K.O.

I like MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, although I have to admit, his bombastic delivery sometimes makes me cringe. When Keith is at his best though, he ratchets the bombast down a notch or two and just rakes the idiot conservatards over the coals with truthiness -- exactly like he does in this video clip.

It's been a few months since I put up an Olbermann clip, but this one is worth a viewing.






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Beck and Coulter -- The Gruesome Twosome . . .

How much more evidence is needed to prove that the right wing conservatives in this country are just flat out bug-shit insane?

What's that you say? You're still not entirely convinced?

Hmmmm -- fair enough. Pehaps this might help you make a determination one way or the other.





or,





I rest my case.


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What's a little tyranny among friends? . . .

I don't know -- call me krazee or warped -- especially considering my publicly stated anti-war beliefs -- but I'm still convinced to this day that America attacked the wrong country after 9/11.

This story is reason enough to make me feel that way, but perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and that has always made me ponder the possibility that maybe -- just maybe -- Rumsfeldian shock and awe should have been visited upon the Saudi Arabia Royal compounds instead of a defanged and defenseless Iraq.

I suppose I'm being much too unrealistic though, especially knowing that the Bush Family and the Saudi Royal Family were basically one big crude (as in oil) Family. Hell, the Bushies had even virtually adopted one of the Saudi Royals into their clan and had proudly bestowed upon him the lovely nickname of "Prince Bandar Bush".

If I recall, after Iraq had been invaded and the dreaded Weapons of Mass Destruction turned out to be the neo-con's and Dick Cheney's collective wet dream, the justification for the invasion by the Bushistas instantly morphed into the noble, American flag-draped cause of saving the beloved Iraqi people from the oppressive terror of the evil borg tyrant Saddam. The grateful Iraqis would throw flowers at us and kiss our dusty combat boots! Remember that?

Of course, that crock of pseudo-patriotic bullshit went over quite well with the Fox Noize bozos and their rube viewers along with the rest of the media lapdogs who cheered on the Bushies as they marched into Baghdad and choreographed that cute little skit of toppling Saddam's statue. Yet, any C+ student of mid-east history could have told you that the Iraqi people under Saddam had a better quality of life and more freedoms than Saudi citizens any hour of the day and any day of the week and by and large were fairly content with the way the admittedly brutal Saddam was keeping the Shiites and the Sunnis from each other's throats.

Alas, there was no shock and awe fire-bombing and invasion to free the Saudi people. That charming honor was reserved solely for the Iraqis.

The bottom line is -- as the article about the woman reporter being sentenced to 60 lashes referenced above connotes, the Saudis run just as brutal and arguably a more brutal and oppressive regime than Saddam could ever dream of. The nationality of the majority of the 9/11 hijackers was Saudi. Those facts are only in dispute from ignorant know-nothings who get their news from Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Can somebody, anybody, please coherently explain to me why the Saudi government is still considered an American "ally?" Perhaps the CEO's and shareholders of Exxon-Mobil, Texaco, ConocoPhilips, Shell/BP and Chevron can answer that question for us?

What kind of Kafkaesque argument can be mounted in defense of a government that thinks this is an appropriate method of dealing with those citizens who dare question the validity of their state-sponsored superstition?:

[Saudi state ordered beheading of an "infidel"]
















I'm not trying to be difficult here -- well, maybe I am, but it's what I do. I just want someone to rationally explain to me why it is that Iraq was worth expending 5000 American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian lives, looting the American taxpayer's treasury, and irreparably damaging America's national honor and world image on. Yet Saudi Arabia goes merrily on it's tyrannical way. What's wrong with that picture?



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Hurricane Grayson intensifies in it's Destructiveness!! Lol.

While it is true that Alan Grayson will not be winning any awards or accolades for gentility or bipartisan camaraderie anytime soon, for us progressives who've been wandering the lonely political wilderness all these years waiting for a Democrat with spine to stand up and aggresively engage the knuckle-draggers on the right and their ever churning lie machine, he's a gleefully welcome breath of fresh air.

