Six and one half, does in the other ...Tell that to the captain's mother...
Well, apparently "The Sinclair Broadcasting Group" is getting in on the 'we know what news is good for you, and what isn't' act.. According to Moveon:
Tonight, ABC's Nightline is doing something beautiful and courageous. The entire show will consist of a reading of the names of each soldier who has fallen in Iraq, while his or her photograph shows on the screen.
But ABC affiliate stations around the country will be prohibited from airing the special. That's because they're owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, a company whose executives have given tens of thousands to Republicans and whose right-wing allies tout it as "the next Fox."
So, anyway, after re-reading my rant about the March for Women's lives again last night, I decided it would only be fair to include a couple more links for you pro-lifers.. Just to be fair, and "big tent" about the whole thing... I'll say this, they sure are thought-provoking!
Save The Preconceived Babies! ...(Thoughtful and caring...Although I have to protest their dangerous myopia when it comes to the cutting-edge issue of spermatazooan rights)
Seriously, though, some of this stuff just satirizes itself. For instance, the "American Family Assosciation" had, as part of their one-day grumbly, bitchy coverage of the million plus march ("no firm numbers were available, and estimates ranged from the march organizers' claim of 'over a million' to other estimates of 'ten thousand'..") they literally had as one of the major stories related to the march "Pro-Abortion Marchers Target Pro-Life Protester" Shocking, you say? Yes, well, apparently, this poor pro-life protester, who came all the way from somewhere in Kansas (probably Rev. Fred Phelps territory, but that's just my guess) to peacefully scream at pro-choice protesters and call them "heathen sinning fornicating animals", well, she was "targeted" by pro-choice people! How was she targeted, you ask? She... ---be sitting down, now--- noticed when she got home that someone had stuck a pro-choice sticker on her back! Gasp! The horror!
"And those nasty pro-choice people say that only we are capable of violence, what with our people shooting doctors and firebombing clinics and all that. At least we're not tagging people's backs with stickers! Shame On You!"
Well, unfortunately, the AFA has taken that story off their site, probably because someone over there realized it was fucking ridiculous, even for them.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the trip to DC was the cab ride to the airport. We flew out of Dulles, so it was a good hour in the cab. My wife immediately engaged the cab driver in a discussion of the weekend's events. I was sitting in such a way so that I could see the various angels and other religious iconography on the cab driver's dashboard, yet my wife could not. I cringed as I heard her begin discussing the march with him-- I knew the cab ride was going to be long, and I was hoarse and tired and really not up for an hour long argument with someone who was on the other side...
Well, the lesson to yours truly is, I should not pre-judge people, for religion or anything else. The guy was intelligent and sensible and pretty funny. First thing he said when my wife told him we were there to march for choice was, "Good. If you had said you were on the other side, I woulda put you out of the cab right here" ... He then began talking about what a weird place DC is, and how, as a cab driver, he sees all kinds of things that people wouldn't believe. He told us that most of the "Family Values" politicians are hypocrites and drunks-- "just like how you meet the most devils in church".. (Have to remember that one) well, that didn't really surprise me. He told some great stories, though, and-- unlike the high-caliber lies that are coming out of Washington these days- his stories made a lot of sense.
He said that, as a cab driver, he heard things no one else did- first off, he catches all these politicians when they're drunk, or with their illicit lovers, or whatever-- and, like most arrogant sumbitches in this country, they figure that a peon cab driver isn't paying attention, and most likely doesn't even speak much English. He also mentioned how, in the run-up to the 1996 election, he gave a ride to two Republicans discussing strategy for the Dole Campaign...
"I asked them, 'do you think he has any chance of winning'?" he said.. "'hell no'. They replied-- 'But Clinton will never finish his second term, anyway... Remember these initials-- M.L.'"...
