VIEWS FROM BAY RIDGE

The Herman Cain defence

2011-11-10T08:22:00.001-05:00

"For Every Person Who Says I Harassed Them, There Are ‘Thousands’ Who Say I Didn’t"

F*cking brilliant. Absolutely stunning riposte. The kind of bullshit, Orwellian double-speak that Fox 'News' is rightly famous for.

There's stupid and then there's Herman Cain.

Herman Cain: immigrant problem solved

2011-10-16T08:48:00.001-04:00

In a recent Teabag event in Tennessee, Herman Cain's solution to the messy immigration problem is to use the US Army to shoot on sight any 'illegals' coming across the border. Then to install an electrified fence running the whole length of the border between Mexico and the US.

I grew up in Europe and the first thing this reminded me of was the fence dividing East and West Germany. Is that really a symbol America wants to be known by?

It beggars belief that a simplistic moron like Herman 'SimCity' Cain can be considered a candidate, but then the whisper is he's not really running for president at all, and in fact is nothing more than a stooge for the Koch Brothers, taking their money for some years. To not be a 'real' candidate allows him to make ultra extremist, racist and clearly non-legal pronouncements such as this latest verbal diarrhea.

It fits, since teabaggers are simply not going to vote for a black man, no matter how much of an 'uncle Tom' he might be. And then there's the sticky problem of Mexico being the US's second largest oil supplier, and an illegal '[final] solution' such as this,might well cause an international incident equivalent to a tsunami.

The fact of a man of Cain's ignorance being unqualified for any public office is beyond dispute, but the real reason he's 'running' is probably to change the debate in favour of an ultra right-wing Koch agenda, and of course to further the cause of Herman Cain, in the tried and true Palin-Bachmann School of Politics.

Santorum should be in a sanitorium

2011-08-12T05:53:00.000-04:00

“To be victimized twice would be a horrible thing. It is an innocent human life, genetically human from the moment of contraception. We in America should be big enough to try to surround ourselves and help women in those terrible situations who have been traumatized already. To put them through another trauma of an abortion, I think is too much to ask. So I would absolutely stand and say that one violence is enough.” Rick Santorum, Republican Presidential candidate debate, Iowa.

"genetically human from the moment of contraception." Contraception? Really?

Can this man be more stupid than he already is.... I doubt it.

Uncannily accurate

2011-08-08T18:49:00.000-04:00

Adding "The Queen of Rage... and Stupidity," would have made this headline perfect.

Republicans: stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards? You choose

2011-07-29T08:51:00.000-04:00

“I think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards, who are desperately afraid of the tea party people, and rightly so.” Bruce Bartlett, former domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan

Truth hurts. And it hurts more when it comes from your own side.

Is it Christmas already?

2011-07-17T11:51:00.003-04:00

The UK's top police officer, Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, has come under fire for hiring former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as his PR adviser, on a fee of $1,700 a day. And reportedly accepting 20 nights free of charge at a luxury health spa, Champneys earlier this year.

This new revelation was published on the front page of the UK's Sunday Times, paradoxically, also a Murdoch-owned newspaper.

Meanwhile, Labour Party MPs are calling for the firing of the police commissioner and his deputy John Yates. It was Yates who claimed before a parliamentary inquiry in 2009 that he'd "looked into the scandal" and "didn't think it was worth reopening an investigation". Now it seems he was lying before a parliamentary inquiry and was attempting to bury the 'scandal' before it got any worse.

In today's other revelation, a close friend and biographer of Murdoch, Michael Wolff, has claimed that his daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, had said her brother James and Rebekah Brookes had "fucked the company". So it seems that the family are now fighting amongst themselves as the scandal gets to their very own doorstep. The next to be sacrificed? James Murdoch.

And finally... yes there's more.... Rebekah Brookes has been arrested for her part in the phone hacking scandal — well she was only the editor at the time — but also the bribing of senior police officers!

Oh happy days!

Are you hacked off?

2011-07-12T06:27:00.001-04:00

It's been a great week back in the old country. Rupert Murdoch's News International empire is looking a little frayed around the edges of late, which can only be viewed as a very good thing.

The phone hacking 'scandal' — as the British media still insists on calling it — reveals a new low virtually every day. Just when you think they can't stoop any lower, they do just that and take your breath away with their lack of ethics.

From eavesdropping into the Prime Minister's private bank account and emails, stealing his children's medical records, to the hacking of the Deputy Commissioner of Police telephone, to the families of victims of the Underground bombing in 2005, to families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it couldn't get any worse.

But no, they went further... they hacked into the voicemail of a young girl that had been kidnapped [and later murdered], deleting older voicemails so newer ones could be added [thereby giving false hope to the family and destroying potential evidence].

Meanwhile, the 'scandal' slowly but surely grows further and larger. Today's revelation in The Guardian cites another tabloid, the Daily Mirror [not owned by Murdoch], which claims that journalists from Murdoch's organisation contacted a New York City police officer after 9/11 to gain access to the phone records of the dead from the World Trade Centre.

Fortunately, as we know, NYPD officers up and down the chain of command are immune to bribery and corruption. So we're safe that this phone hacking corruption 'scandal' isn't operating in the United States. Right...! We are, right?

All the shocking, and at times unbelievable evidence, clearly points to these illegalities being sanctioned and approved at the highest level. And that the whole of News International is little more than a criminal organisation.

I'm hoping a campaign to persuade investors in News International to divest themselves of their stock is underway, and another campaign to persuade advertisers to cut their support of Murdoch's many news outlets - and take their advertising dollars elsewhere is happening too.

This man and his empire is beyond the pale, he has interfered in elections, bribed police officers, broken privacy laws... and is a thoroughly agenda-driven meglomaniac that is only interested in his balance sheet. Maybe now he can be brought down.

Now that will be a VERY GOOD day!

Are you a pig sniffing for truffles?

2011-07-04T11:13:00.000-04:00

Or are you the truffle? In that case you must be a Jew during German occupation.

According to no nothing idiot Pam Geller, who's organisation has been classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group alongside the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.

Geller's latest vomit is:

"Like a pig sniffing for truffles, the Obama regime is sniffing around for influential kapos willing to sell out the Jewish people," Geller puked at her blog, Atlas Shrugs. "In exchange for doing the bidding of the most anti-Israel president in the history of the United States, these suckers hope to gain what, exactly?"

"In what sounds morbidly similar to Germany's judenraet, Obama seeks to establish Jewish council leaders -- volunteers to ensure that Obama's anti-Israel policies are propagandized, packaged, sold to uninformed Jews," she droned.

In summary Geller has nothing to say, but spew vile racist vomit. She had her 15 minutes of 'fame' and should now fuck off back to her world of ignorance and racism.

Mermaid parade 2011

2011-06-20T05:56:00.001-04:00

In my view, a rather underwhelming 29th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade this year, full of fits and starts but no outright stars of the show. Unless you count Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Borough President and self-appointed cheer-leader for all things Brooklyn.

The costumes could best be described as The Good [above] and the What was She Thinking [below]...

Intermingled with the interesting — such as the Marie Antoinettes [below]...

... and the, I don't quite know what they are, but it was a cute costume:

Fortunately, despite weather predictions, the rain held off and we had our ritual Nathan's Hot Dog — our one meat product of the year. On the whole a disappointing, but fun day out.

Vigilance is our watch word

2011-06-16T08:47:00.003-04:00

So. These days my career has taken me to working back in the city again. Specifically, the Flatiron district.

It's a nice part of town. It's up from Union Square and comfortably away from midtown and the tourist hell hole of Times Square. I like it.

My commute too is an easy one. Since the N-'Express' now goes local in Manhattan [for some weird bizarro reasoning of the MTA], it works out for me, since all I have to do now is collect my R-train at my local stop - Bay Ridge Avenue - and walk across the platform at the next stop, 59th Street, where I pick up the N-train — which still runs express in Brooklyn. This can — in inclement weather — drop me at 23rd Street. Two blocks from my office.

Now the weather is bright and sunny [mostly], I've taken to getting in some exercise early on by getting off at 8th Street/NYU. It's a nice walk too. Tuesday's commute was uneventful and sadly not all are... however, when getting off at 8th Street this day, through the barrier/turnstiles I see two of New York's finest stood behind a desk from where these policemen [for they were both men], would inspect random rucksacks and oversize bags at their choosing.

