Murdoch puts News Corp guy in at WSJ

The new managing editor of the Wall Street Journal is Robert Thomson. Robby is a long-term employee of Ruperts.

This can't be good.

When asked how its going at the WSJ since Rupert bought it, an employee had this to say:

Asked if Murdoch's ownership thus far has made the paper better or worse, Yount said, "He hasn't placed naked women on Page 3, is that an encouraging sign?"

Fuck I hate Murdoch. With every fiber of my being.

Webb GI Bill passes Senate 75-22

Here is a list of how everyone voted. Let me save you the trouble of looking however...all the nays had an R behind their name. McCain did not vote.

The number of yeas should be able to blow off Bush's promised veto.


McCain, you really don't support the troops do ya? Not by a longshot asshole.

Recount-A true story

Sunday evening, HBO will premiere Recount, the story of the Florida vote debacle of 2000. For me it will be must see tv. Below is a trailer of the film.



Kevin Spacey has said that many things not published about the whole debacle will be brought to light in the film.

This OpEd is awesome..read it!

A big hug to Jet at Bring it On for this article. Allison Benedikt has written a wonderful OpEd for the Village Voice on Hillary, her supporters and her campaign. It tackles that pesky subject of misogyny very well m'dear reader and I encourage...yea I demand that you read it. Tell me then what you think of it. Just a small blurb of it to get you interested:

Next comes Arianna "No Fear" Huffington, suffering from a strain of short-term memory loss that seems to be going around, to declare: "The greatest triumph of Clinton's campaign—a complete triumph—is the example she has set for the next generation."

Currently pregnant with the next generation, let me just say this: There is no greater wish that a mother can have for her daughter than that she will exploit poor people, obliterate Iran, and win rigged class president elections, Putin-style. (Mom, I won 100 percent of the vote!)

I love her!!! Look, as a woman that has fought against sexism my entire fucking life and I might add, the first woman to hold the job as Project Manager on a NASA subcontract in the 80's....I know how fucked up it is to be female and expect to be treated the same as males...and yet not be treated the same. I had to be better at my job than they were, work longer hours and make less money than they did. My husband divorced me because he was tired of me living at the office..I sacrificed my personal life for that fucking job..and I would probably do it all over again.

I am not bitter about any of it. I loved that job and when the spaceshuttle crashed, I knew many of us would be laid off. I opted to get laid off instead of having them dump a specific male co-worker because his son was suffering from brain cancer and I knew damn well that the health insurance was the most important part of the job for that guy at that point in time.

Besides I wanted to move back to Cali...and that is what I did when I got my walking papers. I went back to Cali, started my own business and raised my son as a single parent. If I am bitter about anything it's that my ex-husband was a piece of batshit that never paid a buck in child support.

Being bitter never serves anyone. It eats you up inside. That is why I think Hillary and her staunchest supporters need to suck it up and deal. Instead of screaming, bitching and moaning about how she was 'treated' they should be proud of what she accomplished by using race, lies and bullshit to win the states she did.

Tossing rocks in a glass house ain't a good idea..nope, it ain't.

San Diego Mayor orders stop work to Blackwater

Blackwater attempted to hide from the County of San Diego when they applied for the permits to set up shop in Otay Mesa. Jerry Sanders has started an investigation into how Blackwater obtained their permits..

None of the three permits issued were in Blackwater's name. From the link above:

In the case of Blackwater, the company used the name of affiliate Southwest Law Enforcement when it first applied for a city permit. On the second permit application, SAF Child Investments -- the owner of the building -- is listed as the applicant. And the third permit names another Blackwater affiliate Raven Development.

Blackwater's mouthpiece, Brian Bonfiglio, denies the company's use of three different affiliate names was meant to deceive.

Give me an effin break..why else would they use other entities to secure the needed permits? Well, a real estate consultant states that its business as usual for corporations to do that..it gives the parent company protection from lawsuits. The city attorney Mike Aguirre disagrees with that assessment saying:

Aguirre: You can't sneak in the back door and then make use of the general practices and procedures as a justification for doing something really in this particular situation may not be permissible."

