Westboro nutters funeral protest case update.

Since I personally believe that hate speech should not be protected speech, I pray to Buddha that this case, known as Snyder v Phelps, now up before SCOTUS, bankrupts those fucking nutters at Westboro Baptist and finally shuts those scum-sucking, attention-getting bastards up permanently. All the briefs have been filed. From the FirstAmendmentCenter.org link above:

Snyder v. Phelps forces the Supreme Court to assess some of the most unpopular speech ever placed before it: virulent protests staged at military funerals.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., have been picketing funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, with the message that America is being punished for tolerating homosexuality. At issue is whether a verdict assessing damages against the church for causing emotional distress to a soldier’s family in Maryland violates the First Amendment.

The Court granted review on March 8, and the briefing for the case is complete, with organizations on both sides filing 15 friend-of-the-court briefs. The case is set for argument Oct. 6 with Margie Phelps, daughter of the church’s pastor, Fred Phelps, scheduled to argue her family’s cause. Representing the family of soldier Matthew Snyder will be Sean Summers of the York, Pa., law firm Barley Snyder.

SCOTUS Blog has the history and most of the info here on Snyder v Phelps.

Matt Taibbi: Tea & Crackers.

He calls them Tea Party 2.0 and he's right of course. His newest at RS is a great read. A short excerpt:

It's taken three trips to Kentucky, but I'm finally getting my Tea Party epiphany exactly where you'd expect: at a Sarah Palin rally. The red-hot mama of American exceptionalism has flown in to speak at something called the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, a gospel-music hoedown in a giant convention center filled with thousands of elderly white Southerners. Palin — who earlier this morning held a closed-door fundraiser for Rand Paul, the Tea Party champion running for the U.S. Senate — is railing against a GOP establishment that has just seen Tea Partiers oust entrenched Republican hacks in Delaware and New York. The dingbat revolution, it seems, is nigh.

"We're shaking up the good ol' boys," Palin chortles, to the best applause her aging crowd can muster. She then issues an oft-repeated warning (her speeches are usually a tired succession of half-coherent one-liners dumped on ravenous audiences like chum to sharks) to Republican insiders who underestimated the power of the Tea Party Death Star. "Buck up," she says, "or stay in the truck."

Gawd, I swear you could not pay me enough to attend a Sarah/Rand Paul get-together. My fucking head would explode.

He goes on to describe the crowd: White and crippled. No shit, they got a shit-load of hover-rounds and scooters there. wtf? They are all paid for by medicare...aka the federal government! And these fuckers bitch about big government and freeloaders? Fuck me running...

The best line in the piece:  But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters....

Read it, Taibbi never lets me down. Bless his little black journalistic heart. ;)

Sen Jim DeMint protects BP - Our A$$hole of the month.

Senator Jim DeMint objected twice to giving subpoena power to the Congressional commission that is investigating the BP/Transocean/Halliburton Deepwater Horizon gulf oil gusher.

This 'objection' by the rightwing extremists/corporate ass kissers known as the GOP is totally unconscionable...unless he/they are in bed with the oil industry, which seems obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together and and iq higher than that of a dandelion. Watch Tweety ask Bryan Dorgan about this horseshit below:




They can not even put these assholes at BP/Transocean/Halliburtion under oath from what I gather.

This commission has no teeth and we can thank Jim DeMint and the GOP for that.

Doesn't it make you wonder who in the blue hell supports these worthless bags of batshit? Is it people that make over 250k a year and don't give a shit about what happened to the environment in the gulf, not to mention all the jobs associated with that region?

It makes me physically ill m'dear reader...I ain't shitting ya..it does. And it should do the same to you if you care one iota about the horror that happened in the gulf of Mexico because BP plain did not give a shit and spent as little as possible to drill that rig through the floor of the ocean so they could suck up even more oil and make more money.

Colbert's opening statement to House Judiciary Committee

Colbert made many valid points, but my question is this: Did they, meaning the Congress Critters, take him seriously as he was 'in character' and had some really asinine remarks in between his facts, like agriculture is planted at ground level and this practice needs to change. Watch it below and you tell me.



You can watch the entire hearing here on CSPAN.

Update: Both video's courtesy of TPMTv. Here is Colbert being questioned by Congress Critters. He doesn't seem to have much, if any, information when asked specific questions. If it's a joke, it's on Congress for allowing him to testify.

GOP Pledge To America: It's a joke right?

Also notable is the fact that this 21-page, full of horseshit and not much else, document was put together by a House staffer who, up till April 2010, served as a lobbyist for some of the nation's most powerful oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance companies, per this CommonDreams.org writeup. From the CommonDreams article:

In a draft version of The Pledge that was being passed around to reporters before the official release, the document properties list "Wild, Brian" as the "Author." A GOP source said that Wild -- who is on House Minority Leader John Boehner's payroll -- did help author the governing platform that the party is unveiling on Thursday. Another aide said that as the executive director of the Republican leadership group American Speaking Out, Wild's tasks were more on the administrative side of the operations.

Until early this year, Wild was a fairly active lobbyist on behalf of the firm the Nickles Group, the lobbying shop set up by the former Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Don Nickles. During his five years at the firm, Wild, among others, was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast, more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.

Gee, ain't that a friggin interesting factoid m'dear reader? And isn't it ironic that he works for John Boehner, the fake-tan man who probably farts orange and is one of the Deans of Wingnut University aka Nutter U.

Another good read is here from CAP (Center for American Progress) on the Rethugs 'pledge'. An excerpt for your entertainment, or if you possibly need a reason to toss back a few drinks:

“Pledge to America” Not as Fiscally Responsible as It Claims-Core Policies Would Increase the Federal Deficit and Debt

Republicans in Congress released “Pledge to America” today, a plan they characterize as laying out a “new governing agenda.” Integral to that plan is a new commitment to “fiscal responsibility.” Our analysis, however, shows that implementing the plan’s proposals would increase the federal budget deficit and accelerate growth in federal debt.

