Here is St. John McCain in Jordan this week mistakenly referring to Iranian extremists as al Qaeda terrorists. Poor St. McCain, he doesn't know Shia from Sunni. We're not exactly sure what Holy Joe Lieberman whispers in St. McCain's ear, but it was probably something along the lines of: "John, Iran is Shia and al Qaeda is Sunni, and they fucking hate each other."
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Bush Consumed By Envy
"I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly
younger and not employed here, I think it would be a
fantastic experience to be on the front lines of
helping this young democracy succeed. It must be
exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some
ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really
making history."
-George W. Bush in 2008 describing his envy of US
soldiers serving in Afghanistan
"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a
shotgun in order to get a deferment, nor was I willing
to go to Canada, so I chose to better myself by
learning to fly airplanes."
-George W. Bush in 1994 describing why he avoided
Vietnam
younger and not employed here, I think it would be a
fantastic experience to be on the front lines of
helping this young democracy succeed. It must be
exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some
ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really
making history."
-George W. Bush in 2008 describing his envy of US
soldiers serving in Afghanistan
"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a
shotgun in order to get a deferment, nor was I willing
to go to Canada, so I chose to better myself by
learning to fly airplanes."
-George W. Bush in 1994 describing why he avoided
Vietnam
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Women Are Safer Without Legal Rights - by Andy K.
As we learn more about Eliot Spitzer's $4,300 splurge
on a two-hour date (not to mention his cumulative
$80,000 tab with the escort agency), the American
pundits are condemning the progressive sex worker
activists who want to decriminalize the world's oldest
profession. To quote R.L. Blader's essay over at
CounterPunch.com: "The 'need' for prostitution, is, at
its core, misogynistic" and "it degrades the status of
all women by affirming the pathology of associating
sex with property."
(Presumably adult gay men are perfectly capable of
negotiating sex for money because I'd be surprised if
Blader considers consensual gay prostitution to be yet
another form of misogyny. But maybe Blader would
disagree).
Buried in the prohibition debate is the upsetting
reality of being a sex worker in a society which
criminalizes sex work. Two economics professors at
the University of Chicago made this appalling
discovery: not only is it rare for a hooker to be
arrested by the Chicago police, but in fact it is more
common for Chicago prostitutes to be coerced into
providing "free services" (rape) to police officers.
The only thing worse than being raped by a pimp is to
be raped by a cop. If this isn't a compelling
feminist argument for legalization, I don't know what
is. The alternative is to engage in the bizarre
ideological fantasy that corrupt cops don't exist, and
that women are safer without legal rights.
Apparently the two go hand in hand: you can't have
rampant police rape without prohibition, and you can't
have prohibition without rampant police rape.
on a two-hour date (not to mention his cumulative
$80,000 tab with the escort agency), the American
pundits are condemning the progressive sex worker
activists who want to decriminalize the world's oldest
profession. To quote R.L. Blader's essay over at
CounterPunch.com: "The 'need' for prostitution, is, at
its core, misogynistic" and "it degrades the status of
all women by affirming the pathology of associating
sex with property."
(Presumably adult gay men are perfectly capable of
negotiating sex for money because I'd be surprised if
Blader considers consensual gay prostitution to be yet
another form of misogyny. But maybe Blader would
disagree).
Buried in the prohibition debate is the upsetting
reality of being a sex worker in a society which
criminalizes sex work. Two economics professors at
the University of Chicago made this appalling
discovery: not only is it rare for a hooker to be
arrested by the Chicago police, but in fact it is more
common for Chicago prostitutes to be coerced into
providing "free services" (rape) to police officers.
The only thing worse than being raped by a pimp is to
be raped by a cop. If this isn't a compelling
feminist argument for legalization, I don't know what
is. The alternative is to engage in the bizarre
ideological fantasy that corrupt cops don't exist, and
that women are safer without legal rights.
Apparently the two go hand in hand: you can't have
rampant police rape without prohibition, and you can't
have prohibition without rampant police rape.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Press Secretary and the Falling Dollar
WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING, MARCH 7, 2008
REPORTER: I’d like to follow up on their refusal to
talk about the dollar, if I could. I mean, we’re in a
kind of a bad situation here, when OPEC says the
reason for $105 or $106 a barrel of oil is the falling
value of the dollar — and you won’t address that
issue. Where do we go to find out who is right?
