The world's coming to an end and Congress plans to take a break

Sarah Palin could have been vice president ... if only ...

I found a very funny article at WorldNetDaily. Well, all their articles are funny in one way or another. Usually, they are funny strange. Or funny deranged. The people at WorldNetDaily are so strange and weird that normal folks have a hard believing their strangeness and weirdness.

Okay, to the funny article.

It was written by Jane Chastain, and posted on July 16, 2009.

In a nutshell, Sarah Palin would be vice president if John McCain wasn't such a dork, and the Republican "elite" weren't such a bunch of old fogies.

Heh. Heh.

Yup! The title of this funny article is "Why the GOP elite despises Sarah Palin."

Heh. Heh.


A bit of history. And truth. Both seem to elude Ms. Chastain. It was the GOP "elite" who "discovered" Ms. Palin beating on a state trooper in Alaska and when Todd said they could visit, they jumped on a plane and flew all the way up there so she could serve them dinner and they came winging back full of religious fervor saying they had found the equivalent of the Virgin Mary (boy, were they wrong about that!) in Juneau or maybe it was some Pentecostal church where folks were casting out demons...

Anyway, if the GOP elite despises Palin now, that was not the case when McCain was told to STFU and make Palin his vice presidential running mate.


So, what happened? Why is Palin despised by the GOP elite? The phrase, "GOP elite," is, of course an oxymoron.

Back to the story. John McCain, the dork, "threw in a wildcard by selecting Sarah Palin to be his vice president," says Ms. Chastain. [Actually, no. He was told by the "elite" he had to choose her!]

But then Chastain, a Palin fan, says "The energetic young governor from Alaska turned the political landscape upside down. If McCain hadn't been such an unbelievably bad candidate, if he had taken his Geritol and not slept through his debates, if he had taken ginkgo biloba so he could have memorized a few new lines, Barack Obama likely would still be the junior senator from Illinois."

Heh. Heh.

So, what planet is Chastain from? Seems to me that McCain didn't do all that badly. But every time Palin opened her mouth she said something stupid or proved she was woefully ignorant and a fool and that she was a liar of the first order!

Oh, sure, those who cling to religion and guns liked her a lot. But, hey, they like their hooch and hound dogs, too. Doesn't mean a drunken dog should be vice president!

Chastain continues. McCain campaign workers leaked info to the press putting Palin in a bad light. Poor Palin. But she could put herself in a bad light with no problem. In fact the McCain campaign knew if she got in front of a microphone she would go down in flames and thus they tried to hide her where the media couldn't find her!

And now! Well, now the GOP elite is trying to "bury Palin."

If that's true, I'd have to say with good reason!

Chastain is out of this world for sure. She thinks Palin resigned for the "good" of Alaska. She really has the state's best interests are heart, not her own. Sarah Palin is also not a politician but a "statesman." Stateswoman?

She fought corruption in her own party. Heh. Heh. She didn't run for mayor of Wasilla or governor of Alaska because she wanted to, but rather because there was a need and "no one else [was] available to fill that need, so she answered the call."

Now, the best part: Palin doesn't really want to be president. But, if worse comes to worse, and she sees the need and nobody else steps up to the plate "who can get the job done, she likely will take off her apron, put down her hunting rifle, dust herself off and run for the office."


Oh, stop laughing. Heh, heh, heh! Omigod. That is so funny. And tragic. There are people who actually believe this pile of horseshit!


You can read all of Chastain's funny article here.

God's not amazing forgiveness

Rachel Maddow on Palin's incompetence

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Kill, kill, kill the healthcare bill

This morning on CNN, Bobby Jindal the wingnut christianist, creationist, exorcist governor of Louisiana was given a huge block of time to repeat the GOP's talking points against the healthcare plan!

No time was given to a proponent of the plan!

What a crock.

Bill Kristol urges nogoodnik Repugnicans everywhere to throw the kitchen sink at the health care bill - Kill it, says Kristol!

So, the healthcare industry, the drug companies and corporations everywhere are jumping on the bandwagon and on their bought-and-paid for members of Congress to beat down any chance of real healthcare reform!

The word that these fear mongers are tossing out to frighten the majority of Americans who believe in God, motherhood and apple pie but never read a book because they haven't yet made it to an 8th-grade reading level, is "socialism."

Socialism, the big bugaboo. The nogoodniks never define this, other than to imply the Obama administration plans to take over everyone's lives and run them from the West Wing.

Even that sorry clown, the RNC Chairman, Michael Steele, aka the tin man, got into the act, telling the world that Obama's health care plan is, yes, "socialism." And there is, indeed, said the man of tin, a conspiracy, a "cabal," if you will, comprised of Obama and that uppity woman, Nancy Pelosi to foist government health care on everybody!

Here's what he actually said: "Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions."

It is "socialism," said Steele.

Not only is this a bald-faced lie, and Steele knows that, but it's fear mongering at its worst.

And it once again proves that Repugnicans don't give a rat's ass for the average working American, but only about benefiting their corporate benefactors! And that is why the Repugnican honchos plan to blanket the country with TV ads whining that all the money given to the banks and auto industry comprises "the biggest spending spree in our history" and wail that Obama's health care plan is "a risky experiment with our health care."


There is nothing these nogoodnik Repugnicans will not do to regain their power. Nothing whatsoever. They have no morals, no ethics. They are spiritually bankrupt, no matter how many of them live at the "C" Street "church" and attend bible studies and prayer meetings!

But it ain't only Repugnican nogoodniks. There are some wolves in sheeps' clothing known as bluedog Democrats who are just as bad.

They are all lousy Americans!

Hey, but never mind. As these asshats in Congress label Obama's health care proposals as "socialistic," they generally have no problem forcing others to inhale their own toxic religious beliefs. They have no problem sharing in their own government health plan and most generous retirement plan! For some reason, they don't consider such things as being "socialist."


None of this is new, of course. If the Repugnicans had had their way back in the 30s and 40s we would have no Social Security, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no welfare programs whatsoever; and the elderly, the sick, the disabled, the lost souls without hope would all be left to suffer and die while their corporate masters complained about the mess they were making.

Furthermore, even though the health care situation is a true crisis, and even though the United States is way down the list of industrialized nations in terms of health care excellence, what is really important is to kiss the asses of the NRA and pass legislation which will allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry guns anywhere they please.

But that's another whole article.


Unfortunately, when considering the level of ignorance that maintains in the heartland, and especially in the south and west, it is likely that health care will be shot down by card-carrying NRA members and their ilk who think that putting a gun in their pocket is their god-given right and, if carrying a weapon will not solve all their problems, it will make them feel better when cancer sprouts in their cells and they find they have no health insurance.

I write the above as one who carries a concealed weapons permit!

God demands sacrifice!

Found at Unreasonable Faith. Thanks, Dan!

Republican dumb ass governor - Rick Perry

Rick Perry, the clone of G. W. Bush, but even dumber, is back in the news...

It's hard to find a better word to describe Perry than dumbass. He keeps appointing scientifically-challenged nogoodniks to the State Board of Education who in turn keep insisting that Texas students learn all about how god created the world in six days six thousand years ago according to the word of god in as promoted in the biblical book of Genesis. These nogoodniks on the SBOE also rewrite history in the textbooks so the dear children of the Lone Star State don't hear about folks like Caesar Chavez or other such radicals, and they also refuse to provide appropriate sex education for Texas kids so Texas continues to be one of the leaders in teenage parenthood!

While Perry has not actually said he thinks Texas should secede from the Union because the big, bad politicians [especially Obama] in Washington are taxing the saddles right from under the big fat asses of Repugnican Texans everywhere, he has implied that it is a good idea, and actually threatened to do so quoting an old legal argument that, in fact, has no legal standing.

Perry is also one of those nogoodnik Republican governors who bitched and moaned about the stimulus funds provided for their states. Perry wasn't gonna take no damn stimulus money from Washington! No sirree! That might mean that down the road, say in 200-300 years, Texans might have to actually pick up the tab for taking care of their own needs and their own people. Can't have that! And Perry didn't want Washington's help, either. "Let them eat cake," is what he said, in essence, of the needy in Texas.

Where's a guillotine when you need one?

Now, though, big hair Perry is back in the news because Texas is financially strapped. Evidently big hair Perry couldn't see this coming. So -- now get this -- Perry wants the fedrul guv'mint to lend him some money "to cover the very expenses the rejected stimulus money would have paid for."

Ain't that sweet? What a dumbass!

According to CBS, Perry did accept $17 billion in stimulus funds, but (according to a CBS news blog) "rejected $555 million that would have covered state unemployment benefits. Perry said he was not accepting the money because the state would have been obligated to expand its unemployment coverage, creating too much of a long term tax burden."

Right. Screw the people. That's the Republican mantra. It's always about money, unless it's to pay off the corporate assholes that run this country!

Well, Texas' unemployment compensation fund is running short and big hair Perry needs money now. So, brushing back his mane of black hair, and climbing on his high horse, Perry rides off to the big city to ask for some of the money he should have accepted in the first place.

Funny, how with Repugnicans, their principles are always somehow determined by their wants and needs. Even George Bush became a "socialist" when he realized he had to bail out the banks or they were gonna fail resulting in an even bigger mess than the one he and his rich Repugnican compadres had already created.


Some Dems in Texas are upset with Perry. You think? Yeah, well, if Perry had accepted the stimulus money, it wouldn't have to be paid back. Now, he wants a loan and that Texas will have to pay that back (hopefully, with an high interest rate) to the feds!

And some people still think that the Repugnicans are better financial managers and can govern better than the Dems.

Hah!

PZ Myers to visit the Creation Museum

Yup. PZ Myers will be visiting the Creation Museum, along with some friends. Hopefully, he will survive the experience.

Cartoon is from The Freethinker who also has a funny article about Myers' upcoming visit to this monument to ignorance and superstition. Read it here.

Socrates was wrong

From Atheist Cartoons.

Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel Maddow - More on The Family

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tax the rich to pay for healthcare! YES!

[Picture of Jesus and the rich young ruler from Garden of Praise here.]

I've been running about on christianist wingnut websites of late just to see what the religiously retarded are about these days, and a recurring theme has presented itself: The theme revolves around the notion that it is horrible to tax the rich to help pay for health care for everyone.

One example of this can be found in an article by someone called Pete Chagnon at OneNewsNow, a christianist crap site that pretends to provide news. Chagnon warns all those rich christianists out there that "If you're rich and you live in America, you could be hit hard under President Obama's healthcare plan."

Yup. And it's the damn libruls fault, too! "To pay for this plan," Chagnon cries [quoting "some [people]" who "estimate" that the plan "could reach $1.5 trillion," which is, as you know just a tad more than what the war in Iraq has cost us], "liberals are proposing a hefty tax on America's rich."

Oh wow! I bet you didn't know this. Curtis Dubay, a dubious member of the ultra right wacko think tank, The Heritage Foundation, "says people in New York City could face income tax rates upwards of 60 percent."

Well, how Pete doth go on. Why, you'd think the end of the world was coming. "Staggering tax increase," he saith. "...a tremendous strain on the already-weakened economy," he also saith. And those poor folks who make only $350,000 to $500,000 a year - they're gonna get hit with a huge surtax.