The “Pledge to America” budget would mean $11.1 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years. By 2020, the federal budget deficit would be 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, the federal debt would exceed 93 percent of GDP, and interest payments on the debt would be more than $1 trillion a year. The budget deficit would be about $200 billion larger in 2020 under the “Pledge to America” plan than it would be under President Barack Obama’s budget, and over the next 10 years deficits would be $1.5 trillion higher than under the president’s budget.

The substantial increase in deficits under the “Pledge to America” budget are due to the significant tax cuts that come from extending all expiring tax provisions and the implementation of several new tax cuts. Altogether, tax revenues under the “Pledge to America” plan would average 16.7 percent of GDP. During the last period the federal government ran balanced budgets revenues averaged 20 percent of GDP.

The CAP article lays out all the bogus bullshit the Rethugs are trying hard to pass off on the American voters. The GOP must really believe we are all as dumb as Sarah Palin.

And of course it contains a repeal of the health care reform act, known as the Affordable Care Act, Obama's congress passed this year...without an ounce of Rethug support I might add.

So, check out the Cap piece for ammo when your rightwing nutter friends or relatives try to tell you just how fucking great this piece of shit really is.

Stephen Colbert to testify before Congress..no kidding!

He will be there on behalf of the UFW (United Farm Workers) according to HuffPo:

Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert will be testifying before Congress on Friday about immigration during a hearing called "Protecting America's Harvest."


Colbert will be appearing with United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo S. Rodriguez before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. In August, the comedian spent a day working at a corn and vegetable farm in New York state after Rodriguez appeared on his show to discuss UFW's "Take Our Jobs" campaign.

The effort was intended to debunk the theory that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens and highlight the fact the nation's food supply is dependent on these farm workers. "Farm workers are ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field," said the UFW site. "We will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers."

Out of the 8600 visitors to the UFW site, TakeOurJobs.org, that have actually expressed interest in becoming farm workers, only seven have actually taken the backbreaking job of being a farmworker. The site has had over three million hits to date.

Colbert's stint as a farmworker will air on his show, The Colbert Report, this evening, September 22nd. Must see tv I would say. According to The Daily Caller, Colbert will be appearing before Congress, in character.  Personally, I feel this issue is no laughing matter and what Colbert thinks he can accomplish whilst pulling his shtick is beyond me. But I will watch the Colbert Report tonight and I hope CSPAN will air the hearing Friday.

DADT & DREAM amendments fail...thank the Blue Dogs for starters

Those rat fucking blue dogs...Dem's, only 2, but an important 2 voted no. Reid switched his vote at the last minute supposedly so he can bring it up for a vote again. From CNN:

The bill stalled on a 56-43 vote, four short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the Republican opposition. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, changed his vote to "no" as a tactical move, allowing him to bring the measure up later.

Reid and other Democrats accused Republicans of stalling the National Defense Authorization Act, which traditionally passes with bipartisan support, to undermine the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal and an immigration provision offering a path to citizenship for students and soldiers who are children of illegal immigrants.

*snip*

Republican opponents included some GOP senators who favor lifting the Pentagon's requirement that gays and lesbians keep their sexuality a secret.

Susan Collins can kiss my brown ass, as well as the two Democratic senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both from Arkansas who voted with the Rethugs. Disgusting fucks will hopefully rot in the lowest level of Dante's Inferno.

One of Drifty's finest vids!

Kudos to Tengrain for tweeting about it. It's a teabagger deluxe called SNEETCHES:

The rich still bitch about their tax rate, except G Gruener.

Venture Vulture, oops, I mean capitalist Garrett Gruener talks about taxing the rich. From Kevin Drum's writeup over at Mojo:

Venture capitalist Garrett Gruener has some advice for his fellow capitalists:

    For nearly the last decade, I've paid income taxes at the lowest rates of my professional career. Before that, I paid at higher rates. And if you want the simple, honest truth, from my perspective as an entrepreneur, the fluctuation didn't affect what I did with my money. None of my investments has ever been motivated by the rate at which I would have to pay personal income tax.

    ....No one particularly enjoys paying taxes, but one lesson we should have learned by now is that for the good of the country, we need to tax people like me more. At a minimum, we need to return to the tax rates of the Clinton era, when the economy performed far better. Simply taxing the wealthiest 2% of Americans at the same rates they were taxed before the Bush tax cuts could reduce the national deficit by $700 billion over the next 10 years. Remember, paying slightly more in personal income taxes won't change my investment choices at all, and I don't think a higher tax rate will change the investment decisions of most other high earners.

    What will change my investment decisions is if I see an economy doing better, one in which there is demand for the goods and services my investments produce. I am far more likely to invest if I see a country laying the foundation for future growth. In order to get there, we first need to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the upper 2% lapse. It is time to tax me more.

I get real tired of saying this, but once again...the rich folks saw their income grow by 17-fucking-percent in 2009. Read that previous sentence again, then tell me why the fuck anyone can argue against lifting the Bush tax cuts for the rich folks at the top of the slag heap we call the economy. As Kevin says in his piece: ...changing the top marginal rate from 35% to 39.6% will have no measurable impact at all on work or investment decisions. From a macroeconomic perspective, it will reduce the future deficit and nothing more. It's a pure win for everyone, even the rich.(emphasis mine)

Amen brotha..a-friggin-men to that.

Obama said what??? You are kidding right?

Thanks to my blogging bud rj, I perused Greenwald's friday piece over at Salon.

I really didn't want to mess up my quiet, calm, sunday morning...but hell...here goes.

