The homeless and hungry outside the Emmanuel Dining Room on Christmas Eve did not expect to have a security wand waved up and down their bodies as they waited to be served lunch. But then, it isn't often that a vice president-elect of the United States serves them their meal.They don't torture them.
Continuing his valedictory media tour, President Bush and his family sat down with People magazine. While discussing what he plans to do after he leaves the White House, President Bush said he'd be open to suggestions.
Q: What are you most looking forward to about life after the White House?The President: It's hard to tell, hard to imagine what it's like to go from 100 miles an hour to 5. I'm going to want to build a policy institute at Southern Methodist, probably write a book. And beyond that, I'm open for suggestions. [laughter]
OK, here's a suggestion:
Just go die, you sociopathic little motherfucker. Why not consider visiting upon yourself a little of the suffering you've inflicted upon thousands and thousands of others?
Bush: "I think people misunderestimate me as President.""
Williams: "No, George. Really, not so much.
"I'm just a simple president."Yeah, George. It's not like the most powerful fucking man in the world has any responsibility to sweat the "complicated" stuff, right? 'Cause he's just a "simple president." No biggie.
-- President Bush, in an interview with ABC News.
In one of the best Senate-floor speeches I ever heard Ted Kennedy (D-MA) give, he brutalized Senate Republicans for continuing to block the first increase in the minimum wage in almost a decade and roared to the other side of the aisle "What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"What indeed. These fuckers have some very bad karma coming:
"What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it?" asked Kennedy about GOP objections to raising the minimum wage rate. "What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase?"
WASHINGTON -- With growing talk in Washington that President Bush may be considering an unprecedented "blanket pardon" for people involved in his administration's brutal interrogation policies, advisors to Barack Obama are pressing ahead with plans for a nonpartisan commission to investigate alleged abuses under Bush.They did this in post-apartheid South Africa, as well: the Truth & Justice commissions, run by the saintly Bishop Desmond Tutu, emphasized not prosecution or vengeance, but simple truth: the recognition that the only way that nation could ever possibly heal from the psychotic brutality of the apartheid years was for everyone involved--both victims and criminals--to simply acknowledge the truth of what had been done.
The Obama plan, first revealed by Salon in August, would emphasize fact-finding investigation over prosecution. It is gaining currency in Washington as Obama advisors begin to coordinate with Democrats in Congress on the proposal. The plan would not rule out future prosecutions, but would delay a decision on that matter until all essential facts can be unearthed.
In the wake of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this week in Miami, many GOP governors were reluctant to embrace Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the party’s leader or presidential candidate for 2012. Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions...Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort....Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.The article neglects to mention that she addressed the convention, but landed no gig. Guess they weren't buying whatever she was selling.
Olbermann challenged Bill O'Reilly to an arm wrestling match, and is sure that he would win:Yes, Keith, I think you could take him too:
"He'd never do it, because every time we're in the same place, he keeps himself 25 feet away, but I'm ready to go. I do yoga, work out three times a week. I think I could take him if it comes to that."
A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship."It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said...You know, kinda like the WPA?
The Obama transition team declined to comment on Broun's remarks. But spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama was referring in the speech to a proposal for a civilian reserve corps that could handle postwar reconstruction efforts such as rebuilding infrastructure _ an idea endorsed by the Bush administration.
I'm a man who's rich in daughters,And watch the video too: any man whose interaction with his girls can make the Secret Service smile has already transformed the Bush regime.
And if by some wild chance I get rich in money,
Like say another two thou a year or even one thou a year,
I'm gonna look in to havin' some more daughters.
After Obama’s first debate with McCain, on September 26th, Gaspard sent him an e-mail. “You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,” he wrote. Obama replied, “Just give me the ball.”That's what I want in a President. I want somebody that tough, that confident, and that ready to step up.
All your brain-trust are belong to us.NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family--clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."This should come as no surprise to anyone. She behaved precisely the same way throughout her mayorality and governorship.
Richard Viguerie, conservative stalwart:
Shorter version of conservative stance: "Oh no they din't.""Voters did not reject conservatism," Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said. "They rejected Big Government Republicanism in all its forms, including the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress."
Mercenary Firm Offers to 'Detain Troublemakers' on Election Day (Updated)
By Nathan Hodge EmailNovember 03, 2008 | 11:39:00 AMCategories: Mercs, Secret Squirrel
Ss_212x CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, "detaining troublemakers" and making sure voters "do not get out of control."
In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he "recognized the potential conflict" that could occur on November 4th. "Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president."
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, theyre red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, dont they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no millionaires son, no.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one.
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate one, no no no,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate son, no no no,
JD: Governor, may I call you Sarah?Seriously, go read the whole thing.
SP: You betcha.
JD: I just simply can’t believe in the midst of this intense campaign season, you could find the time to talk with me about the “Hammerklavier” Sonata.
SP: Well, ya know, Beethoven was the dude who said thanks but no thanks to Napoleon. Plus from all the mavericky songs he wrote, maybe this one could be known as the most maverickyest.
JD: I have to confess I’m a bit surprised you are so familiar with this particular work.