In effect, the cab driver said, the whole Monica Lewinsky thing had been planned, in advance. The GOP knew who she was, and that she would try to seduce the President, and that he would take her up on it and then lie about it... So they arranged to have her work in close proximity to him. Okay, maybe this was all a big bunch of BS. But this guy had no reason to make a story like that up.. Looking at the Monica Lewinsky timeline, maybe what happened was that the information was already out in some circles by that time.. Who knows. But I wouldn't be surprised if, on some level, the whole thing was some kind of set-up. Guess they misjudged one thing, however-- the American people's capacity for outrage over a friggin blowjob was not as great as they suspected... (Unfortunately, it seems that the American people's capacity for outrage at being lied into a pointless war has been misjudged by some of us, as well.)
The cab driver told us some other interesting and funny stories. He said he picked up one woman, a pretty, young, right wing pundit type, who was very drunk, and told him it was 'her birthday'... She said all her family was far away, and would the cab driver please 'sing her happy birthday'... Well, the cab driver properly responded, "Sorry ma'am, but I am a cab driver, and not some kind of singing minstrel, and no, I will not sing you happy birthday" ...so, apparently, this right-wing punditress pleaded more and more, please, sing me happy birthday, and as she did so, one leg went to the left side of the cab, and one to the right... until she was saying "please... sing me happy birthday" while giving the cab driver a full-on beaver flash in his rear-view mirror.... He said "she wanted more than happy birthday, I'll tell you that".. He said he knew who she was, but as part of his professional ethics (at least someone in DC still has them) he could not tell us who this sloppy drunk, slutty right-wing punditress was...
...but I bet it was Michelle Malkin.
..Either that or Ann "The Deadhead" Coulter. But that's a rant for another day. Before we got out of the cab and flew the hell away from Foggy Bottom, my wife told the cab driver "You should write a book.".. He responded, "I'm just a cab driver. Who the hell is going to believe a cab driver?"
Warning: This Blog Has Lots O' Graphic Language. I swear like a sailor in regular conversation, so there's no reason to expect any different when I'm talking about things that piss me off. If you want G-Rated reading, go to the barney blog. Feh.
Wide Open Falsehoods and Clandestine Truths,
Rival to the end in a series of Duels...
Okay, more recollections from DC... What a weird town. It had been over 20 years since I was last there, when I went with some school trip. In 1982 I thought the president was a dangerous, fundamentalist moron. The more things change..
Anyway, I thought, the first time I was there, that it seemed like someone had slapped down a whole bunch of roman-style marble architecture in the middle of a swamp. Which is pretty much the case. Well, maybe I wasn't that astute when I was in Junior High. Undoubtedly I was probably more focused on some large breasts in a fuzzy, tight sweater.
Which brings me to the subject of today's rant, which is (mostly) sex.. Because we all know that's what's got the pro-life kooks knickers in a bunch, really. It was fairly early on Saturday night when it became apparent that there was a "Rock For Life" event happening in our hotel, with some "Pro-Life Teens" coming to "Rock out for Jesus".. Not long after that, the fetus trucks arrived, presumably bringing their fetus guitars, fetus drums, fetus amps, etc. It was not the last time we would see the fetus trucks.
What, pray tell, is a fetus truck? It's a truck, with a big picture of a fetus on the side. An aborted fetus, presumably... however judging by the ones I saw, those were not your normal, first-trimester inch-long fetuses with the ancestral gills... In fact, one suspects they took a picture of a stillborn baby and photoshopped it to make it seem like this is what goes on every day at planned parenthood. What a crock of shit.
When I mentioned that the fetus trucks were in town, the inevitable reaction was-- fetus trucks? Are they full of fetuses? Are they selling fetuses? Do they play little tinkly-bell fetus music as they toddle around the neighborhood?
The fetus people were, of course, lining the course of the march... all 200 of them, compared, again, to the 1.2 Million of us "out of touch, elite extremists" who support the right of women to make up their own damn minds about this stuff. They screamed, yelled, whined, got very red in the face, and basically expressed their view that people should "Just stop having sex". The solution to everything, apparently. Well, I can tell you one thing- looking at most of the pro-lifers, with their thick glasses, pallow, acne-ridden skin and bad 1974 haircuts... I don't think they're having much sex, themselves. Which may be, I suspect, a big part of the problem.
While walking by the fetus people I tried to start my own chant... "One, two, three... Screw Your Theocracy!"... Unfortunately, it did not catch on. The fetus people seemed merely bewildered by it, I suspect because "Theocracy" is too big a word for most of them. I think they thought I was encouraging them to fuck a piece of furniture.
"See, Jebediah, this is exactly what I'm talkin' about. First they want the queers to be able to get married, and before ya know it, they'll be fornicating with animals, plants.. appliances.. Man-on-Barcalounger Sex, even. These folks must be stopped!"
So, okay, you've got the fetus trucks, ramblin' down the Highways of America with very graphic images on display 15 feet high.. Which is their First Amendment right. However, I suspect that if I tried to do the same with a picture of a soldier who got his face shot off in Vietnam, or one of those Memory Hole photos of a plane filled with coffins, I might run into some kind of trouble. And here's another thing- apparently, we have several legislators in several states preparing laws against "Drive-By Porn", which is, apparently, a big problem these days. You know, with all these in-car DVD players, apparently there is a whole segment of the population that is willfully and deliberately exposing 4-year olds in traffic jams to "Foreskin Gump" (tag line-"My Pants are like a box of chocolates") by displaying X-rated fare on the 3-inch-tall screens in their cars, in such a way that the unsuspecting occupants of nearby cars are totally unable to avoid being exposed to this obscene material...
...Yeah, right.
I'm sorry, but I just can't believe that is really a big problem out there in Amur'ca. First off, who the hell is watching porn in the back seat of their minivans? And why? Back in my day, we figured any guy who wanted to watch porn with his buddies, as opposed to by himself with a big tub of jergens as God intended, had somethin' a little.. uh... funny in mind. Are these families? Guys on the way to the game? Church groups? I'm trying to picture the scene in my head...
"Kids, if I feel anything else sticky hit the back of my neck, I'm turning this car around..."
Sounds to me like another case of the uptight busybodies with too much time on their hands, itching to pass some kind, any kind, of anti-porn legislation. But, okay, so I would accept that, if people really are driving around screening Big Trouble in Little Vagina in such a way that nearby drivers and passengers can't avoid seeing it, well, sure, that should probably warrrant some public sanction. Yet, then, why are the fetus trucks allowed to drive around with these graphic, bloody pictures that, in addition to totally misrepresenting what abortion is, are at least as "obscene" as two naked people fucking? I know, the pro-life people will say "those pictures are the truth"... Well, okay- so is the fucking.
Man, and I thought I liked Ashley Judd before. Michelle Malkin, on the other hand, is a complete idiot-- with her head ever-so firmly ensconced in her right-wing rectum. I knew that before, too-- but now she's gone after Ashley. What a crock. Listen to the smarmy-ass tone she uses, first to describe a few of the other folks who led the march...
In a sea of angry (Hillary Rodham Clinton), haggard (Cybill Shepherd) and ghoulish (Whoopi Goldberg) women shaking their fists and waving coat hangers, Ashley's pretty smile helped put a softer, gentler and more glamorous spin on the morbid march for "reproductive rights."
Sure, because who cares whether or not your message or cause -- in this case, quote-reproductive rights-unquote, is valid... when we're talking about women, the only thing that really matters is how they LOOK. Right? Hillary was "angry", Cybill Shepherd was "haggard", and Whoopi was "ghoulish".. Yeah, but none of them were stupid right-wing shills, now, were they?
Michelle does a nice job of condensing the message we (you know, Michelle, all 1.2 Million of us... Presumably we were all Ghoulish, Haggard and Angry, therefore you can ignore us as well.) who marched for choice were sending.. Here it is, at least how she heard it:
Ashley's message to millions of young American women and girls: Opposing the partial-birth abortion ban is fun! Morning-after pills are cool! Sex without consequences rules!
Yup. I was there, and I think those were the exact words Ashley Judd used. Ms. Malkin then goes on to launch into a diatribe about ultrasounds and fetuses and how Ashley Judd's mom is supposedly pro-life (Oh yeah? Well, George W. Bush's Mom is Pro-Choice.) which apparently negates anything and everything Ashley Judd has to say on the matter. Anyway, notice how Michelle Malkin bitches about morning after pills, then proceeds to talk about the "barbarity" of abortion at four weeks. Well, okay, so then support the use of the morning after pills, which stop the pregnancy when it is a pre-implanted fertilized egg, the size of a single cell! Oh, we couldn't do that, now, could we? Oh, noooo.
She even says Ashley Judd was "Traipsing" around with pro-choice activists... Traipsing! Jesus, Michelle, why don't you just call her a "whore" and a "slut", and get it over with.. (Better yet, leave it in an anonymous note on construction paper taped to her locker.. You fucking doofus.) Yes, when we get right down to it, it's not about rights, or freedom of individual conscience.. No, it's about how "You ought to keep those little legs crossed, there, Missy".. Right, Michelle?
Which brings us back to the subject of tonight's rant. The pro-life movement is anti-sex, and that's the long and short of it. If they were truly interested in preventing surgical abortions, they would support Plan B contraception, the morning after pill, or failing that, they would-- at the very least-- be working towards a time when everyone who wanted it had access to safe, effective and affordable birth control to prevent the pregnancies in the first place. But they don't, do they. In fact, the dirty little secret of the "Pro-Life" movement is that every single major Pro-Life organization in the USA is also virulently anti-birth control. That's right, they are across-the-board opposed to contraception, period.
Don't believe me? Well, first off, they universally define life as beginning at conception. Part of the legislative agenda is not only to criminalize abortion, but to criminalize the birth control pill, as well. That's why, if you really dig into "Pro-Life" literature, the Supreme Court decision they truly want to do away with, that preceded Roe v. Wade, is Griswold v. Connecticut, the decision that established a "right to privacy" by saying that married couples had the right to use birth control.
If I may suggest the reasons in response to your question, Justice Scalia. The most common forms of what we most generally in common parlance call contraception today, IUD’s, low-dose birth control pills, which are the safest type of birth control pills available, act as abortifacients. They are correctly labeled as both.
So, don't say I didn't warn you. This is the agenda. The so-called "Human Life Amendment" which has been a part of the GOP Platform for years, would criminalize many common forms of birth control, including "the pill".
A rape exception could lead a pregnant woman desirous of an abortion to make a false report to law enforcement officials.
11 Year old girl who is a victim of incest? Again, too bad. We Gots to pruhtect thuh Feetus at all costs, Jebediah. After all, she might be falsely stating that she's 11.
What the victim of incest needs is not abortion, but intervention-a third party to help her.
Thanks, Assholes.
Okay, that's enough for today. Almost. One more quote, though, speaking of Judge "Smeagol" Scalia... He's not going to vote against his Duck Huntin' Buddy, Dick Cheney.. Of course not! But here's what he had to say about the Near-Imperial Power of the President in 2004---
"I think executive privilege means whenever the president feels that he is threatened, he can simply refuse to comply with a court order," Scalia told Morrison in one exchange. "He has the power ... to say, 'No, this intrudes too much upon my powers. I will not do it.' "
...What was that, Antonin? I'm not sure I heard you...
"I think executive privilege means whenever the president feels that he is threatened, he can simply refuse to comply with a court order,"
..Wait. One more time. I must have wax in my ears, because I thought I heard you say that a president could "refuse to comply with a court order"..
"I think executive privilege means whenever the president feels that he is threatened, he can simply refuse to comply with a court order,"
Oh. Yeah. A President can "refuse to comply with a court order"?? That must be why we spent 80 Million dollars forcing Bill Clinton to Testify to a Grand Fucking Jury, Under Oath, about exactly what he did with his wing-wang, where, and how, and how many times, and to whom, while we all would have been better served if you turd-muffins had just let him run the god-damned country. To quote Elvis, Thank you, thank you very much. Glad to see so much has changed in six years.
Wednesday Afternoon. Finally decompressed from the weekend enough to write something. I'll probably write more, later. First off, the March For Women's Lives was, obviously, a monumental success for supporters of choice everywhere. Although you would never know it from the News Coverage, there were easily well over a million people there. Of course, I expected the inevitable low-balling from the major media, which -by the time I walked back to my hotel room and flipped on the tv- had translated the numbers down to "Half a Million" (NBC) "As Many As 300 Thousand" (CNN) and "Thousands" (FOX), who might as well have said "A Few"... Watching the so-called "left wing" media huff and puff and angrily sputter about having to cover this example of direct democracy in action was a truly enlightening experience. The folks on the news channels seemed genuinely irritated and miffed that they were being forced, even for a second, to allow a bunch of rabble rousing citizens to decide the agenda for a few minutes. "Don't you people realize, we have a cycle here! We decide what the news is... (of course, Corporate TV News is to News what Cheez Whiz is to Cheese) ..You folks are supposed to be consumers of "News".. It's our job to manufacture it! Now for the latest on Michael Jackson's new defense team..."
And, so, after a good 5 minutes of march coverage, half of which was, of course, given to the 200 or so Christian Taliban anti-choice demonstrators screaming and throwing ink-filled eggs from the sidelines, CNN spent 15 minutes talking about Estee Lauder's death, and then gave another 15 minutes to the "Nascar Voter", who apparently "Loves George Bush"... Hmmm. Maybe if we had done the pro-choice march at a NASCAR race, we could have had some real news coverage.
But I'm not bitter. The march, in and of itself, was great. Tons of people turned out and peacefully assembled and demonstrated. There were young and old, white, Hispanic, African American, straight, gay, and all other shades and styles of humanity. Contrary to other media insinuations, there were not just "a few men" or "a smattering of men" There were lots of men, myself included. Granted, the ratio was probably more than 50% female, and I did notice that it led to markedly clean and usable porta-potties for an event that size. One thing about that, though- this idea that choice is a "Woman's issue", alone... I don't necessarily agree. I mean, I firmly believe that the only person with the right and qualification to determine what should take place regarding a pregnancy is the woman inside whom the pregnancy is taking place.. However, I also believe it is in the interest of everyone- women and men- to stand up to the fundamentalist agenda of this administration and the Republican Party, and to make a stand saying that our bodies- women's, and men's as well- don't belong to the church, the state, or any other organization, conglomeration, club or corporation- but rather are the inalienable property of ourselves.
A public service announcement followed me home the other day,
I paid it nevermind, go away.
Shit's so thick you could stir it with a stick,
free Teflon whitewashed presidency.
We're sick of being jerked around,
Wear that on your sleeve
Okay, here goes. The Impeach Dubya blog is now on the air.... What.. too wimpy sounding? No one will hear me, since all the other side knows how to do is scream? Okay, Sorry. IMPEACH DUBYA IS NOW ON THE AIR! Is that better? At this point, my motivation in writing here is basically to vent-- if for no other reason than to maintain my sanity. Maybe I saw one too many scenes this week of some parents weeping over their 18-year-old coming home from Iraq in a box, while Bush makes jokes to the his D.C. Lap Dogs--er, sorry, press corps-- about trying to find the weapons of mass destruction hidden behind the Oval Office curtains..
"The Democrats will go after anything," Said RNC Chair Ed Gillespie, referring to the above-- meanwhile GOP ops and talk-radio goons are hard at work savaging.. Sorry, trying to savage- John Kerry's Vietnam Military Record.. Somehow, in Republican-land, 3 purple hearts are dubious and questionable, but Bush lying us into a war with other people's kids on the line- not to mention spending Vietnam playing speed quarters with Tequila shots in Texas and Alabama-- is just more evidence of the man's deep-seated "honor and integrity". (Kaff!)