Friday, our President attended a $30 grand per plate dinner. Bet ya five bucks that I probably wouldn't of known a soul there if I had the 30 g's to pony up. But that isn't the point of my post...the following quote from his speechifying is what boosted my blood pressure:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get -- to see the glass as half empty. (Laughter.) If we get an historic health care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there.  If you get the financial reform bill passed -- then, well, I don't know about this particular derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that. And gosh, we haven't yet brought about world peace and -- (laughter.) I thought that was going to happen quicker. (Laughter.) You know who you are. (Laughter.) We have had the most productive, progressive legislative session in at least a generation.

First, to say the Healthcare Reform Bill was historic is true...most of it was written by the healthcare industry and to assuage those fucking Rethugs that didn't vote for it anyway you dipshit. Most of the 'good things' in the bill don't begin to happen for another four years or so, therefore my 30 year old son, who has never had health insurance as an adult, still can not get any you fucking asshole. And....23 million people will still not have healthcare insurance. Finally, Big Pharma will still get rich off this fucking bill. I could continue, but why bother? Most of you know where the potholes in this horseshit 'reform bill' are.

Second...the Financial Reform Bill. Give me an effin break...there was so little financial reform it's pathetic. You threw a few bones to the masses when you created a few 'rules of the road' for credit card companies and that wonderful department that Elizabeth Warren won't be in charge of... but your friends on Wall Street still, for the most part...get a free-fucking-pass to make millions and millions whilst fucking us all, and with very little, if any, regulations.

Finally, the crack about 'the most productive, progressive legislative session in at least a generation'... Who the hell are you shitting there big guy? It sure as fuck isn't me. You and your stoolie's in Congress got very little done..unless you count the public whining and bitching you guys did about the Rethugs aka the Party of No, while totally ignoring, publically, the assholes known as Blue Dogs that populate the House and Senate. You look more and more like Bush43 every-fucking-day...whether it's your lie about the Iraq war ending, your lie about transparency in the federal government, your lie about closing Gitmo, giving civil rights to the LGBT community or my personal favorite... still spying on American's without a friggin warrant...none of those things you did are progressive values you sumbitch. None, zero, sip, nada.  We kinda fall 180 degrees the other way you fucknut.

Once again, You sir, are so full of shit your eyes are brown. Glad those rich folks enjoyed your visit...enjoy it whilst you can dude because way too many of us progressives are tired as hell of your fuckery, and I for one will probably be voting once again for my cat, good ole Scooter Lee, for President in 2012.

Another Enron scammer pig get off the hook.

The majority of the judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of appeals were appointed by Bush41 and Reagan, 12 out of 16 to be exact, and we already know Bush43 stacked SCOTUS with rightwingers/corporate worshipping morons. James Brown, Conrad Black, Bruce Weyhrauch and the biggest crook of them all Jeffrey Skilling have now had their sentences reversed and/or charges dropped. From Jurist:

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Wednesday asked a federal judge to drop fraud and conspiracy charges against a former Merrill Lynch executive accused of taking part in the Enron [corporate website; JURIST news archive] Nigerian barge scam. James Brown was convicted [JURIST report], along with three other former Merrill Lynch executives in 2004, in the first criminal trial stemming from the Enron collapse. Brown and his co-defendants were convicted on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud relating to a deal that allowed Enron to sell shares [WSJ report] in Nigerian power-producing barges to Merrill Lynch, with the promise that Merrill Lynch's interests would be bought out within six months at a pre-determined profit. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] reversed the convictions [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in 2006 "on the legal ground that the government's theory of fraud relating to the deprivation of honest services—one of three theories of fraud charged in the Indictment—is flawed." Brown's retrial was scheduled to begin next week, after the district judge denied [Bloomberg report] the government's request to postpone the proceedings. The government previously ended attempts to re-prosecute Brown's co-defendants on the charges. Brown is currently in the process of appealing his conviction on the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice to the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive].

One statute utilized by the government in the original convictions of the executives was the "honest service" doctrine [18 USC § 1346 text], which was recently limited in scope by the Supreme Court. In June, the court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in Skilling v. United States [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that the doctrine is not unconstitutionally vague under a limited construction. In its ruling, the court limited the honest services doctrine to the protection of intangible rights of honest service deprived through bribery and kickbacks. As a result of the ruling, the court vacated the conviction of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling [JURIST news archive] under the statute because his misconduct did not fall under either category. The court also vacated the conviction of Canadian media mogul Conrad Black [JURIST news archive] and former Alaskan congressmen Bruce Weyhrauch who were also convicted under the doctrine.  

Just how inept were and still are the assholes in the DOJ?  It's so damn friggin pathetic that in the end....no one involved in the fuckery pulled by Enron and Merrill Lynch will do time in prison.  Thanks for nothing Eric Holder and the rest of your useless DOJ attorneys.

Christine O'Donnell has broken campaign laws? You don't say?

I wanna know why in the blue hell the Federal Election Commission hasn't busted this broad. From The Political Carnival, tonight's AC360 interview her former financial advisor:



From The Political Carnival writeup:

Christine O’Donnell’s former financial advisor: “She would withdraw money for mileage… she didn’t own a car at the time.”

She used campaign money to go bowling and pay rent.

And yet her Tea Bagger groupies are defending her. Watch the video.

    Next week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will ask the Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to open a criminal investigation into Christine O’Donnell’s abuse of campaign funds. We’ll also ask the Federal Election Commission to look into the matter. It seems pretty clear to us that she has been using her campaign money to finance her personal life, which is flat-out illegal.

Please follow the link to sign a petition encouraging U. S. Attorney David Weiss to fully investigate.

My current favorite nutter, Ms. O'Donnell, is a real piece of work ain't she? Almost makes Batshit Bachmann look sane at this point. I hope CREW drives this wingnut out of the race and gets to watch her squirm in a court of law. That should make Palin's election year just fucking ducky..

