Neda

A Good Run

Well, the mainstream media had a good run recently in regards to actually covering events that fucking matter. CNN led the way with wall to wall coverage of the amazing events going on in Iran. Other news networks and outlets followed with heretofore unseen and in depth coverage of a pivotal point in that country's history. I was elated to see your ordinary Joe on the street asking me about Iran and talking about it with a higher level of knowledge. People seemed to care about what was going on there and frivolous stories were nowhere to be found.

Then Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carlolina, went on a walkabout and....they started dropping like flies in CelebrityWood.

While I feel sad for their families (and am especially bummed that the passing of Ed McMahon got swept aside quickly...no one EVER will come close to him and Johnny), the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays are not "Breaking News" in the way that a revolution in a fucking country is news. My cup had already runneth over with Michael and now there will be no escaping it for the next month or possibly more.

And people will return to caring about shallow, meaningless bullshit when they were so close (!) to turning the corner and focusing on poignant matters like Iran, Pakistan, health care, energy, and Iraq. Do we really need to know the intimate details of Governor Sanford's life? I don't care. It's his business and I don't judge him for his actions...although I do find it HILARIOUS that my colleagues on the right are very sympathetic. Where was that sympathy from 1998-2000?

If any of you are wailing uncontrollably at the death of Michael Jackson, first of all....get a fucking life. You didn't know the guy. Save your sadness and empathy for people in your own life for crying out loud. And, if you must weep for someone you don't know, check this site out tomorrow for the video that changed my life.

Not Even Close

The next time you hear a conservative tell you that our government is close to socialism, show them this.













And then gently direct them to the nearest mental institution.

Another Classic (at 2:00)

"I don't want to be on your team. Pick another kid."

Given a recent post by Kevin Baker regarding last week's New Rules, I hope he checks this one out too:)

"We don't have a left or right party in this country anymore. We have a center right party and a crazy party. Over the last 30 odd years, Democrats have moved to the right and the right has moved into a mental hospital....they actually worry that Obama is a socialist. Socialist? He's not even a liberal."

And many of his commenters as well. I can already feel their heads exploding.

Wow.

"We had one vote and we gave it to Mousavi. We have one life and we'll give it up for freedom."

Anonymous Twitter from Tehran.

The Twitter Revolution

Like many of you, I am stunned by the events in Iran. Each day's news brings more excitement and more danger. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a warning today to protesters saying that the government would crack down on further dissent.

While they have been able to block some transmissions from Iran, the government has had a difficult time controlling all of the Twittering that has gone on. Everyday citizens have become global reporters pushing real time information out to the rest of the world. It's an amazing thing to watch a lumbering old and out of step theocracy sadly attempt to block free speech.

And, I have to say, my chiding of Twitter of late amongst my social circles seems to have come back and bitten me on the ass. I'm still not a big fan of people having to know and tell other people what they are doing exactly at every second of their lives but if you live in Tehran....I say Twitter away, revolutionary brothers and sisters!

Yet another reason to smile:)

Wow. They continue to amaze me. Just when I thought there was a smidgen of hope that the GOP might pull together and be a little smarter about how they communicate, this happens.

Really?

No prob, Hugh. We'll take all those votes off your hands:)

The Best

A few years back, the tennis world (mostly overzealous and irritating announcers like Mary Cirillo) claimed that Roger Federer was the best player in the history of the game. This was back when he had won a few Wimbledons and the US Open.

Many of my tennis pals said that he was the best ever and I reminded them that until he wins the French, my guy Andre is still the best. To win all four slams in a career had only been accomplished by Agassi, Laver, Perry, Emerson, and Budge. To understand how difficult this is, stand in your back yard and bounce a ball off of grass, a muddy patch, and your driveway. Watching how differently it bounces and you will get the idea. The French, played on clay, eluded Federer for years.

But yesterday, he fucking won it. And in convincing fashion.

So, it is NOW official. Roger Federer is the greatest player in the history of tennis. If he wins Wimbledon this year, he will have passed Pete Sampras (with whom he is currently tied at 14) with 15 Grand Slam wins. And Pete never even won the French!

Congrats, Roger. You are the man!

65 Years Ago Today

He said...what?

Check out this story from Andrew Sullivan. Apparently, Bill O'Reilly called the recently murdered Dr. George Tiller "Doctor Killer."

(Shakes head sadly)

And they wonder why the DHS is going to crawl up their ass with a fucking tweezers....

First Look

An intrepid (and large breasted) female friend (who recently declared open house to all comers :) on titty fucking if she ever gets breast cancer and has to have a masectomy) sent me this link and comment in regards to President Obama's meeting with King Abdullah (aka the "Saudi guy")

Note in the photo how he keeps his distance. I hope no photo surfaces showing them strolling and holding hands.

p.s. that Saudi guy still looks pregnant

Sweet...

