Politics: Health Care

Seen with her favourite person, your own Senator DiFi

Live in California? Want a better health care system?

Then get ready to sit down and give ol' helmet-hair (Senator DiFi) an earful. Because that worthless bitch doesn't think you need health care reform. Why the fuck should she, she's married to a rich man and making a couple hundred thou a year PLUS she gets gold-plated healthcare at the taxpayers' expense.

I can't stand her, quite honestly. Her politics would be seen for the worthless shit they are if we didn't have true asshats like John Cornyn, John McCain, Lamar Alexander, Evan Bayh, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran, Jim DeMint, John "Fuckaround" Ensign, David Vitter, Lindsay Graham, James Inhofe, Orrin Hatch, Jon Kyl, Joe LieberWHORE, Mitch "Granny" McConnell, Ben Nelson, Pat Roberts and Jeff Sessions in the Senate. Geez, that's an awful lotta asshats, huh? And most of them worse than your very own Princess Diane.

Recently, that waste of skin Feinstein was heard to opine to Greg Sargent, who now blogs at Plum Line, that criticism from "the left" doesn't bother her.

Problem is, it ain't the mythical "left" that wants President Obama's health care bill to pass. It's three out of every four Americans. You know, your average person who (1) doesn't have pots of money; (2) isn't married to someone who has pots of money; (3) doesn't have taxpayer-funded health care.

If you really want the health care system reformed, do your part. Here's some information on how to get started. If you don't want to do the activist number, then at least call DiFi and make sure you let her know that you KNOW she's up for re-election in 2012; and that she's thinking of running for Governor of California; and you will remember her votes on health care and will hold her accountable at the polls, whatever office she sets her sights on.

Di-Fi's numbers:

San Diego: 619-231-9712
Washington DC: 202-224-3841

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LGBTQ: Gay Pride Weekend

No, we didn't go to the parade. Actually, we stopped going years ago, after meeting the current partner. And also because the fucking crowds got unmanageable, although that's not a slur on the fine Pride Marshals who did a great job of keeping Teh Gay folks happy yet disciplined. It was the gawkers from outa town wit' their cameras and their annoying brats, videotaping anything that moved and oohing and ahhing over teh gheyness of it all. Not getting up four hours earlier than usual to ride the train over, get one's toes stepped on, swelter in the heat and get one's naughty bits crushed, not even for Dykes on Bykes or Teh Menstrual Cycle or teh Gay Games folks doing their trix on Parade, not with those leering Xtians watching and all but prodding the leather daddies.

Fuck that shit.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Gay Day, children, and tomorrow we go back to working on DOMA and DADT and the hate crimes bill, and those nasty Mormons pouring millions into the fight against our rights!

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Politics: Mark Sanford

Oh, boo-hoo. Some pinhead opinionifying over at CNN is drilling in the Deep Well of Gall to tell us all we should not be getting outraged over Sanford's shenanigans. FTA:

We need to understand this situation for what it is: human weakness, poor judgment, personal longing and complicated relationships. The question is, how are we -- each one of us personally -- going to respond? I'd like to make a suggestion:

We should empathize.

I'd like to make a suggestion, too, dumbkopf — pull your cranium out of your rectum. Whatever happened between Sanford and his wife is their fucking problem (literally as well as figuratively). And while we enjoy bwa-ha-haaing at those holier-than-thou hypocrites who preach "fambly valyooos" out of one side of their ass while pillorying anyone who looks like they might have snuck a little sideline of horizontal samba, we empathize with ridiculous modern-day notions of marriage as being between one guy and one gal but not for teh ghey. (I can't imagine any gay person doing more damage to teh "sanctity" of marriage than, oh, Britney Spears, Mark Sanford, and all you other Christo-fascist yobs.)

The *real* issue for us here at La Casa de Los Gatos is, this dumb motherfucker took off work without making any arrangements for anyone else to take up his duties; and flew off to boink his girlfriend after LYING to everybody and their fucking sister-in-law about where he was going. He didn't call in, he didn't check that the whole fucking state hadn't been blown off the map during his absence, he didn't show ANY responsibility whatsoever.

When I accepted the last paid job I had, I had to sign a contract that said that if I missed work for more than THREE DAYS without notifying the office of my absence and giving them a way to contact me, I would be FIRED. And I was not some high-ranking corporate BigDick. Or some governor of a state, responsible for the lives, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of other human beings. Just a lowly corporate worm. But them wuz teh breaks. We had that drilled into our heads by HR. If you want to take time off, fill out a form at least two weeks before you leave, explaining that you will be out of the office, the purpose of your absence (you could just put "vacation time," or "bereavement leave," or whatever, but that form had to be filled in), date of return to work, emergency contact number, approval of your immediate manager and approval of your manager's manager.

If you got hit by a car and were not dead, then you had to instruct your next-of-kin to call the fucking office, for crying out loud, and tell them that you were dying at such-and-such hospital and would return to work (or not) by such a date. So where does this motherfucking yobbo get off, just disappearing into the wild blue yonder? I'm supposed to empathize with this shit? I THINK NOT, mofo. Fuck that! What's so special about Sanford's Holy Taint? What, the rules don't apply to him?

To add insult to injury, the motherfucker paid for his boinking trip with taxpayer money. The state of South Carolina is in the shitpit for money, the unemployment rate is high and climbing, the governor stamps his little feet and whines about not wanting to take Federal money for unemployment so working people who've been laid off can put food on the fucking table for themselves and their kids, and he's got the unmitigated gall to take THEIR money to pay for his horizontal samba? And lie about it? Stealing, lying, cheating, irresponsibility ... this is what I'm supposed to empathize with? I'm supposed to happily susidize Sanford's knob-polishing ventures while surviving on cereal and water?

What planet are these dumb asses from?

And it's not like the guy has shown any shame and remorse for his utterly shameful acts. Today he's whooping on about how, like King David in the bibul, he is NOT, NOT, NOT going to resign. Hey, fuckface — you're not a king. You were *elected* governor. David couldn't be impeached. You can. And I sincerely hope you are. What's more, I hope your wife kicks you out on your ass, and your Argentinian bombshell takes up with someone younger, cuter, and hotter than you. Because you did her a big disservice too, you hypocritical bag o'dicks, outing the whole affair and crying in public about how you done your wife wrong.

Your wife is mega-rich, she'll soon get over your wack crap. And the Argentinian babe is muy hot, so I'm sure there's no shortage of guys lining up waiting for a smile from her. You're the asshole here, not either of the two ladies involved. You hit on another woman after years of mush-mouthing your "Praise Jeebus I R a Xtian man and the Lord totally blesses my schlong" crap. You had the balls to ask your wife's permission to go visit your mistress. Instead of manning up to your responsibility as the father of four young boys and the "Law(d)fully wedded husband" of your wife, who has worked hard to promote your career for close to two decades, you miserable bastard.

