When I was twelve years old I picked up a dog-eared copy of “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater,” and for the next ten years or so I read and reread everything Kurt Vonnegut wrote. Vonnegut was my first novelist, and as such, I suppose he couldn’t help but have an influence on making me who I am today.
Kurt Vonnegut died today. He was 84.
And who can forget “The First Church of God the Utterly Indifferent”.
I can only hope the ‘Granfalloon’ of NeoConservatism is totally deflated. . . . . .
And so it goes. He will be missed.
IT’S A GREAT LOSS. IF ONLY HE COULD MANAGE A FEW MORE YEARS OF VITALITY TO HELP GUIDE US THROUGH THESE TERRIBLE TIMES.
AN IRREPLACEABLE VOICE. MAY HIS LEGACY INSPIRE ANOTHER TO EQUAL OR SURPASS HIM.
Hard to imagine. He was a part of my life.
The first thing I ever read of his was “Welcome to the Monkey House”.
He will be sorely missed.
He has passed to the great chronosynclasticinfundibulum of the universe.
One of the lesser cultural references: In the Russ Meyer movie (scripted by Roger Ebert) “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” the Herman Goering character keeps sheep in a barn with a sign over the door: Schlacthof Funf”.
He was as close to Mark Twain as we will live to see.
Cat’s Cradle was mine in early ’70’s. License plate I pay extra for is: “ICE 9”, still a vital comment quagmires today. He will be missed!
Poo Tee Tweet?
Will Kilgore Trout be at the funeral?
… but let’s not hold that against him.
Player Piano was my first, I think.
A truly original thinker, who was able to show us a bit of the absurdity of our world. He was one of those authors that required the reader to think.
I found his works to be disturbing and occasionally infuriating, sometimes impossible to put down and other times difficult to follow, but it was always worth the effort.
Another of the greats is gone, and the world is diminished. We will miss him. So it goes.
Hello.
A truly sad loss for us all. My personal favorite story from him was Harrison Bergeron, a story of true equality brought to the world by bringing down rather than raising up. I cannot recommend it enough to people to find and read.
Thank you
Vonnegut was the real deal. He personally witnessed the Dresden firebombing, later turned it into one of the world’s greatest anti-war novels — and was able to say that experience had nothing to do with who he was or what he wrote.
He was fresh, original, an inventive stylist, a profound and thought-provoking social critic. One wonders why he didn’t win the Nobel Prize. My take on that is the Swedish Academy missed an opportunity; I think they needed him more than he needed them or their prize. That’s how large he is in the world of letters; he was one of those very rare authors who is not measured by the honors and prizes he receives, but rather, it’s the other way around.
In other words, the Nobel Prize would be more prestigious if Vonnegut had gotten it. Future winners would have written acceptance speeches saying, “I am humbled to stand here and accept the prize that Mr. Vonnegut won.”
Mine is a unique story, as my first taste of Vonnegut was in the 10th grade, a little short story called “The Great Space F*ck” (wasn’t sure about the self censorship) which was actually in the schools English anthology! My very liberal and wonderful teacher let me skip the rest of the book and read nothing but Vonnegut for that semester. It is one of the key influences in my life. Vonnegut’s humor and critical mind will be greatly missed.
Shocking New Evidence of Black Motives In U.S. Attorney Scandal!
The evident political motive behind the dismissals of 9 federal prosecutors are disturbing enough. But reporters looking into U.S. Attorneys who were NOT fired are finding VERY disturbing facts — including a WRONGFUL CONVICTION that sent an innocent state employee to prison:
“April 11, 2007
“The media has given extensive coverage to the eight U.S. attorneys (USAs) purged by the Bush administration. But only recently have reporters started looking at the remaining prosecutors — and what it took for them to keep their jobs. … The remaining USAs may have engaged in political prosecution to save their jobs.
“The case of Wisconsin’s U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic raises the possibility that he went after the Bush administration’s political opponents to avoid the Justice Department’s hit list.
“In 2005, the Wisconsin state Republican party prepared a report for Karl Rove that attacked Biskupic for not going after voter fraud aggressively enough. Biskupic’s decision to go after Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges, who was sentenced shortly before the 2006 election, was a boon to Gov. Jim Doyle’s Republican opponent in the 2006 election, who ‘ran a barrage of attack ads that purported to tie Ms. Thompson’s “corruption” to Mr. Doyle.’
“Last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Thompson ‘was wrongly convicted’ … and freed her from an Illinois prison. The federal judges, acting with ‘unusual speed,’ ‘assailed the government’s case’ and said that Biskupic’s evidence was ‘beyond thin.’
“Two University of Minnesota professors ‘have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats.'”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/3bh4ju
Some U.S. Attorneys Are Part-Timers While Holding Political Jobs
The same article linked above paints a stunning (and disturbing) portrait of Bush loyalists appointed to U.S. Attorney positions — and how thoroughly the federal prosecutor offices have been politicized:
” … Since last March, the Justice Department has named at least nine U.S. attorneys with strong partisan ties to the Bush administration. Most have ‘few, if any, ties to the communities they’ve been appointed to serve, and some have had little experience as prosecutors.’
“Career prosecutors have begun to protest the mismanagement and partisanship of these Bush appointees, who are causing turmoil across the country.
“Several of the USAs are also serving double-duty as Justice Department officials in Washington, blurring the line between politics and justice.
“Additionally, statistical evidence shows that many of the remaining U.S. prosecutors ‘decided to protect their jobs or further their careers by doing what the administration wanted them to do: harass Democrats while turning a blind eye to Republican malfeasance.’
“The appointment of unqualified conservative loyalists has lead to turmoil and rebellion in some U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country.
“Last week, four top staffers to Rachel Paulose, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of Paulose’s ‘highly dictatorial style’ of managing. One federal attorney said that in Paulose’s office, ‘[d]isagreement is treated as disloyalty.’ …
“Paulose’s background indicates that the Justice Department handpicked her for her personal connections, rather than her professional qualifications. ‘She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling — the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress.’ …
“Some USAs are serving double duty at the Justice Department, blurring the lines between politics and impartial justice.
“Yesterday, the Justice Department announced that Kevin O’Connor, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut will become Gonzales’s new chief of staff. O’Connor will remain Connecticut’s U.S. attorney for four to six months, when ‘he and the attorney general will determine whether he continues to hold both positions.’
“The Washington Post reports that at least six other sitting U.S. attorneys ‘also serve as aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales or are assigned other Washington postings, performing tasks that take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time.’
“Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer ‘has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years — prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer’s office “a mess.”‘ … “
But Military Duty Will Get A U.S. Attorney Fired For Absenteeism!!
One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration is its utterly cynical hypocrisy. Over the last 6 years, we’ve all been inundated with so much hypocrisy we barely notice it anymore. But this example is a stunner:
“Internal Justice Departments referred to ousted U.S. attorney David Iglesias as an ‘absentee landlord,’ and officials have justified his firing by charging he spent too much time away from the office.
“Iglesias did leave the office for 45 days each year. But he did so because he’s a a captain in the Navy Reserve.
“‘It’s a double standard and it’s hypocritical,’ Iglesias said. ‘Not one judge from my district wrote a letter to main Justice saying I was gone too much….Most of my absences were military-related.'”
Same link as above.
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The Bush administration, of course, regards our soldiers with contempt. That’s why they sent them to Iraq without body or vehicle armor. That’s why it takes citizen donations to a private non-profit group, http://www.operation-helmet.org/ , to provide our troops with simple and inexpensive basic battle gear the Pentagon has refused for years to provide. That’s why severely wounded soldiers are brought home and dumped in rat and mold infested tenements and forced to wait weeks or months for medical care. So it should not come as any surprise that the administration’s stated reason for firing a U.S. Attorney is that he was absent to perform military duty.
Why do soldiers vote for politicians who treat them so badly? And why does the administration try to disenfranchise its own supporters? Good questions — and I think I know the answer.
Republican assertions that soldiers vote Republican are a lie. And Republican operatives who game elections know it.
Media access to the troops is tightly controlled, and conducting political surveys of military personnel is illegal, so we don’t know for sure. We have to guess how soldiers vote. But I’ll bet administration insiders have access to better information on this topic than is available to the press or general public.
But even though I don’t have surveys to back up my argument that a solid majority of enlisted troops vote Democratic, it can be inferred from the fact that an administration with a long track record of retaliating against its political opponents treats them like dog shit. And tries to keep them from voting
— even while exploiting them by claiming Democrats are interfering with military ballots (which is a demonstrable lie).
As I said above, political surveys of military personnel are prohibited by law and unavailable, so we have to rely on anecdotal evidence. My own field research reveals from first-hand source evidence that a significant number of soldiers vote Democratic. At the 2004 King County Democratic Convention, I spoke with a delegate who said he was an Army veteran who had just returned from Iraq, and not only was he a Democrat but “many” of the soldiers he served with voted Democratic, too. You can’t get more horses-mouth than this!
I supposed some troll will jump in and say that’s only the opinion of one person, which is true. I make no pretenses that this is a scientifically valid survey. I can’t do a scientific survey of how soldiers vote, for the reason mentioned above, plus some other reasons (such as cost). So I do the best I can, and my non-scientific survey of a turning Iraq war veteran revealed that 100% of this sample voted Democratic, and additionally, provided anecdotal evidence that 100% of other soldiers in the Iraq theater voted Democratic, too. That’s the best information I’ve got, take it or leave it. It’s more hard data on how soldiers vote than the Republicans have ever given us.
JCH is a nazi.
There is even stronger anecdotal evidence that the military does not support Bush when you look at the top ranks.
It is almost unheard of for military officers — even retired officers — to comment on the policies of a sitting administration. Not only could it be harmful to an active officer’s career (most administrations consider political comments by officers a firing offense), but it is against deeply ingrained traditions and the military culture itself. It simply isn’t done.
Yet, dozens of present and former high-ranking officers have criticized this administration. Many highly regarded officers have quit rather than serve under this president or try to satisfy his absurd expectations.
Here is rock-solid evidence the military doesn’t support Bush. You’d think this job would be a coveted plum. It’s a 5-star job, a generalissimo job, a king-of-the-hill job … but no one wants it! Bush may have to give it to a corporal or even a PFC, if he can find a military man at all — if not, he may end up appointing his dog.
“Bush wants a war czar, but can’t find any takers
“By Peter Baker and Thomas E. Ricks
“The Washington Post
“WASHINGTON — The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies, but has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job.
“At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House … have declined to be considered for the position, according to people close to the situation. …
“‘The very fundamental issue is, they don’t know where the hell they’re going,’ said retired Marine General John … Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. ‘So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, “No thanks.”‘ …
“Besides Sheehan, sources said, the White House or intermediaries have sounded out retired Army Gen. Jack Keane and retired Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, who also said they are not interested. …
“Sheehan said … he was dubious from the start … he called around to get a better feel for the administration landscape. ‘There’s the … Cheney view …,’ he said. ‘And then there’s the pragmatist view …. Unfortunately, the people with the former view are still in the positions of most influence.'”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2m2tn6
Roger Rabbit Commentary: And they expect us to believe these generals VOTED for Smirking Chimp? Seems to me if they don’t have confidence in his leadership, and won’t work for him, it’s unlikely they voted for him either.
What Is An Innocent Iraqi Civilian’s Life Worth?
Numerous Iraqi civilians have been killed by mistake by nervous, trigger-happy American soldiers. Army files of reparations payments reveal that when an Iraqi non-combatant is killed by American soldiers, reparations payments to the victim’s relatives are puny at best, and often non-existent:
– An Iraqi fisherman, desperately trying to appear harmless, held fish in the air and shouted ‘Fish! Fish!’ He was gunned down by American soldiers. The Army paid his family $3500 for his boat and gear, but refused to pay anything for the fisherman’s death on the grounds the killing was “combat activity.”
– An Iraqi civilian filling his car with gas at a filling station and an Iraqi officer directing traffic nearby were shot by soldiers in a passing U.S. convoy for no apparent reason. The Army paid $5000 to the civilian’s brother, but nothing to the officer’s family.
– An uncle of a boy killed by a U.S. soldier who thought the kid’s book bag was a bomb was paid $500.
– Relatives of two dozen people, including women and children, slaughtered in Haditha by U.S. Marines in the war’s most notorious atrocity received a total of $38,000, or an average of slightly over $1500 each.
http://tinyurl.com/yscknw
To say the U.S. military considers human life cheap in Iraq is a gross understatement! But mostly, this sorry record is simply gross.
How would you like it, if foreign soldiers came into your neighborhood, shot your little nephew, and gave you $500 for taking his life? I don’t know about you, but I’d be PISSED!!! I can see why some of these people are motivated to kill Americans. This damn administration can’t do a fucking thing right.
GOP Claims Of Voting Fraud Are A Myth
“By ERIC LIPTON AND IAN URBINA
“THE NEW YORK TIMES
“WASHINGTON — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.
“Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and possibly cost the party elections … the federal cases provide little evidence of widespread, organized fraud, prosecutors and election law experts said.
“‘There was nothing that we uncovered that suggested some sort of concerted effort to tilt the election,’ Richard Frohling, an assistant U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, said.
“Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the Loyola Law School, agreed, saying: ‘If they found a single case of a conspiracy … that would be significant. But what we see is isolated, small-scale activities that often have not shown any kind of criminal intent.’
“Some of those cases have baffled federal judges. ‘I find this whole prosecution mysterious,’ Judge Diane Wood of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said at a hearing in one case. ‘I don’t know whether the Eastern District of Wisconsin goes after every felon who accidentally votes. It is not like she voted five times. She cast one vote.’
“For some of those convicted, the consequences have been significant. In one case, Kimberly Prude, 43, has been jailed in Milwaukee for more than a year after being convicted of voting while on probation, an offense that she attributes to confusion over eligibility rules.
“Justice Department officials defend their record. ‘The Department of Justice is not attempting to make a statement about the scale of the problem,’ a spokesman, Bryan Sierra, said. ‘But we are obligated to investigate allegations when they come to our attention and prosecute when appropriate.'”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2bcba6
U.S. Attorneys Target Democrats In Partisan Prosecutions
Read that last sentence again: “We are obligated to investigate allegations when they come to our attention and prosecute when appropriate.” Here’s how partisan Bush-appointed U.S. Persecutors define “appropriate”:
“[A]bout 120 people have been charged and 85 convicted as of last year. Most everyone charged has been a Democrat, voting records show.
“Many of those that the Justice Department concentrated on appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.
“In Miami, an assistant U.S. attorney said many cases there involve what were apparently mistakes by immigrants, not fraud.
“In Wisconsin, where prosecutors have lost almost twice as many cases as they have won, charges were brought against voters who filled out more than one registration form and felons who were seemingly unaware that they were barred from voting.”
(same link as above)
GOP Making America Safer For Criminals
“FBI blasted for cuts in crime fighting
“By PAUL SHUKOVSKY, TRACY JOHNSON AND DANIEL LATHROP
“P-I REPORTERS
“Leading Democrats in Congress blasted the Bush administration on Wednesday for raiding the FBI’s criminal program in the wake of 9/11 — authorizing huge staffing cuts … that caused thousands of cases to fall through cracks nationwide. …
“The FBI’s ability to investigate a number of crimes, ranging from fraud to hate crimes, has been strained by a continuing shift of agents to duties aimed at preventing another terrorist attack on American soil ….
“There have been sharp drops in the number of traditional criminal cases being brought to federal prosecutors across the country, according to a P-I analysis of more than a quarter-million criminal cases. White-collar and civil rights investigations showed some of the biggest declines since 2000.
The … administration responded to 9/11 by shifting more than 2,400 criminal agents to counterterrorism without backfilling criminal squads. Successive attorneys general — John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales — rejected FBI appeals for more agents.
“Biden, a Senate Judiciary Committee member, has introduced legislation to hire 1,000 FBI agents for criminal programs and to restore federal aid to local and state law enforcement agencies. Biden was unable to win passage of the bill in the previous Republican-led Congress. …
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, the state’s highest-ranking Republican, said he is ‘very concerned that fewer financial crimes are being investigated by the FBI, in part because Washington ranks in the top 10 states for identity theft. The only real solution,’ he said, ‘is for the federal government to fill vacancies … and to increase staffing …. If you don’t have the bodies to do the work, the work won’t be done.’ …
“Rep. Jay Inslee, a former prosecutor, said …, ‘We’ve got to insist on restoring those cuts’ ….
“Rep. Jim McDermott … said he is ‘angry over what the P-I uncovered,’ particularly major declines in FBI enforcement of a wide range of financial crimes, including mail, bank, insurance and wire fraud. ‘You don’t make America safer by weakening criminal divisions in the FBI …,’ McDermott said. …
“It’s no surprise to Annie McGuire — chief executive of Fraud Aid, a non-profit victims’ advocacy organization — that the FBI doesn’t have enough agents assigned to white-collar crime. ‘Without the threat of the FBI, domestic fraud rings are running amok,’ she said. ‘The general feeling out there among people who have been defrauded is that nobody is going to do anything.’
“A six-month Seattle P-I investigation documented how a continuing shift of FBI agents to counterterrorism duties in the 5 1/2 years since 9/11 has strained the agency’s ability to investigate a long list of crimes, from complex fraud schemes to hate crimes. There have been sharp declines across the country in the numbers of cases brought to federal prosecutors, and experts believe thousands of crimes are simply going unprosecuted.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2984ch
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republican claims that they’re the law-and-order party, and Democrats are soft on crime, have always been bullshit; but now they’re bullshit with a vengeance. Vengeance against ordinary law-abiding and taxpayer Americans, that is, whom Republicans have left to the mercy of ID thieves, scamsters, and theft rings. The only people the Bushies have made America safer for are the thugs who want to rip you off.
Man, there’s a lot of news today — and it’s all depressing.
If I didn’t have a pretty picture calender in front of me, I’d swear this is the Saturday midnight news dump.
Bush Administration Screws Families of Firefighters Out of Federal Death Benefits
“By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST
“ALBANY TIMES UNION
“Three years after Congress extended benefits to families of on-duty firefighters killed by a heart attack or stroke, the federal government has rejected nearly every family that has applied, prompting calls for an independent investigation.
“Since the so-called Hometown Heroes Act was passed, the Justice Department has rejected 38 of 40 claims it has ruled on ….
“Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., on Tuesday called that record of rejection ‘disgraceful,’ joining those who have recently criticized the government’s handling of the program. … Schumer called on the department’s inspector general to investigate why the claims have been rejected. …
“A study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine found the most common cause of on-duty deaths of firefighters was … heart attacks.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/yw2476
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Looks like the GOP figured out who firefighters really vote for, too.
klake is a nazi
Betcha This Guy Is A Republican
“By KIM HOLCOMB / KING 5 News
“BLACK DIAMOND, Wash. – It was a surprising discovery in South King County when dozens of animal carcasses were found along the side of the road near Black Diamond.
“Now the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which spent a good part of the day removing them, is trying to determine how exactly they got there. …
“Dozens of animal, frozen dead, were placed along rural 257th Avenue SE in Black Diamond. … From raccoons to skunks, beavers and river otters, the … animals were likely trapped, killed and placed in freezers before being … dumped in plain view.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/36ljdm
Norm Maleng: Soft On Crime
In a previous comment of this thread, I pointed out that Republicans pay lip service to law enforcement while letting criminals frolick. Here’s an example of what I mean:
“Boater pleads guilty in girl’s death
“A boater originally charged with homicide … in the death of a girl … pleaded guilty Wednesday to a reduced charge of reckless endangerment.
“Charles Fraser Hall, 45, was driving his 20-foot speedboat on Lake Washington about 10 p.m. on July 19, 2005, with his four young children, a 13-year-old friend of one of the children and several other passengers. According to charging documents, the boat’s red and green navigational running lights were broken, a fact Hall had been made aware of by a passing boater the night before. Hall was speeding in a no-wake zone under the Highway 520 bridge, according to the police report.
“Hall’s boat and a passing boat, which was traveling the speed limit and had proper lights, collided … throwing the 13-year-old friend backward through the windshield. The girl died.
“The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is recommending a 12-month suspended sentence and 240 hours of community service for Hall.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/27myg4
Roger Rabbit Commentary: No jail time and fucking COMMUNITY SERVICE for killing a 13-year-old girl by reckless boat operation? Are you fucking kidding me?!! But this is nothing … last year, Maleng let a person accused of over 100 felony counts of voting fraud go scot-free.
And Republicans claim to be “tough on crime” … and accuse Democrats of being “soft on crime” … what a load of horse manure.
Studies by the Roger Rabbit Institute of Impartial Science show that o ver 90% of global warming is caused by the hot air spewed by Republicans.
Sponsors Walk Away From Imus Show
Syndicated columnist Froma Harrop predicts the “Don Imus Show” may not survive. Why? Because “[w]hen a show’s sponsors leave with their money … that’s all, folks.” And Imus’ sponsors aren’t just leaving, they’re fleeing.
Harrop also notes that two prominent GOP candidates, Guiliani and McCain, have “curried favor [with Imus] by tempering their criticism [of Imus] with offers to return [to his show],” demonstrating they are hypocritical sycophants unfit to serve in the Oval Office.
http://tinyurl.com/38×522
Strange … that link doesn’t work and Tiny URL won’t give me a different one, keeps coming up with the same one. Here’s the raw link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....rop12.html
Tom McCabe is a retrograde troglodyte.
MSNBC Drops Don Imus, Effective Immediately
Calls for Imus’ Firing Snowball; Advertisers Flee
“Enough Is Enough”
“BY DAVID BAUDER, AP
“NEW YORK (April 12) – Even as advertisers defected and politicians piled on, it was an internal mutiny within NBC News about Don Imus’ racial slur that was key to pulling the plug on his MSNBC simulcast.
“About 30 angry NBC News employees … met with news division president Steve Capus … before Capus decided that a two-week suspension of Imus’ morning telecast wasn’t enough. They said they’d had it with Imus’ brand of coarse ethnic humor …. Capus said Wednesday, ‘The comment that came through to us, time and time again, was when is enough going to be enough? This was the only action we could take.’
“[Imus’] ultimate fate depends on the CBS Corp., which owns both the … host’s broadcast home, and the syndicator … which distributes ‘Imus in the Morning’ to stations across the country. CBS Radio … said it would ‘continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely.’ The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has sought Imus’ firing, said he will meet Thursday with CBS officials.
Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he hoped CBS would ‘make the smart decision’ by firing Imus. …
A growing list of sponsors _ including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. – had said they were pulling ads from Imus’ show … American Express spokeswoman Judy Tenzer said the company doesn’t advertise on ‘controversial programming,’ while Sprint spokeswoman Sara Krueger said: ‘We do not want our advertising associated with content which we, our customers and the public find offensive.’
“Imus’ program is worth a total of about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS Corp., through advertising … and syndication fees …. It wasn’t clear how much of that total came from MSNBC. …
“Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday became the first presidential candidate to call for Imus to be fired. ‘”He didn’t just cross the line, he fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America,’ said Obama, the only black candidate in the race.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/32bu6x
Sorry for all the posts, but today is a very heavy news day. Lots of important material to post. But my shift is almost over, so I’ll see you all tomorrow afternoon!
Wow! This thread is already up to 40 posts! That’s more than the sucky little competing anti-American blog gets. Which is not surprising considering the crap they post:
“Congratulations Speaker Pelosi, now let the bombs fall where they may. My prediction: terror attack on domestic soil passenger aircraft within the next six months. Casualties in the 2-300 range. And, unfortunately, maybe that’s just what we need. … Posted by FullContactPolitics at November 8, 2006 10:52 AM”
http://blog.usefulwork.com/cgi.....ry_id=7430
No, that wasn’t posted by some raghead with a hard-on against Americans … it was posted by a GOP candidate for state legislature named Mark Griswold! (Fingered by HA’s peripatetic amateur sleuth, Richard Pope, based on forensic evidence — to wit, Griswold used his real name in a post signed by “FullContactPolitics.”) But we shouldn’t be surprised when a wingnut advocates sacrificing American lives as a campaign tactic to win elections for Republicans! After all, isn’t that basically the GOP platform?
Yeah PelletHead, everything after post #14 is RUBBISH.
Now you can view wy I skip over 50% of PelletHead’s posts when he hijacks a thread.
Scary ReBUTTal: Where is you “moral” outrage for posts 15-39? Then PelletHead has the audacity to talk about how prolific he is in leaving pellet turds in a thread.
What a whack-nut-job donk!
I too enjoyed reading Vonnegut. He was a classic writer. I have to agree with PelletHead on the Nobel lit prize.
I also remember Vonnegut and Dangerfield in a movie together — Oh yeah “Back to School”. Dangerfield’s character needs a paper so he pays Kurt Vonnegut to write the paper and it’s rejected by the English professor and not being credible.
My favorite Vonnegut novel was “Sirens of Titan.” Everything that happened on earth was just a message to the robot on Titan. The novel put earth and humans at a low level in the scheme of important things in the universe.
I may be the only Boomer who doesn’t trip over his tongue drooling about Vonnegut’s books. Nothing personal … I just never got around to reading them. Maybe I picked up Slaughterhouse Five once upon a time, or maybe it was a different one. Whatever it was, it wasn’t exactly life-altering.
Which doesn’t decrease my appreciation for his beliefs, his ideas, his persona one little bit. And even though he was 84 and smoked like a chimney, I rue that he left this mortal coil while Bush and Cheney are still able to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. That isn’t fair.
PudWax: Imus hates Bush — but he IS a Republican and always has been.
Your Nazi Liberal meme isn’t going to work. Your whole thing is that Liberals are soft on national defense.
Roger ..
WADR …
It was fun meeting you at DL and I think I have a better idea of why you post here. But. But. When you come into a functional thread like this and post your own blog topics over and over, all you accomplish is to discourage others form using the blog.
Could you please restrict the fusillades tp nutty thrrads and stay on topic elsewise?
Liberal Nazis! PudWax, you are just too humorous!
re 46: How many different ways do we have to say we’re sorry Vonnegut’s dead before you are satisfied?
back at Vonnegut,
I think we should all feel priv9iliged not pnly to have lived while he wrote bhut that Guttenberg will allow his word to live on. It si great fun t imagine some kid in 2020 reading Cat’s Cradle and getting a clip of Kurt on UTube of the cranky guy commenting on his own work!
I was lucky enough to see a few of Picasso’s last works AND to see his comments on the work on TV. Like Vonnegut, Pablo remained productive to the end. My only sadness for both os these is that by death we are robbed of what might have come.
Yet, maybe, maybe … Intel’s 128cor CPU, plus who knows wht OS, maybe, maybe in 2020 Vonnegut could live again?
SORRY – THIS IS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP.
MSNBC — A bomb rocked Iraq’s parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone Thursday, killing at least two lawmakers in a stunning security breach in the third month of a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown on violence in the capital, officials said. … Thursday’s attack came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River below, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.
YLB COMMENT: THE PREZNIT HAS YET TO DEPLOY HIS MOST TERRIBLE WEAPON IN THE WAR ON TERRA. THE ONE MAN WHO KNOWS IT ALL AND CAN DO IT ALL, WHO HAS BEEN EVERYWHERE AND CAN DO ANYTHING.
THE ONE, THE ONLY, OUR SAVIOUR: PUDDYWHACKJOB!!!
LMAO!!!!
N,
I beleive Kurt Vonnegut had quit smoking some time ago, but he did “smoke like a chimney” for many, many years. He was able to kick the habit, and i think it has been at least 10 years since I read about that little success for him.
YOS LIB BRO says:
SORRY – THIS IS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP.
Typical Lib and makes the point perfectly. Any news that is bad for the USA is music to the LIBS ears. YLB is extactic that something terrible happened. This only solidifies the fact that the jihadists and the democrats are getting closer and closer in their disdain for America.
Thanks YLB for proving the point perfectly.
(and RR wonders why the troops don’t support liberals?)
WRONG STUFF:
YOU HAVE LIVED UP TO YOUR NAME. YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT THE RABBIT AND GOLDY AND YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS STUPID SURGE. THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO WILL SETTLE THIS CIVIL WAR IS THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES JUST LIKE WE SETTLED OUT CIVIL WAR.
IT WON’T BE PRETTY BUT OUR CIVIL WAR WASN’T PRETTY EITHER.
THE ONLY THING WE CAN DO WITH OUR FANCY WEAPONS AND CLUMSY TACTICS IS MAKE THINGS WORSE WHICH WE’VE DONE IN SPADES, SEE ABU GHRAIB, SEE BLACKWATER SECURITY, ETC, ETC.
ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IS A LEGITIMATE SECURITY CONCERN AND I SUGGEST WE CONTAIN IT BY BUILDING ALLIANCES AND TAKING A REALISTIC APPROACH: EMPOWERING MODERATES AND MARGINALIZING RADICALS.
I’M NOT ECSTATIC ABOUT ANYTHING. I’M JUST POKING A LITTLE FUN AT YOU KNOW-IT-ALLS WHO HAVE YOUR HEADS LODGED FAR UP YOU KNOW WHERE AND REFUSE TO THINK OUTIDE THE BOX.
KEEP IT UP. IT’S GREAT ENTERTAINMENT.
This only solidifies the fact that the jihadists and the democrats are getting closer and closer in their disdain for America.
MY ONLY DISDAIN IS FOR WILFUL STUPIDITY AND IGNORANCE.
AND LIES.
HERE’S ANOTHER TIDBIT FOR WRONG STUFF:
The 45-page report, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” prepared for Congress by the Congressional Research Service, warned lawmakers that before they release additional funds to the Pentagon for the Iraq war, they should first demand that Defense Department officials provide an accurate accounting of how the money is being spent.
Since 2001, the Pentagon has grossly mismanaged the $510 billion spent thus far on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; has used money earmarked for equipment upgrades to finance fighting on the battlefield, and has refused to provide Congress with a transparent accounting of the money it has spent and intends to spend, according to the CRS report.
“Congressional leaders have promised more scrutiny of the administration’s requests for a [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental and [fiscal year] 2008 war costs. The [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental requests an additional $93.4 billion for war costs, which would bring DOD’s annual war cost to $163.4 billion, the highest to date and 40 percent more than in 2006. If enacted, cumulative war costs would reach $607 billion,” the report says. “Thus far, Congress is receiving fairly detailed quarterly reporting on various metrics for success in Iraq … but cost is not one of those metrics.”
OBVIOUSLY THE MONEY WASTED BY THE PENTAGON IS BETTER THAN VIAGRA OR GERITOL FOR ARM-CHAIR WARRIORS LIKE WRONG STUFF.
Libertarian opines:
Sorry to disillusion you, but he was still smoking as recently as January of this year, when he was a guest on Imus in the Morning. Three years ago, he had this to say in an interview with the Spokesman-Review:
[NOTE: I wanted to put in a standard reference to the S-R story, but for some strange reason Goldy’s WordPress doesn’t like that particular URL in that format. Instead, I’ll give you its actual URL]:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com.....sp?id=1997
*
He was on Imus? And he witnessed the Imus comment of Nappy Headed Hos?
No wonder Vonnegut died.
Wait… this just in… Voice of Chalk Scratching prefers “Hemp Fiber Headed Hos”!
Seattlejew: You are asking the impossible from PelletHead
There are other blog sites I posted before which ridicule the poor bunny and his diarrhea postings of worthless postulates! I think senility is creeping. He even attacks people on his side like skagit and delbert, who are donk thru and thru!
N,
Yeah, I guess he must have quit for a while and then gone back to it. I used to smoke ’em, too, but I think I’ve finally kicked the habit. They’re very addictive.
