Fucking Clown-Shoes.

Alabama.
Alaska.
Arizona.
Arkansas.
California.
Colorado.
Connecticut.
Delaware.
Florida.
Georgia.
Hawaii - Three pages worth of Google results for "hawaii school obama speech concern" didn't turn up any local articles regarding that state's schools censoring the President's speech; only the standard AP article about it.
Idaho.
Illinois.
Indiana.
Iowa.
Kansas.
Kentucky.
Louisiana.
Maine.
Maryland.
Massachusetts. (A letter to the Editor.)
Michigan.
Minnesota.

You know, I'm tired for now. But any of you who are shocked or baffled that this is going on in your area.... it's everywhere.

OMG SOSHALIZT!

Here's an excellent little 4-minute video explaining why scary government-run care is a GOOD thing.



So those of you who have private insurance and think a public option is a BAD thing can rest assured that your insurance companies are spending your money just the way you want them to: lobbying Congress to oppose universal health coverage.

You selfish fucks.

Virginian Goober-natorial

So the Washington Post has an article about Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell today. It would seem that Mr. McDonnell believed all kinds of wacky, wacky things back in 1989 when he wrote his Master's thesis.

As if I would vote for him anyhow, since I disagree with him on all kinds of stuff, but this cements it, you know?

Kennedy

Can we please stop it with the trope, "The Media gave Ted Kennedy a pass when it came to Chappaquiddick." They did? Really? Gave him a pass? Can anyone over the age of 30 think "Ted Kennedy" without also getting a glimmer of "Mary Jo Kopechne?" No. No, you can't. So while the JUSTICE system may have failed Mary Jo, and the Kennedys sure as shit failed Mary Jo, I really don't think anyone can accuse the media of failing her, nor of giving Kennedy a pass regarding her.

Descent is the highest form of patriotic.

(See explanation of title here.)

Here's the big difference, you deliberately clueless motherfuckers, between Bush fils's Town Hall Meetings and Obama's Town Hall Meetings:

Bush banned people and cancelled meetings which were not to his hand-picked specifications and engaged in all kinds of other media fuckery.

Obama and other pols out there on the Town Hall circuit are actually getting the opportunity to hear - and thus publicly air - other sides of the issues. Even when they're batshit fucking insane.

Lock-step? Um, no.

You know, I keep seeing folks on the Right talking about folks on the Left being in lock-step with Obama just like they always were for Bush and Cheney and whomever else was in favor at any given time. "You people all think he's the Messiah!" they say. "You all parrot whatever message the Left-Wing Mainstream (wait, what?) Media tells you to say!"

One of the best Venn Diagrams I've seen was one which looked like this only, you know, circles:

((People who call Obama "The Messiah")) ((People who voted for Obama))

You'll note that the circles do NOT intersect.

Anyhow, from Crooks and Liars:

Are the Obama people really that dumb? They were "surprised," "caught off guard" by the massive dirtstorm unleashed on healthcare reform?

These are the geniuses of 11-dimensional chess? Puhleeze. I think they've started to believe their own press. Obama the Healer, Obama the Post-Racial Lincoln. What a bunch of damned dopes.

Yeah, we Lefties are sure a bunch of lock-step "Yes" men, aren't we?

Watch this space.

In a couple of weeks - or within a couple of weeks, depending - I'm going to try to post at least once a day for a solid month. I'm going to shit my lackadaisical, poorly-researched opinions at all of you fans (how many people read this - 2? 3?) once a day for a solid month. Even if all I can come up with is, "[Politician's Name] is a weenie!" I'll friggin' well post.

Just need a starting date and I'm on it like vomit.

War! HURGH! What is it good for?

Why, War is Peace, of course.

"...the only way this war can be "won" is if most of the Palestinians in Gaza--and the so-called "West Bank," too, where HAMAS has a lot of support--are decimated..."

Heard the same shit on Limbaugh a few days ago. I sometimes nap, and when I nap I turn on talk radio, and because of where I live "Talk Radio" = "Foxy Fox and the Foxes, Fox, Inc." Anyhow, he was talking about how there's never going to be peace between Israel and Hamas, because no one is ever going to be "allowed" to win, and the only way for there to be peace in a conflict is if one side crushes the other.

Another nutbag recently reposted a link to an old post of his which says that "... makes this a very modern war, which won’t end until one side or the other is burned, occupied, and crying uncle. Fact is, the Palestinians can’t do that to the Israelis. Another fact is, the Israelis won’t (but could) do it to the Palestinians."

Is it really part of Conservative ideology that one side is RIGHT and the other is WRONG, and that peace cannot reign until they have crushed their enemies, seen them driven before them, and heard the lamentation of the women? Because that seems awfully a) cavalier, b) inhumane and c) cynical to me.

Yes, Barack Obama is inexperienced.

Here's the thing.

I am forced to agree completely with anyone who says that John McCain has more experience in government than Barack Obama. Eh, "forced" is the wrong word; there's no shame in being younger than one's opponent, you know?

I think Barack Obama knows far more about actually LIVING in the country he wants to govern than John McCain does. McCain has had power and prestige going for him pretty much since birth (except for the 5 1/2 years he yeah yeah I know, who doesn't?), and it feels to me as though Obama has grown up in the same country I have. I'll cop to a wholly emotional argument. As far as politics go, I think emotion holds at least as much force as logic.

