Caturday!

Yeah, yeah, it's ICHC

And here in the fire zone, the grass and weeds have already turned brown despite a long, wet spring. Fortunately, it's not as hot this year as it was last year. Nevertheless, it's time to put on the shorts and the old sun hat and venture downstairs for another day of weeding. We leave you to determine how much pain this day's adventure will cost. Fuck me blind, when you haven't used your muscles for over a year, they find new and innovative ways to let you know that fact.

A joyous Independence Day to all! The Declaration of Independence belongs to this day, and herewith a brief excerpt to remind us all of why we celebrate this day:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

"To effect their safety and happiness ... ." Wouldn't those words lend themselves to the interpretation that a government that does not provide health care for its citizens should be rejected in favour of one that can and does?

La Casa de Los Gatos apologizes for the desultory blogging of that issue, and begs its friends and readers to understand that recent health problems make one unable to brain sufficiently to say something intelligent and useful on the topic, wherefore it is better to say nothing at all than to irritate by one's stupidity. We urge our fellow hoominz to continue pushing for Universal Health Care - a public option that will safeguard the health of nearly fifty million of our fellow Americans who are currently without any health care at all, and who, being placed in this position by us all, constitute a greater threat to the public safety of all of us in case of an epidemic than the expenditure of tax monies in providing them with health care possibly could.

Remember, you Republican nutcases and "small-government" yobbos — in the face of a raging epidemic, it's too late to vaccinate. Precautionary measures must be taken before the fact, not in response to it. New and increasingly deadly epidemics are moving swiftly among us, thanks to global warming and increasing urbanization. Better to spend the money now if need be than regret the loss of one's loved ones after the fact.

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Politics: Sarah Palin

Image from ClarkBlog

is stepping down as the Governor of Alaska.

I know what you're thinking, cos that's what I'm thinking: WTF has she done now? Is National Enquirer about to reveal the facts of the sleazy affair she had with her husband's business partner? Or is Mark Sanford about to reveal that she was one of the women that he "crossed the line" with? Or is an indictment coming down?

Who knows? All I can say is, Whoo-hoo! Now, if she'd only resign from teh Hoomin Race, with which she has, really, nothing in common.

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Politics: Health Care

Seen with her favourite person, your own Senator DiFi

Live in California? Want a better health care system?

Then get ready to sit down and give ol' helmet-hair (Senator DiFi) an earful. Because that worthless bitch doesn't think you need health care reform. Why the fuck should she, she's married to a rich man and making a couple hundred thou a year PLUS she gets gold-plated healthcare at the taxpayers' expense.

I can't stand her, quite honestly. Her politics would be seen for the worthless shit they are if we didn't have true asshats like John Cornyn, John McCain, Lamar Alexander, Evan Bayh, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran, Jim DeMint, John "Fuckaround" Ensign, David Vitter, Lindsay Graham, James Inhofe, Orrin Hatch, Jon Kyl, Joe LieberWHORE, Mitch "Granny" McConnell, Ben Nelson, Pat Roberts and Jeff Sessions in the Senate. Geez, that's an awful lotta asshats, huh? And most of them worse than your very own Princess Diane.

Recently, that waste of skin Feinstein was heard to opine to Greg Sargent, who now blogs at Plum Line, that criticism from "the left" doesn't bother her.

Problem is, it ain't the mythical "left" that wants President Obama's health care bill to pass. It's three out of every four Americans. You know, your average person who (1) doesn't have pots of money; (2) isn't married to someone who has pots of money; (3) doesn't have taxpayer-funded health care.

If you really want the health care system reformed, do your part. Here's some information on how to get started. If you don't want to do the activist number, then at least call DiFi and make sure you let her know that you KNOW she's up for re-election in 2012; and that she's thinking of running for Governor of California; and you will remember her votes on health care and will hold her accountable at the polls, whatever office she sets her sights on.

Di-Fi's numbers:

San Diego: 619-231-9712
Washington DC: 202-224-3841

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LGBTQ: Gay Pride Weekend

No, we didn't go to the parade. Actually, we stopped going years ago, after meeting the current partner. And also because the fucking crowds got unmanageable, although that's not a slur on the fine Pride Marshals who did a great job of keeping Teh Gay folks happy yet disciplined. It was the gawkers from outa town wit' their cameras and their annoying brats, videotaping anything that moved and oohing and ahhing over teh gheyness of it all. Not getting up four hours earlier than usual to ride the train over, get one's toes stepped on, swelter in the heat and get one's naughty bits crushed, not even for Dykes on Bykes or Teh Menstrual Cycle or teh Gay Games folks doing their trix on Parade, not with those leering Xtians watching and all but prodding the leather daddies.

