Marisacat

Comments

1. NYCee - 12 January 2008

I too saw the Shelby Steele interview on Moyers last night.

Worth the watch.

On Bloomberg:

Bloomberg = soulless. I will gladly forfeit his bow to gay marriage as supreme liberal bona fide when I weigh it against his billion(aire) miles distance from the needs of low and middle class earners. He is happy to up the bar from where Giuliani left it, continuing this city on its trajectory to becoming a giant gated community with a big fluffy welcome mat for the wealthy, fuck the rest. Big box/chain stores galore, banks banks banks, private infusions of money into public institutions (schools, parks) – such sources of money in means public control of these institutions OUT.

Boomberg – as in economic boom. for the wealthy.

That is who he is and what he knows. And it is what he does. That is your bread and your butter with Bloomberg. His nicey nice on social issues, like choice and gay marriage, is the cinnamon and sugar sprinkling on top.

2. BooHooHooMan - 12 January 2008

Media Matters = Clinton Ops. Yawn.
MediaMatters Femminiserimsies – Hillary = Crickets.

In the shortlived blowhardery that is BBBlogdom, what campaign other than self promotion to get on with Matthews and the like have they actually succeeded at? They Drive O’Rielly off the air?
Troops home? Impeachment? Last I heard, they were bitching about Plane tickets and Junket Sponsorship for online toadies or some such…

Fuck em. I’d like to see one valid exit poll in any election in the last five years where people said their vote was persuaded by the Blahgs.. DK , Media Matters HuffPo, any of them. It’s a self referential fundraising echo chamber.

The FauxLeft Bitch and Cave with their FauxLeft outrage is getting old and has done enormous collateral damage to any countervailing weight mustered by other vocal Activists.

3. Hair Club for Men - 12 January 2008

Tweety’s a massive asshole who makes Tucker Carlson look reasonable. This about sums it up.

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a “she devil” and compared her to a “strip-teaser.” He has called her “witchy” and likened her voice to “fingernails on a blackboard.” He has referred to men who support her as “castratos in the eunuch chorus.” He has suggested Clinton is not “a convincing mom” and said “modern women” like Clinton are unacceptable to “Midwest guys.” He has called her “Madame Defarge” and “Nurse Ratched.”

But he’s been a massive asshole for years. Funny that only now is Media Matters trying to mount a campaign against him. Great way to bring people onboard with Hillary’s campaing, doncha think?

4. Hair Club for Men - 12 January 2008

I will gladly forfeit his bow to gay marriage as supreme liberal bona fide when I weigh it against his billion(aire) miles distance from the needs of low and middle class earners. He is happy to up the bar from where Giuliani left it, continuing this city on its trajectory to becoming a giant gated community with a big fluffy welcome mat for the wealthy, fuck the rest.

I couldn’t forgive his turning over New York to the RNC and then locking 2000 people up without charge.

With that move he put himself in the company of anybody who supported the “yes” vote on invading Iraq and the “yes” vote on the Patriot Act.

5. Hair Club for Men - 12 January 2008

Media Matters finally catches up with Zell Miller

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mRRMUKh9iQM

6. JJB - 12 January 2008

So, Armando thinks Tweety Blueballs is abusive towards women. Have Jack the Ripper and Richard Speck weighed in on this matter?

BTW, someone should tell Jeralyn that Tweety’s ratings cannot possibly plummet, anymore than someone can go into freefall off a sidewalk curb. His ratings are probably now a small fraction of whatever the combined WB/UPN network gets in the same time slot. You local cable access channel might get better ratings. Tweety is on the tube for one reason only, to spread Jack Welch approved propaganda. Welch, Murdoch, Sun-Yung Moon et al. are willing to endure oceans of red ink to get their message out, over and over.

7. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

I hope that when Matthews is off the air, he will be replaced by Big Tent Whatsis or Thereisnostooge.

After all, you can’t insult the sacred Madame Clinton with your peasant language but other female peasants ? Hey, go for it.

Wait ! I’ve got a better idea !! Kos and Rev can have a big face-off on CNN about just how successful the bad, bad she-boomers were at cutting all the poor li’l men off at the balls ? Isn’t that what guys used to say in those days any time any woman, anywhere had a difference of opinion with them ?

“Shut up, you bitch. You’re trying to cut me off at the balls !! How dare you not be REAL WOMAN[tm] enough to vote for Hillary !!”

Gilroy will compose the fight music.

8. wilfred - 12 January 2008

I’m loathe to agree with old Fernando at TL but Tweety must go. He creeps me out every time he talks about women he finds attractive. Why do we need to know who he finds attractive (and by deductive reasoning who he doesn’t)? And then he puts on the Catholic mantle and the loving husband routine, makes me think it’s all an act or he so stifles his mid-life libido that it can’t help but pour out of his mouth as the only orifice possible.

9. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

exotic left

How did she know I blog while wearing latex and a gas mask?

10. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Tonkin Gulf:

Meanwhile, in the Trenches

By the afternoon of Aug. 4 (Washington time), the CIA’s expert analyst on North Vietnam (let’s call him “Tom”) had concluded that probably no one had fired on US ships in the Tonkin Gulf over the past 24 hours. He included a paragraph to that effect in the item he wrote for the Current Intelligence Bulletin, which would be wired to the White House and other key agencies and appear in print the next morning.

And then something unique happened. The Director of the Office of Current Intelligence, a very senior officer whom Tom had never before seen, descended into the bowels of the agency to order the paragraph deleted. He explained:

“We’re not going to tell LBJ that now. He has already decided to bomb North Vietnam. We have to keep our lines open to the White House.”

“Tom” later bemoaned—quite rightly: “What do we need lines open for, if we’re not going to use them, and use them to tell the truth?”

Back to Iran. This time, we all know that the president and vice president are seeking an excuse to attack Iran. There is a big difference from the situation in the summer of 1964, when President Johnson had intimidated all his senior subordinates into using deceit to escalate the war. Bamford comments on the disingenuousness of Robert McNamara when he testified in 1968 that it was “inconceivable” that senior officials, including the president, deliberately used the Tonkin Gulf events to generate Congressional support for a wider Vietnam war.

In Bamford’s words, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had become “a sewer of deceit,” with Operation Northwoods and other unconscionable escapades to its credit. Then-Under Secretary of State George Ball commented, “There was a feeling that if the destroyer got into some trouble, that this would provide the provocation we needed.”

11. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

oh, and btw Miss D, I trash pretty much all of them, because they all deserve it. I’ve been focusing on Obama lately because I have a special burning hatred for preachers who promise salvation while picking their flocks pockets, and sadly that is all he is.

A sad state of affairs for a man who did do some good things when he was in the IL House.

12. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Catharine Crier on Maher last night about e-voting machines.

13. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

LJ’s up, complete with credited Madman quotes.

Of course, the real theme music should be that Kate Bush song with the lines: You never did hear me come in/You won’t hear me leaving. IOW, I’m too obscure a presence in Blogland to fear some huge protracted flamewar, but if there is one, fine. People can think whatever they want, because they will think it no matter what I say or do.

14. Hair Club for Men - 12 January 2008

Juan Gonzalez slams Obama.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/columnists/gonzalez/

For the most part, I agree with him, but WTF on this?

Today’s Obama supporters are convinced they can bring about a whole new era with Facebook networks, BlackBerrys, a big “Change” banner and phone banks. For all their many flaws, at least Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have no illusions about how fiercely contested the presidential race of 2008 will become. In a nation suffering from the greatest wealth disparity in its history, those who tell us we can all get along are selling snake oil.

15. marisacat - 12 January 2008

cat nip and Madman ot of Moderation, one each… somewhere up thread…sorry to be vague.

16. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

can’t say I’m surprised:

Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk

The firefighting system in the massive $736 million embassy complex in Baghdad has potential safety problems that top U.S. officials dismissed in their rush to declare construction largely completed by the end of last year, according to internal State Department documents, e-mails and interviews.

Some officials assert that in the push to complete the long-delayed project, potentially life-threatening problems have been left untouched. “This is serious enough to get someone killed,” said a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. “The fire systems are the tip of the iceberg. That is the most visible. But no one has ever inspected the electrical system, the power plant” and other parts of the embassy complex, which will house more than 1,000 people and is vulnerable to mortar attacks.

Other sources involved in the project, also requesting anonymity, insist that disputes involve technical paperwork issues, largely because the contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials. Now, much of that work needs to be reexamined and checked, they said, substantially delaying the project’s completion.

