The All Spin Zone Archives

The Site is Back (Under New Ownership).

2011-07-29T12:15:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone. We want to announce that this site along with allspinzone.com will be up and rolling within the next few weeks. My name is Rick Glaser, and Sean Callahan is a partner of mine. We are bloggers that want to have a legitimate platform to share our thoughts.

We will be making a similar announcement on the other site, and we want you to be aware that article from now and into the future are not necessarily the thoughts of Richard Blair (although we hope he agrees with most of them!).

The site is going to be fairly quiet, and we will occasionally create a new post when it seems necessary. We are however, swamped with multiple projects out there. If you have an idea, or thought you want to share let us know!

Now I would like to show an "infograph" I came across in the midst of this debt debate.

Infographic courtesy of Business Loans

Main Site Down

2006-07-14T19:24:00.000-04:00

Our main website, allspinzone.com, is currently down (7/14/06, 7:30PM EST) due to a power outage at the host provider. Hopefully, they'll have things back up shortly.

Admin Note - Site Location Moved

2005-04-17T13:34:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder, All Spin Zone has moved to its new cyberlocation - http://allspinzone.com/blog. We will discontinue crossposting to the Blogger site (where you're at right now) as of Sunday, 4/17/05.

Please update your bookmarks. And, if your blog / website has ASZ linked and blogrolled, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, for Technorati's sake, change your link to the new site.

We thank you!!

Iraq Quagmire Continues

2005-04-17T09:46:00.000-04:00

There's still a war going on in Iraq. I know, I know, that's sooooo 2004. It's still a quagmire, though. You just don't hear too much about it much on this side of the Atlantic ocean because journo's have gotten the hint - if you ain't an embed, you could be dead.

So, here's a few top stories from today:

A mass hostage taking was reported yesterday in the town of Madain. The situation is apparently very fluid and confusing, particularly when the only available information is coming out of the Green Zone in Baghdad. The Associated Press stenographer in Baghdad stated that "Sunni militants were holding dozens of Shiite Muslims hostage and threatening to kill them..."; Al Jazeera says "a senior Shia official in Baghdad said up to 150 hostages were being held, including women and children..."; AFP is reporting "Sunni militants had seized up to 80 hostages and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left". And apparently, a rescue operation has now been undertaken - which is apparently equally as confusing - is it Iraq police or U.S. forces that are conducting the mission? Pick your news source; take your chances.

In other news (again, pick your news source), 3 U.S. soldiers were killed overnight in a drive by mortaring of Camp Ramadi, with up to a dozen more being injured. An Iraqi "commando force" officer and a police director were assassinated in separate incidents, and two of the police director's family members were also killed in the hit.

What else has been happening? Oh, there was a riot in the prison at Camp Bucca after a detainee was apparently murdered. Several detainees escaped in the subsequent confusion; most were apparently recaptured. Seven Iraqis, including three policemen, were killed in an explosion at a restaurant in the town of Baquba, north of Baghdad...

Yep. Just another weekend in paradise. Oh, and those elections that took place back in January? There still isn't a functional government in Iraq, nearly three months after the elections.

Let's tie all of this up with a quick observation. A common thread running through nearly every report coming out of Iraq these days is that Iraqi "forces" (whatever they are) are responding to events. For example, in the sketchy reports on the three U.S. soldiers being killed in Ramadi:

...Seven servicemen were also wounded in the attack, three of them seriously, the military said in a statement. The attackers were believed to have fled into a nearby mosque. But when Iraqi security forces searched it, they found no insurgents.

Again, this is not an exception - nearly all of the news articles linked in this post have the same flavor when describing military responses to the event. What this is telling me is two things: U.S. casualties are down because soldiers are venturing less and less beyond the operational wall of fortified compounds, and relying on Iraqi first responders to chase the bad guys after a firefight. Second, the focus of press releases from the Green Zone are subtly changing to support the U.S. exit strategy - a major reduction of U.S. forces if U.S. casualties decrease and Iraqi security forces take over.

This slog is a loooooong way from over. For an Iraqi insider's view, check out Riverbend's most recent posting, if you haven't already.

Heat Grows on DeLay

2005-04-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

And the chorus grows...

WASHINGTON - One of Congress' most conservative members on Friday became the second House Republican to urge Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside because of the ethics scrutiny he's facing...

When the conservative newspaper in my own neck of the woods calls for The Bugman to wave bye-bye, when (for goodness sakes) hyper-conservative Senator Rick Santorum (ethically-challenged in his own right) says he should go, when a 100% rated neocon congressman opines that it's time for door to hit DeLay's ass on the way out...

I'd call that a trend.

It will be interesting to see how Bugman's continuing problems play on the Sunday talk shows tomorrow.

Bill Frist's Hustle

2005-04-16T01:06:00.000-04:00

Definition: Hustle

Synonyms: action, ante, bet, challenge, chunk, fifty-fifty, fighting chance, flier, gamble, handle, hazard, hedge, hunch, long shot, odds on, outside chance, parlay, play, pledge, plunge, pot, risk, snowball chance, stake, toss-up, venture
Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist is playing with fire. Let's stipulate one thing right up front - this guy isn't stupid. Maybe deluded or deranged, but not stupid.

Why on God's green earth would Bill Frist, one of the most powerful men in America, align himself with a Reich wing fundamentalist telethon that's the broadcast equivalent of American Taliban Wankfest 2005? I just don't get it. The guy is supposed to be, above and beyond everything else, a politician. And I don't think anyone could argue that he's not going to be making a lot of new friends with his participation in the "Justice Sunday" gig. That he would align himself with someone as far on the fringe as Tony Perkins speaks volumes more than I or anyone could possibly write.

Chuck Currie, a progressive Christian blogger, takes on the entire concept of Frist's sellout (or buy-in, as the case may be) better than almost all of the outraged words I've read in the Left Blogzome this evening. I encourage you to click through to Currie's article, and offer your support. Here's a teaser:

...This purely political event disguised as a religious event is the most obscene use of religion in a political context since the Republicans declared last fall that Democrats planned to ban the Bible...

...Don’t be fooled into thinking Bill Frist or his right-wing allies represent Christianity. What they truly represent are political hacks willing to misuse Christian tradition for their own political agenda...

I'm very pleased to see mainstream Christians like Currie speaking up. We can only hope that in the coming few days, Dr. Bill Frist will have a Tom DeLay moment - and decide that discretion is the better part of political valor. We call on him to disavow this divisive (and unnecessary) use of a religious "event" to further the reich wing agenda. That Frist (or any Republican) would use the currently hypercharged political environment for their own ill-gotten gains is beyond the pale.

But not entirely unexpected.

Gambling Retirement Money

2005-04-15T21:09:00.000-04:00

News item: Wall St. Suffers Worst Day in Two Years

I'm sure many readers remember their tears as they opened their 401K statements in the months after the "bubble burst" back in the late 1990's. What had seemed like a free ride to an excellent retirement was suddenly exposed for the risk that it was - a crapshoot.

Any investment is a gamble. And one of the cardinal rules of gambling is: the odds are always in favor of the house, no matter what the game. A working knowledge of any game of chance can reduce the odds (and the risk), but never so much as to remove the house advantage.

In the past few days, a lot of Wall Street gamblers have seen their portfolios shrink substantially. The markets have been treading water for months, but this week may indeed signal a significant turn to a bad bear market. I know, I know...investment advice always tells you to invest your money for the long haul, but still...

How long is "long haul"? How many out there still haven't seen their 401K's recover from the drubbing they took 5, 6, or 7 years ago? Is that long enough? Driving home tonight, I heard a very interesting analogy between 401K's and Bush's privatization Ponzi scheme - in the '90s, people were willing to risk dumping their own cash into 401K's for two reasons:

1. The return was excellent at the time AND
2. They knew that if worse came to worse, there was always the Social Security safety net.

When all is said and done, risk perception will sink George Bush's grandiose plans for his legacy (privatizing Social Security). History isn't on his side.

A Few Items Concerning Gays and Lesbians

2005-04-15T16:13:00.000-04:00

In Texas you can be fired for being a Lesbian
Merry Stephens is finding out, even after coaching the town Girl's Basketball teams to record results. Hey, look, though, they've got to pay her two years of salary. Steve Gilliard also pipes in on this one. I give him credit, but I didn't get the story from there. Today I had some time to read all of the last couple days of the New York Times! Ah, sweet luxury. . .

Speaking of sports and gays
Sports Illustrated came out with a poll timed for the broadcast of Ring of Fire, the documentary about the boxer Emile Griffith set to be broadcast on April 20th on USA. The full poll shows what you think it would, that more and more people are becoming accepting of gays and lesbians, but also that most people think advertisers are unwise to hire gay and lesbian athletes as spokespeople. Ho hum. The real gem here is the long story about Emile Griffith, a man who climbed to the top and subsequently fell, evidently all the time tortured by his sexual identity.

The Ohio Constitutional Marriage Bill is Producing Unintentional Problems
Of course, any time you make a law it will cause unintentional problems, which is why the constitutions of all states make DAMN sure it is tough to amend that document. Ohio is seeing the results of what happens when you make a law based on fear. The Amendment, you see, eliminates protections for all people cohabitating, not just gays and lesbians. As such, spousal abuse charges are being thrown out of court, at least in situations where the folks are no longer "spouses" under any Ohio legal definition. Stupid legislators make stupid laws, and scared ones make even stupider laws.

Queer Eye spawns some new networks, according to CBS
Will they get along happily, asks CBS? Dang it, I hope not. They should fight and scratch for market share just like all enterprises, and that will make them stronger. What's that tone in the CBS article implying these folks should play nicey-nice? Q Television and HereTV are the pay channels, with MTV running out its own Logo on basic cable channels. Yes, I think the premise of Adored: Diary of a Male Porn Star on HereTV is pretty out there. Sure to get some viewers, I bet.

Can't you just hear those Radical Right Wing Chrisitan Clerics gnashing their teeth?

Webs of Deception

2005-04-15T10:37:00.000-04:00

Finally, the Dems have realized the power of the web and have taken to a full-frontal assault on Tom Delay and his many "ethically challenged" if not down-right criminal political activities.

DEMS WISEN TO WEB
Dems ready fresh approach to bring color to ethics charges dogging GOP leader
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a website that aims to bring new attention to ethics charges hounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), RAW STORY has learned.

The site, named "House of Scandal," echoes a similar site launched by the Washington watchdog Citizens for Ethics earlier today. But the decision for the Democratic Party to back such a sharp online slap at the Republican leader marks a new strategy by the party to add interactivity to a series of scandals dogging the House Republican leader that have often been too complex for the average voter.

In a bold move, the Democratic campaign committee has also replaced their own website with the DeLay-themed extravaganza.

Perhaps most significantly, the site attempts to tie the entire membership of the House Republican caucus to their embattled leader. Residents of any district will be able to pull up a listing for their congressmember (if he or she is a Republican) and see statements and contributions related to DeLay.
...

CREW also launched a Delay-related website called www. JackInTheHouse.org, it's a site dedicated to the many dealings and associations of Delay pal Jack Abramoff.

Rawstory has put together a "ties that bind map" - it's a BIG map.

Oh yeah, speaking of deception, you remember that "Blue Ribbon Commission" on voting reform, the one Jimmy Carter is on? It seems there's a bit of deception with that as well. (gasp)

Questions surface regarding legitimacy of Baker-Carter election reform commission

Serious questions of conservative partisanship have surfaced surrounding an electoral reform commission co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and erstwhile Secretary of State James Baker, RAW STORY has learned.
Election reform? Republicans and Democrats embark on election reform with help from voting companies, front groups, pundits and a few genuine election reform groups peppered in.

The Carter Center denies any involvement with the Baker-Cater Commission on Federal Election Reform even though they are on much of its literature. Carter stepped down from the center in March.

Perhaps most significant, however, is the partisan makeup of those on the Commission's panels. In a situation reminiscent of GOPUSA and Gannongate, a recent election reform group has seemingly sprouted from nowhere and in short order landed a seat at the table.

See this BradBlog post as well for previous information on the panel.

Pulled from this post at the BradBlog:
The silent scream of numbers

As they slowly hack democracy to death, we’re as alone — we citizens — as we’ve ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the nation’s founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

It’s time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It’s just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It’s more like: “Oh no, this can’t be true.”

You're going to want to finish reading the rest.

Radical Lawmaker Bill Frist; Activist Judge Antonin Scalia

2005-04-15T10:36:00.000-04:00

The adverbial phrases in front of both of those names fit, right?

Ted Rall is a mind reader. He must be, because he and I are on a very close karmatic wavelength. Either that, or he's stealing my intellectual property.

Nah, that would never happen on the web.

Anyway, earlier this week, Rall published a column that dissects the demonization and marginalization of people / places / things by the use of modifiers and adverbs in news stories. Without paying direct homage to Frank Luntz, he at least acknowledges the impact that the paid spinners have on news writers turing a journalistic phrase. See if this rings a bell:

... Labeling bias works to marginalize political outsiders while powerful elites receive their full honorifics. Howard Dean was antiwar firebrand Howard Dean but George W. Bush was never referred to as pro-war crusader George W. Bush. The press calls the founder of the Moral Majority "the Reverend Jerry Falwell," not "radical cleric Jerry Falwell." Even the word "cleric" implies foreignness to a xenophobic public; American religious leaders are the more familiar "ministers" rather than clerics. Instead of telling readers and viewers what to think with cheesy labels, why not let public figures' quotes and actions speak for themselves? Besides, well-known players like al-Sadr and Falwell don't require an introduction.

Loaded labels are commonly used to influence the public's feelings about groups of people as well as individuals. Under Ronald Reagan the Afghan mujahedeen, who received CIA funding and weapons that they used to fight Soviet occupation forces, were called "freedom fighters." Iraqis who take up arms against U.S. occupation troops, on the other hand, are called "insurgents," a word that implies rebellion for its own sake. This was the same term used by the New York Times and other mainstream media to refer to anti-U.S. fighters in Vietnam during the 1960s. Only later, when the Vietnam War became unpopular, did American newspapers begin calling the former "insurgents" members of an infinitely more patriotic-sounding "resistance...

While Rall is a wee bit behind the curve with this column, he hits the bullseye.

(Thanks to one of our Zonebots, Eric, for the pointer to Rall's article.)

It is Time for Progressives to Show Their Faith

2005-04-15T09:29:00.000-04:00

It appears the Republicans are going to get explicit in their campaign for the "nuclear option," with Bill Frist joining Radical Right Ring Christian Clerics in a blatant political event on April 24th. (I'll ignore for the moment that the meme set to come out of this event, that "Democrats are anti-faith," is so blatantly political that it SHOULD threaten the tax-exempt status of the religious groups involved. But, hey, why the FUCK didn't the New York Times report anything on that issue?)

As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

Organizers say they hope to reach more than a million people by distributing the telecast to churches around the country, over the Internet and over Christian television and radio networks and stations.

Seems clear to me. A whole conference arranged for by Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics with the sole purpose of labelling Democrats as "anti-Christian" and Bill Frist is headlining the conference scheduled to be broadcast to radical right-wing churches throughout the nation. That violates the non-profit status of those churches, but make no mistake, absolutely nothing will be done to enforce the tax laws. This is Bush's Administration, after all.

Two things. Progressives of faith need to speak up. They need to say specifically that faith belongs in the heart, and also in caring for others. They need to decry the kind of demonization the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics view as moral. Demonization = moral? How twisted can they get?

Second, we need to support Republicans like John McCain, who has said he will not be voting for the Nuclear option.

On Thursday, one wavering Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, told a television interviewer, Chris Matthews, that he would vote against the change.

"By the way, when Bill Clinton was president, we, effectively, in the Judiciary Committee blocked a number of his nominees," Mr. McCain said.

Bush on Payolagate : No Regrets

2005-04-15T08:22:00.000-04:00

George Bush held court with editors from around the country at a conference in Washington yesterday. Editor and Publisher captured the essence of Bush's time on stage, but one thread that seemed to weave through the entire affair - he has no regrets about anything.

In answering a question about the administration's reliance on paid shills to push administration agendas:

In response to questions from editors at the annual American Society of Newspaper Editors conference, the president also declined to comment on subpoenas for reporters in the Plame case and said that government payments to commentators, such as the 'pundit payola' Armstrong Williams received, are acceptable as long as they are disclosed.

In other words, the only problem he sees with the ongoing pay-for-propaganda scandal is that the reporters and pundits involved got caught.

(Where have we heard the "got caught" theme before?)

Beyond the payolagate issues, Bush also addressed the issue of administration propaganda disguised as "soft news" pieces, which are then peddled by government agencies to local news outlets as broadcast filler. Again, no regrets. Only that they got caught. And he shifted responsibility from the agencies that produce the propaganda to the news outlets that run the clips without identifying them as government produced. His choice of words were interesting, especially on a day that the Senate passed legislation forbidding the use of such propaganda tactics.

Not one time - not once - did he acknowledge that the concept of "open government" requires a high threshold of transparency in order to be held accountable "by the consent of the governed". In fact, he went out of his way to make sure the editors knew that his administration does, in fact, despise the media and any kind of investigative light thrown into the dark corners of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Regrets? He's had a few. But mostly that he got caught.

And yesterday afternoon, the department heads from Ministry of Truth applauded politely, on cue.

Wide to the Right

2005-04-15T08:19:00.000-04:00

The President threw out the first pitch yesterday in the debut of the new Washington Nationals. The tradition started with another Republican Yale graduate, William Howard Taft. But it should be remembered that Mr. Taft made a very fine jurist as Chief Justice after his tenure as President, while Mr. Bush will be explaining to his grandchildren that, no, he was not doing the "hustle" in this picture. Or is he auditioning to be the new partner in Seigfried and Roy?

Take a Test Drive - Open Chat

2005-04-14T19:35:00.000-04:00

The new chatroom is open for business - and we think you'll like it. Simply go over to ASZ's new home, and click on "progressive chat" on the top menu bar. There is no need to register in the chatroom, but the software will remember you if you do, and registering "reserves" your name for future chats.

Come on over and give it a whirl!

Indentured Servitude Act of 2005

2005-04-14T16:59:00.000-04:00

Well, no surprises here - the Bankruptcy Bill passed this afternoon, and will be on a fast track for approval by Maximum Leader.

Here's what's most distressing: a whole lot of Democrats sold out to the banking and credit card industries, and voted for this legislative abomination that's been roundly criticized on the left and right. That's the only way this bill could have passed by a 302 - 126 vote.

I'll post a link to the roll call vote as soon as it's available.

Republicrats - Two Sides of the Same Coin.®

Cassi Niemann: Maryland Gay Rights Poster Gal!

2005-04-14T16:02:00.000-04:00

There's an article in the Washington Post yesterday that covers two votes that happened in Maryland concerning gay and lesbian Marylanders, one to give rights of visitation and medical decision-making to partners, and the other expanding a hate-crimes law. Featured is Maryland Delegate Doyle L. Niemann, (D-Prince George's). He said he voted in favor for his daughter Cassi.

Cassi is only 25, and she doesn't seem all that politically plugged in, but this whole thing got her on the cover of the Washington Post. She's a lesbian, as you might imagine, and awfully proud of her Dad. You can see it all in her words on her blog.

I bow down humbly to Doyle Niemann.

Tax Day Eve - How Your Tax Dollars Work

2005-04-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Under normal circumstances, the Heritage Foundation website is one of the last places in the cyberworld I'd send you for information on anything. But I will give the Heritage wonks this - they are true conservatives (at least in a fiscal sense), rather than the neofaux con's that populate the 495 Beltway these days.

As tomorrow's dreaded tax day approaches, an article on how George Bush's administration is spending your money finds that:

Washington will spend $22,039 per household in 2005 -- the highest inflation-adjusted total since World War II, and $4,000 more than in 2001. The federal government will collect $18,248 per household in taxes. The remaining $3,791 represents the budget deficit per household, which, along with all prior government debt, will be dumped in the laps of our children...

The five highest cost line items (excluding Social Security) out of each household's contributions are:

Defense: $4,451
Low-income programs: $3,559
Interest on the federal debt: $1,582
Federal employee retirement benefits: $838
Education: $627

Zero in on number 3 - the interest on the federal debt.

That's the "birth tax". Or as future financial historians may characterize it, the "Bush tax". Your children and grandchildren thank you.

WalMart and Rick Santorum: Perfect Match

2005-04-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

Well, it would be perfect if they sold puppies. . .

Read all about it at Attytood. Will Bunch has it all spelled out, including the folks in Santorum's district who are protesting the coming WalMart store while he's riding on their jet.

Eric Rudolph - Fundamentalist Jihadist or Plain Old Nutjob?

2005-04-14T09:58:00.000-04:00

Following his plea deals in Birmingham and Atlanta yesterday, Eric Rudolph released a "manifesto" through his attorneys. It's excerpted several places on the web, but it might be worth your while to read the entire statement for insight into Rudolph's thought process. Here's a few snippets you won't find on CNN or Fox:

...Absent any corroborative fact or witness to explain why I was in Birmingham that day, a city I have never visited before, and a good reason for fleeing to the woods for five years, I was fighting an uphill battle. Add to these two paramount facts Washington's junk science about explosive residues, a media obsessed with the specter of right wing extremist violence, we had an extremely difficult case to win. But Washington had a problem and this is why they entered into this deal.

The problem that they had was that a significant minority of the population, especially here in Northern Alabama, regarded what happened there at the abortion facility on that day of Jan. 29, 1998, as morally justified...

...At various times in history men and women of good conscience have had to decide when the lawfully constituted authorities have overstepped their moral bounds and forfeited their right to rule...

...There is no more fundamental duty for a moral citizen than to protect the innocent from assault. This in inherit in the values of all higher civilizations. You have the right, the responsibility and the duty to come to the defense of the innocent when the innocent are under assault. Would you protect your children from the clutches of a murderer? Would you protect your neighbors' children when they were under assault? If you answered yes to both of these, then you must support the use of force as justified in attempting to prevent the murder that is abortion...

...There are those who would say to me that the system in Washington works. They say that pro-life forces are making progress, that eventually Roe v. Wade will be overturned, that the culture of life will ultimately win over the majority of Americans and that the horror of abortion will be outlawed. Yet, in the meantime thousands die everyday...

Along with abortion, another assault upon the integrity of American society is the concerted effort to legitimize the practice of homosexuality...This effort is commonly known as the homosexual agenda. Whether it is gay marriage, homosexual adoption, hate crimes laws including gays, or the attempt to introduce a homosexual normalizing curriculum into our schools, all of these efforts should be ruthlessly opposed. The existence of our culture depends upon it...

There was a time in the not too distant past when most reasonable people would have pooh-poo'd Eric Rudolph an ideological loon (at least in polite company) on par with Theodore Kaczynski. But then, even the UniBomber had his admirers. In reading Rudolph's manifesto, though, it's pretty clear that his statements fit more or less hand-in-glove with recent loony statements coming from "respectable" fringe lunatics.

Om-day T-Lay, anyone?

And there will come a time in the not too distant future when Rudolph's actions will be openly lionized by the Fox News-approved morons camped out on the periphery of the radical right. When Eric Rudolph entered his plea deal, he did so with no expectation that he'd spend the rest of his life behind bars. He knows that someone will eventually spring the lock for him, and he'll walk free again one day.

There are a lot of people out there who, if not overtly agreeing with Rudolph's actions, at least sympathize with the "moral forces" that drove him. Some of those people are running the country.

Scalia Scorned

2005-04-14T09:02:00.000-04:00

Sometimes browsing at Atrios, then digging a little further, makes a nice morning exercise. Duncan notes that Antonin Scalia got an earful at NYU's Vanderbilt Hall Tuesday night:

April 14, 2005 -- WHEN U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (above) spoke Tuesday night at NYU's Vanderbilt Hall, "The room was packed with some 300 students and there were many protesters outside because of Scalia's vitriolic dissent last year in the case that overturned the Texas law against gay sex," our source reports. "One gay student asked whether government had any business enacting and enforcing laws against consensual sodomy. Following Scalia's answer, the student asked a follow-up: 'Do you sodomize your wife?' The audience was shocked, especially since Mrs. Scalia [Maureen] was in attendance. The justice replied that the question was unworthy of an answer."

I suppose, given the definition of sodomy as encompassing oral and anal sex, that he's probably tried it. (I wonder if he had an unfortunate incident with teeth or something. . .) But that's not as important as noting there are lots of groups speaking up wherever the man goes. The Washington Square News Editorial blasts NYU for inviting him, but the Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has honored Mr. Scalia. Figures he'd be honored in the South, huh? As reported in the Hattiesburg American, Mr. Scalia is being given the Muzzle Award.

The Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression included the seizure when it handed out its 2005 Jefferson Muzzle awards given for perceived squelching of free expression.

Each year, the awards mark the April 13 birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and First Amendment advocate.

The Marshals Service was recognized for seizing the tape recorders of former Hattiesburg American reporter Antoinette Konz and Associated Press reporter Denise Grones during a Scalia speech at Presbyterian Christian High School on April 7, 2004.

Neither reporter had been told before the speech they could not use tape recorders. The marshal said she was following Scalia's orders.

"The Justice has stated that it is his First Amendment right not to speak on radio or television when it is not his wish to do so. Yet, the personal preferences of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice do not give the U.S. Marshals Service the legal authority to seize and destroy the private property of a reporter," the Jefferson Center noted in a prepared statement.

It is high time Mr. Scalia got an award he will be proud to place on his mantlepiece. Just imagine Mr. and Mrs. Scalia nuzzling on the couch and contemplating a sexually illicit act, at least according to the Justice. Mrs. Scalia whispers in his ear, but Antonin is too caught up admiring his Muzzle Award to take the hint. She then gazes up at him, swears under her breath, and stalks into the kitchen.

Ah, how beautiful.

A Glimpse at the Near Future

2005-04-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

Zonebots came through when we needed them. Our recent fundraiser made it possible to do some things that we only dreamed about.

And guess what? We're just about ready to make you really happy campers...at least those of you who are using Safari, and have had problems with the new layout on the Blogger-based ASZ.

Change is coming.

In the next 24 - 48 hours, ASZ is moving it's operation entirely off of Blogger. We think you'll like what you see. You can preview the new ASZ blog by clicking here. There's a lot more to come - and this is just a preview of what we're planning to implement over the next few weeks.

If you run a blog, and you have ASZ blogrolled, PLEASE update our link ... we're currently crossposting all blog entries to both Blogger and our own new home, but that will end in the next few days. We'll keep crossposting for a few more days, but will be disabling comments on the Blogger-based ASZ by Friday evening. So, come on over to the upgraded ASZ and comment away...

We really hope you enjoy our new home base. I know I'm pretty damn psyched about it. Let us know what you think.

Welcome to our new little shanty on the fringes of the Left Blogzome!

Crazy George is DEALING, DEALING, DEALING - With Terrorists

2005-04-13T15:25:00.000-04:00

(My apologies in advance for riffing on the old Crazy Eddie commercials...it's an East Coast thing, I think...)

I'm sure that Osama bin-Missing is very happy to hear about the government's deal with bomber and domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. Earlier, I wrote that I felt the government was more or less forced to deal with him - because they really didn't want the crackpot fundamentalist nature of his beliefs or religious associations coming to light.

His actions today seem to confirm my suspicions:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With a hint of pride in his voice and a wink at prosecutors, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting off a deadly blast at an abortion clinic, the first plea for a string of bombings that will send him to prison for life...

... Rudolph, dressed in a red jail uniform, winked toward prosecutors as he entered court and spoke tersely to answer a series of questions from the judge, saying the government could "just barely" prove its case if it went to trial.

... Under the plea deal, Fulton County prosecutors agreed not to pursue future state charges in Georgia against Rudolph at the request of federal authorities, said Erik Friedly, a spokesman for District Attorney Paul Howard...

Why? Why would the federal government cut a deal with Rudolph for information on the alleged whereabouts of "250 pounds of dynamite". Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.

I refer you to my earlier posting on this topic...

Rush Limbaugh Violates FCC Guidelines

2005-04-13T15:07:00.000-04:00

From Atrios comes the transcript of Rush Limbaugh violating FCC decency rules yesterday:

LIMBAUGH: When does he start up this stupid little network? August? Yip yip yip yahoo. You know what Gore said about this? It's going to be liberal. It's going to reflect the point of view of young people.

What the hell is that, Al? What the hell is the point of view of young people? Blow jobs, that's what they're doing out there. They're out there getting oral sex all day long, that's what they're talking about. That's the point of view they can't wait that your boss,

Al made sure that's become the number one sport in high school today. So, I guess you're going to have a BJ network out there, Al, is that what you're going to do? You're going to call your network the oral sex channel out there, start competing with MTV?

No, it's not going to have any of this stuff out there, folks, it's going to be talking about liberalism, no, no, no, that's not what we're about. Classic cannot even admit who he is.

Email here to complain: fccinfo@fcc.gov. Or go here: FCC.

Anti-Fundamentalist Jihad??

2005-04-13T12:11:00.000-04:00

How's this for a response, Richard?

Thanks here go to Pax Romano, another Philly Blog. (We've got GREAT Blogs in Philly, don't we?)

It seems a movement is afoot, the Unitarian Jihad, as given to us by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. They're quite democratic, almost too much so, but I like some of their suggestions (edicts seem to be anathema to them). There's some wisdom there:

We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.

You can even go and get your Unitarian Jihad name! Mine is "Brother Pepper Spray of Moderation."

The Face of the Holy War

2005-04-13T11:31:00.000-04:00

For anyone that gets a chuckle out of my references to the ongoing "holy war", "fatwas", "crusades", and "fundamentalist jihads", I invite you to read this Rolling Stone article (thanks to Liz @ Blondesense for the pointer):

But despite their unprecedented power, fundamentalists still see themselves as a persecuted minority, waging a holy war against the godless forces of secularism. To rouse themselves, they kick off the festivities with "Soldiers of the Cross, Arise," the bloodthirstiest tune in all of Christendom: "Seize your armor, gird it on/Now the battle will be won/Soon, your enemies all slain/Crowns of glory you shall gain."

Meet the Dominionists -- biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government. As the far-right wing of the evangelical movement, Dominionists are pressing an agenda that makes Newt Gingrich's Contract With America look like the Communist Manifesto. They want to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions. In Florida, when the courts ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, it was the Dominionists who organized round-the-clock protests and issued a fiery call for Gov. Jeb Bush to defy the law and take Schiavo into state custody. Their ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of a "faith-based" government that will endure far longer than Bush's presidency -- all the way until Jesus comes back...

This fringe movement of fundamentalist lunatics has been legitimized by the corporate press, and this mainstreaming of ecumenical fanaticism really bothers me. Fortunately, their "in your face" approach is starting to bother others besides myself.

In her posting on Blondesense, Liz wonders why "mainstream religion leaders [haven't] called these knuckleheads out"? It's really pretty simple. They are - witness Forrest Church's denunciations from a few weeks back - unfortunately, the more moderate religious leaders don't want to get caught up in the controversies.

What's it going to take to wake up the country to the theocrats?

Taking Hate Against Gays Nationwide

2005-04-13T10:10:00.000-04:00

I caught this headline today: Group makes noise over Day of Silence. It doesn't nearly capture what is really going on, though. "Day of Silence" is an event designed to combat gay-bashing in schools. Students go silent to bring an emphasis to the issue. As such they are combatting violence and hate in the most nonviolent way possible. Jesus loves nonviolence, and he loves all his children, but it seems that some religious folks neither love nonviolence nor all Jesus' children.

The Alliance Defense Fund, one of those Radical Right Wing Christian Cleric organizations, has started "Day of Truth," where students wear T-Shirts saying “The Truth Cannot be Silenced” and handing out tracts spelling out that being gay means engaging in "detrimental behavior."

The ADF has certainly designed their counter-event to slide under the rules. Note that there's no "God" on those T-Shirts, so it will be tough for any school to ban them. But it is nevertheless clear that ADF youhts are following a far more confrontational model, and that they are singling out one group, rather than singling out destructive actions, as the Day of Silence kids do.

So what's going to happen when one of these young Christian brownshirts gets too much into someone's face with one of those tracts and causes a scene? Well, the "Day of Truth" is tomorrow, and there's sure to be fireworks somewhere. I'm convinced that the American Mullahs WANT violence.

Oh, on the subject of gays in sports, there's an interesting survey commissioned by Sports Illustrated. Yeah, a little bonus link from the SpinDentist.

Consolidating the Coup - Intimidation of the Judiciary

2005-04-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

This is friggin' rich.

Congressman Tom DeLay issues a fatwa against the judiciary. Senator John Cornyn joins DeLay's Hallelujah Chorus. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)'s chief of staff doesn't want to merely impeach judges - he wants to impale them! American Taliban Wankfest 2005, aka a conference entitled Confronting the Judicial War on Faith takes place last week, with a whole host of scary characters looking for judicial scalps.

Is it any wonder, with the fundamentalist jihad that's been called for on judges, that two SCOTUS judges, Kennedy and Thomas, felt the need to go before a house appropriations committee begging for money to increase security for judges?

...The request follows the murder in February of a federal judge's family in Chicago, courtroom shooting deaths in Atlanta in March and death threats against judges involved in the Terri Schiavo feeding tube case.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal judiciary's policy-making board, asked Congress for $12 million to install home security systems for federal judges. But it has not been decided whether that request will cover the nine justices of the Supreme Court, which has a separate budget...

Even as the judges were requesting more funding for judicial security, one of the congressmen on the appropriations committee, Todd Tiahrt, (R-Ks) had the balls to ask:

At one point during the hearing, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., asked Kennedy to explain the court's 5-4 ruling last month overturning the juvenile death penalty partly because of international sentiment against it. Kennedy wrote the opinion; Thomas dissented.

"Lately we've had rulings that seem to go beyond the rule of law,'' Tiahrt said...

The rhetoric aimed at the judicial branch of the government in the past week has been both intentionally inflammatory and threatening. I asked last Saturday where the Attorney General of the U.S. stood on these acts of sedition - and I still haven't heard anyone in the corporate media asking the same question.

I thought the coup was complete in 2000.

I was wrong.

For the Bliss-Impaired Among Us

2005-04-12T22:08:00.000-04:00

I say "us" because my baby sister and I discovered (while talking on the phone) this morning that there is indeed a name for what ails us. We are bliss-impaired. Let me give a short diagnostic summary ... a profile of how the ailment manifests among non-kool-aid drinkers. Think DSM-IVxxxx. If you find yourself among us "us"-es, welcome. Welcome, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.

Some Diagnostic Criteria:

1. Wakes up on Sunday mornings in a medium-depression, realizing he/she has less than 24 hours before returning to the cubicle, the retail floor, the office, the truck route, etc.

2. Has ever-increasing intolerance for what is called "news", combined with a morbid fascination for it. Both the intolerance and the fascination may lead to illness of mind and body, including but not limited to binge-drinking, snarkiness with all other human beings, and irritable bowel syndrome.

3. Watches The Daily Show for "news", and plans evenings around the watching. Sometimes person eats dinner during the broadcast.

4. May or may not have sleep disturbances. May or may not have bouts of narcolepsy.

5. Has not enough hands to count the many friends and relatives that have recently begun to screen their phone calls from you.

6. Ideation fluctuates between giving up and hunkering down in a darkened bedroom with mindless TV and junk food, OR giving up and strapping a vest loaded with C-4 to your body and checking out air fare to DC.

The criteria for the Bliss-impaired ailment is limited at this time in order to make room for any additions from the left blogosphere's bliss-impaired members. No one needs to feel excluded, unless they've been tempted by the evil kool-aid.

Rich rich, poor fat.

From Issues Magazine Downward mobility

Downward is Failure

Downward mobility and the Other

See your primary care provider if you have any further questions about this potentially life-threatening ailment.

A Night in Paradise

2005-04-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

I've been up to my hips in coding the new ASZ site this week, so haven't had much of a chance to pay attention to either the political or real world around me. It's times like this that I appreciate the small getaways in life like the Tuesday night meetings of the Philly chapter of Drinking Liberally.

The "regulars" don't spend the entire evening talking about politics. That would be boring. There was great conversation wrapped around the currently running Philadelphia Film Festival, SpinDentist's recent cruise, local bands, summer plans, sports, and the other mundane things of life that bind us all together in one fashion or another. Yeah, there was one local political hopeful in attendance tonight (a Common Pleas Court judge candidate), but that didn't impact the conversation too much.

A weekly Rotary Club meeting this ain't.

