Great post of the day

Dennis Perrin writes about Shit Kicker Karma:

. . . While working as a cleaner, I continued my conversations with blue-collar whites, and the thing that always mystified me was their belief that by owning guns, they could stave off the government if necessary. This is a gun culture conceit that has no basis in reality. The very militarization that rednecks revere is an essential part of the American police apparatus. When someone would talk shit about blasting federal agents, I'd remind them of Waco. The Branch Davidians fought off an ATF assault, killing four agents and wounding 16. Once that happened, their death sentence was secured. There was simply no chance that a bunch of Christian fanatics were getting away with that, the Second and Fourth Amendments be damned. The Branch Davidians were gassed, burned alive, shot up, and bulldozed into the charred earth. So much for fightin' The Man.
A few of these guys would scoff at my Waco example, saying that they were better shots than the Branch Davidians. But most would fall silent and shake their heads, their fantasies about armed resistance reinforcing their powerlessness, which in turn made their fantasies even more necessary. Bitter? Hell, that's the least of it.

Via Wolcott.

Never mind

Remember all the scary visuals and exciting uproar and all-night vigils and breathless reporting when our very own home grown terrorist cell was arrested? Remember the 400 heavily armed police raiding dozens of homes? Remember the worldwide coverage?
Now, two years later, well, never mind:

. . . the federal government is now admitting that it never had a serious case against almost half of the men and youths charged two years ago. . . . Back in June 2006, the overriding sentiment in government and media was that a dangerous attack had been narrowly avoided. The allegations – that Canadian Muslim extremists were planning to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seize MPs and blow up the CBC – seemed unbelievable. But in a post-9/11 world, the unbelievable had, for many, a ring of truth. . .
Jamal . . . may indeed be a critic of Canadian foreign policy. But it seems that he is not a terrorist ideologue. . . . The alleged terror training camp turned out to be a hapless adventure in the rain, one where participants spent much of their time in a local doughnut shop and where the ammunition for target practice was apparently provided by one of two paid RCMP informers. As for the alleged plot to behead Harper, it was apparently derailed because the plotters didn't know how to get to Parliament Hill. Nor, it seems (according to material released by the Crown), were they exactly sure who the Prime Minister was. . .

I think I'm finally beginning to understand the phrase, "there's no 'there' there."

Shortsighted and cheap, too

So, not only is the Sask Party making decisions based on ideology rather than business sense but they're also proving themselves cheapskates and short-sighted ones to boot.
The sensible thing to do with a windfall in land sale profits is to use it for long-term investments in Saskatchewan families through programs like the Station 20 West and the children's dental care program, or toward long-term investments in Saskatchewan infrastructure, through building bridges and improving the highways -- or at least use it to leverage private investments in economic development like the PA mill.
But no, Brad and the boys would rather fritter it away by letting municipalities use it to cover this spring's municipal budget increases.
And next year, when this provincial money is long gone, the mill rate increases will be real whoppers. Sigh.

Robot love

Chet alerts us to the latest fad, sex with robots -- Three Laws indeed!
But I loved the Comments:

“I don’t want anyone thinking we’re Robosexuals, so if anyone asks, you’re my debugger.”

Oh come on, everyone knows that robots are total slut kittens. Raise your hand if you have not fantasized about having sex with a robot.

I believe it was Scott Adams who said that sex and money are the two sources of motivation in the human male; therefore, when virtual reality becomes cheaper than dating, society is doomed.
I was kind hoping for the gay bomb, but whatever gets the job done.

“Not tonight, dear. I have a short circuit.”

Looking the other way?

So George Bush and Cheney and Rice and Rumsfeld all endorsed torture of prisoners of war and the major American media aren/t covering it. Instead, today's talk shows will be chattering about why Barak Obama drinks orange juice.
But doing a Google search, its interesting to note how some smaller media outlets are picking up on the torture story.
Like the Brattleboro Reformer:

The damage this administration has done to human rights and the rule of law is so immense that this nation will be paying a steep price for it at home and abroad for decades to come.

The Tuscaloosa News writes that Bush and the staff should be investigated for use of torture:

We thought the record of the Bush administration's disregard for domestic and international laws couldn't get any worse. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking.

The Wicheta Eagle writes:

... some of the principals understood the moral swamp into which they were wading.
"Why are we talking about this in the White House?" Ashcroft is quoted as saying at one meeting. "History will not judge this kindly."
Nor will history judge the American people kindly if we look the other way.

Funny, isn't it, that "looking the other way" was also charged against the German people at the end of World War Two, with all sorts of pious declarations at the time that the allied democracies wouldn't ever do that.
Some Americans, at least, are trying not to.

Social whirl

Herman



Well, well -- we actually went out for supper last night! To a new place. That was pretty good.

So what's stopping you?

The Globe writes:

Ms. George ... insists her story has yet to be fully told

Well, what's stopping her? I can't feel sorry for Barbara George, just like I can't feel sorry for Brian Mulroney. Don't whine about how misunderstood you are -- if you have a story to tell, then tell it.

Colour me surprised

Here's just one of the headlines we could have predicted six months ago: SUN, Saskatchewan Party relationship sours.
The other ones I'll be expecting to see are: "Downturn in US housing market means Prince Albert mill cannot reopen without government investment" and "Sask government would have won constitutional battle, says Supreme Court" and "Government pours millions into Mosaic Stadium, refuses Station 20 West"
Think of a few yourself.

Shorter

Shorter Harper:

You want us to fight an election over how we have mismanaged parliamentary committees, Jay? Are you out of your mind?

Who are you going to believe -- the RNC or your lying eyes?

Of course McCain actually did say that the United States military should stay in Iraq for the next ceutnry.
And of course he now wishes he hadn't said it, because the American people hate the Iraq War and hate any politician who doesn't want to get out.
So it follows, as the night the day, that now the Republican National Committee is pretending that McCain never said this at all. They're trotting out their Big Lie technique again, trying to convince the media that the "100 years" remark was actually just a Democratic trick.
The Democrats should just laugh and tell the Republicans to quit lying.
And by the way, McCain really is a warmonger, too!

Ouch!

Via Digby comes this historian's assessment of the Bush presidency:

Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill. In short, no other president’s faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large . . . When future historians look back to identify the moment at which the United States began to lose its position of world leadership, they will point —rightly— to the Bush presidency. Thanks to his policies, it is now easy to see America losing out to its competitors in any number of area: China is rapidly becoming the manufacturing powerhouse of the next century, India the high tech and services leader, and Europe the region with the best quality of life.

Of the 109 historians surveyed by the History News Network, 107 of them rated the Bush presidency as a failure.

Shorter

Recommendations on the inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair:

I know we said there would be a full public inquiry, but we didn't really mean it.

Great post of the day, from DBK

DBK says that Hillary coulda been a contendah!:

If I were Senator Clinton's strategist . . . I'd have had her get on the universal single payer health care hobbyhorse and she would have ridden that to victory . . . We need a leader who is prepared to take drastic measures to get the economy on the right track and solve some of the most pressing economic worries of the middle class. That takes vision and courage, because there are entrenched interests that hate the whole idea of an economy that is successful for any but a few. Had Senator Clinton been that person, she would have trounced Senator Obama and been a shoo-in.

Yes, I think he is absolutely right about that. And he continues

Senator Obama has not shown that vision or courage at all, either, and I am left hoping it is there, but keeping silent for the duration of the primary. I think I'll be disappointed, but a slim hope is all I have left.

Yes, he is right about that, too.
The thing I hope for is this -- if Obama can work out a deal with the Clintons, to involve Hillary in his campaign in some meaningful way like a Vice-Presidency, then the full weight of the Clinton juggernaught comes on side with the Obama campaign. Love her or hate her, she has survived 30 years of the most vicious political games ever played and she knows how to fight back.
Obama does not. He still thinks that the Republican leadership can be reasoned with. He thinks he can "explain". He thinks a great speech is all it will take. He is wrong, and Hillary Clinton knows it.
The Clintons understand the enemy. They can teach Obama a lot, if he is prepared to listen to them and to harness their considerable energy, charisma, fundraising, and framing prowess. It will take every bit of both Obama and Hillary to defeat the Mugabe Republicans now entrenched in the US government.

The new Olympic image

Betsy at I Am TRex provides us with the powerful image of the Reporters Without Borders Beijing poster:



The Olympic Torch route has now become just one long protest about Tibet. Unless China smartens up and stops trying to crush the Tibet people, this poster may well become the image of these Olympic games.

They know a lame duck when they see one

Maybe this:

is explained by this. As Dave writes:

Somebody needs to bring the clown home, strap him into a chair and unplug his telephone until the end of November.

The poor baby was so mad at the press coverage of his NATO trip that he wouldn't speak to reporters on the way home.