Macaca Moment

From the film "Gods and Generals". Not a 'look-alike', that is Sen. Allen. 

The Thing Speaks For Itself

This is why there will always be psychotherapists (and jails).

UPDATE: BUY 'EM HERE!

 

 

One Small Step For Faux News

 

A Clearheaded Monday Morning To All

'Atheists in foxholes' demand respect, recognition and honor
Ron BrynaertPublished: Sunday August 20, 2006

"'There are no atheists in foxholes,' the old saw goes," begins the Beliefwatch column in the latest issue of Newsweek. "The line, attributed to a WWII chaplain, has since been uttered countless times by grunts, chaplains and news anchors."

"But an increasingly vocal group of activists and soldiers—atheist soldiers—disagrees," the column continues.

"It's a denial of our contributions," Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson tells Newsweek. "A lot of people manage to serve without having to call on a higher power."

From Raw Story , the rest is here.

What We'll Be Listening To This Weekend

Ya know when you put on a record and immediately the heaviness, the beauty and the accomplishment is palpable?

This is one of those.

A Reading For The Weekend

Many of GT12's friends and fellow-travellers have debated what Calamity Jane's monologue from last Sunday's Deadwood might have been about....

It's beautiful writing and is worth reading and thinking about. So, have fun this weekend:

Jane (to Joanie):
"Can I tell you something? I had some stupid fucking thing, stupid fucking dream I had. I dreamed last night that I was clambering up a fucking creek bed, which is often required of a drunk. It was dark, and I couldn't tell where I was until I cleared the bank and come face to face with Charlie Utter's ugly mug. Now Charlie's, as usual, on the lookout for Bill, that's, as usual, to losing at poker inside the joint we're outside. 'Where are we, Charlie?' Aright, this could be any fucking place in the last number of years, and he said, 'Jane, don't you know, this is the Number 10 Saloon here in the camp where Bill's going to fuckin get killed soon?', Jesus Chri--'how do ya know Charlie,' I asked him, he said 'Don't you know, he says, at some point we know these fucking things, don't you know the world says its fucking name to us? What the fuck, what the fuck do I have to dream about this for,' I say to Charlie, 'wasn't I miserable enough?' 'Jane,' fucking Charlie says to me, 'don't you know this is the night when you couldn't look out for that little girl, when you was at Cochran's and Swearengen come in and scared you, and you went down to the creek to weep, that's where the fuck you're coming from and, and don't you know' he says, 'this is the night you spirit that child from Cochrans into where our stock was outside and we watched down on that little girl and sung to her and you, with the presence of mind to continue the round when I was too fucking stupid, and you said "row row row your boat" and I said "row row row your boat" and we had this. Now, Charlie says to me, don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you. Any evenings in your life you've made mistakes, remember were even evenings you was as most ashamed as you ever thought you could ever be or able to wind up, and don't fucking only remember only the middle of the fucking dream! If I wonder why I dreamed that dream, yesterday you sent Mose to find me and I was nearly dead drowned drunk, and Mose made me get up, and you and me walked them kids to school, and before I went to sleep, you kissed me."

Andrew Young: As much a jerk as the next man. 

We Shall Overcome ... Updated?

Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta, former Representative to the U.N. and, thankfully, now former spokesman for Wal-Mart on why his most recent benefactor is good for the African American community:

“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”

Here's the rest.

A Civics Primer For The President

The Rust Belt Slaps The Beltway:

From the decision of District Judge Hon. Anna Diggs Taylor:

The Presidential Oath of Office is set forth in the Constitution and requires him to swear or affirm that he "will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent powers" must derive from that Constitution.

We have seen in Hamdi that the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution is fully applicable to the Executive branch's actions and therefore it can only follow that the First and Fourth Amendments must be applicable as well.

More analysis at rollingstone.com/politics

Follow The Money

From WaPo:

Washington lobbying firms, trade associations and corporate offices are moving to hire more well-connected Democrats in response to rising prospects that the opposition party will wrest control of at least one chamber of Congress from Republicans in the November elections.

In what lobbyists are calling a harbinger of possible upheaval on Capitol Hill, many who make a living influencing government have gone from mostly shunning Democrats to aggressively recruiting them as lobbyists over the past six months or so.

