From last night's election coverage.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
From last night's election coverage.
Fred Phelps Blames NIU Shootings on Gays
Not really a surprise, is it? Pretty much every horrible thing that happens in the U.S. is the fault of us gays. Well, technically, it's God's fault, but He's smiting folks as "[His] revenge against homosexuals." Wevs, same result.
And though I won't link to it, if you read the Westboro Cult's latest handout, you'll note:
God hates Illinois and NIU. Moreover, you adopted a course of persecution against WBC. Expect worse & more from God.It's bad enough you've let homos into your geology classes, but worse yet, you've picked on poor old Phelps and family.
And yes, they will protest the funerals.
(Hat tip to Lena.)
Quote of the Day
"It is, you may think, a very unattractive defense. He did not know she was dead until intercourse was concluded. Even though you may think his conduct is disgusting, he allowed his lust to get the better of him."—London barrister Anthony Glass, defending his client Mark Dixie, 37, against murder charges in the stabbing death of 18-year-old Sally Anne Bowman. The defense's case is that Dixie did not murder Bowman; he just stumbled across her dying or possibly already dead body laying in a pool of blood in the middle of the road and "took advantage of the situation."
Lauredhel has more, including some commentary on the photos of Bowman accompanying the various articles about this horrendous situation.
The Dog Returns
Just last November, Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman was launching racist tirades about his son's girlfriend, A&E was suspending his show, and Dr. Phil was taking to Larry King's guest chair to try to make everyone GIT REAL about racism.
But now The Dog is back, bitchez!
"Dog the Bounty Hunter" will return to A&E after it was yanked when Dog Chapman's little racist recording was leaked. TMZ reports that A&E has confirmed that production is starting right away in Hawaii.That was the fastest racism cure ever! Dog got over his virulent racism without rehab—and even without finding Jesus.
I guess the Lord is the one badass outlaw that Dog the Bounty Hunter can't track down!
Asked whether reinstating the show after three months possibly sends the wrong message about consequences, A&E president Arthur P. Moneybritches III commented: "Consequences schmonsequences! That big dumb hick makes us money hand over fist!"
The market has spoken—and it declares racism A-OK! Wheeeeeeee!
HD DVD is History
I've intentionally held off on purchasing any high definition DVD players until this little format war played itself out, which is now the case:
Toshiba's decision to no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders will mean consumers can start feeling more confident about buying the victorious rival technology — a Blu-ray disc player. [...]For anyone that bought the HD DVD units, Toshiba claims that they will still provide support for these products. A nice gesture, maybe, but it still sucks since the movie folks will now start to churn everything out on Blu-ray while you would be stuck with an obsolete player.
In making the announcement, Toshiba Corp. President Atsutoshi Nishida said he wanted to avoid confusion among consumers.
Are there any Shakers out there who already invested in either of these technologies?
Update: OK I'm a total reprehensible dork for not seeing Petulant's take on this very item. Sue me.
Torturey former AtGen picks up thirty large in St. Louis
Apparently Alberto Gonzales has come down a bit on his speaking fees; he used to charge thirty-five thousand dollars. It pays to shop for bargains. Washington University gets its cut-rate ex-torture memo writer today, a guest of the College Republicans. Here's a look at what he'll likely say, based on his previous engagement at the University of Florida:
The crowd numbered "about 800," so that's about $50 a head to hear essential haikus like this: "No one is perfect. What is important is that we identify our mistakes and correct them." Kind of funny coming from a man who failed miserably to "identify" and "correct" mistakes at the Justice Department and who provoked laughter from Senate Judiciary Committee members when he tried to explain away his role in the prosecutor purge. His speech could have been condensed as: "Do as I say, not as [I] do."
Some more accurate and compelling lessons from Gonzales's tenure: Don't put partisanship ahead of professionalism, don't blame your subordinates when things go wrong, don't waste everyone's time on Capitol Hill dodging questions, don't forget the attorney general works for the people and not the president, don't forget to gather accurate facts when you are drafting clemency memos.
The Student Union needn't worry about filling the house, as the campus is buzzing. Protestors plan to make the erstwhile attorney general feel at home with some orange jumpsuited love.
Sounds like a great time will be had by all!