Fuck that shit.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Gay Day, children, and tomorrow we go back to working on DOMA and DADT and the hate crimes bill, and those nasty Mormons pouring millions into the fight against our rights!

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Politics: Mark Sanford

Oh, boo-hoo. Some pinhead opinionifying over at CNN is drilling in the Deep Well of Gall to tell us all we should not be getting outraged over Sanford's shenanigans. FTA:

We need to understand this situation for what it is: human weakness, poor judgment, personal longing and complicated relationships. The question is, how are we -- each one of us personally -- going to respond? I'd like to make a suggestion:

We should empathize.

I'd like to make a suggestion, too, dumbkopf — pull your cranium out of your rectum. Whatever happened between Sanford and his wife is their fucking problem (literally as well as figuratively). And while we enjoy bwa-ha-haaing at those holier-than-thou hypocrites who preach "fambly valyooos" out of one side of their ass while pillorying anyone who looks like they might have snuck a little sideline of horizontal samba, we empathize with ridiculous modern-day notions of marriage as being between one guy and one gal but not for teh ghey. (I can't imagine any gay person doing more damage to teh "sanctity" of marriage than, oh, Britney Spears, Mark Sanford, and all you other Christo-fascist yobs.)

The *real* issue for us here at La Casa de Los Gatos is, this dumb motherfucker took off work without making any arrangements for anyone else to take up his duties; and flew off to boink his girlfriend after LYING to everybody and their fucking sister-in-law about where he was going. He didn't call in, he didn't check that the whole fucking state hadn't been blown off the map during his absence, he didn't show ANY responsibility whatsoever.

When I accepted the last paid job I had, I had to sign a contract that said that if I missed work for more than THREE DAYS without notifying the office of my absence and giving them a way to contact me, I would be FIRED. And I was not some high-ranking corporate BigDick. Or some governor of a state, responsible for the lives, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of other human beings. Just a lowly corporate worm. But them wuz teh breaks. We had that drilled into our heads by HR. If you want to take time off, fill out a form at least two weeks before you leave, explaining that you will be out of the office, the purpose of your absence (you could just put "vacation time," or "bereavement leave," or whatever, but that form had to be filled in), date of return to work, emergency contact number, approval of your immediate manager and approval of your manager's manager.

If you got hit by a car and were not dead, then you had to instruct your next-of-kin to call the fucking office, for crying out loud, and tell them that you were dying at such-and-such hospital and would return to work (or not) by such a date. So where does this motherfucking yobbo get off, just disappearing into the wild blue yonder? I'm supposed to empathize with this shit? I THINK NOT, mofo. Fuck that! What's so special about Sanford's Holy Taint? What, the rules don't apply to him?

To add insult to injury, the motherfucker paid for his boinking trip with taxpayer money. The state of South Carolina is in the shitpit for money, the unemployment rate is high and climbing, the governor stamps his little feet and whines about not wanting to take Federal money for unemployment so working people who've been laid off can put food on the fucking table for themselves and their kids, and he's got the unmitigated gall to take THEIR money to pay for his horizontal samba? And lie about it? Stealing, lying, cheating, irresponsibility ... this is what I'm supposed to empathize with? I'm supposed to happily susidize Sanford's knob-polishing ventures while surviving on cereal and water?

What planet are these dumb asses from?

And it's not like the guy has shown any shame and remorse for his utterly shameful acts. Today he's whooping on about how, like King David in the bibul, he is NOT, NOT, NOT going to resign. Hey, fuckface — you're not a king. You were *elected* governor. David couldn't be impeached. You can. And I sincerely hope you are. What's more, I hope your wife kicks you out on your ass, and your Argentinian bombshell takes up with someone younger, cuter, and hotter than you. Because you did her a big disservice too, you hypocritical bag o'dicks, outing the whole affair and crying in public about how you done your wife wrong.

Your wife is mega-rich, she'll soon get over your wack crap. And the Argentinian babe is muy hot, so I'm sure there's no shortage of guys lining up waiting for a smile from her. You're the asshole here, not either of the two ladies involved. You hit on another woman after years of mush-mouthing your "Praise Jeebus I R a Xtian man and the Lord totally blesses my schlong" crap. You had the balls to ask your wife's permission to go visit your mistress. Instead of manning up to your responsibility as the father of four young boys and the "Law(d)fully wedded husband" of your wife, who has worked hard to promote your career for close to two decades, you miserable bastard.

