Debunking Mr. Madsen?

Unfortunately, it seems like I'm doing just that.

"We will fuck him! Do you hear me? We will fuck him! We will ruin him! Like no one has ever fucked him!"

Yeah yeah, I don't know what "day off" means, I know.. Shaddup.

Now that you've done your Black Friday shopping, I've got a couple links to make you feel guilty about it. Echidine has a great post called "Progressive Shopping" which shows us where our Christmas money is really going -- Into Republican coffers!

An interesting website on the political bent of firms is the freenortheast.com. You can go there and find which companies are especially Bush-loving in your state, and perhaps, just perhaps, they'd rather not have your money at all. Think about it. Why would a bleeding-heart liberal pay into the coffers of wingnuttery?

If you wish to know the worst of the worst wingnut firms, click here.

If you're still not feeling guilty, Rimone has a 12 Monkey's quote you should read.

Vote fraud news from a couple of PBAers:

Mousemusings links to the potentially explosive "Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election." Her post also has more irregular news from Ohio.

Why Are We Back In Iraq? continues it's 50 part series of voter irregularities in each state. See why Kerry could have possibly won New Mexico.

Non-PBAer The Scoop scoops a story about some big time felons in Florida getting their voting rights restored, but small time felons are still getting screwed.

And speaking of that guy who "won" the election, isn't he an asshole?

Newswriter and Chepooka are linking to this Sidney Blumenthal piece in the Guardian which talks about how much of an asshole Bush was at the opening of Clinton's library. PBAer "The Left End of the Dial" has a photo of Bush pushing Clinton out of the way in an effort to get into his library first.

What. A. Dick.

Ahh hell, I'll just post the photo:

See? He's a dick.

Raed is talking about worldwide Anti-US-Foreign-Policy-Demonstrations (AUSFoPoDe). He has a set of photos including this one from a protest in Pakistan, which makes me giggle with evil glee.

Capitola has dug up some dirt on one Christopher Adamo, a wingnut who posts nasty hateful things about Democrats on Free Republic and a local Wyoming political site. Capitola found out that Adamo's own blog happens to be hosted by Republican Representative Kevin J. Burt of Wyoming's District 09.

Some RoveHo's have the Karl Rove turkey. Heh. Any post titled with a Karl Rove quote is bound to make even more fun of him, right?

And, ending this with another link to Mousemusings, Jon Stewart celebrates Thanksgivng:

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.
~ Jon Stewart

Day off

I'm taking a break from blogging today because there are other things I really need to work on. Work is again getting to be too fucking busy for me to think about anything anyways, and I don't feel like putting up with Blogger if it decides to pull another, "Oh, I think I'll be down for 2-3 hours again," night, which it has done for the past two nights.

If I see anything really important, I'll post it. But otherwise I'm taking a day off.

"Maybe I'll shrimp my wife while I'm up there."

You must read this post by Lauren. Especially you, Matt. And please make sure that there are no foreign substances in your mouth, because they'll only end up on your screen after a couple seconds.

Ukraine updates

I haven't been able to keep tabs on this (or any) story today, but Soj's dKos diary should suit all of your Ukrainian newshounding needs.

Fbombistan

With a few progblogs deciding to call it quits after the elections, it's good to find a blogger who started their site because of it. He's also fun to read bloggers who are quite possibly angrier than me. So, meet Angry Homo.

Angry? You fucking bet I'm angry. And before I start hearing from the Language Police; guess what? I don't give a fuck! As a matter of fact, "fuck" happens to be a perfectly good Anglo-Saxonism by way of a Germanic root (don't believe me? read this. Go ahead. I'll wait.)

Great. Now then, there are plenty of things in this world more obscene than a mere word. Torture? Obscene. Fascism? Obscene. Poverty? Obscene. Corporate control of the media, the government and every other facet of public life? Anyone? Venture a guess? Yes, indeed. Fucking obscene. So for those of you who can't look past language to actually pay attention to the concept being communicated... go back to watching PAX TV and let the rest of us with a functioning fucking brain get on with it...

OK. So, 11 states passed anti-marriage laws (some of which also went so far as to overturn domestic partner benefits offered by individual cities. More on that anon). So, the Worst. President. Ever. squeaked by and posted another "victory" (again, more anon).

The worst part for me (and after all, it's all about me; being a card-carrying Progressive has its solipsistic perks) was realizing that a working majority of the residents of this country had literally lost their fucking minds.

There might be some f-word usage competitions in the future.

Where's the WorldMaker?

Former Mouth guest blogger WorldMaker has put up a new blog, worldmaker.blogspot.com, while he finds a new server for his permanent URL.

Blimpy

I've been informed that this picture makes me look fat.

Grumble...

Dear "Turn your back on Bush," uhm..

I appreciate your resolve and commitment, but I can guarantee you that this protest will not work. The media will shun to completely, just like they shun every other protest against Bush.

I was in DC for his inauguration in 2000. I saw thousands of likeminded people marching through the streets, skirting the security checkpoints and breaking through the barricades, spilling out onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I saw hundreds of signs. I saw an anarchist on top of a light pole, proudly waving a black flag to signify that the protesters had claimed this part of the new president's parade route.

However, I did not see any of this on the news.

My advice to you: Your hearts are in the right place, but this type of protest will be correctly regarded as pretenious by the very people whose support you are trying to woo, and ignored by the media whose attention you are yearning for. Focus your efforts on organizing a general strike and shutting down DC. And, I hate to say it, but at this point breaking a few windows probably wouldn't hurt.

The days of simple demostrations making any waves are gone. The reason why the WTO protests in Seattle were so successful and looked upon as a watershed event for the Progressive movement in America is because they succeeded in shutting down the first day of meetings, along with grinding the city to a halt. I showed up a day late for N30, and while I didn't get to taste the tear gas, I witnessed firsthand the reaction Seattle had to the protesters while marching through the streets with them. The people of Seattle loved us. The people lined the sidewalks and stood on the roofs of their apartment buildings to cheer us on as we made our final marches through their streets. So don't be afraid to organize a protest that actually does something. The Republicans, via the media, will label any protest where the streets are blocked and some windows are broken, as being staged by radicals. They will say this no matter what we do, so what they have to say really doesn't matter at this point.

So please, plan a protest that does something beyond people simply turning their backs. The right and the media won't notice it, for they have already turned their backs on us. And we don't need them to notice us, our concern is with what the people will think. If we stand up to tyranny, the people will cheer for us. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

You know, my body hasn't been through a sugar low in a while...

And it's just like I remembered. The shaking, hot and cold flashes and sweats, drowsiness, crankiness.. It really sucks.

There may be some light blogging for the rest of the day, depending on how I react to all the food I'm about to shovel down.

...The frequency of blogging was also effected when work became just plain friggen busy after posting this.

...Then Blogger was down for two hours, so even if I wanted to post, I couldn't.

...And then out came the C.H.U.D.S. ... Just kidding.

Drinking Liberally in Providence

In my efforts to get out of the house more, I'm looking to start a Drinking Liberally night in Providence. Anyone in the area interested in attending? And do you have any suggestions for bars this can be held at? I'm thinking that Trinity Brewhouse would be a good place...

Their painful, yet unavoidable, ignorance of reality

One thing I just read over at Say Anything:

I'm really tired of people treating teenage sex as some sort of inevitability.

Well, I'm not quite sure how to reply to that without screaming, "GET A FUCKING BRAIN!"

Dear CNN, fuck off. Please.

Here's a nifty little case of bias at CNN.

Republican Dino Rossi came out ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes Wednesday in the recount for Washington state governor, and the Democrats are expected to demand yet another recount. [emphasis mine]

"Yet another recount?" Yet? Why not just say another, period? Why badger the Democrats in a race this close? The original vote count left Rossi leading by 261 votes, triggering an automatic recount. What's wrong with the Democrats asking for a recount? Hmmm?

The Bush Agenda

Pants, meet shit.

Economic `Armageddon' predicted

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish.

But you should hear what he's saying in private.

Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity.

His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.''

Press were not allowed into the meetings. But the Herald has obtained a copy of Roach's presentation. A stunned source who was at one meeting said, ``it struck me how extreme he was - much more, it seemed to me, than in public.''

Roach sees a 30 percent chance of a slump soon and a 60 percent chance that ``we'll muddle through for a while and delay the eventual armageddon.''

The chance we'll get through OK: one in 10. Maybe.

In a nutshell, Roach's argument is that America's record trade deficit means the dollar will keep falling. To keep foreigners buying T-bills and prevent a resulting rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be forced to raise interest rates further and faster than he wants.

The result: U.S. consumers, who are in debt up to their eyeballs, will get pounded.

It's short, so Read the rest. [HT: Memeorandum]

Dear Jerry Falwell, please die. Soon.

Fuck this asshole.

Reverend Jerry Falwell, national chairman of the Faith and Values Coalition and Moral Majority founder, labeled the National Organization for Women (NOW) the "National Order of Witches," said he was going to invite People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to Christian men's gatherings called "Wild Game Night" so that they "can sit there and suffer," and called Americans United for Separation of Church and State "an anti-Christ" group.

Fuck him hard.

During his November 21 pre-Thanksgiving sermon, Reverend Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority founder and national chairman of the Faith and Values Coalition, encouraged his audience to "praise the Lord" at Thanksgiving for "alternative news media" sources such as FOX News Channel, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh, which he said are "telling the truth."

Please just die. Slowly and painfully, you old, delusional fuck.

Orgasm Addict

Look at these animals go. Dan Rather resigns, and the right just just can't shut up about it. Do these people even have lives?

What the crap?

TPM, dKos, Wonkette, me, and CJR Campaign Desk... Wait a second, how the fuck did I get on that list? Granted I pulled my feed up a few seconds beforehand to see if anybody new had subscribed to it, and I've had it on my feed list in the past. Does Bloglines pull from a users past history to fetch recommendations for them? Is this random? Or am I really sandwiched inbetween these heavyweights for other Bloglines users?

Odd. Very odd.

Announcing an end to diplomatic relations...

Hey Rob, you just went from being a regular asshole to officially becoming a full fledged fucking asshole.

Go fuck yourself.

Some Thanksgiving musings on intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and Agnosticism

Happy Thanksgiving! I know that I'm going to get about 2 hits today, but I never like to leave the blog blank. So I'll post something I wrote to a friend a while back, where I try to jointly explain why I'm Agnostic and how there's no possible way that Earth harbors the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe. So, if you're into that sort of thing, enjoy.

Humans, in general, are very self-centered. It's just a part of our nature. We are the chief population of one small planet in the universe, and there's so many possibilities for life to exist elsewhere in the universe that the notion of one single God giving us all this attention amazes me. Nobody can say for certain that other intelligent life exists out there, but this is the conclusion I've come to which, I think, almost proves the existence of other intelligent life: Planets and the satellites of planets are all capable of harboring life, given the right conditions. Going around our Sun, which is just one star, we have 9 planets and I'll guesstimate 45-50 satellites revolving around those planets. That's nearly 60 possibilities for intelligent life at just one star in the universe. Nobody knows how many stars there are in the universe; one recent estimate I found is 70 sextillion. (And that's just in the known universe.) We can't assume that every star has it's own plantery system, so we'll say half the stars in the universe have a plantery system similar to our sun. So, 35 sextillion * 60 = the number of celestial bodies in the known universe that could harbor life. For anyone keeping count, that's 21,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. My rough and unscientific calculations say there's 21 septillion celestial bodies that could possibily hold intelligent life. Given this knowledge, nobody can tell me that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe, and that we have this one God who created the universe and only pays attention to Earth.

After coming to this conclusion, I decided that trying to come to other conclusions about the unanswered questions of life is a pointless exercise.

World's Sexiest Blogger?

David at ISOU is wondering who the world's sexiest blogger is. Lemmie throw my hat in the ring here with this dead sexy picture...

Oh baby. Once you're done masturbating to that, go tell David I'm hot. ;>

...Bonus pick! See my headless torso in the background while the mayor of Nashua sits in the drivers seat of the Hempcar.

OK, enough vanity for one holiday.

Correction

From "All he needs now is that skinny little mustache..." on 11/23/2004, I published that Clear Channel was owned by Rupert Murdoch. This was incorrect. Loaded Mouth apologizes for publishing untrue propaganda, as opposed to the truthful kind you've come to expect from this website.

If this could only happen here...

Imagine if this was America.

Imagine that Kerry was truly the leader that he should be and rejected the results of the election, pointing to the irregularities and the fact that President Bush's own party endorsed the use of electronic voting machines that give you no way to verify who you voted for, and can be easily hacked to change the vote.

Imagine if Kerry pointed to these irregularities in conjunction with the fact that exit polls show him as the victor.

Imagine if Kerry took a mock, but symbolic, oath of office just days after the election while the Democratic members of Congress cheered him on.

Imagine hundreds of thousands of Kerry supporters on the streets of Washington DC to support him.

Just imagine...

This is happening, but not here. Kerry's not the leader, and the election is not in his country.

Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian opposition candidate, is who I wish Kerry would become. Ukrainian exit polls show that he won the election by an 11% margin over Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, yet the actual results and exit polls vary by 14%, giving Yanukovych the lead.

Yushchenko, in essence, has called bullshit in the results, gathered 200,000 of his supporters, and taken the oath of office in front of 190 (out of 425) cheering members of parliament. His supporters have been setting up tents in Kiev's Independence Square, and their protests have stretched into a third day, despite the cold and the snow.

Imagine if this could happen here.

Why shouldn't this happen here?

[Must reads: Telegraph, BBC, New York Times for good background info covering US/Russian tensions between the Ukraine election, and the Guardian, as always, has very comprehensive coverage and tons of articles.]

Winning over hearts and minds

Well, if we can't win them over, then why not just splatter them against the pavement?

Witnesses say US forces killed unarmed civilians

Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.

They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said.

Just in time for Christmas!

Yes, you too can get this testicles necklace for your loved one.

And no, it doesn't come from Bangkok.

Oh no, the Israelis do absolutely nothing to hinder the peace process! Only the Palestinians are to blame!

Headline: "Israelis fired on girl 'having identified her as a 10-year-old', military tape shows."

They shot the girl, a Palestinian, dead.

The Bush Agenda

Via Newswriter, have children.. Or else!

"Protection of marriage" is now the watchword for many activists fighting to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying.

Some conservatives, however, say marriage in America began unraveling long before the latest gay-rights push and are pleading for a fresh, soul-searching look at the institution.

"When you talk about protecting marriage, you need to talk about divorce," said Bryce Christensen, a Southern Utah University professor who writes frequently about family issues.

While Christensen doesn't oppose the campaign to enact state and federal bans on gay marriage, he worries it's distracting from immediate threats to marriage's place in society.

"If those initiatives are part of a broader effort to reaffirm lifetime fidelity in marriage, they're worthwhile," he said. "If they're isolated -- if we don't address cohabitation and casual divorce and deliberate childlessness -- then I think they're futile and will be brushed aside."

Let's get a couple things straight:

• If I want to live with a woman without being married to her, it's our choice
  
• If we choose not to have children, it's our choice
  
• If we choose to get married then decide later that a divorce is needed, it's our choice

These are the people voting Republican, folks. This is what they want. Today they will take away gay marriage, tomorrow they will force you to believe in their deity, and the day after that, they will throw you in the slammer for refusing to procreate. It's not going to stop; these people will never be satisfied until you're exactly like them. Freedom be damned.

It just gets worse in Darfur

This year's rain season didn't yield that much water, and as a result, Darfur faces a drought that could yield their harvest down to 10-15% of its normal output. I suspect I don't have to elaborate on what this means.

Who's getting hit the hardest by AIDS?

Women.

In many countries, women's subordinate status, and their lack of education and economic power have made it impossible for them to negotiate sex with men or to ask for the use of condoms. Yesterday the UN agency set up to combat the pandemic, UNAids, called for all that to change in the interests of checking the spread of a disease which killed 3.1 million adults and children last year.

"We will not be able to stop this epidemic unless we put women at the heart of the response to Aids," said UNAids' executive director, Peter Piot.

Want to learn about Iran's nuclear program?

Click here for the Guardian's flash tutorial.

Peace

Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian opposition deputy and top ally of Ukraine's pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, places carnations into the shields of anti-riot policemen standing outside the presidential office in Kiev, November 23, 2004. Thousands of Ukrainian opposition supporters massed near the president's office on Tuesday seeking to install their leader in power in defiance of election results they see as rigged by a pro-Moscow government. REUTERS/POOL

I'll be the first to admit that I have little knowledge of the Ukraine and I'll be just as involved in my crash course about the country as the rest of you. I don't know what Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate in their disputed elections, stands for. But this photo of Yulia Tymoshenko, his "top ally," displays the best way I've even seen to deal with riot police. And if this is symbolic of what Yushchenko stands for, then I'm standing with him.

Commence eye-rolling.. Now!

Rob at Say Anything has taken some exception to my comments at PBA HQ on the Bush billboards in Florida.

Why are they upset? Beats me. Bush is our duly elected leader, whether the left likes it or not. Its not like they have to agree with him or anything. The billboard certainly isn't deserving of this comment:

WTF? I thought displays like this were limited to dictatorships. Oh, wait a second...

The title of that post is "All he needs now is that skinny little mustache..."

I guess appearing on billboards with banal messages like "Our Leader" is tantamount to being a genocidal dictator.

Comparing Bush to Hitler...apparently that's what being progressive is all about.

How the right always manages to miss the point this wildly is beyond me. They either practice doing such on a regular basis or it's a natural born talent, the jury is still out on either conclusion. Anyways, for those that need the obvious explained to them, my post was in part a satire on hero worship and that certain, special cult of personality that develops around a nation's leader who isn't questioned. History has this nasty little habit of repeating itself -- quite often, in some cases. And for a president we all know wasn't legally elected in 2000, and quite possibly in 2004 though we may never knew because easily hackable electronic voting machines were used at the bidding of his party; a president who doesn't like his power being questioned, and a president who shows no bones about making the judicial and legislative branches into rubber stamp bodies that bend to his wishes; seeing billboards of his image being put up of sends a chill down my spine. It reminds me of Kim Jong-il's North Korea, Mao Zedong's China, and Adolf Hitler's Germany.

When a cult of personality is formed around a leader, history shows that questioning them becomes illegal. And, fuck me if I'm wrong, but the last time I checked we lived in America where we're supposed to have the freedom to question our government.

As for the Nazi references, Rob, why does the right jump down our throats whenever we make them, yet places like World Net Daily can use the phrase "sexual holocuast" and you're silent about it. Is this Nazi refernce OK with you? Are you OK with your side equating promiscuous sex with the murdering of six million jews, half a million gypsies, and scores of others?

Mutiny in the Kiev?

I roll out of bed, shower, and goto work, start reading the comments here from yesterday and find out that the Ukraine stands on the edge of revolution. Cool! More on this later.

Light blogging because Blogger is having problems...

...again. On and off. It's annoying.

Absolutely despicable

I don't know why I'm constantly surprised by the lack of respect this administration shows for our troops. Now Rummy won't even sign the KIA letters.

And now, apparently, Rumsfeld’s obsession with machines and their efficiency has translated into his using one to replace his own John Hancock on KIA (killed in action) letters to parents and spouses. Two Pentagon-based colonels, who’ve both insisted on anonymity to protect their careers, have indignantly reported that the SecDef has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself.

Hey Rummy, why stop there? Maybe you can get another machine to spit on the KIA letters, just to remind the families of the fallen how you really feel about them.

[Hattip: Guess who?]

All he needs now is that skinny little mustache...

Sie müssen Ihren Führer befolgen!

WTF? I thought displays like this were limited to dictatorships. Oh, wait a second...

...Newswriter adds: "Apparently, there are two of these beauties along I-4 in Florida, one of them claiming to be a "political public service message brought to you by Clear Channel Outdoor." Clear Channel. That's Rupert Murdoch. Fox. You know the drill."

[Hattip: Rimone]

...meep!

This just in from the "Chop chop goes the penis!" dept.

Man Cuts Off Teens' Penises for Theft -Police

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai house painter cut off the penises of two teenagers with a knife after he found out they had stolen 50,000 baht ($1,250) of his savings from an ATM machine, police said on Saturday...

