The Right Mindset

From an article about sex and politics, this quote is a great example of the backwards way in which Republicans think.

"In a free nation we must have moral restraint," says Chris Long, executive director of the Christian Coalition in Ohio. "One of our founding fathers, John Adams, put it this way: 'Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'

First of all, I love it when somebody quotes one founding father and expects that back up their argument. Nothing like ignoring all of those other founding fathers who would disagree with them. But I guess this flimsy line of reasoning is to be expected from a blatant hypocrite.

"In a free nation we must have moral restraint." Think about that line for a second. The words "free" and "restraint" are opposites; one cannot coexist with the other. One cannot be free and restrained at the same time, it's simply not possible.

Yet in the world of your typical Republican, this line makes perfect sense.

That's the mindset we're combating. Scary, isn't it?

Loaded Mouth is all about the issues

And the people who have issues. For example...

A man sucked the toes or kissed the feet of two women and a girl in surprise assaults, police said.

A 12-year-old told police that she was reading at the library when James M. Kilpatrick, 21, of Greensburg, started kissing her feet, then offered her 22-year-old sister a dollar to let him do the same to her.

At a nearby park, one woman told police she dozed off while sunbathing and woke up to find Kilpatrick sucking her toes. Another woman had her toes sucked when she stopped to read a memorial plaque in the park, police said.

Nice shoes, wanna suck?

Too much flesh for Allawi

This is old news by now, but it's too big for us third shifters not to mention: It appears that Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi is a cold blooded killer. Not that the US has ever invaded a country and placed a ruthless murderer in power before... [cough]NgoDinhDiem[cough]

This being old news, I'll try to add whatever new details I can to the story. Holden, guest blogging at Atrios, has recognized the media's silence on this story. He commented on it at 3:00pm yesterday, and it's 3:09am right now. Almost 12 hours later, I imagine that's one news cycle, the only place where this story has picked up steam in the blogosphere. That's great, but it's certainly not the mainstream media, where this story doesn't have the legs it very well should have.

If I do a search on "Allawi" at Google News, there is no mention of this story on the first page of results. If I search for "Allawi murder", the story is the third item listed. One would figured a story saying Allawi is guilty of murder would be the first thing mentioned... If such a story were not being buried.

Hmm, maybe Google News just isn't powerful enough. Lets try Lexis-Nexis.

The alleged killings by Allawi happened at Al-Amariyah security centre. Searching Lexis for any references to "Al-Amariyah" in the past week brings up a measly 4 articles. Maybe that search is too detail oriented, but I can't think of a better one. I could query "Allawi shot", "Allawi cold blood", or "Allawi pistol", but I'll receive too many results that have no relevance to the story being buried. In fact, when I sort through the results, only 4-6 on the first pages are links to this story.

So, just to recap, we have a credible story accusing the new Iraqi Prime Minister of being a cold blooded killer, and it's been almost completely ignored by the US and international press. Amazing. Why do these things happen?

Like they are the bastions of credibility

It's funny that thr right has been beating on Ambassador Joe Wilson's credibility all week when they still support a president who told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Osama bin Laden.

It's gotten to the point for me where I'm not looking at any of their gripes critically anymore. It just goes in one ear and right out the other. And I hate to say that, because one is supposed to look at everything criticially. But when the right starts up with the "credibility" talk and they won't admit that Bush has lost credibility since he has constantly lied to the country, then I don't think the right has a right to lecture me on what is and isn't credible. And I'm just not listening.

And they call Michael Moore a propagandist...

The sad thing is that, to the right, this makes sense. To them, it isn't revisionists history at all.

Moronics 101

Here's one "argument" Republicans serve up about the Iraq War that really irks me: "If a Democrat started this war, they would support it." They use this line in an attempt to paint the left as a bunch of hypocrites.

While it's always fun to ignore reality, the fact is that a Democrat didn't start this war. Why? Because most Democrats aren't crazy enough to start a war like this. Therefore opposition from the left to this war is not inherently hypocritical because a Democrat would not have started this war in the first place.

Fucking duh.

Wanted: Sledgehammers

For a good cause.

A veterans group, with the blessing of ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, said it will take his Ten Commandments monument on a national "God Bless America" tour.

The 5,280-pound granite monument, out of public view for nearly a year after Moore lost a court fight over its display, will be hauled to rallies for three months by the group American Veterans Standing for God and Country.

"This is not a church movement, and this is not a military movement," Jim Cabaniss, president of the Houston-based group, said Friday. "This is the veterans that have fought for our country taking a stand for what is good for our children and grandchildren."

"This is not a church movement," I love that part. It's so not a "church movement" to transport a massive, 5280 pound granite monument of the ten commandments around the country and call it the "God Bless America" tour. I'm sure the church has nothing to do with that!

Jesus Fucking Christ...

The definitive audio version of a train wreck

On Wednesday, I posted a homoerotic photo of Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes himeself, Pat Boone. Some of you may be wondering why there exists a photo of a shirtless Boone wearing a leather vest and flexing for the camera. Well, once upon a time in 1997, Boone released a rather forgettable "metal" album. I remember it not because I'm a closet Boone fan, but because I worked in the music section of a department store when Boone released this pile of crap. And when you're forced to hold stacks of something this ridiculous in your hands, you're scarred for life.

I never dared to listen to a song off this album... Until today, thanks to the power of MP3s.

Somebody. Hold. Me.

I'm scared.

I've listened to a lot of pathetic music in my lifetime... William Shatner, William Hung, Britney Spears, Vanilla Ice, Wang Chung... And this, this... There are no words to describe this wretched crap.

I'm not supposed to share out MP3s, but I have to leave this one up over the weekend. I'm forcing the rest of you to feel my pain.

Pat Boone covers Metallica's "Enter Sandman." (4.6m)

[shudder]

Paging Dr. Chef, Dr. Swedish Chef...

Chop off ze penis, bork bork bork! Chop chop chop!

A Romanian surgeon who underwent a fit of madness while operating on a man's testicles proceeded to amputate his penis and cut it into three pieces.

Speaking of testicles (always wanted to use that in a conversation), that sound you hear is millions of testicles rescinding back into their owners body after reading this story.

Duuuuuuur!

Headline: "Study Links Kids' Obesity to Watching TV." They need a fucking study to tell us this? How many thousands of dollars were poured into this study, anyway? Just imagine, they could have given all that money to me and I could have told them the same thing, albeit with a few colorful adjectives.

Hic... Hic...

Lately, I haven't given the news as much attention as I should, so instead of playing the same CD again for the umpteenth time, I turned on my local NPR station. They play the BBC World Service overnight.

I just listened to a story about hiccups. Yes, hiccups. It must have gone on for 15 minutes. In one ear, right out the other...

With hard hitting stories like this and NPR's shift to the right, I'm reminded of why I haven't paid that much attention to the news lately.

Where did that Less Than Jake CD go...

...NPR just had another story about the Lakers.  First Shaq goes, the Kobe stays.  What's next?  Stay tuned tomorrow if you still give a shit!

Sparing no love for the anarchists

With headers like "Trail of global mayhem" and, "The words on Web that incite hatred," this NY Daily News article takes the cake on selling fear about anarchists protesting the GOP convention. At mass protests in the recent past, anachists were there and the media never printed articles which equated their actions as being an extreme risk to public safety. But now that we live in the age of terrorism, anachists have suddenly caused "global mayhem." They.. dun dun dun.. "incite hatred"!

Right. Whatever.

Beautiful

FUH2.com has a huge archive of people giving Hummers the finger.

Moron Parade

One thing that has always surprised me about the Republicans perversive stranglehold on talk radio is just how all-encompassing it is. For example, take my home state, Rhode Island. In the 2000 Presidential election, 60% for us voted for Gore, 6% for Nader. Out of the 10 candidates for President we had on our ballots, I believe 6 were socialists. Bush hardly got 33% of the vote in this state. Our General Assmebly is dominated by Democrats, and the only reason we don't have a Democratic Governor is because Myrth York beat Sheldon Whitehouse in the primary, only to lose her third consecutive attempt at the Governor's office. Nobody wants her to be Governor, but Whitehouse would have won in the general election had he gotten there. Our two members of the House are Democrats, and we have one Republican Senator: Lincoln Chafee. He didn't win just by riding on his late father's coattails, but also because he was more of a liberal than his pro-life Democrat opponent, Weygand.

There aren't too many Republicans here... Except on talk radio.

On top of the usually plethora of crap (Rush, Savage, Hannity), all the popular local hosts are members of the GOP. Dan Yorke, John DiPetro, Steve Kass, and Arlene Violet are the biggies around here. Granted WHJJ's Arlene Violet voted Nader in 2000 (she has won elections as a Republican in this state, so yes, that was one vote Gore never would have received in the first place), is an advocate for clean government, and doesn't mind criticizing Bush. But whenever she goes on vacation, her guest host is always a dyed in wool Republican. You know, the kind that are just fucking nuts.

Today while listening to one of Arlene's guest hosts spouting off GOP crap, someone called in and thanked him for being "one of the only true Republicans left in this state." They started talking about the prospects of Cheney being dropping from the Bush campaign and how they would like to see John McCain become Bush's running mate. I think they wanted McCain because of the damage such a ticket would cause in Kerry's camp, but they both respected the man. I have respect for McCain, too, so I'm not faulting them for that.  However, when discussing McCain's military history, the caller took a jab at Kerry's own military record, instigating that he had nothing to brag about when compared to McCain.  Apparently, if you volunteed for the armed forces and risked your life in a war zone for this country (whether or not it was wrong for our government to stage such a war), that's just not good enough anymore for today's Republican.  Unless you've achieved John McCain's level of military service, you're simply a piece of shit.

In the meantime, their president used his connections through Daddy to dodge the draft, then he went awol.  But neither the host nor the caller mentioned this.

What I really have trouble fathoming is how somebody can be such a hypocrite and not sit back and think to themselves, "God, I'm a huge fucking hypocrite!"  These are the same Republicans who ooze faithfully with patriotism and scream about how liberals don't support the troops, yet they criticize Kerry for his service to this country?  They call Clinton a draft dodger, yet they won't do the same for Bush? 

How does somebody become this blindly partisan?  And how to they get onto the airwaves in a state where Bush only carried 33% of the vote in 2000?  It seems odd to me that in such a highly Democratic state there's not one morning or drivetime show on talk radio that isn't headed up by a member of the GOP.  Nobody can tell me that there's no market for a liberal talk show after Gore and Nader got 66% of the vote here.  Yet I can't find a show in the radio which caters to the majority of the voters in this state.  Why is that?  How did the nutcase right get such a stranglehold on talk radio that I can't flip through the AM dial without hearing a bunch of morons on parade?

Newsmax.duh: Telling it like it is!

I'm browsing the headlines on Newsmax right now, seeing what those pesky conservatives are upto. What's important to them?

First headline: "Who Could Replace Cheney?" I suggest a midget. The GOP is going to need somebidy with smaller hands to control Bush, since the President seems to have become more of a tight ass these past four years.

What's next? "Senate Scuttles Marriage Amendment." They still claim the issue is "heating up elections." Everyone already knew there was no possible way this amendment would have gotten the 67 yeas it needed if it even went up for a vote in the Senate, so why doesn't Newsmax criticize the Senate Republican leadership for wasting tax payer dollars to legislate for purely political purposes? If the GOP insists upon using the Senate floor to campaign for Bush, can we get the FEC to halt Senate sessions?

Next up, "Bin Laden's Goal Is to Kill 4 Million Americans." That's it? I thought it was every single one of us, but now it's only 4 million. That's great! Maybe we'll push old OBL's hope to under a million by the end of the year!

After that rosy outlook comes this all important headline, "Pat Boone Answers America's Critics." Yes, because we all give a fuck about what Pat Boone thinks. What's ironic is how Newsmax always leads the charge against "Hollywood Idiots" who just happen to speak out against Republicans. But the minute a Hollywood idiot joins their side, it trumps the real news.

Case in point, the next headline: "Terrorists Kill Iraqi Governor; Car Bomb Kills 10." This is the biggest story of the day and it should have been on top, but Newsmax thinks Pat Boone is more important than a powerful car bomb in Baghdad and an Iraqi provincial being assassinated.

It's good to know where the priorities lie for this major bastion of the Republican media.

US moves to cut all military aid to Uzbekistan

It's not very often you see a post on Loaded Mouth praising the Bush administration for something. As some readers know, our support for Uzbekistan despite their gross human rights violations has become a semi-pet issue of mine, so I was more than happy to read this article yesterday about the Bush administration attempting to cut off all of our military aid to the countr.:

The United States plans to take the unprecedented step of cutting all military aid and some economic assistance, worth $18m a year, to punish the central Asian state for its harsh policies aimed at stamping out political dissent.

The decision was signed by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on Monday night, according to Washington sources. But the move must be approved by Congress, the State Department said last night.

If Congress doesn't approve of this, hang them.

However, there is another matter that concerns me. The article says that Powell signed a document to cut off all military aid to Uzbekistan. I wonder if "military aid" is the same thing as "foreign aid", or merely a subcategory thereof. In the past, we have given Uzbekistan $160 million in foreign aid. I'm not sure how many years it took for Uzbekistan to collect this aid, nor do I have time to research it right now, though I plan to. If the per Uzbekistan collected per year averages out to be over $18 million, which we now know they were getting per year in "military" aid, then I'll be very unhappy and make another post telling Bush to fuck off. :)

Ugh

There's a few posts I want to make tonight, including one about Uzbekistan, but I'm backloaded with school work and regular work on my job. I don't know if I'll have time to get to the blog tonight.

