Put on your clenched acceptance face, we're going to Sorrytown!"

Ah, John Stewart, the master of the throwaway one-liner:

"I'm not a fan of personal vendetta gotcha-style politics," said Jon Stewart on Tuesday's Daily Show. "But there can be exceptions. Take Louisiana Senator David Vitter ... who came to prominence in the 90's demanding President Clinton's impeachment for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Well, it seems the condom is on the other foot."

"Last week, Vitter became the highest profile john implicated in the DC Madam scandal-gate," Stewart explained. "Kind of reminds you of the old saying, 'The only thing I trust less than a Louisiana senator sleeping with a hooker is one that isn't.'"

The video can also be found here.

Now, I of course would never stoop to mere "gotcha" blog entries either. (What, Never? Well, Hardly Ever..).

In this particular case, I think this is a remarkably apt insight into what Republican values actually are. That is to say, you can pretty much assume that whatever public stance they take will be taken purely for personal political advantage and will have little or nothing to do with personal values or conviction. It's kinda like the Catholic Church in that way. How many folks out there still think it's a good idea to leave their child alone with the parish Priest?

Well, folks, that goes for anyone who seeks a position of unquestionable moral authority and access to either your children, your vote or your wallet.

While that observation may well be true of political figures in general, Republicans in particular have been particularly active in trying to demonize, regulate and restrict YOUR libido, YOUR sexual practices, Your definition of family, and indeed, your reproductive choices, while undermining your right to privacy and your right to access information without trace or record. I don't see very many examples of Republicans living by the values they espouse - so to speak. On the contrary.

So perhaps all these protestation of high moral standing are mere pretexts and postures, not just in exceptional cases, but in general.

Any large group of people will have a few bad apples, a few "isolated incidents." But these are NOT "just a few" and they all share something similar; the overwhelming majority of these sexual crimes involve practicing the opposite of what they preached. That is to say, they violated the law purposefully and deliberately, and in the way that was most vile on the basis of their own public standards to demonstrate to themselves and to one another that they were above that law and could get away with violating it. Indeed, there seems to be the perverse drive to enact laws for the purpose of violating them!

Another disturbing theme of near equal weight is a consistent pattern of abuse - sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and the abuse of power in general - toward those who cannot fight back.

Here's a particularly odious example of such an authoritarian circle-jerk.

Don Haidl, Assistant Sheriff of Orange Country, in violation of California's rape shield law, led a smear campaign against the child his son poisoned and then violently gang-raped on videotape, adding up to 24 felony counts. He said that his son "acted accordingly" because the child was a "slut". The full gruesome story, with many newspaper articles.

And here's one that just reeks of depraved irony:

Earl Kimmerling, from Indiana, sentenced to 40 years in prison after he confessed to molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her. Anderson, IN, Mayor Mark Lawler and Republican State Reps. Jack Lutz of Anderson, IN, and Woody Burton of Greenwood, IN, supported him. Source

Then there's the largest and highest reaching sex abuse scandal ever, probably in any nation, since roman times - and you have probably never heard of it. Read it and be amazed by The Franklin Credit Union Child-Sex Ring Scandal.

This sort of thing isn't anything new, in other words; it's actually part of long established Republican political culture. The blackmail operations detailed in the link above may well partially explain the spineless behavior of our current Congress's Democratic majority, and I'm SURE it explains the "dead-ender" behavior of a great many Republicans who can't be so politically tone-deaf as to think the President's lame-duck agendas in any way serve the cause of their own re-election to orifice office. Blackmail is about the only thing that could explain such a sudden and inexplicable altruism on the part of those who's focus has been squarely upon th main chance up to now.

What we need to do is to purge all levels of government of corruption, and we also need to send - as a nation of outraged and unforgiving Citizen-activists - a resounding message. Remember that the Republican majority came out of the so called "Republican Revolution" pledged to END corruption and cronyism - and has turned out to be more than willing to wallow in a system as corrupt and lawless as any Byzantine court and indulging in graft on a level that would embarrass Tammany Hall.

