Bush, Hu Produce Summit of Symbols

so, 'splain me this: how is it that a woman speaking her mind to a foreign leader has broken the law in our country? and how, when explaining to a fascist like Hu Jintao the freedoms which define western democracy, are we getting that point across? i mean, Hu watches all this and thinks--"yeah, they toss their uppity protesters in jail too! Totally wicked awesome".

then he reminds bush that he has some of our debt in his attic, and would we like it back? and bush says thanks but no, would you mind keeping it? and hu says, welllllll, if you are really nice to me and stop lecturing me about stuff that you don't even do yourself, and then bush says ok please don't hurt me i'll lay down here and just be quiet.

and the future of democracy looks bright! gotta wear shades!!!!!

Chaubise

Nepalese dissident blog. the world is an amazing place, n'est-ce pas?

Independent Online Edition > Asia

it goes without saying, but let it be said anyway--the Nepalese deserve Democracy and freedom as much as anyone else. i hope they can overcome an instransigent king who likes to use religion and violence to support his rule and come out on the other side with few martyrs and many heroes.

Blog my wife. Please!

controversy doesn't rage so much as bubble around the net.

Blogcritics.org: Exhibit Review: Jill Greenberg's Politically Charged End Times
Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Jill Greenberg is a Sick Woman Who Should Be Arrested and Charged With Child Abuse
Jill Greenberg
Daddy Types, the weblog for new dads: Jill Greenberg: "End Times" Indeed
American Photo: Podcast Interview With Jill Greenberg

all in reference to this show at this gallery. please join us on saturday if you are in the LA area for the opening.

Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?

let me join the giant chorus linking to the above, a very nice piece by sean wilentz positing...well, you can probably guess.

that's right. chester a. arthur, worst president ever.

this story should make your head explode, unless you hate everything good about our country. secret trials and testimony, no habeaus corpus, people held in jail after they have been found innocent of the non-charges against them--it has it all, and so much more than even King George the Third could have thought of in his wildest dreams.

but it's here, and now. it makes me ashamed to be an american, more than almost anything else about the past 5 years.

precis version:

the uighurs, ironically, are favorites of conservatives and neo-cons alike, as they fight the chinese gov't in NW china. their cause has been taken up by right-wing republican lawyers, real top people as well.

their plight is so much more awful then can be believed--they have been declared something twice. first they were declared "enemy combatents" then, rather pathetically, "non-anti americans". of course, neither judgment was based on real law in a real courtroom, just kangaroo bullshit. but one thing is clear--they are utterly totally completely innocent of any fucking charges against them. all of them. they are innocent. and they rot in jail. think about that for a minute then weep for our fucking country.


that's my comment at digby's house.

posted over at sadly! no in response to LGF post response.

just want to point out--in general, that whole LGF list is pretty non-controversial, right?

1. Stop stoning women to death

i agree, one hundred percent. it's a western liberal value that is being promulgated here. fuck any religion that would deny women basic rights.

2. Stop forcibly removing women's genitilia.

right on. women's rights are fundamental to our core beliefs--especially as liberals.

3. Stop forcing women to wear black trash can liners.

well, complicated, because lots of women in the islamic world actually will defend their "subjagation" and their removal of sex from the public square. i think it's fucked up, myself, and agree with this as well, as does any pro-western non-asshole, but it is a tad complicated.

4. Stop blowing up buildings, subways, and such.

yes, it is true, many of these acts have been commited around the world lately by islamisists of various stripes. their level of aposotasy in so doing is beyond my knowledge, but in general, that seems like a good idea, however righteous they may feel their cause is. killing civilians is teh l4m3.

5. Stop attacking Israel.

here things get interesting. i think it is safe to say people who call for the genocide of other people based on their religious persuasion are assholes and all right thinking people should hate them right back for it. but protesting israel's various land grabs, inhumane treatment of palestinians etc.--that's a tougher call. i'm split on this myself, though again, if you are saying israelis should die for existing, you are a shitbag.

6. Stop killing Jews in France.

sure. we agree with that as well. is a bad thing.

7. Stop suing anyone who says things you don't want to hear.

here we start to go off the rails a bit. ever been to the UK? they sue each other over saying things every day. i don't see what this has to do with islam.

8. Stop throwing juvenile hissyfits over silly cartoons.

i agree wholeheartedly with this. if your religion is so fucking weak and pathetic it can't take a bit of ribbing, may i suggest secular humanism as an alternative? i mean, seriously, can anyone disagree here at S!N that parody is a good thing and that the world needs more, not less, of it?

9. Stop trying to kill apostates.

it does in fact say that this is what one is supposed to do with apostates in the quran. verbatim. kind of fucked up for a "holy book".

10. And generally stop being a bunck of jerk-offs.

But then again, if they did that, they wouldn't be muslims, now would they?

now this stuff strikes me as racist, or religionist, or whatever. but here's the crux of the thing. religion does in fact suck. my religion--judaism--sucks ass. lame with the women, bad with the lessons taught, violent and vindictive, pro-slavery and incest etc.. christianity suuu uuu uu cccks. the last 2000 years of history, sanguinary as they are, will attest to that. and yes, it is true, islam suuu huuu hhuuuuuu ccccks. it does. i know the quran has a lot of beautiful stuff in it (as does the new testament) about helping the poor, the golden rule and so on. but the bad stuff in the quran is so fricking bad it is astounding, and i don't believe anyone who is a s!n reader would disagree with that analysis. really, you think the whole "kill or convert the infidel" thing is cool? you're down with women being treated like fucking dirt?

so, cognitive dissonance--i think most people here agree with 90% of what the LGF poster says, if you look at it objectively. we've just all been taught to kiss the ass of everyone else's religion--me, i'm not willing to do that. religion is the worst thing on our earth right now, and islam shouldn't get a free pass, even if it means agreeing with horrible LGFers.

just to clarify, i agree with the angle that the person who wrote the above doesn't realize how much he or she has not noticed all sorts of things about the world--while many islamic terrorists blow up subways, many american bombs fall on wedding parties, for instance. but that's not the point i'm trying to make--of course you should expect shallow analysis from LGF. you should just point out areas of agreement as well, whomever (and however invidious) the messenger may be.

the spectator (UK) and its insanely racist cover image.

maybe i'm being overly sensitive here. The Spectator is England's leading right wing magazine. they are huge fans of Condi Rice, i'm sure. but what the hell were they thinking putting out the cover of her that they did? i'ts a little hard to see on their site, but i'm in the UK and just saw the cover at a magazine stand. it manages to pack a real racist punch, with oversized lips etc. really disgusting.

of course, i want to make clear that i continue to loath sec. rice's works. i think she was a shamefully negligent NSA chief and will have to answer for that in posterity, o rmaybe when she actually runs for president. but that is purely on politics, and her race has absolutely nothing to do with it. this sort of thing is really beyond the pale. coming as it does from a reputable right-wing source makes it even more reprehensible. the editor of the spectator should be forced to resign.

it makes me sick the more i look at it.

if people can't see it, i suppose i can host the jpeg here but i just don't want to.

contemplating london at 5 AM

this city for me is all about the architecture. i can just walk and walk. it's a reminder of LA's great weakness--the spread out nature of it makes it impossible to get a feel for a neighborhood's look. but we all kmow that in LA--that's why the houses are where people dump their inspiration.

my life excitement is all about seeing spurs tomorrow at white hart lane. the more perspicacious among you may note that spurs in fact are playing in newcastle. this is true. i'm going to a stadium to watch a soccer game on a big screen.

i'm kind of a geek. at best.

there's a whole blogospher thing about Ned Lamont in CT running in a primary against lieberman. go to one of the superior sites adn you can learn more. me, i gave him 10 bucks just to keep up the green family's perfect record of supporting lost causes. be it henry wallace or fred harris or jesse jackson it doesn't matter--greens have worked for, donated to, marched on behalf of, what have you. and nothing. 0 for the building.

well, short of ambien it looks like i'm going to get to see the sun rise over this beautiful place. for a moment i don't have to think about the NTAC (no talent ass clown, obviously) and his NTAC funky posse who run our country, and i can feel a little bit of hope for once.

critics say

oh do they? here's what i saw in a brief moment of CNN-with-the-sound-on (much more blood boiling than the silent alternative):

critics say rumsfeld shouldn't have compared iraq to nazi germany
critics say that the prosecution in the moussaoui case...
critics say bush needs to change course in iraq
critics say iraq is already in a civil war
critics say we are all fucked and going to die any minute now

they didn't do the last one.

so

fucking

lazy

bush's rhetorical strawman magic (ably pointed out here by the AP) is lame. it makes him and those who back him up on it look like dumb people. and losers. mostly dumb, though.

"some on the other side of this issue would turn our seniors into food and distribute that food to terrorist insurgents. we are against that"

he may not have said that exactly. i don't remember. point is, this is the dumb loser lazy reporter version: who are those critics? do they have credibility to opine on the subject on which they are being (albeit incredibly broadly) quoted?

for instance, if one of those "critics" about whether or not iraq was or was not in a civil war turned out to be...ayad allawi, former PM and our man in havana, wouldn't that be worthy of mentioning?

nope, too fucking hard.

then we cut to "your technology future" in which holograms.are.the.future.maybe and some guy gets about 2 seconds to say "they may be the future, in ten years."

all these people suck. their newsreaders suck. their writers and editors and producers suck. and they are doing the bidding of their bosses, who SSSSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKkk

f em all

found the mute button.

out.

Los Angeles V. New York: Driving Edition

So, in a (not findable on line as far as i can tell) article from Los Angeles Magazine a few years, we discovered that the PhD traffic pattern studying guys at UC Berkeley had taken a long look at many different urban traffic systems. they'd discovered that LA drivers could drive, on average, 20 MPH faster in full traffic than any other drivers they studied. LA drivers have actually adapted to their conditions and, in a funny way, evolved to deal with them.

Now i'm in NYC. i'm staying on what is probably one of the loudest corners in the universe, near both a major hospital (sirens from ambulances), a fire station (ditto), a boombox bass cranked up collection (seriously), and, of course, regular NY drivers. A regular NY driver hits his or her horn at any and all provocations. This Onion article pretty much nails what is wrong with this perfectly. i've watched a guy lay on his horn in the west village while a cab wouldn't go for some crazy reason. could it be someone else was backing up and the cab had to wait? why yes, of course that was it. but asshole guy still laid on the horn, despite the fact that tons of young children surrounded his car on all sides. when i pointed out that he might want to wait for the cab to be able to move...well, you know how that goes with New Yorkers.

Motherfucking ass-stain cum gargler!!!!

now little violet can say it too! awesome! and the cabs, when someone is getting dropped off or picked up and the cab dares to not drive off and crush them, well that's worth everyone honking, even though this goes on every day all the time and everyone knows it. getting in the far left or right lane on an avenue means this WILL happen. doesn't matter. gotta honk.

NY drivers: you suck at driving. you suck at figuring out how to avoid these situations. you misunderstand them and behave with total insanity about them. then you make fun of LA.

so i say to all of you what i said to him:

eat me, taint clown

Hullabaloo

blah blah tristero at digby's blog blah blah. i'm right-er than him anyway. but not more right. if you know what i mean. kakutani's review is here, and as lousy as you would expect. she's the kind of person who walks down a wide boulevard that has been nicely cleaned by the rains the night before, but still somehow manages to find a pile of shit to step in. then she smears it all over the damn sidewalk and inevitably you step in it too.

so...

two things:

one: don't go crediting Kakutani with anything. she is a terrible writer, a mediocre thinker. i don't give a shit about her reviews of larry mcmurty or richard ford--reviewing fiction is a meaningless enterprise for serious humans, but it does help or hurt sales, and about that we should care not ne whit. however, when she writes about politics, she is invariably shallow and asinine in her thinking. she never rises above a combination of ninth grade thinking mixed with nasty and vicious rich-person-dinner-party social observations. she did it to clinton and several others. she is not an ally. it's like people cherry picking chris matthews--look, he was really good here!!!!! and ignoring the fact that he is a fuckwad. she is too.

two: you can't take fukuyama seriously, ever. he is like james cramer--36,000 dow forever? no? ok, get off the public stage, your pundit card has been revoked because you are stupid. period. end of history? fuck off, dude. you wrote that shit in 92 and oh...my...god...were you wrong. embarrassingly so. but we keep giving asshats like this credence--so don't be surprised when he helps lead us into a fucking war of fucking choice like the idiot he has proven himself to be.

and kakutani, loser that she is, falls right into the "because he was one of them it is particularly important" trap. wrong. because he was one of them he was wrong and stupid. and evil.

The Poor Man Institute � Beyond the infinite

see, this is a blog post about my own comment at another (reflexively meta) blog. the comment is about how republicans have taken post-modern post-derrida philosophy and turned it into will-for-power. now i'm blogging that comment.

see, republicans? THIS is how you do meta--pointless and inane navel gazing that comments on itself even as it empties itself of meaning in the process.

get it?

The Corner on National Review Online#091836

hey tim graham of the corner at National Review--

I've seen Crash, but not Hustle and Flow, but doesn't it seem there's great disagreement between Terence Howard's roles? In one, he's a slick Hollywood producer, disappointed that white boss Tony Danza makes him dumb down the black character in his sitcom.

well, if by "producer" you mean "director" and if by "slick" you mean "not as slick as his cohorts" then you...well, then you are still an idiot. just an accurate one.

i'm thinking of generating a quick opinion about something about which i know naught, but don't worry--i'll get my facts wrong.

Attytood: Good night and get lost! Chris Matthews exhumes McCarthy

A fine article by the always excellent Will Bunch about The Horror That is Chris Matthews.

but i wanted to highlight this excellent comment by "pope Ratzo"

So what if there were communists in the US in the '50s? Haven't we realized by now that the entire atmosphere of fear that was created during the Cold War was just as phoney as the fear of "terrorists" is today?

It's the shrieking of morons like Matthews that's created all the fear that keeps people like George Bush in power, and might have propelled McCarthy into the White House if it hadn't been for a few newsmen with balls like Murrow.

More people die from toenail fungus in this country than terrorism, yet we've shredded our Constitution, sunk our economy, spent our future on a useless war, and given our country to psychopaths like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. All because of a fear of something that's not real.

Yes, terrorists brought down the WTC on 9/11. No it was not the end of the world, any more than Pearl Harbor. But in 1941 there was a MAN in the White House who exhorted us to DENY FEAR instead of a weasel who cries "Yellow Alert" and wants us sheiking in our boots.

I live a few blocks away from the tallest building in the world. If it comes down, it'll land on my rose bushes. It's up to us to not be cowed by the fearmongers.

Posted by: Pope Ratzo at March 7, 2006 05:05 PM

exactly, dude. exactly.

NewsHog: ABC And The IED's From Iran That Were Made In The UK

so imagine the most ridiculous over-the-top possible way that deadly technology, the kind that is killing our soldiers, would have made it to Iraq. whatever your guess is, you haven't gone to far enough into crazyville. cuz right downtown there is a world where British special services fucks up a sting operation with the IRA, a sting operation that exposes new quality infrared triggered bombs to the IRA. well, would you believe they sold that tech (the IRA) to other terrorist orgs, and that it ended up in Iraq, where it is killing british and american troops?

Of course. of course that is what happened.

MEMRI TV

this is the craziest thing i've ever seen. sheer amazement. see as iranian students dutifully take notes about the "proof" that tom and jerry was all about getting the jews image better.

what the fuck is wrong with these people?

gothamimage makes a great point in the comments, and though it is lonely there, that isn't a reason to not highlight!

what, and who, is "Dubai"? and not in a jonah-goldberg-i-didn't-do-a-google-search kind of way, i mean really, following up on gotham--when GWB says "Dubai" and "Arab" in this context let's be really clear; he mean those arabs with whom one can do business. like the sheikhs. he doesn't mean the population of Dubai, who after all have NOTHING to do with this deal. he means the cronies who were installed at the head of a jury-rigged kleptocracy 80 years ago.

so next time you are wondering if being against the port deal might indeed make you a racist, just remember--the worst it does is make you anti-kleptocrat. and being a kleptocracist isn't that bad a thing.

Following is the ending to an otherwise superb Charles Pierce piece
at The American Prospect:

It constantly eludes me why what should be the most aggressive, most skeptical, and most irascible press corps in the world seems so ready always to turtle up. There isn't even a practical reason to believe that Dick Cheney looked into the soulful jowls of Brit Hume and found his troubled inner soldier there.

What's he going to do if you don't write stuff like this? Shoot you?

Forget I said that.

OK, charles seems to get a lot about what is wrong with the washington press core (and with joe klein as a representative thereof) with razor sharpness. but then, at the end, just like Lindsay Jacobellis, he stumbles.

The answer to charles' question? really, i have to tell anyone? money, power and fucking, and the confluence of the three. that's why joe klein is like he is. that is why the washington press core eats whatever shit is handed to them these days.

someone figured it out: pays these fucks enough money and we can co-opt them completely! and lo, media deregulation happened, and the news sector became the entertainment sector, and instead of having to co-opt with some sort of "reason" (like in the days of James REston, say, where you agreed that communism was bad over a bottle of scotch and he then changed his copy), you just get the fuckers paid. fat coin. 50 million here, 500k there, whatever. money. oh, and you get them laid. with hot girls/boys. and a nice house in cleveland park or georgetown or wherever.

it
is
so
fucking
obvious.

funny thing, that's what the bush people do best: corporate cronyism. that will cost all of us ten trillion or so dollars when all is said and done. the greatest shift of human wealth in history. the pundit class is, relatively speaking, kind of cheap. a 10 dollar hooker.

mediawhoresonline, how i miss you.

Dakota Today

excellent south dakota perspective on the "rapist bill of rights" that the governor is considering signing, a bill that would in fact make all abortion illegal in the state and subject doctors to jail time.

no need to go to mt. rushmore or the black hills if this one passes, at least not in this family.