Keith Olberman, Still over the Top

I don’t like this. It’s over the top and inflammatory and in some cases wrong and misleading. Mostly it’s misleading. There are so many good things on that list and other things that are simply wrong, stupid or mere lies. I think the worst things are the half lies. Yes, for example, college is expensive and a lot of students go deep into debt to get educated. I’m glad people are willing to do that because we need educated people. However, “da man” did not make them do it. Nobody made them do it. They signed those loan papers with no gun to their heads. Another example is corporate farming. I”m not sure it’s a bad thing.

There are 300 million people in the US. Who must eat 3 times a day every day. Who is willing to starve so we can bring back family farming? Show of hands? I thought not. Farming is nasty, back breaking work that will keep you in deep poverty because there’s no money in it except on a huge scale.

And so on. And that’s not even getting into the loony conspiracy theories. I’m shocked they didn’t include how GW Bush engineered 9/11.

The New Phony Black Racism Scandal

When Andrew Breitbart constructed a phony video to destroy ACORN, Rachel Maddow showed the unedited video that was NEVER shown on Fox noise. The guy who was supposed to have been “caught” lost his job. What Fox didn’t mention is that he called the cops the minute the phony “pimp” was out of his office. Then Maddow asked “Who’s next? Who are they going to destroy next?”

Next up was Shirley Sherrod. Andrew Breitbart showed a small portion of a video of her giving a speech in the 1980s in which she tells a story about how she was once prejudiced against white farmers and learned to overcome it. Guess which part of the speech Breitbart cut out? Hours after his video was released Sherrod was fired.

Now CNN is playing ALL the tape showing the entire story and the white farmers that she talked about in the story have come forward and verified that she helped them enormously and was always good to them.

Did Breitbart apologize? Oh, heavens no. Breitbart is trying to lie his way out of it now and so is Fox. David Frum said of this incident “When Dan Rather succumbed to the forged Bush war record hoax in 2004, CBS forced him into retirement. Breitbart is the conservative Dan Rather, but there will be no discredit, no resignation for him.”

Right wing conservatives should be pounding Breitbart into the ground over this. But they won’t. Just now the Drudge Report banner headline is “NO GO BLAGO DEFENSE RESTS.” Redstate.com is saying Breitbart is doing to the left what they’ve “always” done to the right. It’s what I like to call the “Tommy does it worser!” argument.

Andrew Breitbart is a lying sack of shit and the right wing – those famous bastions of morality, honesty and decency – should give him the boot. But I won’t be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

Hey, the Israelis were the Victims Here!

I heard today that one of the dead from the botched flotilla attack had been shot in the chest once and five times in the head at close range. He was an American citizen and only 19 years old. The conservative blogs are still assuring us that the Israelis were the victims and merely defending themselves. In one report the people on the boat were called “rioters.” George Orwell, call your office.

Country Last

McCain has a new stump speech. He’s desperate and while he’s lumbering along slugging at Obama, Obama is defending himself with akaido, jujitsu. McCain is beating himself up rather badly and seems to be finally realizing it’s his own blows that are rebounding back on him. Today in a stump speech he said this:

“What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I’ve never been the kind to do it from the sidelines.”

I used to believe he meant that, more or less. I used to believe he believed it of himself and he still may. But I don’t believe it any more. He proved that it was all a lie when he chose Palin as his vice. When he did that he showed us that it’s McCain first.

And the rest of us dead last.

Palin=Lipstick, McCain=Pig

I stopped having any respect for McCain when he started answering every question with “I was a POW.” Apparently Sullivan was a tougher nut to crack.

From the Dish:
McCain’s Integrity

For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It’s about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him….

Throwing Obama Under the Bus

Ok, you know all that stuff I said about Wright a couple of posts ago? Just ignore me. The man is not a monster but he is a bastard.

Obama’s repudiation of him lacked passion, I thought. But he’s just found a knife in his back put there by a friend and father figure of 20 years. It’s got to hurt and hurt bad.

Wright’s pontificating about how he has to answer to God makes me want to puke. It’s a bleeding miracle Wright wasn’t struck down when said that. If smiting was ever going to happen, it should have happened then.

I noticed that even Huckabee is saying Obama was betrayed (though he couldn’t resist the Repub talking point about how “Obama should have known.”)

A Post After My Own Heart

You should check out the message board over at The Straight Dope. There’s little post about how we got our current stupid motto–“In God We Trust.”

With Jefferson’s nefarious plan finally revealed, the government was faced with the challenge of selecting a stupider, less tolerant motto to more accurately embody the national character. A list was compiled of various candidates such as “no loitering,” “if you’re so smart why ain’t you rich?” and “whites only.” However, at last “In God we trust,” a judiciously recycled version of the Confederate States of America’s motto “God will vindicate,” was chosen for its historical resonance, potential for divisiveness, and general inappropriateness.

Hat tip to Pharyngula

Amnesty International Loses its Mind

“However, the right to freedom of expression is not absolute — neither for the creators of material nor their critics. It carries responsibilities and it may, therefore, be subject to restrictions in the name of safeguarding the rights of others. In particular, any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence cannot be considered legitimate exercise of freedom of expression. Under international standards, such “hate speech” should be prohibited by law.”
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGPOL300072006?open&of=ENG-315

So calling someone a murderer who then murders someone in retaliation is hurting the murder’s feelings? What? Those were not pictures of Mohammed. Those were pictures of Islam. As the incident played out it proved that those pictures were utterly ACCURATE pictures of Islam. There are few Islamic countries which are not oppressive dictatorships. Calling murderers and oppressive dictators what they are is not “hate speech.” All of those cartoonists are now in fear for their lives.

We are supposed to enact laws to protect would-be murderers?

No.

Amnesty International has lost its moral compass and they should disband. They have received their last dime from me. Oppression must be exposed no matter who is doing the oppressing. We will not enact laws to give some oppressors a free ride for fear of “hurting their feelings.”

Islam treats women like cattle. Even moderate Muslims do not consider civil rights for women to be the least important. Murdering gay people is a national pastime. Rape is virtually not illegal under Islamic law. Freedom of speech and religion are unknown. Personal liberty is despised.

If Amesty International doesn’t stand opposed to all that human suffering, then they do not stand with me.

When Fascism Comes to America

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” – Sinclair Lewis

A Feast of Violence

The Republic of T. has more questions than answers, but some of the answers are in the questions. The recent rash of violence against gay people is fueled by the rabidly strident Christianists trying to drum up political support by bashing gays at every opportunity. It used to work well when they would advocate racism to get support from bigots. The bigot vote has always been one of their mainstays.

here is a sample of some of the questions:

• What if, as dysfunctionalgadfly points out in surveying the Christian Coalitions checklist for Georgia judges, their supposedly faith-based political positions appear to have little in common with the professed faith?
…
• For that matter, what do you call a Georgia Attorney General candidate who suggests gay/straight student clubs are “Future Pedophiles of America” clubs?
• What do you call a conservative organizer who claims that gays have sex with infants?
…
• How do you respond to people like the one’s sick of it all mentioned, who honestly believe that gay people are the real bigots for seeking marriage equality.

And Republic of T also points out some reasons for hope, including this one:
Maybe there’s hope in a mainstream christian denomination, as Firebird notes, narrowly rejects a measure that could have blocked gay ordinations. Even a narrow victory shouldn’t be discounted, particularly given mostly positive reception Firebird reports getting as an out gay member of the denomination.

Maybe there is hope that the human race will regain its sanity.