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Newest Blog Entries:
Economy killers: Inequality and GOP ignorance – Great Recession – Salon.com
Posted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, April 18, 2012Truthdig – First They Come for the Muslims – Chris Hedges
Posted by Michael Butler, Tuesday, April 17, 2012Sergey Brin: Web Freedom Faces Greatest Threat Ever
Posted by Michael Butler, Tuesday, April 17, 2012Atrios: THE ONE TRUE WANKER OF THE DECADE – Tom Friedman
as expected, Atrios ..[Friedman on Charlie Rose] - "I think it [the invasion of Iraq] was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie ... We needed to go over there, basically, um, and um, uh, take out a very big state right in the heart of that world and burst that bubble, and there was only one way to do it ... What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, "Which part of this sentence don't you understand?" You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just gonna to let it grow?.. read more
Well Suck. On. This.
Okay. That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We could've hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could."
... [snip] ...
For years Friedman spent dithering about the war. Oh gee it wasn't going well, but the light at the end of the tunnel might be around the corner in another critical 6 months, leading me to coin the term Friedman Unit, or the F.U. It wasn't just Friedman of course. Basically every pro-stay in Iraq person would utter some version of "the next six months is critical" on a regular basis. For years I put these statements in my calendar, and six months later would remind the world that nothing had changed and we are still in Iraq and the stupid fucking fuckstick is still writing in your newspaper or on the teevee blathering about the next crucial six months. The state of the world is what it is in large part because people in positions of great power think this absurd buffoon of man is a Very Serious Person
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The War on Terror Is Corrupting All It Touches
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 16, 2012How Neocons Sank Iran Nuke Deal
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 16, 2012AlterNet: Meet ALEC’s Equally Despicable Anti-Choice Cousin — AUL
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 16, 2012Atrios: WANKER OF THE DECADE – 1st Runner Up, Fred Hiatt
Atrios ..Some years back I had a wee epiphany when I realized that, for the most part, we aren't supposed to to read the WaPo editorial page. It isn't actually for us. It's a means for certain elites to send messages to each other, a way for the "Gang Of 500" to take their battles public, to signal their interests and priorities. There are some exceptions to this, some columnists who write for readers, but for the most part it's simply a conversation by and for elites. If you're good enough, smart enough, and, doggone it, Fred Hiatt thinks you're important, there's no limit to the amount of bullshit you can have blessed by him. On his page is where the Washington Consensus is defended daily, truth be damned. Krauthammer. Broder. Hoagland. Kristol. Novak. Cohen. Lane. Cupp. Thiessen. Kurtz. Samuelson. Diehl. Kelly. Noonan. Will. Ignatius. Parker. Marcus. Milbank. Gerson. Some of these people are no longer with us, and I have no idea which ones Hiatt is really responsible for, but I'm a lazy blogger so I'll just throw them all in his column. Imagine assembling this collection of horrors, and being proud of itpretty sure Tommy Friedman will win this contest .. Atrios coined the term "Friedman units," i.e. (from Wikipedia): "One Friedman Unit is equal to six months, specifically the "next six months", a period repeatedly declared by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be the most critical of the then-ongoing Iraq War even though such pronouncements extended back over two and a half years" - mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, April 16, 2012
Atrios: WANKER OF THE DECADE – 2nd Runner Up, Andrew Sullivan
Atrios/Eschaton ..While the horrible events of 9/11 predated, somewhat, THE ESCHATON DECADE, among the numerous consequences was the rise of the warbloggers. Sullivan had a longish media career, but was also one of the early bloggers. And after 9/11, General Sullivan enlisted in the Fighting 101st Keyboard Kommandos, otherwise known as the "warbloggers," whose primary mission was to fight America's most important enemy, the enemy at home known as "Americans." In the Sunday Times of London on September 16, 2001 (!!), Andrew had these lines: "The middle part of the country - the great red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead -and may well mount a fifth column." This was 5 days after 9/11 (presumably written a couple of days before) .. As we get higher and higher on this list, I get more tired even as the wanking of the wankers becomes greater and greater.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, April 16, 2012
AlterNet: 5 Countries That Do It Better: How Sexual Prudery Makes America a Less Healthy and Happy Place
Posted by Michael Butler, Saturday, April 14, 2012Stop the Nuclear Industry Welfare Program – Sen. Bernie Sanders
Posted by Michael Butler, Saturday, April 14, 2012AlterNet: Wealth Defense Industry: The Real Reason America’s Oligarchs Can Squeeze the Rest of Us
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, April 13, 2012AlterNet: The ‘Gunshine State’: 6 Awful GOP Laws That May Harm Florida Forever
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, April 13, 2012AlterNet: New Super-PAC Threatens to Destroy Candidates Who Side With the People Over Wall Street
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, April 13, 2012Atrios: Wanker of the Decade Countdown
Atrios/Eschaton is counting down the 10 worst wankers since he started his blog 10 years ago .. so far he's down to 4th runner upThe ESCHATON DECADE has been a pretty fucked up decade, a time when this country stopped even bothering to pretend to live up to many of its supposed ideals. We go to war and kill lots of people for no good reason, elites have eliminated any accountability for themselves for criminal wrongdoing, we've tortured and assassinated people, and the response to massive economic suffering and related criminal fraud has been to give lots of free money to the people who caused it all. And one premise of his blog is that all of this shit happens, in part, because of the fucking wankers who rule our public discourse. Paying too much attention to it every day can be bad enough sometimes, but reliving it all again is actually a bit painfulDiane Sawyer is 7th runner up for her Bush/Cheney-fellating Dixie Chicks interview .. I'll keep y'all posted on the top 3 wankers - mab .. read more
UPDATE: Wanker of the Decade 3rd runner up is .. [drum roll] .. Joe Klein
UPDATE #2: Someone at Daily Kos (ManOutOfTime) has a Guide to Atrios's Wankers of the Decade
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, April 13, 2012
The “Suicidal State” and the War on Youth
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, April 12, 2012EPA Paves Way for “Agent Orange” GM Corn
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, April 12, 2012Naomi Wolf: How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses
Wolf in The Guardian ..In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time .. History shows that the use of forced nudity by a state that is descending into fascism is powerfully effective in controlling and subduing populations .. The political use of forced nudity by anti-democratic regimes is long established. Forcing people to undress is the first step in breaking down their sense of individuality and dignity and reinforcing their powerlessness .. Remember, you don't need to have done anything wrong to be arrested in America any longer. You can be arrested for walking your dog without a leash. The man [in the Supreme court case] who was forced to spread his buttocks was stopped for a driving infraction.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, April 12, 2012
Why GOP Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson Is Mad, Bad and a Danger to the Republic | Rick Perlstein | Politics News | Rolling Stone
Posted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, April 11, 2012The High Court’s Supremely Unethical Activists
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 9, 2012AlterNet: Feds Continue Counteractive Crackdown on Medical Marijuana While Lamenting Painkiller Overdose Deaths
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 9, 2012Glenn Greenwald: Oscar-nominated U.S. filmmaker Laura Poitras repeatedly detained at border
Glenzilla ..It’s hard to overstate how oppressive it is for the U.S. Government to be able to target journalists, film-makers and activists and, without a shred of suspicion of wrongdoing, learn the most private and intimate details about them and their work: with whom they’re communicating, what is being said, what they’re reading. That’s a radical power for a government to assert in general. When it starts being applied not randomly, but to people engaged in activism and journalism adverse to the government, it becomes worse than radical: it’s the power of intimidation and deterrence against those who would challenge government conduct in any way. The ongoing, and escalating, treatment of Laura Poitras is a testament to how severe that abuse is.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, April 9, 2012
