The Right Value Is Truth

The right value is honesty.



La Casa de Los Gatos don't know about you, and how you might feel about homophobia, but we can tell you how we feel. We here are goddamn sick and fucking tired of all these closeted dickheads fucking around with OUR lives.

Just this month, we've had closeted homophobe Roberto Arango* posting pictures of his rectum to a hookup site. A fucking HOOKUP site! Where gay/bi men post for quickie casual fucks. If you're gonna bully other men for supposedly being gay, Roberto, you shouldn't be posting your starfish as an invitation to any swingin' dick within ten miles, know what I'm sayin'? Is that too much to ask, you arrogant asshole? Nobody really cares, Roberto, that you like to have another man's throbbing cock in your ass. Just don't fucking rub our faces in it after REPEATEDLY voting against our rights, you miserable piece of shit.

And look, what have we here? ANOTHER fucking Republican legislator caught with his dick hanging out? With a teenage boy?

His defense? "I'm not gay. I don't know why I did what I did."

I'll tell you why, you dumb fuck. Because you are gaygaygayer than a flock of fucking larks. You were so hungry for that pretty boy's 18-year-old body, his slender shoulders, muscular thighs, bubble butt, beautiful satiny dark skin. That's why. You were dying to stick your cock in him and his cock in you and to fuck until you both lost your minds. That's why.

Phil Hinkle's constituents think he should resign -- for being gay? For lying about it? For working so hard against the rights of gay people? This is the guy, incidentally, who is responsible for the "In God We Trust" license plate legislation in his home state. So, Phil, "In God We Trust" for what? For keeping anyone else from finding out that our cock throbs for teenage boys? Sounds like you spent all your time in the legislature on bogus legislation like this, and keeping gays from marrying. Have a good time on the unemployment line, you dumb fuck.

Phil says he's not running again. We say, "Not unless it's from his constituents."

So, homophobic Republican legislators? It's OK for you to fuck us, literally, and then fuck us virtually by denying us equal rights? Because, you know, all that shit y'all are continually spouting about "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," in the Declaration of Independence that you fucking claim to fucking worship? And all that crap in the Constitution about equality? You're not applying it to us, are you, when you vote against our right to marry and have families?

It's time for war on your hypocritical asses, y'all. Just come out of the fucking closet, admit who and what you are, and start acting like people, not ignorant fucking homophobes, OK? Because if you don't? It will be the civic duty of each and every one of us to do our best to expose you.

You hear that, girlzNboyz? If you've been schtupping a Republican legislator, it's time to let the whole world know. Start with the newspapers.

And now, to take the edge off, the gorgeous and brilliant Sara Benincasa sticks it to MishMash BatShitKrayZMann. Enjoy!

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Boycott Arizona!

ICHC

By now, the only people who haven't heard of SB 1070, Arizona's Immigration Bill, are the acephalous. Because, you know, this feckin' thing has been teh Talking Point of every rightwing nutjob windbag since the first of them crawled back into the slime from which the rest of us fled.

While we would never incinerate that you, dear visitor, might be one of the impaired, we will, nevertheless, post a link to that foul piece of legislation, just so you can cast your seasoned and cynical eyeball over it.

One of the major talking points bandied about by the aforementioned RWNJs (Right-Wing Nut Jobs, for those of you who were not paying attention) is that the Arizona legislation is Teh Good and Totally Not Stinky Because It's Exactly Teh Same as Teh Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo Federal Legislation, So Suck It Lib H8ers.

Yeah, right. Here for your perusal is the Federal legislation, also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, Title 8 of the U.S.C.

While the Arizona law refers extensively to Federal law, it goes way beyond what Federal law envisioned as appropriate in criminalizing the presence of undocumented migrant workers.

And it is a great danger to the civil liberties of American citizens and especially to American taxpayers.

For example, Title II, Chapter 7, Article 8 G states:

G. A PERSON WHO IS A LEGAL RESIDENT OF THIS STATE MAY BRING AN ACTION
37 IN SUPERIOR COURT TO CHALLENGE ANY OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A
38 COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE THAT ADOPTS
39 OR IMPLEMENTS A POLICY OR PRACTICE THAT LIMITS OR RESTRICTS THE ENFORCEMENT
40 OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAWS TO LESS THAN THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY FEDERAL
41 LAW. IF THERE IS A JUDICIAL FINDING THAT AN ENTITY HAS VIOLATED THIS
42 SECTION, THE COURT SHALL ORDER THAT THE ENTITY PAY A CIVIL PENALTY OF NOT
43 LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS AND NOT MORE THAN FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR
44 EACH DAY THAT THE POLICY HAS REMAINED IN EFFECT AFTER THE FILING OF AN ACTION
45 PURSUANT TO THIS SUBSECTION.

Pardon the formattage, it's from a PDF and this is just what Blogger does to it.

What does this section do? It allows any fucking nutbag who is a citizen *or resident* of Arizona to sue any police officer and any police department if they think such officer/department is not enforcing this law stringently enough.

I don't recall Federal law containing any such provision. Note that since police departments are funded by taxpayers, it is the taxpayers who must pay all costs associated with such lawsuits. Now why would the legislators of Arizona want to screw the citizens because they get a woody from h8n' on "teh illegalz"?

And how many cities are so wealthy that they can afford to cough up between $1K and $5K per day, if successfully sued?

It also permits the same mentally deficient RWNJs to sue any city or other state-level entity that adopts a "sanctuary" policy. Which, frankly, sucks. But what the abovementioned language means for the law enforcement personnel who have to put it into practice in the streets is that if you call the cops because, oh, I dunno, you're being raped or murdered? And someone else calls reporting a suspected "illegal alien"? You're shit outa luck, because the PD won't get sued if it doesn't immediately show up to save your injured ass. It will fershure get sued if some litigious asshole made the "illegal alien" call and found out that the police failed to respond or did not respond swiftly enough.

Arizona, you sure you want this shitty law?

And that's just the peripheral stuff.

Here's the real reason why this law seriously sucks hind end:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This, boyz'ngurlz, is the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It is part of what is called The Bill of Rights.

For decades now, the courts have chipped away at various provisions of the Bill of Rights, but none so brutally and continually as the Fourth Amendment. See, the Fourth Amendment prevents the government from violating its citizens rights to a great degree. It says "... no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, ..." et cetera. This means the cops can't haul your ass to jail for looking, or dressing, or even acting funny without swearing under oath that they have a good reason to believe that you're a dangerous criminal. They can't bust down your door, they can't enter your home, they can't stop you when you walk down the street, they can't do shit to you without that little piece of paper signed by a judge and sworn to under oath. So if the cops lie to get that little piece of paper, they're guilty of perjury and you have the right to sue their asses off.