The finger-pointing over fire safety is a microcosm of the suspicion that hangs over the troubled project, which is built on acreage almost four times the size of the Pentagon. Originally expected to be completed by July 1, 2007, at a cost of $592 million, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world has been plagued by poor planning, shoddy workmanship and design changes that have added to the cost. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of the contract and related subcontracts, sources said.

17. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

Hair Club, you were almost the first to post. Please check your mailbox for your complimentary Parisian macaroon assortment.

Oh, I cross-posted to MBM as well, because why not ?

18. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Thanks for the quotes and links, ms. x.

19. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

De Nada, Madman.

Now I have to decide whether it’s decadent to mix myself a Bloody Mary before mr_xeno has even woken up. :p

20. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Someone mentioned getting McKinney on the ballot in the last thread.

Some info here.

For all its pious talk about exporting democracy, the United States has a lot to learn from the rest of the world about the process of opening its public elections to broad participation by the people of this nation. In fact, the ballot access barriers in the United States are on average more prohibitive than those of any other nation which holds elections. In fact, in Cynthia’s home state of Georgia, she will face the most draconian ballot access barriers in the world. To place Cynthia before the voters of Georgia, the Georgia Green Party will require over 44,000 valid signatures on its ballot access petitions. But Georgia is not alone in imposing such restrictions on its citizens. Voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina and Arizona face similarly draconian barriers. And most other states in the nation impose at least moderately difficult barriers as well.

We do not start from scratch. Due to the hard work of Green Party activists in past election cycles, the Greens begin the 2008 election cycle with twenty-two ballot lines. In fact, in California, Illinois, Massachusettes and the District of Columbia Greens are well organized enough to have earned a place on their state’s Primary ballots. Even so, in Illinois, we have a narrow window in which to deliver sufficient ballot access petition signatures to ensure Cynthia a place on the Illinois Presidential Preference Primary ballot. That deadline is November 3rd and your help is needed now.

This was posted back in early Nov.

From this, it looks like she made it onto the IL ballot.

21. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

One True Voice on the Trail

_a_conversation_with_dennis_kucinich/) why the Democratic Party has failed so badly. Why did the party, despite the midterm elections, refuse to cut funding for a war that is probably the worst foreign-policy blunder in U.S. history?

“Lack of commitment to democratic principles,” he said after a long pause. He then began to list the reasons: “No understanding of the period of history we are in … unwillingness to assert congressional authority in key areas which makes the people’s house paramount to protecting democracy; the institutionalized influence of corporate America through the Democratic Leadership Council.

“Oil runs our politics, corrupt Wall Street interests run our politics, insurance companies run our politics, arms manufacturers run our politics, and the public’s interests are being strangled,” he added.

He stands as a maverick within the party, denouncing the series of trade agreements, many put in place by Bill Clinton, which have devastated U.S. workers.

“What I see is that the Democratic Party abandoned working people and paradoxically they are the ones who hoist the flag of workers every two and four years, only to engender excitement and then turn around and abandon the same constituency. This is now on a level of a practiced ritual.”

Kucinich advocates a full-employment economy, calling for a new version of the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed millions of Americans. He wants to put people to work to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, from its roads and bridges to its dams, levies, sewer systems, libraries and mass transit. He has introduced, along with Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, a bill, H.R. 3400, that would provide federal funds for this jobs program. He has called for the government to invest in wind and solar technologies to be retrofitted into tens of millions of U.S. homes and businesses.

Kucinich is the only candidate in the race who advocates a single, not-for-profit health-care system for all citizens, in essence a national Medicare. He coauthored H.R. 676, which would provide universal health coverage. This coverage would, he said, not only assure that people will not suffer or die from lack of medical care, but would also stem the epidemic of personal bankruptcies, half of which are attributed to people who cannot pay their medical bills.

He rails against his party’s refusal to end the war, blaming the Democrats’ decision to continue funding the war on “an implicit understanding of the power of those interests that profit from war and the power of war as an idea.”

I asked him if he was ever frustrated, given his lonely status as an outsider. He was excluded from a Dec. 13 Democratic debate in Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register. His lack of corporate money has seen his campaign subsist on $2 million while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama each raised $100 million in 2007 for their presidential bids.

“What you do in life is you stand up and fight for those things you believe in,” he said, “and you do it without question or pause, to take a phrase in one of my favorite songs. I don’t have any complaints.”

He will, of course, work with the party in the end.

22. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Interview with David Simon – creator of the Wire. This seems right on about where we are:

So much of “The Wire” is about the crushing of good intentions. Do you think positive change is possible?

“No. Individual change is and there are some individual journeys that are honored on the show. People get better on their own. But institutions in this country at this time … Understand, I’m saying this to you, I’m a newspaperman of 13 years experience, who has a degree in general studies from a big state school, I had a C average. I’ve read a lot. And I’ve been a reporter in a city called Baltimore, Maryland.

“So am I right in my opinions? I realize there’s something so fatuous about me deciding I’m going to make a political argument with 60 hours of [an] HBO [show] and say that there’s no way out of this maze, this social and political and cultural maze. For me to say that is pompous as all get out. But I can’t write less than I believe. I’m not interested in making a cop show.

“But ultimately, at this point, over the last 25 years, we’ve misconstrued unencumbered capitalism for a social and political framework. We believe profit itself justifies anything. That’s our economic policy that’s our political policy. We don’t have a democracy any more, it’s an oligarchy, it’s bought and paid for. We don’t have representative government in any sense. Just look at the Senate, 40 percent of the country has 60 percent of the seats. That’s not a democracy, that’s an oligarchy.

“Ultimately that is what acts on every one of these institutions in every season of ‘The Wire.’ Because someone can buy for a nickel and sell for a dime, every other intention – good, bad or indifferent — is undercut. Every singular act of heroism or of rebellion within these institutions is undercut, because someone somewhere sees a chance to make a buck. Or to advance themselves to a point where they will have more power, power ultimately translating to more money.”

23. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Analysis: Why the “Hillary hacked NH?” story is important

Hillary’s New Hampshire woes could be a prelude to a much bigger mess

I’ve saved the most important part of this post for last. Note that this is also the part of the post where I do what folks on the Internet are always wishing that “mainstream” journalists would do, and that’s call it exactly like I see it. So feel free to disagree, but I think even the small minority of our audience that believes the very worst about Hillary Clinton will have to concede that I have a point about the lay of the land here.

All NH integrity issues aside, the real story in the mini-firestorm stirred up on the Internet in response to Clinton’s NH upset is that it has important implications for the any presidential contest that includes the former First Lady.

Imagine the scene on the day after the November 2008 presidential election if Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the presidency in an upset, after citizens in states like Ohio went to the polls and voted electronically. If you’re an independent who thinks that the left has made a big deal over the Florida results in the 2000 election, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Over the course of the 90s, segments of the right accused Clinton of a litany of sins that includes the murder of Vince Foster, so it’s not at all a stretch to assume that they could and would add mass electronic election fraud to that line-up.

My point is that given the simple fact of who she is and the feelings that she stirs in her opponents, a close Clinton victory—especially if that victory is at odds with pre- and post-election polling—could precipitate a major electoral controversy to a degree that is not true of any other candidate on either side. Unlike Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, no Republican candidate is likely to roll over and let Clinton take the White House if they can get substantial traction with accusations that she stole the election. So there’s a small possibility (or a large one, depending on how you judge the odds of a close Hillary victory), that we may be in for a mess that makes us long for the halcyon days of “hanging chads.”

From my perspective, this is what’s really at stake in the ongoing e-voting controversy: the government’s inability to fulfill its obligation to prove to the public that our elections are fair makes our democracy so much more fragile, and so much more susceptible to cracking under the shock of a major election controversy.

24. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

‘Exotic’?

And I’m too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I’m disco dancing

25. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

SC’s Repub Governor Endorses Obama

26. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

‘Filipino Monkey’ may be behind radio threats, ship drivers say

27. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 January 2008

Corporate elite fear candidate Edwards

Open attacks on the business elite are seldom heard from mainstream White House candidates in America, despite skyrocketing CEO pay, rising income inequality, and a torrent of scandals in corporate boardrooms and on Wall Street.

But this year Edwards is not alone. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, sometimes also rails against corporate power and influence, tapping a populist current that lies just below the surface of U.S. politics.

One business lobbyist, who asked not to be named, said Edwards “has gone to this angry populist, anti-business rhetoric that borders on class warfare … He focuses dislike of special interests, which is out there, on business.”

Another lobbyist said an Edwards presidency would be “a disaster” for his well-heeled industrialist clients.

Asked which candidate their clients most support, corporate lobbyists were unsure. Clinton has cautious backing within the corporate jet set, as do Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, they said.

These candidates represent stability to executives who have much to lose if November’s election brings about the sweeping change some candidates are promising.

Obama and Huckabee register largely as unknown quantities among business owners, both large and small, say lobbyists.

“My sense is that Obama would govern as a reasonably pragmatic Democrat … I think Hillary is approachable. She knows where a lot of her funding has come from, to be blunt,” said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Stanford Group Co., a market and policy analysis group.

But Edwards, Valliere said, is seen as “an anti-business populist” and “a trade protectionist who is quite unabashed about raising taxes.”

“I think his regulatory policies, as well as his tax policies, would be viewed as a threat to business,” he said.

“The next scariest for business would be Huckabee because of his rhetoric and because he’s an unknown.”

28. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

26. Well that was enlightening!

29. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

Politics isn’t an academic exercise (1+ / 0-)

The results matter. Just ask all those dead Iraqis and US soldiers.

As long as we stay within the boundaries of the law, all’s fair. Politics is a blood sport, and I’ll do whatever it takes to win because, in the end, who is elected truly does matter.

You can bring your spork to the gun battle. I’m bringing the heavy artillery.

by kos on Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 01:49:17 PM MST

The man is obsessed with war and sports. I’ll bet he bronzed those combat boots.

As for ” who is elected truly does matter” – how’s that Democratic congress working out for you, kos? And just what have they managed to do for ‘all those dead Iraqis and US soldiers’? You may not have a problem with placing winning above principles but I’ll bet those dead peoples’ relatives might have something to say about that.

30. James - 12 January 2008

I do wear a lot of tie-dye. Does that count as “exotic”?

31. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

I do wear a lot of tie-dye. Does that count as “exotic”?

No. That makes you a “dirty fucking hippy”.

32. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

Gee. And here I thought the so-called surge was working so well. Bush says troop cutbacks might stop

33. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

Blackwater destroys evidence:

WASHINGTON – Blackwater Worldwide repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad, making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attack, according to people familiar with the government’s investigation of the incident.

Damage to the vehicles in the convoy has been held up by Blackwater as proof that its security guards were defending themselves against an insurgent ambush when they fired into a busy intersection, leaving 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

I’ll look forward to the perp walk when they charge Prince with obstruction of justice.

34. supervixen - 12 January 2008

from catnip:

As long as we stay within the boundaries of the law, all’s fair. Politics is a blood sport, and I’ll do whatever it takes to win because, in the end, who is elected truly does matter.

You can bring your spork to the gun battle. I’m bringing the heavy artillery.

by kos on Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 01:49:17 PM MST

Oh Kos, you poor thing! You picture yourself as one of those lantern-jawed NFL coaches striding manfully about the field gritting his teeth and barking terse orders. But in reality all you are is a frogfaced little wimp fanboy who would never even be allowed inside a pro locker room. You’re not even a real pundit. And that’s lamer than lame.

35. marisacat - 12 January 2008

somewhere in the pst few days I managed a good typo:

punydit.

36. supervixen - 12 January 2008

“punydit” – LOL!!!

To those Koswatchers who have been paying attention: what’s Miz Laura the bespectacled dominatrix up to? And how fares the bibulous sexcrazed Elise? Any fun contretemps to report?

37. marisacat - 12 January 2008

Ryan Lizza is up in The New Yorker… and it is a better article than I had expected.

38. marisacat - 12 January 2008

Hillary at bat. FWIW.

39. marisacat - 12 January 2008

Brownstein in the National Journal, an overview.

Scroll down for the Dem/Ob/hill analysis…

40. melvin - 12 January 2008

Heavy artillery? About as massive a strike as a Prince Albert in a can prank call.

41. marisacat - 12 January 2008

… and no shock, Ben Nelson endorsed Obama……. as did Hart.

42. marisacat - 12 January 2008

Onward…

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has prepared a detailed memo listing various instances in which it perceived Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign to have deliberately played the race card in the Democratic primary.

The memo, which was obtained by the Huffington Post and has been made public elsewhere, is believed to have been given to an activist and contains mostly excerpts from different media reports. It lists the contact info and name of Obama’s South Carolina press secretary, Amaya Smith, and is broken down into five incidents in which either Clinton, her husband Bill, or campaign surrogates made comments that could be interpreted as racially insensitive.

The document provides an indication that, in private, the Obama campaign is seeking to capitalize on the view – and push the narrative – that the Clintons are using race-related issues for political leverage. In public, the Obama campaign has denied that they are trying to propagate such a perception, noting that the document never was sent to the press.

::snip::

43. BooHooHooMan - 12 January 2008

Clinton Adviore Sidney Blumenthal Busted for DWI

Nashua police say Sidney Blumenthal was arrested early Monday morning after an officer pulled over a car traveling 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. Blumenthal, 59, is a journalist and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now serving as an unpaid adviser on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

44. bayprairie - 12 January 2008

The Web of Addiction
Coal Miners in Western Va. Caught in Widening Cycle of Painkiller Abuse

When the clinic doors open at 5, the crowd streams into the warm hallway, squinting in the indoor light. Trapp hands over $12.50 at a payment window, then lines up at another window for his dose: 80 milligrams of liquid methadone, mixed with juice in a little white cup. He must gulp it down quickly and get back on the road. His boss expects him at 6:30.

“This methadone makes you feel like a human being again,” Trapp says.

With disability rates as high as 37 percent in coal-mining areas such as Buchanan County, the region has many people with long-term pain management needs. As is the case with lots of aging miners, Trapp’s addiction to pills began in a doctor’s office, not a back-alley drug deal.

“Busted-up” from 30 years working as a heavy-equipment operator and mechanic on the massive excavators used for strip mining and mountaintop removal, Trapp needed multiple surgeries to fix seven ruptured and herniated discs. Doctors wanted to implant a magnesium rod to stabilize his spine, but Trapp refused.

“I’ve known too many people who’ve done it, and they can’t tie their shoes,” he said.

So Trapp loaded up on painkillers, first Percocet and later OxyContin. When the prescribed dose no longer did the job, Trapp took more. Then more. He began “doctor shopping,” driving to Roanoke and Richmond to find physicians who would give him prescriptions.

When the pharmacies couldn’t provide enough pills, Trapp found dealers who would. Friends were melting oxycodone tablets and injecting themselves — “bangin’ OCs” — but Trapp was too squeamish to mess with needles. He crushed the tablets and snorted them like cocaine off his kitchen table. He didn’t feel high, just “good.” The relief was instant.

“I got hooked on those bad boys real bad,” he says.

When the whistle blows each morning
And I walk down in that cold, dark mine
I say a prayer to my dear Savior
Please let me see the sunshine one more time

Miners Prayer on youtube

45. BooHooHooMan - 12 January 2008

Sorry. Here’s the right linkage. Not Good

Clinton Advisor Sidney Blumenthal Busted for DWI

More Importantly, Re Blumenthal

NASHUA, New Hampshire (AP) – A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested and charged with aggravated drunken driving a day before the New Hampshire primary.

46. marisacat - 12 January 2008

there hs been some speculation around that Blumethal was the source for the “hip black friend” comment in The Guardian.

47. BooHooHooMan - 12 January 2008

That’s interesting.. Some sort of “check your heart” moment going on in the DP Brass . LOL. Some of this I think is Trial Balloon and innoculation but really they suck all the way around. Both with unquestionablye support for Israel. Underneath, Both assuming a bellicose posture towards Islamo- whomevers wherevers save Arab Royalty cooperating with the West.

Same bla bla about energy, Same direction, Same shit, different angle
They’re Just different Harvest Season help……..

48. supervixen - 12 January 2008

bay: thanks. Maybe John Sayles should do a pic about modern-day miners and their painkiller addictions.

One of my friends here in NH is from western PA. Her dad worked in the mines. He and all of his friends died from black lung and other related horrors.

49. supervixen - 12 January 2008

Also, about my friend whose father died of black lung – she’s a Republican. It’s absurd. WTF is wrong with people. Of course one explanation is that she’s Catholic.

to NYCee, sorry I missed your comment the first time. About Bloomberg: yeah yeah, soulless billionaire etc. The problem is that the other candidates are just as soulless, for the most part. The great thing about being a billionaire is that you don’t suck up to people for money. It would also be nice to have a Jew as President, or at least running as a viable candidate. It would open the door for Feingold.

50. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

sv is unfair to America’s wimps !!

[hisssssssss]

51. supervixen - 12 January 2008

hey ms x! I despise wimps. Wimps are those who talk loud and say nothing. They are nothing but blah blah. Ineffectual by definition. Dickwavers, in fact. Like BigTentDemocrat and DumbassWebb with whom Kos is in closeted gay love.