The rest of the growing (Bank) Account here.

Does This Mean We're Back To 'Fighting Them Over There'

And quietly, quietly, the Neocon Raison d'War fades away....

From The NY Times today:

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”

GT12 Meets Goes To Twelve

We ventured out from GT12 central with correspondent, crony and drummer par excellence' Mr. G. Baker yesterday to attend a Reading/performance by GT12 Honoree Jon Langford. The Reading was held at The Book Cellar Cafe (4736 N. Lincoln) in a truly great part of our town, Lincoln Square. JL was everything we have always said he is, witty, expressive, charismatic and wise. You all must buy everything he has comitted to, uh, CD, and buy his book, Nashville Radio. Do all that at your fave independent bookstore (we are endorsing The Book Cellar if you're in Chicago - you can get a drink there too!). Do This Now. Your Life Depends On It.

Find Out What Macaca Means here. Who Knew? 

Dutch Treat

Gay stork couples at a Netherlands zoo are living up to the mythical nurturing qualities of the wading birds.

Storks belong to the Ciconiidae family of wading birds.

They are known for their faithfulness to their mates, an attachment that extends to their nests, which tend to be large and used repeatedly over a number of years.

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports.
SOUNDBITE: Bram Stiel, Manager, Zoo Park Overloon saying, (English):
''We recently found out that the storks have formed gay couples. We have two homosexual couples and one lesbian couple.''
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

Will To Think

George Will points out that John Kerry was right. Goddang they catch on quick...:

Cooperation between Pakistani and British law enforcement (the British draw upon useful experience combating IRA terrorism) has validated John Kerry's belief (as paraphrased by the New York Times Magazine of Oct. 10, 2004) that "many of the interdiction tactics that cripple drug lords, including governments working jointly to share intelligence, patrol borders and force banks to identify suspicious customers, can also be some of the most useful tools in the war on terror." In a candidates' debate in South Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry said that although the war on terror will be "occasionally military," it is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world."

Immediately after the London plot was disrupted, a "senior administration official," insisting on anonymity for his or her splenetic words, denied the obvious, that Kerry had a point. The official told The Weekly Standard:

"The idea that the jihadists would all be peaceful, warm, lovable, God fearing people if it weren't for U.S. policies strikes me as not a valid idea.
[Democrats] do not have the understanding or the commitment to takeon these forces. It's like John Kerry. The law enforcement approach doesn't work."

This farrago of caricature and non sequitur makes the administration seem eager to repel all but the delusional. But perhaps such rhetoric reflects the intellectual contortions required to sustain the illusion that the war in Iraq is central to the war on terrorism, and that the war, unlike "the law enforcement approach," does "work."

Some Quotes

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

Jesus Is Coming...

.. so why not me?

Poll: Christians 'addicted to pornography'
RAW STORYPublished: Monday August 14, 2006

A poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" indicates a surprising number of Christians are addicted to pornography, RAW STORY has learned.

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries.

The group defines "addicted" as applied to pornography as use on an ongoing basis.
"We are seeing an escalation to the problem in both men and women who regularly attend church," said Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet.com.

The poll, conducted at ChristiaNet.com, used a self-selected sample, and is therefore not a scientific study. Over 1,000 users responded to the survey.

Additionally, 60% of the women who answered the survey confessed having "significant struggles with lust." 40% admitted to being "involved in sexual sin" in the past year.

"No one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors," reads a release issued by the site. "The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy."

"There have been dynamic paradigm shifts in the behavior of Christians over the last four years," explained Jones. "Technology has allowed pornography to flood the market place beyond a controllable level." Jones' ministry provides intervention programs for churches and individuals

Are You Ready To Rapture?

Words sort of fail me w/ this stuff, but I always remember something I learned in graduate school: All the MMPI's Religious Questions are on the schizophrenia scale.

This is forum post from Rapture Ready, a site getting some news coverage. Of course, this post was from November. It appears that the Rapture continues to be just around the corner and has been ever since the 1890's when some poorly educated bible studier invented the concept.

