Catholic Church vs. Amnesty International: Forced Maternity More Important than Torture --

First things first, eh?

The Roman Catholic Church, that kind gentle Jesus-centered bullying harassing supposedly non-political tax-exempt religious organization, is telling its Catholics not to donate to Amnesty International. More here and here.

Why?

Because -- protecting a rapist's right to breed is way more important than torture, or human rights, or slavery, or anything, pretty much.

And because they're never been very interested in womens' rights, have they?


Roman Catholic Church
Amnesty International
forced maternity

We'll Always Have Paris . . . .

Yes, it's true.

We asked Richard Nixon to 'BRING US TOGETHER' to no avail.

Paris Hilton's done what Tricky Dick could not.


Old and young, Bushist fascist and Heroic Progressive, American, French, Russian, Iranian, Iraqi, Sunni, Shi'a -- with regard to Paris Hilton -- We Are One.


Cenk Uygur's great take on our finally discovering a Unified Theory of the Universe, here.


Paris Hilton

Libby's Unpardonable Offenses

Bushist fascist utter contempt for the rule of law takes a deep nose-dive into just "How Low Can You Go?" limbo-land.

(WaPo here.)

(One can only imagine the revulsion honorable conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. (who is unable to turn in his grave, not yet being dead) must feel to see the National Review crawling on its belly for a slimy pardon, calling for Bubble Boy's slimy mercy for Big Dick/Ming the Merciless' right-hand hatchetman, Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby.

And all those nauseating letters puffing off this supposed virtues, all in support of no jail time for him? Feh.

Libby's such a good smart loyal public servant, but he's above the law of the land? It's ok when Libby obstructs justice?

Sure it's OK! It's his country, his rules, his everything.

That's what Bushist fascist sociopathic megalomania is all about.

What America needs is not more megalomania, but less truthiness and more truth.

What America needs to heal is the name of the traitor who outed a covert CIA officer and thus lost all associated humint assets.

Where there's a will, there's a way -- waterboarding Libby.

So, sure, screw jail time for Scooter, just send him to Gitmo.

Food's great.

A nice long Club Gitmo Caribbean tropical vacation -- waterboarding Scooter Libby, just as long as it takes, till he finally spills his guts.

Libby owes us.


Libby
Plame
CIA
Gitmo

(But hey, boys and girls, in case you need some sunshine in your life, here's a real knee-slapper cum laff riot: Bushist fascist nappy-headed ho-in-chief "Dick" Morris tries to blame Bubble Boy's vile Oedipal Iraq War on -- C-C-Clinton!)

SAY, BOYS AND GIRLS, ISN'T BILL O'REILLY THE VERY SAME OLD WHITE CHRISTIAN MALE WHO FORCED PHONE SEX ON HIS UNWILLING FEMALE SUBORDINATE??

BILL O'REILLY: … "[Don't you know] what . . . the far-left want(s)?

They want to break down the white Christian male power structure of which you and I are a part!"

Oh no Billy boy, we all want to keep the White Christian Male power structure JUST like it is.

Not to worry, sweetie.

Plus, if you're a really good boy, I'm sure someone will spank you. For a price. That's what you're looking for, is it not?

Naughty boy.

Naughty naughty boy.



.Bill O'Reilly
sexism

FITZ: CIA'S PLAME A COVERT AGENT

Well, only sexist Big Dick Cheney thought she couldn't be, since she's a gurrrrl.

Or, well, actually Big Dick Cheney knew damn well she was covert, but didn't like it, because she's a gurrrrl.

Or because she was working on things that Big Dick didn't want competent people working on, especially not if they're gurrrls.

In any case, outing a clandestine agent is treason, is it not?

Or only for administrations that actually respect the rule of law?

Even according to Poppy Bush:

Those who compromise our clandestine operatives are "the most insidious of traitors."

Oh, and just in case you hadn't noticed, Fitzgerald asserts in his filing that Valerie Plame was working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Directorate of Operations (DO) on WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION related to IRAQ.

Aha.

Killing two birds with one stone, were you, Big Dick?


Full story here.

CIA
Plame

Talibangelical Monica's Special Stain Spreads; Gonzo Frames Obstruction of Justice As "Consolation." O What a Prize Is Gonzo.