Snools.

52. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

42. If the Clintons were not “The Clintons”, would all of these comments ‘form a pattern’? This is all very ugly and I have to wonder if the charges being thrown around are just backlash against Hillary because she’s only ‘likeable enough’. I mean, really, this is ALL politics.

If someone would have told me a month ago that I would have been defending the Hillary camp, I would have laughed in their face but I don’t care where unprincipled bullshit is aimed – it’s still bullshit. Obama’s campaign would do well to try and sell their policies instead of engaging in a offensive action of presenting some pretty hollow charges (ie. that the MLK/LBJ comment had anything to do with race). Then again, if he actually had policies that were different enough from the status quo, maybe he and his surrogates wouldn’t have to engage in all of these sideshows.

Politicians are master manipulators and Obama certainly isn’t above that.

53. marisacat - 12 January 2008

just landed on this from Josh Marshall, they reference and link to it from one of the escalating race related reports on teh campaigns at TPMEC.

I don’t read JM much at all, but assume he is more or less in Camp Clinton.

54. boohoohooman - 12 January 2008

Breaking!

Popcorn Commodities Soar as Supervixen…

55. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

You’d swear they’re Republicans. But hey, ‘change’ is a comin’…right?

56. boohoohooman - 12 January 2008

This Catnips link above

But the Clinton intervention at Ward 9 in Nashua nonetheless persuaded the moderator to ban the Obama observers. And the disputes, which dragged on for hours and grew quite heated, generally scrambled the Obama efforts to keep track of who was and wasn’t voting, said Obama supporter Andrew Edwards, a rookie state representative assigned to observe the polls in Nashua, where Clinton ran up a big margin in her favor. Edwards was confronted by Lasky and by another veteran Democrat, state representative and Nashua Democratic chairwoman Jane Clemons, who he said issued a veiled threat during the dispute that he would face a stiff primary challenge in Nashua if he ran for reelection.

“The effect of it was that it basically disrupted our get out the vote operation,” said Edwards. “My effectiveness that day [in checking off names] was less than 50 percent as a result of the people who kept coming in” to protest the observers.

Clemons, whose son Nick Clemons managed Clinton’s campaign in the state, said she objected to the Obama observers because she said she had been told by the Nashua City Clerk the day before that such observers would not be allowed and that letting the Obama use them conferred an “unfair advantage.” In an interview Friday, the city clerk, Paul Bergeron, said this was not the case, that the discussion before the election had regarded volunteers challenging voters, not those checking names off lists.

Clemons denied that she had threatened Edwards with a primary challenge, saying that she simply asked him whether he was planning to run for re-election, which he may have wrongly interpreted as a threat.

In HODES Cong District. Obam Chair. LOL.

Roll me O-ver..

57. ms_xeno - 12 January 2008

sv is making my eyes burn.

I miss the old days with the legumes and the margaritas and such.

If I found those idjits in my closet, I’d have it torched.

58. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

If Bush has his way, it might not matter what any Dem candidate plans to about Iraq: Sorry, Barack, You’ve lost Iraq.

59. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

Anti-war Soros funded Iraq study:

A STUDY that claimed 650,000 people were killed as a result of the invasion of Iraq was partly funded by the antiwar billionaire George Soros.

Soros, 77, provided almost half the £50,000 cost of the research, which appeared in The Lancet, the medical journal. Its claim was 10 times higher than consensus estimates of the number of war dead.
[...]
The Lancet study was commissioned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and led by Les Roberts, an associate professor and epidemiologist at Columbia University. He reportedly opposed the war from the outset.

His team surveyed 1,849 homes at 47 sites across Iraq, asking people about births, deaths and migration in their households.

Professor John Tirman of MIT said this weekend that $46,000 (£23,000) of the approximate £50,000 cost of the study had come from Soros’s Open Society Institute.

Roberts said this weekend: “In retrospect, it was probably unwise to have taken money that could have looked like it would result in a political slant. I am adamant this could not have affected the outcome of the research.”

The Lancet did not break any rules by failing to disclose Soros’s sponsorship.

Despite that, we’ll never know the real numbers thanks to the Pentagon’s refusal to release the data is has.

60. liberalcatnip - 12 January 2008

I didn’t know this, if it’s true…

On December 29, 2007, bin Laden issued a 56-minute statement that addressed Muslim insurgents in Iraq [1] and built on his earlier message from October 22 [2]. The new statement was ssued via al-Qaeda’s media arm, al-Sahab, and appeared on several Internet sites without pre-publication excerpts on al-Jazeera television. Al-Jazeera’s editing of the October 22 audiotape distorted bin Laden’s message, incorrectly giving the implication that he was saying “all is lost” for the mujahideen in Iraq [3]. Al-Jazeera customarily deletes anything critical of the Saudi regime from bin Laden’s messages. This occurred in the case of the October 22 tape and al-Qaeda apparently did not want to take a chance on al-Jazeera’s penchant for politically correct editing with its most recent message [4].

61. marisacat - 13 January 2008

Angry Arab has been mentioning that Al Jazeera works to benefit Saud…

I have to take his word for it, as I don’t have access, LOL

62. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

The rest of that article is interesting as well, btw.

63. supervixen - 13 January 2008

OK, “anti-war Soros” + the Lancet + MIT + Columbia = what exactly?

Civilization.

64. marisacat - 13 January 2008

with this new study out that stops mid 2006 iirc and posits a much much much lower number, they will work again to discredit the Lancet study. Which alway smade sense and they explained their mthodology in detail as I recall…

65. marisacat - 13 January 2008

btw, Obama is up in CA with an ad, the one about talking to people about what they should hear…

66. cad - 13 January 2008

“Politics is a blood sport, and I’ll do whatever it takes to win because, in the end, who is elected truly does matter.”

I thought it was a spectator sport. Then it was just having “fun” with the Michigan vote. Now it’s GI Kos and his Fightin’ Twoll-Hunters, each armed with state-o’the-art TR’s, TU’s, UID’s, and STFU’s.

67. Cody - 13 January 2008

Changing the channel when you come across something you don’t like is too easy for some people. They want the challenge of annoying everyone else…

68. marisacat - 13 January 2008

NY Daily News endorses Obama……………..

and it seems the NYT insists (3 out of 4 times) on using a truncated version of Clinton’s now cornerstone, flag raising, blasted in concrete comments on MLK. MTP is not on yet in the West but apparently Russert used the shortened version as well, from TPM Horses Mouth with links and commentary on the full quote.

Let them bash their heads together, but get teh quotes right.

Shortened quote, NYT version:

This was what Mrs. Clinton said on Monday:

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.” At a later stop, she said that her remark had not captured what she had sought to portray.

Full quote:

“I would point to the fact that that Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people’s lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.”

we are going ot hear about that comment forever.

69. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

How do these people live with themselves:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s intelligence chief says waterboarding “would be torture” if used against him or if someone under interrogation actually was taking water into his lungs.

But Mike McConnell, in a magazine interview, declined for legal reasons to say whether the technique categorically should be considered torture.

“If it ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it,” McConnell told The New Yorker, which published a 16,000-word article Sunday on the director of national intelligence.

McConnell said the legal test for torture should be “pretty simple.”

“Is it excruciatingly painful to the point of forcing someone to say something because of the pain?” he said.

70. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

Last Year’s Role Model

A decade-and-a-half later, however, working women were back watching Mrs. Clinton in a New Hampshire diner: they saw her eyes well up in what looked like self-pity but what was to those women recognizably the teary, unbidden mist of exhaustion. Sympathy burst forth, even from Barack Obama (he, too, was tired).

Still, though we are in the midst of an awful presidency, we should not be taken in by the rosy haze that gets cast over the Clinton White House; they were not years of great accomplishment. Baghdad was strafed and embargoed; Waco was gassed and burned; in all these events, children (Mrs. Clinton’s key policy focus) were appallingly killed.

While polar ice caps began to melt, Al Gore was left to do who-knows-what, only to regale us later in cineplexes with the consequences of those melting caps, rendering us panicked in our powerlessness. Nafta was signed and the World Trade Organization was created, national health care went nowhere, and by the second term’s close, the administration’s hope of getting things done had been hijacked by Kenneth Starr and the party dress he had confiscated from someone named Monica Lewinsky.

So here comes another Clinton.

71. mattes - 13 January 2008

Israel’s Netanyahu Claims President Bush Promised Unilateral Nuclear Bomb Attack Against Iran

We’ll nuke Iran – Bush promises Israel

Thu, 01/10/2008 – 16:08 – Wire Services – US President George W. Bush promised Israel’s opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu that the United States will join the Jewish state in a nuclear strike against Iran, Israel Radio reported today.

