Monday, February 28, 2011

Oscar Weiners

First, seconding Attaturk's Bravo! for Charles Ferguson, whose movie is great and whose speech was the bomb.

Second, I liked "The King's Speech", but for God's sake, "The Social Network" was a much better, more important movie.

Third, you get James Freaking Franco, that brainy hottie, and you don't give him anything to do? Sheesh!

Finally, I love Roger Ebert, but that can't have been the worst Oscarcast he ever endured. Remember the 1989 Alan-Carr-produced show?

Meanwhile in Local News

Not the brightest criminal:

Early morning chase starts in Des Moines, ends in Warren County

...he incident began when a Des Moines police officer stopped the Dodge Neon on Fleur Drive and asked the driver for his name and information.

When the officer went back to the squad car to verify the driver’s name, the Neon sped away. The chase began about 5:20 a.m. and continued through Des Moines.


A Dodge Neon? Next time try outrunning the cops with a lawnmower. Of course, if you read the story, the chase doesn't exactly cover the police in glory.

BRAVO!!!

Best acceptance speech of the night at the Oscars!



Inside Job is a great movie, and thank goodness my film didn't win so I can continue to remain anonymous.

Paul Wolfowitz


In case you were wondering, and I'm confident you weren't, is still an asshole.

But, as ever, there's no way our media will keep the guy from being feted on the TV before our less worthy faces.

Oh no!

We have besmirched the other people of the world with our uncouth language and f-bombs instead of our awesome regular bombs!

But the Oscars, being a global affair, were telecast elsewhere in the world with Leo's words uncensored. Viewers who watched the show on Star Movies, a major channel available throughout Asia, heard the F-word loud and clear.


I look forward to Glenn Beck blaming Barack Obama and George Soros this evening.

Well, this won't be good for that defamation suit

I have to admit, though people who know me would certainly not be surprised, I know little of the world of fashion. But the cause celebre in the world of the bizarrely dressed because they are fashionable is the suspension and subsequent defamation suit brought by a design exec alleged to have gone all anti-semetic at a restaurant. Well, though it's another country, I am a law-talkin' guy and getting caught on video saying those remarks is not a very good piece of evidence if you're the plaintiff.

The UK's Sun has obtained this video, recorded at La Perle, wherein Christian Dior creative director John Galliano spews anti-Semitic remarks at a couple at the adjoining table. The moment was captured by a friend of the couple. In it, Galliano is seen slurring his words, but clearly stating: "I love Hitler" and "People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f****** gassed."


Case dismissed.

A fitting tribute to Arizona, Republicans, and, of course...

Their loathing of women, in a week that was full of it:

An Arizona state senator involved in an apparent freeway-shoulder scuffle with his girlfriend was not detained because he has immunity from arrest while the legislature is in session, police said...

Bundgaard, a Republican and the state senate's majority leader, was allowed to go -- although prosecutors will review the case and could later file charges, Thompson said. Ballard was arrested on suspcion of misdemeanor assault and taken to jail...

Bundgaard said the dispute began on the way home from a charity "Dancing with the Stars" fundraiser, after Ballard accused him of "inappropriately touching" his dance partner.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The plan is

Eventually the craziness just wears you down:

Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death.


It is so insanely malicious and demonstrably wrong it's almost impossible to fashion a response.

Although "Shut up Fuck Face!" will do in a pinch.

Aw dammit!

Why didn't I think of this?

Totally "stooge-like" as ever

Boy that Howard Kurtz is really on top of that Roger Ailes story and the media's coverage of the Wisconsin governor being in the Koch Brothers hip pocket isn't he?

No wonder Twitter has an interesting "similar to..." recommendation.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Dear Mr. President

Pretty frustrated with you of late.


Surprise me. Go to Wisconsin today.

xxx...res

Golly I wonder why

Suddenly Phil Broun is embarassed.

A Georgia Republican said Friday he didn't immediately condemn a constituent who asked about assassinating President Barack Obama because he was stunned by the question and didn't want to dignify it with a response.

Uh-huh.

His office refused to say whether it had audio or video footage of the exchange.


Maybe because it shows many in the crowd, Broun's base, applauding and laughing, including Broun himself.

Stuff You Should See/Read

I saw this at driftglass' place. Don't know when it originally ran, but I thought it was important.


Oh, it also seems like Howard Fineman jumped on the clue train since he went HuffPo (although I supposed it's possible that he learned all of this from Shepherd Smith).

Next verse, same as the first (con't)

LOL:

Newt Gingrich: Obama Could Be Impeached Over Gay Marriage Reversal


...if President Obama doesn't change his mind and order his Justice Department to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, Republicans in Congress should strike back and even consider impeachment proceedings.

"I believe the House Republicans next week should pass a resolution instructing the president to enforce the law and to obey his own constitutional oath, and they should say if he fails to do so that they will zero out [defund] the office of attorney general and take other steps as necessary until the president agrees to do his job," said Gingrich. "His job is to enforce the rule of law and for us to start replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama is a very dangerous precedent."