Sometimes, one does wonder if our Pres feels just like this (it would explain a lot):

Everyday and every night my heart pleads, moans, anticipates to go home to be with Jesus. I am ready to go right now...the events around the world are heart breaking...I know we all must hold on, endure...wait...another day...Do you feel that way? I mean, I don't feel like setting goals any longer,,..like I don't need to make future plans...that time is short...many people on this board have said they have cleaned house and made packages for those who are left behind..that's how I feel...I find myself wanting to do something for those who are left behind. My heart tells me,,just hold on, just hold on...and the peace I have...awesome! Do you feel it?

August Sondheim Blogging

Gypsy at Ravinia with Patty Lupone (last seen by GT12
in Sweeney Todd this May). We are soooo happy.

And Happy Birthday to GT12S MAIN MAN, Dan.

Eight Years Between Two Attacks On WTC

'We haven't been attacked since 9/11' is such a lame comment.

From ThinkProgress:

9/11 Commissioner: Terror Plot Shows Danger of Putting ‘All Our Intelligence and Military Resources in Iraq’

This morning on CNN, former 9/11 commissioner Tim Roemer argued that the recent terror plot in Britain illustrated why we need to direct resources from Iraq to the global terrorist threat. Roemer said, “It’s very important that we don’t put all our intelligence and military resources in Iraq and take our eye off the ball in other places in the world.”

He also emphasized that “it’s very important that we capture Osama Bin Laden” because Bin Laden is producing “CNN quality tapes” and “communicating with hundreds of millions of potential jihadist and trying to get them to sign up.”

 

It's the Butt-Boy, Stupid.

My friend Mr. G. Baker points me to a Slate article which stops the easy analysis on Lieberman. Lieberman and 7 other Dem Senators who voted for the war are up for re-election this year. Only Joe has experienced a viable challenger....

Many commentators, including Slate's Jacob Weisberg, have looked at Ned Lamont's victory over Lieberman and concluded much too hastily that the Democratic Party is galloping recklessly leftward. But if that were truly the case, wouldn't, oh, five of these seven be facing serious primary challenges? Even three? (They teach us in journalism school that three makes a trend.) But there aren't even two Democratic senators facing more than nominal primary opposition. Four of the seven (Clinton, Feinstein, Carper, and Kohl) represent blue states where anti-war fever is running high. Why aren't they fighting for their political lives?

Because the Connecticut primary was about one man and one state. It was about Lieberman's excessive fawning over the president. It was about Lieberman's voting not only against the showboating withdrawal resolution introduced by Sen. John Kerry, but also against the moderate and reasonable resolution introduced by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, which merely urged the president to "expedite the transition of United States forces in Iraq to a limited presence and mission." (Lieberman was the only blue-state Democrat, except inexplicable retiring weirdo Mark Dayton, to vote against Levin.) It was about anger—fully justified anger, and from a far larger constituency than Z Magazine readers—at the notion, widespread among the commentariat, that national-security "toughness" demands support for the mendacious and ruinous policies of the Bush administration in Iraq and elsewhere. And, of course, it was about other things besides Iraq, too.

Anti-Science Friday*

Bernard Lewis discussed the Muslim world's rejection of knowledge from non-Islamic scholars as a source of the Muslim world's fall from a center of learning to it's current medieval status. Why did they reject such scholarship? Because cultures' that do not follow the prophet Muhammad are generating 'knowledge' without the enlightenment of Islam. Such culture's (ours ) are therefore simply backward and thinking wrong.

We are ready to join them now:

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

"American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close," said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

Put down your Left Behind book now, put on your thinking cap back on and read the rest here

*apologies to NPR and Talk Of The Nation

Ozzie Thinks .... For Now. 

Sports News

In Chicago we've already banned smoking, foi gras and soon... Trans Fat. This latest Nanny State incident from The Onion:

Ozzie Guillen Fined $10,000 For What He Just Thought
August 10, 2006 Onion Sports

CHICAGO—MLB disciplinary officials announced that Ozzie Guillen would be fined $10,000 and ordered to undergo sensitivity psychoanalysis for the "irresponsible, offensive, and completely unacceptable" thoughts that passed through the White Sox manager's mind during Wednesday night's game.