Matt Taibbi's newest at RS: Congrats it's 9/11

Check it out here. It's about the asshole that was purported to be the top economist at Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neill, who just got kicked downstairs it seems. From Matt's writeup:

O'Neill last week wrote a long farewell letter (he's been moved to Goldman Sachs Asset Management, also the presumed new post-Dodd-Frank home of Goldman's prop traders), using the anniversary of 9/11 as occasion to reflect on his changed professional status.

 Was O'Neill moved by the memory of 9/11 to reflect upon the meaningless of wealth and profit compared to life, good health, and family? Did he look back at all that death and suffering and find himself moved to silent reflection?

Nah. What O'Neill did instead was look back at 9/11 and recall that that was the event that led him to make his famous "BRIC" call -- a prediction that in the wake of 9/11 the economic influence of the United States would wane and emerging nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China would rise to take its place. O'Neill's BRIC theory became the cornerstone of Goldman's economic policy last decade. It worked out well for them. It was, as O'Neill, a Brit, would say -- a good show! It was the righteousness of this prediction that O'Neill chose to remember on the anniversary of 9/11:

   1. 9/11 and the state of the world. As many of you probably know, the atrocity of that day was one of the key forces that led me to conceive of the BRIC theme. Through its horror, it suggested to me that for globalization and the world economy to thrive, we all needed to accept a world in which different social and political philosophies could sit side by side. Luckily, and despite the staggering challenges we have been through since, by and large, that seems to be the case. Of course, as much as many negatively inclined commentators allude to the poor performance of the major economies and major markets, since 9 years ago, many emerging markets, led by the BRIC nations, have enjoyed spectacular rallies. 

I still wonder why most of these fuckers aren't wearing prison orange...I really do. The fact that he brags on how well all 'the markets' have done since the original 9/11 really takes a big set of brass ones.

O'Donnell's former assistants confirm her batshit crazy status.

I picked this out just for her

For a complete, up-to-date list of this idiots..cough.. beliefs and fuck-ups, check out Think Progress here.

More on the never-ending fuckery of our batshit crazy of the week, Christine O'Donnell. From Politico:

But none were more surprised then the staffers who worked for O’Donnell in 2008, when she made the second of two prior unsuccessful bids for the Senate.

The tea party giant-killer who knocked off Rep. Mike Castle  Tuesday is barely recognizable to them. They remember a candidate who was less interested in conservative causes than scoring a television deal, one who suggested dodging campaign vendors, believed she could give the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention and fixated on a harebrained idea to distribute tens of thousands of two-ounce suntan lotion packets to voters.

*snip*

Kristin Murray, who left her position in the state party to serve as one of several campaign managers for O’Donnell during that race, said warning bells went off in June 2008 when the two were discussing cell phone plans.

"She told me that she thought Joe Biden tapped her phone line," she said.

Alan Moore, who worked on press releases and policy statements for two months during the 2008 bid and now helps run the conservative site Townhall.com, said his conversations with the candidate led him to believe "her priorities were completely out of whack." 

There is much more so check out the writeup. Isn't it great when the GOP eats their own? And the gist of the article, for me, is that she really wants what Palin got....lucrative tv contracts and money....lots and lots of money.

Alan Grayson, man of the people and now a Documentary figure.

I have loved and admired this man since the first time I heard him speak. From C&L:

This looks like it'll be a good one.

Street Fighting Man: The Political Mind of Alan Grayson is a documentary feature about the re-election campaign of Congressman Alan Grayson (D - FL), who famously said the Republican’s health care plan was simply, “don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly.” In the traditional sense, the film is a non-partisan look at Grayson’s bid to become the first Democrat to ever win a second term in Florida’s conservative 8th District. In the not-so-traditional sense, it is a satiric look at the political state of our Union.

Republicans are calling Grayson “Enemy Number 1” in the mid-term election. Defeating Grayson is viewed not only as a win for their party, but a symbolic blow to the Democratic Party. This fight for the 8th, with all its competitiveness, juvenilia, and in-fighting, is a microcosm of politics in America in 2010.

Website: Street Fighting Man: The Political Mind of Alan Grayson

I can't wait to see this...seriously. The Trailer below:


Street Fighting Man Trailer from Martini Lunch Productions on Vimeo.

The wingnuttery continues: Condoms are a no-no for O'Donnell

This batshit crazy broad now rivals Batshit Bachmann I believe. I bet the GOP just love this fucknut. From MediaMattersActionNetwork blog:

O'Donnell: Condoms Are An "Anti-Human" "Insult" That Reduce People "To The Level Of A Dog"

50 minutes ago — Media Matters Action Network

Since her surprising victory in the Delaware GOP primary, Christine O'Donnell has been getting a lot of attention for her extreme views. But unlike other Tea Party candidates, such as Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Joe Miller (R-AK), O'Donnell's most jaw-dropping past statements have to do with sex. Over the course of her career as an abstinence-only activist, O'Donnell has denounced efforts to promote condoms and safe sex as "anti-human" and an "insult" that reduces teenagers "to the level of a dog that can't control its hormones." Here are a few of the lowlights (quotes via Nexis): 

"And to me, it's a very anti-human way to go about this. And what I mean about anti-human is even if the population is increasing, so what? So what? People aren't bad. When did humans become a bad thing? Why is it that we have to, you know, stop people from getting pregnant?" [The O'Reilly Factor, 1/6/06]

"[C]ondoms will not protect you from AIDS. So to just throw a bunch of condoms over to Africa and say, here, we're helping you with AIDS, is just going to further the spread of AIDS over there." [Donahue, 4/27/02]

"We're doing a great disservice to our young people because the only protection is abstinence, as condoms have been proven fallible....The federal government should not be telling young people to use condoms....It's also an insult to teenagers, reducing them to the level of a dog that can't control its hormones." [Washington Times, 12/1/95]

 This broad will provide hours of entertainment and/or crying at her ignorance for me for the next month or two..I can tell already.

