politics

Lara Logan, I Tip My Smack-o-Matic 3000 to You

jacob2 Comments

If you watch only one video today, make it this one:

Some select quotes:

“I did a piece with Navy Seals once. It took me six months of begging, screaming, breaking down walls, crawling on my knees to get that embed. And when I came back with that story, I was told, ‘these guys, you know, one guy in uniform looks like any other guy in a uniform.’ and I’m on high-value target raids, taking down some of the most wanted Taliban fighters and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, and I’m told, ‘well, you know, one Arabic name sounds – unless it’s Osama bin Laden, who cares about, you know, Mullah bin Shag or whatever…'”

“You know, I was asked once, ‘Do you feel responsible for the American public having a – a bad view, a negative view of the war in Iraq?’ And I looked at the reporter and I said, ‘Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier. What does that look like? Who in America knows what that looks like? Because I know what that looks like, and I feel responsible for the fact that no one else does.'”

We’ll discuss this later, after our blood pressures have gone down to safe levels. For now, let me just say that Lara Logan is the absolute epitome of what it means to be a journalist.

Sadly enough, so is Jon Stewart. And he’d be the first to admit that he’s just a comedy show host.

Lara Logan, I Tip My Smack-o-Matic 3000 to You
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Call Obama

jacob1 Comment

Just as I’m getting ready to drag myself and my cramps back to bed for a couple hours’ worth of sleep, I get hit with this:

Obama, telecoms and the Beltway system


As noted yesterday, Blue Dog Rep. John Barrow of Georgia has been one of the most enthusiastic enablers of the radical and lawless policies of the Bush administration. When running for re-election, he ran ads accusing his own party of wanting to “cut and run in Iraq,” and was one of the 21 Blue Dogs to send a letter to Nancy Pelosi demanding that they be allowed to vote for the Rockefeller/Cheney Senate bill to give warrantless eavesdropping powers to the President and amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms.

As a result of all of that, Barrow faces a serious primary challenge in July from State Senator Regina Thomas, who decided to run against Barrow due to — as she told Howie Klein when she announced — “Barrow’s failure to support his constituents against the encroachments of powerful Big Business interests.” As Klein noted yesterday, Thomas’ positions on both foreign and domestic policy are firmly in line with Barack Obama’s views and with the Democratic base in that district, while Barrow has continuously supported the most extremist Bush policies, as he himself proudly boasts.

[snip]

Despite all of this, The Atlanta Constitution-Journal reported yesterday that Barack Obama — who has been claiming to be so emphatically opposed to warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty, to say nothing of the Iraq War — taped a radio endorsement this week for Rep. Barrow, with the specific intent to help him defeat Regina Thomas in the Democratic primary (h/t sysprog):

Obama cuts an ad to help John Barrow in his primary fight

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has taped a radio commercial on behalf of U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Savannah, who faces a July 15 primary challenge.

It’s the first case of Obama involving himself in a local race in Georgia. . . But the Obama campaign made clear to my colleague Aaron Sheinin that it sees Barrow, a two-term Democrat, as an important ally. .
. .

“Senator Obama believes that Congressman Barrow has worked hard to bring change that families in his district deserve, and we’ll work hard to help John Barrow win in November,” Obama spokeswoman Amy Brundage said.

*spit-take* WHAT THE FUCK?

Unless Obama has some unbelievable insider information, he’s talking out of his ass. What fucking change? What about John Barrow isn’t symptomatic of terminal DCitis? Why the fuck do you want to support a stupid motherfucking Democrat who supports George Fucking Bush?

It’s the first time in a long time he’s disappointed me, and I’m willing to forgive – a bit – but not forget, and I shall not let this pass. He’s got ‘splaining to do. But he can start by winning back my respect, and he should have to work for yours, too.

You see, we don’t have a single indication that he’s going to lift a finger to do jack shit about the FISA bill that’s coming up. It’s time to give him a right kick in the arse to let him know the base isn’t interested in trading civil liberties for supposed “security.” Right and left, liberal and conservative, we have one point we agree on: we don’t want the government listening in on our conversations without a fucking warrant, and we don’t want the telecoms that enabled such illegal spying to get off with a note from the President saying it’s okay to break the law if big daddy tells you to.

Let Obama know these things.

Send him an email. Hell, send him two: here’s his Senate contact, and here’s his campaign contact. His Senate form, unlike some others I’ve encountered, doesn’t tell you to fuck off because you’re not from Illinois, by the way.

Then give him a phone call. Tell him you would like him to oppose FISA: 1-866-675-2008, option 6. Quick and painless – his staff is sweet as pie, and they don’t ask a lot of pesky questions, they just note down your position.

Let him know you’re not happy with him supporting a Bush dog Democrat, either. Let’s make it clear that real change means sweeping out the Republicon enablers and clearing the way for a progressive majority, shall we?

More on this later, if the rat bastards in D.C. don’t sneak FISA through today. Now, my cramps and I are really headed to bed. You can join me and Cujo359 in a different bed by cozying up with the Strange Bedfellows, here.

Let’s make the earth move. Or at least make the powers-that-be in D.C. wonder what magnitude earthquake just hit ’em….