SP: Well, Mr. Snooty Juilliard Graduate, I’ll have you know I did my thesis on the Hammerklavier at Hawaiian Pacific University. Of course I had to continue revising it at Northern Idaho Massage Institute. And at Montana College for Bear-Loving Beauty Pageant Alumni. But also too the Hammerklavier’s on my ‘Pod whenever I go wolf hunting … those dactyls get me SUPER pumped...
JD: But Sarah—to play devil’s advocate here—you could make that one of the defining, most beautiful elements of the piece is the presence of sort of “radical” notes, notes that don’t really belong in B-flat major, strange other notes, neither major nor minor …
SP: All that sounds really good on paper, Jeremy, at your Ivy League coffeeshops and so forth, but out here in the real world where I’m sitting there’s plenty of common sense telling me that wrong notes are wrong notes. There was a great piece on Lou Dobbs the other day about this, called “Why Is G-Flat Getting My Tax Dollars?”...
JD: Tell me your thoughts about the slow movement.
SP: [pause] In what respect, Jeremy?
JD: The third movement: how would you describe it?
SP: [pause] I gotta confess, I usually fast forward through that one … It’s kind of a bummer. And since unlike some Americans out there I don’t hate America, I don’t want to dwell on all those negativity.
JD: But some people might make the case that the third movement is kind of the emotional core of the work … ?
SP: Ya know, I feel pretty strongly that a composer is a lot like a musicologist, except that he has actual notes to put down on paper. [Applause]...
JD: Sarah, the last movement is one of the most famously difficult things in all the piano repertoire. Do you have any advice for this American pianist about this movement before he performs this work on tour?
SP: You don’t want to hear my advice.
JD: Oh come on let me have it.
SP: I think it’s pretty obvious.
JD: I’m dying to know.
SP: You’re not gonna like it.
JD: Please …
SP: Trill, baby, trill!
JD: [sinks head in hands] The interview is over.
Palin Blows Off Fox News, Lies About Agreeing To Appear With Megyn Kelly»Fox fucking News complaining about somebody else "breaking their word"?!? The network of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity? Ann Coulter's second home? Jerome Corsi's enablers? Are you fucking kidding me?!?
Last week, Fox News host Megyn Kelly complained that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AZ) hadn’t done enough interviews on Fox. “She has yet to do any Fox daytime. She has not gone on this broadcast. She hasn’t gone on Fox and Friends. She hasn’t done Brit Hume’s show,” Kelly said. Days later, Kelly announced that Palin had finally granted her an interview to be aired today at 9am.
This morning, however, Kelly announced that Palin had backed out at the last minute, less than 24 hours before their scheduled 10-minute sit-down on Sunday:
Now on Friday, we promised you an interview with Gov. Sarah Palin. We did that because the McCain camp promised us, after weeks of negotiating, that the governor would sit down with me in Ohio on Sunday. On Saturday, less than 24 hours before the interview, the McCain camp canceled, saying that the the governor would not meet with us after all. They claimed that the governor suddenly did not have any time over the coming 72 hours to make good on her agreement of a 10-minute sit-down. We apologize for the McCain camp breaking its word. Our viewers certainly deserve better.
You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
The wast land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
Your digging does maintain, and persons all defame
Stand up now, stand up now.
Your houses they pull down, stand up now, stand up now,
Your houses they pull down, stand up now.
Your houses they pull down to fright your men in town
But the gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
With spades and hoes and plowes, stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plowes stand up now,
Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now, stand up now,
Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now.
Since tyranny came in they count it now no sin
To make a gaol a gin, to starve poor men therein.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
The gentrye are all round, stand up now, stand up now,
The gentrye are all round, stand up now.
The gentrye are all round, on each side they are found,
Theire wisdom's so profound, to cheat us of our ground
Stand up now, stand up now.
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now, stand up now,
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now,
To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise,
The devill in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes.
Stand up now, stand up now.
The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
The clergy they come in, stand up now.
The clergy they come in, and say it is a sin
That we should now begin, our freedom for to win.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
The tithes they yet will have, stand up now, stand up now,
The tithes they yet will have, stand up now.
The tithes they yet will have, and lawyers their fees crave,
And this they say is brave, to make the poor their slave.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests, stand up now, stand up now,
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests stand up now.
For tyrants they are both even flatt againnst their oath,
To grant us they are loath free meat and drink and cloth.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
The club is all their law, stand up now, stand up now,
The club is all their law, stand up now.
The club is all their law to keep men in awe,
But they no vision saw to maintain such a law.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now, stand up now,
The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now;
The Cavaleers are foes, themselves they do disclose
By verses not in prose to please the singing boyes.
Stand up now, Diggers all.
To conquer them by love, come in now, come in now
To conquer them by love, come in now;
To conquer them by love, as itt does you behove,
For hee is King above, noe power is like to love,
Glory heere, Diggers all.
Wire cast campaigns for Obama, via Spackerman.
It just got better. Thank you for telling the truth, David Simon.RALEIGH— Tomorrow, members of the cast of the Peabody Award-winning drama series, The Wire will attend a Backyard Brunch for Barack in Raleigh. Seven of the show’s cast members will visit the Tarheel State in support of the change Barack Obama will bring across the country and in North Carolina.
