Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Some things call for profanity.
And this is one of them.
Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans - and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team - understand.
"When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry," Cheney said.
Protecting the country’s security is "a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business," he said. "These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek."
Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration - "that’s about 11 or 12 percent" - have "gone back into the business of being terrorists."
Nevermind the lie in the last paragraph: fuck Dick Cheney and the rest of the people who mainstreamed torture in this country. Even out of power all this evil little man has is fearmongering. At least they're no longer relevant.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Karl Rove, Liar
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Thwack!
Wow. Just wow. Zbigniew Brzezinski schools Joe Scarborough on Israel:
"You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you." - Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
It's like watching my grandpa tell some young whipper snapper what's what. Beautiful.
(video via Taylor Marsh - here)
"You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you." - Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
It's like watching my grandpa tell some young whipper snapper what's what. Beautiful.
(video via Taylor Marsh - here)
Friday, September 26, 2008
Campaign Ads
Most of them are insulting to our intelligence. But what would they look like if the voting age was 6?
Answer: awesome.
Answer: awesome.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
John McCain summarized in six panels
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Questions about foreign policy? Sexist!
I give you our right-wing opinion makers.
"She's an economic and social conservative. She's a reformer. She's a former mayor - she was the mayor of I think the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for Governor." - Karl Rove last week on Sarah Palin on why she's a great VP choice.
"He's been a governor for 3 years, he was mayor of the 105th largest city in America - with all due respect to Richmond Virginia, it's smaller than Chula Vista, CA, Aurora, CO [lists several other larger cities] - it's not a big town. So if he [Obama] were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said 'You know what? I'm really not first and foremost concerned with is this person capable of being President of the United States." - Rove, a month ago discussing Obama's possible VP pick, the governor of Virginia.
"Millions of American families are dealing with teenage pregnancy and as long as society doesn't have to support the mother, father or baby, it's a personal matter... It is true that some Americans will judge Governor Palin and her family - for the sake of her and her family we hope things calm down." - Bill O'Reilly telling us that Palin's daughter's pregnancy is none of our business.
"Here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her. Incredible." - Bill O'Reilly several months ago condemnig 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears and her parents for her widely-publicized pregnancy.
"There have been tougher and harder questions that have been asked relentlessly by a biased news media about her daughter than about Barack Obama who's been running for 19 months." - Sean Hannity on Palin's coverage.
"A man would never have had to go through this. It's the deep sexism that runs through our society." - Dick Morris agreeing with the previous Hannity quote.
"When a woman wants to be President she shouldn't complain based on gender. ... Whenever the coverage gets too critical she retreats behind the apron strings." - Dick Morris calling Hillary Clinton a crybaby for complaining about coverage of her.
"People who think they're helping her by playing this gender card are hurting her. It would be a terrible mistake for her to play this victimology card because I think it's not what we want in a President." - McCain adviser on Clinton's coverage
"The nature of these attacks, because they involve family members and because they're just so disrespecful of her as a woman... I hope that they would have learned by now not to be so quick to belittle the accomplishments of women... Questions about - she has young children - that came out, and it was, from a feminine perspective I found that to be one of the most outrageous double-standards I've ever seen." - same advisor on how the media is being too hard on Palin.
And finally...
"When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate, with any kind of perceived whine about excess criticism by the media or a sharper microscope put on her - I think that doesn't do any good. I mean - work harder, prove yourself to an even greater degree that you're going to be the best candidate." - Sarah Palin on why Hillary Clinton should stop whining about sexism and just be a better candidate.
Of course, the "excess criticism by the media or a sharper microscope put on her" doesn't feel so good when you're the "her" - does it? Then we were tearing down a woman with a (D) after her name - now, we're talking about an unknown governor who's been in charge of less money per year than we waste per month in Iraq who's supposed foreign policy experience comes from a geographic proximity to Russia. It's not sexist to point any of this out - it's a statement of fact and of John McCain's disrespect for the American people, not to mention the Republican faithful who are stepping up to spout this nonsense as if it made any sense.
Why any of these people should be taken seriously about anything is beyond me.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Assholes.