Yes, Mr. Sanctity of Marriage Guy.

Friday, February 25, 2011

It's a Win-Win!

“At the grossest financial level, it’s just savings. You can cut the government worker, save the salary and still maintain the service, and you’re providing a skill for when [the prisoners] leave.”
Of course when "they leave", there will always be more prisoners to fill the jobs, so there's a bit of a disconnect there, but those are just minor details.


You Stay KKKlassy GOP


Latest in a series:

A person at a Tuesday town hall with Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., got up and asked, "Who is going to shoot President Obama?"

The exact wording of the question is not clear because, the Athens Banner-Herald reports, there was a lot of noise at the event. Perhaps more significant than the question was the response of the crowd and Broun, who is a member of the Tea Party Caucus and one of the most right-wing members of Congress.

The question prompted a "big laugh" from the crowd, in Oglethorpe County, Ga., according to the Banner-Herald. Broun, for his part, did not object to the question.


UPDATE: In fact, he and good part of his audience thought it as awesome.

Mark Farmer of Winterville, Georgia went to the meeting on Tuesday to ask a question about Social Security reform, and said in an e-mail to TPM he was "shocked by the first question and disgusted by the audience response."

"I was gravely disappointed in the response of a U.S. Congressman who also laughed and then made no effort to correct the questioner on what constitutes proper behavior or to in any way distance himself from such hate filled language," Farmer wrote.

Classic Wisconsin

Page out of Joe McCarthy

Within seconds, the digital vote system on the wall announced 51 ayes and 17 nays, and voting was suddenly closed. With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn't had a chance yet to vote.

At that point, the Democrats got up, chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room.

There were many Democrats I spoke to and overheard in the chamber, who said they didn't get a chance to vote, or that they were pushing the "No" button at their desks as hard as they could -- keep in mind that a majority of their 38-member caucus was recorded as casting no votes at all.

Bernie Kerik, the gift that, like a FoxNews' tool, keeps on giving

What is it with FoxNews employees? I ask rhetorically.

After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before.

The investigators had been vetting Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who had been nominated to become homeland security secretary and who had had an affair with Ms. Regan...

The goal ... was to keep the affair quiet and protect the then-nascent presidential aspirations of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani...


Who was this person?

Why it was none other than Roger Ailes!


What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discusses her relationship with Mr. Kerik.

It is unclear whether the existence of the tape played a role in News Corporation’s decision to move quickly to settle Ms. Regan’s lawsuit, paying her $10.75 million in a confidential settlement reached two months after she filed it in 2007.


Well time for the Howard Kurtzs of the world to quietly shuffle this story off the stage.

So paying out more than $10 million on hush money? No wonder Ailes and Bill O'Reilly get along so well.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, February 24, 2011

What's The Matter With Wisconsin?

Bag Men, Dim Bulbs, and Stooges of Many Varieties.

They cannot help themselves

Second verse, same as the first:

Behind the scenes, aides say, talks have taken on an even more ominous tone. According to sources familiar with the discussions, Republican negotiators have said that the only way they could build support within their own party for reducing the size of the cuts -- even in the stopgap measure -- would be to let the government actually shut down.

Truer 140 characters or less never tweeted

This pretty much explains the secret of modern Republicanism

Pretty much make the general public as dumb and ignorant as possible for maximum exploitation:


Gadhafi as Gene Simons as Sgt. Pepper via Hans and Carolyn at flickr.com


This must have been a regular Legion of Doom get together:

Moammar Gadhafi’s regime controls $32 billion in liquid assets around the world, including hundreds of millions of dollars invested in U.S. banks, according to a confidential cable written by the U.S. ambassador to Libya last year. The leaked diplomatic message was distributed through WikiLeaks.

The same cable reported that Libya had been approached by two men accused of running huge Ponzi schemes, Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford, but had resisted offers from them to invest Libyan funds with them.


So he had one up on Citibank.

Meanwhile, in America we give the banksters billions (*shakes fist* CITIBANK!), cut taxes for them - not for you - and bust unions and our elected officials will always be willing to talk to any rich crank any time. So we're obviously awesome.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Late to the Party

But close together and beady-eyed Scott Walker is even dumber than he looks, and he looks incredibly stupid.

The Stupid hurts almost as much as the repulsiveness

Oh lord:

Q: Where were conservatives when the divorce rate got out of hand?

Phyllis Schlafly: They were quietly raising their own families.


Yeah, uh-huh.

Not included for obvious reasons of space, the four Limbaugh wives.

That goddamned meteor never comes!

Oh thank goodness, still too classy for TLC:

Animal Planet has greenlit a series called “Hillbilly Handfishin’,” about an Oklahoma man who teaches city dwellers the excitement catching catfish without the aid of a hook or fishing line


When are they going to start using Puppy Bowl losers for bait (what, too soon?) -- the Schnauzer loses every year, it's the Minnesota Vikings/Buffalo Bills of breeds.

Note, in classic "hillbilly" fashion, catching catfish by hand is also known as "catfisting".

"That's Mr. ****ing Mayor to you you ****ing Mother****er"

Finally Rahm is put in a position where he can triangulate a smaller number of people.

Good luck Windy City.

The New Adventures of the Old Orwellians

Well, surely the public is sure to stay quiet while this bill, this awesome bill, passes.

A Senate proposal that has become known as the Internet "kill switch" bill was reintroduced this week, with a tweak its backers say eliminates the possibility of an Egypt-style disconnection happening in the United States...the name of the bill has been changed to include the phrase "Internet freedom."


It will surely soon turn into a lovely Easter-basket of Freedom, or if you are otherwise inclined perhaps a Passover of Freedom would be more appropriate?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

WORST road-company of EVITA ever!

Qaddafi is speaking in some "Bushian" version of Arabic at this moment. To keep up a recent trend in my YouTube postings it reminds me a bit of this:

But, of course

Naturally the villains of our awesome Iraqi adventures would be teaming up to give Gaddafi (please spell it the way you want, it's apparently unknowable) a makeover.

Richard Perle is the anti-Tom Joad. Wherever there's some thing to make worse, he'll be there...and highly paid.

"...And now the Battle of Pearl Harbor, reenacted by the Women of the Chicopee Townwomens' Guild"



I believe you can see the homage to the original, sans whaletail.

Well, some minor miracles do occur

The Bahrain F1 race gets called off.

Now on to you FIFA and your brilliant placement of the World Cup in 2022 (speaking of kickbacks). Better hope this all works itself out fast.

A more extreme and repellent example

But similar in kind of the relationship between a U.S. Supreme Court justice and unreported payments by conservative money laundering think tanks.

Ciavarella, who took the stand in his own defense, acknowledged to jurors that he failed to report the payments on his tax returns and hid them from the public, but he denied any plot to take kickbacks or extort money.

Well, here's a Wanker of the Day candidate for Atrios


Shorter A.G. Sulzberger

The problem ;people have with Union members is that they don't have to achieve what they have on their merits and through their own hard work and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

Like me.


So, in essence, says the guy who has a job because his daddy runs the paper.

(pic from here)

That's awesome



But somewhere Charles Lane is appalled at your lack of class in refusing to condemn the right of workers to collectively bargain because, after all, he's sure you'd agree with him.

Priorities Congressperson, priorities!

6.3 but worse


Happier days before Christchurch Cathedral (via eguide travel at flickr.com)

As it exist today:


(via @matwiseman at twitter)

The earthquake was a 6.3, but like the Haitian earthquake was very shallow magnifying its intensity at the surface. At least 65 are dead. That will undoubtedly grow, but undoubtedly and thankfully because of better construction will not reach the scale of Haiti's devastation.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Here's some statistics

As the Governor of Wisconsin tries to turn the Badger state into Dixie.

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal.

Their ranking on ACT/SAT scores:
South Carolina - 50th
North Carolina - 49th
Georgia - 48th
Texas - 47th
Virginia - 44th

Wisconsin is currently ranked #2.

Up there with Chuckles the Clown

I'm surprised a 16-ton weight wasn't involved:

A man was shot dead at a Latvian cinema after eating his popcorn too loudly during a screen of Black Swan, according to reports.


I had heard from the Westboro Church there was dangerous munching in that film.






(I apologize in advance)

You don’t matter

With a major protest of the people coalescing around the Union movement in Wisconsin how many labor leaders were on yesterday's chat shows?

Same as usual, zero.

Meanwhile our new Republican Congress has demonstrated its priorities. After voting to prevent funding Planned Parenthood for family planning, the same Congress moved to fund "family planning" for horses.

Good to know where the American people stand with the Republican Party...well not standing really, more prostrate actually.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Forget about this not ending well

The stories about what is happening in Libya right now is absolutely appalling.

Golly

Hard to believe that far more people would show up on the side that is the opposite of the one Joe the Plumber and Andrew Breitbart are on.

Plus, I do love the novelty of "Don't Tread on Me" flags being used to support government against the workin' class.

The governor made things worse for himself by going on CNN and announcing that he had received 19,000 e-mails from the “quiet majority” of Wisconsinites since he made his proposal and claimed that most of them were supportive...

...Mahlon Mitchell, the president of the Wisconsin Professional Firefighters Association, which has been a high-profile participant in the demonstrations, surveyed the crowd while recounting Walker’s boast about the 19,000 e-mails.

“I think I have 19,000 people behind me,” said Mitchell.

Pointing to one edge of the massive audience arrayed before him, he said: “And 20,000 there.”

He pointed to the other edge of the crowd: “And 20,000 there.”

Finally, he pointed down State Street, the thoroughfare that stretches from the Capitol to the University of Wisconsin campus, which was packed with students who have backed the unions: “And 20,000 there.”


Nice job Koch Brothers.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

For God's Sake, Don't Forget Your Camera!

You just know that Teabag Nation will wield some truly awesome signs at today's Wisconsin's rallies. Document the atrocities!

Oh, and the Balloon Juice crew has some excellent video and useful tips for how to handle Breitbart and his scooter brigade.

Americans' War on their own history

Comes to fruition, a Gallup poll for President's Day:



Reagan's been getting a free pass from history that began during his Presidency. Greater than Lincoln, Washington or FDR?

Not even at acting.

And just to be bipartisan, there's no fucking way Clinton is #3 either, nor should Kennedy be 4th.

It's an embarrassment to our own knowledge of well, anything.

But we did help make the Kardasnian's $65 million last year.

Cue Lee Greenwood.

Oh this will be lovely

Apparently Breitbart and his agenda-whores are descending on Madison today to try to pick a fight.

I agree with these tips for those on the scene via Balloon Juice.

So let me see here

The one "victory" for the GOP that somehow helps the economy is defunding Planned Parenthood?

Oh, sorry, that's just being an asshole.

Their next "victory" to helping the economy is breaking unions, because that somehow helps the middle class?

Oops, that's being an asshole too.

And for their final plan "shutting down" the Federal Goverment on March 4, even if it kills some jobs.

Well, that's mighty awesome of 'em.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Reality versus

Misogyny trying to create it's own reality.


Congressman Jackie Speier is a goddamned hero. And she's tougher than pretty much the entire GOP House delegation. Not only for her bravery in the face of the odious misogyny but this little nugget.

Speier served as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of the November 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown with Jones in 1977 and 1978. Speier was one of only two members of the mission who were concerned enough about potential violence to make out a will before traveling to Jonestown. Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While attempting to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.


And I bet douchebags like these Republican congresspersons did nothing but talk shit about her behind her back after this speech.

For no particular reason


I'd like to point out, once again, the 70s were often propelled by the "power of cocaine imagination".

A lot of it.

Megadoses.

Political Protests are one thing


But calling him a foppish Gene Simmons apparently too much!

Actually no joking matter, fresh off becoming a recently declared Bush-buddy, Qaddafi is determined to quash protests the way Syria's Assad family does.

Human Rights Watch yesterday reported that at least 24 demonstrators had been killed in Libya over the last two days, and some speculate that that number could be much higher. In terms of communication and the availability of reliable news, Libya closer resembles North Korea than many of its neighbors.


(pic from here)

Too tired to think of something new to write

But too obsessive/compulsive to not put up a post.

user I do believe we’ve found the GOP’s game plan

Making Democrats flee the state. Is there no lesson of Tom Delay they didn't learn...especially the felonious parts?

And all those rallies of the last few years featuring FoxNews viewers wearing teabags don't seem to carry the weight that a spontaneous demonstration of the traditional Democratic base.



Authorities say an estimated 25,000 people are protesting anti-union legislation at the Wisconsin state Capitol, and nine demonstrators have been arrested.


And we know where a Republican's sympathies lie:


Republican Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan compared the protests in his state's capital to those in Egypt that led to the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.


Pity the poor Despots of the GOP. I guess they've re-modified the revolutionary slogan they used the last couple years already to be "I'll Tread on Thee".

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Breaking News

Apparently all of Wisconsin's Democratic Senators have moved to Eden Prairie, Minnesota and have been signed to play Quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.

Avery Brundage would approve

It would take one hell of a morally depraved group to continue an international sporting event in the wake of a brutal dictatorial crackdown.

But we're talking Formula One hear...so I imagine they'll follow the glorious precedent of the International Olympic Committee which never found a little thing like the slaughter of large numbers of people to be all that important.

Yep, he's our puppet

Another proud day for American foreign policy!

MANAMA, Bahrain — Without warning, hundreds of heavily armed riot police officers rushed into Pearl Square here early Thursday, firing shotguns, tear gas and concussion grenades at the thousands of demonstrators who were sleeping there as part of a widening protest against the nation’s absolute monarchy.

At least five people died, some of them reportedly killed in their sleep with scores of shotgun pellets to the face and chest

And furthermore, don't use Reynold's Wrap on your head!


So Glenn Beck is willing to trust the "fine folks at Goldline" but not use "the Google"?

Because "Google" is a tool of the American Government. First of all, crazy; second, what government does he want to "control" a search engine? That's not very patriotic.

Is he getting sponsored by "Bing"? Lord knows we want to be controlled by Microsoft over any government right? Fuckin' Beck, I bet he owns a goddamn ZUNE and powers his PC with Microsoft-Bob. Or maybe he's still using a Tandy?

That Meteor can strike the earth anytime now

Because I think the rankings of the low points of modern civilization go like this:

1. Hitler
2. Stalin
3. Pol Pot
4. Jim Jones
5. Ted Bundy
6. THIS

Although the order may be debatable.

What?

I'm not a big NBA guy, I mean I dabble, I have some general information about the NBA and the NHL to keep my middle-aged guy certificate up-to-date.

But WTF, the Lakers are now playing so badly they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers?

There is only family to blame:

Thanks for pretending to finally care


Somebody needs to make sure his Q-rating stays high:


Colin Powell, the US secretary of state at the time of the Iraq invasion, has called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain why they failed to alert him to the unreliability of a key source behind claims of Saddam Hussein's bio-weapons capability.


Because the time to do that is definitely eight years later, not before you personally go out and base your case for war upon it.

"It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable," he told the Guardian . "The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA as to why this wasn't known before the false information was put into the NIE sent to Congress, the president's state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN."


Oh it's "delightful" how willfully naive old hands get to appear in this country for the sake of their own reputations. Somehow all the policy-makers are both blameless and guileless in manufacturing this crap at the time. And then they pretend to demand answers a generation later.

This is modern America Mr. Powell, the one you helped make. The Village never looks back on the old lies, they just move on to pushing the new ones.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I wondered about the Matt Taibbi Asshole Supreme Court

But it meets the threshold for being a necessary and humorous evil.

I'd suggest Clarence Thomas join, but then again maybe he's on it and just never says a fucking thing, like usual.

Too bad he's not Oprah


It is apparently Kim Jong-Il's 69th Birthday today (fill in your own dirty damn joke!).

It should be a festive occasion, full of all manner of shades of gray. I understand everyone gets a free ration of ramen. What do you get the man that owns everything?

Woo-hoo!

Let's just make it even worse

The fact that Laura Logan was sexually assaulted is bad enough (and the fact rapes are common across all faiths and cultures sucks obviously) but the reaction of some to it just adds to the general horror.

...the ever-heinous Debbie Schlussel was quick to jump on her regular line of racism, noting how the assault happened in a "country of savages," because that never ever happens anywhere else, and it's never committed by light-skinned people! She then twisted the knife by going after Logan herself, saying, "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation.'" Debbie Schlussel, what's it like to be so liberated from the burden of having either a mind or a soul?


So in summary Schlussel believes no America, nay, Christian society has ever had a rape problem.

Now that's some ignorant depravity.

The Banality of James Cameron

Somewhere Glenn Beck is fainting...about something else, but he'll get to this eventually.

The NAZIS made 3D movies.

They had been previously ignored because they had been labled as "space films" instead of 3D ones. Oddly enough one film, a musical titled So Real You Can Touch It, featured shots of sizzling Bratwurst.


Of course, like Werner Von Braun, the United States (and/or Canada) eventually took advantage of one the pioneers of this technology:

Truth finally puts on its dockers, few notice


He's pretty much been known as a liar for years, but the Guardian newspaper (one of those foreign publications that practices journalism as opposed to repeating what someone tweets) landed an interview with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, aka "Curveball", the man who's lies about Saddam's WMD program the Bush Administration used to sell the war. See interview excerpts here. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's coverage of "curveball" is found in Thomas Boswell's baseball column.

It was quite the mutually beneficial and deceitful arrangement between al-Janabi his German intelligence handlers [the BND], the British and the U.S.

He portrays the BND as gullible and so eager to tease details from him that they gave him a Perry's Chemical Engineering Handbook to help communicate. He still has the book in his small, rented flat in Karlsruhe, south-west Germany.

"They were asking me about pumps for filtration, how to make detergent after the reaction," he said. "Any engineer who studied in this field can explain or answer any question they asked."


When you see the interview, you'll notice that "Curveball" has something in common with his boosters in the Bush Administration. He has few regrets, not about the lies and the needless deaths, but about the loss of some of his conveniences, like his German Government supplied cellphone.

Oh, sorry he actually lost "something" because he lied and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. That's something that hasn't happened to anyone from the Bush Administration.

Moving right along...how about that Iran?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Some justice


Though one wonders just how apeshit right-wingers would go if this involved a "mexican" drug gang instead of some asshole right-winger:

On Monday, a jury in Tucson found former beautician Shawna Forde guilty of killing nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul in a bizarre paramilitary raid on the Flores home in 2009. Forde, the leader of a group called "Minutemen American Defense," is what you might call an anti-immigration activist, if you include murdering fourth-graders under your definition of "activism"


And it gets even worse:

Brisenia Flores was gunned down at point-blank range in her own home in Flores, Arizona, as her terrified mother Gina Gonzalez, who had also been hit, played dead on the floor.

She sobbed as the court was told how she had heard Brisenia's desperate pleas as her killer stood over her.

'I can hear it happening,' Mrs Flores told the court describing how her daughter said: 'Why did you shoot my dad? Why did you shoot my mum?'

'I can hear her telling him to "please don't shoot me."'

That seems impractical


Although it would make the time hiding from depth charges more entertaining considering the cargo. Das Blow

/colombian drug lords did the sensible—and trendy—thing: they spent 4,000 million pesos (approx $2.2 million) to build their own drug-trafficktacular submersible.


I seem to recall a cheaper version of a submarine being available during my childhood...and I'm sure it was completely legit.


(first pic via REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga, second from here)

Must be the Muslim Brotherhood

Oh dear,



That's a terrible headline, but a far worse job task.

Somebody call in Bobby Jindal

He's the expert and needs to tell us what it all means!

The second largest earthquake since Mount St. Helens erupted -- a magnitude 4.3 shaker -- rocked a fault line six miles north of the volcano Monday morning. People felt it as far away as Astoria, Lake Oswego, Hood River and even Bremerton, Wash., near Seattle.

The roosting of destiny's poultry

Democratic protests are one thing in Egypt, but not there:

In the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, thousands of demonstrators marched to call for reforms to their hereditary monarchy and clashed with police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. In Yemen, a key U.S. counterterrorism ally, government supporters armed with sticks and knives attacked pro-democracy demonstrators calling for the ouster of the country's dictatorial president, in the fourth straight day of protests in that troubled Arab nation.


But these oppressive dictatorships are our "freedom friends"! Just like Egypt.

And in Bahrain the first middle eastern nation found to have oil...and the first to see it start to run out...these protests threaten something truly important. Ironic symbolism, the year's first F1 race.

So world's eyes now turn to you Daytona.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, February 14, 2011

Fair and Balanced all around

Excluding all Democrats isn't just for FoxNews anymore:

ABC's "This Week" - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Reps. John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Bobby Schilling, R-Ill.; Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Egyptian-American scholar and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail

"Fox News Sunday" - Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.


I guess "scholar" and "Nobel Laureate" equals "liberal".

Oh and thank goodness we got John McCain's analysis once again. We never get to see or hear that guy otherwise.

Uh, so I guess you're just there to play golf, drink and get a tan


I suppose the occasional fuck is on the list too:

"It's not my job to tell the American people what to think."


Or to think apparently.

(pic from here)

What could be more romantic? Well, maybe a paper cut.



Via here, an actual ad for pro-flowers:




















Wouldn't this be more accurate?

Upholding a fine tradition of Democracy

Who else but John Bolton could give us such a fine summary of why the GOP is worse than even the blue dogs as summarized by TBogg:

Democratic elections are only a good thing when they result in our guy winning


My Goodness the voters will be made up of Muslims and "weird" Christians, we cannot have that.

Bolton's solution, let Israeli's vote only...and then force his wife to take part in the sex party afterwards.

Oh by all means run for President.

I guess they knew where to find him

Normally out in the world there are so many rocks he could potentially crawl under, but there wasn't much doubt this weekend where you could find Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew Breitbart, the owner of several conservative Web sites, was served at the [CPAC] conference on Saturday with a lawsuit filed by Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department employee who lost her job last year over a video that Mr. Brietbart posted at his site biggovernment.com.


While small violins played metaphorically...

Mr. Breitbart said in a statement that he “categorically rejects the transparent effort to chill his constitutionally protected free speech.”


As was likely true of most things at CPAC this must be the work of the Muslim Brotherhood.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Joe McCarthy would approve

Somebody thinks they're a better tyrant than Mubarak:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Friday that he was willing to mobilize the state's National Guard force in order to address the potential repercussions of his stated proposal to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state employees.


Well Wisconsin, you asked for it.

Personally, as a Minnesotan, I choose to blame the Packers organization.

Well, this is better

Mubarak is gone and though obviously all the credit should go to the brave protesters of Cairo and other Egyptian cities but compared to how John McCain any other Republican or even Hillary Clinton would have handled the matter are President, I'm glad it was Obama over them.

Last Saturday afternoon, President Obama got a jarring update from his national security team: With restive crowds of young Egyptians demanding President Hosni Mubarak’s immediate resignation, Frank G. Wisner, Mr. Obama’s envoy to Cairo, had just told a Munich conference that Mr. Mubarak was indispensable to Egypt’s democratic transition.

Mr. Obama was furious, and it did not help that his secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Wisner’s key backer, was publicly warning that any credible transition would take time — even as Mr. Obama was demanding that change in Egypt begin right away.

Seething about coverage that made it look as if the administration were protecting a dictator and ignoring the pleas of the youths of Cairo, the president “made it clear that this was not the message we should be delivering,” said one official who was present. He told Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to take a hard line with his Egyptian counterpart, and he pushed Senator John Kerry to counter the message from Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Wisner when he appeared on a Sunday talk show the next day.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

And of course his hands are totally clean

Mitch Daniels, now Governor of Indiana at CPAC:

"I refer, of course, to the debts our nation has amassed for itself over decades of indulgence," he added. "It is the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink."


Daniels previous job was as George Bush's budget director, where a huge surplus was turned into a gigantic deficit.

Not that it's anyone's fault but the Democrats, of course.

I imagine Broder got what passes as a chubby for him over this.

But, of course

How could it possibly be otherwise?

A producer of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" reality series is listed in an application seeking film production tax credits from the state.

The heavily redacted 2010 document names Maria Baltazzi as executive producer of the unidentified production.

The Alaska Film Office does not disclose specifics about productions seeking tax credits until final approval. The Palin show, which debuted in November, is not among those listed as approved by the office.

If the Palin series tapped into the tax credit program, it would mean the show would retroactively be subsidized by the state.


Bill Baby Bill!

Just Dbags being Dbags I guess

Being allowed to complain about our corporate kleptocracy is just passe I guess.

