weapons’ and that ‘All key aspects of Iraq’s offensive biological weapons (BW) program are larger and more advanced than before the Gulf War.'”

“The ISG [Iraq Survey Group] uncovered no evidence indicating that Iraq maintained a stockpile of chemical weapons or had been producing chemical weapons. Since the spring of 2003, coalition forces have discovered approximately 500 filled and unfilled degraded chemical munitions. All of the munitions appear to be pre-1991 CW [chemical weapons] and not part of an active weapons stockpile. Postwar inspections of the sites suspected of having a CW role revealed that they were likely used for the production of non-CW dual-use materials, and had a limited capability to restart the manufacture of CW.”

* * * * * *

On Iraq developing unmanned aerial vehicles for delivering weapons of mass destruction

“We know that he has been working hard on developing a means to disseminate those weapons. We have evidence that he has been looking at aerial vehicles.”

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sept. 8, 2002

Committee finding:

“Postwar findings do not support the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) assessments that Iraq had a developmental program for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ‘probably intended to deliver biological agents’ or that an effort to procure U.S. mapping software ‘strongly suggests that Iraq is investigating the use of these UAVs for missions targeting the United States.’ Postwar findings support the view of the Air Force, joined by the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] and the Army, in an NIE published in January 2003, that Iraq’s UAVs were primarily intended for reconnaissance.”

In case you are keen to read the original reports, you can find them here:

Postwar Findings about Iraq’s WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How they Compare with Prewar Assessments and The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress. (Warning: Big PDFs!)

This is all very interesting, if not at all surprising. This is absolutely the time when one half of the country can say to the other half, “We told you so!”

And we did tell you so! Over and over and over. We told you in 2000, when we could tell what an idiot and a sleaze Bush really was. We told you in 2001, after 9/11, when Bush’s actions began to turn to vengeance… financially-lucrative retribution. We told you in 2003 before Bush started the Iraq war. And we told you time and again as the war has dragged on. As each and every piece of Bush’s lie-spawned tale of terror and attack has been refuted and shown for the nonsense it is, we have told you.

Yet 43% of you, according to the Times article, STILL think Iraq had something to do with 9/11! Many, many of you still support the war, and still support this son of a bitch as our President.

What is wrong with you people?

The answer to that is easy, but multi-faceted. It has to do with laziness and weariness, I know. Oh, it’s so much easier to give a shit about Taylor Hicks than it is about the thousands of people who’ve been killed in the wars we’ve started after 9/11. I know, it’s so easy! But come friggin’ on, you louts! Really, what does it take to get any of you mad?

I know, abortion. Gay marriage. Stem cells. No, somehow, these are items to enrage and beg for calls of morality from God’s fat ‘n’ lazy couch brigade. But the killing of over 2,500 U.S. troops and wounding of almost 20,000 more in Iraq, the death of over 41,000 Iraqi civilians, these are not facts that enrage you.

George got all foamed at the mouth when he was talking about 3,000 of our citizens being killed in 9/11 (again, see yesterday’s post), and yet here we are killing so much more than that in a war that has no roots in 9/11, no roots in Al Qaeda, no roots in anything of any significance other than it makes some of us very, very rich.

Half of us know Bush and his jack-ass friends are horrible people. We could tell this from the get-go. I could cut the rest of you a little bit of slack for not being very good judges of character back in 2000, but not any more. You’ve all tried so very hard to keep George a good man in your minds, despite that the universe demonstrates otherwise. Your brains must be tired of the charade. Really. Come on. Enough of this ignorance and hollow patriotic support. You can have an American flag stuck to your car and still dislike Bush.

Come on, wake up. You can do it. Be brave. Have a spine. Let yourself be angry. You’ve been good about being angry at so much that doesn’t matter. Well, it’s time for you all to get angry about something that does. Because I don’t want to be back here in 2008 telling you that you all should have seen the tragedy in Iran coming…

Since yesterday’s post was so annoying, I thought I’d collect some good news for today! I wrote this whole post out once already, but lost it when the RealPlayer installer closed my browser. Oops. No, it was my fault. It asked me first, but I just wasn’t thinking. As punishment, I’m going to stay here at work instead of going home to watch The Tick so I can re-write the entire post. So here goes…

To start with, you are not alone! Nope. According to this article, most theater patrons are in favor of jamming cell phones in theaters. I myself would also be in favor of a slapping law. If you text message or talk on your cell phone during a play or movie, each other patron would be allowed to slap you, briskly, four times across the face. It may not be very Ghandi, but it sure would be fun!

Speaking of laws and the governments who can ignore them, hooray for Federal Judge Garr M. King for allowing another lawsuit against the NSA to move forward. Can we throw these activist judges a thank-you party? What do activist judges drink? Do they enjoy party games? Twister? Naked? In butterscotch pudding? I’ll bet they do, those wicked, wicked activist judges!

Speaking of activism, what’s not to like about saving the environment? What’s not to like about rechargeable batteries that work like alkalines? Nothing! Nothing, I tell you! Ah, finally… no more guilt using the nose hair trimmer!

