An Immodest Proposal: Sink Your Teeth Into This.

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 18 June 2008 11:54:34 PM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

By Jason Miller
Thomas Paine's Corner

Let's face it, my fellow freedom and burger loving Americans. It is becoming painfully obvious that our non-negotiable American Way of Life is increasingly under attack. Yet while our meat consumption may be a wedge issue our foes are using against us, it can also be our salvation.

We are facing swarms of terrorists in the Animal Liberation Front, mobs of fanatical extremists at PETA, and hordes of Nazi-like, in-your-face vegans and vegetarians. Like deranged street prophets, they spout all kinds of nonsense about speciesism, the suffering of sentient beings, animal rights, compassion for livestock in factory farms, and other deluded ramblings.

Though we recognize their ridiculous utterances, beliefs, and acts to be those of mentally unbalanced losers who need a ridiculous cause in their miserable lives to prevent them doing the world a favor by committing suicide, how long can we afford to ignore these violent and dangerous individuals? Their numbers are growing way too rapidly for my comfort.

We also need to consider that our addiction to meat is also causing problems so deep that we can no longer maintain our dominant position simply by beating down environmental activists with our clever arguments and significantly larger wallets. The hideous truth is bubbling so close to the surface that we can no longer maintain the status quo with specious arguments and asinine sound bites disseminated by our allies like Fox, Viacom, the New York Times, and CNN.

Cattle, the source of our beloved beef, are now the number one source of greenhouse gasses. And even some of our staunchest supporters are beginning to admit that Climate Change is a real phenomenon.

Our meat habit is causing deforestation to accelerate at an alarming rate. Since we need the trees to cleanse the air of carbon dioxide and replenish OUR oxygen, we must preserve OUR remaining forests. I still can't abide those moronic tree huggers who fail to realize that the trees are OURS to do with as we please, but when OUR survival is threatened, it's time to do something!

Our supply of potable water is shrinking at a frightening pace. Those enviro idiots do have a point when they remind us that it takes far more water to raise livestock for meat production than it does to cultivate crops. Obviously we don't give a damn if millions of Third Worlders in places like Timbuktu die of thirst, but when treasures like Vegas are increasingly in jeopardy, we need to stir ourselves to act.

Much of the arable land we could use to produce more crops for human consumption is instead used to raise and feed livestock. 35,000 people die each day from the effects of starvation. We needn't concern ourselves about those people per se, but the deeper issue is that that number could amplify, people who matter could start dying, and riots or revolutions could threaten our free market system.

Animal loving freaks terrorizing us. Polar ice caps melting. Chaotic weather. Forests on the verge of extinction. Food riots. A rapidly dwindling water supply. Capitalism under siege. We are facing a nightmare, ladies and gentlemen.

AND the Earth is grossly over-populated. At 35,000 deaths a day, our de facto culling process is grossly inadequate to preserve OUR planet for those of us who count. Humanity has exceeded its carrying capacity and our numbers continue to grow exponentially. We've got to start killing off the expendables much more rapidly and efficiently.

So what to do?

It's quite simple, really. We must abandon all types of meat we now consume and begin satisfying our palates and protein requirements with human flesh.

I know the notion of cannibalism violates a long-standing taboo in most cultures, but if we abandon conscience, morals and ethics (which are nothing more than antiquated absurdities that impose ridiculous restraints on our behavior), logic dictates that we begin eating our fellow humans.

Our necessary humanitarian interventions and courageous efforts to advance the democracy of free markets are already justifiably eliminating millions of barbarians who stand in the way of the proliferation of the American Way. In fact, we are doing those wretches a favor by putting them out of their misery.

Yet instead of employing our military to kill our enemies and leave their corpses to rot, why not have our soldiers round them up and process them in factory farms designed to process humans?

We Americans are the fittest of the species, and hence the most well-equipped to survive. History has proven that beyond the shadow of a doubt. As the fittest, we have the right to utilize our inferiors to ensure our survival. So why not eat them?