Where else but a meeting of progressive folks are you going to find discussions running from avant garde films (and which ones are good for "first dates") to Bugman DeLay to the pros and cons of various American expatriat communities in other countries (which ones are "weed friendly" and which aren't)? There's nothing forced, nothing strange, no singles bar mating kabuki rituals, and a lot of smiling and laughing across fairly broad age, gender, and economic demographics. In other words, stuff that's in really short supply these days.

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?

All those night when you've got no lights,
The check is in the mail;
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it's tail;
And your third fiance didn't show;

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead;
The morning's looking bright;
And your shrink ran off to Europe,
And didn't even write;
And your husband wants to be a girl;

Be glad there's one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came...
Thanks to Will (the sparkplug behind this thing), Doc, Emily, Wendy, Heinrich, Duncan, Liz, Barbara, Jim, Jeremy, the other Will, Brendan and everyone else who makes my Tuesday evenings much more enjoyable.

It's a lot cheaper than therapy. ;-)

See No Evil

2005-04-12T14:34:00.000-04:00

Pope TV and the New World Media
By MIKE WHITNEY

The 24 hour a day "Pope-a-thon" shows the dramatic shift in the way that news is covered. If a story is inoffensive to the political establishment or if it serves their greater interests (like Schiavo) then it becomes an immediate mega-story that swallows up most of the front page and consumes the majority of TV time. In this way, the national dialogue is controlled by PR firms working closely with Washington to decide what information is suitable for public consumption. It's perception management pure and simple but, so far, it looks like a winning strategy. As many have already noticed, the Iraqi bloodbath has been knocked out of the headlines and consigned to page 14 next to the women's lingerie adverts. In its place, American's are provided with diversionary Uber-stories of vegetative housewives and dead Popes. There's no chance that the 4 Marines who died in insurgent attacks last Tuesday will appear on page one anymore, nor will the 300,000 disgruntled Iraqis who paraded through Baghdad yesterday calling for an end to the Occupation while burning Bush in effigy. These are the unfortunate victims of the new media regime; a system that dismisses inconvenient facts for the fairy-tales that support the status quo. The new game-plan is to sweep Iraq from the collective consciousness and slow the steady erosion of public support for the war.

The changes in news coverage can be traced to a poll that ran 3 months ago in Washington Post poll which showed in stark terms how unpopular Bush's war in Iraq has become in just 2 short years. 56% of the people polled said the war "wasn't worth it" and a whopping 70% concluded that the loss of 1500 American servicemen "was an unacceptable cost".

The results of that poll sent tremors through the political establishment, and their trepidation is reflected in way that the news is now presented. Ball-players on steroids, Schiavo and a dead Pope are just the first of what will certainly be many similar entertaining distractions. Next week we will undoubtedly discover that Schiavo was carrying Jacko's love-child.

For the most part, Iraq has been buried by the media; a tacit admission that even supporters are now experiencing both doubt about the wisdom of the war and overall fatigue from the constant flow of bad news from the front. The casualties, the chaos, the lack of reconstruction, and the demoralizing stories of torture are slowly grinding down even the most ardent Bush fan. Beyond the legal and moral questions, the war is starting to look like it was simply a stupid idea conjured up by fanatics. This perception is not likely to change.

Once public support evaporates, that's it. There's no second chance.
...

Go finish reading Whitney's take on the Streetwalking Media.

Andrea Dworkin

2005-04-12T12:58:00.000-04:00

This is off-the-cuff. I've not read Andrea Dworkin's work in many, many years.

I've been thinking of her death for a couple days now. Andrea Dworkin's work has always given me pause, as much of a student of feminism as I am. I believe Alice Jardine said something like, "after all, the aim of feminism is partly to change men," or somesuch, but Dworkin is having none of that. Her every work seems to be about getting rid of the need for men.

But was she wrong in her crusade against rape? No, she just went too far for me in defining marriage as legalized rape. Was she wrong in her crusade against pornography? Not when she railed against violent pornography, and I even consider her crusade against airbrushed soft-core to be on the money. Playboy and the like work to make all men desire that which they cannot possibly get in any woman, bodily perfection, thus trapping men in a boy-like quest for fantasy. But surely Dworking went too far in equating viewing porn with rape, or in crusading against mere nudity.

Dworkin perhaps reached her peak in her work with Catharine MacKinnon, "Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality," where they helped the city of St. Paul, MN write an anti-porn law that allowed for lawsuits against purveyors, creating a causal relationship between porn and rape similar to a bartender supplying too many drinks to a customer and thereby being liable for potential drunk driving incidents. The law never passed constitutional muster, but pornography and the place of nudity took center stage in feminist discussions throughout the 80's and 90's as a result of their work.

Perhaps Dworkin should be remembered as the center of what most Americans don't recognize, that feminism is not a monolithic ideology, but one that covers a wide spectrum and in which there are many arguments.

As I sit here, Dworkin's Intercourse sits on the shelf. I think it is time for a rereading.

Gangstas In Duh-bya's House

2005-04-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

Don't have a lot of time for posting today, but there are a couple of pieces that I thought you'd enjoy reading.

The Big Fix - By Chris Floyd

Let's face the facts. The game is over and we - the "reality-based community," the believers in genuine democracy and law, the heirs of Jefferson and Madison, Emerson and Thoreau, the toilers and dreamers, all those who seek to rise above the beast within and shape the brutal chaos of existence into something higher, richer and imbued with meaning - have lost. The better world we thought had been won out of the blood and horror of history - a realm of enlightenment that often found its best embodiment in the ideals and aspirations of the American Republic - is gone. It's been swallowed by darkness, by ravening greed, by bestial spirits and by willful primitives who now possess overwhelming instruments of power and dominion.

A gang of such spirits seized control of the U.S. government by illicit means in 2000 and maintained that control through rampant electoral corruption in 2004. The re-election of President George W. Bush last November was a deliberately shambolic process that saw massive lockouts of opposition voters; unverifiable returns compiled by easily hackable machines operated by avowed corporate partisans of the ruling party; and vast discrepancies between exit polls and final results - gaps much larger than those that led elections in Ukraine and Georgia to be condemned as manipulated frauds. Indeed, a panel of statisticians said last week that the odds of such a discrepancy occurring naturally were 959,000 to 1, the Akron Beacon-Journal reported.

Mr. Floyd lays out the whole ball of rotting wax so you'll want to finish reading his piece. Information Clearinghouse has the same piece, with the benefit of supporting articles listed and linked below the article.

Max Blumenthal goes undercover at Wanker Fest 2005.
In Contempt of Courts

Michael Schwartz must have thought I was just another attendee of the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference. I approached the chief of staff of Oklahoma's GOP Senator Tom Coburn outside the conference in downtown Washington last Thursday afternoon after he spoke there. Before I could introduce myself, he turned to me and another observer with a crooked smile and exclaimed, "I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!"

And then we have Mr. James "StickyPants" Dobson equating judges with the KKK on the radio, Media Matters has the info and audio.

DOBSON: I heard a minister the other day talking about the great injustice and evil of the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now we have black-robed men, and that's what you're talking about.

First thought, Dobson is a vile, dog-beating, narrow-minded, @*$&^%...
My second thought is that Dobson may be alienating half of the KKKristian KKKoalition that is backing this effort to turn back time to 160 BC - and that's not a bad thing.

It is Not Licentiousness Versus Virtue

2005-04-12T08:10:00.000-04:00

But sometimes politics is easy to view in that way. Especially in this time when the Republicans try to whip up the anger of the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics and their followers.

One thing that is important to remember is that Americans as a whole are simply leading their lives, enjoying sometimes art and leisure activities that are frowned upon by the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics, but nevertheless leading moral lives infused with the intellectual curiosities of full humans. This notion of America divided by differing views on licentiousness and virtue is a false notion, especially as concerns Republicans and how they use citizens on the issue.

I am impelled today by Eugene Robinson's "Art Vs. the Church Lady" in today's Washington Post. In touting the National Gallery's Toulouse-Lautrec and Monmartre exhibit, Robinson gives his column a little spice by noting that the exhibit is selling out within eyesight of folks like Tom DeLay and the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics -- they even had a conference in close proximity of the exhibit this weekend. (I need to plug Philadelphia's glorifying of licentiousness -- the outre Salvador Dali is the focus of a huge and extremely popular exhibit here in the town of bluenoses.)

Should we be surprised that these folks are not railing at the government about its support of Lautrec and Monmartre, an exhibit that reveals prostitutes and drinking and carousing in all its glory? No, the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics are all about politics, not about real values. And the politicains who use these Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics, like DeLay, Frist and Santorum, are themselves only about political calculus and duping voters. How else could we explain Rick Santorum coming out in FAVOR of drinking?

Perhaps that is stretching the point, but Santorum last Friday, in an announcement on his own web site, came out in favor of lowering tax on alcohol, specifically beer. Temperence be damned, Santorum is out looking for votes, and I guess he figures he can appeal to drinkers in the state. Yes, this is pandering and trying to move to the middle for a Rick Santorum who is SCARED.

My suggestion? Go out and enjoy art, no matter the morals it supposedly represents. Drink a beer after. Indeed, I'll be quaffing a few this week at Drinking Liberally. Remember, it is at Ten Stone, 21st and South. Bottoms up!

The Bankruptcy Bill and Small Business

2005-04-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

In his State of the Union address earlier this year, George Bush called small businesses "the path of advancement, especially for women and minorities". Indeed, various GOP leaders have characterized small businesses as the "backbone of the economy", and go out of their way to praise the entrepreneur class.

The National Federation of Independent Business, a leading small business advocacy group in Washington, sums up the Bush administration's feelings about small businesses thusly:

In his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush spoke of small business as the very essence of the U.S. economy, crediting it as a rich source of entrepreneurship and job creation. To allow small businesses to continue to flourish, Bush urged Congress to take action on issues most important to small business, such as frivolous lawsuits, the rising cost of health care, and burdensome taxes and government regulations...

So what is it about the Bush administration where the words never seem to add up with their actions? As James Flanigan writes in the LA Times yesterday, the bankruptcy bill:

...But what most people don't realize is that it will hammer entrepreneurs and discourage small business formation, undermining a major pillar of an ownership society...

...Under current law it is possible for an entrepreneur to take a chance and fail, then have the debts discharged and move on to a fresh start with new financing. But under this bill, an entrepreneur who fails would have those debts hanging over him or her for years, limiting opportunities to raise new capital. And wages could be garnished at any job the entrepreneur might take.

The message of this legislation is "don't start your own business," says Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-North Hollywood), a member of the congressional committee that worked on the bill.

Sole proprietorships will suffer the biggest impact under this bill. As the article points out, even small incorporated business owners can take a big personal hit - and it only takes a single lawsuit or predatory lender to tip the scales for most of these types of business, which are typically not "cash rich". Flannigan's article continues:

Last year, 1.6 million individuals declared bankruptcy, 1.1 million of them in Chapter 7, which allows discharge of debts and a fresh start...the problem for small companies is that 20% or 320,000 of those individual bankruptcies are actually small, unincorporated companies, financed by credit cards, home equity loans and borrowings from friends. The reality of small business, as White points out, is that an unincorporated company's debts are personal liabilities of the firm's owner...

So, the question to ask your congresscritter today: why does the GOP support a bill that very clearly hurts a vital segment of the economy?

Rorschach Inkblot Test

2005-04-11T16:08:00.000-04:00

I'm betting nobody can guess. But I'm giving you a fair chance.

No, it is not a tsunami as seen from the Hubble telescope. No, it is not a cyst in Dick Cheney's colon. No, it is not a ketchup stain on Teresa Heinz's dress. No, it is not even the inside of a rigged voting machine, nor is it a gory scene of yet another journalist/civilian/child shot in Iraq.

Come on, can't you get it? Isn't that enough on the hints?

OK, by 7:00 I promise to reveal the answer.

Speculation is Far Too Premature: BREAKING NEWS

2005-04-11T14:06:00.000-04:00

From the Washington Post:

A man threatening to blow up a suspicious package on the west front of the U.S. Capitol was taken into custody shortly before 1:45 p.m. today, U.S. Capitol Police spokesman Officer Michael Lauer said.

The unidentified man, who was dressed in black, took his position shortly before 12:55 p.m., police said. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back -- a suitcase on the ground on each side of him -- near the foot of the Capitol's West Terrace Steps, facing the National Mall.

So, is the guy a Tom DeLay acolyte, a man with a grudge against activist judges, or merely a run-of-the-mill whack job?

Your guess is as good as mine. So MAKE A GUESS!

Rick Santorum, Holier than Thou

2005-04-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

Well, not really.

He may have jetted off to the Pope's funeral, and met with the Holy Father FIVE times, but his cancellation of a Social Security Meeting in late March in order to grandstand outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo was dying was not so holy. You see, Mr. Santorum may have cancelled what he considers the nations business, of reforming Social Secuirty, but he had a whole bunch of political business he did not cancel down there in Florida -- meetings to raise money for his reelection.

This is an interesting story. Sure, folks have mentioned that Santorum seemed "publicity-hungry" to stop by and visit Terri Schiavo's parents, even a columnist with the far-right Tribune Review, Eric Heyl mentions and critiques Santorum. It took John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News, in a column and not in a news item, to dig up that Santorum was busy that weekend in Tampa with fundraisers in addition to the photo-op wth the Schindlers. Only in political calculus is a Social Security Town Hall meeting somehow disrespectful to Terri Schiavo and her family, but fundraising events are not. I'm very grateful to Mr. Baer to revealing how very profitable Mr. Santorum's fundraisng in honor of Terri Schiavo was:

Santorum told MSNBC-TV, according to the March 30 "Hardball" transcript, he was in Florida because, "I had other plans to - and other meetings." (Schiavo died March 31.) What he didn't say was the plans and "meetings" were fund-raisers for his '06 re-election effort.

There was a luncheon in Orlando and a dinner in Miami on March 29 with Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a luncheon in Tampa March 30 hosted by Outback Steakhouse, which is headquartered there, and a dinner that night in Palm Beach hosted by execs from Revlon.

The trip was made on a Wal-Mart jet paid for by Santorum's campaign fund.

Total take, according to Santorum finance director Rob Bickhart, was about $250,000 (en route to an April 15 FEC filing expected to show the senator with close to $3 million already).

And I must say, John Baer beats me on the snark-o-meter:

So my hat's off.

Down and back on a corporate jet, grab a quarter-mill, get some national attention. This, my friends, is poetry in motion.

What's that you say? Seems a tad crass to cash in on a heartbroken family and get your mug on TV because you happen to be in the neighborhood lining your pockets?

If you cancel one event "out of respect," why not others?

Doesn't the culture of life outweigh the culture of cash?

Hats off to Attytood for bringing this to my attention, and a big thanks to John Baer for revealing how very deep Mr. Santorum's respect to Terri Schiavo really is.

Oh, oh! Did you know Rick Santorum visited with the Pope FIVE times during his tenure as a Senator, and that the Pope even blessed his children? Well, that's the main content of Santorum's press release on going to the Pope's funeral. Yup, Santorum even tries to "holier-than-thou" Pope John Paul's memory.

I wonder if Santorum went to Rome on a WalMart jet, or attended any fundraisers while there. Surely he wouldn't miss such blessed opportunities. . .

Growth

2005-04-10T21:04:00.000-04:00

Over the past week, nearly everyone who's a denizen of ASZ has figured out that we're in the midst of a transition. Besides the fact that Blogger's been completely fucking hosed over the past couple of months, it clearly doesn't meet the needs of the ASZ community going forward (even if Google could figure out how to make Blogger work).

Thanks to the generous contributions during our fundraiser, we're able to move into a new platform and host that will (at a minimum) make me a lot happier as ringmaster of this circus we call ASZ.

I've pretty much settled on Nucleus as ASZ's content management tool. We're also securing our own domain. I really feel that everyone will be happy (as much as blog folks can be, anyway) with what we have lined up in the near future.

You ain't seen nothin' yet. ;-)

Sunday Funnies

2005-04-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

(If you can't quite read it, click on the strip for a larger view. Pearls Before Swine is my favorite Sunday strip. Maybe it's an acquired taste, but it never fails to make me laugh.)

Right Wing Internet Whack Jobs

2005-04-10T16:03:00.000-04:00

In Pennsylvania the political landscape is dominated on the right by two web sites, www.grassrootspa.com, a site which promotes drudge-like spin on stories relevant to Pennsylvania politics, and www.politicspa.com, a site that incites, a la the freepers. There's a bit of a rivalry between the two, as evidenced by the glee with which grassrootspa.com reports a story about the message boards on politicspa being SHUT DOWN! Why? Here's what it says on their web site:

Editor's Note: PoliticsPA has eliminated access to our message boards. As part of an ongoing investigation, we are precluded from writing more than that the state police are investigating a terroristic threat made to Mayor Doherty. In accordance with our standing policy, PoliticsPA did not divulge the identity of the posting source; that will be the decision of the source's internet service provider, America Online

Yeah, one of those kindly conservative souls frequenting Republican sites is actually threatening the life of a Democratic office-holder.

I must now confess that I knew nothing about Blogs until I was introduced to them on the old Philadelphia Eagles Message Board by a guy who called himself "clintonisascumbag." I guess the nickname shows you all you need to know. He lives up in the Scranton area, and from his past posts I wouldn't put it past him to announce death threats. I'll be contacting one of my friends to see if hes the guy State Police are going after. Regardless, this kind of inciting is endemic on those two Republican grass roots web sites. It's good someone has at least called them on it, but also good to see a little back-biting between the sites. Good news for us, as this this news spells trouble for Republican Party unity in the Keystone state for 2006. Perhaps this does, too -- Pat Toomey is not ruling out a run against Santorum in the Republican primary.

My goodness, but it surely looks like there's some real unity problems for the Republicans, both national and local.

Santorum Remaking Himself, at DeLay's Expense?

2005-04-10T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hardly. Rick Santorum did not opine that Mr. DeLay is ethically challenged, as all the evidence points to, but he provided himself with cover today on today's ABC's "This Week."

The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics and "let the people then judge for themselves."

Sen. Rick Santorum's comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay's way of doing business.

DeLay, R-Texas, has been dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations. There have been questions about his overseas travel, campaign payments to family members and his connections to lobbyists who are under investigation.

"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

"But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law," Santorum told ABC's "This Week."