However, this law amends Section 13-3883 of the Arizona Revised Statutes to permit the police to arrest without a warrant, not just for dangerous felonies and suspected terrorism, which we would probably all agree is justified by the demands of public safety, but also for mere misdemeanors. Under this law, the cops can come into your house and demand to see everyone's papers if there's too many people in your house, or you're violating some noise ordinance, or there's a car on blocks in your yard.

The po-pos can impound your vehicle if you give someone a ride without inquiring for evidence of their immigration status. Isn't that nice? Give your elderly neighbour a ride to church? Bam! Go to jail, do not collect, etc. Give your friend's kids a ride home from school? Tough shit for you if they were born someplace else and are "undocumented." Wifey in the car had a little nip of alcohol? If she's under 21, off you go to teh jailhouse. What's even worse, the law specifies that your insurance company has no duty to pay any charges that you might rack up during this period. What, not even while you're pleading your innocence and wrongful arrest through the courts? Nice.

This law also shifts the burden of proof regarding entrapment charges to the defendant. If the cops entrap you into doing something illegal (we all know the honourable po-pos would never do that, right?), this law says it is up to you the citizen to prove that they entrapped you. As a rule, the burden of proof has been on the prosecution because the Government has vast resources and power, compared to the average citizen. It is less costly for the Government to prove that it has clean hands than for you, joe citizen, to prove that it does not.

Nowhere in the Constitution or in Title 8 of the USC does it say that an American citizen must carry identification on their person at all times. But SB 1070, the Aryanzona law (as it's popularly known among the bright sparks of the InnerTubes) says that if the cops stop your ass for, I dunno, crossing against a light? Walking your dog off leash? Parking in the wrong zone? — they can ask you for ID, and if you don't have any, it's off to the hoosegow with you, buddy.

Don't take my word for it. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ, has done this several times. In his opinion, it's totally cool to throw all the brown people in jail and release the US citizens later. Does this sound like the Fourth Amendment is being respected and obeyed at all in Aryanzona?

And when did AZ flatfoots become experts in determining the ethnicity of a brown person, let alone their possible immigration status? Because, you know, stuff like this happens all the time.

By now you're probably sick of hearing about this. I'm certainly sick of writing about it. In honour of the humongous fucking headache this issue has given me, I'd like to leave you with this very enjoyable video clip.



And for the last word, we turn to the Native inhabitants of this land:



We'll be blogging on this issue regularly. Stay tuned.

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I Always Said Yoo Was A Bumwad

Photo from Gawker

And now activist Matt Cornell has given us Yoo toilet paper to remind students and visitors alike to Boalt Hall's terlets that Yoo has treated the United Nations Convention Against Torture, ratified by the United States in 1987 (under St. Ronald of Reagan? Can it be?), as his own personal bumwad.

Pity the TP doesn't have his likeness printed on it, but I understand those colored dyes ain't too good for your bunghole anyway.

Feel free to visit Mr. Cornell's site to find out more about what you can do to fight against the use of torture.

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War Crimes: Never Forget

Ishii Shiro

If you want to know why this Cat hasn't posted much of late, you should read about Ishii Shiro. Who, you might ask, is Ishii Shiro? And why should he keep a Cat from blogging politics?

WARNING: Graphic subject matter.

The preceding link takes you to a Wikipedia entry on Ishii. The information there is scant, and only linked so that you, should you choose to follow the link, will know who this man is. However, the article glosses over the fact that Ishii Shiro was a monster equalling any the world has ever known, in depth of depravity if not scope. He may not have murdered as many people as Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot, but that was for lack of opportunity, not intent.

For those who don't want to click the link, here are a few basic facts: Ishii Shiro was a microbiologist who joined the Japanese Imperial Army before its criminal aggressions in World War II. He was ultimately promoted to the rank of General. He started a military unit tasked with bacteriological and chemical warfare. In the course of his tenure at this unit (the infamous Unit 731), Ishii authorized and conducted experiments on living human beings, including babies. These experiments included bombing live humans, then observing their sufferings for weeks as the shrapnel from such bombs infected the test subjects with various bacteria, including plague, cholera, typhus, and the like. He authorized and performed vivisection on political prisoners and prisoners of war and unfortunate people seized for various reasons, or for no reason at all, by the Kempeitai, that group of sadists and malign misanthropes often miscalled "the Japanese military police."

Vivisection at Unit 731

Note the unfortunate subject's hands, bound, as he is being cut open while still alive and conscious.

You will ask why I chose to read about Unit 731. Quite honestly, I put off reading the book as long as I could. It was not pleasant reading. However, I highly recommend that anyone who would claim the label of pacifist, anyone who believes in non-violence, or ahimsa, anyone who opposes war, do the same.

We cannot fight a thing if we don't know what it is. Saying "war is evil" without knowing anything about war is mere bloviation.

War has been part of the human condition since the first proto-human brained his brother (literal or otherwise) with a rock as they fought over access to scarce resources.

Today our capacity to make war threatens every living thing on this planet. We could destroy our entire planet many times over, although it only needs destroying once to make the issue moot.

It bothers me that, of late, nearly every article on astronomy I read in scientific publications seems to contain the assumption that we are looking for a new home, a new planet to house our discordant species. Are we so close to the destruction of this, our home? Is there some plan afoot about which we, the labouring masses, know nothing and guess little? And, should we find it necessary to leave this planet, are we only taking with us the seeds of our future destruction?

We are still involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we elected Barack Obama to the highest office in the land, he promised us that the troops would be coming home soon.

I have plenty of respect and admiration for President Obama. He's doing a great job, given the mess he inherited. But while we are drawing down troops in Iraq, and finally bringing them home; while we are closing for good that monument to the fall from grace of America The Once-Beautiful, the torture chambers of Guantanamo Bay Prison; while we have finally resolved the amorphous and overly-broad scope of the "War Against Terror" into a mission to seek and destroy Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, his evil stepchild — I cannot but be troubled over our sending more troops to Afghanistan.

I understand that in order to safeguard itself and attain its objective, the US/NATO force currently in Afghanistan does require reinforcements. And it will be no easy task to finally clean up the mess that our Former Dear Leader Dick "they call me Dick for a reason" Cheney/Gee, Dumb? Yeah! Bouchebag and that ambulatory purulence, Donald Rumsfeld, left behind in Afghanistan.

I understand we can't just pull our military out all over the world and "bring the troops home" en masse, no matter how much we want to. We must ensure that those troops have something to come home to — jobs, or opportunities therefor, at least; the rescaling and restructuring of the military; training that will allow members of the military to do something very different than what they've been doing for the past X years. Medical issues, contract issues, benefits, all have to be managed, and with minimum disruption.

