Triptych Cryptic  

Friday, February 12, 2010

Daily Mail-o-matic Headline Generator Fear of the day poses as a question, since the idiocy behind this stuff can't survive as a statement. "Are Working Mothers Assaulting Housing Prices?" As Mrs. BoneDaddy says, "We need a U.S. equivalent for the New York Post."

Labels: , ,

10:03 bone daddy

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Slate's unauthorized index of Sarah Palin's autobiography, Going Rogue. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine
Alaska
________autumn bouquet of, 1
________robin's egg sky of, 2
________superiority to Lower 48 of, 1-413

Labels: ,

23:34 cdogzilla

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home : Votes : Roll Call Vote: My fellow North Carolinians, can we please vote pro-rape Senator Burr out of office in 2010?

Labels:

21:54 cdogzilla

Friday, September 04, 2009

Pre-Holiday Link Dump
Clearing out the starred items in my Google Reader to hold us over through the long weekend. Happy Labor Day, y'all.
11 More Companies Flee Glenn Beck [News Hounds] - If Murdoch wants to keep putting these rantings out there, let's make sure he's paying for it.
Animator Emily Hubley Plays Volleyball in Her Living Room [Vulture] - Georgia's sister gets a little pub. For hardcore Yo La Tengo fans.
Long before Hideo and Ichiro, there was Masanori Murakami [Big League Stew] - A little baseball history/trivia.
"Crisis and Hope," Noam Chomsky [Boston Review] - Sobering reading.
Can Atheists Be Parents? [Time] - It's an article from before I was born. Still I feel like slapping the judge that said, "no."

Labels: , ,

23:09 cdogzilla

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lieberman To Alec Baldwin: "Make My Day" And Run Against Me (VIDEO): "Senator Joseph Lieberman said on Sunday that he was more than ready to take on an election challenge from 30 Rock star and longtime Democratic activist Alec Baldwin.

'Make my day,' the Connecticut independent told CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'I respect Alec Baldwin as an actor and as a comedian, and if he wants to run, that's his right.'"

Make my day and get ousted by anyone (even Baldwin, who isn't really going to run) in 2012. Will Lamont will take another crack at him or run for Governor of CT instead?

Labels:

22:06 cdogzilla

Thursday, August 20, 2009

3 Bonedaddy Posts! Scroll Down ... I almost missed them in my latest flurry. I like the letter to the editor linked in there. Didn't take long for the birther/teabagger crowed to start in the comments. I'm tempted to register at courant.com as "Barney Frank Pwns Teabaggers" to ask on which planet they spend most of their time.

Labels: ,

21:39 cdogzilla

Here's a great E.J. Dionne Jr. column Leave the Guns at Home. I'm glad someone finally had the courage to point this out:

The simple fact is that an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms. Our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument. Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and guns have no place in them.

I'm kind of sick of hearing from people who believe that their firearm collection ensures my freedom. Speaking of loudmouths, I should link to this letter to the editor from someone who shares E.J.'s fine last name, if not the patience he demonstrates in his writing.

Labels: , ,

14:50 bone daddy

There will be a time when all the jokes we made about the Bush administration will no longer be jokes but just facts before we knew with certainty that they were facts.

Tom Ridge admits the White House used terror alerts for political gain.

It's only a matter of time before the "Cheney Kept Alive on Diet of Puppy Blood" headline.

Labels: , ,

14:35 bone daddy

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Rachel Rules: It's shameful the way most "journalists" on shows like Meet the Press let goons like Armey spout off without challenging them in any meaningful way. It would never occur to me to make MtP appointment TV but, if Rachel is going to be on again, I will.

Labels: , ,

21:33 cdogzilla

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Birthers: Who Are They and What Do They Want? - Birthers - Gawker

Labels:

22:22 cdogzilla

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sadly, No! | "Massachusetts: Why we rule"

Labels:

21:00 cdogzilla

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some Now at Guantanamo - washingtonpost.com:

"President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba."

No. No. No. It was wrong when W. and Cheney were doing it, and it's still wrong. If the detainees did something wrong, prove it. If they're conspiring to do something wrong, prove it. If you can't prove it, that doesn't mean you get to lock them up and throw away the key. In fact, it means the opposite. I thought Obama got it and this was all understood. This is discouraging.

Labels: , ,

22:38 cdogzilla

Friday, May 15, 2009

Jumpin' Rope With You / Playin' Donkey Kong With You:

Love the Auto Tuning.

Labels: , , ,

22:12 cdogzilla

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Wanda v. Rush: Back on the desktop now after watching the President and Wanda Sykes give their speeches. Funny stuff but, oh man, is the right wing going to go apeshit -- particularly over Sykes's crack about Rush being one of the 9/11 hijackers, but missing the flight because he was strung out on oxycontin at the time.

Labels: ,

22:35 cdogzilla

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Longtime GOP Sen. Arlen Specter becomes Democrat - CNN.com
I may just be out of touch but I had no idea this was coming. Not sure what to make of it except for seeing the obvious benefit of having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (assuming Franken ever gets to take his rightful place). Also goes to show there's no room for "moderates" in the GOP.

Will this lead to the Republicans aggressively wooing any of the so-called Blue Dog Democrats?

Does this also mean Norm Coleman will sue and appeal and whine and deny the citizens of Minnesota one of their voices in the Senate as long as humanly possible?

Labels:

13:16 cdogzilla

Friday, April 24, 2009

‘Controlling’ the Chinese People - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com
Jackie's ill-considered (mistranslated?) comments are debated.

Labels: ,

22:40 cdogzilla

Monday, April 20, 2009

Jackie Chan Puts His Foot In It - The Screengrab: "Addressing a business group in the southern Chinese province of Hainan on Saturday, Chan said, 'I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not. I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.' In the past, Chan has criticized the mainland Chinese government for the 1989 crackdown, but in recent years he has avoided weighing in on political topics. This time, speaking before a receptive audience, he let himself stray into dangerous territory, even calling Hong Kong and Taiwan 'chaotic' compared to the mainland."

Now, I'm a long time fan of Jackie Chan and I'm not about to stop popping Police Story in the dvd player when want to see some mayhem and kung fu fighting ... but if you hear words coming out of your mouth in support of your government controlling people and keeping them from doing what they want, you should probably reflect on why you sound like such a tool.

Labels: ,

20:13 cdogzilla

Saturday, April 04, 2009

'Too Big to Fail' Is Too Big -- Period | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

Point No. 1: They have failed. They are kaput. It costs more to buy a snickerdoodle than to buy a share of Citigroup stock. AIG is 80 percent owned by you and me, the taxpayers. These once-haughty outfits are insolvent -- wards of the state.

Point No. 2: If they're too big, why should we sustain them? Let's be clear about something the establishment doesn't want you and me to understand -- these giants did not get so big and interconnected because of natural market forces and free-enterprise efficiencies. They amassed power the old-fashioned way: They got the government to give it to them. In the past 20 years or so, they lobbied furiously to get Washington to rig the rules so they could latterly bloat ... and float out of control.

Labels: ,

14:53 cdogzilla

Friday, October 24, 2008

McCain Campaign Coming Apart at the Seams
Less than two weeks to Election Day and Palin's giving depositions in her abuse of power scandal, Joe McCain is illegally harassing a 911 operator, and we're finding out the highest paid staffer in the campaign is Palin's hairdresser (nice follow up to the $150K shopping spree news), and ... what a shock ... Ashley Todd turns out to be a race-baiting fraud.

Fox News' John Moody:

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
At least that hack Drudge has the decency to fess up to his shoddy reporting ... well, it's currently under the huge banner that reads, "JOE THE PLUMBER 'SCARED FOR AMERICA' IF OBAMA PRESIDENT"

Is this not the most surreal election season we've ever lived through?