Two things: One, I don't think people who are living in their cars because they lost their jobs, their health care, and their homes are going to give a rat's ass about the proposed surtax on the financially elite members of our society.

Secondly, OneNewsNow is a christianist wingnut organization and its articles are all geared toward christianist wingnut people. I would think they would welcome surtaxes on the rich. I would think they would be yelling "Yes!" from the rooftop of their christianist penthouses. I would think they would be packing their christianist churches on Sunday mornings to thank their Lord for making taxes on the rich to pay for health care possible.

That's what you would expect if they really believed the gospel stories of Jesus, their Lord and Savior. Jesus made it clear over and over again in his chats with the Palestinian Jews of the first century Common Era that rich people have about as much chance getting into heaven as a donkey has of turning into a horse. [Which explains why we have so many asses in Congress, but that's another article].

In fact, Jesus' message to the rich could be summed up in his words to the rich young man who had kept all of the commandments "from his youth": Go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me."


Ha, ha, ha, ha. Isn't that funny? Do you know any christianist who really believes that? Of course not. But what's even funnier is to listen to them try to explain why Jesus didn't mean what he said.

So, us non-christianists will stand with Jesus on the matter of taxing the rich to pay for health care for the poor! And we'll tell the christians to put their money where their mouth is: "Go, sell what you have, give it to the poor (in the form of health care) and follow Jesus."

Then, maybe, just maybe, someone will actually listen to what they have to say. And who knows, they may have just a smidgen of a chance of getting into heaven! It might even work for christianist pastors of mega-churches or televangelists, but I don't think so...I think there's a special place in hell reserved for these folks!

Christianist wingnuts want god to hover over the Capitol Visitor Center

[Photo of Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc.]

Christianist wingnut, Dan Lungren (a Repugnican congressman from California), insists that Congress spend $100,000 to etch "In God We Trust" along with the Pledge of Allegiance on the walls of the new Capitol Visitor Center.

Well, of course! What could be more important than nodding to a non-existent deity? Especially with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, job losses at record levels, people losing their homes at warp speed, health care but a dream for millions, racial hatred peaking once again among the stoopid and deranged, states unable to pay their employees, an infrastructure falling down around us, Russia rattling its sabers, Iran in the grip of a deadly theocracy, Middle East tensions growing, North Korea sending missiles into the air and expanding their nuclear nightmare...

Oh, and don't forget all the Repugs currently having affairs or recently quitting affairs, many of whom are part of the "C Street" bunch who actually believe there is a god somewhere up in the sky that has ordained them to become rich and rule the world and has given them the right to ignore law, truth, honesty, fidelity...


What is so terribly sad is that Lungren's suggestion was approved by the House of Representatives by a vote of 410-8!

Are the members currently in Congress, Dems and Repugs alike, so ignorant of our Constitution and so ignorant of our history, they fall victim to the religious scams of scum like Lungren?

Fortunately, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed suit to stop the writing on the wall.

Dan Barker (if you haven't read his book, Godless, please hike to the nearest bookstore), co-president of the FFRF claims rightly that Lungren's proposal is "a Judeo-Christian endorsement by our government ... Lungren and others are pro-religious, and they want to actually use the machinery of government to promote their particular private religious views. That is unconstitutional, and that's what we're asking the court to decide."

Of course it's unconstitutional.

Lungren's a nogoodnik, and Barker's right on target. Hopefully, the suit will be successful (depends on how "activist" the judge is!)...


There's more here, from McClatchy.

Chuck Todd - Torture investigation is political "catnip"

And we wonder why the American people do not get the truth from the MSM these days! Here's Chuck Todd suggesting that an investigation into the criminality of a previous regime is political "catnip." It's not important.

But Chuck Todd is bought and paid for by General Electric which owns MSNBC.

Most of the mainstream press is bought and paid for by some corporate entity. That's why they spout bullshit and lies; the truth, which is often painful for the high and mighty, can be spoken in the light of day only at the expense of a reporter's career.

Where is Walter Cronkite when we need him?

Who is Wendell Potter?

Bill Moyers and Amy Goodman have already interviewed Wendell Potter and I was wondering who the first person in the "main stream media" would be to bring him on. I thought it might end up being Rachel Maddow, but it turned out to be Ed Schultz instead. Good for Ed.

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. The Republican sound machine is in full force against health care.

We gave you the "Playbook," in fact back on May 6th on this program, we went through the right wing`s messaging machine playbook; it`s a 28-page strategy memo from Republican pollster Frank Luntz. He told the Republicans to hammer basically four things when it comes to reform, that reform would be a "government takeover" by Washington bureaucrats. It would "ration" your health care. And get "between you and your doctor."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R) MINORITY LEADER: The advocates of a government takeover of health care are talking about spending trillions more, trillions more.

SEN. MIKE ENZI (R), WYOMING: This bill will allow Washington bureaucrats to ration care. The bill lays the groundwork for a government takeover of healthcare, giving Washington bureaucrats the power to prevent patients from seeing the doctor they choose.

REP. KEVIN BRADY (R), TEXAS: The federal programs, agencies, commissions and mandates that will be in between the patient and their health care provider, their doctor. Why would any patient be forced to give control of their health care decisions over to this Faustian web of Washington bureaucracy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Well, you`ve got to admit they do their homework when you ever give them anything to learn, you know.

Big insurance is lining is pockets of lawmakers. Big insurance only cares about their profits. They want lawmakers to protect their backyard, their profits. They`re voting against reforms that would really be good for consumers.

But I don`t want you to take my word for it. I want you to pay attention to this next interview. We have a former insurance insider.

Joining me now is Wendell Potter. He is a senior fellow on health care for the center for media and democracy. He`s also a former vice president for the insurance giant Cigna.

Mr. Potter, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time. Is the industry telling the truth to the American people and telling the truth to those in the Congress?

WENDELL POTTER, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: No, they`re not. And that`s one of the reasons why I left my job at Cigna and why I decided to speak out. I didn`t want to be a part of that -- those lies and misleading statements once again.

I`ve been a part of them in the past and I just didn`t want to do that again.

SCHULTZ: Where are the insurance companies making their big profits when it comes to health care? What are they doing to consumers?

POTTER: What they`re doing to consumers is, number one -- they`re shifting a lot more of the financial burden from them and the employers onto the shoulders of working men and women. And they also are very actively looking at claims when they`re submitted. And they`re acting -- taking action to dump people when they`re sick, either in the individual market or in the small groups.

So a lot of small employers no longer can afford health care because of the actions taken by the insurance companies to get rid of them when their employees` claims are a little bit higher than the underwriters expected.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Potter, do you think that there`s a lot of people in the industry that feel the same way you did but just didn`t follow the action you took?

POTTER: Absolutely, I know there are. I`ve gotten just dozens, actually hundreds of e-mails from people that I have worked with in the past. And most of them now former Cigna employees and employees of other companies who know me and have sent me communications to sell me, "I wish I had done that."

There are many who feel the same way.

SCHULTZ: Now, Mr. Potter recently the inspector general`s office came out with a report earlier this week stating that this out-of-network expense to Americans hits about 100 million Americans who are dealing in the health care industry, that want insurance and whatnot. And Senator Rockefeller has told us clearly that the American people are getting ripped off.

Do you think Congress believes that the American people are getting ripped off, and now of course we`ve got this inspector general`s office report to back it up? What don`t they get about what`s going on?

POTTER: I don`t think they`ve been paying attention. I think if they had been paying attention and weren`t -- as you put it -- their pockets being lined with contributions from the industry, I think that they would be outraged and it would be very willing to take action to make sure that we have a reformed, functional health care system in this country.

SCHULTZ: How much do you think they want to defeat the public option?

POTTER: Well, they`re pulling out all the stops. That`s why you`re seeing the same talking points they`ve used over the years being trotted out again. They`re ever green talking points.

They will say one thing on -- the industry is engaged in what I call the charm defense in saying that they`re all for reform; but behind the scenes, working with their allies to gut it. The public option is one of the things that they pretty much have drawn a line in the sand saying, "We can`t accept that."

SCHULTZ: And finally, Mr. Potter, give the American people, our viewers tonight, a sense who`s winning this battle. We`ve never seen a president go this far against Washington lobbyists. We`ve never seen a president go this far against the establishment when it comes to health care.

There`s a lot of pressure on the Democrats to get this done. They`ve got 60 Democrats in the Senate. They`ve got a bunch in the House. Some of the conservative Democrats are still wavering a bit. But who do you think is winning this battle right now?

POTTER: I think the president is winning. I think the advocates for health care reform are winning. It may not seem that way, when we see a headline like we saw the other day in the "Wall Street Journal," about the CBO estimating that we can`t afford it.

We can`t afford not to do this. I think the president can communicate that more as time goes by and as Congress really gets down to business. I think that we`ll see reform this time and meaningful reform.

SCHULTZ: How do the folks at Cigna treat you now?

POTTER: I haven`t heard anything from them. I`m not surprised. A lot of my former colleagues have been -- who are no longer -- who like me, former colleagues, have been contacting me. I didn`t expect that they would be visibly attacking me or even communicating with me, and they haven`t been.

SCHULTZ: Finally, why are you doing this? You did a very compelling interview with Bill Moyers. We tried to get you on the program before; I appreciate you being here tonight.

This is a brave position, I think. This is one that`s unusual for someone who worked and lived and profited in the corporate world. Why are you doing this?

POTTER: Two reasons. One, I left my job because I didn`t like where the industry was taking this country in terms of the insurance products it`s now selling. They`re pushing these so-called consumer-driven plans that are pushing more, as you put it, as you noted, of the financial burden onto consumers. We can`t afford that. The median household income is $50,000 in this country, we can`t afford more cost shifting.

Secondly, I didn`t want to be part of the lying machine again. I didn`t want to be misrepresenting reality like the industry has done and its allies have done for many years.

SCHULTZ: Ok, Mr. Potter, I appreciate your time tonight. Come back and join us again. And thanks for speaking the truth to the American people and telling us what`s going on.

POTTER: Thank you for this opportunity.

SCHULTZ: You bet.

Senator Lindsey Graham - Monumental ignoramus

McClatchey has a video here of the nogoodnik senator, Lindsey Graham (R.SC), arguing that suspected al Qaeda members should be held in detention until they die.


I get more cynical every day. Graham is arguably one of the biggest asshats in Congress, but he's also one of the most vocal purveyors of Republican "values," and christianist theology.

These "suspects" are just that, suspects. If there is evidence against them, they should be tried in a court of law, and if found guilty, be given the appropriate punishment. If there is no evidence against them, or they are found not guilty, they should be freed and sent on their way.

We are a nation based on law - the U.S. Constitution. Graham and others of his ilk proclaim their patriotism and their love for this nation at the drop of a hat. But, being an asshat, Graham doesn't mean any of it. The only "laws" he wants to obey are those with which he agrees.

So Graham's "patriotism" is a sham. His religion is a sham. He's a sham. He should be dismissed from Congress and sent back to the cave from which he crawled.

The job of government

One of the responsibilities of any government is to ensure the safety of the people.

In some instances, that may mean resorting to military action; if, for example, a country is attacked by an outside source.

In other instances, it means the government must take action to ensure that the drugs we use and the foods we eat are safe.