(Cross-posted.)In Heaven, Everything Is Fine
Very Normal Jaded Cynicism
A few people have emailed me this story which reports that a teenage girl who was told by police to stop calling 911 was subsequently killed by her boyfriend, who then killed himself:
[17-year-old Natasha Hall]'s mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about [19-year-old Clay Kufner] and informed police.The police paperwork shows that police had been called nine times since November, and two police reports had been filed; on both occasions, Kufner was charged with battery. Police defend themselves by saying the family declined to press charges on other occasions and failed to file a restraining order against Kufner—a decision the family explains by saying Kufner "appeared to be getting his life in order and they did not want to ruin the life of someone once special to their daughter." I'm not going to pretend I understand that decision at all; it certainly doesn't sound like "everyone" but police noticed Kufner was a ticking time bomb, though. It does sound like it was a terribly complicated situation involving a deeply disturbed young man and a young woman who wanted to be with him despite his evident problems, a situation which can leave families and friends in the awful position of seeking an injunction on a young woman's behalf only to effectively drive her closer toward the man from whom they seek to separate her.
In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they threatened her. "The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I'm going to arrest you both," Sherry Hall said. "So, the day she died, she knew she couldn't talk to police. So, she handled it herself."
Michele Karpowicz said everyone noticed the warning signs before the homicide -- except police. "I was going crazy," Hall's best friend said. "He was psycho, jealous and abusive."
That the family did not seek an order of protection, or for what reasons, is neither here nor there, however, especially if the police could not have been counted on to enforce it.
Curiously, I can't seem to find a denial from the police that Natasha Hall was told to stop calling. And the deputy police chief's categorization of what was happening between Hall and Kufner is very troubling:
Records show police were at the home nine times in the last three months. They show Kufner hit the girl and posted nude pictures of her on the Internet, but the family also refused to press charges against the boy in some cases and Channel 9 learned they never got an injunction or restraining order against him.Physical abuse and publicly posting nude pictures without consent are not "very normal relationship problems." Getting aggravated with one another for leaving dirty socks on the floor or forgetting to pay a bill are "very normal relationship problems." That a deputy police chief doesn't appear to know the difference is disheartening, to say the least.
"Basically we have a very young couple who are experiencing, at least up until last Friday evening, just very normal relationship problems," [Chief Deputy Randel Henderson] said.
It is conceivable that Deputy Henderson's assessment was not indicative of an attitude shared throughout the force, or that, if it was, that attitude did not undermine the force's ability to do its job. It is conceivable that the police did everything in their power to help Natasha Hall, and it still wasn't enough.
But, failing any denial that she was told to fuck off, and in light of Deputy Henderson's casual dismissal of abuse as a "very normal relationship problem," I'm going to have to say I'm skeptical that everything possible to avoid this tragedy was done, that every i was dotted and every t crossed. I'm just a cynic that way.
Teenz Korner: Is Feminism Even Necessary Anymore?
Good morning, Shakers! This is Shakesville's Senior Shakesville Teen Analyst and 18-year-old Man-Boy of Leisure Kenny Blogginz. You may remember me from such other Shakesville hits as Dem Younginz and Young 'Publicans. I'm the one on the streets, asking all the hard-hitting questions, while you sit back and read from the comfort of your own home. Shame on you.
Anygay, in this Left-Winged caricature of America, run by Activist Judges and the Gay Mafia, the question that keeps slapping me on the chin is this: Is feminism really necessary anymore? I decided to throw on my Chuck Taylor Sneaker Shoes, pull on my Abercrombie Hoodie Sweater, turn up some Linkin Park jams on my iPod Portable MP3 player, and hit the Streets of America, to find out what My Fellow Teen Americans thought about this outdated, obsolete ideology.
Women aren't paid as much as men, you say? Maybe all you Islezbofascists should tell that to Monica Kciurzky, a 17-year-old employee of Wal-Mart, who has been assured by her manager on numerous occasions that she earns the same hourly wage as her male coworkers.
KenBlogz: Monica!! WHAAAZUUUUUUUUP? I'm Kenny Blogginz. I'm writing an important article about feminism for a blog that you've never heard of. Why don't you just tell me a little bit about yourself?
MonMothma: Hi, Kenny. My name is Monica Kciurzky. I'm 17 years old, and I've worked here at Wal-Mart for the past 2 years. I started out disguised as a Senior Greeter, and was eventually promoted to my current position, Vice Stockroom Watercooler Technician Laureate.
KenBlogz: I'm just going to hold my nose and plunge into the icy waters of my first question. Do you consider yourself a feminist?
MonMothma: Aren't feminists those ladies who burn their bras, don't shave their legs/armpits/whole bodies, smell like poop, and are all mad because they don't have boyfriends?
KenBlogz: Baaaaasically.
MonMothma: Then…NO.
KenBlogz: A common complaint from "feminists" is that women only make 70 cents to every dollar that men make. Your thoughts?
MonMothma: My mom said that one time, and I was like "Whatever!" So I asked my Assistant Vice Manager about it, and he informed me that that was just a load of superstitious pseudo-science. He even showed me a pie chart that proved that I earn the same amount as my boyfriend Andy Anderson.
KenBlogz: Ok, then. What about feminists' crackpot theories on how women are portrayed so negatively in the media that it oftentimes seems like a joke?
MonMothma: I take offense to that. My aunt was one of the firefighters that helped to rescue people during the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil. She was featured in Fox News's piece, "Surprisingly, Their Tits Didn't Get In The Way." She was treated as nothing but a hero. They even devoted fifteen minutes of the segment to the fact that my aunt's vagina didn't get infected when she was forced to work in standing water. In fact, because of her Inferior Musculature, she was able to squeeze into areas that the Men simply couldn't fit into.
KenBlogz: Wow, it sounds like your aunt really knew her place.
MonMothma: She did, she did.
In order to avoid being labeled a "sexist" by the Militant TamponBurners, I next interviewed Monica's boyfriend, fellow Wal-Mart employee Andy Anderson.
KenBlogz: Andy, I'm doing an article about feminism. Where do you stand on the issue of Women's Rights? Do they deserve them?
Adm.Akbar: Absolutely. It's just that in this day and age, they already share all the same privileges as men. It's like, give it up already!
KenBlogz: I know! It's like they're just looking for excuses to be pissed off all the time!
Adm.Akbar: You said it, bro! They need to redirect their anger into a valid issue, like The War on Christmas.
KenBlogz: You're a real American Prophet. Wanna meet me at Depressed Dad's [a local tavern] around 8?
Adm.Akbar: Absolutely! Hang on a second... MONICA! I'M NOT TAKING YOU TO THE MOVIES TONIGHT.
MonMothma: WHY?
Adm.Akbar: JESUS CHRIST YOU'RE SMOTHERING ME!
Even though the diagnosis was clear, I was sure that my readers would want a second opinion. I headed down to X-Treme GameUrz: 4 Teenz & Tweenz to meet a local oddball who professes to be a feminist. And get this: it's a guy!!! I put the Paddy Wagon on Speed Dial, and entered the Lioness's Den. The cashier directed me to the hazy back of the establishment, to a young man named Phylliam Diller.
KenBlogz: Good evening, Phylliam. I'm Kenny Blogginz and I'm squeezing into my Typing Tites to write an article about feminism. Just tell me a little tidbit about yourself.
PhylDil: Hello, Kenny. My name is Phylliam Diller, and I'm a feminist.
KenBlogz: Why!?!?
PhylDil: I just feel that women are treated very unfairly in our society.
KenBlogz: Our society!? Whose society would you prefer, sir—Mao Tse Dong's Communist China!?
PhylDil: No, they're pretty sexist, too.
KenBlogz: Just tell me: What drove you to such depths of insanity?
PhylDil: Actually, my older sister used to be a waitress, and she was harassed so severely by her male customers that it really opened my eyes to all the gender inequality in America.
KenBlogz: Well, I'm sorry that Red-Blooded American Men sometimes have needs, after working at their grueling jobs all day. And I'm sorry that you hate hard working American Men. And our Lord.
PhylDil: I didn't even say that!
KenBlogz: You call yourself a feminist...I've got another -ist ending word for you...and that's COMMUNIST! Shame on you, sir, shame. I guess you can't be a feminist unless you also hate America. Ronald Reagan is weeping red white and blue tears in the deepest bowels of hell right now.
PhylDil: Please don't say I hate America.
KenBlogz: Too late, Osama.
