Headlines - Saturday

Because nothing says wholesome, church-sanctified Ozzie-and-Harriet traditional-style marriage like huge, bouncy, fake boobs ...

 

 

Friday morning a Miss California Pageant official confirmed that controversial contestant Carrie (I hate teh gays) Prejean received free breast implants, organized and paid for by the pageant, weeks before the Miss USA competition.

"We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done. We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage." Keith Lewis, Executive Director of Miss USA.  

If God meant for only men and women to wed, why don't the same rules apply to the body God gives us? If you have a flat chest, isn't that how it's meant to be, following the logic of the bible thumpers?

 

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A response from a very devout christian wingnut regarding the fact that evangelicals love them some torture - behold teh awesome:

 

The reason is that Christians are logical and practical.  We understand that God gave us a brain and common sense to USE them. Torturing someone for critical information that could save thousands of lives is a small price .... especially considering the one being tortured is a slime bag who wants to injure and kill as many innocent people as possible. I'm sorry that concept has evaded you.  And I'm equally surprised the very people who shudder at torturing an evil killer have absolutely no problem sticking a needle into the brain of a baby in the womb, sucking out the brain matter, and pulling the dead human life out of a mother's womb.

 

Jesus weeps.

 

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My pick to replace Souter on the Supreme Court:

 

 

Anita Hill

 

 

 

Clarence "Who has put pubic hair on my coke?" Thomas

 

 

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Charles Krauthammer has an editorial up this morning in the Washington Post giving all the usual right wing talking points to explain why Real Men Torture. Unfortunately for him, Dan Froomkin takes his "colleague" apart line by line. You don't usually see this sort of thing within a newspaper - wonder how it'll play out. Here's the opening salvo:

"Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances," he writes.

"The first is the ticking time bomb. An innocent's life is at stake. The bad guy you have captured possesses information that could save this life. He refuses to divulge. In such a case, the choice is easy."

Actually, no. The ticking time bomb scenario only exists in two places: On TV and in the dark fantasies of power-crazed and morally deficient authoritarians.

Don't get me wrong - it isn't just name-calling that Froomkin is up to. He's got hard evidence at every junction, as you'll see if you click on the link. But an opening bitch-slap can get a person's attention, too. Besides, how do you logically argue with someone who opens by saying something is "impermissible" and "evil"...."and here's how we can get away with doing it anyhow"?

 

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Morford - The Right Goes Insane - Evil overlords to flaccid clowns in the blink of Jesus' eye. Adorable! http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/01-7

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Hang on tight, things are going to get stupid: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/05/hang-on-tight-things-are-going-to-get.html 

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This is from the the leader of the right's most prominent online community (Red State.), not some carefree flame-throwing commenter or diarist: 

 

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In an example of colossal stupidity, Iraqi officials have called for the killing of the three wild boars in the Baghdad zoo to protect the country against swine flu. This comes on the heels of the Egyptian government moving to kill every pig in the country despite the lack of any evidence that it would help prevent the virus, which passes from human to human.

The Iraqis seem to blame the eating of pork, an emerging view among some Muslim clerics. Regional health minister Abdul Rahman Osman said "It is also possible the disease could be spread by eating pork, so we banned hunting wild boars."

In the meantime, the Egyptians plan to kill every pigs in the country adopts an almost biblical approach to health care. Various groups have ridiculed the measure as unconnected to any scientific basis. Story here.

Meanwhile, Utah is closing schools and canceling church services. The LDS church is also canceling all worship services in Mexico City and not allowing missionaries to go to Mexico.

I guess the magic underwear and Jesus don't guard against the swine flu.

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GOP headed for extinction? http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014055.php 

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Durbin on Congress: banks "own" the place: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014053.php

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Six years after "Mission Accomplished", why is Obama pretending there's still a mission? http://needlenose.com/wp/2009/05/01/six-years-after-%e2%80%9cmission-accomplished%e2%80%9d-why-is-obama-pretending-there%e2%80%99s-still-a-mission/

Three US soldiers killed yesterday in Iraq. Total: 4,281 

And yesterday in Afghanistan: Three American and two Latvian soldiers killed. Total: 682

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Scientific American 'keeps it real' and lays out the greatest threats to the current world order.  No, it's not Islam, Communism, the Clash of Cultures or any of that nonsense - it's the massive consumption (for livestock and biofuelds) of the world food supply on the part of the halves that is putting severe pressure on the halve-nots - causing states to fail and foster terrorism, piracy, the drug trade and disease.

Again, our foreign policy and national defense spending is greatly misguided - or perhaps insane would be a better word.

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Least surprising story of the day

On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to Judge Jay Bybee inviting him to testify about his "views" about torture and his "role" in drafting the torture memos. In the letter, Leahy wrote, "I look forward to your cooperation and your testimony." But the Los Angeles Times reports today that Bybee has "declined to respond" to Leahy's letter. Bybee's law clerks initially gave contradictory messages about how the judge would respond, but law clerk Keith Woffinden tried to clean up the confusion, telling the paper, "my impression is that there won't be any further statements" beyond Bybee's comments to the New York Times.

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US government removes "9/11 coloring book" from its website, presumably because the new President can actually understand all of the words in the official report. Story here.

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Ann Coulter told fellow troglodyte Sean Insanity last night that President Obama is "actually the second least popular president we've had in 40 years."

Meanwhile, here on planet Earth, polls across the board - one even by the WSJ! - reported this week that Mr Obama's approval rating "is the highest of any president since 1969 other than Jimmy Carter, and Obama's most recent weekly average approval rating is higher than the approval ratings of every first-term president since 1969" other than Saint Ronnie of Reagan.

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John McCain confirmed that Sarah Palin was invited to be part of the Republican party "rebranding" effort but the group has not heard back from her - another apparent disconnect between her Washington, D.C. and Anchorage offices.

The Political Carnival adds:

Nothing says "makeover" like a failed candidate who incited hate speech, whose dubious family values contradict her holier-than-thou preachitude, and who is ultimately responsible for her very own office's inept communication skills.

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Krugman: CO2 cap and trade is good economics: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5071

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Glenn Beck, that superpatriot who "just loves his country so much" that he bursts into tears at conveniently dramatic moments, put together a video being touted by Fox News as Glenn Beck Reflects on Obama's 100 Days. It turns out that Beck's "reflections" are his three favorite moments of the Obama administration to date. So what important milestones did "America-loving" Beck choose? The inauguration of an African American? The expansion of children's health insurance? The decision to close Guantanamo Bay? No, Mr. Patriotic chose three of the most insignificant news stories in the past 100 days, but three that just happened to give Beck an opportunity to ham it up at Obama's expense: The handshake with Hugo Chavez, a teleprompter mix up and the low-flying plane/photo op.

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Following the Rule of Law actually works!

Isikoff: with terrorist guilty plea, court 'scores' where illegal detention failed:  http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/05/01/isikoff-terrorist-guilty-plea-a-win-for-obama/ 

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John McCain 1998: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

In 1993 on his TV show, Limbaugh put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, "Did you know there's a White House dog?" Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time.

Chelsea Clinton will marry Marc Mezvinsky this August on Martha's Vineyard.

Not invited: John McCain or Rush Limbaugh.