Hope Blackwater gets shown the door again in San Diego County. It would warm the cockles of my little black heart don't ya know? :>)

Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor

Its the worst kind..and life expectancy isn't very long. But he has great healthcare, unlike millions of Americans, so I hope they can arrest it. From MSNBC:

Here is the statement from from Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, primary care physician, Massachusetts General Hospital: "Over the course of the last several days, we've done a series of tests on Senator Kennedy to determine the cause of his seizure. He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and is up and walking around the hospital. Some of the tests we had performed were inconclusive, particularly in light of the fact that the senator had severe narrowing of the left carotid artery and underwent surgery just 6 months ago. However, preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe. The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy. Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Sen. Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis. Sen. Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in good spirits and full of energy."

75,000 people can't be all wrong.

No presidential candidate has ever drawn this many people in one place and on one day.

McCain's economic advisor is Phil Gramm?

Thanks to a new article up on the website The Public Record, I now have an Excedrin headache. Philly Gramm has only served one constituency his entire public life...that of the Corporatocracy and it's incestuous sister the Financial Industry. Now, as Weathervane McCain's chief economic advisor, we can expect old Johnny to tow the corporate line too, but of course under the guise of helping Americans.

Phil Gramm hates regulation of any market or any business. His love of all things capitalistic is legendary, as Leopold points out in his piece. Gramm was instrumental in giving Enron free rein during their heyday.

It's also a family affair for the Gramms. His wife Wendy was on the board of directors at Enron.

So, when McCain says he doesn't like something that will hamstring businesses and/or corporations...he is really towing the line as laid out by Phil Gramm. Take the Farm Bill currently before Congress. Johnny says he doesn't want to reward lobbyists...but if the truth be known..that ain't the real bitch that McCain and his buddy Gramm have with the bill. From TPR's article:

But the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee also opposes the farm bill because Gramm advised McCain that he should resist its regulatory language on the energy futures market.

Interesting no? Gramm is still looking out for his buddies. Bush has already stated he will veto the bill, because he too is a big supporter of unfettered capitalism..even at the expense of we, the people.

John Yoo, the Protest and the issue of his teaching at Berkeley

This past Saturday, May 17^th, the UC Berkley Law School held it’s graduation ceremony. It was attended by over 50 active and very vocal protesters. Most were dressed in prison orange and many were holding signs or reenacting various Guantanamo torture scenes for the graduates and their family members.

As someone that opposes torture as described in the Geneva Convention, Common Article 3, I find Yoo’s logic frightening and disgusting. My motto when it comes to treating people is this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Its friggin simple really, I don’t want American military personnel to be tortured so why in the blue hell would I accept my own government doing it, with obvious glee in some cases. But I digress.

Saturday’s protest was well-planned and frankly well funded. They flew a plane continuously over the proceedings with a sign that read:

Shame on Yoo & UC-End Torture

Yoo did not attend the ceremony. He had announced this previously as a matter of fact, but many of the protesters said it didn’t matter, it was still a great opportunity to get their message out. I support them on that issue.

What I have a problem with, besides Yoo’s involvement in BushCo’s administration is his teaching our next generation of lawyers. I hope, indeed I pray, that all of his students abhor him and what he stands for; a neoconservative individual with very few morals and incredibly low standards on the issues of equality, due process and human rights.

Yet, the man has every right to teach, he is after all, tenured. There is also another reason he should be allowed to teach, as much as it pains me to say; Academic Freedom. Christopher Edley, the Dean of Berkley’s Law School is an honorable man. He has worked for presidents and he currently advises Obama. His politics are liberal and yet his memo addressing the Yoo teaching issue is very spot-on when it comes to the basic tenant of why Yoo should be allowed to continue teaching at Berkley. A school he has been teaching at since 1993 and received tenure in 1999. From Dean Edley’s infamous memo on John Yoo:

There are important questions about the content of the Yoo memoranda, about tortured definitions of “torture,” about how he and his colleagues conceived their role as lawyers, and about whether and when the Commander in Chief is subject to domestic statutes and international law. We press our students to grapple with these matters, and in the legal literature Professor Yoo and his critics do battle. One can oppose and even condemn an idea, but I do not believe that in a university we can fearfully refuse to look at it. That would not be the best way to educate, nor a promising way to seek deeper understanding in a world of continual, strange revolutions.

