Even Christian Conservatives are starting to denounce Ann Coulter. And they've got a PowerPoint to prove it!
DeLay’s Mugshot
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone so happy to be a criminal.
(Actually, that big grin was probably the smartest thing he's done in awhile. I'm sure the GOP will be breathing a collective sigh of relief that it's not the dour grimace we're used to seeing in mugshots, which would have been just too juicy a gift to the Dems with campaign ad season so close.)
UPDATE: The Smoking Gun now has a larger photo here. Still not very mugshotty, though.
Wingnuttery on Parade
So there’s this article. It’s called The End of Courtship. It’s written by someone who, after reading this work, I can only describe as a total jackass. It’s posted on a website noted as being part of the Focus on the Family empire of insanity. Since said empire’s king is one of our favorites, Dr. James Dobson, I thought I’d pass it on for your perusal.
It’s quite amazing to see the authentic and unvarnished agenda—you know, controlling women—of the pro-life movement laid out in such splendiferous simplicity. Wow.
When you’re finished, you might want to check out the thoroughly amusing smackdowns issued by s.z. and LeMew.
Whoa
There was a lot of shocking shit about Brownie's incompetence and nonchalance to come out of the debacle that was the aftermath of Katrina, but this just about beats all. Truly, truly unbelievable.
(Hat tip to Kathy at Birmingham Blues.]
Eugh
This may be the worst headline I've ever seen.
(Good info in the post, which is why I'm really linking.)
This Rant is, Like, Totally Gay
In the comments thread to the post below on the reintroduction of the Federal Marriage Amendment, Praxxus asks:
Did you see the recent study (done at Tufts University, I think) that found, to paraphrase, "kids reared by queers fare the same as their peers?"I did see that study, and I can’t even believe it’s news; I’ve got friends with gay parents and gay friends who are parents, and their families are exactly as mundane as my own for exactly the same reasons—no more troubled or fabulous than any other collection of people who eat turkey together twice a year.
To quote: "The vast consensus of all the studies shows that children of same-sex parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual in every way," (Ellen C. Perrin, MD) tells WebMD. "In some ways children of same-sex parents actually may have advantages over other family structures."
So really, why shouldn't same-sex couples be allowed to marry? What's left to be debunked here?
Which is why a question like “What’s left to be debunked here?” makes me so sad. The lengths to which the LGBT community has to go to "prove" their fitness for marriage or parenting or anything else is beyond ludicrous; who one loves / dates / fucks has no bearing on whether one deserves equal rights (as I noted in comments, if I believed that it did, I'd be petitioning to have Laura Bush committed to a criminal asylum)—nor does the conference of those rights require, from any other portion of the population, a demonstrable baseline competency of the practice of those rights.
A straight person can, in fact, be a verifiable failure at both marriage and parenting, and yet go on to remarry and have more kids without so much as a sneer from even the most conservative quarters. Their great saint, Ronald Reagan, was married twice and had children in both marriages, yet I’ve never heard his history cited in the repeated denunciations of That Which Undermines the Sanctity of Marriage. Nor should it be, but neither should it be considered anything but un-American to hold to a different standard a select segment of Americans.
It’s truly pathetic that we have to keep pointing to these studies—See? Gays can be good parents after all!—as reason to extend the same rights that are automatically afforded to any pair of nutwits with matched babymaking parts, even if they don’t have the money to properly support a child, or a healthy environment in which to raise a child, or any one of a number of other factors that, if we’re going to preclude people from parenting, ought to make the list of prerequisites.
I’m sick to the teeth of indulging people who want some kind of evidence, some reason, to extend equal rights to gays. Fuck them for thinking some people have to earn rights the rest of us get for free, and fuck them even more for pretending that all the “proof” in the world is going to make a damn bit of difference. Hiding bigotry, hatred, and fear behind a mask that we treat as reasonable each time we indulge their requests for “proof” won’t work anymore. They can shove their condescending bullshit straight up their asses—or whatever orifice they deem acceptable.
BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Media whore Bill “Falafel Master” O’Reilly, who’s been moaning all over the MSM about how he wants to retire and how mean the MSM is to him, appeared on yet another MSM mainstay this morning, The Today Show, to register his complaints with how tough his life is.
Via Think Progress, who note:
This image has not been altered. It’s not clear whether the caption is an error or a sudden decision by NBC to raise their standards of accuracy.Chuckle snort guffaw.
Rumor Warning
Via Fix, we find some juicy rumors at One Good Move. Ooh, how I was excited, except then I got to this sentence:
Powell recounted to [McCain] that he had traveled on air force one with Bush and Cheney, and brought to their attention a classified memorandum about the issue of whether there was indeed a transaction inolving [sic] Niger and yellow cake uranium.Wait a second, thought I. Cheney wasn’t on that flight. It was Ari Fleischer.
Turns out I’m not the only one who’s noticed that these rumors, supplied in an email sent to a bunch of liberal bloggers, some of whom posted it, are probably bunk. Billmon’s got a good post here.
(Not in any way a condemnation of anyone who posted this info, btw. I might easily have done the same, were it not for remembering some esoteric detail of a flight to Africa. This is just a heads-up for anyone who might have read this info elsewhere.)
Hate-Peddlers
The president’s poll numbers are down while inflation is up, Iraq remains a quagmire, the former House Majority Leader is under indictment, the Senate Majority Leader is under investigation by the SEC, a special investigator may be issuing indictments on some of the most senior members of the administration any day now, a spy’s been found in Cheney’s office, the White House has been found guilty of propagandizing by the GAO, lobbyists with close ties to many GOP congresscritters are in deep shit, and now, to top it all of, their base is falling apart as conservatives revolt because of Miers’ nomination.
So, it’s time to peddle some hate!
Gary from American Regression alerted me that the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to (as described by their site) examine the Constitutional Amendment on Marriage today. As Gary notes:
That's right kids...To[day] in the US Senate, in light of a some scary shit on the horizon for the Supreme Court, they are going to start the discussion of passing a Federal Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America to protect the nation from gay marriage.Nor am I. There is absolutely, categorically no reason for this amendment. It is morally indefensible to deny the rights of marriage (or civil unions, or whatever name by which you want to call them—but some guarantee of the same rights conferred to those who can legally marry) based on sexual preference. Not even religious conservatives, who don’t passionately pursue laws withholding tax, estate planning, government, employment, medical, death, family, housing, or consumer benefits, nor other assorted legal benefits and protections, from adulterers, or “sinners” of any other stripe, can defend the singling out of the LGBT community for such punitive legislation. It is totally irrational, totally unfounded, and totally hateful.
I hate to say it, but hatred sells in this country! This tactic more than worked for them in the past! They want to use this ploy to protect their own hides in the 2006 election cycle. But irrespective of that, they are trying to define us again as non-citizens!
Well, I wasn't going to stand for that shit the first time, and I sure as hell will not stand idly by and let them try again!
Take action now against this disgusting display of homobigotry and sorry excuse by the GOP to attempt to rally their base with hate and fear. Tell your Senator to stop wasting time on the Federal Marriage Amendment via the Human Rights Campaign (they couldn’t make it easier!), and sign the Million for Marriage petition to show your support for equality for all Americans.
Welcome Pam…to Pandagon!
My original bloggrrl, Pam of the superb Pam’s House Blend is the newest addition to Pandagon. First of all, congratulations to Pam, and secondly, congratulations to Pandagon and Pandagoners, who will hopefully enjoy Pam’s sardonic wit, insightful commentary, and forays into The Dark Side for Actual Freeper Quotes as much as we all do. Go get ’em, grrl!
Question of the Day: Geeks Speak
So, at this point, my own geekitude is fairly well established, with various admissions about bookishness, video game fandom, encyclopedic knowledge of movie trivia, fantasy, sci-fi, and kung fu film devotion, and various other telltale signs of geekishness, not to mention having revealed yet its further depths in comments threads both here and at Mannion’s place recently.
And I’m happily not the only one, as the comments thread associated with D’s Batman Begins post, among many others in the past, will attest.
So here’s the Question of the Day for all my fellow geeks…what’s your ultimate geek indulgence? Or, if you dare, share a story of true geekitude with the rest of us. To get that ball rolling, I’ll share the first ever posted picture of Shakespeare’s Sister, circa 1982, sound asleep with my Princess Leia braided buns still intact.
I can assure you that my Darth Vader head carrying case with all my action figures was tucked snugly under the bed, where I put it for safekeeping every night after a vicious battle between the Rebels and the Empire.
The Bugman's New Routine
Shaker Deborah pointed me to this story at MSNBC, with the note: “I wants me some televised perp walk!” You know, I wants me some of that, too.
A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.All routine. Just another former House Majority Leader being arrested, getting fingerprinted, and having his mug shot taken. Nothing to see here. Move along. It’s all routine, people!
Bail was initially set at $10,000 as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and money laundering charges. Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County jail for booking.
The warrant was “a matter of routine and bond will be posted,” DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said.
Shakers, set your browers to The Smoking Gun. Full steam ahead.
Wurmser
No, not that guy:
That’s Harold Wormser. I’m referring to David Wurmser, who’s the second Cheney aid to go turncoat and cooperate with Fitzgerald. John at Blogenlust has more on the Wurmser and his worminess.
It’s amazing watching the administration squirm as the people they hired because of their willingness to do anything, no matter how corrupt, now do anything to save their own asses, too. There’s just no battle too small to run from, is there, chickenhawks?
Puzzling
In his post Elephants in the Press Room, The Heretik references a story by Jim Miklaszewski on Miller’s perplexing security clearance which contains the following:
While embedded reporters are often granted access to classified briefings with the proviso that the information can only be used as background and cannot be reported, Pentagon officials say no military commander or officer has the individual authority to grant a security clearance.I find this statement, specifically the first part of it, blasé though it may appear, rather alarming. I understand the concept of background, and that reporters, embedded or otherwise, are routinely given off-the-record background information that may help with contextualization but cannot be directly reported. But it seems rather shocking that reporters are “often” granted access to classified information, for any reason. Considering there was recently a spy uncovered working in Cheney’s office, who was also a marine, it also seems quite foolish.
I also understand that much classified information isn’t necessarily all that controversial, but is simply classified as a matter of course, but particularly when the information is useful to embedded reporters, it seems there is an increased likelihood of that information being classified for good cause. So what’s worth the risk of disseminating such information to reporters?
It stinks of an attempt to coerce reporters that the administration’s version of events is the truth. “Lookee here—we’ve got something special for you to see. Just don’t print it, okay?” Is it any wonder that the media seems to parrot the administration’s positions, when the background they get is classified documentation cherry-picked by the administration?
It’s this kind of nonsense, combined with the detestable plague of “anonymous” sources who seek anonymity only so they may propagandize without detection, that has gotten us into the predicament in which we now find ourselves—led into a war based on lies and run by a group of criminals who will do anything to stay in power, where the bottom line is “Do whatever it takes—just don’t get caught.” Transparency has been replaced with the semblance of mysterious cloak-and-daggerism, but it’s hardly Deep Throat; the unreferenced deep background and anonymous sources are just a cover for printing what the administration wants printed, without direct attribution, so everyone—source and reporter alike—can maintain a guise of objectivity.
And meanwhile, we’re left to try to find the truth buried somewhere in the jigsaw puzzle that passes for journalism.
Dare to Discipline: Teaching Respect and Responsibility to Children
As promised, this installment of Dr. Dobson’s handy guidebook for parents will focus on Chapter One: Teaching Respect and Responsibility to Children. This chapter begins with a sentence that pretty much sets the tone for the whole book—“Nature has generously equipped most animals with a fear of things that could be harmful to them.”—and gets even more interesting from there. Now you tell me: How could you not be fond for a book on child-rearing that starts out like this?
Nature has generously equipped most animals with a fear of things that could be harmful to them. Their survival depends on recognition of a particular danger in time to avoid it. But good old mother nature did not protect the frog quite so well; she overlooked a serious flaw in his early warning system that sometimes proves fatal. If a frog is placed in a pan of warm water under which the heat is being increased very gradually, he will typically show no inclination to escape… He will just sit there, contentedly peering over the edge of the pan while the steam curls ominously around his nostrils…Or, they used to, anyway, back when this book was written. Now, not so much.
Now obviously, this is a book about parents and children, not frogs. But human beings have some of the same perceptual inadequacies as their little green friends. We quickly become excited about sudden dangers that confront us. War, disease epidemics, earthquakes, and hurricanes bring instant mobilization.
Upon reading this passage, I was thinking that Dr. Dobson is right! There are lots of kids who find themselves in the boiling waters of parental oppression and intolerance, as the steam of bigotry and willful ignorance curls around their nostrils, oblivious to the fact that they could—and should—escape, the poor little froggies, sitting in the sad pan of their fate. I was surprised to see that Dr. Dobson was encouraging kids to pay attention to their surroundings and hop on out of the deathtrap of dogma before it was too late.
But that’s not really what he was saying.
However, if a threatening problem arises very slowly, perhaps over a decade or two, we often allow ourselves to “boil” in happy ignorance. This blindness to gradual disasters is best illustrated by the way we have ignored the turmoil that is spreading systematically through the younger generation of Americans. We have passively accepted a slowly deteriorating “youth scene” without uttering a croak of protest… Without being unnecessarily pessimistic, it is accurate to say that the traditional concept of morality is dead among the majority of high school students today.Wow. That’s a pretty strong charge. Dr. Dobson says he draws this conclusion from having spoken to high school teachers. Let’s say he spent a year or two researching and writing the book, which was published in 1970. Who were these heinous high schoolers, bereft of any shreds of morality, plaguing America in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s?
Well, who am I to argue with a doctor, anyway? Ribbit.
Lord of Delusion
Creepy ickster and professional magic man David Copperfield has told the German magazine Galore that (for his next trick!) he plans to impregnate a girl on stage without even touching her. I'm at a loss to imagine how this might be accomplished, although considering Claudia Schiffer had sex with this weirdoid, he clearly possesses some kind of fiendish machismo the rest of us don't understand. Even more curious is how he will find a woman willing to be the magician's assistant for this rather disturbing sleight of...err...hand.
