One day we'll have smart discourse like this on teevee

Instead of the dumb shit we see every day that makes us dumber every day.

Swift Kids For Truth

I knew there was something about John Edwards I couldn't trust. $4,000 for a nail trim!



(Tip: Make sure your sarcasm switch is in the 'on' position.)

I made it!

I'm on the ballot for precinct committeeman in my precinct! I got the call last night, and the paperwork went through with no hitches.

Republicans believe in nothing

You know how I know? Because international God Gangster Pat Robertson is endorsing Rudy Giuliani. This is the same Rudy Giuliani who supported gay rights his whole career, is pro-life, has been married three times, and even demanded that the NYC emergency response center be placed at the World Trade Center.

Why? Why would you put the terrorist response center where terrorists have already attacked, and where, by all accounts, more attacks might be coming? Why? Why not just put your response center in Staten Island? It'd be safer, right?

Here's why:

Giuliani's office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator.

So for all the morons for whom the worst possible crime against humanity was Bill Clinton's fooling around in the White House, let me make this clear. This man put the security of the city at risk so he could have a convenient place to boink his mistress (he was married at the time). Get it? Pat Robertson made a fortune shilling Clinton conspiracy hokum on his teevee network, and it was all predicated on his infidelity to his wife. Clearly, Pat Robertson could not be bigger hypocrite if his very life depended on it. If God herself appeared on the 700 club and commanded Robertson to find innovative ways of looking like a complete hypocritical shill, I doubt she could have devised something so ingenious.

So why is he endorsing him? Because Republicans believe in only one thing: Republicans winning. Abortion, the gays, fidelity, it's all secondary to the overriding principle, which is to win, to accrue power, and to use it for yourself and your friends. I'll leave you with this quote from TPM:

This does beg an important question for Rudy: How does the former mayor of New York City feel about courting and accepting the endorsement of a man who said after 9/11 that America deserved it, on account of our sinful ways?

Kind of makes you wonder, don't it? It's almost like Rudy himself doesn't believe in anything anymore.

North Carolina Called Out for Lack of Labor Rights By Mexico

Mexico? Seriously, Mexico?

Yup. The National Administrative Office in Mexico followed up on a complained issued by the International Labor Organization that the state of North Carolina (my home state, thus my continued interest in this story) is violating an international Charter on Freedom of Assembly by prohibiting public employees from forming unions and bargaining collectively. Why did Mexico file this complaint? Why do they care?

They care because the union that is working most aggressively with North Carolina public workers, the UE is also affiliated with an independent Mexican union representing chemical and mine workers. It was the Mexican union that spurred the Mexican government to action on behalf of its brothers and sisters in North Carolina.

The North Carolina law banning collective bargaining dates back to 1959 (an enlightened era of forward-thinking southerners moving ahead on labor relations and race) and was passed essentially to keep the commies out of state gub'mint, stop bolshevism, and keep black workers in their place--most of the state jobs that UE has been trying to organize are among low-paid custodial, trash hauling, and other jobs typically held by black state workers.

Anyway, this state law sucks, is a violation of international conventions, and ought to be repealed. Right?

***Update***

I missed this part. Pure genius. When the complaint against the NC State government was filed by the ILO, the response of the Bush administration was simple--the first amendment guarantees the right to form unions and organize! They went even further, though, saying that if any law in North Carolina prohibited this, it would be null and void!

Allriiiiiiiiiiight gang! You heard 'em. George Bush says you can form a union. Go forth and conquer.

Military grafiti.

Via.

This would explain a lot.

Everyone knows that George Bush snuck through college on a whim and name, barely graduating from Yale. This is not news.



















What was news to me was that in that the New York Times ran a story in the 1960's about fraternity hazing (torture) at Yale that included branding pledge brothers with a hot iron. That article ran with a quote from then fraternity-member George W. Bush:

“it was just a coat hanger, and ... it didn’t hurt any more than a cigarette burn.”

Well, cigarette burns hurt asshole. But it also brings to mind the President's steadfast refuals to define what torture really is. Here he is earlier this month:



The Preznit contends that the only way to save the American Way of Life (TM) is to let the CIA do what we all know they hunger to do, namely roughing up swarthy brown guys in their custody.

Except he's saying that it's not torture. That'd be illegal.

And that's why the appointment of the new Attorney General is such a big deal. Prominent Republicans, including John McCain and Lindsey Graham (who folded his opposition to waterboarding after Bush came to South Carolina to fundraise for him) admit that a practice we use (waterboarding) to interrogate prisoners is in fact illegal, but they refuse to do anything about.

The job of the new AG would be to prosecute wrongdoing within by the administration if he believes that what they're doing is torture. That's why (some of) the Democrats are being such persnickety assholes about whether Mike Mukasey (the guy Bush has recommended for the job) thinks water boarding is torture or not. If he does, he's obligated by his job to prosecute it. If he doesn't think it's torture, then we're back to dealing Abu Gonzales. Of course, the Democrats are such a bunch of spineless wimps that they're naturally backing down on fighting this:

Schumer held a closed door meeting with Mukasey on Friday in which the nominee appeared to offer a crucial assurance: If Congress chose to enact a law banning so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, Bush would have to follow it.

“He flatly told me that the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law,” Schumer said. “He also pledged to enforce such a law and repeated his willingness to leave office rather than participate in a violation of law.”

The reason that's such a pile of crap is that the US has in the past prosecuted American soldiers for waterboarding prisoners of war. Plus there's the Geneva Conventions that we're signed on to, as well as last year's Military Commissions act of 2006. But instead, Mukasey is saying that if Congress passes another law against water boarding, he'd enforce it.