I agree that Barack Obama is inexperienced with foreign policy. The thing is, I think Biden brings enormous foreign policy experience to the ticket. I also think that Obama is bright enough to bring in people who will give him good intelligence. I think that Palin brings absolutely NOTHING to McCain's ticket. The people who have said that she has executive experience, etc... well, for one thing, I've read about how she USED her position.* For another, while she has held positions of power, her apparent complete lack of intellectual curiosity is unacceptable. It's not that she isn't very knowledgeable; it's that she doesn't CARE that she's not knowledgeable. She only seems interested in the things people tell her she's supposed to be interested in. This is no big deal if you're a Project Manager in Generic Corporation, but I think it's downright dangerous in the Vice President of the COUNTRY.

Mother Fuck. I started this four hours ago and then had to do a bunch of TOTALLY UNIMPORTANT (read: real world) things and now I've lost both my train of thought AND my eloquence. So assuming anyone still reads this thing, maybe I'll grace you with more later.


*And no, I don't believe everything I read on liberal blogs, because the Right has no monopoly on stupidity.

Gov't vs Sports

You know, it really is infuriating how our federal legislature is spending more time getting to the bottom of doping in sports than it is getting to the bottom of corruption in the Executive branch.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of the blogs/sites/diaries/whatevers I read don't so much provide a lot of content as they do commentary ON content. I was thinking about what a pain it seems to be to make posts which are long enough to bother with when I realized that 3/4 of what's on OTHER people's pages is a bunch of C&P with commentary inserted. So now when something in an article racks me off, maybe I'll just C&P it into Wordpad, insert my pithy witticisms, and pretend I'm a professional blargher too.

The GOP is GOB.

That's "Going Out of Business."

The most entertaining part of the political process for me right now is watching conservative commentators shit themselves with hatred of John McCain. Guys, Huckabee's out and Romney scares too many people. Pretty sure you're stuck with McCain. I know that a shit-flavored popsicle is horrible, but isn't it better than no popsicle at all?

Global Climate Change

Some of you may have heard from one news source or another that in Britain, a high court ruled that "An Inconvenient Truth," when screened as part of a lesson plan in secondary schools, must include certain caveats.

Some of YOU may have subsequently learned that the caveats are reasonable, and that the high court ALSO ruled that the film was, on the whole, scientifically sound.

Far less of you, though, have heard that the gentleman who brought the suit was financed by British companies who fund studies specifically to refute global warming. Like the American studies funded by people at Exxon/Mobil.

I think a lot of people hear "British high court" and think, "Ah ha! This is not an American or Middle-Eastern body, so it must not have anything to do with energy politics!" BZZT. You lose. Energy politics are more global than you think.

John Edwards

I heard John Edwards on the Jim Lehrer News Hour a couple of nights ago and I really liked pretty much everything he had to say. Weird. Then again, I only heard the last 15 minutes or so.

Pelosi sucks.

TSIA

Jon Stewart

So let me get this straight:
Jon Stewart is a comedian. Jon Stewart is not a journalist. Jon Stewart will be the first one to agree that he is a comedian on a comedy channel, and NOT a journalist on a news channel.
But because some people get their news from The Daily Show (while understanding that it is comedy and not news), Jon Stewart should be holding himself and his staff to some sort of journalistic standard.

*smashes head repeatedly against wall, becomes more brain-damaged, somehow feels smarter*

War on Drugs

When's the last time you heard of a bunch of kids killing a bunch of other kids over.... beer money?

My Love/Hate Relationship

Chris Matthews is often a complete douchebag, but every so often he makes me have to adore him just the tiniest, dirtiest, nastiest little bit. Watch the clip here.

"Good question, Dick."

Aww, poor toasty politicians.

You know, Congress, the Legislative branch is not an elementary school classroom. I understand that most of you have all the emotional maturity of Flick* in "A Christmas Story," but it really, really isn't. The President isn't your teacher. He's not in authority over y'all - or at least, no more than Y'ALL are over HIM.

In elementary school, the teacher says, "Finish your classwork or you don't get to go out for recess," and the kids whine and groan and finish... because what kid wants to miss recess?

In the LEGISLATURE, the President says, "Pass these bills or you can't leave," and the kids whine and groan and... DO THEIR FUCKING JOBS BY VETTING EVERYTHING AND DEMANDING THEIR CONSTITUTIONALLY EQUAL SAY IN WHAT GETS PASSED. What they do NOT do is say "fuck it" and hammer everything through so they can start their vacations on time.

You know WHY? Because they're supposedly FUCKING GROWNUPS, that's why.

* Kid's far more honest than y'all ... he went on to do porn. You know what you're getting with porn, by god.

Texas legislature sucks.

Yeah, ok, there's no reason to be LOUD and OBNOXIOUS about being atheist because in this day and age there's no discrimination, right? RIGHT?

"Personally, I felt like the Texas pledge had a big old hole in it, and it occurred to me, 'You know what? We need to fix that,' " said Riddle, R-Tomball. "Our Texas pledge is perfectly OK like it is with the exception of acknowledging that just as we are one nation under God, we are one state under God as well."

By law, students who object to saying the pledge or making the reference to God can bring a written note from home excusing them from participating.

And I'm sure none of those kids will be made to feel the slightest bit of stigma from other kids who think it's just dandy that in two-thousand-fucking-seven their state government put acknowledgement - and dominion - of their particular cotton-candy sky-fairy in the fucking state Pledge of Allegiance.

FUCKERS.

Well, the Senate voted on the FISA extension yesterday, and they fucking folded, and we know all that, but I went to the Senate site and even though it says

Results of roll call votes are published here approximately an hour after they have been announced.

...there is nothing there about the vote yet. I want to know if I have to write any Strongly Worded Letters to my reps. I'm pretty sure I have to send at least one...ARGH.