Another Hypocrite Bites The Dust

As a hater of wingnut hypocrites nothing gives me more pleasure than headlines like:

Gay Escort Gave Nude Massages to Family Research Council Founder

Ah! Another fall from grace, another closeted wingnut vacates the moral high ground in disgrace... cue 'wah-wah-waah' music sting. But anti-gay activist and Family Research Council co-founder George Alan Rekers is insisting that his gay Euro fling was really an effort to save souls:

"You will find I spent a great deal of time sharing scientific information on the desirability of abandoning homosexual intercourse, and I shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him in great detail."

Between bouts of sucking d*ck presumably.

Random Picture of The Day

A guy in Puerto Rico opted for this creepy wake: having his corpse propped up on his favorite motorcycle for a three-day viewing. Different... When I die, I plan to have myself sat in my office chair in front of my Mac wearing my favorite underpants.

Palin Blames Foreigners

There are many reasons to hate Sarah Palin. Her half-assed, quasi-fascist politics... her grating, nasal voice and her constant need to lie. Take your pick. She makes it impossible to imagine wanting to piss on her if she caught fire.

But the worst thing is that the bitch really is as dumb as a box of rocks. Example: It's been more than two weeks since BP's Deepwater Horizon rig keeled over and f*cked the gulf and it's taken her all this time to come up with an opinion. And what is her take? Why, it's all the fault of foreign oil. Says Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal:

According to Sarah Palin, the REAL problem behind the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is that BP is foreign (British).

But her "blame the foreigners" angle starts to go typically Palinesque (i.e., so intellectually dishonest it's just plain weird and self-defeating) when you consider that husband Todd worked for BP for 18 years. Why would you open that big can of worms?

What's next from Mooselini? Maybe "I blame terrorists for Times Square bomb"... followed by "Dammit, I forgot Todd used to be in the Taliban"?

The War on Insanity

We're not in a war. If we were, it would be a war against mental illness.

Every time a terrorist incident breaks, I can't help feeling I'm being sold a dud bill of goods by the media and those on the right so eager to stoke up the "War on Terror".

Whether it's horrors like Oklahoma or Fort Hood perpetrated by home-grown wackjobs, or Taliban wannabes trying to blow up Times Square, it's not war. It's just the unhinged rage of crazy guys wreaking 'revenge' on society.

Terrorists might convince themselves and others they're on ideological missions. They may even hook up with full-blown terror groups - those various ethnic crime syndicates with political or religious back-stories - to feel all self-righteous. But on a personal level, they're just acting out mental breakdowns. So for us to prattle witlessly about war like there's some vast army marching on America is redundant bullsh*t. It doesn't get anyone anywhere... aside from boosting cable news ratings and conservative approval numbers.

A cursory glance at the life of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad shows that he fits the usual profile:

1. Rich brat with an education
2. Unlucky in life (i.e., wife left him, house foreclosed, etc.)
3. Went radical because he was mad with society and looking for a cause to legitimize his anger

Shahzad's is the life story of almost every dangerous loon who's ever raised a hand against us as a society. From Ted Kazinsky through Osama bin Laden, from Timothy McVeigh to the ill-fated underpants bomber... they all have so much in common they could date on eHarmony.

So can't we ask constructive questions about how we contain our alienated, angry nutjobs instead of talking about a war on terror that's nothing more than political and media hype?

Terrorism = mental health issues writ large and we ignore them at our peril. But we do because we don't like hard problems. Better to just declare a war where everything is black and white, us v. them, no thought required.

Random Picture of The Day

Corporate Infallibility: Too Big To Jail

Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein: Unlikely to be seen sporting an orange jumpsuit any time soon.

Common Dreams is talking about how no major players are likely to be indicted for their roles in causing the recession. They contrast this situation with the aftermath of the Savings & Loan debacle back in the 80s and 90s when top execs like junk-bond king Michael Milken and tycoon Charles Keating Jr. did find themselves doing serious prison time.

