Right-Wing Spin: OBL Death Proves Torture Works!

But of course they would say that, would they not?

Torture at Gitmo leads to OBL Death down the line.

Hooked on Health Care

Hello, gentle readers of my poor neglected blog.

Blogging just isn't the same since the Bushist Fascists were finally rustled out of town. I used to think (until maybe five minutes ago, even) that it was my personal life that was posing an obstacle to blogging, and now I fear that is not so. I think it's more the Obama Letdown Syndrome, if you catch my drift. Beyond that, I won't go there. It's very very STFU. See how very shut up I am become? And of my own free will. Now, that's slick.

On an unrelated note, via the great PZ Myers of Pharyngula, a classic bit by eminent Fetus-Firster Rick Santorum, a guy good for bringing one a toothy sparkly smile:

The Frothy Mix of Lube and Feces Speaks:

Think about how they view you," he [Santorum] told the crowd of Republicans. "They view you no different than the drug dealer views the little kid in the school yard. They want to get you hooked, they want to get you dependent. They want to get you relying upon them for your wellbeing. And once they've satisfied you, giving them that drug, that narcotic, then you'll be reliant on them and, by the way, you'll also be less than what God created you to be."

Yes! They want to get you Hooked on Health Care!

White House Stones Afghan Women: "Gender Issues" = Pet Rocks

Yes, the liberal Democrats in Washington DC are throwing Afghan women under the bus, because gender issues are just pet rocks, see, and there's this a big fat effin' bus, see, and somebody's gotta get thrown under it, and that would be you, sweetie.

A senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy said changes to the land program . . . stem from a desire at the top levels of the Obama administration to triage the war and focus on the overriding goal of ending the conflict.

"Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities," said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations. "There's no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down."

The changes come at a time of growing concern among rights advocates that the modest gains Afghan women have achieved since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 are being rolled back.

New rules being drafted by President Hamid Karzai's government would bar private safe houses for women who are fleeing abuse and place new rules on those seeking refuge in the country's 14 public shelters, including forcing women to submit to medical examinations and evicting them if their families want them back. The proposed rules would also bring the shelters - funded by international organizations, Western governments and private donors - under the direct control of the Afghan government.

Even the Soviets and the Shah were better on the great pet rock of gender equity, were they not?

But hey, ladies, don't get your panties in a twist.

No biggie.

"How Is This Poem by Nobel Laureate in Literature Czeslaw Milosz Relevant to The Democratic Party As It Currently Exists?" (originally posted May '08)

for Vast Left



A Task


In fear and trembling, I think I would fulfill my life

Only if I brought myself to make a public confession

Revealing a sham, my own and of my epoch:


We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons


But pure and generous words were forbidden

Under so stiff a penalty that whoever dared to pronounce one


Considered himself as a lost man.


. --Czeslaw Milosz

Obama's Not-Bush Nobel Win Results in Massive Mob-GOP Head Explosion

One must work really really hard to feel compassion for so very many Mob-GOP exploded heads.




Not to mention how hard it would be to feel compassion toward the shamelessly sexist exploded heads of the idiotic faux-left.

[Hat-tip to actual liberal blog, Corrente.]

Bloggers Call Out WaPo for Pro-Sadist Pro-Cheney Propaganda

Washington Post: Official Stenographer for the Pro-Torture Crowd

Barney Frank Slam's Rabid Rightists' "Vile, Contemptible Nonsense"

Barney Frank says arguing with wingnut "like arguing with a dining room table."



Great job.

Like T.S. Eliot Said, "Hurry up, please. It's Time" --- for --- NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE

Now's your chance, you proud Luddites. Hey, look. You can stay proud. You can stay Luddite. You can, as buddhists do, regard your coming to SL so very lightly -- as being like a dream, a flash of lightning, a bubble in water, a magician's appartion.

Impermanent. Not truly existent. Like a rainbow, like the disappearing dew on grass, like mist, yes, I could go on all day, but don't you really want me to stop?

Yes, it's true, time is passing, and now it's time for Carpe Diem time. Yes, I am now actively actually recruiting people to Teh Second Life lifestyle. No, srsly. This means *you.*

It's free. It's Green. It offers tangos. It transcends space. It's so durn super-progressive it would make Orrin Hatch weep,well, it would if he *had*tears.

What's not to love, eh?



Here's your portal to the portal to: NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE

The Baseline Scenario

Oh.

This could be fun: The Baseline Scenario


Hat-tip to Corrente.

VastLeft: An Atheist's Lullaby

From the inimitable Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy:

An Atheists' Lullaby

None Dare Call It Torture. Not Quite "None," But Close

However, turns out that NOT prosecuting torture is a violation of international law. Oopsie.

The United Nation’s top torture investigator has suggested it is illegal under International law for President Barack Obama to announce that the United States government has no intention of prosecuting low-level CIA officers who carried out torture sanctioned by the Bush Administration.

President Barack Obama’s release on Thursday of four Bush administration memos sanctioning torture has been widely praised. However, word that government will go so far as to offer a fully-paid legal defense for agents who applied torture techniques to terror war prisoners has triggered loud criticism.

“Like all other contracting states to the UN convention against torture, the US has committed to conduct criminal investigations of torture and to bring all persons to court against whom there is sound evidence,” Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, told Austrian weekly paper Der Standard.

“They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear,” Nowak told the paper. “The fact that you carried out an order doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility.”

“In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak [...] said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

You Can Never Be Too Rich, Too Thin or Too Traumatized. or, PAY YOUR [expletive deleted/warningintentional use of sexist frame] TAXES LIKE A MAN

Teabagging. [coughchoke spit].

So the cons are trying to tough that one out? Bwahahah. Now teabagging is their BRAND.

And they're too pussy to pay their taxes.

Oy.

So, some otherwise perfectly nice people for whom I was set to volunteer my valuable time and really very high end clinical skills [it's not me, it's my training] to treat Vets with PTSD.

Some otherwise perfectly nice people started saying some critical things about Obama [which I am perfectly capable of doing myself, mind you] and I reminded them that in addition to being a card-carrying buddhist [well, actually I didn't remind them of that] I am a card-carrying bleeding heart liberal [and why else would I be offering to work for NOTHING].

And one of them said it was fine as long as I wasn't a socialist.


No, really.


I kid you not.

I thinktheir idea of being a socialist means being someone who's for universal health care, btw.

So -- what am I, boys and girls? Socialist?

How about "commie
pinko"?

Freeper Fascists Hold "Teabagging" Parties -- No I'm Not Making This Up

Sydney-sider cricket enthusiast Mr. NBFH is always accusing me of being unfairly contemptuous of Republicans.

(As in -- He-- "Dear, there must be one good Republican." Me, after long pause -- "Uh -- there used to be John Lindsay?")

Perhaps this story is why. Or this one. Or you can join the tea-bagging yourself.

Sure, the forces of bushist fascism are lookin' to spread around some new kinda tea-bag-meme propaganda, just like they usta get away with, but it looks like they've swallowed more than they can chew.

No, really the tea bag theme sucks for them, no? I mean, as is said: hilarity ensues. It's really really so getting rubbed in their mugs.

Egg all over their faces? Is that what that is?

Technorati Tags: GOP, tea party, Republicans,

Red China Brown-Noses Dirty Bush!!

Do Not Undo Bubble Boy's Glorious Legacy!!, China begs.

O Frabjous Day!!

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" he chortled in his joy.

Now remember, boys and girls: if you don't put aside your negative future projections just for the day, then the Bushist fascist terrorists win!

No no. Just kidding.

No threats.

But a little positive outlook just for the hell of it wouldn't come amiss.


Please click on, listen to, and most of all, enjoy Steely Dan's "Change of the Guard."

And if you're not going to an actual Inaugural Ball, you are cordially invited to attend the virtual Inaugural Ball in Second Life. It's carbon-footprint free. There are celebratory events going on all day. Just need a computer with a graphics card.) See "Celebrating the Inauguration on Your Computer" at The General's.

Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey --- Good-BYE!!

The Original Version. Well worth a listen.

Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey --- Good-BYE!! Parrty in SL. Inauguration Party Coming Right Up

More info at Jesus' General's "Celebrating the Inauguration on Your Computer.".

Bush: Never Having to Say He's Sorry

Sydney morning Herald: Bush admits mistakes but is unapologetic.

No really. He's not?

Panetta: Anti-Torture American

Why are we even having this discussion?

What is wrong with the pro-torture crowd, anyhow?

Screws loose? Child abuse?

"Obama Picks Anti-Torture Chief for CIA" at Mother Jones.

Lots of Blood for Lots of Hubris

"With this level of self-regard, it’s no wonder that Bush could remain undeterred as he drove the country off a cliff. The smugness is reinforced not just by his history as the entitled scion of one of America’s aristocratic dynasties but also by his conviction that his every action is blessed from on high. Asked last month by an interviewer what he has learned from his time in office, he replied: “I’ve learned that God is good. All the time.”

Once again he is shifting the blame. This presidency was not about Him. Bush failed because in the end it was all about him."

Frank Rich.