Speaking of nose hair, it’s the 40th anniversary of that Tribble-riffic show, Star Trek. Lore Sjöberg, formerly of The Brunching Shuttlecocks and now, it seems, creating new Flash animations at Bad Gods, got to have a lovely chat with William Shatner on this very special occasion.

Speaking of the Heimlich maneuver, since I did close yesterday’s post with a funny tidbit, I’m going to close this happy post with a potentially annoying tidbit. But, hey, come on, when Georgie Bush gets handed his own bullshit back to him on a platter, it’s damn happy reading in my mind. You can actually hear GB flounder and sizzle with anger, thanks, once again, to Democracy Now. Click here for the audio file (it’s a RealAudio stream, unfortunately), and start listening at 15:10. It’s worth it. If you simply aren’t a lover of audio-visual stimulus, here’s the transcript in boring ol’ text format (I added back in all his uhs and stutters and the note on his anger):

AMY GOODMAN (DEMOCRACY NOW HOST): On Monday, he [President Bush] admitted the Iraq war is straining the psyche of our country, but vowed to stay the course. A reporter questioned him about why he opposed withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

REPORTER: A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn’t gone in. How do you square all of that?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I square it, because, uh— imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was, uh— uh— paying suiciders— uh, to kill innocent life, uh who would, uh— who had relations with Zarqawi. Imagine what the world would be like with him in power. The idea is to try to help change the Middle East.

Now, look, I di— part of the reason we went into Iraq— uh, was, uh— the main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. Turns out he didn’t, but he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction. But I also talked about the human suffering in Iraq, and I also talked the need to advance a freedom agenda. And so my question— my answer to your question is, is that— imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein was there, stirring up even more trouble in a part of the world that, uh, ha— uh, had so much resentment and so much hatred that three— that people came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

You know, I-I’ve heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived, and then, you know, kind of that we’re going to stir up the hornet’s nest theory. I-i-it just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned. [Suddenly vitriolic] The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were—

REPORTER: What did Iraq have to do with that?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

REPORTER: The attack on the World Trade Center?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Nothing, except for it’s part of— and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a— uh, Iraq— the-the-the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th, uh, were ordered by Iraq.

Speaking of idiots draping themselves in the flag, Tanya was right: Pictures are more fun! I hope she enjoys this one of a God-damned, America-hating, activist flag-desecrator naked guy (sans butterscotch pudding).

American Flag with Firm Ass

Today is chock full o’ annoying news to delight the infuriation centers of the brain.

First off, Clear Channel is asking that the relaxed rules on station ownership be relaxed even more. Why? Because how can a fat man get even fatter if his pants only have a 96″ waist?

Next comes news from George B. himself, a consistent source for annoying news. He admitted that we did (“did”?) indeed have secret prisons overseas for holding terrorism suspects. Gee, quel suprise. He also pretty much insults the Supreme Court, says that anti-torture laws are vague and keep our guys from “doing their jobs in a thorough and professional way,” and asked Congress to pass legislation that will make it okay to try by military tribunal pretty much anyone, including Americans. If you can stomach it, read the transcript here. Or if you prefer a more progressive slant, read a transcript from today’s Democracy Now.

Want to enjoy some more RIAA fun? Good! Well, a defendant in one of those ridiculous RIAA music file swapping cases has asked that an independent third party be allowed to examine her hard drive for the evidence the RIAA seeks instead of sending it directly to a party of the RIAA’s choosing. Sounds entirely reasonable, but of course the RIAA does a little legal whiny dance, pounding its little fists on how unfair the world is.

Finally, some levity, though the levity arises from sour milk. The Onion still has some quality left in it, as their story on the dedication of the ground zero 9/11 Memorial Hole demonstrates. Wanna know what’s been going on and why we only have a hole there? Believe it or not, I’m going to send you over to USA Today for a fun interactive Ground Zero Development delay map! Fun and 9/11! They go together like over-eager 5th anniversary media coverage and tact!

Thanks to Robb’s recent post, I got to do a little reading on this horrible girlie band whose two members just happen to be fraternal twin white supremacists. Good lord!

I did seek out their site, but I won’t link to it here, following Robb’s wise lead. I’m not even going to say the name of the band. They don’t deserve any more Google hits. I will link to an article that was in GQ: “Minor Threat.” You can go from there if you want. Or from Robb’s post.

The hypocritical viewpoints of white supremacists, or really any racist, always shine so clearly when you simply let them speak for themselves. The article linked above is nicely neutral, something that is generally missing from journalism these days. The two moronic teens, Lamb and Lynx, demonstrate their ignorance and stupidity just by opening their mouths. As does their mother, April.

Here are some amusing (or are they scary?) quotes form the article. Though I was tempted to put in my own comments after each quote, I will let these close-minded nitwits speak for themselves.

* * * * * *

“I think, you know, if there was a war between the races,” [Lamb] says tentatively, “hopefully everybody will get their own little space. And that’s basically what we want, you know? So we don’t have to live with the other groups.”

How would they feel about a race war? “I don’t really know,” Lynx says dreamily.

“I think I would be glad,” Lamb says.

“Not about the war,” Lynx interjects, and Lamb quickly revises her answer.

