Is Fox News The Broadcast Branch Of The U.S. Republican Party?

Pretty much. (L.A. Times)

We're so screwed -- economically speaking

Well, if the world economy really does implode at a yet-to-be-determined date in the not so distant future, we can't claim we weren't warned.

And make no mistake, it will. Why? Because apparently we've some how lost our ability to take in new information and form new beliefs based on this new information. I believe they called it “learning” before it completely went out of fashion.

The always interesting, and usually quite right nobel laurete in economics, Paul Krugman, offers an excellent take-down of the alternative reality that the hard right finds themselves stuck in these days.

As he explains, they continue to delude themselves that all is well, despite the fact that their beloved business mavens have been the recipients of the largest and most shocking display of public largesse, um, ever, because their utterly unregulated business transactions blew up in their faces and their first reaction was to go running for the shelter of the welfare state.

Which, to recap, remains a bad thing for individuals, but apparently a good thing for companies and the wealthiest individuals the world has ever seen.

Oh, and he doesn't spare what passes for a left in American politics either, pointing out that the utter lack of meaningful reform by the bought-and-paid for by finance Democrats pretty much guarantees a repeat because, in the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

And, as an added bonus, enjoy Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's well-deserved drubbing of the Obama administration's craven cave-in to big finance, delivered in the fine form of a first class polemicist.

GOP Select New Leader

Better than Sarah Palin, I say. (Onion News)

Yeah, Right

If Sarah Palin's new biography was called Going Commando I might have considered buying it, or at least requesting a review copy from the publisher, but alas it isn't. Here's some analysis on how things have gone for her so far on her book tour through the U.S. Midwest. (YouTube)

The Final Word On Carrie Prejean

Wondering what to make of fired, disgraced and all-around tragic beauty queen and right-wing, Christian faux-martyr Carrie Prejean after sex pics and vids showed her to be a double-talking hypocrite who opposes same-sex marriage and showing off one's body but took pics of herself masturbating and sent them to the boyfriend she wasn't married to? I don't think you'll find a better summary than this one by Seattle editor, pundit and sex columnist Dan Savage. A quote:

And now we have proof that the person Prejean pretended to be after that pageant—the good Christian girl with a strong moral code who was chosen by God to stick it to the homos—doesn't jibe with the person she was before the pageant, i.e. a highly sexual and sexually active young woman with breast implants and a string of ex-boyfriends to her name. Carrie Prejean was not the very model of modern right-wing Christian conservatism that she pretended to be to ingratiate herself with the likes of Maggie Gallagher. She was an average young American woman, a little prettier and dimmer than most, with sexual urges and desires and agency. She was just another young woman aware of her own erotic power, a young woman with a digital camera, another young woman sexting her boyfriend because it turned her on to turn him on.

Worth 10 minutes of your time if this is a topic you're even slightly interested in.

More On U.S. Climate Change Politics

The New York Times has a summary of how difficult it is to get anti-global warming legislation passed in the United States. It doesn't mention how government is up against lobbyists fighting regulation every step of the way which is the biggest part of the problem, but otherwise it's a decent recap of where the world's at on this file. Article's here.

U.S. Congress Passes Health Reform: The Dog Blog Linkapalooza

They had to sacrifice abortion rights to get it done, which I guess will appeal to religious assholes who like to meddle in government and strip unbelievers of their liberty.

But it's a start.

Heres' the New York Times story.
Here's the Guardian's story.
Heres' the Salon article.
Here's a piece in The Nation.
And finally, here's a long article on Alternet about the wacky things critics of health care reform in the United States say.

Sunday Sermon

Values, values, values, values. In the United States those invoking the term often (if not usually) use it to justify their own gruesomely immoral attempts to deny others freedoms and resources. Welfare for the poor, health care for everyone, the right to marry whoever one wants, the freedom to choose to end a pregnancy. Can't do it folks, goes against American values.

Whatever. It's cartoonishly predictable. When I hear an American say "values" I think theirs are probably deformed.