It is amazing how, when you have the wrong people in charge of the government, actions are often taken which are detrimental to the safety of the people -- such as Bush's war on Iraq -- while at the same time actions to ensure the safety of the people are ignored, such as providing the FDA and other organizations with money and people to do their jobs.


Jim Hightower, in an article appearing at AlterNet, notes that the food we eat is increasingly less safe these days. Salmonella, the killer bug, is too often present in victuals presented to us by the large food corporations.

"In just one salmonella outbreak in 2007," he reminds us, "the Banquet brand of [pot] pies sickened an estimated 15,000 people in 41 states."

How could something like this happen? Hightower explains that "The true culprit in such poisonings ... is not the little deadly bug, but the twin killers of corporate globalization and greed. Giant food corporations, scavenging the globe in a constant search for ever-cheaper ingredients to put in their processed edibles, are resorting to low-wage, high-pollution nations that have practically no food-safety laws, much less any safety enforcement."

Hightower highlights the ConAgra Foods corporation, which "sells 100 million pies a year under its Banquet label. Each pie contains 25 ingredients sourced from all over the world -- often from subcontractors who don't report their sources. Until the 2007 salmonella contamination of its pies, ConAgra did not even require suppliers to test for pathogens, nor did it do its own tests. ..."

In other words, these large food corporations don't have a clue as to where their ingredients come from or what they consist of or whether they have been tested for microscopic bugs that could kill us!

And they don't give a damn.

Hightower warns that "Today, contamination has become so widespread that major frozen food purveyors admit they can no longer ensure the safety of their products!"


Aha! That's why the package containing those frozen turkey saugages I ate this morning (pre-cooked!) insisted that I make sure the internal temperature was at least 167 degrees!


Read Jim's entire article here. And you can read all about ConAgra ("Food you love") here.

I was going to write a lot more, but I'm feeling a little sick!

With tits like these!

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Rachel Maddow - Mocking Palin in waders

In Alaska, it is common to hold press conferences on a fishing boat while wearing fishing waders. Or is it? Rachel Maddow makes fun of Palin and you'll love all one minute and eight seconds of it!

Keith Olbermann: Republican contributions to the dictionary

We can only hope that most Americans will be laughing all the way to the polls in 2010 and sweep what's left of these Republican asshats into the dustbin of history!

Rachel Maddow, Tom Coburn and "C" Street

This is one I missed along the way, but is important for it gives insight into the warped, privileged, and sick mindsets of people like Tom Coburn, weasel type senator from Oklahoma!

A really good lawyer vs. the bureacrats

People like the late Ronnie Reagan and other B-grade movie actors cum politicians enjoy pretending the guv'mint is bad and that we need less guv'mint interference in our lives. They say such things, not because they are stoopid, necessarily, but because they live on the basis of outdated credos and slogans geared to keep the hoi polloi in their place.

But, it ain't so. The guv'mint is not about size, it's about effectiveness. With more people and a more complicated society and with more white collar crooks out to steal billions from the rest of us it is important to have an guv'mint that does not aid and abet the crooks, but effectively protects us from these big-time predators, almost all of which carry the Republican nametag.

Unfortunately, sometimes the guv'mint, like all big organizations, gets bogged down by bureacrats who are themselves mired in minutae.

Here's a story how one man fought back against such bureacrats:


A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down.

After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply, and this is the actual letter:

"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."

This reply pissed off the lawyer. So he sent the following response to the FHA, and this is the actual letter:

"Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureacrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella. The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus' expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world.

"Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory.

"Now, may we have the fucking loan?"


Update: The lawyer got the loan for his client!


Our thanks to Bob Poris for this delightful story!

Retraction: Glob in Chukchi Sea not Palin's brain

It is with deep regret, very deep regret, that we must retract our story of the other day in which we suggested that Sarah Palin's head exploded and her brain was now floating as a "giant black mystery blob" in Alaska's Chukchi Sea.

Well, I don't think we mentioned the Chukchi Sea, so we don't have to retract that, 'cause we never said it to begin with. Right?

Anyway, according to McClatchy's Washington Bureau, the "giant black mystery blob," or glob, which I believe is what we called it, has been identified as a "stringy batch of algae."

You may wonder, of course, what did happen to Palin's brain. I'm sorry to say we just don't know. Obviously, it no longer resides in her head as anyone with a brain can tell every time she opens her mouth. Some people think maybe she never had a brain. But I think that's probably going too far.

I think it's fair, though, if you look carefully at everything she's said and done over the past couple of years - especially since she was chosen by God to be McCain's running mate - to say that her brain hasn't been functioning in a normal physiological manner.

Now, with her resignation and her resignation speech and her article in the Washington Post, etc., etc., it is obvious the brain has disappeared entirely.

Perhaps the folks who found the giant black mystery blob, the Wainwright hunters, should continue searching, not only the Chukchi Sea, but all the Alaskan waters.

It is possible there could be another big black mystery glob with a big black "P" for Palin on it, floating around somewhere.

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Al Franken shows his stuff and it's good stuff

What's more important than the First Amendment? Senator Al Franken pushes Sotomayor, rightfully, on that issue. He also pressed her on another matter of great importance - the freedom of the Internet.

It is heart-warming to note that at least one Senator is unafraid to deal with matters of substance instead of merely pandering to the meanest of the hoi polloi out in the hinterlands, which has been the continuing (and inevitable) ploy of the Repugnican wingnuts on the committee.



The video derived from an article in Salon here.

Rachel Maddow on C Street pols

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

No matter what she says, she is a quitter!

In the Senate: Funny funny not funny strange. OMG!

Now it becomes clear why the Repugnicans fought so hard to keep Al Franken out of the Senate. He's not only smart, he is truly funny. Funny funny. The Repugnicans have proven themselves to be not only not smart, but funny strange.

What a nice change.

Republicans on the brink: of self-discovery

Found this delightful, on-target cartoon at Cat in the Bag.

Half-Baked Alaska

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Armor of God PJ's

Thanks to Dan Florien at Unreasonable Faith.

The Story of Suzie

Pointed to by God is for Suckers.

Palin and the facts with Keith Olbermann

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Rachel Maddow on John Ensign

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Wait, how's about exorcising demons?

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

What's floating in Alaskan waters?

McClatchy reported this morning on a "big blog of mystery" floating off Alaska's coast.

"Hunters from Wainright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and 'gooey' and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department."

No it's not oil. Terry Hasenauer, a Petty Office 1st Class with the Coast Guard says "It's certainly biological. It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter."


Actually, it's quite simple. Sarah Palin wrote (it was probably ghostwritten) an article about "cap and trade" which appeared in the nogoodnik Washington Post (that's the newspaper that sells space for politicos to present their point of view...)

Unfortunately (for her), even though she probably didn't write it, she did try to read it and...well...her brain exploded!

Her brain is now described as a big blog of mystery goo, which instead of residing in her skull, is currently floating off Alaska's coast.

Sen. John Ensign - One more Republican exorcist

The following paragraph comes from Talk2Action:

Beyond the obvious hypocrisy inherent in GOP Senator and Promise Keepers member John Ensign's recently disclosed extramarital sexual affair, there's another notable aspect to Ensign's religious affiliations that has so far escaped public notice: exorcism. Senator John Ensign belongs to a Pentecostal denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, that promotes a new health care paradigm in which both physical and psychological maladies can be cured through the casting out of demons. In the new approach, individuals can even heal themselves by exorcising their own demons, through a process that a 2003 Associated Press story characterized as "do it yourself exorcism".

Yup! Bobby Jindal, Republican wingnut governor of Louisiana, does exorcisms within the confines of Roman Catholic theology, which is bad enough, but now we've got another Republican asshat, John Ensign, Senator from Nevada, most noted lately for his deviation from his marital vows (oh, also lying about that deviation - impeach! impeach!), who is into exorcisms, but this whack job believes in the "go it alone" approach.

You can read all about it here, in an excellent article by Bruce Wilson.


This is truly depressing stuff. Too many of our leaders are not only hypocrites but are religious freaks. They believe all kinds of moronic idiocies spouted by biblically and morally illiterate preachers that wouldn't make sense to a two-year old. And they are making decisions vital for the well-being of our country!!!

While there is no religious test for political office in this country, perhaps we could have a reality check and ask the question:

Do you believe that you and other people are controlled by demons which cause physical and psychological illness and which can be exorcised by reciting a bunch of religious mumbo-jumbo with your hand on a book containing ancient scribblings by ignorant middle Eastern tribesmen?


Finally, to put all of this into an even better perspective: John Ensign voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual encounter. (So did Mark Sanford!)

Sen. Al Franken speaking...

This clip is not anything profound, but it does, I think, capture the sense of duty and the commitment to responsibility that moves Senator Franken as he steps into his senatorial shoes.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he speaks at the Sotomayor hearing...



I picked this up at Salon, here.

Bush and Cheney - Prosecute them now!

We are a nation of laws, the pundits pronounce. They may even believe it. The trouble is our former president and vice president did not. Or, if Bush and Cheney did actually believe we are nation of laws, they also believed those laws were made to be ignored and broken.

This is old news. We have known for some time the Bushites routinely took actions which were illegal under the laws of the United States, and to cover their tracks hired flunkies they could coerce into devising some legal mumbo-jumbo that would cloud and justify their lawless machinations.


Now it seems the situation is much worse than we initially thought. That Bush approved a massive warrantless wiretapping program is well-known. The fact that he also approved other "secret intelligence activities -- which have yet to become public" is not so well-known.

In addition, a new report indicates that during the first Bush administration, Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold from Congress information about the administration's "secret counterterrorism program." Again, that is not surprising, considering the fact that Dick Cheney is arguably the one vice president of the United States who would have been most likely to succeed as an aide to Adolf Hitler.


There has been a spate of articles in recent days as to whether these intelligence activities "paid off," or whether they provided "valuable" information about America's enemies. McClatchy, for example, carried an article titled, "Effectiveness of Bush wiretap program in dispute."

Such concerns are beside the point. The point is they were and are illegal, and violate the Constitution of the United States! The point is the Bush administration was up to its neck in illegal activities, engaged in spying and lying and needs to be called to account.

Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, the Obama administration is, according to Glenn Greenwald, working to "actively block any real investigation." Why is this, considering the fact we have proof that the Bushites were engaged in felonious activities which call for a prison term of up to five years along with a $10,000 fine for each offense? I don't know the answer to that. Obama has said he doesn't want to get bogged down in recriminations about the past, and that we need to look ahead to the future.

Maybe. But I'm suspicious....

Because in a real sense there can be no future without resolving the crises of the past. Unless said crises are resolved, their ugly heads are likely to rear up and bite the ass of those who think they can move, unmolested, into the future.

The past is this: a president and a vice president of the United States committed felonious actions. In other words, they are criminals. That's not a matter of opinion. It's not what I think, it's a matter of historical record - sealed, signed, and delivered. And we don't yet even have the entire record!

We cannot - and this is my opinion - allow these illegal acts, these felonies, to go unrewarded. We must not. In this country, no man or woman is above the law, even though most of those working for our government seem to think otherwise. And perhaps it's that latter fact that behooves us more than ever to bring the criminals to justice.

If there is no accountability, there is no justice, and no reason to follow the law. And if that's the case, then any politico with dreams of grandeur is free to assume dictatorial powers.

The American dream - and by that I mean the dream of people living free under the laws of the Constitution - was almost smothered between 2000 and 2008. And I don't think we know the half of it, yet. I think we will find, in the future, this country was within a whisker of turning into something most of its citizens would neither recognize or desire.

So, in this instance, Obama is dead wrong. As Greenwald warns, "In a Look-to-the-Future-Not-the-Past political culture, it's irrelevant how severe is the lawbreaking by high government officials. They know they will face no consequences even when, as here, they deliberately commit felonies -- which is precisely why criminality is so rampant in our political class."


Attorney General Eric Holder has threatened an investigation into the Bush/Cheney felonies. The media has posed this as antagonistic to what President Obama wishes. Maybe. Or, maybe Holder is merely playing a game to take the pressure off Obama. And even if he follows through, which I hope he does (but don't believe he will), Obama can stay removed, hands off, and lay the political fallout at the feet of his "disobedient" attorney general.

Isn't it amazing that the Congress of the United States could impeach a sitting president for lying about his sexual activity, but is unwilling to address the fact that a former president and vice president were on a regular and ongoing basis violating the Constitution and committing illegal acts?

We need a Special Prosecutor who is given all the power he/she needs to force full disclosure and complete testimony! Bush, Cheney and every creepo down the line who aided and abetted their felonious behavior needs to be called to account and brought to justice. No one is above the law.


That's what we need. But don't hold your breath.

Taking religion seriously

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Glenn Beck is crazy (and a danger to our country!)

Palin's PAC

You'll be delighted to know that Sarah isn't going to just go away quietly and shoot mooses up the northern hinterlands. Nah. She's going to travel around the country and bring all the good folks together in one party - the one's, you know, who like god, guns, and small guv'mint and teeny weeny taxes. Why, she'll even whoop it up for Democrats who believe like she does!

All of this is gonna take lots of money, of course, so her PAC has been busy, busy, busy. Dumbnuts all over this great befuddled country have sent in $733,000.

At first glance that might look like a big pile of cash. But think back to about a year ago:

That would buy just five outfits of clothes for Ms. Sarah!

Americans - dumb and dumber

Much is being written lately lamenting the fact that the American people are just plain dumb and getting dumber. For proof, if you need proof, consider the fact they elected George W. Bush not just once, but twice!

Anti-intellectualism has reared its ugly head and been crowned with glory. For proof, if you need proof, consider the fact that Sarah Palin, who is dumber than the wolves she shoots from helicopters, was actually nominated by the Republicans to run for vice-president on a ticket headed by a 72-year old cancer survivor who doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Recently people in the know have complained that it is this anti-intellectualism, this dumbing down of America which has left most Americans just plain stupid when it comes to science and susceptible to the claims of biblical hucksters like Ken Ham who promote the notion the earth is a mere 6,000 years old, and do so in the face of overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that such a belief is a crock of religious shit!

Thus, a goodly percentage of our population refuses to accept the fact of evolution thinking that it's only a "theory," not having a freaking clue what the word "theory" means in scientific terms. A theory for these dumbnuts is when ol' Clem, after about six beers down at the Goodnite Saloon, says he thinks there really are little green men on the moon. Well, hell, anyone kin have a theory about thet stuff. Some folks got a theory those little green men were really blue! Don't mean nuttin!

What our scientific ignorance, perpetuated by ignoramuses at the highest levels of our government, has accomplished is to put us behind by about 20 years when it comes to effectively dealing with climate change and global warming. And that's just one example. We don't even know how much farther along we might be in terms of effectively treating certain diseases because our government ignoramuses, operating from religious and not scientific principles, cut off funding for stem-cell research!


The State of Texas, though, is a special place crawling with dumbnuts and wingnuts and christianist creatures of various mutations, and is creating generations of dumbnuts as year after year, Texas children stumble through Texas schools and out into the world where they find out they're just too goddamn dumb to do anything except be governor of Texas or president of the United States!

We've written before about the dentist from College Station, Don McLeroy, a christianist wingnut and evolution-denier, who was the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education.

He was bad enough.

McLeroy left for some reason. So Texas dumbnut governor Perry appointed another christianist wingnut to chair the Texas SBOE, one Gail Lowe. To give you an idea of what Texas children are up against, of the 15 members on the SBOE, chances are 7 or even 9 will vote as christianist fundamentalist creationists.

"Yes, teacher. I understand. Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and lived in that fish for a whole bunch of days."

"Yes, teacher, I will write down in my notes that the Christian God created everything that exists in six days, 6000 years ago, and anyone who says differently is an evil, satan-loving, god-hating, jesus-killing, atheistic, bible-destroying, rotten, no-good librul."


Much of this info comes form rackjite.com in Dumbutt, Texas. And, having lived in Texas for many years, and having great affection for the state and some of its people, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm still mightily pissed that Texas passed off their adopted moronic son, G. W. Bush, to the rest of the country as if he had a brain, when everyone in Texas should have known that wasn't the case!

Anyway, rackjite.com tells us that Texas just last week pulled Health Education from "the required list for Public School courses. Texas with the highest rate of child obesity, and close to the highest rates of teen pregnancies and STDs will no longer require students to learn how best to eat and how best to not get HIV and pregnant."

Then consider Gail Lowe: "She rejects the science of Global Warming and Climate Change, she will not tolerate gay friendly books in public school libraries and of course she not only believes that the Earth is 6000 years old and men live in gigantic fishes at the bottom of the sea, but wants to teach that to children in Texas Public Schools."


Finally, from Dumbutt, Texas this horrible news:

"Keepin in tune with an educational system of ever duller knives and larger guns we learn today that this same body [The State Board of Education] controlled by the Texas Taliban is planning on reducing or removing from Texas textbooks content about Abraham Lincoln (Yankee war criminal), Ceaser (sic) Chavez (Hispanic community activist) and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (Black attorney who won Brown v. Education which struck down segregation in public schools). ...

"This all in the face of an ever increasing Hispanic and Black populace. So say two of the six experts assigned to this project which includes Peter Marshall of Marshall Ministries - a Texas Preacher aligned with the Christian Constructionist movement which strives to REPLACE The Constitution with the Bible. ..."

Better start prayin', y'all!

Praying for the president - to die

It is difficult to comprehend the depth of evil in this country that masquerades as "christian" or "godly" or "righteousness."

Much of this evil is pure racism wrapped in religious language.

Here's one example of a sickness unto death:

Loathe thy neighbor - Jon Stewart

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With thanks to rackjite.com in Dumbutt, Texas.

Al Franken - O'Reilly just makes stuff up!

This is just wonderful! From Video Cafe!

John Cornyn, Republican, a Texas wastrel

Over at Think Progress, Ben Armbruster has enlightened us about the financial shenanigans of the Republican wingnut from Texas, Senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn, a rightwingnut christianist fundamentalist and member of the Church of Christ, has long been riding the horse of wingnuttery and in almost every case, you'll find him on the wrong side of the issue.

But, like so many of these christianist wingnuts, he pretends to be a god-fearing, loving, honest, ethical, blah, blah, blah. It's all a cover, of course. Like so many of these clowns, he's all about power and prestige and spending the taxpayer's money - either on himself or his corporate sponsors.

Here's just one example of his being on the wrong side of an issue: Back in 2005, when a certain amount of violence was perpetrated against a few judges in our country, Cornyn, with god on his side, announced that such violence was to be expected, considering that the judges were making the wrong decisions. In other words, Cornyn excused our home-grown terrorists on the grounds the judges deserved what they got because they were libruls! Read more here.


Now there's another fly in the Cornyn godly-smelling ointment. Mr. Armbruster has very thoughtfully pointed out that while Cornyn runs around pretending to be a fiscal conservative - which means that any government spending which would actually help real people he considers wasteful, stupid, reckless, perhaps even socialistic, or god forbid, communistic - the need to be fiscally conservative does apply to him; or at least to his travel expenses.

"Last month, Politico published a chart illustrating the transportation costs from the offices of all 100 U.S. Senators. Topping off the list was Cornyn, who has spent over $150,000 on travel costs during the first half of the 2009 fiscal year."

$150,000! In six months!

Well, says, Cronyn, Texas is a big state. Costs a lot of money to travel about this here big state!

It's true. That's what he said. In his own words:

"Oh yeah, not every state is the same. When you represent a state as big as Texas and traveling home from Washington, D.C. every weekend, it unfortunately costs some money."

Heh. Heh.


It's all bullshit, of course! The guy needn't go home every weekend, for one thing. He could take the goddamn train, for another. Or fly coach, not a private jet. Like real people. Who the hell does he think he is, a United States Senator?

Armbruster goes on to point out that Cornyn took his staff on a 3-day retreat to Maryland last February. This little jaunt cost $55,000. Yes, $55,000 for three days. Cronyn alone spent $17,353.

Ain't it wunnerful? Hell, a normal person could spend 17 months in Paris for $17,000!


Now, Cornyn is the fault of the good folks of Texas. They elected him because being good folks they thought it important to have a fiscally responsible, god-fearing, white guy in the Senate to watch over their interests.

Things are never going to change in this country until the people of this country wise up, learn the facts, stop believing the crap these wingnuts keep spewing out, and elect people who actually care about doing the right thing.

Read all of Armbruster's article here.

More on the C Street band of thugs

Mark Karlin, editor of BuzzFlash, refers to "The Family" as a "Skull and Bones like secret society of self-appointed 'Christian Super Men'..."

In an important and insightful article, Karlin excoriates the creepy christianists who inhabit the "church" on C Street.

"The members and residents at the 'C Street Family' home and spiritual warrior center forgive each other all sins, because they believe themselves supermen. They are the Leopold and Loebs of modern evangelical fanaticism, which absolves individuals who believe that they have been absolved by God from responsibility for their behavior."

Karlin points out that this is not some innocuous little group of fruitcakes playing out their religious insanity, but rather a frightening bunch of bozos who believe in their heart of hearts that their power and money is evidence that God has called them to lead the world, and because of that, any moral lapses they might incur are ultimately inconsequential and thus should be overlooked or quickly forgiven.

"The jig is up for democracy," says Karlin rightly, "if any of these men who use religion to allow for being above the moral and actual law becomes president. Bush, after all, thought he was chosen by God, when it was just the ethically defective and arrogant Antonin Scalia who put him in the White House."

The C Street Band, so named by Rachel Maddow, involves not border-line players in the game of American politics. Some of these ethically challenged lovers of Jesus and Hitler (oh, sorry, not Hitler, just Hitler's methods!) really think they can and should be president.

What we need, I think, is a complete list of everyone in the government affiliated with or in any way connected to this group. At this point, we have only a partial list: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), is a member; Hillary Clinton has attended "Bible studies" there. Other members include Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Ks), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev), Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC), and the freaky self-appointed "pastor" to Congress, Bob Schenck. But there many more of these ungodly and pretentious supermen and superwomen crawling through the halls of power who have ties to The Family.

And that is frightening!

Or, as Mr. Karlin puts it: "We endure them in elected office at grave risk to our Constitutional foundations."


Read Mr. Karlin's entire article here.