Labels: ,

23:31 cdogzilla

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Whoo-Hoo!
Anyone notice how McCain has claimed, several times now, that if Obama had accepted his offer for ten townhall style debates, he would not have been forced to go as negative as he has? (And even with this, McCain doesn't get his facts straight.)

Republicans really are thin-skinned these days, aren't they? A few weeks ago we were all told that House GOP'ers rejected the urgent bailout that would have saved our country because Nancy Pelosi was a big meanie. Now, because Obama didn't want to debate precisely the way McCain wanted, McCain had to question his patriotism and call him a big pervert.

I would like to thank Senator Obama for rejecting the ten debate proposal. One, it brought out Mr. Crankypants and that's just great. Two, it spared me from having to watch seven more of these awful things. Debates have become horrid events. The moderators are tepid. The questions, when they aren't dodged entirely, are predictable. It's an excercise in returning to your talking points. The contemporary debates matter for two reasons - the big gaffe and style. Now that they are concluded I can fully appreciate how smart Obama's approach was. Obviously, I wanted every McCain lie smacked down hard. I wanted Bush mocked. I wanted sharp facts and sharper sarcasm.

But these debates aren't for me. I'm voting for Obama even if he sighs too much or claims communist-occupied Poland is Freedomland. (Gee, which one of those gaffes was more important?) The general population doesn't want much in the way of attacks and finger-pointing. Obama simply needed to remain gaffe-free (yep) and appear presidential (big-time).

McCain has shown a surprising tin ear of late. The hard right wants him to get nasty and go all smear all the time and he doesn't recognize that this advice is turning a squeaker into a bloodbath. (And Senator, if you think the hard right will take the blame for your loss, you don't know them like I do.) The most telling moment of last night's debate came when they talked about the negativity. McCain brought up Ayers, after saying he didn't care about him. Then McCain complained about Representative John Lewis' comments. He accused Obama of "not repudiating" the comparison between himself and George Wallace.

What did McCain think would happen next?

First of all, you've pointed out that a civil rights hero has criticized you. Then, you hand Obama an opportunity to point out that you're wrong again, Obama did repudiate the comparison. And who didn't know that the next step in this conversation is the hateful, violent crap shouted at McCain/Palin rallies? Obama talked about hearing "Kill him" and "terrorist" shouted about him. Who looked calm and reasonable during this exchange? Who looked thin-skinned and, well, erratic?

McCain spent time in an earlier debate complaining that Obama would go after bin Laden in Pakistan. Did he think that would score points with the American people? Obama is going to be too aggressive pursuing bin Laden? "I'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell ... unless, you know, we have to cross some sort of border to get there." Tin ear.

Time to close the deal.

Labels: , , ,

16:20 bone daddy

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

For those of you who watched the debate:
Can I form a band called Joe the Plumber? Or is it too late?

Labels: ,

23:10 bone daddy

Monday, August 11, 2008

Baggage in the Bat Belt
I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight. It's certainly a very good to great movie, as everyone else has said. Heath Ledger is a mortal lock for an Oscar here if they submit him as a supporting actor. I'd even argue he could possibly score a Best Actor win - considering Anthony Hopkins did it with 15 minutes of screen time as Hannibal Lector. Does Lector/Clarice being man and woman somehow change the equation? They were both considered leads. Why not the Joker? This is really his film.

I'd further argue - because, you know, I like to argue - that it is a fairly iffy film without him. There were two things I'd heard about before going in and unfortunately, they did taint the film a bit for me. Somewhere, I'd read a dig about Christian Bale's Batman voice being one-note. When you listen to the movie with this in mind ... Holy Cow. How did a director/actor combo as good as Nolan/Bale let this monotonous growling take over every line of Batman's? I kept hoping he would talk less. Bale is the anti-Maguire. I like him as Bruce Wayne, not so much in the costume. (I hated the choice of Maguire for Spider-Man, but I do give him credit as the voice of Spidey.) And I apologize if you haven't heard this complaint because I just ruined your next viewing of the movie.

The second bit of baggage going into the movie was the now popular idea that Batman = Bush. Or Cheney. Or some kind of right wing worldview. The vast majority of action movies have a bit of right wing aroma about them. Many of them rely on the idea that someone - Dirty Harry, Bruce Willis, Jack Bauer, whoever - has to break the rules in order to protect us. We can't protect ourselves and rules and regulations make for dull movies, just as villains who give up information without being tortured are kind of sissy villains. Usually I can write this stuff off. If your politics need to be expressed by someone in a costume, you need to re-examine your politics, not me.

Yet, in Dark Knight, the cell phone eavesdropping seemed plunked in solely to parallel Bush's illegal wire-tapping. I found myself muttering, "Well, at least Batman's eavesdropping was effective." Batman accepts the public's (rather sudden) hatred heroically. Bush's low approval rating is not a sign of his nobility, it's a sign of his suckiness. All of this made the sort of leaden speechifying at the end more grating than it needed to be. (There are other, more sensible, ways to interpret the movie if you really think it's worth taking the politics of Batman that seriously. Link via neilalien.)

Labels: , ,

21:57 bone daddy

Thursday, May 01, 2008


How Loathsome
The headline, "White House Admits Fault on 'Mission Accomplished' Banner," struck me as faulty right away. Admits fault? The Bush White House? It can't be.

It wasn't. Read the article.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said 'mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."


Don't you love how the White House pretends Bush is the victim here? Me too. Of course, the reason they weren't more specific and said mission accomplished for these sailors is that they didn't invent that excuse until months after the fact.

What a crummy article. The only fault I can see is that we all misinterpreted a perfectly clear banner and beat up a poor defenseless president. It also continues the myth that Bush flew the plane. I wonder what percentage of Americans believe that Bush was the pilot. I bet above 90.

If you'll forgive me for patting myself on the back, but that day five years ago I told anyone who would listen - not many - that Democrats were going to wind up using that image in political ads.

Labels: , , , ,

11:26 bone daddy

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Bookstore Fun
If you ever want to the see the extent of the right wing publishing noise machine, well, why the hell would you? It's much more fun to kill your brain cells with alcohol. But if you must check out the extent of the "Hate the Left" type books, go to one of those remainder and overstock stores. I was in one today and was struck by the sheer number of unwanted screeds. Unsurprisingly, many lonely Ann Coulter books haunted the shelves along with Trent Lott's memoirs. What a cute couple.

The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: How the Left is Blah, blah, blah I passed by. I almost picked up Intellectual Morons: Why the Left believes Blahbity Blah just to see if it had a real publisher or came from one of those phony conservative clearinghouses. Many of these books are published just to be bought in bulk to make the author a name and then they have to go somewhere. I think they should insulate houses with them. I mean, no one appears to want these books.

Liberals Hate Us was the reoccurring theme and gibberish predominated. They couldn't even name a powerful figure. It was "liberals" or "the left." Way to have some facts. I know left wing books also get remaindered, but I didn't come across any on this trip. The closest I could come was Mo Rocca's All the Presidents Pets, which didn't seem as political or angry.

Labels: ,

20:14 bone daddy

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Whenever anyone - anyone - tries to pass off that media-inspired bit about McCain being a "maverick" or "independent" around me, I spew forth about how McCain always caves in to his party about everything. The only exception I allow is McCain's speaking out against torture.

Never mind.

Labels: ,

11:31 bone daddy

Thursday, February 07, 2008

When a candidate drops out, it's often a time to say nice things about him. (Usually a him, of course.) So I'd like to take a moment and say Screw you, Romney! I might have ignored his dropping out altogether except for his comment that a Clinton or Obama win is some sort of "a surrender to terror."