Except... right by the barrier on the platform side and within clear sight of one of these officers, was a neatly placed, but unattended rucksack. As I passed through the gate, I pointed to the bag and suggested they might want to take a look, since they hadn't seen it.

Just at that point the miscreant tourist who'd left it there, walked back and picked it up with a sheepish grin and boarded the N-train I'd just left. As far as I know there were no reports of an explosion on an uptown N-train, so I guess it was a false alarm — this time.

But thanks anyway officers... for not spotting it! Makes me feel safer just knowing these police officers are as vigilant as ever.

Alabama's racist bill — HB 56

2011-06-04T07:58:00.003-04:00

Alabama's republican state legislature overwhelmingly passed a new bill recently for the governor, Robert Bentley to sign into law.

Amongst all the other grab-bag of typically racist legislation in the law, it includes a passage that makes it a 'state crime' for an immigrant to fail to carry a document proving their legal status. There's no word yet on what the punishment for this 'crime' will be... but I can guess and I'm sure you can too.

Should republican governor Bentley sign this highly unconstitutional bill into law, it will ensure that the State of Alabama will have the most far-reaching anti-immigration, blatantly racist law in the US... worse than Arizona.

The state of Alabama: it's a huge net recipient of federal tax benefits. Huge. Except for DC, all other states in the top 10 are southern/red states. ALL of them. By the way, if you were wondering, New York is one of the top 3 donor states in the nation.

Let me spell it out: states like California and New York donate huge amounts of their tax dollars to states like Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, etc. That's my money and your money going to support assholes like the members of Alabama's state legislature, who should be concentrating on getting people back to work instead of pandering to diversionary, KKK-inspired measures such as this.

We [the federal government] should get a f**king spine and deny that benefit until racist filth like this 'law' are stripped from the statute books.

Dana Rohrabacher - dumber than a brick

2011-05-30T16:36:00.001-04:00

Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher is a senior member on the House Committee on Science and has a big idea about how to fix the Global Warming crisis: “Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?”, says Dana the dunce from Orange County, California.

As was mentioned in response to this breathtakingly brilliant plan: watching a republican explain science is like watching a 5 year old trying to drive a car. And trust me on that, I read it on the Intertubes.

Recession's over - official

2011-05-27T06:07:00.000-04:00

"You don’t need a helicopter timeshare to beat the grueling Hamptons commute. Starting today, the hotelier André Balazs will offer 45-minute trips aboard StndAir, an eight-passenger Cessna that will putter between a seaplane ramp at East 23rd Street and the East River, and Easthampton. “It’s unbelievably convenient,” Mr. Balazs said of his fashionable cherry-red plane. “It’s really old-school flying.”

One-way fares start at $495. In-flight amenities include a goodie basket, André Balazs rosé and glossy magazines. The seaplane can also be chartered to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and other coveted seasides ($2,200 an hour)." New York Times

Thank god the recession is over and I can get back to my usual round of spend, spend, spend, parties and excess. Phew.

Monty Python returns victorious!

2011-05-24T06:03:00.001-04:00

As the New York Times described him, Harold Camping a religious impresario, rambled for 90 minutes during which he said, “I can tell you very candidly that when May 21 came and went it was a very difficult time for me, a very difficult time. I was truly wondering what is going on. In my mind, I went back through all of the promises God has made, all of the proofs, all of the signs and everything was fitting perfectly, so what in the world happened? I really was praying and praying and praying, oh Lord, what happened?”

It seems that the May 21 apocalypse was merely an 'invisible judgment day... of the spiritual kind', the real apocalypse has now been moved to October 21 — for contractual reasons.

During the speech Camping made clear that he would not be returning the millions of dollars in donations that gullible ticket holders to heaven had donated to Camping's 'non-profit' so-called church organisation.

And he assures us all that THIS TIME he's got it right, honest, so please make your cheques payable to 'Monty Python Enterprises', c/o Harold Camping, Family Radio Network, California.

“I’m not a genius,” he said. “I pray all the time for wisdom.”

Clearly.

Big Oil subsidies

2011-05-18T07:16:00.000-04:00

Hmm.... so some 'democrats' voted against this proposal?

Back in my old country [the UK] they have a 'whip' system in parliament where if a vote is required to be passed by the government, the House Whip can invoke elected party members to fall in line or face consequences from the party leadership.

It has been known that those consequences can include expulsion from the party, thereby denying the miscreant any further party funds and a party opponent at the next election. It is known to work extremely well.

We should try it here.... and get those mother-f**ker so-called democrats like Mary Landrieu — from Louisiana no less — out of the democratic party.

Remembering of course that $2.0 billion is pocket change to the likes of Exxon-Mobil, who like most of the other oil companies have just recorded record-breaking quarterly profits while we the consumer are bleeding. The truth of the situation is, by all accounts, the oil companies don't care about this money since it's such a relatively small amount, but it's the principle.

If congress can cancel this tax-break then who's to say they won't table a Windfall Tax bill next? And THAT's why they pressured their bought and paid for congressional representatives to fall in line and vote against.

One billion and counting

2011-05-12T13:34:00.000-04:00

"Currently more than one billion people around the world define themselves as agnostic, atheist or nonreligious — including 15 percent of Americans. Perhaps more striking, “nonreligious” is not only the fastest growing religious preference in the U.S., but also the only one to increase its percentage in every state over the past generation." Read on...

And then go on to read Richard Dawkins site — one of the best atheist/agnostic sites there is, right here!

SHUT UP Palin

2011-05-05T07:28:00.003-04:00

This woman never knows when to stop with her screeching. She clearly knows nothing about foreign policy.

If she wants yet another recruiting tool for al-Qaida that's guaranteed to put US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq in further danger, then publishing these photo will do it for sure.

I can recall the outrage over showing video of US helicopters killing journalists [exposed by Wikileaks], of the images of the dead Americans in Iraq and of course the fabricated outrage after the photos of Abu Graihb were shown.

This woman is the shit on my shoe... I'm desperate to wipe the toxic slime off and remove the smell.

Obama took too long

2011-05-04T19:19:00.000-04:00

Told you.

And who stepped into the limelight, but none other than drug-addled Rush Limbaugh. Rush claimed on his radio "show" that President Obama should be held responsible for taking too long to catch Osama bin Laden.

No, seriously. He said as much. Rush is something isn't he? An utter stupid prick is what I had in mind, but please feel free to think of your own.

Osama bin Laden dead....

2011-05-02T07:02:00.002-04:00

.... Republicans congratulate George Bush on a great achievement. Oh and that darkie in the White House helped a little. Thanks.

Hard day

2011-05-02T06:23:00.000-04:00

After a hard day in Williamsburg

Sick, heartless bastard

2011-04-22T07:24:00.002-04:00

Of course I'm talking about yet another soul-less asshole republican. This time it's Cliff Stearns of Florida, who demanded the inclusion of an amendment into the new 9/11 health bill that instructs the FBI to check the backgrounds of every firefighter, police officer, construction worker and bystander who responded to the disaster of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Yes, that's right.... this creep has demanded that those who risked their lives and their health to aid other New Yorkers on 9/11/2001 are to be checked for "terrorism links" before they can get the health care they so desperately need.

Many republicans were openly hostile to the bill to aid these first responders, but none went quite as far as cretin Cliff Stearns to insist the amendment went in or the bill would fail.

You would have to be fucking insane [or a teabagger] to think that a 9/11 terrorist would stay to watch the disaster unfold, then come to the rescue of other New Yorkers... and then hang around for a further nine years to get some pathetically inadequate healthcare! Insanity. But then I'm not a republican.

HuffPo has the full story.

Birthers and republicans unite

2011-04-16T18:57:00.000-04:00

From an email circulated to other republicans this week by none other than Marilyn Davenport, was this photograph [see above]. When asked for her response by the OC Weekly newspaper, she responded with anger, saying:

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people--mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it." Marilyn Davenport, member of the Orange County Republican Party and a Tea Party activist.

Convert or stay away

2011-04-09T08:03:00.000-04:00

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association — yes, him again — is emphasising and expanding his views on immigration. Last Wednesday he called Muslim immigrants a “toxic cancer.” Remember, Fischer is the man who believes that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to Muslims, and now claims that the U.S. should use the Book of Numbers when establishing its immigration policy.

Muslims he said, should “be prepared to drop his Islam and his Qur’an at Ellis Island.” According to Fischer, all new immigrants must “convert to Christianity” or “stay home”

Senator John Kyl - asshole AND liar

2011-04-08T18:48:00.003-04:00

Republican senator John Kyl lied on the Senate floor on Friday. Amid a heated exchange on funding women's health services, now the major sticking point for Republicans who want to slash pretty much everything in order to pass a budget, thus stopping the federal government from shutting down. Kyl repeated a lie that's become a major talking point for nutjob republicans.

"You don't have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your blood pressure or your cholesterol checked," he said. "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."

Of course, it's a lie. In fact, the opposite is true: More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion.

I love parsnips... and you?

2011-03-26T17:23:00.000-04:00

Familiar, no?

Kill Team

2011-03-24T06:02:00.001-04:00

"An American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a "kill team" who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year.

Morlock detailed how he and other members of his Stryker brigade set up and faked combat situations so that they could kill civilians who posed no threat to them. Some soldiers apparently kept body parts of their victims, including a skull, as souvenirs.

Morlock now stands to be sentenced to at least 24 years in jail but with eligibility for parole after seven years." The Guardian

The US Army has apologised to the Afghan families of the people he slaughtered. But since the dead aren't white, god-fearing christians, a plea bargain means this sub-human piece of filth will be out on the streets of his home town in seven years. Justice?

Religion may become extinct report

2011-03-23T07:30:00.000-04:00

"A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers. The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.

The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland." BBC

Good.

The trickle down theory in practice, 2011

2011-03-16T10:50:00.001-04:00

Haters, haters everywhere...

2011-03-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

The word is, back to normal for congress. The voters hate you with a visceral passion.

Shock and horror

2011-03-11T05:57:00.003-05:00

Refresher: 2007 federal law that requires new bulbs to use 25 to 30 percent less energy begins in 2012.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs are now widely available and cut energy costs by as much as 75 percent. Even IKEA has changed its policy and no longer sells incandescent bulbs.

However, all that energy-saving isn't good enough for Howard Brandston, a lighting consultant from upstate New York, who said that 'government should not tell consumers how to light their homes and warned that compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, a potential health risk.'

Meanwhile, Bob Keefe, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council described this as a scare tactic and noted there's more mercury in a typical watch battery than a compact fluorescent bulb.scare tactic and said there is more mercury in a typical watch battery than a compact fluorescent bulb.

A Wyoming republican, Senator Mike Enzi is pushing a bill to repeal the 2007 law and give consumers the choice to buy any light bulbs they want.

Oh, that energy mandate... it was approved and signed by George W. Bush.

Enzi is clearly the dimmest bulb in the shop.

Thomas the Tea Party favourite

2011-03-07T05:25:00.004-05:00

Of course I'm kidding... so help me if Thomas Jefferson has been around these last couple of years, I wonder sometimes if the Tea Party would be singing a different tune.

On that, here's one of his many comments about religion:
"Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society." Thomas Jefferson, 1802

To use the vernacular of today: he's fucking dead on! 200% dead on.

Absent without leave

2011-03-06T13:20:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I know.... my level of posting has dropped off (a cliff). There's no excuse and not really a particular reason. Maybe my new full-time gig [as opposed to the freelance work I got two days after being laid off], has been occupying my limited brain. It's a challenge, I admit.... chewing gum and walking at the same time seemed to be a problem for another person of elevated status I seem to recall. How's it going Gerry?

Whatever. The whole commuting thing is back for me too and goddam it that R-train is driving me crazy. One morning last week, the train made one of its increasingly regular non-appearances at Bay Ridge Avenue, so bad it became that the platform was over packed, with people desperate to get to work cramming into the cars.

Needless to say this provoked a pissy and bad-tempered response from the guard who had trouble closing the doors. In my head ran the pithy response of, 'yeah, YEAH, well where have YOU been for the past 20 minutes'.

Of course it remained my inner voice... and with all the other disgruntled passengers, off we went towards Atlantic Ave and Manhattan. I then remembered how much I missed the working from home luxury I no longer have. Oh well.. such is life. it could be worse, I could be in Libya suffering at the hands of the moronic Gaddafi clan.

More power to the opposition from this rider of the R-train. My wishes are with you.

Gun manufacturers advertise days after Tucson shooting

2011-02-18T06:02:00.002-05:00

Here's the copy from an ad placed in Arizona newspapers less than a week after the Gabby Giffords shooting, from Surefire for an extended magazine. Read on and enjoy:

"The first 30 seconds of contact are key to a successful outcome. If you’re reloading, you’re not in the fight. Surefire’s new 60- and 100-round high-capacity magazines deliver more rounds downrange with fewer reloads. Twice the violence of action. Half the required reloads."

Twice the violence of action. That's a brilliant line isn't it? Here's another:

Over a million people have been killed with guns in the United States since 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

And finally, here's another excellent line: In one year on average, almost 100,000 people in America are shot or killed with a gun.

We can do better than this people...

Fond memories?

2011-02-15T06:10:00.002-05:00

The Sons of Confederate Veterans — who have no shame — have launched a campaign to recognize Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest on a specialty license plate.

"Forrest, a popular and controversial figure, is best known as a leader of the KKK, the white supremacist group known for terrorizing blacks in the South after the Civil War.
He is also praised and criticized for an 1864 raid at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where hundreds of black Union Army members were killed during the war. The controversy over whether Forrest conducted or condoned the massacre is still a matter for heated debate." CNN

Let me correct this CNN report. There's no 'heated debate' in sane circles. Forrest was a racist, he conducted and condoned the massacre as retribution for what he saw as a confederacy that was losing the war.

He was/is only popular amongst racist and Klan apologists. The Klan did more than 'terrorise' blacks [as bad as that is], the Klan lynched hundreds if not thousands of southern blacks. And by the way, another word for 'lynched' is murdered. And here we are today, where the Sons of Confederate Veterans want to celebrate someone responsible for instituting a campaign of mass murder and put his cutesy 1860's picture on a licence plate.

How sick can this country get?

Native Americans: morally disqualified from U.S.

2011-02-09T06:23:00.000-05:00

That bastion of good christian values and upstanding morality, American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer has a column that requires a strong stomach to read all the way through. I strongly advise NOT following the above link to his site, instead I'll save everyone from the pain and report some excerpts here:

"The native American tribes at the time of the European settlement and founding of the United States were, virtually without exception, steeped in the basest forms of superstition, had been guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years, and practiced the most debased forms of sexuality.

Many of the tribal reservations today remain mired in poverty and alcoholism because many native Americans continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition instead of coming into the light of Christianity and assimilating into Christian culture."

So it seems that in the feeble, bigoted mind of Fischer, current Native Americans are “guilty” of being just as immoral as their evil savage ancestors were and they deserved to die by the bullet and disease just as "God" smote the 'Canaanites for their debauchery.'

To make matters worse, Fischer wraps up his stellar treatise on out and out racism doubling as religion [they're one and the same in my book] with this: "Sadly, this column will likely generate a firestorm of nuclear proportions among wingers on the left rather than the thoughtful reflection the thesis deserves."

In his warped world, we should thoughtfully reflect on his christian racism, rather than condemn it to the dustbin of neanderthal flatulence from a fat, right-wing, so-called christian gasbag. Asshole.

Cheney claims Mubarak "a good man"

2011-02-07T06:28:00.000-05:00

Former Vice President and human being Dick Cheney praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday as "a good man" and a strong friend of the United States.

In other news, Cheney clamied black was white and up was down.

Banana republics work

2011-02-04T06:34:00.000-05:00

A judge in a rural community pulled a gun on a defendant after the man waved around his crutches in frustration at being fined for harassment of a neighbour.

There are conflicting accounts of what actually happened, but the result was a police officer opened fire - more than once - and wounded the man in the courthouse.

And no, this didn't take place in some backwater central American 'banana republic', this was in a 'god-fearing' American town called Goodwater [around 60 miles north of Montgomery. AL].

You ask where is Alabama's ranking in the Gun Stats table? Why it's right up there in second place, with 57.2% gun ownership and 17 deaths per 100,000 population.

Excellent work judge.

Manhattan Mini-Storage does it again

2011-01-31T05:03:00.002-05:00

Seen on the southbound N-Train in the city — another brilliant piece of copywriting from the Manhattan Mini Storage company.

Utah close to adopting official state gun

2011-01-30T09:58:00.002-05:00

No, seriously. And to top it off, they're proposing an official state badge to go along with it.

Through my secret contacts at high level in the state government, I've been able to snag one of the early concepts that's up for consideration in the state legislature.

Doesn't it make you feel proud... and so soon after the massacre and attempted assassination in Tucson. That takes balls of steel my friends.

And I'm guessing to go along with the official gun, the official bullet will be the dum-dum. Nice work Utah.

And in case you were wondering, Utah ranks middle table in the gun death statistics by state [28th — 10.4/100,000].

Made in the USA

2011-01-29T08:02:00.001-05:00

The tear gas being used by police to disperse protesters in Cairo, Egypt was made in America, according to a television news report.

The labels on canisters say that the tear gas was produced by Combined Systems International (CSI) of Jamestown, Pa., Egyptian protesters with photographic proof have told ABC News yesterday.

It's true the United States no longer makes much, but when it does... it likes to advertise it to the world. Well done.

Bachmann: 3/5th of a person

2011-01-26T06:07:00.001-05:00

Michele Bachmann said the United States was founded on.... racial and ethnic diversity and that the founding fathers were..... responsible for abolishing slavery.

Speaking at an event sponsored by Iowans For Tax Relief, Bachmann hailed the "different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions" of the early European settlers in America, adding that the "color of their skin" or "language" or "economic status" didn't preclude them from seeking happiness.

"Once you got here, we were all the same," she said. "Isn't that remarkable? It is absolutely remarkable."

Remarkable that you can be such a revisionist that doesn't know history, or willfully chooses to ignore reality. Although, I think it's just that you're delusional, full of bullshit and a buffoon.

Painting by Dan Lacey

Lock and load

2011-01-24T05:20:00.008-05:00

Frances Fox Piven, a 78-year-old New York professor at City University is probably in danger today after she was made a target by Fox 'News' Glenn Beck and has subsequently been receiving death threats.

In a letter to Fox 'News', the Center for Constitutional Rights asked chairman and all-round asshole, Roger Ailes to stop Beck's "false accusations" against Pivens.

The Fox demagogue has been focusing on Piven since December 2009, because of an article she wrote in 1966 — 45 years ago, and just last week he called her an 'enemy of the Constitution'. He's also labeled her one of the "nine most dangerous people in the world." Does it really matter why?

Meanwhile, back in the real world of lax gun laws and low mental abilities, comments on Beck's website, The Blaze, as well as email messages have called for Piven's death:

"Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 roundas ready and I'll give My life to take Our freedom back," one anonymous commenter wrote.

How can this man be allowed to be on the air and effectively encourage morons such as 'anonymous' above to take violent action?

US gun deaths per 100,000 population

2011-01-23T17:04:00.002-05:00

Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, "More guns means more gun death and injury. Fewer guns means less gun death and injury. It's a simple equation."

New York = tight gun control. Arizona = lax gun control [if any]. Work it out for yourself which you'd prefer. And by the way, these stats are from 2002. It's worse in Arizona today [and better in New York], and note too that ALL New England states make up the bottom 15% of this table.
*Click on chart to see larger.

Massive arrest of Mob leadership in New York

2011-01-21T06:33:00.002-05:00

"Prosecutors said 34 'made' members of New York’s five crime families — Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese — and crime families in New Jersey and New England were among those arrested.

The indictments were announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who appeared at a news conference on Thursday morning in Brooklyn.

Most of them were processed at a United States Army base in Brooklyn and arraigned in the borough’s federal courthouse." New York Times

Just when you thought 'The Godfather' must have been a fictional movie after all, the FBI has recently expressed concern about a resurgence of Mob activity after two decades of decline.

Fort Hamilton Army base must have been buzzing with activity yesterday morning.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 8

2011-01-20T05:58:00.000-05:00

The Handsome Beasts follow up album to the monster debut, "04"... now, I haven't heard this yet, but I can't wait.

Sean Hannity: "We should just take Kuwait's oil."

2011-01-17T06:42:00.001-05:00

Sean Hannity of Fox has a brilliant solution to increasing oil prices at his nightly 'Great American Panel' discussion:

" I say why isn't Iraq paying us back with oil, and paying every American family and their soldiers that lost loved ones or have injured soldiers -- and why didn't they pay for their own liberation? For the Kuwait oil minister -- how short his memory is. You know, we have every right to go in there and frankly take all their oil and make them pay for the liberation."

Excellent. Armed robbery on a global scale.... why didn't the US think of that before. Oh wait, that's what Iraq was all about wasn't it, I forgot. And while I'm thinking about it, the "we" that gasbag Hannity talks about, means that with his stellar military record, he'll be leading us back to do the stealing, right?

The stats keep rolling in

2011-01-16T05:04:00.005-05:00

The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. Here's a summary of a press release they issued:

Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, "More guns means more gun death and injury. Fewer guns means less gun death and injury. It's a simple equation."

It really is a simple equation. On a larger scale, gun crimes around the world show that the United States leads the pack with a death rate of 14.24 per 100,000 population. Meanwhile, in Europe, England leads the race to the bottom of that table, with 0.41 per 100,000, but of all advanced societies, Japan stands out at a phenomenal 0.05 per 100,000.

Oh by the way, gun control in Japan is the most stringent in the democratic world.

Rush right in

2011-01-15T17:36:00.002-05:00

.... And straight out of the starting gate comes loud-mouth bigot Rush Limbaugh with this doozie of a billboard.

I'll give you all one guess which town this billboard was sited before Clear Channel yanked it down.

Correct... it's in Tucson.

Anyone need a 12-year-old chimney sweep?

2011-01-15T08:41:00.000-05:00

Under the guise of 'states' rights', the newly minted Tea-party backed republican Mike Lee from Utah has an interesting solution to unemployment. He wants to abolish the child labor laws.

He argues that the federal child labor laws are, wait for it… unconstitutional. Yay!

He believes they should be abolished since they aren't the responsibility of the Federal Government, but that states should be able to debate whether they are enacted or abolished.

Interestingly, he conveniently forgets that the Federal Government is empowered to ban child labor from the Federal workforce and is also empowered to ban it from businesses engaged in or within the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Clause.

All of which is moot since the 14th Amendment of 1868 would seem to render the fanciful states' rights argument null and void anyhow.

Remember the name, Mike Lee, R-Utah, a 39-year-old self-claimed 'constitutional' lawyer who interprets the constitution with the mindset of the Old Testament.

Boehner the bonehead

2011-01-14T05:16:00.005-05:00

The new Speaker of the House skipped a nationally televised memorial in Arizona honoring victims of Saturday's shootings, opting instead to host a cocktail party on Wednesday night.

The party was organized by Boehner's political action committee and featured 168 members of the Republican National Committee, according to published reports.

He was an a-hole before, but he's a self-serving callous a-hole now.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 7

2011-01-13T20:32:00.001-05:00

Don't let anyone tell you Freddie Gage doesn't know how to have a rip-roaring good time. Great album for parties too. By the way, does anyone know where to get a pair of those white boots?

Six shot outside Baltimore nightclub

2011-01-10T07:38:00.000-05:00

Yeay!!! More killings, more injured. Bring out your guns... it's a bloodfest!

"A fight at a Baltimore nightclub spilled onto the street early Sunday and led to an eruption of gunfire that killed a police officer and another man and left four people hurt, police said." ABC News

This country is so screwed if the issue of too-easy gun ownership is not addressed soon.

Haley Barbour: humanitarian

2011-01-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm copying this directly from Margaret Kimberley's report on Alternet primarily because I have no idea how to comment on this appalling story:

"The Scott sisters, Gladys and Jamie, have been imprisoned in Mississippi for 16 years after being convicted of committing an $11 robbery and then being sentenced to life terms. They steadfastly maintained their innocence and the only witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony, citing physical and other threats from local police. After months of protests brought their case to national attention, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour suspended their sentences on the condition that Gladys donate her kidney to her sister Jamie, who is undergoing dialysis treatments."

I don't want to come across as a bleeding heart liberal but seriously, what the fuck is going on in the south that this illegal shit can be matter-of-factly reported on and no-one is demanding Haley Barbour's head on a pike? My god, these women have served 16 years of a life sentence for stealing $11. What mediaeval century is Mississippi living in?

'The Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry'

2011-01-09T09:05:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Arizona. Where the principle of you 'reap what you sow' is made all the more poignantly relevant this weekend.

Judge John Roll shot dead by another legal gun owner, struck down part of the Brady Law in Arizona's legislature that required the registration of guns bought by owners. Democratic representative Gabrielle Giffords opposed the immigration law and yet was a gun advocate.

And of course there's Sarah Palin, who's rhetoric and imagery on her site references gun crosshairs to indicate Giffords district as a 'target' for the Tea Party to take. Then we have the lunatic from Nevada, Sharron Angle who made the point of advocating "second amendment remedies" if votes don't go her way in the election this last November.

Is this mass killing by another disguntled hater of this government surprising? Hardly. It's been on the cards for quite some time. Is there a solution? You betcha!

The gun[s] used to kill six people and injure many more in Tucson were bought legally by a white, suburban middle-class household. It's yet to be proven, but maybe the buyer was a even a member of the NRA.

What is needed is this: to clarify the Second Amendment to eliminate the absolute 'right' to gun ownership. And then ban guns. NRA/2nd Amendment advocates be damned. Do that and the bonus is Mexican drug cartels will have to shop somewhere else infinitely harder to get their weapons. It's no co-incidence the murder rate in Europe is nothing like the rate in this country and until Americans realise that it's the all-too-easy access to guns that is the cause of the slaughter of Americans, year in, year out, they will continue.

Second amendment solutions to grievances and the attempted assassination of elected representatives you disagree with are not the signs of a civilised country. Despite what the inflammatory, violent images and rhetoric of the likes of Angle, Palin, Beck, O'Reilly et al, might indicate.

And this is not a civilised society until it gives up the guns.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 6

2011-01-06T06:04:00.000-05:00

My oh my, where to begin... well, at least it's an anthology so you get a broad cross-section of their er, music on one album.

Judith Miller on 'Journalism 101'

2011-01-04T06:21:00.000-05:00

Judith Miller, the ex-New York Times journalist [and ex-journalist by all accounts], has appeared on Fox Nation to explain to the ~~suckers~~ viewers how Julian Assange is a 'bad journalist', “because he didn’t care at all about attempting to verify the information that he was putting out or determine whether or not it would hurt anyone.”

Thank the gods for paragons of virtuous journalism like Miller. By the way, this is the same Judith Miller that acted as the conduit for the Bush regime's push to attack Iraq and the mouthpiece of the same government's lies about so-called WMDs.

Why bother refuting anything this woman says, since it's bound to be a lie [or at least a 'press-release' from some government agency since she's little more than a stenographer].

It seems that once you enter that Fox Twilight Zone, you are lost to the world of truth and reality for ever. Working for Newsmax, the pointless right-wing 'magazine', hypocrisy, lies and stupidity take over and you become a joke as a journalist at best.

As Wonkette puts it, Julian Assange has left more journalists in his broken condoms than Judith Miller has in her entire body.

Fox 'news': where ex-journalist hacks go to die.

Social trends breakthrough

2011-01-02T10:21:00.000-05:00

The British Social Attitudes [BSA] survey released its latest results in December and it's a welcome day, that's been a long time coming. The results are that the UK is now a majority non-religious nation. The trend has long been evident as religion's grip has waned in Europe as a whole.

This latest BSA survey of a representative sample of UK citizens reports that a majority 51% now say they have no religion. According to the survey, this turnaround has happened in one generation. But a generation in which the UK's two out of three major political party leaders in the country are openly atheist and the third agnostic.

For a country that has fought many brutal wars of repression against one religious minority or another in centuries past, or advocated the slaughter of another country in the name of "god and country", this is truly a watershed moment for all atheists and believers alike.

I think I deserve a drink... to celebrate the inexorable trend of atheism in Europe!

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 5

2011-01-02T08:54:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but this isn't that 'collectible', and something tells me they're unlikely to be 'golden classics'.

Giving Land Back To Mexico

2011-01-01T08:43:00.000-05:00

Remember back in June 2010, when Fox News reported that a "massive stretch of Arizona is now off limits to Americans. Critics say the administration is, in effect, giving a major strip of the Southwest back to Mexico."

The next day, June 16th, Fox Nation reported: "Obama Gives Back Major Strip of AZ to Mexico." The claim was a total lie — the strip of land in question is part of a national wildlife refuge that, according to refuge officials, was closed to the public in 2006. For Fox readers that's two years before Obama was elected.

It is still very much under the control of the U.S. Border Patrol. Despite the story being debunked, Fox "News" continued the lie, reporting that the land had been "quietly surrendered" to "Mexican drug gangs and illegals."

Happy days. I'm not sad to see 2010 go. It hasn't been a good year on so many levels. This being only one minor blip in the lies and disinformation spread like manure onto the teevee screens of dumb and willing Fox viewers.

I'm hoping 2011 will be better. Happy New Year.

Christine O'Donnell lashes out...

2010-12-31T09:08:00.001-05:00

Do we really need to hear any more?

Christine O'Donnell lashes out at liberals, the media and even Vice-President Biden's office and FBI/Federal Investigators who, thanks to two former O'Donnell campaign workers and CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington], are now investigating her for campaign fraud.

This talentless nobody has been living on thin air for nearly four years, with no visible means of support is now accused of living off campaign contributions. She consequently appeared on many network talk shows to blame, well, to blame everyone else for these accusations, claiming she's clean as clean can be.

And that's about as likely as her laughable claim of still being a virgin, her flat out lie on her LinkedIn page of an Oxford University education and being honest about almost anything.

50 million Americans without health insurance

2010-12-28T09:53:00.004-05:00

According to Huffington Post this morning, the number of Americans without health insurance has exceeded the ENTIRE POPULATION of Spain [2010 est. 45.7m]. Their story comes from a sobering new report from the Kaiser Foundation.

Happy new year to everyone, but particularly to all those health lobbyists, republicans and teabaggers that campaigned and voted against a public option. this fact alone is a national disgrace and they should all be ashamed.

They must be so fucking proud.

First snowstorm of winter 2010

2010-12-27T11:23:00.001-05:00

Abandoned cars, taxis and even snowploughs litter 6th Avenue, Brooklyn from Sunday night to this morning.

And in the other direction, further abandoned cars and snowploughs struggling to get out of the drifts.

Click images to see larger.

Had a happy mas?

2010-12-26T08:55:00.002-05:00

Christmas wouldn't be christmas without a reminder of our friends over at the John Birch Society. That bastion of warmth and inclusiveness for all Americans.

As in seasons past it was memorable for waging a seasonal war and injecting the scent of red-baiting into it for good measure.

Its 1959 pamphlet titled “There Goes Christmas?!” was typical of JB's fare:

“One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas – to denude the event of its religious meaning.”

Don't you feel all warm and cosy now? So with that attempt by godless communists and the rather newer — and growing number — of atheists, I sincerely hope we've all had a happy and wonderful Mas.

I know I have.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 4

2010-12-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

On this special day to christians everywhere, I've chosen a special album of rocking Jesus tunes.

What's it like you ask? Think Neil Young & Crazy Horse combined with Nirvana or Pearl Jam and you're almost there. These guys ROCK...!!!

Subway brilliance

2010-12-24T05:30:00.003-05:00

Spotted on the #2 train yesterday morning. I'm sure the campaign has been around for a while, but it's good nonetheless:

Fischer enlightens us all

2010-12-23T08:26:00.001-05:00

Bryan Fischer, American Family Association's 'Director of Issue Analysis', is a crazy, crazy person.

He lamented last week after the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell that,"We will no longer be able to bail out these other emasculated armies because ours will now be feminized and neutered beyond repair, and there is no one left to bail us out,"

He added, "We have been permanently weakened as a military and as a nation by these misguided and treasonous Republican senators, and the world is now a more dangerous place for us all."

Wild man Fischer recently made that blindingly obvious connection between gay sex and domestic terrorism — damn, I don't know why I didn't see that before. It's so obvious now you cum to think of it.

Confusing black for white - an easy mistake

2010-12-22T06:13:00.001-05:00

Pat Buchanan says that with the vote to repeal DADT, "the world has turned upside down."