"Now you may not like some of the things he's done," Santorum said. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior or not."

Look closely. Santorum is not hanging Mr. DeLay out to dry, but he artfully put distance between himself and Mr. DeLay. And it seems that some of the reason for that distance are the comments by DeLay concerning our judiciary. Everyone here remembers Delay noting that:

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said, raising the prospect of impeaching members of a separate and independent branch of government. Later, he complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

Well, on Friday both Bush and Frist affirmed their support of an independent judiciary, something Santorum didn't touch upon, but these statements by arguably three of the top five Republicans in the land, all distancing themselves from DeLay, indicate first that DeLay may have rough going, and soon, but also that Rick Santorum may be in for the fight of his Senate life in 2006.

Note, however, that none of these comments by Frist, Cheney, Santorum and Bush are making their fundamentalist base happy. In Washington where many of the Conservative Right Wing Clerics are meeting this weekend, the Republican leadership is taking some very big hits. And that just might be a good thing. I'm particularly pleased with the Religion Journal's John Lofton's lashing out at virtually any Republican politician and think tank, including the Heritage Foundation.

I love the smell of Republican meltdown on a Sunday morning.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

2005-04-10T07:33:00.000-04:00

I'm on the road today, and it looks like it's going to be a beauty on the eastern seabord of the U.S. So, light posting ahead (at least from moi).

What's on your mind? Who's pissed in your Wheaties recently?

Holla!

Sedition and the Fundamentalist Jihad

2005-04-09T17:15:00.000-04:00

The following story is getting a lot of traction in the Left Blogzome - as well it should. I still haven't had the opportunity to watch American Taliban Wankfest 2005 (you can see at least Thursday's session on cspan.org), but the Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote a story on the conference that deserves your attention.

These folks want a Christian Theocracy in the U.S., with the judiciary meting out biblically inspired justice, and they want it now. If you need any further convincing as to how truly, no shit scary these people are, concentrate on this single story coming out of Wankfest:

...Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law.

Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his bottom line for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: no man, no problem, Vieira said.

The full Stalin quote, for those who dont recognize it, is Death solves all problems: no man, no problem. Presumably, Vieira had in mind something less extreme than Stalin did and was not actually advocating violence. But then, these are scary times for the judiciary. An anti-judge furor may help confirm President Bushs judicial nominees, but it also has the potential to turn ugly...

Aided and abetted by the incendiary fatwa's issued by Mullahs DeLay and Cornyn (neither of whom has any use for the fundie movement other than using them as a political shield) , a small group of hysterical individuals are shouting FIRE in a crowded theatre.

I said in the lead-in paragraph that these people are scary. Let me amend that statement. They are stark raving, batshit psychotic, and someone with a bully pulpit needs to call them on it immediately, as early as the Sunday morning talk shows tomorrow. I can type all the worthless words in the world that few will read and even fewer heed. But where's Howard Dean to back me up? Where's Ted Kennedy? Where's Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or even Antonin Scalia? Being SCOTUS judges never previously stopped either one of them from making public statements about things that bothered them.

Christ almighty, people. Read your history. They're invoking Joe Stalin, but it's more clear every single day that the grandfather of this movement is Adolf Hitler. These people have entered the realm of seditious acts. WHERE IS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES??

se·di·tion (sĭ-dĭsh'ən) pronunciation
n.
1. Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.
2. Insurrection; rebellion.

They are, for all intents and purposes, advocating the overthrow of the constitutionally organized government of the United States of America, by violence if necessary. And they're doing it in the plain light of day, on CSPAN, with reporters in the room. That's how damn emboldened they've become.

How can we deal with this immediately in the Left Blogzome? First off, get the information out to every nook and cranny left-leaning blog out there. Don't assume that everyone has read this story. If you run a blog, PLASTER THIS STORY ON YOUR FRONT PAGE RIGHT NOW. I don't care if you link to this post, or the WaPo story, or Americablog, or Atrios or where ever. But do whatever you can to spread this story to the far reaches of the Left Blogzome this evening and tomorrow.

Any other suggestions? This can't wait until Monday. I'm even going to move the fundraising blog-a-thon post down below this one.

Update, 4/25/05 - Welcome, Buzzflash readers! Follow our continuous coverage of Sedition: Fundamentalist Jihad at the New and Slightly Improved All Spin Zone!

ASZ Fundraising, Day 5 - Thank You!

2005-04-09T17:14:00.000-04:00

When I started this fundraising driver earlier this week, I really didn't know what to expect. God knows we're not the biggest dog on the Left Blogzome porch; shoot, we're not even at chihuahua status yet. But one thing I've been pleasantly surprised about is the great feedback and suggestions that I've received, and I'm eternally grateful that I didn't apparently scare off too many readers by holding out the tin cup.

This is the last day of the current ASZ fundraising drive. The minimum goal of the blog-a-thon hasn't been reached, but I'm hopeful that on this final appeal to your wallet, you'll be moved to get us closer. If you click on the ASZ Tip Box icon on the right (or click on this link), you'll see how much has been raised to date. If you can sweeten the pot a bit, it'll be a whole lot easier to justify to my own sweetie whatever extra dollars I have to throw in to the upgrades.

I want to thank everyone that's tossed a few bucks into the cup. Anyone that's donated "non-anonymously" should have received a personal thank you note from me already, but for those of you who wished to remain cloaked, please accept my generic heartfelt "thanks!" that I'm offering in this post.

If you haven't hit the tip box yet, again, you can help ASZ live long and prosper. Click the Amazon.com icon in the right menu, or click on this link.

Lastly, my personal thanks to SpinDentist, Kate, Forrest and sukabi for continuing to help me out with this endeavor. We've got a long way to go. There's some evil in this country that we need to continue to expose; there's causes we need to support; there's candidates we need to push. You guys are the best, and I appreciate every bit of your contribution in making ASZ a place I want to hang my own hat. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

18.4 Billion Dollar Reconstruction Fund - Hmmm, What To Do - Let's Invest Most Of It On Wallstreet!

2005-04-09T12:05:00.000-04:00

Yay! Private accounts are soooo gonna work for the "Let's Fcuk up Social Security" crowd. Why they're starting to prove just how lucrative those investments can be.

$14 Billion of Iraq Reconstruction Fund Invested on Wall Street

...
A recently unearthed portion of a Defense Department memo sheds some light on the issue, suggesting that more than $14 billion earmarked for reconstruction was actually invested on Wall Street. The memo's author and date are unknown. This portion of the apparently classified document -- marked "page 3" -- was mistakenly sent to Mid-America Seed Savers, a nonprofit organization in Lawrence, Kansas whose members had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the Army's alleged distribution of genetically engineered wheat seed to farmers in Iraq. The memo fragment is reproduced here in full:
[page heading] Reconstruction fund enhancement - p. 3

[...] that among these, the scenario with greatest potential was investment in a medium-risk portfolio of U.S.-based securities. To accomplish this without incurring excessive and unwarranted scrutiny, the Secretary issued a classified order creating the Office of Special Brokerage Services (OSBS), to which management of the reconstruction funds was assigned. The OSBS, quietly through third parties, purchased approximately $5 billion in stock in February, 2004. Another $9.2 billion was invested the following month. As of December 31, 2004, the fund had shown a net growth of approximately -1.7%.

The negative growth observed to date should not be cause for gloom. This is a long-term investment of behalf of the Iraqi people. According to OSBS projections, the fund's assets will achieve a value of $38.9 billion by a decade from now, assuming vigorous growth in the US economy.

It is important to compare that figure with the almost-certain undesirable outcome of spending the money directly on infrastructure enhancement. The past two years' experience shows that new public works run a significant risk of damage or even instantaneous 100% depreciation due to hostile and friendly combat activities. And, as the CJCS [Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers] has noted, insurgencies typically last 7 to 12 years. If invested on the ground in Iraq today, the reconstruction funds might well be worth precisely zero to the Iraqi people a decade from now.

Prudent investment, on the other hand, can help Iraq rebuild while becoming an ownership society. The OSBS has assigned portions of the fund's assets to individual citizens, based on voting rolls from the January election. Although he or she is not yet aware of it, each and every Iraqi voter now owns a Personal Reconstruction Account (PRA) that will continue to grow in value, safely, until violence in Iraq subsides and normal economic activity can resume. At that point, Iraqi citizens will be able to draw on their PRAs as needed, putting that money to work in their economy and stimulating private-sector solutions to the problem of reconstruction.

PRAs will provide Iraqis with what they desire most: freedom of choice. Under this plan, money will go directly into the pockets of the Iraqi people, for whose benefit Congress intended it. Furthermore, the use of voting records to allocate PRAs will ensure that impetus for rebuilding the country will come from those who have demonstrated a commitment to the democratic process -- not from Muslim extremists or Baathist dead-enders.

The question of whether to inform American or Iraqi citizens of OSBS activities and plans is a difficult one. Taking into consideration current political realities, it is probably best not [. . . end of page]

The pentagon's offered no comment on this matter.

Ah, you must...

2005-04-09T09:04:00.000-04:00

You want a side order of bread with your circuses?

Read Der Spiegel's take on the marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, lest you think popular angst between Germany and the British monarchy is a thing of a previous age. The Prince and the Pretender

Goddess love Der Spiegel. Mr. Keys reads it daily. It's a long story, but suffice it to say that he's had fevered dreams of annexing California to Germany for a number of years now. This of course has a lot to do with German engineering, and his 1987 BMW K-bike, but it's more than that. I must have picked up some phermones on the keyboard in the wee hours. Der Spiegel called my name.

Of course those lampooners responsible for the photo statment (left, above) would have been immediately arrested and put in shackles here in the US, but we can talk about freedom to dissent and lampoon another day, eh?

Have a good Saturday, Dear Hearts. I picked up an extra day's work today, so I'll check back with you later. Be well.

Domestic Terrorism - GOP Stamp of Approval

2005-04-09T08:50:00.000-04:00

Randall Terry and his crew of mouth breathers dodged a bullet. Olympic bomber and all around anti-abortion domestic terrorist, Eric Rudolph, was allowed to cop a plea yesterday. He admitted guilt to a variety of bombings and deaths in exchange for a life sentence. He will not be going to trial.

More than a few semi-legit fundie fringe organizations (and their backers, front men, and congressional shills) were sweating a Rudolph trial. Me, I was looking forward to it. I wanted Rudolph's association and/or support by some of these groups to be exposed and read into the public record, because some of these same groups have co-opted certain leaders in congress. A bit of digging will show a great deal of support for Rudolph by the same type of organizations that gathered for American Taliban Wankfest 2005 this past week. Wouldn't want one of those "activist judges" sentencing Rudolph to death, right?

There's little doubt that because of the nature of his crimes, Rudolph's deal had to be approved at the highest level of the Justice Department. That means Attorney General "Abu Al" Gonzales was involved, and it wouldn't take a grand conspiracy theory to imagine that his office received some friendly pressure to offer a plea bargain. If you think about it, the deal with a domestic terrorist is kind of odd, especially during the same week that Abu Al testified so strongly in favor of keeping the Patriot Act intact.

At the end of the day, the GOP has a whole lot of reasons why they wouldn't want Eric Rudolph to go on trial, for (strangely enough) many of the same reasons they would rather not have Saddam Hussein ever see the light of a courtroom.

Too many cockroaches would be exposed.

Taboo Topics - The Big Elephant

2005-04-08T21:02:00.000-04:00

Why is it that some subjects are off-limits for discussion? There are topics that make even the most hardy, open-minded, progressive individual queasy or uneasy or make like the monkeys up in the corner.

For some families the big elephant in the room is an alcohol or drug problem, for others sex is the topic to be ignored and treated like it doesn't exist. While it doesn't seem like there's a topic that hasn't been widely covered and discussed by progressives, there is one. Voting rights. It just isn't good enough to say, "Yeah, I believe every US Citizen that is entitled to vote has the right to vote and should vote."

We need to have serious discussions about the processes that are currently in place. So far, with a couple of exceptions, I haven't seen many on the left tackle this topic. Before the ballots were cast in November there was plenty of talk about dirty tricks, incidents of fraud, and voter suppression. Since the election you can practically hear the crickets chirping. The silence from "the left" on this issue is deafening.

What's up with that? Really, I want to know.

The latest on election reform

One of my favorite places to stop for the latest on voting rights issues is the BradBlog. If you're new here or haven't heard about the Clint Curtis vote rigging story Brad's is the place to get the full skinny. While our media has been sleeping through some of the most important stories of the last couple of years, not all media is.

BREAKING: MAINSTREAM AMERICAN NEWSPAPER TO JUMP INTO CLINT CURTIS STORY THIS WEEKEND!
Pulitzer Prize Winning Reporter to Break Major New Element in Story!

Pa. Decertifies Some Voting Machines

and if you haven't already, hop over to VelvetRevolution.us and sign their petition.

ASZ Fundraising, Day 4 - Your Turn

2005-04-08T20:10:00.000-04:00

This post stays at the top all day on 4/8/05. Scroll down for today's regularly scheduled bloviating.

Were you jonsing last night for something new from ASZ, Atrios, Gilliard, Digby, Suburban Guerilla, or any of the other Blogger-hosted political blogs? Well, guess what? Blogger crashed again. And you wonder why I want to move this homestead to greener internet pastures?

Anyway, this being Friday (and Day Four of ASZ Held Hostage: The Blog-A-Thon), it seems an appropriate time to let you vent your spleen. As we uproot All Spin Zone and move to another host / new software, what would you like to see? What is it that attracts you to the best political blogs? I'm thinking that at least in the poli-blog world, it's a case of substance over style. As long as you can read the words, most political junkies will be relatively satisfied, and the whistles and bells are not so much of an issue. But you tell me.

What's most important is that none of my grandiose and mad plans to take over the political blogging world [insert Dr. Evil laugh here] are going to happen without you. Not going to happen without your ideas; not going to happen without your contributions. Like a bad PBS fund drive, "it's all up to you". During the first day of this fundraiser, I said that you were determining the future direction of ASZ, by your participation (or not).

So let me know what would float your boat - besides poliporn, that is...Condi with a cat-o-nines tail and leather chaps is not my idea of good political blogging.

Again, you can help ASZ live long and prosper. Click the Amazon.com "tip bucket" icon in the right menu, or click on this link.

Tomorrow, the last day of the fundraiser, I say "thank you". Day five of the blog-a-thon continues with Blowing Smoke up Your Skirt.

Update, 1:15PM - To understand the scope of the problem with Blogger, check out this Wired News article from yesterday. I'll give Google / Blogger this: they're pissing everyone off on an equal opportunity basis.

Social Security - GOP Backing Off Privatization

2005-04-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

News Item: GOP Leaders Weigh New Social Security Plan

Has the GOP Senate and House leadership finally realized they have a stinking, rotting compost pile on their hands? Or has it finally dawned on them that there are simply more important things to be dealing with right now? Or are they just a lilly-livered pack of surrender monkeys? Heaven forbid that they actually got religion, and realized that Maximum Leader's plans for gutting the Social Security system, via the privatization ponzi scheme, is going to very squarely bite them in the ass next year.

I don't know why it took them so long to get it. What's plainly obvious to me is that they've never sat down around a kitchen table at dinner with mom and dad and actually tried to understand why, especially for older Americans, the topic is so damn sensitive.

Political hubris only goes so far before political reality sets in. Screwing with the senior demographic brings on the day of political reckoning even faster.

Update, 4:30PM - From Forbes.com...

...RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmidt suggested that supporters who use the term "privatize" are listening to the wrong people.

"There's been a concerted effort on the part of Democrats to spread misinformation," she said. "The word `privatizing' has unfortunately seeped into the public dialogue."

Ummmm, Tracey? Privatize this. It was Maximum Leader himself who coined the phrase - until it didn't focus group well - and then Frank Luntz stepped in. Let's not rewrite history, Tracey - especially when Molly Ivins documents the atrocities so well.

Wounded Body; Wounded Soul

2005-04-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

Let me get this straight. A soldier, Sgt. Robert Stout, gets the hell blown out of him while serving in Iraq. He's operating a machine gun on an "armored" Humvee while on patrol in Iraq, and a grenade rips apart his arm, face and legs during an attack last May. The wounded Sergeant comes back stateside to convalesce, and wants to go back to his unit after he's healed.

The Army is sucking wind because it needs warm bodies "in theatre" so bad. People who are getting their limbs blown off are allowed to go back if they ask. Pentagon blood suckers can't come within a football field of meeting recruiting goals for the first quarter of this year. Guys (and gals) are bailing out of the military left and right at the first opportunity. But Sgt. Stout, for whatever reason, wishes to continue his service.

The Army says, "No, sorry bud. Thanks for the sacrifice, but we can't use your kind."

Did he lose an arm? No. Was he brain damaged? Putting aside the fact that he wants to go back to Iraq, no. Was it discovered, in retrospect, that he has flat feet? No.

Sgt. Robert Stout is gay, and he "came out". So, he served honorably, he was severely wounded, received a Purple Heart, and Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has the fucking audacity to say this???

...a better way to avoid the cost of replacing soldiers who are discharged for being gay is to make it very clear to people who enlist in the military, including Stout, that they are ineligible to serve if they are gay.

"I honor and respect his service to this country, but the fact that he's wounded really doesn't change the underlying fact. ... He is not eligible to serve," Donnelly said, adding that there are many reasons why people aren't eligible to serve. "This is just one of them."

A quick google search confirms that Ms. Donnelly has been on a jihad against gays in the military for quite some time, so it's no surprise that she'd be sought out to comment on this issue, because the corporate media feels the need for journalistic "balance" from another fringe right wing homophobe nut job.

I'm really weary of these wankers. They dishonor people like Sgt. Robert Stout with their mere existence.

He Lives!

2005-04-08T09:32:00.000-04:00

You knew you couldn't count a good scumbag out. He couldn't be there in person, so Tom "Bugman" DeLay addressed the flock of faithful at American Taliban Wankfest 2005 by videotape. According to Knight-Ridder:

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, stepped up his attack on federal judges Thursday, telling a gathering of religious conservatives that the judiciary has "run amok" and demanding that Congress assert authority over the courts.

"The judiciary branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and in some cases just ignoring the legitimate will of the people," DeLay said. "But I also believe the executive and legislative branches have neglected the proper checks and balances on this behavior ... Our next step, whatever it is, must be more than rhetoric."

