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April 28, 2009

The Fox and the Hare-Brained

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion,Toon — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — RS Janes @ 7:40 am

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April 27, 2009

Bush’s Torture Memo Lawyers Didn’t Read the Geneva Convention (or Their Oaths of Office)?

Seriously – Jay Bybee, Bush’s former Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, apparently didn’t bother to read the Geneva Convention definitions of torture before giving advice to Bush and Cheney on what constitutes torture? And this guy’s still a federal judge?

“Judge [Jay] Bybee’s résumé tells us that he has four children and is both a Cubmaster for the Boy Scouts and a youth baseball and basketball coach. He currently occupies a tenured seat on the United States Court of Appeals. As an assistant attorney general, he was the author of the Aug. 1, 2002, memo endorsing in lengthy, prurient detail interrogation ‘techniques’ like ‘facial slap (insult slap)’ and ‘insects placed in a confinement box.’

“He proposed using 10 such techniques ‘in some sort of escalating fashion, culminating with the waterboard, though not necessarily ending with this technique.’ Waterboarding, the near-drowning favored by Pol Pot and the Spanish Inquisition, was prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II. But Bybee concluded that it ‘does not, in our view, inflict ‘severe pain or suffering.” ”
– Frank Rich, “The Banality of Bush White House Evil,” NY Times, April 26, 2009.

From the Geneva Convention:

Part II, Section I, Article 13, “General Protection of Prisoners of War”: “Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention.” [...]

“Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.”

Part III, Section I, Article 17, “Captivity”: “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.”
– From the “Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” adopted August 12, 1949 and signed by the United States on October 21, 1950. Published by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Everything proposed by Bybee and Yoo was illegal under both the Geneva Convention and US torture laws, and they should have known that. So should Bush, Cheney and the others who took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Read the exact oaths below:

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April 26, 2009

Have a Grand Old Rubber Mask Party!

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April 25, 2009

The Tattlesnake – Even Under Obama, Our Two-Tiered Justice System Rolls On Edition

Why Are Glenn Beck and His Media Colleagues Walking Free While Minnesota’s ‘RNC 8′ Are Prosecuted for Terrorism?

Real Texans, natives from those parts of the state not dominated by the alligator-cowboy-boot luxury of the oil-pump Petrograds of Dallas or Houston, claim that, even in its death throes, a poisonous snake is still dangerous. Poke it with a stick and, with it’s a final ounce of waning spite, it will snap and try to kill as it writhes its last.

Such is the case with the fading right-wing media and their cohort in the Republican Party, their only hope for continued relevance encapsulated by the fervent wish that the increasingly popular President Obama fail miserably, and take the country down with him. These neocon elite know, even from their musings of history by the dim firelight in Plato’s cave, that a successful Obama spells the end, at least in their lifetimes, of the modern ‘free market’ corporatist-conservative movement blueprinted by Milton Freidman and his acolytes, and set into motion by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the two Bush presidencies, culminating in the Dubya-initiated disaster of our current economic crisis, the inevitable historically-repeated result of stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

But the Limbaughs and Becks, Hannitys and O’Reillys are also battling with each other for ratings from a dwindling, aging audience, causing them to engage in a war of words wherein they must out-do one another in issuing paranoia-laden proclamations in a voice of sullen outrage, bray archaic Cold War bombast or, in the case of Glenn Beck, display the tearful, fearful ramblings of a man losing his mind.

Not that any of them actually believe any of the guff they spread daily – they are mental itinerant workers who are well-paid for peddling a continually shifting ideology – when Bush said we are not at war with Islam, he was statesmanlike and diplomatic; when Obama does it, he’s surrendering to our Muslim enemies. When Bush ordered Shock and Awe bombings of Baghdad that killed innocent Iraqi teenagers, that’s understandable – the unfortunate ‘collateral damage’ of war; when Obama orders the three teenage pirates threatening the life of an American citizen shot, he’s killing kids. When Clinton was in office, seemingly his every movement, even firing staff in the White House Travel Office, was worthy of a special prosecutor; when Obama talks about holding those accountable who illegally ordered torture, he’s turning the country into a banana republic. And on it goes, an endless stream of swill offered up by the millionaire shills for the entertainment division of the Fox funhouse mirror of political propaganda, toiling in the fields planted by Edward Bernays, Joseph Goebbels, H.R. Haldeman and unsung laborers in behavioral psychology and mass marketing who devoted their professional lives to convincing the public to buy products they don’t need and adopt political ideas that empty their bank accounts and lower their wages, while tempering their minds to accept ever larger loads of pernicious claptrap that serves the profitable interests of the wealthy moguls who bankroll the whole anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional neoconservative operation.