In any event, neither one will be strapping on an assault rifle anytime soon. “I’m a girl!” Lamb says with a honking laugh. “I think the boys should be fighting and the girls stay home!”

“And make babies!” Lynx puts in

* * * * * *

[April complains] the grocery stores are going downhill. “They cater to certain foods I guess Hispanics want. Like, I guess Mexicans eat cactuses. And they’ll be selling those candles with paintings on the side? It’s like a Third World marketplace.”

* * * * * *

The more pressing issue, however, is what has happened on their block. Not long ago, a Mexican family moved in. “The other day, they were washing their car right out on the street,” April fumes. “They sit in their garage with the garage door wide open, just drinking beer. Just watch: You come back here in five years, the whole block will be mestizo.”

Later, I drive around the subdivision, but I don’t see any open garage doors or beer drinking. Every house is dead quiet and looks exactly the same.

* * * * * *

As for [Rudolf] Hess, the Gaedes see him, along with the rest of the Third Reich, as horribly misunderstood. “People want to depict everything that happened in World War II Germany as marching around killing Jews,” April says. “They don’t want to understand how the whole ideology of National Socialism is really a beautiful thing. I mean, it really is.”

* * * * * *

“I’m sure the Germans killed a lot of people,” April concedes. “But Stalin killed a lot of people, and the U.S. government killed a lot of people, too. Look, the lies concerning Adolf Hitler have become so bizarre. But think about it: He was a human being. Even if you believed in the final Solution, he’d still be a human being. The man’s been vilified.”

I point out that Jews have been vilified, too. Hitler, Jews—we’re all human, right? Well, no. “It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” she replies. “I mean, they’ve been kicked out of every country in Europe. The history of the persecution—or prosecution—of the Jews didn’t start with Adolf Hitler. Now, why do you think that is?”

[…]

I’m Jewish myself—a fact April has already informed me she “kind of figured, from your nose”—but I manage a grin.

“Oh, my back just popped!” Lamb exclaims. “My God, did you hear that?”

* * * * * *

Lamb and Lynx clamber out of April’s minivan and carry their gear into a local recording studio to work on their new album. […] April has asked me not to reveal the name of the studio—the last time they recorded, she says, the engineer got death threats. “It’s unbelievable to me how intolerant these people are,” she says.

* * * * * *

And that’s that. I would love it if these people would go find “their own little space.” They can’t have this one called America. Where can they go that isn’t already inhabited by others? Hmm… There are islands of garbage out in the Pacific that they can have. They can call it the Archipelago of White Trashlvania.

What a busy day for posts. And though this will once again preempt the hilarious OK Go treadmill video, I have to say something.

I’ve taken Bruce Tinsley to task before regarding his inability to be funny. For a comic strip writer, that’s what I would call a huge liability. And though he’s extremely conservative, and extreme conservatives simply don’t have it in them to be humorous (so goes my theory), he’s not alone in his poor humor on the funny pages. Hell, that stupid La Cucaracha comic is atrocious—head-banging-on-the-table atrocious—and it’s very liberal.

But I digress.

Here, look at the Mallard Fillmore from this Monday:

Mallard Fillmore Shoot the Baby

Yes, as you can see, not funny. But it’s also a bit infuriating, because that’s what happens when conservatives get a hold of anything complicated: They take a simplistic detail and use it as their talking point.

Of course Hezbollah, a terrorist, guerrilla operation, hides among the civilians of Lebanon. That’s how rats live. When you are fighting a huge power, like Israel or the U.S., and those huge powers have absolutely nothing in their hearts for you but, at the very best, dismissiveness, you really have no choice. If the U.S. got somehow taken over by, oh, I don’t know, an evil oligarchical government run by large companies and their friends, and that evil government began to, oh, I don’t know, chip away at the freedoms of its citizens until that government became, in the end, no better than the dictators and kings it still purported to loathe, and such events led to, oh, I don’t know, more subversive or violent oppression of the people… well, I imagine all patriotic countrymen who wanted to fight for the freedom that they were being denied would become, in effect, a terrorist, guerrilla operation. The oligarchy itself would waste no breath without calling the freedom fighters terrorists.

What’s so ignorant and ridiculous about the cartoon is that, were muggers to pull such a stunt with babies and other innocent people, the cops would not shoot at him. Or, rather, they should not shoot at him. Sure, that means the mugger has, for now, outsmarted the cops. But taking hostages is not anything new. It’s not like no mugger has ever hidden behind an innocent before.

Without being able to simply shoot the mugger, which is an extreme solution to begin with, the cops would have to rely on other means. Negotiation, perhaps. Or, as the movies like to show us, negotiation to buy time until another solution could be found. Suppose negotiation or another more covert way of apprehending the mugger were to fail and the mugger killed the baby before either killing himself or then being caught or shot by the cops… Who’s at fault for killing the baby? The mugger. If, while the mugger holds the child, the cops go in regardless, guns blazing, with the excuse that it is the only way to get this rat, then it is more likely the baby will die at their hands. In that scenario, who’s the one at fault? Law enforcement wold be at fault.