Haley Barbour in a Weekly Standard profile, celebrates racist, pro-segregation White Citizen's Council and the new, 'squeaky-clean' Council of Conservative Citizens, oh, and doesn’t remember the Jim Crow era as “that bad”.

Sometimes black looks like white and up is definitely down. Happens to many people of that lying, racist, teabagging, republican persuasion.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 3

2010-12-19T07:57:00.000-05:00

Hmm.... handsome. As a designer, there's not much wrong with this album cover. It has all the ingredients.

Critical mass...

2010-12-19T07:53:00.000-05:00

Looks like we've reached the stage of iPad for anything. But this sounds like a great idea.

Mark Zuckerberg: Person Of The Year. Really?

2010-12-16T07:24:00.002-05:00

There's a couple of points to make here about Time Magazine's Person Of The Year award:

It's an American magazine, so it shouldn't come as a surprise; and of course the pressure to fall in line with the US government position over WikiLeaks had to have played a huge part in the editors decision. As the evidence shows, they would be lying if they said otherwise.

Why? Well, for one thing and one thing only I guess, and that's their readers' views and votes. Something that Time editors have often taken into account when making their pointless 'award'. But not this year.

You see Julian Assange got 20 times more votes that Zuckerberg... and to award Assange would of course displease the government, and it's assumed Time's advertisers too. So a nice, safe American winner means advertisers are happy and no feathers are ruffled.

I suppose this is how the new American democracy works...

In numbers: First place, Julian Assange - 382,026
10th place, Mark Zuckerberg - 18,353

Silvio Berlusconi survives no-confidence vote

2010-12-15T06:57:00.002-05:00

Finally... the Italian left wakes up.

By just three votes the scandal-ridden and corrupt Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi survived a vote of no confidence, which provoked massive riots in Rome and many other Italian cities.

Protesters attacked police, burned barricades and overturned cars as they attempted to attack the parliament building.

Worst Album Covers Ever - part 2

2010-12-14T19:32:00.001-05:00

Dan Betzer and Louie. I'm not sure which is which, but I know both of them scare me.

Oil and corruption... the evil twins

2010-12-13T06:22:00.002-05:00

Robert Kissin, a UK banker and commodity trader, has been outed in WikiLeaks released cables to be the bagman who handled a $4 million secret payment to Kazakhstan state oil chiefs.

The cash was moved through a Barclays bank account set up in London on behalf of an offshore shell company registered in the Isle of Man, where ownership is routinely concealed.

The money was designed to grease the wheels for Texas oil services company Baker Hughes who desperately wanted a lucrative $219m contract, with a potential for more, according to the company's subsequent admissions.

The SEC found out about it and in a surprising move, fined Baker Hughes a then record $44 million in penalties. The April 2007 plea agreement referred to a 'British connection', but Kissin's name was withheld — until now.

Kissin, admitted to being involved when questioned by The Guardian, but dismissed it as 'old news' and refused to comment further.

Apparent financial corruption from major banks such as Barclays, right the way down to an arrogant nobody called Kissin is not restricted to the US, but is alive and well in the UK too.

Bored with politics too?

2010-12-12T17:53:00.000-05:00

How about an occasional series entitled: The Worst Album Covers Ever!

Sample One...

No points for guessing the decade.

Westboro Baptist Church To Picket Elizabeth Edwards Funeral

2010-12-10T06:25:00.001-05:00

Unbelievably, Westboro Baptist Church members are going to 'protest' at Elizabeth Edwards' funeral. Church? The First Amendment is screwed if this abomination of a 'church' can be allowed to continue without legal action to shut it down.

It wouldn't surprise me if as a so-called 'church' if it has tax-exempt status too.

I was wrong

2010-12-08T05:48:00.002-05:00

I noted earlier — on Sunday I think — that WikiLeaks had amassed nearly 80 mirrored sites. These are sites that are the exact duplicate of the original but hosted on another server somewhere else around the world.

I was wrong almost as soon as I'd gotten the words typeset, then pasted those words onto the layout, made the plates and ran the presses. It seems that the real number [today at any rate] is a shade more than 1,000 mirrored sites. Over ten times my original number.

My mistake, sorry.

Feminists strike back

2010-12-08T05:38:00.003-05:00

Dear Interpol:

As a longtime feminist activist, I have been overjoyed to discover your new commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating.

I see that Julian Assange is accused of having consensual sex with two women, in one case using a condom that broke. I understand, from the alleged victims' complaints to the media, that Assange is also accused of texting and tweeting in the taxi on the way to one of the women's apartments while on a date, and, disgustingly enough, 'reading stories about himself online' in the cab.

Both alleged victims are also upset that he began dating a second woman while still being in a relationship with the first. (Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That's what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!).

Thank you again, Interpol. I know you will now prioritize the global manhunt for 1.3 million guys I have heard similar complaints about personally in the US alone -- there is an entire fraternity at the University of Texas you need to arrest immediately. I also have firsthand information that John Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, went to a stag party -- with strippers! -- that his girlfriend wanted him to skip, and that Mark Levinson in Corvallis, Oregon, did not notice that his girlfriend got a really cute new haircut -- even though it was THREE INCHES SHORTER.

Terrorists. Go get 'em, Interpol!

Yours gratefully,

Naomi Wolf

Absolutely hit the nail on the head.

WikiLeaks growing by leaps and bounds

2010-12-05T11:05:00.002-05:00

With all the attacks on Julian Assange and Wikileaks in general from government hackers to pressure on the likes of Amazon to drop hosting the site, you'd think the demise of our First Amendment Freedom of Speech rights regarding the internet is about to come to an end.

Killing the messenger has taken on a new — almost literal — meaning. As a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public, WikiLeaks has come under intense pressure, up to and including calls for Assange's assassination from a moronic former Canadian government official. Clearly an illegal act for which he should be arrested and changed with incitement to commit murder.

However, what the main stream media isn't seeing or reporting, is the rapidly growing support for the principle of keeping government open and secret-free for its citizens. Checking out WikiLeaks Facebook page is revealing in itself. [ http://www.facebook.com/wikileaks ]

Gaining Facebook 'friend' status at an accelerating rate of roughly 2,000 per hour, WikiLeaks is rapidly approaching 1,000,000 friends and supporters. More revealing is the information that mirrored sites are increasing rapidly too. As of this writing, there are nearly 80 mirrored WikiLeaks sites around the world. And although attempts by governments to pressure private companies to shut down hosting the site are continuing, the site itself is still accessible quite easily by using their DNS address.

You can reach WikiLeaks — and support its work — here: http://213.251.145.96/

Freedom of Information must win what is probably the first info war of the 21st Century. A free internet, your First Amendment rights and open government depends on it.

WikiLeaks: up, down, up again, maybe

2010-12-03T08:11:00.003-05:00

This whole ongoing saga, is turning very interesting.

From memory, there have been two major releases from WikiLeaks in recent months, both of which affected governments and their secret dealings around the world, the site was unaffected, despite the Pentagon bragging it could 'take down' WikiLeaks anytime it chose.

Then Julian Assange announced he had the real dirt on the banks and insurance companies that they were readying to release next... and bingo.... WikiLeaks.org suffers a DDOS attack and goes down.

Coincidence? I think not. I think we know who controls the purse strings in this country and it isn't the Feds or the Pentagon.

The 'enemy' — if there is such a thing — is in downtown Manhattan, the guys in Government merely do their bidding.

The thing that I keep reminding myself about is this: somewhere on some person's computer or stored on some drive, are these files. They're likely to be pdfs, or Word files, or rtf files or even jpgs.

How many of us have sent any or all of the above to a friend or relative and they in turn have sent it to 10 other friends or relatives, who in turn sent it to 10 others. See where I'm going with this?

These files are real. In the worst case scenario WikiLeaks may not get any ISP to host their site anywhere around the world. But remember this, it takes just one single, solitary private computer to send out group emails containing many, many of these files, to say, the top 3-4 news aggregators [AP, AFP, Bloomberg, etc], the top 4-5 newspapers around the world [say, New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais], and maybe 10-20 other associates, who in turn each send it 10-20 of their associates and so on and on.