You need a come-uppance, man, because you're too fucking arrogant by half. King David, my ass. ESAD, you slavering fuckwit.

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Politics: Sarah Palin

SSairy Failin' R Gwar, thx to teh goons at SomethingAwful

OK, I know this hypocritical cow doesn't deserve a minute of anyone's time. Her quest for fame ended with the srs FAIL/PWN of the last election. However, in case you didn't already know, she's been doing everything she can to keep herself in the public eye, not to mention the public crotch (EW!) with her shenanigans. Of course, we were impressed with the whole 15 screaming loonies who turned out to support her in her struggle to have David Letterman fired. (The fact that we think Letterman is homophobic, misogynistic, and an asshole doesn't mean we think he should be fired for calling her look "slutty flight-attendant." It's definitely slutty, though more like the "naughty librarian" fantasy of repressed adolescent rightwing loons.)

Welp, it looks as if she has now stepped in the polar bear poop big time. Getting her shorts all hiked and buttenflossened over a Photoshop of Teh Jokery on teh InterTubes (thanks, Ted Stevens!), SSairy took on teh Internet and the fine, long-standing tradition of serious political-figure mockage. (And you deserve mockage for labeling yourself "iconic," SSairy!)

ICHC

Well, teh InterTubes makes you stupid, as SomethingAwful has always averred. And when you try to rival it with a little home-grown, carefully cultivated Stupid, the Underpants Gnomes of teh InterTubes can't help but respond. So here for your larfs, the goons of SomethingAwful take on SSairy with Photoshop. Go on, piss yourselves laughing. It'll help when SSairy's reichwing hit squads come for you.

It is SRS fail. As in OMGWTFBBQLOLZ. I liked the Gwar (featured above) Photoshop best, but feel free to nominate your own faves.

One last thing: SSairy Failin' is obviously an offense kleptomaniac. If she sees offense lying around, she takes it. What a moron.

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Politics: Republicans

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina

By now you've heard the whole nine yards of this guy's story, right? RIGHT? I waited for the explosion before touching it, but now that all the dirt's out, I can indulge in that delightful frisson of schadenfreude I experienced when I first heard the news.

So, I know what you're thinking: PC, how can you be so LOW, enjoying this shit so much, and YOU are so MEAN, and MEAN PEOPLE SUCK! and all that bwa-ha-ha. Hey, lookit, friends and other people: this motherfucker was slated for a prime post in the 2012 elections, you get my drift? This Mr. "MyPantsAreSoHotIGottaDrop'EmNOW" dude was gonna be a con-TEN-dah for the Republican Run For The White House. After what the Republicans have done to this fine nation for the past eight years, and to me, personally, for about that long (we won't talk old history heah), I say I have every right to bwa-ha-haaa! all over this unseemly piece of personal douchebaggery.

Excuse me, those sumbitches have seriously shit all over the nation's sandwich for over a decade now, while whipping up the nutcases, racists, Religious Right, panty-sniffing scandalmongers, greedy douchebags stealing and robbing us blind, corporate whores exporting our jobs by the hundred thousand while awarding themselves bigger and bigger salaries and bonuses each year. How does that make you feel, snookums? Git yer mad on and get in line to give this guy, and any other Republican aiming at higher office, a thwack or twenty with the trademarked Casa de Los Gatos Golden Bat o'Clue. They deserve it, goddammit, and I'm gonna be happy about it.

So, to cut to the chase. Governor Stanford decided sometime last week that he was going away. He didn't tell his office where he was going. He didn't leave any way for them to contact him. He didn't even tell his WIFE where he was going. This is a man with FOUR children, he takes off over the Father's Day weekend, and his family don't know where he is? Does that sound like coolth to you? To me, it sounds like the epitome of douchebaggery.

So while he's gone some enterprising journalist(s) in his fair state decide to find out just where he went. His office says, "We don't know." His wife says, "I don't know." When you're holding a position of public fucking responsibility, you don't just take off like that. Shit, even when you're selling your labour to a fucking bunch of greedy corporate shills, if you go on vacation, you're supposed to check your email and call in once in a while unless you're just a faceless grub in the organization. You're a manager? Even if you have Teh Shittiest Job In The World, you gotta check in. Teleconference with your reports, call your boss, email the admins. Everybody has to know how to get hold of you if they need to.

And this guy just takes off. That is SO not OK. Corporate whores are mostly not responsible for the life and well-being of anyone else in the company. A governor of a State is, theoretically at least, responsible for the fucking lives and well-being of everybody in their state. And what's the deal with the wife? What kind of guy takes off on a vacation without the wife and kids, especially over Father's Day? And doesn't even tell his wife where he's going to be? Or call the family over the weekend?

So for a few days, the InnerTubes were rife with theories about the guv. Best of all, the guv had apparently taken off WITHOUT his security detail. Huh? Rightwingnuttia, as is their usual wont, was speculating (among other things) that the CIA had kidnapped him (just like they did with Jesse Ventura, 'cos he opposed the stimulus package, and everything). Oh, yeah, dipshits. Don't let your conspiracy theories hit ya where the good lord split ya. Dumbfucks.

Meanwhile, some enterprising individual had recognized the guv at an airport. Whereupon his car was traced there. Even more meanwhile, his office, weaseling like crazy, had told journalists that the guv was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Well, didn't that just put the shit in the rotary motor, anaconda that weekend was National Hiking Naked Day, and all the responsible speculators were speculating that the guv was running around getting poison ivy on his schlong out there where the poison ivy was rife. The best part of this story is, the person responsible for alerting us all to the existence of National Hiking Naked Day is one Woody Lipps. Srsly. You can't make this shit up.

Unfortunately, the stupid sumbitch put paid to my fantasies about him and Woody Lipps today by admitting to an affair with some hot Argentinian. Damn! I do want to say, however, that the Republican Party fell to its collective knees to thank the LAWD that, at least this once, the Republican at the heart of this scandal wasn't porking an underage boy. Or getting his rocks off on, um, diapers.

OTOH, after reading some of Teh Guv's ltrs, let me just say that the guy could have a future as a romance writer. Pity he wasn't saying these things to his lawfully wedded wife. Oh, and adultery is a CRIME in South Carolina. Bet yer wishing you'd changed THOSE laws, huh, Sanford? Also, the papers have had these letters since last year. No wonder the guv is crying in public. And more also, he claimed he was giving his hot mistress "marital advice." Sure thing, honey. And finally, he's all, "God is forgiving me, oh yeah, I R Xtian, fambly values."

BLEEEAAARRGGGH! Sick, stupid puppy! Smack, smack, smack!

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Book List 2009

Copyright K. Smokey Cormier

The updated book list is up at the usual spot. Book reviews linked too. Feel free to castigate me for reading so much about WW II.

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World: US Scraps Meeting With Israel

ICHC FTW

Does this mean the 51st state will be getting a little less of our tax money for a while?

Raw Story is reporting that George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the middle-east has called off a meeting with Bibi (Netanyahu) because Israel is building in stolen Palestinian territory contrary to President Barack Obama's clearly stated position of some weeks ago.

Naturally, Bibi's lackeys are claiming they cancelled the meeting (sure, honey. You're getting your "resettlement" money from our taxes, you're gonna cancel a meeting. Sure).

The money quote, so to speak, from the article:

The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot had earlier quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying Washington issued a "stern" message to Netanyahu to halt all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

"Once you've finished the homework we gave you on stopping construction in the settlements, let us know. Until then, there's no point in having (envoy George) Mitchell fly to Paris to meet you," the paper quoted the official as saying.

Israeli officials, with their usual levels of chutzpah, are claiming that the building is part of the "natural growth" in the settlements, but here's where Hillary Clinton is a total fucking champ. She basically told them to ESAD:

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May that President Barack Obama had made it clear during Netanyahu's visit to Washington that he wants no "natural growth exceptions" to his call for a settlement freeze.

Go Hillary! You can kick ass, you're the queen of kickass. Let's see if U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel will dry up. We're sick of subsidizing their arrogance, their contempt for us, their thugly ways, their unwillingness to work with the rest of the world, their paranoia, rudeness, suspicion, and ingratitude.

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World: Iran

I'm with Kase Wickman on this whole issue of Iran: there's no point in turning your avatar green, we all need to do something to help the Iranians while simultaneously telling our so-called Leaders to Shut the fuckety fucking fuck up and quit trying to meddle in anybody else's internal politics.

So what, you may wonder, can you do? If you have money, you can send it to:

• TehranBureau. They need financial support. They're doing a sterling job of getting news and information from Iran.
  
  
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent. Even if their Iran branch is currently not giving assistance to injured demonstrators, they do good work in getting medical supplies to those who need them. I will have more information on this issue soon.

If you have tech skills, you can:

• set up a way for Iranians to stay connected to the world outside;
  
  
• Create a Twitter account, if you don't already have one, mosey on over to Twitter, enter #iranelection in the search box halfway down the right side of the page, and see if you can provide assistance to the many requests you'll encounter there. Be sure to check carefully that you're not providing assistance to the wrong people!
  
  
• Set your Twitter account settings to Tehran time.
  Apparently this will slow down the thought police searching for the protesters

If you prefer political action, you can:

• sign this petition to the United Nations requesting that they take action on the election fraud believed to have been perpetrated in Iran;
  
  
• sign this petition;
  
  
• sign this petition, supported by Anonymous Iran;
  
  Personally I find petition signing rather ineffectual, but perhaps the intent here is to show Iranians that there is support for them in other countries, and that is a good psychological tool and morale-lifter.
  
  
• Write a letter (not an email) to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon;
  Address it to him at 2 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. Not sure how effective it will be, since the Iranian Supreme Council has already accused him of meddling, according to Ha'aretz, merely for requesting that they spend less time killing demonstrators.
  
  
• Write a letter or send a postcard or an email to, or telephone, your Congresscritters. You can send a copy to their local office and a copy to their Washington, D.C. office, if you like.
  
  
• Write a letter to the Ayatollah Khameini and the Supreme Council. Kindly address the son of an unmentionable as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini. Address it to Iranian Interests Section, 2209 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007. Be as polite as you possibly can. The more diplomatic you are, the more likely he will actually read your letter, as his paid underlings will be sure to sort and toss any that include death threats, insults, or sundry rudenesses.
  
  
• Write a letter to, or call, each of these morally reprehensible bloodthirsty chickenhawks who are slavering to see the U.S. embroiled in yet another conflict in which your children will die or be maimed or otherwise disabled, while theirs opine on the importance of foreign wars from air-conditioned offices on these shores:
  
  
  • Lindsey "Miss Thing" Graham;
    
  • John "Wut? Where R I?" McCain;
    
  • Chuck "Up" Grassley;
    
  • Dana "Asshole" Rorabacher;
    
  • Eric "Head Up Ass" Cantor;
    
  • Joe "Whiny Sanctimonious Peener" Lieberman;

To bring yourself up to speed on what is happening in Iran, you can see what Nico Pitney has to say over at The Huffington Post. He's been live-blogging the situation in Iran since it began, pretty much. Twitter has a constant stream of information, but no analysis, and the 140-character limit, while excellent for conveying important info quickly is, alas, not suited to thinking critically on the issue.

The Guardian has useful background information. Historical information, which is crucial to understanding the entire situation in the middle-east and Iran's place in that context, is available all over the Web. Some excellent books on the topic should be available at your local library or through inter-library loan.

Do what you can, whatever it is. Perhaps you can start a "boycott Iranian products" movement, talk to your Iranian friends, neighbours, acquaintances, and see if that is a useful solution; perhaps you can organize a petition signing or a collection of funds for the Red Cross/Red Crescent. Perhaps you speak Farsi, or know someone who does who is supportive of the movement and can translate articles or broadcasts. Perhaps you can just teach yourself and some of your friends a little about this faraway country in which such an amazing freedom movement is occurring at this time. Or vent some spleen at those so-deserving Congressidiots listed above.

It's gotta be better than sitting around watching some dumb bimbo-and-himbo with eight sprog display their decaying relationship on TV for the whole world to puke over.

From Tehran Bureau:

(An intriguing side note: Events inside Iran picked up steam at the same time as the Iranian presidential elections coincided with the Obama administration’s change of policy — as Washington backed off the threats and aggressiveness of the Bush years — and offered to engage with Iran on the basis of mutual respect. Would a more detached US policy towards Arab autocrats similarly open space for Arab domestic effervescence and indigenous calls for more liberal, honest politics?)

From lengthy personal experience, I can assure you that any attempt by the U.S. government to more directly engage with the demonstrators will lead to widespread anger, not just on the part of the ayatollahs but the demonstrators as well. They do not want to be seen as tools of the same government that once funded the overthrow of their elected leader and replaced him with a murderous torturing puppet. So write your Congresscritters today, and be sure to let them know this with as many hearty kicks to the ass as it takes.

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Entertainment: Once in a while

you just have to laugh your ass off at something cute or silly. Cause if ya don't, the blue meanies will getcha and then it's suicide attempts and hospital bills and all that weird shit. So take your happy pills and watch this kitteh go:



Man, that little guy boxes like a champ! And don't tell me it ain't cute. I can feel the cute curling my hairs from out the screen. Enjoy!