But now the big swinging d*cks are immune thanks to the deregulation of Wall Street which put them in charge of policing themselves. So no big surprise that the only cases brought so far involve low-level foot soldiers like real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, borrowers and a few low-level bank employees. As they say "No senior executives at large financial institutions face criminal charges".

In America, corporate infallibility rules and capitalism means never having to say you're sorry.

You're Welcome...

Whirlpool Corporation took $19 million in economic recovery money and more than doubled its first-quarter profits.

Now Whirlpool Corporation is killing off 1,100 American jobs by shutting down its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Indiana and shifting manufacturing to Mexico.

As a taxpayer, I'd like to say... err... you're welcome.

Arizona Inspires 10-State Suicide Pact

Inspired by Arizona's efforts to destroy its own economy and alienate 30% of its own people instituting bone-headed anti-immigrant laws, TPM lists 10 other states "talking about enacting similarly draconian legislation".

Maybe there's a secret master strategy afoot, but right now this looks like an economic and political suicide pact. What else would you call pandering to the shrinking angry white demo while alienating just about every other growing sector of society?

Ironic too that NY and California - the states that contribute most to the economy - strongly oppose these laws. But it'll be down to them to bail out Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North & South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah should they follow through on their suicide pact.

Ain't that grand? Think of all those undocumented workers in California and NY working to keep the anti-immigrant states afloat. It's almost a macrocosm of the "send-'em-all-back" microcosm that hypocritically depends on cheap, illegal labor to keep its lawns cut, it's houses clean and its children burped.

It's Race, Stupid

Clinton campaign strategist James Carville coined the term "It's The Economy, Stupid" to keep his famously distractible employer on-message during the 1992 presidential elections. The economy was key to understanding American politics back then. But now the key issue could be summed up with "It's Race, Stupid". Much as the right may deny it, politics today has devolved into some kind of antebellum power struggle to keep the summit of America's power pyramid WASPy white.

Sure, they'll deny it and make every effort to hide their racism behind decoy issues like immigration reform, national security and unequal rights for minorities whose status is safely not defined by race (i.e., gays, women, non-Christians and secularists). But it's white power versus diversity, tradition versus demographics and reaction versus change. And it doesn't take a genius to figure how a black president leading a party whose electability depended on its appeal to minority voters was sure as hell gonna kick things up a notch.

So it's almost laughable to hear conservatives pretend race doesn't matter to them. Who do they think they're fooling? Certainly not the 75% of Hispanics or 85 to 90% of black people who won't vote for them.

It's also a massive stretch for the Re-Palin-can teabaggers to claim non-racism when, despite being 98% white, they still insist on calling themselves the "Real America". What then would they call the vast majority of 'other' folks who aren't with them? By implication, they must be the "False America"... more than that, the "Non-White America".

Yup. You might have thought the civil rights era struggles were over - even down here in the South. But it seems the conservative time machine wants to skip right past the 1960s to the 1860s when the citizenship and rights of minorities were still moot and very much under the big white thumb of "Real America".

How else can Arizona's anti-immigrant bill be explained? How else can the continued popularity of Pat-Buchanan-in-drag Palin be explained? How else do you explain party purges of moderate Republicans and fringe talking points about birth certificates, Socialism and Obama's 'otherness' going mainstream?

It's Race, Stupid.

Random Picture of The Day

Note to Second Amendment enthusiasts: learn to f*cking spell. It's not just an error, it's a Larry The Cable Guy pun for f*ck's sake!

Coincidentally, my favorite comment of the day at Gawker was in response to another commenter making the same error: "You are only allowed to bare arms if your guns are huge." Ha! (As Chris Matthews would say.)

NY Car Bomb: Taliban

The Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility:

In a one minute video allegedly released by the Pakistani Taliban, the group says the attack is revenge for the death of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and the recent killings of the top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

So Republicans are not the only ones who don't appreciate Obama's efforts to kill off those d*ckweeds over the border in Pakistan?

The Wingnut Culture of Corporate Infallibility

Says the British Daily Mail:

President Obama was facing a growing backlash last night over the U.S. government's slow response to the oil spill disaster... Critics compared Mr Obama's belated attempts to contain the catastrophe to George W Bush's dithering over Hurricane Katrina.