Really? If a Democrat wins we'll have to roll out the red carpet and greet our terrorist overlords on bended knee? If they put that in their speeches I wouldn't vote for them.

Seriously though, Republicans have elevated this kind of shrill overstatement to the point where no one notices anymore. If a reasonable candidate suddenly suggested this, we'd all be talking about the slip. But if you're crazy all the time ...

Labels: ,

15:53 bone daddy

Friday, December 28, 2007

Top Four Non-Fiction Books of 2007

Why four? Because sometime soon I'll be back with my top six novels of the year and this saves me from shuffling them together into a top ten.

4) About Alice, Calvin Trillin (2006) - This expands a lengthy essay Trillin wrote for the New Yorker about his late wife Alice. He recounts a letter he received after the original essay's publication from a young woman worried that her fiance doesn't love her "the way Calvin loves Alice," which sums up the feel of the book. About Alice is an ode to love itself. A bone-deep sadness pervades this humorist's book. Although she led a long, full life, this is not a "well, at least she led a long, full life" eulogy. What happens after you lose your soulmate? About Alice will give you empathy for those old couples you see shuffling along. And it will make you, like that young letter-writer, want to eventually become one of those old couples shuffling along.

3) Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990) - This book is ridiculously good. In any other year, it would top my non-fiction list. The TV show, even in its superb first season, is no substitute. And forget about the movie. Written before "A Year in the Life of X, Y or Z" books became a cliche, Friday Night Lights is more about the locale than the kids and more about the kids than about football. The chapter about the use of "nigger" in Odessa should be essential reading in American high schools. With the corrupt and arrogant boom and bust oil business of west Texas as a backdrop, Friday Night Lights also marginally qualifies as the first in my string of anti-Bush books.

2) Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2007) - It's amazing this book could be so readable when it's basically the same story over and over. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld again and again picked loyalty over experience, ideology over practicallity, and P.R. over reality when it came to choosing leaders to rebuild Iraq's health-care, business, education, industry and government. And then they stumbled supporting these Bushies who were already doomed to fail. Guess what? It didn't work. Again and again. The chapter about a handful of guys trying to privatize Iraqi factories is this close to being a living Tom Tomorrow cartoon.

"Yeah, we've got this factory for you to buy and privatize. We think it makes olive oil. Hard to tell, because of the bombing. I bet it'd be real productive too, once the electricity gets turned on. Now, you can't visit it because of the security situation and there's a good chance that whatever government eventually runs this hell-hole will just nationalize it again. You also have four times the number of workers you need but if you fire anybody, they'll blow the place up, but other than that, you're good to go! Two hundred million sound about right?"

1) The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America, Frank Rich (2007) - There are a lot of anti-Bush books out there and I've read my share. If you're looking for screeds, rants, insults, etc. they're out there and many of them are certainly justified given the tragedy that is the Bush administration. Rich's book tops my list first of all because of the scope. There are good books about the military mistakes (Fiasco), the intelligence manipulation (Hubris) or the rebuilding incompetence (see above), but The Greatest Story Ever Told covers a lot of the flim and the flam behind selling the Iraq war in succinct fashion. It's also well-written. It's easy to fall into hyperbolic rants and cheap insults when discussing Bush (again, many justified). Rich lets the facts do the damning. Even if you have scandal fatigue and wish to ride out the last 385 days with low blood pressure, you should check out this book.

Labels: , , , , ,

08:56 bone daddy

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Mike Huckabee will not be our next president. He will probably never be president. But just in case you encounter anyone suffering from Huckabee fever, familiarize yourself with the name Wayne Dumond. Dumond is a serial rapist who had his sentence commuted by Huckabee at the urging of anti-Clinton freaks. Bear with me, this is fairly sordid. See one of Dumond's victims was a seventeen year-old named Ashley Stevens. Because Stevens is a distant relative of Bill Clinton, Dumond is innocent.

Did your brain just make a TWAAANG sound like a rubber band stretched aaall the way across the kitchen? Good. You're still sane and not a conservative activist. See, Dumond became a cause celebre among right wing types. As a new governor Huckabee was petitioned by many anti-Clinton types to grant Dumond parole. Huckabee was also advised by the parole board and several of Dumond's victims not to release him. Guess who he listened to? I need to know nothing else about Mike Huckabee.

Read the articles. I apologize for dragging something so depressing here, but I don't really see who the Republicans will eventually stagger behind. It really could be Huckabee and everyone should know the name Wayne Dumond. You've probably already guessed but yes, when released, Dumond raped again and this time murdered one of his victims.

Labels: , ,

22:21 bone daddy

Thursday, November 08, 2007

They Eat Their Own Regnery, for those who don't know, is a conservative book publisher. I use the term "publisher" loosely. Essentially it's a propaganda mill, churning out swift-boat type books that are too kooky to be published by Harper-Collins. See, Rupert Murdoch's Harper-Collins wants to churn out right-wing garbage, but it also wants to make money. Regnery is a private welfare system for liars. The various arms of Richard Mellon Sciafe's empire buy up Regnery books in bulk to land them on the New York Times bestseller list, which then gets the authors on TV and radio and convinces some in the public that the books are actually books. Regnery is the reason the Times started using a symbol to denote bulk-purchased "bestsellers."

Now these authors - remember they're conservatives so they've been trained to drink the Kool-Aid - start to believe they're actually best selling authors and wonder how come they haven't made much money. After failing in the free market, these free market conservatives do what you'd expect lawsuit-hating conservatives to do. Sue. This would make a great Pinter play.

"I'm a bestselling author!"

"You're called a bestselling author because it's a good thing to be called, not because your books have sold best."

"But my books have sold!"

"Only because we're the ones who bought them."

"So pay me!"

"We didn't really pay full price ... What was that book about?"

"How welfare creates dependency and an entitlement mentality. Give me my money!"

Labels: , ,

14:47 bone daddy

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Ah, Turkey ready to invade Iraq, Pakistan breaking out the whoop-ass on secular powers and the Get out of Jail free cards on the Taliban types ... how's that "stability to the region" coming? My favorite bit in this article about Musharraf's ham-fisted repression comes in here ...

The general's suspension of the constitution has given Pakistani authorities sweeping powers to detain without charge. Opposition groups reported at least 3,500 arrests over the preceding three days, many of them attorneys.

Pakistan's top human rights defender, Asma Jehangir, was watching Musharraf on television Saturday night explain his declaration of emergency rule as a necessary step in combating extremism. As he spoke, police knocked at her door and announced she was under house arrest.


Notice anything? When Musharraf gave himself the power to detain without charge, he at least announced it.

Labels: , ,

22:50 bone daddy

Monday, October 08, 2007

Good News, Bad News. Well, the Yankees lost, which means the Indians will have to knock the Red Sox out since you can't count on the National League to do anything. In good news, C-dog and I both won our bets with Phinster in the same week. C-dog picked the Red Sox to go farther than the Yankees and I picked a ticket other than Gingrich/Rice to win the 08 election. Gingrich is not running, which will make it really hard for him to win. (That's the second bit of bad news, by the way. A Gingrich campaign would have been hysterical. Dan Quayle level of comedy. And he had no chance to actually win and damage the country. There was no downside to Newt '08 so I'm sad tonight, except for winning $20.)

Labels: , , ,

23:42 bone daddy

Worst. Bumper Sticker. Combo. Ever. I saw a beater of a car sporting the fading "W 04" sticker you still see here and there. You know the one with the flag sticking off the top of the W? That most owners have since snuck out of their houses in the night and scrapped off their cars? Looking over their shoulders to make sure no one's looking? Yeah, that one.

