Wonderment Du Jour

Sarah Palin. George W. Bush.

Both passionate right-wingers.

Both hard-core Talibangelicals.

Both possessing some personal charm (apparently).

Both clueless about policy.

Both spouting continuous propaganda platitudes.

Both saying un-f*cking-believably stupid things in public.

Both speaking English as if it were a second language.

Both word-salad-ing up the wazoo.


It is sticking to Mrs. Palin.

Didn't stick to Dan Quayle. And it has never stuck to Mr. Bush -- even as he drowned this country in Grover Norquist's bathtub.

Even as he lead his country deeper and deeper into moral and fiscal bankruptcy.


Why might that be, boys and girls?

Thoughts?

"Bitter Infighting Over 'diva' Palin."

Racist Bigot Pride With a Side Order of Deep-Fried Sociopathy Goes Global

Via the Sydney Morning Herald, Racist Image of Obama.

"A local Republican group has distributed a newsletter picturing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on a fake $US10 bill adorned with a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken.

The drawing harked back to racist images from decades ago in America that featured caricatures of blacks eating watermelon and other Southern foods, often suggesting they were lazy or unclean.

Linking Senator Obama, who is the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party, to such stereotypes drew denunciations from various Republican officials."

"Palin Rally Attendee Assaults Reporter," hat-tip to reader AT.

Let's Hear It For Racist Bigot Pride With a Side Order of Deep-Fried Sociopathy

I'm at work, so I can't do much right now.

But I couldn't resist this charmer.

Then there's Joe Six-Pack Speaks, at Jesus' General.

McCain Rally Preacher Erroneously Calls Buddha a "god," Prays to Christian God to Save God's Rep By Causing McCain Victory

Just another day in samsara as usual, home of passion, aggression and -- ignorance.

How offensive is this guy's total ignorance about Buddhism in particular to this card-carrying Buddhist? Mm -- very. (But in a dharmic context.) Plus his um wacko attitude toward several other religions.

Who does he think he is?

Oh, right. He's just being proud and godly, not totally incorrect and repulsive and wicked arrogant. Yuh. Blessed are the meek, dude.

Another fake Christian in need of remedial Sunday School.

Sigh. One of so many.



Dharmic context:**

13.

Even if someone cuts your head off
For having done nothing wrong,
To take on that person's negativities
Through the power of compassion
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.

Hat-tip to Jesus' General

and to TPM.

Cross-posted at Buddhist Jihad.

Todd Palin: Alaska's "Shadow Governor"

Via the Sydney Morning Herald: Todd Palin: The 'Shadow Governor'.

Hat-tip to Mr. NBFH.

RJ Eskow's "GOP's Defense: She Shot The Sheriff But She Did Not Shoot the Deputy."

There's Something Really Really Wrong With These People

More ugly Americans.

Ugly American Bushist fascists, that is, via reader AT, from Blogger Interrupted.

Thoughts on the McCain/Palin Mobs.

McCain/Palin Mobs Part 2, Woman's Child Says of Barrack, You Need Gloves to Touch Him.

John Lewis, Sowing the Seeds of Hatred and Division.

Via Austin Cline at Jesus' General: Political Mergers: Nazis & Republicans Singing Kumbaya Around the Burning Cross.

There's Something Really Wrong With These People

Ah, a lineful of Bushist fascists.

So sweet. So kind. So very Christian.



Are they not?

Don't they make you want to save Western Civilization? From itself?


(hat-tip to reader AT)

McCain and Palin's Lynch-Mob Tactics

More about Bushist fascist mobbism.

Anger at McCain Rally: More Ugly Americans

Still more. Still ugly.

Imperial Presidency, Imperial Treasury & It's Still the Stupidity, Stupid

Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal at naked capitalism (hat-tip to reader A.T.).

Quelle Surprise! Traders Say Dollar May Be "Crushed" By Bailout Plan

Also at Kos, Stirling Newberry's The Way Forward, against the bailout.

Arthur Silber, Now Don't Go Slashing Your Wrists Or Nothing.

Explaining the repeal of Glass-Steagall (and quite properly blaming it all on the Republicans), we have Back to 1929 With John McSame and the Greedheads (And a warm welcome to blogtopia to The Out of Joint Times!)

Obama opposes blank check for errant fat cats.

Scarecrow at FDL via Jesus' General.

Not to mention, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald, and more probably courtesy of the crash and bailout, Obama Surges Ahead of McCain.

For anti-bailout action, FEDUP USA.

GOP Group Pushes Anti-Obama Push-Polling in Five Swing States

More and more deja vu all over again, again, this time in Michigan.

And the wider push-poll story.

We've all been plagued at home by calls from telemarketers. Worse, however, is when a research firm, working at the behest of an unidentified political organization, rings you up for the ostensible purpose of conducting a poll, but actually with the intention of circulating half-truths and rumors about a targeted candidate.

Which is precisely what happened earlier this week, when 750 Jewish voters in five key states - Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan - picked up their phones to discover that a firm called Research Strategies was on the line and eager to gauge the voters' feelings about Barack Obama. The first bunch of questions were fairly innocuous, but, as the minutes passed, some of the voters became so upset by the questions - and suspicious of the questioner - that they began to take careful notes. Unfortunately for Research Strategies, some of the note-takers shared their findings yesterday with journalists. Also unfortunately for Research Strategies, one of those note-takers happened to be Jonathan Cohn, a frequent contributor to The New Republic.

In other words, the firm got busted for doing something that was supposed to stay under the radar. And the firm's confidential client - whose identity will be revealed shortly - got busted as well. It's worth examining this episode, because this is how hardball is played, far away from the stump speeches and TV ads.

Here's Ben Smith of Politico on the GOP group behind anti-Obama push-polling.

The Vicious Mrs. (Palin) On Hubris At No Blood for Hubris

Yes, one is so sorry, one can't currently figure out how to post this here, here, but here's the best one can currently do.

; )

JOHN MCCAIN TOTALLY SUCKS UP TO NAMBLA

Not smart, Johnny-boy.

Just not smart.

Oh, and for those of you who are not yet au fait with McCain's recent and very ill-advised Obama-bashing ad?

Not to worry.

It's like waaay okay to pander to/suck up to organized pedophiles.

Such as, some say, NAMBLA.

THEY don't want anyone teaching kindergartners (and younger) the difference between "good touch" and "bad touch," either!!
Be-leeve you ME! I mean, it's not like pedophiles intentionally target really young children because besides being so fun it's way harder to get a really little kid to testify and be believed in court, is it not?

Not to mention not teaching little kids about body safety as in "Say No! Go! And Tell!"


I mean, why would pedophiles want that kinda stuff to be taught to little kids?

'Cuz, like, you know, then they'd get, like, you know, caught!

But McCain's way more of a relaxed, devil-may-care laissez-faire libertarian when it comes to pedophilia, apparently.

Hmm.

Say . . ..

Sucking up to pedophiles is sort of like so very harmonious with the vicious Mrs. Palin, who remains so very very enthralled with protecting a rapist's all -important right to breed! Wow!

"Bushist Fascist Family Values." Wow!

Breathtaking.

But not in a good way.



----
(Oh, and pardon me if I'm a bit on the rag tonight, dears, I just got back from a compulsory community-organizer-ish event where I saw not for the first time of course, more actual pix of the actual effects of actual child sexual abuse including incestuous abuse of really really little children, and actual pix of actual child physical abuse, and actual pix of ultra-ongoing domestic violence including accounts of spousal murder, and you know all that bleeding heart librul jazz. So why should I not get all pissy about it, eh? )

------
PS Hello, boys and girls!
Let's have a contest!
Who can identify the pedophile in the picture above?
Kudos to the winner! Lotsa kudos. A whole bowful of kudos!
------
And Omigod, here's a related link at Kos..

U-S-A, U-S-A Denver: Leg Shackles, Pepper Spray, Gitmoesque Frigid Air, Sleep Deprivation. Constitution? Just a Piece O' Paper

From the Denver Post, Mobile edition.
YOUNG PROTESTER DESCRIBES DETENTION

Editor's note: The following is a firsthand account from Martin, a young Colorado protester arrested Monday evening when police in riot gear surrounded a group of 100-200 protesters as they marched on 15th Street between Court and Cleveland Place.

"The first thing I really noticed was at Civic Center Park when I was in the 'Food Not Bombs' area. The police seemed to be ready for conflict. They walked through the 'Food Not Bombs' crowd, which was a peaceful group, holding their weapons out and looking at people, really intensely, trying to intimidate everyone. It made us all a little worried.

"I was planning to march with the group that night. We all had different reasons for being there. I was marching to make people aware that they should be worried about our civil rights being stripped systematically right now, and show people that habeas corpus is six feet under. I just think the time we live in has so many deep-rooted problems that I don't understand how people can NOT protest. I'd never been arrested before, and I have no criminal record or significant run-ins with the law.

"The group first gathered outside the City-County building, getting ready to march, but the police blockaded us. I didn't see the pepper spray there, but the whole group decided to retreat because we didn't want to be encircled by the police. So we went to the promenade and crossed onto 15th Street, linking arms, trying to stay as tight as we could and stay together.

"Everything happened really fast. We knew there were police behind us, and that presence was growing larger, with more police, but then suddenly there were police in front of us at the other end of the block. Shortly after that, the police encircled us. A lot of people were able to escape before they closed the circle, but the rest of us were inside, along with a journalist from Brooklyn, and a woman who started writing on her laptop about what was happening, and some photographers. There were many people who weren't protesters, just citizens, who were in the encircled group.

"We moved to the sidewalk - a few people stayed in the street - because we didn't want a confrontation, but it didn't matter.

"People started pleading: 'Let me go,' 'I want to go home.' The police started using the pepper spray. Some of the police on horses were whacking people with their batons. I was told later that the police were telling us to disperse, but I didn't hear them say that. And where would we go? The police were all around us, not letting us leave.

"We asked why we were being detained, but they wouldn't talk to us. They told us to sit down, and we sat down.

"Then they said that anyone with a photo I.D. could show it and be let out of the circle, and anyone without I.D. would be arrested. I saw a handful of people hold up their I.D., and police walked up to them, grabbed them and took them out. I don't know if they were arrested.

"They set up an arrest squad - two police per protester, and talked about who to pick - 'Get this one with the bandana' or 'Get that one in the black.' They were targeting individuals.

"The arrest process was: The two officers picked you up, searched you, took your bag and everything except your money. They put you in blue plastic handcuffs and walked you to a line where you stood in front of a camera, holding a placard with the charges against you, and then there was footage of the officer who'd arrested you. All I can remember is the officer claimed I'd done some things I had not done - said I'd thrown rocks, which I didn't do; I didn't see anyone with rocks. I asked him why he said that when I hadn't done it. His answers were vague, ambiguous.

"Then I was taken to another area, loaded onto a bus that took us to a warehouse in a Denver industrial park. There were Special Operations Response Team police there, who took our pictures again, printed both hands - not just the fingers, but our whole hand rolled onto the ink - and did a medical check. Then they assigned us to different chain-link cages, maybe 15 feet by 15 feet, all chain link, with a padlock. Between 10 and 20 of us were in one of those cages. Females and males were separated.

"They pumped in cold air, in these big white tubes, all night and all day the next day. It was freezing in there. I was lucky; I had a jacket, but other people were in shorts and T-shirts. We asked them to turn off the cold air, but they didn't.

"Eventually they put all of us in metal leg shackles, and re-handcuffed us in pairs, with our right hands together — right hand to right hand - so it was difficult to move. . .

"We were utterly confused. We did not understand why we were being detained. We hadn't been read our Miranda rights. We didn't know what we'd done to merit such a violent response, or why the Special Operations police were needed.

"After they shackled us, they put us in a van with no windows, and took us to the courthouse, where we were supposed to speak with a judge to hear the charges against us. We were still handcuffed, right hand to right hand. They took us in an elevator that went up to a jail cell, and we were told to watch a video of a judge telling us our rights, through the bars. It was surreal, like being in a futuristic movie, like "1984" or "A Clockwork Orange."

"Eventually, at about 2 a.m., we got to see a real judge, who explained our rights to us, and explained the charges. There was a lawyer, an angel, who explained everything in plain language. There were five charges against me: Blocking a public thoroughfare, not abiding an order to disperse, throwing rocks and missiles, loitering, and begging. At times, I had begged them for water, when we were sitting down on 15th Street before going through the arrest process.

"The attorney explained we had three choices: Plead guilty and post a $300 bond ($500 if you were from out of state), or accept a plea bargain that dropped all the charges but one that you had to pay $141 for, or plead not guilty and either post your own bail or wait in jail till your court date. But nobody had given us a court date. So I took the plea bargain, because I didn't have the money for bail.

"Then they walked us out of the courthouse, and we saw another group from the protest walking in. We were the first group to meet with a judge and a lawyer.

"Then they took us back to the warehouse. The only place to sleep was on a chair, if you got one, or on the concrete floor.

"I was really worried because I could not get any responses from the police. We kept asking how long we'd be there, when the bus was coming, and they'd keep saying, 'It's coming.' It felt inhumane, utterly terrifying. If they'd answered some of our questions, I think people would've been less terrified, less frightened, but I think the police were intentionally fatiguing us. They'd keep us for long periods of time in one cage, and then re-handcuff us and move us to another cell, as if something was about to change, but it didn't. It was all psychological.

"In the cells, we talked to each other about where we were from, the places we'd been, and if we'd been in situations before. We reassured each other of our rights, made sure everyone knew the People's Law Project hotline number, and that it was really important to get names and badge numbers. . . .

"I got out on Tuesday around noon. We learned we were the first wave of protesters to make it all the way through the process — 7 p.m. last night to noon today. . . .

Update here at Democracy Now.
More here.
Hat tip to anon for update links, top pic.

Department of No F*cking Comment: If You Are Easily Triggered, Don't Read This Story Either

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Here's a real Philadelphia story, via the Sydney Morning Herald.

Starved Disabled Girl Was Failed At Every Turn.

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 19.05 kg.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the [Philadelphia, PA] city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her nappies or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."

"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"

The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held today without bail. The social workers - suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case - face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death . . .[and the story actually gets worse . . . .]

So, you know, really I just have no f*cking comment.

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The Brave New World of Dirty Bush

He's a generous guy, our Preznit Toad-Exploder. He's always working hard to give us all a little bit more of his special way of being.

He's Bubble Boy. He's unique.

He's Dirty Bush.

Among his many special gifts:

Moral bankruptcy.

Fiscal bankruptcy.

Foreclosures.

And now, his drowning of America in Grover Norquist's stinky bathtub results in --death by foreclosure.

OWNER SHOOTS HERSELF AFTER FORECLOSURE

A US woman shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that, by the time it foreclosed on her house, she would be dead.

Police said 53-year-old mother Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself shortly after faxing the letter at 2.30pm (4.30am AEST) on Wednesday.

Her husband had petitioned unsuccessfully for bankruptcy three times.

The mortgage company phoned police in Taunton, Massachusetts, who found Mrs Balderrama's body an hour later.

The auction was scheduled to start at 5pm and interested buyers arrived at the property while her body was still inside, Taunton police chief Raymond O'Berg said.

Business -- as usual.

(Oh, and don't miss toe-tapping airport mensroom anon sex solicitor Senator Larry Craig's very special support of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Shhh.)

Rummy, Cheney, Bushist Fascists: Torture Gets Them Hard, Says Beaver (no, I'm not making this up)

Why aren't all the members of the pro-torture crowd safely rotting in jail?

On Tuesday, December 2 2002, Donald Rumsfeld signed a piece of paper that changed the course of history. That same day, President Bush signed a bill to put the Pentagon in funds for the next year. The US faced unprecedented challenges, Bush told a large and enthusiastic audience, and terror was one of them. The US would respond to these challenges, and it would do so in the "finest traditions of valour". And then he signed a large increase in the defence budget.

Elsewhere in the Pentagon, an event took place for which there was no comment, no fanfare. With a signature and a few scrawled words, Rumsfeld reneged on the tradition of valour to which Bush had referred. Principles for the conduct of interrogation, dating back more than a century to President Lincoln's famous instruction of 1863 that "military necessity does not admit of cruelty", were discarded. He approved new and aggressive interrogation [torture] techniques that would produce devastating consequences.

I don't know why they're not safely rotting away in jail.

[Staff Judge Advocate Lt. Col. Diane] Beaver recalled that smothering was thought to be particularly effective, and that [Major General Michael E.] Dunlavey, who'd been in Vietnam, was in favour because he knew it worked.

The younger men would get particularly agitated, excited even: "You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas." A wan smile crossed Beaver's face. "And I said to myself, you know what, I don't have a dick to get hard. I can stay detached."

Beaver confirmed what Dunlavey had told me, that a delegation of senior lawyers came down to Guantánamo well before the list of techniques was sent up to Washington. They talked to the intelligence people, they even watched some interrogations. The message from the visitors was that they should do "whatever needed to be done", meaning a green light from the very top - from the lawyers for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the CIA.

I hope they begin rotting away in jail very soon, and for a very very long time.



Full story at the Guardian, here.

Effeminate Tubby Druggie Rush Limbaugh Ravaged By Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome: O my!

Tubby Druggie Rush is really hurtin', people. He's cryin' out like a wussy mama's boy, he's cryin' out fer help. He's got TDS.

Poor boy's got TDS. Yikes.

Rush just can't get it up anymore, Swiftboat-smearwise. He ain't UP to it, even via chemical assist.

Should we snag this Sniggering TDS Fratboy some actual Viagra? Some compassion Oxycontin?

Well, sure, it's too little too late, but I think Rush Limbaugh needs to be on a permanent indwelling Testosterone Drip. Big-time.


Limbaugh returned to "testicle lockbox"; claimed Clinton "reminds men of the worst characteristics of women."

Rush Limbaugh revived his claims about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's so-called "testicle lockbox," stating:

"Clinton's testicle lockbox is big enough for the entire Democrat (sic) hierarchy, not just some people in the media. . .. Her lockbox, her testicle lockbox can handle everybody in the Democrat (sic) hierarchy."

Limbaugh later claimed that Clinton "reminds men of the worst characteristics of women they've encountered over their life: totally controlling, not soft and cuddly. Not sympathetic. Not patient. Not understanding. Demanding, domineering, Nurse Ratched, kind of thing."

Wow. Freudian, or what? I thought castration anxiety went out, like, AGES ago. Decades.

For healthy males, it's a non-issue. But not for sniggering fratboys like Chris Matthews, Tucker ("Bow-tie & Pink Shirt) Carlson, Lester Holt, Shuster, O'Reilly.)

And really not for Tubby Druggie Rush.

He's got it BAAD.

Yep. Someone definitely HAS Rush's balls in a lockbox.

I think it's probably Mommy -- Rush's Mommy. He should be asking her, please, Mommy, please, let my testicles go.

Mommy didn't love Rush enough. We all wonder -- why not? Was Rush an unwanted child? Hm? His Mommy didn't love him? Was she controlling, domineering, or did she just think her little boy was just a nasty little pig? We don't know. But we do know that he has no testosterone.


RUSH LIMBAUGH: POSTER BOY FOR CASTRATION ANXIETY.

And that's just not pretty.



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George W. Bush and the Bushist Fascists == America's Batterers

What is Domestic Violence in the Context of Politics?

Let's refer to some classic DV literature:

Domestic violence is a pattern of many behaviors directed at achieving and maintaining power and control over [others]. Power and control tactics certainly include acts of physical violence of varying degrees of severity. However, in many abusive relationships, abusers use a variety of other tactics directed at controlling their partners.

(Remember: you do not have to be physically hit to be abused.)

Emotional Abuse:
Abusers often speak to victims in humiliating and degrading ways geared at promoting a sense of worthlessness. . . (Karl Rove, are you listening? ) These messages are conveyed both blatantly and subtly, leading victims to question their own value and abilities.

Isolation:
It is common for victims of political domestic violence to become isolated from family, friends, and others who could provide them with emotional or practical support.


Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming:
Acts that serve to both distort reality and normalize abuse include minimizing or denying the seriousness of abusive acts and blaming the victim for "causing" the abuse (It's all the Dem's fault). Batterers often tell victims that "they were only kidding" about emotionally harmful or degrading statements. (Bush putting his hands on the female Chancellor of Germany).

Abuser Perceived Entitlement:
Batterers believe it is their entitlement to maintain power in a relationship and control their intimate partners. (Bush/Cheney treat the opposition party this way -- and use sexist language to portray their opponents as weak, nannystate, helpless). They believe that big decisions should be theirs to make. (No compromise on with the opposition -- only their way will do). Their perspectives about the relational roles of males and females tend to be traditional and male-dominant. They commonly believe it is their job to discipline their partners, physically, emotionally, and by denying victims necessities for themselves and the children.


Coercion and Threats:
Common coercive behaviors include: threatening to do something to hurt the victim; threatening to leave the victim; threatening to commit suicide; threatening to hurt her family members or friends; and threatening to report her to a welfare agency or the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Victims quickly learn that batterers have no qualms about carrying out their threats and batterers use the victims’ awareness of this fact and their fear to maintain control without having to commit acts of physical violence. (Compare the post-9/11 fearfulness of doing anything that might go against the Bushists' worldview for fear of being labeled soft, pro-terrorist, giving aid and comfort to the enemy. We are only now waking up from this post-traumatic nightmare that put us under their power and control).

Intimidation:
Victims learn to interpret and fear batterers’ looks, expressions, gestures or actions. (See: America's submissive press corps.) These behaviors may be so subtle that others may not notice. Batterers also commonly destroy victims’ property, especially those things that hold sentimental value. Batterers may torture or kill pets. Batterers frequently own weapons and tend to brandish them to intimidate their victims. Unfortunately, batterers also use these weapons far too frequently.

Do you see the pattern here, boys and girls?

Do you understand how Bush's pissing away of the surplus, and creating in its stead a massive, bleeding deficit is akin to an abuser taking away a victim's economic power?

Do you understand how Bush's wielding the weapon of fear over the American people has terrorized us? And disempowered us? Made us numb, frozen, barely able to call 911 and ask for help in escaping?

Did you notice how Bush blamed the victims of the sub-prime mortgage scandal for having been bilked?

Were the Republicans not intent upon making us feel powerless and making us be powerless?

Now, Americans feel a loss of autonomy, in their own lives and in the nation. Their politics are driven by the powerlessness they feel to control their financial well-being, their safety, their environment, their health and the country’s borders. They question whether each generation will continue to ascend the economic ladder. That the political system seems so impotent only deepens their frustration and their insistence on results.

As she considers this campaign, Susan C. Powell, a 47-year-old training consultant who lives in a Kansas City suburb, said that what she feels is not so much hopelessness as doom.

“I know plenty of people who are doing worse than they were,” Ms. Powell said, “and nobody’s helping them out. People’s incomes are not keeping pace with inflation. People can’t afford their homes. People in their 30s and 40s, middle-income, and they don’t have jobs they can count on or access to health care. How can we say that we’re the greatest country on earth and essentially have the walking wounded?”

NY Times on Dirty Bush's Battering of America, America's Dark Mood.




(Earlier work based on information from the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence)

Bush Torture Drives Aussie Hicks Insane -- No Release from Inner Gitmo, Ever

It all depends upon what is is.

And the rest of it depends on what isn't isn't.

It depends upon what Dirty Bush's Bushist fascists declare isn't torture.

Sticking bamboo slivers under people's fingernails, though a classic oriental method of torture, isn't torture to Dirty Bush's pro-torture crowd.

Why not? Two reasons.

1. It doesn't kill you, the pain merely makes you wish you were dead.
2. The people we're doing it to aren't really people. They ain't yoo-man, they're terrists. Ee-vil terrists.

It's like stepping on bugs. We don't care. They're just bugs.

OK, so one of these bugs, an Australian bug named David Hicks, held for some time at Hotel Intercontinental Abu Ghraib Gitmo, was released from Gitmo, and now is about to be released from an Aussie jail.

But the torture he endured there has made it impossible for him to leave. The Dirty Bushists have scrambled his brains so bad that he's a useless, agoraphobic, broken shell.

The Melbourne forensic psychiatrist Paul Mullen, who assessed Hicks at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists in February 2005, said the confinement, institutionalisation and the removal of all initiative would have induced agoraphobia, obsessional behaviours and irrational fear.

Terry Hicks, who saw his son twice at Guantanamo Bay and has visited him regularly at Yatala, said: "It was not good - he had an anxiety thing. They told him he had no choice, he had to go [to Holden Hill] and they put him in the van and took him away. He just regressed back to Guantanamo Bay and he had such anxiety they had to bring him back."

Hicks's agoraphobia and panic attacks are hallmarks of prisoners who have spent prolonged periods in confined isolation. Professor Mullen said he would be suffering psychological damage from his trauma, which included being imprisoned in a container in the hot sun, believing he had been left there to die.

And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Preserving the important "moral values" of Western civilization?

Such as regarding other humans as bugs.

Then squashing them under one's foot.

While singing "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

Because it so is.


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Halliburton/KBR Rape Room gang rape survivor may have been drugged with G/Special K/Rohypnol

The former Halliburton/KBR employee accusing the company of attempting to cover up her gang-rape in Iraq is now speaking out about her ordeal -- imprisoned in container, she alleges; told by her superiors to shut up or lose her job.

read more | digg story

'Tis the Season to Be Jolly -- Dirty Bush-Style, Ho Ho Ho. (Not that kind of ho.) Ho Ho Ho.

Heard enough about KBR Rape in KBR Rape Rooms this holiday season?

I certainly have.

Thus, in the spirit of Christmas, which, as all three constant readers of this blog know full well we celebrate (Buddhist-style -- that would be the peace on earth/good will to men part, the Golden Rule part, and the actual teachings of Jesus part) I humbly offer up these delectable jollities.

(Hat tip to Malcolm of Australia, who cleverly left NE prior to our getting smacked down by several significant storms of snow. Good on ya.)


A TRUE LIST OF MORONIC COMMENTS, OR, WHY THE RIGHTWING CULTURE OF STUPIDITY (SHILLED BY THE SEDITIOUS MEDIA WHORE MEDIA) IS A REALLY REALLY BAD THING

(and if you can't figure out who uttered these utterings, you're reading the wrong damn blog)

"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." -- at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002


"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." --Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001


"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -- Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001


"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." -- Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001


"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004 (video clip)

And my very favorite so far:

"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the
joy of Hannukah." -- at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

Nor can I, Bubble Boy. Nor can I.