3/30/2007 10:32:00 AM
Barbara and David Mikkelson, creators of snopes.com
If you can get past the sixth-grade composition class that precedes every UL description, snopes.com ain't half bad. For the most part.
But occasionally their political bias seeps through, and - like when a toddler plays innocent after stealing away with a cookie - the whole show can be pretty funny to witness.
In the site's "what's new" section, the Mikkelsons have posted yet another letter wherein a GI's inability to distinguish between reality and his own predispositions front as propaganda. In this latest "urban legend," some chaplain complains that news media and politicians "are making it sound like Walter Reed is a terrible place and the staff here has been abusing our brave wounded soldiers."
The problem is, no politician, nor anyone in the mainstream media is saying what this officer claims they're saying. The news organizations breaking, and then covering, the Bldg 18 story have been quite responsible in clarifying the facility in question is actually outside of the WRAMC. And no politician living with 50 miles of DC could get away with such an obvious slipup.
Neither the chaplain nor the Mikkelsons are perceptive enough to have noticed the difference between their own inferences, and others' observations.
It's a lot like the Bernard Goldberg "stuff I remember noticing" brand of objectivity. For me this sort of thing underscores what I already know about the right wing - they're empirically challenged.
No mainstream news outlet has said about the Walter Reed facility what the chaplain has apparently inferred from his observations of the story. But, that doesn't matter to the Mikkelsons. They've found another path for their cookie stealing. By elevating Chaplain Kallerson's letter to "urban legend" status, the dynamic duo at snopes have allowed themselves a pattern of weaselness they probably aren't aware many of us can see right through.
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3/21/2007 11:38:00 AM
Welcome to the world of OVERSIGHT, ya dopes.
When it comes to talking points, Karl Rove and company probably learned many moons ago that it's much better to unleash Bush late with honed platitudes, than prematurely with comically mispronounced, seldom understood arguments. At 72+ hours, however, the newfangled tack is doubly delayed.
I suspect Bush isn't in the best of moods these days - no doubt more distracted than usual by those "mean" liberals and their heinous "oversight" monstrosity. There's no real mystery as to why the delay.
But, after seeing the new angle of attack, I have to think even Karl Rove is being ruinously distracted these days. Essentially, the best thing the BFEE could come up with is to say Democrats are being big bad mean partisans. That's it.
Sure, Bush's delivery of the message is more like that of a pissed off yard dog, backed into a corner, than a beaten streetfighter begging for mercy. But the message is inescapable - the DNC is playing politics, and "We ain't a-scared."
In other words, they're guilty as sin.
Obviously the BFEE is growing weak. They are shitting in their pants, and rightly so. They've finally started to get a taste of the shit they fed the Dems in the late '90s over Clinton's perjury, which, to use the neocon lingo of the day, was about "no underlying crime."
- To watch this gaggle of morons self-destruct...
- To witness what good the GOP once stood for being consumed by its own gluttony...
- To see so many on the right disown this administration...
- is it not sweet?
....
3/17/2007 04:15:00 AM
It's Official - Plame was Undercover
What? The Right Wing Lied to Us?
Plame was not just undercover when Rove et al exposed her - her status was Nonofficial Cover. Basically, this status is the deepest of cover, and gives the CIA a sort of plausible deniability when it comes to acknowledging their spies. For this reason, it is technically true to say "she was not under official cover."
Note that this point is included when the right wing talking machine prevaricates Plame's status. That is, those on the right who understand the truth, and who don't make it a habit to constantly lie (I know, they're fewer and fewer anymore) won't simply say "Plame was not undercover," because that'd be a lie. What they say is, "she was not under official cover."
Again, her status was non-official cover. It's the deepest cover a spy can possess.
Naturally, the right wing idiots will keep making this spin. But, if their audience was too dumb to figure it out in the first place, they'll likely buy into the "everyone but FOX and Limbaugh are left wing liars" bullshit.
....3/17/2007 04:11:00 AM
TAKE ME OFF THE NEW BLOGGER FORMAT!
Hey, bloggercom, you're "we're switching from BETA" shit sucks ass.
I want my old blogger back. Once I signed up to try the "beta" new version, I was locked in. Now that blogger has gone "alpha" with their "Google owns us" schtick, there's no switching back.
Hosebags.
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3/08/2007 04:41:00 PM
What? Now I've got to add someone else to my Homosexual Mafia page?
In case you haven't heard, a Marine recently lauded by Shemp Hannity, CharlatAnn Coulter, and Billow Really is actually a gay porn star!
This guy kinda looks dirty and gay...
The rapture-ublicans are getting hilariouser and hilariouser by the minute! Sooooo very perceptive these clowns.
