Quote of the Day – Leo Tolstoy

Patriotism … for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish submission to those in power. … Patriotism is slavery.

– Leo Tolstoy

Stomp out Atheists in America

Limbaugh Doesn’t Know ANYONE who has died from torture.

A republican calls into Rush Limbaugh’s show and calls Limbaugh a brain-washed nazi.  True story – take a listen:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/07/republican-caller-tells-l_n_184244.html

But what I find most amusing is Limbaugh’s comment:

LIMBAUGH: I don’t know of anybody who died from torture.

Is that his defense of torture?  That makes no sense on so many levels.  I don’t listen to his show ridiculousness so I don’t know if this is an argument he has made in the past . . . but sweet jesus.  Now I remember why I don’t listen to his show.

Quote of the Day – Jacques Rivière

Romanticism aside, there is no other end to pure thought than death.

– Jacques Rivière

Hallelujah! Governor Sanford is Praying for us!

From Think Progress:

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Sanford [R. Gov of SC] received a call from a Charleston resident who said he lost his job because he has been taking care of mother and sister, both of whom have serious illnesses. The caller told Sanford he is “wrong” to decline the money. “A lot of people in South Carolina are hurting. And if this money can come and help us out we need it.” In response, Sanford could offer him only his prayers:

CALLER: I hope you all are not playing politics with this. People in South Carolina are hurting. You know how unemployment rates are high right now and going up higher. We are running out of money in the unemployment bank — we need money for that, the people that need help. And I’m one of them, I can’t get no help. […]

SANFORD: Well I’d say hello to Charleston because its home and I’d say hello to this fellow this morning and say that my prayers are going to be with him and his family because it sounds like he is in an awfully tough spot.

 

All I have to say is that I’m glad I live in a state where the Governor counts on more than prayers to solve problems.

 

Quote of the Day – William R. Inge

“To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a

superstition to enslave a philosophy.” – William R. Inge

McCain/Palin ’08

These people convinced me that McCain is the only safe choice.

Enough said.

Obama’s Conspiracy

Really?

 

I’m simultaneously glad and mad that I missed the conversation that went with this caption.  Only on Fox people . . . only on Fox.

Quote of the Day – Nancy Pelosi

I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.

–Nacy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

Proving you don’t have to be a republican to be retarded.

Obama, Telecom Impunity, and Critical Immunity

From Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

It is absolutely false that the only unconstitutional and destructive provision of this “compromise” bill is the telecom amnesty part. It’s true that most people working to defeat the Cheney/Rockefeller bill viewed opposition to telecom amnesty as the most politically potent way to defeat the bill, but the bill’s expansion of warrantless eavesdropping powers vested in the President, and its evisceration of safeguards against abuses of those powers, is at least as long-lasting and destructive as the telecom amnesty provisions. The bill legalizes many of the warrantless eavesdropping activities George Bush secretly and illegally ordered in 2001. Those warrantless eavesdropping powers violate core Fourth Amendment protections. And Barack Obama now supports all of it, and will vote it into law. Those are just facts.

The ACLU specifically identifies the ways in which this bill destroys meaningful limits on the President’s power to spy on our international calls and emails. Sen. Russ Feingold condemned the bill on the ground that it “fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home” because “the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power.” Rep. Rush Holt — who was actually denied time to speak by bill-supporter Silvestre Reyes only to be given time by bill-opponent John Conyers — condemned the bill because it vests the power to decide who are the “bad guys” in the very people who do the spying.

Other than that being absolutely awful is it news?  Well, Obama voted for it.

Note that the very first line of Obama’s statement warns us that we face what he calls “grave threats,” and that therefore, we must accept that our Leader needs more unlimited power, and the best we can do is trust that he will use it for our Good.

 Making matters worse still, what Obama did yesterday is in clear tension with an emphatic promise that he made just months ago. As the extremely pro-Obama MoveOn.org notes today, Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, back in in September, vowedthat Obama would “support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.” MoveOn believes Obama should be held to his word and is thus conducting a campaign urging Obama to do what he promised— support a filibuster to stop the enactment of telecom amnesty. You can email Burton here to demand that Obama comply with his commitment not just to vote against, but to filibuster, telecom amnesty:

bburton@barackobama.com

Incidentally, Chris Dodd made an identical promise when he was running for President, prompting the support of hundreds of thousands of new contributors, and he ought to be held to his promise as well.

Greenwald mentions that it is expected that we keep our mouths shut about this because we have to do everything we can to make sure Obama is elected in the fall.  He also points out that that is bull shit – and that what Obama did here is actually very scary. 

What scares me are the Obama supporters who are unwilling to critisize – who are unwilling to accept flaws in their candidate.  Those are the people responsible for both the Evil and the Lesser of the Evil.  Criticism, both from adversaries and from supporters, is a strong tool – both for the candidate and for the populace at large.

But does this critical analysis of politicians come to us through the main stream media?  Of course not.  Greenwald also points out herethat Keith Olbermann railed against amnesty for the telecoms one day and then praised Obama for voting for it the next day.

Obama is the lesser of the two evils.  But that should not make him immune from criticism when he engages in jack-assery. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Obama is getting a little too chummy with the devil.

Guantanamo Bay’s Dirty Little Secrets

From McClatchy:

The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.

