Republicans treat American public like 10 dollar hookers. . .again!

Ok well maybe not $10, more like $100 - don't you feel special?

Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Most American taxpayers would get $100 rebate checks to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

What's the catch?

However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration

Of course. Congratulations America, the people you voted into office think you can be bought for $100 bucks.

And does anyone remember way back before the Earth changed on 9-11-01 when President buy-my-love sent everyone $3-500 smackers because having a surplus of cash was such a bad thing?

How did that turn out?

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 27 Apr 2006 at 10:32:26 PM GMT is:



I don't even know what that number is.

And where is the golden goose crapping out all this money? The city of New Orleans is running out of rebuilding money (all the better for private investors to come in and steal public lands for nothing) and the war in Iraq costs about a billion a month or something and this is thier big idea to help us out?

Sorry senators, buying off the American people with a few bucks so your oil executive buddies can continue to make the highest profits ever recorded isn't going to work. Shit your base of half-ton pickup truck with gunracks drivers will barely be able to get a tank and half out of your c-note.

People will buy that about as much as the crazy Wall Street Journal lady (not Peggy Noonan, another one) on Jon Stewart's show last night that tried to tell people the high price of oil was due to ethanol!

What's next for the WSJ - Hybrids most popular vehicle for child molesters?

At what point do we get to say "Who cares?"

Over at Gilliard's blog I stumbled upon another story in the same vein as the Danish Cartoon controversy - sort of.

Faculty members and administrators at Nova Southeastern University, in Davie, Fla., got more than they bargained for when they invited author Salman Rushdie to give this year’s commencement speech at the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences on May 7. They got controversy. Some student members of the International Muslim Association are protesting the invitation, presumably because they agree with those who regard Mr. Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” as a blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. (It’s the Danish cartoons all over again, only this time with an additional twist provided by the literary quality of the offending document.)

Like usual, Gilliard does a rational, intelligent analysis of the facts and explains how this situation is not like cartoon issue.

This isn't the same as the Danish cartoons for a couple of reasons. The first was that Rushie's "crime" was offending the Iranians, who had no possible justification to punish the British subject.

The cartoons was a direct insult from Danes to other Danes of another religion. It was designed to denigrate them. Most American papers treated them a culturally offensive and wouldn't run them, as they wouldn't for any other religion

Rushdie was not denigrating Islam. Also, no one sent hit teams to kill the cartoonists, most people simply protested, some rioted and died. Rushie's life was in real, verifiable danger and most importantly, state sanctioned. That is a world of difference than some ginned up mobs. The Iranian state wanted him dead, a person they had no control or contact over. It's called terrorism.

To think in 2006, people could be offended by him speaking is sad. But so what. Don't fucking go.

His partner Jen makes some typically ridiculous statements based on her typical knee-jerk reaction to what she refers to as "extremists" but what she actually means to say is "Muslims" (despite her ridiculous protests to the contrary).

Gilly, you have it wrong. The SAME sorts of people with the SAME interests and SAME insane sense of intolerance called for (and where necessary fabricated the materials) for both the Danish riots and the fatwah against Rushdie.

You can't pander to extremists, period.

. . .

I'll say it again: If your religion preaches the destruction of nonbelievers and nontheocratic systems of government, please stay the fuck out of Western civilization. Strawmen to the contrary be damned.

As of yet I've never heard her comment on, let alone get hysterical on every mention of, war criminals like Ariel Sharon, George Bush and countless other radicals that are born and bred in "Western civilization" but I'll leave it to you to decide what she really means when she criticizes "extremists."

But here's the real problem. So some students don't want to hear Rushdie because they believe he insulted their religion? So fucking what? That doesn't make them radicals. In my opinion they are stupid and should stay in school longer, but I think that about many religious people (though not most). But that doesn't make them radicals or terrorists or even a threat to democracy or free speech. Every time someone gets upset about something, there doesn't need to be news articles and blog posts and hand wringing and expletive laced comments made about it.

You think they shouldn't care about who speaks at their graduation? Fine, but I know I sure as hell wouldn't go to my graduation if Ann Coulter had been the key note speaker and she's an author too. Hell, George Bush was the keynote at Ohio State a couple of years ago and if I graduated that quarter I wouldn't have gone because of him either. That doesn't make me a radical or a hater of free speech, it just means I don't want to listen to someone I think is an asshole speak for an hour on a day I'm supposed to enjoy. Yeah the students may have "protested" the choice a little (there were no riots that I'm aware of) but they should be able to do that too, even if you think that makes them assholes. Lots of people protest stuff and look like assholes - that doesn't mean they shouldn't do it. Here's what people shouldn't do - they shouldn't pretend their not bigots when it's pretty obvious to anyone who can read critically that they are. Jen, you're a bigot just like Charlesmalkinschlusseljohnson and just because you hitch yourself to a liberal blog written by a black man doesn't mean you're not.