Only The Beginning

Last Sunday, Scott Roeder walked into Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, KS and shot Dr. George Tiller, killing him for being a late term abortion provider. From my local paper:

Roeder's family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became "very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way," his former wife, Lindsey Roeder, told The Associated Press. "The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion."

I'm sad to report that I'm certain this is only the beginning. As I have been saying for months, the real danger in regards to domestic terrorism is from the right, not the left. The right is far more organized, greater in number, getting more armed every day, and fucking pissed off as hell. And people gave me shit for the DHS report...

What I find to be most interesting about this latest incident in relation to the DHS report is how the right complains of "profiling" when they do the exact same fucking thing every day with Muslims. How many times have we heard the line "not all terrorists are Muslims but all the ones that are attacking us are Muslims?"

Not anymore.

The people that are going to cause the most violence in this country in the next year are exactly what Ms. Roeder described above...anti government, anti tax, old testament, anti abortion.

Sound like the base of a certain party to anyone?

A Pefect Solution

I think I have a perfect place for the right to vent their anger....HERE. Check out this story from the Christian Science Monitor regarding the situation in Pakistan. As if President Obama's current policy of letting the weak government fight a proxy war wasn't bad enough for my blood pressure, now we have this bullshit. I am issuing call to all gun owners who currently stock piling their armories...donate a gun to a Pakistani woman. At the very least, donate your time by encouraging and/or training her to use it.

Now most of you know that for the most part, I am a peaceful man. But when it comes to fucking garbage like this...well...I am reminded of Sean Connery in the Untouchables.

Jimmy: You want to get Capone? Here's how you do it...he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue.

Yep.

Knee Jerk Hate

Today, President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. As expected, conservatives around the country, condemned her as a liberal, activist judge who is going to kill babies, take away guns and legislate from the bench.

Taking our shuttles back from the orbit of Planet Hate-Paranoia-Fear (or just plain Planet NO to everything President Obama does), we find several interesting items regarding Ms. Sotomayor:

• She was initially nominated to US District Court by President George H.W. Bush who, unless Limbaugh and Cheney have now thrown him out as a heretic, is a Republican.
• Orin Hatch, Richard Lugar, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Thad Cochran, Judd Gregg, and Robert Bennett...all Republicans...vote for her nomination to the US Court of Appeals in 1998.
• She upheld the Bush administration's implementation of the Mexico City Policy which requires foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds to "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations".
• She dissented from her colleagues’ ruling that the NYPD could terminate an employee from his desk job who sent racist materials through the mail. Sotomayor argued that the First Amendment protected speech by the employee “away from the office, on [his] own time,” even if that speech was “offensive, hateful, and insulting," and that therefore the employee's First Amendment claim should have gone to trial rather than being dismissed on summary judgment.
• In cases where Sotomayor and at least one judge appointed by a Republican president were on the three-judge panel, Sotomayor and the Republican appointee(s) agreed on the outcome 95 percent of the time.

Wow. Sounds to me like she's a stinkin' commie.....IN NEOCON BIZARRO WORLD.

Anyway, President Obama has made a fine choice in Ms. Sotomayor. Her track record proves she is a moderate through and through and a perfect choice to replace the court's current moderate...David Souter. As we all know, though, these days anything to the left of Atilla the Hun is FUCKING STATIST SOCIALISM BENT ON DESTROYING ALL LIBERTY AND FREEDOM EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So when you hear the rage against the choice of Sonia Sotomayor, try hard to not listen to the direction from which it originates: white men (ages 45-130)....their ball sweat ever increasing in lather as they realize that our country is now populated by people who (gasp!) have non white men opinions (see: end of all that is holy) because (double gasp!) there are a lot less white men around these days.

Kindly input the RRRC (Reverse Racism Redirect Code) and begin sadly projecting onto me (and others) your own hilariously obvious bias.

Giving Thanks

On this Memorial Day, 2009, I find my thoughts drifting to my grandfather who passed away last year. Pop was a member of the combat engineers in WWII and served on pretty much every island in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945.

Here is to him and all the men and women who have given their lives for our country....

Obama is the New....Bush?

The cartoon below got a few emails my way and a comment from juris regarding where I stand on Obama's recent 180s on some issues that fall under the "Conflict with Hirabis" column. My guy seems to be getting hit pretty hard from all sides these days and that probably means he's doing the right thing. Although that does not mean that I agree with him on all of these policies.

A recent off the record meeting at the White House (which ended up being on the record:)) saw several human rights groups and left wingers taking President Obama to the mat on four key issues. Here is where I stand on all of them.

Non release of the Photos: In many ways I can see both sides to this. On the one hand we need to see if there were any crimes broken and if anyone should be prosecuted. We also need to own up, as country, and apologize for this disgusting and sadistic behavior. But the pictures, should they ever be released, will put our armed forces in harm's way and perhaps add more names to the rolls of Al Qaeda recruiters. It's a tough call but let's remember that President Obama didn't create this mess...he's just trying to clean it up as best he can. So, I think that it is a good idea not to release the pictures once you look at the overall strategy of denying hirabis any fuel for their psychotic fire.

Continue Military Tribunals: If the policy is streamline to be more effective and give suspects basic rights that prisoners of war had in previous conflicts, I might be for the continued use of tribunals. As of right now, though, I am not. Regardless of how bad these guys are, they should be treated with all the liberty and rights of the Geneva convention and not put up in Spanish Inquisition like fashion with a guilty until proven innocent attitude. We are still toggling back and forth between "is this a war" or "is this criminal activity that requires police work." I say the latter is a more effective strategy (unless there is a whole country involved like Pakistan) and this has been fully proved to be very effective as was shown with the recent break up of a terrorist cell in New York.

Secret Prisons: Nope. Completely against the president on this one. I find it to be highly hypocritical of him to continue to support this when he says we have to close Gitmo. These prisons will be used as recruitment tools and are just as damaging to us as the enhanced interrogation techniques. The fact that he is going along with this makes me wonder how much Dick Cheney is still dictating our national policy which, of course, proves my point that it is still relevant to talk about conservatives:)

No Prosecution of Bushies: Not really with him on this one as well. I understand that if we go after people that tortured or the Bush Administration officials (see: all of them) that ordered it, it could turn really ugly...fast. But these people broke the law. If we send Michael Vick to jail for two years for dog fighting and we let people that break the law go free, what does that say about us as a country? I realize we need to move on but we still must lead by example and we are not doing that here.

Warrantless Wiretaps: Again, this is wrong no matter who does it. Now, I haven't looked into this much but you don't need a warrant for the first 15 days and can get one after the fact as I understand it. That much is legal. The Bush Administration went farther than this and if President Obama continues this same program then he is wrong as well. On the other hand, my nose smells something rotten here (see: conservative propaganda) and I'd like to examine both policies side by side to see if there are any differences.

So, as you can see, I do think President Obama is making some mistakes and I don't agree with him on a couple of these issues. It is nice, however, to see that he is capable of changing his mind and pursuing what he thinks is the better idea than perhaps some of his own...quite a refreshing change from the last administration. It shouldn't come to the surprise of anyone that I think this way as I said it would be like this all along. I can admit that President Obama isn't perfect...he will make mistakes...I (and he) can admit when he is wrong and I don't blindly follow him and bury my head in the sand like an ostrich.

That's how the other side operates. And man is that tough for them to understand. They just can't seem to understand that, even though I disagree with him on some issues, that I still think he is a great guy and the best person we have had in this job for years...decades even. How can I possibly support someone who is flawed? All leaders in the GOP are perfect, damnit!, and never change their minds...EVER! They are always right and it's always someone else's fault. How can Mark have this attitude?

Well, it's called reflection.

Yep.

Click on photo for larger image

America...Fuck Yeah!

For the past couple of days, President Obama has been chastised by both members of his own party as well as the GOP in regards to the closing of Gitmo. They refused him the funding to close the prison by his Jan 2010 deadline. With the GOP leading the charge and the Democrats doing their usual cowering in the face of right wing fear, paranoia, and ignorance (if they come on our soil, US officials will immediately issue them weapons and explosive material and tell them to go blow something up), all hope appeared lost.

Then a small town in a bright red state said they would take at least half of them if not more. And I can't wait for the conservative response (see: spin) on this one.

Two Rivers Executive Director Greg Smith said the town of Hardin, Montana would gladly take them. Why? Because their town has been hit by hard times and they sure could use the jobs. Apparently, they have an empty, state-of-the-art jail ready and waiting. Interestingly, they don't seem to be all that afraid of having hirabis in their town. Mr Smith said that the people there would be more concerned about child molesters than a few terrorists. Hee hee hee...I think I just heard a collective load drop in the pants of another GOP bullshit lie. And doesn't Harry Reid look like a total douche right about now?

Say it ain't so, Virginia. Can it be that there are still heroes left in this country that don't cower in fear in the face of a few bad guys? Are there actually people in a bright red state that can look past party lines and do what is best for American and her image?

Are the only real men living in Montana?:)

"We're Not Going To Have Talks Forever"

So said President Obama yesterday to newly elected Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting yesterday at the White House. He went onto basically say that he would not put the kibosh on harsher steps, including military action, should Iran not cooperate. “We’re not going to create a situation in which talks become an excuse for inaction while Iran proceeds," he said.