Those who choose to attack the mugger with the baby at risk and those who support people who make such violent decisions would claim it was the fault of the mugger for putting the baby in harm’s way in the first place. That kind of reasoning is slow-witted at best, calculatingly cruel at the worst. That sort of propaganda is no better than the mugger claiming that the police shooting at him were targeting the child.

In the Lebanon–Israel conflict, which still seems to be on hold, thank God, Israel was making the simplistic, inhumane, inelegant, cruel, and foolhardy choice in dealing with the rockets Hezbollah was firing into their country. They invaded a sovereign nation (the same thing we did in Iraq) to get at a military group that was, as anyone could have told them, not able to be destroyed with military might. If Israel really wants to destroy Hezbollah, they have to make measured, thoughtful, political choices. Hezbollah did not mainly arise out of brute force. It arose out of political and social circumstance. The only way to come close to destroying them militarily would be to nuke the entire region, and even then the annihilation of Hezbollah would not be assured.

The news is riddled now with stories of Hezbollah providing large cash payouts to people who suffered losses in the Israel attack. Harry Shearer, on Le Show, made an aside about how curious it was that Hezbollah was helping to repair the damage of the war while, in the U.S., our government isn’t doing anything tangible for the victims of hurricane Katrina. The point is that Hezbollah wins the hearts and minds of the people with a mix of propaganda and truly helpful financial and infrastructure contributions.

Israel gained nothing by destroying southern Lebanon for a month, and in fact will suffer political fallout from their foolishness. Just as the U.S. has gained nothing and lost much by having destroyed Iraq. Imagine how much more potent a non-military solution would have been in both Lebanon and Iraq. Were the U.S. to have worked for Saddam’s ouster through various well-placed and useful outlays of money and humanitarian aid, just think how much stronger our image would be. Such “soft power” solutions would not completely eradicate terrorism or resistance to the U.S., but it would lessen it and its attractiveness.

The trouble with such plans is that they take many, many years or even decades to bear fruit. Hawks don’t have any patience. Not until a war has begun, the justification for their existence is finally playing out, and all the friends of the government are raking in the cash from the building and selling of arms, are the hawks patient. Why should we accept that the military “war on terror” is going to be a long and hard one when it is unlikely to produce any good result? Why is it not more desirable to wage that long war with the morals and intelligence that are supposed to be the hallmarks of an advanced democratic civilization?

In the end, though Israel can claim they were not targeting innocent children, they certainly were. They knew that they would be killing many a civilian to get at the few rats that were hiding in their midst. Hezbollah can claim that Israel was purposefully targeting innocent children, even though they knew that, by being a target, they were in fact taking those innocent children hostage.

Who should have killed the children? Israel? Hezbollah? Should Israel have killed an exponentially larger number of civilians in a month than Hezbollah killed by launching the occasional, random rocket into Israel? Hezbollah’s rockets before the conflict were designed to kill civilians, but this is no excuse for Israel to retaliate in the same manner. In war, a baby killer is still a baby killer, no matter what the excuse.

To boil this all down to a mugger with a baby strapped to his front does nothing to enlighten, inform, or engage. It is not a sad truth or factoid, it is not a clever way to prove how evil Hezbollah is. It’s merely stupid. And it’s not even funny.

Therefore, I can only conclude what the headline here states: That Bruce Tinsley is an idiot.

Thank you, and good night!

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Hooray. While Judge Anna Diggs Taylor will no doubt be childishly labeled an “activist judge” by the current idiots in power, her ruling today that the NSA warrantless domestic wiretapping program is illegal and has to be stopped right away is another slim ray of happy sunshine for those who think said idiots should be thrown in jail forever and ever.

The decision is already being appealed, so we’ll see what happens, but for now, things are finally going the way they should.

I simply have not had the time or taken the time to post recent thoughts up here, which is a shame. So today, I have some tidbits.

1) Israel is wrong and, like the U.S. invading Iraq, is making their own situation worse by killing, maiming, and destroying the lives of thousands of innocent people. (Okay, the civilian death toll so far is over 1,000, but trust me, it’s only going to get worse. As if 1,000 is some kind of acceptable number.)

2) Dog owners should be aware that after taking their dog for a walk and picking up the mess in a plastic bag, some people might not be so keen to have you touch them or anything until that hand has been washed. Though plastic is a wonderful barrier, the thought that that hand just grabbed some poop is enough to require a washing. And you never know if a tiny hole is present! You never know!

3) I want to see Little Miss Sunshine again. Were I still doing movie reviews, I would have complimented its originality, cleverness, and charmingality. The fact that Little Miss Sunshine is the only summer movie I’ve seen so far that I will be making an effort to see again says something about the quality of said summer movies.

4) Also, please wash your hands after major dog playing/petting if you want to then use those hands for an amorous human encounter.

5) I added new navigation buttons to The Wren Forum. For some reason, they suddenly worked, whereas before, I could not get them to. Hmm. The ones at the top ruin the design slightly, but are convenient. I do not know if anyone cares.

6) Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut yesterday. Hooray. He’s nasty. For someone who says he’s progressive, he’s sure done a lot of extremely non-progressive things in his time. He’s now running as an independent, and I hope he loses bad.