“We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques,” Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who’s since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility — Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan — were using sleep deprivation to “break” detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. “True, but officially it is not happening,” she is quoted as having said.

A third person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world.

“In the past when the ICRC has made a big deal about certain detainees, the DOD (Defense Department) has ‘moved’ them away from the attention of the ICRC,” Fredman said, according to the minutes.

The document, along with two dozen others, shows that top administration officials pushed relentlessly for tougher interrogation methods in the belief that terrorism suspects were resisting interrogation.

It seems to me that if they really thought these interrogation methods were both legal and appropriate, that they wouldn’t need to hide it.  The watchdog agencies exist for a reason, and the prison should respect their mission, just as they respect the prison’s responsibilities.

“Oh fuck Hank, the Red Cross is coming over, wash the blood off the walls.  I’ll gag these guys and lock em in the closet.”

Great . . .  Aren’t you proud to be an American?

 

Persecution Complex – A Christian in the US Army

A like-minded fellow has an article about the army deciding to remove some permanant crosses from a chapel, as per army regulations.

The soldier expressed agitation at a perceived double standard after an American sniper accused of shooting a Quran for target practice faced disciplinary action and removal from Iraq for desecrating the religious property.”It is very discouraging as a Christian soldier to see our Army punish him for destroying a Quran, but then it pays a private company to destroy some crosses,” the soldier said. “I feel it is a slap in the face to me, my Lord and my freedom.”

That’s because you’re an idiot with a fake persecution complex. Just imagine this dolt’s reaction if he had to hold Christian services in a chapel covered with Jewish or Muslim symbols.

I love it.

Lost Tribe Found

The BBC is reporting that a tribe of peoples with no contact with the outside world have been discovered in Brazil.  Some amazing pictures here.

The huff’s article inspired some interesting comments from readers:

They weren’t lost until we found them.
Now they’re so screwed.

And, what’s on everyon’s mind:

I wonder if they’ve accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior yet?

UPDATE 6/24/08:

Evidently this story is only half true – the tribe has been known since 1910 (although isolated).  The photographer came clean and told authorities he wanted to draw attention to the dangers of logging.  Read the story here.

Quote of the Day – Charles Darwin

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

–Charles Darwin

Assasinating Obama for Freedom – on Memorial Day Weekend No Less

A pundit on fox news recently decided it would be nice to kill both Osama and Obama:

Sure – that’s a bad idea.  But what really pisses me off about this whole thing is the reaction Jeffrey Feldman had to it, which he wrote for the Huffington Post:

There is no question that broadcast pundits “can” make jokes about assassinating a Senator and a Presidential candidate. The United States Constitution protects freedom of expression to the extreme. But that is the wrong question to ask in this situation. The issue is not “can” pundits make jokes about assassinating Sen. Obama, but “should” they?

It is astounding that Americans should even be forced to have such a conversation, let alone on Memorial Day Weekend when we remember with respect the sacrifices of fallen soldiers. But here we are.

I have to wonder how many people there actually are in the U.S. who think it is funny to make jokes about the assassination of Sen. Obama? What percentage of the American population consists of people who think that the assassination of Sen. Obama–or anyone for that matter–makes for a good punchline? Is it 50 people? 75, maybe?

If there is indeed no question that broadcast pundits can make jokes about assassinating a Senator than why are you writing about it?  Why don’t you pen an article about the controversial idea that people are mamals?  We don’t hear enough about that one . . .

And I don’t think that it is astounding that Americans are forced to have such a conversation . . . mainly because they’re not.  You evidently (who are opposed to the conversation) are the only one who wants to have it, which is peculiar – wouldn’t you say?

And during Memorial Day Weekend no less?  How dare people be free to make bad jokes during Memorial Day Weekend!!  Couldn’t they hold off until labor day?  Seeing as though memorial day and this poor attempt at humor have absolutely nothing to do with eachother, one can only assume that you brought memorial day into the article as a miserable attempt to appeal to our emotion, which is a far worse offense than making a bad joke about wishing someone you don’t like were dead.

My guess is that the number of people who would find an Obama assasination joke funny is in the millions.  And i’m only talking Americans here.  That is, given the joke is properly crafted and is actually a funny joke.  The woman on fox news wasn’t so much telling a joke as expressing the idea that she doesn’t like Obama and that it would be better for her if he were not around.  I guess you, Mr. Feldman, have never used exageration to make a point.

But you don’t stop there, you take on freedom itself (and on this, our memorial day weekend, no less!):

The reason for a free press–for our free press–is not to degrade our political institutions, undermine our elections, and threaten our politicians, but to strengthen and sustain our deliberative democracy.

If FOX News or any other broadcast media outlet cannot live up to that standard, then they should shut off their lights, sell their equipment, and choose another line of work.

 

Freedom doesn’t have a reason.  That’s what makes it freedom.  If it were bound by a goal, by a reason, than it wouldn’t really be free – would it?  And so here you are acknowledging that Fox news is free to do what they want, but since you don’t like what they do, they should close up shop . . . interesting . . . that’s quite the complicated view on freedom you got there  . . .

Basically, it all comes down to this: 

Mr. Feldman, grow the fuck up.  On memorial day weekend no less!