September 2009 Archives

The Republican health care plan: don't get sick.

The Republicans have a back up plan in case you do get sick ... This is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly!

I am loving this guy. He calls the GOP out as wanting people to die to prove their point of obstructionism and refuses to apologize for it.

Here is the original video:

Here's his apology:

And here he is on CNN putting the (outraged!) conservative's feet to the fire:

How Karl Rove and fiends are bankrolling opposition to health care reform.

Plus, how $19 million in lobbyist money can buy five Democratic senators. If nothing else, hopefully these scumbags can get replaced with actual friends of the American people in their next primaries.

A nice starter list for discussion on the various types of literary geekness.

It is kind of amusing to watch these Birther Traitors eat themselves as their arguments get crazier every day.

But I really am posting the story to highlight this comment:

Seriously. Does anyone doubt that the BIRTHERS are anything other than a bunch of inbred, uneducated, dentally impaired, banjo-playing, smelly, obese, trailer denizens who "proudly" supported BUSH JR.'s rape of our freedom of privacy and now crawl out from their backward Wal-Mart cesspools to inflict their abject stupidity on the rest of us?

I thought not.

Comment by Todd Sputnik from San Diego on Sep 25th, 2009, 16:55 pm

I'm not sure how I missed this, but I am damn glad to report it now. Astronaut Joe Hernandez called for legalizing undocumented migrants during his stint on the space station. In his words:

"The American economy needs them....I believe it's only fair to find a way to legalize them and give them an opportunity to work openly, so they can also retire in a traditional U.S. system."

Or as Gustavo says:

CONGRATS TO: Astronauts Danny Olivas and José Hernández, for recently eating burritos in space, and especially to Hernández, who spoke out in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants. From the deserts of Sonora to the Bering Sea, to now outer space, the Reconquista not only is real, it's COSMIC. To quote that other famous illegal alien, the Borg: Resistance is futile, Know Nothings!

This needed said. Too much is being said about fringe psychopaths trying to ruin our nation because they lost an election. Yes, the Secret Service should pay a visit to the most extreme of them, but there is a certain truth that they would likely just go home and fume quietly if we quit giving them air time.

So rather than getting nervous about slipping (yet still strong) approval ratings for Obama and his policies or fretting because Beltway pundits have now changed their minds and decided that it may be possible after all for a Republican to win an election outside of rural Mississippi, Democratic politicians should focus on governing. Moreover, they should govern not so as to placate the often-irrational fears of the right or in a play-it-safe manner calculated to offend the fewest number of ill-informed independent voters. They should govern to secure and promote social and economic justice. Because they are Democrats. That is what they were elected to do. They can't control the media. But they can control their policy agenda. Besides, the old adage bears repeating: Good policy is good politics.

The Rethugs are too chicken to publicly back the treason they have wet dreams about. Not-worthy-of-even-hating conservative online rag Newsmax had proudly hosted an article on how the military should "rise up" and forcefully - but peacefully, mind - take over the government and "resolve the 'Obama problem'". They have since wimped out and pulled the article.

Thankfully Media Matters had archived the offending article. Here is a roundup of conservative fantasies about a military overthrow.

This galls me to the core. These shitheads managed to steal an election in 2000, force a bunch of fear-filled jackasses to re-elect Bush in 2004 and finally realized that even with Diebold stealing seven million votes in 2008, they lost to Americans finally - at least for now - fed up with their nonsense. So they lose one election - and to a black guy, remember - and they suddenly want to throw away even the trapping of democracy and take over the government like a Third World backwater.

And they call themselves patriots. Go to hell!

This is a pretty cool story about how a rock band should interact with it's fans. Hell, even for KISS, who are known for doing well by it's followers, this is pretty good stuff.

A great list. Read it if you've got the time.

I've been up to Yooper Land enough times to learn to appreciate the pasty. Here's a good story about them plus a recipe.

Damn good recipes and a decent tale to boot.

Ya know, I've known some bad people in my life. Not necessarily evil, but not your traditional amount of good and moral either. I'm glad to see this article at the NPR site.

In a nutshell:

At the end of the day, would we be OK with our 13-year-old daughter being drugged and raped by a 44-year-old? And are we OK with him then skipping town?

The answer to these questions would be no-brainers if the 44-year-old involved were not a world-renowned, brilliant director. So applaud his work and award him an Oscar. But don't say he's a victim who deserves to be excused.

And that's the long and short of it. I've know gang members, folks who have done time for drug dealing, gang activity, even attempted murder in a couple cases. But, despite their crimes, they weren't evil.

Evil? Evil in at least one form is some jackass who thinks it's okay to sleep with a thirteen year old girl. No, not just think it: do it.

For those sick bastards who somehow justify this kind of behavior, answer me this: are you also cool with FLDS members having secret marriages to teenage girls? Because I'd say most folks, especially mainstream LDS members that I know, think those folks are sick.

It's pedophilia. It's child abuse. It's a crime, and the bastard needed to do time for it decades ago. The fact that people still find some reason to think he doesn't makes me sick.

This is Stacy's fault and much thanks to her for pointing me towards these. The premise: what if Dokken were a virus and a chicken was your hard drive.

If you want to Deny Dokken access to your files...

...and should you want to Accept their attack:

I tried to resist but I can't help but link this: visit People of WalMart to see all our degenerate countrymen in all their glory.

Damnit Robert, I blame you for this.

As the title descibes, an article on the racism pervasive in the Republican Party.

Yes, I know there are plenty of Republicans who aren't racist, and who aren't Talibangelical End Times fanatics, and who don't beat their wives and so on. That said, those folks sure the hell aren't doing anything to silence the angry, violent, and seditious voices that are taking over their party.

Guilt by association is still a crime if you aren't doing anything to improve matters.

I've been looking for video of this interview from last week. Here ya go.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Reposted in it's entirety because Elvis deserves full credit for this post without any editorializing by me.

By BCAB Chief Insane Wingnut Watcher Elvis Dingeldein.

Just a brief note to remind you all that if, Teh Only True Honky God™ Forbid, Something Awful Happens to the President of the United States, it absolutely will not be due to Republican efforts to dehumanize him as something crapped out of Satan's pustule-ridden Hades Hole and stitched together from Hitler Bits and wolf offal. Nooo, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Fucking Wingnutville) just wants to remind you that the democratically-elected President of the United States is simply "an enemy of humanity." That's all! No harm there, right?

Oh no, you heard that right! A sitting Congressman of the United States House of Representatives ("The House That Hope Forgot") wants you to know that the president is an enemy of the whole of humanity. Not just to White Honky Taxpaying Taxpayers; not just to Old Peoples with their troublesome longevities; not just to Straight American Married Peoples terrified of Sudden Inexplicable Gayness Syndrome; not just to Decent Muslim-Fearing Christians with actual birth certificates not printed on Kenyan treebark! No, President Obama is the enemy of all humanity.

Nothing inflammatory or rabble-rousing about that.

It took awhile, but adrift in higher pregnancy rates and increased STD infections, the State of Texas wakes up to reality and figures out that abstinence-only "sex education" is a failure.

Well, not to gloat given the horrible results of your stupidity, but, um, not educating people is not how your prepare them for life.

Good luck racing to join the 21st century. I'm sure you'll find another way to screw that up too.

Yes, as this article points out there is something slightly unseemly about pouring booze of a jersey of a fallen teammate who died in a drunk driving incident, but I'm damn sure that's not what was on the minds of the Angels as they celebrated winning their division.

They wanted to share their success with Nick Adenhart, wishing he'd lived long enough to enjoy the moment with them.

The Angels are one of those few AL teams I have no problems with - maybe because they used to own the atrocity now known as the Quad City Swing or whatever there name now is. So, it is nice to see them have some success. Now, of course, it is probably on their shoulders to make sure the Yankees never see the World Series.

Good luck guys!

We've got infrastructure problems across the board and while it is nice that we are looking into new roads and schools, what about our dams?

I mean, I love going over to Hoover Dam every so often, but really, it was built in the 1930s folks. And much of our nation's big projects aren't that much newer.

As a case if point referenced in the story, here are pics of the Russian dam disaster back on August 17th.

GeekDad has a nice article concerning Banned Book Week, which runs from September 26−October 3 this year.

It galls me that we live in a society where people go out of their way to stop people from reading things that may be controversial. I personally can't see me reading a Glenn Beck book, but I'm not going to stop anyone from reading one. Oh sure, I'll probably consider them an idiot for doing so, but no more than I'd judge someone a douchebag for wearing a Yankees ballcap.

Instead we have these flag-waving (and -wearing) pseudo-patriot Talibangelical types who can't stand kids reading about non-whites, or happy homosexual families, or, well, anything that isn't the Bible apparently. If you follow this link and see how the list of books most banned have trended over the years, you'll see an increasing amount of those books have themes that don't fit into the narrow world view of most conservatives.

Look, everything these idiots do is wrong. Their attitudes towards women, race, sex ed, civil rights, war and peace, all have been proven wrong-headed, dangerous, and oftentimes lethal to those they purport to protect.

Ask any girl who escaped from an FLDS "marriage" or the average Iraqi, or one of the many "abstinence only" educated kid who either got knocked up or caught a STD because they weren't properly educated. As a battered wife who can't get help, or the family of some guy drug across East Texas because of the color of his skin.

Conservatives live in fear. They bask in it and want you in the pot with them. When you censor what people can read or watch or hear, you shut them off from free thinking. If people can't think, they can't create a challenge to the things that are wrong in a society. And whether they mean to or not, pro-censorship fools create conditions where Enron can rip off consumers, and Halliburton and pals can give our troops water that is ice melt from a truck hauling cadavers. A world where George Bush can con five Supreme Court justices and be president and to hell with how the people voted.