So, if you are a Republican - repent! Register as an Independent, or a Constitution party member. Get your name off their sucker list. This is especially true if you have ever been a "values voter." These are the values your votes supported. So either repudiate the party for it's lack of interest in values when it might affect a Republican in power, or consider yourself complicit in all the crimes that have been committed in the name of pure, unchecked and unaccountable power. Because that's the way ethics works - you are accountable for the choices you make and the messes you contribute to.

As for myself, I'm a registered Libertarian. I have no illusions that it's a party composed of inherently better people - but it is a party of strong essential principles that may work against the accumulation of personal power for a time. It's not a party that attracts as many authoritarians and opportunists, and it will take those folks some time to figure out how to subvert it to their own ends.

Likewise, I'm going to make a choice about where my money goes. My money is going, in terms of consumer goods, toward companies that do not support the Republican cause. Likewise, I will not enter any place of business that has a fish by the door - a device almost exclusively used by Religious Conservatives, unless I see something in the window that indicates they are opposed to the moral choices this government and this party have made.

What can you do?

You can spread this around. You can digg it up, stumble it, email it to your fundy family members. You can blog about it, create fliers to stick in your church's brochure box, you can wear a t-shirt or put a poster in your store window. You can talk to strangers at bus-stops. You can call in to talk radio. Hell, you can slip Air America a few bucks. Grab your video camera and vlog it onto YouTube and Google Video.

I'll tart this post up later with links to the most vicious and apt t-shirts, bumper stickers and any particularly useful and usable photos and graphics I can find.

Together, we can change the world. As long as enough good people refuse to stand by as evil is done, we cannot help but do so.

Holier than Thou Finals, Southern Division, goes into Sudden Death Overtime!

I haven't said anything about the passing of Cousin Jerry, as "Good Riddance" seemed rude and dismissive, while anything more seemed a waste of precious photons. But as others have said more, it's not too much effort to quote them.

the adventures of a boy and his computer - Home of the Tyranny of the Minority: "Now I don't hate the old bucket o' lard, and I don't care about christianity or any other religion, though for myself, Marx' view on religion is an apt one. It is the opiate of the people. Like any opiate, it requires a pusher, a distribution system; and unfortunately, like any addictive substance, it tends to suck the user dry while benefitting the pusher. and make no mistake, Jerky benefitted quite nicely. He lived a comfortable life.

Like any pusher, Jerky cut his religion with a variety of agents that would ensure maximum potency and continued addiction. To keep the faithful coming back for more(or to continue exploiting them, if you will, and I don't care if you won't). Jerky blended in a generous amount of hatred and fear. The 'god' he made in his own image thought it was fine for the Botha government to brutally oppress the blacks and coloureds in South Africa, he encouraged his congregation to buy Krugerrands to finance this activity. We all know of his happy tendency to blame the gays and abortionistes and feministes for the WTC/Pentagon incidents, and the drowning of the poor after Katrina, God approved of that line, too. Curiously, god was mute on the possibility of Jerky sharing his wealth to assist the victims of said disasters. Ryland wondered if Fred Phelps would show up to protest."

And that's where this otherwise unremarkable passing of a smug con-artist becomes potentially amusing. From http://www.godhatesamerica.com /, confirmation that Westbourogh Baptist Church will be there.

"WBC will Preach at Jerry Falwell's Funeral!!


WBC will preach at the memorial service of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like "God loves everyone".

There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming, and irrefragable. To wit:

1. Falwell was a true Calvinistic Baptist when he was a young preacher in Springfield, Missouri, and sold his soul to Free-Willism (Arminianism) for lucre.

2. Falwell bitterly and viciously attacked WBC because of WBC's faithful Bible preaching -- thereby committing the unpardonable sin -- otherwise known as the sin against the Holy Ghost.

3. Falwell warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White, and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc. All for lucre -- making him guilty of their sins.


Falwell is in Hell, Praise God!!



America, Cursed of God

Yep, Falwell is going to Hell for his cursed Liberalism! Me, I don't much care where he is, so long as he ain't here.

My money is on the good ol' boys and gals from Thomas Road Baptist. I hope they respond with all the Christian charity and forbearance we have come to expect of Jerry and his followers.

But as a good Libertarian with an entrepreneurial streak, I want to show up with a push-cart filled with commemorative axe handles.

tag: Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, Hate Speech, patriarchy, Religious Fundimentalism, sociopaths, Dominionism, Gresham's Law

Illustration credit:Dick Cheney Sez: Jerry Falwell went to Hell by webcarve Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

We "Liberals" Feel Your Pain, Neil

Cue the tiny violins...

Media Matters - Boortz accuses Media Matters of trying to manipulate "some whimpering old woman executive somewhere": "On the May 14 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Neal Boortz accused Media Matters for America -- which he referred to as 'Media Myrmidons' and 'Brocksters,' a reference to Media Matters President and CEO David Brock -- of 'waiting for one little statement that you can take out of its total context and just go on a rampage with, with your Web postings and see if you can pull that Don Imus thing off all over again, see if you can find some whimpering old woman executive somewhere that'll just [say], 'Oh! Oh, my God! We've got to do something now.' ' Boortz also said, 'And it's not just me, you're doing the same thing to [right-wing radio hosts] Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and the rest of them."

Yeah, that's about right. But then, is there really a context in which "nappy headed ho's" is appropriate? Or for that matter, you saying a congresswoman "Looks like a Ghetto Slut?"
Yep, after years and years and years of hearing wingnut talkers such as yourself take everything any opposing political or social figure says or out of context and "demagogue" it, I understand how you feel. But after all the Purple Heart band-aids, the "Al Gore invented the Internet" jokes and the moronic jeering about climate change and peak oil, you gotta understand, Neal - when we feel for you, the word for what we feel is "Schadenfreude."

You see, Neal - I can call you Neal, right - Neal, you and your ilk have gotten so good at thinking and speaking in sound-bites, and so amazingly, totally fucking indifferent to the sensibilities of decent people that context doesn't much matter. Most of your paragraphs are self-explanatory.

Kinda like this:

"If you are a grown adult in this country who is not suffering from some hideous physical or mental disability, and you are trying to raise children on the minimum wage, then you are a 100 percent pure unadulterated loser. ... I am so sick and damned tired of all those left-wing bedwetters and sympathy pimps out there ... just moaning over these people who have squandered their American birthright by becoming just the dregs of socie[ty]."

Come to think of it, in your case, context just makes it worse.

can't think! liberals will eat me!
by
webcarve

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

Now you might just say that's your opinion, and you have a right to it. I'd agree. But it's a stupid, hateful and untrue opinion. It wouldn't even be terribly difficult to prove the untruth of it - but even if you were factually correct, it's still un-American, un-Neighborly and certainly Unchristian. Aside from that, I recall both David Duke and George Wallace being a little more sophisticated in their verbal attacks on the motives and moral failings of others.

Of course, you welcome such criticism as free publicity. And that's true enough - so long as your advertisers aren't embarrassed by being associated with such crap.

But increasingly, advertisers ARE embarrassed - because there are folks out there making sure they learn what their dollars are supporting. The thing about "free speech," Neil, is that the speech is free, but the studio costs money. When your speech starts costing Cox money, you can bet they'll find someone else to fill your slot.

Maybe even Al Frankin, if he doesn't become Senator Al.

Because, well, he is a lot more entertaining and he doesn't open his yap until he has facts to support his views. I believe you helped illustrate that point, and him handing you your ass on air sure didn't hurt his ratings.

In an appearance on CNN Daybreak to discuss the new liberal talk radio network, Air America Radio, Boortz claimed that the network's star, Al Franken, refused to host his show because he wouldn't get control of the phone lines.