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Politics: War Crimes

When do these war criminals go to trial?
As we've mentioned before, a Class A war criminal is anyone who participated in "the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging" of aggressive war, or violated the laws and customs of war. Like, for example, the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Which Convention would certainly apply to Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and possibly also David Addington, Condoleeza Rice, George Dumbya Bush, and a score of their immediate underlings, highly placed officials all.

Today, I'm reading a fine book on the Kempeitai and their crimes in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, by Raymond Lamont-Brown. Mr. Lamont-Brown's father was a PoW, captured by the Japanese in Shanghai, China, and subjected to the tender ministries of the Kempeitai, who, as brutal torturers go, might rank higher than any other similar body heretofore known.



Here, a little excerpt for your — I can't say entertainment, it certainly isn't entertaining — perusal:

You are a man of education, of intelligence, even in a sense of culture. Yours is the cunning brain under whose direction your instruments of torture performed their evil task. You were well aware of all the moral implications of your policy. In these last six weary years many men have willingly suffered and died in the hope and belief that out of their sacrifice would arise a higher morality in dealings of one nation with another, an international morality soaring above the narrow bonds of patriotism and blind obedience. If, as I believe, some of your victims, Sumida, were amongst those who made their sacrifice in that hope and belief, let this be their epitaph, that they died for an undying cause. To those of us who survive falls the supreme and difficult task of establishing and maintaining that higher morality between nations, of supplanting the rule of force and fear by the rule of law, of ensuring that they did not make their sacrifice in vain.

You, Sumida, have shown by all that you did, ordered, and willingly allowed, that to you there is nothing of higher consequence than domination by brute force and fear.

You were prepared, for the glorification, as you thought, of your country, to reduce men and women below the level of beasts and to send them without pity or compunction to an agonizing death. You did not realize that your actions have not glorified, they have degraded, your country. As in the past, so in the future, you would always be the implacable enemy of that great cause for which so many made their sacrifice. You and men like you cannot be allowed to hinder the fulfilment of that cause. Accordingly it is in no spirit of vengeance upon a fallen foe, no desire to have an eye for an eye, a life for a life, that this Court has solemnly decided that you must die. Nor is it merely to rid the world — and your country now preparing for its moral rebirth — of one man who is a danger to all moral progress. Rather it is a stern example to all who would willingly support the powers of evil and brute force against the rule of law, justice, and humanity.

— Lt.-Col S.C. Silkin, R.A., barrister, at War Crimes Trial of Chusa Haruzo Sumida, Supreme Court Building, Singapore, 18 March 1946

It is my sincere and heartfelt hope to hear words of similar import being spoken one day soon at the trial of those who "planned, prepared, initiated, or waged" the war of aggression against Iraq which is only now winding down.

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World: Iran

For our brothers and sisters in Iran, with love and support!



Enjoy it, if you can, laugh your asses off and remember, we in other countries are watching and hoping and praying for you. It is your fight, and your revolution. Let us all hope that other countries keep their cool as President Barack Obama is keeping his cool. Let us all hope that no one interferes in your internal politics. But remember that whatever we can do to help, there are many of us who will.

Twitter hashtag #IranElection

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No Shortage of Teh Stupid

Apparently, the Wah!Poo (aka the Washington Post) has decided to fire Dan Froomkin, one of the best journalists I've found over the past decade or so. To add salt to the wound, they decided to give Paul "Wolfie" Wolfowitz, that neocon hustler schmuck, proven liar, and known war criminal, a guest column this weekend, probably with intent to hire.

What's really interesting about the firing of Froomkin and the hosting of Wolfie is how many people have had a strong reaction thereto. I was very upset and depressed about it yesterday, but after visiting their ombudsidiot's bleagh (just like a blog, only stupider and more pointless) today, found what seemed like at least one thousand angry comments, many from subscribers who've taken the Wah!Poo for decades and swear they will no more.

Whatever. I wrote Dan a thankyou for his terrific work — some days it seemed like he was the only thread of sanity, during the horrible Bush years. And then, because I couldn't resist, I went to the ombudsidiot's bleagh and added a dollop of snark along these lines:

I left here yesterday determined never to return, but was intrigued by a link in a blog I read regularly about the "700 comments" on the firing of Froomkin. I'm glad I swung by for a quick look. It seems as if the number of comments on this page is now a thousand or more. And many, many people share my sentiments about the inappropriateness of, on the one hand, firing Froomkin who exercised true journalistic even-handedness in speaking truth to power, and, on the other, giving column space to yet another tired neocon war criminal and known liar, Wolfowitz. And now that Jane Hamsher has the stats on Wah!Poo readership, it looks as if The Huffington Post is not just drinking your milkshake, but eating your lunch as well. Shoot, it's even sweeping up all the crumbs for later dispersal to the birds. I admired and respected the Washington Post of Katie Graham, although I never agreed with its politics. It was a good paper, though, and earned its laurels. What Fred Hiatt and the Graham scion have done with it leaves it barely fit for fishwrap. Goodbye again, Wah!Poo. Judging from the figures, you'll soon be part of teh Moonie Times anyway.

Feel free to express your wrath, if any, here. If you want to say goodbye to Dan, you'll find him here for another week or so. He's promised to let his readership know where he'll land, and land he will, gracefully, on both feet. It's the Wah!Poo's loss, not his. Their current stable of Op-Ed writers (and stable is an apt term, given the horses' asses they house) includes such non-luminaries as Charles Krauthammer (vile, spittle-flecked, reality-insensible torture-loving neocon); Ramesh Ponnuru (the less said the better); Bill Kristol (fired by the NYT for a tragic divorce from fact); George Will ("teh global warming of my blue jeans, it is teh drama"); and David "You peasants don't need to know that the X industry paid me to tell you Y" Broder; and, who knows, Rush Limbaugh next, unless Wolfie takes the job.

In the meantime, you can find Dan's writing at Nieman Watchdog. If you're a regular reader of Glenn Greenwald's blog at Salon, or any of the big blogs like Firedoglake, HuffPo, Daily Kos, TPM, and the like, there's plenty of lively discussion going on about the issue. Is the Wah!Poo circling the toilet, or already in teh shit?

Mainly, what I'm wondering is, would it be worthwhile to subscribe to the Wah!Poo just to cancel one's subscription on the day Dan leaves? You know, just to really drive home the point that lotsa lotsa people think they're truly well beyond fucked up and, as Molly Ivins used to say, not being driven out of business by the Internet so much as committing suicide like a drunken lemming on crack. But I paraphrase.

Whatever. There isn't room for two reactionary birdcage liners in the city of Washington, D.C., so chances are they're, as some commenter said on Sadly, No!, presenting like a female mandrill in heat in the hope of being acquired by the true neocon schmatta, the Washington Times, affectionately (no, sorry, truthfully, rather) known as The Moonie Times.

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Entertainment: Too Funny!

Supreme Aiyah!toldjah Mir-Hosain "Pete" Hoekstra demonstrating the size of his peener

If you haven't already laughed your ass off over it, Michigan Rep Pete Hoekstra (pronounced Hoax-straw) basically stuck his head up his own ass by Tweeting the following:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

Leading to much merriment on teh 'Net over the past few days, large-scale "laugh till you piss your pants" behaviour (bet it goes global), and the birth of a brand-new and already highly popular WEB SITE (imagine that!) dedicated to further laugh-your-ass-offery right here.

Also an addition to the English language: Supreme Aiyah!toldjah Mir-Hosain "Pete" Hoekstra now enjoys the distinction of having been verbized, as in:

To Hoekstra is to whine using grandiose exaggerations and comparisons.

LOLcat responds to Hoekstra

Reminds me of Santorum (another Republican FAILbag). Republicans, don't ever change. You guys are fucking comedy gold, man, we'll be pissing ourselves laughing for a decade or more as you Macaca your way into oblivion.

Meantime, feel free to submit your latest hoekstra here. Alternatively, feel free to tweet Hoekstra with your hoekstra, or otherwise mortify the idiot. He's running for governor of Michigan? Sweet fucking Christ!

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Caturday!

Happy Caturday, Everybody!!

Image is thanks to our friends at http://icanhascheezburger.com/

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World: Iran

Yes, we're unbelievably upset over what's going on in Iran. We know you all know. If you don't, you really ought to. You can start by checking out HuffPo's virtual 24/7 liveblogging, or Twitter, if you prefer.

Essentially, the Telegraph is reporting that Mir Hossain Mossavi, the "reformist" Iranian candidate, won the largest number of votes (19 million) in the recent elections, with everybody's favourite nutter and the puppet of the Mullahs, Ahmedi Nejad coming in third (5.x million). Other candidates who stood in the elections: Mohsen Rezaei and Mehdi Karroubi. Ahmedi took it upon himself to announce that he had won 63 per cent of the votes, the little liar, and proclaimed himself the winner.

If you have a strong stomach, you can view pictures of what's happening in Teheran here. Apparently, protests are occurring in other cities also. Approximately 170 people have been arrested and detained in Teheran. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have poured out into the streets to protest the fraudulent elections, and, as we say in certain parts of the world, much hangama has ensued. (You can get out your Hobson-Jobson for this one. I'm pretty sure it's in there.)

In the event, the Ayatollah Ali Khameini, the real power behind the throne, has ordered an investigation into Mousavi's claims of fraud, according to XinHua and the Belfast Telegraph.



How effective that will be, we have no idea. The neocons in the U.S. are, of course, slavering at the idea of starting a war with Iran. I bet you thought you'd seen the last of those purulent ambulatory slimebags with the departure of Bush the war criminal, eh? Not so fucking lucky. Think again. These bastards are clinging to power with every seta, the fucking cockroaches. They're starting the baying and howling on the right. Thank TPTB, President Obama is keeping a cool head over the whole issue. I don't think our Iranian brothers and sisters have forgotten that the U.S. deposed the lawfully elected Mossadegh and put the Pahlavi on the nation's throne. America SHOULD move carefully, very carefully, as any attempt to side with Mousavi's followers will only result in Iranians feeling threatened and paranoid about foreign meddling in their elections and cause them to back away from Mousavi and embrace Ahmedi Nejad.

The BBC claims that the Iranian government is doing everything it can to prevent news entering or leaving the country. Twitter has now become the medium of choice, if you're interested in what's going on. #iranelection, for those who care. Mousavi is warning his supporters not to show up at rallies any more, as the police are now using live ammunition against protesters. To show your support for our Iranian brothers and sisters, wear green, if you want. Don't, however, encourage your lawmakers or your idiot brother-in-law to do anything illegal or blatant. The Telegraph claims that Mousavi won, but won't publicize their source, and until we know more, we'd be fools to react.

Just because any creature with a working brain wishes Ahmedi Nejad would fall off the earth is no proof that his people did not elect him. I mean, I hate to rub salt in an old wound, but this country DID elect George Dumbya Bush — twice. So. Please tell everyone you know to calm down about this issue. We don't need to make the position of Mousavi's supporters worse by trying to meddle in a hamhanded way, or making stupid statements. Most important of all, we do not need to empower those fucking neocons who aren't happy unless somebody else's kids are being killed somewhere.

Iranian brothers and sisters, the people of the free nations of the world support your struggle towards democracy! Revolutionary Guard of Iran, please do not shoot your own people, your students and teachers, the brightest and best of your nation! We all hope that you resolve this issue in a way that causes the least harm.

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Opinionifying: Small is Good

From my vast experience of playing Sim City, I can tell you that if you let the fucking city get too big and don't give the people enough services, they are going to kick your fat ass right out of the Mayoral chair. Plus, you have to listen to all the City employees bitch you out most unsympathetically and whine about all the stuff they need, even as your city bursts into flames or the nuclear power suffers a meltdown or the greedy little bastids populating your city riot because you won't give them new or more stuff.

So when this article caught my eye, I totally agreed. Then I did a double-take. I mean, it makes sense. How could it ever happen? We don't have enough sensible people in the whole fucking country to fill one fucking town.

So then I agreed again and read it some more, and you should too. Because I really really like the idea of rustbelt cities (which are falling apart anyway) being small conglomerations of housing, business, and services surrounded by open space. Could we see wildlife coming back? Meadows?

See, this is what happened. Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County (where Flint, Michigan is located) met Barack Obama on the campaign trail, and discussed a revolutionary idea with him: Razing entire districts in shrinking cities, and returning the land to nature.

FTA:

Local politicians believe the city (Flint, ed.)must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

[...]

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis

As Kildee points out, these cities are shrinking anyway. The big employers for these areas were the car companies, who have mostly gone out of business. Young people are moving away for better opportunities, like the opportunity to eat regularly, and all.

Kildee sez:

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

[...]

The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.

"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.

Prairie Wildlife Illustration by Kandis Elliott, Defenders of Wildlife

Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".

Wot you t'ink? I like the idea. It could never happen where I live, though. This city just keeps growing. Unfortunately. However, the exurbs and suburbs nearby are shrinking as overleveraged people sell or fall into foreclosure and move back to the city, so that's a good thing. Kinda.

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Economy: Imagine

ICHC

Losing your house over a bill for a lousy fifty bucks. That's what happened to Jean Castro of Connecticut, who emigrated from Haiti many years ago. He's saved all his life to buy this house. (Note: he also owns the house next door.) Is he a deadbeat who refused to pay taxes? No, he's apparently always paid his property tax bills in full. However, the city of Bridgeport, where Mr. Castro lives, claims that Mr. Castro has run up various bills with the city before and refused to pay. On further examination, it turns out that the city sent the property tax bills to Mr. Castro, and he forwarded them to his mortgage company, which was supposed to pay them. The total bill was around $3,000 but most of that was for attorney's fees. The actual tax bill was a little over $50.00.

I used to have an arrangement like that with my bank. The city persisted in sending the bills to me, although I repeatedly (and often irately) notified them that the bills were to be sent directly to the bank, which was paying the taxes out of the adjusted mortgage amount that I paid monthly (they calculated the property tax plus mortgage and then billed me monthly for the sum including "a little something" for their trouble.) I finally terminated the arrangement because it was cheaper and less troublesome to pay the property taxes myself. So my sympathies are with Mr. Castro, of course.

I have no idea how efficient the city of Bridgeport is, but if they're anything at all like my city, they need to rethink their position on this. Taking someone's home because they were late paying a lousy $50.00 is ludicrous. As for the summons they claim they sent him, pish, posh, and piffle. $2,700 in attorneys' fees over a fifty-dollar debt? Puh-leez. The fact that the bank paid the bill indicates that someone screwed up here and that someone is not Mr. Castro. Chances are, like my bank, they delayed paying the bill and, in fact, delayed doing anything at all about it until caught flatfooted, and then paid to have the matter swept under the rug. It IS Countrywide Bank, after all, and their El Jefe is currently facing charges from the SEC, so who knows what can of worms this might open?

HuffPo reports that the March disbursement of Treasury monies called the "homeowners bailout is beginning to show some positive signs. They promise to keep an eye on the issue. We should all keep an eye on the issue. I'm still overwhelmed by negative feelings about the bank bailout, as the above picture clearly shows. I know it was necessary (and there I disagree with most of my good friends and fellow bloggers who have whupped me upside the head for such statements, but Your Cat Is A Stubborn Cat, and I plough on). The current financial crisis seems to be easing, and even Paul Krugman says so. Other countries are having differing degrees of fiscal troubles, but all the economies who could afford it (and even some who couldn't) have poured money into their troubled banks to shore them up. It could have been much worse.



Goodness knows the Bushies probably intended it to be, taking billions in loans from China to prosecute an endless and unjustified war.

And speaking of war, I'm currently reading a history of modern Japan (from the Tokugawa Shogunate through the 1980s), and came across these words of wisdom regarding World War II:

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was created for the purpose of trying the political leaders who were responsible for "crimes against peace." [...] war criminals were charged with "the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging" of aggressive war. Most of these men were also tried for violations of the laws and customs of war [...].

Wouldn't that accurately describe the Bush Administration? They declared war against Iraq before the UN's weapons inspectors had finished their task. Subsequently, American inspectors announced that they had failed to discover the "weapons of mass destruction" that purportedly formed the basis for an uninvited and unprovoked war of aggression against a sovereign nation.

So, why exactly are we not trying these sons of illegitimate drunken toads-in-a-ditch for war crimes? Or is that reserved only for non-Americans? I think it would be a delicious irony indeed if Japan, Germany, and Italy would band together to create a war crimes tribunal for teh Bushies. OTOH, that would probably cause mass hysteria (I only find it amusing because of my deeply cynical nature). So perhaps it's just as well that the effort appears to span all continents and nationalities save this one.

Hint: Drop your fucking congresscritters yet another note urging them to move on war crimes. Sheldon Whitehouse (yay, Senator!) is hinting that torture investigations might well encompass the war criminals at the top.

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Politics: Right-wing Terrorists

ICHC

Gee, I guess the whining of rightwingnuttia about that DHS report is starting to sound pretty hollow by now, huh? I mean, you can say the first guy was a "lone wolf." You could even cross your fingers behind your back and claim the second guy was a "lone wolf." But three in a row? That's pushing it, people. For what it's worth, boys and girls, the common factor in these three murderous wingnuts? They're all white-supremacists, racists who believe nonwhite people should be killed.

The first, Richard "Pop-a-cop" Poplawski, decided that President Obama was going to take away his guns and freedom, so he'd better kill some cops. Well, say what you will about the police, and there's plenty to say, one of their functions is, supposedly, to protect the public against people who start shooting murderously at others. End result? He killed three officers, but they got him in the end and took away his guns and his freedom. Way to go, dumbass, you certainly managed to enact that self-fulfilling prophecy.

And then there was the charming James W. von Brunn, member of the white supremacist organization Stormfront (no link, find it yourself) and erstwhile contributor to rightwing sites like Free Republic (more accurately known as Freetardia). Of course, you probably won't find Mr. von Brunn's comments or posts anywhere in wingnuttia now, all the sites which once welcomed him with open arms have scrubbed any trace of his presence. Oh, wait, there's still the Wayback Machine. And Google caches.

Today, it's Jason Eugene Bush, leader of the Minutemen. Bush (geez, is that name synonymous with criminal in some bizarre mystical way?), like the coward that he is, decided to break into someone's house late at night with no warning, with two buddies for backup, all armed to the teeth. Why? Because the guy whose house these idiots broke into was a Latino. Maybe he was an undocumented immigrant. Maybe not. Maybe he was dealing drugs. Maybe he was an innocent. Maybe it was mistaken identity. All of these are reasons you do NOT take this shit into your own hands.

And here's another bigger, better reason: These idiots broke into this house claiming to be police. They shot and killed the guy they claim was a baddie. Then they shot and killed his nine-year-old daughter. Why? Because she saw their faces. Because she might have been a witness against them. That is the worst fucking reason to kill a little kid, you know? Not that there's any good fucking reason, but hey, when they start screeching in E above high C, I'm thinkin' at least you could say you snapped. But this? This is cold-blooded murder of a young and defenseless creature at its worst.

Fortunately, the kid's mom was not so defenseless. She had a gun, and she used it. She shot Jason Bush.

And before y'all get all self-righteous and say, "Well, yaknow, PC, he was trying to put a criminal drug dealer out of business, and all," no. No, no, no. He wasn't. He and his buddies busted into that house to STEAL money and drugs. Not that "stopping a drug dealer" would have been a reason for them to do what they did. That's what we have police for. Gather evidence, if you must, and turn it over to the cops. They're trained on the use of force and can be held accountable.

This shit? This vigilantism? This is what kills innocent bystanders, little girls named Brisenia who might have had a life, dreams, hopes, a bright future, or even a dismal one, not that that's any of our business. I guess to people like (this) Bush, the life of a little brown girl named Brisenia is not as important as the life of a white man like himself, which is why he ran like a chicken when wounded.

The Arizona papers are reporting that all three of the Minutemen involved have been arrested. Will they be tried as terrorists? Or is that distinction reserved only for brown or Muslim people who commit such crimes?

Note: These minutemen, despite their racism in common with other Minutemen, are not the same as the superset of Minutemen from which they splintered at some point. Details at link.

Additional note: SOME PEOPLE might owe Janet Napolitano and the DHS a big fucking honking big-assed APOLOGY! Except they're too busy wringing their hands and opining as how James von Brunn was actually secretly a lefty, like all those evil Democrats who came to power last year, elected by the America-hating Americans who don't believe in guns as a solution and racism as a way of life.

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Civil Rights: Tasers and Police Brutality

If you haven't watched this video yet via YouTube, pour yourself a drink first:



Then sit back and watch this 400-lb hog of a cop "subdue" a 72-year-old grandma who stands all of 4 feet 11 inches — with a Taser. Travis County, Texas must be some prime idiot-raising country, if a Sheriff's Deputy has to taser a little old lady for speeding. I never heard such rubbish in my life. And that mush-mouthed asshole defending the lardass is his boss, who thinks the scumbucket did nothing wrong.

Excuse me? If that was my grandmother y'all would be paying the entire fucking budget for the next ten years in damages, you assholes. Look at it. Watch the cobag shove her around, scream in her face, threaten her, intimidate her, and then run electric shocks through her body.

Hey, assholes, guess what. My mom stood 4 foot 11. When she attacked me, I picked her up and G-E-N-T-L-Y deposited her in a chair and told her I wouldn't listen to her till she calmed down. And I'm not a trained police officer.

Maybe Officer Bigass needs to find a job babysitting or something if Granny can scare him so much he has to "protect" himself with a deadly weapon. On second thoughts, forget it. He'd be in jail for tasering the first infant to pee on him.

Pity Granny didn't manage to knock his nuts off:

ICHC

Guess she'd have to find them first.

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World: WTF is going on in Peru?

Photograph from Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua

Via The Huffington Post, AP is reporting that native tribes are protesting exploitation of the Amazon and the government has retaliated by widespread armed attacks, killing many unarmed native people. Now, the situation is escalating as tribespeople retaliate by capturing and killing soldiers.

NASDAQ is reporting that Carmen Vildoso, Peru's Minister of Women's Affairs and Social Development, has submitted her resignation to President Alan Garcia, although no reason was given.

Opposition member Keiko Fujimori has asked for the resignation of Prime Minister Yehude Simon. Simon leads Garcia's Cabinet. From the article:

Native Indians blocked a main highway in the province of Amazonas for close to two months, while they pressed the government to roll back legislative decrees that regulate resource development.

Those decrees were brought in by the administration of President Alan Garcia as part of enabling legislation required in the free trade agreement with the United States.

Once again, FTAs appear to be at the root of the problem, dispossessing native people, stealing their resources for exploitation for the benefit of larger, more powerful members of the Free Trade coalitions. It appears that Free Trade is free only for the rich. It certainly isn't helping the poor. Perhaps they mean "free of those annoying poor people who don't want to lose their homes and lands and their beautiful environment."

Is the U.S. government once again functioning as the military arm of big corporations that want the resources of poor people who happen to be not-American?

According to this article, Garcia used to be a "leftist," although the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, apparently did not consider him left enough. Now he's a rightist par excellence — a champion of the Free Market (free, once again, of those pestilential poor people who are unable to purchase the arms and wherewithal to defend themselves against the greed of the multinationals). Whatever he is, or was, there's no denying the guy is a total racist. He speaks contemptuously of the "savagery" and "barbarity" of the indigenous tribespeople while conveniently ignoring the savagery and barbarity of his troops which are believed to have killed tens, and possibly, hundreds, of the indigenous tribespeople and hidden the bodies.

Surprisingly, the Roman Catholic bishops of the nation are siding with the indigenous people on this issue.

Auntie Beeb is also reporting that hundreds of native people are missing.

Before you blame this on President Obama, please note that the Guardian is claiming that the Peru Free Trade Agreement was signed some three years ago, which would make it Bush's responsibility.

Alberto Pizango, courtesy of AFP

Alberto Pizango, an indigenous leader, is seeking asylum in Nicaragua. Peruvian police have already shot and killed one other indigenous leader, at least. Reuters is reporting that Nicaragua has granted asylum to Pizango and is now seeking Garcia's cooperation in giving Pizango safe passage to Nicaragua.

Feel free to write your local fishwrap a letter on the issue. Also, your Congresscritters. I'll post more on this later — must take my poison pills now (I'm cutting back, which means I'm dealing with shivers and sweats and pain and various other disturbances of teh bod; apparently, these highly addictive pain medications can't just be stopped cold turkey).

If you want to do more than just write letters to those worthless shills in congress and the local birdcage liner, consider starting a protest march in solidarity with the native people of Peru in front of the nearest Embassy. Blogger Ana at Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua has a boatload of email addresses for the UN and Peruvian leaders, in case you want to give those worthless fucks a piece of your mind as well. This kind of whatthefuckery deserves a response, goddammit.

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Politics: Your Happy News For Teh Day

According to the New Yorker, in a recent article titled "The Bush Six," by Jane Mayer, war crimes trials for some of the criminals in the previous administration might be available sooner than we think. The lucky ducks who could qualify for an intimate view of the Hague and matching cool orange-stripey gear include our old friends Dough Feith (no typo, aka "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth," General Tommy Franks, see Woodward, Plan of Attack); John Yoo, who coined the term "enhanced interrogation techniques" as a substitute for what honest people call "torture"; David Addington, Snarl Cheney's secretive legal counsel and right-claw shadow; and Alberto Gonezales, the second fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth, aka, "I Don't Recall." Undoubtedly, the two others are Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

What you will find heartening about this report is reproduced here for your enjoyment:

[...] Gonzalo Boye, the Chilean-born Spanish lawyer [...] last week filed the criminal complaint against the Bush officials, on behalf of five former prisoners who were, they allege, tortured in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay.

It is hard to predict what will happen next, but, if arrest warrants are issued, the Obama Administration may be forced either to extradite the former officials or to start its own investigation. Sands, who admires Obama, said, “I regret that I have added to his in-box when he has so much else to sort out. But I hope he does the right thing. There’s not much dispute anymore: torture happened, and the law is clear—torture must be punished.”

Meanwhile, Sands reiterated a warning that he made in his book. “If I were they,” he said, referring to the former officials in question, “I would think carefully before setting foot outside the United States. They are now, and forever in the future, at risk of arrest. Until this is sorted out, they are in their own legal black hole.”

Admittedly, we don't know if warrants will be issued, or if these lowlife thugs will be arrested and tried and forced to serve their time. But think of it this way. From the day Philippe Sands' expose was first published to the day they die, these swine will, every single day of their lives, wake up wondering if today is the day they get schlepped before the court.

If you've ever been involved in a court case, even when you're the innocent party or the plaintiff, you know how stressful it is. Every single day until the day they're in the pokey, if ever, these schmucks will be looking behind them, waiting for the hand on the shoulder. Every piece of mail, every phone call, every knock on the door, every invitation that requires them to travel outside the continental United States will be a source of fear and trepidation and unease. May their ulcers eat them alive.

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Politics: Opinionifying

Douchebag

If you haven't already seen it, Ross Douchehat wrote a sanctimonious, assholistic, ignorant, lame-assed editorial for the New York Times that absolutely reeks of having been pulled out of his bung. For maximum benefit, take blood pressure and psychoactive medication before reading. You'll be glad you did.

Why the Times decides to let this worthless motherfucker opine on abortions he is never going to have is beyond me. In any event, it is my sincere hope that you will give them what-for. Until right-wing hacks like Douchebag disappear off the horizon, this country doesn't have a prayer of moving in a progressive direction. As always, Douchebag shows us that rightwingnuttia is far more interested in having its collective nose up the panties of women and LGBTQ folk than in, say, stopping war, apprehending war criminals, fixing the economy, making the switch from an exploitative, war-based economy to one that puts the environment and all its ecological components first, with health care for all and an end to starvation and poverty, respect for science and preservation of the world we inhabit. So. Fuck Douchebag. Figuratively, at least. At editorial@nytimes.com.

I took it upon myself to start the tirade:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I realize that you may have difficulty scavenging for "Op-Ed" writers, but really, do you HAVE to scrape the bottom of the barrel quite so obviously? Ross Douthat is hardly qualified to speak about so powerful and emotional an issue as abortion, having neither the capacity to ever experience the need for one, nor any other particular skillset that entitles him to make any pronouncements whatsoever on the topic. If you must have someone other than a person with pregnancy capabilities (or "woman," if you prefer, since it appears you are unacquainted with the female sex to any overwhelming degree), then you could at least find a writer who was either an obstetrician or a gynecologist, a psychologist or psychiatrist, a mental health worker of any other type, an educator, an embryologist - good heavens, there must, literally, be hundreds of people you could have selected! And some of them might even be women, which would give them a more realistic and appropriate perspective on pregnancies and the termination thereof.

Instead you chose this rambling idiot who does not back up his yammer with anything worthy of being called "proof." In addition to that, his idiocy is unmitigated by skillful prose, insight, sense, sensibility, meaning, empathy, or even, lacking all else, knowledge. Surely The Gray Lady can find SOMEone, ANYone, with better credentials than this emptyhat. Let me offer myself for the position. I can do no worse. No, wait, my cat could do no worse, so let me nominate her. I assure you, her fetching, winsome visage on the op-ed page, together with a collage of her pawprints and various household items that she has destroyed in her search for art, meaning, or amusement would appeal to your readers far more than the lard-faced apologist of the lower depths that is Douthat.

Sincerely,

thepoliticalcat

Look at that face. Who would want to fuck that pathetic thing? No wonder he can shoot his mouth off about abortions. He will never need one, or even cause anyone else to need one. After all, let's face it, if you thought something that looked like that was gonna crawl into or out of your twat, wouldn't you just give yourself a twatectomy with razor wire?

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Caturday!

ICHC for teh CATS!

Yes, it R Caturday, peeples, and y'all should be enjoying it! Sun's up, although the cats are not. And no, that's not Zingiber hogging Gojira's pillow. Actually, there is a pillow story to be told. The last time we did the sheets, we decided to do the Kitteh Pillow too. The Kitteh Pillow is Gojira's sleeping spot, although others muscle in throughout the day to conk out as they wish. Mostly, at night, Gojira claims it. Since she's a tiny little thing (about 7 lb, max), we have to enforce her Pillow Rights.

Believe me, it's well worth our while to ensure that she gets the damn thing to herself. The alternative is, she burrows under the covers and bites any ass she can find. How the hell did we end up with such an assbiter?

Anyway, she's very possessive of her pillow and complains loudly if anyone gets on it. I mean, anyone. Cat or hoomin. Luckily, in spring, summer, and fall, unless it's cold she spends most of her time outside with little meal breaks, so the others get a little pillow time.

Well, this time, since we were going to wash teh Kitteh Pillow cover, we had to make sure the pillow was safely out of the way so they couldn't rip what's left of it to shreds — that is, any more than it already is. So we stuffed it in a cupboard.

Well, the Wah (that's what we call her when she's at home — the WahWah Petal) came in while we were lying around watching Battlestar Galactica, and oh, my, the drama! If you didn't know better you would've called the cops on us for practising random vivisection or feline torture. Because it was WAAH,WAAH,WAH! at the top of her lungs for twenty whole minutes, as she paced up and down the bed, digging around among the bedclothes for her beloved pillow.

Yeah, we gave up in the end. You ever get into it with a determined cat? You *know* they always win. Always. Because no hoomin can outstubborn a cat. So we got her another pillow, plumped it, placed it at the head of the bed, and put her on it with much petting. The reward? A bite in the ass. I'm afraid to take a piss, I know I'll leak.

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Science: Stem Cells and Stuff!

How cool is this? Science Daily is reporting that researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have figured out a way to treat victims of corneal disease — by culturing stem cells on a therapeutic contact lens that is placed in the sufferer's eye. Dr. Stephanie Watson, who performed the surgical procedure, described it as "simple, inexpensive," and requiring a minimal hospital stay and inexpensive lab equipment. A great breakthrough for Third World countries which cannot afford expensive techniques. Hell, it's a great breakthrough for everybody!

The procedure involves harvesting cells from the patient's cornea, culturing them in the lab, then placing them on a therapeutic contact lens. The lens is placed in the patient's eye and left in for ten days, during which time the stem cells recolonize the damaged cornea. No animal products, no invasive techniques. Shout it for SCIENCE! Yay!

Also from Science Daily, an interesting report about new drugs made from the mineral selenium, easily available at health food stores. Remember this blog's report on clostridium? Clostridium is one of the bacteria that could be thwarted by development of antibiotics that interfere with the selenoprotein process in both human and bacterial cells. Another likely candidate is Treponema denticola, which causes us to fund our dentists' annual holidays in the Caribbean. Could this be the end of tooth decay AND the superbugs? Keep your fingers crossed.

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