Even Talibangelical Monica knew she shouldn't be talking with Gonzo when Gonzo tried to get her to get their story straight.

Ms. Goodling appeared to contradict Mr. Gonzales’s testimony to the committee this month in which he said he had not spoken to his senior aides since the firings “to protect the integrity of this investigation.”

During a meeting in March before she resigned, Ms. Goodling said, Mr. Gonzales asked her questions that left her uncomfortable. She thought he might be trying to compare recollections, so their stories would be consistent if they were questioned about their actions, she said. “I just thought maybe we shouldn’t have that conversation,” she said.

Brian J. Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement that Mr. Gonzales “has never attempted to influence or shape the testimony or public statements of any witness in this matter, including Ms. Goodling. The statements made by the attorney general during this meeting were intended only to comfort her in a very difficult period.”

NYTimes here.
Monica Goodling
Talibangelicals
US Attorney scandal
Attorneygate

Monica's Special Stain: Dirty Bush' s Contempt for the Rule of Law Spreads All Over

Former top Justice Department aide Monica Goodling . . . [will deliberately refuse] to turn over documents that had been subpoenaed as part of the investigation into the firing of 8 US Attorneys. Goodling is set to testify before the Committee on Wednesday.

"I am concerned, however, about your statement that Ms. Goodling is going to refuse to produce documents in her possession that are responsive to the subpoena," Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the committee's chairman, wrote to Goodling's attorney John Dowd.

In responding to an argument made by Dowd on why Goodling did not need to turn the documents over, he added, "We are aware of no authority that permits internal Department administrative regulation to allow a former employee of the Department of Justice, or any other person, to avoid the subpoena power of the House of Representatives, as that power is central to the House's ability to carry out its Constitutional oversight mandate and certainly trumps internal agency regulations."

At issue were a set of documents that Dowd, an attorney for the Washington, DC law firm Akin, Gump, Straus, Hauer, and Feld, acknowledged his client possessed.

Not that we're surprised by her being in contempt of Congress, are we?

More here.

Monica Goodling
Talibangelicals
US Attorney scandal
Attorneygate

Talibangelical Minister Microwaves Baby

Yes, I'm happy, too, that the Talibangelicals will soon be taking over our lives and our country completely, are you not happy?

Here, a Talibangelical minister, no doubt a loyal graduate of the James Dobson School of Kiddy-Whipping and Puppy-Beating, demonstrates how easy it is for a godly Christian man to throw a helpless infant into a microwave oven, and press "on."

Aren't you glad that, because of all the hard work of thousands of
Talibangelicals like the late Jerry Falwell, you and all Americans can now have and mistreat your very own unwanted baby, too?

Filling the whole world with unwanted babies who grow up to be criminals! Serial killers! Addicts! Murderers! People who beat their own dogs! People who throw their very own children into microwaves and press "on"!

God bless, America!

James Dobson
Talibangelicals
microwaved baby
child abuse

Jimmy Carter Tells It Like It Is: The Boy-Emperor's Got No Clothes

At long last, love that sweet sound of truth, instead of the purulent propaganda that un-American Bushist fascist tubby creepy closet cupcake Karl Rove emits as if it were mere truthiness.

Right on, Jimmy! Tell it like it is!

Bush Is 'the Worst in History' In Foreign Relations, Carter Says

Associated Press
Sunday, May 20, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, May 19 -- Former president Jimmy Carter called President Bush's international relations "the worst in history" and also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative program.

The criticism came in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which reported Carter's remarks Saturday. The denunciation of a sitting president was unprecedented for Carter, a biographer said.


The former president also lashed out at British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Asked by BBC Radio how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, Carter said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient. And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world."

In his interview with the Democrat-Gazette, Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts, by other presidents.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter said. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations . . . has been the most disturbing to me."

Carter said that Bush's policy of preemptive war, "where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened," was "a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helps religious charities receive billions in federal grants.

"As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one," he said.

(Bush's actually the worst president in history on domestic policy, too. Why was Carter so soft on that bit, too, eh?)

More here.

Carter criticizes Bush

GOD SMITES DOWN FALWELL

Well, some people just aren't surprised that a just God finally struck down Falwell.

Falwell just kept on perverting the teachings of Christ.

What's a wrathful God to do?

Apparently, all those tornados and hurricanes and disasters God sent to the Heartland and to the South to get these un-Christian Talibangelicals to finally toe the line weren't heeded, but were misinterpreted -- they certainly weren't enough to bring Falwell back from the Dark Side.

Eventually, God just had no choice but to cull him from the herd.

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America," Falwell said after 9/11. "I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

Falwell once also referred to AIDS as "the wrath of a just God against homosexuals."

Farewell, Jerry Falwell -- meet the REAL eternal hellfire and damnation!

Not to worry, though. You'll fit right in in hell.

(But you knew that . . . did you not?)


Jerry Falwell
Talibangelicals




read more | digg story

CBS Fires Consultant Gen. Batiste Over VoteVets Ad

Retired Army Major Gen. John Batiste has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News over a new advertisement criticizing the Iraq war. The ad was produced by the group VoteVets.



read more | digg story

Propagandist, Talibangelical Commie and closet cupcake Carl Rove is doing a great job at Nazifying America, and CBS is doing a great job of rolling over, putting its belly to the sky, and begging to be reamed again and again.

Feh.

More here.

Did Big Dick Get All Blown Out of All Proportion, By the DC Madam's Ladies of the Night? Or What?

Rumor has it that Richard "Big Dick" Cheney, is not just a dick, which we knew, but a john.

A john using the uh services of the DC Madam's services. Oh, and by the way, ABC has been pressured to bury that story.

Anyone wonder why? Not me. Nope. No way.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Burying a story, that is. Especially a really juicy really embarrassing story. Not that the Iraq war, and Plame's outing aren't really waaay waay more embarrassing, but, you know, some people have no morals, particularly those who tend to behave like, well, dicks. No offense to dicks. Or johns.

Some say that if there were no johns, there would be no need for sex workers.

Some say that if there were, as it were, stiff penalties for johns, the world would be a better place.

Some say that, on many accounts, Big Dick makes the world a way worse place.

What say you, gentle readers?


VP Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, was a client of the escort service of DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. In addition, one of Cheney's closest military advisers and friends was also a client of the DC Madam's Pamela Martin & Associates escort service.

read more | digg story

WMR has confirmed with extremely knowledgeable CIA and Pentagon sources that the former CEO who is on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's list is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort firm. Palfrey's phone invoices extend back to 1996 and include calls to and from Cheney. Ironically, in 2000 Cheney was appointed by Bush to head his Vice President selection committee, a task that enabled Cheney to gather detailed personal files on a number of potential candidates, including Bill Frist, George Pataki, John Danforth, Fred Thompson, Chuck Hagel, John Kasich, Chris Cox, Frank Keating, Tom Ridge, Colin Powell, and Jim Gilmore, before he selected himself as the vice presidential candidate.

The White House saw to it that ABC/Disney killed the DC Madam's story before yet another scandal swamped the Bush administration.

Sadist Infant-Whipper Talibangelicals Practice Jesus' "Love Thy Neighbor" by Dumping on Sen. Clinton. So What Else is New. Jesus Would Be So Proud?

So sue me, but I'm quite tired of Bushist fascist sadism, particularly when it is practiced by so-called practicing Christians. I don't think anyone who advocates whipping real infants with real whips, like James Dobson (himself a survivor of sustained child abuse), and who also is an acknowledged puppy-beater (read his book), deserves any credibility from the media.

But of course, our media is braindead. So there you are.

More here.

Happy 4th Birthday,"Mission Accomplished!"! You Must Feel So Proud of All You've Accomplished in Four Years, Must You Not?

WaPo here.

.
.
.
.















































Mission accomplished

General Eaton's Letter to President Bush on Veto
May 1, 2007

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.

Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.

The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.

The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.

As someone who served this nation for decades, I have the utmost respect for the office you hold. However, as a man of conscience, I could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now.

I urge you to reconsider your position, and work with Congress to pass a bill that achieves the goals laid out above.

Respectfully,

Major General Paul D. Eaton, USA, Retired

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.