On the other side, a bumper sticker said, "I read your e-mail." Now, this guy probably wasn't one of the Bush goons who probably does read our e-mail. Those guys drive nice cars. Still, isn't it fitting that a W supporter would make a joke (or pass on someone else's joke) about invading your privacy? It's almost like a W supporter was also a Metallica fan and put Kill 'Em All next to the W 04 sticker. Except more subtle.

Labels: ,

23:17 bone daddy

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

You Are Not What You Own If Tony Snow lived in the "Ownership Society" he's been selling as White House spokesperson, he'd really be screwed. (via Ghost in the Machine.)

Labels: ,

22:18 bone daddy

Thursday, August 30, 2007

I haven't watched Fox "News" for years. I haven't been missing much.

Labels:

23:13 bone daddy

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I'm getting my family-values, anti-gay Republicans caught seeking gay sex confused. It's reached a tipping point. When I first heard the Larry Craig story - this was before GOP'ers started calling for his resignation and before his "Really, I'm still not gay" press conference - I thought it was a late reference to the McCain Florida campaign chair caught soliciting in a park.

I knew it wasn't Vitter, because he was totally straight with his prostitutes, and I knew it wasn't Ted Haggard, because that guy's a Reverend, not to mention he's totally cured of his gayness. I also remember the name Foley (because of the catheter) so I knew it wasn't him. I also remember Jeff Gannon, the gay prostitute who posed as a White House reporter on behalf of the totally straight Karl Rove, because it's one of the most mind-bending examples in the game "How would this scandal have played out for a Democrat?"

See how easy it is to get confused? Anyway, which excuse is worse:

1) "I have horrible luck. There's always been these rumors that I cruise for guys, even though I'm totally straight. Then I wind up in a bathroom where this kind of thing goes on and I happen to have a medical condition that causes me to give the signal for 'I want some sex,' even though I really don't AND I'm cursed with an easy-going nature that made me plead guilty to the thing I didn't do." - Larry Craig

2) "I offered to give him $20 and a blowjob because he was black and I figured that's what he wanted." - Bob Allen

Labels: , ,

22:14 bone daddy

Thursday, August 23, 2007

No Sense of Decency ... Bush scratches at the wounds of Vietnam in an attempt to smear his critics and prop up faltering support for his Iraq folly. I've long maintained that the pro-war right will get loonier and more violent as the debacle that is Iraq becomes less and less deniable. No reason Bush would be exempt from this I guess. There's two ways of looking at this - either a man with little ability to grasp the present is showing his trouble with the past as well, or Bush knows perfectly well that Iraq is and will continue to be a disaster for some time and he is setting up others to take the blame.

In a small sense, Vietnam War protesters have helped set up Bush's blame-those-who-were-right strategy by taking too much credit for ending Vietnam. We lost Vietnam because of the Vietnamese and, to a lesser degree, because we shouldn't have been there. Not because of the hippies.

Less than a year ago, Bush floated this analogy, prompting Robert Scheer to write ...

The lesson of Vietnam is not to keep pouring lives and treasure down a dark and poisonous well, but to patiently use a pragmatic mix of diplomacy and trade with even our ideological competitors.

The United States dropped more bombs on tiny Vietnam than it unloaded on all of Europe in World War II, only hardening Vietnamese nationalist resolve. Hundreds of thousands of troops, massive defoliation of the countryside, "free fire zones," South Vietnamese allies, bombing the harbors ... none of it worked. Yet, never admitting that our blundering military presence fueled the native nationalist militancy we supposedly sought to eradicate, three US Presidents--two of them Democrats--lied themselves into believing victory was around some mythical corner.


Lastly, I'd like to ask, if Bush knows so much about winning in Vietnam, why didn't he go ahead and fight there?

Labels: , , , ,

14:21 bone daddy

Monday, August 13, 2007

Karl Rove to Leave White House, Spend More Time with Coven

Labels: , , ,

16:50 bone daddy

Tommy Thompson was running for president. Who knew?

Labels: ,

13:08 bone daddy

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Great video on Generation Chickenhawk.

Labels: , , ,

10:33 bone daddy

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

We're already hearing - for those who couldn't figure it out - that we will fall far short of the goals Bush laid out for the surge/escalation, meeting "not a single goal." First Bush rejects anyone else's (already low) standards or expectations and, in fact, sneers at them. Then he proposes his own (corrupt and artificial and lower) goals as superior. Then he fails to meet them and will probably retroactively creat a third set of goals that he will have to lie to pretend to have met better than expected. I couldn't come up with a better motif of the W years.

Labels: , , ,

16:07 bone daddy

Monday, July 02, 2007

Who wipes away Libby's prison time? The accountability president. The "restore integrity to the White House" president. The Fitzgerald prosecution, already sort of empty in my book because it did not charge as criminals Rove and Cheney, just got a little emptier.

W and Libby partisans will moan about how he still has the guilty verdict and the fine and lost his job, etc. Still, it occurs to me that Valerie Plame lost her job through the actions of Libby, Cheney and Rove and her job - helping to keep the country safe from WMDs - was a hell of a lot more important than Libby's job of propping up the worst administration ever.

Anyway, only complete scandal fatigue and the absolute fanatical devotion of the right-wing base can keep W above 25% now.

Labels: , , ,

22:14 bone daddy

Monday, June 04, 2007

A Disorder Peculiar to the GOP
We need us some more terror.

Labels:

19:46 cdogzilla

Friday, June 01, 2007

Bush's Amazing Achievement [NYRB]

One of the few foreign policy achievements of the Bush administration has been the creation of a near consensus among those who study international affairs, a shared view that stretches, however improbably, from Noam Chomsky to Brent Scowcroft, from the antiwar protesters on the streets of San Francisco to the well-upholstered office of former secretary of state James Baker. This new consensus holds that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a calamity, that the presidency of George W. Bush has reduced America's standing in the world and made the United States less, not more, secure, leaving its enemies emboldened and its friends alienated. Paid-up members of the nation's foreign policy establishment, those who have held some of the most senior offices in the land, speak in a language once confined to the T-shirts of placard-wielding demonstrators. They rail against deception and dishonesty, imperialism and corruption. The only dispute between them is over the size and depth of the hole into which Bush has led the country he pledged to serve.

Labels: ,

10:15 cdogzilla

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Modest Proposal This whole timetable issue has a clear and easy solution. Well, at least the financial end of it does. Let's simply fund the Iraq disaster by taxing the people who supported it. You want it, you pay for it. This would also be quite easy to figure out. By 2004, the war was clearly a disaster. If you voted for Bush, you need to sacrifice for this fiasco you supported. Note how I'm exempting those who originally supported the war but came to their senses later. I'm generous that way. Now if you didn't support the war, but voted for Bush for some other reason, sorry, but you get taxed for having your priorities out of whack. Who could possibly complain about this? What, you want other people to fight and pay for your war? Now some might point out that punishing people for the way they vote is unconstitutional. However, this just brings up another beautiful aspect of my plan. By 2004, W. had already demonstrated his disregard for the Constitution. A vote for him was a vote for unconstitutional rule. Except for the fact that it will never happen, I don't see a flaw here.

