Monthly Archive

Perhaps apropos of Halloween, Paul Krugman recently published a NYT editorial entitled “Fearing Fear Itself” (mirrored at truthout.org) in which he examines the unreasoning fear that has gripped the wingnut right:

For one thing, there isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination. The term came into vogue only because it was a way for Iraq hawks to gloss over the awkward transition from pursuing Osama bin Laden, who attacked America, to Saddam Hussein, who didn’t. And Iran had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 — in fact, the Iranian regime was quite helpful to the United States when it went after Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan.

Beyond that, the claim that Iran is on the path to global domination is beyond ludicrous. Yes, the Iranian regime is a nasty piece of work in many ways, and it would be a bad thing if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. But let’s have some perspective, please: we’re talking about a country with roughly the G.D.P. of Connecticut, and a government whose military budget is roughly the same as Sweden’s.

...

In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration adopted fear-mongering as a political strategy. Instead of treating the attack as what it was — an atrocity committed by a fundamentally weak, though ruthless adversary — the administration portrayed America as a nation under threat from every direction.

Most Americans have now regained their balance. But the Republican base, which lapped up the administration’s rhetoric about the axis of evil and the war on terror, remains infected by the fear the Bushies stirred up — perhaps because fear of terrorists maps so easily into the base’s older fears, including fear of dark-skinned people in general.

And the base is looking for a candidate who shares this fear.

Just to be clear, Al Qaeda is a real threat, and so is the Iranian nuclear program. But neither of these threats frightens me as much as fear itself — the unreasoning fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties.

The neocons and their wingnut friends in the media and the blogosphere are acting solely on their fears. That’s a poor basis on which to base any policy decisions, nor indeed the future of this country.

The terror weenies would do well to recite the litany against fear to themselves, daily if not more often:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

(hat tip: Crooks and Liars)

I just ran across this and started laughing. Lizardbitch Cao is telling her readers that thousands of antiwar protesters are being paid by activist and philanthropist George Soros.

The hilarious part is that despite given her well-documented history of lies, Cao still expects to be believed in the absence of any hard evidence whatsoever.

Soros Derangement Syndrome™ is an ugly disease. Please keep the families of Cao and other sufferers in your thoughts.

UPDATE 10/28/07 5:15 PM EDT: Absolutely hilarious. Cao is now trying to paint me as yet another of those imaginary “shills”:

Everything that promotes conservative values is a ‘lie’ according to Meatbrain, who apparently takes his marching orders from Media Matters and the Center for American Progress.

Here’s a challenge, lying lizardbitch: Produce independently verifiable, documentary evidence that I have ever had any affiliation with either of those organizations.

Run away now, Cao. Honest discussion is beyond your ability — that’s why you can only smear and lie. That’s why, rather than actually debate the war, you spin wild conspiracy theories about the majority of Americans who oppose it.

And here’s an interesting factoid: As of this writing…

• Number of hits for the Google search site:caosblog.com “george soros” : 684 547
• Number of hits for the Google search site:caosblog.com “richard mellon scaife” : zero

Hmmmmmmmmm…

UPDATE 10/28/07 8:59 PM EDT: Hunh. Somehow this post got marked ‘Private’ in the WordPress administrative interface, which made it disappear for a while. Now it’s back.

Raven is still ranting about S-CHIP, and what a terrible thing it is that the richest country in the world would stoop to providing health care coverage for all of its children:

But I have a huge problem with the choices people are making that lead them to be uninsured. I’m not re-hashing all that now.

No, of course not. Raven has not shown any interest in actually discussing this claim. It’s sooooo much easier to make a bald-faced, unsupported accusation and then walk — no, run — away.

I’m not fooled by the Lemoncrats lies on this.

What lies? Raven doesn’t say. She makes the assertion, and expects to be believed in the absence of any facts whatsoever.

Neither should anyone else: They will do whatever it takes to cover illegals, higher (Much higher) income families and adults… with my tax dollars.

The money for S-CHIP isn’t going to come out of Raven’s taxes — unless she makes a very specific choice. As the S-CHIP bill is structured now, Raven has absolute control over whether her taxes pay any part of the cost. Raven either is too ignorant to know this, or is deliberately concealing this fact from her readers.