Going on Chris Matthew's show and nonchalantly describing Dick Cheney as a vampire with blood dripping from his teeth is certain to rile up the Fox Noize bozos and their zombie army. And frankly it would come as no shock to me to learn that Grayson made that over the top statement with just such mischief firmly in mind.

Regardless, it's top-notch political entertainment that skews quite nicely to my sensibilities and that's just A-OK with me. Go get 'em Alan!!






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Dick Cheney and the Art of Trusting Generals . . .

I love it when the conservative wing nut nabobs are running around nattering about how Obama needs to "trust his Generals! trust his Generals!"

The part they cynically and conveniently leave out in their bleatings is "trust the Generals! --- but not the ones who disagree with us!"

Dick Cheney and the apple of his eye daughter Liz (too bad that apple is bitter and worm infested) have been running around Washington these past several months, blitzkrieging the talking head shows and desperately attempting to rewrite history and prop up all of the Bush and Cheney lies and fuckups that resulted in one of the most catastrophic foreign policy outcomes of any administration in the short history of this country.

Anyhow, Darth Cheney was at some sort of "Bush administration reunion" in Washington, D.C. the other night. While there he was presented with the super-prestigious "Keeper of the Flame" award by some shadowy, neo-con outfit calling themselves The Center for Security Policy. After receiving his award, Dick looked on proudly as beloved Bush administration convicted felon Lewis "Scooter" Libby was honored with the "Service Before Self" award (no irony to see here folks, move along now).

And just to put an exclamation point on the evening's ghoulish festivities, former Bush crime accomplices Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and undersecretary Doug Feith were also in attendance. A gathering of monsters on the eve of Halloween -- how fitting.

Anyhow, Cheney whined and bellowed about Obama stating -

"The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger. It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

That bit of self-serving hubris was enough to prompt former Bush administration Army General - Major Gen. Paul Eaton to sit down and pen a short op-ed.

The ka-ching quote from Maj. General Eaton:

"The only time Cheney and his cabal of foreign policy 'experts' have anything to say is when they feel compelled to protect this failed legacy. While President Obama is tasked with cleaning up the considerable mess they left behind, they continue to defend torture or rewrite a legacy of indifference on Afghanistan. Simply put, Mr. Cheney sees history throughout extremely myopic and partisan eyes."

Chickenhawk Dick Cheney puts his faith in the likes of traitors such as Scooter Libby and grossly incompetent military strategists such as Don Rumsfeld and Doug Feith. I'd prefer to put my faith in the words and deeds of men like Gen. Eaton -- an honest man, a highly decorated career soldier, and the father of a son who is currently serving in the Afghanistan theater.

So my advice to Obama is -- yes -- trust the Generals -- just take the time to listen to all of them, not just the ones who kiss your ass and nod yes to everything you say. Because those were the kinds of Generals Bush and Cheney surrounded themselves with and look at what it wrought.

Just saying . . .


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TGI almost F -- MVloggin' -- with Procul Harum

Beautiful, haunting melody. I don't listen to this song too often. Not because I don't like it - on the contrary - I adore it. Problem is, it usually takes several days to get the damn tune out of my sub-conscious after hearing it.

Anyhow, how can you go wrong with a song that has lyrics like these?:

We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

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Fox Noize --- Care for some Cheese with that Whine guys? Lol!

I've been waiting for someone to put together a video montage like this and thankfully the folks at Media Matters were up to the task. Not that it would have been a difficult or complex project to cobble together this kind of video, especially since there is such a mountain of recorded evidence to work from, but I'm glad they took to the time to do it nonetheless.

Frankly, Fox's whining about the mean ol' Obama administration picking on them is nothing short of a borderline, psychotic level of hypocrisy of such a grand and Faustian nature, it boggles one's mind to contemplate the motive behind it.

Regardless, the fact that somebody -- anybody -- started fighting back and pointing out the elephant in the Fox studio and calling them out on their lies and journalistic malfeasance hopefully signals the beginning of the end of human crud Rupert Murdoch's destructive foray into the business of news reporting on the American airwaves.






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Well . . . that explains a whole helluva lot doesn't it?