You need a come-uppance, man, because you're too fucking arrogant by half. King David, my ass. ESAD, you slavering fuckwit.

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Politics: Sarah Palin

SSairy Failin' R Gwar, thx to teh goons at SomethingAwful

OK, I know this hypocritical cow doesn't deserve a minute of anyone's time. Her quest for fame ended with the srs FAIL/PWN of the last election. However, in case you didn't already know, she's been doing everything she can to keep herself in the public eye, not to mention the public crotch (EW!) with her shenanigans. Of course, we were impressed with the whole 15 screaming loonies who turned out to support her in her struggle to have David Letterman fired. (The fact that we think Letterman is homophobic, misogynistic, and an asshole doesn't mean we think he should be fired for calling her look "slutty flight-attendant." It's definitely slutty, though more like the "naughty librarian" fantasy of repressed adolescent rightwing loons.)

Welp, it looks as if she has now stepped in the polar bear poop big time. Getting her shorts all hiked and buttenflossened over a Photoshop of Teh Jokery on teh InterTubes (thanks, Ted Stevens!), SSairy took on teh Internet and the fine, long-standing tradition of serious political-figure mockage. (And you deserve mockage for labeling yourself "iconic," SSairy!)

ICHC

Well, teh InterTubes makes you stupid, as SomethingAwful has always averred. And when you try to rival it with a little home-grown, carefully cultivated Stupid, the Underpants Gnomes of teh InterTubes can't help but respond. So here for your larfs, the goons of SomethingAwful take on SSairy with Photoshop. Go on, piss yourselves laughing. It'll help when SSairy's reichwing hit squads come for you.

It is SRS fail. As in OMGWTFBBQLOLZ. I liked the Gwar (featured above) Photoshop best, but feel free to nominate your own faves.

One last thing: SSairy Failin' is obviously an offense kleptomaniac. If she sees offense lying around, she takes it. What a moron.

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Politics: Republicans

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina

By now you've heard the whole nine yards of this guy's story, right? RIGHT? I waited for the explosion before touching it, but now that all the dirt's out, I can indulge in that delightful frisson of schadenfreude I experienced when I first heard the news.

So, I know what you're thinking: PC, how can you be so LOW, enjoying this shit so much, and YOU are so MEAN, and MEAN PEOPLE SUCK! and all that bwa-ha-ha. Hey, lookit, friends and other people: this motherfucker was slated for a prime post in the 2012 elections, you get my drift? This Mr. "MyPantsAreSoHotIGottaDrop'EmNOW" dude was gonna be a con-TEN-dah for the Republican Run For The White House. After what the Republicans have done to this fine nation for the past eight years, and to me, personally, for about that long (we won't talk old history heah), I say I have every right to bwa-ha-haaa! all over this unseemly piece of personal douchebaggery.

Excuse me, those sumbitches have seriously shit all over the nation's sandwich for over a decade now, while whipping up the nutcases, racists, Religious Right, panty-sniffing scandalmongers, greedy douchebags stealing and robbing us blind, corporate whores exporting our jobs by the hundred thousand while awarding themselves bigger and bigger salaries and bonuses each year. How does that make you feel, snookums? Git yer mad on and get in line to give this guy, and any other Republican aiming at higher office, a thwack or twenty with the trademarked Casa de Los Gatos Golden Bat o'Clue. They deserve it, goddammit, and I'm gonna be happy about it.

So, to cut to the chase. Governor Stanford decided sometime last week that he was going away. He didn't tell his office where he was going. He didn't leave any way for them to contact him. He didn't even tell his WIFE where he was going. This is a man with FOUR children, he takes off over the Father's Day weekend, and his family don't know where he is? Does that sound like coolth to you? To me, it sounds like the epitome of douchebaggery.

So while he's gone some enterprising journalist(s) in his fair state decide to find out just where he went. His office says, "We don't know." His wife says, "I don't know." When you're holding a position of public fucking responsibility, you don't just take off like that. Shit, even when you're selling your labour to a fucking bunch of greedy corporate shills, if you go on vacation, you're supposed to check your email and call in once in a while unless you're just a faceless grub in the organization. You're a manager? Even if you have Teh Shittiest Job In The World, you gotta check in. Teleconference with your reports, call your boss, email the admins. Everybody has to know how to get hold of you if they need to.

And this guy just takes off. That is SO not OK. Corporate whores are mostly not responsible for the life and well-being of anyone else in the company. A governor of a State is, theoretically at least, responsible for the fucking lives and well-being of everybody in their state. And what's the deal with the wife? What kind of guy takes off on a vacation without the wife and kids, especially over Father's Day? And doesn't even tell his wife where he's going to be? Or call the family over the weekend?

So for a few days, the InnerTubes were rife with theories about the guv. Best of all, the guv had apparently taken off WITHOUT his security detail. Huh? Rightwingnuttia, as is their usual wont, was speculating (among other things) that the CIA had kidnapped him (just like they did with Jesse Ventura, 'cos he opposed the stimulus package, and everything). Oh, yeah, dipshits. Don't let your conspiracy theories hit ya where the good lord split ya. Dumbfucks.

Meanwhile, some enterprising individual had recognized the guv at an airport. Whereupon his car was traced there. Even more meanwhile, his office, weaseling like crazy, had told journalists that the guv was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Well, didn't that just put the shit in the rotary motor, anaconda that weekend was National Hiking Naked Day, and all the responsible speculators were speculating that the guv was running around getting poison ivy on his schlong out there where the poison ivy was rife. The best part of this story is, the person responsible for alerting us all to the existence of National Hiking Naked Day is one Woody Lipps. Srsly. You can't make this shit up.

Unfortunately, the stupid sumbitch put paid to my fantasies about him and Woody Lipps today by admitting to an affair with some hot Argentinian. Damn! I do want to say, however, that the Republican Party fell to its collective knees to thank the LAWD that, at least this once, the Republican at the heart of this scandal wasn't porking an underage boy. Or getting his rocks off on, um, diapers.

OTOH, after reading some of Teh Guv's ltrs, let me just say that the guy could have a future as a romance writer. Pity he wasn't saying these things to his lawfully wedded wife. Oh, and adultery is a CRIME in South Carolina. Bet yer wishing you'd changed THOSE laws, huh, Sanford? Also, the papers have had these letters since last year. No wonder the guv is crying in public. And more also, he claimed he was giving his hot mistress "marital advice." Sure thing, honey. And finally, he's all, "God is forgiving me, oh yeah, I R Xtian, fambly values."

BLEEEAAARRGGGH! Sick, stupid puppy! Smack, smack, smack!

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Book List 2009

Copyright K. Smokey Cormier

The updated book list is up at the usual spot. Book reviews linked too. Feel free to castigate me for reading so much about WW II.

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World: US Scraps Meeting With Israel

ICHC FTW

Does this mean the 51st state will be getting a little less of our tax money for a while?

Raw Story is reporting that George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the middle-east has called off a meeting with Bibi (Netanyahu) because Israel is building in stolen Palestinian territory contrary to President Barack Obama's clearly stated position of some weeks ago.

Naturally, Bibi's lackeys are claiming they cancelled the meeting (sure, honey. You're getting your "resettlement" money from our taxes, you're gonna cancel a meeting. Sure).

The money quote, so to speak, from the article:

The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot had earlier quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying Washington issued a "stern" message to Netanyahu to halt all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

"Once you've finished the homework we gave you on stopping construction in the settlements, let us know. Until then, there's no point in having (envoy George) Mitchell fly to Paris to meet you," the paper quoted the official as saying.

Israeli officials, with their usual levels of chutzpah, are claiming that the building is part of the "natural growth" in the settlements, but here's where Hillary Clinton is a total fucking champ. She basically told them to ESAD:

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May that President Barack Obama had made it clear during Netanyahu's visit to Washington that he wants no "natural growth exceptions" to his call for a settlement freeze.

Go Hillary! You can kick ass, you're the queen of kickass. Let's see if U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel will dry up. We're sick of subsidizing their arrogance, their contempt for us, their thugly ways, their unwillingness to work with the rest of the world, their paranoia, rudeness, suspicion, and ingratitude.

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World: Iran

I'm with Kase Wickman on this whole issue of Iran: there's no point in turning your avatar green, we all need to do something to help the Iranians while simultaneously telling our so-called Leaders to Shut the fuckety fucking fuck up and quit trying to meddle in anybody else's internal politics.

So what, you may wonder, can you do? If you have money, you can send it to:

• TehranBureau. They need financial support. They're doing a sterling job of getting news and information from Iran.
  
  
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent. Even if their Iran branch is currently not giving assistance to injured demonstrators, they do good work in getting medical supplies to those who need them. I will have more information on this issue soon.

If you have tech skills, you can:

• set up a way for Iranians to stay connected to the world outside;
  
  
• Create a Twitter account, if you don't already have one, mosey on over to Twitter, enter #iranelection in the search box halfway down the right side of the page, and see if you can provide assistance to the many requests you'll encounter there. Be sure to check carefully that you're not providing assistance to the wrong people!
  
  
• Set your Twitter account settings to Tehran time.
  Apparently this will slow down the thought police searching for the protesters

If you prefer political action, you can:

• sign this petition to the United Nations requesting that they take action on the election fraud believed to have been perpetrated in Iran;
  
  
• sign this petition;
  
  
• sign this petition, supported by Anonymous Iran;
  
  Personally I find petition signing rather ineffectual, but perhaps the intent here is to show Iranians that there is support for them in other countries, and that is a good psychological tool and morale-lifter.
  
  
• Write a letter (not an email) to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon;
  Address it to him at 2 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. Not sure how effective it will be, since the Iranian Supreme Council has already accused him of meddling, according to Ha'aretz, merely for requesting that they spend less time killing demonstrators.
  
  
• Write a letter or send a postcard or an email to, or telephone, your Congresscritters. You can send a copy to their local office and a copy to their Washington, D.C. office, if you like.
  
  
• Write a letter to the Ayatollah Khameini and the Supreme Council. Kindly address the son of an unmentionable as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini. Address it to Iranian Interests Section, 2209 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007. Be as polite as you possibly can. The more diplomatic you are, the more likely he will actually read your letter, as his paid underlings will be sure to sort and toss any that include death threats, insults, or sundry rudenesses.
  
  
• Write a letter to, or call, each of these morally reprehensible bloodthirsty chickenhawks who are slavering to see the U.S. embroiled in yet another conflict in which your children will die or be maimed or otherwise disabled, while theirs opine on the importance of foreign wars from air-conditioned offices on these shores:
  
  
  • Lindsey "Miss Thing" Graham;
    
  • John "Wut? Where R I?" McCain;
    
  • Chuck "Up" Grassley;
    
  • Dana "Asshole" Rorabacher;
    
  • Eric "Head Up Ass" Cantor;
    
  • Joe "Whiny Sanctimonious Peener" Lieberman;

To bring yourself up to speed on what is happening in Iran, you can see what Nico Pitney has to say over at The Huffington Post. He's been live-blogging the situation in Iran since it began, pretty much. Twitter has a constant stream of information, but no analysis, and the 140-character limit, while excellent for conveying important info quickly is, alas, not suited to thinking critically on the issue.

The Guardian has useful background information. Historical information, which is crucial to understanding the entire situation in the middle-east and Iran's place in that context, is available all over the Web. Some excellent books on the topic should be available at your local library or through inter-library loan.

Do what you can, whatever it is. Perhaps you can start a "boycott Iranian products" movement, talk to your Iranian friends, neighbours, acquaintances, and see if that is a useful solution; perhaps you can organize a petition signing or a collection of funds for the Red Cross/Red Crescent. Perhaps you speak Farsi, or know someone who does who is supportive of the movement and can translate articles or broadcasts. Perhaps you can just teach yourself and some of your friends a little about this faraway country in which such an amazing freedom movement is occurring at this time. Or vent some spleen at those so-deserving Congressidiots listed above.

It's gotta be better than sitting around watching some dumb bimbo-and-himbo with eight sprog display their decaying relationship on TV for the whole world to puke over.

From Tehran Bureau:

(An intriguing side note: Events inside Iran picked up steam at the same time as the Iranian presidential elections coincided with the Obama administration’s change of policy — as Washington backed off the threats and aggressiveness of the Bush years — and offered to engage with Iran on the basis of mutual respect. Would a more detached US policy towards Arab autocrats similarly open space for Arab domestic effervescence and indigenous calls for more liberal, honest politics?)

From lengthy personal experience, I can assure you that any attempt by the U.S. government to more directly engage with the demonstrators will lead to widespread anger, not just on the part of the ayatollahs but the demonstrators as well. They do not want to be seen as tools of the same government that once funded the overthrow of their elected leader and replaced him with a murderous torturing puppet. So write your Congresscritters today, and be sure to let them know this with as many hearty kicks to the ass as it takes.