One thing happened at the RNC tonight that to me reeks of desperation. The GOP has now broken the unwritten taboo against using footage of the 9/11 attacks for political gain (snarky take here). Tonight at the convention John McCain aired footage of the attacks (link), billed as a "tribute to 9/11". Tribute my ass. Waving the bloody shirt ring a bell?
As Keith Olbermann says at the end of the clip, at this late date if a news organization aired that much footage of 9/11, it would be "eviscerated from all quarters, perhaps by the Republican party itself, for exploiting the memory of the dead and perhaps trying to evoke that pain again."
Which brings me to my take. Since when do the Republicans own that day? I spent the morning on the phone frantically trying to get through to my friends who live in Manhattan. I will never forget it. My friend Shafer worked on Wall Street at the time and saw the planes hit from 2 blocks away. My wife and I ate outside at a restaurant for what we thought might be the last time in a long time since we were hearing reports of chemical attacks. Anthrax was just around the corner (terror-free since 9/11 on Bush's watch? uh -not so much). It scared the hell out of all of us. And rightly so.
But adults, when confronted with fear, think things through and act rationally rather than lashing about blindly and causing more chaos and destruction than they had hoped to avoid. They don't invade countries which pose only a theoretical threat to us and vow to stay indefinitely. They don't roll back the bill of rights in the name of safety. Yet the Republican party did just that in the years following 9/11. We've actually been told by administration spokesman that the answer to the question of whether the President could order a terrorist's child's testicles crushed would depend on why the President thought it was necessary to order that.
This sort of cheap exploitation and fear-mongering is one of the many reasons I will never call myself a Republican. That John McCain and the myriad people who would have had to green light this did so means there's nothing they won't do, no taboo they won't violate, to gain and hold power. McCain has transformed from a man who called Jerry Falwell an agent of intolerance to one who kissed his ring to get Falwell's blessing for the GOP nod in 2008. And now he's apparently not above using more than 3000 dead Americans as props in a John McCain campaign infocommercial.
I think I'd pose this as a political rule (just like Godwin's Law) - if a party decides to fear-monger to the point of using footage of mass murder, they've lost the debate (reference - the 2008 Republican National Convention). And tonight the GOP lost the debate.
They've got nothing left. Just fear and tax cuts. So you can't blame 'em, I guess. But you can vote for the other guy instead.
As Keith Olbermann says at the end of the clip, at this late date if a news organization aired that much footage of 9/11, it would be "eviscerated from all quarters, perhaps by the Republican party itself, for exploiting the memory of the dead and perhaps trying to evoke that pain again."
Which brings me to my take. Since when do the Republicans own that day? I spent the morning on the phone frantically trying to get through to my friends who live in Manhattan. I will never forget it. My friend Shafer worked on Wall Street at the time and saw the planes hit from 2 blocks away. My wife and I ate outside at a restaurant for what we thought might be the last time in a long time since we were hearing reports of chemical attacks. Anthrax was just around the corner (terror-free since 9/11 on Bush's watch? uh -not so much). It scared the hell out of all of us. And rightly so.
But adults, when confronted with fear, think things through and act rationally rather than lashing about blindly and causing more chaos and destruction than they had hoped to avoid. They don't invade countries which pose only a theoretical threat to us and vow to stay indefinitely. They don't roll back the bill of rights in the name of safety. Yet the Republican party did just that in the years following 9/11. We've actually been told by administration spokesman that the answer to the question of whether the President could order a terrorist's child's testicles crushed would depend on why the President thought it was necessary to order that.
This sort of cheap exploitation and fear-mongering is one of the many reasons I will never call myself a Republican. That John McCain and the myriad people who would have had to green light this did so means there's nothing they won't do, no taboo they won't violate, to gain and hold power. McCain has transformed from a man who called Jerry Falwell an agent of intolerance to one who kissed his ring to get Falwell's blessing for the GOP nod in 2008. And now he's apparently not above using more than 3000 dead Americans as props in a John McCain campaign infocommercial.
I think I'd pose this as a political rule (just like Godwin's Law) - if a party decides to fear-monger to the point of using footage of mass murder, they've lost the debate (reference - the 2008 Republican National Convention). And tonight the GOP lost the debate.
They've got nothing left. Just fear and tax cuts. So you can't blame 'em, I guess. But you can vote for the other guy instead.
