Pretty damned dumb.
Here’s the proof, thanks to the ever-wonderful people at Crooks and Liars ( video bandwidth costs money, feel free to contribute). Non-US viewers can see for themselves, as noted meterologist, geologist and falafel expert Bill O’Reilly effortlessly conflates tectonic faults and global warming.
Because, as any good Fox viewer knows, tsunamis are caused by climate change.
From the Armchair Subversive
Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.
It goes on and on. Read Full Story
Via The Poor Man ( who now has a virtual stable of ponies and to whom belated congratulations on his recent marriage… how about a squid for me every time Blair says ‘choice’? Even a cuttlefish? I could repopulate the North Sea with cephalopods and bask in the noodly approval of the FSM. Sigh. A girl can dream.)
It sometimes seems as though right wing politics and child molestation go hand-in-hand. Without wishing to denigrate those conservatives out there who are models of personal probity and integrity, it does seem way too co-incidental that so many molestors turn out to be Republicans. It’s a trite and facile but nevertheless true argument that those who are attracted to authoritarian political positions may well be inclined to act out that love of power relationships on those they can most easily dominate, ie minors.
What about Jeff Gannon, the Bush bald head fetish and the sheer quantities of Republican bottoms? I guess a change is as good as a rest. Perhaps it might be more pertinent to ask what it is about the Republican party that attracts these people?
Dumb question. It’s glaringly obvious. How else could you get off on every bad thing you ever dreamt of doing, and get publicly patted on the back, promoted and paid for doing it?
I’m red-eyed and exhausted from obsessive, incessant checking for Plame indictments, but that’s nothing; many of the US blogs are squirming themselves into paroxysms of excitement waiting for Fitzmas, as it’s now known; I veer from wild optimism that this crew are going down, suckas to gloom that they’ll just walk away and my children will live to inhabit an industrial, fascist dystopia or a massive climate event will solve all our petty concerns, permanently. Which would really not be good for the bulbs I just planted.
I keep trying to tell myself not to get my hopes up, but fuck it, I’m enjoying this. Schadenfreude is entirely insufficient to describe it, it’s more like bloodlust. I want to see this gang of crooks get what’s coming to them, and even if my worst fears are fulfilled and they don’t, I’ll at least have had the pleasure of the anticipation. But they know it’s coming too, and George is not a happy bunny. You wouldn’t like Georgie when he’s not happy, oh no.
Picture credit, firedoglake
And how very odd of Norm Coleman to accuse George Galloway of perjury at this, of all times, when the Republican party is desperately arguing in all available media outlets that perjury is a mere technicality. I doubt he did this of his own volition – wasn’t he humiliated enough last time? – but they’re getting desperate. Galloway was very clear on Today a few minutes ago (link to media clip) that he looks forward to a trial for perjury in the US courts. Oops, Sen. Coleman, don’t you know that they only prosecute for perjury when their case is weak? If you must shill for the WH at least try and stay on-message.
“I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn?t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.”
But, while we avidly consume all Plame news ( with a side-order of Miers) an act of blatant racist social engineering, landgrabbing and profiteering is taking place, and it’s orchestrated by the same neo-conservatives cheap fraudsters excoriated in the blogs. Long after they’re gone, the scars of what they’re doing will remain. And the Bush family will still be rich.
Another southern Black diaspora has been created under the guise of reconstruction – “Hurricane Katrina [may] prove to be the biggest, most brutal urban-renewal project Black America has ever seen? says Mike Davis in Mother Jones.
New barriers, meanwhile, are being erected against the return of evacuees. In Mississippi?s ruined coastal cities, as well as in metro New Orleans, Landlords?galvanized by rumors of gentrification and soaring land values?are beginning to institute mass evictions. (Although the oft-cited Lower Ninth Ward is actually a bastion of blue-collar homeownership, most poor New Orleanians are renters.)
Civil-rights lawyer Bill Quigley has described how renters have returned ?to find furniture on the street and strangers living in their apartments at higher rents, despite an order by the Governor that no one can be evicted before October 25. Rents in the dry areas have doubled and tripled.?
Secretary of Housing Alfonso Jackson, meanwhile, seems to be working to fulfill his notorious prediction that New Orleans is ?not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.? Public-housing and Section 8 residents recently protested that ?the agencies in charge of these housing complexes [including HUD] are using allegations of storm damage to these complexes as a pretext for expelling working-class African-Americans, in a very blatant attempt to co-opt our homes and sell them to developers to build high-priced housing.?
Minority homeowners also face relentless pressures not to return. Insurance compensation, for example, is typically too small to allow homeowners in the eastern wards of New Orleans to rebuild if and when authorities re-open their neighborhoods.
Rosa Parks died today aged 92. Sometimes it seems that nothing changes.
Pearlington Living, September 2005. Bedrooms on the left, kitchen in the middle, living room on the right, bathroom out back, in the woods. That’s my mom kneeling on the right, trying to comfort one of the ladies.
Operation Eden is a blog by Clayton James Cubitt, who bills it as “A personal chronicle of what hurricane Katrina has done to my poor proud people.”
From his bio: ‘Clayton James Cubitt’s mom was a teenage runaway, go-go dancing at a club on bourbon street in new orleans. his dad was a canadian national running pot over the border from mexico. they met, married, and moved to los angeles, conceiving him on the trip in the back of a vw bus at dinosaur national park in utah. now he takes pictures and lives in brooklyn. he grew up in new orleans and the gulf coast, where his family still lives. He is also known as siege, and all of these images originally appeared on his photo journal for Nerve.com’
If you want to know how the Katrina recovery plan is going take a look. It isn’t going at all – an entire region of people has been plunged into poverty, homelesness, ill-health and despair, if they weren’t there already. If they were, then well, they can just go to hell as far as the Bush administration is concerned. Now the winter is coming on : even those in homes face crippling utility bills due to rising oil-prices ( and the new bankruptcy laws will prevent any ordinary individual ever getting out from under crippling fuel debts) .
Many people in Pearlington, Mississippi have been roughing it for 51 days now. 51 days. The first Gulf War was fought and won in less time. We flew men to the moon and returned them to Earth in less time.
Many of the church groups who had been coming through and helping are now gone. Americorps is there. But most of the people who are helping now, they’re just regular individuals, like you and me. They’re helping distribute aid when it comes in. They’re helping people clear trees, in case the mythical FEMA trailers ever show up. Here’s what’s needed in Pearlington right now, as of today, 51 days later: (read more after the jump)
–Food, non-perishable. MREs are still available, but they’re worried that could end soon and want to begin stocking up for the winter. They particularly need hearty meals, like stews. They’re working hard all day, and need a lot of protein.
–Packaged socks and underwear (all sizes)
–Daily toiletries, like deodorant, shaving cream and razors, and soap (including laundry soap)
–Daily staples like coffee, sugar, salt, pepper
–Towels, all sizes
–Trash bags
–Paper towels and toilet paper
–Cleaning supplies
–Work gloves
–Chain saws
–Rakes, shovels, and yard tools
–Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers. They have a big tent set up for you. Don’t go to Disneyland. Go to Katrinaland. It’s the vacation you’ll never forget, I guarantee
“We are amazed but not amused by all the things you say that you’ll do
We’re much concerned but not involved with decsions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
tellin how you’re gonna change right from wrong
Cause if you really want to hear our views
You haven’t done nothin”
It looks like Rove and Cheney’s hounding of Clinton over Monica is going to karmically bite them on the ass: TalkLeft picks this up from Bloomberg News –
In an interview yesterday, Wilson said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame’s career.
If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed — and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath — while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones’ sexual harassment suit against then-President Bill Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time. ( My emphasis added)
And for all of your Plame Gate needs, take a look at
“My guess? If there are any charges in the offing for the VP, look for him being attatched to a borader conspiracy. That new house in Maryland is taking on a whole new meaning — sure hope it has nice views. Home confinement can get tedious looking at the same rooms all day long.”
And
“I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me like Miller’s lawyers — and I do believe this is the technically accurate term — freaked out when they saw Libby’s infamous “aspens turning” letter, seeing it as a potentially incriminating grenade that had been thrown in their laps. In the interests of protecting themselves, they probably decided to expose all of the related correspondence publicly as quickly as possible.
Update: In an article in the Washington Post tonight, Miller’s other main attorney, Floyd Abrams, throws another aspen branch or two on the fire:
Abrams also minimized Miller’s assertion that another source may have given her the name “Valerie Flame,” as she recorded it in the same notebook used for her first interview of Libby. Abrams said others may have mentioned Plame only “in passing. . . . The central and essentially only figure who had information was Libby.”
It was not clear at press time whether Abrams had also seen Lewis Libby with the devil in Salem, Massachusetts, or on the grassy knoll in Dallas.”
I must admit to enjoying this whole scandal hugely. A Republican government falling, woohoo! Corruption exposed! Bush fucked! To a political junkie, this is pure mainlining.
And then I remember that people died and are dying because of these shits. They have gutted a country of its consitution, laughed at international law, and installed a crypto-fascist regime.
Hang ’em all, a la Mussolini.
