Hominid Views

And then there is the billboard with George Bush saying , “Miss me yet?” Apparently, the group behind this is not known.

Obviously it’s a liberal/progressive/Democratic group.

Isn’t it?

This is just to freaky:

A soldier waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she was unable to recite her alphabet.

Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry.

As his daughter ’squirmed’ to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.
Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water.

It turns out that the “torture” took place right here in Washington state. The man is a soldier at McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington. This is a sad and disturbing episode of assault and child abuse. But as I point out below, it isn’t torture in the legal sense.

I bring this up because this excerpt caught my attention (my emphasis):

The practice of waterboarding was used by the CIA to break Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Detainees had water poured over their face until they feared they would drown. President Barack Obama has since outlawed the practice.

Nah-uh. President Obama did NOT outlawed the practice. The practice has been outlawed for decades before Obama became President. For example, the U.S. is a signatory to (18 Apr 1988) and has ratified (21 Oct 1994) the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. That convention prohibits:

For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

Since Mr. Tabor wasn’t acting in the capacity of a public official, merely in his capacity as an angry parent, he is just a lousy parent (and probably criminally so). I think it is important that we don’t commingle all reprehensible acts of humans against other humans with the definition of torture.

At the same time, one of the greatest disappointments I feel following the brief “reign of nearly limitless power” that the Democrats experienced during a few months of 2009, is that they did not prosecute the criminals who authorized and undertook acts of torture in our name. I mean, we now have proof that people were tortured while in our custody. That means that somebody committed a grave crime that was likely authorized through a chain of command. They must all be tried.

People are sure making fun of Sarah Palin over looking at her hand when she “seemed to forget her next talking point”.

This seems like good news. The woman who might have become Vice President, and who seems likely to run for President some day, has, all along, failed to demonstrate much of an intellectual acuity or, for that matter, intellectual curiosity. At least now we know she can read. And, apparently, she knows how to use an analog teleprompter.

Wait…unless she was looking at cartoons of her talking points….

Update: Reading Sarah’s palms.

Sen. John Cornyn is Worst Person in the World!

Republicans Owned by Wall Street:

Republicans are at it again!
Young Turks: Republicans admit they are owned by Wall Street.

Politico: Obama’s pep talk for the DNC.

Mark Fiore: Newly frugal guy!

Young Turks: Nutjob Christian Republicans: non-Christians should leave America.

McCain v. McCain v. Adm. Mike Mullen on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (via DailyKos).

DNC: Empty Chairs:

The Pinky Show: Power, structure and agency.

Sam Bee: Male inequality (via OneGoodMove).

Ed with some psychotalk from Sean Hannity.

Olbermann with Markos who laughs off attacks from Rove and O’Reilly (via DailyKos).

Young Turks: Obama banned from Vegas by loony-tune Mayor.

Palin Around with Crazy

• Young Turks: Palin attacks over the “R” word.
• Olbermann: Palin’s hypocritical on use of “retarded”.
• Young Turks: Sarah strikes it rich by her PAC buying copies of her own book.
• Palin failed to pay tax.
• Olbermann: Did Sarah steal money?
• Young Turks: Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh at war?!?
• Chris Wallace: ‘One can only hope’ Sarah Palin sits on my lap during interview (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Young Turks: Caught!

Jon and guest Anthony Weiner agree: Lieberman is a dick (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Ratigan: teabagger tells Dylan show that Obama reminds her of Hitler (via DailyKos).

Liberal Viewer Presents: GOP leaders won’t meet Obama in the middle?

Olbermann: Frank Luntz lies about Financial Reform.

Young Turks: Crazy Republican ad in California gubernatorial race.

Stephen Harper (sort-of) on climate crisis and responsibility (h/t Carl Balard).

Bill-O the Clown Interviews Jon-O the Satirist:

• Part I
• Part II
• Jon consults his therapist (via OneGoodMove).
• Jon disembowels, eviscerates, then destroys the blogosphere (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Olbermann: Thank god for Tom Tancredo!

Kos poll reveals CRAZY Republican attitudes (via DailyKos).

PFAW: What else does Alito say “No” about?

Red State Update: John Edward’s sex tape.

Young Turks: Wingding Glenn Beck attacks Barack Obama’s name?

Pap Attack: Change terrifies conservatives.

Ed with some Psychotalk from Rush Limbaugh.

FAUX News FAUX PAX:

• Jon with Q & O (via OneGoodMove).
• Brave New Films: FAUX News cuts off Pres. Obama.
• Young Turks: Huffington and Krugmancall out head of FAUX News.
• Brave New Films: FAUX News is slaughtered by Ariana Huffington.

Jon with Toyotathon of Death (via OneGoodMove).

Politico: Obama “lukewarm” on jobs numbers.

Red State Update: PETA demands robot groundhog:

Klaus Schwab (sort-of), founder of World Economic Forum on responsibility and the injuries of global capitalism (h/t Carl Balard).

Olbermann: James O’Keefe is a Republican “phone-y”.

Thom Hartmann: Teabagger protests the Tea Party convention.

Wingding Glenn Beck earns the title Worst Person in the World!

Stephen to Henry Louis Gates: ‘You Sure You Don’t Want A Beer?’ (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Young Turks: CBS rejects gay dating ad.

Joe Scarborough: Republicans have a terrible record on deficits.

Ed with some Psychotalk from Andrew Breitbart

Wingding Michael Steele with some babbletalk: Health care reform is Socialism because government is taking over ‘means of production’ (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Olbermann: Franken to White House, “grow a pair!”.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Add to everything else we learned about Sarah Palin and her family after John McCain selected her to be his running-mate, now we find out that Sarah’s a freakin’ tax cheat!!!

Records show that Sarah Palin hasn’t paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

It’s unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the workshop, sauna and house-sized cabins spotted Thursday in an aerial survey.

Her lawyer defends the gubernatorial dropout, mother of an unwed teen mother and wife of a long-time Alaska separatist party member thusly:

Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.

“It is the borough’s job,” he said in an e-mail. “The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent.”

Right…except the part of the tax that applies to structures!

[Matanuska-Susitna Borough assessor Dave] Dunivan, however, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments.

Sarah needs to consider finding a new lawyer. Seriously.

Just imagine if Palin had been Vice President when this news came out.

Oh…and it almost goes without saying: nooooo future Cabinet post for Ms. Wasilla!

It would seem that Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar Goodman, wants you to come to Las Vegas and blow the money you’ve been saving for your child’s college education. That appears to be what his response was to President Obama’s common sense insistence on fiscal responsibility that has come to characterize the Democratic Party in stark contrast to Republicans, “Tea Baggers,” and those who have generally bastardized what “conservative” used to mean a couple of decades ago.

Speaking in Nashua, NH on Tuesday, Barack Obama made his appeal for sensibly prioritizing spending to more efficiently support job growth, education, science and technology, and infrastructure. To accomplish this, he’s proposing to cut programs that are “duplicative,” to reduce those that are “wasteful,” and to eliminate those that “just don’t work”—all truly conservative principles (in the traditional sense of the word). Here’s what he said:

Now, that’s why I continue to insist on making investments for job growth this year, why I continue to insist that we put more money into education; that’s why I say we put more money into science and technology for innovation. (Applause.) That’s why I continue to believe that we’ve got to invest in our infrastructure so that we are building the kind of America that can compete in the 21st century. Those are smart investments. That’s like buying the new boiler — if it’s busted, you got to get a new boiler. If the roof’s leaking, you got to fix the roof. There’s some things you’ve got to do.

But you can put off buying the new curtains, even if it’d be nice to have. You know, that — remodeling the bathroom, I mean, everything is working. You don’t need it right now. I mean, what we’ve been having are folks who want to buy the curtains but don’t want to fix the boiler. (Applause.) And our priorities have to change.

That’s why I proposed cutting more than 120 government programs — consolidating ones that are duplicative, reducing ones that are wasteful, eliminating those that just don’t work. (Applause.) That’s why I proposed to cap government spending over the next three years. Spending related to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and our national security will not be affected. (Applause.) But all other discretionary government programs will. That doesn’t mean we have to do less. It just means we’ve got to do more with the money we’ve got. That’s why I’m grateful that both the House and the Senate have now voted to reinstate what’s called the PAYGO rule. It’s a very novel concept. It means “pay as you go.” (Laughter and applause.)

But the American obsession of late with fiddling while the counry burns is alive and well. Nevadaophiles and anti-Obama extremists chose instead to focus on the words he used leading into the fiscal efficiency message:

When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you’re trying to pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save on college. You prioritize, you make tough choices.

To which Mayor Goodman decided to respond with a hissy fit, proclaiming the President of the United States “unwelcome” in Las Vegas:

“This president is a real slow learner,” Goodman said after the speech. “He has a real psychological hang-up about the entertainment capital of the world and an apology won’t be acceptable this time.”
[...]
“I want the president to straighten this out. Otherwise, he’s not welcome in my city,” he said.

That “slow learner” label isn’t going to go very far with anyone who sees the president during unscripted question-and-answer sessions with a hostile audience. I seriously doubt that “slow learner” is a word that most folks would use to characterize such command of detail and complexity.

I guess Mayor Goodman figured he could grab some publicity for the president’s upcoming Las Vegas visit. Too bad he couldn’t come-up with a way that accomplished the goal without acting like an asshole.

The mayor’s diatribe reveals that it is Goodman who is the one with the “hang-up”. Obama, a poker player, clearly believes Las Vegas is the pinnacle of entertainment destinations. Otherwise, he would have said something like, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash on a camping trip when you’re trying to save on college.” It was a classic carrot-and-stick metaphor: You want some good times again? Earn it!

My motivation for getting out of an economic rut is not because I want to go camping. I can do that anytime. Indeed, I have plans this month to go for a hike in the California foothills. We don’t need a booming economy to support that; for that, we need a green economy. Vacationing in Las Vegas requires a booming economy.

Responding to this latest chapter in the Age of Outrage, Barack Obama clarified the obvious in a letter to Harry Reid yesterday:

Obama wrote Reid Tuesday to insist “I wasn’t saying anything negative about Las Vegas.”

“I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun. There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations,” the president said.

Let’s knock it off with the self-righteous indignation in 2010, and start acting like adults, alright? For those who don’t know how to do that, try taking some cues from the president.

I wholeheartedly support Goldy in his condemnation ridicule of the Seattle Times editorial board’s criticism of the name iPad. The name is going to offend women? Really?

And this comes from a publication that is most frequently referred to by its nickname, The Rag?

They just keep experiencing more and more apoplexy. Today’s wingding hyperventilation is over Obama supposedly bowing to a Mayor. The controversy is covered by the New York Daily News:

On cable, this morning’s episode of Fox and Friends aired the photo and revisited past Obama-bowing controversies with a montage of shots in which the President is supposedly bowing.

“Originally people said, you know, the Pesident of the United States bows to no one,” said host Steve Doocy. “But, as it turns out, he bows to everybody.”

“We’ve seen it too many times now,” co-host Alisyn Camerota added.

Guess what, Douche-boy and Camera-toe girl…it isn’t a bow of submission. It is a habitual, polite, friendly greeting that, etiologically, is unrelated to bows before kings and shit.

You see, my Eurocentric hypoIQic friends, a bow in many European cultures is a sign of submission demanded by protocol when greeting (or departing) a high official. As many people with some inkling that there is a World beyond the US and the UK can tell you, bows in other cultures have vastly different meanings. Specifically, a bow in Indonesian cultures (and shared with many Asia cultures) is a greeting and a symbol of affection. Obama clearly learned this polite, affectionate greeting as a child, while living in Indonesia.

What these ignoramus-Americans fail to appreciate is that most of the rest of the world knows that a bow has multiple meanings.

Some of these imbeciles who complain about Obama’s bows know only two things about “feren cultures”: a thumbs-up gesture is obscene in some cultures, and a belch is considered good in some cultures. These wingnuts seem like they were plucked right out of a “Dumb and Dumber” type of movie.

Blackwater is pure fucking evil:

The officials said that the Justice Department’s fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether Blackwater employees violated a federal law banning American corporations from paying bribes to foreign officials.

The inquiry is the latest fallout from the shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, which left 17 Iraqis dead and stoked bitter resentment against the United States. [...]

The investigation, which was confirmed by three current and former officials speaking on condition of anonymity, follows a report in The New York Times in November that top executives at Blackwater had authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials to buy their support after the shooting.

This is the part that I found interesting:

Blackwater was able to keep its State Department contract in Iraq for nearly two years without obtaining the operating license Iraqi officials had said would be required.

In May 2009, Blackwater finally lost the deal. The firm still provides diplomatic security for the State Department in Afghanistan.

Now, how do you think that happened? As long as the Obama Justice department is investigating bribery in Iraq, it would be helpful to figure how it is, exactly, that Blackwater kept operating in Iraq for two years over the objections of the Iraqi government. Was it just bribes? Or was Iraq forced against their will (and laws) to have a criminal organization operate within their borders?

Is anybody else catching a whiff from the stench of Dick Cheney?

What a bunch of freakin’ WIMPS!!!

The RNC avoided a potentially embarrassing resolution that would have given the party an ability to impose sanctions on candidates who do not follow key elements of the GOP platform, a move that would have shone a spotlight on some of the party’s best recruits.

GOPers meeting in Honolulu this week unanimously said the party is in good shape to make big electoral gains this year, but many worried that the proposed resolution could highlight differences between conservatives and several more moderate contenders.

The resolution, submitted by IN national committeeman Jim Bopp, would have given the RNC the power to request money from candidates the party supported if the party determined the candidate did not conform to at least 8 of 10 policy planks.

So much for Conservative Ideology. The RNC doesn’t care about ideology…only winning.

Hey…Teabaggers! Are you guys gonna get all tea-baggy over the Republican’s ideological waffling? I mean, especially now that Sarah Palin says you’ll join the Republicans?

ONN: Congressman seeks retroactive immunity for hitting on First Lady…..

Ed with a little Rush Limbaugh Psychotalk.

FAUX News and friend code-speakers are Worst Person in the World!

The most astonishing political ad ever (via TalkingPointsMemo):

The stunning Republican flip-flop on debt commission.

Charlie Brooker: How To Report The News (h/t Carl Ballard).

Jon: Obama takes on the bankers (via OneGoodMove).

Obama’s Q&A with the Party of No™:

• Obama talks to Republicans (the full session) (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Young Turks: Obama crushes House Republicans.
• Republicans admit televising Q&A was their mistake (via DailyKos).
• Ed: Obama takes on his critics.
• Young Turks: Destroying the Wingnut response.
• Obama takes down Rep. Jeb Hensarling at GOP retreat (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Young Turks: Republicans regret letting the cameras in.
• FAUX News chickens-out half way through Obama Q&A (via DailyKos).

Ed with a psychotalking Beckster.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX faux reporting on Obama’s market surge.

Pap: Blue dog Democrats have Mange.

Thom Hartmann and Teabagger John O’Hara find a little common ground.

Jon with blues clueless (via OneGoodMove).

Bill-O the torturous clown is Worst Person in the World!

Maddown: Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) on breaking the filibuster (via DailyKos).

The mother of all economic reports.

Maddow: Pin the Debt on the Donkey:

Obama’s First SOTU!

• Obama delivers a report to Congress (via DailyKos).
• Some reactions.
• Mark Fiore: SOTU we’d like to see.
• Jon covers the State of the Union Address (via DailyKos).
• Justice Alito channels Wingding Rep. Joe Wilson (via DailyKos).
• So…what DO Republicans stand for?
• Keith with Marcos: High marks for Obama (via DailyKos).
• Why do Republicans hate creating jobs?
• Red State Update responds to the SOTU.
• Wait…so Republicans don’t support keeping corporate money out of campaigns?
• Newsy: The tone of Obama’s first SOTU speech.
• Why don’t Republicans support stopping the loss of American jobs to overseas?
• Olbermann: Alito “out of bounds”.
• Proof that Republicans hate education.
• Praise for Obama’s speech

Thom Hartmann with The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.

Ed with a little Psychotalk from Karl Rove.

ACORN Videographer Gets Busted for Phone Tampering:

• Newsy: Is James O’Keefe a criminal or a prankster?
• Maddow reviews the case of the anti-ACORNer busted by the FBI (via DailyKos).
• Stephen: FAUX News puts James O’Keefe into context (via DailyKos).
• Olbermann and Turley: GOP Pimp may get 20 years.
• Young Turks: Right wing pimp arrested.
• Olbermann: Phonegate and cockroaches.

Jon with “Thank you South Carolina” (via OneGoodMove).

Colbert awards Harold Ford “Alpha Dog of the Week” (via HorsesAss).

The year in G.O.P.: No, no, NO!!!!

Corporate Personhood:

• Pap: Fascism and the Supreme Court 5.
• Jon with Supreme Corp. (via OneGoodMove).
• Liberal Viewer: Is it just corporate free speech?
• Olbermann: SCOTUS ruling will ruin Democracy.
• Colbert runs with a little help from his corporate friends (via DailyKos).
• Hartmann interviews a corporation running for office.

Olbermann: Obama critics are in denial.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Go figure. The Republican National Committee holds their winter meeting…in freakin’ Kenya. And the Litmus Test is baaaack, baby!

A Republican Party panel on Thursday strongly backed a proposal that would require party officials to determine whether GOP candidates “wholeheartedly” adhere to the party platform before they can win financial support.

The Republican National Committee’s resolutions panel supported the measure as an alternative to another, more rigid proposal that would have forced GOP candidates to agree to a litmus test of 10 conservative principles before receiving party campaign dollars.

Party Chairman Michael Steele and state GOP leaders strongly opposed the litmus test proposal….

And the logic behind this…

“Republicans at their peril deviate from conservative principles,” [RNC Member James] Bopp added. “I mean, we just nominated the poster boy for the moderates in (U.S. Sen.) John McCain (of Arizona), and he got defeated.”

Right…because if they had nominated a real conservative, like former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who while serving in Congress was considered “one of the most conservative members of Congress”, the Republicans would have triumphed over Obama in a landslide.

Wingnuts…ya gotta love ‘em at least for the entertainment value.

– How come when Obama mentioned all the tax cuts from the last year, only the Democrats applauded? I thought Republicans were all about tax cuts?

– Republicans did manage to applaud Obama’s mention of incentives for businesses. Since when are Republicans into Socialism?

– Some call the last decade “the Lost Decade”? I thought that was wh at they called it in Japan?

– When is Obama going to address the growing threat of human–animal hybrids?

– Why does Obama hate student loan servicing companies? Aren’t these companies entitled to live the American dream of bilking millions of young people out of their money?

– Michelle looks fabulous when she is embarrassed!

– Who knew the Goodyear blimp would be covering the SOTU!?!

– Wow! Obama just attacks the Supreme Court Justices to their face, and the crowd goes wild. That’s two branches of government ganging up on one. There was some Supreme squirming going on there.

– Sen. Al Franken…diggin’ that military stuff!

– On CBS, Dan Bartlett is babbling about how a year ago Republicans were licking their wounds and now they are licking their chops. Umm….no. Republicans are running scared from the teabaggers.

– Why didn’t Obama update us on our mission to Mars? It’s like he doesn’t like Martian Americans or something.

– Republican response: Gov. McDonnell flanked by a white male, a white female, and African American Female and an Asian American male. Fake fake fake! I get the feeling that Gov. McDonnell (Slick Bob?) is about to take a hike on the Appalachian trail.

– Based on the poll results before and after the speech, a lot of Americans had the reaction, “Oh yeah…that’s why I really like him!”

So…if corporations are persons under current interpretations of the Constitution, then doesn’t that imply that corporations that own other corporations are engaging in a form of slavery? Shouldn’t corporations have to abide by the thirteenth amendment too?

And wouldn’t that make a “hostile takeover” something like rape?

Imagine that. The Teabaggers don’t really appreciate market-based solutions to political conventions….