"During the fourth inning of yesterday's White Sox-Yankees contest, Mr. Guillen's mind conjured a series of insensitive, wildly inappropriate—I would even go so far as to say depraved—thoughts and images," said Bob Watson, MLB vice president of on-field discipline. "Baseball is a social institution with a responsibility to espouse proper values, and there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to entertain thoughts which portray people in a negative or demeaning light, regardless of their race, color, creed, culture, sexual orientation, gender, weight, or personal beliefs."

"Major League Baseball would like to offer its most profound, heartfelt apologies to those portrayed inappropriately in Mr. Guillen's mind, including African-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Caucasian-Americans, Dominican-Americans, 'immigrants,' the sportswriting community, the gay community, the White Sox fan community, the communities of Schaumburg, IL and New York City, the umpiring crew, Yankee right-fielder Bobby Abreu and his female relatives, members of the Peace Corps, and women—particularly the female fan seated in Section 32, Row B, Seat 7," Watson added.

Watson's report alleges that Guillen carelessly composed his thoughts without considering the fact that millions of fans would know exactly what he was thinking in the event that television cameras inevitably cut to a shot of his sour expression. And according to commissioner Bud Selig, the idea of remorse never crossed Guillen's mind.

"Ozzie's thoughts were in poor taste, and the sheer volume and scope of them—all of which occurred over a 17-second span of time—seem to indicate that they were premeditated," Selig said. "I also must strongly emphasize that our organization neither shares nor condones Mr. Guillen's views on statutory rape, regardless of whether or not they are ever vocalized."

Guillen's thoughts upon learning of his punishment earned him an additional $5,000 fine and a three-game suspension.

"I'm not going to change the way I think," Guillen said during an apology late Wednesday. "Anyone who knows me will tell you I can't control my thoughts."

"I acknowledge that the things that entered my mind today might have offended certain groups of people, but you have to realize I didn't mean anything by it," Guillen continued. "After all, my mother is dead, too, and I would never want anyone digging up her corpse and paying drunken, uh, Arabs to do those things to her. And as for people of Middle Eastern origin, I was only imagining those terms being used to refer to just one specific 'filthy raghead,' not a whole region of them."

"Also, I would never, ever do that kind of thing to a person in real life, even if I had a worn-down radial-saw blade and 100 milligrams of hydrogen cyanide at my disposal," Guillen added.

A recent poll indicates that 97 percent of baseball fans were offended by Guillen's thoughts, with an astounding 12 percent of those polled actually having been personally attacked, insulted, or killed within Guillen's inner tirade.

"Ozzie needs to remember that people have families… My 9-year-old daughter was watching at home, and even though she isn't old enough to understand what a 'tire-iron abortion' is, I'm sure she understood that what he was thinking was not nice," said Chicago resident and White Sox fan Brian McVeigh. "And this isn't the last time he'll be on TV. What will I have to explain to my daughter next time she sees Ozzie thinking? Bestiality? Knife rape? Auschwitz?"

Guillen, however, claims that if he truly meant what he thought, he would have just come out and said it.

"Am I going to have to explain everything I think from now on?" Guillen asked reporters. "Do I really need to tell you people that I don't actually want fuel truck after fuel truck to plow into an orphanage? That I don't really want to feed baby rats to [White Sox pitcher] Jon Garland so they chew their way through his intestinal system and expel themselves out his rectum in unison? That I actually love and respect my wife? Can't you people figure this out on your own? I'm not that bad a guy."

"Fucking faggot assholes," Guillen added.

Words Fail Me

Nightmare Scenario In Marble 

What It's Like, Every Day

Meanwhile, back at the 'Centerpiece of the War On Terror'. It's kinda Orwellian, no, psychotically delusional, that the Administration and such want to label any Dem endorsement of ending this thing as 'a disasterous move'. I mean what has Cokie Roberts been drinking lately?

Associated Press:
A suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday among pilgrims outside Iraq's holiest Shiite shrine, killing 35 people and wounding 122. A radical Sunni group claimed it carried out the attack in the southern city of Najaf, warning Shiites they are not safe even "deep in your regions."At least 37 other people were killed or found dead Thursday elsewhere in Iraq, police said. They included five civilians who died when a mortar shell struck a cafe in a Shiite Muslim area of north Baghdad.