7) I found a mushroom growing out of my bathroom ceiling today, right where a new water leak has materialized. Great. I have to call my landlord again about that leak. So I’m done with this post.

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After recently complaining that the quality of The Onion has been in decline, I was very happy to see this funny story today:

Bush Grants Self Permission to Grant More Power to Self

There’s still some gold in them thar hills.

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With Israel bombing Palestine and Lebanon, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in the process, merely because a few soldiers were kidnapped (hey, they’re soldiers… they’re meant to be shot at, killed, kidnapped, mistreated, since they are meant to do the same to others), I’ve been in a disgusted political mood the last couple days. As I listened to the stories of the Lebanese bombing campaign on my drive into work this morning, I thought something: I am, currently, not proud to be an American. I can say that without reservation. Most of my life, I have felt very lucky, very privileged to have been born here, especially as a white male. Really, what kind of cushy luck is that?

But with my country behaving, under the leadership of rabid, greedy cretins, as a self-righteous, indignant bully with a victim complex, teasing and taunting and provoking anyone out there who might have a beef with us to begin with into some kind of rabid, self-righteous, indignant froth of their own, I am ashamed and not at all proud of what America is doing to the world.

So it’s time to bash the conservatives again. Mostly because it’s so easy, so fun, and makes me feel just a little bit better! (A war of words on a blog is nothing compared to an actual, physical war where hundreds of thousands of mostly innocent people are killed.)

I thank Alan for giving me today’s ammunition. He sent the following yesterday.

First, this video, with former White House Consel under Nixon, John Dean. Now, Dean is no liberal. He had a big hand in the Watergate thingy. Yet he’s written a book called Conservaites Without Conscience where he decries the amorality of the neoconservative leadership of the Republican party.

I have not read the book, so I can not vouch fo it in any way. But watch what he says in this video and see if it all doesn’t make some kind of sense. Concerning the bit about those in power using terrorism and even provoking terrorism in an effort to keep hold of that power, didn’t we see that from day one, when the WMD/Iraq situation was first concocted? It is certainly another “we told you so” moment.

This article includes a partial rush transcript of the video.

On the still infuriating but much lighter side is the following Flash animation: Become Republican by Brian Frisk. He’s got some other fun stuff on that site, too.

If you don’t think we should all be worried about those Americans who believe killing everyone else is in the best interest of our country, and that there are not Americans out there who fall for the Enemy of the Day bullshit, take a quick look at this unfortunate forum discussion. “The Idiotic Stand” might be more apt name for the site. This kind of mentality is exactly the same as that of many of the Islamic terrorists who do genuinely want to destroy us. The dumb-ass head-butting of two cement-craniumed ideologies only leads to disaster. Just because we happen to be stronger militarily does not make our violent and unforgivable indignation justified, moral, righteous, or correct. We do not get to claim the high road just because we are America and they are Islamic extrimists.

What gets me, too, is that people like those who comment on The Patriotic Stand don’t like our current government, either. They want us to be more belligerent, more violent, more protectionist, and more close-minded, more hateful of anything seen as different. Scary.

The simplistic reaction is to destroy. That tactic has not created a kind, peaceful, or pleasant world. I say this time and again, but as a powerful nation whose foundation is supposed to be based on freedom for mankind, we must take a higher road and not stoop to the crass bloodshed of revenge. The Patriotic Stand would call that a wussy stance. But then, they would. They can only insult that which is more civilized.

So I may not be a proud American, but I am American enough to wish that we could be a nation that others can look up to without hating us. Maybe that’s idealistic, but then, so is the dream of a close-bordered, supremely religious nation bristling with weapons of harm.

The Onion has been pretty poorly written lately. Since I subscribed to their RSS feed a little while ago, I’ve been reading it more often. (These days, if it doesn’t have an RSS feed, I forget it even exists. Boo to me!) I’m not sure what’s going on over there Onion-side, but they’ve let the quality of just about everything drop. The writing is worse, the proof-reading is horrible, and it’s simply less clever and often more stupid.

Thankfully, The Onion has recently been running articles from the past, a different year’s collection every day. The biggest thing that has jumped at me reading these old articles is how much we, meaning smart, non-Bush likers, can say “we told you so.” The Onion immediately nailed Bush for exactly what he was. A perfect example is an article featured today, from January 2001, before the September 11th attacks. There’s also this fantastic little piece of prescience from December 2000

Back in the day, these articles’ humor was all the more clever because they contained a twinge of truth that we could recognize from what we knew of Bush at the time. Today, of course, they are still cleverly written and humorous, but considering how correct they turned out to be, they have a new edge of “oh my God” to them. Yes, they are now a bit depressing!

That, my friends, is how brilliant The Onion is. Was. Hopefully still is. Once this special run of old articles is done, I hope The Onion can get back to its higher-quality roots. I’ll still be reading.

Now, back to my long silence. I’m rehearsing for my two plays and all that jazz, so I’m a bit distracted. Thank God for work time!