Update: You can send an email to your Congresscritter & Senators here. You can even rip off my email, if you like:

Dear [Elected officia]:

Bush and his enablers are at it again. They’re trying to get a new FISA bill through that contains all of the immunity for telecoms and vast spying powers they ever wanted.

I’m relying on you to take a stand against this.

No more talk of immunity. No more warrantless eavesdropping powers. NO MORE.

Since news of this broke, Strange Bedfellows, a coalition of bloggers, activists and concerned citizens from all across the political spectrum, has generated almost $200,000 in donations to combat this latest attempt to slip sweeping new powers and immunities into law. I think this tells you just how passionate folks are about their civil liberties, and how incensed they are that those liberties have been repeatedly threatened by this odious legislation.

Stand strong. I know you’ll protect our civil liberties. I know we can count on you.

Sincerely,

Call Obama

More FISA Fuckery – And a Chance to Act

jacob1 Comment

I feel like we’re battling a zombie in a bad horror film – every time I think that odious FISA bill with its free pass for lawbreakers is dead, here it comes again.

If you’re just tuning in, here’s the blood and the bones: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has a wee little loophole that needs fixing. When the Act was first passed (in the wake of Watergate, after America learned just how far a President with warrantless wiretapping powers can go), technology wasn’t quite what it is today. So there’s no provision exempting foreign-to-foreign calls that route through American switches from the warrant requirement. That’s it. That’s the sum total of what needs to be fixed. A little bit o’ language needs to be bunged in there saying “No warrant needed for eavesdropping on foreign-to-foreign calls routing through American switches.” That’s it.

Now, mind you, as much as I like the idea of law, order and safety, I’m still a little chary about that exception – why the fuck should foreigners get to have the spooks listen in with impunity? Why not require oversight even when the calls are made by foreigners only? – but realistically speaking, extending a warrant requirement to all just ain’t going to happen in the current political climate. So an exemption for foreign-to-foreign calls there should be.

Of course it can’t be that simple. This is Washington, under the Bush Regime, we’re talking about.

Bush took it upon himself to create a gargantuan, very illegal warrantless wiretapping program after September 11th. Now he wants that program made legal, and he wants immunity for all his good buddies, the telecom giants, who overstepped their authority, shat on the law, and spied on American citizens at his behest.

I work for one of those telecom giants. I can tell you that of all the things they need, immunity from the consequences of their own illegal actions isn’t one of them.

The House Dems finally showed some backbone, and shot down the Senate’s yellow-bellied attempt to insert immunity language into the current FISA bill. However, like a zombie in a bad horror film, the damned thing keeps rising from the dead. Glenn Greenwald reports:

It is now definitively clear that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is the driving force behind a bill — written by GOP Sen. Kit Bond — to vest the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers and to vest lawbreaking telecoms with amnesty. Even as his office dishonestly denies that he is doing so, still more reports yesterday — this one from the NYT and this one from Roll Call (sub req’d) — confirm that a so-called “compromise” is being spearheaded by Hoyer and the House Democratic leadership. The ACLU and EFF are holding a joint call tomorrow to denounce Hoyer’s “compromise” as nothing more than disguised guaranteed immunity for telecoms and, further, because “the proposed deal could be used to authorize dragnet surveillance of Americans’ communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

As a result, there is a major new campaign beginning today aimed at Hoyer and a handful of other key members of Congress who enable telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping. In order to raise as much money as possible for this campaign — far more than the $85,000 raised (and still being spent) in Chris Carney’s district as a result of his support for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — we are working to create an alliance with numerous organizations and factions across the ideological spectrum which oppose civil liberties erosions, as well as with as many blogs as possible (modeled vaguely after the ideologically diverse alliance that has arisen in Britain in opposition to the sprawling and lawless surveillance state there).

And even though that coalition has had a mere day to start forming, even though there’s no shape to it yet, they’ve managed to raise $144,750 by 4:15 a.m. Pacific. That’s huge. That tells me there are a lot of very fed-up people who are ready to brawl.

I, like Glenn Greenwald, will have further updates as the coalition of the more-than-willing comes together to defeat this FISA monstrosity. And in a few moments, after I’ve had a smoke and fetched my trusty credit card, you’ll see this amount go right the fuck up, because, my darlings, I have fucking had it with these slimy bastards who think they can get away with carving out a whole separate law for corporations. What they are saying is this: If you and I and a mom-and-pop shop break the law, we’re burnt toast. If AT&T, Verizon and Comcast do it, it’s patriotic.

Bull fucking shit.

While I smoke and fetch plastic, you can amuse yourself with some history of the FISA fuckery here, here, and here. Especially consider that last: why are Dems so eager to cave now when they succeeded so spectacularly at defying Bush without political penalty just a few months ago? Have some lobbyists been whispering sweet nothings into select ears? It can’t possibly be because they fear a public backlash – the public isn’t willing and eager to have Bush & Buddies listening in on their private calls.

What fucktards.

***

Right. Back. And the total now is: $145,020 as of 4:38 am Pacific.

Do you want to get in on the fun? You know you do. First off, here’s a little something you can do even if you don’t have funds: Tell your members of Congress to reject a sham immunity “compromise.” The ACLU has a letter all ready to go for you.

