Wake Up, Shit Asses

Last Thursday, I went to the club where I work out. I forgot to bring a bottle of water so I went into the cafe they have there now which basically looks like a Starbuck's. As I waited in line, behind someone who was getting a half caf double decaf half caf with a lemon twist (aka a painfully long process to go through just to get a fucking cup of coffee), I looked around the counter. Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...was geared around one simple word.

Energy.

Drinks, food, pockets of powder, and a wide variety of other consumables were all guaranteeing a an increase in energy to help you in your life....which, according to many of the products, all of us are lacking. I realize that designer coffee has been a trend for awhile but the "boost" business has really gotten out of hand. Are people in this country in that dire need of a jolt?

I haven't even had a drink of caffeine since 1998. I am a pretty hyper and anxious person so I really need the opposite which is usually cured by red wine. So, I guess what I am trying to figure out is this: is the population of this country so asleep that they HAVE to have this crap in order to wake up? Why? What the fuck is the matter with everyone?

All Apologies

YouTube went maniacal and all of those times that I tried to post the video of Bob Costas interviewing President Bush ended up being posted here. So, if you came to my blog and saw a bunch of the same thing (i.e. a real mess), I am sorry. It was not my fault. Apparently YouTube is having trouble communicating with Blogger.

Why Would A Republican Vote For Obama

I got this great article from Our Girl Friday recently and I thought I would share it with you all. The best line?

We, the Republican Party, are not worthy and do not deserve another four years. Under President Bush we've betrayed every principle we've stood for as a national party -- fiscal responsibility and discipline, limited government and a foreign policy guided by realism and coalition building.

Competence and integrity have no ideology. Obama in '08.

Yep. Pretty much sums it up.

Surprising Me Yet Again

Just when I think that President Bush couldn't be any LESS in touch with reality, he stuns me yet again. During an interview with Bob Costas, at the Olympics, he commented on Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Here we are trying to promote peace and harmony and we are witnessing this conflict take place.

Umm.....was he absent the day they taught irony in his Yale literature class?

For some reason, YouTube can't share with Blogger again so click on the link below to watch the full video. The quote is about 3 minutes in. The stuff before that is also really...just....hard to watch.

Bush Interview with Costas.

A Big, Fat Middle Finger

I have been watching and thoroughly enjoying Generation Kill on HBO. It is a seven part mini series that follows a Marine unit as it enters Iraq at the beginning of the war in 2003. The show is based on the book of the same name by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, who was embedded with a Marine unit for two months.

There are so many things I enjoy about this series. The dialogue is mega raunch which always appeals to me. Some of it is word for word what the marines said and I have to say that even I...crap mouth of the universe...felt unclean after watching the first ep. The acting is great, mostly because of the talents of Alexander Skarsgard and James Ransone who play Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert and Corporal Josh Ray Person. Even the minor characters are played by wonderful actors, all of which are new and fresh. It feels real and has an edge to it that is very Saving Private Ryan like.

My favorite scene is a big, fat fuck you to both the left and the right which, as you all know, is something I enjoy immensely. The scene occurs in Episode 2, when a group of Iraqis surrender to the Marines. Since the company is moving north, they have no place to keep them and cannot manage prisoners so they turn them loose or "unsurrender" them, as it was said in the episode.

They do this knowing full well that all of these Iraqi men will probably be shot by their own army for being deserters. The reporter sees and hears all of this transpire. He is about to start writing when he stops and sort of looks for permission from First Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick, played by Stark Sands. Fick says, "Write this as you see it" which, of course, he did.

See, folks, this is how it really is. The left likes to gripe that the army hides stuff and that the troops are psychotic baby killers. Not true. Well, the army does hide stuff but it is mostly at a much higher level. We get to hear a lot of real stories. And the right? Well, when they see stuff like this, they usually blow a bowel and call the media a bunch of commie faggots who hate the troops and love to paint the army in a bad light. Again, it's what actually happened and I know many troops who tell reporters the same thing that Fick did.

It's always a good day when the left and the right are frothing at the mouth about the same stupid shit. Check out the show. It's a corker!

Guv Says Buh-Bye to VP Slot

Well, I guess Governor Pawlenty decided he didn't want to be McCain's VP after all. Senator Obama was in Minnesota yesterday and, when asked to comment on him, the Guv said the following

Say what you will about Barack Obama, people gravitate when you have something positive to say. People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders. They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person.

Hmm...sound like he is describing the latest round of McCain ads when he says "negative and scornful person."

I don't agree with our Governor often but he is dead on right here!

Tell Me A Story

How many times has this happened to you?

You are at a party or some sort of social situation and you meet someone you don't know. The first words out of your mouth or theirs are, "So, what do you do?" And then the conversation proceeds down the tedious path of each job that you do on a daily basis, how much of a "bear" it is, and how you can't wait to get a vacation.

Setting aside the fact that most of this nation is on permanent vacation (more on that later), Americans seem to love to define themselves by what they do. I have had many discussions regarding this topic with our very own Crabmaster Scratch, currently known as Last In Line. It may surprise all of you to know that both of us are in complete agreement: defining yourself by your means of employment is fucking lame.

A job is not who you are, particularly with so many Americans hating their jobs (more on that later as well). When I think of Crab, I don't think of his work for a medical parts company. I think of softball, salsa dancing, martinis, girls, guns, and his secret life with MI-6.

Well, OK..the last four are someone else but I think you get my point. I am sick and tired of people in this country playing the 'what do you do' game when the meet someone. It is shallow, trivial, and half the time the person they are talking to isn't even listening anyway.

Far be it from, though, to bitch and not offer a solution. I just started doing this recently and the response I have gotten has been overwhelmingly positive. When you first meet someone and that moment comes when you feel the urge to say, "What do you do?" instead say this:

Tell me a story.

At first they might look a little baffled (or uptight if they live in Minnesota), but if you explain to them why you are asking this, that you are much more interested in that part of life that makes them human, interesting, and exciting, they usually open up. Heck, it can even be a story about their job! People love to hear and tell stories and what better way to break the ice than with a tale?

Give this a try and make sure that when you do, you tell them to pass it on and really get it out there. If I have to sit through another shit eatingly boring story about someone's dumb ass job, which they don't really want to talk about anyway, I will go insane.

Hallelujah!

I really need to get more organized with my links and blog information. It's just terrible. Whenever I am having a discussion with someone in comments, it's a real struggle to find pertinent information to back up my points.

The need for organization was played out quite eloquently in a recent discussion I have been having with one reader regarding whether or not the rich are taxed more. I could not come up with the information quickly and was quite unimpressive in the debate.

After searching for days, I finally found the links that show some hard numbers on what is really going on in this country. The main link I was looking for, by Thurman Hart on NJ.com, a New Jersey web site, neatly explains how "Paris Hilton and her pals have gotten windfall tax breaks while Joe Sixpack has had to take up the slack." Bear in mind, his information is coming from the Census Bureau, the IRS, and the Tax Center. Please go and double check his numbers. I did and it is nauseating.

He explains things in a very brief and clear fashion. An example?

The marginal tax rate - the highest tax bracket - in 1968 was 75.25% for incomes over $200,000. Adjusted for inflation, that would be a $1,128,351 - and they would pay 35% taxes on income over $326,450. For someone making over a million dollars a year currently, that's a 40% tax savings! According to the IRS Statistics of Income, that means about 270,000 people benefited from this tax break in 2004 (2005 and later statistics not currently available). So how much money is that? If the whole sum were subjected to only a 20% tax, the United States government would have brought in an additional $98 BILLION. By way of comparison, this is $17 billion more than was spent in Iraq in 2005.

This is a natural function of the multiplier effect of wealth. Less than one percent of Americans earn more than a million dollars, but they account for 11.2% of all income. This doesn't mean we should "soak the rich", but it does mean that over my lifetime the extremely wealthy have benefited from massive tax cuts.

And that has been my point all along. If you need more tables and charts to understand this, check out this site which is chock full o' data. Check out the CEO compensation charts at the bottom of the page.

I also found this article from the Times which further enforces my point regarding the stratification of our society. This was in regards to the Congressional Budget Office report regarding middle class income earners-the same report the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson was coming when he took office. It shows a very bleak future for our country and, if we don't pay attention, we are going to be in real trouble.

Back In Action

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days. Blogger mistakenly identified thousands of blogs as spam blogs. These are blogs that contain multiple links to one site that is trying to hawk something or engage in pyramid scam. Mine was one of them.

I should have a new post up sometime tomorrow. Not quite sure what the topic will be...there is so much to choose from :)

Conservative...terrorists?

Remember the cover of the New Yorker a couple of weeks back? The basic jist of that was a lampoon on conservative (see:white man shaking and a quakin' because he can't get his big fat dumb ass head around how much our America has changed) paranoia. In what has to be the most hilarious dichotomy in....the history of this country...conservatives think that Senator Obama is a "radical" who spends his time with "other radicals" like William Ayers (see: conservative douche bag fear mongering pundit machine really, really reaching for...something...hee hee) and is going to wield his Che Guevara ways,similar to Harry Potter's wand, and destroy all life in this country as we know it. I only have one thing to say to these imbecilic putzes:

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.

Why don't we spend a few moments and take a look at domestic terrorism? Let's start with an oldie, but a goodie...abortion clinic related violence...

Murders

In the U.S., violence directed toward abortion providers has killed 7 people, including 3 doctors, 2 clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort

• March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of the year before. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
• June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.
• December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
• January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
• October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian's murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.

A fourth doctor, George Patterson, was shot and killed in Mobile, Alabama on August 21, 1993, but it is uncertain whether his death was the direct result of his profession or rather a robbery.

Attempted murder, assault, and threats

According to statistics gathered by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization of abortion providers, since 1977 in the United States and Canada, there have been 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers. The attempted murders were:

• August 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 11-year prison sentence.
• June 29, 1994: June Barret was shot in the same attack which claimed the lives of James Barrett, her husband, and Dr. John Britton.
• December 30, 1994: Five individuals were wounded in the same-day shootings which killed Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols.
• December 18, 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second-degree attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years.^[11]
• October 28, 1997: A physician whose name has not been revealed was shot in his home in Rochester, New York.
• January 29, 1998: Emily Lyons, a nurse, was severely injured in the bombing which also killed Robert Sanderson.
• September 11, 2006 David McMenemy attempted a suicide bombing of a women's clinic in Davenport, Iowa after scouting targets throughout the Midwest. It was later revealed that the targeted clinic did not perform or make referrals for abortions.

Anthrax threats

The first letters claiming to contain anthrax were mailed to U.S. clinics in October 1998, a few days after the Slepian shooting, and since then, there have been a total of 655 such bioterror threats made against abortion providers. None of the "anthrax" in these cases was real.

• November 2001: After the genuine 2001 anthrax attacks, Clayton Waagner mailed hoax letters containing a white powder to 554 clinics. Waagner was convicted of 51 charges relating to the anthrax scare on December 3, 2003.

And where are we on the whole anthrax thing again? And who was targeted? Just saying...

Arson, bombing, and property crime

According to NAF, since 1977 in the United States and Canada, property crimes committed against abortion providers have included 41 bombings, 173 arsons, 91 attempted bombings or arsons, 619 bomb threats, 1630 incidents of trespassing, 1264 incidents of vandalism, and 100 attacks with butyric acid ("stink bombs"). The first clinic arson occurred in Oregon in March 1976 and the first bombing occurred in February 1978 in Ohio. More recent incidents have included:

• October 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, causing US$100 worth of damage. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.
• May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire on resulted in damage estimated at US$20,000.
• October 1, 2000: A Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard.
• June 11, 2001: A bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington on destroyed a wall, resulting in US$6000 in damages
• July 4, 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of an arson.
• December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison, and Dunahoe to one year.
• September 13, 2006 David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan crashed his car into the Edgerton Women's Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and then started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions, however Edgerton is not an abortion clinc.
• April 25, 2007: A package left at a women's health clinic in Austin, Texas contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device.
• May 9, 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• December 6, 2007: Two unidentified persons set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mentioned above is Eric Rudolph, the man responsible for the 1996 Olympic bombings. His reason?

Under the protection and auspices of the regime in Washington millions of people came to celebrate the ideals of global socialism. Even though the conception and purpose of the so-called Olympic movement is to promote the values of global socialism, as perfectly expressed in the song Imagine by John Lennon, which was the theme of the 1996 Games even though the purpose of the Olympics is to promote these despicable ideals, the purpose of the attack on July 27 was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand.

The John Lennon mention perfectly exemplifies the complete and utter fucking ignorance of people that think this way. Imagine (hee hee) the level of intellect that these people have that completely misinterprets one of the greatest songs of all time. I guess I would expect nothing less from this type of mindset. Less than zero maybe?

And then we have the Oklahoma City bombings by right wing nutters who were tired of the government as well as a whole host of grievances that sound suspiciously like a certain blog I know. This same blog recently posted a story recounting the "Threshold of Outrage" of 58 year old Jim Adkisson who, last Sunday, stormed into a Tennessee Church, angry at its liberalism and tolerance of homosexual members, killed two people and wounded seven others during a performance of a children's play. Naturally, he had a statement...he targeted the church because

"...of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."

Hmm...sounds just like that guy I recently met at a Christmas Party who some of you said was an anomaly. Oh, and this is great. Inside Adkisson's house they found "'Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder' by radio talk show host Michael Savage, 'Let Freedom Ring' by talk show host Sean Hannity, and 'The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.'"

Gee, what a shock.

As I read through Kevin's post regarding the tragedy, I did see a few hints of condemnation but the jist of the post, as well as the comments, was this....DON'T PISS OFF WHITE PEOPLE. And, as BLK noted after he read the post.

Geez, he sounds like a bleeding heart liberal. The poor guy's threshold of outrage was reached. We can hardly blame him. Those damned liberals made him do it. It's society's fault.

What I find to be curious about all of this is I wonder if Kevin has seriously taken a look at the people he criticizes and the people he defends? How blinded can his dogmatic belief system be? If I were him, I would be less concerned about the left and more concerned about his own house, which quite clearly has more shit bags in it. As BLK so eloquently put it to me in a recent email regarding this topic...

Why is personal responsibility abdicated when conservatives commit crimes?

Indeed. This would include Ted Stevens and the Justice Department under President Bush....two topics that will be covered over the next few days.....

The Benefits of Conservative Ideology

For the past eight years, many small businesses, largely made up of Republican voters, have been reaping some pretty big rewards or, more to the point, they have been given a break on their taxes.

And by break, I mean the "hands off" government of George W. Bush has looked the other way when it comes to their payroll taxes. According to a recent AP report, 1.6 million businesses owe 58 billion dollars in back taxes and penalties. This story caught my eye for a couple of reasons. The first was this quote from my Senator, Norm Coleman

Paying taxes isn't an option for hardworking Americans, yet these businesses act like they are exempt from this basic civic responsibility. Employers shouldn't have to worry about whether or money taken from paychecks is being used to line their employers pockets.

First of all, Norm, FUCK YOU! You and your ilk have encouraged this sort of behavior for the last eight years (six for you) and for you to come and say now that this "bad" is terribly disingenuous.

The other thing that I found interesting was how this proves, through hard evidence, how much our country has gone off track from good capitalism. Many of you have said that American businesses aren't like this.....it isn't common...blah blah blah...sucking any corporate leader's cock is patriotic because that is how success is defined...

It is quite clear conservative ideology encourages this sort of behavior. Examples?

• One company that it said had failed to pay $12 million while the owner diverted business money to buy luxury cars, planes and a mansion.
• A construction firm that owed $2.5 million dating back five years was found to be underbidding contracts while using unpaid payroll taxes to subsidize losses.
• A health-care company owing $2.5 million over 30 quarters filed for bankruptcy three times. Around the time of the bankruptcy filings, officers made cash withdrawals from the business of about $700,000.
• A waste-management firm owing $16 million stretched out over 10 years. The business was investigated for hiring illegal immigrants and the owner was arrested for income-tax crimes.

This is what happens when you follow the conservative line of thought regarding business and government. I find it to be hilarious that your average conservative bemoans government corruption and yet quietly chuckles when something like this happens.

So, corruption is OK when it happens the free market?

I Take This Man To Be My Wife

Steve Young is a real estate developer who wrote a column in today's Strib about one of my favorite topics: the "fun" people have in Minnesota. In one beautiful piece of opinion, he summed up what I have been saying for years about the thought process of most people in this state. If they start having too much fun around here, they usually think to themselves the following...

"Wow. I am really having fun. I better ramp this shit back and go do something that makes me fucking miserable like mow my lawn at the cabin or spend a Saturday morning at Menard's and a Saturday afternoon fixing up my house with the shit I bought at Menard's. I know some of my friends are playing a fun sport/going to a ball game/hitting the clubs today/tonight but hey...too much fun is a bad thing. I will not go with them and I will verbally berate anyone who does for having too much fun. It is abnormal. It is abnormal. It is abnormal...."

(sound of Theremin and person slipping into hypnosis)

Steve hits the nail on the head with the following quote from the article:

Ten years ago, I moved with my young children to Minneapolis from Chicago. That summer, and every summer since, when I go to one of the city beaches I am amazed and annoyed with the city officials who turned our natural gift, our city lakes, into large, boring wading pools -- people standing or sitting in the water, hampered by the multitude of antifun rules that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has imposed over the years.

It really is true, I am sad to say, for those of you readers who hail from other lands. Oh, and did you noticed that he moved from Chicago? A place where they know how to pull the stick out of their collective arses and have a good time.

For the full article click here.

Three Days and Counting...

I have waited all year for the new season of Mad Men and it is three short days away. I fucking love this show. It takes place in the early 1960s...the zenith of Kennedy Era cool. Martinis....grey flannel suits....and chicks in tight skirts with curves in places where most women don't even have places.

Yummy.

Especially yummy is Christina Hendricks, number two on the top five mega fucking hot chick list of yours truly, pictured here with co-star and lead man, Jon Hamm.

Click on the photo if you would like to read more about the show.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Iraq

Before Barack Obama's trip this week to the Middle East, the President of Iraq, Nouri Al Maliki, stated that Iraq wanted US troops out of Iraq. This sentiment was echoed by several members of the Iraqi government.

The reaction from the Bush Administration was bizarre, to say the least. At first, they tried to deny that he said it. Then they vehemently disagreed with him, which is odd, of course, because we are supposedly still there at their invitation. To suggest otherwise would make us an (gasp!) imperial force occupying a foreign land. And we all know that's not true. Can't be. We aren't an empire because when you say "empire" or "imperialism" you can only use the strictest definition (see 18th century dictionary) and any other meaning is liberal hysteria. Lunacy...I tell you....lunacy!

Finally, on Friday, just as Obama was making his way to the Middle East, Bush and al Maliki agreed, via video conference, to a rough outline for withdrawal of US Combat Forces.

Huh?

Pardon me for scratching my head here (and I know I shouldn't in the ever changing, see if you can find the nut under one of these three coconuts approach to foreign policy that is the Bush administration's modus operandi) but I thought if we "cut and run" we would be giving in to the enemy? (Side note: still wondering who the enemy is in Iraq...haven't got an intelligent answer yet other than "bad guys." So, I'm still waiting...)

Apparently, the scuttlebutt is that combat troops will be out of Iraq by 2010. This comes a great disappointment to John McCain who has made his entire campaign about national security and if he loses that talking point then....why should he be president again?

Thus we have the picture to the left. Here we see General David Petraeus giving Barack Obama a personal tour of Baghdad. I look at this picture and really feel all of the wheels in motion regarding Obama's trip to the Middle East. I can't help but grin at the obvious fact that many of our nation's great leaders yearn for a competent, intelligent man to take the reins in these incredibly tough times and they have found him in Senator Obama. They are sick and tired of the buffoonery that has defined the least eight years.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that they have made their choice.

Are We Stupid?

Last Tuesday, President Bush was all set to deliver a speech on the state of the economy. While he did touch on that subject, the topic he really wanted to talk about was drilling for oil in our own country. My question to all of you is this....why doesn't President Bush just stand up and there and say the following:

I would like to make my friends in the oil industry richer. That is why I want to drill.

DOES HE THINK WE ARE ALL FUCKING STUPID?

Apparently, we are. I just got back from my annual digital exam (yipee!) and as I was waiting to give some blood for a PSA screen, a woman and her mother were sitting next to me having a loud conversation about the economy. The woman said, "If Congress would just let us drill offshore, then all of our problems would be solved. But they won't listen to the President. And now, the Chinese are getting all of that oil."

Setting aside the fact that giving more oil to oil companies is like giving more heroin to drug dealers, the Chinese aren't stealing our oil. This woman obviously spends her time listening to right wing talk radio and watching opinion media like Fox News. Recent assertions by both outlets have proved to be false. Their source was Dick Cheney, who was since recanted his statement and said he was mistaken. Do you think this woman knows about this?

Nope. She has made up her mind. It's all the fault of Congress (aka liberals) and the Chinese. I felt like saying something but it was too early to point out the extraordinary depths of American ignorance.

More of that Liberal Media Crap

Two articles of interest in today's New York Times for those of you who are still on the liberal media kick. They are up Charlie Rangel's ass with a tweaser now and show no sign of letting up. If I were ol'Charlie I would....whine like a baby about how the media are biased. Oh no, wait...that's what the right does all the live long day. Anyhoo, if I were Charles I would find a new place to live and pay what the people he supposedly represents pay (aka his fair share).

Another article discusses Senator Obama's upcoming visit to Iraq and presents several voices who (gasp!) disagree with him about troop withdrawal. In fact, the first person interviewed states unequivocally that the US should not leave. Could the Times be towing the Bush line?

Nah, can't be.

Oh, and by the way, why is it the voices on the left are much quieter in their whining about conservative media?

Liberal Media Watch

Every time I see a story or stories which prove that the media is far from liberal and interested in selling whatever their corporate owned asses are peddling, I am going to start pointing it out. Starting fucking today...which is why you see, at the bottom of this post, tags appearing for the first time. Anyone who does a search for liberal media might be pointed here. From now on, all of you can consider this a repository of information that proves how bullshit the claim is that the media is liberal. Please tell your friends...

Anyway, let's take a look at the New York Times, as an example. Called the "Traitor Times" by many on the right, this is the same newspaper that sat on the wiretap story for a year...a fucking year!...because they were too afraid of Dick Cheney. This is the same newspaper whose reporter, Judith Miller, went to jail because she wouldn't reveal who in the Bush Administration was leaking information about undercover CIA agents.

Now we see they have hired Bill Kristol to be a columnist. And last week they ran a series on Charlie Rangel and his palatial apartment set up. Are there still people out there who consider the New York Times liberal? If so, what is the matter with you?

But the real icing on the cake was the latest issue of the New Yorker. Check out this cover.

Um...what do you think they were trying to accomplish with this cover? Could it be they wanted to.....SELL SOME SHIT?

Once again, I feel totally vindicated. The editors of the magazine say they were trying to lampoon the right's view of the Obamas but it doesn't take a genius to figure out they were just trying to boost sales and raise advertising rates in a struggling economy.

They are pandering, as most members of the media do, to the lowest common denominator, encouraging a tabloid culture whose members exist only on the most paranoid and superficial levels of emotional intelligence.

I see example of this crap everyday and wonder..how does this favor liberal views...exactly?

Morning Chuckle

I opened up my copy of the Strib today and saw something that made me laugh so hard I almost went to Methodist for oxygen. A letter from a reader regarding Rush Limbaugh's new contract with Clear Channel had the following line in it:

Radio shows such as Rush's are the only place that conservatives can get the whole picture. We certainly can't get it from the liberal news media...with the state of Public Radio and Air America, I'm wondering if it isn't just plain jealousy that is causing the complaints.

Putting aside the fallacy of the liberal news media (more on that tomorrow), um..."the whole picture?"

BWAA HAH HA HA BWA HAH HAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Try a PERFECT picture of propaganda. This is just another example of how conservatives can't process new information (see actual scientific proof) and have to go to a source that tells them what they want and need to here. This also proves how Rush's listeners aren't seeking entertainment but what they feel is news. I wonder if this letter writer, and others who feel like him, understand that Clear Channel pays people like Limbaugh to make sure that their corporate interests...Republican interests....are met in Washington. Now that I think about it, this would also be an example of how US Corporations, not the government, are the ones that are really running the show.

I will give him Air America, though. No doubt that has a liberal bias.

But Public Radio? Nope. Just because they report something you don't like, something that is culturally diverse, or something that is from another culture's point of view (see: white fear, paranoia, and insecurity) doesn't make it "liberal." Often dry and even sometimes boring is NPR but liberal?

Well, I suppose when you see enemies around every corner....

Whither Phil and Jesse...

As I have stated many times on this blog, we are in a new era of politics. The rules are different, folks, and many of you, on both the left and the right, don't get it. The American people have had quite enough of the bullshit, thank you very much, and expect more out of their candidates. We have finally started down the right path. Not stellar yet, but down the right path

So it really cracks me up when I see folks who still follow the old way of doing things. I offer as an example the Reverend Jesse Jackson and former Senator Phil Gramm. Jesse Jackson has become a caricature of himself. He sees enemies and "people talking down to black people" around every corner.

Note to Jesse: Barack Obama is black.

And Phil Gramm is really on the ball, isn't he? Our economic problems are all in our head, according to Phil, and we should just "get over it." This is a classic and shining example of how tone deaf conservatives have become in this election regarding what is going on this country. It will ultimately prove to be their undoing.

Jesse and Phil represent the past...the old way of doing business. Both of them look terribly out of step and foolish any time they are put in front of a microphone. And it makes my heart warm to see people recognize them for what they both are...

A joke.

Who's not listening....again?

Kori Schake, a senior policy adviser to John McCain said last week that Senator Obama was not listening the commanders on the ground in Iraq and that all of them have stated that Iraq is the central front in the war. In addition, Al Qaeda has said it is.

Well, golly shucks, Kori, let's please start listening to Al Qaeda for our foreign policy direction. Did it ever occur to you, Senator McCain or any of the other numskulls that support the occupation of Iraq that they want to distract us there while they quietly build up forces in Pakistan? Sheesh....

In actuality, no one in the McCain campaign (or most on the right) are listening to our armed forces. The Pentagon has been saying for the last year that Al Qaeda in Iraq is permanently crippled and all but vanquished. And Ms. Schake's comments came two hours after my new hero, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that additional troops were needed in Afghanistan, lamenting the fact that they were tied down in Iraq.

All of this after a huge spike in causalities in Afghanistan. Are people on the right so bent on being "right" that they can't admit that something has to change-and change now-before another serious attack?

Apparently so.