We already spend nearly a trillion dollars a year defending ourselves from millions upon millions of evil savages. Rather than devastating the infrastructure of nations we are Americanizing with bombs and missiles, why not round up uncooperatives and carve them up into delicious steaks in Halliburton-constructed meat-packing facilities?

Imagine what a peaceful world it would be if we began serving Palestinian instead of KC strip.

A billion Chinese Commies would guarantee us an adequate food supply for years to come. And talk about solving the population problem!

For those who prefer sun-dried jerky, there'd be Arab, African and Persian cuisine on the menu. Those savage creatures are only standing between us and OUR precious resources anyway.

And let's not forget those bastards who beat us in Vietnam. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold.

For those of us living in the free world, where democracy, capitalism and Anglo culture reign supreme, the most appealing aspect to putting human flesh on our plates would be the elimination of the undesirables, useless eaters, and enemies in our midst.

Mexican illegals? Yo quiero Taco Bell!

Welfare queens, crack whores, and drug dealers? Dark meat anyone?

Gays and lesbians? Adds a whole new connotation to "taste the rainbow," doesn't it?

Repulsive homeless scum? Their meat might be a little tough and stringy but what's wrong with eating a little wild game once in awhile?

Domestic terrorists and anti-American dissenters? We'd savor that flavor, wouldn't we?

Close your eyes and envision a world defined by these conditions:

1. A sustainable human population level
2. An end to the relentless efforts of those animal rights crackpots.
3. A cessation of food riots
4. The elimination of the possibility of starvation for those of us who deserve to live
5. A significant reduction of greenhouse gasses
6. World peace (dissenters, non-conformists, and terrorists are pretty harmless once they're on our dinner plates!)

Implementing such a plan will be fraught with difficulty. It will also be quite an adjustment to adapt to our new source of the meat we crave.

However, our non-negotiable American Way of Life is at stake. If we want to preserve the safety, comfort, and pleasure to which we TRUE Americans are entitled, we must put aside our fears and silly moral inhibitions.

Here's to outgrowing our childish idealism, adopting an uncompromisingly pragmatic view, and simply saying, "Meats meat so let's eat!"

Jason Miller is the Associate Editor of Cyrano's Journal Online.

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McCain: Lock-step and (oil) barrel

post from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST on 18 June 2008 11:38:00 PM. © THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

by Janet RitzIn a campaign year where John McCain is seemingly doing everything he can to publicly distance himself from George W. Bush, he's also been emulating the historically unpopular president by walking in lock-step with him along the path to[...]

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http://feeds.the-environmentalist.org/~r/the-environmentalist/~3/315338487/mccain
-lock-step-and-oil-barrel.html

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Coolidge And Obama With Native Americans

post from Texas Liberal on 18 June 2008 11:30:00 PM. © Texas Liberal

Above is Calvin Coolidge with the Sioux in 1927.Below is Barack Obama with the Crow in 2008. Hopefully we’ve moved ahead in 81 years.

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cans/

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China arrests critics of shoddy construction

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 18 June 2008 11:26:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

This is a government that just can't change. Compared to the Bush/FEMA response to Katrina, the Beijing government performed well during a period of crisis following the deadly earthquake. Sadly, the government is back to its old ways.

A retired Chinese schoolteacher who criticized the construction of schools that collapsed in last month's powerful earthquake has been detained, a Hong Kong-based human rights organization said Wednesday.

Police detained Zeng Hongling in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on charges of ''inciting state subversion,'' according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

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shoddy.html

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'Curveball' Turns Out To Be Two-Bit Con Man

post from Daily Kos on 18 June 2008 11:24:56 PM. © Daily Kos

The Los Angeles Times managed to track down and interview Rafid Ahmed Alwan, a.k.a. the infamous 'Curveball', purveyor of a remarkable series of stories on Iraq's supposed biological weapons capabilities. It was he that came up with the "mobile weapons labs" that Colin Powell showed cartoon drawings of at the United Nations, that Iraq was attempting to smuggle WMD's from England, and that a collection of corn sheds at Djerf al Nadaf were part of a secret biological weapons program. He now lives in Germany.

As it turns out, of course, he bullshitted the whole thing. In Iraq he was a con man, thief, embezzler and general crook who was fired from job after job.

He claimed, for example, that the son of his former boss, Basil Latif, secretly headed a vast weapons of mass destruction procurement and smuggling scheme from England. British investigators found, however, that Latif's son was a 16-year-old exchange student, not a criminal mastermind. [...]

"Rafid told five or 10 stories every day," Freah said in an interview. "I'd ask, 'Where have you been?' And he'd say, 'I had a problem with my car.' Or, 'My family was sick.' But I knew he was lying."

He had a gift for it and "was not embarrassed when caught in a lie," Freah said.

At the Djerf al Nadaf warehouse, laborers treated seeds from local farmers with fungicides to prevent mold and rot. But Alwan convinced his BND handlers that the site's corn-filled sheds were part of Iraq's secret germ weapons program. He worked there, he told them, until 1998, when an unreported biological accident occurred.

In fact, Alwan had been dismissed three years earlier, in 1995, after inflating expenses and faking receipts for tools, supplies and lamb for a party.

"I fired him," Freah said. "He was corrupt and he was found stealing."

Even his fellow Burger King employees in Germany knew him as a serial liar...

In early 2002, a year before the war, he told co-workers at the Burger King that he spied for Iraqi intelligence and would report any fellow Iraqi worker who criticized Hussein's regime.

They couldn't decide if he was dangerous or crazy.

"During breaks, he told stories about what a big man he was in Baghdad," said Hamza Hamad Rashid, who remembered an odd scene with the pudgy Alwan in his too-tight Burger King uniform praising Hussein in the home of der Whopper. "But he always lied. We never believed anything he said."

So his family, his friends, his co-workers and his employers, from Iraqi warehouses to German Burger Kings, all knew him to be a con man, crook and general nut. German officials warned the Americans not to use information provided by him, and weapons inspectors who investigated his claims before the war found them false.

But that still wasn't enough to keep his valued "information" out of the hands of the special intelligence gathering operations of Rumsfeld and Cheney, who then passed it to the press, or from Colin Powell's speech at the United Nations, or from George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, or from any of the myriad other administration reports used to justify the war. Truly, the Iraq War was a perfect example of a group of con men getting together and deciding to believe each other's stories.

Coalition deaths in the Iraq War have recently topped 4,100. The number of Iraqi deaths are not known, and not counted.

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Wednesday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 18 June 2008 11:24:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

"The actions of some soldiers"; God, that man is such an asswipe! What penalty has Rumsfeld paid for authoring our torture policy along with John Yoo and David Addington? Graner and England took the fall, as they should have, but I don't see anybody else in the slam!...

...I see that New Hampshire Repug Senator John Sununu just...can't...let...go of that lie concerning China supposedly drilling for oil off our shores either (what a maroon - and you KNOW it's bad when Mel Martinez is actually the voice of reason)...

...time to boogie on down with the Ted Stevens ("It's A Series Of Tubes") techno remix (and by the way, to help Mark Begich to put ol' Ted out to pasture for good, click here; h/t for these first two - but not the Dubya one - to The Daily Kos)...

...and MSNBC videos have been giving me fits all week, but I'm going to try again (stubborn, I guess); here's K.O.'s "Worst" from yesterday (Issa threatened Henry Waxman once too, remember - what a reptile).

...and here's one more; I forgot to note the passing of legendary political ad man Tony Schwartz a few days ago - here is his most famous creation.

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Late Nite FDL: Where The Wild Things Are Harmed

post from Firedoglake on 18 June 2008 11:16:04 PM. © Firedoglake

After reading Jonah Goldberg's latest columnar epic on the non-virtues of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, I know exactly what kind of campmate he'd be: the one who spills the washwater into everyone's sleeping bags and burns a big hole in the tent[...]

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C&Ls Late Nite Music Club with the Bob Berg /
Mike Stern Band

Wow. Berg’s playing for keeps while Stern is waiting to about the 5:50 mark to jump in and rock out too. And I can’t forget the dynamite jamming of Dennis Chambers, Lincoln Goines and Steffen Brix.

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rg-mike-stern-band/

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He's Tanned, He's Rested, He's 9/11

After his campaign flame-out, Rudy Giuliani has taken some time off. He's rested, tanned and ready to get back into the political mix. And surprisingly enough he's decided the Democrats big problem is they don't focus enough on 9/11 ...[...]

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Majority of the Majority

As Kagro pointed out the latest sob story we've got from Steny Hoyer on why he has to cave into the White House on telco amnesty is because "many Democrats" are forcing his hand. He's even saying that he personally is opposed to the compromise he's trying to ramrod through:

Hoyer said that if a deal was finalized, he would support it, even though he "would not like it." He said he would have preferred the original House version of the legislation which didn't include retroactive immunity for the phone companies.

Here's the thing, he's the majority leader and the majority of his caucus is opposed to amnesty. Nancy Pelosi is supposedly opposed to amnesty. Harry Reid is opposed to it, as is Dick Durbin. Barack Obama is opposed to it. And supposedly, so is Hoyer himself. So who is clamoring so hard from the Democratic party for amnesty? Not a one, so far.

We have seen Democrat Nancy Boyda, who most certainly represents a conservative district, arguing against it.

video details and more

"Here's the question: Do we want the United States government spying on Americans without a warrant? Ladies and gentleman, that is the issue that's at stake here. I say absolutely no, we do not want the United State government spying on Americans without a warrant. But President Bush says that's ok.... and the Republicans in Congress are sticking with him.... Our democracy depends on open and honest debate, and this is nothing of the sort."

And we've seen Blue Dogs Michael Arcuri and Tim Mahoney arguing against it.

"I am not going to sign it," said Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) a member of the Blue Dogs. "I just don’t think it is necessary."

Fellow Blue Dog Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.) agreed with Mahoney, saying he would not subvert the rules process by signing the petition.

"I like the House version of FISA better than the Senate bill anyway," added Arcuri.

Not one single Democrat has signed the discharge petition. It's a fact. You can look it up.

The majority of the Democratic caucus (House and Senate) and of the leaders don't want telco amnesty. If Hoyer can't stand up to a rump group in his caucus, some 20 members, as opposed to the other nearly 200, then maybe he shouldn't be majority leader.

This leads me to an effort being spearheaded by Glenn, Jane and a diverse group of bloggers and organizations to tell Hoyer and his cohorts that they're not only on the wrong side of their caucus, but on the wrong side of the American people. Here's Glenn:

As a result, there is a major new campaign beginning today aimed at Hoyer and a handful of other key members of Congress who enable telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping. In order to raise as much money as possible for this campaign -- far more than the $85,000 raised (and still being spent) in Chris Carney's district as a result of his support for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty -- we are working to create an alliance with numerous organizations and factions across the ideological spectrum which oppose civil liberties erosions, as well as with as many blogs as possible....

For the moment, contributions can be made here. All the money raised will be spent exclusively on ad campaigns aimed at the short-term vulnerabilities of those in Congress responsible for delivering this indescribably tyrannical package of surveillance powers to the President and the accompanying corrupt gift to lawbreaking telecoms.

I encourage you to contribute to the effort, and join the more than 3,000 contributors who have raised more than $170,000 for this effort.

That hardly compares to the $14 million spent by the telcos on lobbying just in the first three months of this year. So I guess this lays it out pretty clearly for Hoyer and his pals. Who is going to have more sway? The majority of his caucus, his party leadership, and the party faithful (us), or the telcos?