Yoo also enjoys First Amendment rights and the most ironic of all, Due Process as well. So while we really have no conceivable reason to conclude he should be unceremoniously dumped at UC Berkley, we have every reason to wish some judge and jury somewhere would convict him and his BushCo employers of high crimes and misdemeanors. Only then could Mr. You be run out of Berkley’s Law School on a proverbial rail. Again from Dean Edley’s memo:

Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal or even a potentially chilling inquiry. As a legal matter, the test here is the relevant excerpt from the “General University Policy Regarding Academic Appointees,” adopted for the 10-campus University of California by both the system-wide Academic Senate and the Board of Regents:

Types of unacceptable conduct: … Commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrates unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty. [Academic Personnel Manual sec. 015]

There, in a nutshell, is what would be needed by the Dean to dump John Yoo. So the goal should be, for everyone that despises torture, to see Mr. Yoo tried and convicted in a court of law somewhere on our planet.

And frankly, I think getting canned by UC Berkley would be the least of Mr. Yoo’s problems if the situation named above finally happened to his smarmy ass. Only then will UC Berkley be free to fire that fuckwit and remove law students from his sphere of influence.

Crossposted at UnCapitalist Journal

The "Real McCain" is so full of shit...his eyes should be brown.

From Brave New Films...another edition of the Real McCain. The MSM gives him a free pass...but not these guys.

More underhanded bs from Gonzo comes to light..

From Jason Leopold's new website, The Public Record or TPR, we get this newest fresh hell:

Curiously, the Justice Department, which at the time was headed by John Ashcroft, officially launched the investigation on September 26, 2003, but Ashcroft waited more than three days before notifying Gonzales and the White House, whose high-level staffers were reported to be responsible for disseminating Wilson's affiliation with the spy agency to the media just two-and-a-half months earlier.

Gonzales asked the DOJ if he could wait until morning before notifying White House staffers about the probe, thereby delaying the issuance of a directive to preserve emails and other documents related to the leak of Wilson's undercover status federal investigators would need as part of their investigation.
The DOJ agreed.

But after Gonzales hung up the telephone, he immediately contacted Andrew Card, who was White House chief of staff at the time, and told him about the investigation.

For the entire piece, click the link above. Its a good read, and check out Jason's new site whilst your there. Frankly, I am not surprised by this information, but I am highly pissed at how cavalier those bastards were at covering their asses.

Update: Graphic created by Kvatch for his now-retired Blognonymous blog. :)

An Engineers guide to felines..

Something a little lighthearted

Doughy, White and Happy..

Huckabee jokes about assassinating Obama

Assassinating anyone isn't funny. Ever. From AP, these words came out of his mouth:

"That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor."

Even the NRA crowd, where he delivered the line, didn't laugh. Sick Fuck.

Graphic by Dark Wraith

This is a simply delicious writeup in the WSJ..

Jet, who also writes at Bring It On! sent around a link to this WSJ article today. It's a fabulous bit of snark about the Republicans and their downward spiral into the bowels of Hell. I highly suggest you read it if you are in need of a laugh, or just want to point a finger at the Rethugs and cackle like an insane person. Some choice quotes from the article which is penned by Peggy Noonan:

"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.

*Snip*

The party, Mr. Davis told me, is "an airplane flying right into a mountain." Analyses of its predicament reflect an "investment in the Bush presidency," but "the public has just moved so far past that." "Our leaders go up to the second floor of the White House and they get a case of White House-itis." Mr. Bush has left the party at a disadvantage in terms of communications: "He can't articulate. The only asset we have now is the big microphone, and he swallowed it." The party, said Mr. Davis, must admit its predicament, act independently of the White House, and force Democrats to define themselves. "They should have some ownership for what's going on. They control the budget. They pay no price. . . . Obama has all happy talk, but it's from 30,000 feet. Energy, immigration, what is he gonna do?"

*Final-Snip*

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined "brand," as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

He swallowed the microphone..laughing my ever-lovin ass off! It was my snark for the day and Peggy delivered it quite nicely.

A country twice the size of Idaho..

That is Iraq. Its not a huge piece of land, not by a longshot. Yet in our sixth year of warmongering BushCo simply can not end the madness there.

Our federal contractors are making a killing..literally and figuratively.

Yet, we have rightwing nutjobs like the idiot below running their pieholes on tv. This fuckwit didn't even know who Neville Chamberlain was. He had no sense of history. Yet he was more than willing to yell and bitch and moan about the Democrats. Hat tip to Tweety on this one. Kevin James is a fucking moron who needs to get back on his ADD meds.