@41 “Yeah PelletHead, everything after post #14 is RUBBISH.”
If you consider information investigated and reported as news by MSM (and copy-and-pasted by me, a mere letter carrier) to be mere “rubbish” because it’s not what you want to hear and/or makes rightwing liars like you look bad, then yeah, I suppose it is, based on a definitional technicality.
Let me explain something, though. Those of us who went to school were taught that we do NOT have a prerogative of snatching words out of the English language and redefining them to mean whatever we feel like. The only people with that prerogative are uneducated ignoramuses who not only take liberties with the language of the realm, but also with: truth, honesty, integrity, ethics, and anything else of any value.
Sucks to be you.
@42 S.A. should alter their policy and allow posthumous awards, based on the theory of better late than never.
@44 “I rue that he left this mortal coil while Bush and Cheney are still able to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. That isn’t fair.”
Don’t worry, their bad habits and evil ways will catch up with them someday. No one gets out of this life alive! Except me — the King of Rabbits is immortal.
@46 No. It’s important to disseminate the endless dossiers on GOP wrongdoing. We must keep the candle lit in the darkness surrounding us.
Contrary to what some may assume, I did not hijack this thread! The corrupt Bush regime did. I’m a mere messenger boy. If there was nothing to report, I wouldn’t report it.
But how can I not report the following:
1) An innocent state worker railroaded to prison by GOP witch-hunters was freed by a federal appeals court that caustically criticized a partisan U.S. attorney;
2) White House staff destroyed evidence in the U.S. attorney scandal;
3) The Bush administration has pulled 2,400 FBI agents off domestic crime fighting, leaving ordinary Americans wide open to identity theft, scams, and white collar crime;
4) A U.S. attorney was fired for absenteeism because he reported for military duty (of course, the real reason he was fired is because he refused to persecute and oppress Democrats);
5) Three 4-star generals refused to run Bush’s wars for him;
6) The U.S. government has been paying families of innocent Iraqi civilians (including women and children) chump change or nothing at all in wrongful death cases;
7) DOJ is systematically denying federal death benefits to families of firefighters;
8) Don Imus lost his TV show, and is rapidly losing advertisers, putting his radio show in jeopardy as well, as a growing chorus of critics demand his firing;
9) King County’s soft-on-crime Republican prosecutor let a reckless boater who killed a 13-year-old girl walk away with community service for his crime.
To any of you who may feel burdened by all of this news, my answer is simply that if you don’t want to read news like this, then turn government over to adults (i.e., Democrats) so this kind of shit won’t happen anymore. There’s nothing I’d like better than to sit in a rocking chair gathering cobwebs because there’s no bad news to report.
@51 “Any news that is bad for the USA is music to the LIBS ears. YLB is extactic that something terrible happened.”
As usual, you’ve got everything bass-ackwards! We HATE, no LOATHE, reporting news like that. Truly, we do. Every day, we libs pray to the Overarching Deity that this miserable failure known was George Wingnut Bush would go away. Just go away. We don’t wish him ill, we just want him and all his wacky followers to fucking go away. Too many people have died needlessly. Too much taxpayer money has been squandered and stolen. Too much hate has been spewed, too many lies have been told, too much corrosive substance has been dumped into the pipes of our civiliations. Just fucking go away, all of you.
Good points RR – on the anniversary of the fall of Iraq – Faux News ran 24/7 coverage of Anna Nicole hoping nobody would notice we’ve been stuck in the civil war in Iraq for four years.
@58 “There are other blog sites I posted before which ridicule the poor bunny and his diarrhea postings of worthless postulates! I think senility is creeping. He even attacks people on his side like skagit and delbert, who are donk thru and thru!”
Our family quarrels are an internal affair and none of your damn business.
Besides, those guys are not, as you claim, “donks through and through.” They both have strong independent streaks. I say that not as criticism, but in praise. Unlike you, they can think for themselves, using their own critical processes. You merely regurgitate wingnut propaganda like a cow.
As Mark Twain pointed out, “It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it thousands of times.”
Roger Rabbit says:
But how can I not report the following:
1) An innocent state worker railroaded to prison by GOP witch-hunters was freed by a federal appeals court that caustically criticized a partisan U.S. attorney;
## See Democrat Mike Nifong.
2) White House staff destroyed evidence in the U.S. attorney scandal;
## See Sandy berger stuffing his pants with classified docs
3) The Bush administration has pulled 2,400 FBI agents off domestic crime fighting, leaving ordinary Americans wide open to identity theft, scams, and white collar crime;
## See no further terror attatcks on the homeland.
4) A U.S. attorney was fired for absenteeism because he reported for military duty (of course, the real reason he was fired is because he refused to persecute and oppress Democrats);
## see Clinton fire all 93 US attorneys for breathing air.
5) Three 4-star generals refused to run Bush’s wars for him;
## see General Patreas
6) The U.S. government has been paying families of innocent Iraqi civilians (including women and children) chump change or nothing at all in wrongful death cases;
## see USA most giving nation in history of civilization
7) DOJ is systematically denying federal death benefits to families of firefighters;
## see President Bush signed a law granting federal benefits to families of firefighters, police officers and EMTs who die of heart attacks and strokes on the job.
8) Don Imus lost his TV show, and is rapidly losing advertisers, putting his radio show in jeopardy as well, as a growing chorus of critics demand his firing;
## Don Imus is a tool
9) King County’s soft-on-crime Republican prosecutor let a reckless boater who killed a 13-year-old girl walk away with community service for his crime.
## Norm Maleng is no conservative. Again see Mike Nifong for true prosecutorial abuse.
To any of you who may feel burdened by all of this news, my answer is simply that if you don’t want to read news like this, then turn government over to adults (i.e., Democrats) so this kind of shit won’t happen anymore. There’s nothing I’d like better than to sit in a rocking chair gathering cobwebs because there’s no bad news to report.
Of course there is also lots of good news to be had as well. But that doesn’t fit the Lib template of “the sky is falling, better leave the decision making up to govt”.
I think what that Nifong guy did was pretty reprehensible. The evil plot came straight out of Tom Wolfe’s novel, “Bonfire of the Vanities.”
People like Nifong will stop at nothing to further their careers, and they don’t care who becomes a casualty in the quests for success. They’re politicans, managers, business people, engineers, lawyers – all across the spectrum. You know them by their narciscism.
## See Democrat Mike Nifong.
And the remaining U.S. Attorneys doing the bidding of Karl Rove
## See Sandy berger stuffing his pants with classified docs
For which he’s sitting in a jail cell. Oh excuse me he’s not. Where’s a Rovian US Attorney when you need one?
## See no further terror attatcks on the homeland.
They’re just increasing everywhere else for which people in those parts are very grateful to the Chimpanzee and Duck! Cheney.
## see Clinton fire all 93 US attorneys for breathing air.
As Reagan did to Carter’s USA’s and the Chimp did to Clinton’s.
## see General Patreas
The Duck and Chimp must have something on him for sure!
## see USA most giving nation in history of civilization
True. Now if only the American people didn’t elect warmongers like the Chimp and Duck! to erase all that goodwill.
## see President Bush signed a law granting federal benefits to families of firefighters, police officers and EMTs who die of heart attacks and strokes on the job.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. Miracles can happen.
## Don Imus is a tool
of Right-Wing Republicans
## Norm Maleng is no conservative. Again see Mike Nifong for true prosecutorial abuse.
Which is why he let Sotelo skip. Mike Nifong? Let the chips fall where they may. No one appreciates out of control prosecutors except for maybe right-wingers with capital punishment bloodlust.
TO THE DEGENERATE RIGHT-WINGER MORE KILLING IS ALWAYS THE SOLUTION.
and so it goessssssssssssssssssssssssssss
@73(1) First of all, I don’t whether Nifong is a Democrat, and don’t care, because it’s immaterial. No one on this board is supporting him. You see, that’s the difference between us and your guys: When one of ours is wrong, we don’t circle the wagons around him; we demand accountability.
Two, Nifong’s sin was rushing to judgment, not intentionally railroading innocent people for partisan reasons. Huge difference there, too. As O. W. Holmes famously wrote, “Even a dog knows the difference between being stepped on and kicked.”
Third, Nifong is irrelevant to discussion of the US attorney scandal. Dredging up the name of some erring Democrat (if that’s what he is) is neither a defense nor an excuse.
Finally, it’s absurd to compare the stupidity of an overzealous local prosecutor, acting alone and on his own, with a calculated and highly organized systematic effort at the top level of a presidential administration to institute malicious prosecutions against political opponents and cover up one’s own party’s lawbreaking on a national scale, accompanied by a whole string of secondary crimes including obstruction of justice, evidence destruction, and probable perjury.
This is vintage wingnutty bullcrap — a beyond-lame effort to change the subject when someone brings up Republican wrongdoing that is beyond scandalous and has passed into the realm of criminal conspiracy.
Thanks for playing, chump. You lose.
@73(2) Once again, Sandy Berger’s offenses have no bearing on misconduct and/or crimes committed by members of the current administration in relation to the US Attorney scandal. Whenever serious charges of malfeasance arise against the Bushies, changing the subject seems to be the only tool in your kit.
Once again, there is a massive difference of scale between Berger, a misguided individual acting alone and on his own, and a major part of the top echelons of an administration participating in what appears to be a criminal conspiracy to subvert the nation’s federal law enforcement system to immoral and illegal purposes, both in terms of the number of people involved and the potential damage to the public interest. It’s like comparing a freeway fender bender to a plane crash.
73(3) “See no further terror attatcks on the homeland.”
Well, at least here we have a refreshing change of pace — instead trying to change the subject, you’re lying — but still another of those sophomoric wingnut gimmicks that bores to tears.
Perhaps you consider attacks against abortion clinics to be acts of civil disobedience, but I consider them domestic terrorism. This administration has done little or nothing to fight this breed of terrorists, who happen to be attacking American citizens and targets on American soil.
And then there’s the guy who shot up the El Al ticket counter at LAX. That occurred after, not before, 9/11 and that guy was a foreigner; so, no, it’s not accurate to say there have been no terrorist attacks by foreigners on American soil after 9/11. Next time, take 5 minutes to do some research and get your facts straight before embarrassing yourself, instead of regurgitating wingnut noise machine bullshit — unless you want everyone to believe you’re a cow.
@73(4) Wrong again! Clinton fired his Republican predecessor’s appointees because he wanted to appoint Democrats, which was his prerogative. GWB did the same thing when he took office, and no one criticized him for it.
I very much doubt you’re so dense that you have no conception of what the US Attorney scandal is all about. Rather, it is a subject you prefer not to discuss — because such a discussion will do you no good.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to talk about it. I’d squirm, too, if I (for some reason I can’t fathom) had to defend this administration.
@74(3) And, needless to say, RS’s response to this point evades the subject again, which is the fact that the Bushies have taken 2,400 FBI agents off domestic law enforcement, leaving the American public at the mercy of identity thieves, scam artists, and white collar criminals who are running amok and going uncaught and unprosecuted by this administration. The point here is not whether homeland defense is working, but whether Republicans are the law-and-order party they claim to be. Here’s the answer to that:
Back in the Nixon days, the running joke was that “Nixon promised to take crime off the streets, and he did; he took it off the streets and put it in the White House!”
Today, the situation is that we have crime on the streets AND in the White House.
@73(5) Anybody can find a sycophant if he turns over enough rocks; the story here is how many rocks no longer have sycophants under them. In short, Bush is rapidly running out of “yes” men.
I wish Gen. Patreas success; but nobody, including him, believes a military solution to Iraq’s civil strife is possible. He has said so himself. And all informed observers are uniform in saying the things that need to be done on the political side are not happening. Under the circumstances, it’s hard for any reasonable person to believe the general’s mission isn’t doomed.
But that’s not a problem for you, or other wingnuts like you who live in your wingnutty bubble universe, because you don’t have to live up to any expectation of being reasonable.
Roger Rabbit says:
@73(1) First of all, I don’t whether Nifong is a Democrat, and don’t care, because it’s immaterial. No one on this board is supporting him. You see, that’s the difference between us and your guys: When one of ours is wrong, we don’t circle the wagons around him; we demand accountability.
Hmmmmm William Jefferson comes to mind. Still in office, has not been asked to step down. Then there is Sandy Berger, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank….on and on. Yeah your side sure demands accountability…..
“Two, Nifong’s sin was rushing to judgment, not intentionally railroading innocent people for partisan reasons. Huge difference there, too. As O. W. Holmes famously wrote, “Even a dog knows the difference between being stepped on and kicked.”
Totally Wrong. He’s a Democrat and he knowingly tried to railroad innocent young men in an attempt to pander to the black vote. One of his opponents was black.
Finally, it’s absurd to compare the stupidity of an overzealous local prosecutor, acting alone and on his own, with a calculated and highly organized systematic effort at the top level of a presidential administration to institute malicious prosecutions against political opponents and cover up one’s own party’s lawbreaking on a national scale, accompanied by a whole string of secondary crimes including obstruction of justice, evidence destruction, and probable perjury.
OK let’s get federal. Bill Clinton used the IRS to intimidate his enemies. “A veritable who’s who of Clinton administration adversaries have been targeted for audit during his six years in power. They include: the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association, Concerned Women of America, Citizens Against Government Waste, National Review, American Spectator and, of course, my own organization, the Western Journalism Center, the parent company of WorldNetDaily.”
@73(6) Right Stuff is pretty much a one-trick pony — when the facts are uncomfortable, change the subject (in this case, from the embarrassing facts of how little compensation this administration offers to families whose loved ones are killed by US troops, to the subject of foreign aid generally).
But there are a couple of interesting twists to this response that (probably accidentally) are a little more sophisticated. The Bush administration, of course, has redefined charitable giving and taken it to a whole new (lower) level — to the point where other countries are giving foreign aid to OUR disaster victims because our own government won’t help them.
And, of course, the history of past charitable giving by the U.S. was compiled by Democratic presidents. Republicans, you will recall, spent the last 60 years whining and bitching about the money we gave to needy peoples elsewhere.
And let’s not forget that most U.S. foreign aid is spent promoting our own selfish interests. In recent years, something like half of it has gone to Israel, because it works better of us to let them fight Arab countries instead of getting bloodied by doing it ourselves.
Finally, although American foreign aid is large in raw dollars simply because we’re the world’s largest economy, when our foreign aid is compared with that of other developed nations as a percentage of GDP, we’re one of the most miserly countries on earth when it comes to helping others. And that was BEFORE the Bush administration came along, which as stated above, has taken penury to a whole new (lower) level.
It’s almost TOO easy to deconstruct these wingnut blowhards. There’s no challenge to this.
@80
Well, at least here we have a refreshing change of pace — instead trying to change the subject, you’re lying — but still another of those sophomoric wingnut gimmicks that bores to tears.
Dense Rabbit- There has more violent death in Louisiana this month than all of your cited cases of “domestic terrorism”
Your argument is pathetic.
@73(7) It took Right Stuff only 7 tries to post a response that’s on topic. Well, better late than never!
RS is correct that “Bush signed a law granting federal benefits to families of firefighters, police officers and EMTs who die of heart attacks and strokes on the job.”
To this, I would add that he also signed a law granting federal benefits to former uranium workers suffering from occupational illnesses (radiation is bad for you).
Total number of uranium claims paid: 1
Total number of firefighter claims paid: 2
What we have here, folks, is all talk and no walk. All hat and no cattle. The only things that have been expended by this administration to help these people is the ink used to sign the laws and buckets of hot air. Neocons promise a lot of things; but they never, ever put your taxpayer money where their mouths are, even though it’s not their money. Same thing happened with the $15 billion Bush promised Africans for fighting AIDS; they never saw it (and never will, at least, not from this administration). Same thing happens with our soldiers; they “support the troops” with empty words, but don’t provide combat equipment, and throw the wounded into rat-infested moldy tenements. See the pattern here? It’s sociopathic.
Once again, there is a massive difference of scale between Berger, a misguided individual acting alone and on his own, and a major part of the top echelons of an administration participating in what appears to be a criminal conspiracy to subvert the nation’s federal law enforcement system to immoral and illegal purposes, both in terms of the number of people involved and the potential damage to the public interest. It’s like comparing a freeway fender bender to a plane crash.
04/12/2007 at 10:10 pm
Interesting how you put that. “in what appears to be”
Well, the FACT is, federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president. The whole “contraversy is a tempest in a teapot.
Which, by the way, was the whole point of my commenting on the miserliness of the Bush regime in compensating the families of the innocents they kill in Iraq. How would you like it if some trigger-happy foreign soldier occupying your neighborhood killed your little girl; and a representative of that government came to your house and said, “Gee, we’re sorry for the mistake, here’s $500.”
Don’t know what you, but that would turn me into an insurgent. I would soon (if I wasn’t already) be trying to eject those foreign occupiers from my country by any means I could.
Which is my point. When Bush said he wouldn’t get involved in what he derisively called “nation building” (it now seems like a long time ago), it was the only time in his life that he knew when he was in over his head. He has amply demonstrated he has no competencies in nationa-building. The one and only thing Iraq’s factions agree on is they all hate us, and the only thing they cooperate on is killing as many Americans as possible.
Waytago wingnut dipshits! That’s one for the history books.
Finally, although American foreign aid is large in raw dollars simply because we’re the world’s largest economy, when our foreign aid is compared with that of other developed nations as a percentage of GDP, we’re one of the most miserly countries on earth when it comes to helping others. And that was BEFORE the Bush administration came along, which as stated above, has taken penury to a whole new (lower) level.
Again the FACTS are that the USA is the most generous nation on the planet. You can attempt to feel bad about this by stating that we don’t give as much as a % of GDP, but the dollars are the dollars and they’re more than any other county gives. I must suck to feel such disdain for your country.
@73 (8), (9) This is getting boring, so I’ll skip over these (nothing there anyway) and address this gem:
“Of course there is also lots of good news to be had as well.”
Where? The only good news I’ve seen lately is that I’m making money like crazy on oilfield services stocks because energy prices are soaring. Since I don’t drive much, your loss is my gain! And I don’t mind saying relieving SUV drivers of their cash gives no qualms at all. That segment of the consuming public most given to deriding conservation efforts (and mocking those who advocated fuel conservative) neither deserve nor have my sympathy. Thanks for your patronage, SUCKERS!!! I appreciate your business. Raking in money taxed at the 5% capital gains rate beats hell out of working for you cheap labor conservatives! As I’ve always said, I’m a Democrat so I can live like a Republican someday, and that day is almost here!
But apart from how great Roger Rabbit is doing in the stock market, there’s been no good news at all for over 6 years now. The daily news fare is a numbing litany of mismanagement, corruption, and catastrophe. There are so many scandals it’s like watching boxcars on a long train go by. Some genius captured the essence of this presidency by stringing together two common words: Miserable failure.
By the way, you’d better run out and fill up while gas is still cheap at 3 bucks a gallon.
Roger Rabbit says:
Which, by the way, was the whole point of my commenting on the miserliness of the Bush regime in compensating the families of the innocents they kill in Iraq. How would you like it if some trigger-happy foreign soldier occupying your neighborhood killed your little girl; and a representative of that government came to your house and said, “Gee, we’re sorry for the mistake, here’s $500.”
Don’t know what you, but that would turn me into an insurgent. I would soon (if I wasn’t already) be trying to eject those foreign occupiers from my country by any means I could.
Saddam and his ilk just killed them all and fired their home…. They know the difference. They see our side holding those accountable for crimes punished. They see our side go from soldier wounding an insurgent, to lending medical aid to that same insurgent. Stop hating the troops and their mission! Trigger happy foreign soldier. Nice characterization.
A lot of industry insiders are betting that when Saudi Arabia’s 5 million bpd Ghawar Field crashes to, say, 500,000 bpd, oil will hit $200. That translates into $10 a gallon for gas.
@74 I think it was pretty reprehensible, too, and my profession doesn’t need him. The sooner they disbar him, the better off everyone will be.
But apart from how great Roger Rabbit is doing in the stock market
Note to Rog. You are not alone in that, and guess what? that is good news for you, me, millions of folks, and our country…. see now wasn’t that easy..!
@84 “Totally Wrong. He’s a Democrat and he knowingly tried to railroad innocent young men in an attempt to pander to the black vote. One of his opponents was black.”
I don’t know whether he’s a Democrat, and I’m not going to spend any time looking into it, because it’s immaterial and I don’t care. I’ll even stipulate that he’s a Democrat for purposes of this discussion. Nothing I’ve seen in media reports supports your claim that he knowingly railroaded these defendants, nor that his motive was pandering to black voters. Is that the buzz in Wingnut Blogland? I don’t pay attention to their fantasies.
What Nifong is, is incompetent, unprofessional, hasty, stupid, reckless, and unqualified to be a prosecutor.
And I’m not even going to mention that many of Bush’s U.S. Attorney appointees are incompetent, unprofessional, stupid, and unqualified to be prosecutors — because it’s not relevant to a discussion of Mr. Nifong.
Nifong is an idiot, and an idiot has no business setting foot in a prosecutor’s office. That’s the beginning and ending of this discussion.
“Nifong is widely regarded as having a reputation for relishing both power and foul language, and Glenn Gray, a courthouse co-worker complained “He would curse you, scream at you, call you names over nothing”.[9] At the time the lacrosse case broke, Nifong was being challenged in the Democratic Party primary by a former colleague.”
Wikipedia….
Posted this the other day. Final thought for the night.
Bumper sticker I saw Mon or Tues, made me laugh….
“yee-haw is not a foreign policy”
I don’t want to belabor this Nifong thing, although what he did is serious, and merits thorough discussion.
Nifong was appointed, not elected, to his job. His elected predecessor left, and the governor filled the vacancy by appointing Nifong. (The governor later said it was “the worst appointment I ever made.”) While being considered for the appointment, Nifong promised he wouldn’t seek election. Thus, the governor believed he was appointing an interim caretaker. Nifong broke that promise.
From a distance, Nifong looks like a Cinderella story. Unable to land a job in a prosecutor’s office after graduating from law school, he offered to do unpaid volunteer work for the Durham County prosecutor’s office, and when a paid position opened a year later, they hired him. We may infer they did so because his work was satisfactory. Nifong spent his entire career in that office, steadily advancing until he became chief assistant D.A. We may infer from his repeated promotions that his work was always satisfactory. When the prosecutor vacancy arose, as the most senior staff attorney, he was the logical choice for the interim appointment. He also should have been a logical candidate in the next election.
Now let’s pause. Up to this point, Nifong is not a “Democratic” politician; he is a nonpartisan staff attorney appointed to temporarily fill a vacancy in a partisan elected position. To get that appointment, and to run for election, it was convenient for Nifong to call himself a “Democrat,” as Durham County votes about 90% Democratic. Unless he was on a banzai mission, it wouldn’t be very smart to run as a Republican.
Although Nifong was something of a bootstrap success story, he wasn’t a picture-perfect one. He had a reputation around the courthouse for having an abrasive personality. However, until the Duke case, no one seems to have questioned his competence.
Because of the Duke case, he faced a Democratic opponent in the 2006 primary, who got 42% of the vote against Nifong’s 45%. What this tells you is the local Democratic establishment — to their credit — tried to oust Nifong. And Nifong’s primary squeaker didn’t halt their efforts. One of the elected county commissioners ran against Nifong as a write-in. He told voters he would not serve if elected, but asked them to vote for him anyway to get rid of Nifong — presumably, to give the governor an opportunity to appoint someone else. (At this point, the logical candidate for gubernatorial appointment would be the woman — an office colleague of Nifong — who wanted the job and nearly beat him in the prinary.) His campaign slogan was, “Recall Nifong.”
What you have here, folks, is the local Democrats doing everything in their power to prevent the election of a guy that Right Stuff labels as a “Democrat” simply because he chose to call himself a Democrat in order to get elected.
Now, I could — but won’t — say something chippy along the lines that Nifong behaves more like a Republican than a Democrat and probably IS a closet Republican and only called himself a “Democrat” to get elected in a county that votes 90% Democrat and was lying when he called himself a “Democrat” (and when did you ever meet a Republican who WASN’T a liar) — but I’ll refrain from that, because I don’t know that to be a fact, and it’s a digression anyway. So, for our pruposes here, I didn’t say that.
But what I will say is that Durham County’s Democratic voters gave 40% of the total vote to a write-in candidate who said he wouldn’t serve if elected, in effect voting for an unnamed to-be-appointed-by-the-governor candidate. Nifong got 49%, and the GOP’s sacrificial lamb got 11%. (I don’t know the circumstances there, but I assume a local Republican lawyer fulfilled his sense of party loyalty by allowing himself to be drafted knowing he was in no danger getting elected.) What this tells you is the local Democratic Party was trying to GET RID of Nifong.
So, is it fair to say that Right Stuff is demogaguing when he tries to smear Democrats as a grouop by associating them with this Nifong boob? Yes, I think it’s fair. If he did any research at all on this topic, then he knows the Democrats made strenuous efforts to defeat Nifong. If he didn’t, then RS is, at minimum, negligent. But what if Nifong is a closet Republican (he certainly behaves more like a Republican than a Democrat) who misappropriated the Democrats’ trade name in order to get himself elected as a stealth Republican candidate in a county that votes 90% Democratic?
Well, if Nifong is lying when calls himself a Democrat, then Right Stuff is lying when he calls Nifong a Democrat, too.
What is the truth of the matter? I think the local Democrats know a Republican when they smell one, and they needed only one whiff of this Nifong guy to know he isn’t one of them. What do you think?
My previous stipulation that Nifong is a Democrat for purposes of this discussion is hereby revoked.
#100 is NOT the final thought of the night. #101 supersedes it.
In fact, I think #101 is the final word on the topic of Mr. Nifong.
@97 Actually, millions of people are not doing so great in the stock market. The stock market is drifting aimlessly. Most stocks are not going up. Most stocks are highly valued. It’s tough to make money in the market right now. I was prescient to get into oilfield services stocks when I did. Damn little else is performing any better than break-even.
Interesting how you put that. “in what appears to be”
Well, the FACT is, federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president. The whole “contraversy is a tempest in a teapot.
But I think the main point I would make about it, Right Stuff, is that your opinion doesn’t matter. My opinion doesn’t matter. You and I are nobodies, we have no influence over where this will go. Events will take their course. All the posturing in the world on your part will not change where events will take this. Likewise, nothing I post on this blog will influence where this will go. I’m just along for the ride. But I feel I know where it is going. I don’t believe this scandal will force Bush out of office, although I do believe it will force Gonzo out of office. But I also believe there are even bigger scandals out there, yet to be relieved, one of which WILL force Bush from office. I give it 50-50 that this president will not finish his term. He’s a stubborn cuss and I don’t think he’ll resign like Nixon did. I believe there’s a 50% chance that Bush will become the first president in history to be removed from office by the Senate, and in saying that, you know as well as I that it takes Republican senators’ votes to do that. I believe those Republican votes eventually will be there in the Senate, just as they were in Nixon’s case. Not all Republicans are as Machievellan as Rove or as dishonorable as Bush. And some will be thinking about the survival of their party and their own political self-preservation. In fact, I believe a significant number of them already are.
Some of that last post dropped out, don’t know why. The missing part should read:
“Interesting how you put that. ‘in what appears to be’
I’m a lawyer and former judge, and of course I’m in the habit of not convicting people before the trial — a procedure Republicans are rendering quaint, but one I still believe in.
“Well, the FACT is, federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president.”
No one disputes that, and I’ve said so in these threads many times, but that’s irrelevant.
“The whole ‘contraversy is a tempest in a teapot.'”
No, it’s not. Maliciously prosecuting political opponents is a serious matter. Interfering with prosecutions of criminal wrongdoers of your own party is a serious matter. Obstruction of justice and destroying evidence are serious matters. If you are a lawyer, these things lead to disbarment. If you are a public official, they lead to impeachment, and possibly to prison. I think the House and Senate Democrats knew exactly what cards were in the deck when they launched this investigation. The public hasn’t heard the whole story yet; there are more shocking revelations coming. This scandal is a big deal. It may not be the scandal that brings down Bush, but it will bring down Gonzales. I strongly suspect there are even bigger scandals out there waiting to be revealed, and that they will be revealed, and one of those may bring down Bush. but I don’t believe the U.S. Attorney scandal will force Bush out of office. It will, however, force out some of his underlings; and it will do great damage to what’s left of his power.
@84 “Hmmmmm William Jefferson comes to mind.”
Yes, he does. When that scandal broke, the House Democrats immediately stripped Jefferson of his committee assignments. The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats don’t tolerate, much less cover up, wrongdoing by their own members.
Jefferson survived re-election in 2006. This was a result of local politics. His main Democratic opponent (and no Republican has any chance in his district) offended a local police chief (by making critical remarks about cops) who campaigned against him, and voters listened to the popular police chief. As a result, Jefferson squeezed through a runoff election.
House Speaker Pelosi has refused to restore Jefferson to his former seat on the Ways and Means Committee while the FBI’s corruption investigation is pending. House Democrats are cooperating with that investigation.
This is a refreshing change from how Republcians conduct business.
@87 Abortion clinic attacks are terrorism. Street crime in Louisiana is not; it’s street crime.
Ten-year-olds can make this distinction; why can’t you?
@91 “Country” is not a god to be worshipped no matter what it does. Citizens have a duty to try to make their country better through constructive criticism. This is the true meaning of patriotism that rightwingers completely misunderstand. Patriotism is not “my country, right or wrong”; the duty of a patriot is to make his country right.
@94 “Saddam and his ilk just killed them all and fired their home…. They know the difference. They see our side holding those accountable for crimes punished. They see our side go from soldier wounding an insurgent, to lending medical aid to that same insurgent. Stop hating the troops and their mission! Trigger happy foreign soldier. Nice characterization.”
No, he didn’t. Saddam targeted ethnic groups that opposed his rule, suppress opposition, and retaliated for uprisings and assassination attempts. Saddam’s Iraq was not a land of random violence. There was logic to his brutality, and his brutality was measured and for a purpose — to maintain his power. He did not kill people randomly. Nor did he randomly burn down homes or villages. He did it selectively, and rather rarely, when he wanted to frighten those who might oppose him. He was hanged for the massacre of 148 villagers from a village where an assassination attempt against him took place. Following the first Gulf War, he slaughtered Shiites in southern Iraq because they rose against him in armed rebellion, apparently believing U.S. military power would cover their backsides. In short, he behaved like a rational, albeit murderous, tyrant.
You are spouting utter nonsense about how the Iraqi people feel about U.S. troops. Recent independent polling shows over 90% of the Iraqi public wants the U.S. to leave Iraq. They are in as much, or more, danger from American soldiers as they are from the warring factions of their own society. There is hardly an Iraqi who doesn’t know that Americans tortured Iraqis at Abu Ghraib. The selfless efforts of hundreds of thousands of honorably serving American troops have gone unheralded while the atrocities committed by a handful of rogues and mavericks grab headlines and define the Ameican soldier to the Iraqi nation and the entire world.
Abu Ghraib was not an accident. Torture was (and is) an official policy of our government. The atrocities are not an act of God; the Bush administration has made deliberate policy decisions to let criminals joined the armed forces, out of political expediency. When you send criminals to a foreign land, give them a gun, and create an environment of permissiveness, atrocities are predictable and inevitable. The policy makers of this administration are directly responsible for those criminal acts, because they are the fruit of their policy decisions.
When you accuse me of hating our troops, my response is, “You sir, are not merely a liar; you are a God-damned liar.”