Bushs Brain Found Lacking

post from Crooks and Liars on 24 September 2006 05:23:35 AM. © Crooks and Liars

I mean, you gotta love this for the title alone.Salon (watch short ad for day pass to read article)Thirty years ago, political reporters hailed strategist Hamilton Jordan and pollster Pat Caddell as the creative visionaries responsible for the dizzying ascent of Jimmy Carter. After Ronald Reagan supplanted Carter in 1980, news magazines rhapsodized about [...]

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When a Man Bites a Panda, That's Really Big News

post from Ezra Klein on 24 September 2006 05:15:00 AM. © Ezra Klein

By Neil the Ethical Werewolf Amanda has the story. Pandas are actually fairly dangerous creatures when provoked or surprised, so don't mess with them....[...]

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Sundays with an Atheist

post from Jesus' General on 24 September 2006 05:05:00 AM. © Jesus' General

I've invited Austin Cline of About Atheism to post his propaganda poster remixes on Sundays of his choosing. I know I'm taking a chance offering this forum to the godless, but my hope is that he'll slip up and provide us with enough of his personal information that we can hunt him down and beat the hell out of him. I'm sure that's what Republican Jesus would do.

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Intelligence What intelligence I never heard of
any intelligence.

post from AMERICAblog on 24 September 2006 04:45:00 AM. © AMERICAblog

When information doesn't fit with the lies , just pretend like you never even heard of it. That way, George will give you a nice treat. Woof, woof.

A note of a private meeting between Mr Blair and President Bush in January 2003 shows that Tony Blair failed to confront Mr Bush when he claimed Saddam Hussein had tried to buy aluminium tubes for nuclear weapons production.

Mr Blair did not contradict the President despite having received "private briefings" which indicated that the aluminium tubes were more likely to be for conventional weapons, according to the new edition of a book by the international lawyer Philippe Sands published tomorrow.

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Embracing torture as an American value

post from Jesus' General on 24 September 2006 04:00:00 AM. © Jesus' General

I took Ofjoshua and JC II to the Central WA State Fair tonight. As always, I headed straight to the Constitution Party's booth to discuss the communist/tri-lateralist/bankster conspiracy with them, but unfortunately, they didn't have a booth this year. I blame international communism for that. I'm sure they used their influence to give the Party's space to the wooden toy people--I noticed a little too much proletarian joy in the caterpillar pull toy's expression.

So I decided to take in the Yakima County Republicans' booth. It's always fun to check it out in all its red, white, blue, and glittering glory, looking like what Las Vegas would look like if it was built by a bunch of Baptists.

It was manned by a guy in his sixties or early seventies and two women of about the same age. I told them how excited I was about the new torture legislation, and how I hoped we could start "torturing people right and left soon."

That seemed to stun them for a moment. Indeed, one of the ladies looked horrified. Finally, the old guy smiled and said, "yeah, more torture." The lady to his right repeated it, "more torture." And then the horrified one relaxed, smiled and spoke the same words as well, "more torture."

That's when it became a little weird, because they kept repeating it, three or four times each, stuttering "more torture, more torture, more torture," as I stood there in front of them, dumbfounded. I'm not making this up.

It was very strange. It was as if repeating it like a mantra allowed them to embrace the new, albeit horrendous, standard of what it means to be a patriot--that is to embrace torture as an American value.

As one of the most patriotic men in America, I'm a little worried about their reaction. It was a little too slow, and their chant was a tad unconvincing--there just wasn't enough sadistic joy in their facial expressions. I hope that isn't the case in the Senate. Perhaps we need to contact them to ensure they step up to this new level of patriotism.

The commenters at Lac de Chien du Feu created a postcard you can send to your senators. Please consider sending one and let me know how they respond.

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Nostalgia

post from Jesus' General on 24 September 2006 02:39:00 AM. © Jesus' General

I'm a sucker for the movie, Dazed and Confused. I have to watch it every time it comes on. I knew every one of those people in high school. I was probably a cross between Slater, the stoner, and Tony, the nerd character but with a big belt buckle, cowboy boots, and a western shirt (hey, it was rural Utah, after all).

The mood and feel of the film captures my high school experience, perfectly. The soundtrack was certainly my soundtrack at that time, although I would have thrown in a bit more Black Sabbath and BTO.

Is there a film that takes you back like this?

And as long as I'm being nostalgic, Bill's mention of sugar beets at Kos the other day sent chills down my spine. I hate the sugar beet. I despise it with a passion that is as intense as it is irrational.

Sugar beets were the bane of my childhood. They played as big a role in my life as Mormonism. Every day of my summers was spent either thinning them, weeding them, or irrigating them. Even today, 30 years later, Bill's mention of them churned my stomach.

It was worse for my parents' generation. They thinned beets with a short handled hoe. Migrant workers called it El Cortito, "the short one," and Ceasar Chavez eventually got it banned because of the way it destroyed those who used it. My parents generation also had to harvest the beets by hand, using a beet knife, a machete type tool with a spike on the end. The spike was used to pull the beet out of the mud, and the machete to top the beet, cutting the greens from the tuber. The high school shut down for two weeks this time of year so the students could help with the harvest.

I spent the summer, fall, and winter of my senior year working the graveyard shift at the Mormon-church-owned U and I Sugar plant in Garland, Ut. It was dangerous work. In the summer, I cleaned the bins, by undermining huge columns of hardened sugar with a pickaxe in 100+ degree heat. Once I undermined the columns enough that the sugar began to fall, I had to scramble out of a tiny hatchway to avoid being buried and crushed. I'm not exaggerating the danger involved. Two people were killed doing that job in the decade I did it.

My job was safer during the sugar campaign in the fall and winter. I stacked bags of sugar in the warehouse and loades them onto train cars. I also cleaned up contaminated sugar that leaked from torn bags or was used to clean up the oil leaking from company's ancient fleet of forklifts and trucks. I'd haul it back to the front of the process, 500 lbs at a time in a wheelburrow. There, I'd melt it down with a steam hose and it'd be reprocessed. One night, a pallet I was standing on, broke, I fell and the steam hosed nailed me, giving me first and second degree burns over half of my body. It was a good thing I was stoned.

Still that job was safer that the one a couple of my friends had. They were spinners. They reached into centrifuges with stainless steel paddles ensuring that the sugar was spun correctly. A lot of people lost their hands, fingers, or thumbs doing it, but at $4/hour it paid better than any other job at the plant. It was so hot and draining, they were only allowed to work a half hour at a time. It was a half hour on and a half hour off. The heat and danger drove them a little nuts. They got their kicks spitting chew and peeing into the centrifuges. Their tales put me off sugar for quite awhile.

The plant is closed now and sugar beets are no longer grown in the Bear River Valley. I think that's a good thing.

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Sunday Talk - PIG !

post from Daily Kos on 24 September 2006 02:11:55 AM. © Daily Kos

"Speaking with The Times-Dispatch, Civil Rights Champion, Felix Allen Macaca, Jr. said, the disclosure is "just an interesting nuance to my background." Allen added, "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops." Via the AWEsome patriots at NotLarrySabato.com

Inside the Fold:The Full Sunday Lineup

(Video) Sunday Funnies - Rice's Canadian Mountie, Count Cheney, Free Willie Nelson, New Zealand's PM, and more

(Video) Max Cleland's Smackdown of Shrub and the Quagmire

(Video) Sunday Flirting with Meryl Streep

(Video) Steve Irwin's very, very Best Bit

(Video) Barack Obama Rocks da Crib

(Slides) The Beauty of the Male Form

(Slides) The Beauty of the Female Form

(Slides) The Warmth of Love

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The REAL ‘legacy’ of President
Bush…

post from Gun Toting Liberal on 24 September 2006 02:06:00 AM. © Gun Toting Liberal

… it’s called “selling your troops down the river“… one after another…NOBODY has respect for a so-called “Commander-In-Chief” who refuses to speak up, and step right into the middle of miscarriages of justice against those very same troops whom he placed directly into harm’s way for an arguably, illegal war, then sold them down the [...]

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MT-Sen: What's Right with the Montana Press

post from Daily Kos on 24 September 2006 01:24:27 AM. © Daily Kos

While surfing around for a report on tonight's Tester/Burns debate, I came across this story from The Missoulian:

GOP: Tester soft on sex predators
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON of the Missoulian State Bureau
HELENA - The Montana Republican Party on Thursday accused Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Tester of failing to protect children from sexual predators by opposing a 2001 bill to require library computers to block access to pornography.
The GOP is sending out direct mail fliers saying, "Jon Tester is so extreme he can't be trusted to vote to protect Montana."

The rest of the story is pure gold:

In response, Tester spokesman Matt McKenna said the Democrat voted against the bill because the then-state librarian testified against the bill and "made it very clear to the Legislature that these controls were already in place all across the state and that this bill was unnecessary."
"Jon Tester believes in less government regulation, not more, and he believes in local control," McKenna said.
The roll-call vote shows that Tester and 36 other senators - including 18 Republicans - voted on Feb. 7, 2001, to kill SB139, while 12 senators - all Republicans - favored keeping the bill alive.
Among those voting with Tester to kill the bill were such current and former Republican stalwarts as Senate President Tom Beck of Deer Lodge, Bill Crismore of Libby, Bob DePratu of Whitefish, Bill Glaser of Huntley, Lorents Grosfield of Big Timber, Don Hargrove of Belgrade, Royal Johnson of Billings, Walt McNutt of Sidney, Bill Tash of Dillon and Tom Zook of Miles City.
Asked whether Republican senators who voted with Tester also had failed to protect children from sexual predators, Chuck Denowh, executive director of the state Republican Party, said, "From our perspective, this is just about Jon Tester."

The reporter in this story did his research, found the bs in the GOP effort, and asked the right questions. See? It isn't really all that hard. Kudos to the local press in Montana, once again.

(BTW, if there are any Montanans around who might have been to the debate, we're dying for details.)

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Open Thread and Diary Rescue

It's the Boss' birthday! No, Markos isn't a year older, but Springsteen is. Both of them have given voice to the common man.... and some of those voices have been rescued here tonight. "I've done my best to live the right way / I get up every morning and go to work each day / But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold / Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode." Leading you into The Promised Land tonight are Avila, ksh01, Land of Enchantment, Jennyjem, Unitary Moonbat, and jlynne. Dannyinla is tonight's Moses... er editor.

First time diarist eliza2905 (show your love people) conveys in words the horror, grief, apathy, paralysis and anger experienced by the average American in response to Darfur in An Essay: They're Just Africans Anyway, Right? Very highly recommended. (jlynne)

Need some inspiration? BlueInKansas' first diary, Do Not Waver: Courage is a beautifully-written personal account of finding strength and hope against all odds, as individuals, as a party and as a nation. (Avila)

EmilyD's Political Artwork: With Us or Agin' US is the diarist's fascinating view as an artist on the Bush Doctrine. (Avila)

Nathan Hammermith speaks for me (and most likely for you, too) in To Elected Democrats, A Plea. Could anything be more absurd or surreal than having to beg our Democratic leadership to say no to torture? un figlio della sinistra's The "Great Writ" aint' lookin' so great anymore is a concise analysis of how the Writ of Habeas Corpus has been subtly but steadily attacked even before President Bush's new Compromise Bill. (Avila)

In the kind of diary which could only be created in the wee hours, niteskolar asks What Do You Want From Me?. It's a brooding muse/rant for our times. (Land of Enchantment)

This one's for uber-geeks: China Builds A Better Internet-What does this mean to us? by alizard describes some Big Brother-esque developments that even George Orwell didn't imagine, framing it in terms of global competitiveness. (Land of Enchantment)

Anger and Angst about our country's direction over the past six years, which ends with Hope and Determination, and reminds us why we blog. Indeed, BobcatJH is convinced that There's something in the air called Change that is slowly sweeping our nation, partially due to the efforts of people like teacherken who has the personal determination to teach the next generation to preserve the Constitution and its original intent--no matter what it costs him, as nicely stated in How I justify continuing to teach government (jennyjem)

Steven D has graciously offered Expert Advice on Torture for President Bush on why torture doesn't work--broken down so even the Chimp in Charge can understand it. (jennyjem)

AllenB101 writes about Bush Team's shameless use of anti-terror laws to ban importation of needed prescription drugs into the US because that Viagra user may just be a terrorist in Canadian Drugs: You want 'em, come and get 'em (jennyjem)

Oh that wacky Chris Matthews! First he's kissing up to Tom Delay, next he's bitching about Delay's strongarming heir and successor, Virginia Republican Tom Davis who, as 5oclockshadow tells us, is warning lobbyists that the Republican machine will be watching their election donation dollars in VA-11: Tom Davis to Lobbyists - All Your Dollars Are Belong to US. (ksh01)

Vyan invites us to reflect on Our Deep National Shame in the wake of the Senate's recent abrogation of the basic tenants of human rights. Lots of quotes and links help to underscore the author's damning points. (Unitary Moonbat)

NP40 explores the apalling use of "torture-lite" techniques to rehabilitate delinquent children, the devastating results, and the connection to the Republican Party in Repugs & Torture - Profits & Abuses of USA Children. (jlynne)

In The Father of our Country: Part XI of the Unseating the Bully Series shruticounseling explains why the Republicans' use of fear-mongering is so detrimental to our national health. (jlynne)