I'm telling you - the sooner the left sees how absurd the right wing talk machine is, the sooner they'll stop cowering in fear every time idiots like O'Reilly yell at them.
@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@
Can you imagine Shemp Retarditty talking Sanchez up at the family dinner table the night of his encounter with the Corporal? Picture Shemp's poor family, smiling and nodding at his every platitude, his obtuse string of grade-school descriptions. "Such a great American. He's really smart. And really, really a great man. A handsome man with a really really great future. An absolute hero..."
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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3/07/2007 04:54:00 PM
Whaddya hear? Whaddya Say?
Scooter Libby - who once worked for Marc Rich (go crunch that one into your poli-alliances matrix) - has been found guilty on four of five counts. If I had the time and still put out the occasional Faux News page I'd do the obvious "LIBBY NOT GUILTY on one count" headline. Or maybe, based on the one juror who obviously fucked up when she contacted some right wing media outlet, it'd be "MEDICAL STUDY INDICATES ONE IN TWELVE DC RESIDENTS SUFFER FROM ACUTE" (something anti-raptureublican).
But, with full time school, training for the new job (which will likely put me in Iraq for 12 months soon), and keeping these bombs on the bad guys, I've barely got time to breathe.
Momentary gloating now ends.
The same can't be said for the neocon nerd squad over at Ubersite. Apparently I pissed off the resident UberGOPhers after creating an ode to Michael Weiner's incessant "Homosexual Mafia" references (it is still hilarious every time I hear "Savage" - in all earnestness - use that term), and submitted the new page to the popular site. Shit, I finally find a day to something creative online and the Uberunemployed shit all over it. Then again, as one of them noted, I've only posted on U 6 times (yes, apparently this is a bad thing). But the new page is at least as decent as my Pulp Dicktion page, of which most of them approved (after brilliantly realizing "self-plagiarism" is impossible). Maybe they haven't moved beyond dial-up yet (the page won't look too cool without some bandwidth).
Whatever. I'll be back with my 7th post in another 8 months.
Yes, that is Drea De Matteo on Tony's lap! Holy sheep shit, Fatman! Me sale el corazon! Mama mia. I'd almost leave my wife for you.
Okay, maybe not. But it's fun to think about.
Apparently Adriana La Cerva is back into Carmela and Tony's dream sequences. And rumor is Tony's biting the dust this time around. Yet the show says everyone will be happy with the show's end. So, if both are true, then obviously we can expect more coma/dream sequence allegorical stuff. Only this time Tony takes a heavenly detour around Blundiablo's premises. Which would be fine with me, though I'd have to endure my wife's criticism throughout. She doesn't dig the dream sequences so much; I'm a big fan.
But I don't think Tony Soprano will die. There's another, respectable way out. Not that I know exactly what that is - I'm no writer (obviously). But I think there'll be another way out for Tony and famiglia.
Ah shit - let's give it a shot.
- Tony falls ill. Has to decide whether to set up a passing of the reins (to Chris), which could be construed by Phil and clan as a sign of weakness, or suck it up and press on throughout the chemotherapy or whatever medical shit he has to endure without publicly acknowledging the grimness of his situation.
- AJ is being consumed by the city and the urge to fill his pop's shoes. Not only is he turning into a more hopelessly lost bum case, he's wrecking his father's rep with lame attempts to walk the Soprano walk. AJ is nearly killed.
- Money is found. LOTS of money. Enough to keep Tony and his family happy for decades. This money, of course, was Livia's. Tony's beloved, sweet ma. Ironically, though Janet resurfaces in the hopes of intestacy (and thus a third of the $), Livia actually had a valid will. And her sole heir? Why, Tony.
- Tony passes the torch to Chris, works his magic with the five families, and gets an OK to "retire" (like his Uncle in upstate NY). Takes his family and new fortune to Arizona. Or San Diego.
- Where he sells lawn chairs.
....
2/20/2007 09:30:00 AM
Tell me again, who hates the troops?
For obvious reasons I'm sensitive to these things.
And the neocons are showing they have absolutely no love whatsoever for us.
"That's ridiculous"
Information most of us "old timers" already know is here. If you're one of the truly ignorant few who still thinks neocons love our troops, it'll open your eyes.
You give your best years to the DOD, or - like too many - sacrifice limb, mental health, and even life for your nation. But when it's all over, if the benefits you've earned are your only safeguard, if you have no other form of insurance or livelihood, you're fucked. And don't go blaming the recruiter. He probably believed all that horseshit too.
Simply put, once your deployability ceases, so does your status as a first-rate citizen. In the DOD's eyes.
Most of us spend the first few years of our military career "young, dumb, and full of come." 90% confidence, 5% brains, 5% experience. It hasn't been that long - I remember. Stories that would make Courtney Love blush. Crazy shit I'd not believe had I not seen it myself.
Young, dumb, and full of come. It's a great time. But it's a delusional time as well.
"Vets got it great. What're they bitchin about?"
Then you get older, move up in the ranks. You get married, have kids. Your family suffers when you're off gallivanting about in Turkey, Sicily or Panama. You see a fellow GI die.
Some of us get wise and successfully land a second career after a 20+ years in the service. Get a good job because you wised up and got a degree, or by virtue of the fact you've spent 20+ years honing a set of high-demand, esoteric skills.
We all plan to enjoy the second half of our productive adulthoods. For many of us beyond the young, dumb... stage, the formula for a post-military career is simple. Something to get beyond relying on a mediocre basic pay formula, a guaranteed system of mediocre medical care, and some pretty cool stories for the grandkids.
But some don't make it that far. Some are stopped short of reaching such a ripe point in their careers. By war. It is, after all, what we're all here for.
Anyone genuinely pro-military, but unaware of the reality of the situation, would be appalled by the shitty conditions vets who have nothing more than their status as veteran are forced to endure.
"My micropenis got me out of Vietnam."
Fixing the veteran support system would require two things: genuine appreciation for their sacrifices, and leadership with enough competency to fix the system. Whenever it happens, it ain't gonna be easy.
The system is broke. If a political party truly loves American GIs, it will get off its ass and fix their safety net.
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1/14/2007 11:00:00 AM
Here it is on video.
Ha! This wouldn't be so funny if it hadn't happened on Murdoch's watch.
:)
11/18/2006 08:18:00 AM
Step One: Ditch the conservative formula.
Step two: Give us something to think about.
As you know, Air America Radio has filed for bankruptcy. And now it seems Al Franken is planning on leaving Air America Radio. Is progressive radio falling flat? And if so, why?
I have a good idea why.
We lefties aren't content hearing someone tell us something we already know. Especially if the people telling us what we already know are making no attempt to add humor/insight/creativity into the mix.
Consider the following radio hosts:
Rhodes. Seder. Garofalo.
Limbaugh. Hannity. O'Reilly.
What do all these radio talk show personalities have in common? Easy - you already know they're going to say before they say it.
How do the first three differ from the second three? Again, the answer is easy: ratings.
In order to entertain a liberal, you've got to be creative. Not so for the right-wing moonbats. Give 'em Sean Hannity. No intellectual stimulation required.
One of the biggest reasons right wing radio has flourished over the past decade is because it is so easy to do. Put a guy on a mic, have him tell his audience what they want to hear. Stick it on a cheap (read, a.m.) radio station. Comfort food for the soul.
It doesn't take a great deal of money or creativity to occupy the conservative mind:
- World Wrestling Federation.
- A two-millennium-old story about a dude's wife turning into a pillar of salt.
- Bass fishing.
But we lefties don't get the same kick out of mindless predictability. Teach me something. Show me a new way of looking at cartoons. Or anthropology. Or hell, just make me laugh.
In fact, the best formula for success in the world of left-leaning political discourse -- at least in recent years -- has been humor. Stewart and Colbert on TV; Stephanie Miller on the radio, for example.
This is not to say we're not a serious bunch. But humor can be a vehicle for more serious material. Consider Mark Twain. Rent Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Or just watch Keith Olbermann for a while.
When he was on, Al Franken could be pretty damn funny himself. And original. But he was fairly temperamental, and too often his show would get predictable. And boring. Not Hannity boring, mind you, but definitely not the type of thing I'd prefer over Radiohead, or an unedited Boondocks episode.
I couldn't tell you the first thing about running a radio station. But I knows what I likes. And hearing someone tell me what I already know, or preach to me what I already believe, gets old. Fast.
I'm no conservative. Give me something to think about.
..!..
Believe it or not, AFN (the DoD's radio network) airs Ed Schultz daily, right before Limbaugh's show. I got to hear good ol' boy Ed a few times when I was deployed this summer.
11/09/2006 04:40:00 PM
I should've kept better track of some of the insane shit neocons had been blogging up until last night -- some of their predictions about the election are now hilarious. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but it's not so much their predictions providing the humor as it is the overly confident manner in which they made them.
There's a negative correlation between introspection and personal resolve. The less you're able to objectively examine yourself, the more likely you are to misinterpret, or underestimate, your weaknesses. Progressives tend to be more introspective; neocons resolute. And a steadfast resolve looks great in a victor's past, but it can be a laughing stock when coupled with bravado and then examined in light of such a political upset.
And so, now that the obnoxiously vociferous right has been crushed, it's time for a laugh or two:
My favorite, from a week ago, came from the "mind" (sic) of Icythus, as posted on redstate.com.