"There's nothing they deserved more for stealing the money I saved that could have helped me get a job abroad," a police spokesman quoted him as saying...

Manit [the house painter] threw the severed penises into a canal before his neighbors tipped police off about the incident.

Bonus points for those noticing that this happened in Bangkok. (Or that's where the story was filed from, at least.)

Random thoughts

After I win the lottery, I'm going to open up a Texas Roadhouse in Jerusalem.

Uhm, what about Bush's connections to the bin Laden family and House of Saud?

The right doesn't see it fit to complain about those connections, but when Saudi's donated money to help build the Clinton Library, then we just can't have that!

Fucking hypocrites.

Iraq. Explained.

Salon is feature a great piece today by a reporter who was in Iraq during May of 2003. Among other things, he discusses 200 members of the former Iraqi army looked to him for orders when he gave them a crash course in how to setup a protest march. The basis of hs piece was that if the former Iraqi military was looking to him for orders, then, uh, things are pretty goddamn fucked in the country. Near the end, he whips out this paragraph which is the best description I've seen concerning why we're still in Iraq:

As we now know, disbanding the Iraqi military, leaving 400,000 troops jobless and humiliated with ready access to their old weapons, was a huge blunder -- as was committing too few of our own forces in the first place (something even Bremer now acknowledges). Because Iraq had no secure borders, outside provocateurs could sow mayhem. Without an indigenous security force, the much-publicized big reconstruction projects couldn't proceed. Stoked by a lack of air conditioning, refrigeration and staples such as medicine and gasoline, the anger of average Iraqis soon would be boiling over. Throw in a nascent insurgency by both Sunnis and Shiites, and it is easy to understand how our great, optimistic enterprise in Iraq went awry.

Definitely click though the ads and read the whole thing.

Revolution Blogging

Last week, I made this rather bleak outlook on our future, judging from Bush's consolidation and the Democrats seemingly falling back into their usual invertebrate tendencies. Rogue left this comment: "You know, I have to wonder what became of us (citizens, not Party members). What happened to the 60's? When did we become afraid of getting beat down by police, protesting, fighting back? When did we decide to just let things slide, kiss our governments ass, and bow down?"

The following was my reply to her that I've been asked to publish on the blog to generate more discussion on why the American public has become so complacent. It was an off-the-cuff response that probably should be cleaned up and reworded for public consumption, but I don't want the message I tried conveying to get lost, so I'm going to print the comment in it's entirety.

Hm. You're asking a simple question that leads into several broad topics that are open for long discussions. (ie: You're making this difficult for me to keep things short. :>)

Back in the 60s, there was a bigger cause to fight for. To be frank, gays and lesbians right now have far more rights than blacks did back in the 60s: they can vote, ride anywhere on the bus, sit anywhere in the restaurant, goto church, not have to kiss the white person's ass, etc. And plus there are no outward signs that someone is homosexual. (OK, OK, that probably isn't true, dependent on individual style choices; I have "gaydar" just like the rest of y'all.) But it's not like being black. Bam! You're black and there ain't no hiding it, now kiss my ass, boy!

In short, homosexuals enjoy more rights now than blacks did back in the 60s. They still lack some rights, but it's not a large enough problem to energize a large scale effort to fight for them.

So what do we need for mass protests?

1) A clearly defined cause

Now I've only brought up the issue with homosexuals. Some may say, "Well, we already have causes!" Very true. We've got a whole slew of causes that I could count on two hands and then borrow your fingers to continue counting. And I think that's also part of our problem. We've got too many causes all trying to shout each other down, and we don't really have a message. So that's the second item we need:

2) A clearly defined, cohesive message.

We're talking two short sentences maximum here. Take the Republicans, for example. We all know what they are for, we could recite it in our sleep: Limiting the size of government, strengthing the rule of law, and blowing shit up overseas. There's your Republican platform right there, pocket-sized and easily conveyable to anyone with two brain cells. And believe me, there are a bunch of people who by this line of shit who only have two brain cells.

Our message has to be instantly recognizable and have broad appeal. It also has to overcome the third factor.

3) People don't protest because they fear losing their careers/livelihood

I know this fear is present in me, especially since 9/11 and the Patriot Act because now I can be defined as a terrorist if I hit the streets and somehow causing violence. The real value of wages against inflation has fallen, causing moe people to live off paycheck to paycheck, week to week. I wasn't alive in teh 60s, but I imagine getting by now is a lot tougher than it was back then. Especially when we all have health insurance hanging over our heads, and if we lose our jobs, we lose that, our house/apartment, vehicle, etc. Our message has to be strong enough to dictate that this doesn't matter.

We also have to take into account cultural factors, which I'll group into...

4) The media keeps us down

Rimone and I email each other pretty frequently. I've only lived in the US, but she grew up here and moved to England, and knows is well versed in the differences between both cultures. One thing I've learn from her,t hat I've suspected for quite a while, is that the media and educational systems beyond our borders are much more comprehensive, detail oriented, and focus on the news local, national, and globe. Half the sources I read to find out what's going on in this country are international, like the Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, Independent, Australian Broadcasting, and Asia Times. The only real news services in this country worth reading are altweekly papers, Salon.com, Mother Jones magazine, small independent publications, etc. I'll read the AP, NY Times WaPo, and oher mainstream media sources based in this country to know what they're thinking, but I always know that they aren't telling me the full story.

