More than just a little creepy

Although this is obviously a lot better than other traditional forms of religious disputes...like, oh, murder, it's both disrespectful and creepy -- not bigamy between an old man and a 13-year old girl creepy -- but rather "hey I'll look in my hat and see the Angel Maroni telling me I'm the awesomest kind of New-fangled White Native American" creepy -- well, maybe creepier than that.

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice...

Baptism by proxy allows faithful Mormons to have their ancestors baptized into the 178-year-old church, which they believe reunites families in the afterlife.

Using genealogy records, the church also baptizes people who have died from all over the world and from different religions. Mormons stand in as proxies for the person being baptized and immerse themselves in a baptismal pool.

Hey, they're dead, they won't mind if they posthumously have the religion they were killed for holding as fucked-up, no biggie. Trivializing genocide, no problem -- just make a clerical alteration and voila, makes it all worth getting gassed, shot or garroted en masse, lucky Jews.

I'm not religious, but still something about this really pissed me off the more I started writing about this.

Here we go!

This is 100% the truth, Barney Frank mentioned that the defense department budget HAS to be slashed by at least a quarter.

It does indeed:

A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is "not sustainable," and he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs.

The briefings were prepared by the Defense Business Board, an internal management oversight body. It contends that the nation's recent financial crisis makes it imperative that the Pentagon and Congress slash some of the nation's most costly and troubled weapons to ensure they can finance the military's most pressing priorities.

Those include rebuilding ground forces battered by multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and expanding the ranks to wage the war on terrorism.

"Business as usual is no longer an option," according to one of the internal briefings prepared in late October for the presidential transition, copies of which were provided to the Globe. "The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action."

The briefings do not specify which programs should be cut, but defense analysts say that prime targets would probably include the new F-35 fight er jet, a series of Navy ship programs, and a massive Army project to build a new generation of ground combat vehicles, all of which have been skyrocketing in cost and suffering long development delays.

Such cuts would affect the New England economy. General Dynamics builds warships and submarines in Maine and Connecticut, while Raytheon, Massachusetts' largest employer, is involved in numerous weapons programs from ships to missile defenses and satellites.

It is NOT an option. And that self-proclaimed great patriot John McCain is going to have to get on board -- but sadly I'm doubtful that he or the GOP will. It will be all "soft on defense" as they make the Obama Administration do it itself -- and if you don't think Lieberman is going to wank wank and wank some more on this issue, well just keep hugging that bong.

The Better Angels of our Nature

Olbermann's Special Comment on California's Proposition 8 and it's passage, revoking gay marriage.

Powerful and dead-on right.

"Mind if I horn in on this picture"

"It'll help ya' with your popularitiness."

(photo from the Great Orange Satan)

Banned Words of 2009™ (Era of Obama Edition)

Because it's never too early to put the world on notice...

1. Superdelegate
2. Bitter
3. Presumptuous
4. Denounce/Disavow/Renounce/Reject/Repudiate
5. Surge
6. PUMA
7. Lunchpail voter
8. Subprime
9. Miley Cyrus
10. Clinton (either of em), Lanny Davis, Harold Ickes, Howard Wolfson
11. Vet/Vetted/Vetting
12. POW (pansypoo)
13. Staycation (Anonymous)
14. Hockey Mom (Athenawise)
15. Main Street, not Wall Street (h/t HoneyBearKelly)
16. Bipartisan (Disgusted in St. Louis )
17. Maverick (doubledraft in comments)
18. Bailout
19. Fannie/Freddie
20. Game-changer/changing (The Kenosha Kid)
21. Optics (watertiger)
22. "My friends.." (h/t Brooklyn Girl)
23. Joe Sixpack (Gummo and KnightErrant from comments), Joe Lieberman, Joe The Plumber
24. Race Card (h/t HoneyBearKelly)
25. Robocall
26. Cougar (Anonymous from comments)
27. Poll ("Tracking" or otherwise) (Attaturk from comments)
28. Socialist
29. ACORN/Ayers
30. Nicole Wallace, Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt
31. Center-Right Nation (Major Woody, in comments)
32. Gotcha Journalism
33. Bradley Effect (DanF, in comments)
34. You Betcha (dan mcenroe from comments)
35. Pit bull, lipstick, lipstick on a pig (or a pit bull) (Gummo, from comments)
36. Islamofacist
37. Ground Game (mofo monday from comments)
38. Straight Talk (Jack K, the Grumpy Forester, from comments)
39. Govern from the center (atrios, kinda, but not in comments)

Add yours in comments

Speakin' of Sloppy Joes

It's Joe the Curser!



I propose replacing Scarborough with Charles Rocket!

The last time Barnicle had that look on his face, he'd been caught fabricating stories.

White House Schedule: November 10, 2008

Agenda from White House Press Office:

I. Meeting with the President Elect:

A. Noon - 12:05 p.m. Photographs Between Emperor & Hopey McSmilesalot

B. 12:05 p.m. to 1 p.m. The President and President-Elect in Oval Office

i. 12:05 p.m. to 12:58 p.m. President tells story of Oval Office Rug

ii. 12:59 p.m. President tells President Elect how much Barney loves strangers who reach out and try to grab him.

iii. 12:59 to 1 p.m. President discusses magic "sloppy-joe orderin' button"

iv. 1 p.m. to 1:02 p.m. President asks if President-Elect has heard the
Oval Office Rug Story yet?

v. 1:02 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sloppy Joes!

vi. 1:31 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Vice President visits, talks about how he voted against King Holiday. Tells different version of Oval Office Rug story.

vi. 2:00 p.m. President-Elect Departs

C. 2:00 pm. to 2:05 p.m. Hand cleansing

D. 2:06 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Repeated Crank Calls to Sedona, Arizona.

The Audacity of Dope

Obama visits the White House today, how's the Chimperor Disgustus going to handle it?

“President Bush is a realist,” said this friend, who spoke anonymously to disclose his private conversation with the president. “He has a way of coming to grips with things and moving on. The people have spoken.”

Um, what?

Well, I'll give them this, Bush and his supporters have been consistent.

Heh, indeedski

Hey, looks like someone can hear Sarah Palin from their porch on short-wave radio:

"Someone regarded by the (American) Republican right as a crypto-communist has become the leader of the world's greatest power ... and al Qaeda are rubbing their hands with glee that the new president wants peace, not war," Artur Gorski of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party told parliament last week.

"The black messiah of the new left has crushed the Republican candidate John McCain, and America will soon pay a high price for this quirk of democracy," he added.

"Obama is an approaching catastrophe. This marks the end of white man's civilisation," he said in an address.

But it was all just a misunderstanding...

Gorski later apologised, saying his comments were strictly political, not racist.

Hey, buddy, at least we don't have Warsaw's version of the Olson Twins running our country (I love kielbasa on the grill, pierogis are a thrill...AND TWINS!). Nope, we let one family drive the country into the ditch one Bush at a time!

Oh, wait...

(pic from here)

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Shorter Bill Kristol - "I still got nothing"

There is light at the end of the tunnel for conservatives...and I admit, it's a goddamned train.

And speaking of spaying and neutering, let's talk puppies.

(pic from The Talent Show)

I think we all remember the moving sight of

The flag raising on Mount Squirrelbachi.

And yes, that one does hurt.

[Watertiger shot first...like Han]

(AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

Elections have Consequences

Good!

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

MATLOCK!!!

Ugh!

Shorter Broder:

I know Obama and the Democrats kicked ass, but let me sing the praises of 4 Republicans who won reelection.

One by not actually governing like a Republican and three in those notable long-time progressive strongholds of Mississippi, Utah and Indiana.

Jeebus, Broder, retire already.

How Plans Are Being Made By Me To Impact On The World

Look, I know the point is (at least temporarily) moot, and that millions of people smarter and more clever than me have meditated on the GOP's very special brand of mendacity and ignorance (willful and otherwise) and how it reached its apotheosis (at least for the time being) in the form of Simple Sarah Palin, but I have to share a bit more with you. Is this even English?

“Now we kick in that fiscal conservativeness that needs to be engaged and we progress this state with $57-a-barrel oil,” [Palin] said. She said the state would have to “be prudent with public dollars and provide services more efficiently than have ever been provided in the state of Alaska before.”

Whatever you do, Sarah, don't close the public libraries you hate so much. You could do with a few more hours inside them. Sheesh! The woman speaks some weird dialect with roots in MBA neologisms and ten-second beauty pageant "How plans are being made by me to impact on the world" manifestos.

I told you they were kindred spirits.

"Whatever Scares You the Most"

This is funny:



Thank you, driftglass.

Cake AND Icing

Wow, I just read at John Cole that this jackass is in line to lead the House Republicans? You know, I'm trying not to get all puffed up, what with president-elect Barack Obama, the increased Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the impending smackdown of Joe Lieberman, and the coming civil war in the Republican party, but these guys are just making it too easy.



P.S. Have we found an opponent for Bachman in 2010 yet? I'm not giving up on that fight.

The irony is thick in this one

I, of course, am delighted they didn't win -- but I, for one, will be sad when they stop throwing the knives at each other:

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska fired back Friday at the unnamed McCain campaign aides who have been maligning her in recent days, saying that their criticism was “cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks.”

Meanwhile, apparently they welcomed her back with leftover "baby shower" material. True, with that family you have to stock up -- especially now that Todd is astride his snow machine in silk boxers.

Flip flopping already

Gail Collins:

In the fervor of the final week of the campaign, [Lindsey] Graham basically promised to drown himself if Barack Obama took North Carolina. When I wrote that we did not really expect Graham to follow through, a number of readers took exception.

People please, Lindsey isn't going to fake drown until it's lifeguard season.

She did have a good line about Lieberman though:

...the most Lieberman accomplished with months and months of nonstop campaigning was to push McCain support in his home state of Connecticut to 38 percent. Treachery is bad, but inept treachery is easier to get over.

Puttin' Up & Shuttin' Up

So last week, we made some predictions. And now that all the votes are in, we're left with a final (okay, provisional) electoral tally as follows:

Barack Obama: 365
John McCain: 175

So who won -- and, more importantly -- what did they win?

Well, no one guessed 365, but a couple of you guessed 364.

Attaturk was in for 364. Unfortunately, whether out of sheer laziness or an assumption that we could read his mind, he failed to provide a breakout of states to get him to said 364, so he's out.

racymind was also in for 364, specifing "Kerry states + IA,NM,OH,FL,VA,CO,NC,MO,NV" and "( Also the current MyDD map)". Since I don't know what MyDD map she's referring to, I'm disqualifying her. :-) Kidding. In any case, as it turned out, IN -- and not MO -- proved the shocker on election night. That said, racymind needn't fret. She loses, but she remains, as always, too cool for school.

jac picked 364, too. I'm going to assume that when he said "Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia" that he meant to put the words "Kerry states plus" before that list. Well, like racymind, he doubted IN and so he's out, too.

karin didn't expressly state a number, but listed CA,CO,CT,DC,DE,FL,HI,IA,IL,IN,MA,MD,
ME,MI,MN,NH,NC,NJ,NM,NV,NY,OH,OR,PA, RI,VA,VT,WA,WI as her picks. This -- plus today's one electoral vote from the great city of Omaha, Nebraska -- gets her closest.

Karin, my friends, is the winner.

Now, what should we give her? Suggestions in comments, please.

The Election is just the Beginning

While thinking about the election results I have had these thoughts:

The assumtion that Obama would win along with majorities of Democrats in both houses has been established.  I assume that what Obama and the Democrats will be restrained by are myths about "lack of money" and by the conservative segment of Democrats in Congress.  I assume that few people think we can organize a mass movement at this time to advocate meaningful social and political change in an era of possibly unprecedented and governmental realignment.

I assume, rather optimistically, that a large number of people, especially young people and people of color, were activated by the election campaign and that some of them are interested in continuing to be active even now that the election is over.

In this situation what can progressives do to advance the cause of fundamental reform  in the U.S.?

I suggest trying to organize local activists to fight to move the Obama administration to the causes of people not corporations  on specific issues:

1) Government action for full employment and stopping the economic downturn, asserting a "RIGHT TO A JOB" as a basic human right. This should be based on a willingness to engage in very large deficit spending, on the scale of the bailout to the banks already adopted. to support local government in avoiding layoffs, to support infrastructure repairs and improvements, and to develop renewable energy sources.

2) Government creation of a single-payer universal health insurance system asserting a "RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE" as a basic human right. The system should eliminate the wasteful private insurance companies and replace them by "Medicare for all." with its much lower cost and its elimination of exclusions based on "prior conditions." The claim that "entitlements" to medical care will create "unaffordable deficits" in the future is nonsense in an economy capable of doubling the real GNP in a generation, as it did in the period 1946-1976.

3) Government action to insure affordable housing for all, by government guarantee and where necessary subsidy for mortgages to those who want to buy housing, and a large increase in the Section 8 subsidies for rental housing, which is vital for those likely to have to move to maintain employment or who can't afford mortgage payments at their stage of life. The "RIGHT TO HOUSING"  should be clearly demanded. This should include a "housing first" policy for the homeless, regardless of their problems; if their problems involve mental health, drug abuse, or lack of job skills they should have the right to treatment for these conditions but should not be thrown onto the streets for failure to get treatment.

4) The "RIGHT TO UNIONIZE" should be made a reality by adopting the policies currently advocated by the unions, and Federal policy should preempt the ability of state laws to restrict unionization.

These seem to be the high priority rights which the public opinion polls show are popularly supported; there are no doubt other domestic programs which could be made the basis for mass organization of pressure on Congress. On all these issues the people who were activated by the election could be kept active by programs of making demands on Congress and the Obama administration. On all of these issues we can find members of Congress who are willing to stick their neck out with such "radical" reformist laws and appropriations - e.g. Barney Frank on housing, Dermott on single-payer health, and so on. Pressure should be directed at the local Representatives and the Senators, but support should also be directed to particularly active Congress members who can lead on these issues.