No More Mr. Nice Guy!

"Those with the darkest nightmares became the most powerful."

"The Power of Nightmares", a documentary series from the BBC, has never been shown in the US because it makes the explosive claim that Al-Qaeda is nothing but a myth created by the neonazi-cons to solidify their own power. Osama Bin Laden's group, far from being a vast international conspiracy with tentacles in over 60 countries as the Junior administration often claims, was simply a small group of men who were losing the struggle to get the Muslims masses to rise up and overthrow secular Arab governments (like that of Iraq). Their insanely violent fanaticism had been decisively rejected by ordinary people in Algeria, Egypt and elsewhere. 9/11 was their dying gasp, and it was eagerly seized on by the neonazi-cons as a pretext for waging perpetual war, eviscerating US democracy and putting into practice the fascistic ideas of Leo Strauss, that war and religion are useful tools for controlling the ignorant masses.

In the process, the cons revived Islamic fundamentalism beyond Bin Laden's wildest dreams. In fact, the cons and the Islamists are mirror images of each other, needing each other to survive, locked together in a symbiotic dance of death. Both are radicals who want to transform the world. Both are full of moral certainty and are happy to slaughter anyone who gets in their way, including their own countrymen whom they believe are hopelessly corrupted by liberalism.

Watching this series has been compared to waking up from the Matrix and realizing that the world you thought you lived in was a fiction. Among the revelations: the hysteria about dirty bombs is totally unjustified, since a dirty bomb is no more dangerous than a conventional bomb - the radioactive material gets too widely dispersed to do any harm. If the initial blast doesn't kill you, the only way to die is to stand at the point of explosion, without moving, for - a year!

Another point: the neonazi-cons have a long history of self-delusion, creating phantom monsters to scare the pants off the gullible public and then believing their own BS. For example, during the 80's, every terrorist group in the world from Belfast to Sri Lanka was supposed to be under the control of Moscow. The cons' own intelligence analysts would tell them, "this story is false, we know because our guys wrote it," but the cons would shrug this off and go on with their apocalyptic fearmongering. In the 90's, Bill Clinton was the enemy, and the lies and slander that they bought and paid for in the "Arkansas Project" became gospel truth for them. It's an interesting kind of doublethink. At some level they must have been aware that this stuff was lies, but if a lie was useful enough, it became the truth by definition.

Here's the entire series. Each part is 59 minutes long.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Today we are all living in the neonazi-cons' nightmare. You must watch this series!

Christ, that's funny!

For the first time since starting this blog, I am listing a work of fiction as my current book recommendation. The highest compliment I can pay a book is to think, "Damn, I wish I'd written that!" and that's how I feel about Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days. This book is outrageous, wildly over the top and funnier than hell, and you will be howling with either laughter or anger - maybe both!

The main character is Matthew Ford, a hapless dork for whom nothing ever goes right. One night, unable to take any more, he kicks a ghost out of his bedroom which it had been haunting, thus unwittingly disturbing the balance in Heaven. Two wise-cracking cherubim are sent to kidnap Matthew and take him to Heaven for a good talking-to from Jesus. Matthew refuses to back down, returns to Earth, and is seduced and coached by Satan. He becomes a self-help guru and leads an army of obese people to overturn the US government. From then on it's pure chaos until the battle of Armageddon, fought by opposing armies of undead zombies. Along the way we meet God as a vegetable in a motorized wheelchair, Jesus as a ruthless CEO, a pedophile priest, "coyotes" who smuggle illegal Mexicans into Heaven, angel biker gangs and a Senator Liebershit - nothing is spared in this book.

A couple of the jokes try too hard and fall flat, and the prose is just a little purple in places. On the whole, though, this is a fast-paced story that is original, inventive and hilarious all the way through. The end of the world has never been this much fun!

Bad will hunting

Duncan Hunter, the Randy Cunningham bedfellow and ultra-hawkish rethug candidate for prez, seems to love surrounding himself with racists and bigots.

Hunter's South Carolina advisor, Horry County Auditor Lois Eargle, boasted about telling a domestic abuse victim that she should "get back to Mexico." And another South Carolinan, state campaign co-chair Henry Jordan, said in 1997 during a school board meeting: "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims." Jordan refused to apologize for the remarks, explaining:

"What I want to do is promote Christianity as the only true religion," he said. "This nation was founded to worship, honor and glorify Jesus Christ, not Mohammed, not Buddha."

Hmm... make that racists, bigots, and know-nothing dumbasses.

And they call us progressives the angry loonies?

Bollocks!

Clint Bolick is an extreme-right bomb thrower who has fought to undermine public education and affirmative action among other things. Currently, Bolick is shilling for Proposition 207, an anti-zoning initiative which was rammed through last November by out-of-state land speculator Howie Rich, using millions of his money and a blatantly deceptive campaign of lies and fearmongering.

Faced with the prospect of being paralyzed and having their treasuries drained by predatory lawsuits, and being prevented from enforcing even the most necessary and uncontentious zoning regulations, Arizona municipalities are scrambling to find a way to cover themselves and stay in operation without having to let slaughterhouses open up next to schools, or chemical plants next to hospitals. One very sensible measure they are taking is that if you apply for a permit to develop your property, you must sign a waiver so that you can't later sue the municipality for granting you the permit. (This being America, it's only a question of time before some moron screws up his development project, destroys the value of his property, and then sues the city that granted him the permit.)

As a lawyer, Bolick naturally takes a dim view of any attempt to slow down the endless gravy train that Prop 207 represents to him. He has written an editorial and plastered the state with it, somehow getting almost every publication in Arizona to print it as a guest editorial - even the Midtown Messenger, the local paper where I saw it. The Midtown Messenger serves the Historic Districts of Phoenix, which are the only jewel in the near-infinite and crushingly ugly sprawl of metro Phoenix. These districts have a great deal to lose from Prop 207, as publisher David Tell has reported, so I'm baffled as to why he printed Bolick's screed - unless it was out of a desire to be balanced, which Bolick abused by spouting lies and disinformation.

What kills me about Bolick's rant is that he writes:

Kleptomania is too widely entrenched for local governments to abandon it easily. Too bad we'll all have to foot the bill if someone has to sue the cities to establish that the law means what it says.

The real kleptomaniacs are people like Clint "make my day" Bolick and Howie Rich. It's a win-win for them - either they can develop with no hindrance whatsoever from zoning regulations, or they can sue the city or county into oblivion when it tries to enforce regulations.

Zelph had an excellent idea - let's open a porn shop opposite the Mormon Temple in Mesa, and when the Mormon-dominated city council tries to shut us down, invoke Prop 207 and sue their asses off. I don't know if Bolick is a Mormon but I'd love to see his face when that suit was filed!

Bollocks to Bolick, and to all the millionaire-funded astroturf groups he whores for.

Late night blogging

I'm falling behind in my blogging, too many late nights and early mornings slaving away in my cubicle. So this post will just be a stream of consciousness, or perhaps unconsciousness...

I wonder what Scooter Libby's prison nickname will be? Maybe he'll just drop the S. Because if he goes to the big house, you can bet he'll be somebody's bitch.

George Bush Junior is always going on about his divine mission to bring freedom to the entire world. Then he turns around and defecates on the Constitution, spies on the entire US population, disappears unknown numbers of people into a vast torture gulag, and generally does everything in his power to destroy freedom. How to explain this discrepancy? Simple; to Junior, "freedom" is a code word for fundamentalist christianity. Spreading freedom at gunpoint is an oxymoron, but imposing christianity by violence is a time-honored tradition.

It's 18 months before the 2008 election, and already the Dem front-runners are forming the inevitable circular firing squad, to the delight of the extreme right. This really pisses me off. Dems get so vicious with each other, and spend so much time, money and effort attacking and sliming their rivals. Then they are such craven quisling cowards when they should be standing up to the overwhelming torrent of crime, treason and corruption from the Junior regime.

With England pulling 1,600 of its troops out of Iraq, the "coalition of the willing" - which was never more than the duo of the duped - is now the singleton of the simpleton.

