Thursday, July 20, 2006

Why won't the sick people just die?



Found on bartcop, although I can't read the original blogspot address.

How many boxes of baking soda would you need?

I bet the ice cream tasted funny...
MADISON, Wis. - A man convicted of keeping his dead mother in a freezer for years so he could keep collecting her Social Security checks avoided federal prison during his sentencing Wednesday.

Heck of a day for headline writers

Bush acknowledges racism still exists

In other news, Bush also announced that water is wet, the Cubs suck, and flowers are pretty.

From the "Duh" File

Sometimes all it takes is a headline:

GOP Lawmakers Edge Away From Optimism on Iraq

Gosh, I wonder what tipped them off?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Culture of Life Part II

With regard to the "pro-life" president, I just have one question. How many deaths can be directly attributed to this administration? Those killed in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, those allowed to die in Katrina's wake and so many others Just how many have died in this "culture of life?"

The Culture of Life

I shamelessly stole this concept from Schmidlap, but the Republicans, the "party of life" want to protect this:


yet they want MORE of this:


and don't care about this:



To life!

While Rome burns...

The world is on the verge of global conflagration, and what is occupying the House of Representatives? THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., said America was a nation of God-given inalienable rights and that's why the country is in a war against "radical Islamists." Democrats wouldn't want to "cut and run" in Iraq, he said, "if they understood the importance of those basic principles and that inalienable rights are impossible without a recognition of God and that's why the pledge bill is important and not irrelevant or trivial."

How must we look to the rest of the world? Our president is a neck-massaging simpleton, our foreign policy is in chaos, the government's attitude toward science would cause Clarence Darrow to say that Dayton, Tennessee wasn't all that bad and while the world burns, Congress fiddles with the Pledge of Allegiance.

What a country.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

We're making progress...

U.N.: 14,000 Iraqis killed in 2006
Holy city bomb kills 45; Armed robbers hit Baghdad bank


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact that "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread" in the war-torn country, a United Nations report says.
Killings of civilians are on "an upward trend," with more than 5,800 deaths and more than 5,700 injuries reported in May and June alone, it says.


Oh my God.

It always happens at the wrong time....

I've mentioned before that I am a huge fan of the Stephanie Miller Show and have on many occasions almost fallen off the treadmill listening to voice guy Jim Ward. He does a killer Kim Jong Il (K to the J to the I.L. in the hizzouse!) but the show was on vacation the week that North Korea did its missile misfires. What a missed opportunity!

And now we have the "president" feeling up the German chancellor, and do you think Rachel Dratch and SNL would like a crack at this??


The look on her face says it all

War...what is it good for?

I've had this post kicking around in my head for quite a while about the obvious point that the "global war on terror" just does not exist. The "war" is regularly tossed around as a justification for eroding freedom of the press and civil liberties, stifling political opposition and an excuse for lining the pockets of every defense contractor in the western hemisphere at a time when the "war" itself is absolutely illusory.

I have previously stated that we are not "at war" in Iraq, that the war is over and we are now an occupation force. I also noted that in terms of successful occupations, history is not on our side (insert "The Phillippines" here), but I've never really fleshed out the second part.

Luckily I don't have to--Joshua Holland does a tremendous job with this question over at Alternet. Read it, well worth your time.

Bad Touching

By our, ehem, President.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars.

Watch the video. It's creepy.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the "free" world

From Yahoo News:

Bush expresses amazement that it will take some leaders as many as eight hours to fly home — about the same time it will take Air Force One with Bush aboard to return to Washington.

"You eight hours? Me, too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country," Bush said, at one point telling a waiter he wanted Diet Coke. "Takes him eight hours to fly home. Russia's big and so is China. Yeah Blair, what're you doing? Are you leaving?'

The Pride of My Alma Mater

Dan Quayle took time out from participating in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Stateline, Nev., on Friday to attend John Mellencamp's concert only to run into a political statement. He then made a statement of his own by walking out during Mellencamp's rendition of ``Walk Tall.'' Before launching into the song, Mellencamp told the Harveys casino crowd, in effect, that it was dedicated to everyone hurt by policies of the current Bush administration. Link

Way to go Dan, thanks for that. By the way, kudos to John Mellencamp.