Bonus update..C&L has the video of Mentally Unstable Malkin and Krazy Karl Rove going off on each other over O'Donnell..aka the GOP eating their own.


Oh, added bonus...this poll says republican voters want John Boehner and Mitchy McConnell to take a long walk off a very short pier if the GOP gains control in November.

Yes, he is an idiot but should he of been fired?

The asshole that burned a few pages of the Koran got shit-canned for his little act of stupidity, ignorance (add your own word here) and fuckery. The first amendment protects morons like him, Terry Jones and the idiots at Westboro Baptist...doesn't it?

Of course Governor Christie had to weigh in (pun intended) on this issue and he agrees with the NJ Transit decision to fired this dumbass. From the rag known as the NY Daily News:

But one New Jersey state senator defended Fenton's constitutional right to free speech and criticized his firing.

Fenton was not in uniform and apparently not on the clock when he staged his protest in front of news photographers and reporters covering demonstrations marking the anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.

"So long as his actions, however misguided, took place on his own time, and he was not acting in his capacity as a representative of NJTransit but as an American exercising his constitutional rights, then the agency is clearly in the wrong," Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said in a statement.

What say you, m'dear readers? It should be noted that speech wasn't involved, burning was...so is that a technicality NJ Transit can use to dump this dipshit?

Impeachment trial begins for Federal Judge Thomas Porteous

What I find interesting about this case, other than it's a federal judge, is that the judge is represented by one of my favorite MSNBC Countdown visitor's, Constitution scholar and Professor Jonathan Turley. From Jurist:

Senate begins impeachment trial of federal judge The US Senate Impeachment Trial Committee began hearing arguments Monday in the case against federal judge Thomas Porteous who is charged with perjury and accepting bribes from lawyers while a judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Porteous's lawyer Jonathan Turley claimed in his opening statement that "Judge Porteous's actions, while in some instances showing poor judgment, were in fact entirely legal." Each side will have 20 hours to present its case. The committee will submit its findings to the Senate and decide whether to recommend a conviction. If two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict Porteous, he will be removed from office. Last week, the Judicial Council of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted to continue Porteous' suspension from the bench through the remainder of the year. This marks the Senate's first impeachment trial since the proceedings against then-president Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

The US House of Representatives voted unanimously in March to impeach Porteous. After an investigation [report text, PDF] by a special committee, the Judicial Conference found "substantial evidence" that Porteous had signed false financial disclosure forms, falsified statements in a personal bankruptcy proceeding, made false representations to secure a bank loan and violated criminal laws and ethical rules by soliciting and receiving "cash and other things of value" from lawyers in a bench trial over which he was presiding. Porteous' decision in that case, In re Liljeberg enters v. Lifemark Hospitals, was later partially reversed [opinion text] by the Fifth Circuit, which earlier this year reprimanded Porteous. A House committee began investigating Porteous in 2008.The US Constitution gives the House the power to impeach "all civil Officers of the United States" on suspicion of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Thirteen federal judges have been impeached, of which seven have been convicted.

And the fact he is a Louisana judge doesn't surprise me one fucking bit folks. Well, well...he could be number eight. But then, I never bet against Professor Turley.

Koch bros fund the Tea Partys? Is this supposed to be news?

From The New Yorker,  CNN via C&L, another shot at showing people that the teabaggers are bought and paid for by the Koch Brothers who have given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes.:

CNN has finally, even belatedly, with the publication of Jane Mayer's background piece in The New Yorker (COVERT OPERATIONS: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama) begun to acknowledge that the so-called "grassroots" Tea Party has some powerful and extremely wealthy backers (or as Matt Kibbe puts it, "patrons").

Now, as a background piece, a 7-minute interview on weekend CNN isn't going to be highly informative, and this is not Rachel Maddow or 60 Minutes. But it's still worthwhile getting out there who really pulls the strings in American politics and who are the willing dupes. The Kochs will spend $45 million for the coming midterms alone, funneling the cash through such organizations as Americans for Prosperity. They have also given the Republican Governor's Association (RGA) another million, joining FOX News in that dubious distinction. In short, they are the ultimate power players within Republican ranks.

Read the Jane Mayer 10-page article online here.

That name, Koch,  should be on the lips of every liberal when discussing the astroturfing assholes known as Tea Partiers. The Koch's are evil incarnate and a big part of the whole founding members of the rightwing nutter university group.  They buy everyone and everything in their path and with nuts like Dick Armey, these fuckers can pull it off.

It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it

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The church of the NFL

It's a high holy day for those of us that worship sports, specifically professional football. It's opening day. It's also a day when politics takes a day off, and I mean the whole fucking day and night.

There is football on from 10am to 8pm today, non-fucking stop. Tomorrow is a double header in the evening.

Go Chargers, even though I ain't a fan of Norv in any way, shape or form. Rivers ain't all that either.

Enjoy your Sunday folks!

Tattoo parlors protected by First Amendment..Who knew?

Robb, my fav bartender in Malibu

I laughed my ass off at this story today. From the Jurist link:

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday invalidated  [opinion, PDF] a municipal ban on tattoo parlors by Hermosa Beach, California, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. The controversy initially arose when Johnny Anderson was denied a permit to open a tattoo parlor by the city, located in southern California. The city does not list tattoo parlors in its zoning code, and, as tattoo parlors must be registered under California law, the city's code in effect outlawed those establishments. The US District Court for the Central District of California  granted summary judgment to the city when Anderson filed his original suit. In arriving at its decision, the Ninth Circuit first held that tattooing is an expressive activity, not merely conduct with an expressive component. Based on that holding, the court further held that tattooing was subject to only reasonable time, place or manner restrictions, and the city's ban was not narrowly tailored to the city's interest in protecting public health and did not leave open alternative channels of communication. The court concluded:

    [T]he City's total ban on tattoo parlors in Hermosa Beach is not a reasonable "time, place, or manner" restriction because it is substantially broader than necessary to achieve the City's significant health and safety interests and because it entirely forecloses a unique and important method of expression. Moreover, no genuine issue of material fact exists with respect to the constitutionality of the regulation. Thus, we hold that Hermosa Beach Municipal Code § 17.06.070 is facially unconstitutional to the extent that it excludes tattoo parlors.

The city is currently deliberating as to whether it will appeal the decision to an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, or perhaps even to the Supreme Court.

First Amendment rights have been the focus of numerous court challenges in recent history, often by unpopular groups seeking to have their rights enforced. Also Thursday, the US District Court for the Central District of California, which granted summary judgment against Anderson, ruled that the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy violates the First Amendment . In August, the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri found that Missouri laws banning protests at funerals are unconstitutional. That case involved the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, and another case involving the same organization will be heard by the Supreme Court this term.

Ah yes, the fuckwits at Westboro Baptist and their first amendment rights. It's damn pathetic that those assholes can preach their hate speech and are covered by our Constitution/Bill of Rights.

As for Hermosa Beach and their city council...hahahahahahahaha...assholes.

Getting tired of...The Crazy.

I really can't take another day of stupid on news channels and opinion shows. These fuckers can find more enlightening shit than the diarrhea they have been shooting us.

Tell me why everyone thinks the Rethugs will take over come election day. Discuss the friggin issues. Anything but the crazy/stupid folks. That so-called pastor needs to be 5150'd..I ain't kidding.

Anyway, the weather is spectacular so I am heading back outside...and leaving the laptop on the desk. ;)

Terry Jones is batshit crazy.

The so-called Pastor of a 50 member cult in Floriduuuuh has had enough face time on the telly, and in the press.

Someone needs to tell this sumbitch to take a friggin long walk on a very short pier. I am sick to death of his fuckery.

Once again, States Secret claim kills ACLU suit.

Those assholes in the DOJ are still using Bush43's favorite claim to keep American's from knowing the truth, States Secret Privilege (historical explanation from the ACLU). From Jurist:

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Wednesday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a district court's dismissal of a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against a Boeing subsidiary in connection with its alleged role in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] extraordinary rendition program. The plaintiffs, Binyam Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed Agiza, Mohamed Farag Ahmaad Bashmilah and Bisher al-Rawi, alleged that San Diego-based Jeppesen Dataplan knowingly aided in the rendition and subsequent torture of terror suspects by the CIA. Before Jeppesen could file an answer to the original complaint, the Department of Justice (DOJ) intervened and asserted the state secrets privilege , arguing that fact-finding in the case could jeopardize national security. The district court dismissed the case and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit overturned the ruling on appeal. The DOJ then asked the Ninth Circuit to reconsider the case with a full panel, and was granted an en banc rehearing. The original Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the state secrets privilege can only be invoked in relation to established evidence in the case, not just at the possibility that such evidence may be uncovered should the case proceed, but Wednesday's 6-5 opinion reverses that position, holding that in some "rare" circumstances, it may be impossible for a suit to proceed at all without inevitably compromising national security:

[T]here are times when exceptional circumstances create an irreconcilable conflict between [liberty, justice, transparency, accountability and national secuirty]. On those rare occasions, we are bound to follow the Supreme Court's admonition that 'even the most compelling necessity cannot overcome the claim of privilege if the court is ultimately satisfied that [state] secrets are at stake.' ... Here, further litigation presents an unacceptable risk of disclosure of state secrets no matter what legal or factual theories Jeppesen would choose to advance during a defense. Whether or not Jeppesen provided logistical support in connection with the extraordinary rendition and interrogation programs, there is precious little Jeppesen could say about its relevant conduct and knowledge without revealing information about how the United States does or does not conduct covert operations. ... We ... acknowledge that this case presents a painful conflict between human rights and national security.

The majority said that other avenues may be available for the plaintiffs to address their claims, including Congressional investigation of alleged wrongdoing, monetary reparations and the possibility that the executive may "determine whether the plaintiffs' claims have merit" and voluntarily choose to "honor the fundamental principles of justice." The five-judge minority chastised the proposal, saying that "[n]ot only are these remedies insufficient, but their suggestion understates the severity of the consequences to plaintiffs from the denial of judicial relief" and "elevate the impractical to the point of absurdity." ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner also decried the ruling. "This is a sad day not only for the torture victims ... but for all Americans who care about the rule of law," he said. "To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had his day in court." 

That last line - To date, not a single victim of the Bush Administration's torture program has had his day in court really chaps my friggin ass. Seriously...wtf Holder? Where is the accountability dude? Where the fuck IS it? All this shit is...is an extension of the Bush43 policies...and you fuckers want MY vote in November? Kiss my brown ass boys...both cheeks...cuz it ain't gonna happen..nope...it just friggin ain't. There are more negatives to this administration then there are positives...and that makes me sick to my stomach as I voted for you fuckers last time around. Again from the Jurist article:

The state secrets privilege, which allows the exclusion of evidence based on a government affidavit that such evidence may endanger national security, has been highly criticized by rights groups and others. Julian Sanchez [Cato profile] of the Cato Institute [advocacy website] argued [JURIST comment] last October that Congress should implement state secrets reforms, rather than relying on the DOJ to increase oversight. Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] announced [JURIST report] a number of new state secrets policies seeking to increase government accountability and oversight. Also last year, OpenTheGovernment.org [advocacy website] released a report [text, PDF] examining the privilege and other transparency issues, concluding that the current administration has improved transparency [JURIST report], but more should be done.