Former Prime Minister Netanyahu, opposition Likud party’s hardline chairman who opposes the US-backed Annapolis peace process, reiterated to President Bush his stance, that a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran’s nuclear installations was the only way to stop the Islamic nation’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

“I told him my position and Bush agreed,” Netanyahu told Israel Radio.

During their 45-minute meeting at King David hotel in Jerusalem Netanyahu also told Bush that “Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people and will remain under Israeli sovereignty for eternity.”
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=9104

WHY does everyone kiss Neten’s ass??

Blackmail?

72. mattes - 13 January 2008

Our politicians dance like trained bears to Greater Israel

http://www.politicalfleshfeast.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1640

73. supervixen - 13 January 2008

Wow. Lorrie Moore is a shitty writer. “Appallingly killed”????

It gets worse in the rest of the piece: “zeitgeisty parvenu”, anyone?

74. JJB - 13 January 2008

This goes way beyond sabre-rattling:

President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger ”before it’s too late.”

Bush said Iran funds terrorist extremists, undermines stability in Lebanon, sends arms to the hardline Taliban regime, intimidates its neighbors with alarming rhetoric and defies the United Nations by refusing to be open about its nuclear program.

”Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” Bush said in a speech about democracy that he delivered about midway through his eight-day Mideast trip, which began with a renewed push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace pact — an accord he said whose ”time has come.”

[huge snip]

On Iran, Bush is privately trying to allay the concerns of Persian Gulf allies nervous about Iran’s military might and spreading influence. Gulf allies are jittery after the Jan. 6 confrontation between U.S. and Iranian naval vessels off their shores, but seek assurance that Bush doesn’t want war. Any attack on Iran could bring retaliation against military bases on Arab soil or choke the lucrative oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz. [Please note that this paragraph in fact seems to indicate that our "Persian Gulf allies" are in fact worried that US aggression might produce the war they are so fearful of, not "Iran's military might," also note that Iran's "spreading influence" would not be occurring had not we invaded Iraq, something the PG allies know only to well. - JJB]

”Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,” Bush said, calling on the Iranian government to make itself more accountable to its citizens. ”So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late.”

Earlier Sunday in Bahrain, U.S. Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Gulf, told Bush that he took it ”deadly seriously” when an Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters. The Iranian naval forces vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire.

Bush spoke with Cosgriff after he had a breakfast of pancakes and bacon with troops of the U.S. 5th Fleet based in Bahrain.

”The media may be free to second-guess the military decision, but his (Bush’s) captains are not and they take it very seriously,” White House press secretary Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the United Arab Emirates. ”They have deliberate and measured ways to engage other traffic there in the Strait of Hormuz, which they did. But all the military people remember what happened in the past, such as the USS. Cole … The vice admiral said they take it deadly seriously.”

Really, if capital ships of the US Navy are threatened by those little speed boats, it’s time to scuttle the fleet and replace it with whatever is on display at the New York Boat Show this year (maybe it’s time to buy stock in Spinnaker and Christ Craft). Also, while comparisons to the Nazis are supposed to be odious, out-of-bounds, etc., what else can you be reminded of here but the Hitler regimes rhetoric in the summer of 1939? Then again, I don’t believe that even the Nazis pretended that Poland was a threat to the world, just that they were abusing Germans living in the Polish corridor and that giving Poland limited sovereignty in the almost entirely German-populated Free City of Danzig was a violation of Germany’s rights as a nation.

75. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

the silly rhetoric from both sides is funny isn’t it, sv?

That being said, the Clintons do fucking suck.

76. mattes - 13 January 2008

The rate of Israeli attacks on, and killings of, Palestinians has doubled since the US-sponsored Annapolis peace summit, former Palestinian information minister and head of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouthi, announced on Wednesday.

As US President George W. Bush’s visited the Palestinian Territories, Dr Barghouthi exposed the extent of Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in 2007, a year characterised by the highest ever ratio of Palestinian to Israeli killings, and unabated settlement expansion.

Dr Barghouthi presented data showing that Israeli military
killings of, and attacks against, Palestinians have soared by 100% since Annapolis, confirming an intensification of Israeli military violence against the Palestinian people even after the meeting on 27 November 2007.

He highlighted that the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in 2007 had risen to 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006 and 4:1 from 2000-2005.

“We do not want anyone to die, Israeli or Palestinian, but this ratio is alarming. It is unacceptable to justify such large-scale killings under the pretext of security,” Barghouthi said, adding that five of the Israelis killed in 2007 were soldiers who died whilst carrying out attacks inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“Israel uses security as a pretext to step up its aggression against Palestinians and to evade any commitments to peace,” he went on.

“The question here is about security for everyone, not only Israelis, and about equality and the equal rights of all peoples to life. The facts on the ground show very clearly that the Israeli government and its military do not believe in this most basic and universal right when it comes to Palestinians,” he added.

Barghouthi also focused on Israeli settlement expansion and their refusal to dismantle any existing settlements, saying that this was a further indication of Israel’s sense of absolute impunity with regard to international law and United Nations resolutions. He described the lack of international censure at such Israeli practices as “alarming.”

He warned that while there is much talk about Israel’s 105 illegal outposts, with a combined population of 3,000 settlers, it also maintains 133 settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) which have population of 447,500, and which are equally illegal under international law. Moreover, Israel continues to build in 88 of these
settlements.

Barghouthi stressed that settlement expansion is being facilitated by Israel’s ‘Roads and Tunnels’ Plan. Israel is also constructing a separate highway network to link settlements on both sides of the Apartheid Wall with
Israel and to each other.

“Tell me of any other case in the world where roads are segregated on the basis of ethnicity? This is a practical manifestation of Apartheid to an extent never before witnessed, not even at the height of the Apartheid regime in South Africa” he said.

He concluded that only a peace process based on adherence to
international law, and which respected Palestinian national rights, the rights of refugees and the right to freedom from Apartheid could yield a just and lasting peace.
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m40008&hd=&size=1&l=e

77. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

The YELLOW ROSE PEACE BUS DESTROYED BY FIRE!

78. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

Home thermostats: Big Brother’s next target?

a proposal set to be considered at month’s end could allow the state of California to “require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year.” The Programmable Communication Thermostat (PCT) would feature a “non-removable” FM receiver which could be controlled by Big Brother in “times of emergency” to drop load in order for “utilities to meet their supplies [when] the integrity of the grid is being jeopardized.”

79. bayprairie - 13 January 2008

cody said

Changing the channel when you come across something you don’t like is too easy for some people. They want the challenge of annoying everyone else…

thanks for surfing by cody. love your “life is a tv” metaphor.

i read a little on your blog too, mad rants of a raving genius. i really “value” this messed up thought.

At the risk of sounding incredibly callous, I fail to see what’s wrong with pain during an execution, especially when it comes to cold-blooded murderers, such as the very men bringing this case to the Supreme Court. One shot and killed a sheriff and wounded his deputy while they were trying to arrest him. Then, as the deputy lay face down and wounded, the man shot him point-blank in the back of the head. The other man murdered a couple and wounded their infant child in front of the laundry business they ran. No apparent motive has been determined.

Do such monsters really deserve painless executions Hell, do they even deserve a say in how they die? I know my thoughts on prison and capital punishment are quite unorthodox, so I’m not expecting anyone to agree with me. But friendly debate is encouraged.

well half of you blog name is spot on, anyway. the other half, not so much.

80. ms_xeno - 13 January 2008

Does Pastor Doofus have a brother ? Sure seems that way.

81. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

When the Straits of Hormuz incident was initially reported, the State department’s reaction was just a shrug of the shoulders. That changed quickly after Bush began the sabre rattling and suddenly it was a major affair of threatening proportions. It’s kind of handy that 3,000 marines just went to Afghanistan – strategically positioned to go after insurgents in Pakistan and/or to deal with the aftermath of Bushco’s bombing campaign against Iran. Add that to Bush saying that troops won’t be reduced in Iraq any time soon and it looks like all of the chess pieces are moving into place. On top of all of that, however, he’s left with Russia and China. Will he take the risk of pissing them off? That is the question.

82. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Via The Politico:

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking party leader in the Senate, says President Bill Clinton’s comments about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are getting “too personal” and called on the former president to refrain from attacking Obama’s integrity.

“I’m really troubled by his questioning the sincerity of Barack Obama’s opposition to the war in Iraq,” Durbin said. “I really think it is unfortunate to question Barack’s sincerity on the war. He has been there from the start, opposing this war.”