And this is the supposedly erudite section of our media that sucks. But once you ge past the "news," it's all downhill from there. Think about this the next time you're standing in like at the supermarket with copies of People, US, Star, Enquirer, Comso, and all these other publications that are filled with utter, useless crap about celebrities and bands and other good for nothing information. Think about the state of our media and try not to cringe when looking at these magazines. Are Jessica and Nick breaking up? Uhm, who knows, AND WHO THE FUCK CARES?!

I don't, but unfortunately, a hell of a lot of people do. These magazines, coupled with all the anti-intellectual fluff you see on television, combines into a multi-billion dollar industry that people keep feeding into. And don't even get me started on how much the local news constantly sucks.

Our media keeps our nation pacified. Whereas in other free societies, like England, their media actually keeps them informed with good, honest, thoughtful coverage from all different points of view.

Is it any wonder why 40% of the electorate just decided to skip the last election? Why? How could they? Don't they care? Don't they know what's at stake? No, they don't, because the media is too focused on selling them perfume or the new J Crew shirt, or that SUV that they don't need, and if they don't want to vote then hey, that's perfectly OK -- The power of the corporations that run the media won't be challanged.

I'm sure there are many other topics to discuss witht his, and I'm hoping people bring them up.

And yes, this was short. :)

Pork you

Via Needlenose, Echidne has this telling paragraph to round off her great post on where the pork from the latest tax spending bill is going.

Aren't we lucky to have this great bunch of politicians supporting every move that George manages to think out, while at the same time busily portioning out pork to their funders while the poor children are told to educate themselves by tying their bootstraps around their necks?

Check out her full post to see for yourself what useless programs are getting pork while Headstart and Pell Grants continue to get porked.

How can you be salt of the Earth and own a yacht?

And how can you send troops to Iraq without body armor but still use taypayer money to pay for a presidential yacht?

Thank you, Oliver.

Black N' Decker Righty Wrecker

You may have noticed that somebody got their ass banned from commenting yesterday. Expect more of that to happen in the future. Ever since the Power Line swarm, members of the right have been using my comments section on a daily basis to take a piss on this blog, and I'm not much in the mood for it anymore. The comments are meant for rational and intelligent discussion about issues brought up on this blog, and I'm taking the section back to further that purpose.

Whatever happened to Radio Mouth Day? Ain't it today?

I realize that last week's song was also by Mark Sandman, but I'm forced place another one of his songs up for your downloading pleasure this week: "Tomorrow." It's a mp3 from his upcoming 2CD/DVD boxed set, SANDBOX, to be released on 12/7/04. It's a collection of Mark's music and poetry put together bu Morphine's Bill Conway and Dana Colley. Like "Tomorrow," much of it hasn't been heard until now. If you haven't heardof Mark Sandman or Morphine, give it a listen. You won't be disappointed.

Do I even have anything original to say?

Ugh. Look at this crap. Title, one line description for the link, and then on with the blockquote abuse. What am I, Atrios? I haven't even been able to muster a witty comment after anything I've quoted, nevermind saying something insightful or intellectually curious. It's all quantity, not quality, today. And yesterday. And the day before...

I'll be back when I have an original thought.

Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself. I don't fucking know...

Winning over hearts and minds

We've doubled the rate of malnutrition in Iraqi children.

Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government...

"Believe me, we thought a magic thing would happen" with the fall of Hussein and the start of the U.S.-led occupation, said an administrator at Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Pediatrics. "So we're surprised that nothing has been done. And people talk now about how the days of Saddam were very nice," the official said...

"Even myself, I suffer from the quality of water," said Zina Yahya, 22, a nurse in a Baghdad maternity hospital. "If you put it in a glass, you can see it's turbid. I've heard of typhoid cases."

Is it getting a little drafty in here?

More troops are needed in Iraq.

Lock n' Load

Maybe the Democrats are ready for a fight after all.

Sen. Conrad from ND just called the GOP out on this budget bill. Apparently they stuck a provision that removes any expectations of privacy regarding our tax returns in the middle of this 3000 page bill in the middle of the night. They didn't tell the Dems. But they caught them. This is amazing to watch - they're going OFF.

This tactic is NOT new, but getting caught and having Dems throw fits IS.

Slate has some more information about the bill.

Everyone fronts news that Congress agreed on a $388 billion spending bill that will fund much of the federal government in 2005. NASA and Amtrak were spared, but the EPA got slashed. Weighing in at 14 pounds, the bill almost collapsed: It bars agencies from requiring health care organizations to provide abortion services, a provision that sparked fury and threats of filibustering. But Democrats were appeased when they were promised a separate vote to repeal the abortion provision. [And, uhm, what happened with that vote? Has it even taken place yet?] Another flashpoint was a clause, apparently sneaked in by a staff aide and soon to be deleted, that would allow designated people to look at the tax return of any American. The White House had threatened to veto the bill if domestic spending grew by more than 1 percent, but some, um, pork nevertheless made its way in: The Missouri Pork Producers Federation came away with $1 million to convert animal waste into energy.