And here’s Act Blue’s page for donations:

Accountability is one of the most important foundations of democracy. It is time we start holding our elected representatives responsible for rubber stamping the most grievous aspects of the Bush Regime’s agenda. Surely the plans for retroactive immunity for Bush cronies inside his regime and for cronies in the telecom corporations who broke the law by spying on American citizens without warrants, is outrageous and needs to be brought before the bar of Justice. All the money raised on this page will go to fund accountability for congressmembers supporting retroactive immunity and warrantless wiretaps. You can read more about the campaign here, here and here.

After Dick Gephart betrayed the majority of House Democrats and plotted with Bush, Cheney and some Blue Dogs to thwart the will of the majority and rubber stamp Bush’s decision to attack and occupy Iraq, he was forced out of his role as Democratic Leader. Steny Hoyer deserves the exact same fate.


Yes, he does. And everyone who’s willing to compromise the Fourth Amendment and flush American civil rights and values down the toilet deserves the same. If you’ve got a bit o’ cash to spare, drop it in Act Blue’s kitty and let them go to town.

We’ve been used, abused, and lied to long enough. Take a stand. No amnesty for lawbreakers. No warrantless wiretapping powers for Bush. Protect your Constitution and your rights.

Kill this zombie for good.

$145,270 and counting… We’re coming for you.

More FISA Fuckery – And a Chance to Act

Are People Seriously This Stupid and Racist?

jacob6 Comments

No, I’m not talking about the rabid right – I know a good number of them are stupid and racist. They’ve happily demonstrated that for many years now. But I don’t expect frothing dumbfuckery with a heaping helping of latent (or blatant) racism from Dems. We’re the enlightened party, right?

I guess I’m about to get my illusions rudely shattered:

And as long as we’re talking about McCain’s associations, Ben Smith has an interesting item today, Paulie Abeles, a woman helping organize Clinton supporters for McCain, who has a provocative background.

A key organizer of John McCain’s meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings.

Paula Abeles emailed Politico yesterday to complain that her group had gotten short shrift in a blog item, writing, “I initiated the teleconference with McCain on Saturday and was
solely responsible for the guest list.” Another Clinton backer at the event, Will Bower, confirmed that she was “integral” to assembling the group.


Abeles is best known for having masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman online in order to argue against Sally Hemings’ African-American descendants being welcome at family gatherings. Abeles said her deception was necessary to make sure family reunions were “calm and
civilized.”


Yeah, because everybody knows those black folk don’t know how to behave decently. Just ask Bill O’Reilly.

Holy fucking shit, this woman’s a fucktard. And now the stupid, silly, racist bitch is so incensed over her pet candidate losing that she’s actively trying to organize crossover voters for McCain? This is behavior seriously unbecoming to a Democrat.

Carpetbagger’s report was bad enough, but here comes Ames with the salt:

One of my regular commenters recently noted the upswing in pro-Hillary, anti-Obama rhetoric among WordPress’ politics blogs (thanks for the tip!). That’s a disappointing trend, but the actual sites he pointed to are even more disappointing, ranging from the racist to the delusional. I’ve noted before – just click that little “previous post” button above you – that it’s partly worrying, but mostly confusing, to see so many people turn from the Democrats upon Obama’s nomination. It suggests to me that the Clinton supporters who cling to her candidacy were never really about the issues in the first place.


You’re not kidding.

And these fuckwits are the ones whining about misogyny. Apparently, in their world, it’s better to be a racist dipshit than a misogynist.

Here’s what I don’t get. Their meme is, “The evil Democratic party hates on women! Look what they did to Hillary!” It doesn’t matter to them that their precious candidate fucked her own chances right up the ass by being a lying, mud-slinging, ruthless politics-as-usual pol: she lost, even if by a whisker, ergo Dems hate women. Fine. Be as pissy as you want. But if you’re pissed off at people who, in your view, obviously hate women, then why the fuck are you now supporting a candidate whose party despises women?

Is this either-or? If we can’t have a woman as President, we’d prefer to give up our rights to birth control, abortion, and equal opportunity by voting for another fucking Republicon? How fucking stupid can you possibly be?

Are you just that racist? You’d take a white man over a black one any day of the week, no matter how noxious the white boy’s politics?

Are you just that infantile, that you’ll destroy everybody’s happiness (including your own) just because you didn’t get your way?

Are you that batshit insane?

I often joke about being a misogynist – yes, I’m a woman and a liberal and so that shouldn’t technically be possible, but for fuck’s sake, women can act like rampaging idiots sometimes. The women who’d rather vote for McCain than Obama just because Obama beat their precious in a fair fight are going to tip me right over the edge. It won’t be a joke anymore. They make me ashamed of my gender.

And as for the men who used to support Hillary and are now engaging in this petulant, destructive bullshit: they’re making me ashamed to be a human being. As if the right wing hadn’t made me ashamed enough.

Are People Seriously This Stupid and Racist?

Hangover Discurso

jacob2 Comments

Supreme Sillyness Edition

The far-right outcry over the Supreme Court (narrowly) restoring habeas rights to the poor buggers the Bush regime has stuffed into cells at Guantanamo Bay has exceeded even my expectations – and I expected them to get really fucking irrational. They’re outdoing themselves. Calling them the “rabid right” now seems a little… mild. I don’t think there are words in the English language that can succinctly sum up just how paranoid, delusional, and sensationally stupid they are.