Censorship equals stupidity and stupidity leads directly towards a whole world of abuse.

We're supposed to be better than this.

This is wrong. Above is the picture of a G20 protester last week. Sure, he's been detained, but now he's a prop for the Pittsburgh PD. Like a deer whose tag has been collected.

You know, enforce the law, but don't act like jackbooted thugs.

We are constantly reminded that the police do not serve you and I; they view you and I, collectively, as subhuman. Don't let anyone fool you. You're on their turf. There are no laws or government agencies that will protect you.

You know what this crap reminds me of? Those Minuteman bastards who patrol the border and harass migrants coming in to find work. Yes, they are breaking the law, but, then again, they aren't trying to do the duty of the cops, ICE, or the military either. So why aren't the Minutemen doing hard labor somewhere? Just asking.

Anyway, the above pic reminds me of when some Minuteman asshole made a migrant pose with him holding up a t-shirt before he'd give the guy water.

You've probably heard about this, but some tool put a poll out on Facebook asking if they wanted Obama killed.

First, aside from the obvious tastelessness and sedition involved, even if you ARE a racist traitorous shitheel, why would you vote for that? Never mind the idiot that made it, he should hopefully do time - though he won't. But seriously, even old fashioned web votes can track IPs. Why would you link yourself with presidential assassination on a program YOU HAVE TO LOG IN TO?!

Honestly, the punishment for this should be to wipe you out of the gene pool. Yeah, sure, you are an evil cretin and a Republican, but that's permissible in this nation. What should NOT be is being so damn stupid and being allowed to pass that on to a new generation.

Because, honestly folks, the stuff you hear coming out of Lush Rimjob and Beck and their ilk isn't even sensible. If it were a smart argument, it would be taken seriously by rational Americans. Look, Michelle Malkin couldn't factor her cut of a five way bar tab, never mind the tip, and anything coming from her 1995-looking blog or falling out of her anger-contorted face can't and shouldn't be taken as more than Tourette's-like ramblings.

But people DO listen to this crap, and take it to heart.

And even on little 'ol Facebook, the Poll app, taken over by conservatives long ago, went too far. The creator thinks this is surprising, but having seen some of these poll questions, I figure it was just a matter of time.

People are dumb, and some of them are afraid and angry because most of us are fine with a black guy as president. Most of us are fine with health care reform and playing well with other nations, and having good science and equal pay for women. Obama did run on saying he'd do these things. These are not surprises. The only surprise is that the angry mobs expect us to believe they are actually mad about his policies.

They aren't. They are angry racists and the sooner they realize the nation CHOSE this path the better. And if we need the Secret Service to pound a few of their heads when they are preaching sedition, then that's what the Secret Service is for.

I mean, hell, they authorized people being arrested for wearing t-shirts against Bush, maybe they can beat some assault weapon packing perp to knock some sense into him at the next Obama appearance.

Yep. Progressives can be damnfool idiots.

I read the blogs where people piss and moan that Obama isn't doing enough. Get bent. You bastards are just as bad as the Rethugs you think are your enemies. Both camps can go walk off a pier for all I care.

Here is an article that argues against such stupid hysteria. I love it.

I get it. People want it all. Right now. Now damnit! But they don't. No one teaches patience anymore. Or compromise. Or intelligence apparently.

As best as I can see, Obama's plan is to affect the greatest change to the greatest amount of citizens. You may not like that stem cell research bans and equal pay benefits and the just-so-damned-close grasp of health care reform has happened before lifting the Don't Ask Don't Tell ban, but tell me how many people get affected by the latter versus any of the former examples.

Now, tell me how many Americans of ANY political stripe could gain from science advances in health, better pay for women and health care reform?

Obama isn't trying to win elections (I mean, he only has one left to ever worry about again at best) but to build a legacy other Democrats can build on. Our best shot before this was centrist Clinton, and Obama is only slightly more to the left than Bill. You want actual progressive action? Earn it.

Give independents and moderates a better standard of living, a better safety net, a better nation. Sure, some will stay racist, and angry, and bigoted and fearful towards things they don't understand, but some will join along for the ride, just to see what other improvements this country might make for them, and hopefully with them. Everyone loves a winner, right?

For my progressive friends, will YOU enjoy everything? No. You'll harp about Gitmo still being open next March or DADT still on the books until probably the middle of next year. You'll feel betrayed.

But things WILL be better. Not for everyone, not for those who wanted change right away. But things ARE better as many have said. And things will GET better and those things that harm a percentage of us will be addressed unless you let the things that divide us stop the things that continue to harm the whole of us get fixed.

Have I enjoyed and supported everything Obama has done? No. I've cursed at my TV a couple times myself. But I got over it. I see there's a plan in play. This is politics, being waged against adversaries schooled in racism, packed with wannabe Tim McVeighs. You don't want to pander to their traitors, but you also don't want to make too many sudden moves around the assholes either.

Is it fair? No. But when has it ever come closer to this before?

More racist traitors preparing to start another civil war.

Seriously, can't we have the Secret Service pound on these cretins a bit?

You lost an election, fools. With your backward philosophy I hope it keeps happening until you finally learn to shut up and stay irrelevant. The world is increasingly turning non-white, and no one believes your bullshit about "good" corporations after Enron, WorldCom, Halliburton, KBR, AIG, and all the banks and insurance companies screwing people over day after day after day after day.

We are constantly trying to find new and good things to pack for Gabriel's lunch. Now, granted, he's not quite ready for everything on this list, but I think it's got some good advice for kids of all ages.

Granted, I don't have the cash to make it to Germany this year - and probably not in the near future either. That said, I enjoyed the bounty of Oktoberfest articles on the How-To Wiki this past week.

First off, an article on Oktoberfest etiquette. There are also other articles on how to navigate and handle yourself in Munich so look them up if you are going. Also one on how to do it on the cheap.

This includes how to dress and speak some relevant phrases in German. Here's a general food lexicon for you too.

For those staying here in the States (or anywhere else for that matter), there are some festivals around the nation, a few listed here. The list seems to keep growing so keep checking because there are plenty not on here that I'm aware of.

Here in Vegas we have the Hofbrauhaus, which we are hoping to get to next weekend. If you're in town, think about making a visit there.

Back to the wiki, there are also very important food and drink articles, such as how to tap a keg.

Other articles involve making beer brats and sauerkraut and, just for kicks, pretzels.

Good stuff! Prost!

I like this article. It points out how far we have left to go to be a proper member of the world, and how we finally got the right guy in charge to help us get there.

World leaders don't get us. In his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, the President tells of some unnamed foreign leader who told him:

'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you. That doesn't make sense to me."

We've got a guy trying to do the right thing, and the conservatives are demonizing him for it. It is awful, but I suppose if you need a thermometer to see if you are actually doing good works (instead of just posturing that God is behind your: bombing brown people, raping nature, condoning child sex abuse and/or marital infidelity, stealing from the poor and taking lobbyist money for it, etc.) is how pissed the Republicans are at you. If they are chanting in the streets and packing assault rifles, you're probably on the side of the angels.

Here's hoping this is a trend that will continue.

Ensign has to go. He won't, but it is nice to see his influence diminished.

Titus needs to gain more clout. Harry Reid is spineless. Shelley Berkley's anti-Obama speil during the primaries last year really turned me off to anything she has to say anymore. Honestly that goes for the whole damn crowd who went beyond being for Hillary and into character assassination just for laughs.

This means nothing for you outside of Nevada, but just liked the article.

A couple links I wanted to share with you from Wired.

First off, these photos of glaciers taken from space. Utterly fascinating.

Next, some frighteningly gritty photos of the recent dust storms in Australia.

What an amazing world we live in, right?

Republicans love demanding that the federal government pay for their property damage but refuse to sign on to offering health care to American citizens.

So...building in a know flood plain is excusable, but just happening to catch cancer isn't?

Compassionate conservatism strikes again.

Granted, I don't Tweet, but this list is damn funny anyway.

The fact that some folks think that giving the kid in this story a free touchdown is a bad thing. Then again, these are the same idiots who likely groused when people had Obama "Hope" t-shirts.

Ah, even more "compassionate" conservatism at work folks.

This is exactly what I needed to read this morning.

I have noticed a lot of Bush apologists writing articles trying to explain away all the bad their idiot king did. You know, like half-heartedly signing onto the Iraq Surge makes up for starting the war in the first place. Even though, it was only one of a few things to help matters. And oh! we're still at war there.

Also the bit about the stimulus plan and how that makes up for all the deregulation and purposeful non-regulating that helped caused the financial crash.

"Gee, I'm sorry I knocked up your daughter and ran away from my responsibilities as a father, but if I sent you a check for $50 would that cover the damages?" Yeah, it's stupid bad like that.

So, I needed this kind of read.

(T)hat's kinda weird given the former adoration directed toward the Caligula Kid. Isn't that kind of intellectually dishonest? Can it be that the right in America is actually disingenuous? I mean, everyone knows they are destructive, selfish, hypocritical, racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, imperialistic, nasty, brutish and short. But who would have thought they were dishonest too?

In line with the RAM program distributing Third World health care to Americans, TV Dr. Mehmet Oz offered free care to Texas citizens. Two thousand showed up.

Texas apparently has the highest amount of uninsured residents in this country. I bet absolutely NO Texas Republican votes for the President's health care reform. I hope the bastards who voted those pricks in get good insurance anyway.

Seriously, I've been waiting awhile to watch this and just 15 minutes in it does not fail to disappoint. Catch Ken Burn's National Park series.