Most importantly, I believe that, although a standing army is pretty much required of any nation in this day and age, we need — we all need — to learn how to be a nation at peace. The military budget is destroying this country. We are spending millions on machines that have only one purpose: to kill or maim other human beings.

Most of us find the thought of killing and injuring other people distasteful. If we did not, there would be no need to demonize the enemy. Apparently, we don't find it distasteful enough to stop our country from becoming a vast military-industrial Moloch that grinds our own children to death in its jaws. We sacrifice the best of ourselves, our humanity, our health, our lives, and the lives of others, casually, to feed the beast. And the same people who support the burgeoning military budget complain at having to spend less than one-fifth of that amount to ensure the nation's health. (FYI: 2009 military budget: $515 billion. Estimated yearly expenditure on the public option: $90 billion annually.)

The time has come for that to end. This means we all need to learn, to see, to feel, to think, without equivocation, without flinching, about war. About exactly what it is.

And this is what it is. Torture, sadism, cruelty, inhumane acts, evil. War represents the worst in the human spirit, that allows us to justify killing old men, blowing up pregnant women, blowing limbs off little children.

Could you cut open a living human being? Dr. Ishii could. He did. He ordered his subordinates to, as well. You might say, "But I am not responsible for Dr. Ishii. This happened many years ago, and I was not even alive, at the time."

This is why you cannot plead that defense: Dr. Ishii and the scientists of Unit 731 were never prosecuted for their crimes. In return for access to their research on live human subjects — experiments forbidden by any code of ethics — Douglas MacArthur, and through him the United States of America, offered these war criminals full immunity from prosecution.

What Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, and their cohorts authorized in Iraq and Afghanistan bears plenty of resemblance (perhaps they didn't go as far as vivisection, although we don't yet know) to what was done by Unit 731. And these war criminals continue to walk among us, scot-free.

Here, for your delectation, some excerpts from this exceptional chronicling of Unit 731, Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II, by Peter Williams and David Wallace:

The unit was referred to under a number of different names at different times: Ishii Unit; Manchuria 25202 Unit; Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit.

...

One of Ishii's dreams could come true — doctors in combat alongside the glorious infantry.

Doctors in combat. Those who take an oath to preserve health and life, serving alongside, and assisting, those sworn to take both health and life from anyone they, or their superiors, identify as "the enemy." Ishii set up his headquarters at P'ing Fan, in Manchuria. It was by order of the Japanese Emperor of the time, Hirohito, that the size of the detachment was fixed at 3,000 personnel.

Ever since his trip to Europe, plague had fascinated Ishii. ... Plague could create casualties often out of all proportion to the number of bacteria disseminated. Ishii deduced, therefore, that it would make an efficient weapon and set about preparing the most dangerous strains. He looked to history, to the great plagues that had ravaged continents and delighted in the chaos that such a weapon would create. ...

Plague had another advantage for Ishii. Its origins could be concealed.

...

Russians from Hogoin were only one source of human guinea pigs. Most, around 70 per cent, were Chinese soldiers, intellectuals and local worker agitators apprehended by the Kenpeitai and Secret Service throughout Manchuria.

Such human experimental material included those designated as

suspected spy, saboteur, or ideological criminal, perhaps an opium smoker, pro-Soviet and anti-Japanese, "disloyal," of no value for "enlistment," unwilling for "re-education," of no fixed abode, or simply whose release was "undesirable."

...

Unsuspecting and innocent people were also tricked into the clutches of Unit 731. Some were lured by the prospect of employment. Young boys, mothers and children, even pregnant women were trapped.

Prisoners were referred to as "maruta," which is the Japanese word for a log of wood.

Talk about dehumanization!

A maruta was just a number, a piece of experimental material. They were not even regarded as human beings.

...

The prison was a vision of hell. Through the spyhole cut in the steel doors of each cell, the plight of the chained marutas could be seen. Some had rotting limbs, bits of bone protruding through skin blackened by necrosis. Others were sweating in high fever, writhing in agony or moaning in pain. ... An infected person would be put with healthy marutas to see how easily diseases spread.

...

Marutas were "used up" at the rate of two or three per day.

Among the prisoners on whom such inhumane tests were performed were 88,000 American and Filipino PoWs captured during the fall of Bataan and Corregidor. Some of these, together with Australian, British, and New Zealand PoWs (a total of 1,485) were sent to Manchuria. How many White Russians perished at P'ing Fan is not clear. At least the Chinese and the Allies have some record of how many of their people died.

The Soviet Union prosecuted those members of Unit 731 that they captured for war crimes. They were sentenced to lengthy terms but not put to death. Eventually, they were released and repatriated to Japan. Those who evaded capture by the Soviets ended up under the military authority of the United States. In exchange for their experimental data, Douglas MacArthur and, through him, the United States Government, shielded these war criminals from prosecution, essentially giving them a free pass. Many of them went on to win high honours in their quickly-resumed professional lives.

And the U.S. government took the data from Unit 731 and conducted bacteriological warfare against the North Koreans. Uninformed Americans wonder why the North Koreans are so paranoid. In their place, wouldn't you be? Information has only now, 50+ years later, begun to surface about war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Korea. But the truth about bacterial weapons used against the Koreans is not yet common knowledge even in the U.S.

While civilian Japanese paid with their lives and health at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ishii Shiro and his cohorts lived in comparative wealth and splendour to the end of their days. While his countrymen starved and suffered, Ishii Shiro and the commanders of Unit 731 lived well. Some of these monsters — perhaps all of them, by now — are dead. But their crimes must never die.

Chinese and Japanese protest war crimes of Unit 731

We must never forget that we human beings are capable of doing such things to each other. We invoke war as our excuse to dispel the last shreds of our humanity. It has often been said of humankind that we are "midway between angel and ape." The deeds of Unit 731 put the lie to that claim. No ape could, or would, cause such suffering to its fellow apes, and justify it so disingenuously.

In all honesty, although this book took weeks to read, and more weeks to recover from, this Cat has actually also been occupied with the monumental task of editing several books. That task is now drawing to a close, and this blog will resume its regular assault upon your consciousness.

Thank you for your attention.

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Politics: Incitement to Violence

ICHC FTLOL

The Foofaraw-Of-The-Day (hereinafter FoTD) was that some motherfucking idiot butthole surfer decided to create a poll asking whether his fellow FaceBookers thought that President Obama deserved assassination.

For those who don't use FaceBook, lots and lots of third-party developers write little apps that you can use to do silly stuff on FB, like create stupid polls that actually go to your FB account and pull all kinds of data about you and your friends and then sell it to people who want to pay money to find out what kind of people use FB and how dumb they are and also how likely to pay money for the dumb things these people want to sell them.

So there's this third-party app that lets you create polls. And most of the polls are really silly, harmless stuff like "What flavour of ice-cream are you?" and "Do you wear frilly panties?" and shit like that.

Well, this bright soul (not) decides to create this fucking poll about whether the President should be assassinated, and the choices it gives you are (Yes), (Maybe), (If he cuts my healthcare), and (No).

Some 700 or so other idiots found this poll and decided to take it. Well, actually, the first person to take it probably sent it to five other friends, who sent it to 25 other friends, and it snowballed. To the credit of most of the idiots who took it, the answer was NO by a staggering margin. And the total number of responses was very small in terms of the total number of users on FB. And, the Internets responded by reporting the dumb motherfucker to the Secret Service.

To FB's credit, they immediately suspended polls when this was brought to their attention. They then had a little talk with the app developer, asking him to fix his code so that no one could ever do such a revoltingly swinish thing again. Which he is, I believe, doing as we squeak. They also had their little session with the Secret Service and, no doubt, have turned over captured IP addresses and the like.

Welp. It won't be too long before the Men In Black have a little conversation with the feckin' eejit who wrote that feckin' poll, will it, now?



Good luck, you scum-sucking swine. You're going to need all of it that you can get. Not that we think you should be allowed much of anything, with the exception of bread, water, and shelter from the elements in a jail cell for some years, but hey. You get your day in court while the prosecutor tries to prove you guilty.

Maybe this will stop the likes of Annhole Coulter, Glen Blech, and Flush Rimbowl from making their unacceptable and unwarranted cracks about poisoning Supreme Court Justices, or the Speaker of the House, or shooting at the Speaker or the President.

Listen up, Fuckwits, one and all: US Code TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 115 § 2385:

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms “organizes” and “organize”, with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.

So before you form into astroturfer organizations carrying placards advocating the violent overthrow of the government, please note that it is a fucking CRIME as defined by law. There are penalties for this kind of hate speech. You can't run around flapping your ugly gobs about killing people without consequences.

Do you understand, you cone-headed dimwits? The Free Speech amendment to the Constitution gives you the right PEACEABLY to assemble. Read it, idiots:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If you're not assembling PEACEABLY, without guns or hate speech or threats or incitements to crime, well, there are consequences for that kind of behaviour. You have to take responsibility for your bullshit, assholes. Better start sending money to the ACLU now, motherfuckers, because they're the only ones that will bail your oversized useless lardy asses out of the hoosegow.

Moreover, these heah threats you're making against your freely and fairly elected President? That shit is laid out in the same fucking code, you worthless buttfucks. Read it and meep: TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 41 § 871.

Threats against President and successors to the Presidency

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(b) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2. The phrase “other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President” as used in this section shall mean the person next in the order of succession to act as President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 19 and 20.

OK, assholes? Didja get that? Do you understand the words of more than one syllable here? The next time one of you motherfuckers starts making that cocksucking pout of the lips and spouting off about the tree of liberty being watered with the blood of tyrants? Y'awl better be prepared to see some Men In Black coming through the front door, the back door, or both.

What part of PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE do you pointy-headed assholes not get? "Peaceably to assemble" does not mean "bring your fucking Uzis and AK-47s to the town hall and terrify little children and old ladies," do you get that yet?



Because by all you fucking hold holy, you brainless walking excrement, if you harm one hair on the head of our lawfully elected President, our Vice-President, or our Speaker of the House, be prepared for some real patriots to kick the holy fucking shit out of your cheetos-laden ass.

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Health Care: What YOU Can Do

If you've been following the Health Care Reform fight, then you know that the Senate Finance Committee met today to vote on Max Baucus' bill.

Well, five Blue Running Dogs joined the Republicans to vote against the public option authored by Senator Rockefeller (D-W.Va). This, despite the fact that two out of every three of their constituents (or more) FAVOUR a Public Option. And despite the fact that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has already published a report stating that Rockefeller's version of the public option would save the government between $50 billion and $150 billion over a ten-year period.

Needless to say, ALL the Republicans voted against the Public Option. So down it went in flames.

The time has come to fight back, people. Get off your duffs. A commenter at HuffPo left the following information on who to contact, and how:

BAUCUS: Phone: (202) 224-2651 Fax: (202) 224-9412
LINCOLN: Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371
CONRAD: Phone: (202) 224-2043 Fax: (202) 224-7776
NELSON: Phone: (202) 224-5274 Fax: (202) 228-2183
CARPER: Phone: (202) 224-2441 Fax: (202) 228-2190

If you are a constituent of any of these primo assholes, then it is your DUTY to call or fax them and demand to know why they have rejected Rockefeller's money-saving public option. They're now debating Chuck Schumer's version of the public option, a much weaker, watered-down version which won't save the country as much, if anything.

Any constituents of Charles Grassley out there? If you believe you deserve as good health care as he gets thanks to your taxes, call or fax him too, and ask him why he made this statement:

"Government is not a competitor. Government is a predator."

— Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

Does he really mean it? Has he given up HIS taxpayer-financed health care? Who is his private health care insurer? Why does he not switch over to private health care? If they're good enough for us, they should be good enough for him.

ICHC FTLOL

Give them all an earful, peeps. They deserve it. They've earned it.

Note: This blog does not advocate violence against anyone. However, we reserve the right to mercilessly mock our so-called elected representatives.

Additional note: Although it would be great if the people's representatives could be spayed or neutered, it is, unfortunately, too late, as most of them have already flung their obviously unworthy genes into the pool.

Stumble It!

Politics: Republicans

we can respect. That's what we want. Is that too much to ask?

ICHC

We have to listen to Bible Spice yawping her endless lies. Senator Charles Grassley, who really ought to know better, is giving credence to the fears of the elderly with his yawp about "death panels," nothing but lies. Tom Coburn, a Repugnantcan't from Oklahoma who specializes in indoctrinating his young interns into abstinence by showing them gross STD slides while serving them pizza (hello? Visuals here?) flaps his gob spewing the same lies. Then that pathetic cross-dressing liar, Rudi Giuliani, opens his yawp and spews yet more lies.

And various old farts who have been enjoying the Socialistic, Government-run and funded Medicare for a good part of their worthless lives, are out in force screaming and yelling and acting like idiots and making the rest of us old farts look bad.

Hey, lookit, you ignorami: If you're THAT het-up about Socialism, get off Medicare! Find someone willing to insure you and pay for it out of your own fucking pockets. The rest of us will take your place. I'd be happy for some government-run and funded Medicare. Die already, you worthless, oxygen-stealing sacks of shit, instead of embarrassing the rest of us who might be in your age demographic. Jesus fucking J.H. Christ, what a worthless lot of louts.

Where the FUCK are the Gray Panthers when you need 'em?