Exhibit A: Bill Kristol, neocon columnist and remarkable dumbshit:

Today on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol revealed that “very soon” — likely as early as next week — McCain and Graham will be introducing legislation to undermine the Supreme Court decision by setting up a “national security court”:

And I think you will see Senator Graham, accompanied by Senator McCain, come to the floor of the Senate very soon, like next week, and say, We cannot let chaos obtain here. We can’t let 200 different federal district judges on their own whim call this CIA agent here, say, ‘I don’t believe this soldier here who said this guy was doing this,’ you have to release someone,’ or, ‘Let’s build up — let’s compromise sources and methods with a bunch of trials. I mean, it’s ridiculous.


Yes, Billy, how dare a country founded on the ideals of law, justice and equality possibly allow such horrible things as trials. Where judges, of all horrible people, get to tell honest CIA agents to fuck off and stop torturing innocent people. The horror! It’s totally ridiculous that we can’t have a perfect little police state, wherein any atrocity can be ushered safely under a rug because, well, you know, the truth might come out and compromise brutal police-state tactics.

How he must pine for the good ol‘ days of Star Chambers and show trials. Good times, good times. Never mind that the Center for American Progress thinks a National Security Court is a dumbfuck idea:

Adopting a national security court system would send the United States down another unproven path prone to repeat the same mistakes. It would not further justice or American legitimacy. Rather, it would risk creating American courts that more resemble the tribunals of dictators than those of democracies. And that would be a strategic victory for Al Qaeda, not for Americans. […]


Because Billy wants nothing so much as he wants to live under a dictatorship. I don’t imagine he’d be unhappy about a strategic victory for al Qaeda, either: after all, Public Enemy #1’s been looking a little peaked lately. Can’t keep the fear screwed to a fever-pitch, thus allowing conservatives to get away with any outrageous infringement on constitutional liberty they want, if the populace isn’t quivering in terror over teh terrarists.

Exhibit B: Newt Gingrich returns to his own true self and demonstrates that, for all he wants to be seen as a rational, reasonable politician, he’s still a frothing insane wingnut at heart:

On Face the Nation this morning, former House speaker Newt Gingrich echoed the extreme rhetoric of the right wing to decry the Supreme Court’s recent decision restoring the right of habeas corpus petitions to Guantanamo detainees, charging the decision would “cost us a city”:

This court decision is a disaster, which could cost us a city. And the debate ought to be about whether you’re prepared to lose an American city on behalf of five lawyers — it was a five to four decision. … That ought to be a principled argument between McCain and Obama, about whether or not you’re prepared to allow any random, nutcake district judge who has no knowledge of national security to set the rules for terrorists.


Oh, yes. Restore habeas corpus rights, and the next thing you know, BOOM! There goes Los Angeles. That’s just what the terrorists have been waiting for. At least there’s one grain of truth in Newt’s screeching: he should know all about “random, nutcake district” judges, considering it’s his hero Georgie who’s stocked our nation’s courts with random nutcakes.

And speaking of nutcake judges… you know how Justice Antonin Scalia is completely batshit insane? He doesn’t disappoint: he’s our Exhibit C – Extreme Fucktard Extaordinaire:

In his dissenting opinion, he devoted an entire section to “a description of the disastrous consequences of what the Court has done today,” a procedure “contrary to my usual practice,” he admitted. Scalia a
dopted extreme rhetoric about the impacts of the decision, calling it a “self-invited…incursion into military affairs” that would “almost certainly” kill Americans. Some lowlights:

– “America is at war with radical Islamists. … Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

– “The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”

– “Today the Court warps our Constitution.”

– “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”


Please remember that John McCain thinks the world of this man and wants to pack our Supreme Court with many more like him. Look upon that vision of the future and consider what our country would be like, but I’d suggest you acquire yourself a bucket first. And lock up any sharp objects that might be used to put your own eyes out.

But what about it? Aren’t these guys at Gitmo the worst of the worst? I mean, we’re talking pure-D, explosive-vest wearing, “Death to America!” screaming, rabid fanatics with all kinds of super-dooper al Qaeda terrorist camp training here, right? Right?

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and,
according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees, more than a dozen local officials — primarily in Afghanistan — and U.S. officials with intimate knowledge of the detention program. The investigation also reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records.

This unprecedented compilation shows that most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals. At least seven had been working for the U.S.-backed Afghan government and had no ties to militants, according to Afghan local officials. In effect, many of the detainees posed no danger to the United States or its allies.


Heh heh heh whoops.

And here we have one of the premier reasons our right wing ravers don’t want these poor, abused buggers to ever see the light of day: along with the fact that their precious house of cards will collapse like a burning straw man, there’s the innate fear of the bully that the people he bullied might just break his nose if he ever lets go of ’em. Do you know how galling it will be for these warmongers to have to apologize to the people whose lives they’ve completely fucked over? I think that, more than the fear that some of these once-witless and now-radicalized prisoners might exit their military prison cells and head straight for an al Qaeda training facility, the right wing is terrified that they’ll have to actually say “I’m sorry” to some Muslims.