The NSA only has our public safety at heart! I think they should be allowed to do whatever they want to keep me safe from harm. They can even water board my friends and family, even me, if it will help win the War on Terror.®

Reading what some might call an excellent article at Ars Technica, I am outraged that anyone would deny that our government or the telco companies have our best interests at heart! And certainly once a full-fledged domestic warrantless wiretapping program is in place, I feel confident that it will only ever be used for good and never misused in any way, even in the future!

I think all the people who are stirring up the sand on this should be thrown in jail indefinitely without charges being filed or any access to lawyers, because these people are just as bad as the terrorists! They are traitors!

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Some items of interest today, in case you have nothing else to read.

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ITEM: Filipino Table Etiquette Punished at Local School

What’s so sad is that this poor kid was being punished for nothing at all. Reminds me of a song they played us in my elementary school, an “alternative learning institution.” We had no grades, no classrooms, set our own schedules… It was awesome. They played us a song one day, probably when I was in 4th or 5th grade, called “Flowers are Red” by Harry Chapin (lyrics, iTunes). It was a protest song against conformity and cruelty, and it has stuck with me since that day. That it was also a brilliant little bit of propaganda against all the other schools in our district didn’t hit me until much, much later on.

Amongst the annoying Google search results linking to those annoying “FIND YOUR CLASSMATES AND SAVE MONEY ON YOUR MORTGAGE!!!!!!!” sites, I discovered that Open Living School is still around. I thought it had been closed long ago! It sounds a bit different now, but the basic ideas are the same. The page at Jeffco is here. Read the history: I attended the school in Edgewater and when it moved to Tanglewood in 1978.

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ITEM: Air Passengers Storm First-Class in Mutiny

I tell you, who hasn’twanted to do this kind of thing at one time or another? That 14 of the people were arrested when the flight landed shows a complete abuse of power by the crew. Ha ha ha! I know, that sounds ridiculous, but really, I know how testy and obnoxious flight attendants can get when passengers do any sort of free thinking.

I cheer these people. Imagine if the passengers on United 93 had been asked to please kindly remain in their seats while they get reamed to death.

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ITEM: Mickey D’s Makeover

Don’t forget to also watch the so-called slide show. This kind of thing is so long over-due. Really, it is. When I sit there eating a double cheese burger without mustard, feeling the grease ooze from the pores on my face nearly instantaneously, I would much rather be sitting in a cozy, loungy nook than on a fiberglass slab. I wish Ronald and the rest the best of luck on this makeover. We all know how well it worked for Denny’s.

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ITEM: The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density

I suppose any successful business’ pattern of growth would look similar, but because it’s Wal-Mart, I’ll enjoy calling it “nasty, viral, disgusting, and horrifying!” The video is part of some kind of paper, but I did not read it. Yet. Maybe after I finish my 900-page collection of Ray Bradbury short stories. Hmm. The viral pattern here is, in fact, reminiscent of one of his stories. Fahrenheit 468: the temperature at which a Wal-Mart catches fire.

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ITEM: Would Bush Rather Be Fishing?

I have been light on the Bush-hating recently. To be honest, it’s because I have been avoiding NPR news, which I normally listen to twice a day (that’d be on my ride into work, and on my ride outta work). Too much nastiness is going on, and it was getting me stressed. Bet hell, we’re all strong people here, sissy liberals with spines of jelly! We can take it! Read this little ol’ column and see if Bush ain’t still worth gritting your teeth at.

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THINGY: Lawsuit in the Sky with Diamonds

Late-breaking addition! An O! News exclusive! Did John beat Jobs at the vision thing? While Apple Computer won the lawsuit against them by Apple Corps (appeals not withstanding), perhaps this evidence demonstrates otherwise. If only there really were an Eyes Closed News channel. I’d watch that over E! or O! or WHATEVER!

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Thanks to Jimmy for some of these links!

Remember a couple of years ago when I got into that e-mail exchange with the woman who hated gay people?  Well, after reading a news story about another ridiculous anti-gay effort, I decided to write to the head of the Capitol Resource “Institute”. (I use that “Institute” term loosely.

Below is the text of my letter. I’ll let you know if she responds!
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Dear Ms. England,

I read your comments about the “gays in textbooks” issue in California, and while I certainly applaud you for standing up for your ideals and beliefs.

I hope you will agree that other Americans deserve to be able to do the same.

As a gay man, I can assure you of this: I have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in “promoting” my “agenda” to anyone, least of all children. Given how much animosity, hostility and humiliation we must endure from some sectors of society who believe we are “faulty,” I would not want anyone to “be gay” — unless, of course, that is how they were born.

I do realize that the idea that people are born gay is a difficult concept for people to understand. Just as I cannot conceive of being left-handed or being tall (something I sadly am not) or being Chinese or being a woman, it’s certainly equally difficult for someone not gay to understand that being gay is part of our genetic makeup.

But being unable to understand or empathize with an individual is very different from being able to respect and value that person.  I cannot imagine for a moment that you would want to instill values like hate, prejudice, hostility and intolerance in any child.  I hope you agree with me that the values we want to instill in children are acceptance, harmony, understanding and respect.  Why would you want to promote an agenda (and, yes, it appears that you definitely have one of those, just as you accuse “us” of having) of fear and ignorance, which can only lead to unhappiness and anger?