Every day, in the safe confines of the radio or cable TV studio, these media evangelists of the New World Order wrestle with indomitably evil straw men, unleash torpedos of invective at liberal ghost blips on the radar, launch fusillades of bile at comic book enemies from the Eisenhower era, crucify those they detect as suspicious of Jesus’ divinity or conservative Republican provenance, and, most hilariously, mount fearsome attacks on the mythical Left-Wing Media, the corporate conglomerate parents of which are owned by wealthy capitalists who invest on Wall Street, seek further tax cuts for their upper-income bracket, deregulation for their companies, pay good money to lobby politicians, and, in many cases, own a piece of the outlet that broadcasts the daily doses of outrage and hate to the lower caste of ignorant, addled Proles seeking an easy leftist scapegoat for what has happened to their country in the wake of the misrule of the elite Republican right.

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April 24, 2009

Another of Col. Rove’s Crimes Against America

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H/T to Media Matters for the quote.

Also read this at Media Matters:

“Whether or not the federal government should shift education funding to vouchers is a policy disagreement. Nobody is talking about investigating policy disagreements. Torture is a crime. Illegal activity doesn’t become legal simply because the president wants it to happen.”
– Jamison Foser, “Gaps in the Right-Wing’s ‘Banana Republic’ Rhetoric,” Media Matters, April 24, 2009.

April 23, 2009

Republicans Talk to the Hand?

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion,Toon — Tags: , , , , , , — RS Janes @ 7:18 am

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Heil to the Funken Fuhrer!

They say you are what you eat — maybe Gordy has had one too many rats…

“On his radio show, [G. Gordon] Liddy is referred to in German as Herr Funken Führer, ‘Dear Radio Leader.’ That’s interesting given that Liddy has praised the original Führer, saying Hitler ‘made me feel a strength inside I had never known before… Hitler’s sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body.’ I guess like many of Liddy’s rants, his nickname on his radio show probably makes more sense in the original German.”
– Jeremy Scahill, “G. Gordon Liddy’s Sexist Attack on Joan Walsh of Salon,” Rebel Reports, April 21, 2009.

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April 21, 2009

Rush’s Bully Course

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion,Toon — Tags: , , , , — RS Janes @ 6:22 am

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April 19, 2009

Fox News Gets It Right?

Has Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing propaganda channel had a flash of sanity and a change of heart on the tea party demonstrations and the secession talk? Like Fox News, I report, you decide.

1. “[Why have] we listened to [this] movement? The same protesters back then as the ones today — the world [isn't] a safer place. Why do they even have any credibility based on their failure after failure, historically speaking?” […]
“They do organize this thing with very anti-American ideas.”

– Sean Hannity on his Fox News show.

2. “I think there are some sincere demonstrators. I just think they haven’t thought it through. Because for every cause there’s an effect, all right? And then what happens? Are you responsible for that?”
– Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor.

3. “You know, I was struck by how uninformed and morally empty these demonstrations were. These demonstrators are morally vacuous, they’re stupid, they’re disingenuous.”
– Fred Barnes on Fox News’ Special Report.

4. “You saw the protests. Some of the placards on display: ‘The idiot is going to start World War III.’ ‘Stop your terror.’ ‘Baby killer.’ ‘Spoiled fascist.’ You get the idea. And there’s a lot of anti-Americanism and, frankly, there are a lot of anti-Semitic statements in some of the different protests.”
– Sean Hannity on his Fox News show.

5. “It was the activists, who were the ones who are the extremists, who were the ones advocating militant ethnic separatism [at these protests]. You had folks with T-shirts mugging for the cameras in front of city hall. These are people who do nothing more than try to sabotage our sovereignty.” […]
“The kind of quote-unquote ‘pride’ that a lot of these activists are touting now goes much further than just being proud about one’s heritage and one’s roots.”

– Michelle Malkin on The O’Reilly Factor.

6. “These kids don’t know anything. A lot of these are poor kids, struggling along in those schools and struggling to gain some sense of identity, so they’re going to wave the flag because they feel somehow they are fighting for the United States. And they’re even going to get into crazy arguments — all kinds of stupidity. I mean, they use kids as demonstrators. The kids know nothing, but at their heart, they feel like they’re giving a voice to what their uncles, their aunties, you know — the Minutemen and the far right wing that wants to throw everybody out.”
– Juan Williams on The O’Reilly Factor.

