Yeah, I know - the Bushies felt exempt from normal standards of accountability and didn't think they'd ever have to show their work. But doesn't the Mafia, or a typical large urban drug operation, run the bureaucracy with more attention to detail, just out of pure self-interest?
On Larry King Live, the Lauratron 3000 said she was offended by Obama's critiques of her husband, and took them personally.
I guess love really is blind.
And George said that "during the course of this presidency, I've been disappointed at times by the silly name-calling that goes on in Washington - it's really not necessary."
Yes it is, Clueless George of the Bungle.
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Religion as behavior modification: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0EQlQXoEo&eurl=http://blog.badtux.net/
One of the arguments for religion is behavior modification - the notion that religion moderates the behavior of people who would otherwise do bad things. The above song, a rather unique stomp-clap version of God's Gonna Cut You Down, is a perfect example of that argument for religion. Bad people, the song says, should behave because otherwise God will send you to Hell. And if you're a good person, you shouldn't feel bad that bad people won't get what they deserve here on Earth, because God'll cut them down sooner or later and send them to Hell, so there.
The problem, though, is that it just doesn't work. Priests and reverends diddling children, mullahs calling for death to the infidel, Jewish rabbis calling for the extermination of Palestinians as "cockroaches", Christians bombing abortion clinics... the problem being that the people that religion is supposed to control simply do not believe the precepts of the religion, and instead re-write the religion to say what they want it to say, whether that's killing Jews for Jesus during the Spanish Inquisition, killing Christians for Allah in today's Iraq, whatever. Instead, they use religion as behavior control to do bad things on a mass scale. The Holocaust was perpetrated by a Christian nation, after all, and Adolph Hitler opposed atheism as official Nazi policy, instead using religion as part of his spur to get Germans to do what he wanted.
Furthermore, by removing the pressure to punish people here on Earth, religion can actually increase injustice here on Earth. If there is a bad man in your community, a Sheriff who kills disabled prisoners charged with minor crimes like public drunkenness for example because he refuses to provide proper care for them, what will get more justice - him getting indicted for murder and sent to his own jail, or waiting for him to die and go to Hell? Right now, a lot of the people just shrug and say, "God'll cut him down sooner or later." But what if they did not believe in any religion? Then they would have incentive to make sure justice was done now, not many years from now - and many prisoners otherwise killed by this Sheriff would live.
In short, religion has no positive effect on human behavior, and possibly even some negative effect insofar as it allows people to excuse injustice with "oh well, he'll go to Hell when he dies so it doesn't matter." One thing you have to say about atheists, is at least they've never used religion to motivate people to exterminate other people. Granted, some atheists have been nasty folks - e.g., Josef Stalin. But all that goes to say is that religion doesn't seem to have any effect on whether people do bad things, and thus the argument that religion serves to get better behavior from human beings is just so much bunkum. Choose religion for some other reason - fellowship, recreation, or really tasty herring, for example - not because you think religion will make you a better person. Because it won't. The behavior modification argument for religion simply does not fly.
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HBO airing the inauguration!
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Bush VS Yellowstone Wildlife
Winter in Yellowstone National Park is breathtaking in its stillness, solitude and beauty. Yet the park is not always the peaceful sanctuary it appears to be. This winter, Yellowstone's iconic wildlife -- wild buffalo, wolves and grizzly bears -- are suffering greatly after eight years of disastrous policies championed by the Bush Administration and the surrounding states. "As soon as President-elect Obama takes office, we'll be calling on his interior secretary for a more sustainable, ecosystem-based approach for protecting the park's struggling wildlife populations," says Louisa Willcox, senior wildlife advocate in NRDC's Montana office.
"But right now we've got our hands full trying to prevent serious, eleventh-hour damage that an Obama Administration could find difficult to reverse."
A shot of tequila for people and groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council for keeping an eye on the Bush bastards as they do their best to soil our finest national parks.
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"Don't tell me (my response to Katrina) was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed." - The angry Decider, lying about his quick response. Link
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Exposed: Prop. 8 part of 'Christian Taliban's' move to make Bible the law
Ahmanson is a Christian Reconstructionist, a devout follower of the late R.J. Rushdoony, who advocated the replacement of the U.S. Constitution with the most extreme precepts of the Old Testament, including the execution - preferably by stoning - of homosexuals, adulterers, witches, blasphemers, and disobedient children.
Ahmanson himself has stated, "My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives."
As absurd as this Reconstructionist agenda may seem, the success of Proposition 8 demonstrates the ability of what is sometimes called the "Christian Taliban" to pursue its covert objectives behind the screen of seemingly mainstream initiatives and candidates.
Total integration of Biblical Law into our lives. Hmmm. Sounds like a pretty violent existence. If you've read the bible, you know what I'm talking about. The Proposition 8 debacle is just the start. It's time for people to wake up and quit making excuses for religious nuts. I see no reason to 'respect' people for their religion in a secular country when they have an agenda that seeks to undo the years of hard fought progress made. Be careful of who you vote for.