As I was leaving X-Treme GameUrz, I bumped into Phylliam's girlfriend...let's call her Valerie Solanas. I convinced her to sit down with me for an interview.
KenBlogz: Hi Valerie, I'm Kenny Blogginz. I just got done interviewing your boyfriend about feminism. He seemed to have some pretty dangerous ideas. Are you a feminist?
ValSol: Yes, I am.
KenBlogz: I'm going to have to stop you right there. It looks to me like you're wearing women's makeup. And I can't smell you.
ValSol: And...?
KenBlogz: Nothing. Please tell me what happened to you as a child that caused you to even consider being a feminist?
ValSol: Nothing happened to me as a child! I'm a feminist because I believe that women should have the same rights that men have.
KenBlogz: But...that's not what feminism is about at all! It's about killing off all men, save for a select few breeding studs...and overthrowing the government and "money system"... and abolishing "male medicine" so that women can live forever...
ValSol: What in the flying fuck are you talking about?
KenBlogz: I just don't know anymore.
ValSol: Feminism is about women gaining the same rights that men have! It's about gender equality—and opening up a spectrum of definitions of both femininity AND masculinity. Feminism benefits men, too!
KenBlogz: It's not about establishing societies of women who would, among other things, cut up men?
ValSol: Of course not! I'd never cut anything up!
KenBlogz: It's not about forcibly directing every Red-Blooded American Man into elaborate castration machines?
ValSol: No! Absolutely not!
KenBlogz: It's not about a radical agenda to destroy the Y chromosome and rename the planet Lesbos?
ValSol: What? No.
KenBlogz: It's not about telepathically auditing out body thetans via regression therapy in which their extermination by Xenu with hydrogen bombs is re-experienced?
ValSol: No, that's Scientology.
KenBlogz: It's not about eroding arbitrary male privilege and empowering women so that they can do things like choose who they have sex with, get an education, control their own reproduction, and have orgasms?
ValSol: Well, yes—it is about that. But those are good things, Kenny.
KenBlogz: What a fool I've been! I mean, when you get raised in a small town...well, you only hear the American Farmer's side of certain issues and I...I'm sorry.
ValSol: It's ok, Kenny.
KenBlogz: [crying hysterically] I thought I was an American Hero...but I ended up being an American ZERO!!! WHYYYYY!!???
ValSol: Shh, it's all right; you're an American Hero.
KenBlogz: R-really?
ValSol: Of course. It's never too late to become a feminist!
KenBlogz: Yay!
ValSol: You wanna come get some ice cream with me and Phylliam?
KenBlogz: Would I!? [yes]
So there it is, Shakers. I began this article thinking that a woman could never be president, because while on "The Rag" her manicured fingers would always hover scant inches above the enormous red "Nuke Teh Globez" button in the direct center of the desk in the Oval Office. Now I recognize my follies. Through the kindness and compassion of Valerie Solanas, Paragon of Understanding and Acceptance, I have come to realize that, like it or not, women are people too.
Fidel Quits
Following up on Jeff's post below, here's my take from Miami on the news from Havana:
From the New York Times:
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.Cue the dancing on Calle Ocho.
Castro, 81, said in a statement to the country that he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on Feb. 24.
"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.
The National Assembly or legislature is expected to nominate his brother and designated successor Raul Castro, 76, as president in place of Castro, who has not appeared in public for almost 19 months after being stricken by an undisclosed illness.
There is no denying that this will be huge news here in Miami today, and a lot of people will be hauling out their plans, if not their suitcases, to get ready for a trip back to Havana. But on a practical level, this changes nothing. The embargo is still in place and can't be lifted with the wave of a pen on an executive order because it's been made into law. And other than making it official, Fidel Castro's statement basically makes permanent what has been in place since July 2006 when he "temporarily" relinquished power to his brother Raul due to illness.
In the short term, today's news will mean a lot of excited talk and tearful hopes that at long last there might be change. A change to what, though, is hard to tell. A lot of people dream of a "free Cuba," meaning free of Castro since the history of the nation has never truly been an exercise in Jeffersonian democracy. The Castro regime has been just one more in a long series of oligarchies. The difference, though, is that it has been intensely personal, and the hatred of Castro himself has colored our dealings with Cuba. As long as there's a Castro in the game, be it Fidel, Raul (or the mysterious Ramon who is allegedly the body-double standing in for Fidel since, according to one of my colleagues, Fidel died in September 2006), the news from Havana this morning won't change anything.
More's the pity. I agree wholeheartedly with the most ardent anti-Castroites that he is an evil old coot and a thug of the first order, but the way we as a nation have treated the situation has only enabled Castro to stay in power for nearly fifty years. Every time we enact some law that tightens the embargo or restricts travel by relatives here in the States, it only makes it easier for the Cuban government to point and blame it on the Yanquis for making things worse. In terms of oppression and denial of freedom, Cuba is in the same league with China, Vietnam, and a host of other countries that we not only do business with but welcome their leaders to our country to sign lucrative deals for the buying and selling of watches, bicycles, and child-labor-produced sportswear. If we had bombarded Cuba with McDonald's and NAPA Auto Parts instead of John Birch Society rhetoric and Radio Marti, chances are that Fidel Castro's revolution would have been marginalized by a stampede of Nikes and iPods. As it is, we have left the natural flow of exporting capitalism to Cuba to Canada, the EU, and the rest of the Americas, leaving our influence fifty years to leeward. It's a lot easier to effect a change in a country when you're standing in the middle of it counting your money rather than standing outside the fence and screaming at them.
(The Miami Herald is all over the story. As of this writing, English language version of Granma, the official Cuban party newspaper, is silent.)
(Cross-posted.)
Question of the Day
What are the best and worst band names of all time?
In the "best" category are My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, The Flaming Lips, Joy Division, and Crowded House. And I have to give special mention to The Killers, who realized that by the year 2000, there had never been a friggin' band named The Killers before. Absolute favorite status goes, natch, to The Smiths, for its beautiful simplicity.
In the "worst" category are Enuff Z'Nuff, INXS, Oingo Boingo, and Talking Heads (which is a function of how crap a name it is proportional to how freaking awesome the band is).
Mr. Shakes' answers at first blush: Manic Street Preachers (best) and Boyz II Men (worst). Ha.
Crush of the Day
Indiana State Representative Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, who has "refused to hear Senate Joint Resolution 7, legislation that included a ban on same-sex marriage, effectively killing the measure as it is required to pass in two consecutive legislatures to get on the ballot." Yay!
Thank you for doing your job, Rep. Pelath!
Because of the "two consecutive legislatures" rule, this delays the whole thing for a couple of years at least, which means we'll be that much closer to the impending national imperative to legalize same-sex marriage anyway. Rock.
Someone Remind Me What Year It Is
This would be unbelievable if it weren't just so gosh darn believable:
Kansas activities officials are investigating a religious school's refusal to let a female referee call a boys' high school basketball game.Which are basically that women are second-class citizens who must defer always to the menfolk. Thoroughly modern, Millie.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.
The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.
In good news, her fellow referees are standing by her.
Fred Shockey, who was getting ready to leave the gym after officiating two junior high games, said he was told there had been an emergency and was asked to stay and officiate two more games.Right on.
"When I found out what the emergency was, I said there was no way I was going to work those games," said Shockey, who spent 12 years in the Army and became a ref about three years ago. "I have been led by some of the finest women this nation has to offer, and there was no way I was going to go along with that."
[Thanks to Shaker KarateMonkey for passing that along.]
Kristol Kipling
Following up on Paul's post below, the hits just keep on coming...
William Kristol has to reach back to Rudyard Kipling to justify his defense of the telecom industry's collaboration with the Bush administration to violate the law.
He bases this on the arrogance of power:
Having controlled the executive branch for 28 of the last 40 years, Republicans tend to think of themselves as the governing party — with some of the arrogance and narrowness that implies, but also with a sense of real-world responsibility. Many Democrats, on the other hand, no long [sic] even try to imagine what action and responsibility are like. They do, however, enjoy the support of many refined people who snigger at the sometimes inept and ungraceful ways of the Republicans.In other words, he's saying that because the GOP has been in the White House, they actually know how to run things. Notice he doesn't say anything at all about the results or how their latest example has basically driven the country off the cliff. No, according to him, staying power, not competence or accountability, is the true mark of good governing. By that logic, Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe are the greatest rulers in the world.