Handbasket, I have Hell on Line 1

Tsunami kills 47 69 86 in Indonesia; toll climbing
Witness says wave roared ashore in west Java; India issues warning

MSNBC News Services

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 6-foot-high tsunami crashed into beach resorts and fishing villages along Indonesia’s Java island Monday, killing at least 47 people, leaving scores missing and sending thousands fleeing to higher ground in terror, witnesses and officials said.


For a laugh mid-Apocalypse

This "poll" has been circulating around the Internets, and it is damned funny.

Here's a sample:

President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically. A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush’s approval rating has fallen below 50% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 44%.......

“We’ve taken the total fucking moron vote for granted,” says Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), “and now we’re paying for it. We’ve let the Democrats control the debate lately, and they’ve dragged discourse back into the realm of complex, nuanced issues. So your average total fucking moron turns on his TV and sees his Republican Congressman arguing about Constitutional law or the complexities of state formation in the Middle East, and he tunes out. He wants to hear comforting, pandering, flattering bromides and he doesn’t want to hear a logical argument more complex than what you’d find on a bumper sticker.”
What Time is it?

While on the subject of Time Magazine, that same cover story contained an absolutely jaw-dropping statement. Try this one on for size:

"It may be too soon to say whether history will look kindly on the U.S.'s decision to invade Iraq, as Bush and his aides insist will happen."

Too soon? Looking kindly on this never-ending NIGHTMARE? Other than blood-gorged defense contractors and Fox news sheeple, who would EVER "look kindly" on this mess? Please.

Our President used a bad word on an open mike...anybody carrying it live?

From CNN:

...Bush: See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over...

So, if any of our press was covering it live for some reason, AND they happened to be running the feed, what are the chances that there will be a) letters from the Family Research Council condemning expletives on television (none) or b) that the lilly-livered knuckleheads at the FCC will issue fines for carrying Our Fearless Leader's feelings live and in person?

It's a flea on an elephant's backside, it's a non-story, but in the spirit of Rethuglicans making non-stories stories, then I think turnabout is fair play.

Cognitive Dissonance

Image: Last week, Time Magazine's cover story was entitled "The End of Cowboy Diplomacy." The story described how "the shift under way in Bush's foreign policy is bigger and more seismic than a change of wardrobe or a modulation of tone," and added that "the swaggering Commander in Chief who embodied the doctrine's aspirations has modulated himself too. At a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in May, Bush swore off the Wild West rhetoric of getting enemies "dead or alive"

Reality: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

Yup, there's subtle, nuanced, coherent diplomacy for you.

Alex, may I have hypocrisy for $200 please?

Valedictorian Wingnut Sues School

"A high school valedictorian whose microphone was cut off as she gave an address referring to Jesus Christ has filed a lawsuit against school officials, claiming her rights to religious freedom and free speech were trampled." (link)

Oh there are so many things here. First of all, of course, this was a PUBLIC high school, where proselytizing is just not appropriate. And then her comments were WAAAY beyond the "I'd like to thank God and my agent" nonsense you often here after sporting events that is annoying yet inconsequential. Brittany (of course) shared that "God's love is so great that he gave his only son up [this is when the school killed the mike] to an excruciating death on a cross so his blood would cover all our shortcomings and provide for us a way to heaven in accepting this grace."

Obviously that is far beyond what would be acceptable at a public school function. But beyond that, little Brit had PROMISED the school to stick to a vetted [editor's note: insert 'sane' here] version of the speech but just bubbled that "In my heart I couldn't say the edited version because it wasn't what I wanted to say...I wanted to say why I was successful, it involved Jesus Christ for me, period." So apparently, according to Brittany, Jesus endorses lying to your school.

And finally, of course we have a whackjob organization supporting her, The
Rutherford Institute. I can only hope that in this instance, her case isn't being presented by the bane of our existence, according to conservatives, the dreaded...

TRIAL LAWYER!!!