One reason Rove is such a staunch neocon is his homophobia, a condition that typically leads its hosts into the darkest realms of hardcore right wing mania.

Last night Sheryl Crow and Laurie David got a glimpse into the severity of Rove's neurosis. Read about it here.

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Either the "Free Market" always works itself out, or employers don't have the right to fire employees.
The right wing wants it both ways.


Good riddance, Mush Mouth

CBS and MSNBC dumped Don "Mush Mouth" Imus because neither network could survive airing his show without the ad revenue they'd lose if they did. It wasn't a decision based on morality, or social responsibility. It was based on economics. Simple as that.

Some think Imus has been deprived of his First Amendment rights, but he has not. Remember - civil liberties are freedoms you have that (supposedly) protect you from the government... Imus hasn't been charged with any crime. It's not the government punishing him. It's his employers. And, just as you can't expect the same privacy at your job you can expect in your home (again, supposedly), your freedom of speech at work is trumped by your employer's rights. An employer can levy her or his own rights against you, just as MSNBC and CBS did with MarbleMouth.

If your teenager works in McDonald's, and is fired for telling customers, "Burger King is a lot better than this crap," or, "hey, at least our french fry cooks aren't wetbacks," I doubt you'd get very far trying to recover damages from McDonald's for firing your kid.

This "I-Mess," as Olbermann calls it, serves as a fine example of capitalism at work; it should be embraced by the right wing as such. It was, after all, the market working itself out. Manufacturers and customers are only two components of a market; let us not forget about the employer-employee relationship -- just as much a part of any market as the manufacturer-client relationship.

But the choir of right-wing noise makers have conveniently changed their tune for the moment. Instead of shouting, "the market has again worked itself out," too many of them are singing "hypocrisy! The liberal media are having it both ways!" Imus, they remind us, was only repeating what hip-hop/rap stars say in their music. FOX News, talk radio, and the editorialists of various "news"papers have expressed this sentiment for nearly a week now.

They obviously think the majority of their audience is dumb.

Usually, the right wing wisdom machine (sic) reliably reminds us why a free market is such a grand thing: it's a self-regulating entity. No matter what bumps lie in the proverbial road, the truly free market always "works itself out." This obvious fact is a reliable fall-back for the right.

For instance, if Limbaugh was wrong for asking a black woman to take a bone out of her nose, or for suggesting a Latino runner won a marathon because an immigration official chased him the last ten miles, then, say the neoconanderthals, "the market would've taken care of itself." I.e., either he'd have been fired by an employer fully in its right to dump him, or he'd have eventually lost enough listeners to become nonviable economically. "The market didn't negatively react, his employer didn't fired him, and therefore it was OK." And, technically, they are correct.

Why? Because the free market does always work itself out. Oh, not in a way that preserves (or restores) what most would define as ethical behavior. But in a way that preserves itself.

Which is why an honest FOX News would use this episode to illustrate the virtues of the free market, and then move on.

Wait -- did I just say, "an honest FOX News"??? HA!! I need a minute...

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Naturally, the second try didn't work either. Whatever is happening during the YouTube conversion, it totally fucks up the sound. Most places I've looked online address video quality issues and audio/video sync, but no sites discussing the major drop in audio quality i'm seeing (hearing) here.

Anyway, for my last attempt of the evening, I converted the applause into mono and removed the "ambience" sound effect. And, oh yes, Pinnacle Studio is fucking up. Again. The video disappears at 1:41 - only a black screen - and nothing I was doing seemed to fix it....


So I've had to build up the thing from scratch again.

Here goes nothing... the audio has been simplified, so it should work this time around. Unless that loss-of-sound from the YouTube conversion had nothing to do with the ditched "ambience."

Rosie O'Donnell, you're embarrassing America's progressives

We don't need a liberal Ann Coulter to bring us down.

ROFLMAO!

My wife and I speak Spanish at home. It's her first language; I learned it in Panama. And we have this let's-poke-fun-at-a-certain-relative inside joke where I speak it, but with the worst possible accent ever. As "gringo" as I can sound. Yes, making fun of a family member. So what?

Anyway, you can imagine our delight when we saw this video of Newt reading Spanish from a teleprompter. Oh my fucking god, it's a classic. Barney the White House pooch speaks more Spanish than this testicularly-challenged/high-voiced neoconanderthal.

Bwah ha ha!


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ADDENDUM:

What a disaster. Apparently the YouTube conversion drastically altered the clip's audio. On YouTube the thing is 90% sound effects, 10% Gingrich speech.

So far very few views, and one very low review (can you blame the guy?).

A quasi-educated guess? The "Gingrich" voice (mine) speech was in mono, but the sound effects (ambience and applause) were in stereo, and this mono/stereo mix doesn't convert too well into Flash (or whatever it is YouTube used).

Working on the YouTube video right now...

SECOND ADDENDUM:

Deleted original video from YouTube, resubmitted. Fingers crossed.

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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?

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.

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!

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.

• 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.

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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