It seems to me these files WILL get out, the DDOS attacks and the Swedish prosecutors and the CIA and the Pentagon are just delaying the inevitable. This is not like shutting down opposition newspapers and confiscating printing presses in days of old - ie. pre-internet. We're talking potentially hundreds of thousands of personal computers in hundreds of countries.

You simply cannot police that... and once it's out and in the right hands, if they show evidence of corruption and/or crimes against legitimate governments, police authorities will be forced to act.

I can play the eternal sceptic, but the exciting part is, this conceivably could signal the end of Goldman Sachs. And how sweet would that be?

Generosity is just not patriotic - part two

2010-12-02T05:17:00.003-05:00

Why is this the case? How is it possible?

Generosity is just not patriotic - part one

2010-12-01T18:07:00.001-05:00

"In the United States, the figure varies from state to state, but overall a couple with two children and an income a little below average will have about 50 percent of earnings replaced by public assistance in case of unemployment. In France, the replacement ratio for the same family is 86 percent; in Britain 83 percent; in Germany 74 percent; in Sweden and the Netherlands 90 percent."
The United States of Europe by TR Reid

Yes, you read that right. 90% in the Netherlands and Sweden... and of course they don't lose their health insurance just because they're unemployed either. Neither do the unemployed in Britain, France or Germany.

Posting less not more

2010-11-30T07:39:00.002-05:00

You'd think that now I've lost my job [I'm one of those costs they just had to cut], that I'd have more time to post my little thoughts and comments from this part of Brooklyn.

However, since I have to search for another gig, I seem to have less time than I imagined I would. You would also think that working in design and the media in NYC it would be easy to find work. It's New York after all, right? Wrong.

In the jobs I've been checking out so far, some freelance design jobs are going for as little as $15 per hour. $25 per hour if you're lucky. It's still depressing out there folks.

I'll post a little more later, but in the meantime, back to 'work'.

And then there's the Macy's parade

2010-11-29T05:57:00.000-05:00

No, this is not from Fox 'News'... it's from America's finest news source at its best

Damn, I wish I'd known this beforehand.... I'm a really good back-up singer.

Mr Stupid Fox reader plumbs new depths

2010-11-26T17:19:00.001-05:00

The Fox 'News' sister site has re-posted a story from The Onion website today about President Barack Obama sending a 75,000-word e-mail to the the entire nation. In the email he is reported to have rambled on talking about everything from Afghanistan to his mother-in-law.

Fox Nation make no attempt to note that the story is satire.

Despite that many commenters on the site are believing the story, disregarding the notation it came from The Onion. One Fox commenter even called The Onion to 'confirm' the story. Meanwhile another commenter, 'bricktexan1_at_google' wrote: "I think this just show the disorentated mind of O'bongo, so seethed in hatred for regular Aericans and so narcasticlly involved with HISSELF. Job number 1 of the new Congress is to IMPEACH THIS POS"

Nearly literate, but definitely dumb as a post.

The hammer falls

2010-11-26T08:15:00.006-05:00

Tom Delay has been found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering — in Texas.

This all started in 2002, when DeLay's Texas PAC, collected $190,000 in corporate donations and sent the money to the Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the $190,000 back to Texas and to seven Republican state house candidates that were hand-picked by... wait for it... Tom DeLay and his PAC. Of course.

Under Texas law, it is illegal for candidates to use corporate money for their campaigns.

Damn it, it's simple corruption is what it is. But then Tom Delay is to ethics, as Christine O'Donnell is to truth-telling.

The result was, all seven republicans won and the Texas state legislature returned to Republican control for the first time since 1902. Delay used those wins as a means to redistrict areas of Texas to further favour Republicans and 'coincidentally' gave him more power. Cute.

Times are getting much harder

2010-11-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

I got laid off on Monday from my designer job.... you know, that one where I got to work from home and not have to commute with the rabble anymore. Remember it now?

Well, I didn't mean the 'rabble' part, really.

Anyhow, by Tuesday I discovered this solid opportunity in our neighbourhood, so I firmed up my offer and jumped right in. Already got my sign up and getting ready to go [or come]. This enterprise is going to be really hard to beat don't you think?

Fun for all the family

2010-11-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the new reality of air travel.

For no other reason than he was cool

2010-11-20T11:20:00.001-05:00

Duke Ellington, long-time resident of New York City started to play gigs in cafes and clubs in and around Washington. His attachment to music grew so strong he turned down an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1916 and dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School where he was studying commercial art, three months before graduation.

By 1917 he'd launched his musical career, painting commercial signs by day and playing jazz by night. At first, he played in other bands, then in late 1917 formed his first group, Duke’s Serenaders, playing their first gig at Washington's True Reformer's Hall.

However, the pull of what became known as the 'Harlem Renaissance' was too strong for the young Ellington and he headed off to New York. New dance crazes, like the Charleston, were bred in Harlem as well as black musical theatre, from Eubie Blake and others. After a few months, the young musicians returned to Washington feeling discouraged by the hard to crack jazz scene in New York.

By 1927, the famous band leader King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club at Lenox Avenue and 142 St. Ellington, now back in New York was offered the spot. With a weekly radio broadcast, famous and infamous clientèle poured in to see them on a nightly basis, the period as house band from 1927 to 1931 was a golden age for Duke Ellington which gave him national prominence.

By now, Ellington's 20-year collaboration with the younger and classically-trained, Billy Strayhorn was producing some of the band's best music of that period.

By the time the fifties came around however, musical styles were changing. Smaller bands were in vogue and the newer music called, 'rhythm and blues', led by the likes of Louis Jordan, Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris were all the rage. Big bands like Ellington's were less fashionable. He continued to write and perform expanding his repertoire into new territories and collaborating on albums with rising stars such as John Coltrane and Johnny Hodges, plus the established stars like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

Then along came the annual Newport Jazz Festival of 1956. In July. Like it does every year. But this year was different. Ellington's set was different.

Legend has it that during a set in Birdland in the early 1950s, after 'Diminuendo', Paul Gonsalves leant over to Duke and asked if he could solo. What followed was a really long driving solo that whipped the audience into a frenzy, with people crying out and jumping on their chairs.

Ellington may have had that in his mind when, during their set at Newport, he told Gonsalves to blow as long as he wanted during the 'Diminuendo' interlude. In what has since become jazz folklore, Gonsalves practically started a riot as he played a tenor sax solo for 27 choruses, stirring up the normally staid crowd into a frenzy. It's quoted that one blonde woman in a black evening dress jump from her box seat and start dancing. This served as the catalyst for the crowd frenzy that grew as Gonsalves continued his incredible solo. This song, along with the other performances at the festival by Ellington's band, were released as a live recording and helped revive his flagging career.

Duke Ellington lived most of his later years in a townhouse on Riverside Drive at 106th Street in Manhattan, where he died in 1974. At his funeral attended by 12,000 people, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the feeling, "It's a very sad day. A genius has passed."

Palin does it again...

2010-11-19T12:37:00.003-05:00

Palin's desire to comment on every damn thing is getting to her. Now she advocates torture to a blog that has posted excerpts from her upcoming 'book'.

Of course, like many things she does, she's quietly pulled the offending tweet. Sadly for her, there are much sharper bloggers and tweeters around these internets. So here's her idiotic and brainless comment. Thanks go to The Political Carnival.

TSA get seriously invasive

2010-11-17T13:21:00.000-05:00

Flying to your parents this thanksgiving...?

... excellent, now please bend over sir, this won't hurt a bit.

Counter-clockwise regrets

2010-11-17T06:08:00.001-05:00

You can't tell clearly, but I think this looks like Christine O'Donnell. Oh, we miss her don't we?

Can't wait 'til she has her own reality teevee show. Thanks to: xkcd.

The Great Derangement

2010-11-15T11:40:00.003-05:00

"Our world isn’t about ideology anymore. It’s about complexity. We live in a complex bureaucratic state with complex laws and complex business practices, and the few organizations with the corporate will power to master these complexities will inevitably own the political power. On the other hand, movements like the Tea Party more than anything else reflect a widespread longing for simpler times and simple solutions -- just throw the U.S. Constitution at the whole mess and everything will be jake. For immigration, build a big fence. Abolish the Federal Reserve, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education. At times the overt longing for simple answers that you get from Tea Party leaders is so earnest and touching, it almost makes you forget how insane most of them are." Matt Taibbi, Griftopia

Buy this book from anywhere, you won't regret it. It might give you indigestion, given how corrupt our society is right now, but at least you'll know for sure. Unlike most teabaggers around the country, who are simpletons believing in f**king pixies and fairies.