So, basically, the bugman continues his crusade for making so much toilet tissue out of the Constitution. And he continues his courting of the radical fundamentalist wingnuts, because they're the only constituency that isn't chasing him with wooden stakes and mallets.

Here's how I prefer to look at Bugman's remarks: to riff on continuing Iraqi sewage spew from the Pentagon, "The dying gasp of a House Majority Leader on his last legs..."

Others might prefer to keep keep the wooden stakes and garlic cloves close by. Or whatever the weapon of choice might be when the living dead come to call.

Whoa!

2005-04-07T18:25:00.000-04:00

Unless you were in Orange County, California during the Richard Nixon funeral and eternal homage you can't know how weird this photo looks to me. Presidents in attendance, getting dubious photo opportunities. The differences... Georgie Boy and Laura weren't there, and there weren't many, if any, Little Red Birds (Catholic Cardinals) there. And of course there was no mitered hat on old Tricky Dick, but I bet if his worshippers could have, they would have. ;-)

Tip o' the hat to Holden at First Draft: I See The Awkward Olympics Have Begun.

Talking to the Reptile: The GOP Wants to Enslave You

2005-04-07T15:21:00.000-04:00

Prologue - Maslow
Part 1 - The Petition
Part 2 - Pack Your Shit

Part 3 - The Un-emancipation Proclamation

The GOP wants reinstate slavery. In fact, they're very upset that it's taken this long to give you the opportunity to become an indentured servant. During their reign of terror (basically, since Newt's "Contract On America" in the mid-1990's), they've been paid an awful lot of money by banks and credit card companies to do everything possible to get laws pushed through that will make people like you and me indebted to them for all our earthly eternity. The bankruptcy bill that's currently before the House of Representatives is nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt to create a slave class.

Look at it this way - the pending bankruptcy bill (voting postponed until next week) is little more than the Un-emancipation Proclamation. Abe Lincoln is turning over in his grave.

Take Back America has an excellent compilation of links and discussion today on the bankruptcy bill. Here's a taste of the discussion taken from debtslavery.org:

...This bill allows us to answer the question: "What if there were a bill that served purely and clearly corporate greed while damaging millions of non-wealthy Americans, would the Democratic Party stand against it? Would the Democratic leadership fight it? Would all members of this purportedly distinct political party vote for people over profits?

Now, I did have to chuckle when reading the entire Take Back America compilation, because it contained this statement:

...In addition, the Democrats on the House Judiciary have laid out for their colleagues the case against this bill in a 54-page dissent that was leaked to Raw Story...

Fifty-four freaking pages?? No wonder Democrats can't get their point across. They still haven't figured out how to talk to the reptile. There's a lot of good information in the document, to be sure - but that isn't going to convince anyone this is a bad bill. Excuse me, a draconian bill.

Your Maslow / Cranium reptilian talking points for the day:

The bankruptcy bill hurts everyone's personal economic security by eliminating a safety net of last resort.
Personal financial problems are a leading cause of marital problems, spousal abuse, and suicide.
Removing the ability of those with no hope to get a fresh start in life is a very un-Christian, anti-family act.
Any congressperson who votes for this bill is pro-spouse abuse, anti-life, and worships the moneychangers.

Any questions? Now, that didn't take 54 pages, did it?

Sense and Nonsense

2005-04-07T12:11:00.000-04:00

A couple of proposals came up for votes in the House yesterday that could actually, no shit, fall into the category of "conducting the people's business". Yeah, I know, I'm shocked, too. Apparently they still do that kind of thing in congress on occasion.

News item: Lawmakers Want Daylight-Saving Time Change

The first proposal that passed made some sense: extend daylight savings time a month on both ends of the calendar:

...The panel agreed in a voice vote to move the start of daylight-saving time in the United States -- which occurs when clocks are turned forward by one hour -- one month earlier to the first Sunday in March. The end of daylight time would be moved back one month to the last Sunday in November.

Supporters of the amendment, sponsored by Michigan Republican Fred Upton, said it would save about 10,000 barrels of oil a day because offices and stores would be open while it was still light outside and therefore use less energy.

Interesting. Back during the Nixon administration, and Energy Crisis I - America Held Hostage (by our "good Saudi friends"), congress implemented an emergency act that stuck the U.S. on daylight saving time for a full 15 months. Study after study has shown that DST, particularly in the winter months, is a good energy savings tool.

Rep. Waxman (D-Ca) also offered an amendment that would have required shaving oil consumption by 1 million barrels per day by 2013. Of course, the GOP was quick to jump in and nix this provision:

...The committee voted down, 39 to 12, a separate amendment to require the federal government to find a way to cut U.S. oil demand by 1 million barrels a day by 2013. The amendment offered by Democrat Henry Waxman of California aimed to reduce imports of crude oil.

Lawmakers with automakers in their districts led the fight to defeat Waxman's proposal, arguing it was backdoor way to require U.S. mini-vans, sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks to improve their fuel efficiency...

It's nonsense that a token reduction (which is what a million barrels per day represents) is going to spell the end of the U.S. auto industry. What the government needs to be doing is strengthening fuel efficiency standards - and incentivize the auto industry to actually do something more than "window dressing" their efforts to improve fleet mileage.

I was thinking driving into work this morning: Americans have never been asked to actually sacrifice anything in support of the War on Terror™. Not one thing. Shop, shop, shop. Consume, consume, consume. What Waxman's amendment proposed was not pain for consumers - it was pain for business. If it was pain for consumers, the GOP might have gone along with it.

Apparently, the GOP is still sticking to the early 20th century thought that "what's good for GM is good for America".

ASZ Fundraising, Day Three - Chart of Accounts

2005-04-07T10:47:00.000-04:00

This post stays at the top all day on 4/7/05. Scroll down for today's regularly scheduled bloviating.

Ok, so far this week, I've discussed why I'm asking you for money, what you get for your money, and now I'm going to lay out what my plans are with the donations that are collected during this fundraising drive. Again, just asking for your help is difficult for me, so bear with me if I'm a bit clumsy at this...

ALL YOUR MONEY ARE BELONG TO US.

Oooh. Jeez. Lost my head there for a second.

Listen, we gotta get out of Blogger, and we need your help. Yeah, a few of the big boys (Atrios and Gilliard come immediately to mind) can make Blogger work for them despite the severe limitations / lack of support, simply because they have a built in constituency that's willing to either put up with it or wait for Blogger to be fixed when it's screwed up. Plus, they're not particularly looking to expand their horizons. I mean, if something's working, great. No reason to screw with it.

ASZ is different. To grow, and take this blog to a more collaborative level as a destination in the Left Blogzome rather than a momentary stepping stone to other places, ASZ needs to expand. I've test driven a lot of blogging software in the past few weeks, and have gravitated toward Textpattern over the past few days, though I'm not completely settled on it. I've added a chatroom (clunky and buggy though it is), and I desperately want to move to a non-Java solution for the chatroom (as would most of our users) - but there's no non-spyware "freebies" out there. Thinking ahead, it would be great to be able to provide everyone at ASZ with personal journal space, and we desperately need a "netmeeting room" to coordinate activities between we activists who care to participate in that kind of thing.

So, based on some online window browsing and test drives that I've taken, the hard costs of site upgrades are going to run somewhere between $500 and $750 (domain, hosting, software licenses, installations, blah blah blah). I would also love to ~~upgrade~~ trash the machine that I use for blogging - in this day and age, a cranky 350mHz Pentium II running Windoze 98 (not even SE) is not the optimal platform for even word processing, much less industrial strength blogging. Any donations above and beyond web infrastructure needs will be used to upgrade my blogging computer.

In this first round of fundraising, I'm dealing with infrastructure issues. In future (actually, continuing) rounds of fundraising and ad revenue, I'd love to be able to personally "tip" the principal ASZ contributors who put so much time, heart and effort into making this blog fly. But we've gotta build the foundation for the future first. Certainly, if you have any infrastructure suggestions, chime in in the comments below.

Again, you can help ASZ live long and prosper. Click the Amazon.com "tip bucket" icon in the right menu, or click on this link.

Update, 4:15PM - not to get pissy or anything, but there's apparently a glut of competition out there for blogging dollars this week. I didn't choose this week to run up against a couple of the big boys. In fact, I think it was the other way around (in at least one case). Wolcott's pushing Gillard's drive. Atrios is pushing Aravosis' drive. ASZ is fortunate to have several "independents" who believe ASZ's fundraiser is worthy of bringing to the attention of their readershp. I sincerely appreciate the kind words from of Michael @ Spontaneous Arising, Karl and Matt at Philly Future and Tattered Coat, respectively, and PSoTD of, well, PSoTD.

One last thing, for all the fundraising snarking I've done this week, please, I don't want anyone who's "cash challenged" to feel crappy about it if the bank account won't support a contribution right now. That's an all too common ailment in the Bush economy.

Tomorrow I want to know what you think. Day four of the blog-a-thon continues with ASZ Reader Suggestions.

SS Propaganda Fest

2005-04-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

Anybody have an estimate on what Bushs' Wreck Social Security tour "60 Stops in 60 Days" is costing us? Rep. Waxman has asked the GAO to do a full accounting of both the cost in money and whether Bush has crossed the propaganda line once again...

"No one disputes the right of the President to make his policy recommendations known to Congress and the public," Waxman wrote in a letter to U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker. "Yet there is a vital line between legitimately informing the public, as the President did in his State of the Union address, and commandeering the vast resources of the federal government to fund a political campaign for Social Security privatization."

propaganda
n : information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause*

Under the simplest definition, this is exactly what Duyba is doing.

The Treasury Department has hired four full-time employees to help run the show, including establishing a new Web site, www.strengtheningsocialsecurity.gov, and a war room, dubbed the Social Security Information Center. Yesterday, Treasury held a first-ever "radio day," opening its ornate Cash Room and 28 administration officials to nearly 30 radio talk-show hosts.

Gee, I wonder if Al Franken, Amy Goodman or Randi Rhodes were invited. And where do the Republicans stand on this?

"Currently, no one in Congress or the public knows the full extent and cost of the federal resources being devoted to promoting the President's Social Security agenda," Waxman wrote.

Even Republicans raised their eyebrows when they heard new employees were brought on for the campaign, said a House Republican staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid embarrassing the president.

Heaven forbid someone embarrasses Duyba, that's his job - everytime he opens his mouth.

* definition courtesy of Dictionary.com

A Programming Note

2005-04-07T00:19:00.000-04:00

Need a good scare? Need to get energized? You think the "holy war" is a load of crap made up paranoid progressives such as myself?

Even without Bugman DeLay, or a star studded lineup of invited (but absent) senators, CSPAN1 is apparently legitimizing the American Taliban Wankfest 2005, by providing gavel to gavel coverage tomorrow (at least according to the ATW2K5 website).

We'll send out a call for live blogging around 12 noon Thursday if anyone's watching. Folks like me at work will need a play-by-play.

This could be interesting. Set your VCR / Tivo boxes.

Panic Buying at the Pump?

2005-04-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

I just returned from running some errands, and stopped to fill up my vehicle. It was down around 1/4 tank. Usually, I'm a "10 regular" guy at the pump ($10 worth of regular gets me through a couple of days), but tonight I filled up, because I figured what the hell, tomorrow it'll be a nickel more expensive per gallon.

When I neared the station, I noticed a line of cars like I hadn't seen in quite awhile, particularly for 9PM at night. For those of you outside of New Jersey, I know it comes as a bit of a shock that gas is only $2.01 / gallon - but that's a 30 cent rise in pretty much the past week alone. As I got to the pump after a 10 minute wait, I noticed something - it seemed like everyone was topping off their tanks - and using the plastic to pay for it.

And it then occured to me - we've finally broken the psychological barrier of 2 bucks per gallon in the Garden State. Gas has never been this expensive. I started talking to a few other grumbling customers as my gas pumped, and they confirmed my suspicions:

People are "panic buying" for the same reason I did.

It's not a shortage thing yet, although I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying shortages will come at this rate, particularly as the weather warms and people are on the road more. Then I thought back to a news radio report I heard earlier today, where a petroleum industry spokesperson said that even with significantly increased prices, there's been increased demand, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me until I pulled up to the pump tonight.

As long as consumption is stable or rising, even in the face of extortionist prices and record profits for oil companies, there will be no downward pressure on prices. So now, not only have the oil markets gone berserk, we have, too.

This carousel is going to come to a screeching halt sooner than later.

ASZ Fundraiser, Day Two: The Value Proposition

2005-04-06T20:54:00.000-04:00

This post stays at the top all day on 4/6/05. Scroll down for today's regularly scheduled bloviating.

It's hard as hell for me to even write this, because I personally have a difficult time asking anyone for help with moving a piece of furniture, much less their hard-earned money. On one hand, I feel like I'm standing on a street corner in Center City Philadelphia holding out an empty McDonald's cup. But on the other hand, receiving your monetary support is, quite honestly, a validation that there is worth to what's being done on ASZ, and that the words you find here are more than just another empty scream in the left wing echo chamber.

When I decided to ask for contributions to ASZ, I asked myself a personally critical question: "Why would people donate to All Spin Zone? What do we bring to the table that readers can't find anywhere else?" I felt I had to answer this question not only for our readers, but for myself, before I could even ask you for money. Call it our "value proposition".

Here's what I came up with. There's a whole lot of blogs in the Left Blogzome, but there are precious few where you can get a progressive spin on political news, feed your head, and really - I mean really - interact with the protagonists. When you stick around ASZ for awhile, you really get a sense of who we are as people, not just our political views, because we actively participate in the discussions. Those of you who have been hanging out here for awhile know that I was deeply involved with an inner city foodbank, that Doc is on the board of an emerging Philly area philanthropy / charity group, that Forrest receives his degree this year, and that Kate is - well, a big, big heart with family baggage (like every one of us).

You just don't get snark at ASZ. You get catharsis from us, and we let you know you're not alone in your struggle to get through the day.

Again, you can help ASZ live long and prosper. Click the Amazon.com "tip bucket" icon in the right menu, or click on this link.

Tommorrow I lay out the growth expenses: Where is your contribution going? Day three of the blog-a-thon continues with the ASZ Chart of Accounts.

Attytood

2005-04-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

That's what we call it in the Philadelphia region when we're pissed. As in, "Yo, Ricardo, youse got a baaaaaad fookin' attytood today, yo." (Say it in your best Sly Stallone / Rocky voice.)

Will Bunch of Attytood has an attytood today - as well he should, and as well you should - The right-wing smear on photojournalists:

Most of the time we're more amused than seriously bothered by the antics of 'the 101st Fighting Keyboarders,' which is the term that Tbogg and other bloggers on the left have adopted for the 'chickenhawks' of cyberspace who are more than eager to project strength by throwing Americans into harm's way -- as long as it's somebody else.

But today, we're pissed off...

Somehow, I knew as I listened to the report on the radio yesterday afternoon that the AP had received the Pulitzer for its photographer's work in Iraq, that there would be a major league shitstorm in Wingnuttia.

I wasn't wrong.

Peak Oil Discussion - Not Just for Industry Geeks Anymore

2005-04-06T11:42:00.000-04:00

Via a link at Wolcott's blog, comes this article from James Howard Kunstler at Rolling Stone: The Long Emergency.

In this rather long, but exceeding important article, Kunstler posits that we're all whistling past the graveyard with the current runup in gas prices. World peak oil production is here - or has already passed. We didn't plan, prepare, and no one told us about it. And now we're on the verge of being royally screwed; lifestyle changes that none of us comfy Westerners could have ever imagined ten or twenty years ago are upon us.

I'm going to tackle this entire topic in a great deal of depth (in fact, the topic is quickly becoming an obsession for me), but for the moment here's a couple of pointers to two other resources that back up Kunstler:

Peak Oil - a website for energy industry insiders that covers the broad topic of energy production and consumption.

Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management - the Department of Energy Study which is the basis for Kunstler's article (.pdf file)

And, yesterday, Alan Greenspan stuck his nose into the current energy crisis - "let the markets be", is Greenspan's mantra. Anymore, when I see Greenspan's face on the tube, I know I'm about to take a big personal hosing. It's becoming more and more apparent that freemarketer Greenspan is bound and determined to be a prime driving force behind the establishment of a serf class.

It's starting to look like the revolution is coming sooner than even I might have thought. People like Greenspan have to be concerned. One of these days soon, someone with excellent market credibility is actually going to speak up, and there's going to be a major panic in all markets, commodity and financial.

Shoot, it's staring me in the face every time I drive by my local gas station.

Anyway, go read The Long Emergency, then we'll talk. And if you haven't yet signed the Consumer Renewable Energy Tax Credits petition, please, please do so right now.

Scary People, Part 9,237

2005-04-06T09:50:00.000-04:00

From the St. Pete Times:

... None of the speakers mentioned Michael Schiavo, the husband who argued for years that his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive, given the brain injuries she sufferred. Terri was referred to by her maiden name, Terri Schindler, throughout the service.

Many in attendance Tuesday had never met Terri Schiavo. They came in support of her family. "I know I speak for millions when I say to you tonight four simple words," Pavone said to the Schindler family seated in the front row. "We are with you."

Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, had trouble beginning his rememberence to his sister. After choking back tears, he held up a Purple Heart sent to the family by a Vietnam War veteran. The sender indicated that Schiavo was killed by enemies of the United States, and thus, deserved the award, Schindler said to a standing ovation...

This is what we're up against. And you don't think the "holy war" is coming soon to a city near you?

Just wait until these people get over the requisite mourning period for Schiavo and the Pope. It's like watching the gargoyles coming to life in "Ghostbusters".

Fundie Liars NOW LYING in the Name of the DEAD POPE

2005-04-05T19:47:00.000-04:00

Earlier this afternoon, we reported on WankFest 2005, being held this week in Washington, DC. Tom Delay was the keynote speaker on the Confronting The Judicial War on Faith agenda - but all of a sudden, according to the conference schedule:

April 7th -- Day 1

1:00pm -- Conference Opens – Introductory remarks Dr. Rick Scarborough (Vision America),Invocation by Rabbi Yehuda Levin (Jews for Morality), Pledge of Allegiance led by Dr. Sam Jihani

1:15pm – Congressman Lamar Smith will speak in place of Tom DeLay, who was called to Rome as part of the US delegation attending the Pope's funeral. Rep. DeLay expressed his "heartfelt regret at not being with the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration for this historic conference," and pledged to work with the Council to restore One Nation Under God.

Poppycock. And DeLay's name has been scrubbed off of the front page conference announcement, too (never fear, we have it screen captured and cached in the ASZ vault, under 24 hour guard).

Here's the U.S. delegation going to Rome:

WASHINGTON - Former Presidents Bush and Clinton will accompany President Bush to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the White House said Tuesday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be part of the small official U.S. delegation, but former Presidents Carter and Ford will not...

... A spokesman at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Jon Moore, said Carter — relishing the memories of two visits as president with the pontiff — had told the White House he wanted to go to the funeral. Upon learning that the Vatican was limiting the U.S. delegation to five people and that "there were also others who were eager to attend," Carter was "quite willing" to withdraw his request, Moore said....

So, are the makeup artists working on Bugman DeLay as we speak? Would George Bush, as totally imbicilic as we progressives perceive him to be, overtly include The Bugman in the U.S. delegation? Of course not.

We at ASZ can only surmise that George Lucas' team at Industrial Light and Magic has been contracted to work overtime on a complete makeover of The Bugman, and he'll show up as ... Laura Bush.

Condi wouldn't have it any other way.

Top Secret DeLaura Prototypes, Courtesy of ILM

Update, 8:35PM EDT: Well, well. The webmaster at WankFest 2005 has been literally working overtime - in the time it took me to prepare this post, Senator Sam Brownback and Senator Tom Coburn have apparently backed out, as well. They are no longer listed on the conference agenda. Is it getting a little too warm, Senators?

Off topic note to Eschatonian guests: visit our beg-a-thon kiosk located on the lower level next to the food court! And if you haven't yet signed the Consumer Renewable Energy Tax Credits petition, please, please do so right now. It's that important.

Here a lyric, there a lyric, everywhere a lyric-lyric...

2005-04-05T19:24:00.000-04:00

Submerged In Life's Little Soundtrack from The Happy Planet

Lest anyone think I'm out here simply sitting on my happy butt in front of the TV eating bon bons and going quietly quietly bonkers, think again. I'm going quietly quietly bonkers while thinking of things to blog about that interest me (no bon bons), and that might make you smile or giggle. So what do you think happened? "Ask and ye shall receive that your joy... my joy... may be full". The Cousin's screen on the wall was telling me all sorts of interesting Rotting Pope Corpse trivia, and opportunity banged loudly with a battering ram on the portcullis of my mind. Noisy, but fortuitous, I'd say. "The stones speak, and I am silent..." but not now. ( a quote from one of my favorite movies, "Mindwalk")

So I says sorta gibberingly-like to myself as I began preparing this, "another wonderment has happened" ... not only could I blog with reference to ONE song lyric, but lo (and behold) there are at least TWO if not many song lyrics that apply. ;-) I have to tell you, this has restored some of my flagging hope in the luscious ironic goodness of the Uni-Verse, and I'm considering it a sign that the Mother Ship has possibly finally entered a cloaked orbit around our Moon and will be coming for me and my kind soon.

For your absurd pleasure, some lyrics and some religious ritual trivia:

Maxwell's Silver Hammer
The Beatles, "Abbey Road"
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
came down upon her head
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
made sure that she was dead

P.C. thirty one said "we've caught a dirty one"
Maxwell stands alone
Painting testimonial pictures, oh, oh, oh, oh
Rose and Valerie screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free ("Maxwell must go free!")
The judge does not agree, and he tells them so-o-o-o
But, as the words are leaving his lips
A noise comes from behind

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
came down upon his head
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
made sure that he was dead

Silver hammer yeah

Knock Three Times "0n the ceiling [of the Sistene Chapel] if you want me. Twice on the pipe, if the answer is no..." ( for the uninitiated, the song is from the 70s... Tony Orlando and Dawn ... you don't wanna go there)

"When the Pope dies, the officials that were part of the papal administration no longer rule. The governing of the Vatican is taken over by the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, or Chamberlain of the church. The camerlengo supervises all aspects of what goes on from the the death of the pope to the election of the next pope. His responsibilities include the papal funeral and preparations for the conclave.

The camerlengo's first duty is to perform a medieval ritual. At the deathbed of the pope the camerlengo takes a silver hammer and lightly taps on the pope's forehead three times, calling him by his Christian name. When there is no reply, he announces to those present that the pope is dead."

(From here...) What? No mirror in front of his nose? No stethoscope?

I had always wondered what Sir Paul's (McCartney) inspiration was for the song. It's obviously his... it's vaudeville to the max... not Lennon's style at all. But then... I think Paul's mom was an Irish Catholic. He would have known about the little silver hammer, making sure things were dead.

Bang, bang, Lovelies. Now, mind you, I hear they "forwent" the silver hammer thingy for John Paul II, or so the cousin on the screen gushed. As a life-long Lutheran until my mid-30s, and a student of comparative religions in college, much of this medieval fol de rol amuses me greatly. But I haven't been fooled about the potency of bliss in religious rite and ritual. I was the main church musician in four churches... a player of Shakespearean caliber. Our next seminar will address the great schism affectionately called "The Reformation", with film at eleven.

That's my story today. The bolt from the sky was something to wake me up from gibbering resignation. Just a little silver hammer. I'm not sure you can relate to it, but it's what I'm offering you from inside me. Except of course these other lyrics, which you should at least read, if not listen to with focus.

Heaven on Their Minds... (Jesus Christ Superstar, the musical)

Judas sings the intro from the grave in prelude to the flashback:
My mind is clearer now.
At last all too well
I can see where we all soon will be.
If you strip away The myth from the man,
You will see where we all soon will be. Jesus!
You've started to believe
The things they say of you.
You really do believe
This talk of God is true.
And all the good you've done
Will soon get swept away.
You've begun to matter more
Than the things you say.

Listen Jesus I don't like what I see.
All I ask is that you listen to me.
And remember, I've been your right hand man all along.
You have set them all on fire.
They think they've found the new Messiah.
And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong.

I remember when this whole thing began.
No talk of God then, we called you a man.
And believe me, my admiration for you hasn't died.
But every word you say today
Gets twisted 'round some other way.
And they'll hurt you if they think you've lied.
Nazareth, your famous son should have stayed a great unknown
Like his father carving wood He'd have made good.
Tables, chairs, and oaken chests would have suited Jesus best.
He'd have caused nobody harm; no one alarm.

Listen, Jesus, do you care for your race?
Don't you see we must keep in our place?
We are occupied; have you forgotten how put down we are?

I am frightened by the crowd.
For we are getting much too loud.
And they'll crush us if we go too far.
If they go too far....

Listen, Jesus, to the warning I give.
Please remember that I want us to live.
But it's sad to see our chances weakening with every hour.
All your followers are blind.
Too much heaven on their minds.
It was beautiful, but now it's sour.
Yes it's all gone sour.

Listen, Jesus, to the warning I give.
Please remember that I want us to live.
C'mon, c'mon
He won't listen to me ...
C'mon, c'mon
He won't listen to me ...

God Must Be a Boogie Man
Words and music by Joni Mitchell (Mingus 1979)

He is three
One's in the middle unmoved
Waiting
To show what he sees
To the other two
To the one attacking--so afraid
And the one that keeps trying to love and trust
And getting himself betrayed
In the plan--oh
The divine plan
God must be a boogie man!

Hi! I'm Kate. I'll be your camerlengo. What religious ritual would you have me perform for you tonight? Bang, bang.

Eason Jordan, Pick Up the Courtesy Phone on the White Concourse...

2005-04-05T16:20:00.000-04:00

US troops wound CBS journalist in Iraq:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US forces shot and wounded a television cameraman working for the American CBS network in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, after mistaking him for an armed insurgent.

..."During the engagement an individual that appeared to have a weapon who was standing near the insurgent was shot and injured," the statement from the Multinational Brigade-Northwest said.

"This individual turned out to be a reporter who was pointing a video camera," it added.

And we wonder why it's impossible to get any "hard news" out of Iraq...

WankFest 2005

2005-04-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

Via ASZ reader DonnaJ comes a link to a takedown by the Rude Pundit (does the rude dude do anything else?) of a fundie-based judicial bash fest being held in Washington this coming weeked. The conference, appropriately titled Confronting the Judicial War on Faith includes keynotes and speeches from such fundie nutjobs and luminaries as:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, David C. Gibbs, Esq., attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents, Chief Justice Roy Moore, former Ambassador Alan Keyes, Senator Sam Brownback, Senator Tom Coburn, former Vatican Ambassador Ray Flynn, Phyllis Schlafly, Tony Perkins, Mike Farris, Howard Phillips, Bill Dannemeyer, Morton Blackwell, Bill Federer, Rick Scarborough, Don Feder, Kay Daly, Janet Folger, Jan LaRue, Tim Lee and Patrick Reilly

Holy schnikes, does this qualify as WankFest 2005 or what? Are they trying to keep the streets of Georgetown clear of the local GLBT community this weekend? I do notice that rightwing rentboy "Gigi" Guckert isn't on the featured speakers list.

On the other hand, it could be a great photo op / protest opportunity for anyone so inclined...the weather is supposed to be decent in DC this weekend...hmmmm...

Gimme some more of that old European elitism

2005-04-05T14:18:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have been shocked to see the conservative tendency to scream and complain about "bias" rise to embarassing levels. They've even taken to attacking their own judges as "activists".

The UK has been among the only European nation that Bush and Co. have not attacked with regards to the "War on Terror". That will soon change. The so-called "European snobbery" will grow to include Great Britain.

UK Panel: U.S. Troops Too Heavy - Handed

If this "European snobbery" includes the ability to see a mess and tragedy of a war for what it is and to point it out to those responsible for making it so, give me some more of their "elitism".

Once the Freepers, fundies and company start attacking them, I wonder how long it will take the Brits to realize that Bush and the GOP never really cared about them, but rather this was simply another case of the Republican Party using a group of people as instruments to achieve their goals.

LONDON (AP) -- U.S. troops in Iraq are provoking civilians and hampering rebuilding with an excessive use of force, British lawmakers said in a report Tuesday.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee also found that the slow pace of reconstruction had fueled the insurgency in Iraq and suggested the country had replaced Afghanistan as a training ground for international terrorists.

Astounding.

This entire "War on Terror" was begun to destroy havens for terrorist activity and to prevent such centers from developing again.

A couple weeks ago, I posted on the anniversary of My Lai and the following comment is lifted straight from the discussion that followed.

My wife is Viet, and her brother is a Hero of the Revolution. That means, he is a decorated Viet Cong soldier (9 years service near the Song Ben Hai). I traveled, with her & him, to My Lai to visit the Memorial. (It is crowded with school children every day). His comment (translated) "The Americans made it easy for us to win over the people with their everyday brutality."

And so it will go with Iraq.

What is it going to take for our nation to learn?

Another Bush Backer Taking a Beating

2005-04-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

The picture to the left is that of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, gesturing his feelings to George Bush after the recent ass stomping that Berlusconi's Center-Right coalition received at the polls. He has been a steadfast backer of the Bush administration's excellent Iraqi adventure, however, with the deaths of several Italian troops, and the recent dustup over Giuliana Sgrena's "rescue", Berlusconi couldn't even pull it out of the fire with a last minute pledge to begin withdrawing Italian troops from the quagmire.

Just to give you an idea of how thorough an asswhipping his coalition received, the Center-Right lost 11 of 13 regional governments in voting this past week.

Speaking of elections, Tony Blair is about to experience his first true referendum of support on May 5th. While his Labour party took a local trouncing in earlier elections, the upcoming vote will be for bigger marbles - seats in Parliament. And, at least one Labour party candidate is even switching parties to the Liberal Democrats because of opposition to Blair's policies:

...Embarrassingly, one of the ruling Labour party's candidates, Stephen Wilkinson, said on Tuesday he was defecting to the Liberal Democrats, the only major British party to oppose the Iraq war.

"Who would have thought a Labour government would become a lap dog to George Bush's right wing Republican administration," Wilkinson said...

And lastly, in case you missed it, newly elected Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko was in Washington yesterday, meeting with Maximum Leader. Yushchenko was elected, in part, on a pledge to get Ukraine out of Iraq. Maximum Leader's response yesterday?

The two leaders stepped quickly past the most visible irritant in their new friendship. Yushchenko is withdrawing Ukraine's troops from Iraq, a campaign promise that acknowledges the deep unpopularity of the Iraq deployment among Ukrainians.

"He's fulfilling a campaign pledge. I fully understand that," Bush said.

Yeah. Right, Mr. President.

See photo, above.

Organized Resistance

2005-04-05T10:54:00.000-04:00

News Item: U.S., Iraqi Troops Battle Dozens of Insurgents

Winter is over in Iraq. The activities of millitants over the past few days signifies one of two things: an indication of a real shitstorm that's about to come, or truly the last gasp of an organized insurgency. The former is my opinion, the latter is the opinion you'll read in various corporate media reports.

There's two things that are particularly concerning about last weekend's Battle of Abu Ghraib (Parts 1 and 2) and today's coordinated defensive position by militants (and subsequent firefight) in Baghdad.

The first is the fact that the firefights in the past couple of days have not been the work of one or two people with a Kalashnikov or an RPG launcher, or the trunk of a car loaded with some of that 380 tons of missing RDX. We're talking about coordinated attacks with literally dozens - platoon strength - of fairly well armed men. To me, this indicates a somewhat sophisticated command and control structure. These aren't angry mobs throwing rocks.

The second is that it's just now starting to warm up in Iraq, meteorlogically. The past few months have been, relatively speaking, somewhat quiet. This fact, coupled with the apparent ferocity of the latest attacks would seem to indicate that there's been some detailed planning and regrouping ongoing within the command structure of the militants.

The insurgency seems to be, once again, changing tactics. Past statements by U.S. and coalition commanders have indicated that this is the most frustrating part of dealing with the mess. Once the "good guys" have figured out how to somewhat deal with one tactic (for example, IED's), the "bad guys" back off and morph their strategy into something else.

I'm starting to feel like this summer is the end game in Iraq - either the entire place will be leveled like Fallujah, or the Bushies will be declaring victory, even as they latch onto the rails of the last helicopter departing the Green Zone.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg - the ASZ Blog-a-thon

2005-04-05T09:45:00.000-04:00

This post stays at the top all day on 4/5/05. Scroll down for today's regularly scheduled bloviating.

Today's the day that I drive everyone away as surely as St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. I'm asking you for money.

ASZ needs your support. While this whole endeavor is a labor of love for all of the primary contributors, it's evolved to something a little bit more ambitious than I think you (as a reader) or I (as the blogmaster) had originally envisioned when it was cranked it up a little over a year ago. So over the next 5 days, ASZ is running a blog-a-thon. Your participation (or lack thereof) will, quite frankly, determine the future direction of All Spin Zone.

Everyone's suffered through the Great Blogger Meltdown of 2005, and it's way past time to move into our own domain and onto a blogging platform that's more stable and reliable, if for no other reason than my own sanity. I'd also like to start development of an easy way to allow more community collaboration on topics such as the bankruptcy bill fight. And these are just two examples of infrastructure changes that are needed in advance of what I anticipate to be a really busy and crazy political time in the next few months, and certainly with midterm elections next year.

The easiest way in the world to contribute to the cause is simply to click on the Amazon.com tip bucket icon on the right of your screen, or click on this link. I won't do PayPal, so please don't even ask. Our suggested contribution level is $10, but you're certainly free (and we'd thank you) for even greater support. And if you donate at the $100,000 level, I'll even take a cue from Maximum Leader and make you an ASZ Ranger.

Tommorrow I go for your heart: Even starving artists need support. The blog-a-thon continues with The ASZ Value Proposition.

(P.S. - I wasn't aware until I read it in the comments that Steve Gilliard's running a blog-a-thon, too. I could look at this one of two ways, but here's how I prefer to view it: GMTA.)

The Crapture

2005-04-04T22:41:00.000-04:00

I really don't like glomming off of the big boy blogs and news feeds, but I'm going to make an exception tonight, because my head is spinning from the freakin' insanity. I've used the "Bizarro World" reference many times, but folks, this is edging beyond comic book absurdia.

The bizarre has been mainstreamed.

Today, a United States Senator took the floor of the Senate, and all but sanctioned violence against members of the judiciary. Late last week, a United States Congress House Majority Leader did the same thing. And the Bush Administration Sycophant Association, a/k/a the National Press Club, absolutely refuses to back down on its endorsement of internet rentboy J.D. Guckert for Media Martyr of the Year. The icon of the Roman Catholic Church dies, and the stars-and-bars tent revivalists, who would sooner run over a papist repeatedly with their six wheel Dodge Ram Hemi than acknowledge the largest socio-religous organization in the U.S., are suddenly keening over the Pope's passing.

I could go on and on and on.

How have we moved at hyperspeed into such a totally unrecognizable place? How have the nutballs, and I mean true, hardcore, whacked out psychopaths, co-opted control of the most powerful nation on the face of the planet? Has it dawned on anyone that these truly scary people don't have to suffer through call waiting to get in touch with the guy who has his finger on "the button"? What happened? Where did my country go? Where did the sane people who routinely marginalized and outed the nutballs in years past go? Was everyone Wellstoned? Or did they misplace a "c" in the Book of Revelations and the Crapture already happened?

My head hurts tonight. Is it any wonder that progressives feel bipolar?

Torn Between Two Lovers

2005-04-04T18:36:00.000-04:00

It's kind of interesting that on a day when I'm railing against high gas prices, I'd find a non-petrol friendly article which causes me to go "WOOOOHOOOO! YEAHHHHHHHHHH!! ABOUT TIME!!!!"

Colo. Cracks Down on Left-Lane Dawdling

DENVER Apr 4, 2005 — Colorado is serious about its no-dawdling law in left lanes. Drivers who insist on staying in the passing lane are risking tickets as the State Patrol has begun enforcing a law requiring motorists to use the left lane for passing only...

Am I a bad person for cheering this initiative?

I fume when I get stuck behind inconsiderate wanker drivers in the left lane who feel it's their birthright to parallel their counterparts in the right lane, and end up clogging traffic for miles. And is it just me, or do most of these lame ass lane hogs seem to drive Grand Marquis with a "W '04" sticker on the bumper? It's situations like these when I fantasize about having my vehicle equipped with a grill mounted, 007-style rocket launcher.

Consider my huzzahs of Colorado law enforcement as an endorsement for reducing road rage. ;-)

Drop a Dime on DeLay

2005-04-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks to John Gillnitz of USCityZen (via his comment at Eschaton) comes a quick and easy site to drop a dime on Bugman DeLay. All you have to do is enter your name and addy, press the submit button, and voila! Your congressional representatives get your views on the ethically bankrupt House Majority Leader.

Do it! It only takes 30 seconds.

Vigilante Justice

2005-04-04T15:10:00.000-04:00

Over this past weekend, I saw a TV report about the Minuteman Patrols in Arizona. Setting aside the "neighborhood watch" aspect of this endeavor for the moment, and brushing off potential constitutional issues, what happens when one of the good old boys gets a bit trigger happy some night? You know it's going to happen eventually.

I'm a bit more than vaguely disturbed by vigilante groups such as the Minutemen. But you decide:

(CBS 5 NEWS) - A group of volunteers calling themselves Minutemen, begins regular patrols of the Arizona-Mexican border Monday.

They are looking for illegal immigrants along a 23-mile stretch in the San Pedro Valley. They were busy this weekend and made a handful of sightings leading to more than a dozen arrests...

From Fight Fascism Together:

...Bystanders were the people who knew, but did not do anything. Bystanders were to a certain extent also the countries that knew about the violence against the Jews - at least from 1938 onwards - but closed their borders to Jewish refugees. The Gestapo, the secret police in Nazi Germany, could not have worked without tens of thousands of willing informants, that did nothing except tell what they saw or heard...

Update, 4:00PM The Associated Press has more regarding the vigilante group tripping border sensors. A border patrol spokesperson says "The possibility for something going drastically wrong is very high."

Grifters, Con Men, and House Bankruptcy Legislation

2005-04-04T12:58:00.000-04:00

Over the past month, ASZ blogged extensively on the Indentured Servitude Act of 2005 (the bankruptcy bill) as it slithered through the Senate, enroute to House consideration as early as this week. For a memory refresher, the easiest place to start is with this ASZ post, and then follow the links.

One of the more questionable aspects of the bankruptcy bill is the requirement, if a debt-laden individual doesn't meet an income means test, that the individual (or married couple) pay for "credit counseling" prior to filing for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Now let's think about this for a moment - if a person is in such dire financial straits that they have to take the last ditch step of filing for bankruptcy, the bill is going to force them to pay hundreds of dollars for "counseling". That's on top of the hundreds (or thousands) of dollars that an attorney will charge the consumer to file. But I'll come back to the economics of filing at a later date.

I want to focus on the credit counseling aspect of the bill. One thing that's quite clear is that in the past 10 years, the cottage industry of credit counseling has literally exploded. And like any such growth industry, it's rife with corruption and charlatans. In the past 30 days alone, the Federal Trade Commission has either fined or put out of business at least four such companies for thoroughly ripping off consumers. The entire concept of a company negotiating your debts, and taking in a lump sum payment each month to pay your debts, plus skimming a percentage off the top for their own "expenses" is simply fertile soil for a rouge's gallery of grifters and con men:

Three credit counseling firms settle fraud charges with FTC:

WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that three consumer debt-service companies have settled charges that they cheated financially strapped customers out of more than $100 million.

National Consumer Council of California; Debt Management Foundation Services of Florida, and Better Budget Financial Services of Massachusetts agreed to pay more than $6 million to consumers for falsely promising easy debt relief that left many deeper in debt and some forced to file bankruptcy.

'All three lied about who they were, what they could do for consumers and what they charged,' said Lydia Parnes, acting director of the FTC's consumer-protection division.

... Last week the FTC settled a lawsuit against AmeriDebt, a Maryland-based credit counseling firm that it alleged collected nearly $200 million in hidden fees from consumers.

I covered the entire topic of bankruptcy in some depth earlier; now it's time for some action.

First off, take a look at the bill summary (H.R. 685), and in particular, pay attention to the sponsor and co-sponsors. There's a lot of Democrats on the list. I'm targeting one in particular myself - Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) - because his office is right down the road from my house. There is NO WAY THAT ANY DEMOCRAT SHOULD BE SUPPORTING THIS DRACONIAN BILL, especially by lending sponsorship to the legislation.

If one of your representatives is listed as a cosponsor, whether D or R, contact them via email, and preferably with a phone call. I actually posted a nice little script in this post. But for now, rather than eating the whole elephant, so to speak, I'd like to focus on one aspect of the bill to engender an initial positive response - the credit counseling provision. Ask your representative to demand this portion of the bill be eliminated because of the rampant fraud and lack of accountability of credit counseling companies.

As this bill proceeds through the House, I'll be blogging more about it. I hold no false illusions that the bill will fail - but again, it's important to make a stand and let our voices be heard that H.R. 685, a completely anti-family, pro-corporate crime bill, needs to be defeated by whatever means necessary.

As Pump Prices Skyrocket...

2005-04-04T09:25:00.000-04:00

Why in the hell is the Bush administration still buying oil and dumping it into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?? Former Energy Secretary (and current New Mexico governor) Bill Richardson and Senator Jeff Bingaman feel (correctly) that not a single drop of oil should be going into the SPR at today's ridiculous prices. The SPR current contains nearly half a billion barrels. It's time to start drawing down on the SPR to force OPEC's hand rather than taking oil off of the market by filling it.

While the entire topic of peak oil is complex discussion, all anyone really needs to know is that Liz at Blondesense reports that gas prices spiked on Long Island 20 cents this weekend, and that in New Jersey (cheapest gas in the nation), prices are now over an average of $2 / gallon. Another 25 cents or so is forecast in the very near future. Analysts are already talking about three dollar gasoline.

Gentle readers, this situation simply has got to impact the economy. While George Bush was flying back from Crawford in the middle of the night to sign the Corpse Reanimation and Tent Revival Healing Act of 2005, we're perched on the edge of an economic precipice. I wonder if he would be motivated enough to offer a fix to this immediate problem when the lifeblood of the entire economy (and fiscal health of the country) is in jeopardy. I want to see him sign an executive order allowing drawdown on SPR - and I want to see him sign it at 3AM in his jammies.

Oh, and lest you feel that neat little Prius is the answer to your commuting gasoline consumption woes? Thing again. There's some serious work afoot to totally retool the way Americans are taxed for traveling. You gotta read this. Big Brother is truly on the move:

...For decades, state and federal gas tax revenue has fueled the nation's transportation infrastructure, paying to build and maintain highways, bridges and intersections. It has been a logical arrangement - everyone who uses the roads uses gas (or diesel). The more you drive, the more gas you use and the more tax you pay.

...Whitty and others propose taxing you on how far you drive, not how much gas you use. There are other approaches being considered to supplement the gas tax in years to come, but the so-called mileage tax is gaining attention as the replacement that many say will eventually be needed.

Whitty believes that most cars eventually could be outfitted with a global positioning device and computer to determine miles traveled in a given state - information that would be used to determine the tax bill.

While there are concerns about the technology and questions about its implementation, the concept has advanced enough that it will be tested in Oregon later this year by about 250 drivers...

Oy.

From the Popeapalooza Travel Office...

2005-04-04T08:36:00.000-04:00

As Popeapalooza 2005 continues today, word comes this morning that bonnie Prince Charles is considering postponing his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles, which was scheduled for this Friday, in deference to the Pope.

What a guy that Charles is.

In other from the Popeapalooza Travel Office, the White House announced that Dubya will, in fact, attend the Pope's funeral with Laura. No doubt he'll get a front row seat. What drives me crazy is that Dubya, his policies, and in fact his entire administration has been anthema to much of what the Pope espoused during his tenure as head of the Roman Catholic Church. The only topics the Pope and Dubya might have actually seen eye to eye on are abortion and gay marriage.

What will really be interesting is to see if Bugman DeLay is "called" to Rome this week - if that happens, Ronnie Earle might have to begin working on extradition papers, because if DeLay gets a head start out of the country, we might never see him again.

Come to think of it, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Thanks for Flying ASZ Air!

2005-04-03T23:11:00.000-04:00

Good evening passengers, this is the Captain speaking.

I was in the middle of finishing up an absolutely fabulous inflight communique on Tom "Bugman" DeLay, and the power went out on the flight deck. Coincidence? I'll let you decide. Anyway, the UPS kicked in to save the onboard computer, but did a controlled shutdown on the system. That's the good news. The bad news is that my (boohoohoo) post in progress went bye-bye, and I was also disconnected from a positively scintillating chat with folks in the control tower.

Ah, well.

Anyway, rather than try to reconstruct the communique, I'm rerouting you to Digby International. It's almost the same destination as the one to which I was headed, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the end result just fine.

Before I get back to flying this bus, allow me to pontificate and make the bold prediction that this is the week that Bugman DeLay goes down. There's a life-and-death struggle going on for the soul of the GOP, and I think Bugman sealed his own demise last week. There's a lot of constitutionalists among the GOP faithful, and they're not happy. DeLay and his cronies slapped them around but good in the wake of the Schiavo situation, and perhaps a few eyes were opened.

Things are going to be hopping in Washington, DC over the next five days. By the end of the week, it's entirely possible that PopeWatch 2005 will be relegated to page A-23 of the Washington Post. It's going to be that active.

So, from the cockpit of ASZ Air, fasten your seatbelt, and put your tray tables in the full upright and locked position -- we're about to hit some significant political turbulence. We'll do our best to get you to your destination safely!

Quick Admin Note: We're continuing to have problems with ASZ rendering correctly in Safari. After much code tweaking and gnashing of teeth by our crack coding staff (or coding staff on crack), we still haven't solved the problem. The body of knowledge on Safari is pointing to a problem with the way Safari interprets CSS, rather than bad coding on our end. We'll keep working on a solution.

The Kid's Got Potential

2005-04-03T13:26:00.000-04:00

Driftglass, a longtime resident of the Left Blogzome, has fired up a new blog, appropriately entitled, well, d r i f t g l a s s.

Drift on over. You'll enjoy the writing.

Liars: The Buck Stops Nowhere

2005-04-03T12:37:00.000-04:00

Why do I have to go to the UK's Independent to find this story?

Green light for Iraqi prison abuse came right from the top

...Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal that Lt General Ricardo Sanchez authorised techniques such as the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners, stress positions and disorientation. In the documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Gen Sanchez admits that some of the techniques would not be tolerated by other countries.

When he appeared last year before a Congressional committee, Gen Sanchez denied authorising such techniques. He has now been accused of perjury...

You know as well as I do that the bread crumb trail leading to the Abu Ghraib torture chambers doesn't stop at Sanchez, either.

The Revolution is Not Being Televised

2005-04-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've become rather fascinated with following the quiet revolution in Latin American / South American politics. At the beginning of my infatuation, Naomi Klein's work kind of sucked me into taking a 50,000 foot overlook of the most underreported global political story of the last decade. In the past few months, I've descended to about 10,000 feet in an attempt to understand how left-democratic leaders such as Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) are trying to forge a sort of "Pax SouthAmericana" as a sea wall against a perceived rising tide of U.S. hegemony in South America.

In a current CounterPunch article, John Ross observes:

...When a Lula or a Chavez take the power of the state, they suddenly find themselves trapped in alignments that force obeisance to the World Bank and the White House from which they cannot break away. Their promises begin to sound hollow as transnationals reap fortunes at the expense of the people whose progress is pretty much straight down hill.

Given the probability of such a scenario, John Holloway suggests that the Zapatista model will prosper. "When people are disillusioned, they begin to look for the real solutions. Building a party that's a little more to the left isn't one of them." ...

Indeed, Brazil's Lula is finding that despite his best intentions, throwing off the shackles of globalization isn't quite as easy as it seems at a nation-state level. A populist message can ring loud and clear within the working class and get you elected, but making a step-change in economic and social direction after the cement of multinationalism has already set and cured is exceedingly difficult. So maybe Holloway is correct, at least at the individual state level -- to make true change stick, a true revolutionary leader would have to dynamite the foundation -- a strategy which, in and of itself, is fraught with peril and unlikely to succeed in the long run.

That's why the "Pax SouthAmericana" approach that seems to be emerging is so intriguing to me. While an individual nation state can ultimately be isolated by the hegemonists, a continental left-democratic movement has the potential to be self sustaining. A broad based alliance that spans several countries in the same geographic region doesn't require nearly as much external political and/or economic support from the rest of the world.

Will the South American experiment that's being largely underwritten by Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan oil fields ultimately succeed? Bigger and braver political minds than mine are trying to figure out the answer to that question. What's important is that bold leadership took the bull by the horns, and the experiment is underway.

More selfishly important to me is how the lessons from the South American political petri dish might translate to the political dynamic in the United States. I'm continuing to mull that one over, but I think Holloway's fundamental thesis is even more correct in the U.S. than in South America: building a Democratic Party that's a little more to the left of the GOP isn't the answer.

If, in reading the entrails of the past election cycle debacle, Howard Dean and the other alleged "reformers" of the Democratic Party don't understand this basic concept, then we'll be no better off politically or socially tomorrow than we are today.

Live From the Situation Room...

2005-04-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

(Shamelessly lifted from Eschaton comments...)

"So Karl, who we going to appoint as the new Pope? Got any ideas?"

"Mr. President, um, there's going to be some difficulty with that."

"What do you mean difficulty? Juanita, get me Bill Frist on the line. We're going nuklear, I've had it with these liberulz blocking my appointments."

"No sir, its not that. You see, the Vatican is a soverign country, we don't have any influence on who they choose to be their leader."

"Soverign country, no shit? Hell, my ranch is bigger than that postage stamp. Why I'd bet I could take over that place just using one platoon from the Baylor ROTC. Juanita, cancel that call to Frist, get me Tommy Franks, and the Preznit of Baylor. Then get me Paul Bremmer, I've got another job for him."

Barry from Alaska | Email | Homepage | 04.02.05 - 5:33 pm | #

Large Attack at Abu Ghraib

2005-04-02T14:42:00.000-05:00

Breaking news:

WASHINGTON - A group of 40 to 60 insurgents attacked the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq late Saturday in a well-coordinated assault that inflicted 18 American casualties, U.S. military officials told NBC News...

Reuters confirms.

Iraq? Where's that?

In other breaking news, Il Papa è morto.

Pope Watch 2005 - Pope Benedict XVI

2005-04-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

As PopeWatch 2005 continues today, go read the blogfather of ASZ (Billmon) for an extended soliloquy on Catholicism. I certainly take issue with a few arguments he makes for grudging admiration of the institution, but on the balance, his article is pretty solid. What I like most, and missed most in his absence, is the historical perspective he brings to nearly every extended original posting on Whiskey Bar.

Go read.

Update, 4/20/2005: A new pope has been elected. Please go to our new site as details develop.

Accountability

2005-04-02T08:54:00.000-05:00

I was remiss in not bringing Friday's column from Dan Froomkin to your attention. If there's one columnist inside the I-495 Beltway who seems to get it consistently right, it's the Washington Post's Froomkin. But yesterday, rather than offering a lot of his own snarky opinions, he compiled a laundry list of commentary on the recently released presidential commission report which detailed failures in the intelligence community leading up to the Iraq quagmire.

What's most maddening about the response to this report (and a host of other BushCo foibles) is that no one has been held to account for the failures, either in this instance or for the months leading up to Sept. 11th, 2001. I think Americans can accept mistakes - in fact, we're forgiving of errors to a fault, sometimes - particularly those of our leaders. Witness the clean personal slate that George Bush got the day that he was "born again".

But when the CEO of 'Murica, LLC can not admit a personal mistake; when he can not hold anyone personally responsible for so costly a snafu as botched pre-Iraq intel; when he promotes personnel (Condi) and gives Medals of Freedom (Bremer, Tenet) for gross incompetence; when he can flat out lie about these things and get a wink and a nod from a sycophantic press -- we've entered the realm of leadership sociopathy.

Perhaps at this point the personal (and legal) liability of George Bush is just too great to say, "hey, we fucked up". I tend to think it's more a case of megalomania and political insulation writ large. In other words, Bush's head is too full of himself to admit a mistake or say "the buck stops here", and his coterie steps lightly around the "no bad news" bubble that's been constructed around the the king.

It drives me nuts that even without him performing some act of contrition, most 'muricans have given George W. Bush a complete pass on the accountability issue. And I don't even mean his own accountability. I'm talking about the clear, documented evidence that department heads at the highest level of his administration have flat out screwed the pooch on everything from 9/11 and Iraq, to the current energy crisis and the continuing Social Security scam-a-thon.

I guess what I'm saying is that I need to see someone's head on a pike following a report such as was released this past Thursday, rather than elevating the protagonists to a pedestal.

I really need to hear someone say, "I'm sorry."

ASZ Admin News and "Clean Ice" Open Thread

2005-04-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

As you can see, we've been tinkering with the format of All Spin Zone - and we'd appreciate some feedback if something's acting a bit weird. For the geeks among you, ASZ uses cascading style sheets (CSS) for formatting, and the joint endeavor between Forrest and myself to set up a three column layout was somewhat, eh, challenging. After rigorous testing, 3 beers, and several shots (all necessities when coding), this is the end result. Also, to make the main page load faster, we've cut back the number of postings shown on the main page. If you want to go back further than three days, please click on the monthly archive link in the left menu.

All of this reformatting is a prelude to moving ASZ to its own domain and host over the next few weeks. Blogger's servers are way overtaxed, and there seems to be more problem days than not anymore. We'll try to make the transition as seamless as possible. We're also looking at different enhancements that will make ASZ a more collaborative and dynamic environment.

None of the upgrades come without cost, and my wife would cut me off at the knees if I took any more cash out of my pocket to finance this endeavor, so we're hoping the ASZ community will pitch in a few pennies to help out with costs. There's an Amazon.com honor system "tip box" in the right column where you can drop a donation; if you feel you need more bang for your buck than our erudite observations and writing, buy a great video from TLA Video or book from Amazon, and we get a few sheckles in the transaction. Fair warning - we'll be doing a formal beg-a-thon shortly...

Lastly, after many applications, Blogads finally felt our traffic was sufficient to let us sign up (boy, that was a tough nut to crack), so we'll be doing some more with that, too. We promise to be extremely picky about the ads we approve - causes we believe in and services that we think are of value to our readers. Both we and the advertisers would appreciate it if you'd click through - while Blogads is not a clickthrough ad system, they do count the clickthroughs, and that's important for new and repeat ad support.