McCain Vote Might Mean Low Testosterone Later
Study Shows Testosterone Levels of McCain Supporters Dropped on Election Night

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Oct. 22, 2009

Republican men nationwide may have experienced a drop in testosterone levels the night Barack Obama was elected president, according to the results of a small study that found another link between testosterone and men's moods.

No wonder the wingnut Republican guys are so surly and whiny these days --- Obama stole their Mojo! IMAO!!







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Hurricane Grayson continues to cut a wide swath of destruction through the GOP community ...

In this episode, Grayson asks right-wing Georgia Congressman Paul Broun (he of the "everybody has health care - use the emergency room" statement) to explain the constitutionality of passing legislation targeting a single organization (ACORN in this case). The fumbling, sputtering and protesting by Broun and his fellow Republicans that follows is classic entertainment.

The key quote from Grayson:

“We are trampling on people’s Constitutional rights. And I think it’s unfortunate that the mania that exists on the other side of the aisle regarding this one organization, and we know why that mania exists, it’s because they’ve registered an awful lot of Democrats, continues to distort and waste the time of this committee and many other committees here in Congress. Enough is enough.”

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Rupert "Benedict Arnold" Murdoch . . . Has a nice ring to it

Frank Schaeffer knows a thing or three about right wing crazy. His father was considered the primary founder of the modern day Religious Right in America. Schaeffer himself was one of them for awhile until he began to see (from a ground zero point of view) what a cancerous effect their movement was having on the soul and heart of this country.

Here's a post Schaeffer put out this week questioning the sanity of Fox News/News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch in allowing his Fox pundit corp. to willfully incite the right wing rubes to ever ascending levels of hate and violence. It's worth reprinting in it's entirety here:

Obama vs. FOX
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-10-21 18:48.

By Frank Schaeffer

President Obama is getting criticism for going after Fox News. I fault the White House too: for not going far enough. The real issue is not Fox's right wing "bias." The real issue is that FOX News seems to be trawling for assassins. Here's the letter White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs should write. Or maybe it should come from the head of United States Secret Service.

Dear Rupert Murdoch, since you are responsible for what is on Fox News I have a question for you: Do you ever wonder how you'll be remembered by Americans and the world (not to mention your children) if someone takes a shot at President Obama, and when asked why they did it, quotes the misinformation spouted by Fox News as their "reason?"

You have dozens of far right and dangerous and/or crazy seeming commentators working for you but let’s just talk about one as an example of the rest. What of Glenn Beck?

Does the name Father Charles Coughlin ring a bell? Do you want to be remembered as the facilitator of today's version of that deranged radio personality and hater who hounded President Roosevelt? What if a Coughlin devotee had assassinated Roosevelt? Instead of just being a nasty footnote to American history, Coughlin would be remembered as another John Wilkes Booth. What if Coughlin had had someone with money and virtually unlimited influence backing him and amplifying his remarks? How would we feel about his backer?

Glenn Beck is a second rate, not terribly bright Coughlin-type demagogue with rather dimwitted followers. And you are the paymaster making his silliness dangerous by giving him a voice that would otherwise be heard only by those who happened to hear him barking at the moon on some lonely street corner.

You've given today's Coughlins -- the haters -- a national platform. And they have taken the lies of the "birthers", "deathers", "Obama-is-the-Antichristers" etc., nationwide. It was a bad day for America when you became a citizen for the sole purpose of purchasing TV stations and invading us with your far right agenda. But you've gone way past politics, even the politics of hate. You have legitimized actual insanity by widespread repetition of extremist racist and religion-based lies to the sort of people who believe the earth is 6000 years old, that Jesus will come back soon and send everyone not like them to Hell, that Obama is the Antichrist. In other words, you've got the keys to the national asylum, are stirring up the inmates and threatening to unlock the door!

Here's a sample (compiled with the help of Media Matters and the online magazine Crooks and Liars) of just a small stock of the incendiary rhetoric and bare-faced lies your money pays for.