The fragile yet outsized neocon male ego wasn’t built to handle such horrific abuse. Expect a lot more hue, cry and hyperbole from these fucktards. It’s all they’ve got left.

Ginormous tip o’ the shot glass to Think Progress and Digby’s Hullaballoo, which both kept me simultaneously entertained and horrified for hours. They need the drink.

Hangover Discurso

300

jacob5 Comments

NP pointed out this evening that I’ve reached post 300. I’ve been so busy it almost escaped my notice. That would have been tragic, because I would’ve missed my chance to pay tribute to one of the best graphic novels and best films of all time.

I wouldn’t have had an excuse to paste enormous pictures of nearly naked men with dead-sexy abs all over my blog.

But that’s just a gimmick. Obvious. Of course I’d post something about 300 on my 300th post. Stands to reason, dunnit?

But I can’t rest an entire post on geeky hormone-driven paens to comic books and comic book films, no matter how good. This blog isn’t about that. It’s about politics, religion, science, and stuff. And don’t forget the stuff. What to do, what to do…

Paul from Cafe Philos comes to the rescue with a post that incorporates a little bit o’ everything. He caught a politial gaffe I missed! It has politics (McCain), religion (beer), science (beer), and stuff (beer controversy!).

Seriously. It’s even on CNN:

John McCain issued a promise Tuesday that may cause a bit of unrest with a broad swath of voters:

He’ll veto every single beer?
In a slip of the tongue while railing against excessive earmarks at the National Small Business Summit in Washington, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee inadvertently pledged to veto the popular alcoholic beverage.

We can’t let this one pass, my darlings. If George W. Bush was voted into office on the stength of being the kind of guy you could picture yourself having a beer with, what do you think it’ll do for McCain’s chances if blue-collar voters find out that the man’s not only an addlepated fuckwit, but a sworn enemy of beer? This could be our moment. This could decide the very future of America. We must spread the word:

“McCain vows to veto beer!”

It doesn’t matter if he simply misspoke. The Republicons beat Dems bloody with their every slip o’ the tongue – we shall pay them the same courtesy. Every beer-drinking Average Joe, every homebrewer, every frat boy and down-to-earth girl, needs to hear what their choices are in this election: beer-hating old coot, or beer-loving American. We shall spread the truthiness of this gaffe from sea to shining sea.

Paul has created a graphic we can use to create signs, shirts, steins, and buttons:

No. He will not. He shall not. He is the clear choice for this November. Remember what those 300 brave Spartans would have given their lives for:

Honor the 300. Fight against this beer-vetoing madman! Elect Obama, and let the beer flow like amber waves of grain!

300

Justice Scalia is Batshit Insane

jacob3 Comments

The single best reason to vote for Barack Obama this November is that he won’t be looking to populate the Supreme Court with Antonin Scalia clones.

McCain, on the other hand, would like nothing better.

Now, 28% of Americans are probably delusional enough to think more Scalias on the Supreme Court would be just nifty. They’re too far gone to convince otherwise. But for anyone sitting on the fence, torn between the pastures of progress Obama represents and the wasteland of Bush-era bullshit McCain represents, I hope the idea of more Scalias infesting the Supreme Court is enough to send you screaming for the Democratic ticket this fall.

Allow me to take you on a romp through the twisted pathways of the “mind” of Scalia.

This post started as a simple concept. “You know, I haven’t mined FindLaw lately,” I said to myself. “Might as well have a gander and see what legal lunacy I can amuse folks with.” And lo! there was material: a column entitled “Does the Constitution Permit Government to Favor Religion over Nonreligion? Justice Scalia Says Yes” by Michael C. Dorf.

Scalia always has the most interesting interpretations of what the Constitution allows. This one is just more batshit insane than most:

Speaking over the past weekend at the annual dinner of an Orthodox Jewish group, Agudath Israel of America, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia claimed that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment should not be construed to forbid government from favoring “religion over nonreligion.” Justice Scalia has made this point before, both on and off the bench, and he may be correct when he says, as he did before Agudath Israel, that such a prohibition “does not . . . represent the American tradition,” but only if one excludes from that tradition the last forty years of Supreme Court jurisprudence.

The proposition that government may not favor religion over nonreligion does, however, represent the current doctrine of the Supreme Court, albeit with a few exceptions. And of course, Justice Scalia acknowledges as much. He offers his view as a challenge to the modern case law—not a characterization of it.


That Antonin – always swimming against the stream of progress, determined to not only return this country to the bad old days when rights weren’t so solidly held by blacks, minorities, and other assorted undesirables, but bump us right back to the Middle Ages. Apparently, he thinks we missed out on some good times.

He has an interesting way of reading the Constitution, considering he bills himself as a “textualist.” Mr. Dorf couldn’t find anything in the text of the Constitution that would support a textualist interpretation that government can favor religion.

At the very least, we should demand strong evidence in the Constitution’s text before accepting the notion that the Establishment Clause only forbids government favoritism of any particular religious sect, but permits government favoritism of monotheism in general. In fact, the text strongly suggests nearly the exact opposite.

The Establishment Clause itself forbids any “law respecting an establishment of religion,” but does not say exactly what counts as an establishment, or as a law respecting one. Still, there is no basis in the text for distinguishing between monotheistic and other religions. The prohibition—whatever its precise scope—applies to “religion” in general.

Two other provisions of the Constitution are especially instructive. The last clause of Article VI provides that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” The text does not say that “any monotheist may hold Office” or any such thing, even though the Founding generation was aware of non-monotheistic religions in Asia, not to mention among those native Americans and enslaved Africans who had not been converted to Christianity. To be sure, few if any of the late Eighteenth Century political elite would have imagined that persons of Asian, African, or indigenous descent would hold office, regardless of religion, but the language is striking nonetheless. Even professed atheists and agnostics—also known to the Framers—are eligible for public office, under the plain language of the Religious Tests Clause.

Perhaps even more telling is the language of the Presidential oath set out at the end of Article II, Section 1. It gives the President the option to “swear (or affirm)” his or her intentions to carry out the duties of office. To “affirm” a proposition is the secular equivalent of swearing, and the fact that the document provides this option is a strong clue that the Constitution puts religion and non-religion on an equal footing.


But the fact that the Constitution basically states the precise opposite of Scalia’s belief doesn’t even make the stupid fucker bat an eyelash. He’s apparently reading the thing through neocon-colored glasses. We all know what those do to one’s reading comprehension skills.

Scalia has a history of making batshit-fucking insane, outrageous and generally noxious rulings and remarks. Just for fun, I took a trot through the Carpetbagger archives. I’m going to have to sum up, because ‘splaining would take waaaay too damned long. If anyone ever writes a book on the Madness of Justice Scalia, it’s going to run to ten volumes. In short form.

  • He thinks people who’re still upset with the nauseating Supreme Court decision that handed Bush the presidency back in 2000 should “get over it.” Well, fuck you, too, Antonin.
  • He likes to attend Red Mass, wherein batshit insane Catholic priests try to impose their political preferences on sitting Supreme Court justices. In Scalia’s case, they’re preaching to the choir.
  • He’s spat upon worker’s rights by deciding that employees who are victims of wage discrimination have only “180 days to challenge the initial discrimination in court” – meaning that if you found out only yesterday that your boss has been underpaying you for the past year, you’re shit out of luck. That’s Antonin, showing his love.
  • Jack Bauer is his role model and inspiration. I’m not shitting you. And he’s not afraid to embarrass the crap out of America by proclaiming this in front of senior judges from Europe and North America. As Carpetbagger observed, “Remember, in some legal circles, Scalia is considered one of the giants in conservative intellectual thought.”
  • He’s all for limiting abortion rights. He voted to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, which is just one among a long list of erosions to Roe vs. Wade. Red Mass must have been screaming with joy.
  • He dissented from the majority opinion that said the Clean Air Act gives the EPA authority to regulate emissions from cars. Apparently, he likes dirty air just as much as he likes torture, unwillingly pregnant women, and racial segregation.
  • He again dissented from the majority opinion in Hamden, because in his world, a “textualist” reading of the Constitution returns the result that the President should get everything his little heart desires, including the ability to make up his own kangaroo courts for “enemy combatants” and decide when the Geneva Conventions can be used like so much Charmin.
  • And speaking of Charmin, Scalia’s ensured that protections for whistleblowers don’t even achieve the strength of your cheapest off-brand two-ply. Apparently, it’s wrong for people to tattle on the government, corporations, or any other large enterprise that would of course never, ever, trample the rights and dignity of human beings into a bloody pulp underfoot, and then piss upon the remains. Who needs protection?

  • And then there’s this gem, which just has to be read to be believed.

      • I could have gone on. And on and on and on and on. But I stopped with a two-year period, because I think you’ve got enough evidence to base an opinion on by now. The pattern’s exquisitely clear: if a Supreme Court decision upheld the Constitution and protected the rights of ordinary people, Scalia could be counted on to be in the dissent. If a decision shat all over rights and freedoms and then used the Constitution to wipe up, Scalia could be found scrubbing his ass happily in the majority. He’s a noxious son-of-a-bitch. And did I mention he’s batshit insane?

      And did I mention McCain’s big dream is to appoint more justices exactly like him?

      Our stalwart progressive justices are getting too aged to make it through another four years. We can’t afford to elect a doddering old corporate leg-humper who’s going to ensure that our Supreme Court ends up solidly neo-theo-con. If you want to end up living under an American fundamentalist theocracy, fine, pull McCain’s lever. If not, I don’t care what you think of Obama: he’s still the only reasonable alternative.

      Just remember that the Justices who end up on the bench in the next four years will be there for bloody decades. America can’t survive a rabid bunch of Scalia clones for anywhere near that length of time.

      Justice Scalia is Batshit Insane

      Let's Invite Congress to Throw an Impeachment Party

      jacob3 Comments

      Found this in my inbox this evening. How can I resist?

      Last night, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush. Many of the articles — which are listed at the bottom of this E-mail — echoed calls and allegations we have been making since the launch of the American Freedom Campaign last July.

      The next step is for the House to refer the articles to the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee will then determine — by majority vote — whether the grounds for impeachment exist. An objective review of the articles would undoubtedly demonstrate that many, if not most, of the articles prepared by Rep. Kucinich are backed up by sufficient grounds to proceed with the impeachment process.

      Now is the time to let your U.S. representative know that you strongly support impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee and further proceedings on the House Floor.

      Please take a moment to let your U.S. representative know that you support the impeachment of George W. Bush by clicking on the following link:

      http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24900

      [snip]

      The founders of our country feared more than anything else the prospect of an executive who put his own power and desires above the Constitution. Congress was given the power of impeachment so that it could remove any president who committed the high crime of violating the Constitution during his (or her) term in office.

      A strong case can be made that no president in the history of this country is more deserving of impeachment than George W. Bush. If he is not impeached, the bar for impeachment will have been raised so high that it might as well no longer exist. Future presidents will know that they can violate the Constitution at will, confident in the fact that Congress does not have the courage as an institution to do anything about it.

      We cannot allow this to happen. Please send an E-mail to your representative today urging immediate action on the impeachment of George W. Bush.


      Look, if Congress can impeach a President over a blow job, surely they can impeach a President whose fuckery can generate 35 articles of impeachment. Thirty-five. Send your Congresscritter an email and let them know this shit’s got to stop, won’t you?

      Here’s incentive:

      Article I
      Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

      Article II
      Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

      Article III
      Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

      Article IV
      Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

      Article V
      Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

      Article VI
      Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

      Article VII
      Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

      Article VIII
      Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

      Article IX
      Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

      Article X
      Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

      Article XI
      Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

      Article XII
      Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources

      Article XIIII
      Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

      Article XIV
      Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

      Article XV
      Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

      Article XVI
      Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

      Article XVII
      Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

      Article XVIII
      Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

      Article XIX
      Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

      Article XX
      Imprisoning Children

      Article XXI
      Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

      Article XXII
      Creating Secret Laws

      Article XXIII
      Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

      Article XXIV
      Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

      Article XXV
      Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

      Article XXVI
      Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

      Article XXVII
      Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

      Article XXVIII
      Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

      Article XXIX
      Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

      Article XXX
      Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

      Article XXXI
      Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

      Article XXXII
      Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

      Article XXXIII
      Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

      Article XXXIV
      Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

      Article XXXV
      Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

      Stark, isn’t it? Reminds one of just how appalling this administration is. It’s long past time we impeach this rotten son of a bitch.

      Let's Invite Congress to Throw an Impeachment Party

      "Stand Ready for the Next Battle: Peace Means Reloading Your Guns"

      jacob10 Comments

      If this hadn’t been posted at Salon, I’d think it was some nefarious right-wing scheme meant to lure us into letting our guard down:

      Relax, liberals. You’ve already won

      No matter who prevails at the ballot box in November, John McCain or Barack Obama, the four-decade-long conservative counterrevolution is over.

      By Michael Lind
      I have two words for Michael Lind: Bull fucking shit.

      His article gives us a long list of reasons why we should hold the V-Day celebrations, but I’m not buying it. Sure, we’ve beaten back a lot of neocon assaults: they haven’t been able to overturn Roe vs. Wade, Medicare and Social Security are still public services rather than private programs ripe for exploitation, and science standards still require science rather than religion be taught in public schools. I’ll grant you, we’ve had victories. But the war’s far from over, and we’re still fighting a bitter, bloody battle againt the right-wing fucktard machine, despite supposed surrenders on their side:

      While it serves the purposes of single-issue groups on the left to claim that the threat of the socially conservative right is growing, the leaders of the right themselves know better. In the 1990s, Jerry Falwell shut down the Moral Majority and Pat Robertson dissolved the Christian Coalition, whose membership numbers turned out to have been grossly inflated.

      In 1999, Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, wrote in a public letter to his fellow social conservatives: “I believe that we probably have lost the culture war … [I]n terms of society, we have lost. This is why, even when we win in politics, our victories fail to translate into the kinds of policies we believe are important.” According to Weyrich, conservatives should admit that they are a moral minority in America and form their own counterculture, like “a band of hardy monks who preserved the culture while the surrounding society disintegrated.” If Weyrich is right, instead of taking back America, traditionalists should ask only for their own reservation, like the Amish or the Navajos. What started as a counterrevolution has ended as a counterculture.


      What the fuck ever, Pollyanna. I’ll believe it when I see the last of their warriors leave the field. I ain’t seen a retreat yet – what I’m seeing is retrenchments.

      Want to know why my glass is half-empty here? Let’s have a quick survey, just off the top of my head:

      • McCain and Obama are polling nearly neck-and-neck in a year when the Dems should be obliterating the Rethugs.
      • “Academic Freedom” bills meant to sneak creationism into schools are sprouting up like venereal diseases in a fourth-rate whorehouse.
      • Republicon thugs have a stranglehold on the Senate, despite being a discredited minority party.
      • Bush has eviscerated the Constitution, and none of its steaming guts have yet been shoveled back into its torn belly.
      • The Supreme Court is tacking severely conservative, and the last of our liberal judges are – well, let’s just say that if God existed, they’d be picking a suit to meet Him in.
      • Neocons and theocons are still screaming “CULTURE WAR!” at the top of their lungs, and they still get heard by our supposedly “liberal” MSM.

      That’ll do for now. Look back through the list of Happy Hour Discurso posts if you need further reinforcement of the idea that if we declare premature victory, we progressives are going to wonder just where the fuck our victory went come this time next year.

      There might be pissing and moaning and groans of “We’ve lost!” from the batshit insane bunch that hijacked the right, but remember, these are the same assclowns who cry “Persecution!” when they’re a fucking majority.

      And I’m not impressed by the long list of liberal victories Michael “I Want to Believe” Lind pads his post with. All of those victories are still under assault by neocons – they’re relentless buggers, and they’ll leap to exploit any weakness. If we stop fighting, even for a second, they’ll go for the throat. It’s just how they are.

      Even Lind admits that:

      The defeat of the conservative counterrevolution should not inspire complacency among liberals and centrists. By rejecting the radical right, the American electorate has not endorsed bold new initiatives. The public has merely signaled its support of the older New Deal/Great Society/Civil Rights liberalism that the right sought to uproot.

      Nor does the defeat of the counterrevolutionary right mean that conservatives may not win victories on some issues, from immigration restriction to the rollback by means of state initiatives and federal court decisions of race-based affirmative action. An increasingly conservative federal judiciary, appointed by a Republican president, might shift public policy toward conservative ideas of deregulation and approve of some state limitations on abortion.


      That list doesn’t give you pause, Michael? It bloody well should. Declaring victory over a wasteland of shredded civil liberties sounds like the dumbest fucking thing we could ever do.

      Wars are lost unnecessarily when the seemingly victorious army quits the field before the enemy’s truly defeated. Culture wars are no different. We won’t win this thing if we rest on our laurels now. We’ve got the neocon thugs on the run and bleeding from every orifice: now’s the time to run them down and deliver the coup de grace, not start slapping each other on the back and beating our swords into plowshares. We relent, they rise.

      This country has been too damaged by too many years of neocon fuckery to leave her defenseless now. So you’ll excuse me, Mr. Lind, if I don’t “relax.” I’m taking my cue from Dimmu Borgir instead. I’m standing ready for the next battle, because peace sometimes does mean reloading your guns.

      "Stand Ready for the Next Battle: Peace Means Reloading Your Guns"

      If You Believe the Rapture's Coming, Stay the Fuck Home this November

      jacob3 Comments

      I had a woman tell me, in all seriousness, that her cell phone bill being fucked up is a sign of the End Times. I shit you not.

      If our calls weren’t monitored for quality assurance, I would have said, “Thank you for sharing your batshit insane view of the world, ma’am. Do not under any circumstances vote this November. Now get the fuck off my line.” Since our calls are monitored and I can’t pay the bills with my writing just yet, I simply grunted. She seemed to get the message, as she got the fuck off my line. No word yet on whether she’ll vote.

      There are a lot of stupid things humans believe that drive me up the wall and across the ceiling, but this “Everything’s a sign it’s the end of days!” bullshit really gets up my nose. It’s been the end of days for two thousand fucking years now, people. God’s procrastinating, probably because he doesn’t want to deal with you silly fuckers. Get the fuck over yourselves.

      It’s just general human stupidity when ordinary dumbasses believe the Rapture’s scheduled for next week, but when that attitude infests our politics, it’s time for a serious reassessment of these fucker’s suitability to make decisions about government. Like Ames said:

      Politics and basic human responsibility mandate that we take care of our own problems ourselves. If God chooses to make our task easier by magically appearing and curing those remaining ills, so much the better, but we cannot count on God to handle our problems for us. Thomas Jefferson once famously said that the World ought to belong to the living: increasingly, too, I believe that the World ought to belong exclusively to those who embrace their role as being among the living, rather than those who seem to deride their presence on Earth as a minor layover, to be treated as such.


      We’ve got ridiculous fucks agitating for nuclear war in the Middle East because they’re so horny for the Rapture. John McCain’s provisionally former bestest buddy John Hagee is a spectacular example of the doomsday thinking infesting our political discourse:

      Pastor John Hagee gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: “The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad.”

      Worse, Hagee wants to jump start what he sees as the inevitable battle between Israel and the US and an alliance of the Islamic states and Russia: “The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military
      strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West.” Hagee’s bizarre interpretation of the Bible sees war with Iran as a “biblically prophesized End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming.”

      [snip]

      John Hagee’s end time theology transmogrifies Christianity into little more than a death cult in which the State of Israel is worshipped like a latter day Golden Calf. Despite his weird views, Hagee has access to senior politicians in the US and Israel; he likes to brag that he has met every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin.

      President Bush praised Hagee’s CUFI for “spreading the hope of God’s love and the universal gift of freedom.” How to square “spreading . . . God’s love” and the “gift of freedom” with bombing the Iranians is hard to fathom, but, in any event, evangelicals like Hagee have been among President Bush’s strongest supporters and the president is not about to abandon them now.


      Does this shit terrify you? It terrifies me. The finger posed over the big red nuclear button shouldn’t be quivering in anticipation over bringing on the Rapture.

      We don’t need freaks like this in office, and we don’t need freaks like this voting batshit insane fuckers into office. There has to be a way to convince these fools that Jesus wants them to refrain from voting. Suggestions?

      If You Believe the Rapture's Coming, Stay the Fuck Home this November