...underhanded and surreptitious campaign waged by a lobbying firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing association representing big business. The report detailed how Hunton & Williams, a lobbying firm hired by the Chamber, solicited “private security” companies to investigate the Chamber’s political opponents, including ThinkProgress, the labor coalition Change to Win, SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com. Their tactics included planting false documents, creating fake personas, and targeting opponents’ families and children.


It would be wrong to speculate one of our frequent trolls is on the payroll, it would be wrong not to. You'd just think they'd take more pride in their work.

Friday, February 11, 2011

So, just another day ending in "Y"



And the audience continues to shrink.

Congratulations

To Driftglass and Blue Gal two lefty bloggers brought together by their mutual love of linking (which sounds kind of dirty).

May they be happy...and if they so choose, have future obsessive compulsive tweeters together...or not, I'm not here to judge, direct or watch (I'm not a Republican Congressman).

I, of course, maintain my determination to court ladies only through chain letters. But I'm old-fashioned in that way.

Naturally

You must work yourself to death:

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told the House Budget Committee on Thursday that the health care law will reduce employment by 0.5 percent by 2021 because some people will no longer have to work just to afford health insurance.


This is held out by the GOP as "job killing" naturally.

Why spend money on infrastructure?

This is why:

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A thunderous gas explosion devastated a rowhouse neighborhood, killing five people, and suspicion fell on an 83-year-old cast-iron gas main. The fiery blast was latest natural-gas disaster to raise questions about the safety of the nation's aging, 2.5-million-mile network of gas and liquid pipelines.

Surprised and Stunned, I'm sure


Did you hear that the self-proclaimed self-made man who was the son of a really really wealthy guy spoke before a bunch of conservatives yesterday?

It's true.

Hard to believe.

I bet he then left to speak to a convention of bankers about how awesome it is to blackmail your way into being bailed out of pending bankruptcy, repeatedly. They learned it all from him.

Only in America.

(pic from here)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, February 10, 2011

What we gave all that bailout money for...

An internet clown-car full of self-entitled fail.

I have to agree with John Cole's summary, though I don't really know Glenn Greenwald:

Knowing Glenn, I bet what angers him the most is the quality of his enemies. Really? The road to riches is advocating for someone the majority of the country thinks is a traitor? How stupid do you have to be to believe this shit? That has to be a let-down to know that you are up against a clown car full of wingnut internet sleuths who can’t even figure out the basics about you. It’s like learning that you thought your arch-rival was Ernst Blofeld but is actually Andy Dick.



Oh, and Bank of America's crusade against criticism gets even more melodramatically and malevolently funnier (via a h/t from Jane Hamsher):


"Bank of America has snapped up hundreds of abusive domain names for its senior executives and board members in what is being perceived as a defensive strategy against the future publication of damaging insider info from whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. According to Domain Name Wire, the US bank has been aggressively registering domain names including its board of directors' and senior executives' names followed by 'sucks' and 'blows.'"

There's really only one thing to say...

"Hello, Ladies..."

Cavs were favored to win tonight.

How'd that go?

Oh, nobody could have predicted.

Cavaliers tie Tampa Bay Buccaneers' record for professional sports futility

Hey, leave him alone he already caved

And I'm not talking about Mubarak:

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told U.S. President Barack Obama that his country would prop up Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak if the United States withdrew its aid programme, The Times said on Thursday.


The Times also added:

America’s closest ally in the Gulf made clear that the Egyptian President must be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition towards peaceful democracy and then leave with dignity.


Because who knows more about how to properly foster "democracy" and "dignity" than the House of Saud? A family that named a country after themselves and treats democracy like it treats pornography.

Hand-holding photo sure to follow.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

I apologize,


Not just for Steve King, but for the entire state of Iowa.



And these are the people that somehow will manage to remember to breathe for the next year until they convene in Caucus to select their exemplar of stupid as their Presidential candidate.

Now you know why, as an Iowan, I'm counting on you New Hampshire.

I'm tired of all this partisan rancor

Can't we all unite and condemn the new Gawker-media format as sucking?!

Oh they're just bein' cagey

Those SCARY MUSLIMS!!!! Made scary because someone said so.... BOO!

The Muslim Brotherhood said Wednesday it will promote democracy in Egypt but does not intend to field a candidate for president.

Shocking, I know

Incompetence on a grand scale seems to lead to promotion in the CIA.

Competence seems to get you outed by Cheney and company.

B(eyond) P(arody)


Oh BP was there no bit of moral turpitude beyond your grasp last year? Guy in jail for killing 270 people by bombing a jet over Lockerbie, Scotland pales in comparison to an oil drilling deal:

BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, successfully lobbied the government to get Al-Megrahi included in a prisoner transfer agreement after the Libyans warned they would pull out of deals if he were left out.


And helping out, naturally:

British government ministers secretly advised Libya on how to get convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi released from a life sentence in a Scottish prison, American documents published by WikiLeaks allege.


But there was nothing "improper" about this somehow.

We cannot let the little matter of international terrorism and mass murder get in the way of our precious corporate profits -- that's what limiting peoples' civil liberties are for.

Good thing the American government doesn't do stuff like this (casual whistling ensues). And that last statement is true because being an American, history usually matters only when it can be used on various sports teams' message boards, or worshiping a version of the "founders" they'd laugh at three-fifths of the time. Besides, we'll never get to see those Cheney Energy Task Force notes anyway.

(photo via Ian Tait at flickr.com)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Blackout

Not this shit again

Re-writing history and cults simultaneously Republicans fantasize about Reagan on Mount Rushmore:

"Is he of that stature? The answer is yes," said Grover Norquist, chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project. "Reagan was the most successful president of the twentieth century. He took a country that was in economic collapse and militarily in retreat around the globe and turned it completely around."


Yeah, he was so much more successful than that complete failure Franklin Roosevelt. All that SOB FDR did is prevent a revolution, restore the economy, create social security, the minimum wage, and help win the greatest military conflict in world history from his wheelchair. What a douche!

Tell you what Grover, let's compromise, there's a mountain carving in the Philippines that would do the trick, it just needs to be touched up a tad* and it will look just like your guy.

Peggy Noonan can go there an rub herself raw below it.


*well, maybe more than just a tad.

Looks like Newt is scopin' out new hotties

As old ones, if their good enough for Reagan...




The latest "Mrs. Gingrich" has the far-away look of a long-time hostage...but then again peroxide poisoning will do that to a person as it soaks through the roots.

Drugs are powerful things

Must have been quite the Super Bowl Party at the freak's house.



And then the blackboards closed in around him before he could wield his +2 Staff of Imbecility.

America's Concern Troll

Democracy is just not worthy of the swarthy heathens...and I don't know how the Obama Administration couldn't see this coming.

And I speak as a man who gives out awards, ironically, for not foreseeing things.

Hey, could be more ironic, I could give them out for writing skills.

So, we're learning new things about Egypt

Over at FoxNews.

Man, I'm going to miss the Guggenheim and the slightly less interesting half of Niagara Falls.

Meanwhile, some folks are going to be thrown overboard in an attempt to right the sinking ship:

Egypt's Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud issued a travel ban for a handful of former ministers as well as a prominent member of the ruling National Democratic Party.

The bank accounts and assets of those barred from leaving the country have also been frozen, according to reports.

Ex-interior minister Habib El-Adly, former housing minister Ahmed El-Maghrabi and former tourism minister Zoheir Garannah are among those banned from travel.


And if this is accurate, no amount of bailing will ever save the regime.

But I guess we can still blame the Muslim Brotherhood no matter what.

(pic via Alex Pareene at Salon)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, February 07, 2011

It has to be said

Congrats Wisconsin, you'll always lead my home state of Minnesota by a considerable margin in three things; dive bars, serial killers, and NFL Titles.

Pepsi Max ad strategy

Let's see the "mis(ses)"

1. The "evils" of "Mis"cegenation

2. The awesomeness of "Mis"ogony.


Sloppy and lazy reinforcement of stereotypes suitable for the hosts of Top Gear, or Reagan's birthday.

Shorter Fred Hiatt

If only Obama had bombed a few more countries....

Vicarious Eating

Oh, if only they had been grapes. That's how you maintain those body issues ladies.



Oh, and feel free to boo how "W" continues to be the world's free-loader. No wonder Madden is exchanging junk pictures with Brett Favre and keeping his distance from Condi.

Meanwhile, no one at EBay has met my reserve price of a buck-fifty

And to think not even the Koch Brothers are willing to underwrite K-Lo's virginity blog.

The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country, is being acquired by AOL in a deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants.

The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock.

Important Thought

Performing at the Super Bowl Halftime is the pop-music equivalent of hosting the Oscars.

You may have heard of this guy...


In a bit of cloying irritation Fox and the NFL managed to salute the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan yesterday during the pre-game festivities to the Super Bowl.

And why not, after all who better to salute the Gipper than another group of billionaires who are going to lock-out their workers and get people to call it a strike?

As Charles Pierce noted, the Super Bowl occurred just prior to January 30th, 1982 the Centennial of Franklin Roosevelt's birth, and that was met with crickets. But then all he did is guide the nation through a Depression and the Second World War.

But he never made a movie with a Chimp so I guess he'll just have to settle for being a far greater President than Reagan.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Carpe Diem!!

Don't just watch the Puppy Bowl, follow the tweets of those watching the Puppy Bowl!!!

How surprising


Cheney's "come hither" eyes say it all.

The same people who call Obama arrogant

Probably think it is awesome that Sarah Palin is trying to trademark, "Sarah Palin".

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Of course she is...

Not that anyone will ever look into it.

Nice job with your tax dollars

Maybe Mubarak should have been advising various pension boards?

He's managed to take those military contracts we've paid him over the years and turn those kickbacks into tens of billions while his people are dirt poor.

Oh, and he and his family own a lot of Chili's Restaurants (I bet Karzai has his in Applebees).