The unsolicited comments — in a phone call to Politico from Springfield, Ill. — were a sign that the Obama campaign is going to react aggressively to perceived attacks on the senator’s character.

“I really had hoped … that it wouldn’t become too personal or too negative,” Durbin said. “I don’t think that’s good for either of the candidates or for our party. There may be clear some clear differences on some issues.”

Durbin suggested that the former president has been giving somewhat revisionist accounts on the way the Iraq war debate played out.

“It was not easy to be against that war back when we cast that vote in October of 2002,” Durbin said. “I was one of 23 who voted against the war. Barack was supportive — one of the few candidates speaking out strongly against it in Illinois.

“If President Clinton had opposed that war as strongly as Barack Obama at the time, it would have helped a lot of us who had voted against authorizing an invasion.”

So now when you attack Obama’s policy positions, that’s getting too ‘personal’. But then Durbin does the exact same thing to Clinton that he accuses Clinton of doing: attacking him on his Iraq stance. Then, of course, he makes the point of adding that it’s not ‘personal’ when he does it.

83. marisacat - 13 January 2008

I read that quote from Durbin and just laughed.

Long election ahead, this side and the next side over the hill and dale to where the R wait.

Obama had a soft soft run for the Senate, both his D opponent in the primary in Illinois and the R opponent were blown away by information “leaked” to the press either about marital issues or divorce papers. Generally, rightly or wrongly, Axelrod is looked to for the so called dirty work. So they brought in Keyes from MD to run against him on the R ticket.

Both Durbin and imo Clyburn are seeking to limit debte and commentary.

I don’t care how much blood gets spilled, either side. And I don’t care who gets offended.

Unless of course the lamb side of god should be sent up against the R.

Watching that won’t be worth buying popcorn for……

84. marisacat - 13 January 2008

Ben Smith has comments Obama made during the endorse event with McCaskill.

Ambinder has more, comments Obama made during a conf call this afternoon with reporters….

Relating to HRC on MTP this am

85. BooHooHooMan - 13 January 2008

So, from Durbin
If President Clinton had opposed that war as strongly as Barack Obama at the time, it would have helped a lot of us who had voted against authorizing an invasion.

Translation:

If we could have claimed some of those famous, well traveled testicles as our own, the Democrats….

Ah, the jockeying for Homecoming King or Queen At the Military Industrial Complex Home School Yeshiva. “No escort, Please,” they insist , while attempting to poison the other.

The Great Popcorn Forests of the world hang in the balance….
(Among other Peoples and Cultures.)

86. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

Hard to believe: Johnny Cash performed at Folsom Prison 40 years ago today.

87. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

The Questions That Each Presidential Candidate Should Be Asked Regarding His or Her Views on the Constitutional Line Between Church and State

I’ll skip the Republicans, because … well, why bother?

Hillary Clinton

Would you continue your husband’s legacy, while he was President, of currying favor with religious organizations and entities? Although President Bush has been far more public about it, President Clinton, first, made a point of attending prayer breakfasts and consulting the views of prominent conservative Christians. No one can criticize a President for seeking spiritual guidance, but his actions regarding religion did not end with private contemplation and solace. Instead, he initiated the “charitable choice” programs, and set the stage for President Bush to bring the evangelical Christians to political power.

Bill Clinton also did more for religion, as a President, than any President before him (except Grant, who tried to Christianize those who were called “Indians” at the time), by enthusiastically signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). RFRA was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court in Boerne v. Flores as unconstitutional, because Congress and the President had put themselves in the position to amend the meaning of the First Amendment, and had overstepped federal power to the detriment of the states . RLUIPA, meanwhile, has been a disaster for residential neighborhoods trying to maintain their character in the face of ambitious building projects by religious landowners.

Do you truly believe in the separation of church and state? Or, would you continue your husband’s legacy of backing legislation to benefit of religious entities, without consideration of those who would be harmed by such legislation? For example, would you support the legislation Senator Kennedy has proposed that would immunize churches from the government’s eminent domain decisions?

88. marisacat - 13 January 2008

The Clintons have Bob Johnson of BET fame out on the trail in SC. Just throw grease on teh fire!

89. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Edwards hops a little ride on the riptide:

“I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change that came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that,” Edwards told more than 200 people gathered at a predominantly black Baptist church. {South Carolina}

::snip::

“Those who believe that real change starts with Washington politicians have been in Washington too long and are living a fairy tale,” he said.

Speaking in his native South Carolina, where he hopes to win the Democratic presidential primary on Jan. 26, Edwards said he was pleased with the civil rights progress that’s been made in the South and lauded Obama, an Illinois senator.

“As someone who grew up in the segregated South, I feel an enormous amount of pride when I see the success that Senator Barack Obama is having in this campaign,” said Edwards. He the added, with a laugh: “Some days I wish he was having a little less success.”

Ever the bridesmaid, never the bride?

Apparently CNN just flat-out dropped Edwards from its latest poll. Unbelievable! CNN narrows the Field of Candidates! (jamess diary at Orange Salem).

AP on Tweety’s female troubles: Chris Matthews a target for Clinton fans. He’s loving it.

“I do like the fact that `Hardball’ is a heat-seeker,” the rapid-fire political commentator told The Associated Press. “My job is to provide excitement and to bring it into the show and have people argue about things that they would normally argue about.”

Babbulator of the Nation! Bubbles of the Water Cooler! Channeling America’s Stream of Consciousness Since 1997!

90. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Edwards remarks, CNN candidate erasures, and Water Cooler Bubbles in spam?

91. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Tanks!

92. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

What’s that IB, you say both parties want to buy more tanks?

93. marisacat - 13 January 2008

94. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

Airport Security Follies:

The truth is, regardless of how many pointy tools and shampoo bottles we confiscate, there shall remain an unlimited number of ways to smuggle dangerous items onto a plane. The precise shape, form and substance of those items is irrelevant. We are not fighting materials, we are fighting the imagination and cleverness of the would-be saboteur.

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

In the end, I’m not sure which is more troubling, the inanity of the existing regulations, or the average American’s acceptance of them and willingness to be humiliated. These wasteful and tedious protocols have solidified into what appears to be indefinite policy, with little or no opposition. There ought to be a tide of protest rising up against this mania. Where is it? At its loudest, the voice of the traveling public is one of grumbled resignation. The op-ed pages are silent, the pundits have nothing meaningful to say.

As for Americans themselves, I suppose that it’s less than realistic to expect street protests or airport sit-ins from citizen fliers, and maybe we shouldn’t expect too much from a press and media that have had no trouble letting countless other injustices slip to the wayside. And rather than rethink our policies, the best we’ve come up with is a way to skirt them — for a fee, naturally — via schemes like Registered Traveler. Americans can now pay to have their personal information put on file just to avoid the hassle of airport security. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation.

How we got to this point is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle. And although a reasonable percentage of passengers, along with most security experts, would concur such theater serves no useful purpose, there has been surprisingly little outrage. In that regard, maybe we’ve gotten exactly the system we deserve.

95. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Of course they do, Madman! Tanks and tanks and tanks of nitrous oxide.

Tiny bubbles for every water cooler in the land!

96. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Good ol’ Wikipedia.

Inhalant effects
Nitrous oxide
Systematic (IUPAC) name
Nitrous oxide
Identifiers
CAS number 10024-97-2
ATC code N01AX13
PubChem ?
Chemical data
Formula N2O
Mol. mass 44.0128 g/mol
Pharmacokinetic data
Bioavailability ?
Metabolism 0.004%
Half life 5 minutes
Excretion Respiratory
Therapeutic considerations
Pregnancy cat.

?
Legal status

Anesthetic use allowed in the United States and Australia; Recreational use often illegal on a state-by-state basis
Routes Inhalation
For other uses, see Nitrous oxide (disambiguation).
8g canister of nitrous oxide
8g canister of nitrous oxide

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a dissociative drug that can cause analgesia, depersonalization, derealization, dizziness, euphoria, flanging of sound, slight hallucinations and neurotoxicity.

97. marisacat - 13 January 2008

Frank Rich on Hilareeeeeeeeee.

98. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

Taibbi: Merchants of Trivia

This 2008 presidential race looked interesting once, a thrillingly up-for-grabs affair in which real issues and real ground-up voter anger threatened to wrest control of America’s politics from the Washington Brahmins who usually puppeteer this process from afar. And while the end result in Iowa — a historic and inspirational Obama victory, coupled with a hilariously satisfying behind-the-woodshed third-place ass-whipping for status quo gorgon Hillary Clinton — was compelling, the media has done its best to turn a once-promising race into an idiotic exchange of Nerf-insults, delivered at rah-rah campaign events utterly indistinguishable from scholastic pep rallies. “If there’s policy in this race,” one veteran campaign reporter tells me with a sad laugh, “I haven’t noticed it.”

