The W is for War Criminal

The real kicker is how oblivious Bush is. He's so convinced of his righteousness that he can't see the obvious.

Well, no, the real kicker is that he isn't in the Hague.

in reference to:

"British officials said today there was no evidence to support claims by George Bush, the former US president, that information extracted by "waterboarding" saved British lives by foiling attacks on Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf. In his memoirs, Bush said the practice – condemned by Downing Street as torture – was used in CIA interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US."
- British deny George Bush's claims that torture helped foil terror plots | World news | The Guardian (view on Google Sidewiki)

It's the infrastructure, stupid (or: Republicans kill jobs, again)

I hardly ever read Republican columnists, but this bit by Douthat caught my eye:

While the Bush administration overspent, it wasn’t spending and deficits that turned the country against conservative domestic policy between 2004 and 2008. It was the fact that the Republican majority seemed to have no answers to Middle America’s economic struggles, and no appetite for the structural reforms required to keep the United States competitive.

Put that in the context of new Republican leaders saying no to infrastructure, and you get yourself a nice replay of idiot Republicans once again unable to lead. They say jobs are the most important thing, but they think they will magically appear without actually doing anything to create them. There is no structural reform more important than infrastructure (the cost of which is really cheap right now).

And people like Douthat keep voting for Republicans anyway.

How many bridges will collapse before we hire some people to fix them?

The Most Historic Election

"When you have the most historic election in over 60-70 years, you would think that the other party would understand that the American people have clearly repudiated the policies that they put forward the last two years."--John Boehner

This is more proof that Republicans are delusional. The most historic election in the last 60-70 years put a black man in the White House and large, productive majorities of Democrats in the House and Senate. A bunch of hicks showing up in larger numbers for a mid-term isn't even close in historical significance. Hell, they couldn't even take the Senate!

The only thing that this proves is what I've always known: Americans are lousy drivers. Once they get going at a pretty good pace to actually move this old jalopy down the road, they tap the breaks. Now that they've slowed down, they'll have a chance to smell the stench of Republican asbestos pads wearing down, and the'll hit the gas again in two years.

Blaming Bush's Budget Busters on Obama

Not only did we make money on the bail outs, but Obama's spending is dwarfed by Bush's. Stopping runaway spending by electing more Republicans is like stopping a runaway train by putting grease on the tracks.

in reference to:

"Calculations by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and other independent fiscal experts show that the $1.1 trillion cost over the next 10 years of the Medicare prescription drug program, which the Republican-controlled Congress adopted in 2003, by itself would add more to the deficit than the combined costs of the bailout, the stimulus and the health care law."
- As G.O.P. Seeks Spending Cuts, Details Are Scarce - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Who? Me?

It's a good thing recession is keeping our emissions down, because if it was up to the people there'd be a lot of bumbling around wondering WTF? Learning about something takes effort, and effort is hard when people are just trying to get by in this world.

Someday the recession will end, our emissions will increase again, and the world will just keep getting hotter. Maybe then people will start paying attention, and maybe by then it will be too damn late.

I blame the Republicans. Only a few of them would have come to their senses to do something about this now, and they would not. Now those few have screwed us all.

"Human history becomes more and more a race
between education and catastrophe."—HG Wells

in reference to:

"we found that 63 percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but many do not understand why."
- Yale F&ES Project on Climate Change Communication (view on Google Sidewiki)

Put on your hip boots and pity the poor

Because of all the science-flunky climate change deniers (with more to come in the new tea party house), we are all fucked.

Now we're officially giving up on slowing down the warming, and we're being told to start preparing for the inevitable results of ignorant fucks getting their way.