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Entertainment: Once in a while

you just have to laugh your ass off at something cute or silly. Cause if ya don't, the blue meanies will getcha and then it's suicide attempts and hospital bills and all that weird shit. So take your happy pills and watch this kitteh go:



Man, that little guy boxes like a champ! And don't tell me it ain't cute. I can feel the cute curling my hairs from out the screen. Enjoy!

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Politics: War Crimes

When do these war criminals go to trial?
As we've mentioned before, a Class A war criminal is anyone who participated in "the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging" of aggressive war, or violated the laws and customs of war. Like, for example, the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Which Convention would certainly apply to Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and possibly also David Addington, Condoleeza Rice, George Dumbya Bush, and a score of their immediate underlings, highly placed officials all.

Today, I'm reading a fine book on the Kempeitai and their crimes in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, by Raymond Lamont-Brown. Mr. Lamont-Brown's father was a PoW, captured by the Japanese in Shanghai, China, and subjected to the tender ministries of the Kempeitai, who, as brutal torturers go, might rank higher than any other similar body heretofore known.



Here, a little excerpt for your — I can't say entertainment, it certainly isn't entertaining — perusal:

You are a man of education, of intelligence, even in a sense of culture. Yours is the cunning brain under whose direction your instruments of torture performed their evil task. You were well aware of all the moral implications of your policy. In these last six weary years many men have willingly suffered and died in the hope and belief that out of their sacrifice would arise a higher morality in dealings of one nation with another, an international morality soaring above the narrow bonds of patriotism and blind obedience. If, as I believe, some of your victims, Sumida, were amongst those who made their sacrifice in that hope and belief, let this be their epitaph, that they died for an undying cause. To those of us who survive falls the supreme and difficult task of establishing and maintaining that higher morality between nations, of supplanting the rule of force and fear by the rule of law, of ensuring that they did not make their sacrifice in vain.

You, Sumida, have shown by all that you did, ordered, and willingly allowed, that to you there is nothing of higher consequence than domination by brute force and fear.

You were prepared, for the glorification, as you thought, of your country, to reduce men and women below the level of beasts and to send them without pity or compunction to an agonizing death. You did not realize that your actions have not glorified, they have degraded, your country. As in the past, so in the future, you would always be the implacable enemy of that great cause for which so many made their sacrifice. You and men like you cannot be allowed to hinder the fulfilment of that cause. Accordingly it is in no spirit of vengeance upon a fallen foe, no desire to have an eye for an eye, a life for a life, that this Court has solemnly decided that you must die. Nor is it merely to rid the world — and your country now preparing for its moral rebirth — of one man who is a danger to all moral progress. Rather it is a stern example to all who would willingly support the powers of evil and brute force against the rule of law, justice, and humanity.

— Lt.-Col S.C. Silkin, R.A., barrister, at War Crimes Trial of Chusa Haruzo Sumida, Supreme Court Building, Singapore, 18 March 1946

It is my sincere and heartfelt hope to hear words of similar import being spoken one day soon at the trial of those who "planned, prepared, initiated, or waged" the war of aggression against Iraq which is only now winding down.

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World: Iran

For our brothers and sisters in Iran, with love and support!



Enjoy it, if you can, laugh your asses off and remember, we in other countries are watching and hoping and praying for you. It is your fight, and your revolution. Let us all hope that other countries keep their cool as President Barack Obama is keeping his cool. Let us all hope that no one interferes in your internal politics. But remember that whatever we can do to help, there are many of us who will.

Twitter hashtag #IranElection

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No Shortage of Teh Stupid

Apparently, the Wah!Poo (aka the Washington Post) has decided to fire Dan Froomkin, one of the best journalists I've found over the past decade or so. To add salt to the wound, they decided to give Paul "Wolfie" Wolfowitz, that neocon hustler schmuck, proven liar, and known war criminal, a guest column this weekend, probably with intent to hire.

What's really interesting about the firing of Froomkin and the hosting of Wolfie is how many people have had a strong reaction thereto. I was very upset and depressed about it yesterday, but after visiting their ombudsidiot's bleagh (just like a blog, only stupider and more pointless) today, found what seemed like at least one thousand angry comments, many from subscribers who've taken the Wah!Poo for decades and swear they will no more.