As the song says: I won't be fooled again.

Human trafficking...its a big business for big American companies.

The scumbags that bring over van loads of illegals is one thing...but when American companies and/or corporations do it...the feds better hang those bastards from the highest tree. From a NYT editorial:

A conspiracy indictment was brought last week against a Los Angeles company, alleging forced labor on a chilling scale. Six contractors are accused of a scheme to hold 400 workers from Thailand in virtual slavery on farms in Hawaii and Washington State. The Justice Department says it is the largest human-trafficking case ever brought by the federal government. Just as disturbing is how familiar the accusations are.


The company, Global Horizons Manpower, is accused of abusing the federal guest worker program, known as H-2A, in 2004 and 2005 and luring workers with false promises of steady work at decent pay. The workers, poor men from the Thai countryside, took on crushing debt to pay exorbitant recruiting fees, about $9,500 to $21,000. After they arrived in America, according to the indictment, their passports were taken and they were set up in shoddy housing and told that if they complained or fled they would be fired, arrested or deported.

The case, brought in Honolulu, coincides with the sentencing on Thursday of two Hawaii farmers, Mike and Alec Sou, who pleaded guilty in January to a forced-labor scheme involving 44 Thai workers. The Sous worked with Global Horizons before but are linked to the latest case only by the methods they admitted to using.

How do you think the nutters on the right will view this fuckery? They are the ones always bitching and moaning about undocumented workers or the guest worker program...and frankly...this horseshit really makes me want to go postal on someone's ass. If I hear the words free market attached to this story or used to justify this crime, I will take a baseball bat to the individual's head.

Farmworkers have been abused in this fashion for decades and decades m'dear reader. Again from the editorial:

American history is full of examples of large-scale abuses of farmworkers, from the Bracero program for Mexicans in the 1940s to the present day. The Bush administration, which was in charge of the H-2A program at the time Global Horizons is accused of doing its worst, generally turned a blind eye to wage-and-hour enforcement. In its waning days, it issued new rules that gutted worker pay and labor protections in the program.

I live in the San Joaquin valley, and I know of this bullshit and how long it has been going on. We, as American's, eat our cheap produce without giving a fucking thought to the human that stood out in the sun for 8 -10 hours to harvest it. The pay scale is dehumanizing and its disgusting...they make pennies while the farmer gets rich off their back breaking work.

In the abuse of legal foreign workers, the numbers vary but the methods are the same. It is slavery without shackles. Its perpetrators seldom have to resort to violence or even threats of violence. Since workers are buried in debt before they even leave their home countries, the threat of being fired and deported is enough.


To lose a guest-worker job means irreparable harm: destitution, unpayable debt, the loss of mortgaged family land. Under those conditions, a worker will accept any abuse, live and work in squalor and do what he is told. Everyone else — the middlemen; the companies that get “cheap, compliant labor,” in the words of the Global Horizons indictment; and the grocery buyers who eat cheap, fresh produce, subsidized by suffering — is satisfied.

Next time you eat a salad or a piece of fruit...think of the men, women and yes...children that harvested that food for you...and how they are being fucked by their employer and our government. These people have no rights..and that is criminal in and of itself.

Karzai has competition..and thats a good thing.

The corrupt bastard that runs Afghanistan is getting quite a bit of competition. From Ann Marlowe @ The Daily Beast:

Afghanistan’s democratic opposition—a loosely affiliated but increasingly unified group of former Northern alliance fighters and politicians, Western-educated technocrats, businesspeople and military men—is facing a stalemate in what looks more and more like the Afghan endgame.


Last week, I met with three of the key players: Ahmad Wali Masoud, the former Afghan Ambassador to Britain, and one of the six brothers of the slain Afghan legend Ahmad Shah Massoud; last year’s presidential challenger Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, and deposed internal security chief Amrullah Saleh.

Since then, there have been several significant events in Kabul—not only did we see the unraveling of the Kabul Bank but it was also “Martyr’s Week,” commemorating the dead among the Afghan armed forces, as well as the end to Ramadan.

And events are moving so quickly here—think of the dissolving dreamscapes of Inception—that while Masoud, Abdullah and Saleh were all maintaining some distance on August 31, four days later, I was told, Saleh pledged his loyalty to Abdullah, and the following day, the three made a joint appearance at Kabul Education University.

At a time when the relationship between Karzai and the U.S. administration appears to have strained to a near-breaking point, and words such as “revolution” are suddenly cropping up in conversation, we should pay attention.

Nothing would make me happier than to see Karzai drummed out of office..and then run out of town on a rail or jailed for his crimes against his own people. The bastard and his cabinet are so corrupt it's obvious and pathetic..and it makes us look like fools since we support his regime and refuse to foster and support opposition parties that really want democracy in Afghanistan. Again from Marlowe's writeup:

 While the men are very different—Masoud is genial and full of smiles, Abdullah has gravitas, and Saleh is all coruscating brilliance—the three spoke with surprising unanimity about the situation as they saw it, placing the lion’s share of blame for the deteriorating situation on the Americans and their focus on empowering one man, Hamid Karzai, rather than creating a sustainable, robust political system.


“They should have supported the political process and, if that process is legitimate, then the product of that process will be legitimate,” said Dr. Abdullah.

Or as Masoud put it: “The Americans imposed Karzai on Afghanistan, they know best how to change it.”

“Why did they pump billions of dollars into this country through one man, but do not promote political parties?” asked Masoud. “If they’d done that, by now we would have political parties to deal with, not one man.”

Bush knew what he was doing by putting Karzai in power, and I would hazard a guess that Obama is keenly aware of what a bag of batshit Karzai and his government are...so why support them? What is the upside of this fuckery for America and her money and soldiers?

Happy Labor Day y'all! -Yeah Right..