Like we didn't learn that from George Bush and Dick Cheney already.

in reference to:

"The Obama administration, which has been unable to push climate-change legislation through Congress, is urging government agencies to prepare for the “inevitable effects” of global warming."
- U.S. Agencies Urged to Plan for the `Inevitable Effects' of Global Warming - Bloomberg (view on Google Sidewiki)

Supreme Court Rules for Bush Again

The Bush Five still have their lips planted firmly on Bush's flight-suit bulge.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by two people who were ejected from a speech by President George W. Bush in 2005. They had arrived in a car bearing a bumper sticker that said “No More Blood for Oil,” and they claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when they were marched out of the event.

Free speech is only for corporations now.

A Little Balloon Juice for Organic Kona Coffee Beans

John Cole of Balloon Juice gave a nice mention to my organic Kona coffee bean growing buddies on the big island of Hawaii today. Thanks, John. These guys are working their asses off trying to keep their small, sustainable coffee farming operation in business during these tough times where people can barely afford Folgers, much less Kona.

As John points out, they roast the beans on Sunday and ship on Monday, so it's going to be seriously fresh roasted Kona beans. Of course, if you really want fresh roast, you could order green Kona coffee beans and roast them yourself! If you're really into rare and special coffee, check out the peaberry Kona coffee beans!

In case you're wondering if Kona coffee is really worth the price, here's what Mark Twain had to say about it:

The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it by what name you please.

Republicans Are Liars

I'm shocked, shocked to hear that Republicans are lying...

in reference to:

"The Republican “Pledge to America,” released Sept. 23, contains some dubious factual claims: It declares that “the only parts of the economy expanding are government and our national debt.” Not true. So far this year government employment has declined slightly, while private sector employment has increased by 763,000 jobs."
- FactChecking ‘The Pledge’ | FactCheck.org (view on Google Sidewiki)

Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld lied us into Iraq (and some other disasters)

This is why I won't even talk to Republicans. They're liars who don't care about facts. They have caused the deaths of millions, and won't even admit they were wrong. Wrong about war. Wrong about pollution. Wrong about global warming. Wrong about stem cells. Wrong about the economy. Wrong about everything.

Remember that the new crop of teatards is even more conservative, supporting, for instance, jailing women who abort their rapist's baby.

So, yeah, Republicans: shove it. You want to turn us into the Confederate States of America. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Creating Jobs

Great article on the value of Facebook's super users, and the potential for a business built on paying its users what they're worth.

in reference to:

"If we awarded 4/5 ths of the value of Facebook (and the same exercise could be done with Google at a couple of million superusers) to its superusers, leaving the tool managers $5 billion in value, each superuser would now be worth $200,000 from their contributions to this tool alone.  But they aren't.  They haven't earned a penny for their effort."
- COGNITIVE SLAVES - Global Guerrillas (view on Google Sidewiki)

GOP So Wrong and Yet So Loud

Krugman says it best...

Suppose you had spent the last five years actually believing what you read from the usual suspects — the WSJ opinion pages, National Review, right-wing economists, etc.. Here’s what would have happened:

In 2006 you would have believed that there was no housing bubble.

In 2007 you would have believed that the troubles of subprime couldn’t possibly spread to the financial system as a whole.

In 2008 you would have believed that we weren’t in a recession — and that the failure of Lehman was unlikely to have bad consequences for the real economy.

In 2009 you would have believed that high inflation was just around the corner.

At the beginning of 2010 you would have believed that sky-high interest rates were just around the corner.

What the hell is wrong with people who will vote for people who are so consistently wrong?

Record Hurricane Season Already

Funny that we haven't heard more about this...

Obviously being powered by very warm surface temps in the ocean, hurricanes are both very powerful this year, and very numerous. Now, what were those predictions of hurricane activity based on a warmer planet?

in reference to:

"hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach at Colorado State University told CWG (Capital Weather Gang) that between August 27 and September 15 there have been four (Danielle, Earl, Igor, and Julia) category 4 hurricanes -- the most on record in such a short period."
- Hurricanes keep avoiding U.S., will it continue? - Capital Weather Gang (view on Google Sidewiki)

That Sound You Hear at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois

...is Lincoln rolling in his tomb over the recent turmoil regarding religious freedom in this country.