Growing pains...one of those good problems to have. ;-)

Whether you've been with us for awhile, or just found us recently, thanks for being a part of the ASZ community!

Update, 4/2/05: Several Mac-o-philes have commented that ASZ isn't rendering properly in the Safari browser, which apparently has some issues with properly interpreting CSS-based sites. Without starting our own cute little Mac / PC war, let me just say, "we're working on it"...in the meantime, IE, Firefox, Netscape and Mozilla work fine with the site. Pick your poison.

Well, That's the Shits

2005-04-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

Here I am sitting here getting ready to go home and the toolbar crawl at the top of my browser has this headline:

Crime Blotter: In Search of the Unintentional Turd Burglar

SAN DIEGO — San Diego police are searching for an alleged turd burglar.

On March 28, police say, a gunman swiped a bag of poop from a woman who was walking her dog. The woman told police that she was walking her dog, Misty, when a man who appeared to be in his 20s ran up behind her and grabbed the bag containing Misty's feces.

When the unintentional alleged turd burglar discovered what was in the bag, police said, he threw it down, pointed his gun at the woman and demanded money. Police said he then pointed the gun at Misty. He pulled the trigger twice but the gun didn't fire.

The gunman ran off to a waiting car, which sped off, the woman told police. While police were still looking for the man, Misty was thankful she had nine lives — even though she's not a cat.

Now you know, when something as newsworthy as that catches your eye it has to be shared.

In Honor of Neil Young

2005-04-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

He's recovering from an operation for a brain aneurysm. No, I don't find him more important than the Pope, but he is more important to me. The Decade four album set is one of the best compilations of music I know.

Just picking at random, I suppose. But we've not had enough lyrics around here lately.

Long may you run, Neil.

LONG MAY YOU RUN

We've been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Well, it was back in Blind River in 1962
When I last saw you alive
But we missed that shift on the long decline
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Maybe The Beach Boys have got you now
With those waves singing "Caroline No"
Rollin' down that empty ocean road
Gettin' to the surf on time.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run

Coincidence? I think not.

2005-04-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

Well, Army recruiting figures for the month of March are out. The regular Army missed its target by nearly 30%, the National Guard by nearly 50%. Do you think the missed targets may have had anything to do with this announcement today?

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Army National Guard, which recently increased its age limit in an effort to reverse a decline in recruitment, is now opening its doors to less educated people.

Under a policy approved this week, the guard will accept recruits with at least a ninth-grade education, as long as they get a satisfactory score on a vocational aptitude test and obtain a General Education Development diploma within three years of signing up, said spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Milord at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.

Previously, recruits needed a high-school diploma or GED certificate to enter the guard, said Pennsylvania Army National Guard spokesman Capt. Cory Angell....

Ok, first the enlistment age is raised five years to 39. Now they're taking kids who dropped out in the ninth grade. Oh, for the days when the military was actually raising its recruiting standards rather than taking anyone with a warm body and a pulse.

The Bush administration is systematically destroying the foundation of the U.S. military, and in doing so, our national security.

...By the beginning of 1943, Hitler's armies were stretched to the limit, battling the combined forces of the Soviet Union, United States, England and other Allies. By this time, most able-bodied German men were in the armed services. As a result, starting on January 26, 1943, anti-aircraft batteries were officially manned solely by Hitler Youth boys. At first they were stationed at flak guns near their homes, but as the overall situation deteriorated, they were transferred all over Germany. The younger boys were assigned to operate search lights and assist with communications, often riding their bicycles as dispatch riders. In October 1943, a search light battery received a direct bomb hit, killing the entire crew of boys, all aged 14 and under...

- Hitler Youth History: The War Years

Next Target of Radical Right-Wing Clerics?

2005-04-01T18:09:00.000-05:00

It's been building for a while, but it's coming to a head in places. Pharmacists throughout the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for oral contraceptives, mistakenly thinking they are defending against abortion. It's happening in California, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Georgia, to name just the few news stories I ran across. By the looks of it this is a severe problem. Evidently this movement is being led by Pharmacists for Life, a group whose sole issue is to rally pharmacists to prevent the distribution of contraceptives and the "morning after pill." Media Matters has the scoop on these self-appointed moralists, including information about their lack of credibility.

Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is going on the offensive to defend women and their right to contraception, having his Department of Financial and Professional Regulation cite those pharmacists who refuse for "failing to provide appropriate pharmaceutical care to a patient." He's also passed an emergency bill to force pharmacists in the state to provide such services or to transfer the patient's request to another pharmacy.

Contraceptives are legal, and pharmacists fill a public health obligation. Blagojevich is right to move forcefully, but more attention needs to be paid to this issue, as rampant as the abuse by radical right-wingers is.

It is becoming clear, from the gay issue to the Schiavo issue and now to this one, that the Radical Right-Wing Cleric agenda is to stifle the rights of American citizens.

Thanks to Duncan at Atrios for the tip.

Vaya Con Huevos!

2005-04-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

Well, it is the Easter season, so I suppose that title is relatively appropriate. And in this season I'm going to follow Richard's lead and head south for a week, with almost no possible connection to the internet. We'll be leaving Philly at 7 tomorrow morning for Puerto Rico, then boarding a cruise ship headed for islands.

I'm looking to get a tan and also to read heavily, though not political stuff. I'll be reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, and A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher. I suppose with three books in the genre of "magic realism, and three by non-American authors, I'll be expanding my mind a bit. (Remember, if any of you order any of these, please use the link on the right there to get to Amazon -- that supports ASZ.) So what's on YOUR reading list?

Otherwise, my lovely fiancee and I are just going to have fun and relax. I may or may not post later today, but figured I'd say "vaya con huevos" while I knew I could.

Culture of Life Cult

2005-04-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Not a lot of time today for posting or commenting, but came across this:

American Jihad
by Nancy Goldstein, for RawStoryQ

Man, what a party the theo-cons threw in Florida last week with the blessings of their elected officials.

Those fun-loving theocracy conservatives — also known as the GOP’s base — took turns chilling outside of Terri Schiavo’s hospice with signs that read “Death House” and a seven-foot tall cross, complete with a bleeding Jesus. They staged photo ops with former Green Berets and fourteen-year-olds being arrested for trying to bring Terri bread and water. And who can forget that wacky radio talk show host whose determination that Michael Schiavo fit the profile of a wife abuser was based entirely on information provided by Terri’s parents?

Good times.

...

Incendiary rhetoric wasn’t contained to the fringes. House majority leader Tom DeLay warmed up the crowd with his declaration that “murder is being committed against a defenseless American citizen in Florida.” And that’s just what he said in public. In private, while speaking to the rabidly theo-con Family Research Council in remarks secretly taped and later released to the press by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, DeLay warned his audience of “a huge nationwide concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in,” urged them to “participate in fighting back,” and claimed that staying out of politics is “not what Christ asked us to do.”

The article is a good summation of Terri's Death Watch Circus and where the show is likely to go next. Read on, and hold on to your hats - the show's just getting started.

I [heart] April First!

2005-04-01T09:46:00.000-05:00

My bossman already pulled a good one on the staff today.

Here's another one. Michelle Maklin, everyone's favorite internment camp-supporting wingnut, checks in on this April Fool's day.

Updates: Water discovered on Mars! DeLay apologizes! Pigs fly!

Enjoy!

Terri Schiavo Death Watch to Pope Death Watch

2005-04-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

We certainly know the Schiavo death watch was something that excited the religious right base of the Republican Party. Heck, I've been blogging constantly about the shame that should smother these folks, Santorum, DeLay, Frist, Bush, Terry, etc. While their hypocritical stance is patent and right there on the surface, it is still not hard to understand why these Reptilicans attempted to take advantage of the Terri Schiavo family tragedy. I'll guarantee right now that the next corpse the Reptilicans will abuse is that of Pope John Paul. And it appears these guys will go moan over the Pope's corpse very soon, as he is in very ill health. Frankly, it might help Bush's numbers by going to Rome for the funeral.

Is it any wonder that these folks will try to take advantage of the Pope's death? John Paul, after all, began the downfall of Communism Ronald Reagan took credit for when he visited his native Poland just after his selection as Pontiff. Yeah, they've taken advantage of his work before. They love the Pope for his stances on abortion and on gays, and I'm sure they secretly love that the Pope would wish to ban contraception altogether. But we need to get out in front and make sure the Righties, likely going over the edge in their rapture, don't forget the parts of John Paul's legacy that goes directly against Reptilican values. (CNN Bio link)

We can't forget that Pope John Paul constantly spoke for Human Rights, whether directly in encouragement of Solidarity, to castigate Pinochet o of Chile, Marcos of the Phillipines, or Stroessner of Paraquay. As evidenced by Abu Ghraib and other incidents, Human Rights is far down the Reptilican list of values. And they can't hide in their rampant materialism either, as Pope John Paul spoke against that Reptilican value on his very first visit to the US. Indeed, when going over to the Pope's funeral George Bush will be celebrating a man who wasn't just passionately against the death penalty, but has prayed with his own attempted assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca. Bush, of course, has gone on record in favor of executing even the mentally retarded and children. (One of Bush's biggest supporters, James Dobson, somehow linked the courts letting Terri Schiavo die to the court's refusing to allow the execution of minors. How whacked is that?)

As the next week or two roll out in front of us, we must be very clear. Pope John Paul, as much as I might have difficulty with his stances on gays and abortion rights, is far more the face of the "culture of life" than any of Bush and the Reptilicans can aspire to. The whole world needs to be reminded that virtually every policy of Bush's, from Abu Ghriab and Gitmo torture to captial punishment to the War in Iraq, has come under Papal criticism.

Our job is to make sure Bush does not succeed in using the Pope's corpse to enliven his numbers.

Cult of Life - The Day After

2005-04-01T08:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, in framing the Schiavo issue through the lens of a Unitarian sermon, I mused about how the cult-of-lifer's would react to the alleged mercy killing of an unarmed, wounded, Iraqi "insurgent" by a U.S. Army Captain. We're not talking about a Rambo-clone PFC right out of boot camp - the shooter was a college educated, U.S. Army line officer who pulled the trigger.

While Tom DeLay threatens to exact olde tyme fire and brimstone vengeance on the U.S. judiciary for maintaining its constitutionally mandated distance from le affaire du Schiavo, a military tribunal has basically let one of its own get away with murder. The officer in question, Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, was found guilty of manslaughter of the Iraqi man. He could have been sentenced to 10 years in military prison.

Today, he walked.

His punishment? "Well, son, you're just not cut out to be one of us. You pulled the trigger on a defenseless man. And got caught. For shame. You bring disgrace upon the military. Because you got caught. Now, get outta here, you nut."

WIESBADEN, Germany - A U.S. Army captain convicted in the shooting death of a wounded Iraqi was dismissed Friday from the armed forces, but the military court did not impose a prison sentence.

..."You commit a serious crime, you are out of the Army. This is not what we do here," prosecutor Maj. John Rothwell said before sentence was passed. "What kind of institution does the U.S. Army become if assault with the intent to commit voluntary manslaughter is an honorable act?"

In an emotional plea to the court for leniency, Maynulet's mother, Carmen, said she was "very, very proud" of her son.

"Please let my son come home," the Cuban immigrant said tearfully.

How does the cult-of-life continue to countenance the sanctimonious, naked hypocrisy? You know - you just inherently know - that nearly every one of the cultists who have been braying for two weeks that all life is sacred are driving around in their SUV's plastered with flags and "support the troops" ribbons. And they would be the first to leap to Capt. Maynulet's defense.

I guess Capt. Maynulet didn't feel it necessary to consult with Tom DeLay or congress or Chimpy McFlightsuit before putting a bullet in the brain of the defenseless Iraqi man. If he had exhibited the same "compassion" to Terri Schiavo, he would have been strapped to a gurney and receiving a lethal injection by noon today.

Living Will - Talisman Against "The Culture of Life Cult"

2005-04-01T00:42:00.000-05:00

Bill's Will

ITEM ONE: I, William E. Cope, being of sound enough mind to know a political stunt when I see one, declare herein that I do not want to be kept alive by any artificial means whatsoever should my brain stop functioning on a level high enough to appreciate the difference between an authentic need for Congressional intervention and meddlesome pandering by sanctimonious huff and puffers out to impress their hillbilly base constituency. This does not mean that first thing in the morning, when I generally exhibit an unresponsive condition which I freely admit could be mistaken for some sort of cerebral flatlinery, that I would turn down a cup of coffee.

But, if by the time I have been out of bed for ... say ... half an hour, and you hear me saying something like, "That Tom DeLay feller has a good point," throw a pillow on my face and sit on it. And don't get to feeling guilty later, because the minute I start sympathizing with an ethically-dead goon like DeLay on anything, I'm too far-gone for regrets.

Point - Worthless Counterpoint

2005-03-31T14:01:00.000-05:00

Billmon from Whiskey Bar conducts a very fitting evisceration of the GOP's association with the fringe religous / rapture ready right. While the old phrase, "lay down with dogs, you get fleas", pops immediately into my head for some reason, Billmon discusses the kennel infestation with a bit more thought:

But marriage, as we all know, is a sacred bond, and while some GOP politicos may regard this as a marriage of convenience, the religious right tends to focus on the " 'til death to us part" bit. Without the grassroots muscle of the Christian conservatives, George W. Bush doesn't get elected, not even once, and the Republicans probably don't control the House and Senate. And the more important GOTV becomes (and in a closely divided, media-saturated electorate, it's very important) the more indispensable is the party's alliance with the "End Times Conservatives."

So Danforth and the "mainstream" Republicans can whine all they want about intolerance and sectarian agendas and the need to get back to good old-fashioned conservative economic values. The reality is that the modern GOP and its business paymasters need the religious right the way Terri Schiavo needed her feeding tube.

Much of Billmon's rant is based on a N.Y. Times Op-Ed today by former senator (and U.N. Ambassador and Bush front-man) John Danforth. Danforth is shocked, shocked to find out that the fringe lunatics have squatted in the GOP house, and there's apparently no way to evict them.

Of course, a good GOP footsoldier like Danforth breaking ranks with his leadership could not go unanswered by the Rovians. In fact, I'm willing to bet that Karl was on the phone with Hugh Hewitt moments after the NYTimes early edition hit the newsstands. Had to be. That's the only way Hewitt could crank up his sliming of Danforth in the Weekly Standard so quickly:

So Danforth's essay is really a poorly-camouflaged complaint that his positions on stem-cell research, gay marriage, and Terri Schiavo are not the positions of the Republican party. It is fair for him to try and persuade people to endorse his positions but it is wrong and demagogic to attempt to question the right of people of faith to participate in politics...

Danforth is hardly a liberal wallflower, in fact, he was always one of the creepier, Straussian-neocons in the Senate during his time. So why the attack? What Sen. Danforth has apparently failed to recognize is that you're either with George Bush or against him. There's no middle ground. No room for criticism in the GOP. If you're not on message, you're off the reservation.

John McCain learned the hard way, and his stock has gone from high-flying former presidential candidate (and possible Kerry running mate) to Bush butt boy. John Danforth is about to learn - even in retirement, you don't fuck with the agenda of the boss. The incredible creepy slime machine, from Limbaugh to Hewitt, has now been set in motion to marginalize Danforth as a flaming, gay-loving liberal.

Try a Hartz flea collar next time, Sen. Danforth.

The Circle of Life

2005-03-31T11:37:00.000-05:00

Almost every one of us will have to deal with the agonizing life and death decisions that Michael Schiavo has had to confront for the past fifteen years. I want to say that with his wife's passing this morning, he can now move on with his life. But he did what most of us do when confronted with these decisions a long time ago.

We mourn, we move on. Not to sound trite, but it's the circle of life. Life is for the living. We mourn the passing of our loved ones who always leave us too early; we celebrate their lives, and keep their memories alive.

The saddest thing about this whole affair is that the events of the last few weeks will forever taint the happy memories of Terri Schiavo for everyone that loved her.

For that alone, the Randall Terry's of the world should burn in hell.

Rest in peace, Terri. Live in peace, Michael.

Santorum Doesn't Get It

2005-03-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania's Man on Dog in Washington, Rick Santorum, took some time during the Senate's Easter recess to go and grandstand outside the Pinellas Park hospice where all those protesters are. I suppose he wants to connect with his whacko "base." During his visit, which could have been accomplished privately so as not to stir a very contentious controversy, Mr. Santorum talked to the press to excoriate the decisions by dozens of judges. When all of Congress and the President himself have read the polls and, like they were hit with a brick up the side of their heads, discovered they were on the WRONG SIDE of this issue, Rick Santorum keeps blundering along. Frankly, I'm hoping Rick Santorum continues to show that conservatism to him means pandering to the religious right rather than an adherence to constitutional principle.

"We cannot continue to expect that the laws that we pass and the intentions are clear, that are just simply ignored by the judges and have their nose, basically thumb their noses at us," Sen Rick Santorum, (R-Pennsylvania) said Tuesday, demanding that two judges who ignored the Congressional legislation and federal subpoenas issued in the Terri Schiavo case should be held accountable.

What's becoming clear is that conservatives are beginning to be willing to speak about what used to be conservative values, like federalism. Indeed, Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr., who authored opinions upholding a couple of the most conservative decisions in recent history, the Alabama Sex Toy ban and the Florida Gay Adoption Ban, came out yesterday to slam Bush and the Congress on their meddling in the Schiavo case.

Yet, in Wednesday's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny a rehearing to Schiavo's parents, Birch went out of his way to castigate Bush and congressional Republicans for acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for governance of a free people - our Constitution."

Birch said he couldn't countenance Congress' attempt to "rob" federal courts of the discretion they're given in the Constitution. Noting that it had become popular among "some members of society, including some members of Congress," to denounce "activist judges," or those who substitute their personal opinions for constitutional imperatives, Birch said lawmakers embarked on their own form of unconstitutional activism.

In the same article constitutional scholar Dave Garrow places Birch firmly in the Scalia/Thomas camp, though I would doubt Scalia and Thomas would be so strictly originalist. They have shown their willingness to pander to the religious right before, after all. Still, the Republicans, including Pennsylvania's Man on Dog in Washington, Rick Santorum, have always said they want judges who rule as Judge Birch has done.

You know, I hate the sound of dogs whining. I think Rick Santorum has been around those dogs too much lately, because his whining is about as shrill as chihuahua faced with a rolled up newspaper.