Which brings me back to George Bush and his love of branding people with hot irons. He probably just loves this shit. He probably gets off on knowing the new ways that our less-ethical interrogators have cooked up to 'scare' the truth out of anyone we capture on the battlefield in this never-ending war on terror.

Such is life in the early 2000's. Torture is not torture except when it benefits us politically to tell the base we're bad enough to torture Arabs Who Want To Kill Us (TM). That's what you get for thinking that common human decency had a pig's chance at a roast in Washington DC.

Snowflakes

"Snowflakes" are the term for the little post-it notes that Donald Rumsfeld used to issue policy decrees when he was the Secretary of Defense. You know, he'd jot down "invade that country" on a little post-it, and off we'd go, committing hundreds of thousands of troops and billions of dollars.

You think I'm kidding, right?

Nope. Not only that, but the following gems made into his sacred scraps of parchment to be turned into public policy:

...Muslims avoid "physical labor";
..."keep elevating the threat";
..."link Iraq to Iran"
..."Develop bumper sticker statements to rally support."

This is, ladies and gentlemen, the man who was responsible for our war policy. I hope you're as proud as I am.

One more kooky gay Republican antic

Yesterday was Halloween, so in keeping with this creepy festival, I bring you the story of a Republican state legislator who paid a man $1000 to have sex with him, then reneged on the deal, refused to pay the $1000. Then he asked the authorities for help in getting the man off his back. Then he got suckered by the cop who told him his duty as a legislator was to protect the people of the state of Washington, so he just had to see this prosecution through.

Like I've said before, it's possible that the Democrats have just as many closet jobs who are batcrap insane, but if so, they're doing a helluva lot better job keeping them under wraps. The Republicans really seem to have signed on more than their share of people with, um, unusual predilections.

Good News For FedEx Workers: They're, you know, real employees.

So sayeth a District Court Judge in Indiana. Here's the deal. FedEx has been clasifying its drivers as 'independent contractors' to get out of paying them overtime, insurance, and workman's comp. Of course these people are actual employees, and a court ruling now says they can sue as a class of folks as opposed to individuals.

This is a nice trick that lots of companies have used over the years, from custodians and janitors, home health care workers, to Microsoft engineers. An Estimated $1.6 billion in payroll taxes is lost by businesses cheating under this system. And of course, like most things, this estimate is based on people's willingness to step up and fight, so these are only the figures we know about. The actual number of employees in this situation is probably much higher.

Via.

And here's a nice Q&A from Working America on rights (well, mostly the lack thereof) for independent contractors.

new weakerthans video

I'll be seeing them next Thursday. You may act jealous now.

As if to prove my point

The chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party has been arrested for doing things with young boys that people of most political stripes do not agree with.

Oh, and I forgot about this guy, who was arrested twice for lewd conduct in a mall restroom.

You know, if Democrats today are engaged in this kind of stuff in equal amounts, they're at least a hell of a lot better at hiding it than Republicans.

I don't feel good posting about this, but what the hell is going on with conservatives?

This is only the latest in a long and bizarre series of incidents that involve hardcore fundamentalists who are revealed to be flaming hypocrites. My condolences go out to this guy's family, who I am sure are dealing with some real shit now. His name was Reverend Gary Aldridge, and he was a student of Jerry Falwell and a big-wig among hardcore Christianist Republicans. He met his maker by what is termed 'mechanical autoerotic asphyxiation' (which out to drive up my web traffic). Essentially he died by strangling himself while he was engaged in acts that Christianists typically encourage people by themselves not to engage in. But this guy is only the latest.

There's this guy.
And him.
And who could forget this piece of business?
This guy probably threw the election to the Democrats in 2006, right?

This is not even to get into the heterosexual scandals which have been in the news lately as well. Okay, here are two examples.

What the hell is going on with modern conservatives? If anyone knows, please let me in on the secret.

True headlines you'll never read

President meets with leader of group involved in assault on Gold Star Dad.

It's just too weird, and yet--it's true.

For true Against me! affcioniados

This is sheer poetry. Reinventing Rod Stewart indeed!

This man has no soul.

Bill Kristol is a man who is probably the most easily identifiable person who is responsible for the Iraq war. So already I think he's pretty much a bastard. But this sir, this 'joke' of yours reveals you to be exactly the kind of caricature of cold-hearted conservative that we're always told doesn't exist...because somehow 'conservatives care too.' Or something.



Blech.

One of these things is not like the others.

Figure out which one of these things is a parody and which is real:

• Is it the Mormon leader who sent a child bride back to her husband, telling her to give herself over to him mind, body and soul?
• Is is the statement made by a prominent anti-feminist that 'By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape.'
• Is it a website devoted to "assisting those following the Biblical tradition of arranging marriages for their daughters. We charge a variable fee per listing, depending on the bride price requested and other factors. Potential grooms are not charged. We do not assist in negotiations, we only provide introductions."

Remember, one of these is parody, and one only. The other two are sadly, quite real.

Where were you?

Today marks an anniversary. Where were you on September 11, 1973? That's when the US military and CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, which resulted in a coup and military dictatorship. Estimates of the numbers of people killed during the ensuing reign of terror range from 2,700 to 3,000 people. Hundreds of thousands were arrested, many were tortured.

Many years later, something else happened on that day in New York City. The numbers of dead were roughly the same.

This is hilarious

Australian indie rocker Ben Lee covered Against Me!'s new album from start to finish. I especially like his version of Thrash Unreal.

Take a listen.

Proving once again that Ted Nugent is an unremitting piece of dog-doo.

On stage recently, Nugent told an excited crowd that Senators Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, and Dianne Feinstein could all suck on his machine gun. He also called Hillary Clinton a worthless bitch.

What's funny is that there is literally nothing a conservative can say that will make him radioactive to other conservatives. This is just par for Nugent's course.