Labels: , ,

22:36 bone daddy

Thursday, May 03, 2007

The right's explicit and candid rejection of "the rule of law

'The rule of law has two defects, each of which suggests the need for one-man rule. That is what is on the Op-Ed page of The Wall St. Journal this morning. The article is then filled with one paragraph after the next paying homage to the need for a Great Leader who stomps on the rule of law when he chooses -- literally:

The best source of energy turns out to be the same as the best source of reason--one man. One man, or, to use Machiavelli's expression, uno solo, will be the greatest source of energy if he regards it as necessary to maintaining his own rule. Such a person will have the greatest incentive to be watchful, and to be both cruel and merciful in correct contrast and proportion. We are talking about Machiavelli's prince, the man whom in apparently unguarded moments he called a tyrant. . .

The president takes an oath "to execute the Office of President" of which only one function is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." In addition, he is commander-in-chief of the military, makes treaties (with the Senate), and receives ambassadors. He has the power of pardon, a power with more than a whiff of prerogative for the sake of a public good that cannot be achieved, indeed that is endangered, by executing the laws. . . .

In quiet times the rule of law will come to the fore, and the executive can be weak. In stormy times, the rule of law may seem to require the prudence and force that law, or present law, cannot supply, and the executive must be strong.

In the course of explaining how the rule of law applies only in "quiet times," Mansfield also argues that "civil liberties are subject to circumstances," not inalienable, and that "in time of war the greater dangers may be to the majority from a minority." Thus, he explains -- in what might be my favorite sentence -- "A free government should show its respect for freedom even when it has to take it away."'
Link via GITM

Labels:

07:04 cdogzilla

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Can they sink any lower? Newt Gingrich has joined fellow creep Rush Limbaugh in blaming the Virginia Tech tragedy on liberals. I hope Gingrich runs for president. His idiocy on parade will do nothing but damage to his own party. Follow the Gingrich link, it's a doozy. Did you know video games were liberal? Me neither. Did you know you can no longer say "Murder is wrong" in America without some liberal getting all in your grill? Me neither. That liberals alone support dehumanizing name-calling? Me neither. Thanks Newt. Please run for president.

(BTW, Gingrich and Limbaugh have at least three divorces, at least one drug habit, tons of ethical problems and two long histories of de-humanizing name-calling between them.)

Labels: ,

15:46 bone daddy

Thursday, March 22, 2007

I must confess I have so far taken a pass on the U.S. attorney scandal. I know many details about the outing of Valerie Plame and I'm exceptionally well-informed about the spinning of pre-war intelligence. I know more than a little about the incompetence of Bush's response to Katrina, but I can only do so much. I'm begining to think this administration is deliberately doing nasty and/or illegal things just to fuck with me.

I'll start to pay more attention if this scandal veers from recent scandal history - possibility of something vile/illegal suggested in media. Media attacked as evil Bush-haters. The vile/illegal thing is proved to have happened but probably not a big deal, right? Okay it's a slightly vile or maybe illegal thing, but Clinton did it too. Well, an underling is responsible for this thing and he's a great person doing a great job in Iraq/New Orleans/the White House. Hey, now that the underling has been disposed of there's really no need to investigate any further, right? Who would ever suggest that the guy who called himself "the Decider" every decided anything? Wow, look! Another scandal!

I'm also not particularly surprised that a guy who rolled his eyes at treaties barring torture would even blink at politically motivated firings. Rove and Bush probably could have gotten Gonzales to approve beatings, water-boarding and then dismissals.

Labels: ,

23:06 bone daddy

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Conservative Ben Stein gets a bout of rationality when asked to write about what's new and exciting in American finance. The magazine publisher asked that Stein not "complain about the rich."

Labels:

18:10 HD

But "Fair and Balanced" is our Motto! Funny, sad, un-doctored screen shots of Fox "News." (via This Modern World.)

Labels: ,

08:27 bone daddy

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Making the rounds I'm a bit late, but in case no one's spotted this yet, I give you Conservapedia, for those those who find Wikipedia too liberal. Or liberal at all. Or too fact-based. Not soothing enough. Whatever. Do conservatives really need something to make them more insulated? I found the site a bit slow, not really funny, and user-unfriendly, but I guess that's fitting.

Labels:

14:26 bone daddy

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I didn't say what I just said, and neither did Lincoln Representative Don Young calls for the exile or execution of Republican war supporters with his quote of Lincoln, "Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged." I understand Republican policies, like the "surge," and stop-loss-stay-in-Iraq-longer and the unforgettable "Armor? Eh, you won't need it," hurt troop morale, but I think executing Republicans is taking matters a bit far. This is also especially confusing because Young is a conservative Republican himself. Certainly, the Iraq war can change some hearts. Young's spokesman weirdly points out that Young was "not advocating the hanging of Democrats," which seems obvious to me. Should Democrats really be executed for not oppossing the war strongly enough? Seems harsh. Young himself supported the war until this recent quote.

Turns out, the quote isn't even Lincoln's. Some right-wing goon misquoted Lincoln and now every flying monkey on the web thinks Lincoln has blessed their personal purge fantasies. (via Ghost in the Machine)

Labels: ,

08:50 bone daddy

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Now I wouldn't run around saying conservatives have no sense of humor. That's just not right. Political humor, though? Well, I'm sure there are a few examples around but you have to dig and scrape for them. They do fear and anger real well. Not so much with the laughs. Anyway, Fox "News" plans to start airing a comedy show in response to their faltering ratings and The Daily Show, which they misperceive as liberal. You can watch a couple of clips, here and here. (Be warned, the second one contains Rush Limbaugh pretending to be president, making jokes about Cindy Sheehan. Maybe don't watch while eating.) They are astonishingly bad. Could the show actually be this bad? I'd say it couldn't be, but this is the stuff they want us to see. Imagine the stuff they're hiding. The funniest part is the laugh-track, needed because actual people wouldn't laugh at that stuff.

We have a local example of conservative humor here in Connecticut. Central Connecticut State University opinion editor John Petroski wrote an ugly essay called "Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It" and then claimed it was satire of media sensationalism when he had to apologize for it. I'm not sure where the satire part comes in. It reads to me like he thought it would be fun to piss some women off. There's nothing in his essay about the media ... ? Anyway, maybe the viewers (both of them!) of Fox's comedy got it.

Labels: ,

11:26 bone daddy

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Colin McEnroe's recent Salon piece on Lieberman.

Labels:

12:35 Slippery

Connecticut for Lieberman hijacked? This is hilarious! How do you fight a shell party? Become a hermit crab of sorts....

Labels:

12:16 Slippery

Monday, November 06, 2006

Been getting robo-calls? Been getting Joe Lieberman robo-calls? Been getting scary Joe Lieberman robo-calls?

Labels:

19:50 bone daddy

Thursday, November 02, 2006

"Well, I like our Constitution, even if he hates it." A great Doonesbury strip, kind of a "what if Democrats campaigned like W" fantasy.

Labels:

21:12 bone daddy

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Battlestar Galacticons: A close look at the right's scary affinity for sci-fi foreign policy punditry.

Labels: ,

18:19 HD

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Colin McEnroe really nails what is hiding behind Lieberman's often quoted line from the recent debate, "I thought the attacks were going to come from this [Lamont's] side. I didn't know they were going to come from that [Republican] side too."

The two points: Anything less than worship at the shrine of Lieberman for Lieberman is something of an attack. And Joe really is working so well with the Republicans he's kind of surprised not all of them like him. Follow the link, though. It's put better there.

Labels:

22:47 bone daddy

Friday, October 06, 2006

A True Hero and the Worst Kind of Cowards
I don't know that I've seen such chrystal examples of heroism (the kind that makes you believe in the compassionate heart of humanity) and the snivelling, gutless cowardice (the kind that makes world bleak and full of hate) side by side as this: a young Amish girl and some Marines. The two were side by side on the cnn.com frontpage just now.