Now the Repugnants are proposing Rick Santorum as their Hope for the 2012 elections. Are you fucking kidding me, people? Rick "My last name is synonymous with fecal matter and lube" Santorum? His eyes are so close together you have to wonder if his parents are siblings. You want HIM for your candidate?

When will we find a Republican with guts and brains and something approximating decency? When will we find a Republican we can respect, like former Colorado Governor Ralph Carr?

Only one state did not take measures to prevent the Japanese from settling within its borders once they began voluntarily leaving the West Coast as they were urged to do prior to evacuation. That state was Colorado. The fact that Colorado was officially open to Japanese was due to the courage of Governor Ralph Carr, who stood firmly against the many citizens and community leaders disagreeing with his position and angered by his refusal to close the state's borders to Japanese. Compared to other states where Japanese could not rent housing or purchase food or gasoline, Colorado was what one paper described as "a haven of sorts."

Japanese could hold jobs in Colorado, but not in many other states. And the Colorado Times was the only Japanese-language newspaper allowed to publish in the United States.

-- Lest We Forget: The Japanese and America's Wartime Mistake, Joyce E. Williams and Alice M. Coleman

Governor Carr's principled stand cost him a chance at the Senate. He was one of very, very few who dared to speak out against the unprincipled herding of American citizens into concentration camps, without trial or even a determination of their guilt.

Today we have Republicans like Giuliani, Grassley, Palin, and Coburn, who lie not to save their lives (which would be understandable) but to save their corporate masters a few dollars. For that, they are willing to peddle lies, infuse the citizens with fear, and betray the basic principles of that very same democracy that they took an oath to defend.

Stumble It!

The Police State

Jesus fucking J.H. Christ and his Black brother Harry. Is this what it's come to? Body-slamming frail, elderly grannies with dementia in the interests of "protecting and serving?"

Who the fuck, just who the fuck are the cops "protecting" when they slam this poor old lady to the ground and leave her bleeding? Like being old and disoriented isn't bad enough?



I thought the last time the cops engaged in a little granny-bashing was, truly, the last time I'd hear about this. But these motherfuckers — hey, that lady cop has got to outweigh the victim by a good 100 lb., at least.

Your friendly local Cat has had to disarm knife-wielding persons before. It happens sometimes in the course of an argument that an overly-excited person picks up something that they think will help them, um, forcefully drive their point, as it were, home. If you're younger and stronger than the other person, you can get the weapon away from them pretty easily. You do risk getting cut, of course, and you might lose a little blood. But, you know, if you're, like, arguing with grandma, it's no big deal to step behind the old lady, grab her wrist, and twist it till she drops the knife. Unless she has a black belt in some martial art, she's not gonna be able to fight back.

So why these fucking proto-fascists felt the need to body-slam Grammy is completely fucking beyond me, OK?

Here's the facts of the case, as reported by Raw Story:

• The lady in this disgusting video evidence of police brutality is one Virginia Dodson of Whitehall, Ohio;
  
  
• Ms. Dodson is 84 years old and suffers from Alzheimer's Disease;
  
  
• Her daughter, who is her primary caregiver, was running an errand at the local Mall*Wart, and took Mom with her (probably because there is no alternate caregiver, or one wasn't available right then);
  
  
• Understandably, the daughter didn't want to take her into the store, so left her buckled into her seat in the car;
  
  
• At some point, poor disoriented Ms. Dodson lost track of why exactly she was all alone in a car, strapped into her seat, and panicked. She cut the strap with a steak knife she found in the car and exited the car, knife in hand, calling her daughter's name.
  
  
• Thanks to the police, she now has stitches closing the wound in the back of her head, and possibly a broken hand.

Now, some people are all, incensed, screaming, hey, the cops had to take her down 'cause, you know, she had a knife and she threatened some kid, and like that.

OK, you dumb motherfuckers, you wanna live in a police state, move to fucking Afghanistan or where-the-fuck-ever. And ask yourself how you'd feel if that was your Grandma the cops were bashing around. Or you, your very own precious self, some 40 or 60 years from now when you can no longer remember your name or how to wipe your own fucking ass. And don't forget to meditate on the fact that any kid that can't outrun an 84-year-old frail elderly woman who walks with a cane is gonna get Darwinized sooner or later.

Other people are claiming Ms. Dodson's daughter is responsible for this unholy mess because she "neglected" her mom. You lot, form a line to the right. The trucks will be coming any minute now to schlep you off to the local senior home or nursing home or any other place with a high proportion of physically and/or mentally disabled people. You're sentenced to do caretaker duty for them until you figure out just how difficult it is to look after someone with that particular combination of disabilities.

What does this story teach us, boyz'ngirlz?

• One, somebody is putting something truly sinister in the drinking water in Ohio. Either that or the whole fucking state is in the nth degree of crayzee natural-born fucking fascist loons. Maybe we should send all the other loonies there and build high concrete walls around the state. Eh?
  
  
• Two, Our care of the elderly, especially the elderly with mental disabilities, is fucking appalling. Why is Ms. Dodson's daughter forced to schlep Mom around and lock her in a car while she does the grocery shopping? Why don't we have daycare for the elderly and mentally disabled?
  
  
• Three, The police forces in this country desperately need new, better policy positions. One of the first things I'd like to see is the removal of those glorified cattle prods known as Tasers.
  
  And yes, I'm well aware of the fact that most cops lose their lives when intervening in domestic violence situations.

Is respect for the human rights enshrined in the Constitution too much to ask of our police? Because if it is, we need to scrap the existing police force and recreate it from the ground up.

Stumble It!

Entertainment: Because You Need It

After that very depressing post on Otty Sanchez.

So witness, if you will, some really interesting buggers taking on that wretched piece of subhuman refuse, John Yoo (author of Dick'nBush's War on Terra torture-justifying memos):




People, when the fuck is this war criminal going to pay for his crimes, goddammit? What a fucking pathetic ambulatory turd — getting his elderly secretary to throw these young men out instead of answering their questions. John, don't you believe in the essential rightness of your arguments for torture? Man up, you ball-less nutsack!

Somebody try the motherfucker, and soon. He has disgraced the Law, his ethnic group, his sex/gender, Boalt Hall, the fine state of California, and the human race, in no particular order.

Stumble It!

Health Care: I Ain't Feelin' Too Good Myself, Now

OK, I wasn't till Stephen Colbert did this:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Health Care Hell-Scare - Die-agnosis: Mur-DR
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

People, if you don't know or remember what passed for health care 30 years ago, look it up. A few decades ago, employer-provided health care paid for good-quality medical care at no cost to the employee.