Yesterday John McCain flip-flopped on Roe v. Wade, today he's pandering to cretinists. I've never seen anyone lurch to the right so far and so fast, desperately chasing the lunatic-right vote. He is degrading himself worse than the Viet Cong ever treated him. I feel disgusted that he represents my state.

I forget what else I was going to write about. I'd better get some sleep.

Be seeing you!

Cal Thomas is an idiot

Thomas's latest screed calls the Democrats in Congress "Indian givers" because they express support for the troops and opposition to George Bush Junior's troop splurge. "This is like sending your love a valentine last week and this week sending a note withdrawing the-sentiment." WTF?

In what source of bizarro fictional parallel universe can sending already war-weary and battle-scarred troops into yet another extended tour of duty without even proper body and vehicle armor, and slashing funds to the VA, be construed as supporting them?

And where the hell does Thomas get off calling the Dems cowards? It's the Republicans who are stifling and shutting off debate on the war - their war, their screwup, their failure. That's cowardice in my book.

I'd love to really rip Thomas a new one but it's late and I have to be up early tomorrow. So let me just state for the record: Cal Thomas is a wrinkly-faced, senile, drooling idiot.

Why do rethugs hate the troops?

Another thing that pisses me off about the current rethug campaign to stifle debate on Junior's cheneyed-up quagmire war is that they are trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, the Democrats' non-binding resolution is toothless and deep shallow. On the other hand, it's going to embiggen the enemy or something. Worst of all, it's going to destroy troop morale. Because, according to the 'thugs, US troops are such pussies that a symbolic non-binding expression of mild disapproval against the boy chimperor is going to throw them all into existential despair and angst, and also make Lady Liberty weep. Therefore anyone who supports such a resolution should be hanged!

There are so many baboons howling in rage against this resolution, why don't they go to Iraq and relieve some of the troops? Why are they so gung-ho to sacrifice more cannon fodder on the altar of Halliburton's bottom line, digging us deeper into the hole they've created, doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result? Not to mention slashing benefits and health care for those troops who make it out alive.

Why do 'thugs hate the troops so much?

Filibastards

Remember when the filibuster was the tool of Satan, the most evil weapon ever devised? A low-down dirty trick so horrific in its hideousness, our only option was to go nuclear against it?

Of course, things were different then. Rethugs controlled the Senate, and the merest and most timid and tentative hint that Dems might invoke the F-word to oppose George Bush Junior's mouth-foamingly insane judicial nominees was enough to bring on paroxysms of purple-faced denunciation of "obstruction" and "sabotage" by "the party of no ideas", and demands that 200-plus years of democratic tradition by swept aside for short-term partisan gains.

Well, guess what? The 'thugs were against filibustering before they were for it. Now that they are in the minority, they are working furiously to prevent a symbolic, non-binding vote that might embarrass the Chimp-in-Chief. They've also blocked a minimum wage increase. Heavens forfend that the Senate might actually accomplish something useful!

Predictably, Joe Liebershit (I'll explain the reference later) turned coat to vote with his 'thug blood brothers, and the Dems rolled over and allowed the 'thugs to stifle debate when the filibuster is supposed to extend debate. Cenk Uygur is right - let's see a real filibuster! Let's see the 'thugs stand up and speechify for 24 hours straight on how hunky-dory the war against Iraq is going. Let them show how totally out of touch they are with the large majority of Americans who are crying out for genuine debate, and more importantly, action on the Iraquagmire that those flabby chickenhawks have dragged us into.

I hope the voters will remember this shameful spectacle next November. If ever a group deserves to have someone go nuclear on their asses, it's those cowardly, sanctimonious crawthumpers who are very brave at sacrificing other people's kids, but are too craven to allow open debate on the most important issue facing the US today.

Very squirrelly

Here is a website that seriously weirds me out: Sugar Bush Squirrel. It's mawkish and kitschy in the extreme, but just when you think it's harmless lowest-common-denominator commercialism, it plunges into issues like Hurricane Katrina or the London Tube bombs in a way that is jaw-droppingly inappropriate. (Be warned if you have a slow internet connection; the page goes on forever and is fully of large images.)

I guess this page offers an insight into the mentality (if you could call it that) of George Bush Junior's core supporters. They think he's cute, so they let him get away with anything.

Arizona Conservative Idiot of the Week: Thayer Verschoor

Thoughtcrime is rampant in Arizona schools! It must be stamped out! This looks like a job for - Thayer Verschoor!

The ultra-right-wing rethug who is the majority leader in the Arizona State Senate is determined to make his pet bill the law of the state. He has written a draconian piece of legislation to stifle all independent thought in the classroom by forbidding "specific endorsement or opposition of candidates, legislation or court action as well as any social, political or cultural issues of a partisan nature" and threatening teachers who fail his litmus test with "suspension, firing, certification revocation or $500 penalty." He also wants to make it a crime to "impede" military recruiters on campus.

Verschoor's first bill on this subject, S-1612, died a well-deserved death in committee. Sane committee members were horrified that this broadly-written bill would be blatantly unconstitutional, have a chilling effect on education and could "even affect trips to the museum, where the history of a political party might be discussed."

Verschoor did not take no for an answer. He used his political muscle and a legislative maneuver known as a strike-all amendment, a technique frequently used to bypass committee scrutiny and force into law some piece of stealth legislation that cannot stand up to the light of day, to resurrect S-1612 essentially unchanged as S-1542. Now this odious bill moves to the senate floor, where there is a good chance that this backward, anti-education state's crazed and ignorant legislators will approve it.

The Arizona state legislature has long been a playground for corrupt crony capitalists and barking-mad lunatics (check out Barbara Blewster for an example of the latter - I guarantee you won't believe what she said about gays and Jews). But Verschoor is an exceptionally dangerous example of the species, being not only droolingly insane but very powerful and ruthless, with a long history of getting exactly what he wants.

Arizona is already the dumbest state in the Union, and ranks dead last by almost every measure of educational quality. Verschoor's bill will be the final nail in the coffin.

Dog-whistling Dixie

Though I'm still withholding judgment on Barack Obama, I'm amused to see my predictions starting to come true the very day he announced his candidacy. Some rethug pillock is saying that Obama is equating himself with Abe Lincoln, and that "a good leader needs to be humble."

Humble, huh?

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president."

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."

"Bring 'em on."

But then, we always knew Junior was the worst leader ever.

Anyway, rethugs are going to continue using dog-whistle racism to appeal to the base, hinting that Obama is uppity and doesn't know his place. (And don't forget for an instant that his middle name is Hussein, which is a Jew-hating name!) They will continue to spread lies and smears invented from whole cloth. And they will be shocked - shocked! if any Dem musters the cojones to call them on their crap.

I am hoping against hope that there are enough decent people left in the target audience of these disgusting racists and hatemongers that they will be turned off by this despicable smear campaign. Though it's not likely that the haters will take notice in any case. After the obscenity of Katrina gate, you'd think that if they had the tiniest shred of human decency left, they would have crawled away and hidden in the nearest sewer. They're still around. Enough said.

Let's see, about 18 months to Election Day. Better stock up on a good supply of gas masks...

Blacker than thou

Tonight I watched the repeat of yesterday's Colbert Report (as a wage slave I no longer have the luxury of staying up until 1am), and saw Colbert interview Debra Dickerson, who is apparently some sort of self-appointed black identity policewoman. Her shtick is that Barack Obama isn't black, because he isn't the descendant of West African slaves who picked cotton in the Deep South. Well, excuse the hell out of me! Who died and appointed her with sole power to determine other people's identity?

This is so stupid. Remember when Tiger Woods said he wasn't just black, he also wanted to honor the Asian parts of his heritage? The black priesthood of the US called out with one voice: "No, you're just black. Period. End of discussion." If you have one drop of "black blood", you're 100% black. The theory that allowed slavery and Dredd Scott has been eagerly embraced by the descendants of its victims!

What's more, according to Dickerson, being black is political. Her stance eerily echoes the white supremacist mantra, "your skin is your uniform." This woman urgently needs to get over herself.