The article doesn't say if Awad, the Iraqi citizen murdered by the Marines, had children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers or cousins ... but I wonder how they feel about the US now. I wonder if that "insurgent" is ever caught whether, even then, if the net effect will be an increase or decrease in the number of people who support the use of terror to strike back at the US?

Labels:

19:18 cdogzilla

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Disturbing On So Many Levels
Daily Kos: ESPN FAKED STADIUM CHEERS FOR BUSH SR.

Labels: ,

20:01 cdogzilla

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Impolite Phrase is "Impeachable Offense"
Olbermann skewers W's shameful use of the 5th anniversary of 9/11 to continue spinning his indefensible war.

Worth keeping in mind: the 9/11 attacks happened on W's watch, not Clinton's; five years later Osama is still free; Ground Zero is still a hole in the ground; terrorism is not the biggest problem we face -- I'd feel much more secure if my tax dollars were being funneled into cancer research, fighting poverty, and improving our public schools than wasted on invasions and occupations; and yet W wants to stay the course, continue centralizing power, continue enlarging the federal government, continue shredding the Constitution, and maybe destroy Social Security if he can find the time.

This morning, Olbermann joined Dennis & Callahan's Axis of Terrorist Appeasing Evil. I want my apolitical sports radio back!!

Labels:

12:34 cdogzilla

Friday, August 25, 2006

So a school removes one book from its summer reading list and is quickly hit with a list of 19 more. Go figure. The list of 19 books is interesting. I see Alice Sebold's Lucky starting to make appearances on "ban this book now" lists. That's just sad. E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime is just baffling. I loved it when I read it, but that was years ago and I have no memory of why it would be banned. Because it's a challenging and complex book that makes American history interesting? Because we should stand up and cheer if a high school student wanted to tackle it? Scan down the list of books "Parents Against Bad Books In Schools" wants to ban. If you're surprised by the number of ethnic authors this group wants to ban, you're probably not cynical enough.

Labels:

20:51 bone daddy

What a Moronic Presidential Press Conference!, the title of Fred Kaplan's deconstruction piece in Slate, implies that there could be another kind coming from this President. Anyway, worth reading if you feel the need to brush away any cheerful feelings you may have. I disagree with his point at the end that Bush has no strategy for Iraq. He's going to continue mouthing bankrupt and failed platitudes until handing the problems (and, he surely hopes, the blame) off to his successor. It's not a good strategy and it's designed to help his legacy more than our country, our troops or the Mideast, but it's a strategy.

Labels:

08:12 bone daddy

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Revisionism
W now admits Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11. After he answers the question, "what did Iraq have to do with the attack on the World Trade Center?" by blurting out what he's known all along, "Nothing," you can actually see the neuron fire right after it comes out triggering him to start dissembling and resume the smoke and mirrors dance to get back on the "Freedom Agenda" message.

Labels:

10:28 cdogzilla

Monday, August 21, 2006

Wingnut-Colored Glasses
GitM points to this hilarious "as seen by..." NY Times front page.

Labels:

14:07 cdogzilla

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Everyone's glad we caught the vile bums, but this rant might make you question the plausibility of the terrorists' plot to combine chemicals on a plane, and the surrounding 'security theater' of throwing out shampoo. It must be Ned Lamont's fault somehow: the victory in Connecticut for a more rational response to terrorism probably motivated Bush to play the 'fear card' again, or it motivated Osama to greenlight the attack, since the 'war of civilizations' and Iraq war Bush is giving him is exactly what Osama wants and he doesn't want it to end.

The right wing likes to brand everybody else a traitor, but only traitors try to make us afraid of terrorists.

Labels:

16:27 HD

The Axis of Liberalism
WEEI's morning sports talk hosts, Dennis & Callahan, bash and malign liberals like Ann Coulter on amphetamines. I get a kick each morning out of how they blame every bad thing that happens in the world on liberals and Democrats. Case in point, a piece of the Big Dig falls and kills someone: Tip O'Neill's fault ... I'm not kidding.

When they start going off on liberals, the names they reel off as the worst of the worst are Ted Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, Mike Dukakis and Jimmy Carter. A new name has cracked their Rogue's Gallery of Libs ... Ned Lamont. Somebody in England questions whether some wiretaps were legal, Kerry and Ned Lamont must be behind it!

Labels:

15:13 cdogzilla

Monday, July 10, 2006

The W Stands for "Whateva!"
Also, stands for "yet."

Labels:

11:09 cdogzilla

Monday, June 26, 2006

Conservatives host a love-fest for 24. The jokes just write themselves here. Anyone surprised conservatives need a little escapism these days? Limbaugh even said that the show "got lucky with 9/11 happening..." Well, if W can abuse 9/11 for political purposes, Limbaugh can abuse it for entertainment criticism. (You'd think someone so fond of Jack Bauer would be able to hide drugs from airport security. Personally, I've seen those ads about how drugs help terrorism and I'm a huge fan of 24 so I think Limbaugh should be held down and tortured until he gives up his dealers and everyone at the conference should agree.)

Labels:

22:08 bone daddy

Monday, June 12, 2006

Even the theft of the 2004 - yes, 2004, election doesn't get me particularly outraged anymore. It's more of the same GOP corruption, racism and general hatred of the American voter. The sad thing is, I knew it already. Katherine Harris redux. Until some houses are cleaned, let's just assume a Democrat has to win by two percentage points in order to win. In good news, Bush is so bad that might not be such a big hurdle.

Labels:

23:18 bone daddy

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Here's the full list of National Review's Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs. Although they admit having to rip songs out of context, it's still pretty bad. Check out #25, "The Battle of Evermore." Obviously, it's about The Lord of the Rings. So it's about good versus evil. Okay. And thus a metaphor for the Cold War. Really? And Democrats and liberals were on the side of the commies during the Cold War. Wha?

I guess if you sing in Latin, quote Coleridge or think about small towns, it's conservative. And I thought Lord of the Rings was a fantasy.

Labels:

12:33 bone daddy

Thursday, May 11, 2006

I Feel Sick
Balance of power, rule of law, separation of church and state ... those were the good old days.

There's no such thing as "bypassing" the law! There is a fundamental problem with a President saying he gets to pick and choose which laws apply to him. We have a Supreme Court (who don't seem to understand their role any better than he does, but that's another sad story) that decides if laws are constititutional or not, the President doesn't get to do that. And, this should be fairly obvious to a sixth grader after the first week of social studies class, shouldn't need to get legal scholars to debate the issue.

The President is not above the law. We have a Constitution that was written expressly to prevent what this President is doing and yet still it's like it's an open question whether he has the powers he claims he has. He does not. Sadly, Congress and the Supreme Court have no respect the Constitution either, so here we are.

(I'm taking a page from Steinbrenner's book. When A-Rod commits costly errors, Big Stein bashes him in the press and refers to him as "the third basemen," as if his name is too distasteful to let pass his lips. That's how I feel about "this President," so ashamed I can't bring myself to utter his name.)

Labels:

10:43 cdogzilla

Saturday, April 29, 2006

The Bush administration has, in my humble and objective opinion, reached a state of such decline, such permanent and maddening incompetence, a state of standards so low it's impossible to use the word standards about them, that they are pretty much invulnerable to criticism and scandal. Really, what could they do? Shoot a guy in the face? At this point, when they screw up, the reaction is "Well, what did you expect?" At this point, we no longer measure the screw ups in terms of money or law, it's bodies and blood. How many dead in Iraq, or New Orleans, or on Cheney's "hunting" trips.

The new Boneyard, "More Big Lie" is all about bad following bad and I think it proves - throwing the president a bone here - that he's not as stupid as most of us think. In a sad way, the start of the Iraq war reflects Bush's "election." When you begin an endeavor with a Big Lie, there's really nowhere positive to go. Lies have to follow lies.