There are probably exceptions, but if the word hasn't been ruined it's damn close to it.

Getting to my point: last night, Nobel prizewinner-designate Barack Obama addressed gay and lesbian activists at a Human Rights campaign dinner in Washington, DC--and he talked a good game (New York Times). He said it was time to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), the Clinton-era (or should I say Newt Gingrich-era?) policy that says homosexuals must be discharged from the military if they're honest about their sexual orientation. He also "called on Congress to repeal the Defence Of Marriage Act [DOMA]," which lets states ban gay marriage and says the federal government position is that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Well, those are values I think most prairie dog readerswould agree with.

The problem, according to activists, is that the president could effectively end DADT by using executive powers to suspend its enforcement. And he hasn't.

As for DOMA, Obama shat the bed last spring when his administration defended the act by comparing homosexuality to incest (New York Times again).

Unlike Canadians, who can marry who they like regardless what their crotches look like (no thanks to Stephen Harper's conservatives, who fought against gay rights tooth and nail--please don't ever, ever vote for them), American gays and lesbians have to put up with unbelievable amounts of bullshit, mostly coming out the mouths of "value voter" bible-thumpers.

In fact in the United States, support for gay marriage is well below 50 per cent. Although I note that non-churchgoing catholics, Hispanics and people under 30 buck the trend. Who's the worst? Southerners (not by as much as you might think though), protestants who go to church every week and Conservative Republicans. (There's a difference between the last two?)

The link is to the Pew Research Centre, and it's recommended reading--very interesting stuff in a pleasing, easy to understand chart.

Given all this, it's probably not a big surprise there's a rally in Washington today to remind the president and Democrats it's time to stop talking and start doing. (Washington Post)

Will they? Who knows. Obama's actually said he's against gay marriage, so either he's a bigot or he's lying for political insurance.

I guess gay and lesbian Americans should hope he's a liar?

They let anyone into the business, these days

Things aren't going that well for Sarah Palin on the lecture circut these days because she's a blithering idiot (Mother Jones). Well, that hasn't stopped some people (CJME). Me, I think it's sexism.

Save Our Insurers

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

What's really funny is the article I found this in -- worth a read (Insurance News Net). Among other things, INN calls the video "witty but ineffective" and, without a trace of irony, object to the actors' lack of irony in presenting the skit, because they're all rich enough to afford healthcare.

Rich actors. That's a good one. Note the random university student sources too. That Will Ferrell's so darned mean.

Also thanks to The Current which broadcasted the audio this morning. God bless The Current.

Yeee-Ikes Things Are Getting Weird Down There

According to a survey by Public Policy Polling, 18 per cent of New Jersey conservatives believe that Barrack Obama is the Antichrist. Even creepier is that 17 per cent are on the fence. In New Jersey.

Brrrr.

Not Six In The Morning: Glenn Beck Edition

I just don't have time to post the usual morning news run-down today, so instead, here's a link to what is probably a good (I don't have time to read it!) feature on Fox News lunatic Glenn Beck. (Salon)

It's the best thing I have right now. Apologies.

Eight Years Later...

... and there is still nothing on the World Trade Center site.

U.S. Congressman Destroys Health Care Critic

Barney Frank for the win. Finally a politician acknowledges you can't argue with crazy people. Here's a short news piece on this exchange, which happened yesterday in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. (Boston Globe)

More On That Jerk With The Rifle At The Obama Rally

Turns out his show of force was planned in advance--police had been notified and the "journalist" who interviewed him is apparently a friend and fellow libertarian wackjob. Here's the story on Talking Points Memo.

So, instead of this being a spontaneous event where a lone asshole shows up with a gun to intimidate people who disagree with him it's an organized, calculated show of force by an organized group of armed right-wingers and fringe media creeps. Phew! A group of heavily-armed, self-absorbed egomaniacs with axes to grind and a following is so much better than one loon with a machine gun. I feel so much better about America's prospects for the future now.