Fox News host Glenn Beck has:

# said President Obama has, "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture,"

# flirted with the idea that FEMA is building detention camps,

# suggested that President Obama is purposefully "tanking" the economy to force young people to work for AmeriCorps,

# said that Obama is "moving us away from our republic and into a system of fascism,"

# stated: "We are a country that is headed towards socialism, totalitarianism, beyond your wildest imagination..."

# says Obama "Wants you to work as a bureaucratic slave to government."

# said: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? For the love of Pete, what are you doing? Do you not hear -- do you not hear the cries of people who are saying stop? We would like some sanity in our country for a second! We didn't vote to lose the republic."

# ran several segments, including one on his radio show, promoting the concept of the secession of Texas from the Union,

# promotes "one world government" paranoia, including a supposed plot to put us all on a global currency controlled by the New World Order,

# warned his audience about Obama's supposed secret plot to grab our guns,

# speculated that it is actually liberal "political correctness" that inspires right-wingers to go on murderous killing rampages...

Rupert Murdoch; is there a limit? If Beck was shrieking, "Kill the uppity nigger in the White House!" would that be okay too? Would it be any more of an incitement to violence than what Beck is saying now?

You can't claim you're not having a baleful impact. How about this? According to the Boston Globe ("Secret Service Strained" October 18, 09),

The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission.

Where is this "new wave of antigovernment fervor" coming from? Media barons have started a war or two before but I don't recall one fomenting the climate wherein an assassination attempt becomes virtually inevitable. Far fetched? Who stirred up that nut in Pittsburgh who shot down three police officers because he believed that Obama was going to order cops to take away his guns?

Don't you know that here in America we have a rather large angry far right well-armed subculture thriving on imagined insults and nursing a perpetual grievance against the "other"? Don't you have any qualms about feeding them the red meat of hate, lies and incitement?

However you got to this point, you still have a choice: reign in FOX News, fire Beck, speak out to undo some of the lies you have told through your people about our President, our country and the world, or go down in history as the man who fed the unhinged haters lies until one or more of them boiled over in some desperate act and lashed out.

You are playing Russian roulette with American history. When your name is forever linked to an act of history-derailing domestic terror your billions won't save you from the place in history reserved for a select group of monsters. When your name is linked to our next Oklahoma-type bombing or the killing of one of our elected leaders, nothing else you did in your life will be remembered.

Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and the forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (Or Atheism).

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The Rudy and Bernie Story . . . . Chapters are yet to be written ...

Rudy Giuliani's BFF Bernie Kerik gets a PIN number!

OOPS! Unfortunately in this case PIN stands for Prisoner Identification Number! Lol!

Needless to say -- I wouldn't harbor any expectations that the media/press lapdogs might actually do their goddamn jobs and question Saint Rudy's judgement for hanging on to this creep for so long, promoting him to the top law enforcement position in the city of New York and then trying to foist him upon the country as the head of Homeland Security. But the bottom line is that the media assklowns shamelessly hyped and anointed Rudy, as they did with GW Bush, with the crown of 9/11 sainthood and therefore, just like the Mafia Dons that Rudy used to prosecute, he's a made guy amongst the villagers and therefore can't be touched.

Anyhow -- here's a pic of Rudy and his BFF in "the good ol' days."





And here's a very lovely picture of Rudy's BFF taken at his recent visit with an NYPD booking agent. Oh my . . .





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He's good enough, he's smart enough and doggone it, he knows how to bitch slap conservanuts!

I think the conservatives may have, to their own detriment, vastly underestimated the fighting spirit of the junior Democratic Senator from my birth state Minnesota, Al Franken.

Franken, despite his very well known career in Hollywood and comedy is actually quite a well studied policy wonk. I used to listen to his radio show on Air America and he had no problems holding his own in the various public policy conversations he had with guests and listeners. He's a very bright guy with an extensive knowledge not just about public policy, but also the nuances of political warfare. Oh -- and he has a spine too.

In this video clip, one of the paid-for health insurance shills/hacks/apologists commits the fatal error of mistaking Franken for his on-screen persona Stuart Smalley and pays dearly for it as Al rakes her and and stupid, smug-faced ass over the coals of truthiness on the subject of the number of U.S. bankruptcies due to medical bills versus bankruptcies in countries with public health plans such as Switzerland, France and Germany.

Beautiful takedown.






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