Catch Mr. Burns on Rachel Maddow's show last week:

I love that it takes a liberal to explain our nation best. From the Civil War to Baseball to the Settling of the West to World War II to this, Burns documents our nation like no one else. I sincerely hope this his vision of America is what prevails in the future.

Otherwise, our children and their children will see this nation as nothing more than a corporate sponsorship to force a white majority power over the population, stripping hard earned rights as they go. They'll see our natural beauty as something to rape and sully in the interests of destroying the Earth to force some narrow-minded Armageddon that only crazy bastards like them would benefit from.

I know this nation is better than that. We advance and prosper by giving people the power. "A more perfect union", remember? We are morally superior by being careful stewards of the land, not "drill, baby, drill" chanting psychopaths.

Either way, I'm going to enjoy the show and encourage you to catch it and do so yourself.

I knew about some of these, but it is very depressing how companies and product with good public images have sold out to major corporations. Granted, they may not have had a choice, but....

I'm sure all of our modern products have some kind of sordid backstory, but the one behind Fiji water is pretty bad.

Check out the associated links with in the same issue, including this list of how far water goes from it's source to hit your supermarket, in this case in San Francisco.

More truth from Reddit.

Hey wingnuts, I know you are mad and want to start a revolution. But you can't, because you passed the patriot act and communications with be intercepted and squashed before you can organize anything.

-submitted by rtconner

Want to know why we need health care reform? Read this.

I'm sure there are a solid hundred stories like this happening every day in this country. And it should not be legal for these insurance jerkoffs to do this to our people.

Paul Krugman on the coming teabagger/birther/deather/traitor attacks on the upcoming climate change legislation.

I imagine the Talibangelicals will be asserting their right to destroy Earth to "bring on Armageddon" or some-such bullshit.

I love it when Bob points out Republican stupidity. Also, that they would waste no time in trying to impeach the president if they had a chance.

(T)hroughout the Bush years -- no matter how accurate the left's "fringe" attacks might've been -- liberals were marginalized and laughed off by the establishment press, ignored by certain leaders in our own party and attacked as unpatriotic by the Republicans. Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay and Bill O'Reilly, who are all busily ripping the current president an array of new holes, actively accused the left of undermining the troops because we were criticizing the commander-in-chief during wartime. Ah yes. They abandoned that one faster than Newt Gingrich abandons sick wives, didn't they?

Even more to the point is this nugget of counterfactual argument:

I don't know when Nazis suddenly began to embrace biracial, liberal children of African immigrants, but if I missed this development then bravo Nazis! You're doing better than South Carolina!

I did not know the answer to this, but good to know. I was just thinking the same thing awhile back flipping channels and a PBS show from Phoenix came on.

Apparently Kirk Cameron is a batshit crazy Talibangelical. Here his bizarre views on creationism and bananas are proven false in the harsh light of reality.

Salon covers the "alteration" of The Origin of the Species that somehow ties Hitler to evolutionary theory, despite the book being published 30 years prior to Adolf's birth.

And you thought Alan Thicke was the strange douchebag on that show.

I gotta say, I just heard about this show and it seems like we've found a fun, extreme way to use MMA for some public good. Check out this particular episode to get a feel for the show. You might find yourself as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Considering that conservatives are apparently into assassinating census workers now, this might be in poor taste, but here's a list of the most insane conspiracy theories the GOP has about the Census Department.

Wired also covers the psycho right wing fringe and it's fears about missiles targeted at your home and other crap.

Maybe they have a guilty conscience about something?

Senator Rockefeller accused Texas' Cornyn of doing the insurance industry's bidding by referring to Cornyn's support of a proposed amendment to allow health insurance folks to look at the pending bill and waiting 72 hours to vote on it so the execs can tell their paid politicians how to vote.

Granted, that's not how Cornyn, other Rethugs, and Sellout Dems see it, but that's how it exists in reality.

Senator Debbie Stabenow made her stand against Arizona's Other Moron Senator John Kyl, who argued against including maternity care in the bill because - you know - he doesn't need it.

KYL: I don't need maternity care, and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive.

STABENOW: If I could just interject once with my colleague -- I think your mom probably did.

More on this.

Democrats have dirty fiends paid by the health and insurance industries too. Kent Conrad of North Dakota has been arguing against a public health option because he believes that France doesn't have one and they have GREAT health care.

France DOES have great health care, recently rated the best in the world. France also, however, DOES have a public plan that covers 3/4ths of their citizens - and has since the end of World War II.

Keep calling out the idiots when they are wrong. Keep calling out the idiots when they are working against the desires of the majority of Americans who desperately want reform.

A few good points here and some not-so's. Still a fun list. Read and discuss.

I'm spoiled. I know it. We basically have a T1 at home that only gets shared with a couple offices. So life is good.

However, traveling around the country for the past few years, I've seem how painfully slow internet access is in some places. And out in the Caribbean? Forget it.

So I found this story about a pigeon with a flash drive traveling faster than a "broadband" packet hilarious. And kind of sad too.

Information is the only way a lot of places are going to have to make a better life. And this planet is woefully unprepared to deliver.

Thanks to Stan for pointing us to this really interesting article on how dog's brains work and how much of it has to do with socialization with humans.

I've only been to Japan once, and only was in Tokyo on a layover. That said, someday I would love to have some spending money to take a proper shopping trip in the Akihabara.

Check out this photo essay to see why this is tech heaven.

Granted, any team might have done this, but given that it was the stinking Cardinals who raised a kid's big dream hopes and then took a steaming dump on them, leaving him with nothing, it makes it particularly odious.

I hope the kid becomes a franchise player - anywhere but St. Louis. And in Yankee Stadium of course.

Just a reminder that the conservatives have spoken hate and fear about an American President before. Then JFK died and they were shocked! that anyone would even try to blame them for inspiring assassination.

It's starting again it seems.

Michelle Bachmann spoke crazy shit about the Census Bureau this summer. Now a census worker is dead, hung from a tree in Kentucky. Don't tell me this isn't related.

Then again, this was on FAUXNews, where apparently they think our nation's flag is the Stars and Bars. No, twits, your side LOST the Civil War. That said, you sure don't act like you did. Here's the common thought process of a FAUXNews viewer, followed by Megyn "Airhead" Kelly delivering the party line.

I do miss Jack Cafferty. It may be the thing I miss most by avoiding CNN. Here he is on Tom Delay's dancing gig:

Mr. Obama is a Chicago guy, and he doesn't wilt if some gin-crazed cracker from South Carolina calls him a liar, so don't trouble your pretty head about civility.

The Fifth Columnists have pissed out Garrison Keillor and he's calling them out for being the nitwits they are.

The American people, by and large, don't admire wackos. A few wacko congressmen can't do much harm, but you wouldn't want them on the County Board. You want sober people who can add and subtract. And you don't want one to marry your sister. The angry guy in a lather about Mr. Obama to the exclusion of rational thought will have to go to the weenie roast alone and nobody is going to dance with him except out of pure pity and I'm not sure he's going to enjoy that.

Sure, obviously we should go help the folks flooded out of their homes in Georgia.

That said, this diary at DailyKos asks the question: why should we help people who believe that the federal government should be feared, hated, and possibly rebelled against.

He offers this advise to the teabagging locals:

(I)f you lost your home to the floods but you also are a follower of Boortz, Beck et al, do the right thing and decline all federal and state aid - like you urged your governor to decline stimulus funds.

So yeah, we should offer a hand as good Americans, as good Liberals as well, but we should also rub the worst offenders' noses in it.

In another vein, as this region has been experiencing critical drought in recent years, perhaps they might consider this a good time to stop praying for rain.

Yes, I'm a jerk, but I'm tired of these hypocrites and feel real bad for their normal, sane neighbors caught up in the "punishment God is meting out for their sins" or whatever they say when liberals in New York get attacked or blacks in New Orleans gets ravaged by hurricanes.

This may turn out to be something else, but at the moment we've got a dead census worker hanging from a tree in Kentucky with the word "Fed" either drawn, painted (or carved?) on their chest.

Last I checked, it was the GOP harping about the Census Bureau and making people fear them.

Yes, these are the birds coming home to roost that were spoken of before. You speak angry anti-government speech and some inbred jackass is going to eventually take it as marching orders.

Like I said, I could be wrong here, but I suspect this might unfortunately be the beginning of an ugly, violent trend.

Now, admittedly, I haven't played with Windows 7 yet, and I actually have heard good things about it, but I'm apparently not anywhere near the only person not in a rush to ditch XP.

I'm not going to say that I agree with every entree on this list, but with representation by Buckaroo Banzai, Shawshank, Repo Man, Spinal Tap, and Brazil, it's hard to argue with much of it.

More wisdom from Robert Reich. This time he ponders the hypocrisy of Wall Street decrying "socialism" while getting rich off of it, while the rest of the country still faces real issues that remain unaddressed.

Part of Wired's great ideas issue this month, Bob Gates on how to reform the Pentagon. It's a good read.

For the other controversial ideas, click here.

The sad part of this story is not that reckless pranksters are targeting a cult, but that only these prankster kids are trying to take on Scientology.

Seriously, shouldn't there be a larger outcry against these idiots? Why aren't the Talibangelicals looking to destroy therm? They could pick up more fanatical loons from the fallen.

Remember when you watched TV and actually learned stuff?

I like a good chuckle like anyone else, and the whole Fringe/Burn Notice/Ghost Adventures thing entertains me, but we caught this show on stress on PBS last night and damn if it wasn't both knowledgeable AND interesting.

Seriously, give it an hour the next time it is aired.

The folks at Wired take a trip to the Taser factory. Neat stuff.

Irony.