Quote:
"Stick A Fork In Jim Webb
(Religion/mythology-fueled, nonsensical diatribe about
conveniently-out-of-context excerpts from some of Webb's decades-old works of
fiction, the existence of which the GOP would have us believe they just
discovered last month)
Game over, man. Game over."
See what I mean? These guys are no better at seeing the writing at the wall than they are at planning and executing wars. If not for the vaccuum created in 1987 when Reagan successfully vetoed Congress's attempt to make FCC policy into law, they'd never have scared the masses into voting the GOP into power 12 years ago.
Incidentally, is it not ironic that nearly two decades after Reagan waxed libertarian via said veto the "freedom loving" (sic) GOP is wielding the FCC like a machete?
Now that the Dems are coming back into some power, perhaps the mistaken view of many foreigners -- that we are obtuse on the issue of genuine freedom -- can be corrected. It is not we, the citizens, who are so misguided on the issue of genuine freedom of speech, but rather the majority of politicians representing us for the past 12 years. The fundamentalist, sex-fearing neocon politicians, and their blind followers.
Like Icythus.
Here's an interesting read, straight from FreeTARD central.
"Montana Doesn't Look That Bad!"
At this time there are 99 responses to the original poster, who actually showed some admirable enthusiasm (or was it foolish extrapolation?). What really makes this thread interesting is following the conversation that followed. You can hear the bubble burst at post #81.
Youch!
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11/08/2006 06:07:00 PM
Guess this Newsmax cover was a bit premature, huh?
Naturally, being the hypocrite he is, Allen will demand a full recount, and being the hypocrites they are, the GOP will fully support the bigot's demand.
Football-lugging, bravado-riddled, blockhead
Allen won't go down muttering Macaca. Oh no,
George of the Bungle will whimper away in true-
blue GOP fashion: blubbering Ma-wah-wah!
ROFLMAO!!!
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11/08/2006 05:42:00 PM
HA!
Guess Arizonans got tired of your "Whatever it Takes" philosophy, eh fatty?
I'm lovin' it.
..!..
11/08/2006 05:40:00 PM
Webb 1,187,229 votes
Allen 1,180,396 votes
Webb wins VA Senate race by 6,833 votes.
10/20/2006 01:51:00 AM
Despite what many think about him, I happen to believe Chris Matthews is a moderate-to-liberal Democrat who purposely leans harder on liberals and Democrats than he does on those with which he tends to disagree. Maybe he wants to toughen up the left; maybe he's just a big pussy. But the truth is, when you watch him in action, you can't help but notice Matthews' red herrings, straw men, and otherwise inarguable statements disappear once the (R) guest shows up. What's worse, when the (R) is someone with half a brain, and a military background, "The Screamer" folds up into a fetal position and gives the guest a free ride.Thus, the hour-long John McCain stump speech Chris Matthews allowed to run on his Hardball (sic) program last night was an interesting watch.
Not being a neocon, and therefore not averse to considering opposing viewpoints, the political programs I find most interesting are often those that make me think. Which, as many of you know, is exactly why most of us find Sean Hannity so laughable, and the reason right wingers like Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy, and John McLaughlin are infinitely more interesting than Limbaugh, Ingraham, Weiner-Savage, and the rest.*
On Hardball (sic) last night McCain got away with flip-flopping (changed his stated opinion on gay marriage ten minutes after first expressing it), pandering to the military more than once, and weaseling his way out of actually answering a student's question about his recent, unexplained acceptance of the "revised" U.S. policy on torture.
The scary thing is McCain was able to feel out the audience, answer a couple questions in ways you'd not expect most Rapture-ublicans to do. For instance, he stated he lacks confidence in Donald Rumsfeld (interestingly, between his first, and then revamped position on gay marriage). He was therefore able to appeal to more than just the hard right. A dyed-in-the-wool politician, McCain said whatever it took to win over the crowd for which he was performing, in large part thanks to Matthews' absence from the proverbial mound from which he putatively delivers hard balls. John McCain easily came across as someone who could win much of the moderate-to-liberal vote in 2008.
But, fortunately, the GOP won't let him win that nomination. McCain's biggest obstacle will be the party to which he still belongs.
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* Note that the most popular conservative radio talk shows are those with the least intellectually stimulating hosts. And the right wonders why we consider most of them dumb.
10/12/2006 05:02:00 AM
Feels great to be back.
In addition to resting & reacquainting myself with my family, I've been catching up on the headlines...
Am I to believe the Democrats are in their best pre-election position since the early 90's? Have I been gone so long I've forgotten how they tend to drop the ball, even when it's been given to them on a silver platter?
Dems take over the House, and possibly the Senate? These talking heads seem convinced.
Me - I'll believe it when I see it.
How I don't miss ye whatsoever...
More to come.
....
