Hope

Remember this. Preznit Bush is a hope killer. He used the only veto of his administration to stop embryonic stem cell research.

The.
only.
veto.

Why?

As red meat for his anti-science, anti-progress, anti-reason, anti-hope radical right base. Ignoring the hopes of the masses for the ignorant, uncompassionate few.

And Bush's mouthpiece and bully, Rush Limbaugh, accuses Michael J. Fox of giving people false hope. Here is his response:

FOX: What is crueler, to not have hope or to have hope? And
it's not false hope. It's a very informed hope.

FOX: I mean, it's hope that's informed by the opinion of our
leading scientists, almost to the point of unanimity that embryonic
stem cells, because they're pluripotent, because they have the
capacity to be anything, are truly — you know, will it be a straight
path to victory? Probably not. Probably, you'll have stutter steps
along the way.

In fact, they just did some work where they found that it
actually relieved the symptoms of Parkinson's in one test, but there
was some residue, some tissue residue that built up, which is not
ideal.

But two steps forward, one step forward — you know, it's the
process. It's how this country was built. It's what we do.

I don't want to get too corny about it, but isn't that what that
person in harbor with the thing is about, hope?

And so to characterize hope as some kind of malady or some kind
of flaw of character or national weakness is, to me, really counter to
what this country is about.

You be the judge. Watch the interview.

Then read this.

What ever irrelevant side issue the GOP is creating out of thin air today, I can safely predict for most of you reading this, regardless if you're a republican, democrat, independent, or apolitical: During your life, someone you know and love deeply, a parent, a sibling, a child, a friend, a spouse -- there's a good chance it will be you -- is going to die a long, lingering, dehumanizing, painful death from a disease or injury that Embryonic Stem Cell Research holds great promise to treat. In fact, most of us will have to witness this several times, before it's our turn.

These blastocytes, about 100 cells or less, ten times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence1, are going to be thrown in to a medical waste dispenser, or used for research. President Bush used the one and only veto of his entire miserable term to date on a bi-partisan Bill that would have saved a few dozen blastocytes out of hundreds of thousands from destruction, and marked them for life-saving research. Bush did this solely to retain the votes of a small minority of Americans and against the will of the great majority of the rest. He did it knowing full well it would not save a single human life, and that it could well cost the lives of millions.

This is Bush's legacy. Playing politics with people's lives. Everything his administration does is political, without regard to American ideals or American lives. From blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to launching an unnecessary war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives including nearly 3,000 American troops to appointing incompetent people to respond to human tragedies like Katrina to undermining the Constitutional principle of habeas corpus and legalizing torture, the purpose has never been what is good for America. The purpose has been to maintain power and enrich cronies and appease right-wing radicals and media sycophants of every sort in the process. That is all you need to know.

You can support the politics of cynicism or you can support hope. If your eyes are open, it's pretty clear who is on which side in this election, because the masks are off.

Thank God for Karma. Rush has already gone deaf because of his drug use, and if there is a God, well, let's just say I'd be screened for Parkinsons often if I were him or his loved ones. Bush has a special placed reserved for him in the Universal waiting room for despots, along with his entire cabinet of sycophants, people like Condi who buy Ferragamo shoes while people of her same color died on rooftops. That's when her mask came off.

Their actions are indefensible, and if you try, you seriously need to examine what it is that beats inside your chest, a heart, or just a lump of muscle incapable of any real life, any real feeling, any real connection to the people you claim to want to help and govern.

Rush Limbaugh is not an abhoration, he's the norm for his party. The people that put these despicable ads together are the norm. The people that ignore the cries of the poor while giving tax breaks to the rich are the norm. Normalcy for these neocons is heinousness to the rest of us.

Take a good look America. The masks are coming off, and I'm not sure the faces under them are even human. Are these the people you want running your lives, your government, your country?

Hope

Shut Up and Sing

I will show ads for the Dixie Chicks, but NBC and the CW won't. You can see the ad here. Here is the full trailer:

Shut Up and Sing

Dear Matt Lauer

Thank you for giving cover to Rush Limbaugh's unwarranted, vicious, and despicable attack on Michael J. Fox.

You suck, the Today Show sucks, and your network sucks.

You can go back to kissing republican ass now.

love,

st3veh

p.s. I wonder why nobody complained about Michael J. Fox when he did a commercial for Republican Senator Arlen Specter in 2004. You might want to look into that.

Dear Matt Lauer

Dear Rush

On second thought, I do have more to say to you, and to people like Patricia Heaton, Jeff Suppan, Jim Caveizel (Jesus), and Kurt Warner who misinform and mischaracterize the embryonic stem cell debate.

It is clear to me that you wingnuts are getting desperate.

First, I will deal with you, Rush (a.k.a. Big Pharma). Anyone who isn't a right-wing sycophant will acknowledge that you are a soulless, despicable human being, mocking someone with Parkinson's disease. I'd watch out for some karmic consequences if i were you. Of course, you've already gone deaf from a drug addiction, an addiction that you would gladly condemn to a long prison term if a dirty liberal was the drug addict.

Now on to Patricia Heaton, Jeff Suppan, Jim Caviezel, and 2nd string qb on a 1-6 team, Kurt Warner. You too, have no shame and are despicable human beings that give cover to Rush's vile rhetoric. Responding to Michael J. Fox's ad by conflating embryonic stem cell research and cloning. It appears that you are immune to reason and hate science because it exposes your faith-based bullshit agenda. You probably believe the earth is 6,000 years old and that fossils are a hoax.

I can only conclude that you (Limbaugh, Heaton, Warner, Caviezel, and Suppan) must not know anyone with juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or a spinal cord injury. You have more concern over and compassion for a bunch of cells in a petri dish (whose only future is to be destroyed as medical waste) than for an actual living and breathing human being.

If you don't want research on embryonic stem cells, then come out against invitro fertilization, which produces all of these leftover embryos, but I'm sure you don't have the courage to do that. Or, adopt all of these embryos and carry them to term. I'm sure you're not interested in that either. You are just interested in political grandstanding and holding back this country's scientific progress because you insist on imposing your political beliefs on the rest of us.

I hope you don't need any of the medical advances created by research on embryonic stem cells, because if it were up to me, you wouldn't be eligible.

love

st3veh

Dear Rush

Stay the Course

Bush's Iraq policy has never been "stay the course."

Stay the Course

The Saints Are Coming

Remember the Republican response to Katrina. Remember the arrogant incompetence and apathy. Then watch this video of what should have happened and vote Democratic on November 7th.



Single [import] available here.

The Saints Are Coming

Big Pharma

Dear Big Pharma,

Here's a special message to you.

Dear Rush,

Michael J. Fox takes drugs to stay alive. You take drugs to get high and to get an erection. You should be in jail.

All the best,
Shayera"

That is all.

Love,

st3veh

P.S. And I totally agree with this. You are truly a "disgusting, oozing pustule on the ass of humanity." Can't say it much better ththan that.

Big Pharma

Had Enough?

This is a tremendous ad. Democrats are using it in districts across the country by just dropping in specifics about their Republican opponents. This is the ad that John Laesch is using against Dennis Hastert in the Illinois 14th Congressional District.

Had Enough?

Under Pressure

Bowie + Queen = Brilliant

I love the message in the lyrics, and the video is classic.

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher higher high
Pressure on people people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And loves (People on streets) dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

Under Pressure

More Civil Discourse

Peggy, I have another example of the civil discourse you wish the dirty liberals had enough class to engage in.

On the October 23 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh accused actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, of "exaggerating the effects of the disease" in a recent campaign advertisement for Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. In the ad, Fox endorses McCaskill for supporting embryonic stem cell research, which her opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Jim Talent, opposes. Noting that Fox is "moving all around and shaking" in the ad, Limbaugh declared: "And it's purely an act. This is the only time I have ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has." Limbaugh added that "this is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting, one of the two."

Here is the ad.

Now would be a good time to just STFU about civility, Peg.

Oh, and Big Pharma (Rush), thanks for handing the Missouri Senate seat to Claire McCaskill.

I don't know where Limbaugh got the idea that telling scurrilous lies about one of America's favorite celebrities -- and someone who enjoys a huge amount of public sympathy to boot -- was a shrewd political move. But the Dems should be damned glad he did. Considering how razor-close the Missouri race appears to be, Rush may have just single-handedly booted away a Republican Senate seat.

Go Rush! Go!

More Civil Discourse

Support the Troops

Vote Democratic on November 7th.

Vote for Congressional oversight.

Vote for hearings.

As long as Bush is President and as long as he has a rubber stamp Congress, our troops will remain Iraq.

"Bush will not leave Iraq, not because he thinks we can win, or he thinks it's part of the war on terror. But because he cannot face another failure. Which is why Scowcroft and Baker have had no influence on him. They are his father's men, veterans, despite their politics, realists. Bush is not and never has been. When he wasn't hiding from his failure with booze and coke, he hid from it with Jesus. Now he has Henry Kissinger whispering in his ear, telling him what he wants to hear. He doesn't want advice, he wants support and only support. Those who do not support him, are diminished, then banished.

"This is a man who has never honestly looked himself in the face and said I have failed. He has always been protected from failure.

"Which is why Rumsfeld keeps his job. To admit he was incompetent, and some days he seems positively addled, would reflect poorly on Bush.

"When people look to understand Iraq, they look at the facts and see failure, but that isn't what Bush sees. He sees one more chance for personal glory and he will not quit until he is forced to."

Don't take it from me. Listen to Pat Tillman's brother, Kevin Tillman, who served with Pat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole thing, and forward it you anyone you think might vote Republican on November 7th.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Support the Troops

V for Vote

Remember, remember the 7th of November.



The day our government will learn to fear its people again.

V for Vendetta.

V for Vote.

Note: If you haven't seen V for Vendetta, you must. It is brilliant. And here's some very informative additional background on the original comic book, but I wouldn't recommend reading all of this until you've seen the film to avoid spoiling the story.

V for Vote

R.I.P., Habeas Corpus

All you need to know about the Military Commissions Act.



Full text here.

As Keith so eloquently said, if you think this doesn't apply to American citizens, are you willing to take that risk with this Administration and AG Alberto "Torture Memo" Gonzalez? From the Wikipedia entry for the Military Commissions Act:

A number of legal scholars and Congressional members - including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) - have said that the habeas provision of the Act violates a clause of the Constitution that says the right to challenge detention "shall not be suspended" except in cases of "rebellion or invasion."[17]

The Act has also been denounced by critics who assert that its wording makes possible the permanent detention and torture (as defined by the Geneva Conventions) of anyone - including American citizens - based solely on the decision of the President.[18] Indeed, the wording of section 948b[19] of the act appears to explicitly contradict the Third Geneva Convention of which the United States is currently a signatory.

In the House debate, Representative David Wu of Oregon offered this scenario:

Let us say that my wife, who is here in the gallery with us tonight, a sixth generation Oregonian, is walking by the friendly, local military base and is picked up as an unlawful enemy combatant. What is her recourse? She says, I am a U.S. citizen. That is a jurisdictional fact under this statute, and she will not have recourse to the courts? She can take it to Donald Rumsfeld, but she cannot take it across the street to an article 3 court.[20]

One has described the Act as "the legalization of the José Padilla treatment" - referring to the American citizen who was declared an unlawful enemy combatant and then imprisoned for three years before finally being charged with a lesser crime than was originally alleged.[21] A legal brief filed on Padilla's behalf alleges that during this time he was subjected to sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and enforced stress positions.[22]

R.I.P., Habeas Corpus

Support Torture

Vote Republican on November 7th.

On Tuesday October 17, 2006, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act and now you and I live under the rule of an official dictator who, in his latest press conference, pronounced the word "intransigence" as "in-TRANJ-a-jence." In other words, now that habeas corpus has been suspended and the chief executive can personally greenlight torture, you and I are now ruled by the direct whim -- whim! -- of the most knee-jerk, incompetent and unqualified president in American history.

