Minneapolis racists in the news

Six imams ejected from US flight

If we listen to every xenophobic person on every airplane who is uncomfortable with Muslims, we are fucked. Muslims are not terrorists! Some terrorists are Muslim. Big fucking difference. Some terrorists are also protestant white guys.

My title is somewhat inappropriate because I know we are not talking about race, per se, but the net result is the same. Intolerant, ignorant, paranoid people treating people badly for no reason.

Minneapolis racists in the news

CNN = terrorists

You’ll want to be avoiding the Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp chain of hotels. They have banned CNN from their hotels because they “supported terrorism” by showing footage of Iraqi insurgents shooting U.S. troops.

Wha..?

So if you show actual, unsanitized footage of war, you are supporting the enemy? James Thompson, president of the company, is clearly a complete fucktard with his head well up his ass. The market should punish him.

CNN = terrorists

Iraq Part Deaux

micadelic said:

If you start with the premise that the right has fucked it up so bad that you can never fix it, you are not only cheating the people of this country who deserve a government that actually works, you are cheating yourself by setting yourself up for failure.

I agree. The Democrats need to prove their mettle by showing leadership and good judgment. (This, of course, with the obvious caveat that Bush still holds a tremendous amount of power.)

The thing is, Bush sent the bull in the china shop. You can’t unbreak the china. The possible outcomes have been limited. Success at this point, as we’ve said all along, is international cooperation to try to get a legitimate Iraqi government going. We can’t do it ourselves and we likely can’t do it quickly. We do need Iraqis to take their country back, but we also have to remember that there are sometimes conflicts so deep in sectarian terms that they are almost permanent.

My point being, success means something different than it used to. When Bush went in success was defined as defeating Hussein. Yes, congrats, mission accomplished. Now success is — to what extent can we minimize civil war while we try to get a legitimate government going? That is a shitload harder than taking out a second rate military.

I think the political problem the Right had with Iraq last week was the result of a policy that seems endless and frankly hopeless right now. The Democrats have to lead us out of hopelessness in Iraq. If Bush lets them. The outcome will not be beautiful.

PS – micadelic, I do appreciate your positive attitude towards the outcome of the recent election. If Left and Right honestly tried to work together, regardless of our differences, good things could be done.

Iraq Part Deaux

A Beautiful Day

The good news: a Democratic House, likely a Democratic Senate, Santorum GONE, Klobachar IN. The bad news: Bachmann IN, Pawlenty stays.

More good news in that South Dakota didn’t approve an all-out abortion ban. Guess they got a little sick of being described as complete fucktards.

Rumsfeld being gone is more good news. When you architect failure, you should expect to lose your job.

As per my last post, I would be very happy if we had some meaningful compromise and honest, good-faith cooperation between the two parties. Lord knows the pendulum swings back and forth, but I do truly believe that good things can happen with a balance of power.

I do think Bachmann is an evil cunt from hell. But that isn’t really a very cooperative statement.

A Beautiful Day

Vote for Balance

The bottom line is: it can actually work better when we don’t always get our way. Compromise is good. It is a check and balance. We have a brilliantly designed government in that it has checks and balances. These become ineffective when one party controls all branches of government and is willing to sacrifice the integrity of our system to gain advantage for their particular political ideology. It’s lame when the Left does it and it is lame when the Right does it. Dammit, we are Americans first and Democrats, Republicans or Greens second. We should all agree on that. Put the system first and your ideology second. We all do better when we all do better.

The Right Wing pushed us too far. They are good folks and they mean well but they go too far when left unchecked. The lack of meaningful compromise has not served us well. You don’t have to change parties or make long term commitments, you just have to cast a vote that you think will lead to a better, yet sustainable, United States of America.

The message we are going to send to Bush is that, yes, we are paying attention and talking the talk isn’t good enough, you have to walk the walk. It’s not politics when you are a leader, it’s policy. We are not cool with fiscal irresponsibility. We are not OK with less constitutional rights. We think it is fucking insane to send the world the message that we would weaken the Geneva Conventions in regards to POWs. Dot, dot, dot.

So vote for balance. A Bush White House, in partnership with a Democratic congress, may be a recipe for healthy compromise. Americans, when asked, believe that we are best off when there is a balance of power. Let’s vote for that. Today. Go vote, right now, for balance.

Vote for Balance

Right Wing Corporate America

Chucko pointed out this article on big fucking companies who won’t allow their advertising on Air America.

A few comments. First of all, apparently liberal dollars aren’t good enough for these people? There are huge companies on this list, like McDonalds and FedEx. It is really hard for me to believe that these companies would be so partisan and risk alienating 49% of their customers.

Second, the righties always bitch that academia is on the Left. I’ve agreed with them — academics lean decidedly left, no question about it. Liberal ideas, in the non-political sense of the word, are virtually the definition of academics — learning, being open-minded, trying new things, challenging old ideas. No one should be surprised that academics tend to be liberals.

Neither should we be surprised that corporate big wigs are Right Wingers. They are dollar chasers and they are generally from well-to-do backgrounds and yet believe they have succeeded based solely on their own merits. Thus, they believe that social programs reward failure and all that nonsense.

I am a business owner and a capitalist. I believe in the free market but I believe there is a role for government, lest we descend into plutocracy. Big corporations are literally soulless and they should not be allowed to pillage our country without limit. We need consumer advocates, watchdogs, regulation and other tools of government to ensure that corporations don’t bring us down.

So I am personally shocked and appalled that these lame companies would decide that liberal radio is something they can’t advertise on. I do think it is their decision to make, but I think it is a horrible decision. These guys are being boycotted as we speak and they are going to get a lot of bad press. REI, thank god, is disputing that they requested this.

Some people will say, “Oh, I can see why FedEx would not want to be associated with bashing the President.” That’s a lame excuse. The Right Wingers bashed Bill Clinton constantly, from day one of his administration. President bashing is not something that occurs only on the Left.

I seriously hope some advertising agencies get shit canned for this. If I were the president of Fed Ex I would fire everyone in the chain that put my company’s name on this list.

Right Wing Corporate America

Kerry's Comments

This is ridiculous:

“So I think we got a real glimpse here of the anti-military attitude that prevails on the political left in the United States.”

The speaker, Gary Bauer of the group American Values, wants to takes John Kerry’s statements and make a conclusion about the “political left”. Even Republicans should think this is moronic. Why not just say that the Left hates their mom and likes to smother puppies?

In regards to Kerry’s comments — they are not untrue! It is a fact that the military is composed largely of people from lower than average incomes and without, in most cases, higher education. Your average platoon is not full of PhD’s. This notion is not one that is disrespectful or anti-military, it’s a fact.

Kerry made a gaff and he should apologize profusely. It was a bad joke, prone to misinterpretation and he shouldn’t have said it. But it is hardly a big deal and it is an obvious political tactic that the Right is trying to make it one.

Kerry's Comments

More Liberal Bullshit on Climate Change

Study on warming forecasts disaster

Britain issued a sweeping report Monday on global warming, saying the Earth faces a calamity on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression unless urgent action is taken.

Time for Right Wingers to make up some bullshit or find the one retarded scientist who is in denial of the growing evidence that yes, Virginia, human beings are capable of effecting Earth’s environment.

Do you really thing Liberals want global climate change? You think we enjoy telling the Right Wing that we have a really big and expensive problem to deal with? NO. We just have our heads a little less far up our asses and we want to work on the problem before it is catastrophic.

But then again Britain is biased.

More Liberal Bullshit on Climate Change

Buses, Taxis and Pharmacists

I’m getting pretty sick of this. These religious DOLTS who can’t do their fucking jobs because of their religious beliefs.

Let’s see, we have the Christian Pharmacists who won’t dispense prescriptions. Muslim taxi drivers who won’t drive people carrying liquor. Christian bus drivers who won’t drive a bus with an ad for a gay magazine.

This is insane and we shouldn’t tolerate it. All of these people knew what their job was before they accepted it. The notion that doing any of these activities jeopardizes their religious faith is completely wrong. Look you Christians and you Muslims and all of you other devote religious sorts: you live in a world full of people all who have their own beliefs. We cannot expect all people to accept our version of the truth. This should be self-evident. We have normal ol’ civil laws, which represent our shared duty towards each other. Your religious laws or beliefs are yours, and I respect that, but you cannot have any expectation whatsoever that others will share them. They are yours. They are personal and if you are so fervent that you cannot tolerate people with other beliefs, you should go get a job at a Church or a Mosque or in some place where you can be assured that you won’t have to interact with us sinners and infidels out here. I don’t discriminate against you freaks in my job and expect you not to discriminate against me in your job.

This should emphasize to all the necessity to separate church and state. Either do your job, ALL OF IT, or get another job. Period.

Buses, Taxis and Pharmacists