When you think about it, it's ironic that ever since the fall of Apartheid South Africa, no country spends more money, time and resources categorizing its citizens and putting them into little boxes stamped "black", "white" etc. than the Land of the Free. We have this huge racial bureaucracy which spends billions of our tax dollars trying to stamp out racism by ensuring that we will all be obsessed with race in perpetuity, and see each other primarily as skin colors rather than as fellow citizens. And we have idiots like Dickerson appointing themselves master of the plantation, keeping those black folks in their place, making sure they don't get uppity ideas like having the right to decide their own identity.

Look, I don't care whether you're white, black, brown, red, or green with purple polka dots. You do not have the right to impose an identity on other people.

I believe very strongly that (i) "race" is a scientifically meaningless term and should never be the basis of public policy, and (ii) everyone should be treated first and foremost as an individual. Sure, it's fine to be proud of your heritage, as long as you're at least open to learning about other heritages. But when you decide that someone's skin color or ethnic background defines who they are as a person, and makes them interchangeable with everyone else who has been categorized in the same little box - well, that's the very definition of racism.

The racism of the Jim Crow era was ugly and horrible, and should be driven out wherever it still lingers. But the mindless bureaucratic racism of "diversity quotas" and "political blackness", even if well intentioned, is like the death of a thousand cuts.

The US public initially signed off on Affirmative Action because for the most part they are fair-minded people who accepted that racism was an injustice that needed to be corrected. But they are growing increasingly uncomfortable as they see they have signed a blank check. The rationale for Affirmative Action has shifted from righting past wrongs and levelling the playing field, to fixing the final score. The game is kept going in perpetuity in the name of the appallingly muddled concept of "diversity", some magic quality that only "people of color" possess. In fact, a "person of no color" actually has negative diversity - I've had it patiently explained to me more than once that if a white male joins a group of people of color, the group becomes less diverse.

The US has lost its way with regard to race, and has gone down a path that leads into a quagmire. I know some people are disingenuously calling for the end of Affirmative Action because they want to replace it with nothing. I'm saying that Affirmative Action, diversity consciousness and all the rest of it has become a massive self-perpetuating juggernaut that has long since lost sight of its initial goals and serves only to foster resentment and divisiveness.

We need to replace our race bureaucracy with something that, while acknowledging our different backgrounds, focuses on people first and foremost as individuals, and emphasizes our common ground rather than our differences. How exactly do we do that? I don't have all the answers. But I know that self-appointed race mavens like Debra Dickerson are doing more harm than good.

Tag time!

I got tagged by Moshellie - apparently for pissing her off. (Hey, pising people off is my raison d'être.)

[H]e is SUCH a bleeding heart liberal and always tows [sic] the party line. It always perturbs me when people hate a certain group (...in his case, Republicans) just for the sake of hating them,.. regardless of what they're doing or saying.

I'm not going to waste a lot of time defending myself. Anyone who reads this blog objectively sees that I always document what the rethugs and religious lunatics are doing that I hate. And as I've noted before, I don't hate people, I hate evil actions and injustice.

A word to the wise, Moshellie; people are mirrors. What pisses you off about other people is often something you're not happy with in your own psyche.

That said, on with the tagging. The rules are (rephrased for clarity):

• Try to come up with ten different bloggers. No blogger to be named in more than one category.
• Everyone you list is automatically "tagged".

The categories are:

1. Which blogger shits you more than any other?
   
   That would be the pillock who calls himself Banagor Paladin. He's an ultra-zionist and self-proclaimed neocon who openly calls for nuking Mecca and committing genocide on all Arabs and Muslims worldwide. And for some immature reason he had himself listed on a page of Arizona liberal blogs, which is how I found out about him. Sheesh! Talk about someone who toes the party line and hates for the sake of hating. What a disgusting little knob.


2. Which blogger makes you laugh?
   
   Hard to think of anyone who makes me laugh consistently. Tom Burka usually raises a wry smile, though he doesn't post often enough. And of course I have to mention Jesus' General. And though it's not a blog, I love Get Your War On.