In her new role as buck-raker extraordinaire, the darling of wingnut conservatives is pocketing a fat wad of cash from a China-based financial brokerage owned by a French banking conglomerate.

So, Sarah Palin decides it's okay to fly to a Communist nation, take money from the French, and then attack the American President on foreign soil while making a sales pitch for Alaska.

If ANY Democrat had gone to China and bashed Bush while he was in office, they'd have been better off never coming home. Be honest.

This is shameful.

A bit late in the grilling season for most but good advice nonetheless.

Pointing out the obvious again on conservative racism poisoning our politics.

A sobering look at the folks behind much of our food.

Hat tip to All Hat No Cattle

This is pretty cool. Apparently Monopoly board games were used to smuggle maps and escape materials to POWs held by the Nazis and Italians during WWII.

I have a history degree and I've studied the war a lot and I've never heard of this. Such an interesting story.

Sadly, you'd never get a multinational company to help a nation's military like this in today's world.

Remember real news? You know, when you actually received information and people didn't scream at each other?

Yeah, well, check out Bill Moyer's interview with Nancy Youssef to find out all the things you did not know about Afghanistan.

Lord, our network news is so damned dumb it isn't even funny.

Not sure if anyone is going to use this, but I might give it try in a pinch. Here's how ot make homemade hand sanitizer.

Frank Schaeffer points out the hypocrisy of right-wing "Christianity" behind the racist, fearful, and hate-filled movement against the President and common sense Americans in general.

In short, his argument is that sane Christians need to rescue their religion for the vindictive lovers of death and destruction before it's too late for any decent person to be taken seriously for adhering to religion.

What do ya know? An insurance company scaring their elderly customers into lobbying on their behalf.

Again, I'm shocked!

Please, can some of these jerks do time for this or something?

Turns out this story is going subscriber only. Check out Huff Po's coverage on it.

What a surprise! FAUXNews was orchestrating the cretins at Glenn Beck's treason rally.

I'm shocked!

Bob Cesca points out a few good trends regarding the falling appeal of the GOP.

He also links to a quality Frank Rich opinion piece, but also points out the obvious problem in believing what people think versus what they feel:

The thing the Democrats should always bear in mind is the American people's uncanny knack for shooting themselves in the foot. Americans will choose the wrong leaders for the wrong reasons in spite of themselves. They'll vote for crazy Republicans if the crazy Republicans appear to be "stronger" than the other guys. And the consequences will be predictably tragic. It's the Democrats' game to lose.

Be happy you are on the right side of the argument, but be afraid that there is a deep well of racism, fear, and stupidity and the GOP knows damn well that this resource ain't ever going away. Sadly, dumb, frightened bunnies keep giving these idiots election victories when they have no reason (in all that word's forms) to win.

This is about damn time.

I've taken my share of crap from non-Cubs fans for the signing of this jerk. Yeah, talking about you Marcos! Hopefully this is the end of Bradley's career in Chicago.

Actually, scratch that. I hope the White Sox pick him up.

Incidentally, just finished watching the Cubbies pull a miracle out of the bat bag to avoid the sweep by the Cards. That was nice. But after dropping two to St. Louis, I think I've got to face reality and realize the chance of a postseason is pretty much shot. They had to win these games in particular to have a shot at catching up at least on the wild card leaders but to also pressure the Cardinals. Neither happened.

I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but Leslie has always been down on the casual use of this word.

Apparently, the move to make it taboo is growing. It would be nice to see us all speak better of others and to not toss around cruel words so casually.

Granted, I've got a lot of work to do on that myself with other words.

You know, I realize I'm getting old. I live in a place where everyone is damn near half my age so my perspective on life is really getting screwed out of proportion. They are necessarily bad kids, it's just, well, we were ALL idiots in our early twenties, right?

So here is a story about two teenage girls who got lost exploring their local storm drain system. Which, I'm going to give them credit for because they easily could have been slacking at the mall.

So they get lost, have great cell coverage and don't call the cops. Instead, they update their profiles and then sit around for seven hours waiting for someone to put it all together for them.

We're doomed, folks.

Personally, I loathe canned beer, but if I ever run across this stuff I'll at least give it a try. Sounds like good people behind it.

Scott Simon jumps on the bandwagon to have Chicago host the 2016 Olympics.

Hey, I love the idea. I'd love to have Gabriel see such a spectacle AND show him a city I love at the same time.

Damn it's glad to have Bill back.

Here he is showing the festering pile of pus and hypocrisy behind the health care zombie militias. Ladies and gentlemen, Dick Armey.

Another day, another Neil Patrick Harris story.

Enjoy.

Remember awhile back when Arizona considered (and probably still is) passing a bill to ban it's residents from joining any possible public health insurance that might be passed?

Well, turns out they are hypocrites. Not only do the Rethugs already have a public option, they've managed to find a way to make it work.

We've been having problems with our cable stuttering since the transition. Nice to know we're not the only ones.

Face it folks, most of this country is built on an infrastructure built during the Great Depression or, if lucky, in the 50s and 60s. Sure, there are new cheap-ass homes and strip malls everywhere, but the dams, transmission lines, telephone systems, etc. are pretty antiquated technology and most of it is old.

I know Republicans laugh whenever it is brought up that we need to work on infrastructure repair and replacement, but they've proven to be wrong on just about everything.

Fix and replace where needed and we can join the 21st century folks.

I meant to link this last week. It concerns how networks keep putting their sci-fi related shows on Friday nights.

Which, yes, has traditionally been the trend. Heck, we still watch Ghost Adventures on Fridays whenever it is on. Not that it's a traditional scripted show.

I do, however, have a couple caveats to this bemoaning of programming ills. First, Miami Vice used to be on Fridays and it did okay. Second, Fringe just started up again and it was on last night (Thursday) and was originally on Tuesdays. It earned Thursday billing because it's a damn good and damn popular show.

Yes, the author has a point, but it isn't all cut and dried.

Boy am I glad we aren't raising Gabriel in Oklahoma.

They know next to nothing about America. Either they are really dumb or the teachers there are feeding them the same anti-American BS they apparently are teaching kids in Texas.

Max Brooks. On Olbermann. Talking about Republicans and Zombies.

Incidentally, I found this when trying to find something on Brook's visit to Las Vegas next month. And, yes, I'm going.

I trust phone companies the same way I do insurance companies, corporations and Southern cops. Which is to say: not at all.

I'm glad to see that some senators are working to roll back the telco "get out of jail free" cards that Bush passed out with the PATRIOT Act.

Hopefully this law gets passed so we can get some of our freedom from spying eyes and ears leftover during the Reign of the NeoThugs.

I love this. I, like a lot of folks, really wish Obama would reach out and bitchslap the Joe Wilsons and Lush Rimjobs of the world. But he never does. He just lets them prove how dimwitted and oftentimes racist they are. Read this.

If anything, I'm a little giddy. For black people, the clear benefit of Obama is that he is quietly exposing an ancient hatred that has simmered in this country for decades. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of us grew tired of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, mostly because they presented easy foils for Limbaugh-land. Moreover, again rightly or wrongly, they were used to define all of us.

But Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance.He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it's driving them crazy.

It's about time.

Every time I read or hear something from Frank Schaeffer, it chills me to the bone. We actually *do* have a Fifth Column in this nation and they are literally holier than thou.

The generation raised on the belief that the US government is illegitimate because it is trying to "impose" non-biblical laws on people has hit the streets. These are the people who grew up indoctrinated into an alternative reality. Today they are out there waving signs of Obama dressed as Hitler. They are buying weapons and ammunition. Some are in the growing and revived militia movement. They are Dick Armey's foot soldiers. People like Armey and Beck can count on the ignorance of their dupes. It's against their religion to read a real newspaper, watch anything but Fox or go to a real school.

Here he is on Rachel Maddow the other night talking about Talibangelical crazies:

Here is another recent article touching on how we should work on our civility, and on defending our points based on reason rather than emotions.

Pretty cool story on Neil Patrick Harris and on how he's managed to be true to himself and build up a nice post-Doogie career.

The more we all collectively talk about it, the more I realize how many films Swayze did and what a variety of roles he had.

I know all the talking heads focus on Dirty Dancing or Ghost, but he really covered a lot of different genres. And, you know, I really can't remember a time anyone ever spoke ill of the guy. That's not a bad legacy to leave.

Hooray for Lewis!

Neat list. I constantly mentally toy with a list of what movies I'll show Gabriel, and when.

This just adds more fuel to the fire.

More on the Monforto family. Good stuff coming their way for their 15 minutes of good-hearted fun and fame.

Plus, they got an autographed ball out of the deal. Nice to see decent folks getting a taste of the limelight for a spell.

For some reason I hadn't followed up on this, but what the hell.

The same Arlington school district who thought it would be too dangerous for students to watch President Obama has no issue throwing the same kids on a bus in the middle of the day to go hang out with George Bush and a bunch of cheerleaders.

THAT will teach them responibility! Idiots.

Go figure.

You tell kids that sex is a sin and that contraception is evil and they'll chuck out plenty of unplanned babies. There actually is a cause and effect relationship between stupidity, mythology, and procreation.

Some day I hope this country embraces the concept of an educated public as a good thing. But not if we're overrun by dumbed down conservative bastards.

Hypocrites.

A Texas Representative "palling around with terrorists" last Saturday is sent a letter to the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority complaining about a lack of resources available for his anti-government mob.

That's right, the tea baggers who hate the government spending money on anything except shiny planes to bomb brown people are bitching that they had to take a cab because the Metro was too busy.

Oliver Willis points out that it wasn't that busy and one of his commenters really nailed it.

Haha, so a Texas Congressman using his government position used government stationery to send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service to complain to the government about how there was a lack of government-provided services at a protest against the government.

"It's like they take pride in being ignorant"

- August J. Pollak

Ol' Roland may have gotten into office on the shadiest of grounds, but it doesn't mean he completely sold his soul once he got there. And apparently he's got more balls than most of the Democratic Party. Good job there Mr. Burris.

"I firmly believe in a public option and will oppose any bill that does not include one. Illinoisans have seen their insurance premiums skyrocket, while more and more families lose their coverage every day."

Same goes for the rest of us pal.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Troy Dale West. He's Southern, looks like a lost member of Alabama. He's got three names. And he likes to beat down soldiers. Particularly female black soldiers just trying to take their daughter to dinner.

Nice guy. I'm sure he votes straight Republican.

Because of how he beat down Army Reservist Tasha Hill, the FBI is investigating whether to charge him with a hate crime.

Here's a key point the Feds might want to look into:

According to Hill's report, and confirmed by many witnesses, West screamed out racial slurs before punching her in the face. "He said, 'You're an fucking black nigger bitch,' is what he said," said Hill.

THIS is what Republican endorsement of screaming mobs leads to. Eventually, these racists will just resort to opening fire on people who look different to them. Just as actual Christian are complicit in killing abortion doctors by not speaking against their angry, idiotic co-religionists, sane Republicans - what's left of them - shouldn't be let off the hook for this clown or any of the gun-toting town hall loons. Speak up or be lumped in with the traitors.

Two from Colbert on our government selling out to corporations.

Candidate for Father of the Year.

I'd like to think I'd be as cool with my first caught foul ball being thrown back. Either way, nice reaction from the dad there.

Surprise! Between George Jr. and the recession, we have a lot more families living in poverty these days.

Strangely you'll notice most of the states with the hugest margins of the poor being those represented by right wing idiots.

Merely an observation.

I was reading up on this story of a miscreant who sent a complaint email to her local sheriff. In it she complained about being held up in traffic because a funeral procession for a local soldier who died in Afghanistan was going by.

She also complained about the Patriot Guard riders who were part of the procession, and who were not about to let her try to get around the mourners.

I think every person in the country - particularly the warmongers who wanted us to detour into Iraq - should have to come face to face with a military funeral. We're letting a small percentage of our nation take all the risk and all the sorrow wartime service brings. The absolute least they can do is honor our war dead.

Plus, having known a Patriot Rider or two, anyone who knows what they do and why would know better than to insult them.

I don't know if this lady is a Republican or a Democrat. I'd like to think the former, the letter reeks of the egotism and smug sense of self that comes with being a conservative these days. But maybe not.

Either way, Sheriff Glenn Boyer had the local paper print both the woman's complaint and his response. I get the feeling I may not agree with Sheriff Boyer on much, but I do on this issue.

Meanwhile, I noticed some other neat trends going on in St. Louis, from inner city vegan groceries to elementary schools growing vegetable gardens which then supply the cafeteria menu.

Nice to know the MidWest still has good things to offer their communities, and law enforcement not afraid to call out selfish asses.

Lemme just say it, Izzard is one crazy and inspirational guy.

What is it with comedians? They live these tortured lives and then go out of their way - often - to do good things for other people.

Here is another story on his run. I can't believe this didn't get more press.

Pithy lexicon of swine flu terms. I suspect most of us will be using some of these before the winter is through.

I needed a good laugh. This qualifies.

You know the economy is still bad when The Wall Street Journal is printing positive stories related to cities trying to deal with their homeless populations.

Just saying.

Watching Ichiro Suzuki has been a real joy. He's made at least 200 hits in each of his nine American Major League seasons, and that's pretty damn impressive.

But what is also cool is the response this got him back home in Japan, particularly in high praise from THE all-time home run hitter, Sadaharu Oh.

Congrats Ichiro!

I had heard some mention of this fleet in some other articles awhile back, but someone actually went out and found the ghost fleet.

Kinda creepy and bizarre. It also puts into focus how hard hit some folks have been by the recession in ways we haven't seen.

I know I'm down on organized religion a lot of late - and I have my reasons. That said, I found this story on how the three major faiths in the US are addressing the problems of protecting their congregations while still adhering to their religious traditions.

Thanks Jimmy.

More followup on this during Countdown:

This is the face of evil, dressed up under the flag and a cross. Hypocrites, liars, and damn near traitors, the whole lot of them.

If Republicans had gotten everything they wanted for the last seventy-five years or so, the United States of America would have no Social Security, no Medicare, no Aid to Dependent Children, no civil rights, no environmental protections, no privacy rights to make contraception legal.

Plus, the the history of the "birthers" and assorted associated treason.

Not sure if I linked this or not, but it bears a second look if I did.

Meanwhile, locally, we have this editorial cartoon...

...and this letter to the editor pointing out how wrong the Republicans are when it comes to health care reform.

If you bother to read the letter, take a moment reading the comments by our local teabagging traitors. It is instructive to realize how hateful these cretins are.

The Democrats just never learn: Americans don't really care which side of an issue you're on as long as you don't act like pussies.

Mr. President, there are some people who are never going to like you. That's why they voted for the old guy and Carrie's mom. You're not going to win them over. Stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren't crazy.

Bill Maher asks the President to grow a pair. I don't always agree with Bill but I sure do on this one.

In case you hadn't heard of him, meet Michael Duvall. He's a California state rep and some type of moral majority bigot and, yes, a Republican.

Apparently, when he's not gay bashing or trying to cram his "do as I say and not as I do" morals down people's throats, he's screwing not one, but two female married lobbyists, and apparently gets hard spanking at least one of them.

But hey, he's got nothing on Kentucky Republican Steve Nunn. This asshat was working for the state government and was once considered a shoo-in for governor. You know, because his daddy was once governor. However, Stevie derailed his political career by beating up his then fiancee, a girl about half his age. He had to resign from his job as well, a rare feat of Republicans having sexual or violent acts and actually having to atone for them in some way.

That was a year ago. Now, ex-fiancee Amanda Ross is dead from being shot in her condo parking lot and cretin Nunn is in the hospital for what are apparently wounds from a failed wrist slashing suicide. The cops think the Nunn waved around in the latter incident (not to mention the potential shooter) just might be related to the former crime.

I mean, hell, this is the GOP at it's finest. Get spurned by someone who doesn't want to be treated like a punching bag, kill her, then slash your wrists because you're too chicken to dine on a bullet. But it's all okay because you tried to off yourself at your parents gravesite.

Freak.

So compassionate, these conservatives.

More wisdom from Reddit:

I've wondered of late, exactly what IS the common thread that runs through such disparate interests such as anti-immigration, Pro-NRA, anti-government, pro-corporatism, anti-healthcare reform, pro-white pride and anti-religious toleration that all come together under the banner of Evangelical Christian Right Republicans.

I think I've figured it out. It's FEAR. Sheer, pants-pissing, blubbering, stark raving mad fear. Fear disguised as anger, dressed up as patriotism.

Fear of Hell, fear of other races, fear of crime, fear of government, fear of other religions, fear of differing points of view that challenge complacency, fear of not going along with the crowd, fear of dirty communist hippies that hate Walmart and Texaco and United Health (all of which keep them safe, entertained and fed in the manner to which they've become accustomed). A lifetime program of fear instilled by their parents at first, the baton passed on to the church second and then greedily assumed by talk radio and Fox news in adulthood.

Christians have been indoctrinated from birth that the End is Near, that nuclear Armageddon is just around the corner, that the Anti-Christ is going to use the gov't to chip them with The Mark and damn their souls, or if they refuse, to drive them underground to starve until they're found and publicly beheaded. Probably by Obama, these days.

They need guns, and lots of 'em. They need fences to keep the brown menace out. They need packaged foods and penicillin and crank flashlights and ammo to stockpile their compounds with, to bravely be a way station on the coming Christian Underground Railroad.

This sick and twisted fear fantasy, fueled by the "Left Behind" series of romance-novel-type-fear-porn and a steady diet of Rush, Beck, O'Reilly, Coulter and Savage has left them incapable of logical, rational thought. They pound Fear into them daily and then soothe their ego by calling them "Patriots". When it comes down to it, this kind of religious extremism isn't much different than what's practiced by Islamic suicide bombers. Seventy-two virgins or the right hand of God, pick your reward for targeting whichever group of people your venerated teachers tell you to target. For Jihadists, it's capitalist non-believers and for Christians it's liberal, tree-hugging, black, gay abortionists.

These "tea-baggers", this group of non-thinking sheeple here in America is extremely easy to direct by a few commentators on Fox News. Just a few weeks of repeated talking points, and whatever you want targeted, like health care reform, is nicely, squarely targeted. Wade through a crowd of "Patriots" and ask any one of them to describe what they're fighting against, and you'll get an incomprehensible mush-mouthed mix of "Uh, Communist-Fascist, uh, probably Marxist traitors on the Welfare line, you know, LIBERALS, having like, 5 or 6 babies and wanting my taxes for crack and free abortions!". Throw in a few lines about Obama and his Muslim agenda and you've got the Modern American Evangelical Republican.

Compare the rhetoric of a typical Bush protestor from years past and you'll hear mostly logical arguments about the erosion of our civil rights, illegal wars, the destruction of the environment, etc., and if you ask what they would like to see happen, they'll most likely say they'd like to see the rule of law prevail, and abusers of the system face a fair trial and hopefully, spend a long time in jail as a deterrent to other would-be corporate dictators.

Ask a typical Obama protestor and you'll hear a markedly more violent retribution. They'll spit out their half-understood talking points they've been brainwashed with, and then immediately reach for a more final, physical answer. They'll say the only right answer for such traitors is at the business end of a gun and a shovel. God would want it that way.

I think it all comes down to fear. Fear is not logical. Fear is in the base of your brain, the pit of your stomach and compressed, fire-stoked fear is very, very dangerous.

Just ask an abortion doctor or a black or gay man. They'll tell you about that kind of danger.

Via Reddit, a story on a surgical assault into Somalia to kill a key al Qaeda trainer.

I think this is best described in the Reddit comments:

"I've been waiting for the war on terrorism to start since 9/11"

- commenter soyjesus

Some food for thought for the angry zealots in your life.

These are pretty bad.

You don't even really have to comment on this filth. The Quislings damn themselves more than anyone can. But at least Stewart can make you laugh at their hysteria.

Matt Taibbi is still pissed about the lack of health care reform in this country. First off, he blames us for our collective peasant mentality in allowing greedy jackasses to run over us. Then he blames the politicians for bungling the reform process itself.

Not that anything he's saying is wrong; it's just a hard pill to swallow (to push a metaphor).

Patients wants health care reform and, prior to the usual fearmongering, over 70% wanted a public option.

But hey, even doctors overwhelmingly support a public plan.

But the insurance company-purchased politicians want to bury the public option from their watered down plans. Do your part to let your representatives know to not only keep it in, but to actively support it.

Just when I think NPR has knuckled under to their conservative whims, I hear a story like this.

They still have a LONG way to go before I feel like I should donate to them again but this is a good place to start.

Just wow.

This guy moved his entire family - and his custom car - from England to Australia just to open a Mad Max museum. I mean, The Road Warrior is one of my favorite flicks but...damn!

Good luck to him. And kudos to his wife for allowing him to dream like this. Hope his kids are having fun with it.

Here ya go. Knowledge without all the cross-burnings and white hoods that the GOP thinks are handy props.

This will give you a nice visual as to the difference between 70,000 angry, racist, treasonous hypocrites and an imaginary group of 2 million groups of said incestuous mouthbreathers.

Along with "intelligent design", hatred of science, fear of biology, and disdain for literacy, yet more proof that you can't trust Republicans with education. They can't even do math for shit.

I love this story about an archaeologist trying to find some piece of history the Taliban didn't get around to destroying.

Best of luck to him.

Do you still like your insurance company?

It takes people who lack a moral compass to justify nine figure salaries while denying cancer patients care because they failed to disclose previous bouts of acne. It is no surprise that insurance executives, who are always busy chasing after the next five figure bonus, are coming up with a novel way to deny people access to medical care: labeling survivors of domestic violence as "individuals with pre-existing conditions."

Just to follow up on my last post, Maureen Dowd's most recent editorial adds to the "GOP are racists" debate.

One of my co-workers posted something about resurgent McCarthyism on Facebook this week and one of our other co-workers basically railed against "Socialists who hate our Republic" and other assorted shit she probably learned from Glenn Beck's knee. I shot back with a comment or two and then she assails us all as the "usual suspects" who have "no respect" for others. You know, because calling someone a traitor demands respect given in return or something.

I'm getting really tired of these hypocrites.

THIS is a great question:

So here's what I don't understand. If Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's speech Wednesday night was truly "spontaneous," as Wilson claims, and no one (including Wilson himself) could have anticipated it, how come there is a sharply focused and neatly centered picture of Wilson right at the moment he shouted "You lie!" when the outburst lasted less than a second? In the picture, Wilson's mouth is still open, apparently in the middle of his shouting "lie."

Not to be a conspiracy theorist but I'm pretty convinced that the GOP is using South Carolina and Louisiana politicians to push forward their hate and racism as those folks will never lose an election in the heart of the resurgent Conferacy. In short, Wilson's "moment" was staged.

Pretty much everything you need to know about the financial reason to push through health care reform. Families are going broke and losing their homes while insurance companies have enough cash to bribe and buy Congress many times over while earning insanely sick salaries.

Don't believe me? The CEO of UnitedHealthcare makes (through salary and stock option) over $800,000 A DAY! Unless this guy managed to cure cancer, pull all the excess carbon out of the air, and figured out how to get rid of acne in one morning, there is no way in hell he deserves that kind of money.

But he does. On the back of everyone paying for crappy insurance policies. Some of them are losing their homes while he figures out how many more mansions he'd like to own.

So much for fairness.

Once again, what liberal media?

Hell, even NBC is covering up for these racists.

Oh yeah, apparently Joe McCarthy is back in vogue for the traitors.

Apparently the Quislings are proudly stating that two million racists and traitors showed up in DC yesterday to spread sedition.

They lie, as they do with everything else.

According to the DC Fire Department, only 60 to 70,000 showed up. Read more here and here on the hate and lies they tried to spread.

Incidentally, the teabaggers swear ABC reported 1.5 million traitors, which is also a lie.

Here's David Axelrod doing a very good job of not saying these idiots are full of it. Incidentally, Bob Schieffer really IS turning into a conservative douchebag of late:

I like this article. It sets the right tone and focuses on the effect that GOP anger and disrespect will eventually have on our nation's children.

We don't have to agree with everything we are told. That's the beauty of living in a free country and being allowed to express our own opinions in a public forum. But there is such a thing as respect and civility-which was something severely lacking Wednesday night as this "authority figure" lashed out in the middle of the President's speech.

I would have left that article happy that someone is thinking like an adult.

And then you read the comments and realize that we have way too many odious and filthy hatemongers left in this country. I would hope they aren't raising children in their own image, but that would probably be too much to ask for.

Good observation.

Who has done a better job of keeping the country safer - George Bush or Barack Obama? Well, as soon as it we make it past the morning of 9/11, then Obama will have officially kept us safer longer than George Bush did. It's empirical. You can't argue with it.

I heard this a couple days ago. Basically the French are banning la bise or the air kiss due to concerns over the swine flu.

Just like Bush and Cheney being allowed to kill our civil liberties for fear of terrorist under our beds, this smells wrong. French are known for this greeting and I can't see how this would prevent more than a few cases from popping up.

That said, I doubt that you'd be able to stop people from following both tradition and conditioning in time. Either way, let's hope the greeting survives the flu season.

I heard this on NPR just over a month ago, but figured the info was mostly relevant.

Wired post some material on a visual representation of the flu's spread.

Some additional info on the flu, plus news today of a viable vaccine.

From listening to Here and Now today, troubling news of a Tamiflu-resistant strain, along with discussion on how businesses aren't prepared for the worst (audio link).

Kitwana finally gets it about conservative opposition to the President.

Nothing I've seen about their irrational arguments points to anything but outright racist hatred. Maybe not amongst everyone who believes this crazy BS, but definitely amongst those who propagate it.What a sad place this country must look like to the rest of the world.

First I mention the Chinese are helping the Saudis build a high speed train system, and now the Japanese have a freaking space ship.

It's no Millennium Falcon but the H-II Transfer Vehicle is a damn cool look at the future of space travel. One that we apparently aren't going to be a part of as NASA's budget for manned missions was recently slashed.

Pity. Cocky American pilots was the only thing that was going to make space travel cool.

Here are some reports from both NPR and Wired that as pharmaceutical companies are trying to cure more and more intricate diseases, they are finding that people taking placebos have just as good - if not better - responses than the folks on the actual drugs.

Seems to be they ought to just get back to trying to help cure cancer or AIDS and leave the curing old-guys-with-limp-penises issues to future generations.

Then again, I see them as profit-grabbing shills instead of folks serious about doing the common good so I'm obviously jaded.

As you know, I'm pretty down on the fake Christians in this nation with all their hypocrisy, hate, and halitosis (sorry, was on an alliteration roll there and didn't want to stop).

That said, the thing that galls me most about the Talibangelicals is their hatred and fear of progress: be it social, educational, cultural, or technological.

Some of you have messaged me not to lump in all Muslims with the Taliban, just as all Christians are not fearful angry bigots. Point taken, but I never was confusing the angry mouthbreathers with good people. I know both decent Muslims and Christians. I just don't think there are enough of either in this world, nor that they do a good enough job of marginalizing their freaky and vile brethren.

That said, given the Talibangelical, Luddite, and Stupid Wings of the GOP harping against modernizing our rail system in this country, I've come across something folks in the Middle East are doing right. While Rethugs are complaining about the "Disneyland to Sin City" train (when they aren't bragging about spanking lobbyists and otherwise cheating on their spouses) they are missing the point.

Saudi Arabia is planning to build a high speed train line linking their religious sites together while we have only one decent modern train with a crappy track system in the North East.

Didn't we basically invent trains? Europe kicks our ass at this. Japan (and I know from personal experience) has a beautiful, safe, clean and efficient train system that people use so much you have to be crammed onto them like sardines in Tokyo.

What do we have? Old rail and beat up Amtrak lines.

Seriously, now the folks who bred the people who attacked us on 9/11 are getting better trains.

Get with the program people.

Wired covers it's favorite sci-fi flicks, with both pre- and Star Wars and after.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Remember when pitchers were expected - and trained - to work hard so they wouldn't crack under the pressure of a pennant race?

Yeah, I really don't either.

More odious behavior by a Republican as Rep. John Simkus just plain walked out on Obama's speech.

Just miserable people. Look, if you knew you weren't going to like being in the minority in this nation's politics for at least a couple years, if you knew your crackpot ideas - when they even exist - aren't going to be taken seriously, if you knew this nation would be laughing at your ilk behind your back, you should have done us a favor and quit running for re-election last year. That way, we'd have someone in your seat that would actually plan on contributing to the discussion right now.

Sometimes, in some places, the old ways are best.

I don't know what it is about Mongolia that's always interested me. I've linked more than a few stories about the country over the years, but this series has done a lot to flesh out the place as more than just some child's mythological place.

That said, reading - and watching - The Long Way Round did a lot for the process as well.

Interesting concept. I might try to get some folks together and try it the next time I plan on breaking my neck tripping over a broom.

(I could do with better coordination is the point I'm trying to make.)

I completely missed this given that I don't watch a lot of CNN anymore. But it's damn funny. Gotta love Roland Martin.

Yeah, it's a bit dated, but still very relevant.

Gail Collins points out the obvious dichotomy between Obama's careful courting of useful Republicans and town hall circus freaks like Rep. Joe Wilson acting like a right (wing) jackass.

The Times covers Wilson's childishness and Talking Points Memo points out that he wasn't the only Republican nitwit in attendance last night.

Rep. James Clyburn reports other shady Wilson behavior:

"Joe Wilson took our state's reputation to a new low. I thought [Gov.] Mark Sanford had taken it as low as it could go, but this is beyond the pale....Joe is very confrontational. He held his first town hall meeting three blocks from my house at my kid's high school. Now why would he have this town hall meeting in my congressional district, three blocks from my house in my kid's high school? It's not in his district.

That's the kind of guy Joe Wilson is. He loves confronting people. So he was confronting the president, just as he was confronting me."

Then again, this is a guy who basically got his start verbally assaulting Strom Thurmond's illegitimate daughter and telling her to shut up about her true father.

Nice guy.

As for his assertion that the President is a liar? Untrue according to Politifact.

Meanwhile, Rob Miller, the guy challenging Wilson in next year's election, has raised almost $450,000 since Wilson's ugly outburst. If I find out I like the guy, I might even chip in $5 or $10 bucks in order to help remove such a cretin from the People's House.

Here is a fantastic take on the Rep. Joe Wilson and his odious behavior. Unlike most conservative chickenhawks, Wilson actually wore the uniform and learned proper deference to his chain of command.

His behavior last night is not just a failure of his character or his party. It is an affront to the men and women who trained him better and to those who continue to serve our nation.

Lord knows what they might do to him if he were still a reservist. He would deserve whatever he got though.

I've had some of Dogfish Head's beers and their pretty good. This one takes on a South American tradition.

I'd still be queasy taking that first sip though.

Still more followup on the crazy mouthbreathing BS from Rethugs and their fears of "indoctrination" by an educated black President.

Honestly, I'd probably have some iota of respect for them if they just openly came out and admitted they are racists.

I just found out about this site yesterday and am already pulling stuff from it. Aside from the SQL 2000 System Tables poster, you can find damn near every poster and reference list anyone has put out there when it comes to computing.

If this interests you at all, you should have fun perusing the site.

Once I find some video, I'll link it. For now, here is the text of the speech. Good stuff.

What follows is the letter Teddy Kennedy sent to President Obama. When you look at the duplicitous Chuck Grassley's and the loathsome Joe Wilsons of the GOP, I am more and more glad I have cast my lot with Barack Obama, the legend of the Kennedys, and folks like Sherrod Brown and Jim Webb, even with the latter's conservative tendencies. Hell, he makes it look almost rational.

May 12, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me - and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.

On a personal level, you and Michelle reached out to Vicki, to our family and me in so many different ways. You helped to make these difficult months a happy time in my life.

You also made it a time of hope for me and for our country.

When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but never finally defeated. It was the cause of my life. And in the past year, the prospect of victory sustained me-and the work of achieving it summoned my energy and determination.

There will be struggles - there always have been - and they are already underway again. But as we moved forward in these months, I learned that you will not yield to calls to retreat - that you will stay with the cause until it is won. I saw your conviction that the time is now and witnessed your unwavering commitment and understanding that health care is a decisive issue for our future prosperity. But you have also reminded all of us that it concerns more than material things; that what we face is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

And so because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family's health will never again depend on the amount of a family's wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will - yes, we will - fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

In closing, let me say again how proud I was to be part of your campaign- and proud as well to play a part in the early months of a new era of high purpose and achievement. I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world. It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America's behalf inspires the entire world.

So, I wrote this to thank you one last time as a friend- and to stand with you one last time for change and the America we can become.

At the Denver Convention where you were nominated, I said the dream lives on.

And I finished this letter with unshakable faith that the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.

With deep respect and abiding affection,
[Ted]

The rules say Joe Wilson should probably be censured. Just so you know.

• Refrain from speaking disrespectfully of the Speaker, other Members, the President or Vice President.

Someone needs - at minimum - to take this cretin from South Carolina out behind the woodshed and teach him how we do democracy here in America.

Good Democrats sat and listened to Bush dismantle our nation's dignity and our freedoms without resorting to Tea Party thuggish bullshit. Maybe they shouldn't have, but if you don't have class, then why the hell should anyone listen to you.

Face it, Republicans have no class.

In case you missed it, this prick Joe Wilson, representing South Carolina nationally as honorably as his governor Mark Sanford does (namely, NOT) screamed "You Lie!" to the President during his address tonight.

Absolutely zero respect. Absolutely inappropriate behavior.

They should censure the guy. And maybe pop him in the kidneys.

If this is what the GOP has to offer, the four or five decent human beings left in that party should leave and find some other folks to play politics with. Dick Lugar, lead the charge.

Reprehensible. The Republican Way.

Oliver Willis shoves tongue in cheek again. But seriously, we elected the right damn guy at the right damn time.

I swear man. Every time. Like, every single time. They pile on they write him off and then he does his thing and gives a great speech that hits the points just about right. They said he was throwing the public option overboard, then he put 7 paragraphs of it in the speech. They said he was going to give his liberal base the cold shoulder, then he smacked the GOP around. They said he wasn't emotional enough, then talked about Ted Kennedy, average Americans and the moral urgency of health care reform.

Damn you Barack Obama for bringing honor back to the presidency.

"Sarah Palin is making some dough. She's going around the world speaking. She's got a gig over in China. She's very excited because she thinks that China is a red state." - David Letterman

More proof that modern day "Christians" are more into physical violence than proselytizing.

For some reason, people love to perpetuate the myth of the idyllic small town. Usually, such myths are used as a comparison to the evil, hedonistic, crime-ridden big cities. In small towns, so the myths go, neighbors cheerfully help one another, work hard, do their shopping on Main Street, and everyone lives a simpler, happier, more moral existence than, say, effete East Coast intellectuals.

The truth is that the myth of the idyllic American small town is by and large dead. Wal-Marts have rendered Main Street storefronts all but abandoned, family farms have long gone bankrupt or been rendered useless by multinational corporations, drugs and crime are sky-high, and people are hostile, distrustful, and bitter.

SportsByBrooks covers violent high school football hazing in a small Kansas town.

Gene Robinson on why it is utterly stupid to compromise your principles and your agenda to try to win Republican votes when none of them are voting for the bill no matter what you give you.

President Obama, are you listening to ANY of this advise?

I'm finding myself reading Paul Krugman's articles again. While he's still an unapologetic Clintonista, he makes sense every so often, as he does with this idea list for the President's speech to Congress tomorrow.

More from Bob Cesca as he redefines the "indoctrination debate". In short, if Bush forced people to sign loyalty oaths to him and the Rethugs were fine with it then, then they have absolutely NO right to bitch about Obama delivering a positive, non-partisan message to our nation's children.

Actually, the media really should get off it's ass and ask every. single. Quisling. if they are just racist or merely stupid. As I've said before, if Barack Obama is a socialist - or even a liberal - I'm either Grimace from McDonaldland or a cartoon character. You idiots should be so lucky as to actually have a progressive leading this nation.

Instead we've got a guy that would probably had been a Republican in 1980. You know, if the GOP allowed black people to even be Republicans in 1980.

Meanwhile Lee Stranahan points out that neoconservative cretins are actually the ones indoctrinating children by airing their filthy lies on the Cartoon Network.

Naturally, there's always going to be partisanship. But this idea of bending over backwards to appease even the craziest fringe protests isn't going to make bipartisanship more likely, or more appealing.

More good observations from Bob Cesca. Basically, if you keep allowing that crazy people have logical ideas, we'll all soon be led by batshit crazy people.

Yes, Sarah Palin, people like you.

Look ma, no socialism! Which, frankly, is a damned shame given that the kids who were denied access to the speech - either by their Talibangelical parents or their asswad school administrators - probably need an alternative to the cult society being taught to them at home.

I love some of these NPR comments and wanted to share:

olds sleeper (gizzardwriter) wrote:

i am a high school teacher in a rural area in the northeast, and listened to the speech via npr while eating my lunch in my room. Apparently, a lot of parents did not want their kids to hear such heinous material...no problem here, Im gonna bootleg it and sell the kids the poison their parents are denying them...imagine, throngs of scary teens, huddled in dark corners listening covertly to the message ....stay in school, work hard, be american...wow, how radical.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:59:38 PM

This one really hits it on the head:

Sam Pepper (SamT66) wrote:

In the past I don't remember anyone ever questioning whether their child would watch a speech by the president. Why are we doing so now? What is the point? My family values are not in line with everything my children are exposed to in public school, including other children. I don't always agree with a teacher's ideaology that he or she shares off cuff in the classroom. Sometimes I confront these issues, sometimes not. It's part of life. I think it's much better to take what I don't agree with and use it as an entry point for constructive dialogue with my kids. I want them to be strong, self-aware, and sure when they reach adulthood ... not overly sheltered and afraid to face anyone or anything that is different from them. Strength is in knowing who you are. In order to get there, you have to think, dig deep and yes, listen to the views of others. I agree with Zeke - this is scary. And ironically, it's the people who are so afraid of the "socialist agenda" who are instigating the problem. They will create the very society they fear.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:52:34 PM

I have provided a helpful link to the White House's copy of the speech plus the video. Enjoy.

Personally, I think these morons trying to denigrate the office of the President are waaaay off base. This isn't about respecting the office and having issues with the occupant. This goes deeper. This is about citizens denying their kids access to helpful words from the President of the United States. This is about publicly funded schools playing politics. The former should be first in line for any draft to fight Bush's Iraq War. The latter should be dead last in receiving federal funds. Either be Americans or pack your ass off to Texas and secede already.

Aside from showing the Rethugs blatant racism and stupidity, maybe this was what they were worried about?

Bill lays out what needs to be said by the President next week. As he states, it's time for No More Mr. Nice Guy. Obama's outreaches for bipartisanship have been repeated slapped back, showing the face of racism - and damn near outright treason - among the ranks of the GOP.

What confuses me is that if ignorance is bliss, why are these people so angry?

-- Len Kaminsky commenting on a Krugman post where he still tries to justify his backing of Hillary

This really disturbs me. As a child, I was raised to have respect for presidents. As a parent, I enforced respect for the office on my own child even in the worst years of the Bush administration.

But now that a black man holds the office, tinfoil-hat lunatics say children should not learn to respect presidents, nor should presidents encourage them to succeed. It's an incredible hypocrisy.

Yeah, that's right folks. Glenn Beck and his Legion of Mouth Breathers fear that armed mobs of step dancers will take the country from them.

This guy gets on the TV and radio and whispers treason and his greatest fear are dancing black teenagers who want to be doctors and lawyers.

Actually, given the inherent racism of the GOP, minority professionals probably ARE their biggest fear.

How long did it take the right to go from: "if you criticize the President you are a traitor" to "School children should not trust the President."

- TPM Reader JF

Another great geography post. This one tackles how population dispersion - or the lack of it - may be a more realistic look at how we view some nations.

So....if you, like most Rethugs, support the insurance companies, you must be fine with a 22% chance of failure in getting your medical care paid for.

If we were in school, that would give you a 78, which is a C, and possibly a D in some districts.

For all their talk of American exceptionalism, Republicans are hunky-dory with a C-class medical insurance system. Yelling "We're Number One" doesn't make it so, as we increasingly are finding out.

Well, those of us who aren't Republicans.

Not entirely related but more proof of anti-reform stupidity and hypocrisy:

Lastly, some words for Robert Reich on what the President should say in next Wednesday's speech.

Not that he will.

A damned cool list. Check it out and argue amongst yourselves.

You've got it all wrong. Right-wing parents are not afraid that Obama is going to indoctrinate their kids. They're afraid that his rational and common sense address will shatter the false image of Obama that they've indoctrinated into their sheltered kids' minds.

- submitted by EatSleepJeep at Reddit

More honest commentary regarding the unpatriotic assholes who are against the President's speech to our children.

Ah, here we go.

THIS is why the racists and thugs don't want America's children to hear the President speak. They are too busy trying to subvert the content of schoolbooks to teach kids how to be hate-filled bigots and racists to have to explain how an articulate black man can lead this nation. It would be contrary to everything written in the new Mein Kampf Lite primers they are trying to get approved.

Some miscreants in public school districts are not going to air the President's address to our nation's schoolchildren next week.

Pull their funding. Close any school that is unpatriotic enough to ban the President of the United States. This smacks of treason.

Do it now.

The Racist Rethugs have a variety of excuses as to why they reject Obama speaking to their children directly.

I'd love to say such opposition is based in reality. But hey, these are the same idiots calling Obama a socialist, fascist, and racist in the same breath. The reality is, he is none of those things and he certainly isn't a liberal. Damn the luck, but I knew that when I backed him anyway.

Hell, thirty years ago, his policies would - in the main - label him as a Republican. Hell, forty years ago Richard Nixon was for employee-mandated health insurance. How far we've fallen that even Tricky Dick was more liberal than the so-called "Socialist" Obama.

Nah, these folks merely don't want a black man telling their kids to live their dreams, stay in school, and to work hard - and possibly together! gasp! - at improving their lives and communities.

To be even more to the point, these racists "dun't wanna a lazy nigger telling their rugrats how to live".

In short, they are afraid he's going to push an agenda of responsibility and service to our children. You know, like that's a bad thing or something.

He might not even do it. I don't know because the speech hasn't even been publicly shown yet! But I do know there is a precedent for presidential brainwashing and that would be the Rethugs own Ronald Reagan trying to "indoctrinate" our children to be pro-gun and pro-tax cuts to the rich as he did back in 1988.

I've discovered a new site. Bear with me as I overwhelm you with links from there in coming days.

Overall, not a bad list, even though there's a bit too much of the Grindhouse flicks involved (not that I would ever vote against Rosario Dawson).

There's also a Top 50 sexy sci-fi costume list. Apparently I now need to watch AI.

Granted, I don't work in an IT department these days, but I am in the networking field, so I can confirm that all these things have a ring of truth to them and have been an issue in my career at one point in time or another.

The following, however, is just plain funny and painfully true:

This article does a great job of tying all the angry, hate-filled terrorists together under one anti-American umbrella.

Basically, half of these folks probably couldn't agree on anything more than they loathe compromise and are livid that this nation elected a black man to be their leader.

That, and that the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese.

I can't believe I am standing today in a Christian church defending the proposition that we should lessen the suffering of those who cannot afford health care in an economic system that often treats the poor as prey for the rich. I cannot believe there are Christians around this nation who are shouting that message down and waving guns in the air because they don't want to hear it. But I learned along time ago that churches are strange places; charity is fine, but speaking of justice is heresy in many churches. The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." Too often today in the United States, if you talk about helping the poor, they call you Christian, but if you actually try to do something to help the poor, they call you a socialist.

A pastor questions why true Christians would be against health care reform. And, more importantly, expresses disappointment with his angry co-religionists who oppose caring for their fellow man.

At some point, Obama is gonna have to stop being a nice guy and start putting traitors like Jim Inhofe in a re-education camp.

I mean, hell, the Rethugs already believe such things exist. Why not prove them correct on something. For once.

This is the same assclown joining the "let's have a revolution" crowd in recent days.

Look, you guys lost an election. Badly. It happens. You don't get to burn down the country because the voters decided we didn't need a Luddite Talibangelical theocracy. Get your crap together, form cogent sentences with actual ideas and maybe you get another chance in a future election. That's how democracy works.

Then again, Christianity was supposed to be about loving thy neighbor and living righteously and see what you perverts and bigots have done with that.

A great article on the inability of Republicans in general to admit they could ever be wrong.

And the hatred and failed consequences of letting these idiots get anywhere close to the levers of power in this country.

Bob reminds us that not only do most people want a public option, it is also $400 billion CHEAPER than anything else on the table.

And yeah, count me in if the plan survives as a genuine competitor to the foul plan I currently have.

"I'm sure another attack is being planned. If and when it happens, I hope the people will remember that Bush and Cheney had our enemy in their gun sights and then turned their weapons in a different direction."

I love this letter to the editor in the Sun.

Every time you hear Cheney being given a verbal hand job by a FAUXNews "reporter", remember that he got about 5,000 US servicemen and -women killed by taking our nation's eyes off the ball in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is alive today because of Dick Cheney and his Dick-loving followers.

Health care reform is a moral choice. Either you value healing the sick or you value insurance company profits. That's the long and short of it.

- submitted by itsjibba at Reddit

Even irreverent sports columnists are laughing it up at the prospect of Curt Schilling running for Ted Kennedy's seat. I lost all respect for this guy when he went full out for Bush in 2004. In 2000, that was forgiveable to a degree given that we didn't know how much of a spineless asshat he would be. But not in the next election.

In short:

Yes when I think of the Kennedy legacy, the photo above immediately comes to mind. In fact, make that puppy giant-size and slap it on a few billboards around the state, and Schilling could be the first person ever to get zero votes. Sorry to ruin this thing before it gets started, Curt.

It's that time of year again for state fairs to roll out the most grease-dipped or deep-fried laden foods. Check out the new crop of artery choking foods here.

From the same Rethug Representative hoping for a new Republican "Great White Hope", some footage from her town hall meeting where she laughs at the plight of a single mom without insurance.

But, while mocking people you are supposed to represent is pretty vile, at least she didn't go out and hit her.

In Florida, a random Rethug pulled his truck over at a rally and punched an elderly pro-reform supporter. Nice.

These asshats will even shout down a woman in a wheelchair in New Jersey and stop her from speaking.

Once again, there's nothing compassionate about conservatives and nothing Christ-like in their Christianity. Disrespecting people who you supposedly speak for. Beating on the elderly. Treated folks in wheelchairs like second-class citizens.

Why do we listen to such vile people?

While trying to describe the suspects to police, the men decided to rate the women on a scale of 1 to 10. Three said the women all rated a "2." But the man described by police as the most intoxicated disagreed and claimed they rated a "4."

Oh, don't get me wrong. This is entirely inappropriate but sooooo damned funny.

I love maps. No one knows how to read the things anymore but my dad taught me and I plan on teaching Gabriel.

Here is a quick primer on borders and how they are created. Hopefully more stuff like this gets published so I can build up a nice collection of knowledge I can share with everyone.

"I hate that flag up there....I hate the United States government....They're an evil, corrupt government. They need to go. Sovereignty is not good enough. Secession is what we need!"

"We hate the United States!"

- Larry Kilgore, Talibangelical "patriot" at a Texas secessionist rally

A roundup of recent miscreants that make up the GOP:

And Rachel Maddow on some of the same Texas Traitors:

Plus Chris Matthews weighs in on Traitor Rick and the rest of the Texas Traitors: