Media coverage, McCain versus Obama

$520 shoes, and he’s right – no one blinks an eye.

Crooks and Liars » $400 haircuts vs. $520 Italian leather loafers
…the media seems to go to great lengths to look for evidence to bolster the far-right meme that Obama is some kind of outsider. From bowling to orange juice to arugula, reporters love to characterize Obama as something less than a “real” American.

Well, McCain has a half-dozen homes and spends on shoes what some families spend on rent. All the while, he advocates more tax cuts for millionaires, opposes increases to the minimum wage, and tells Americans their economic problems are in their heads.

Which candidate is outside the American mainstream?

Get Your Wide Stance Out of My Stall, If You Please.

Because they (presumably) don’t understand how they’re embarrassing themselves, two ridiculously hypocritical politicians are still riding the anti-gay-marriage hobby horse.

On second thought… maybe they DO know what they’re doing, and they each have a public humiliation fetish?

“I can’t get off unless I am being lambasted in the media for my hypocrisy! I need it!”

or

“Oh that op-ed enumerating my many hypocrisies got me so hard, baby! Oh YEAH, criticize me, scorn me, write more about my sexual hijinks, oh GOD that’s good!”

Who knows. Read more at the HuffPo link below.

Dan Sweeney: Chutzpah Defined: Vitter and Craig co-sponsor marriage amendment – Politics on The Huffington Post

This liberal blogging thing just isn’t fun anymore. Where are the demons? Where are the people you look at and say, “Yes, yes. That man. He is evil incarnate.” It seems like the opposition these days consists of little more than sweaty-palmed, mouth-breathing sex addicts or else unapologetic morons whose chief pet peeve in the world appears to be anyone more intelligent than algae.

Daily Kos Rant; Necessary

I don’t know if I could agree more than I do, but I am not sure what the fuck I can do about it. Write a protest letter? Buy a gun? What’s the recommended course of action in times like these?

Daily Kos: It’s Not Yours To Give Away

Like so many others, I am disgusted and ashamed that people we trust with great power, and great sums of our money, have allowed the crimes of the Bush administration to go unpunished, and largely unexposed. But I will not be intimidated, nor will I become a slave to the State. I flatly refuse to be the subject of any imaginary “Unitary Executive” in the land of government that exists only by the consent of the governed. I hereby revoke my consent to be governed by such a pathetic lot, and I will not acknowledge or respect the legitimacy of such a corrupt establishment. Until such time as legitimacy can be restored, from the White House to the State House, I will regard you as a despicable assembly of thugs and accomplices, whose only purpose is to steal my money, monitor my life, and claim the inexplicable authority to imprison my body for completely fabricated reasons. I vow to fight to see that those of you who would sacrifice our Bill of Rights are drummed out of office, and held up in historical effigy as the shameful plutocrats who almost accomplished what no terrorist ever could: killing America as we know her. (read the whole rant at the link above.)

New Girl Crush – Lara Logan

Saw Lara Logan on The Daily Show and fell in love a little.

Just Lay Back and Enjoy?

McCain answers the question: I’m keeping the money – The Jed Report

Yesterday, John McCain cancelled his attendance at a fundraiser with Clayton Williams, who gave the following advice to rape victims: “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

McCain’s campaign cited that remark as the reason for his cancellation.

But it turns out that Williams had already raised $300,000 for McCain — and now McCain says he is keeping it all.

First of all, this guy should meet up with this guy.

Second of all, I have a friend who dearly loves to strap it on and give it to the guys of her acquaintance. I think it would be rather a good idea for Clayton Williams to experience “just lay back and enjoy” first-hand.

Third of all… fucking McCain. Jesus.

But your honor, I strenuously object!

Bush administration disagrees with ruling on detainees – Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration disagrees strongly with a Supreme Court decision that gives suspected terrorists the right to go to federal court to seek their release from indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday the deeply divided high court ruling would not affect the Guantanamo trials against enemy combatants and President Bush said he might seek a new law to keep the alleged terrorists in a U.S. prison.

Thursday’s much-anticipated 5-to-4 ruling was the third time the justices have repudiated Bush on his ambitious and hugely controversial schemes to hold the suspects outside the protections of U.S. law.

Speaking at a Group of Eight meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Tokyo, Mukasey said, “I’m disappointed with the decision, in so far as I understand that it will result in hundreds of actions challenging the detention of enemy combatants to be moved to federal district court.”

He added: “I think it bears emphasis that the court’s decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed. Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention.”

He said the Justice Department would comply with the ruling while studying the decision and “whether any legislation or any other action may be appropriate.”

In writing for the court majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy acknowledged the terrorism threat the country faces — the administration’s justification for the detentions — but he declared, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

McCain

For some reason SNL tried to make him all cute-n-cuddly on their season finale last night (methinks I smell some corporate owner influence in there) but the truth is he’s just Bush lite. And maybe not even so lite once he gets some real power. He supports the sweeping Executive power-grab perpetrated by BushCo, and he’s way to aggressive militarily. He is a white, rich, privileged American man who knows nothing about the way the other 95% live. Here’s some best-of quotes for your enjoyment.

Lawmakers in Oklahoma like to stick it to rape victims

New Oklahoma Law: Women Seeking Abortions Must Have Ultrasounds Against Their Will | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet

The Oklahoma State Legislature is playing doctor again. Last year they dictated how specialists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center may care for pregnant women who have medical complications. This week, despite intense lobbying efforts and the Governor’s veto, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1878, which mandates invasive and unnecessary medical testing for women.