The sheer irony of Mr. Kristol saying that only the Republicans know what "action and responsibility are like" borders on the surreal. Just ask the folks in New Orleans how they feel about the Bush administration's action and responsibility. And when they take "action," it's launching a war against a country that never attacked us, trashing the place, and then hiring a bunch of crony mercenaries to run the place and make a pile of money off it. Their "actions" in terms of protecting the rights and freedoms of the citizens of their own country take second place to protecting the bottom line of AT&T and Verizon, and their "responsibility" has been to do nothing but scream and carry on about terrorists every time they don't get their way. That's not "inept and ungraceful"; it's criminally negligent.
But I suppose when you are down to defending your position by citing a 19th Century imperialist author who glorified institutional racism to the point that Simon Legree would have blushed, you've pretty much stretched it to the limit.
(Cross-posted.)
Periodically Speaking
Yes, for the record, "I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal" is indeed a sexist dog whistle.
Once again, I'll note that the same person who is almost universally regarded as an orator of unrivaled competence, who is heralded as a linguistic maestro gifted with the talent for launching a political movement with the mere power of his well-chosen words, cannot believably claim to not have had the slightest inclination that "periodically feeling down" might be construed as having a double meaning as applied to a female opponent.
Mr. Shakes, who was an early Obama supporter, but whose support has faded in the wake of some of his less-than inspiring rhetorical flourishes, just laughed out loud when I read him the quote and asked if he thought it was sexist. "Obama knows every connotation of everything he says and what it's going to mean to his audience," said Mr. Shakes. "Of course that was sexist. From the barroom to the boardroom, men constantly make 'jokes' just like that about women being nuts when they're on their periods. To believe that Obama did not have a sexist intent is to believe that he is completely unaware of male culture."
Specifically corporate male culture. It's no coincidence Mr. Shakes mentioned boardrooms.
"Periodically feeling down" is the textbook asshole male corporate wanker put-down, the kind of demeaning snipe used incessantly against female colleagues which they can't report without looking like hysterics. Any woman who's found herself in a corporate setting in which there are men who make those little digs at her constantly, suppressing their snide little grins as they throw her under the bus, can spot these dog whistles at a thousand yards, and all of the little snipes Obama uses are of the same tenor—tea parties, on edge, likeable enough, claws come out… He is a classic boardroom bully.
Or he is not at all the firm commander of the English language we imagine, and has stupidly managed to repeatedly stumble into using turns of phrase that sound remarkably like the comments routinely used by sexist bullies in corporate settings after somehow having avoided any awareness of such comments' existence for the entirety of his career.
Paging William of Ockham.
I could be completely off-base here, but my impression is that the precise tenor of this stuff may be lost even on feminists and feminist allies who haven't spent a lot of time immersed in the corporate sphere, where this shit is indigenous and endemic. I'm not suggesting that sexism isn't ubiquitous in academia and elsewhere, too—but perhaps it manifests in a slightly different way. In any case, the idea that calling out this comment as sexist somehow "undermines attempts to point out the extensive and genuine sexist attacks that Clinton has actually received" is something with which I vehemently disagree. This is a genuine sexist attack—one that countless working women must endure day in and day out, perhaps the most pervasive kind of sexist attack there is, and the most pernicious, because so few are prepared and/or willing to see it for what it is.
"Periodically feeling down" makes my teeth absolutely grind. It's the perfectly constructed smear, the tree that falls in the forest and makes no noise—no one really notices, and everyone crushed beneath its weight cannot be heard.
Howls of Derisive Laughter: Kristol Edition
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! *snort* BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA!
I... I just can't... it's too much... ha ha ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!
Kristol said it was “unbelievable” for lawmakers to question the judgment of administration officials. Instead, he argued, Congress should just give them the “benefit of the doubt”:
I think it’s kind of unbelievable, frankly. It’s a judgment call. We don’t know. Not to give the administration the benefit of the doubt when they have career people, military people, intelligence people like Mike McConnell and Mike Hayden, and the attorney general, Mike Mukasey — I mean, these are not political hacks. These are not ideological people.
When they say this is important for our national security, the Congress — to block this legislation I find pretty amazing.
The same people that have done so well in the past! Ha ha ha ha ha! Not political hacks! HAHAHAHAHAHA*gasp*HAHAHA!!! Someone call up those "Last Comic Standing" people, because this competition is OVAH!