The gunman's name is supposedly "Chris B.". In the interview he attacks the public option in health care by saying, and I quote, ""We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote." (I wonder how he feels about gay marriage.)

Naturally, this guy also says taxation is theft--one of my favourite psycho anarchist right-wing talking points.

Here's the charming little video where he says many pleasant things.





Of course this is all insane garbage. No one is talking about taking his "right" to private healthcare insurance away. But most Americans want a public system. They voted for it. They should get it.

These gun-toting maniacs really need their own country. Ideally on Mars. In the meantime, where, exactly, is the FBI? Yeah, yeah I know, probably spying on some neighbourhood anti-poverty organization somewhere. Snort.

Here's the Guardian's take on the whole thing, by the way.

Obama Joker Artist Interviewed

The scoundrel behind that portrait of Obama as the Joker has been found--and he's not the conservative you'd think he is. From the Los Angeles Times:

When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image? Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain? Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago. Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software. Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it. Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.

Full, very interesting story here.

The pictures, of course, have been used by right-wingnuts to attack Obama as a socialist. The artist's critism of the President, however, is that there "wasn't much substance to him".

As for the Conservative red-baiting? "To accuse him of being a socialist is really ... immature," Alkhateeb tells the Los Angeles Times. "First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"

Man Shows Up At Obama Rally With Assault Rifle

photo swiped from Daily Kos.

Holy crap. From Talking Points Memo:

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today. No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group. The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms."

So was the scary gun guy arrested by Homeland Security? Ha ha ha, of course not.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law. "If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

Full article here. (TPM)

Two points of my own.

One: what would've happened to any anti-war activist who showed up at a Bush or Cheney event with a weapon like that a year ago? Exactly. (Thanks Blaine.) Funny how America has different standards for peaceful liberal protestors than it does for armed conservatives. Where is this "liberal bias in the media" the Fox News pundits are always wailing about, again? This guy isn't even in a free speech cage.

Two: This man is clearly threatening political violence. He's intimidating health care supporters with the implicit promise of mass murder should they not back down.

Meet the face (well, the back of the head) of the anti-healthcare movement. They're fucking brownshirts, but better armed than those Nazis ever dreamed of. Next step: smashing windows, beating and killing political opponents, assassinating politicians, riots, misery etc. Welcome to real, honest to god fascism, America. At least it's not a white-only party.

The politicians always say you aren't supposed to negotiate with terrorists? Well, so be it, I say. This thug is a terrorist. He can't get his way through peaceful conversation. He can't get his way through democracy because his views (which I promise you are insane) don't have majority support.

He can only get his way if he frightens people into silence with his (legal!!!) assault rifle.

Most Americans want public health care (CBS.) The Democrats have to stop trying to build consensus with Republican saboteurs, they have to stop trying to appease the lunatics and they have to force this thing through. It's what Americans want. If the conservative lunatic fringe explodes into violence, I'm sorry but, well...they're going to anyway, sooner or later. Right? Deal with it now.

You can't stop working for a better world because the nuts have guns and are holding everyone hostage. Health care now, America.

Shatner Does Palin

I interrupt my writing retreat to bring you the following poetic gem.

Reposted from the Tonight Show.

Shepard Fairey Update

Further to this post from awhile back, we received a press release in the office today about this new book that's been published in the United States. Yet another reason for conservatives to rail against public funding for the arts, I guess. (M&C Books)

The power of the internet, Alaskan-style

Well, gee.

An Alaska blogger recently asked her friends to help pay to file a Freedom of Informaton Act on some of Governor Sarah Palin's acivities. The FOI is filed Thursday, July 3 (Celtic Diva). On the afternoon of July 4, Sarah Palin announces she's resigning as governor, and theatenes to sue the entire internet (Anchorage Daily News) for asking, WTF? (Wonkette).

More here at The Washington Monthly and Crooks and Liars

Hat tip to Unrepentant Old Hippie