Under the guise of obtaining informed patient consent, this new law requires doctors to withhold pregnancy termination until an ultrasound is performed. The law states that either an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound, whichever gives the best image of the fetus, must be done. Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest.

…

In a further reversal of standard medical practice, this bill defines failure to perform this unnecessary medical procedure as “unprofessional conduct” and suggests that the state medical board may remove the physician’s license. Failure to perform the ultrasound also leads to fines beginning at $10,000 and increasing to more than $100,000. By comparison, the highest fine for negligent homicide or driving under the influence in Oklahoma is $1,000.

War is Good for the Economy

BNP candidate sacked over ‘rape is a myth’ blog | News

In the category of “right-wing men say the darndest things” we have this gem from London:

BNP candidate sacked over ‘rape is a myth’ blog | News

On 24 August 2005, Mr Eriksen wrote on the blog: “I’ve never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime … Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal.

“To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched.”

On 5 November 2005, in an item entitled “Give her a slap!,” Mr Eriksen approvingly quoted Noel Coward as saying: “Some women are like gongs – they need to be struck regularly.” On 24 November 2005, Mr Eriksen wrote that mothers “should never go out to work” and described career women as ” unnatural and vile”.

Mr Eriksen said the comments were simply “in order to stimulate debate”.

Here’s a picture of the guy:

OK, whatever. This guy is brain-dead, clueless, a right-wing attention-whore, shockingly sheltered and childishly provocative, all at the same time.

He makes a claim that rape “without violence” isn’t such a big deal. Hello? There is no such thing as rape without violence. Duh. There may be rape with varying degrees of violence, and some of it may not involve having the ever-loving shit beat out of you, but there’s no option for “sticking your parts into someone else’s parts against that person’s will” that is NOT violent.

He can keep telling himself that “date rape” is better than “stranger rape” so he can keep jerking off to his fantasies of attacking every woman he knows – none of whom would sleep with him for any amount of ready cash.

I don’t know whether to hope this is just Ann Coulter style grandstanding (seriously, can’t you see her saying the same thing?) or that the guy is just bitter and lonely and ugly and confused. No one seriously believes that kind of thing, do they?

Our amoral health and legal systems

STLtoday – News – Washington

WASHINGTON — The family of a Missouri woman must reimburse Wal-Mart for nearly a half-million dollars in medical expenses now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review her case.
…
Her family later settled a lawsuit with the trucking company whose driver was involved in the accident. After attorneys’ fees and expenses, $417,477 was put in a trust for Shank’s care. That settlement money, plus $51,739 that Shank will have to pay out of pocket, must be paid to Wal-Mart.

As is common for employer-sponsored health plans, Shank’s insurance required full repayment of medical expenses if she received money from a lawsuit.

This is the story of a woman who was injured in a car accident. Her wonderful Wal-Mart Health insurance paid the bills (in itself a miracle, from what I have heard) but when she settled a lawsuit against the truck driver who hit her, Wal-Mart demanded all of the settlement money PLUS – get this – PLUS $51,739 that they want the family of this now-mentally-disabled woman to pay OUT OF POCKET to them for some obscure legal reason.

So, your health insurance pays your bills, then you have to pay it all back and live out the rest of your disabled, mentally handicapped life in squalor, because fucking WAL-MART took the money that was meant to provide for your care. Plus an extra $50k for the hell of it, because you’ve obviously got that lying around, since you worked at fucking WALMART.

I assume that since she’s now handicapped and unable to work they’ve also canceled any coverage for her, so they’re no longer paying for anything and she’s all on her own.

Anyone who shops at Wal-Mart, or Sam’s, or anywhere else that fucking corporation owns, is contributing to the same amoral system that caused this to happen. You’re saying “Oh, sucks that they do that, but I just saved seventy-two cents!” It’s bullshit, they are a plague on our country. In my opinion their low prices come at too great a cost.

Spitzer – Really?

My fave is when they’re talking about Silda.

Of course I suspect this embed is really not going to work.

Today’s Total Reality Disconnect – In a Big Way

Bush says if younger, he would work in Afghanistan | Politics | Reuters

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”"It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

Can this guy BECOME any more divorced from reality as we know it? Romantic? Exciting? Fantastic? Yeah, I bet it’s all those things with a side dish of getting your legs blown off.

More on Bush’s Unwarranted Wiretapping Fiasco

AT&T: Your world. Delivered. To the NSA.

Originally uploaded by lawgeek

Bush says would veto House eavesdropping bill – Yahoo! News

Bush said the litigation against the phone companies was “unfair” because they had been assured by the U.S. government that their cooperation was “legal and necessary” to fighting terrorism after the September 11 attacks.”Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billion dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future,” Bush said.

Oh, I disagree. As does the EFF and anyone with any sense. Read this analysis by Salon.com blogger Glen Greenwald about the Democrats in Congress finally finding the sack with their brains and balls in it. (bolding his)

It’s critical to emphasize …that the telecoms already have immunity under existing statutes, even if they broke the law, as long as they obtained from the Attorney General certifications that the warrantless surveillance requests were legal. If the telecoms really did obtain those certifications — and it’s extremely unlikely that they did — then all they ever had to do was just show them to the court and they would be immune. Their excuse up until now — “we can’t use the documents we have to defend ourselves because we aren’t allowed to show them to the judge” — is now completely eliminated by the House bill.

Edit: They actually DID it! They rejected telecom immunity. Now let’s see Bush put America in danger himself by his refusal to pass it.

AP probe finds drugs in drinking water

AP probe finds drugs in drinking water – Yahoo! News

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

Most disturbing thought of the day “persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals“