The New Commies: Talibangelicals Infiltrate US Government

Well, well!

What have we here?

We have Abu Ghonzalez, at the behest of Preznit Toad-Exploder, trying to turn our democracy upside-down!

And doing a pretty good job of it -- unlike the hellish job they do at actually governing!

Which they don't even actually want to do!

Under Gonzales . . . almost immediately from the time of his arrival in February 2005, [things] changed quite noticeably. First, there was extraordinary turnover in the political ranks, including the majority of even Justice's highest-level appointees. It was reminiscent of the turnover from the second Reagan administration to the first Bush administration in 1989, only more so.

Second, the atmosphere was palpably different, in ways both large and small. One need not have had to be terribly sophisticated to notice that when Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey left the department in August 2005 his departure was quite abrupt, and that his large farewell party was attended by neither Gonzales nor (as best as could be seen) anyone else on the AG's personal staff.

Third, and most significantly for present purposes, there was an almost immediate influx of young political aides beginning in the first half of 2005 (e.g., counsels to the AG, associate deputy attorneys general, deputy associate attorneys general, and deputy assistant attorneys general) whose inexperience in the processes of government was surpassed only by their evident disdain for it.

Drowning good government in the Katrina-esque bathtub. Then putting the ship of state in the hands of Talibangelical fanatics whose sole desire is to sink the ship. End times, you know. So why not?

What fun. What total fun. The children's crusade of Bushist fascist Talibangelical DOJ Hitler Youth suicide bombers hard at work, blowing our democracy to smithereens.

Just like Bubble Boy in his youth, he who stuffed lit firecrackers down the helpless gullets of sentient beings, and blew all those toads to bits. Yep.

And so it goes.

Alberto Gonzalez
Dirty Bush

Holocaust Denier Ahmadinejad Oppresses Females 'Cause "National Security" Made Him Do It: Prefers His Babes In Black Burqas

It's the medievalism, stupid!

WOMEN BEAR BRUNT OF IRAN CRACKDOWN.

(WaPo here.)

Scared you'll be tempted by goodies? Throw a big blanket over them cupcakes!

Scared you'll be tempted by gurlz? Throw a big black bag over that babe!

Or, like, whatever. Get all paranoid about Western influences. Get more attached to power than you already are. Ah well. What a clown is Ahmadinejad.

Iran's constitution dictates that a woman's life is worth half a man's. Women in Iran are second-class citizens, officially segregated from men in many aspects of public life.

Women are required to use a separate and dramatically inferior hospital system. State security officers forcibly remove female spectators from soccer games.

For a young Iranian woman caught at a co-ed party can mean arrest and possibly worse. Women are regularly hanged in public for "acts incompatible with chastity." Those accused of adultery are buried up to their necks and stoned to death.

In January of this year, a teenager was sentenced to death for killing a man who was trying to rape her. The campaign against women in so many aspects of life has had a profound social impact - in a recent survey 25% of Iranian women admit to being unhappy with their gender.

What a medievalist mentality.

Hmm. "Medievalist mentality." Shari'a Law. Not so far from the vaunted Dominionist "Mosaic Law." Fundamentalist Muslims, fundamentalist Talibangelicals. Much of a muchness, no?

At a Purity Ball, Ahmadinejad would fit right in! In fact, that's what he's running.

Medievalist Muslim Iran -- just one big fat overblown Purity Ball.


Ahmadinejad
worst Iran president ever
misogyny
Medievalist Muslim

Talibangelicals Infiltrate US Government

Current attorneygate scandal features a Bushist fascist Monica (Goodling) who lacks a blue dress, but who sure can spread around a stain. (That would be the stain of corruption and anti-Americanism, FYI).

Extry! Extry! Read all about it!

Great stories about Bubble Boy's Talibangelical court-packing scheme, complete with its Bushist Fascist US Attorney-packing scheme conceived (and delivered) via the Satanic Pat Robertson's evil scheming.

It IS a right-wing conspiracy, and they ARE trying to take over. Like them commies, but -- way worse!

On the up side, they're incompetent. And America appears to be waking from her long numb sleep of post-9/11 PTSD.

AG Gonzalez showing characteristic Bushist fascist contempt for the rule of law, here.

"It's a curious contrast that leaders in the Department of Justice would slip a change into law to allow one U.S. Attorney to spend only a few days a month in his district and keep his job, while at the same time claiming to fire another for spending a few days a month away from his district to serve his country," Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement.

Paul Krugman, here.

Globe here.

Slate, here.

Max Blumenthal, here. And this sure ain't what we call "Good News," if'n you catch my drift.

Monica Goodling
Attorneygate
Blog Against Theocracy

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude No. 2983

"Almost everybody in Washington is still calling for Alberto Gonzales to resign. President Bush said Gonzales' testimony last week increased his confidence in him. Bush said he'd had no idea Gonzales could lie like that." --Jay Leno

"Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. Do you know what would happen if Cheney was impeached? George Bush would become acting president." --Jay Leno

"Reviews of Gonzales' performance were mixed. 99.99% of the people who saw it felt he embarrassed himself. The other .01% was this guy [on screen: Pres. Bush]" --Jon Stewart

"In the wake of his disastrous performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales maintains that he still won't resign. ... Really, Alberto Gonzales? You're not going to resign? ...

During the hearings, you said 'I don't remember' or ' I don't recall' over 50 times. Don't lawyers need to have good memories? ... I'd rather have the guy from 'Memento' as a lawyer. My Commodore 64 has more memory than you, and it runs on bong water.

Even the most conservative senators think you should resign. Sam Brownback thinks you should resign, and he's so conservative, he thinks watching 'Will and Grace' gives you AIDS" --Seth Meyers

"Really, President Bush? You think [the Gonzales testimony] went well? Which part? Because the best thing anyone can say about Gonzales' testimony was that he didn't use the word 'nappy,' and he remembered to wear pants." --Amy Poehler

"Over in Washington, Alberto Gonzales testified yesterday before Congress. He is the Sanjaya of the Bush administration. He had a month to rehearse and he still sucked." --Bill Maher

"After weeks of mock testimony, there you have it. Alberto Gonzales doesn't know what happened, but he assures you, what he doesn't remember was handled properly." --Jon Stewart

"The Bush administration extended the tours of Army troops in Iraq by three months, increasing their stay to a total of 15 months. Troops responded to the news, saying, 'I'm gay.'" --Amy Poehler

"The White House said today that they have lost the e-mails requested by congressional investigators -- e-mails that may have dealt with the firing of those eight federal prosecutors. They lost them. Today the administration assured Americans that they are not corrupt, just incompetent." --Jay Leno

"Republican candidate Mitt Romney says that Hillary Clinton is wrong when she says it takes a village to raise a child. But when Hillary's book came out, Romney said Hillary was right and it does take a village to raise a child. For a lifelong hunter, this guy sure shoots himself in the foot a lot." --Jay Leno

"Because of the storms back East, over 250,000 people still without power. In fact, it was so bad in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had to resort to destroying e-mails by hand." --Jay Leno

"President Bush picked [Iraq war architect Paul] Wolfowitz to head the World Bank in 2005. His mission? Use its mighty financial resources to raise the living standards of people around the world. His first beneficiary? Well, his girlfriend.

Last week it was disclosed that Wolfowitz had used his influence to get a promotion and a raise for his long-time paramour, World Bank employee Shaha Ali Riza -- considered to be a foremost expert on the Middle East. Which means -- you know what they say -- opposites attract." --Jon Stewart

Bush jokes
worst president ever

Bubble Boy Builds a Ghetto

"Tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev!"

One thought it was the height of arrogance that Ronald Reagan and his ilk attributed the entire fall of Communism to the Soviet leader's apparent inability to resist carrying out that command. (But it seems like there's never a final height to arrogance).

That was then. This is now.

Now, it's Bubble Boy's Robert Frost Memorial Good Fences Make Good Neighbors Wetback Friendship Wall on the Mexican border.

And this week, in Iraq, it's Bubble Boy building a ghetto!

A nice Sunni ghetto.

Using your tax dollars!

See, you hafta understand that we're pissing away trillions of dollars there, so we don't have to build schools, roads, hospitals, VA hospitals, levees, affordable housing, or spend more money on criminal justice and national health to deal with the needs of sick, old, poor, disabled, struggling, criminally preyed-upon American citizens here!


So, "Yo!

Put up that wall, Mr. Maliki!"


WaPo here.
[Sunni reaction to Bubble Boy's Super Sunni Ghetto, here.]
Sunni wall
worst president ever

Slipping Through the Cracks in the System

It's hard to get someone hospitalized against his will.

It's hard to keep him hospitalized. No one wants to foot the bill, even in this "rich" country.

It's not as if people hadn't noticed VT shooter Cho's sexually harassing behaviors -- taking pictures with his cellphone of women's legs from under his desk, stalking one woman, sending harassing messages to another -- they were noticed. They were reported.

The night [Cho spent involuntarily] at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief.

Cho had been sent to the hospital, and got out again. He didn't meet the criteria of "imminent danger." Hospitals these days are hard to get into, and easy to leave.

. . . Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

The offense seemed "too minor"?

Some bloggers think that way, as well. You know what wussies women are, eh?

Teachers and fellow students at Virginia Tech lived in fear of Cho Seung-Hui in the 18 months before he struck, it was revealed this afternoon.

. . .at one stage students were so scared of his behaviour that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition.

A lecturer was so frightened by Cho's violent fantasies that she made up a secret codeword so that she could alert security without him knowing.

A pattern had emerged around Cho, a pattern that had been noticed in terms of sexual harrassment, total absence of personal boundaries, and violent fantasies, a pattern that was alarming to many.

These people had alerted the system, the system did what it could -- a single involuntary hospitalization.

The same system is in place today.

So what are we going to do about it?

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism

Violence and Virginia Tech: It's All About Exerting Power and Control

"No one imagined what he would do."

But someone was scared of him.

Two grown women were scared of him.

In the end, of course, he pointed out that it was all her fault. His first victim's fault. The Virginia Tech massacre shooter thought "his" girl was going out with someone else?

She can't do that. She's "his."

So he shot her.

Like shooting your own dog, is it not? It's yours. You can do what you want with it.

You can do what you want.

He was possessive, obsessive.

There have been suggestions he was obsessed with his first victim, Emily Hilscher, an 18-year-old veterinary sciences student.

Vivacious and popular, Ms Hilscher was shot with a 9mm Glock pistol bought by Cho last month.

It is said he had become "infatuated" with her although there is no indication she even knew him and, it appears, never mentioned him to any close friends.

He'd stalked women before, taken cellphone pics aimed at them from under his desk, sexually harassed them.

Like some rappers, making music that exploits and degrades women. Like some purveyers of porn, making flicks that aren't erotic, just sadistic, making a buck off feeding sick fantasies of cruelty and revenge.

Like some Dominionists, seeking to have women become the actual property of their fathers until they are married off, to become the property of their husbands. Like some "full-quiver" crackpot Talibangelicals who promote thoughtless, random parenthood to fill the world with the unwanted. Like taking a public pervy interest in your child's sexuality (for very religious reasons! it's not about commodity/virginity, really!) if she's female.

Like some radio hosts, shooting off their mouths, calling women "nappy-headed ho's" and "feminazis."

Like some writers who minimized the incident as a "lover's tiff," a "love row," like some VT security people who failed to follow through after the first shootings because it was just a "domestic dispute."

Like some bloggers, demeaning women who object to being objectified and insulted. Bloggers who think being scared of someone is cowardice, not intelligence, especially when it's a grown woman who says she's scared. (Rondo back to sentence 3).

(Oh, say, does this at all remind us of VT females who reported that they felt threatened by this guy, reported it to authorities, but the authorities considered it too trivial to follow up?)

Ask Markos how this sits with him these days:

The night at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over disturbing e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief. The student declined to press charges, and Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

It's a continuum.

On a very slippery-slidey slope.

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism

Markos Moulitsas is a Nappy-Headed Ho

The funny thing about sexism is like the funny thing about stupidity.

Stupid people are too stupid to know they're stupid. Sexist people don't even know they're sexist.

And when someone tells them, they think it's stupid.

You know, like Markos Moulitsas, who's gotten into a lot of trouble over the years for his sexism (but he isn't! those girls are just hysterical!) and is now in trouble again (but he shouldn't be! those girls are just on the rag!).

So here's the post where he trivializes a female blogger who (uppity woman!) objected (girlie-man girl!) to being the recipient of death threats (pussy!).

You know, objecting to death threats is just, like, so gay! So whiney! So sissy!

Markos is, one supposes, an educated person. In some sense.

So -- what's his frickin' problem?

If he can't say something non-sexist, why can't he just shut up?


(Here's a post from Big Tent Democrat (with whom I am, generally speaking, in love) astonishingly defending the indefensible kos on this matter. Oy.)


Markos Moulitsas
Dailykos
Kathy Sierra

RIP, Kurt Vonnegut

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Kurt Vonnegut

The only difference between [George W.] Bush and [Adolf] Hitler is that Hitler was elected.
Kurt Vonnegut

* George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography.

* Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
Kurt Vonnegut




All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse V
US novelist (1922 - 2007)


WaPo.

Eat Your Words, Big Dick

How's this for a Big Dick smackdown?

NO LINK BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA, SAYS PENTAGON
April 7, 2007

Interrogations of Saddam Hussein and seized documents confirmed the former Iraqi regime had no links with al-Qaeda, a Pentagon report said today, contradicting the US case for the 2003 invasion.

A two-page resume of the report was published in February, but today the Pentagon declassified the whole 120-page document.

According to the inspector general of the US Defence Department, information obtained after Saddam's fall confirmed the pre-war position of the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon intelligence . . .

This position was shored up by interrogations of Saddam, the former Iraqi president, and other top officials captured by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, the report said.

I'm starting to love Robert Gates. Not completely. Not like I love Richard Clarke. But there is that special little thrill again. Snuffed out quickly by Gates' helping Bubble Boy to deploy thousands more National Guard troops. Oh well. Come on, Robert. Do the right thing. Get us OUT of there.
Robert Gates
Cheney
Iraq

Bubble Boy Screws The Troops - Some More

It's a lovely day in the neighborhood. If you're a Bushist fascist.

And blind, deaf and dumb.

You can sleep so soundly.

Here's a perky NY Times story here of a Vet, severely wounded in Iraq, got all bandaged up, then fell through the Bushist fascist cracks. After seventeen suicide attempts, arson finally got him the inpatient treatment he'd needed all along.

His story also involves severe, sustained child abuse (which the NY Times, typically, minimizes, calling his youth "hardscrabble".)

Well, we don't really want to think about all the unwanted, abused, beaten children in the US who grow up to be homicidal and or suicidal, when we can get our rocks off about saving all the innocent widdle petri dish denizens, do we?.

When that kid was little, the way he got beat around, it was awful,” his uncle, Joseph Frank Ross Jr., a prison guard, said.

Lucky there's no such thing as cause and effect in Bushworld, eh?

Sleep well, Bubble Boy. Sleep well, Big Dick.

No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude 5987x

"Bush visited Walter Reed today. When you've got a problem like Walter Reed that needs solving, what better sight than to see George Bush walk through the door? ... He's created so many disasters, I'm not sure he knows which is which anymore. He walked into Walter Reed, and he said he wanted to have it ready for next year's Mardi Gras." --Bill Maher

"Some people still love him. He also spoke this week at the Cattlemen's Beef Association. They love him, but then again, they're used to being knee-deep in bullshit." --Bill Maher

"The president also had a moving ceremony this week for the Tuskegee airmen, the all black aviation squadron from World War II. A lot of these guys in their late 80s now. They were given gold medals, they were thanked, they were honored, and then the were re-activated and sent to Iraq." --Bill Maher

"In an interview, Rudy Giuliani's wife admitted that Rudy Giuliani is not her second husband. Actually, he's her third husband. She forgot about her first. But Rudy understands. When they started dating, he forgot he had a wife, too." --Jay Leno

"Homeland Security announced that there are 600,000 fugitives unaccounted for in America. And those are just the ones in the Bush administration." --Jay Leno

"An aide to the newly elected Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia was arrested for trying to bring the senator's gun into the Senate office building. Webb said he needed the gun for protection. Apparently, he had an afternoon meeting with Vice President Cheney." --Jay Leno

"According to the L.A. Times, insurgents in Iraq are targeting educated people like professors and librarians. . . . If the intelligent are targeted and killed, then the only ones left to lead the country will be the ignorant. So, at least they are getting closer to an American-style democracy." --Jay Leno

"I think the pressure is starting to get to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Did you hear about today? He tried to fire the cast of 'Boston Legal.'" --Jay Leno

"Of course, President Bush is worried too. He thinks this could hurt his guest attorney general worker program." --Jay Leno

"When DeLay was cheating and having sex with all these women, that's when he earned the nickname 'Five-second DeLay.'" --Jay Leno

"According to the latest census survey, the number of people without health insurance has dropped by two million. Duh -- they're dead because they didn't have health insurance." --Jay Leno

"The liberal assault on our president continues, folks. Yesterday the Democrats pulled out their most underhanded weapon yet -- Republicans. . . . Senator Hagel wasted no time in mavericking the president [on screen: Hagel criticizing Bush and saying the U.S. is not a monarchy]. Of course it's not a monarchy. What an outrageous thing to say. The president should confiscate Hagel's land and revoke his privilege." --Stephen Colbert

"Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner, was in the news today. . . . We thought Rudy Giuliani was [his third wife's] second husband. It turns out it's her third husband. He'll never forget 9/11. But anniversaries, he's got to write those down. ... In addition to this, Rudy's first wife was his cousin. And they say a New Yorker can't win in the South." --Bill Maher

"Looks like the Democrats are starting to get a little ballsy. The House of Representatives voted today to order President Bush to bring the troops home by September of next year. It passed barely. The Republicans, except for two, all voted against that. Republican Sam Johnson of Texas said, 'This bill literally hands the enemy our war plan.' Which would be embarrassing ... since it's written on a cocktail napkin." --Bill Maher

"Dick Cheney again this week was in the hospital. He was experiencing discomfort in his leg. And the doctor asked Cheney if he stretches. Cheney said, 'Are you kidding? I linked 9/11 with Saddam Hussein!'" --Bill Maher

"Alberto Gonzales still fighting for his life. Bush said this week that Gonzales has his full support and he has no plans to fire him. Of course, he made that statement in front of a big sign that said 'Adios Amigo.'" --Bill Maher

"You can tell it's Spring. Laura Bush's smile is beginning to thaw." --Bill Maher

"I love the springtime. It's a time of renewal when the old U.S. attorneys are plowed under ... and the new ones are beginning to sprout. It's a time when Rudy Giuliani picks out his Easter dress." --Bill Maher

"Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said today that the toughest part about getting married to his current wife was finding a wedding song that they both haven't used before." --Jay Leno

"President Bush said today that he has legal opinion on his side in the Alberto Gonzales case. President Bush can claim executive privilege, according to his lawyer -- Alberto Gonzales." --Jay Leno

"Commenting on the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq this week, President Bush said, 'It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home.' He then added, 'But -- we need to stay crazy and not do that.'" --Amy Poehler