Well, we're gonna try to start it off slow here at impeachdubya, frankly I'm a little new to the whole blogosphere scene-- however, I'm going to try to offer my perspective, obviously on politics, but also on the occasional social or cultural issue as the occasion or my own perverse whim arises. Perhaps you're wondering who I am, or- failing that- what I stand for... What is the Impeach Dubya manifesto? And why should you care? You shouldn't, at least not excessively. The first and foremost thing I believe in is the fundamental right of individuals to make up their own minds about shit. It seems to me that there is a severe lack of critical thinking going on in the United States, 2004. People parrot opinions they've heard other places without even giving them a cursory once-over for a semblance of logical consistency. Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage or Bill O'Reilly (And no, it's not just on the right, but it's especially egregious there.. What- you expected a blog called "impeach dubya" not to be partisan?) makes some asinine proclamation and within hours you are hearing it piped out of the front orifices of 50 Million clucking, constipated, right wing doofi. Look, think for yourselves. Please. I could start with Religion, which seems to be anesthetizing the cerebella of a great many humans these days- you want to take the Catholic Church's word on the nature of reality? Not only did they get the design of the solar system wrong for 16 centuries, how long has it taken them to come clean about all the pedophile priests they've been sheltering? (Talk about special treatment. If it had been any other organization at all, Interpol and the FBI would have been cuffing bishops and hauling evidence boxes out of Churches and the Vatican faster than you can say "Neverland Ranch").. Anyway, you want to trust those folks to tell you whether or not to use birth control, much less how the Universe is designed? Okay, Chuckles, be my guest. And I'm not just talking about the Catholic Church, I think the above pretty much applies to most every major "organized" religion, with the possible exception of certain strains of Taoism or Buddhism. Don't get me wrong, there are millions of good, thoughtful, intelligent people of all denominations around the world.. But if you don't see the role dogma and blind, unquestioning faith is playing in much of the strife and -yes- stupidity that's going on, you're missing the elephant in the room... Again, just my opinion. Anyway, the Impeach Dubya manifesto will make itself apparent gradually. There'll be plenty more time for my quirky, brilliant and/or asinine observations as time goes on, I guess.
Okay, one thing folks will probably notice quickly about this blog, I have a tendency to meander in my ranting and rant in my meandering. See above. I'll probably get the hang of this as I do it more, but, again, like Air America Radio, we're just gettin' started over here.
One more little tidbit I found amusing this week, in the midst of the hoo-hah over team Bush working with the Saudis to keep oil prices low for the November Election, (the Saudi Response? Essentially- "We like to help all American Presidents who are in office"... Yes, which is why there has traditionally been such deep and affectionate business ties between the House of Saud and the House of, say, Clinton.. and the House of Carter... Just like you have to the House of Bush)... Yes, of course. How silly of any of us to suspect otherwise.
But the amusing tidbit...Okay, so maybe I was hallucinating, but I could have sworn Rumsfeld's response to the allegation that he and Cheney had illegally shown a top-secret war plan map to "Prince Bandar" had been that it was just "Some Banter".. So was he saying that, rather than breaking the law, he was just engaging in "some Banter?" ...or was he saying that, rather than referring to "Bandar", he said "Banter"? Hmmm. Which leads me to my next thought, that maybe Rumsfeld was covering something else up- maybe he didn't say "Bandar" or "Banter"..
..Maybe he was actually saying something like, "Mr. President.. Are you off on another fucking Bender? ... You know, no one really bought that thing about the pretzel.."
Or, wait.. I've got it.. Maybe it was "Dick.. Please.. I know she's your favorite, but If I hear any more God-Damnned Pat Benatar, I'm going to puke all over Karl Rove's shoes..."
The Washington Post has the real story, but you have to register. Here's what I consider to be the pertinent paragraph:
Woodward supplied his own transcript showing that Rumsfeld told him on Oct. 23, 2003: "I remember meeting with the vice president and I think Dick Myers and I met with a foreign dignitary at one point and looked him in the eye and said you can count on this. In other words, at some point we had had enough of a signal from the president that we were able to look a foreign dignitary in the eye and say you can take that to the bank this is going to happen."
The transcript made it clear that the foreign dignitary Woodward was discussing was Bandar, although Rumsfeld would not say that. "We're going to have to clean some of this up in the transcript," Rumsfeld said in the omitted passage. "We'll give you a -- I mean you just said Bandar and I didn't agree with that so we're going to have to -- I don't want to say who it is but you are going to have to go through that and find a way to clean up my language too."
All told, the Pentagon transcript omits a series of eight questions and answers, some of them just a few words each. Yesterday Rumsfeld described the deleted passages as "some banter."
So, then, it was Banter about Bandar... But not about Bandar, or not to Bandar, rather it was Bandarbanter that had no bearing on Bandar. Or Pat Benatar. On a Bender.
That's all for now. Maybe I will contribute another entry before the March For Women's Lives on Sunday in D.C., but if not--