Today, we have co-pays ($5-$50 per doctor visit per family member); co-insurance (calculated percentage of total cost of visit and any procedures approved by insurer); Health Savings Accounts (HSAs - only worthwhile if you're young and very healthy because of the huge deductible, meaning insurance only pays a small portion of your costs and you pay the rest out of tax-free savings that you can't afford, because if you had money to save, you'd get yourself a better goddamned policy, wouldn'tcha?); and critical care, which is a hodge-podge of visits to free clinics (increasingly rare these days, and limited in terms of services), nurse hotlines that give free advice but nothing else, and emergency room visits (also increasingly rare as hospitals shut down emergency rooms which see increasing high-maintenance traffic and very little financial return), where you can wait 12 hours or more to see a doctor or even a nurse, unless you're bleeding to death or cyanotic.

Who are the people telling us we don't need universal health care? Our Congresscritters, for one. Well, they have government-provided health care that WE pay for, so why do THEY get to say that WE can't have the same thing? You know all those Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who say that we don't need universal health care, and the government is a fuckup that couldn't administer its own left foot without help?

Tell them to drop their universal healthcare NOW. Call them up and ask them if they are covered by the government. If they are, then they need to switch to private insurance NOW, because they can afford to. For us working stiffs, private insurance is just too fucking expensive. For them, with their six-figure salaries, it's a tiny little blip in the bank account. Since they think private industry does this shit better than government ever could, it is their fucking DUTY to select a private option. NOW. No excuses. No more waffling, no more bullshit.

If they're not willing to drop their taxpayer-funded health care, then they should shut the fuck up and give us the same healthcare that they get. After all, we're already paying for it. Widen the pool, lower the cost, lower the risk.

Stumble It!

World: No Regrets?

No, it's not the Billie Holliday song. It's what's happening in the trials of the Khmer Rouge criminals right now.

Prisoner at Tuol Sleng, Pol Pot's notorious S-21 prison

No, my knowledge of Kampuchean history is not great. I know something about the early history of the Khmer and other peoples of that part of Southeast Asia, the Funanese empire, the Dong Son bronzes, but almost nothing about their modern history, except that my parents greatly respected and admired Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

I am about to begin my historical explorations of that deeply wretched nation.

However, today's report from Reuters does not bode well for my virtual travels thereto. According to Reuters, one Mam Nay, aka Chan, who served for a time as an interrogator under Pol Pot's head jailor, Duch (real name Kaing Guek Eav) testified in court today that he has no regrets for

what happened at the Tuol Sleng prison, where more than 14,000 men, women and children were killed, [...].

Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, is the infamous prison referred to in "The Killing Fields."

No regrets for this, Mr. Chan? Or Mam Nay, if you prefer?

Tortured Prisoner, one of 6,000 photographs left behind when Khmer Rouge jailors evicted Tuol Sleng prison in advance of invading VietNamese troops

Mam Nay, who is appearing as a witness for the prosecution in the joint Kampuchean-UN war crimes trials, has denied any part in torture or killings of prisoners and blamed the United States and Vietnam for undermining his country.

"My only regret was our country was invaded," he told the joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal. "Frankly speaking, the Americans invaded us then Vietnam invaded us. That is my regret."

[...]

"I did not use torture in my interrogation. I believed I would not get a true confession."

Asked about the deaths of innocent people, Nay, 76, said: "None of them was innocent -- those people committed offences, either minor or serious.

"This was the reason for their arrest. How serious or how minor, I don't know."

Note: This guy was a schoolteacher. Maybe he was a brainwashed cadre turned schoolteacher. But how do you become a schoolteacher if you cannot empathize with frightened children? And some of the 14-20,000 imprisoned at Tuol Sleng were children. Ony six people survived that prison. The remaining 13,994 — or 19,994, no one really knows — died as a result of torture.

There is no denying that the US bombing of Kampuchea and various associated military actions led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. But who thought they would be so inhumane as to kill between 1 and 3 million of their own people? Between the U.S. bombing and the NVA attempts to escape U.S. military actions by slipping over the border into Kampuchean territory, evicting Kampucheans, and training members of the Khmer Rouge, Kampuchea's attempts at neutrality and Sihanouk's heroic efforts in that direction were virtually worthless. Here is a brief background on these aspects of Kampuchean history.

Mam Nay, or Mr. Chan, or whatever you call yourself, should a "minor" offense warrant waterboarding? Or, as Americans and other Westerners used to refer to it, "Chinese" or "Japanese" water torture?

Picture taken by Jonah Blank in 2005 at the Tuol Sleng Museum. Published on the Web by David Corn.*

Oh, well. I guess now that it's come to light that we waterboarded mentally ill or innocent or possibly innocent people ourselves, repeatedly, I guess we're in no position to quibble about anyone else's crimes.

Ain't torture egalitarian?

*See here for copyright/licensing information on this picture.

Incidentally, the still-adored ex-partner made a trip to those parts some years ago, and opined that "the whole place seemed haunted. It was like going to a ghost town. Even the people's faces look haunted." The ex is a tough businessperson who has had plenty of occasion to mock and deride my own claims of sensitivity and queasiness and unexplained oojie-woojies, so to hear those words from such a person, well. Virtual trips to Kampuchea is all I'm up to for now.

Stumble It!

Politics: Mark Sanford

Oh, boo-hoo. Some pinhead opinionifying over at CNN is drilling in the Deep Well of Gall to tell us all we should not be getting outraged over Sanford's shenanigans. FTA:

We need to understand this situation for what it is: human weakness, poor judgment, personal longing and complicated relationships. The question is, how are we -- each one of us personally -- going to respond? I'd like to make a suggestion:

We should empathize.

I'd like to make a suggestion, too, dumbkopf — pull your cranium out of your rectum. Whatever happened between Sanford and his wife is their fucking problem (literally as well as figuratively). And while we enjoy bwa-ha-haaing at those holier-than-thou hypocrites who preach "fambly valyooos" out of one side of their ass while pillorying anyone who looks like they might have snuck a little sideline of horizontal samba, we empathize with ridiculous modern-day notions of marriage as being between one guy and one gal but not for teh ghey. (I can't imagine any gay person doing more damage to teh "sanctity" of marriage than, oh, Britney Spears, Mark Sanford, and all you other Christo-fascist yobs.)

The *real* issue for us here at La Casa de Los Gatos is, this dumb motherfucker took off work without making any arrangements for anyone else to take up his duties; and flew off to boink his girlfriend after LYING to everybody and their fucking sister-in-law about where he was going. He didn't call in, he didn't check that the whole fucking state hadn't been blown off the map during his absence, he didn't show ANY responsibility whatsoever.