7. “Here’s what I don’t like. I didn’t like a lot of these signs: racist or anti-immigrant, [and these] people holding the flag up. It seemed to be, in many, many ways, outrages, some of the things that were said and done.”
– Sean Hannity on his Fox News show.

8. “Especially, Chris, because reasonable Americans are probably having a difficult time finding anybody to root for. On the one hand, you have, you know, tens of thousands of people demonstrating, waving flags, against the idea [of] America. What a repellent spectacle.”
– Brit Hume on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

9. “There seems to be an antagonistic edge to these protestors that is just making matters worse.”
– David Asman, guest hosting Fox News’ Your World.

10. ASMAN: “But Ron, let me just ask you, are they going to secede from the Union, these states in the Southwest?”

MAXWELL: “Well, the mere fact that we’re talking about this, why should we have this as a possibility? Why are we creating the conditions where 15 and 20 years from now, who knows what’ll happen? Do we want a separatist movement like what’s going on in Canada with Quebec or a separatist movement like the Basques?”
– David Asman, guest hosting Fox News’ Your World, talking to film director Ronald F. Maxwell.

Make sure to read below the fold:

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April 18, 2009

The Tattlesnake – Ten Signs of the Crimes Edition

Somebody notify Planters – some of their product is running loose on the streets!

If you watched the scenes from Fox News’ tea party ‘protests’ April 15, you had to marvel at all of this fuming outrage because people making over $200K a year will pay 3 percent more in taxes, from 36 to 39, while most everyone else gets a tax cut.

Of course, the ‘FNC Tea Parties’ were not really about taxes or big government — they were about having a black president — especially one who is more intelligent and articulate than the previous inhabitant of the Oval Office and most of the teabag protestors themselves, leaving their ignorant claims of ‘white superiority’ in The Jerry Springer Show’s dumpster where they belong. It’s no longer socially acceptable for even these nimrod Fox News viewers to be open bigots, so they disguise their seething racial hatred under the ‘anti-big government intrusion, no taxation, freedom’ rubric. Yet much of the signage at these corporately-supported Astroturf rallies was solidly anti-Obama. Naturally, these people weren’t out in force every April 15 when Junior Bush was expanding the size of the federal government, surveying their phone calls and emails without a warrant, illegally detaining American citizens, torturing prisoners, asserting an anti-Constitutional right to act as a monarch, and piling up the largest deficit in history. But, then, Bush was white.

10 Most Offensive Signs From the GOP Teabag Parties:

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April 17, 2009

Fox Nation Fun Book

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April 16, 2009

The Tattlesnake – Short Cuts in New Ruts Edition

Double-Dipping Teabag Hag: The Ol’ Tattler’s failing peepers can’t be sure, but I believe I saw the same woman who was sporting the insulting ‘Kerry Band-Aid’ at the GOP convention in NY circa 2004 wearing a hat adorned with hanging teabags yesterday at one of Fox News’ corporately-sponsored tea parties. Just a quick impression: She’s probably the head of the Pig Whistle, Louisiana, chapter of the DAR, the treasurer of the local ‘I Love Sarah’ Fan Club, chairwoman of the county Republican Party, and a good Southern Baptist who, in the name of the Lawd, beats her kids regularly “just to keep the li’l buggers in line.”

BTW, shouldn’t the videos of these astroturf ‘spontaneous events’ be repackaged by some bright young Republican sociopath into a TV reality show called “Just How Stupid Are You?”

Meantime, over at Rachel Maddow last night, a good point was made – I think by Ana Marie Cox — about the anti-tax FNC Teabag Party nonsense. She pointed out that most of these dismal events were held in public parks – in other words, land paid for and maintained by taxpayer funds. If you hate taxes and government so much, go hold your damn teabag party or your own private property and don’t make those who think you’re nuts foot the bill, not only for the land, but the clean-up afterwards. And would all of those tax-haters sprouting gray and white hair at those FNC rallies please return their Social Security checks and refuse medical treatment courtesy of the government?

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April 15, 2009

Girl of the Teabaggers

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion,Toon — Tags: , , , , — RS Janes @ 7:00 pm

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April 14, 2009

Fox News Teabags America

Headline: FOX NEWS TAKES OWNERSHIP OF TEA PARTIES…

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Definition of ‘teabagging’ from the Urban Dictionary:

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April 13, 2009

Glenn Beck’s Strange But True

TRUE NEWS ITEM: The Associated Press reported April 12, 2009, that Fox News host Glenn Beck is going to do a stand-up comedy tour starting June 1 in Denver, Colorado. Here’s the story:

Fox’s Glenn Beck Announces Comedy Tour

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April 11, 2009

The Trickle-Down Twins

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