[T]he illusionist rejected the theory that there were only seven different kinds of magic tricks.I can only hope he has a deep reserve of sarcasm into which he was tapping for this nauseating announcement.
He said: "Bull s**t! There is a great deal of new territory to conquer. In my next show I'm going to make a girl pregnant on stage."
He added: "Naturally it will be without sex. Everyone will be happy about it, but I'm not telling you any more."
The magician is currently on tour in Germany with his show, An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion.
LOL!
This is Res
See Res run.
See Res bark.
See Res snark.
Dear Reader, let me introduce you to my little friend. No, not that little friend! This is Straw Man. He also goes by the name “Old School Activist”. He “harkens” [bwahahahaha!] back to the 60’s and 70’s, when he damaged his mind with Reefer Madness and lots of acid. His ideas are ideologically pure, but have no application in the world beyond his herbal tea cup, and could never make any difference at the policy level.Read the whole thing. It’s a beautiful take-down of what Res aptly describes in his comments as a “turbo-crappy essay” by Kos, an essay in which is manifest all the arrogance and flat-out disdain for the liberal tradition that many of us hold dear and wonder why it’s become a bartering chip for so many self-identified “progressives” who would toss it away like so much moldy bread if only we can just win.
He has the unique characteristic of being completely two-dimensional, because he’s a cardboard cutout. He was educated in an economy that did not yet value “proactiveness” (because bullshit pseudo-words like “proactiveness” would not be invented until the 1980’s), so he earns his keep in his commune by spinning macramé plant-hangers out of his own armpit-hair. Some Moonie told him to do this circa 1967, and he just kept on doing it, because he lacks self-initiative can only knows how to do what he’s told…
If you’d had a voucher, you’d know that problem-solving was invented in 1991, right before the invention of “inconcievable” tools that allowed New School Activist to instantaneously know everything about anything at all times and in any place, causing him to evolve beyond crude flesh to become a being of pure light and energy. This blinding overbeing is composed of pure thought, and has no need for your pitiful “leaders” or “media” to tell him what’s “right”. Nor has he any need for your primitive “spelling”. His consciousness transverses the universe at the speed of thought, for he has uploaded himself to t3h 1nt3rn3tz!!1!
Yesterday, I linked to this article by David Sirota on Partisan War Syndrome, and if you haven’t read it yet, do. There are people who care about principle, and not marginalizing issues of importance to large swaths of the liberal base, and who see, quite clearly, that it is the continued contempt for the expression of a firm liberal ideology that is what loses us elections, not the other way around.
Bush and the Turd Blossom
So—surprise, surprise—in spite of claims to the contrary, Bush has allegedly known about Rove’s role in the Plame leak since 2003:
An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.Rove’s life is miserable, huh? Really? Because as far as I can tell, he’s still got his cushy, well-paid job, and the administration has been consistently lying to protect him from criminal prosecution. Until Rove’s either in jail where he belongs or out on his ass and worried about whether he’s going to lose his house(s), I don’t really think his life is all that bad.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has already circled the wagons around Rove, whose departure would be a grievous blow to an already shell-shocked White House staff and a President in deep political trouble.In other words, in spite of the fact that Rove committed treason, outing a covert CIA operative working on weapons proliferation in the Middle East while we’re engaged in a war in Iraq for which the primary justification was WMDs, Bush remains more loyal to him than to the country, nevermind than to Valerie Plame, who did nothing but serve her country honorably. Bush has looked her and the rest of the nation in the face and said, “Fuck you. Karl turned my pathetic ass into the leader of the free world. What have you useless fucks done for me lately?”
Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."
"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."
A proud day to be an American, no?
Hissteria
My great aunt and uncle once had a rat crawl up through their toilet, which was horrifying enough, but this story certainly blows that one out of the water (closet):
A 10ft boa constrictor has been captured after popping up in the loos of a posh block of flats in Manchester.
The snake had terrified tenants since it was first spotted in a toilet last week, reports the Mirror.Yeesh. I’m not the least bit scared of snakes, but I’m fairly certain if I saw a 10-foot boa constrictor crawling toward me from the toilet, I would be severely freaked out.
It's believed to have been living in sewage pipes for three months after being abandoned by an evicted tenant three months ago.
People had to put bricks on their loo seats to stop the snake, which has been named Keith, slipping into their bathrooms.
Firemen were called in to try to track him down in the pipework but a brave resident of the West Didsbury flats finally trapped him in a bucket.
Keith is now in the care of the RSPCA.
Spokesman Jimmy Ratcliff, an expert on exotic animals, said: "They can swim very well and can hold their breath for more than 20 minutes - though what is out of the ordinary is the size of this snake.
"It has probably been eating rats in the sewer, where it appears to have been living quite happily."
And that said, it’s still not as freaky as this dude.