When I accepted the last paid job I had, I had to sign a contract that said that if I missed work for more than THREE DAYS without notifying the office of my absence and giving them a way to contact me, I would be FIRED. And I was not some high-ranking corporate BigDick. Or some governor of a state, responsible for the lives, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of other human beings. Just a lowly corporate worm. But them wuz teh breaks. We had that drilled into our heads by HR. If you want to take time off, fill out a form at least two weeks before you leave, explaining that you will be out of the office, the purpose of your absence (you could just put "vacation time," or "bereavement leave," or whatever, but that form had to be filled in), date of return to work, emergency contact number, approval of your immediate manager and approval of your manager's manager.

If you got hit by a car and were not dead, then you had to instruct your next-of-kin to call the fucking office, for crying out loud, and tell them that you were dying at such-and-such hospital and would return to work (or not) by such a date. So where does this motherfucking yobbo get off, just disappearing into the wild blue yonder? I'm supposed to empathize with this shit? I THINK NOT, mofo. Fuck that! What's so special about Sanford's Holy Taint? What, the rules don't apply to him?

To add insult to injury, the motherfucker paid for his boinking trip with taxpayer money. The state of South Carolina is in the shitpit for money, the unemployment rate is high and climbing, the governor stamps his little feet and whines about not wanting to take Federal money for unemployment so working people who've been laid off can put food on the fucking table for themselves and their kids, and he's got the unmitigated gall to take THEIR money to pay for his horizontal samba? And lie about it? Stealing, lying, cheating, irresponsibility ... this is what I'm supposed to empathize with? I'm supposed to happily susidize Sanford's knob-polishing ventures while surviving on cereal and water?

What planet are these dumb asses from?

And it's not like the guy has shown any shame and remorse for his utterly shameful acts. Today he's whooping on about how, like King David in the bibul, he is NOT, NOT, NOT going to resign. Hey, fuckface — you're not a king. You were *elected* governor. David couldn't be impeached. You can. And I sincerely hope you are. What's more, I hope your wife kicks you out on your ass, and your Argentinian bombshell takes up with someone younger, cuter, and hotter than you. Because you did her a big disservice too, you hypocritical bag o'dicks, outing the whole affair and crying in public about how you done your wife wrong.

Your wife is mega-rich, she'll soon get over your wack crap. And the Argentinian babe is muy hot, so I'm sure there's no shortage of guys lining up waiting for a smile from her. You're the asshole here, not either of the two ladies involved. You hit on another woman after years of mush-mouthing your "Praise Jeebus I R a Xtian man and the Lord totally blesses my schlong" crap. You had the balls to ask your wife's permission to go visit your mistress. Instead of manning up to your responsibility as the father of four young boys and the "Law(d)fully wedded husband" of your wife, who has worked hard to promote your career for close to two decades, you miserable bastard.

You need a come-uppance, man, because you're too fucking arrogant by half. King David, my ass. ESAD, you slavering fuckwit.

Stumble It!

No Shortage of Teh Stupid

Apparently, the Wah!Poo (aka the Washington Post) has decided to fire Dan Froomkin, one of the best journalists I've found over the past decade or so. To add salt to the wound, they decided to give Paul "Wolfie" Wolfowitz, that neocon hustler schmuck, proven liar, and known war criminal, a guest column this weekend, probably with intent to hire.

What's really interesting about the firing of Froomkin and the hosting of Wolfie is how many people have had a strong reaction thereto. I was very upset and depressed about it yesterday, but after visiting their ombudsidiot's bleagh (just like a blog, only stupider and more pointless) today, found what seemed like at least one thousand angry comments, many from subscribers who've taken the Wah!Poo for decades and swear they will no more.

Whatever. I wrote Dan a thankyou for his terrific work — some days it seemed like he was the only thread of sanity, during the horrible Bush years. And then, because I couldn't resist, I went to the ombudsidiot's bleagh and added a dollop of snark along these lines:

I left here yesterday determined never to return, but was intrigued by a link in a blog I read regularly about the "700 comments" on the firing of Froomkin. I'm glad I swung by for a quick look. It seems as if the number of comments on this page is now a thousand or more. And many, many people share my sentiments about the inappropriateness of, on the one hand, firing Froomkin who exercised true journalistic even-handedness in speaking truth to power, and, on the other, giving column space to yet another tired neocon war criminal and known liar, Wolfowitz. And now that Jane Hamsher has the stats on Wah!Poo readership, it looks as if The Huffington Post is not just drinking your milkshake, but eating your lunch as well. Shoot, it's even sweeping up all the crumbs for later dispersal to the birds. I admired and respected the Washington Post of Katie Graham, although I never agreed with its politics. It was a good paper, though, and earned its laurels. What Fred Hiatt and the Graham scion have done with it leaves it barely fit for fishwrap. Goodbye again, Wah!Poo. Judging from the figures, you'll soon be part of teh Moonie Times anyway.

Feel free to express your wrath, if any, here. If you want to say goodbye to Dan, you'll find him here for another week or so. He's promised to let his readership know where he'll land, and land he will, gracefully, on both feet. It's the Wah!Poo's loss, not his. Their current stable of Op-Ed writers (and stable is an apt term, given the horses' asses they house) includes such non-luminaries as Charles Krauthammer (vile, spittle-flecked, reality-insensible torture-loving neocon); Ramesh Ponnuru (the less said the better); Bill Kristol (fired by the NYT for a tragic divorce from fact); George Will ("teh global warming of my blue jeans, it is teh drama"); and David "You peasants don't need to know that the X industry paid me to tell you Y" Broder; and, who knows, Rush Limbaugh next, unless Wolfie takes the job.

In the meantime, you can find Dan's writing at Nieman Watchdog. If you're a regular reader of Glenn Greenwald's blog at Salon, or any of the big blogs like Firedoglake, HuffPo, Daily Kos, TPM, and the like, there's plenty of lively discussion going on about the issue. Is the Wah!Poo circling the toilet, or already in teh shit?

Mainly, what I'm wondering is, would it be worthwhile to subscribe to the Wah!Poo just to cancel one's subscription on the day Dan leaves? You know, just to really drive home the point that lotsa lotsa people think they're truly well beyond fucked up and, as Molly Ivins used to say, not being driven out of business by the Internet so much as committing suicide like a drunken lemming on crack. But I paraphrase.

Whatever. There isn't room for two reactionary birdcage liners in the city of Washington, D.C., so chances are they're, as some commenter said on Sadly, No!, presenting like a female mandrill in heat in the hope of being acquired by the true neocon schmatta, the Washington Times, affectionately (no, sorry, truthfully, rather) known as The Moonie Times.

Stumble It!