And while it’s tempting to blame the candidates, deep in my black journalist’s heart I know it isn’t all their fault.

We did this. The press. America tried to give us a real race, and we turned it into a bag of shit, just in the nick of time.

EVERY reporter who spends any real time on the campaign trail gets wrapped up in the horse race. It’s inevitable. You tell me how you can spend nearly two years watching the dullest speeches known to man and not spend most of your time wondering about the one surefire interesting moment the whole thing has to offer: the ending.

Stripped of its prognosticating element, most campaign journalism is essentially a clerical job, and not a particularly noble one at that. On the trail, we reporters aren’t watching politics in action: The real stuff happens behind closed doors, where armies of faceless fund-raising pros are glad-handing equally faceless members of the political donor class, collecting hundreds of millions of dollars that will be paid off in very specific favors over the course of the next four years. That’s the real high-stakes poker game in this business, and we don’t get to sit at that table.

Instead, we get to be herded day after day into one completely controlled environment after another, where we listen to an array of ideologically similar politicians deliver professionally crafted advertising messages that we, in turn, have the privilege of delivering to the public free of charge. We rarely get to ask the candidates real questions, and even when we do, they almost never answer.

If you could train a chimpanzee to sit still through a Joe Biden speech, it could probably do the job. The only thing that elevates this work above monkey level is that we get to guess who wins.

For most of us, this is a guilty pleasure. But some of us get so used to being asked who should be running the world that our brains start to ferment. I’ve seen it happen. The first few times a newbie comes on the campaign trail, he’s watching all the flag-waving and the soldier-humping and he’s writing it all down with this stunned expression, as if to say, “Jesus, I went to college for this?” Two months later, he’s doing six hits a day on MSNBC as a Senior Political Analyst and he’s got this weirdly pissed-off look on his face, like he’s mad that the world woke up and forgot to kiss his ass that morning. This same meek rookie you saw bent over a steno book just months ago is suddenly talking about how Hillary Clinton needs to do this, Barack Obama needs to do that — and he’s serious! He’s not kidding! Next thing you know, he’s got an eight-figure book deal and a ten-foot pole up his crack, and he’s wearing a tie and loafers to bed. In other words, he’s Jonathan Alter.

I call it the Revenge of the Nerds effect. Give an army of proud professionals nothing but a silly horse race to cover, and inevitably they’ll elevate even the most meaningless details of that horse race to cosmic importance.

99. Intermittent Bystander - 13 January 2008

Interesting column by Rich. No doubt someone somewhere is firing up a diary to call him out as a concern troll.

In Mrs. Clinton’s down-to-earth micropolitics, polls often seem to play the leadership role. That leaves her indecisive when one potential market is pitched against another. Witness her equivocation over Iraq, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and even Cubs vs. Yankees. Add to this habitual triangulation the ugly campaigning of the men around her — Mr. Penn’s sleazy invocation of “cocaine” on MSNBC, Bill Clinton’s “fairy tale” rant falsifying Mr. Obama’s record on Iraq — and you don’t have change. You have the acrimonious 1990s that the Republicans are dying to refight, because that’s the only real tactic they have.

It would be good for both her campaign and the presidential race in general if Mrs. Clinton does find her own voice. We’ll know she has done so when it doesn’t sound so uncannily like Bill Clinton and Mark Penn.

100. cad - 13 January 2008

Corporate News Network.

The media remains the greatest threat to democracy today.

101. marisacat - 13 January 2008

it’s a hideous run, no doubt…. not sure I agree that “America tried” to give us a real run. Not sure of anything frankly. But that we have a mess unfolding.

HOWEVER, she has gone farther – and in South Carolina – than I ever expected from her with regard to abortion and particularly the now federally banned so called “partial birth abortion”.

And no I don’t feel constrained to be ‘fair and balanced’ and find an equal surprise from Obama.

The Clintons are still dirty infighters and I may be off but it smacks of trying to shut down any criticism from the Obama side.

102. marisacat - 13 January 2008

here is a good contributor’s opinion piece in the Wapo…

In other words, “I have a dream” is a nice sentiment, but King couldn’t make it reality. It took a more practical and, of course, white president, Lyndon Johnson, to get blacks to the mountaintop. Of course no black man could have hoped to be president 44 years ago. And, for that matter, neither could any woman.

What was Clinton thinking? King’s name is sacrosanct in most black households, and for poor and struggling blacks whose lives have yet to reflect King’s ideals, “hope” is more than just a notion. Clinton managed to insult a beloved black leader in her eager attempt to insult a rising black leader.

103. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

I’m a masochist. Just watched The Road to Guantanamo and now I’m re-watching Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. Afaic, those documentaries and others that expose the horrendous abuse wrought by the US military and the warmongers of both parties who are too afraid/proud/deranged/paid off to face the fact that America truly is fucked should be required viewing in school.

104. BooHooHooMan - 13 January 2008

SV Wow. Lorrie Moore is a shitty writer. “Appallingly killed”???? It gets worse in the rest of the piece: “zeitgeisty parvenu”, anyone?

The Lit Crit aside, (no surprise from me) the Obam Phenom does resonate with the zeitgeisty crowd, no? Not Fair? Or Likeable Enough?

The Prob is Moore falls short, and over herself -in the kind of writers’ Candy-datery surfacing now that the Cheerleaders road trip have left New Hampshire, squabbling still:

GMAFB on the Candidate Gush. This from writer Moore:

But inspiration is essential for living, and Mr. Obama holds the greater fascination for our children.

No, actually it’s not. Presently the Wii , the I-Phone, downloadable games and music vids hold the greater fascination for the kids. As for non CO2 exchanging “Inspiration” : It’s “Nice” , just like the Reach-Across-the-Aislism that liars of all stripes would have us believe.. Nice try, though, turning the Hierarchy of Needs on its head, before more my-candy blibber blabber:

Mr. Obama came of age as a black man in America.
Really? No kiddin’. Maybe his Dad was a Mill Worker(c) too…

He does not need (as he has done) to invoke his grandfather’s life in colonial Kenya to prove or authenticate his understanding of race.

Hmm. wonder why he does that then…. Maybe Inspiring Stories aren’t a need afterall….

His sturdiness is equal to Mrs. Clinton’s, his plans as precise and humane. But unlike her, he is original

Original what? Darky? Why don’t you just say THAT?
What? -No Shirley, no Jesse?

..and of the moment. He embodies, at the deepest levels, the bringing together of separate worlds. The sexes have always lived together, but the races have not.

Fine, then Obama should run on a platform of confiscating private property in the best school districts in the country with ownership randomly reassigned according to race. Then, perhaps Moore could credibly claim:

His candidacy is minted profoundly in that expropriated word “change.”

GMAFB. The shillary on all Levels BLOWS.

105. marisacat - 13 January 2008

Obama and faith issues in teh campaign.

[F]or most of 2007, Obama lagged Hillary Rodham Clinton in statewide polls here, sometimes by big margins. A major reason: Many black voters couldn’t believe white America, even their fellow Democrats, would back an African-American candidate, according to local leaders here.

That sentiment began to change late last year as Obama matched Clinton in fundraising and bested her crowds and energy. Then came Iowa and New Hampshire, split decisions, one providing hope, the other confirming fears.

Now, on Jan. 26, comes the first true test of his faith-infused message as the two front-runners square off here in the Democratic primary.

Obama’s strategy carries risks. More so than any his adversaries, Obama is plowing turf his party tiptoed or blundered through in 2004, allowing President Bush to capture, by a wide margin, the votes cast by churchgoing voters.
::snip::

106. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

In other words, “I have a dream” is a nice sentiment, but King couldn’t make it reality. It took a more practical and, of course, white president, Lyndon Johnson, to get blacks to the mountaintop.

Enough of the bullshit already. Geez. If the Clintons hadn’t made that statement and if it had just been a paragraph in a history book, no one would have accused the author of racism. It’s simply a fact that the president: white, black, green or purple, had the power at the time to actually oversee legislation on civil rights issues. If anyone’s using the race card in this argument, it’s those who want so desperately to make it about race.

107. marisacat - 13 January 2008

btw I jsut read that Edwards delivered his post NH vote speech in……… and old mill.

I almost could not believe they did that, but they did and EE invoked the location in her intro of JE.

it truly is worn thin.

108. marisacat - 13 January 2008

We need Thurgood Marshall to adjudicate the mess.

109. Miss Devore - 13 January 2008

I found it strange to see Lorrie Moore on the editorial page.

She’s actually a terrific novel writer.

110. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Obama Slams Clinton’s ‘Meet’ Appearance

On the recent controversy regarding remarks Clinton made about Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the civil rights movement, Obama called the comments “unfortunate” and blasted Clinton for accusing his campaign of distorting her words for political gain. “The notion that this is somehow our doing is ludicrous,” he said.

Well all of his surrogates are doing it for him.

Same shit, different politician.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) dismissed an appearance made by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) on “Meet the Press” this morning as “political point scoring,” condemning his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination for seeking to recast the events of the last several years.

“What we saw this morning was why the American people are tired of Washington politicians and the games they play,” said Obama in a conference call announcing the endorsement of Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) “[Clinton] started this campaign saying that she wanted to make history and lately she has been spending some time rewriting it.”

And I guess when you do it, Obama, it’s not ‘political point scoring’, right?

Geez these people are tiring.

111. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

On top of all of that, if anything’s going to lose votes for the Dems in the GE no matter who the candidate is, it’s all of this infighting because whether the nominee is Hillary or Obama, the fights won’t stop once they’re officially chosen.

112. BooHooHooMan - 13 January 2008

It’s not that I have a prob with “My-Candy” journalism
if it’s based on reasoning……
How would an Obama Prezzy as racial equality advocate translate into the kind of Policies that won’t have soldiering as the most open door to young men of color?….How does it translate into release of disproportionately incarcerated Black youth caught up in the Drug War? Will Obama Pledge to unprecedented Presidential Pardons if states don’t follow some imagined lead by an Obama DOJ???

Why do I get the feeling that awaiting breathelessly for such “Inspiration” is ill advised? ….. a Pox on both their Houses.

113. Madman in the Marketplace - 13 January 2008

the big difference between MLK’s dream and the empty slogan of Obama campaign is the notion of sacrifice, the dream will only be achieved by struggle and commitment:

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

Obama is pretty much saying, we’re all friends now, those bad old days are gone, and we can sit down at the table w/ the wealthy and the corporations that exploit and degrade and find some common ground.

No sacrifice is needed any longer, no struggle, and more importantly nothing but empty nods to the sacrifices that came before: after all, to bring them up makes some white people FEEL bad, especially the kind who write checks.

114. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

There are a couple of new posts up at Mo Betta by James and ms x.

115. marisacat - 13 January 2008

full text:

SC Leader Calls Clinton’s Failure to Condemn Her Supporter’s Personal Attack “Offensive”

COLUMBIA — Former State Representative “I.S.” Leevy Johnson of Columbia, one of the first three African-Americans elected to the South Carolina General Assembly after Reconstruction, today said it was “offensive” for Senator Clinton to stand silently while one of her surrogates launched a divisive and personal attack against Senator Obama:

“It’s offensive that Senator Clinton literally stood by and said nothing as another one of her campaign’s top supporters launched a personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama,” said Johnson. “For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should’ve immediately denounced these attacks on the spot.”

As he was introducing Senator Clinton at a town hall meeting at Columbia College this afternoon, BET founder Bob Johnson said: “As an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won’t say what he was doing that he said it in his book,” he said.

Last month, Billy Shaheen, the co-chair of Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign, was asked to step down from the campaign for suggesting that Senator Obama’s drug use as a teenager would be used against him in the campaign.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 13, 2008

116. marisacat - 13 January 2008

full text (and what a mess):

Clinton Camp Release on Johnson’s Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2008

Statement from Bob Johnson on His Comments Today in South Carolina

“My comments today were referring to Barack Obama’s time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.

“When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school.

That results oriented leadership — even as a young person — is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton.”

117. BooHooHooMan - 13 January 2008

From Media Mog Johnson, Wouldn’t have to do with FCC licensure plays would it? Hnnn.

118. marisacat - 13 January 2008

ugh the Johnsons, both, are odious people. Big fixtures on the stage each year for the big CLinton Foundation bash … aside from everything else.

119. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Geez. Can everybody and their dog please stick their noses in this story just to muck it up even more? It’s starting to look like the Keystone Cops out there. Or maybe that should be the Keystone Kops.

120. melvin - 13 January 2008

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

Given widespread failure to pursue policies sufficient to reverse deterioration of the biosphere and avoid ecological collapse, the best we can hope for may be that the growth-based economic system crashes sooner rather than later.
. . . .
A successful revolutionary response to imminent global ecosystem collapse would focus upon bringing down the Earth’s industrial economy now.

From Celsias: Who owns the sky? Put another way, by what right do the industrialized countries privatize the entire globe’s carbon cycle on their terms, as if no one else has any claim on it?

But now, with cap and trade, we are asserting, as a matter of law, that each citizen of a RGGI state owns the right to dump seven times the per-capita world average CO2 into the atmosphere for electricity. If you think RGGI-state citizens are not claiming such as right, look at it this way: you cannot sell something that you do not own. If the citizens of New Jersey can sell an electric utility the right to emit carbon dioxide, then the citizens of New Jersey must be claiming that they own such a right — otherwise they couldn’t sell it.

As a citizen of New Jersey, I have to ask, where did we citizens of the RGGI states acquire the right to sell seven times our fair share of “dump space” in the sky? Who or what gave us that right? If we are challenged in an international court of justice, what legal and ethical authorities can we cite to support our outsized claim of ownership? Is it merely that we are rich people with a huge army, and might makes right?

121. melvin - 13 January 2008

Missed a closequote there

122. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Why Obamamania? Because He Runs as The Great White Hope

Bingo.

123. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

My latest: Bush in the ME: Iran, Iran, Iran

124. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Joint Chiefs chairman: Close Guantanamo. His main concern is the damage it’s done to America’s precious image. Jeebus on a stick. What about the damage it’s done to the detainees?

125. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Well that outraged me so much that I wrote a post about Gitmo.

126. wilfred - 13 January 2008

My favorite today was reading an obit from the AP in the NY Times. It was for Carl Kartcher, that awful billionaire who owned Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain (and Hardee’s amongst others). He’s a notorious homophobe and right-winger, just horrendous.

The obit described him as a ‘deeply religious man’ with a ton of kids. Later in the obit it talked about his conviction for insider trading by telling his kids the stock was about to plummet 50%, and the kids then sold it. So tell me how a ‘deeply religious man’ succumbs unapologetically to such colossal greed and his children do also? Obviously his walk was one thing and his talk was quite another.

Tell me that newspapers would describe Joan Crawford as an ‘award winning mother’ (she was honored believe it or not) after Mommy Dearest came out. She wouldn’t be and Carl Kartcher shouldn’t be described as anything approaching religious as it was a con job based on his actions. So sick of the media and their bullshit.

127. marisacat - 13 January 2008

Mr Goff shows up, with a delivery trolley of slaps for everyone.

Dr. King had the courage to tell us then that every bomb dropped in Vietnam exploded over Harlem. When I hear that kind of truth-telling from either of the pre-anointed Democrats, instead of their relentless phrase-mongering and dressed-up equivocations, then we can take them seriously. Right now all we see are smooth-talking politicians.

With Martin Luther King Day right around the corner, expect plenty more of this disgusting mis-attribution to promote political careers.

128. marisacat - 13 January 2008

well I sure wish people stopped milling into mega churches run by what over and over look like felons on the run. And Catholic parents stop handing their children (save the children!) for ritual sexual sacrifice. Or sit right next to it, if it is not visited upon them.

THEN we might get a drop of honesty.

I have no idea why people seem to need the lowest most commercial forms of spirituality. Cheap glory I guess.

129. StupidAsshole - 13 January 2008

Just read an excellent article from the LRB on Darfur: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n05/mamd01_.html

130. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

I have no idea why people seem to need the lowest most commercial forms of spirituality. Cheap glory I guess.

And instant gratification. Just imagine the adrenaline rush one would experience in a huge group of supposed ‘true believers’.

131. liberalcatnip - 13 January 2008

Poor Ezra. Oh well, he gets points for trying. If only Hillary had yelled louder! Ya! That’s it!

132. BooHooHooMan - 13 January 2008

Trouble in Paradise

133. marisacat - 14 January 2008

noooooooooo thread……………..

LINK

134. marisacat - 14 January 2008

132 –

what a hOOT!!

************

131 –

I am off to read, I have been avoiding the Boyz as they are so fucking dumb on race. But time for some amusement!

135. liberalcatnip - 14 January 2008

This is an interesting (but lengthy) article: The Moral Instinct.

136. Cody - 17 January 2008

bayprairie: thanks for stopping by my blog. It’s just all my opinion, so I expect a bit of disagreement from time to time.

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