I couldn't agree more. The United States has made several overtures of late to sit down and engage in high level talks with Iran. Thus far, the Iranian government (as I expected) has refused. In offering to talk, President Obama has now put the US in a more positive and conciliatory light. Proceeding with tougher sanctions and perhaps even military action will now be much easier. We look the good guys again and they look like the stubborn, borderline psychotics that they actually are.

Iranian national elections are in June and all roads point to a more moderate president than Ahmadinejad. Even then, most everyone knows that it is the religious leaders that run the country so it doesn't really matter who is the "head" of state. I'm pretty certain that after the elections they will play around some more and give us a bunch of lip service. If there isn't any action or movement on their part, keep your eyes open for another meeting between Netanyahu and President Obama. If that meeting does happen, get ready for something big.

“The logic of Netanyahu’s argument is, ‘What do you do if your power of diplomacy and toughened sanctions doesn’t work?’ ” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator in both Democratic and Republican administrations. “Anyone who was expecting a major rift in the U.S.-Israeli relationship is going to be disappointed.”

A Long Comment

Hysteria has run amok over at The Smallest Minority....apparently the time has "passed for reasoned discourse." I wanted to reprint my comment on Kevin's post here in case anyone else wanted to chime in.

With all due respect to Cindi, discussing Iraq and how that fits into the "Common Sense" culture you dream about IS on topic. Since he was mentioned in this post,

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin said this in the early part of 1775. He also said, "There was never a good war or a bad peace." So, Kevin, you can't have it both ways. And while I agree with you regarding Dr. Paul's insane ideas on the topic of international relations, if you are for "common sense" you should NOT be in support of anything the Patriot Act offers nor invading Iraq and all that comes with it.The world that many of you fear has been here the last eight years and most of you have cheered it on. You have supported neo conservatism by allowing our citizens, as well as citizens from abroad, to be rounded up, without trials nor representation, and sent to prison. Why? Because they were Muslim.

In fact,"your" Franklin "your" Jefferson, "your" Adams, "your" Madison, "your" Washington and "your" Paine have nothing in common with modern day conservatism and I suspect that most if not all of them, if they were alive today, would be vilified by most right wing bloggers. Why, Franklin's quote from above would have elicited calls of treason and cowardice.

In a draft of the Constitution, Jefferson wrote, "All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution." How do you think that idea plays with "The Base?" Jefferson, btw, was a devotee of the Muslim faith and his copy of the Koran was used in Keith Ellison's swearing in ceremony.

John Adams said "There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight." Indeed, government can work if the right people are in it. He also said, "Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it." There is whole lot of the superstition and dogmatism coming from the right these days.

James Madison said, ""If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." No shit.

George Washington said, "Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country." According to writings on this blog as well as the right wing in its current form, serving your country means being a socialist. Or is it fascist? I can never keep track. Any time the talk of common good comes up, screeding flames of death burst forth from the right. He also said, in a letter to Madame Lafayette, "Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last." Imagine if he had said that today. The f word? Suffering Jehosaphats! What ever would the response from the right be?

And, finally, Thomas Paine, on whom this post was based, said in Common Sense, "It is of the utmost danger to society to make it [religion] a party in political disputes. Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America." Paine would not even be a candidate for janitor in the GOP in its current form.

He also said (quoted here many times), "Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."

We furnish the means by which we suffer indeed. If I were an alien who landed on this planet and the only information I had on America was the writings here, I would assume the end was near. Thankfully, it is not. Individual freedom and liberty aren't going anywhere, folks. Perhaps your definition of it is and let's be realistic...that's the real problem here, isn't it? It's not the you are afraid of losing your liberty. You are afraid of being wrong. So, you can try to submit the belief that you are aligned with the founding fathers ideologically but every time you do, I am going to be there to call you on your bullshit. And, as a postscript to this very long comment, history has already proved that you are wrong.

In the 1930s and 40s, we came closer to a socialist state then we ever did. And what was the result? We defeated the greatest army this world had ever seen..."strong arming" GM btw. We built a strong economy and had more regulation than we do today. We had a 91 percent tax rate on the top one percent and built the national highway system because of it. This allowed our economy to expand even further and, in a hilarious bit of irony, allowed some of you to go on to very successful careers in engineering.

Happy for you ideologically but perhaps sad for future engineers and innovators, those days are gone and will never come back. Our country has moved too far away from allowing any sort of government institution (NASA for example) that kind of power. Look at the hysteria over the government's temporary involvement in the banking industry and Detroit recently. As Alan Greenspan and many others said in the CNBC documentary "House of Cards" (shown to me by last in line recently and fully torpedoing any last shred of an idea that blames government for our current issues), the corporation and free market rule the day and will forever.

Gordon Gecko would be proud and all of you, rather than gathering pitch forks and torches, should be happy.

I shudder with anticipation at what the response is going to be:)