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You know, with eight years of torture, unnecessary war, and everything else, it's easy to forge that, in many ways, Americans about the nicest people on earth:
What's the greatest challenge of traveling on $5 a day?
When you travel with that kind of money, you are entirely at the mercy of strangers. Because $5 doesn't get you anywhere. You can't really do anything.What's the most stunning act of generosity you've received?
I arrived in Indianapolis. I'd met an old lady on the train with her husband, and they put me up in a hotel. But that wasn't the act. I woke up the next morning and I was chatting with this younger lady who had a 1-year-old son, and it turns out that she lived in Chicago. And she said to me — and this was within the first five minutes, I'm not exaggerating — she said to me, "If you can find your way to Chicago, I will give you the only set of keys to my house. You can stay in my house. I will be back the next day. Leave the keys in the flowerpot, and you can stay in my house. There's chili in the fridge." At the end, when she gave me her keys, she then said to me, "So, sorry, what's your name?"Do you find you get more help from tourists or from locals?
In America, it was primarily locals. And in England. In Europe, it was primarily tourists. American tourists, believe it or not, they saved me so many times, to the point that I would wake up in the morning and I'd be like, "O.K. guys, we've gotta find some Americans."
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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
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Check out his parting "gift"
Bush Declares State of Emergency for Inauguration
The move will allow the federal government to provide funding to District government agencies, which have been swamped with planning and paying for security and transportation needs.
The government had already given DC $15M to help with the inauguration costs.
It seems that they really needed $75 million, and the only way to get this additional funding for security and transportation is to declare a state of emergency.
I really, really, hope that's the only reason...
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Pardon My Sarong
With only five days to go - the sands of time are dwindling in the hour glass that is the Bush Misadministration. What will be his last move on the chess board of the presidency? Bombing Iran? Shredding the constitution in public view? A coup d'etat? Nope - it will be
Pardon me, Prez Is this the Washington DC get free card?
There are some obvious choices like Scooter Libby and Jack Abramoff (though both seem unlikely). But can President Douchebag pre-emptively pardon someone who has NOT been charged with a crime? Short answer: YES.
Keep reading: http://distributorcapny.blogspot.com/2009/01/pardon-my-sarong.html
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"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
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The Daily Show's Jason Jones goes to pundit school: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/01/daily-show-s-jason-jones-goes-to-pundit.html
Best part: his comment on Ann Coulter: 'He's got great hair.'
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"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."—Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005
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Report: Bush official violated federal law in overseeing civil rights division and lied to Congress - but will not be charged
Racism in the Civil Rights Division: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/01/racism-in-civil-rights-division.html
Here's Bradley Schlozman.....
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With all numerous Gazans recently killed by Israel's assault, the Gazans have apparently run out of places to bury people. Always eager to help, the Israelis have started to cremate the Gazans, often in advance.
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"You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president, but I am one."—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006
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As usual, Leonard Pitts nails it in his column today in the Miami Herald:
Dear President Bush:
I am glad you are, at 62, still a relatively young man. I am glad you are in robust health. This means there is a good likelihood of your being with us for decades yet to come, and I dearly want that. You see, history's verdict is on the way, and I want you to see it for yourself.
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You been watching these exit interviews with Bush and Cheney? These people are scared. Something's got them worried and they're acting like low-rent hit men captured by the FBI, coming up with alibis and excuses faster than ex-guards at Auschwitz. The Rude Pundit can't figure out exactly what it is, but there's something spooking these two so that when anyone asks them about torture or Gitmo, they do a justification dance that's like Express Yourself Day at the spastic children's home.
Look at them go: here's Cheney, talking to Bill Bennett about our Cuban day spa: "The other key thing that people forget is that we've got a couple hundred very bad actors down there. We've been through, several times, a scrub of the population in Guantanamo. And a good many more have been returned than we still hold, have been returned to their home countries. Now, out of that group, some number has, in fact, gone back onto the battlefield against us." That number, by the way, is 18, according to the Pentagon, with 43 "suspected" of returning to terrorism. And let us ponder, and why not, how many of those were transformed into "terrorists" by their experience with American justice.
Dick continued, "So we've not been, I think, especially harsh in terms of the judgments we've made. We have let some people go, and we erred a bit on the side obviously of - in letting the wrong people go on a few occasions. But now what's left, that is the hardcore." Now all we have is the 250 hardcore. Before? Bunch of pussies. But now? Hard freaking core. Except for the 50 detainees who, you know, are cleared but have no country to take them. And then there's always the ones who've been tortured into madness. But, no, they're all hardcore.
By the way, for contextual fun, here's Cheney in a June 2005 interview regarding Gitmo: "Now, the key here to remember is that the 520 we've got down there, these are - hardcore terrorists is the only way to describe them." Except for the 270 we released between then and now. But hardcore, people, hardcore.