Washington Post:
Figures compiled by the city morgue indicated Wednesday that the number of killings in the Iraqi capital reached a new high last month, and the U.S. military said a new effort to bring security to Baghdad will succeed only if Iraqis "want it to work."The Baghdad morgue took in 1,815 bodies during July, news services quoted the facility's assistant manager, Abdul Razzaq al-Obeidi, as saying. The previous month's tally was 1,595. Obeidi estimated that as many as 90 percent of the total died violent deaths.

Scarborough Country?

"The conventional wisdom for tonight's Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994.

"...Because of that logic, I spent most of 1994 fighting Republican bureaucrats on the local, state and federal level who did everything in their power to elect my very moderate opponent in the GOP primary. A week before the primary, the Republican Congressional Committee campaign director let me know that I might as well give up. 1994 would be the year of the Moderate.

"Yeah, right.

"Within a few months of that conversation, scores of right-wing, knuckle-dragging, spear-carrying conservative barbarians like myself ran through our moderate Democratic opponents like Barry Bonds through a bottle of roids. It was ugly. Darting to the base was the ticket to victory for the Party of Reagan.

"....Ned Lamont may be a pencil-necked geek, as Imus claims, but he is the type of candidate that will bring out the Democratic base in an off-year election. That is especially true this year because George W. Bush is even more unpopular than Clinton was when the GOP swept into power.

"My advice to Democratic voters this year is "Go left, young man!"

"There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.

From HuffPo

Well, My Congressman and I See Eye-To-eye

"This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means."-- Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), quoted by the New York Times, on Sen. Joe Lieberman's primary defeat last night.

The Key To Successful Blogging

As someone who has a street in Paris named after him (thanks to some famous ancesters) I think the zeitgiest is just slightly behind me (though reports challenging this are being prepared). I am sure that Rouseau's theories of social interaction will support this assertion. And so will others ASAP and PDQ if they kinow what's fucking good for them.

I read that if Andy Warhol were alive today, his famous epigram would have to be changed to

"Everyone will be famous to fifteen people"

Stephen colbert shows us how:

Be an Expert on Anything
By Stephen Colbert

PICK A FIELD THAT CAN'T BE VERIFIED. Try something like string theory or God’s will: “I speak to God. I’m sorry that you can’t also.” Security experts are in this category: They have security clearances, we don’t. We can’t question the expertise of the NSA because we are not in the NSA.
CHOOSE A SUBJECT THAT'S ACTUALLY SECRET. Dan Brown invented a secret subject for The Da Vinci Code, so now he is forever an expert on this secret subject that no one can challenge. Anybody who attacks the secret subject is, by definition, part of the cabal.
GET YOUR OWN ENTRY IN AN ENCYCLOPEDIA. In the media age, everybody was famous for 15 minutes. In the Wikipedia age, everybody can be an expert in five minutes. Special bonus: You can edit your own entry to make yourself seem even smarter.
USE THE WORD ZEITGEIST AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Ideally, you want to find words that sound familiar but people don’t really know their definitions: zeitgeist, bildungsroman, doppelgänger – better yet, anything Latin. But avoid paradigm. It’s so 1994. If you say the word paradigm, everybody knows you’re a poser.
BE SURE TO USE LOTS OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS. Someone who says the words operations security may be educated, but the person who uses the military abbreviation Opsec is clearly an expert. If I use the term Gitmo, that means I’ve actually been there. If you say, “We’re going to Defcon 1,” it means you probably have the launch codes. Real experts don’t have time for extra syllables.
SPEAK FROM THE BALLS, NOT FROM THE DIAPHRAGM. In the expert game, you’ve got to have sack. That means speaking with confidence. In America, you’ve got to steer clear of nuance and ambivalence – and don’t even contemplate doubt.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE THINGS UP. Never fear being exposed as a fraud. Experts make things up all the time. They’re qualified to.
DON'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO CURRENT KNOWLEDGE. If you worry too much about being up-to-date, you miss out on vast territories of obsolete knowledge just waiting to be reclaimed. Think of leech-craft and all the lonely experts in the use of the little creatures, which are now experiencing a renaissance in health care.
GET AN HONORARY PHD. They work wonders. I have a doctorate in fine arts from Knox College in Illinois. All I did was give a speech, and now everybody has to call me Dr. Colbert.
MAKE A HABIT OF NAME-DROPPING. Say things like “I was talking to John Hockenberry yesterday for my story in Wired. Have you seen my cover?” I plan to use this issue of Wired to assert that I now know everything about wires.
BE FAMOUS. IT HELPS.

Like I Said

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear ... To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes. Every one will be sensible of this, who considers how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases of danger, and how much the notions of ghosts and goblins, of which none can form clear ideas, affect minds which give credit to the popular tales concerning such sorts of beings. Those despotic governments, which are founded on the passions of men, and principally upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye." —Edmund Burke, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful."


Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the quote.

Oh.

[Iraq] is better now…it, it, it’s better and worse if you’ll allow me to put it that way.

Oh?

"Which gives me confidence about the future in Iraq, by the way. You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box. And a unity government is working to respond to the will of the people. And, frankly, it’s quite a remarkable achievement on the political front."

She Who Will Be Stopped

Ya just don't want most of your friends hating you as much as all of your enemies. From Kos ....... Read the Tea Leaves Bill-N-Hil:

Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he's never seen anything like it.

"Lying b** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician."

No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups.

But these weren't Republicans talking about Hillary Clinton. They weren't even independents.

These were ordinary, grass-roots Democrats. People who identified themselves as "likely" voters in the pivotal state's Democratic primary. And, behind closed doors, this is what nearly half of them are saying.

"I was amazed," says Bennett. "I thought there might be some negatives, but I didn't know it would be as strong as this. It's stunning, the similarities between the Republicans and the Democrats, the comments they have about her."

Bennett runs American Research Group Inc., a highly regarded, independent polling company based in Manchester, N.H. He's been conducting voter surveys there since 1976. The polls are financed by subscribers and corporate sponsors [...]

His conclusion? "Forty-five percent of the Democrats are just as negative about her as Republicans are. More Republicans dislike her, but the Democrats dislike her in the same way."

Hillary's growing brain trust in the party's upper reaches already knows she has high "negatives" among ordinary Democrats. They think she can win those voters over with the right strategy and message.

But they should get out of D.C., New York and L.A. more often, and visit grassroots members.

Because we're not talking about "soft" negatives like, say, "out of touch" or "arrogant."

We're talking: "Criminal . . . megalomaniac . . . fraud . . . dangerous . . . devil incarnate . . . satanic . . . power freak." Satanic. And: "Political wh***." [...]

But Bennett says he's never before seen so many N.H. voters show so much hatred toward a member of their own party. He's never even seen anything close.

Things You Won't Catch Our President Doing

 

 

 

Until Aug 25, This Will Have To Do

Bill Maher gets to the root of Mad Mel:

...but I want to know why the demon in Mel Gibson is hatred of the Jews to begin with (I know, the father). Why, when Mels's id is released, its about the Jews fucking everything up, just like it was with Hitler. Except Mel Gibson, when his id is in check, I believe, really knows how wrong that is, and how stupid. He, I believe, at least fights with himself about this.

But he'll never win as long as he's so religious, because, I hate to tell you, the disease isn't alcoholism, the disease is religion.

But that's another essay.

Reality Wins!

I can't express how happy this makes me. This stuff made me crazy even when I was 8. Ultimately, conservatism/Christianism/Religionism is doomed in any battle with facts and knowledge.

Evolution opponents lose control of Kansas school board

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative Republicans who brought international attention to Kansas by approving academic standards calling evolution into question lost control of the state school board in primaries.

As a result of the vote, board members and candidates who believe evolution is well-supported by evidence will have a 6-4 majority. Evolution skeptics had entered the election with a 6-4 majority.

The Full Report is Here

Progress Treads Gingerly On

From Hotline On Call:

The Big Number: 18
According to a new Mason-Dixon poll, 56% of VAans plan to vote in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, while 38% plan to vote against it, a margin of 18%. That's just 18%.

A reader notes these numbers and concludes that either VA isn't as conservative as many think it is, or that widespread opposition to same-sex marriage is tailing off as people turn their attention to other hot-button issues.

Historically, statewide same-sex marriage bans have passed by consistently high margins. In '04, bans passed in KY (75%-25%), GA (76%-24%), AR (75%-25%), MS (86%-14%), MT (67%-33%), ND (73%-27%), OH (62%-38%), OK (76%-24%), UT (66%-34%), MI (59%-41%) and OR (57%-23%). This year, AL passed a ban by an 81%-19% margin.

If the assumption that VA is not as conservative as we all think is to be made, compare the relatively low percentage of people favoring a ban to OR and MI, as opposed to the recently-passed AL ban. If we assume the issue's hot-button potential is waning, it may not be unreasonable to believe that AL was just the last inevitable wall to fall in the South. [REID WILSON]

Why Ohio Is Oh No No

You may recall that in recent weeks we spent a W/E in the Buckeye State. On the last night, a friend of our friend. well lubricated with Cabernet Savignon, practically pleaded with me to 'move back' to OH. Her insistence eventually led me to make some rather nasty commments about the state of the political power structure - i.e. particularly despicable version of Republican Rotten-ness. Such topics were not to be discussed at this gathering and others rapidly moved the talk in other directions.....but....

Let's look at this from the Local (Columbus) paper. The Fine work of Christians:

Ohio GOP in denial over e-mail questioning Stricklands’ sexuality
Sunday, July 30, 2006
JOE HALLETT

Standing over the body with bloody knife in hand, the Ohio Republican Party pleaded innocent.

It didn’t kill the candidate it had just stabbed to death, the party said. And if it did stab the candidate, it didn’t know it was stabbing him. Most assuredly, the party protested, it would never condone stabbing the candidate it had just stabbed.
Only a political Houdini could rationalize that twisted logic. Still, that was the GOP’s explanation — for a couple of days, anyway.

By Thursday, state Chairman Robert T. Bennett knew the party had been caught red-handed and issued an apology to the victim, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for governor. But the scurrilous mission had been accomplished: Let the whispering campaign begin.

The attack had nothing to do with records or resumes or policy. It was brutally personal – and a lie. The message the GOP had asked its followers to spread across the Ohioscape is that Strickland and his wife are gay, never mind their nearly 20 years of marriage.

In yet one more perversion of religion, the state party hired a conservative Christian to do the dirty work, using a computer at party headquarters to spread the rumor via e-mail to "profamily" conservatives. Gary Lankford, headmaster of a Christian home school, started in early July as the Ohio GOP’s "social conservative coordinator."

On July 17, Lankford launched an e-mail titled "10 Things to Know About Ted Strickland." The e-mail noted that Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, they have no children and they live apart, which, in truth, is the case when Strickland is tending to his congressional duties in Washington. Lankford linked readers to an Internet blog written by Scott Pullins, who questioned the sexual orientation of both Stricklands.

Pullins is best known as the former anti-tax crusading head of the Ohio Taxpayers Association. He lost his credibility around the Statehouse when he gave the green light to corporate-tax increases in a budget-balancing bill and later attacked GOP lawmakers for tax increases.

After appalled recipients of Lankford’s e-mail forwarded it to news organizations, including The Dispatch, and reporters began asking questions, the GOP went into its Houdini act. The party didn’t know about Lankford’s attempt to assassinate Mr. and Mrs. Strickland’s good name, a spokesman said. That is not a strategy the party would ever contemplate. Certainly, the party would never condone Lankford’s tactic.
But emerging details about Lankford’s connections make it difficult for the party to disavow knowing exactly who it was getting when it hired him. Lankford was less than two months removed from serving as a paid "voter contact consultant" for the primary election campaign of Republican gubernatorial nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell.

And before being hired by the GOP, Lankford worked for the Ohio Restoration Project, a conservative religious group that has been accused of violating its tax-exempt status by favoring Blackwell at its meetings. The group is headed by the Rev. Russell Johnson, a staunch Blackwell supporter and pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.

In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford’s claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It’s slanderous and they’ve got a case. I’m withholding judgment until the facts are in."

Boxed in by a rash of incoming bad publicity, Bennett did the right thing: He fired Lankford and sent a letter of apology to Strickland, continuing to disavow any prior knowledge by him or his senior staff of Lankford’s e-mail.

Strickland accepted the apology with skepticism, saying it was issued only after "they got caught." Meanwhile, the e-mail is wending its way to "pro-family" homes and echoing in the blogosphere.

"I’m pretty battle-hardened when it comes to politics, and I’m not a novice at this, but I think it’s very unfortunate that they would draw Frances into this," Strickland said.

Sadly, it’s just the start of what portends to be the ugliest governor’s race in state history. By Nov. 7, Ohio voters might be too sickened by it all to go to the polls.
Maybe that’s the goal.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.

We Will Win

Because, it's ultimately about the Benjamins....

Unions line up to oppose ban on gay marriage, civil unions
RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - Labor unions are joining forces to fight a proposed ban on gay marriage and civil unions in what could become a powerful force in the Nov. 7 referendum.

The groups, representing employees ranging from teachers to prison workers, say they are worried the amendment will take away their ability to bargain for benefits such as health insurance for the domestic partners of gay and straight employees.
They are making donations, organizing volunteers and educating their members as part of their attempts to make Wisconsin the first state to defeat a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

AFSCME, which represents 44,000 public service and health care workers in Wisconsin, became the latest to join the cause on Monday with a strong denunciation of the ban from its political arm and a vow to get its message out.

(the rest)

GT12 Celebrates

Here at GT12 Central we are preparing for our more or less annual Summer Meeting. Primary Topics: 'Democrats who will be casting their first Republican vote ever in Cook County', 'Sam Adams Summer Lager vs Goose Island Summertime Ale: Which Refreshes The Most?' and 'Today's Music: What The Hell Is This Stuff?'

Doubtful that you'll here more from us until the after session reprt is prepared. 

Dance Like A Monkey

Welcome The Fuck Back!

GT12 predicts a very wild weekend ahead............................. 

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Don't Translate, Don't Know What The Hell Is Going On

Because we don't need translators that much. From WaPo via RawStory:

Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD The Associated PressThursday, July 27, 2006; 7:17 AM

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."

An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 _ less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country....

.... More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.

That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.

But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.

Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

Let's Face It, It's All A Crusade

From Bartholomew's Notes on Religion and Jesus' General

Samaritan’s Purse, as is well-known, has been controversial for several years, ever since its President Franklin Graham famously called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion”. Isaacs has wisely avoided this kind of rhetoric, and the organisation’s humanitarian efforts do appear to have been appreciated in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the proselytising agenda remains central:

...in the midst of what is being called a humanitarian crisis of major proportions, Samaritan's Purse has continued to reach out through its partners to the war-devastated people of southern Lebanon. "Right now," Isaacs notes, "we're supporting a network of six pastors and over 20 volunteers who are working out through the schools."

...Also, Isaacs observes, a number of Muslim families have asked for Bibles. "So, where people are asking us for it, we're making that available -- that's up to them," he asserts. "As I said, it's a very difficult situation, and resources are tight right now."

But Samaritan’s Purse is not just focused on converting Muslims; its website adds that it is “helping provide food parcels to hungry Israelis living in the shelters”, and it suggests that we should pray for “Muslim and Jewish people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and experience His peace in their hearts and homes”.

Another Southern Option?

Except I've already heard too much about his Baptist upbringing (and how it doesn't resemble the current Baptist Faith at all)......

From the goddess of all journo/pundit goddesses Molly Ivins:

Here's what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as a stroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the entire spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the only public figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity just by being there. [...]

[I]magine, if seven or eight other Democratic candidates, all beautifully coiffed and triangulated and carefully coached to say nothing that will offend anyone, stand on stage with Bill Moyers in front of cameras for a national debate...what would happen? Bill Moyers would win, would walk away with it, just because he doesn't triangulate or calculate or trim or try to straddle the issues. Bill Moyers doesn't have to endorse a constitutional amendment against flag burning or whatever wedge issue du jour Republicans have come up with. He is not afraid of being called "unpatriotic." And besides, he is a wise and a kind man who knows how to talk on TV.

It won't take much money---file for him in a couple of early primaries and just get him into the debates. Think about the potential Democratic candidates. Every single one of them needs SPINE, needs political courage. What Moyers can do is not only show them what it looks like and indeed what it is, but also how people respond to it. I'm damned if I want to go through another presidential primary with everyone trying to figure out who has the best chance to win instead of who's right. I want to vote for somebody who's good and brave and who should win.

To let Moyers know what you think of this idea, write him at PO Box 309, Bernardsville, NJ, 07924.