Get this abstract background photograph by Robin Supak at our computer backgrounds blog. It makes for a great background for protest signs, web pages, or any graphic art. Just give us a link to Supak.com if you use it!

And we're worried about Koran Burning

Now if someone really wanted to start some shit, they could pile up all the religious books they could find, from every religion, and turn them to ash with a giant flamethrower. Or, they could send an army of young people, without enough training or oversight, into a very angry place and start killing civilians indiscriminantly. Either way, you wind up with some very pissed off people, but, at least in the case of the pile of smoldering Bibles and Korans, you wouldn't have any corpses to collect the fingers from.

in reference to: US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies' | World news | The Guardian (view on Google Sidewiki)

Income Growth Rates under R vs. D Presidents

Via Ezra, from Slate:

Clowns to the Right of Me!

Got a great letter from an old friend (aka Sargent PSOPS) the other day...

I went to the Berlin Contemporary art museum today.  The had a retrospective of artist Bruce Nauman.   I'll call his work non traditional.  I arrived at the museum just in time for a tour in English.  Included in the group  were some 12th grade art students from an English language school.  They were a cross section, Asian, Muslim, German, etc.

One of the artists "events" was a 20 x20 dark room with videos of clowns.  Each end had a projected large image, wall 3 had 4 video screens, the 4th wall was the audience.  One of the projected clowns was talking loudly and unintelligibly except one word could be heard repeated over and over.  I don't remember the word, it is unimportant.  The tite of the installation event was "torture of the clowns."

When we stepped out to discuss what we had seen I offered that if done today the artist might have called it Fox News Channel.

They got it.  12th graders know that Fox news blabs and blabs with constant throwing in of one intelligible word which propagandizes the audience.  Words like, Muslim, socialist, not legally born, abortion, or whatever the propaganda  buzzword of the day is that corporate elites hand down.

12th graders here better understand the propagandizing of American better than many Americans.  Maybe they are equally propagandized by the same elites.

And that is the way it is in the 2010 election cycle.

Perfectly Safe...

How long until some Republican says (again) that offshore drilling is perfectly safe, we don't need a moratorium, and anyone who says we do is a commie bastard?

It sickens me to think of all the "reasonable" people who are planning to vote GOP in November. Screw the future, eh? Anyone who would even consider voting GOP is a sociopath.

in reference to: BBC News - Explosion on Gulf of Mexico rig (view on Google Sidewiki)

Fun with the Rude Pundit on the Beck-Us Festival

The only attention I've paid to the thousands of people who rode buses cross country to listen to Beck/Palin gobbledygook is reading the hilarious and interesting blogging picking apart the scab that is Glenn Beck and his sheep. Note this irresistible fun from the Rude Pundit on "Glenn Beck's Tent Revival Meeting and Hoveround Demonstration":

The best analogy the Rude Pundit can come up with for the whole goddamn ridiculous waste of time is the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. For what was this but a journey from across the nation of Christians going to the city of our stone holy sites in order to pray.

Enough to make me want to pre-order Markos's upcoming book American Taliban.

Of course, the reason I love the Rude Pundit is that he's a keen observer of what many people miss, to wit:

Fun juxtaposition:

Glenn Beck, speaking on Friday at the Kennedy Center, just before raping a kitten, using his tears for lube: "We are 12 hours away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America."

Sarah Palin, speaking at the Beckture: "We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want."

Finally, the Rude One asks a question:

 If anyone can tell the Rude Pundit how that was an important or interesting event at all, please do it. Because, in all honestly, he's boggled and confused.

Again, I didn't watch the thing, although I'm willing to bet is was as interesting as ear wax. As for important, well, it's certainly important in the sense that the code word "honor" coinciding with the MLK anniversary is a huge flashing neon sign of confederatism, a blatant hint that they believe humans can, and should, be owned.

90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

A quick note to say that today, the 90th anniversary of women getting the right to vote via the 19th amendment, is a great day to make sure all the women you know have the right to vote. Especially considering that many of the GOP candidates out there are against abortion IN ALL CASES, meaning they want to force rape victims who get pregnant to have their rapists' babies. Meaning they want women at risk to die rather than have an abortion. Meaning they're fascist fucks who want the government involved in your personal decisions while they scream about limiting government.

So make sure all the women you know are aware of this and are registered to vote.

Now, for some history on how women got the right to vote, in a story guaranteed to choke up even the codgiest old dudes like me, read Gail Collins' piece, My Favorite August.

Addiction Treatment Blog

My friends at Reelizations Media have started a blog about addiction treatment. If you are involved in addiction treatment, you'll find this to be a helpful blog where addiction treatment professionals share thoughts, frustrations,  challenges and strategies. Today's post on thereapuetic communities explores why some are dying out, while others are thriving.

Just what is Reelizations Media? From their home page:

Reelizations Media provides video resources for drug abuse intervention and addiction treatment and education. Our videos and other addiction educational resources help alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation counselors, life skills coaches, clinical directors, therapists, social workers, and psychologists who work in hospitals, prisons, jails, correctional institutions, drug treatment centers, halfway houses, shelters, mental health centers, county governments, community centers, and addiction treatment programs.

Reelizations has a huge video catalog of addiction treatment videos covering all kinds of addictions from drugs to gambling. They also specialize in prisoner re-entry education, women's issues, work readiness, and life skills. If you're involved in these fields, please check out the new Reelizations Blog, Addiction Treatment Central, and join in the discussion!

Fair fines

I love this story... If the idea of a speeding ticket is to cause financial pain in order to prevent people from speeding, then a flat fine is stupid, because rich people will just pay the relatively small fine in order to speed (or park in a handicapped spot, or whatever).

Having tickets indexed to the income or wealth of the perp just makes sense if we want the tickets to be fair for everyone. Governments looking for new sources of revenue should explore making fines progressive.

in reference to: BBC News - Swede faces world-record $1m speeding penalty (view on Google Sidewiki)

A Quote for Obama on the Possible War with Iran

What can a soldier do who charges when out of breath? -- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

More proof that the right will hate Obama no matter what he does

Record deportations are exactly what a lot of racist assholes want Obama to do, but do you think those people will read this story? If they do, will they believe it? After all, Faux News tells them that the opposite is true.

Obama could deport every illegal in this country and the right wing would still howl that he's not doing enough. This is proof that actual facts about policies don't matter at all to these people. They hate Obama, period, and no facts are going to get into the way of that bias.

in reference to:

"the deportation trend does run counter to many perceptions in border states and beyond about federal anti-illegal immigration efforts."
- Obama as border cop: He's deported record numbers of illegal immigrants - CSMonitor.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tony Perkins Says A Majority Can Discriminate

Say 80% of Californians voted to make mixed race marriages illegal. Does that mean we have to do it? What if the majority wanted to force black kids into their own schools? Would the fact that a majority of voters said so make it OK? Would they be right?

Judge Vaughan Walker does know better than the people who voted for Prop 8 what should be the level of protection for minorities, based on the laws of the land as they are now. Tony Perkins could have testified and told us all why he thinks bigots, if they're in the majority, have a right to discriminate. But he didn't. Instead, he lies and whines.

Even if a majority of people voted to put Tony Perkins in a concentration camp, it would still be wrong to do it. He has a right to be a flaming idiot and to lie all he wants. But he does not have a right to discriminate, no matter how many voters say he does.

That's America, Tony. People have rights that voters cannot take away. Love it or leave it.

in reference to:

""I think what you have is one judge who thinks he knows - and a district level judge and an openly-homosexual judge at that - who says he knows better than not only 7 million voters in the state of California, but voters in 30 states across the nation that have passed marriage amendments. This is far from over.""
- Same-Sex Marriage Decision: "Far From Over" - Face The Nation - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)