US spirited Nazis from war crime trials, shock!

2010-11-15T06:53:00.003-05:00

The New York Times has released a full unredacted version version of the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) “Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust.”

According to the Times' Eric Lichtblau, “The Justice Department has resisted making the report public since 2006.” A “heavily redacted” version was released last month to the private National Security Archive, and now a [conveniently] 'leaked' version of the entire document has been released to the public.

In a nutshell, the Justice Department are admitting they aided ~~former~~ current Nazi Party [NSDAP] members to escape war crime trials justice at the end of WWII, by spiriting them to the United States.

We know that already and have known it for years [er, the US space programme kinda relied on German scientists for its propulsion technology in its early years]... so why come clean now? Could the Justice Department be trying to distract us from some other crap they don't want us to focus on?

37,466,904

2010-11-11T06:55:00.006-05:00

Today is Armistice Day in Europe, Veterans Day here in the United States, and the number in the headline is the total number of casualties inflicted on each side in the first World War of 1914-18.

To put those numbers into a more manageable amount think on this: Before the United States entered the war in 1917, a largely British and French force commenced battle at the Somme on July 1st, 1916. On that first day of battle, the British forces alone lost almost 60,000 men. In 24 hours.

That's close to a 9/11 every single hour for 24 hours. And that was just the British side. That day became notorious as the bloodiest day in British military history.

By the end of the battle, the final death toll included 420,000 British, 200,000 French and the Germans 500,000. The reward for this effort was the six-mile movement of the British front line into German territory.

However, although American forces were not yet involved in the Great War, amongst the French forces waiting to go over the top on July 1st, 1916, was an American. Alan Seeger was a poet who graduated from Harvard in 1910 and moved to Paris after a short stint in Greenwich Village. When war broke out Seeger enlisted in the French Foreign Legion so he could fight for the France he had grown to love.

While waiting for the whistle that signalled the start of his company's assault on German lines, he composed a poem:

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air--
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

He kept his appointment with death, on that first day of battle. He was just 28 years old.

As a postscript, US battle deaths in WWI totalled 53,400... slightly less than the British casualties on that first day of the Somme. We should remember.

Allen West Heart Joyce Kaufman: made in heaven?

2010-11-10T12:53:00.002-05:00

Below are comments found by the Florida Independent site reporting on Joyce Kaufman, the crazy, right-wing radio talk show host and all-round loose cannon that is representative-elect Allen West's soon to be Chief of Staff:

* In August 2007, when discussing illegal immigrants, she said on her show, "If you commit a crime while you're here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it."
* She became infuriated at illegal immigration after she called Comcast and the recording said, "Press 2 for Spanish." * She said at a rally, with West standing by, "Calling illegal immigrants 'undocumented workers' is like calling a drug dealer a pharmacist without a license." She was furious that children of illegal immigrants were educated in public schools and received health care at emergency rooms. "There are people who want to change your way of life, and some of them may be your gardeners," she said.

This woman is a sick product of a society that is slowly losing its moral bearings. After watching her vile comments on MSNBC last night [Tues]... where she talked about 'if the votes didn't go her way she was going to use guns', shows the depths to which we have sunk where that kind of talk isn't cause for an immediate investigation by the FBI.

In another time and place she would at least have been questioned for an attempted incitement to insurrection against the federal government, but not in 2010... that's now part of the normal political discourse.

These truly are dangerous times we live in.

Two Americas - their's and ours

2010-11-08T12:45:00.003-05:00

Here's their's:

Martin Erzinger, a Morgan Stanley 'wealth manager' [really], will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because Colorado prosecutors don't want him to lose his job.

The victim, Dr Steven Milo was riding his bicycle when Erzinger's Mercedes hit him and fled the scene, leaving Milo for dead on the highway. As Dr Milo so eloquently put it, "Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway. Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case."

True, but with respect Dr Milo, that's not the America you live in. You live in our America... Erzinger lives in a completely different place, one where wealth buys justice and be damned with the rest of us. As Colorado District Attorney Mark Hurlbert put it, "It wouldn't be wise to prosecute Erzinger — doing so might hurt his source of income."

Right.

Texas to drop Medicaid?

2010-11-07T09:05:00.002-05:00

According to the New York Times, right-wing Republicans in the state senate are giving serious consideration to dropping out of Medicaid as a way to reduce their budget shortfall.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, notes there are 3.6 million children and people with disabilities and the poor that are currently covered by both Medicaid and CHIP.

But meanwhile, The Heritage Foundation, a batshit crazy right-wing 'foundation', estimates Texas could save $60 billion from 2013 to 2019 by opting out of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, dropping coverage for acute care.

Gotta love Texas. This option might well succeed but not in the way the Texas state legislature hopes. My guess is it'll likely precipitate families moving out of Texas to surrounding states, either out of choice or through foreclosure of their homes as they increasingly fail to pay for medical bills, while the elderly simply die from their inability to pay for desperately needed medical care.

In either of these ghoulish scenarios, I can see Texas making a serious dent in their deficit, whilst claiming it as a victory to the electorate.

If Texans approve this measure should it come to that, they are dumber than shit... and in my view I'd WANT Texas to secede from the Union. Let Rick Perry have his way.

Helicopters or roads - you choose

2010-11-04T06:44:00.002-04:00

While making coffee I was listening to NPR early this morning on my local station, WNYC in New York. I thought I was awake, when they aired an interview with two teabaggers. One, a lady from the Tea Party Express in Texas and the other a man from Dick Armey's front organisation, FreedomWorks.

It was an interesting interview in many ways, but what stood out amongst the bullshit was the lady from Texas teabaggers made an interesting claim. Now we all know their big beef is they want 'smaller government', yet this woman was complaining about the lack of repairs along Interstate I-35, that runs through Texas — and blamed the feds.

She claimed that the 'federal government was "buying helicopters for politicians" instead of repairing their roads, with their tax money'. Now, two things occur to me: 1. Whilst Texas may get federal funds to repair/build those roads [as in Stimulus money], it surely is however, the responsibility of local government to actually build or repair those highways. And as we know the local government is... republican.

And, 2. This woman is completely nuts... but unfortunately, the moment she uttered the words, it became the absolute truth to her legions of followers.

The takeaway from this interview is that in their warped little minds, the demand for 'smaller government' only applies to someone else. And secondly, despite their laudable attempt to provide a balanced news station, we must not rely on NPR to challenge outrageous claims passed off as truth. NPR failed totally to make this woman substantiate her claim, and that's not good journalism.

Focussing on the good

2010-11-03T06:18:00.006-04:00

With the generally bad news around the country, it's a good thing to focus on the good from last night's debâcle.

Andrew Cuomo convincingly defeated racist, sexist so-called teabagger Carl Paladino for the governorship of New York State.

He cruised in the Democratic stronghold of New York City, winning more than 80% of the vote, and won convincingly in the counties surrounding the city. According to the New York Times, 'even upstate, he either outpolled or ran even with Mr. Paladino.'

The statistical breakdown is even more impressive, the National Election Pool's exit polling conducted by Edison Research found that Mr Cuomo won more than 90 percent of black voters support. He also gained more than two-thirds of women's votes. Paladino was unsurprisingly favoured among less-educated whites and conservatives.

Maybe the massive vote majorities from blacks and women reflect the blatantly racist and pornographic e-mails Paladino sent and then dismissed in the press as irrelevant.

In other news, the Delaware senate race went as expected, raving lunatic Christine O'Connell lost — no surprise there. There were one or two other unexpected results around the country, with Nevada's senate leader Harry Reid retaining his seat from teabagger nutjob Sharron Angle.

Carly Fiorina lost (to democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer) in California, as did liar Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, who ran her campaign as she ran eBay — into the ground — putting nearly $170 million into her race, far more than any other candidate this election. eBay must be so, so relieved she's no longer heading the company.

In the rest of the rest of the country it was a disaster. Let's not talk about it just yet.

VOTE LIKE YOU MEAN IT...!

2010-11-02T13:42:00.001-04:00

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believin' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believin' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black. Johnny Cash

I think we need to be reminded of some basic truths on this day.