The top two percenter's watched their income grow by 17%  and their tax rate continued to shrink...which as you recall was the worst recession since The Big Crash in 1929.

Meanwhile, the middle class saw their income continue to shrink as it has been doing for decades, and the number of poor folks in our nation increased dramatically.

So really, there isn't a whole lot to be 'Happy' about is there? Unless of course you are one of the top 2%.

Who's lying now Joe Wilson?

Evidently this as been under my radar...but I read it this morning and was almost giddy at the prospect that Joe "You Lie" Wilson might get busted for lying and spending taxpayer's money on bullshit for himself. From the McClatchy link:

The congressional ethics investigation of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is broader than previously disclosed and goes well beyond his use of $12 in per diem expense money to buy six decorative goblets in Afghanistan last year.

Congressional staff members with detailed knowledge of the probe said ethics investigators are examining Wilson's unusually high number of foreign trips — at least 30 in the past eight years — and his use of per diem expense money while traveling abroad.

And then there is this part of the article where they give you Wilson's travling dog and pony show:

"I do not remember which trips they spoke about," Wilson told McClatchy. "I don't remember specifically."

Since he joined Congress after a December 2001 special election, Wilson's overseas travel has cost taxpayers about $100,000 all told in itemized expenses, including roughly $38,000 in per diem money intended to cover only meals and lodging.

That total puts Wilson at No. 29 among the 435 members of the House — and at No. 39 among 730 members who've served since 1994, according to data published in the Congressional Record, the official proceedings of the House and Senate and analyzed by Congressional Quarterly.

Because most of Wilson's trips have been to visit U.S. troops around the world, they've entailed significant additional costs beyond the $100,000 — including large sums of non-itemized, taxpayer-covered funds to pay for U.S. Air Force planes used to transport him and other lawmakers.

Don't you love the Reagan-esque "I do not recall" bullshit? Ah...the Rethugs sure know how to spend taxpayers money don't they? Yet, they scream and holler about the deficit and big government and how unemployment payments are a perk.... Fucking two-faced bags of batshit are a sorry-assed lot aren't they?

NOLA Cop's really know how to treat police dogs.

police dog tore up car before he died

The mutha fucka left his 'partner', a 6-year-old Belgian Malnois named Primo in his locked police car last summer. The dog died after suffering for who knows how long in the police car on a hot Louisiana day. Primo tried to escape his horrific fate by chewing up the inside of the police car according to investigators. As far as I am concerned the sumbitch got off easy in the Big Easy. From WDSU:

Necropsy reports showed that Primo suffered from heat exhaustion, experienced at least three seizures after his temperature reached more than 108 degrees, and died while receiving treatment at the Southeast Veterinary Clinic in Metairie on the same day, the group said.

Images released by the Metropolitan Crime Commission showed how the dog shredded the seats inside the cruiser in an attempt to escape.

Lewis was sentenced to a six-month suspended jail sentence, six months of probation and restitution of $12,000, the cost to replace a trained police dog.

The jails are probably overcrowded with people of color so this fuckwad gets a suspended sentence. He is what my father calls...felony dumb. I call him a pile of bat guano who should suffer the same fate as his canine partner did.

That would be justice for Primo...not a suspended sentence and six fucking months of probation.

Next up..the sumbitch who actually was a supervisor and trainer in the K9 unit at one point. The asshole known as Officer Randy Lewis...no relation they say..although I wonder:

In the other case, Randy Lewis was working an off-duty, private security detail on the evening of May 21 at the abandoned Charity Hospital building in downtown New Orleans when Phantom fell down an open elevator shaft.

Furthermore, Lewis left Phantom’s body at the bottom of the shaft until morning. Anthony Radosti, vice president of the Crime Commission, said that police dogs are officers’ partners.

“Unfortunately, they don’t realize that he is a brother officer for all practical purposes,” he said to NOLA.com. “To leave him at the bottom of the pit strikes at the heart.”

Lewis then lied about the incident in a police report and stated that he and Phantom were on duty and working on a training exercise.

Eric Hessler, Randy Lewis’s attorney, said that an “error” was made on the police report when his client left out the fact that he was working a paid, off-duty detail. This is not, Hessler said, a crime. He also stated that Lewis’s decision to leave the dog’s body behind was based on safety. He said the shaft was flooded and it was safer for officers to retrieve Phantom in the morning.

Lying about where and what he was doing should of been a tipoff on this scum-sucking bastard.

NOLA cops just can't get good press to save their fucking asses can they? If they aren't killing their canine partners, it's unarmed citizens after the flood walls broke...and they all tried to lie and/or cover-up the crimes.

Another rig explodes in the Gulf.

This one is a natural gas and oil platform already producing. And yes it is leaking oil now.. From CNN:

Update at 2:51 p.m. ET: USA TODAY's Donna Leinwand reports that Mariner, the oil company that owns the Vermillion platform, reports that oil has spilled into the water, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Elizabeth Bordelon. The oil sheen at the site measures one mile by 100 feet, Bordelon says. The company is unsure where the oil came from since the well was not producing at the time of the explosion, she says.

Update at 2:28 p.m. ET: A mile-long oil sheen has spread from an burning offshore petroleum platform in the Gulf of Mexico off Lousiana, the AP reports, quoting Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough. The officer says the sheen is about 100 feet wide. Three firefighting vessels have been sent to the scene to assist a fourth already in place, he says.

[Updated at 1:05 p.m.] Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident.

"Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate."

The company also said no injuries have been reported.

[Updated at 12:48 p.m.] David Reed, a paramedic on board the Rowan Gorilla II oil rig located 14 miles from the platform that exploded told submitted an iReport saying he saw all thirteen workers rescued from the water.

This will go over like a ton of bricks landing on your granny....as well it should. Fuckers state the rig was undergoing maintenance and was not producing at the time of the explosion.