Labels:

15:11 bone daddy

Saturday, March 25, 2006

According to a new study, whiny kids grow up to be conservatives. Surprising who? (via Ghost in the Machine)

Labels:

22:46 bone daddy

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

The Pentagon gets into the media business, again, by condemning a cartoon by Tom Toles, probably the best editorial cartoonists of the last twenty years. (Yes, the guy who draws a little version of himself in the lower right corner.) All six Joint Chiefs of Staff signed the letter, apparently something of a rarity. You can see the cartoon on Americablog. The point of the cartoon is pretty obvious, and it isn't Toles who has been disrespecting our soldiers.

Labels:

22:45 bone daddy

Worst President Ever? For me, playing the game of rating W on a scale of terrible presidents quickly became pointless. Long ago, W leapt over Nixon, scampered around Taft, raced beyond Hoover and crashed somewhere south of Jefferson Davis. Give it up for 24, though! They managed to make the game interesting again. Is W worse than President Logan? Colin McEnroe asks if 24 is still the West Wing for the right wing. I'd say yes. They've done Bush a favor by creating a president worse than him. (Update: Fixed the McEnroe link.)

Labels:

22:31 bone daddy

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Christianity Today on Torture and "Torture Lite"

So I do not write to demonize those who believe that protecting our nation's security requires the use of interrogation techniques that could be classified as borderline torture. Nor do I want to get into a technical and detailed argument about particular interrogation techniques to determine if they are torture. What I want to focus on is the idea that, given the war on terror, the gloves should be taken off. Simply put, should our government have the option - even if used only rarely and in extreme circumstances - of torturing?

I believe Christians should say no, on the following five grounds ...
1. Torture violates the dignity of the human being. Every inch of the human body and every aspect of the human spirit comes from God and bears witness to his handiwork. We are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28)...
2. Torture mistreats the vulnerable and violates the demands of justice. In the Scriptures, God's understanding of justice tilts toward the vulnerable. "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry" (Ex. 22:21-23)...
3. Authorizing torture trusts government too much. Human beings are sinful through and through (Rom. 3:10-18). We are not to be trusted, and we are especially dangerous when in possession of unchecked power. This applies to all of us...
4. Torture dehumanizes the torturer...
5. Torture erodes the character of the nation that tortures. A nation is a collective moral entity with a character, an identity that carries across time. Causes come and go, threats come and go, but the enduring question for any social entity is who we are as a people. This is true of a family, a church, a school, a civic club, or a town. It is certainly true of a nation.

Sen. John McCain, who has led the Republican charge against torture, recently said, "This isn't about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies." ...

Labels:

11:22 cdogzilla

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty for Security Deserve Neither
Boing Boing: Future American lawyers protest Attorney General's speech

Labels:

22:17 cdogzilla

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Seems Relevant
A Shocker: Partisan Thought Is Unconscious - New York Times

neuroscientists have now tracked what happens in the politically partisan brain when it tries to digest damning facts about favored candidates or criticisms of them. The process is almost entirely emotional and unconscious, the researchers report, and there are flares of activity in the brain's pleasure centers when unwelcome information is being rejected. [Emphasis mine. Highlights the futility of arguing with someone who enjoys being wrong.]

Link via mefi

Labels:

18:56 cdogzilla

Monday, January 23, 2006

Yep, the GOP didn't used to be the party that talked about big, all-powerful government. Of course, they didn't used to be the party of sniveling cowards either.

At least, not that we noticed.

Labels:

23:39 bone daddy

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

George Bush did not lie. Can we get this straight, people? Is trusting the words of an unreliable and unstable informant a lie? Of course not. If you just repeat what somebody named Curveball says does that make it a lie? No. If Curveball tells you what you want to hear and you repeat it against the advice of U.S. intelligence and against the advice of Curveball's German intelligence handlers, are you a liar? Of course not. That's repeating what you want to be true and declaring it true because somebody said it. Who could call that a lie? Discipline, people. Get on the same page. George Bush did not lie.

Labels:

22:54 bone daddy

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

While there is some joy in watching the Bush regime implode, maybe we shouldn't have to. I won't go around calling 2004 "stolen" (a la 2000), but "suspicious" is warranted.

Labels:

19:54 bone daddy

Monday, October 24, 2005

White House v. Onion
From the NY Times:

You might have thought that the White House had enough on its plate late last month, what with its search for a new Supreme Court nominee, the continuing war in Iraq and the C.I.A. leak investigation. But it found time to add another item to its agenda - stopping The Onion, the satirical newspaper, from using the presidential seal.

The newspaper regularly produces a parody of President Bush's weekly radio address on its Web site (www.theonion.com/content/node/40121), where it has a picture of President Bush and the official insignia.

"It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the presidential seal on its Web site," Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr. Dixton's office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee; days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)

Citing the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the seal "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement." Exceptions may be made, he noted, but The Onion had never applied for such an exception.

The Onion was amused. "I'm surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion," Scott Dikkers, editor in chief, wrote to Mr. Dixton. He suggested the money be used instead for tax breaks for satirists.

More formally, The Onion's lawyers responded that the paper's readers - it prints about 500,000 copies weekly, and three million people read it online - are well aware that The Onion is a joke.

"It is inconceivable that anyone would think that, by using the seal, The Onion intends to 'convey... sponsorship or approval' by the president," wrote Rochelle H. Klaskin, the paper's lawyer, who went on to note that a headline in the current issue made the point: "Bush to Appoint Someone to Be in Charge of Country."

Moreover, she wrote, The Onion and its Web site are free, so the seal is not being used for commercial purposes. That said, The Onion asked that its letter be considered a formal application to use the seal.

Labels:

22:40 cdogzilla

Friday, September 30, 2005

They'll Give Any Right Wing Nut Job a Talk Show

Bennett, who held prominent posts in the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told a caller to his syndicated radio talk show Wednesday: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.

"That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he said. [CNN.com]

I wonder if Bennett has considered what aborting *every* fetus would do to the crime rates?

Labels:

09:11 cdogzilla

Friday, September 16, 2005

Halliburton needs the money Read Dan Haar's excellent column Quoting Bible, Cutting Worker Pay. And ask yourself if Bush has an ounce of humanity in him. For the Gulf area Bush has repealed a 74-year old law that keeps jobs from federal contracts at or above "prevailing wages," meaning people getting the construction jobs in the rebuilding - many of them the people who lost their homes and jobs - won't be getting the exorbitant rate of $9.55 an hour. Funny how no special money-saving oversight or restrictions were put in place on the Halliburton contract, especially given Cheney Co.'s honesty and efficiency in Iraq.

Labels:

17:08 bone daddy

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Your Gay Sex Brought About Nuclear Catastrophe!! Well, each episode of 24 does a better job than the last of nutshelling the whole right-wing wet dream of effective torture. For those who missed the last episode, the Secretary of Defense's son was brought back to CTU for more "questioning." (Apparently, I missed his release from the torture helmet. Like I said, it's hard to keep it all straight. It's like the Marquis deSade throwing a garden party.) The kid's family supports his torture either reluctantly or, in the case of his father, enthusiastically. The secret of the 3 a.m. phone call from his cellular to Habib Marwan comes out. And I do mean "comes out." Someone else used his phone while he was hooking up with another guy.

The Secretary of Defense takes the rather odd position that the kid should have confessed his gay sex during his earlier torture just in case it might somehow help track terrorists. He's not so much bothered by the guy-on-guy action as he's annoyed his son kept it a secret. "We're the government, we need to know everything!" Any surprise this show is produced by a self-proclaimed "right-wing nut job"?

