INCOMING: Climate Scientists Find the Smoking Gun...

over at dKos and I sure as hell wish it had been at the feet of a dead president. Hey, who wrote that?

Well, I sure wish that when another 10,000 Europeans bake to death this summer the EU brings (at least) sanctions against the USA, or Bush to trial for crimes against humanity (for any number of reasons--Iraq, soon-to-be-bombed Iran) but most of all for refusing to curb the US influence on global warming.

Hell, if I were a European I'd be boycotting US made products (HINT HINT, for all my foreign readers) or don't you people care either?

[UPDATE 4-30-05] Here's the full article in Science Daily.

Abortion is to "Surgery" as Bush is to "Compassionate"

I hate control of abortion rights (i.e. reproductive rights) more than I hate anything else except radical religious wing-nuts--the idiots who are trying to drag women back into the kitchen, keep them knocked up (and if they had their way, in chastity belts)--the assholes responsible for Americans having to fight this damn fight ALL OVER AGAIN (jeez I wish the fucking Rapture would come and get their fork-filled asses out of here already)!

Today the House (which, by the way, is overloaded with middle-aged men who will never face an unwanted pregnancy they can't cover up or pay off) has done women in our country--specifically underage women who get knocked up--the worst cut. They have criminalized fleeing the prying eyes, recriminations and in quite a few cases let me tell you beatings and forced pregnancies that, could they legally leave their home states with repressive abortion laws to find relief by abortion in more lenient ones (like there are that many) they might avoid.

To me forcing minors to deal with adults--sometimes parents-- when they least want their intrusion is like forcing battered women to submit to raping husbands. I know many of you won't agree with me but frankly I don't give a damn. If a girl is old enough to get knocked up she is old enough to decide what to do about it. And remembering what it was like to have repressive and abusive parents I can tell you that those girls who can't bear the idea of telling their parents will resort to dangerous self-inflicted abortion techniques that will maim and probably kill more than one of them. That won't be blamed on the restrictive law. It will be blamed on the permissive liberal culture (which by the way has been funded in large part by hyper-right wing conservative Rupert Murdoch and Fox programming).

What's most obscene to me though isn't just the intention to try to grasp at the eroding sand of women's rights by any means ('Hey, kids don't vote but their paranoid parents do, so let's restrict them first'--getting adult women next will be that much easier). It is the damnable doublespeak that lawyers politicians use to utterly sidestep the truth while still using the facts. Like this one from Dem turncoat William Clay of Missouri:

'This bill simply says that a parent has a right to know if their child is having surgery,' Clay said."

Okay work with me here. If the sentence above is interpreted only as it reads, then abortion is to surgery as...

[UPDATE 4-28-05] Piece on dKos with links for killing legislation before it gets to the asshole-in-chief.

TANG is Still *Not* That Fake Space Juice

I don't care if they're gay. I don't care if they're prostitutes. I don't care if they're swingers. I do care that they're liars, cheats and thieves. Hence, if the only way to protect American democracy (i.e. liberalism) is to expose these liars, cheats and thieves as self-loathing homos, whores and swingers then I say have at it!

An amazing timeline on daily Kos ties Rove, Gannon, Stone and TANG into a nice neat package. Now all I need do is insert one of the nifty 'poo flags' from madeyouthink and we can get this party started!!!

Sprawl From Space

I have been convinced that pictures tell a better story.
Today my favorite environmental blog is SPROL.

OMG: How to Have Some Fun with Bush's Crap!!!

Click here to get to madeyouthink.org, the site that will provide you with some great photos and a downloadable PDF file for your very own flags to play along!!!

They Were For it Before They Were Against It--DOH

Thanks to Keith Olberman we have (at least) one example of how Christian wing-nuts have no moral fiber when it comes to accountability. He brings our attention to their whining about the necessity of filibusters when they blocked the Big Dog's nominations, judicial (60 as compared to just 10 for Bush) and otherwise:

"As a last measure of the defense of the minority, it has had many supporters over the years, like the very people of faith who sponsored yesterday`s Justice Sunday, the group Family Research Council.

Yesterday it was opposed to filibusters. Seven years ago, it was in favor of them. That`s when Clinton and a then-Democratic plurality in the Senate wanted a man named James Hormel to become the ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel, of the Spam and other meats Hormels, was gay, as the Senate minority bottled up Hormel`s nomination with filibusters and threats of filibusters, minority relative to cloture, to breaking up a filibuster.

They did that for a year and a half. The Family Research Council`s senior writer, Steven Schwartz, appeared on National Public Radio at the time and explained the value, even the necessity, of the filibuster.

'The Senate,' he said, 'is not a majoritarian institution, like the House of Representatives is. It is a deliberative body, and it`s got a number of checks and balances built into our government. The filibuster is one of those checks in which a majority cannot just sheerly force its will, even if they have a majority of votes in some cases. That`s why there are things like filibusters, and other things that give minorities in the Senate some power to slow things up, to hold things up, and let things be aired properly.'"

Heh--wait until we're in control again, then the tears will really flow...heh heh.

Corruption: A Proven Winner

Sometimes I don't blog. That's my prerogative as a blog owner--I get to decide what is published and when. So there. The truth is that from time-to-time I am so burned out by this government's crap that I can't stand to think about it at all. Then when my outrage hits a new high I am overwhelmed by the need to vent or offer solutions and I can begin to blog again.

My saving grace this week is a solution to the Republican problem--make them pay, pay, pay for the very nature that makes them Republicans: power grabbing greed. They over-reach and eventually become CORRUPT!

Congressional Democrats should take a page out of Gingrich's and Blagojevich's books and propose comprehensive ethics reform. They should talk about the 'corrupt Republicans' and 'restoring transparency and integrity' at every turn. They should use DeLay's mounting ignominy to tar fellow Republicans who benefit from his fundraising and clout. In short, they should make Republican scandal and Democratic reform one of the central narratives of their opposition over the next two years. 'Newt Gingrich came to power because of an ethics scandal,' says Obama's state political director, Dan Shomon. 'Rod Blagojevich got elected partly because of scandal. You can defeat an incumbent if you can catch his or her hand in the cookie jar.

Ah, I love the smell of Republican blood in the water, it smells like--Victory!

VICTORY: E.P.A. Scraps 'Test Your Kids for Chemical Research (and Earn Money Too)' Program!

E.P.A. Scraps Controversial Pesticide Testing Program. As the point was made on dKos, it looks more and more like senate Democrats standing their ground is a "winning strategy": "Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Bill Nelson of Florida said they would place a "hold'' on the White House's nomination of acting EPA administrator Stephen Johnson unless he canceled the $9 million program," (NYT).

Yeah! Hell yeah!