Consequences, Schmonsequences

Scotty stepped down today after a long and sweaty journey.

The exchange was eerily similar to Looney Tunes: Back in Action:

Kate Houghton Karl Rove: I need you to eject this duck.
DJ Drake George Bush: Lady, this is Daffy Duck Scooter McDuck.
Kate Houghton Rove: Not anymore; we own the name.
Daffy Duck Scooter McDuck: Oh yeah? Well, you can't stop ME from calling myself D-(gasp)... D-(gasp)... well, whatayaknow.

Rest in Peace

A great American died today.

American social activist Reverend William Sloane Coffin, known for for his fight against segregation and the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 81.

The major "news" outlets are too busy covering the shocking stories of a terrorist who wants to kill people and a blond girl who probably got stoned and walked into the ocean months ago, but the rest of us will take a moment to reflect on a life well served.

Yes I really am that bitter.

Gee, a terrorist wants to kill people?

What's this world coming to?

This bit of sarcasm is brought to you by the folks at cnn who have been hanging on Zacarias Moussaoui's every word today.

Earlier it was BREAKING NEWS! Mousaoui wants to kill Americans!

No Shit?

Next up, a hard hitting story on how the sky is blue. Followed by an update on the Natalie Holloway case — she's still missing.

Iraq pt. II

They aren't even going to bother changing the script even a little bit.

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says (Update1)

Of course the good news for the administration is that at least Iran admits it's enriching Uranium, unlike Saddam who was slightly more honest than Resident Evil when it comes to WMD.

From the Mailbox

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are flying on the Air Force One to a gathering in San Francisco when Bush turns to Cheney and says, chuckling, "You know, I could throw a $1000 bill out the window right now and make someone very happy."

Cheney shrugs and replies, "Well, I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make ten people Happy."

Not to be outdone, Rumsfeld says, "Well I could throw a hundred $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people happy." The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses back there. Hell, I could throw all three of them out the window and make 132 million people happy."




I know, you saw it coming, me too.

Outrageous

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military on Wednesday called a video posted on the Internet purportedly showing the dragging of a U.S. flier's remains from a downed copter's wreckage "despicable."

We are outraged that anyone would create and publish such a despicable video for public exposure," military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington said in a statement. "The terrorists continue to demonstrate their immoral disregard for human dignity and life."

Yeah whatever.

Let's see, how did this shit start?





and then we had some of this







and about 150,000 of these






Oh yes - what they did to those soldiers was reprehensible and rotten. But Jonathan Withington and the U.S. Military ought to start taking a long hard look at why they are there in the first place.

Pantsload Syndrome

Jonah then:

But Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me. The details are still murky and it's hard to appreciate what she's been through. And maybe JPod's right about Stockholm syndrome.

Think Progress then called out Jonah on his obtuseness and he, predictably, squealed like a stuck piglet.

But come on. Does anyone in their right mind think that Think Progress would be rallying to this woman's side if she emerged from her captivity saying George W. Bush was right and the people who kidnapped her were terrorist animals? Please. They'd be prattling on about how she lost her mind.

Jill Carroll after being safe and sound away from her kidnappers:

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video," she wrote. "They told me they would let me go if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed.

"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."

She even lambasted her captors, who allegedly killed her interpreter, Alan Enwiya, when they abducted her in western Baghdad in January.

Jonah's ridiculous strawman just turned into real boy - would Think Progress suddenly turn on Jill Carroll like he predicted they would?

Of course not.

But could Jonah possibly rise above his own mendacious filthiness?

Of course not.

The same name-calling screachers who insisted that I was an ass for not taking everything Jill Carroll said at face value, are now emailing me to call me an ass because it now looks like I was right to be skeptical. They insist I should apologize for "judging" her. This strikes me as absurd. If you go back and read what I've posted, I said that Carroll's statements didn't scan.

Sure Jonah, you and your colleagues just made her out to be a mental patient - you meant no ill will at all. You were just concerned for her well-being. The fact that she didn't verbally felate the President and scream about Islamo-facists while still in the kidnappers custody had nothing to do with you, J-Pod, and KJ getting apoplectic about a woman who was just freed after 3 months in captivity.

And just to really drive home the point that he's a bland and caviling shithead:

In all sincereity: good for her. I take Carroll at her word and hope nothing but the best for her. I'm sure it was a terrible ordeal and I think, barring some major revelation, this should put an end to the criticism of her. Leave her be. I'm sorry for suggesting that she might have believed what she said. I hope there will be some apologies coming from those who did believe what she said.

Speaking of mental cases, Jonah needs to look up projection:

"A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits."