Category Archives: Rants & Raves

Little Green Footballs – Welcome to the Reality the Rest of Us Have Been Living In

Charles Johnson, over at Little Green Footballs, has decided to call out and step away from the right wing racist hate mob currently running the GOP.

This doesn’t mean he’s gone liberal or that I’d agree with the guy on much of anything. But he and Andrew Sullivan, who left the conservatives when they went into ultra gay bashing mode but just realized it himself are onto something.

I don’t mind a cautious voice in our politics. I don’t mind a trend towards fiscal discipline. I don’t even mind an overly protective voice. It moderates those who want to run full force into the future.

That said, those elements describe Bill Clinton more than any Republican candidate or actual president in recent decades. Republicans, unfairly or not, are those tied to restricting rights to, well, you name it: women, minorities, gays, Muslims. And so on.

Republicans sold all our jobs overseas and let corporations off the hook for paying ANY taxes, putting the burden on the rest of us.

Republicans make boogeymen for us to hate and fear; from Murphy Brown to gays to Muslims to “Socialist Kenyans”. Never taking the blame for any failure (9/11, Katrina, Afghanistan (both times), Enron/WorldCom, the Bush Recession, and you name it really).

My father-in-law is a Republican and I can’t fathom how much shit he has to ignore about his party just to get through the day. He’s not into torturing people. He’s not a racist, well, not anymore than one can be living on a golf course north of Houston. You know, not consciously. He can’t possibly allow the hypocrisy of arguing against a trillion dollars in health care while being cool with a three trillion dollar war in Iraq.

At least I’d like to think so.

So, it is with him in mind that I read Johnson’s manifesto and check out his attacks on the GOP’s malfeasance in bowing at the feet and crotch of Rush Limbaugh for inspiration.

Or about how he asks how evangelicals can possibly be fine with executing gays in Uganda because it was a Religious Right plan that put this in motion.

Or even how the Right can be fine with vile, racist attacks on the President such as this:

Once again, I’m glad he and others are waking up to the freakish pack of bastards they have made common cause with. I sincerely hope they can either kick the cretins out of their party or make something new and, if not something I can agree with, at least be something the rest of the country can tolerate and hopefully respect the opinions of.

If not, he’s just singled himself out as a “traitor” to the mob rule that currently festers and controls his party. Best of luck to him.

Soldier mom refuses deployment to care for baby – Yahoo! News

Here’s something that would make the family values idiots’ heads explode. A single mom (strike one) can’t deploy to Afghanistan (strike two) because there is no one to take care of her baby. Oh what to do? Granted, if she refused to serve because of a “bad back” or “I just didn’t want to learn to fly that plane” she’d be a conservative hero.

Instead she’s just a mom in a bad place and looking at jail time or putting her kid in court-ordered foster care so she can get shot at in the Kandahar ‘burbs.

I’m not saying I can’t see the army’s point of view, but damn, come on people!

YouTube – Frank Schaeffer warns against fundamentalist christians wanting to harm President Obama

The Republicans want Obama to die. Violently apparently.

Their latest attempt at violent sedition is the Psalm 109:8 bumper sticker.

Psalm 109:8 goes like this:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

And then there’s the following verse:

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Yep, sure sounds like they are begging for an assassin from their ranks.

Frank Schaeffer calls out the treasonous bastards:


“Most Americans will just see the bumper-sticker and smile and think that it’s facetious…

What surprises me is that responsible (if you can put it that way) Republican leadership, and the editors of some of these Christian magazines, etc., etc., do not stand up in holy horror and denounce this.

You know, they’re always asking: where is the Islamic leadership denouncing terrorism?”

And this is a beautiful wrap-up of the whole evil concept:

Trusting, faithful Christians are, it seems, being led astray by those with clearly political, anti-American agendas cloaked in carefully selected bible verses while waving American flags. Those who seek to create chaos and violence are neither Christian nor patriotic. They prey upon our most trusting, by manipulating scriptures for their own aggrandizement while accusing their counterparts overseas for engaging in the same selfish, godless goals.

Obama’s foreign policy report card – Salon.com

Subtitled: “You’d never know it from the MSM, but he deserves high grades for his work so far in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan”

Read this and feel better about having an adult in charge of this country. There are WAY too many Rethug talking heads screaming that the President isn’t running headlong into throwing soldiers into harm’s way on just a gut feeling.

I normally don’t wish too much ill on even cretins, but I hope any kids those Republicans have in service get a mild case of bullet in the leg for all their gung-ho idiot bullshit.

Oh wait, Republicans don’t serve in the military, they just pretend to do it and cheer from the sidelines. I don’t mind Obama actually thinking through a problem that may require American soldiers to die. And I don’t mind him finding ways to not resolve every problem with conflict.

Mixed Race Americans Picture A ‘Blended Nation’ : NPR

Republicans don’t want you to think about it, but increasingly America is not only a nation full of different racial groups, but they blend together. Yeah, I know, race mixing! Call out the National Guard or the Klan or something.

Given that *I* am a mix, and so is my son, it is nice to see some positive attention given the concept outside of GOP fear mailers. Here is a story about a book coming out called Blended Nation. It might be worth a glance.

I know we are supposed to be “beyond race” or some such crap, but what you are sometimes determines who you are. It certainly matters in some of the more racist and redneck parts of America. I just don’t see why I should put it under a bushel or something. I am who I am and I refuse to not be proud for ALL the things that make me an individual.

Men, we are officially obsolete

This morning I heard that I’d better improve on my taking the trash out routine if I want to stay useful at home.

According to a new bit o’research, scientists can now make sperm and eggs from stem cells. Yes, that’s right, men are no longer needed for reproduction.

Granted, this will be cool for some gay couples who can now genuinely have children that have the genes of both parents. Hopefully that should be enough to silence the anti-gay marriage bigots, but I doubt anything less than a tac nuke on their hate-filled homes would accomplish that.

That said, as far as the male part of the species is concerned, we’ve got some reason for worry.

Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go!: Defending Fox News and Punching Hippies

Reposting in it’s entirety because I’m too flabbergasted at the stupidity of people to come up with anything coherent.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the establishment press is so anxious to defend Fox News Channel, considering how Fox News Channel is dedicated to bludgeoning them as being “liberal” and “in the tank” for the president. After all, they didn’t go after the Bushies when New York Times reporters were kicked off Air Force One or when Helen Thomas was booted to the back of the press room. Why defend Fox News Channel?

The best conclusion I can reach is that by defending Fox News Channel, they’re attempting to further dispel the false perception of a liberal bias. It’s the same reason they self-consciously overcompensate on other aspects of the news — lopsided panels, repeating wingnut conspiracy theories and so forth.

So they’re willing to defend a network that hates them for the sake of seeming not liberal. In other words, they’ll defend wingnut conservatism in order to distance themselves from liberalism.

And people still think there’s a liberal bias?