Civil Rights: Tasers and Police Brutality

If you haven't watched this video yet via YouTube, pour yourself a drink first:



Then sit back and watch this 400-lb hog of a cop "subdue" a 72-year-old grandma who stands all of 4 feet 11 inches — with a Taser. Travis County, Texas must be some prime idiot-raising country, if a Sheriff's Deputy has to taser a little old lady for speeding. I never heard such rubbish in my life. And that mush-mouthed asshole defending the lardass is his boss, who thinks the scumbucket did nothing wrong.

Excuse me? If that was my grandmother y'all would be paying the entire fucking budget for the next ten years in damages, you assholes. Look at it. Watch the cobag shove her around, scream in her face, threaten her, intimidate her, and then run electric shocks through her body.

Hey, assholes, guess what. My mom stood 4 foot 11. When she attacked me, I picked her up and G-E-N-T-L-Y deposited her in a chair and told her I wouldn't listen to her till she calmed down. And I'm not a trained police officer.

Maybe Officer Bigass needs to find a job babysitting or something if Granny can scare him so much he has to "protect" himself with a deadly weapon. On second thoughts, forget it. He'd be in jail for tasering the first infant to pee on him.

Pity Granny didn't manage to knock his nuts off:

ICHC

Guess she'd have to find them first.

Stumble It!

Politics: You Owe It To Yourselves

To keep up with the GOP-originated ruckus surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Why? Because the naked, rampant racism and ugliness must be fought before it becomes part of the national mindset again. Because we watched this sort of "inciting the mob" behaviour for eight years and most of us were afraid and sick inside and we did nothing because we were afraid. Well, now's your chance. Say something. Do something. Read about it. Get involved. Talk to your friends, your neighbours, your fellow churchgoers, your book club, your cousins who live a thousand miles away. We've got to stay on top of this thing. We've got to keep it from getting ugly — well, any uglier than it already is.

Oh, yeah, and write your Congresscritters, especially the Republicans. Tell them to take a stand against this sort of incitement.

ICHC

A commenter over at HuffPo had this to say about Tom "I R Teh Racist" Tancredo, who is doing teh head spin while spouting pea soup along with some very dubious yawp:

In Colorado, Tancredo is associated with the Rocky Mountain Foundation, which is dedicated to limiting and perhaps totally ending immigration. They are known for their bigotry. I called this afternoon to complain about Tancredo, but the woman who answered said she "didn't know anything about his appearances on TV)" and that, of course, no one else was their to come to the phone!" I sent them an email instead. There is a "visitors' book" where a number of conservatives have left supportive comments for Tancredo AND their email addresses! I would like to send my comments to tthe supporters also, but I don't know if I will have time. How about you?

Give 'em hell, people, it's what they're there for. How else will you get your blood pressure to safe levels when listening to the shit conservatives spew daily?

Here's what Judge Sotomayor's said that got these weeny-wavers so excited they can't stop waving their peeners:

"Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

"Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown."

Anybody find anything unacceptable about that? If so, here's something Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said during his confirmation hearings:

In an exchange with Sen. Tom Coburn, who had asked Alito to discuss how his personal experiences shows that "he cared for the little guy," Alito said that his family"s experience as immigrants influenced his outlook on immigration cases.

Alito: "And that"s why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let"s say, someone who is an immigrant " and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases " I can"t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn"t that long ago when they were in that position.

When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."

If this is acceptable to you, as it apparently was to all the Congresscritters who voted to confirm Alito, then you should be the first to whup Slimy Reptile Gingrich upside the head for having the guts to ask Judge Sotomayor to step aside. She should not step aside unless, not even if Alito does.

Mind you, the fact that Slimy Reptile Gingrich texted his comments about Judge Sotomayor being a racist from fucking Auschwitz, jesus christ, do these motherfuckers have the first fucking clue about irony? — is just icing on the cake.

Update: Jesus Christ. Now G. Gordon Liddy, the guy who made "bobbing for French fries" part of our national consciousness, is trying to monitor Judge Sotomayor's menstrual flow. Or something. From the inimitable Maru's site, some unbelievable WhatTheFuckery for your reading pleasure. Thanks to UndieLib for the ass-kicking of Liddy that follows.


Of course, you have to ask what a wrinkled saggy old sack like Gee, Gordon, "Could You Get Your Nutsack Lifted?" Liddy has to say about anybody else's naughty bits. Gordie in a thong is a scary sight indeed, and if that doesn't keep the lot of ya chaste and celibate for a month, you must've rushed for the brain-and-eyeball bleach.

Pseudocentrist blog Politico (no link, sorry), meanwhile, referred to Judge Sotomayor as a Latina single mother, until it was pointed out to them that in order to be a single mother, one must first have children, which Judge Sotomayor apparently does not. Without so much as a by-your-leave, they removed the offending words, but did not apologize for the stupid mistake.

No doubt in a couple of days or weeks rightwing nutcases will be screaming about how Judge Sotomayor is a Latina cannibal single mother who has devoured her nonexistent children.

As for those pendejos yawping on endlessly about how La Raza is a racist organization, here is some basic information about La Raza for anyone who doesn't yet know what the organization is and does.

ICHC

And for those who don't want to clicky the linky, a summary:

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs), NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.

Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCLR serves all Hispanic subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Translation of the name National Council of La Raza:

Many people incorrectly translate our name, “La Raza,” as “the race.” While it is true that one meaning of “raza” in Spanish is indeed “race,” in Spanish, as in English and any other language, words can and do have multiple meanings. As noted in several online dictionaries, “La Raza” means “the people” or “the community.” Translating our name as “the race” is not only inaccurate, it is factually incorrect. “Hispanic” is an ethnicity, not a race. As anyone who has ever met a Dominican American, Mexican American, or Spanish American can attest, Hispanics can be and are members of any and all races.

The term “La Raza” has its origins in early 20th century Latin American literature and translates into English most closely as “the people” or, according to some scholars, as “the Hispanic people of the New World.” The term was coined by Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos to reflect the fact that the people of Latin America are a mixture of many of the world’s races, cultures, and religions. Mistranslating “La Raza” to mean “the race” implies that it is a term meant to exclude others. In fact, the full term coined by Vasconcelos, “La Raza Cósmica,” meaning the “cosmic people,” was developed to reflect not purity but the mixture inherent in the Hispanic people. This is an inclusive concept, meaning that Hispanics share with all other peoples of the world a common heritage and destiny.

From An Open Letter To The Public, NCLR Answers Critics

So there ya go, peoples. Incidentally, you might want to let La Raza know you support them. And if you're a conservative, please remember that G. Dumbya and his daddy both had nothing but good things to say about La Raza.

Further update: Texas Republican congresscritter John Cornyn is making little squeaky noises about how all those conservatives attacking Judge Sotomayor should please stop already. Who's taking bets on when he has to grovellingly apologize to Rush Limbaugh, who's already attacking him?

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