Whatever. I wrote Dan a thankyou for his terrific work — some days it seemed like he was the only thread of sanity, during the horrible Bush years. And then, because I couldn't resist, I went to the ombudsidiot's bleagh and added a dollop of snark along these lines:

I left here yesterday determined never to return, but was intrigued by a link in a blog I read regularly about the "700 comments" on the firing of Froomkin. I'm glad I swung by for a quick look. It seems as if the number of comments on this page is now a thousand or more. And many, many people share my sentiments about the inappropriateness of, on the one hand, firing Froomkin who exercised true journalistic even-handedness in speaking truth to power, and, on the other, giving column space to yet another tired neocon war criminal and known liar, Wolfowitz. And now that Jane Hamsher has the stats on Wah!Poo readership, it looks as if The Huffington Post is not just drinking your milkshake, but eating your lunch as well. Shoot, it's even sweeping up all the crumbs for later dispersal to the birds. I admired and respected the Washington Post of Katie Graham, although I never agreed with its politics. It was a good paper, though, and earned its laurels. What Fred Hiatt and the Graham scion have done with it leaves it barely fit for fishwrap. Goodbye again, Wah!Poo. Judging from the figures, you'll soon be part of teh Moonie Times anyway.

Feel free to express your wrath, if any, here. If you want to say goodbye to Dan, you'll find him here for another week or so. He's promised to let his readership know where he'll land, and land he will, gracefully, on both feet. It's the Wah!Poo's loss, not his. Their current stable of Op-Ed writers (and stable is an apt term, given the horses' asses they house) includes such non-luminaries as Charles Krauthammer (vile, spittle-flecked, reality-insensible torture-loving neocon); Ramesh Ponnuru (the less said the better); Bill Kristol (fired by the NYT for a tragic divorce from fact); George Will ("teh global warming of my blue jeans, it is teh drama"); and David "You peasants don't need to know that the X industry paid me to tell you Y" Broder; and, who knows, Rush Limbaugh next, unless Wolfie takes the job.

In the meantime, you can find Dan's writing at Nieman Watchdog. If you're a regular reader of Glenn Greenwald's blog at Salon, or any of the big blogs like Firedoglake, HuffPo, Daily Kos, TPM, and the like, there's plenty of lively discussion going on about the issue. Is the Wah!Poo circling the toilet, or already in teh shit?

Mainly, what I'm wondering is, would it be worthwhile to subscribe to the Wah!Poo just to cancel one's subscription on the day Dan leaves? You know, just to really drive home the point that lotsa lotsa people think they're truly well beyond fucked up and, as Molly Ivins used to say, not being driven out of business by the Internet so much as committing suicide like a drunken lemming on crack. But I paraphrase.

Whatever. There isn't room for two reactionary birdcage liners in the city of Washington, D.C., so chances are they're, as some commenter said on Sadly, No!, presenting like a female mandrill in heat in the hope of being acquired by the true neocon schmatta, the Washington Times, affectionately (no, sorry, truthfully, rather) known as The Moonie Times.

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Entertainment: Too Funny!

Supreme Aiyah!toldjah Mir-Hosain "Pete" Hoekstra demonstrating the size of his peener

If you haven't already laughed your ass off over it, Michigan Rep Pete Hoekstra (pronounced Hoax-straw) basically stuck his head up his own ass by Tweeting the following:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

Leading to much merriment on teh 'Net over the past few days, large-scale "laugh till you piss your pants" behaviour (bet it goes global), and the birth of a brand-new and already highly popular WEB SITE (imagine that!) dedicated to further laugh-your-ass-offery right here.

Also an addition to the English language: Supreme Aiyah!toldjah Mir-Hosain "Pete" Hoekstra now enjoys the distinction of having been verbized, as in:

To Hoekstra is to whine using grandiose exaggerations and comparisons.

LOLcat responds to Hoekstra

Reminds me of Santorum (another Republican FAILbag). Republicans, don't ever change. You guys are fucking comedy gold, man, we'll be pissing ourselves laughing for a decade or more as you Macaca your way into oblivion.

Meantime, feel free to submit your latest hoekstra here. Alternatively, feel free to tweet Hoekstra with your hoekstra, or otherwise mortify the idiot. He's running for governor of Michigan? Sweet fucking Christ!

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Caturday!

Happy Caturday, Everybody!!

Image is thanks to our friends at http://icanhascheezburger.com/

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