Mirror Mirror On The Wall

I have been trying a little experiment. I have been going to conservative blogs and calling them the same thing they have been calling us for years. Fascist, America hating, America ruining, appeasing, cowardly, ill informed, delusional traitors. A good case can be made for all of this. Since it is quite well documented elsewhere I won't do it again here.
Guess what, they don't like it. They see it as harmful and overly rough discourse. They think it is shameful speech. They can't believe that someone would speak of them like that. One even implied if someone talked like that on the radio they wouldn't have a job. They apparently never listen to Rush or Sean or Lil Anne spew it on a daily basis. They do hear it but certainly don't realize how it sounds until it is turned on them. That being the point of the exercise. I encourage you to try it yourself. I bet your mileage won't vary much. Lordy, lordy. If they all got a mirror for Christmas we would all be better off.

The Angry White Male

Those of you that are old like me may remember when there was the identification of a voting group called "the angry white male". This was around the time of Wally George and Morton Downey Jr.
George and Downey et al were considered screaming crazy radicals at the time. Now it appears they have morphed into.......the Republican Party. Visit any wingnut website, listen to any of the wack job talk show hosts speak. Angry White Male. It seems more and more women are figuring out that the right lives on rage against others.

President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. anger over the Iraq war and frustration with the country's direction have taken a toll on the president's popularity and stirred dissatisfaction with the Republican-held Congress. ..................Republicans on the ballot this November have reason to worry. A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that three out of five Southern women surveyed said they planned to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. With control of the Senate and House in the balance, such a seismic shift could have dire consequences for the GOP. ......."I'm going to go for the moderate, and these days that tends to be Democrats," Knight said.
Sandy Rubin, a high school teacher in Macon, voted for Bush ....... Rubin said the GOP's focus on issues that appeal to social conservatives, such as gay marriage and abortion, have turned her off.
"I care about job security and education. The things I hear the Republicans emphasizing in their campaigns are not things that affect me or my family," said the 39-year-old mother of two.

....Still, some Southern women remain stalwart supporters of the president and the Republican Party. At a watermelon festival in Chickamauga, in the mountains of northwest Georgia, substitute teacher Clydeen Tomanio said she remains committed to the party she's called home for 43 years.
"There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don't care how he governs, I will support him. I'm a Republican through and through."

I laughed too...Yep Clydeen, the Lord put him there. Sure. Studied your New Testament lately. Better get that refresher course. Oh I forgot! Armageddon, pardon me.

Grassroots Wisdom

Great comments from Great Blogs all around the internet.

On the war on terror
The only way they can maintain the pretence that a predominantly military approach is the appropriate response to terrorism is to pretend that it's equivalent to a massive conventional threat that had to be met with armies in the field. It's the only way to keep up the pretence that "Iraq is the central front in the war on terror" in anything but a "Oh my God we handed them their greatest victory" sense. It's the only way to keep the bed-wetters and the politically unaware shit-scared enough to ignore the encroachments on their civil liberties, the suspension of the rule of law and the massive increase of executive power. It makes perfect sense from the administration's point of view, because it's all they have to cling on to. What doesn't make sense is why the media doesn't laugh in their face and call them out for being the fucking lunatics they are.

the war on terror is a war against an emotion.. fear... you either have the personal courage to overcome your fear or you don't.. if you don't.... We can't 'give' you a victory... you need to reach down and find it for yourself... Setting a realistic deadline to leave isn't cutting and running.. its putting adult responsibility in the hands of those who will inevitably have to shoulder the burden of their own 'freedom'.

We, as a country, can’t be doing this whole war on terrorism thing right. I mean, all reports say terrorism across the globe is worse than it was pre-9/11, and all success against terrorists have been via folks who aren’t doing what the Bush Administration and the bull-goose looney wingnuts yowl must be done to keep us from becoming a shia-controlled state.

I find it very difficult to live in fear that a bunch of poorly trained, haphazardly funded, spottily organized and basically despised lulus have it in them to completely subjegate the country that gave the world the all-you-can-eat catfish buffett, LSD, Looney Tunes and Jenna Jameson. I mean, seriously. ......it seems the wingnuts are convinced Team America was a documentary. They seem to be convinced that if the Islamofacistnazicommiegayimmigrants attack again, the entire country will fold like a pup tent just cause they will. In other words, we’re supposed to all be as pants-pissingly scared of super terrorist ninjas as the Atlas Shruggeds and Goldsteins of the world are.

Let's be serious about this, shall we? If the Bush Administration were serious, truly serious, about an effective and comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy that will secure both the US and our borders:
1. they wouldn't have invaded Iraq in the fist place.
2. they wouldn't have left Afghanistan to fall back into chaos.
3. they wouldn't be cutting funding for domestic preparedness, First Responders, border and port security, and DHS at every turn.
4. they wouldn't be leaving key posts within DHS empty for years on end.
5. they wouldn't be cutting taxes to the point of leaving every government program (the F-22 and 'Missile Defense' notwithstanding) underfunded.
6. they wouldn't put Peggy Noonan in charge of public diplomacy.
7. they wouldn't be closing USIA down.
8. they wouldn't have allowed FEMA to atrophy and fall further into disgrace.
9. they wouldn't have allowed Usama Bin Laden to escape Tora Bora and set up shop elsewhere.

On Osamas' "media advantage":
That's right folks! Ossama is now running the United States government by video tape messages. And, we thought Reagan was loony for letting Nancy's astrologist set his schedule! The idea that Bin Laden is playing Bush for a chump by bluffing him into policy that hurts America doesn't enter Dumbya's pin head. But, it seems more than likely to me.

On KKKarl Roves media advantage:
It's really sad how these clowns work. They really do seem to operate solely on smear, fear and ridicule. They're like Scientologists, in that, once someone is declared 'Fair Game", they will stop at nothing to marginalize, defame or destroy them.

Through skillful propaganda, the Busheviks play America for a nation of suckers, while they accomplish the goals of the terrorists for them.

On the NSA program:
The FBI has gotten thousands of tips from the NSA as a result of this program. Every one that has panned out (less than one percent) the FBI claims lead to conduct they were already investigating. In short, not only is the program illegal and unconstitutional, it is ineffective and a waste of tax payers money.

Are You Scared Enough To Vote Republican?

The byline on this blog for sometime has been "The only thing we have to fear is fear it's self. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror." These are the words of A respected, brave American leader. It is also just the opposite of what our chickenhearted fear mongering leaders today say. They and their bed wetting supporters are encouraging Americans to be weak and full of fear. Lash out with arms flailing in every direction. It is a quite psychotic approach. Do these people not understand that they are weakening America and it's status in the world by throwing out all this fear mongering? They are making us look afraid in the eyes of the world. To our friends AND our enemies. I hope the world knows that a lot of us are disgusted with the shameful acts of our leaders. Today the President took to his pulpit to quote Osama Bin Laden in telling America how afraid they ought to be. I am sure Osama appreciates it Geo. What a horrendous abomination to the term leadership! A brave leader would work behind the scenes as to not give the Islamofundies too much “media”. Then we could highlight our victories and not have every failure under the worlds media nose. Not to build them up in the eyes of formerly brave Americans and possible fundie recruits as some kind of legit all powerful force. The Presnit complained about the way that America was getting beat in the media battle with no clue that he was aiding them in that battle with the very speech he was giving!
Yes, I agree that the islamofundies are dangerous. As dangerous and deadly as Tim McVeigh and Ted Bundy. We should take every legal and rational method to stop them. The problem I have is that the putzes running the show have turned it into a circus, a folly and a recruiting tool for the enemy. There are many ways to approach this problem and the wingnuts in their fundie like thinking seem to feel there is only one way to do it. War. They will complain about the other side having no ideas but when they are rolled out in wheelbarrow loads they ignore and just go back to saying nobody has any other ideas except defeat or cut and run. You can't have an adult conversation with people like that.
In the past we had leaders who taught us how to be brave, who lead the way. Now we have a guy who also has actual supporters who think Islamofundies are going to take over the world if we don't warmonger it into oblivion first. I went to a new wingnut site that takes comments tonight to see what was up. How lame these people are. Twisted educated idiot logic. They have truly out thought themselves. During the “conversation” the thought was expressed that we had to do all this because these people want to take over the world and turn it in to an Islamic republic. My question was simple. Just how are they going to do this? I waited....and waited. About thirty minutes later I asked the question again. Twenty minutes later I assumed no one really knew or even had a guess how they were going to take over the land of liberal Hollywood, McDonalds McRib and bikinis. Unreasoning, unjustified terror. The Sunni radicals don't have a war machine. The Shias have countries that may or may not support such an effort. They happen to be having a big war with the Sunnis right now if we would just get out of the way. Couldn't we at least get a bye to the second round here after one of the factions declares themselves the winner? No, the wingnuts want to play Rambo on their computer and show what great Americans and warriors they are. Unfortunately they are only fooling themselves.

Coffee Table

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."Hermann Goering at the Nuremburg Trials 1946

Talk about whatever you want..put your blog skills to use.

From The Planet

News and Comment for 9/5/06

Nation Page
U.S deaths from the so called war on terror now surpasses the American deaths in 9/11. One can't equate the two but I think it is a notable number. There have recently been larger numbers of British and Canadians dying as they defend Afghanistan. That would be the country we relegated to a preamble in the WAT. The radical rightests have argued with me a number of times that the method we were using wasn't working because we continued to have terrorist attacks. Let me say that there have been far more attacks using their method. I don't have the numbers but unless I am forgetting something we had far fewer Americans dying during any five year period before the 9/11 attack then we have since. I want to win this thing. My problem is we are not making progress. We are causing more terrorism. We are going backward. It is time to change course.

I fully support a feet on the ground effort in America as a wise part of our fight against terrorists. However the Miami case is more and more looking like a case of overkill and political gamesmanship. These guys certainly had nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism. Unless Osama is a big pot smoker. They wanted to be big shots and their dreams met the FBI. Unfortunately their dreams were compounded by the FBI too. In the end the group had broken up. Arrest them for what they did? Sure. Big victory over terror? I think not. These guys actually looked more like the “Turner Diaries” Tim McVeigh kind than any jhadist. Even if they said the word.

A poll say the public is in large measure angry and fed up. 54 percent said things were going badly and 53 percent say they will vote for Democrats this time.

The radical right voted against legal wiretaps before they were for illegal ones.

Another reason for me to avoid snow skiing.

The President is at least jawboning alternative energy. Kudos Geo. If he would spend as much time and effort on this as he does on people that are out to get America we might have one of the key solutions to the war on terrorists and a number of other things. Bush says he is working to advance technologies so batteries can power automobiles on short trips and ethanol can replace gasoline. HE is advancing the technologies? Sounds very close to the statement they whipped Gore over about the Internet.


International Page
The good news and the bad news about Iraq.
The Iraqi national security advisor says the #2 guy in al queda was captured saying it would reduce violence. Unfortunately the sunni group says it was not their #2 guy and they are “leadership is in the best position.” The next day to prove it 33 people were killed in Baghdad scattered around the city. 5 American soldiers and 2 British were also killed as we stay the course.

The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war. Aides say Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is angry and disappointed that Shias are ignoring his calls for calm and are switching their allegiance in their thousands to more militant groups which promise protection from Sunni violence and revenge for attacks.
So it appears they are going to people they think will protect them. Guess what, it isn't the Americans they are turning to. We, and I am sure our soldiers, think that is our mission but it has nothing to do with the reality on the ground. On how it is working for real and not just in theory.

Elsewhere in terror news A radical right wing Columbian drug lord is found..... in his grave.

Irans' Madmanjani is sounding more like a radical republican everyday. Now he is call for a purge of the liberals and seculars in colleges and universities. Damned liberal professors. Sounds just like something Limpbaugh or Hateitty would say. The story also notes how he has purged pragmatic veterans in the government with inexperienced extremists and hardliners. Their government starts sounding like ours more and more. Not a good thing my friend.

Sports Page
Pro football about to begin. College top 25 from the weekend including:
No. 16 Iowa (1-0) beat Montana 41-7. Next: at Syracuse, Saturday, Sept. 9.
UNM Lobos had more offense but less scoring losing to Portland State 17-6Meanwhile The New Mexico State football team snapped the nation's longest losing streak of 13 games with a 30-15 victory over Southeastern Louisiana (0-1), 30-15, Thursday.

A Safe Prediction

One thing about the righties is they are consistant. Glenn Greenwald writes of the next big wingnut hullabaloo. How the Dems are weak on terror or some adjunct to that.

.....consideration of the bill proposed by Arlen Specter (and a similar one introduced in the House by Rep. Heather Wilson), which would "amend" FISA by making it optional (rather than mandatory) for the President to comply with it, thereby removing all limitations on his power to eavesdrop on the conversations of Americans......
The argument, of course, will be that Republicans want to listen in when Osama bin Laden calls and Democrats don't, as evidenced by their opposition to the Specter bill, and that Democrats therefore oppose a surveillance program which most Americans support. Put another way, the Republicans will attempt to exploit this debate by advancing two factually false claims:
Falsehood # 1: the debate is about whether the President can eavesdrop on Al Qaeda and other terrorists;Falsehood # 2: "most Americans" support warrantless eavesdropping. .....
...there is no excuse for depicting the NSA program as some sort of widely popular program which has the backing of "a majority of Americans" and is opposed only by the Democrats' "liberal base." That is not reporting. That is factually false political propaganda straight from the mouth of Karl Rove and Ken Melhman. The opposite is true -- at best, polls show that Americans are evenly divided, but most polls have shown since the beginning of the NSA scandal that most Americans want aggressive eavesdropping on Al Qaeda but oppose warrantless eavesdropping.

Please be clear on this:

The difference between FISA and the warrantless eavesdropping program is not about whether the President can eavesdrop on terrorists. He can eavesdrop on all of the terrorists he wants under FISA as it is written. What is being debated -- the only difference -- is whether he should be able to eavesdrop on the conversations of Americans with judicial oversight (as all Presidents have done for the last 30 years) or whether he can eavesdrop on Americans in secret, without oversight (which led to severe abuses of the eavesdropping powers in the four decades prior to FISA). That is what is being decided, not whether he can eavesdrop on terrorists.
When Bush and his supporters argue, as they will relentlessly in the coming weeks, that Democrats oppose eavesdropping on Al Qaeda, that is not political advocacy. That is not "spin." It is not a legitimate argument or a factually questionable proposition that ought to be passed along without comment. It is none of those things. What that is instead is a factually false claim -- a lie, if one insists. Nobody opposes eavesdropping on Al Qaeda. The President has the full power right now under FISA to eavesdrop as much as he wants on terrorists. To say otherwise -- to say that Democrats want to stop eavesdropping on terrorists -- is just untrue. Period.

I predict he is right and this misinformation will be all over the talk shows,news and blogs of the right et al. Unless they find the missing girl in Aruba.

I'm Just Sayin'

Iheard the theory that Osama had not attacked America for a while is because some Moslems were mad at him for not doing as their religion says and trying to convert them to Islam first.

......-- An American thought to be an al-Qaida activist appeared in a videotape with the terror group's deputy leader Saturday and called on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

Now I don't know if the story is true but I'm just sayin. The guy actually sounds like the perfect "islamofascist" .

We send a special invitation (to convert to Islam) to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq and wherever else 'W' has sent you to die. You know the war can't be won," he said, using Bush's nickname. Gadahn also urged other Americans to convert to Islam. "It is time for the unbelievers to discard these incoherent and illogical beliefs," he said. "Isn't it the time for the Christians, Jews, Buddhists and atheists to cast off the cloak of the spiritual darkness which enshrouds them and emerge into the light of Islam?"

Ya know in an almost toooo perfect kinda way.- I don't know but I'm just sayin'.

October Suprize? I don't know but I'm just sayin'.

The Family Album

The first picture is one Rumsfeld would say identified the "appeasers". The second is....well he forgot to bring that one.













Crooks and Liars:
Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t go to Baghdad in 1983 to tour the museum. Then a private citizen, he had been dispatched as an emissary by the Reagan administration, which sought to align itself with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam was already a notorious thug. Well before Mr. Rumsfeld’s trip, Amnesty International had reported the dictator’s use of torture — "beating, burning, sexual abuse and the infliction of electric shocks" — on hundreds of political prisoners. Dozens more had been summarily executed or had "disappeared." American intelligence agencies knew that Saddam had used chemical weapons to gas both Iraqi Kurds and Iranians. ...

The "Liberal" Media Revealed

This shocking investigation brings up another fact about the liberal media. They are 20 or 30 somethings that appear to be resistant to change.

AMARILLO, TX—Despite claims from the TV news outlet to offer "nonstop news" and "coverage you can count on," an Onion investigation has uncovered hundreds of instances in which KAMR Channel 4 10 O’Clock Eyewitness News team relied almost exclusively on news reports, weather forecasts, and even special-interest features already generated by the station’s 6 O’Clock Eyewitness News team......—the region’s self-styled "News Leader"—repeatedly ran pieces for its Health Beat, Pet Patrol, and Bargain Busters segments in both evening news slots..."If they’re ‘on our side,’ as they claim, what, then, is a purportedly professional news team doing in the four hours between broadcasts?" Amarillo resident and frequent local-news viewer Mark Jette said......"They say that the 6 o’clock news team is ‘the area’s most watched news team’," Jette said. "Especially by the 10 o’clock news team."