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DANA PERINO: Well, as he
just said, the Treasury Secretary is where you go to
talk about the dollar. It’s a longstanding policy that
predates this administration, and I’m not going to
change it today. But Treasury can talk about it.
REPORTER: I don’t expect you to change it, but I do
expect you to be able to say whether OPEC is
completely wrong about this, or whether there is at
least something to their claim that the dollar is
responsible for the high price of oil right now.
MS. PERINO: WENDELL, I'M UNDER STRICT INSTRUCTIONS,
AND HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING, TO NOT TALK ABOUT
THE DOLLAR, AND I'M NOT GOING TO GET FIRED TO SATISFY
YOUR QUESTION.
REPORTER: I’d like to follow up on their refusal to
talk about the dollar, if I could. I mean, we’re in a
kind of a bad situation here, when OPEC says the
reason for $105 or $106 a barrel of oil is the falling
value of the dollar — and you won’t address that
issue. Where do we go to find out who is right?
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DANA PERINO: Well, as he
just said, the Treasury Secretary is where you go to
talk about the dollar. It’s a longstanding policy that
predates this administration, and I’m not going to
change it today. But Treasury can talk about it.
REPORTER: I don’t expect you to change it, but I do
expect you to be able to say whether OPEC is
completely wrong about this, or whether there is at
least something to their claim that the dollar is
responsible for the high price of oil right now.
MS. PERINO: WENDELL, I'M UNDER STRICT INSTRUCTIONS,
AND HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING, TO NOT TALK ABOUT
THE DOLLAR, AND I'M NOT GOING TO GET FIRED TO SATISFY
YOUR QUESTION.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Bush Feels Your Pain At the Pump: Tax Cuts = Cheaper Unleaded
TRANSCRIPT OF FEBRUARY 28 PRESS CONFERENCE
REPORTER: What's your advice to the average American
who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon
gasoline, a lot of people facing --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Wait, what did you just say? You're
predicting $4 a gallon gasoline?
REPORTER: A number of analysts are predicting --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, yeah?
REPORTER: -- $4 a gallon gasoline this spring when
they reformulate.
PRESIDENT BUSH: That's interesting. I hadn't heard
that.
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes. I know it's high now.
REPORTER: And the other economic problems facing
people. Beyond your concern that you stated here, and
your expectations for these stimulus checks, what kind
of hope can you offer to people who are in dire
straits?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Permanent tax -- keep the tax cuts
permanent, for starters. There's a lot of economic
uncertainty. You just said that. You just said the
price of gasoline may be up to $4 a gallon -- or some
expert told you that -- and that creates a lot of
uncertainty if you're out there wondering whether or
not -- you know, what your life is going to be like
and you're looking at $4 a gallon, that's uncertain.
And when you couple with the idea that taxes may be
going up in a couple of years, that's double
uncertainty. And therefore one way to deal with
uncertainty is for Congress to make the tax cuts
permanent.
REPORTER: What's your advice to the average American
who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon
gasoline, a lot of people facing --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Wait, what did you just say? You're
predicting $4 a gallon gasoline?
REPORTER: A number of analysts are predicting --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, yeah?
REPORTER: -- $4 a gallon gasoline this spring when
they reformulate.
PRESIDENT BUSH: That's interesting. I hadn't heard
that.
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes. I know it's high now.
REPORTER: And the other economic problems facing
people. Beyond your concern that you stated here, and
your expectations for these stimulus checks, what kind
of hope can you offer to people who are in dire
straits?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Permanent tax -- keep the tax cuts
permanent, for starters. There's a lot of economic
uncertainty. You just said that. You just said the
price of gasoline may be up to $4 a gallon -- or some
expert told you that -- and that creates a lot of
uncertainty if you're out there wondering whether or
not -- you know, what your life is going to be like
and you're looking at $4 a gallon, that's uncertain.
And when you couple with the idea that taxes may be
going up in a couple of years, that's double
uncertainty. And therefore one way to deal with
uncertainty is for Congress to make the tax cuts
permanent.
Friday, March 7, 2008
May He Rest In Peace: William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Nov. 24, 1925 to Feb. 27, 2008
Mr. Buckley at his best:
"Legal practices should be informed by realities.
These are enlightening in the matter of marijuana.
There are approximately 700,000 marijuana-related
arrests made every year. Most of these -- 87 percent --
involve nothing more than mere possession of small
amounts of marijuana. This exercise in scrupulosity costs us $10
billion to $15 billion per year in direct expenditures
alone. Most transgressors caught using marijuana
aren't packed away to jail, but some are, and in
Alabama, if you are convicted three times of marijuana
possession, they'll lock you up for 15 years to
life. The thunderers who tell us to stay the course can
always find one man or woman who, having taken
marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder. But
that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of
saying that every rapist began by masturbating."
-William F. Buckley, Jr. circa June, 2004
Mr. Buckley at his worst:
"The central question that emerges is whether the
White community in the South is entitled to take such
measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and
culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate
numerically? The sobering answer is Yes--the White
community is so entitled because, for the time being,
it is the advanced race. The question, as far as the
White community is concerned, is whether the claims of
civilization supersede those of universal suffrage.
The British believe they do, and acted accordingly, in
Kenya, where the choice was dramatically one between
civilization and barbarism, and elsewhere; the South,
where the conflict is by no means dramatic, as in
Kenya, nevertheless perceives important qualitative
differences between its culture and the Negroes', and
intends to assert its own. National Review believes
that the South's premises are correct. The great
majority of the Negroes of the South who do not vote
do not care to vote, and would not know for what to
vote if they could. Universal suffrage is not the
beginning of wisdom or the beginning of freedom. The
South confronts one grave moral challenge. It must not
exploit the fact of Negro backwardness to preserve the
Negro as a servile class. It is tempting and
convenient to block the progress of a minority whose
services, as menials, are economically useful. Let the
South never permit itself to do this. So long as it is
merely asserting the right to impose superior mores
for whatever period it takes to effect a genuine
cultural equality between the races, and so long as it
does so by humane and charitable means, the South is
in step with civilization, as is the Congress that
permits it to function."
-William F. Buckley, Jr. circa August, 1957
Nov. 24, 1925 to Feb. 27, 2008
Mr. Buckley at his best:
"Legal practices should be informed by realities.
These are enlightening in the matter of marijuana.
There are approximately 700,000 marijuana-related
arrests made every year. Most of these -- 87 percent --
involve nothing more than mere possession of small
amounts of marijuana. This exercise in scrupulosity costs us $10
billion to $15 billion per year in direct expenditures
alone. Most transgressors caught using marijuana
aren't packed away to jail, but some are, and in
Alabama, if you are convicted three times of marijuana
possession, they'll lock you up for 15 years to
life. The thunderers who tell us to stay the course can
always find one man or woman who, having taken
marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder. But
that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of
saying that every rapist began by masturbating."
-William F. Buckley, Jr. circa June, 2004
Mr. Buckley at his worst:
"The central question that emerges is whether the
White community in the South is entitled to take such
measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and
culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate
numerically? The sobering answer is Yes--the White
community is so entitled because, for the time being,
it is the advanced race. The question, as far as the
White community is concerned, is whether the claims of
civilization supersede those of universal suffrage.
The British believe they do, and acted accordingly, in
Kenya, where the choice was dramatically one between
civilization and barbarism, and elsewhere; the South,
where the conflict is by no means dramatic, as in
Kenya, nevertheless perceives important qualitative
differences between its culture and the Negroes', and
intends to assert its own. National Review believes
that the South's premises are correct. The great
majority of the Negroes of the South who do not vote
do not care to vote, and would not know for what to
vote if they could. Universal suffrage is not the
beginning of wisdom or the beginning of freedom. The
South confronts one grave moral challenge. It must not
exploit the fact of Negro backwardness to preserve the
Negro as a servile class. It is tempting and
convenient to block the progress of a minority whose
services, as menials, are economically useful. Let the
South never permit itself to do this. So long as it is
merely asserting the right to impose superior mores
for whatever period it takes to effect a genuine
cultural equality between the races, and so long as it
does so by humane and charitable means, the South is
in step with civilization, as is the Congress that
permits it to function."
-William F. Buckley, Jr. circa August, 1957
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