3. Which blogger touches your heart and makes you think?
   
   Maha does that on a regular basis. She is always posting very informative, thought-provoking articles. A lot of my posts start off as comments on her blog and keep getting longer until I remember I have my own blog.


4. The blogger you most want to have sex with.
   
   Oh crap, I'm in trouble! I'm just going to name someone who is hot but safely unattainable: Jessica Valenti.


5. The blogger who stalks your blog the most.
   
   I'm going to interpret this in a positive way. Shrimplate has been my most faithful commenter. He was the first to comment here and is still around. Keep it up, bro! And Tessie, if you're still out there, come back! I miss your comments.


6. The gayest blogger you know?
   
   It's the Rude Pundit, hands down. Of course, "gay" doesn't begin to do justice to the panoply of his voracious omnisexuality. If he's in town, lock up anything with an orifice.


7. The most "warm and fuzzy" blogger you read.
   
   I don't do warm and fuzzy, but I admire Julie Fanselow for her energy and optimism, living in the most backwardly red state in the Union (even worse than Arizona) but cheerfully recounting the determination of local Dems in Idaho and their occasional victories.


8. A Blogger who could kick your arse.
   
   Lots of people could... I'm not getting any younger. I don't think I'd like to meet Jim Downey in a dark alley - he looks mean. (Just kidding, Jim.)


9. A blogger you'd like to meet or plan to meet someday.
   
   I'd like to meet Mitch Stephens - he seems like a widely-learned but down-to-earth guy that you could have a really stimulating conversation with.


10. Someone you've never pimped.
    
    Um, to the best of my knowledge I haven't pimped anyone before, but Stacy is someone I've never mentioned, but who deserves a mention.

That was fun! And time-wasting too. Thanks, Moshellie. Now let's see if anyone realizes they've been tagged by me!

Dog blogging

Summit of Vulture's Peak, Wickenburg, Arizona.

Sauce for the chimp

Just so we're clear: when Hugo Chavez, who has several times been elected and re-elected with over 60% of the vote, decides to temporarily increase the power of the Venezuelan executive branch in accordance with that country's constitution (not "rule by decree"), that makes him a totalitarian tyrant. When George Bush Junior, who has never been elected in an honest vote, rules by executive ordure and signing statements, in flat-out defiance of the US Constitution, that makes him a firm, resolute leader.

What's the difference? Well, apart from the fact that Chavez takes on extra powers in support of economic justice for the poorest and least privileged in his country, while Junior arrogates total power to himself in order to torture people and destroy countries, Junior is allegedly a Christian, while the US religious-industrial complex in Venezuela is fearmongering and hyping scare stories that the devout Chavez wants to kick Christians out of Venezuela - or worse. Junior has already supported one failed coup against Chavez - is the ground being prepared for another one?

I guess Junior the good Christian never read the gospel story about the beam in one's own eye and the mote in someone else's...

Shut this sucker down - now!

OMFG! I'm just speechless at this story - George Bush Junior visits a tractor factory, starts recklessly driving a monster tractor around at high speed, almost kills a whole bunch of reporters and Secret Service agents, sending them running for their lives, all the time laughing like a maniac. And not a single word about this meltdown in the "liberal media"!

This man is totally insane and out of control. And his mouth-foaming worshippers are just as bad. Maybe for some of them it's a form of Stockholm syndrome. "Yep, it's really swell that you almost mowed down all those folks. Please don't wish me into the cornfield..." But with many of them, the barking mad hatred and bloodlust is all too palpable.

Un-friggin'-believable...

Touched by his noodly appendage

Last month I annoyed PZ by calling him a low-key guy. In retaliation, he linked to me, sending my site traffic through the roof and blowing away a good chunk of my bandwidth quota:



Wow, I hope I never really piss him off. PZ, I'm sorry I slighted you. I now have seen the light. You lull your victims into a false sense of security by manifesting as a mild-mannered biology prof, but in reality you are an unspeakably hideous hybrid of Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, living in a shadow lair beyond time and space, called Minnesota. You suck your victims' brains out through their eye sockets and gorge until sated. You are the very embodiment of evil. That better?