The spirit of Heywood Jablome lives on

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The Rude Pundit points to a New York Times blog making this claim:

Some prominent bloggers on a panel here at Netroots Nation said today that for a variety of reasons, they have scaled back their use of profanity. Others said they were swearing as much as they ever had.

Digby Parton, who writes on Hullabaloo.com . . .

(emphasis mine)

Uh, no - "Digby" is the pen name of the author of the blog Hullabaloo, located at digbysblog.blogspot.com, not Hullabaloo.com. (Hullabaloo.com appears to be someone's vanity domain)

Nice to see the New York Whore Times is maintaining its reputation for accuracy. If I remember right, Kit Seelye, the author of this piece, was one of their anti-Clinton hotshots back during the old days when impeachment definitely was NOT off the table.

I have to wonder who fed her this bit of bogus news. They didn't see fit to publish my comment pointing out her error.

Fauxgressives

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Interesting story from the big "Netroots Nation" convention down in Texas this weekend:

Saturday morning, July 19. Sitting here at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas with several thousand other online activists. Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party Speaker of the House, the third most powerful politician in the United States, is up on the podium, doing her best to damp down the mounting criticism of the Democratic Party's shameful collaboration in funding the war and aiding and abetting the Bush administration's shredding of the Constitution.

Before Pelosi speaks, an announcement is made from the podium that disruptions will not be tolerated--if any of us express our frustrations too passionately with Pelosi and the sell-out Democratic Party leadership we will be arrested.

Pelosi Tells Netroots Nation She Opposes Impeachment Because She's BiPartisan

So tell me again just what the difference between these people and the Republicans is supposed to be?

Reuters: Bin Laden driver headed for trial at Guantanamo

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Link

I thought this was a particularly nice Kafka-esque touch:

Hamdan's attorneys had argued that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month gave Guantanamo prisoners -- about 265 at the moment, many of them held for years without being charged -- fundamental constitutional rights.

But U.S. District Judge James Robertson backed the government's argument that a 2006 law supported by U.S. President George W. Bush allows such challenges only after a trial.

Shorter Bush "Justice" Department:

So they don't have any rights unless we try them, which we're not going to do, so they don't have any rights despite what the Supreme Court said. We got some bought-and-paid-for GOP judge to rule in our favor, so that overrides the highest court in the land.

I swear, the Bush Administration becomes more of an affront to logic, reason, and human decency every single day. But this one takes the cake.

Next up, the trial of Osama's barber. And I understand the CIA is busily waterboarding a confession from a guy who once delivered a pizza to Osama. Anything to distract from the fact that Osama himself is still missing in action, despite it being almost seven fucking years since 9/11. Who does Bush think he's kidding?

Obama addresses his supporters on the left

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Karma catches up with Tony Snow

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Gotta give the man credit where it's due: when it came to putting lipstick on a pig, there was no one better. If you needed a patina of respectability applied to a steaming pile of complete horseshit, Tony was your go-to guy. He was a liar's liar, who could sell the rubes a bill of goods without even breaking a sweat.

Sure, Fleischer and McClellan could both lie their asses off, but they sweated and twitched while they did it. They knew they were lying and so did most of their audience. But Tony was special. He could spew the ol' bullshit so expertly he'd even have members of the reality-based community questioning themselves.

More than once, I'd hear or read Tony claiming something unlikely and think, "Gee, that's not how I remember it, but Tony seems so certain. Maybe I'm mistaken." Then later on I'd look it up and find out Tony WAS full of shit after all. You really had to admire the guy - he made used car salesmen look like George Washington and the cherry tree or Honest Abe. Salespeople, lawyers, politicians, cops - when it came to lying, they were all amateurs compared to him.

The current White House Spokesliar can't hold a candle to Tony, possibly the greatest liar and con-artist since P.T. Barnum. I suspect we'll not see his like again. Whether or not that's a Martha Stewart-style "GOOD thing" is left as an exercise for the reader.

"What's that? A Democrat might be doing something unethical? We're SOOO on it!"

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In today's NYWT, the SCLM manages to unglom their lips from the GOP's collective penis long enough to take a shot at Charlie Rangel:

While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers.

I particularly liked this part:

Mr. Rangel’s use of the fourth apartment as an office, in addition to his 2,500-square-foot residence, was especially troubling to some advocates, given the city’s chronic shortage of housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

Which was preceded by this little tidbit:

The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.

How selfish of Rangel to deprive those low- and moderate-income residents of the opportunity to rent a $7500 a month apartment.

2008 has certainly been an interesting year so far

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Old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.

Much like Lambert, I was utterly amazed to watch self-styled "progressives" so eagerly adopt right-wing framing when it suited their purposes. A lot of people whose opinions I used to respect went completely insane this year. It's been a real eye-opener.

It's hard to see much difference between the Bush dead-enders and the deluded fools still trying to defend Barack Obama after his disgraceful capitulation on the FISA bill. Hillary very pleasantly surprised me with her stand - to tell the truth, I rather expected her to do the same as Obama.

I never particularly liked Bill Clinton, but I eventually couldn't help but feel a grudging sympathy for him over the shitty way he was treated by stupid fucks who weren't fit to fold his laundry. And damned if they didn't do the EXACT SAME THING to his wife. Granted, Hillary's no great prize, but she's not Lizzie Borden either. The Clintons actually did a half-assed decent job for this country, particularly when you compare them to the GOP pieces of shit who came before and after Bill. The fucked up way they've been rewarded for their efforts is an absolute disgrace.

Unlike most people, I have the luxury of being able to throw my vote away this year with a clean conscience. I live in Kansas, which hasn't gone for a Democrat for President since LBJ in 1964. Home of Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps and his halfwitted family. Both of my Senators are not only Republicans, but total right-wing loons: Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback. My Congressman is Blue Dog Dennis Moore. (who I refuse to support again after his MoveOn vote)

Kansas's electoral votes will go to John McCain, guaranteed. My vote - whether for Obama or none-of-the-above - is absolutely worthless. The polls aren't open long enough for me to make any difference even if they'd let me vote as many times as I wanted. There are just too many Republicans here.

So I'm going to write in Hillary Clinton.

There's a couple of reasons: first, my mother. A lifelong Republican, she fell away from the Dark Side in her final years of life, wanting nothing more than to live long enough to be able to vote for Hillary Clinton for President. When Hillary decided to run, I decided to vote for her more as a memorial to my mom than any real faith in Hillary as anything but a self-serving pol, like all of them.

The second reason is because I can't think of a better way to spit right in the Democrats' lying, conniving, cowardly faces than "throwing away" my vote on the candidate they rejected.

Now, if you live someplace where your vote actually matters, I can't in good conscience advise you to follow my example. Not because I really give a shit who you vote for, but because you're likely to hate yourself when/if that fucking lunatic McCain wins, and being a bleeding heart sort of liberal, I'd like to spare you that.

But if you live someplace where your vote doesn't mean shit and you're as pissed off at the gutless and corrupt Democrats as I am, please consider writing in Hillary Clinton. It just might send a message to the party they won't be able to ignore. I thank you, and my mom would thank you if she hadn't passed on in 2004.

Any fauxgressives trying to spin Hillary's no vote on FISA as an attempt to make Obama look bad yet? If not, give 'em time. Interesting times indeed.

Hailstorm

For close to five minutes this evening, we got golfball to almost tennis ball size hail, pounding on the roof and walls and scaring the shit out of our cats. (one has yet to come out of hiding)