After the network launched, Boortz appeared on Franken's show and Franken asked him about the comment. Boortz said "if you're reading from a transcript, that's wrong." When Franken pointed out "in context it doesn't make sense as anything else," Boortz responded "Hey, Al, don't get fixated on that, it's an error in the transcript or something. I've never asked you to host the show."

Franken later dug up the actual clip from the show, so he invited Boortz back and played that, along with Boortz's previous comments. The clip showed the transcript was accurate, so Boortz responded "Why are you so fixated on this, Al?" Al explained that he takes it seriously when someone lies, especially when they lie about him, and then lie again to cover it up. "Al, get over it," Boortz retorted.

Franken also played another clip from the CNN show. The host repeated a comment by Janeane Garofalo noting that "The American people have been conned into thinking liberal is a dirty word. Because of liberal reforms, we enjoy things like desegregation ..." Boortz responded "Let's see. Desegregation. You know, I thought the Civil Rights Act was passed over the objections of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. You see? Janeane, pull that line on the air. Go ahead." Franken quoted Newt Gingrich saying "It was the liberal wing of the Democratic party that ended segregation," and pointed out that the Democrats who voted against it were all conservative Dixiecrats who became Republicans.

In response, Boortz sputtered "Be prepared to talk about some issues, not play a stupid, childish, moronic Al Franken game of 'Gotcha!' ... I am tired of playing the little nursery school thing with you, Al," and hung up. WMA audio clip of the above story

Later, even though he had specifically said, "I never asked you to host the show", Boortz responded on his website saying "You know what? Frankly, I can't really remember. After 35 years of talk radio how in the hell can you remember who you did and who you didn't ask to guest host." [6] He went on to attack Franken: "Al Franken approaches his show with a nasty demeanor and mean temperament. ... He's a comedian who has lost his sense of humor. He walks around with clenched fists, which makes it impossible to shake his hand."

Unhunh.

Now the thing is, Neil; left, right or center, there's a big difference between KNOWING what you are talking about and just talking out of your ass. It's easy to get away with the latter if you screen your calls and shout down guests who have something intelligent to say in response. But thing is, Neil; aside from being obviously hate speech, your show is stupid speech and stupidity annoys me. You don't do your homework, you don't know the facts, you have no freakin' clue what the other side has to say, or what holes exist in your opinions until someone like Al sneaks up on you and hands you your head. It's embarrassing and painful to endure shows such as yours and Hannedy's where mere xenophobic resentment of change is substituted for Conservatism. Regan started the rot, replacing substance with style. His Republican successors lacked style - but brought no substance; not principles, not ideals, not even substantive ideas.
Real Conservative thought, which is all about hard questions and solid answers, is the logical anodyne and counterpoint for the excesses of Liberalism.

When "Shit Happens" - as it always does - you want a Conservative respons, based on a conservative, tested plan with a conservative - and pessimistic - view of what's possible and what's needed to achieve it.

Had there BEEN any actual Conservatives in charge anywhere NEAR the Oval Office, the Iraq war would have been over before it begun - and if it had begun, it would have been slow to start and quick to end. I say this, knowing a little something of Sun Tsu, Patton and Von Clauswitz.

And of course, there's that Katrina thing.

As a Libertarian, I'd like to see someone on talk radio that represented Middle America better than you, or any of the other successful right-wing talkers do. Granted, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People. Granted, you have a winning formula for market success within the Angry White Male demographic. But, the empty-headed yapping, whining and finger-pointing serves nobody's interests and is degrading speech in the public square. And since the same niche could be served just as well by someone smarter and better informed... I'm starting to ask, where the hell are they? Gresham's Law fuckin' bites.

I'd like to be able to listen to someone farther right than Ed Schultz without feeling like I need to take a bath afterwards, but so long as fools like you are taking up space and market share, the hope for that - and the return of real Conservatism to the political stage is dim indeed.

tag: Hate Radio, Hate Speech, Broadcast Spectrum, FCC, COX Media, Neal Boortz, Al Frankin, Air America, CNN, gresham's law