Who are these critics? Smell a wingnut meme? Limp-baugh says the incident would be remembered as “Obama’s Katrina" (because he'd really like it to be).

But here's a funny thing... aren't the people equating the gulf oil spill to Katrina the same folks who'd still contend Bush did nothing wrong back in 2005? So wouldn't Obama be blameless too by their own logic? But I digress...

I appreciate corporations can do no wrong in Limp-baugh's eyes and Obama is bound by some absolute law of the cosmos to always be wrong. But wouldn't it behoove them to blame BP for their slow response to a disaster of their own making?

Partisan bias is one thing, but a point-blank refusal to criticize corporations for anything is a uniquely American psychosis.

NY Dodges Bullet

Hard to find anyone online who is simply glad the Times Square car bomb didn't go off. Everyone seems too busy prematurely blaming "Muslims" so they can then blame Obama for being 'soft on terrorism'. What sad times we are living in. Do you think:

A It's al Qaeda?
B It's left wing wackos?
C It's teabaggers?
D I'm just glad hundreds of people didn't die?

Check 'D' and consider yourself sane.

While on the subject of wingnuts trying to portray Obama as some kind of hapless stooge in the 'war on terror', The Velvet Straitjacket makes a good point that more Obama Derangement Syndrome victims should be made aware of:

We’ve killed or captured more terrorist leaders under Obama’s 1st year than we did in the last year of Bush. We’ve had more ‘drone-launched missile strikes’ in President Obama’s 1st year than in Bush’s last 3 years. We are spending more money to “expand secretive Special Operations units, deploy more unmanned aerial drones” , but somehow it’s not good enough because President Obama doesn’t torture.

Tyson V. Cannolis

During a feature called called "Tea With Tyson" on his show "The Daily Line" presenter Reese Waters failed to persuade Mike Tyson that cannolis were nothing to be afraid of. The exchange went like:

Waters: "But maybe you can break a barrier here. We can examine your issues with cannolis."

Tyson: "No, I examined. And that's how I come under those circumstances with the relationship with Mike Tyson-cannolis. We have a relationship here. It's not as if I just saw them and I judged them. I've had experience with them, I've had engagements with them, and it didn't turn out pretty nice."

He can happily chew a guy's severed ear like Hubba Bubba. But those innocent Italian fancies make him baulk like a startled Clydesdale? Who'd have guessed?

Hutaree Spanking

According to The Detroit News:

A federal judge could rule today on whether nine members of a Lenawee County-based militia should be granted bond while they await trial on charges they plotted to kill police officers and wage war against the United States.

I'm not a qualified legal expert, but I'd guess bail wouldn't be such a smart idea myself...

And what's happening to their "Christian Militia" Web site? From their forums:


Web masters beware: your site may go off-message if you plot against the government and get put in jail. Or do they just like getting spanked?

Random Picture of The Day

As ironic as this looks in winter, imagine how ironic it would look in Arizona any time of year.

Halliburton Sued Over Gulf Spill

One of the first lawyers to court is Daniel Becnel Jr. who's class action suit, Cooper v. BP plc, was filed in Louisiana on Thursday.

Becnel's case is on behalf of Louisiana shrimpers, fishermen and commercial boaters who claim the oil spill is hurting their livelihood. The defendants include:

BP, which holds the lease permitting drilling at the site of the accident, and Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

The lawsuit also named Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and Cameron International Corp. Halliburton was engaged in "cementing operations of the well and well cap." The suit alleges that Halliburton was negligent in performing that work.

So wingnuts play fantasy land tactics and try blaming "environmental wackos" or Obama for the disaster only to discover Dick Cheney's former outfit is being sued in an actual court of law in the actual real world?

It sometimes feels like reality does have a liberal bias.

Blame Obama. Somehow.

Finding a way to pin the blame for the gulf oil disaster on Obama would be something of a conserva-nut wet dream. They're hard at work on this at Sean Hannity's thunk tank...

Makes me wonder how these folks are smart enough to remember to breathe. Though I often wish they weren't.