No Time for Trivia

They smell as sweet as your tears taste…

Republicans Send Franken $95K After Senate Case

In the last chapter of a stinging loss to now-Sen. Al Franken, Minnesota’s Republican Party has sent the Democrat almost $96,000 to cover lawsuit costs.

Republican Party spokesman Mark Drake said a check was sent via courier Monday to Franken’s campaign committee. It arrived Tuesday, the same day Franken took his oath for a seat held open during an eight-month recount and court fight.

Minnesota law required Republican Norm Coleman to reimburse Franken for some costs because the election lawsuit didn’t change the outcome. The judgment excluded Franken’s attorney fees.

I hope he spends someof it on a gay, atheist, socialist, muslim hooker.

Heh-heh.

Sadly, the Virgin Mary is trapped in a tree stump in Northern Ireland.  Actually in county Limerick.  The BBC:

Virgin Mary ‘Appears In Tree Stump’

A tree stump which some believe shows an image of the Virgin Mary has attracted thousands of people to a rural churchyard in County Limerick.

Workmen came across the stump at the Holy Mary Parish Church in Rathkeale while cutting down trees on Monday.

“One of the lads said look, our Blessed Lady in the tree,” said Noel White, chairman of the Rathkeale Community Council Graveyard Committee.

“One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock.

“It was the perfect shape of the figure of Our Lady holding the baby.”

As news of the tree stump has spread, people from across Ireland have travelled to the churchyard.

Christians are synonymous with retarded.  And now I will try to honor the discovery in County Limerick with…a limerick:

In Ireland they found a tree stump

That looked like the gal God gave a hump

If you squint and twist your head

You’d swear you too would  take her to bed

If only you could find her damned rump….

You know, the clan was based on Judeo-Christian principles.  This fellow probably longs for the day when high fashion was simple, white and pointed:

GOP Rep. Steve King Is Only Vote Against Recognizing Hisotry Of Slave Labor In Capitol

Here’s an interesting example of those famous lone “No” votes in Congress — the contrarian who is willing to stand up alone against the overwhelming majority of his or her colleagues, and vote against something that was passing easily.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 399-1 for the Capitol Visitors Center to have a plaque acknowledging the role of slave labor in the construction of the Capitol. The resolution has information in it that even this history fanatic didn’t know about — for example, slave labor was involved in constructing the “Statue of Freedom” atop the Capitol Dome.

The “Yes” votes spanned the ideological spectrum, from Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann on the right to Maxine Waters and Dennis Kucinich on the left. The one vote against: Rep. Steve King (R-IA).

King’s office has not yet commented on his reason for the vote.

Late Update: King has now released a statement, explaining that the vote was about protecting America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.

Jesus made him do it.  Of course he made the Klan lynch blacks, too.  Judeo-Christian heritage allowed for genocide and slavery.  I think that should be remembered along with his nostalgia for that particular heritage.

The GOP.  Never a sane moment.

If only these people had been as interested in seeing GW Bush’s records when he was AWOL during wartime.  But no, this is a threat to democracy and the American Way of Life ™ and cannot be tolerated.  The wingnut rag World Nuts Net Daily:

2 More Sign On To Demand Birth Certificates

House Support for Eligibility Procedure  Growing

Two more members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of a proposal to require presidential candidates to document their eligibility for the office under the U.S. Constitution, which requires Oval Office occupants to be among other things, a “natural born citizen” of the United States.

The bill’s provisions are simple:

“To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee’s statement of organization a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate, together with such other documentation

as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution.” It also provides:
 

 The sponsors’ goal is to have the bill become effective for the 2012 presidential election, and it now is pending in a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Congress finds that under section 1 of article II of the Constitution of the United States, in order to be eligible to serve as President, an individual must be a natural born citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 35 years and has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years.”

Ha!  Silly wingnuts.  This still won’t get Palin elected for you, disqualify Obama or make America think you are anything more than batshit crazy.  But I guess it gives you something to do while you are roaming the castle of irrelevancy.

Yes the GOP, banished to the wilderness, is doing everything they can to stay there.  Keep up the work guys. 

The right wing…they are so witty.

Ah Bill, you just don’t get it.  You pretend like you do, but you don’t.  First, purge your stomach and then watch this:

You see, Bill, we are a secular country.  That is how it was set up.  Having the Air Force do a fly over for a Muslim ceremony would drive you more insane than you already are.  Using our tax dollars to promote an Islamic ceremony would send the entire right wing into apoplexy.  If  President Obama gave a talk at a Muslim institution with the Islamic crest in the background it would incite you to call for the death of more abortion providers or something.  Having a national day of prayer is contrary to our constitution.  If you, your fellow pedophile Catholics, and anyone else wants to have a special prayer day…then go ahead and mumble to your invisible friend all you want.  Just don’t expect our President to be required to acknowledge it.

As to global warming, your party ignored it for eight years.  You denied it for eight years.  You subverted efforts to address it for eight years.  Whether China and India are on board now with plans to combat it is irrelevant.  We must start some place to get this problem under control.  If we lead, others will follow. 

As to the Pope and President Obama meeting, well at least one of those two won’t be guilty of protecting child rapists.  Which one would that be, Bill?   Personally I wish that our leaders would quit meeting with these religious personalities altogether.  It gives them credubility that they do not deserve.  Being the leader of a group of believers in myths and invisible sky beings does not mean your opinion matters.  The only thing positive that can come of it is if they can be swayed to guide their sheep in directions that don’t hurt the rest of us.

And finally, how powerful is your God, Bill?  Supposedly he chose GW to be our president, according to vast swathes of the deluded Christians and then he allowed this secular president to come to office.  Maybe that is his plan.  More likely, Bill, he just doesn’t exist.  So bleat away you petulant pissant and stand by while a secular president gets some work done.

Only because she is apparently still a heart throb and presidential hopeful of the GOP do I care.  But I am definitely not surprised.

Key Reason Palin Gave For Quiting May Be False

One of the chief reasons Sarah Palin has given for resigning as Governor of Alaska is that her state’s taxpayers are being forced to spend money defending her government against ethics complaints that would otherwise fund teachers, cops, and road repair.

But in response to our questions, a spokesperson for the Alaska governor’s office just gave us new information that casts serious doubt on this assertion. The revelation makes the resignation episode even stranger, and raises fresh questions about the real reasons for her abrupt departure.

During her resignation speech last week, Palin presented herself as a heroic defender of the taxpayer. She said that money being spent on government lawyers to defend against these “frivolous ethics violations” could be “going to things that are very important, like troopers and roads and teachers and fish research.” Palin repeated exactly the same point this week.

But David Murrow, a spokesperson for the Governor, said in an interview that much of this money was budgeted to the lawyers in advance and would have gone to them anyway, even if state lawyers hadn’t been defending against these ethics complaints.

Palin lies.  Gasp!  Who could have imagined?

But Murrow, the spokesperson, acknowledged to our reporter, Amanda Erickson, that this total was arrived at by adding up attorney hours spent on fending off complaints — based on the fixed salaries of lawyers in the governor’s office and the Department of Law. The money would have gone to the lawyers no matter what they were doing. The complaints are “just distracting them from other duties,” Murrow said.

In other words, while these lawyers might have been free to do other legal work for the state, the ethics complaints have apparently not had the real world impact Palin has claimed, and didn’t drain money away from cops, teachers, roads and other things.

So…one still wonders.  Why did she resign?

Of course, it was an accident that the Temple of Jerusalem was burned down in 70 CE.  A very good account of the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation can be found in Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman.  In fact, it is the best comprehensive look at that period that I have found.  It was the actions of splinter fundamentalist groups that instigated the rebellion against Rome that caused the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and brutal, long term consequences for the Jews afterwards.

We see they have learned…not much since those days.  Of course they are the occupiers now and not the occupied.  Unyielding fundamentalism.  They still have not gotten over it.  ABC reports:

Reporter Feels Mob’s Hate In The Holy City

The ABC’s Middle East correspondent Anne Barker became caught in violent street protests involving ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem at the weekend. This is her graphic account of her ordeal.

….

But I have to admit no protest – indeed no story in my career – has distressed me in the way I was distressed at a protest in Jerusalem on Saturday involving several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews.

This particular protest has been going on for weeks.

Orthodox Jews are angry at the local council’s decision to open a municipal carpark on Saturdays – or Shabbat, the day of rest for Jews.

It’s a day when Jews are not supposed to do anything resembling work, which can include something as simple as flicking a switch, turning on a light or driving.

So even opening a simple carpark to accommodate the increasing number of tourists visiting Jerusalem’s Old City is highly offensive to Orthodox Jews because it’s seen as a desecration of the Shabbat, by encouraging people to drive.

And of course their God who did not appear to know about bacteria, viruses or the true layout of the Universe when they wrote their bronze age texts, certainly did not know about cars.  So how do they know he would not want them to drive them?

But I never expected their anger would be directed at me.

I was mindful I would need to dress conservatively and keep out of harm’s way. But I made my mistake when I parked the car and started walking towards the protest, not fully sure which street was which.

By the time I realised I’d come up the wrong street it was too late.

I suddenly found myself in the thick of the protest – in the midst of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in their long coats and sable-fur hats.

They might be supremely religious, but their behaviour – to me – was far from charitable or benevolent.

As the protest became noisier and the crowd began yelling, I took my recorder and microphone out of my bag to record the sound.

Suddenly the crowd turned on me, screaming in my face. Dozens of angry men began spitting on me.

Perhaps they mistook her for a Palestinian?

I found myself herded against a brick wall as they kept on spitting – on my face, my hair, my clothes, my arms.

It was like rain, coming at me from all directions – hitting my recorder, my bag, my shoes, even my glasses.

Big gobs of spit landed on me like heavy raindrops. I could even smell it as it fell on my face.

Somewhere behind me – I didn’t see him – a man on a stairway either kicked me in the head or knocked something heavy against me.

I wasn’t even sure why the mob was angry with me. Was it because I was a journalist? Or a woman? Because I wasn’t Jewish in an Orthodox area? Was I not dressed conservatively enough?

In fact, I was later told, it was because using a tape-recorder is itself a desecration of the Shabbat even though I’m not Jewish and don’t observe the Sabbath.

It was lucky that I don’t speak Yiddish. At least I was spared the knowledge of whatever filth they were screaming at me.

Haha!  Yaweh has such a sense of humor. 

Israeli police in their flak jackets and helmets, with rifles and shields, were yelling just as loudly back at the protesting crowd.

I found them something of a reassurance against the angry, spitting mob.

I was allowed through, away from the main protest, although there were still Orthodox Jews on the other side, some of whom also yelled at me, in English, to take my recorder away.

Normally I should have stayed on the sidelines to watch the protest develop.

But when you’ve suffered the humiliation and degradation of being spat on so many times – and you’re covered in other people’s spit – it’s not easy to put it to the back of your mind and get on with the job.

I left down a side street and walked the long way back to the car, struggling to hold back the tears.

The “Holy Land.”  Three barbaric superstitions claim it as their sacred site and it isn’t worth the dirt it is built on.  It appears that we have some way to go before the followers of Abraham’s God get a clue.

I have followed and listened to right wing hate speech for over twenty years.  I mentioned the other day about the demise of the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan and how that opened the door for corporate PR to become our daily news.  Another aspect of the demise of the Fairness Doctrine was the rise in right wing “hatriots,”as I call them.  They pose as patriots yet they inspire and promote hate.  They  create a perception of persecution of their listeners by presenting them as victims and use divisive language to drive a wedge along racial, class and ideological lines.

Here is an interesting clip:

Here is the interview with David Neiwert, author of The Eliminationists:

Part Two:

I listen to a variety of conservative radio personalities almost every day.  Beck, Boortz, Limbaugh, Ingraham, and others.  I do it as a form of homework to keep up with what their mindset is as well as the conservative talking points of the day which is an insight into their agenda.  And you can pretty much listen to one and then hear the echo of those talking points reverberate through all of the others throughout the day.  They are all reading, more or less, from GOP talking points given to them on a daily basis. 

It is very challenging to listen to any of those people for more than ten minutes.  The level of inanity, insanity and absurdity layered on top of the pure hatred is staggering.  More staggering is the voices of the callers that respond to them with their  me toos.  The Dittotards.  And they are out there in the millions.  It is no wonder that a percentage of this audience occasionally responds to the daily drumbeat of hateful rhetoric with acts of violence.  There never seems to be accountability for the voices that drive these people to respond to what they are, in essence, being asked to do.  When you preach daily that immigrants, gays, liberals, abortion providers and so forth are evil, the cause of America’s ills and the source of their listeners problems, then you are in fact asking for someone to do something about them.

Free speech.  It has its drawbacks.  But one has to ask if the level of hate spewed by these GOP propagandists goes beyond the parameters of free speech.  There appears to be no effort to keep them in check.  They are just “entertainers” as they say.  Meanwhile, they continue to promote their conspiracy theories that present the usual suspects of liberals, free thinkers, gays, immigrants, blacks, academics, etc. as the enemy.  They have powerful forums and they take full advantage of them.  The right wing owns the am radio spectrum.  Why the left has not been able to counter this tide is an interesting question.  Air America is one good attempt to challenge the daily outrages of right wing hate radio, but their availability is nowhere near comparable to the reach of conservative “talk radio.”

One interesting thing, though.  With all the power to promote hate and pit Americans against each other, from radio, televisions, publications, blogs and so forth, the right lost in 2006 and in 2008.  Unfortunately, this just drives them to further extremes of vitriol and violence inciting rhetoric. 

And they have a willing audience to lap up whatever verbal shit is spoon fed them.