Chad Coleman who plays Dennis “Cutty” Wise, Deidre Lovejoy who plays Rhonda Pearlman, Jamie Hector who plays Marlo Stanfield, Clarke Peters who plays Detective Lester Freamon, Sonja Sohn who plays Detective Shakima “Kima” Greggs, Seth Gilliam who plays Sergeant Ellis Carver, and Gbenga Akinnagbe who plays Chris Partlow will all appear at the backyard brunch on Sunday.
On Monday, Chad Coleman, Deidre Lovejoy, and Jamie Hector will visit UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University to encourage students to vote early. Early voting in North Carolina started October 16 and November 1 is the last day voters may take advantage of early voting.
From the very beginning, there were consistencies and inconsistencies in Ashley Todd's narrative about the alleged attack she suffered. The inconsistencies were within the story itself (the reverse "B" most obviously). The consistencies were with a long, long history of lies about blacks that are inescapably linked with racism in all its forms, from slavery, through segregation, through the "colorblind" racism of the present day. Both leaped out at me as the story exploded. Among the consistencies were the 4,742 identified lynchings from 1882 to 1964.No, Clarence Thomas, what you "suffered" when Anita Hill had the courage to call you on your imbecilic sexual harassment was not a "lynching". Nor was this:
The African-American centenarian remembers a time not long ago when she was barred from voting because of her race. Now she hopes to see the day that Obama is elected as the nation's first black president.
"I ain't got time to die," Cooper said with a smile.
Ollie James is 84 years old and a doubter no more.We gonna get there, Dr King. We gonna, I swear.
"A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things."Couldn't have said it better myself.
Angered by a delay in the receipt of his voter registration card, a Louisiana man today threatened to shoot election officials, claiming that he urgently needed to cast a ballot to "keep the nigger out of office," according to police. Wade Williams, 75, was arrested this morning on a felony terrorizing charge after allegedly calling the Registrar of Voters and warning that he would come to the state office and empty his shotgun unless he got his registration card.I know a lot of nicey-nice Southern women who know damned well that their privilege depends upon exploitation of others, but who cloak it in the guise of friendly politeness. It's still privilege, it's still exploitative, and Palin is still a demagogue.
Next door kids' yard: fraternity boys, owner kid's dad is a mayor in a metroplex SE of here and actually thought he could run for Tom DeLay's old seat, but his campaign (never very promising) was eight-six'd when it became apparent that they'd Photoshopped his head onto a thinner body. Not bad kids, though they made our lives miserable for the first year until I started documenting the behavior and then sent Dad a registered letter describing the evidence. Haven't had a problem since.During a town hall in Scranton, PA on Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared that “there’s only one ethnic joke that can be told in American politics and that’s Irish jokes.” McCain then preceded to tell a joke about drunk Irish twins.This is the same guy who repeatedly told the "joke" ascribing Chelsea Clinton's "ugliness" to the fact that "her father was Janet Reno."
"If the American people don't get the information that is relevant about these candidates and instead in the last four weeks all they are hearing about are smears and Swift Boat tactics that can have an impact on the election. We have seen it before, and this election is too important to be sitting on the sidelines. If Senator McCain wants to focus on the issues then that is what we focus on. But if Senator McCain wants to have a character debate that is one that we're willing to have."The money-quote?
"One of the things we've done during this campaign: we don't throw the first punch.It's the old job-site test. There's a reason that lobbyists and Rich Bastards support McCain, and that poor folks, brown folks, women, and rock 'n' rollers support Obama. As Hunter Thompson said, in the great Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972:
But we'll throw the last."
Humphrey tried to go into Miami with a little bit of bargaining power left, but McGovern's merciless young street-fighters chopped him down with all the rest.Take a number, John. You're about to get your long-past-due ticket punched, too.
Swing State Registration Boom: Florida Dems Outpace GOP; Ohio Gains Almost 500,000 New Voters
Democrats in Florida have some reason for optimism today as the state party announced that, at the close of voter registration season on Monday, it had gained nearly 250,000 more voters this year than the Republican Party...Most striking is the net gain numbers, which factor in newly registered voters, party switchers and removes people who are no longer voters in Florida. Since January, the Florida Democratic Party has had a net gain of 415,580 voters, while the Republican Party of Florida has only gained 169,841. This shows that the gap between Democrats and Republicans in Florida has grown by 245,739 voters this year alone...In Florida, 82 percent of those new black voters registered as Democrats, with 15 percent identifying as independents, and only three percent marking themselves down as Republicans.
Meanwhile in Ohio, a spokesman from Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office told the Huffington Post that the state gained nearly 500,000 new voters over the course of the last nine months -- shooting from 7,676,986 voters on December 31 of last year to 8,172,229 as of last night. Ohio doesn't keep track of party or demographic information, but both state parties will surely be crunching the data ahead of "get out the vote" operations in the coming weeks.
McCain needed to win; he did not. He got owned. Say goodnight, Johnny. It's "President That One" to you.Say goodnight, Frat-boys. Your world is about to get a lot more confusing and your sense of entitlement is about to topple. And it's about time.