Let’s just note in passing here that Raven, who is supposedly a health care professional, is entirely ignorant of the costs of not insuring children.

Others really do need this coverage and I for one could not take from them that which I could provide for myself!

Which begs the question: How will those “others” get this coverage if S-CHIP is abolished?

I can predict with some confidence that this is another hard question that Raven will not find the courage to discuss.

A contributor to StopTheACLU.com has come out in support of racist comments recently made by scientist James Watson.

If any additional proof was needed that Jay Stephenson and his fellow maggots are truly the rectum of humanity, we now have it.

This is how Republican politicians discharge their civic duty these days: they lie to their constituents.

From The Louisville Courier-Journal:

A McConnell aide, Don Stewart, admits he sicced reporters on the Frosts when “trusted” bloggers began to question their authenticity as an income-qualified CHIP program participant. But he says he quickly called off the dogs when he decided there wasn’t a story there after all, because the family’s situation was legitimate. Mr. Stewart told The Courier-Journal he explained all that to his boss on Thursday.

So Sen. McConnell was deliberately untruthful the next day, when he told WHAS-TV’s Mark Hebert, “There was no involvement whatsoever.” The senator will object to any suggestion of lying, but what else is it when you knowingly misrepresent facts?

It’s clear what Mitch McConnell knew and when he knew it. It’s clear he deceived the public when he answered Mr. Hebert as he did about the e-mail sent by his press agent.

Mr. McConnell is so used to Washington-style gamesmanship and inside-the-beltway rules that he has forgotten what constituents back in Kentucky want: the simple truth.

(Hat tip: Daily Kos)

Raven has posted a “defense” of her smear of an Iraq veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (aka PTSD). Let’s have some good old-fashioned rollicking blogfun taking her pathetic excuses apart.

I stand by what I wrote. I am not a doctor. I am not a registered nurse -and I never claimed to be such. I’m really nobody in the command chain in health care.

Apparently, Raven compensates for being a nobody by spitting on veterans who aren’t sufficiently manly enough to come back from the Iraq clusterfuck without PTSD.

I am a Licensed Nursing Assistant. I’ve worked in many health care settings for almost 18 years now: nursing homes, veterans centers, hospice, home health care. Currently I work in a rehab center for brain injured children and young adults. Most of my experience is with this population (15 yrs). The lowly position I hold is the front line of the health care work force: Aides see it all, experience much and have the scars to prove it.

It seems that having “scars” and being “lowly” is all the qualification Raven feels she needs to accuse a veteran of “being the worst that [he] can be”.

I don’t question the existence of PTSD; but I do question people, who have suffered trauma, using it as a reason to behave in certain ways.

Remember, kids: Being a self-confessed lowly nurse’s aide and reading a newspaper story is all you need to justify accusing an Iraq War veteran of “exploitation” and “being the worst that [he] can be”. Spitting on the troops is fun and easy! Just ask Raven!

As explained by Tom Tomorrow:

(click for full cartoon)

See also Daily Kos: Malkin taking tips from the master smearer himself — Limbaugh:

See, it would never occur to me to think about going after one of my critics’ children.

Then again, I’m not a Republican.

“Big Dog” comments at Sadly, No:

And to clear it up, Max Cleland blew himself up when he dropped the grenade he was playing with. I appreciate his service but if you open your mouth and make comments you will get attacked whether you are in a wheelchair or not.

“Big Dog” gets challenged:

big dog, in the thread over at sadly no, you denigrate Max Cleland’s amputations as due to “the grenade he was playing with.” We’re all grateful that you appreciate his service, but unless you’ve got proof re the cause of his injuries, then you are just a troll.

“Big Dog” tacitly admits that his original comment was a lie:

Max Cleland saw a grenade on the ground and figured he had dropped it so he picked it up and it went off. Now, he was not playing, as in fooling around, but he was picking up a dangerous item that he should have gotten away from until it was deemed safe (like if it did not go off after a few minutes) and then he could have examined it to ensure the pin was in it.

