Contextual Criticism

Saturday, July 18, 2009

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!

Friday, July 17, 2009

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.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

White Men Can't Judge - Sotomayor: Judgment Days /td>

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

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.