Wheat's that sound in the distance?

Just crossing out my typos...

It's the whole world laughing at us.

Only about a third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific theory that has been well supported by the evidence, while just as many say that it is just one of many theories and has not been supported by the evidence. The rest say they don't know enough to say. Forty-five percent of Americans also believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A third of Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.

More proof that the right is absolutely insane

Christ. Where do I even start with this one?

Titled "OBSESSED WITH SEX: How Kinsey's fraudulent science unleashed a catastrophic 'revolution' in America," this remarkable investigative report explores America's ever-increasing preoccupation with sex, and the real causes behind it.

Fuck me if I'm wrong, but I thought the real underlying reasons behind America's "ever-increasing preoccupation with sex" was a mixture of two causes: The fact that we have penises and vaginas. But hey, I could be wrong, right?

Whistleblower documents with devastating clarity exactly how America was transformed in five decades from the "Leave it to Beaver" innocence of the 1950s to today's wanton, "anything-goes" sexual anarchy:

Man, in five decades we went from "Leave it to Beaver" to "Leave your face in the Beaver." I think the reason for this is the fact that ones a teensy-weensy bit more exciting than the other. (One also smells better than the other, too.)

First, there's the multi-billion-dollar pornography industry, which through the Internet is magically being transported into previously unreachable market territory – namely, the sanctity of millions of middle-class homes. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites – that's 12 percent of all websites in the world, totaling 372 million pornographic pages. Pornographic search engine requests total 68 million per day.

So it's the internet's fault? Because we all know that middle-class homes didn't have stacks of Playboy's back in the 70s.

Then there is the youthful epidemic of "hooking up" – widespread, casual recreational sex, often with multiple partners.

Hooking up happens "often with multiple partners?" Shit, I've been missing out!

And this publication, being from the right, they of course find a way to blame Clinton.

Turbo-charged by President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky's high-profile example – "if it's OK for the president, it must be OK for me" – middle and high school children are experimenting with sex in the bathroom stalls at school, behind the gym, and in the back of the school bus. More children, at earlier ages, are engaging in sexual acts than ever before.

I wonder if they took a poll to find this information out or if they are just pulling stuff out of their ass.

And speaking of stuff in asses:

Homosexual sex, a generation ago, was widely considered both immoral and pathological. Today it's enshrined as a constitutional right and the hallmark of a new "protected class." Government schools nationwide teach children as young as five that homosexuality is normal – and that disagreeing with this viewpoint brands you as an intolerant "hater."

And how wrong this is! Instead of treating homosexuals like the actual people that they are, let's go back to regarding them as pathological, ass-raping monsters! That's progress!

America's bedrock institutions – from its legal system to the news media, from its schools to its churches – are rapidly reversing millennia of traditional values on homosexuality.

And we all know how traditional values are never wrong. What's next for these assholes, turning back the clock on interracial marriage and throwing all those negros to the back of the bus? While we're at it, let's bring back slavery! And I've always wondered how sweet burning flesh smelled after a successful witch hunt.

Even child sexual abuse, rape and incest (which its apologists euphemistically now call "adult-child sex" and "intergenerational sex") are slowly but surely gaining respectability. Currently, 100,000 websites offer illegal child pornography, and worldwide child porn generates $3 billion in revenues every year.

Uhm, this is the first time I've ever read "adult-child sex." Ever. Where exactly are these defenders of child pornography? Are they in the media? What television stations? What magazines? What pundits have ever defended it? Where's the groundswell of "adult-child sex" advocates that they claim exists? As for "intergenerational sex," does this mean we need an age limit on who you can consent with, depending on how old you are? If you're 35, you will it now be illegal to diddle with a 25 year old? If so, there goes half of my dating opportunities.

How on earth did America get to this point where we're literally drowning in sex?

Yes, it's a bukkake tsaunami!

Kinsey claimed that 85 percent of males had intercourse prior to marriage, nearly 70 percent had sex with prostitutes, and 30-45 percent of husbands had extramarital affairs. Moreover, from 10 to 37 percent of men had engaged in homosexual acts, according to Kinsey. In fact, the oft-repeated claim that one in 10 human beings is homosexual – a cornerstone of the "gay rights" movement – comes directly from Kinsey's published research.

So Kinsey found out that people had sex? There's a shocker!

Kinsey, the "heroic scientist" whose "research" launched the sexual revolution and provides the "scientific" basis for it to this very day, was a fraud.

Yup. Just like all those environmental scientists who claim that global warming is happening, or all those Darwinist who insist that humans envolved through other animals. Bad science, bad bad bad!

He encouraged his wife and fellow "scientists" to engage in wild group sex, and filmed these sessions in his attic.

Sounds like an internship I'd go for. Where do I sign up?

"Leave it to Hollywood to immortalize and glorify one of the worst human beings of the past century, one who arguably has caused more harm than Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden," said WND Editor Joseph Farah.

Yes, they just compared a man who dared to speak upabout sex to Saddam and Osama. I guess they were just too lazy to add Hitler.

These people are fucking insane.

"This issue of Whistleblower is just about the most difficult we've ever done," added WND Managing Editor David Kupelian. "Sex is a topic that's easy to exploit, but hard to get really right. We had to labor long and hard to produce the most tasteful and insightful, yet hard-hitting, presentation possible on a radioactive subject."