Under this law, simply writing the above words might qualify me as an enemy combatant. Should the administration decide unilaterally that my (or Eskow's or Uyger's or Arianna's or Rieckhoff's, etc...) vocal opposition to their regime on the most popular political blog on the internet is offering comfort to the "enemy," I could be arrested and detained indefinitely without ever being told what charges have been brought against me. I could be tortured according to George W. Bush's own personal definition of torture in which waterboarding and stress positions are considered "not" torture. If I perchance managed to secure legal representation, my lawyers might not even have the legal means to challenge the law itself, much less the unknown charges. And it's all perfectly legal now under this despotic regime of Republican cowards.

And that's exactly what they are. Cowards. If you support this bill, you, too, are a coward. The Republicans (and handful of Democrats) who passed this law are so frightened by this politically-driven trumped up threat of terrorism (but more importantly the threat of losing an election) that they're willing to subvert the Constitution in order to attain the illusion of safety.

Remember, the ignorant little dictator and his media propagandist/apologists won't be happy if you don't vote correctly.

Support Torture

Not About the Burkas

This is the best commentary I've read on the subject of burkas, and really why men have no business commenting on them, but they will, because they are men, and couldn't even imagine having someone tell them what parts of their bodies they should show more or less of in public.

In reality, the demand to cover up and the demand to show skin have a single source: male dominance. In religious circles, that dominance demands hiding every ounce of female flesh lest it lead whole nations of men into temptation. In secular circles, that dominance encourages a show of every possible ounce of skin, short of nipples and vaginal lips.

It means cleavage, cleavage everywhere; skill at half-naked pole dancing (on a recent episode of tv's "Without a Trace," a sexy young FBI agent went undercover as a stripper, grabbing onto the pole as it that talent were inbred); a willingness to be a good sport and flash breasts and buttocks, anywhere, upon male request; and a "hip" openness to even the most vilely anti-woman porn, computer games, and music.

So which culture is doing better by us? Given what I have to go through every day, figuring out what to show and what to hide, how to hide what I want to hide, how to deal with the mysterious shame I feel at not measuring up, you can understand, perhaps, why a little veiling would have its appeal.

Alternately, I'd like to see women create religious and secular norms that will dictate men's physical appearance. Perhaps we could begin by refusing to talk to men in suits. We can get the fashionistas to make some changes--shorten, tighten, with cut-outs in strategic locations and revealing drapes--for our entertainment. As for the religious guys, we might require that they adopt the garb of Catholic cardinals, those pointy red caps and capes, since like nuns' habits and unlike burkas, they don't seem to bother anyone.

Or, maybe we can figure out what's really going on here that has nothing to do with breasts and burkas and everything to do with power.

Not About the Burkas

Serious Republicans

This must be why the beltway media thinks Republicans are the serious grown-ups and the only ones to be trusted when it comes to national security and foreign policy.

And you said no serious thinking had gone into our Iraq policy ...

Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has instead been drawn to Iraq.

Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic, "Lord of the Rings," to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

"It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.," he continued. "You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

Serious Republicans

America's Native Criminal Class

The 109th Congress.

These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.

To be sure, Congress has always been a kind of muddy ideological cemetery, a place where good ideas go to die in a maelstrom of bureaucratic hedging and rank favor-trading. Its whole history is one long love letter to sleaze, idiocy and pigheaded, glacial conservatism. That Congress exists mainly to misspend our money and snore its way through even the direst political crises is something we Americans understand instinctively. "There is no native criminal class except Congress," Mark Twain said -- a joke that still provokes a laugh of recognition a hundred years later.

But the 109th Congress is no mild departure from the norm, no slight deviation in an already-underwhelming history. No, this is nothing less than a historic shift in how our democracy is run. The Republicans who control this Congress are revolutionaries, and they have brought their revolutionary vision for the House and Senate quite unpleasantly to fruition. In the past six years they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.

Led by Highway Robber Denny Hastert, worst Congressman ever.

Hastert could well be the weakest House speaker in history. Tapped by Tom DeLay to serve as the mild-mannered frontman for the GOP leadership, the former wrestling coach ceded most of his power to the now-disgraced majority leader, allowing Republicans to treat the Capitol as their private piggy bank. Last year, Hastert got in on the action himself, secretly inserting $207 million into the budget for the "Prairie Parkway" -- a highway that will speed development of 210 acres he owns in Illinois. Before the year was out, Hastert sold part of his land -- soon to be the site of a sprawling subdivision -- for a profit of $2 million.

Denny Hastert is why Illinois 10th Congressional District voters cannot vote for someone like Mark Kirk. Mark Kirk tries to portray himself as an independent, moderate Republican, but he supports Bush's war, he votes with Republicans 91% of the time, and most importantly when he votes for Speaker of the House, he will vote for Denny Hastert who has overseen one of the most corrupt, partisan, and divisive House of Representatives in our history.

America's Native Criminal Class

Civil Discourse

Peggy Noonan's civil discourse club meets with the Preznit.

Here's what I mean by civil discourse club:

Neal Boortz: On the June 6 edition of his radio program, Boortz stated that "[s]o many" of the victims of Hurricane Katrina "have turned out to be complete bums, just debris."

Sean Hannity: On the August 22 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, while previewing a discussion about Republican gains in a recent poll, Hannity asserted that "some people are saying" that a Democratic victory in the November elections would be a "victory for the terrorists."

Mike Gallagher: While substitute hosting the June 28, 2004, edition of Hannity & Colmes, Gallagher asserted that a Bush-Cheney '04 video (which attacked Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry and juxtaposed footage of Democratic Party leaders with footage of Hitler) "brilliantly put together side by side Al Gore's raging maniacal rant next to Adolf Hitler."

Laura Ingraham: On the April 11, 2005, edition of Hannity & Colmes, Ingraham stated that Democratic Sens. Kerry, Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) are "on the side of" North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il because of their opposition to John R. Bolton, President Bush's nominee as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (Bush subsequently gave Bolton a recess appointment, which lasts through the current session of Congress).

Michael Medved: On the August 2 edition of CNN's Paula Zahn Now, Medved dismissed as "ridiculous" Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel's call to "professionally shun[] Mel Gibson and refus[e] to work with him even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line" for recently making anti-Semitic remarks. Medved declared that Emanuel is "[filmmaker] Michael Moore's agent, and Michael Moore has done far more damage to the Jewish community, particularly regarding the issue of Israel, than anything Mel Gibson has ever done."

Civil Discourse

Character Counts Week

Things you shouldn't do during Character Counts Week:

1. Sign a bill that legalizes torture.
2. Campaign for a candidate accused of choking his mistress.
3. Campaign for racist Senator Macaca.

#2 is also something you shouldn't do during National Domestic Violence Awareness month, which you guessed it is October.

Thank you Shakespeare's Sister.

Character Counts Week

Arizona Cubs, I Mean Cardinals

Meet the Arizona Cardinals, the Chicago Cubs of the NFL.

Somehow they found a way to lose a game to a team that had 6 turnovers and no offensive touchdowns.

Unbelievable.

Arizona Cubs, I Mean Cardinals

How To Understand Republican Pundits

Example 1: Civil discourse expert Peggy Noonan.

Peggy Noonan is part of a political movement whose most influential leaders routinely accuse their political opponents of being allies of The Terrorist. Ask Michael Reagan what should be done with Howard Dean (he "should be hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!"). Or ask the graceful, dissent-loving John Hinderaker what he thinks of Jimmy Carter (he "isn't just misguided or ill-informed. He's on the other side"). Ask the civil, graceful Mark Levin about Bill Clinton's mental health ("Bill Clinton is nuttier than a pecan pie"). Or listen to Byron York reference anti-anxiety medications and wonder about the "emotionally volatile" Howard "Dean's emotional intensity and whether such intensity should be a disqualifying characteristic for a potential president."

In fact, virtually every leading Democratic political figure at one point or another has been accused of not just merely being a terrorist sympathizer, but mentally ill. Ask Charles Krauthammer about what psychological medications Al Gore needs to be taking, repeated by graceful, dissent-loving John Podhoretz (“It is now clear that Al Gore is insane . . . There is every reason to believe that Albert Gore Jr., desperately needs help. I think he needs medication, and I think that if he is already on medication, his doctors need to adjust it or change it entirely"), or Oliver North ("Somebody needs to check this guy's medication. This guy has got a problem"), or David Frum ("a National Psychological Council would be a good idea after all -- and maybe it could start by advising [Al Gore] ought to seek out for his own good a cool and quiet darkened room"), or the graceful, civil Sean Hannity ("He's [Al Gore's] really nuts").

As wind sweeps through your hair, just behold the civil grace and the love of political disagreement that is so tragically missing on "the left" but that is in such abundant, ample, graceful display over there on "the right." It's so moving. And none of that even digs as low as one could to the graceful, dissent-worshipping likes of Michelle "Liberals-are-Unhinged" Malkin, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann "Liberals-are-Treasonous-and-Godless" Coulter.

Whenever these sorts of "points" are made -- comparing the extremism and hatred of dissent on the left and the right -- one thing you will notice is that the examples used for "the left" are virtually always totally obscure and inconsequential figures dragged into the public eye (Deb Frisch, Ward Churchill, tens of random Columbia college kids), anonymous and unnamed individuals ("blog critics" or buried Kos or Democratic Underground commenters), or frivolous entertainers who have nothing to do with the Democratic Party (Harry Belafonte, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbra Streisand).

By contrast, one never needs to dig and search that way to find examples of such dissent-hating behavior on the Right. Instead, the examples are found easily and abundantly among the leading and most influential pundits and political figures of the Right (see above). That's because the type of dissent intolerance which Noonan is so poetically and profoundly lamenting is found in isolated, inconsequential clusters on "the left," but it is one of the core strategies, a defining tactic, of the Bush-led Right.

Really, what could be more laughable and hypocritical than for someone who is a follower of the Bush movement, like Noonan, to write a column sermonizing about the need to tolerate dissent and to conduct ourselves with grace and civility in political debates while preening around as though they are on the side of dissent, grace and civility? I think the answer to that question is "nothing."

So here's how you can be a right-wing Bushian defender of civil discourse.

1. Dig up some quotes from the likes of random college students, Barbra Streisand, Rosie O'Donnell, and some random commenters at Daily Kos.
2. Make the false argument that they represent the dominant tone of liberal or Democratic discourse.
3. Ignore the leading figures (Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh) on the authoritarian Right who engage in this behavior on a daily basis.
4. Have another drink of kool-aid.

Oh, and Peggy, go fuck yourself.

We're sick of people questioning our patriotism for questioning the President. We're sick of being nice to people who are aghast that people don't like being called terrorists for having a dissenting opinion. We're also sick of being nice to people who accuse us of engaging in a behavior that the accusers have employed as a tactic since 9/11 to quiet dissent and demonize Democrats as America-haters.

So, take your fatuous bullshit about grace, civil discourse, and dissent and shove it up your hypocritical ass.

UPDATE: Examples of Peggy's own contributions to civil discourse can be found here.

In terms of Noonan herself, travel back to last year's Terri Schiavo right-to-die controversy and try to find the grace hidden in the insults Noonan hurled against anyone who disagreed with her radical notion that Congress needed to overrule the rights of Schiavo's husband and keep Terri alive via legislation. To Noonan, her opponents had a "bizarre passion" for death, were "unstable," "unhinged," and "red-fanged and ravenous." She warned that they were paving "the low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz."

And keep in mind that, by 2000, Noonan had literally run out of ways to call Clinton a creep and a predator (she once suggested he was being sexually blackmailed by Fidel Castro's intelligence service), so she started demonizing Al Gore, who was "not fully stable" and "altogether as strange and disturbing as Bill Clinton." And Noonan was actually late to the Gore name-calling game, which formed the foundation for mainstream conservative commentary during the 2000 election when Gore was "a monster willing to trash the whole country" (The National Review; 12/04/00) as well as being "self-obsessed, conniving, dangerous" (The Weekly Standard; 12/04/00).

How To Understand Republican Pundits

Women's Voices.

Women vote. Please.

Put me in the camp that believes when more women vote, our country benefits.

Why? Call me sexist, but I believe women tend to be less self-interested than men and therefore, more interested in policies that support the common good.

Translated: Women have policy interests outside of tax cuts and empty macho national security posturing.

Women's Voices.

Colin + Ben

Did I mention I how happy it makes me when artists I love collaborate?

Colin + Ben

Decemberists

The Decemberists have a new album out, The Crane Wife. It is really good. Buy it.

Here's a video from their previous album, Picaresque, which is also really good.

Decemberists

Condi Rice, Monumental Twit

U.S. policy toward North Korea, as defined by Condi Rice.

But let's review the salient facts one more time.

"Failure" =1994-2002 -- Era of Clinton 'Agreed Framework': No plutonium production. All existing plutonium under international inspection. No bomb.

"Success" = 2002-2006 -- Bush Policy Era: Active plutonium production. No international inspections of plutonium stocks. Nuclear warhead detonated.

Face it. They ditched an imperfect but working policy. They replaced it with nothing. Now North Korea is a nuclear state.

Facts hurt. So do nukes.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

Condi Rice, Monumental Twit

Magglio!

This is how you get to the World Series. Tie game. 2 outs. Bottom of the 9th. Walk-off HR

The losingest team in the majors over the past 13 seasons, Detroit was in despair after dropping an embarrassing 119 games in 2003. But in their first year under Leyland, the Tigers projected a winning attitude from the start.

And never has the olde English "D" on the jerseys puffed more proudly. The symbol stands for Detroit, of course; yet at this point, surely some think it stands for destiny.

Ordonez stamped it so with his no-doubt, winning drive into the left-field stands.

"I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it," Ordonez said. "This is what I've dreamed about my whole career, my whole life. I don't even remember running around the bases."

Congratulations to the Detroit Tigers and their fans on reaching the World Series, which seems so far away for Cubs fans.

Memo to Tribune Company: We're tired of waiting. There's no excuse. Get the right manager and the right players. Make it happen or sell the f-ing team to someone who cares.

Magglio!

How To Understand Republicans

Digby will explain.

The simplest way to understand Republicans is to use the quick rule of thumb that whatever they criticize Democrats for is what they are doing. Lynn Cheney and other rightwing "intellectuals" created an entire industry devoted to attacking Democrats for moral and epistemic relativism. It became an article of faith that liberals had no values and believed in nothing --- an image that sticks to us like flypaper, even today. Yet nobody has practiced relativism more successfully than the modern Republican party. The Republican President of the United States believes that truth is fungible and history is debated like a highway bill on the floor of the senate --- so it doesn't really matter what he does. It's a clever way to rationalize ignorance, incompetence and failure but it's an extremely dangerous way for the most powerful nation on earth to conduct itself.

How To Understand Republicans

Culture of Life, Defined

Brought to you by the Republican party.

The Culture of Life, near as I can figure it out, means that your life is worth most before you’re born and during the years when you can work and buy shit and vote Republican. Children and old people—eh.

Culture of Life, Defined

EV, Iconoclast

iconoclast

1. One who opposes orthodoxy and religion; one who adheres to the doctrine of iconoclasm.
2. One who attacks cherished beliefs.

Also, a cool show on Sundance Channel. Episode with Eddie Vedder and Laird Hamilton premiering October 26 at 9 pm ET/PT.

Set your dvrs.

And, as always a thank to the Pearl Jam Web site for the tip.

EV, Iconoclast

Come Back

A wish, a great song, and in this case an award with 2 well-deserved recipients.

Garciaparra won the award despite playing the final weeks of the season with an injured oblique muscle and left quadriceps, which he tore during Thursday night's NL playoff game against the New York Mets. The 33-year-old first baseman played in 122 games and hit .303 with 20 homers and 93 RBIs, making his sixth All-Star game.

Garciaparra, who played a total of 143 games in 2004-05, received 72,054 votes in fan balloting announced Saturday by the commissioner's office.

"It's quite an honor, I'm fortunate to win something like that," Garciaparra said. "I've always said it's a byproduct of my team. These guys are special guys."

Congratulations to Nomar and Jim on their fine seasons.

Come Back