Friday, July 31, 2009

Glibertarianism

I dream of a place where government is small enough to drown in the bathtub.

I dream of a government where fair market principles are actually implemented.

I dream of a free market that is truly free from the oppressive chains of a regulatory authoritarian government.

I dream of a country without gratuitous bureaucratic monstrosities like Departments of Education, or Health and Human Services.

I dream of a secure nation where everyone is free to own guns to ensure their own protection.

I dream of Somalia.

Holding back the fool again...



From the aptly named "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness".

Friday, July 24, 2009

America's Finest



There's soldiering: Engaging and defeating an enemy through use of military force, and then occupying his territory.


And then there's Policing. Somebody needs to inform police in this country that there's a difference.

"The patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America, we can lock a guy up on the humble, lock him up for real, or say fuck it and drink ourselves to death under the expressway and our side partners will cover us, No one - I mean no one - tells us how to waste our shift!"

-McNulty



03/05/09: Police assault a 22-year old man in an elevator, charge him with assaulting a police officer, and he's only cleared when the elevator's surveillance video comes forward.

03/22/09: Police perform a traffic stop, and without cause, sieze $26,000 in cash.

03/25/09: Detective perjuring herself in front of a grand jury gets nailed when surveillance video proves she lied her ass off.

04/01/09: Phoenix blogger who's highly critical of the Phoenix PD and has sources inside the dept helping him to expose high-level corruption, has his house raided by PPD SWAT, wherein they sieze his personal documents, computers, and business plans. The warrant being served listed "Petty Theft" and "Computer tampering with the intent to harrass" as the Probable Cause.

04/09/09: Police gets misdemeanor charge in the shooting of a college student during a 5-officer police raid over Pot Possession. Not distribution, possession.

04/09/09: City of Chicago pays out over $280,000, over a 2004 special ops police raid on a bar executed under false pretenses and arrests made subsequently with false statements.

04/20/09: 11 Oakland officers the OPD had been planning to terminate for falsifying affidavits to secure search warrants on small-time drug suspects, and now returned to duty:
Allegations that officers falsified search-warrant affidavits arose in September. After the department's acknowledgment that some officers made misstatements to judges, dozens of criminal cases have been placed in question, and criminal charges against 12 defendants have been dropped.


04/29/09: An anonymous blogger writing critically about the ethical practices of a local megachurch has sued his sheriff and D.A.'s offices for revealing his identity to the church even though he had done nothing illegal.

05/06/09: A Grandmother files suit against two Pennsylvania police departments, after a Walmart Photo employee develops pictures of her 3 year old granddaughter getting out of the tub, the police charged her with producing child pornography.

05/21/09: Police Officer driving 109mph without his lights flashing or sirens on, plows into a pickup making a legal left turn in the middle of an intersection. Cop dies, accident victim charged with DUI even though his Blood/Alcohol level is half the legal limit.

06/06/09: New Jersey Police assault a 29-year old schizophrenic man for the crime of standing on a corner.


07/20/09: Cop's son rear-ends a young woman. He drives off. She pulls into a gas station. The son goes to the precinct, gets his dad, they both go back to the scene of the accident, and then the gas station. The officer draws his weapon, grabs the girl from behind and points the gun at her head. She's startled and swings her arm back. He arrests her friends and charges her with assault on a police officer. He then returns three times to the gas station to try and intimidate the clerk and the owner to destroy the surveillance tape of the incident. The owner relents, the tape was shown in court, and the charges against the young woman were dropped. The officer was returned to full duty 8 days after the IID hearing, and the D.A. and the police both declined to pursue any criminal or disciplinary charges.



And then there's Shem Walker.

These are just a very select few in the last couple months of a prolonged systemic failure of law enforcement to see itself as a policing agency, and not as a militaristic institution. Not all cops are bad, many or most of them are quite admirable and do a tough job for below average pay, for which they deserve our thanks.
However, my disdain at an institutional brotherhood expands to include all its members when a reasonable moderate contingent cannot or will not disown it's unstable, poisonous elements.

For more, read Radley Balko's excellent coverage at his site, "The Agitator" under the tags Police Militarization and Police Professionalism.

UPDATE: Boston Cop suspended for racist email over Gatesgate:

"Your defense of Gates while he is on the phone while being confronted [INDEED] with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect. He is a suspect and always will be a suspect. His first priority of concern should be to get off the phone and comply with police, for if I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC deserving of his belligerent non-compliance." [my emphasis]


This smug, ID-driven prick and every Cop that shares his attitude should be purged from the force. Unamerican authorities like this should not have the power of life and death over anyone.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

There's a reason he's the most trusted news anchor in America

Howie Kurtz has nothing on Stewart's media criticism.


Also, a must see birther takedown


Also, too, lets say for the sake of argument Obama was born in Kenya. His mother was a US Citizen which according to laws passed in the 1950s, would have automatically made BHO a natural born US Citizen born on foreign soil (Even before that it's likely that it would still be the case, as John McCain was born in Panama, but is a "Naturally born" US citizen. The US Consolate in Kenya would have had issued a Passport for him in order for him to be able to return to Hawaii and travel abroad as well. Even if they're right, They're wrong!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

They used to make steel there, no?



"We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket."



"Oh, indeed."

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Stuck in between 3rd and Reverse.


Sarah Barracuda is a tough as nails patriot who can stand up to Congress, Vladimir Putin, and Joe Biden, but David Letterman makes her cry.

Sarah Palin has always, is now, and forever shall be a wingnut. Her followers are exclusively Wingnuts.



Wingnuts have 5 speeds:

1st Gear: Chest-thumping bed-wetter


OMG, we can't put bad people in prisons on U. S. soil.
WE'RE ON U. S. Soil!

2nd Gear: Projection Artist

That said, pdb’s comment would be a beautiful example of the reflexive narcissism of the Wingnuts—they have a disdain for African-Americans, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else. They are cowards, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else. They are crooks, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else.

(This, by the way, is a classic example of narcissistic projection that one sees in the psychological literature. Narcissists are deeply insecure, fearing that a certain modesty on their parts would be more than justified. Thus, in any case where they fail of the ideals that they demand others achieve, they use misdirection to distract viewers.)




3rd: Oppressed victim of liberal meanyness.


Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.
[...]
In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children (where the count was unanimous... well, in response to asking: "Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from outside the Governor's office?" It was four "yes's" and one "hell yeah!" The "hell yeah" sealed it - and someday I'll talk about the details of that... I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.)


4th: Red State Strike Force-esque Treason Purger


and

Reverse: Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.
(Not retreat, but advancing in another direction, last throes, etc)

A child is not an accessory. It's something to up your favorables with.

"Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child," Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapelton said in a statement provided to CNN. "The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling."


Nevermind the photospread in Runner's World where she's brandishing Trig for no reason.

You want Malicious Desecration? Well, the Something Awful forums have some amusing and tasteless photoshops of their own they'd like her to see.

My favorites:









Happy 4th:

We must not allow a Freedom-Having Gap!

Mitt Romney's foreign policy strategy in Place-mat form:



This map is leading me to believe that Jihadis want world domination so that they can surpass USA in freedom having capability? Or is Mitt doing that assuming here?

Friday, July 3, 2009

You know, it's so nice when it happens good.

via TPM, the rumor mill is picking up some "chatter", that Palin is resigning by way of Friday news dump to obscure a huge scandal about to drop.

A sane person can only come to one or more of the following conclusions:

A) A complete and utter moron.

B) A non sequitur filled pathological lying narcissist.

C) A coward.

D) More crooked than Clay Davis.

SQUEEE!



SHE'S DONE.

I admire the grace with which Senator McCain conceded on election night, and felt we dodged a bullet from letting a pathological loon a heartbeat away from the presidency,
but at this point, anyone and everyone who still wants her to run for and be President in 2012 needs help. They need a psych exam, a padded room, and lots of Thorazine.



*****


UPDATE: Wow, I just watched the video. She's not sane, competent, or qualified enough to run a beer stand at a NASCAR raceway.



"And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose NOT to tear down and waste precious time; but to build UP this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!

Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and "go with the flow".

Nah, only dead fish "go with the flow"."


So she's a live fish who's quitting cause she's a winner. Got it.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

WOAH.

Update on Bolton


"Point of order, Mr. Chairman. I have a suggestion."
"Mr. Bolton, if you suggest the use of military force one more time, I will immediately motion for a roll-call vote to have you kicked off the fucking planet!
Now, does your suggestion involve bombs?"
"..."


Three op-eds in 1 month in major publications all advocating military strikes on Iran.

Not Counting Yglesias's title from January of this year, before Obama was even sworn in.


Every Day is a Good Day to Start a War

John Bolton urges Barack Obama to adopt a policy of regime change and unprovoked military attacks on Iran:

Iran and North Korea achieved their objectives through diplomacy. Mr. Bush failed to achieve his. How can Mr. Obama do better? For starters, he could increase the pressure on China, which has real leverage over North Korea, to press Kim Jong Il’s regime in ways that the six-party talks never approached. Options on Iran are more limited, but meaningful efforts at regime change and assisting Israel should it decide to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities would be good first steps.


That’s via my colleague Ben Armbruster who also observes that “Earlier this week famed war hawk John Bolton said that the recent crisis in Gaza presents the perfect opportunity for the U.S. and Israel to bomb Iran.”


Did Bolton have his binky stolen by Persians as an infant?

Why the country is going down in flames, beginning with a single ideology.

Remember all the 2001-2006 bullshit that if Americans voted for the Democrats, then we'd all be less safe? Republicans are the only party that keep you safe. If you're against the war, then you're rooting for the 'terrists.



From the American Prospect:
This gets to the essential creepiness about Beck's emotional display introducing his whole 9/12 project--the man wasn't weeping because he wished the country was as "unified" as it was after 9/11; he was weeping because the country is no longer in a such a state of petrified fear that it will acquiesce to whatever extreme measures the right deems necessary. Beck wasn't crying for the country; he was crying for himself, crying because people are no longer frightened enough to agree with everything he has to say. Understand, he only wants to hurt you because he loves you.

But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you're not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone's head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Patriotism is dead, long live patriotism.




*****


From '03-08, the left would show visceral outrage at GWBush's dismantling of the constitution, vis a vis, lying to the world to engage in a needless war of choice which 6 years later reaps the benefit of having more than four thousand U.S. troops and a million less Iraqis on the planet, torturing those we captured of which some of them guilty but many were blatantly innocent, spying on the width and breadth of Americans without so much as PC or a warrant. Chest-thumping bed-wetters like Hannity and O'Reilly would say that the Left had Bush-Derangement Syndrome.

As first described by conservative columnist and Psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, Bush Derangement Syndrome (or BDS) is a loss of the capability for rational thought. This loss is often displayed over a period of hours, days or even months and years. The sufferer in all cases blames President George W. Bush for any and all types of disasters, human maladies, etc. despite abundant evidence of contrary causal effects. BDS is also manifested in many sufferers by a determination to label President Bush as the greatest single threat to democracy and freedom in the United States since the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts during the presidency of John Adams.


Everything with these clowns is projection, everything.










*****


And when Palin freaks about the media exploiting her children, the MSM bias, and compulsively lies about everything from campaign issues to band-aids, none of it is her responsibility, it's all the media. It's all a conspiracy.

Since we oddly have no actual pictures of her, you know, running in Runners World, and each photo seems staged to a comic degree, and her exploitation of the child has been relentless from the get-go, and I provide the links for readers to make up their own minds, I don't think I'm being unfair. I may be wrong, of course, and I'm happy to air another view, hence this dissent. And my reader is right that we can get stuck in a rut and not give someone a fresh look.


But my view is that people do not change that much and their history is often a guide to who they are, and I observed Palin very closely - after initially liking her - and that's my judgment. I'm very fallible and I may be wrong so I urge Dish readers to seek other views and interpretations. But here's the point I'd make now: If Palin had herself shifted the narrative since the election, if she had gone back to Alaska to do her job diligently, and made an effort to master domestic and foreign policy issues, and run for a second term on her record, rather than preening about in Runners World and picking fights with David Letterman and setting up Sarahpac and on and on, then I think many of us would have been prepared to look again. She was hopelessly unready in 2008 - but she's young and could evolve and grow. Everything we see - from the tabloid family feuds to the staged controversies - suggest a regression, not an evolution. She is who she is, hence the solidity of her support and opposition.


Why people still love her, and the more unhinged she gets, the louder they clap.

Part of Sarah Palin's irresistible appeal to her fundamentalist base is her ability to look at the camera with utter conviction and declare black to be white.

The ability to lie well is a valuable part of the fundamentalist psychology. My son isn't gay, he just hasn't found the right woman! Those rocks aren't 50 million years old, they just look like it as a test of our faith! My sexless marriage isn't foundering, it is filled with God's spirit! The minister isn't molesting little Maria, they're just very close! It isn't torture, it is being tough on terrorists!

Fundamentalists can recognize a truly audacious and talented liar from miles away. Instead of running the other way, as you might expect, they gather around the powerful liar, for they know that their own lies will be respected and protected by a leader who understands the paramount importance of preserving their whole system of denial.


*****


John Bolton, from today's Washington Post:

"Significantly, the uprising in Iran also makes it more likely that an effective public diplomacy campaign could be waged in the country to explain to Iranians that [an Israeli strike] is directed against the regime, not against the Iranian people. This was always true, but it has become even more important to make this case emphatically, when the gulf between the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the citizens of Iran has never been clearer or wider. Military action against Iran’s nuclear program and the ultimate goal of regime change can be worked together consistently."


'Cause nothing will rally a Muslim people yearning to be free from their own oppressive government more than foreign Jewish airstrikes.
Is there any dilemma Neocons doubt could be solved by military high-explosives?

That's about all the stupid I can take today.

Strike that:

From ABC:
It was a supernatural View today when the ladies welcomed John Edward, Dr. Brian Weiss, Sandy Anastasi, and Joanne Reeves to our studio! John kicked off the show by doing an amazing audience reading; our viewers were surprised to see how right on he actually was. Then, the ladies welcomed Dr. Brian Weiss, who took Joy on a journey back to a past life. Later, Sandy Anastasi read Whoopi's tarot cards and informed us what each card actually represents. Finally, John Edward came back to give Sherri a fantastic psychic reading -- and Joanne Reeves told Elisabeth and our audience what's in the stars for the Hasselbeck family. All of today's guests can be found on infinitequest.com.


Get ready for an hour unlike any other this Thursday on The View. In this special edition of the show, the co-hosts each get exposed to some variety of the supernatural, be it tarot cards, past lives, or messages from beyond. Sherri gets a reading with nationally recognized psychic John Edward, and we can't even begin to tell you how that all went down. Whoopi gets her tarot cards read, and we all get a lesson in the difference between right-side-up tarot cards and upside-down tarot cards. And Joy gets put under hypnosis by a past-life expert, who delves deep into Joy's childhood. No, farther back. No, even FARTHER back!