Long and hard? Indeed!

In so doing, the issue clearly and powerfully points the way back to sexual sanity and real happiness.

Ahhh, real happiness. Real happiness! And what's real happiness, you ask? Why, it's sitting down in front of the tube and watching "Leave it to Beaver." And don't forget going to church on Sundays. (I'm sure they won't let you forget once it's mandated by law. Oops, I can't say "mandate," that might have homosexual overtones.) And we certainly can't have women going to clambakes. And anybody who even dares to think about having sex for fun instead of procreation, well it's off to the slammer with them!

Welcome to the Bush agenda, folks. Check your freedoms, and any knowledge of sexual positions beyond missionary, at the door. You won't be needing them in his America.

Just in time for Christmas!

A video game where -- Finally! -- you too can blow JFK's head off!

And the reaction from out moral values right? Well, here's the WorldNutDaily headline:

...Wow. I know that headline doesn't look like a glowing endorsement, but could you even imagine their reaction if a video game let you be Hinckley trying to impress Jodie Foster? Even most Freepers are against the JFK game, which now places WND to the far right of Freeperland.

Amazing. Simply amazing. And Power Line swarmed me for what?

Late blogging

I have a decision right now: I could attempt to stay up and do my usual Monday morning blogging, and probably pass out at 2am... Or I could take a nap now and hope I wake up sometime during the middle of the night and start my news trolling then.

And naps sound so nice...

How to Win an Election Without Really Trying

The hammer has fallen and Iraq will be voting for a president on January 30th. Great news, right? And on January 31st they’ll be a full functioning example of a Middle East Democracy, right? Well….

First of all, who are the candidates? Allawi, um, hmm…. Any more? I did a Google search and found absolutely nothing. How about those political parties? None.

We hear all this talk about the election and freedom bein’ on the march but what is a democracy if you only have one choice at the polls? It’s probably not a democracy.

Secondly, there’s a little over two months until voting. Please tell me who in their right mind believes that this is enough time for the televised debates between the wide array of candidates, the whistle-stop tours and the grand rallies to take place? Oh those aren’t taking place?... Hmm.

I guess the simple point I’m trying to make is that if people think their watching democracy in action, they’ve been sadly misled.

“Well, it’s better than what it was like under Saddam!”

To people who say that, I’d point to the third paragraph in this little post. We’re supposedly delivering Democracy to Iraq. Democracy is about choice and, let’s be honest, there isn’t going to be another real choice on the ballot than Ayad Allawi because that’s the way WE want it. How does anyone expect any real, political force besides Allawi to be allowed to emerge in two months time? Anyone that stands up for the Iraqi people that hasn’t been hand selected by BushCo is labeled a terrorist. It’s a joke.

“But they're free to vote for whoever they want!”

Sure they can write Donald Duck in but before that ballot gets counted it’s opened and tossed in the trash. And then on the way home they dodge bullets and bombs. And on the 31st, they’ll still be under US control and dodging bullets and bombs.

So let’s watch together as the media and Bush try to tell us something different. It’ll be a good example of propaganda in action.

Sunday morning stroll through the Blogosphere

Antigone at XX says, "A new report published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research points out that if gains in pay equity remain at the same rate as the last 40 years, women won’t make what men make until 2054." Roxanne digs into the statistics of the report. I suppose somebody here is supposed to defend men, and since I have a penis, here goes... Tsk tsk, it's obvious that men should earn more money. We need to stockpile a couple more cases of viarga and still be able to afford all you can eat wings at Hooters wrasslin' night! How come nobody even mentions that, hmmm?

Rimone has (yet another) story about the mainstream media collectively killing stories that would reflect badly upon Bush. What, no blowjobs? Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Pesky Apostrophe discusses a "far-reaching anti-abortion provision into a $388 billion must-pass spending bill."

Goose3five points out that Pennsylvania Senator (and "Dog Fancy" subscriber) Rick Santorum isn't actually a resident of Pennsylvania, but that hasn't stopped him from becoming their senator or stealing thousands of dollars from the state's educational system. Ahhhh, Republican values. You just can't beam'em.

Why Are We Back In Iraq? is doing a 50 part series called "50 States Mislead Their Voters."

A few of these links were ripped from David's Progressive Blog Alliance roundup.

Yours truly made his first guest post to Blunted on Reality in a couple months. It's good to see Blunted back and talking about rat's nuts.

Roxanne has a photo which needs to be captioned.

And Angry Homo has been added to the blogroll. Looking at his blogroll, it's weird to see Daily Kos, MyDD, Liberal Oasis, Blog for America, Smirking Chimp, Rude Pundit... Then me. Pretty nice company. I think this is the first time ever that a blog has linked to me before throwing the required link to Atrios.

Sunday is Comics Day!

As always, a couple by Ted Rall.

And two poignant notes to any centrist Democrat who foolishly think that moving farther to the right will net us more votes.

Caption it! #2 & #3

Meet Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Mulletstan Canada.

Instant TMI

When I stepped out of the shower tonight, I noticed that I didn't have to suck in my gut to see my penis. Woo hoo!