That’s what these vermin do. Disagree with them, and they will smear you. Doesn’t matter if you are a veteran and triple amputee. They will say anything — anything at all — to smear someone who has dared to express an opinion with which they disagree.

Ed Brayton explains succinctly just how foolish political extremists of all varieties truly are:

The whole point of such dichotomies is to avoid having to think. If you can just put that “liberal” or “conservative” label on someone, you can know whether to dismiss them or not. If you’re intellectually lazy, that is. If you’re capable of rational thinking, you know that labeling an argument does not defeat the argument and that you actually have to examine the logic of the argument and whether it explains the evidence or not.

Actually discussing the argument being made, rather than merely slapping a bogus label on it and moving on, is a talent too few folks exhibit in the political discourse of today.

I am so wanting one of these:

I have always wanted a copy of the map from Time Bandits. I recently decided to create my own replica of this exquisite prop. I have studied the film and every printed reference source I could find to create this replica and it is very accurate to the screen-used map. It has been drawn completely in Photoshop with the goal to create a replica that looks hand-drawn. The file is enormous containing 188 layers with a file size of 1.72 GB. This level of fine detail is replicated using the highest quality printer available.

(hat tip: BoingBoing)

The reproduction of this prop looks absolutely gorgeous. The map, you see, shows the locations of all the time holes in Creation. Once you possess it, well, the possibilities are endless…

Here’s an interpretation of Raven’s latest rant that is much less verbose, and far easier to understand:

Children whose parents make choices that Raven disapproves of should be punished by not having healthcare insurance.

That is all.

In honor of Blog Action Day, I’m going to do what I do so well: deal a swift kick in the teeth to a shameless liar.

The lizardbitch Cao is again lying to her readers, and it starts with the title of her post: “The Inconvenient truth is… Al Gore is a liar, says the British court”.

Total and complete hogwash. The British court in question has said absolutely nothing of the sort. Anyone who actually reads the ruling will see that Cao has again chosen mendacity above honor. Actually checking the facts is something Cao would never dare to do.

Cao does her best to spread the rest of the latest wingnut meme: that the British court found nine errors in the film An Inconvenient Truth. Whoops again. First of all, the Court refers to these errors as ‘errors’ (note the sarcasm quotes), and second of all, the Court was wrong. Tim Lambert neatly dissects the supposed errors, and also points out that Justice Burton notes in the ruling that he agrees with a witness that “Al Gore’s presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change in the film was broadly accurate.” That’s another fact that Cao would never acknowledge. Facts are inconvenient things, you see, and Cao is allergic to them.

And who is behind the attack on An Inconvenient Truth in the British court system?

The school governor who challenged the screening of Al Gore’s climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists’ claims about global warming.

The word is “astroturf”:

[T]he reference to AstroTurf (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate fake grassroots support. The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the agenda of a client as an independent public reaction to some political entity — a politician, political group, product, service or event.

(Hat tip: A Creative Revolution.)

Cao’s propensity for lies is well documented. So is her gullibility. It is hardly surprising that she decided to combine the two.

UPDATE 10/16/07 7:54 AM EDT: Cao and her crew of sycophants are whining in the comments at her blog about what a big meanie I am. Not one of them has yet worked up the nerve to come here and challenge me on the facts about the British court ruling. Cowards, one and all…

Gotta love this.

Raven read a story in the paper about a veteran who came back from Iraq with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Based upon her vast experience with such cases, she decided that Troy’s litany of symptoms — which include hearing loss, tremors, and depression — was tainted with “the ugly scent of exploitation”.

Troy, you see “is making choices. He choses (sic) to swallow pills and watch TV in the dark”. Yup. That’s Dr. Raven’s diagnosis, which she made without ever meeting or speaking to the patient.

Sadly, No brought Raven’s truly compassionate and erudite analysis of Troy’s condition to the attention of their readers. They treated her to a smackdown of astonishingly magnificent proportions. They challenged her to back up her many claims about Troy and PTSD with facts.

And what was brave Raven’s response? About what you would expect… she called her critics names and closed the comments on her post. Raven hasn’t the balls or the intelligence to actually engage in a fact-based debate — we’ve seen proof of that before.

Raven claims to be a health care professional. Do health care professionals diagnose people as fakers based upon nothing more than reading a newspaper article? Frankly, Raven’s behavior perfuses everything she has claimed about her background with the ugly scent of outright fraud.

Jillian at Sadly, No put it best:

I love this new version of conservatism. There is nothing too base, too venal, too cold-blooded for them to say. There is no one they won’t smear, no reputation they won’t seek to tarnish, no depth to which they will not sink in order to destroy anything that interferes with their pet narratives about how they think the world works, whether it be ‘government insurance is socialism’ or ‘the Iraq war is a war for civilization and therefore worth any sacrifice (as long as it’s not mine).’ Anything — absolutely anything at all — is acceptable, except for even the barest hint of the thought that they might actually be wrong about something in even the slightest measure.

Is it acceptable, in the pursuit of a political goal, to attack a child and stalk his family?

If you’re a rightwing blogger, the answer is an emphatic “yes”.

But remember, kids… the folks on the right will tell you that they hold the moral high ground on everything.

‘Scuse me while I go vomit…

UPDATE 10/09/07 10:49 AM EDT: Oh, lookie. Self-styled “Emperor” Misha, who has called for the murder of police, as well as a judge and a district attorney, has jumped on the cockroach bandwagon, adding his tinpot approval to the wingnut attacks on Graeme Frost and his family. No surprise there… it’s not like Misha has any intent of growing a set of scruples. Attacking a child and his family even after the facts show that the attacks are scurrilous and false simply serves as further proof the Misha lacks any moral code whatsoever.

Nothing is more important to the administration of Our Sainted President™ than the well-being of our brave soldiers… unless, of course, it’s a little bureaucratic sleight-of-hand to trim a few bucks from the soldiers’ benefits:

Approximately 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard recently returned home after serving multiple tours of duty in Iraq. They served 22 months — “longer than any other ground combat unit” — received nine fatalities, and were awarded dozens of Purple Hearts.

But the Army wrote the orders for 1,162 of these soldiers for 729 days, making them ineligible for full educational benefits under the GI Bill, which requires written orders saying they were deployed for 730 days or more. These soldiers were shorted more than $200 per month for college.

First Lt. Jon Anderson believes that the military deliberately cut short their orders to avoid paying the soldiers’ education benefits:

It’s pretty much a slap in the face. I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership…once again failing the soldiers.

Where, one wonders, is the outrage from the 101st Fighting Keyboarders?

UPDATE 10/07/07 08:33 AM EDT: Austin Cline points out that mercenaries of necessity sap money from the military budget, and that the actions of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq have most certainly put our troops in danger.

If your country was invaded and occupied by a vastly superior military force, and they and their cohorts then proceeded to carelessly destroy property and lives, wouldn’t you have a real incentive to turn to terrorist tactics to drive them out?

“We would careen around corners, jump road dividers, reach speeds in excess of 100 mph and often cross over to the wrong side of the street, oncoming traffic be damned,” she writes. “I began to wonder whether my meetings, intended to further U.S. policy goals and improve the lives of Iraqis, were doing more harm than good. With our drivers honking at, cutting off, pelting with water bottles (a favorite tactic) and menacing with weapons anyone in their way, how many enemies were we creating?”

Gans describes a particularly “infuriating” incident where the lead Chevy Suburban in her convoy allegedly crashed into a sedan ferrying an older man, a young woman and three children.

“As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull over,” she pens. “The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in dark sunglasses. The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but there was none. So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car, pushing it into the barrier. We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt.”

I absolutely love it when one of the mouth-breathing morons on the right exposes herself as a flaming hypocrite. Raven of AndRightlySo has done just that.

Yesterday I posted this comment at Raven’s site, regarding Raven’s utter cluelessness in the matter of a recent ruling by Judge Ann Aiken that found parts of the USA Patriot Act to be unconstitutional:

Raven has proven my point. She is indeed too fucking stupid to read Judge Aiken’s ruling. Should someone give it to her, she would prove too fucking stupid to read and comprehend it.

Raven told a lie. Now she’s been caught at it. All the poor thing can do is screech and gibber. Actual, reasoned argument — based on facts, not lies — is entirely beyond her capabilities.

I thank you for your cooperation, Raven.

As I expected, Raven focused on the language used, rather than what was said:

Meaty I have allowed you to entertain us all in my comments here. You’re an idiOt and we all know it. We like to bait you with posts like this.

However, even at your site we don’t use language like you’re using here. Keep that up and I will ban you from my site. Got that??

Clean it up.

Awwww, gee… did I offend Raven’s delicate sensibilities? I think not:

March 31st, 2005: The fucking diptard wouldn’t allow her parents to be with her when she died.

June 22nd, 2005: Dammit work is hard and some people up there are gonna get their fucking asses kicked very soon.

November 3rd, 2005: I think these judges are fucking perverts who want little kids to be in the know about these sexual things… Yeah…and the villagers are all fucking perverts who want to use the children.

June 30th, 2006: Give me 5 fucking minutes with the Islamfucks who did this to these Marines.

June 30th, 2006: American government is for American people you fucking nutard… You’re a fucking leftard and a half Timmah.

October 16th, 2006: Make no mistake about IT, I AM PISSED AT THIS FUCKING IGNORANT REPULSIVE AND VILE SNOT

There are dozens more such examples.

Such faux outrage. Such incredibly blatant, easily exposed hypocrisy. Such a pompous little moron puffing herself up as a protector of decency. Really, I’m laughing so hard at Raven that the tears are literally rolling down my cheeks.

Melissa McEwan hits it spot on regarding the sideshow that Congress is currently engaged in…

Does it seem at all backwards to you that Senate Democrats have written a letter to Clear Channel Communications asking for its CEO to “publicly repudiate [Limbaugh’s] comments,” but didn’t make any fuss when two assholes on XM Radio talked about fucking Secretary of State Condi Rice and First Lady Laura Bush to death? Does it seem at all backwards to you that Congressional Republicans didn’t give a shit about that at all, despite it being said about the two most prominent women in their party, but went completely apeshit because an advertisement said something less than flattering about a general?

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And doesn’t it seem just completely, totally, utterly backwards to you that Congress cares more about what’s said about soldiers by civilians than how soldiers are treated by their own government? Where’s the month-long news cycle about unprotected vehicles? Where’s the month-long news cycle about body armor? Where’s the month-long news cycle about sexual assault against female soldiers in the war theater? Where’s the month-long news cycle about veterans’ care? Where’s the month-long news cycle following up on the conditions at Walter Reed, and exploring the conditions at other recuperative centers? Where’s the month-long news cycle about VA funding? Where’s the month-long news cycle on Bush having defunded traumatic brain injury research? Where’s the month-long news cycle about families torn apart by extended tours, by deaths, by catastrophic injuries, by severe post-traumatic stress disorder? Where’s the month-long news cycle on any of that?

That, I care about.

And so should our Congress — at least as much as they care about stupid fucking adverts and stupid fucking bloviating gasbags.

Just to point out the obvious: The screaming whinebags of the Right, who are sooooo very concerned about the honor and respect due the members of our military services, seem to have little to say as well about the above-mentioned abuses that our soldiers have had to endure, and are still enduring.

No surprise here: Raven is lying outright about the recent ruling that found that parts of the USA Patriot Act violate the Fourth Amendment:

The cry babies on the left are celebrating the recent ruling that parts of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional. Specifically, surveillance and arrests based on it are no longer allowed.

Read the ruling [PDF]. Nowhere does it prohibit “surveillance and arrests based on it”. The ruling does conclude that specific provisions of the amended USA Patriot act are unconstitutional. The government may still conduct surveillance, and may still arrest people based upon the results of said surveillance — but the government must do so in accordance with well-established Constitutional principles.

We hear so often from the bed-wetters of the right that the terrorists want to destroy our way of life. Raven and her fellow terror weenies have already ceded victory to the terrorists in this regard. They apparently want all pretense of the rule of law discarded in the desperate search for perfect security. Thankfully, there are still rational jurists like Federal District Judge Ann Aiken who stand in the way of the domestic enemies who would tear our country’s foundations down from the inside.