With President Bush, it's all about the torture. 'Cause, you know, now that a Bush-appointed judge has declared that a Gitmo detainee can't be put on trial even by the bullshit military tribunals, because information was tortured out of him, well, then it oughta be time for George and Laura to gas up the jet and tell Dubai they're comin' to stay. On last night's Larry King Undead, Bush offered the defense of scoundrels on his orders on torture: "I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal." Don't tell him he broke the law: his lawyers said he didn't. It's like a another badly written episode of Law and Order.
A quick aside here: wtf is it with panties and bras in our torture of detainees? While far worse was done to him, why did we do this: "Qahtani 'was forced to wear a woman's bra and had a thong placed on his head during the course of his interrogation' and 'was told that his mother and sister were whores.' With a leash tied to his chains, he was led around the room 'and forced to perform a series of dog tricks,' the report shows"? What it sounds like is that the interrogators at Gitmo were bored and thought, "Let's make Haji wear thong ear muffs and dance around for amusement."
Another quick aside: Mohammed al-Qahtani apparently was a really dangerous dude. It might have been nice to charge him with some kind of crime, like conspiracy or something that would have, you know, put him in jail instead of this disgraceful purgatory.
For so very long, torture had stayed out of the mainstream media. Once John McCain and Barack Obama declared they would both close Guantanamo, the issue was off the table for the duration of the campaign. Now that the Obama administration is coming in and members of the House and the Senate are threatening to investigate the Bush White House's actions, now that Obama had to put up or shut up on Gitmo, all of a sudden the media is treating the issue like it matters, like somewhere, hidden in a deep, dark place is this curled up, frightened little American soul and we're trying to figure out how to coax it out of the corner, wondering if we have earned the right to hold out our hands and say, "Come on out. It'll be okay."
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Osama bin Laden has made his own YouTube fireside chat in which he sort of teases Barack Obama, but the subtext is "I'm not dead."Crooks and Liars
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Scammy-looking 'Joe the Journalist' site allegedly raising money to get Joe home
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Bank of America bellying up to the trough again after they already got $25 billion:
And after they blew it on execs - Brave New Films: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkek9JZWXjs&eurl=http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/
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"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."—U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 3, 2000
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Days after shelling a U.N. school, Israel apologizes for shelling the U.N.'s main aid compound in Gaza and injuring three workers. Read it at Haaretz
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LATimes: Jewish activists chain themselves to Israeli Consulate building.
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Sarah Palin's Alaska miracle
Think of what shape the nation would be in if she becomes president someday, when this is what's going on in her state:
Tucker requests a "massive airlift" of food and said money from churches, state agencies and other groups is needed to offset the high fuel prices. The 100 gallons of free heating fuel for every home in Alaska Native communities that has been promised by oil company Citgo will help. But it won't be enough because it will last only one month, he said.
The connection to Chavez: Citgo is owned by the government of Venezuela. That's right, sports fans, it is Hugo Chavez who is trying to help people freezing in Alaska while Governor Blamey Whinehouse is yelling on the talk shows how evil the press was for pointing out that she was a barely-educated ignoramus (or shouldn't that be "ignorama"?).
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A lawyer from the DOJ says the White House spent $10 million and found 14 million e-mails reported missing four years ago.
CREW says, "I'll believe it when I see it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR2009011401957.html
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A new weapon, developed by the US in 2006, called DIME, is what Israel is using in Gaza, and what is causing the amputations there.
No shrapnel is seen, because the weapon uses rice grain, rice, and corn. And in cruel studies in animals, those substances left in the muscle cause a very severe form of muscle cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, which easily spreads to the lungs.
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Q: But Mr. Vice President, getting from there to here, 4,500 Americans have died, at least 100,000 Iraqis have died. Has it been worth that?
CHENEY: I think so.
KING: How do you feel personally when you — you see the ratings and the polls that — and have you at 25, 30 percent…
BUSH: I don't give a darn. I feel the same way as when they had me at 90 plus.
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Obama's Treasury pick a tax cheat
I can't decide if this is condemnable or awesome:
Barack Obama's choice to run the Treasury Department [and oversee the Internal Revenue Service] disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004.
I suppose I should be "outraged" but it's actually kind of funny. It's sort of like whoremonger David "Diapers" Vitter lecturing Hillary on ethics.
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Oh please, oh please, oh please
Whitehouse to investigate White House
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Ballsack) says that he understands Obama's reluctance to pursue investigations but that he may take matters into his own hands:
"I appreciate that President Obama doesn't want to make it his purpose as a new president, with America in real distress in many directions, to go back and look at all this, but I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility," Whitehouse said.
"And if that human jellyfish Harry Reid gets in my way, I'll kick his ass!" he should have added.
Whitehouse, sworn in on 1/4/07, said at that time that "a top personal priority is to examine the warrantless activities of this administration."
Bonus:
In a 487-page report out yesterday recapping Bush's "imperial presidency," House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Nads) recommends that "the incoming Administration finally begin an independent criminal review of activities of the outgoing Administration."
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