By the way, if they had gotten around to torturing him, they might have gotten him to confess that he's Trey from The O.C. and Jack could have told him, "This is how we do it in CTU, bitch!"

Labels:

22:16 bone daddy

Friday, December 24, 2004

Governor Rowland Death Watch/Justice Watch It's guilty, it's a felony, it means jail. Merry Christmas.

"Guilty," Rowland answered, quietly.

And in that instant the state's 86th governor, who demonstrated a charismatic political mastery during a quarter-century political career, became a felon.

Not to get too technical on our wacky liberal media, but he became a felon back when he was governor. That's the moment he became a convicted felon. Happy New Year!

Labels:

22:49 bone daddy

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

WTF was that phony-ass military jacket Bush was wearing? Eisenhower avoided wearing a military uniform as president. They're trying to make Bush look the part, but someone should tell his handlers that dressing up a monkey in a tutu doesn't quite make it a ballerina.

Labels:

11:17 HD

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

You know what I think The Smoking Gun needs to dig up? Subway Jerrod's contract. What do you think happens if he gets fat again? Is there an insurance policy against future weight gain? Maybe there's a weight where he's fired and then theres an even higher weight where Subway starts paying him again, only this time it's to stay out of sight. Do you think his contract says that if he gains 100 pounds he has to carry a McDonald's bag with him anywhere he goes?

I mean, if Jerrod got fat, paparazzi would never stop photographing him. Kristie Alley is, technically speaking, not even in showbusiness anymore but you can't walk through a supermarket aisle without seeing her ass. There must be something in Jerrod's contract about this. Or they'd just have him killed.

Labels:

22:19 bone daddy

An Iowa youth pastor speaks out in favor of Dubya's tax cuts: more cash for dates with 17-year-old girls.

Labels:

14:54 HD

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Out of all the different election and results maps we've seen, I do like this funky one. Snopes has a thin but interesting exploration of the free vs. slave state map concept, with tidbits about how close the election was vs. our winner-take-all binary system, and how regionality, urban v. rural, size of community correlated.

Labels:

14:04 HD

Saturday, November 06, 2004

"It is hard for me even to wish Bush on those who cheer for him." Curled up in a Ball Drinking Rum, my new Boneyard, is up. You know how there's a lot of mature and sensible talk going around among Democrats and leftists about reaching out, remaining positive and moving into the future. This isn't it.

Labels:

14:19 bone daddy

Monday, October 25, 2004

That Wacky Liberal Media The only reason to care about a newspaper endorsement is to know more about the paper you read. To that end, I'm grateful for The Hartford Courant's endorsement of Bush. It explains the glum feelings with which I always turn to their editorial pages. Connecticut conservatives have a knee-jerk reaction to the Courant. It is non-Fox, non-Rush media, so it is liberal, never mind how many Kathleen Parker or (local boob) Laurence Cohen columns they run. In fact, the Courant has a long Republican history. The first endorsement of any Democratic candidate went to Clinton. No, it's not exactly The Washington Times, but no reader should ever confuse the Courant with liberal thought.

It's an off-key endorsement. They end with a list of things Bush should fix in his second term. After Iraq, the Courant feels Bush should protect the environment and reproductive freedom, promote civil liberties and strong relations with our allies, cut spending and finally conquer this "particularly persistent recession." Vote Bush! The Best Man to Correct Bush's Mistakes! Come on now, rally around that...

Labels:

22:55 bone daddy

Friday, October 22, 2004

The reality gap, it's not just Bush, it's his supporters. [via Ghost in the Machine.]

Labels:

21:54 bone daddy

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Here's the essay on Bush's faith-based certainty (or arrogant, willful blindness) that's starting all the "reality-based community" talk on the blogs. I'll re-link to my "Bush vs. Reality" Boneyard while I'm on the subject.

Labels:

22:36 bone daddy

Monday, October 18, 2004

I never, ever watch Crossfire so I missed Jon Stewart's visit, but even the transcript is pretty funny.

Labels:

15:11 bone daddy

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Given Dick Cheney's involvement, the networks have decided for the first time to broadcast the Vice-Presidential debate with a five second tape delay...BA-DUM

Try the fish, folks. Drive home safe.

Okay, it's an obvious joke, but I haven't heard anyone make it. Couldn't resist.

Seriously, how much would you pay to see Cheney crack under the pressure of making the administration appear human and start dropping f-bombs?

Labels:

15:30 bone daddy

Sunday, October 03, 2004

That Bush screwed up royally in the debates has kind of taken a life of its own, very much like the way Gore's sighing became far more important than it should have after their first debate. I've only got one additional observation I'd like to throw out there. Remember, I'm someone who respected Bush's ability to play to his strengths and use the debates to his advantage. However, in important debates of his past, Bush has been the challenger. As I noted in the Boneyard, he doesn't play defense well. As an incumbent, he needed to defend his indefensible record and he couldn't. Also, his repetitive, smirky and simplistic style plays better when you aren't the President. (To be honest, I barely noticed his smirks and petulance, or at least I didn't think it would be a big deal. He always seems that way to me.

Anyway, everyone probably has their favorite head-scratching moment. I'd like to highlight this one because not many people are talking about it.

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President, two minutes. You have said there was a "miscalculation" of what the conditions would be in postwar Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?

BUSH: No, what I said was that, because we achieved such a rapid victory, more of the Saddam loyalists were around. I mean, we thought we'd whip more of them going in.

But because [Gen.] Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operation, we moved rapidly, and a lot of the Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. I thought they would stay and fight, but they didn't.

And now we're fighting them now.

Is it me or is Bush somehow claiming things are going badly in Iraq because things really went so well? Does Tommy Franks like being blamed for all this?

Labels:

23:04 bone daddy

Friday, October 01, 2004

Well, when the polls and even the right wing minions agree, you know it was a pretty good clock-cleaning Kerry gave Bush last night. Although it didn't produce a moment to hang on Bush, it has certainly changed the dynamic of the campaign, at least until the next event. Bush clearly had his talking points - "mixed signals!!! hard work!!" - but rarely assembled or presented them well. To my surprise, he did seem a bit rattled, unprepared and impatient. Even whiny. By contrast, Kerry seemed calm and straightforward. I'd say presidential. Maybe not a homerun, but a good stand-up triple.

I loved when Bush requested extra time after an aggressive Kerry answer and then stood their for a good seven or eight seconds with nothing to say. My other favorite moment was when Bush once again conflated Iraq and 9/11 and Kerry called him on it. Beers were a-poppin' at the BoneDaddy household.

Labels:

13:26 bone daddy

Saturday, September 25, 2004

That Wacky Liberal Media So CBS has decided to prove it is unbiased by not criticizing President Bush until after the election. Very good CBS. If you become an active part of the general cover-up, I'm sure the right-wing creeps will leave you alone.

Labels:

22:09 bone daddy

[Home]

TC FEATURES

The Boneyard

TC Arts Index

PORTABLE TC

RSS Tickler
Mobile Friendly TC

INTERACT


www TC

CONTRIBUTORS

bonedaddy
c-dog (g-reader | ff)
HD
mega
sly
primetime
slip

TC READS

anneheart
cheek
eschaton
ghost in the machine
neilalien
to wit
why oh why?

NEWS & INFOTAINMENT

aicn / alternet
air america radio
arts & letters daily
bos. globe/sports
commondreams
darkhorizons
dilbert
editorial toons
nyrb
open secrets
popmatters
refdesk
salon
sci-tech daily
smirking chimp
tompaine
znet

C-DOG'S BUMPER STICKERS

The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism