Jeez...

Six months since my last post? My, how time flies when one is truly disgusted.

Part I - Obama, Son of bush?

First off, we have President Obama, who seems bent on becoming bush Dark. His administration -- campaign promises to the contrary notwithstanding -- has failed to do anything about Gitmo, has tried to support the bush junta's claims to "zeckative privalige" in dealing with secrecy, and has now proposed weakening -- they call it "adjusting" or "tweaking" -- the Miranda warnings, saying that alleged terrorists should be questioned without being informed of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. The last time this horrific idea popped up was during the regime of St Ronnie; back then, everyone -- even the police -- opposed weakening the Miranda ruling.

For those not old enough to remember 1966 (and who have never seen any of the ubiquitous cop shows on TV), the Miranda warnings are a recitation of Constitutional rights that a police officer must give a criminal suspect, under certain circumstances (not, as seen on TV, each and every time a cop arrests someone). The warnings were initially criticized by then-President Richard M Nixon (who certainly knew a bit about criminal behavior) as "handcuffing" the police. Research since then has shown, however, that the conviction rates actually increased post-Miranda, in that cops actually had to, you know, investigate and gather evidence and all that good stuff, instead of relying on a coerced confession.

The far Reich-wing fanatics seem to have found a new ally in their effort to demonize anyone darker than Edgar Winter.

Part II - The Watch List and the Second Amendment

Now this one is just too bizarre to believe, yet it is really happening. The NRA's Congressional butt-kissers are fighting a proposal to ban folks on the terrorism watch list from buying firearms. Yup, Lindsey Graham and his gun-nut lunatic friends want to ensure that even though the United States demonizes anyone darker than Edgar Winter (see above), those Allah-lovin' terrists will still be able to pack heat.

And they claim to "love America..."

Part III - Palin & Co

Good God, is this woman still around? Why hasn't she been indicted?!?

And I just LOVE the way Bristol -- who is only 19 years old -- was spotted in a bar after giving one of her patented "let's all be nice and moral now, shall we?" speeches. Even the flippin' Free Republic(!) was annoyed.

I wish the Wasilla Hillbillies would go the hell away.

Part IV - "Family Values" and MC Steele*

Lordy, Lordy, where to start? Yet another "Family Values" Rethuglican has been busted with his boytoy, in this case George Alan Rekers. Rekers, a Baptist minister and anti-gay activist, got caught with a professional rentboy who touts his " 'smooth, sweet, tight ass' and 'perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)' and explains he is 'sensual,' 'wild,' and 'up for anything' — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay.' as the Miami New Times put it.

And Mikey Steele asked the party of fiscal responsibility to get him a private plane, like the rest of the rich kids, before he got caught splurging (and perhaps splooging) at a lesbian B&D club.

(* I'm not sure who dubbed him thus, but I first saw it at Dependable Renegade)

Part V - Arizona Wants Me...

...but only if I'm white. The great State of Arizona, the state where Sheriff Joe Arpaio houses inmates in a "tent city" and issues pink underwear, has a new law, allowing the Arizona Schutzstaffel (or ASS) and the Redneck Gestapo to stop anyone darker than Edgar Winter to verify that such "messican bandito" is in the country legally. Now, you just know that only the brown/black/red crowd will be stopped under the provisions of this law since, as one blogger pointed out, there aren't many illegal Canadian or Polish nationals in or around Phoenix.

And what about McCain's adopted daughter Bridget? How many times is she gonna get stopped before Daddy pitches a fit?

__________

And so, in conclusion, let me say that I am disgusted at the current political climate in this country, I am disgusted at the level to which personal responsibility has sunk, and I am disgusted at what has become of our nation of laws.

I wonder if Firestarter 5 will let me crash with him for a few days...

"Prearing for the Last Attack," Part Whatever...

A number of times in the past, I have accused the bush administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, and/or FEMA of "preparing for the last attack," a phrase I swiped from security guru Bruce Schneier.

A recent blog post at the NY Times shows Schneier and I are not alone in this belief. Writing in Jet Lagged, commercial airline pilot Patrick Smith (who also writes Salon's "Ask the Pilot" column), makes the point that the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were successful not because the terrorists were able to smuggle weapons aboard commercial jets, but because the hijackers broke the existing paradigm of hijackings:

In years past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of “passive resistance.” All of that changed forever the instant American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the north tower. What weapons the 19 men possessed mattered little; the success of their plan relied fundamentally on the element of surprise. And in this respect, their scheme was all but guaranteed not to fail.

Smith continues:

For several reasons — particularly the awareness of passengers and crew — just the opposite is true today. Any hijacker would face a planeload of angry and frightened people ready to fight back. Say what you want of terrorists, they cannot afford to waste time and resources on schemes with a high probability of failure. And thus the September 11th template is all but useless to potential hijackers.

Yet it is this "template" to which DHS and TSA fanatically adhere.

Smith's piece -- which should be another must-read (Gawd, I'm finding a lot of those these days) -- is a thoughtful, detailed analysis of why our current airline security program is destined to fail.

Mustang Bobby: Double Play!

Mustang Bobby has consecutive postings that are well worth reading: the first on Bigus Dickus and the Pentagon's "terrorist credit checks", and the second on "Spocko", a blogger who's fighting with MouseCo, ABC (as one wag put it, "Assimilated By Conservatives"), and KSFO, over the "extreme" comments by the station's neocon hosts.

In the Pentagon controversy, Bobby makes this observation:

Perhaps the most outrageous part of this maddening assault on our rights and our intelligence (pun intended) is the last one where the Vice President suggests -- hell, he proclaims -- that the opponents of the president and his divine revelations are playing into the hands of al-Qaida and other evil-doers. The truth is that it is the Bush administration who has lent encouragement to the terrorists with their weak and vacillating approach to fighting them, not to mention accomplishing their putative goal of destroying America from within by letting us do it ourselves with anti-democratic tactics like spying on our own citizens and bellicose bullying by the neocons like Dick Cheney.

Of course, the "bellicose bullying" is going to continue until (a) Cheney, bush, and company are impeached by the House, tried by the Senate, and removed from office, or (b) bush's successor is sworn in.

As for the Spocko saga, Bobby says:

Those of us who have supported Spocko, either with blog support or financial aid, know that this is just the start, and getting the attention of a major media outlet like the Times is a good step forward. Spocko also encourages bloggers to become well-informed about how they can defend themselves against the attacks of the likes of the trolls at KSFO and their minions in the legal profession. Education is the ultimate weapon and a bulging-biceps defense of bloggers' rights under the copyright law's Fair Use doctrine is part of that.

The mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjits have gotten away with their shit -- aided and abetted by the bushtards -- for so long, they see absolutely nothing wrong with it. Civility just does not work with these morons:

KSFO’s Lee Rodgers: “Well I haven’t apologized for anything and I am not going to start with you. How the hell do you like that, creep?”

We're supposed to reach out to these oxygen thieves to promote bipartisanship? I call bullshit.

I wish I thought we would reach out to them as they "reached out" to us in 2000 and 2004... with the same vitriol and hatred, the same lack of respect, the same sarcasm and cynicism they showed us.

But we won't, and I know it.

Because WE are better than that.