Can you imagine what the world be like if Michelangelo, Cole Porter, Oscar Wilde, Dag Hammarskjold, Socrates, Walt Whitman, Alexander the Great, T.E. Lawrence and Tchaikovsky had not been in it?  All of them were gay or bisexual, and just as YOUR most significant personal relationships have impacted your own accomplishments, theirs were informed and influenced by who they were as people.

Such important figures in California as Harvey Milk and Randy Shilts have impacted history far beyond this state and influenced the course of events around the world — and their very existence is the definition of modern history.  To not name them as gay, particularly in light of their accomplishments, would be like not naming you as a woman in a textbook in which your name appears.

I urge you to continue looking into your own heart to realize that California and the United States are founded upon the contributions of people from all walks of life, not just straight white people.

I absolutely PROMISE you that, unless s/he already is, not one child will “turn gay” because s/he has learned about a famous gay person; if it were that easy, I would have become a physician by learning about Dr. Jonas Salk, and I’m afraid I never even made it past basic chemistry.

My best to you,

John Singh

Looks like Wal-Mart has actually done something sensical and has taken a stand against the vile American Family Association. In a story reported today, Wal-Mart says it will sell and continue to sell the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain on DVD.

Bravo.

By its actions and words, the now-less-than-entirely-reprehensible Wal-Mart has said that Brokeback is a movie with an audience, and a movie they want to sell. (Perhaps they realize how many men will be coming in to Wal-Mart to surrpetitiously look at the package and maybe even buy the movie to secretly watch at home before they go back to their redneck lives in which they hide their true nature from their bigoted communities?)

In the Reuters story, a heinously misguided AFA spokesman says, “It wasn’t even a blockbuster movie, so if Wal-Mart isn’t trying to push an agenda, why would they put it at the front door?”

Perhaps the AFA should take a harsher stance against the other non-blockbusters that Wal-Mart routinely sells and promotes. You know the movies I mean—stuff like The Dukes of Hazzard, which grossed only $80 million in the U.S. (less than Brokeback, despite its Confederate flags); Because of Winn-Dixie ($42 million worldwide); Doom ($43 million worldwide); and Ice Princess ($33 million globally).

On the other hand, if the AFA is continuing to decry the mere presence of Brokeback Mountain on Wal-Mart shelves because of some Biblical objection to homosexuality, you have to wonder why they don’t object to the presence of such movies as Saw and Saw II, Sin City, and Red Eye, since the Ten Commandments lists “Thou shalt not kill” as one of the most important commandments from God. To date, I haven’t seen the notes from God requesting a Commadnment rewrite that “Thou shalt not have sex with men if you are a man.”

It continues to amaze me that the AFA uses obscure Scripture to object to homosexuality so vehemently, but rarely (if ever) makes mention of the legion of its own members who daily break one of God’s supreme Commandments (you think not a one of them ever says, “Oh, G-d”?).

AFA members will never read this, but if one of them should happen upon it, ask yourself: Shouldn’t you be upholding God’s laws before worrying about possible allusions to potentially “God-offending” behavior elsewhere in the Bible?

 

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There are a few interesting tidbits out there today regarding our nasty government and their nasty spying and manipulation.

First, the bad news. A Washington Post article describes how scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been having reports censored and interviews delayed when the topic of climate change is involved. Very interesting.

Now, some good news. According to Ars Technica, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit against AT&T for its role in Bush’s NSA covert surveillance program.

I do NOT have time to be writing this. I have to be at work at 6:00am tomorrow, I still have a sinus infection I caught over a week ago, and I am dead tired. But this simply has got me riled up. Not in a fuming way, but in a resigned way, as much of the political news these days has dulled the rage.

Mallard Fillmore is an unfunny comic added to the sadly anemic and unfunny pages of the Los Angeles Times a few years back during some strange effort to balance the left-leaning stance of the funny pages with a conservative voice. There’s a good reason there were no conservative comics in the Times a decade ago (unless you count the barely disguised rantings of The Wizard of Id): conservatives tend to not be very funny. Granted, the liberal La Cucaracha is sadly, painfully unfunny as well, but on the whole, the more liberal comics have a better track record of being funny where the conservative comics just aren’t. I think liberals are more funny because they can laugh at themselves and others. Conservatives can not laugh at themselves, only at others.

But that’s another subject I’ve been meaning to write about for eons now.

No, today I’m disgusted by this. Here are the last three days of Mallard, reprinted here without permission:

Mallard Fillmore Loves Assholes

See? Not funny. Not even a smidgen. But again, that’s not why I’m writing this.

When I saw the first one on Monday, I had a feeling this Tom Coburn guy, though taking what sounded through Mallard author Bruce Tinsley’s eyes like an admirable stance on less government spending, was going to be a meany in other matters, just like everyone else Bruce and his staunch lot love.

After today’s comic, I had to check. So I did a little reading.

This is from Tom’s official Senate webpage: “Dr. Coburn’s priorities in the Senate include reducing wasteful spending, balancing the budget, improving health care access and affordability, protecting the sanctity of all human life including the unborn and representing Oklahoma values.”

So okay, not a surprise that Tom is a pro-lifer. But then I came upon a Salon article from before Tom was elected, back in September of 2004. Here’s an early snippet from the article:

For Coburn, the imminent danger facing America is apparently not terrorism but the “gay agenda.” His thumping about this menace within contributed to the pressure that led to Bush’s endorsement of a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. At a Republican meeting this spring, Coburn warned: “The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power … That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That’s a gay agenda.”

Oh, my, but it gets better.

In 1997, Coburn proposed a bill that would have ended anonymous testing for HIV/AIDS and required reporting the names of those who tested positive to public health authorities, among other draconian measures—including withholding Medicaid funding from states that failed to comply.

This from the guy President El Busho appointed as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS.

But there’s more. Remember, Bruce thinks Tom is for less governmental spending:

In 1996, after voting for provisions of an agriculture bill that aided Oklahoma farmers, Coburn told the Wall Street Journal that it made him sick for days afterward and that Washington was “a dirty place.” In 1997, he boasted, “I don’t ask for anything from Appropriations.” The year after that, he complained to USA Today that he was underpaid as a congressman: “You have to be able to earn more money to attract good people.”

Uh huh. How about this?

As far right as Coburn is on fiscal issues, he is even farther right on social issues. “I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life,” he told the Associated Press in July.

What a sweet fellow. Here are more juicy bites:

A year later, Coburn gained a moment of national attention when he condemned NBC for televising the Academy Award-winning movie on the Holocaust “Schindler’s List.” According to Coburn, the film encouraged “irresponsible sexual behavior,” and he called for outrage against the network from “parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere.” He added, “I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program.”

In 1999, after the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, Coburn opposed President Clinton’s proposal for making adults liable if they allow their children to buy guns and harm others. “If I wanted to buy a bazooka to use in a very restricted way, to do something, I ought to be able to do that,” said Coburn.

I have to wonder if someone like Bruce is so very, very concerned with smaller taxes and government that he ignores Tom’s more hateful posturing. I mean, really, is it more desirable for our government to spend less than it is for it to treat all those in our country fairly and equally? Just looking at Tom alone, you have to wonder how someone like this can espouse the concept of as little government interference as possible in one area—bazooka Tom—but increased government interference in several others—gays, mothers who desire abortion, or even gay mothers who desire abortion.

It’s the same argument we’ve all made a thousand times in the last five years, but it can not be repeated enough.

What I forgot to mention about the Salon article is that Tom himself was once charged with an illegal Medicaid claim. Read the story to find out more, because to me, it’s the least interesting part of the article.

So I’m a ranting liberal faggot, huh? Of course I would not see eye-to-eye with Tom. Of course I would only site one source and milk it for all its worth. Well, an article on Fox 23’s site (an Oklahoma station, as far as I can tell) points out some of the good ideas Tom has, such as emphasizing prevention to help tackle medical costs and importing drugs from Canada. These are typically not conservative concepts. But the story shows more of Tom’s crackpot side than his good side. Regarding abortion, he says, “Under the mores we live under today, my lineage wouldn’t exist.” You see, it appears that his great-grandmother was raped by a territorial sheriff. Had she been allowed to get an abortion—and it seems Tom’s assuming she would have made that CHOICE—Tom would not exist today. Shucks.

Yeah, better she should have suffered against her will so we could have this kind and thoughtful leader in office.

How about this quote from the same article? “The oath that people in Congress take isn’t to bring back pork to their state. The oath they take is to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.” Unless, of course, you’re gay or a woman. “I’m going to check with what I know is right and what I think the Constitution says and does it fit with the moral code that I follow.” Well, I guess the Constitution loses out to Tom’s moral code. Thank the Lord!

But what about this nice gesture? On Tom’s own site, it says he introduced legislation updating the Ryan White CAR Act, which funds care for those with HIV and AIDS. Nancy Pelosi liked it. That’s good.

Also from Tom’s site, an interesting speech relating wise government spending to Katrina relief. Some smart comments, though he does over-use the conservative watch words “children and grandchildren.” There go my heart strings. He also said, “We have an oath to uphold the Constitution, but we have a higher oath, and that higher oath is to keep the obligations that our forefathers put forward to create the best, brightest, the country providing the most opportunity of any in the world.” Unless you’re gay or a woman wanting an abortion.

I could go on. Tom, as a “maverick” Republican, surely does have some good ideas. Many Republicans do. But how genuinely generous and caring is someone going to be if they can also suggest that abortion doctors be executed, that gays are the cause of society’s supposedly lax mores, and that gun rights are more important than reproductive ones? Not very.

I agree that individuals need to take more responsibility for their actions and lives. But gun-wielding pro-lifers who believe in killing others to protect people who aren’t even born yet do not fall into that category for me. Bruce Tinsley and all the rest are nauseating in their selective inclusion of those who deserve the freedoms they so highly covet. Freedom for all or freedom for none. There can not be an in-between. Sorry, fellas!

Thanks to Darren for this one:

W’s nephew, Pierce Bush, was on the Today show defending his uncle’s stand on the Dubai Ports deal. See the video here, or click on Darren’s link.

All I can say: “Guh-DUH guh-DUH guh-DUHHHHHH!”