From the "Sauce for the Goose" Department:

I ran across a great article in the Rutland (VT) Herald for January 25. It appears the Democrats are finally learning to use the rethuglican's own dirty tricks against them.

The Rethuglicans, of course, are not taking it well.

GOP cries foul
Dems bring up Douglas quotes as 19-year-old
January 25, 2006

MONTPELIER — Vermont Republicans say they are outraged that a Democratic-leaning Web site has posted a Middlebury College newspaper article from 1970 in which a young James Douglas apparently questions the existence of segregation.

The author of the 35-year-old article in The Campus said Tuesday it was "nonsense" to assert that Douglas was a racist then or now. But Democrats continued to call on the governor to explain the article's statements, in which the then-president of the Vermont Young Republicans also expressed support for the Vietnam war and the bombing of Cambodia.

Gee, a pro-war, racist young Rethug, supporting the prototypical "Imperial Presidency". Who'da thunk it?

Republicans, from the governor to his spokesman to the chairman of the state GOP, said posting the article — and alerting the media to its existence — was an exercise in race-baiting and character assassination.

"Here's the bottom line: The Democratic leadership of Vermont are adopting a new policy of character assassination against their political opponents," said James Barnett, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party.

"We're talking about a truncated quote that is the polar opposite of anything the governor believes now or I suspect he believed then," Barnett said. "This was from a time when he was 19 years old, and it is being disseminated by a legislative leader of the Democratic Party."

Yup, exactly what Rove and his cronies do. Constantly. This is exactly what the Goopers have pulled countless times. Now that they're on the receiving end, though, it isn't so much fun, is it?

The article, written by Ted Hobson and called "Nixon's Man on Campus," said in part: "In relation to Vermonters, Douglas' conservative outlook might pass unnoticed, but on a college campus Douglas is somewhat of a political loner, defending Nixon's Supreme Court nominees … his segregation policies ('I'm not sure there is segregation'), Vietnamization ('a very admirable plan') and even the Cambodian invasion ('I personally would have liked a little more')."

Sure sounds like a rethuglican/budding neocon wingnut. No segregation? How frickin' stoopid can he be? (Don't answer that - as a Rethuglican, he can be dumb as dirt and still become Governor. Or preznit.)

Douglas, through his press secretary, said he did not recall Hobson interviewing him for the article, but unequivocally said he never held the belief that segregation didn't exist.

"The governor doesn't recall this article, but he's been very clear that he did not believe that then and he doesn't believe that now. He doesn't remember sitting down for the article," said Jason Gibbs, Douglas' press secretary. "This is a disappointing display of the politics of personal destruction, and there's no place for this kind of trash in Vermont."

"He doesn't remember sitting down..." Of course not. He stood the whole time. You have to really parse what Rethugs say... they're the world's greatest prevaricators. And I love the bit about "personal destruction"... the Rethugs do it all the time. Little different when you guys are on the receiving end, ain't it?

"At the very least the leadership of the Democratic Party would ask this guy to step down from his legislative leadership post, and frankly if he wants to spend all of his time doing dirty tricks and character assassination instead of the work of a legislator, he should step down," Barnett said.

Hell, if all the Rethuglicans who pulled this kind of shit were forced forced to step down, there wouldn't bee a single "R" in office anywhere in the U.S.

The episode is reminiscent of the flap caused during the 2004 gubernatorial election in which Barnett and Republicans released old newspaper clippings showing Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle marching in a parade celebrating the 10th anniversary of the communist overthrow of the Nicaraguan government. Clavelle was Douglas' Democratic opponent two years ago.

Of course it's reminiscent... it's the standard Gooper battle plan: find a quote from thirty years ago, and use it in a smear campaign.

"The governor spoke out loudly and clearly in that case," he said. "Those same individuals should be held to their same standards."

And so should the rethugs.

Old quotes being bandied about the Internets to smear some poor innocent Rethuglican.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

IOKIYAR, my ass. How do you fuckin losers like it?

Asshole Republicans.

It's in Their Genes

(Certainly there's nothing in their jeans...)

From Roll Call:

House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting.

I love it. Even when only Rethuglicans are voting, they STILL can't run a clean election.

God, what a bunch of assholes.

Blue-Collar Idiots and Dubya

It'll be interesting to see how many of the mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnuts still support preznit in a few years.

• Since out-sourcing is good for the economy, as one assministration spokesweasel said a few years ago, look for lots of manufacturing jobs to move to Mexico, China, and the third world.
• More and more call centers are moving to India, which will further reduce the pool of un- or semi-skilled jobs available (as a side note, I recently got a telemarketing call from a guy who claimed his name was Roger; he sounded like the village elder in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).
• As they get older, and more prone to serious or even catastrophic medical problems, they'll have to naviguess preznit's Medicare drug plans (a.k.a. The Pfizer-Bayer-Merck Profit Protection Act of 2005).
• When they're bankrupted by putting medical bills on their Visa, they'll still have to repay those debts, thanks to the MBNA Protection Act of 2005 (laughingly referred to as "bankruptcy reform").
• Their unemployed -- and probably unemployable -- offspring won't be able to care for them, because they'll all be working four jobs, thanks to preznit's record-breaking deficits.
• When the daughters get knocked up while camping out for Charlie Daniels tickets, they'll be forced to have and keep the unwanted babies, because SCOTUS will have dumped Roe v. Wade. Same if Bobbi Jo gets raped, because the pharmacists will refuse to make the "Plan B" pill available because of their religious principles.
• Not that that'll matter, of course, cause they won't be able to pay preznit's $5.00 -a-gallon gas tab, thanks to Exxon-Mobil's record-breaking (and totally obscene) $30 billion profit grab.
  
• And when these morons finally wake up to reality and start bitching about their chosen LordGodKing George-n-Dick, the DHS/FBI/CIA/NSA will pack them off to Gitmo or someplace in Eastern "Yerp"

How can any rational, thinking person still support these lying, thieving weasel-dealers?

Oh, yeah, that's right... we're talking about Bush supporters.

Fucking moronic losers.

Pet Blogging Update

No pictures this week. Jenna the cat (as opposed to "Jenna and not-Jenna") has been hiding all week, as the lovely-yet-talented Mrs 618 has been hanging with the three-year-old from next door. Emily (the Labrador) isn't feeling too well, to the point where the missus rolled a tennis ball for her... and she ignored it. This from the dog who wants to play ball 24-7.

I figure either she ate someone-- err, something that didn't agree with her, or she's coming down with some bug.

Or she saw preznit on TV.

Oh, I forgot this too...

Hey, O'Reilly....

Bite me, you blotchy-faced, morally-leprous, walking-talking anal wart.

Oh, I Forgot...

... my daily diatribe against the mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnuts.

These odious, slack-jawed, drooling idiots are so enthralled with LordGodKing George-n-Dick that they can't see how the rethuglican party is shitting all over them.

And yet, these "Deliverence" rejects are still supporting preznit.

What a bunch of retarded loser morons.

"I Say Iraq, You Say Iran..."

...Let's call the whole thing off....

I heard some idiot rattling sabres at Iran this evening [yes, Thursday. I warned you]. All the usual hot-button words were there: "nuclear weapons... ballistic missiles...yada-yada-yada". Only things missing were aluminum tubes and mobile labs.

Who the hell is preznit going to use to invade Iran? The Marines, the Army, the National Guard, and every-frickin-body else are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only uniformed groups left are the Boy Scouts and the Salvation Army.

Or will preznit finally convince the 101st Fighting Keyboarders to get up off their fat, Cheeto-stained asses and actually enlist?

He could, I suppose, drop Michelle Maglalang-Malkin and Ann Coulter in the middle of Tehran and watch the Islamofascists commit mass suicide.

Bush and SOTU

Yup, another Thursday post.

No, I didn't listen to King George's speech. I was busy dealing with a hyper-active, incoherent three-year-old. Who makes more sense than Dubya ever does.

From what I've read and heard, the main thing I missed was preznit's promise to reduce Middle eastern oil imports by 75%... a promise that the assministration spent all day today claiming should not be taken literally.

Good to know that even his sycophants are starting to call bullshit on some of his more egregious lies. Hell, if they saying he lied, why should we believe a single God-damned thing he says? Most of us don't, of course, but about 40% of the Murkin population still believes BlunderBoy.

NARAL: Marginalizing Themselves

Yeah, another Thursday post that got posted Saturday. Deal with it.

NARAL, the abortion-rights group, oughta be feeling right proud of themselves these days. They supported Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee, a Republican, over a Democratic challenger, because Chafee claimed to be pro-choice.

Chafee, of course, voted to confirm Alito. And if you think Alito isn't looking to overturn Roe just as soon as he can, I've got some beautiful ocean-front property in Phoenix for sale.

It is asinine to believe any Republican who claims to be pro-choice these days. Even if the individual really does support a woman's right to control her own body, he or she will roll over in a heartbeat to vote the party line.

So anyway, NARAL supported a Senator who supported a Justice who wants to outlaw abortion.

They must be feeling so proud.

Idiots.

Republican "Honor and Dignity"

Another belated Thursday post.

I see the Republicans elected Boehner as majority leader. In an effort to distance themselves from Abramoff, Delay, Noe, Governors Taft, Rowland, and Schwarznegger, and countless others, they chose "honor and dignity" over party loyalty by electing... a Delay protege.

Honor and dignity, my ass.

Alito to Fundies: "Drop Dead"

Disclaimer: This post and the next 7 or 8 were all written this past Thursday. I didn't have a chance to get them up till today. My bad. As Dumsfeld would say, "You deal with the blogger you have, not the blogger you might want."

I heard on the news today [Thursday, remember] that Justice Alito voted against letting the state of Missouri go ahead with an execution they wanted to carry out tonight. The vote was cast despite the fact that Alito had not participated in consideration of the case, and probably knew next to nothing about it. Alito was on the winning side of a 6-3 decision, so his vote didn't really count anyway: if he had voted to let the execution proceed, he would have been on the losing end of a 5-4 decision.

On the other hand, it was good to see that Alito's very first vote was a slap in the face to the fundie wingnuts. This doesn't mean he's going to be a fair jurist, mind you; after all, he still seems to support virtually unlimited power for the executive. It's also still a safe bet he'll either vote to overturn Roe v. Wade outright, or at least weaken it every chance he gets.

I loved how during his hearings, he claimed the extreme views he espoused were simply trying to get a job during the Reagan years. Now, of course, when he's interviewing for the most important job of his life, he says those views were bullshit and this is the real him. If he lied before, why should we believe him now? (See, e.g., Bush, George W.; Cheney, Dick; Iraq; WMD; al-Qaeda/Saddam, etc.)

I don't know about you, but I can still list all the organizations of which I've been a member. I find it hard to believe Alito couldn't recall having joined a racist, sexist campus group. Even the mouth-breathers remember the day they officially became Klansmen.