...ahh, screw it.

Boom goes the headline

Normally I wouldn't report that a car bomb exploded on the edge of Baghdad's Green Zone, killing 15 and injuring 40, though those numbers are expected to rise. I wouldn't mention a story like this because it would already be big news by the time I heard it, so there's no point to blogging about it. But after a quick look at Google's International headlines, it appears that this story is being buried. I guess bomb blasts and things not going so well in happy-fun land isn't newsworthy anymore?

I surely hope my criticism of the media is proven unfounded and we hear about this story as the day progresses. As for right now, I'm pretty disappointed.

Bush gets Trumped

This is just priceless.

"Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the country?," Trump said.

"C'mon. Two minutes after we leave, there's going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he'll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn't have," Trump said in excerpts of the interview released in advance to Reuters. ...

"What was the purpose of the whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and no legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!," Trump said.

Trump also proclaims he would be "tougher" on terrorism.

"Bin Laden would have been caught long ago. Tell me, how is it possible that we can't find a guy who's six-foot-six and supposedly needs a dialysis machine? Can you explain that one to me? We have all our energies focused on one place, where they shouldn't be focused," he said.

Goddamn...

Pat Boone waffles

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., left, looks on as singer Pat Boone, right, gestures during a news conference on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 in Washington. Santorum discussed his support for the passage of the Marriage Amendment.

Nice jacket, Pat. And you have to wonder what Sen. Santorum is thinking while giving Pat that loving stare. "Man, if he was a Border Collie, I'd so jump him right now!"

It's funny that our brightly colored friend speaks out against gay marriage in 2004. Judging from this file photo taken in 1997, it looks like he was speaking at a rally for gay marriage.

Somebody pass the maple syrup, he's wafflin'!

[Crossposted to blunted on reality.]

Why can't Clear Channel just fucking die?

I usually wouldn't link to an article like this because the reporter apparently never even attempted to contact Clear Channel to get their side of the story, but we already know a couple facts about the corporation: they practice censorship on their airwaves against DJs who are anti-Bush, and they have sponsered pro-war rallies. So you should know that they are also censoring anti-war billboards.

When the press itself doesn't believe in "freedom of the press," there's something seriously wrong in this country.

[03:45 update - Here's a more detailed article on the matter, with statements from Clear Channel. Looks like censorship to me.]

Here's something to think about the next time you hear the RIAA bitching about profit losses

Lindsay Lohan has a record deal.

Enemies and friends

Medea Benjamin has a nice comparison between two nations. Guess which one we support.

This is a tale of two countries.

The first is Saudi Arabia, a fundamentalist theocracy that, according to the U.S. State Department, whips and beheads political dissidents; doesn't allow women to vote; squashes political protest; amputates the hands of thieves; regularly censors the press; and has been linked by numerous reports to the Al Qaeda terrorist network that was behind the 9/11 attacks.

The second is Venezuela, a republican democracy where elections are hotly contested and closely scrutinized by international observers; political rallies regularly draw hundreds of thousands of partisans into the street; an independent press routinely criticizes top government officials; and a presidential recall referendum will take place on August 15.

Both are major oil exporters to the United States. One is being singled out for criticism and the other is being shielded from it by the Bush administration. Can you guess which is which?

Makes you think, doesn't it?

"If at all possible, stay inside during the times the convention is in session."

Showing us what freedom really means, the GOP offers some advice to New Yorkers on what not to do while they play convention. Granted this is only for those who live near the site of the convention, but one person receiving this letter is too much.

The Michael Strikes Back!

Just in case you're skeptical about Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore released a long dossier listing the disputed facts and his sources. It's much too long for me to read through right now, but one source I noticed was a magazine called National Review. Heh.

Why I'm happy the Senate is debating the Gay Marriage Amendment

Since this amendment has no shot in hell of receiving the requisite 67 vote supermajority to pass, the only point Republicans have in debating this bill is to pander to their base. Since they are still trying to get votes, that means Bush hasn't canceled the elections yet!

Of course, the fact that Republicans are bringing a lame duck amendment like this up for vote should piss everyone off, no matter what party you're from. If it's not going to be resolved, then why is it being debated? Are all the bridges and roads in perfect condition? Is there not one school in America that's falling apart? Instead of dealing with actual issues, Senate Republicans are using our tax dollars to pander to voters. I bet you won't hear Rush mention that truth.

What should be done about this? Write a Republican senator and tell them to play a game of Cornhole. That should loosen them up a bit. :)

Spend my money!

This post has been up here all day and nobody can suggest anything? I'm disappointed. Come on, put my money where your mouth is!

I've got a dilemma.

I want to donate to the Kerry/Edwards campaign for the sole purpose of helping them defeat Bush this fall. However, I'm not a big fan of Kerry, and since giving any money to that man will make me feel dirty, I haven't given him a cent yet.

So I've made a compromise with myself: As long as I donate an equal amount of money to a worthy cause, I won't feel so dirty about giving Kerry money.

All I need is an organization to donate to, and that's where you come in. ACLU is out, I've already given them money this year. Who do you think I should donate to?

Yawn...

Sorry about the light blogging this morning, but I'm turning in early. I'm tired, and I should let the dog get a little rest, too. So I leave you with a photo of a man with a condom on his head.

I'll try doing some blogging later tonight, before work.

More positive attitude from the Go Fuck Yourself campaign

Bush flips off a protester.

Here's the real October Surprises

The Bush administration is looking into the legality of delaying the election in case there's a terrorist attack.

Newsweek cited unnamed sources who told it that the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department last week to review what legal steps would be needed to delay the vote if an attack occurred on the day before or on election day.

I suppose, looking at this from the standpoint of public safety, it attacks do happen on election day, and on the off-shot chance that polling places are targetted, then I can see where postponing the elections make sense. However, ask yourself this: Can you trust the Bush administration to not use postponement of the election for their own political purposes to win such election? They've already come out and cited the elections in Spain as a reason to create a plan like this. Sorry, but what happened in Spain's elections wasn't terrorism, it was democracy. If an attack happens two days before the election, I see no reason fair reason to cancel them. The only reason BUsh's sees to cancel them is to stage the elections at the best possible time when he thinks he can win them.

Don't get caught fucking your cousin without...

The Monster Truck Limo.

Drano!

I had no idea this cover song I record was still on the web. Me on bass, drums, keyboards, and all vocal parts. Click to hear the patheticness ooze from your speakers. ;>

Today's self-immolation story is brought to you by the letters I, N, D, I, and A!

Talk about a hot head.

In a shocking incident, a police constable set himself afire to protest against the alleged harassment by his seniors in police lines, official sources said.

Constable Pawan Sonwal was rushed to hospital with 80 per cent burn injuries on Saturday evening and is in serious condition, sources said.

Sonwal allegedly set himself afire after pouring petrol while crying out loud that he was being marked absent in spite of being on duty by his superiors who were constantly harassing him.

A high level inquiry has been ordered into the incident, sources added.

Here's a couple things you should know about AIDS

India is poised to surpass South Africa in 2006 as the country with the single highest number of HIV infections in the world, warns a report by medical research group adding there was on an average only one trained doctor to treat every 5,000 HIV patients in the country.

China has fewer than 200 trained doctors for an estimated 840,000 HIV-infected individuals, the report said.

Source #1.

As for our involvement...

The anti-AIDS battle faces "catastrophic" failure if donor countries stall critically needed pledges to a struggling global fund to fight the spread of the virus, the fund's director warned on Sunday.

Richard Feachem said the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria faced disaster if key contributors such as the United States and Europe did not put up the 3.5 billion dollars needed for programmes in 2005. ...

Feachem admitted the fund faced a "big challenge" in meeting its goals for next year, particularly as activists say the United States is slated to contribute just 550 million dollars to the fund for 2005 rather than the 1.2 billion the fund had counted on. ...

"Unilateralism has no place in the fight against AIDS, yet President Bush is sabotaging the world's best hope in this fight for fear it will upstage his own US plan," Paul Zeitz, of the Global AIDS Alliance, said in a statement.

Source #2.

How many more people will Bush be allowed to murder?

Laugh, damn you

As always, a couple by Ted Rall.

What's in your MP3 player?

Everywhere you go, Asshole Asshole! Everyone you know, Asshole Asshole! Everyone you see, Asshole Asshole! Everyone you meet, Asshole Asshole!

Yeah, I'm in a fantastic mood...

Random baseball notes

Barry Bonds has a .628 On Base Percentage. Whenever he comes to the plate, there's a 63% chance that he'll make it onto base, whether by hit or one of his 70 intentional walks. That's just fucking sick.

And five in a row for the Sox. Goddamn, it's about time their offensive came together and clobbered some teams. Maybe they could trade for Barry Bonds and score 20 runs a game. ;>

Think about how good a Sox team with Bonds on it would be. Bonds hitting third, Manny fourth, Ortiz fifth. You can't intentionally walk any of them, because Nomah would be hitting sixth. Holy crap. One can dream, can't he?