The Aristocrats

Digby has a truly obscene version of that old joke here.

Ron Paul's Libertarian Patriarchy

Back in 2007 when I wrote in a post titled "Ron Paul Sucks" that "[T]oo often I find that the same Libertarian males who kick and scream and cry and rend their garments over the thought of the government taking one thin dime of their money have no problem whatsoever with the thought of that very same government crawling up into a woman's womb," I got (and am still getting) clobbered in the comments section. I admit now that I was wrong. But, only in the scope of my comment. It isn't just that Ron Paul is against abortion -- he's full on pro patriarchy. If he's the standard bearer, then libertarianism is truly only a philosophy for white, straight, Christian males who don't like paying taxes (and their delusional allies).

Via Digby:

Ron Paul (at 15:22): “Matter of fact, when the people came to Samuel and said, “Look, we need more rules and more laws. We want more government to tell us what to do and we — we need more of this.” And Samuel was old and ready to retire and he says, “No, that’s a bad mistake. You don’t need more rules and more government. You don’t need this — the government will overreact.”

And today this is what I think has happened to us. We have deferred to.. to the federal government. We have weighed too much government. We should go in other directions. Before you know it the next step — what if the next step is, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the United Nations defined marriage?”

I don’t want to go that way, I want to go back down… all the way to the family and the Church — believe me it would be a happier and more peaceful world if we went in that direction, rather than asking the government and asking the King to solve all these problems… we need the family to deal with it.

And we can take our message and learn something from the Old Testament, how there was such a strong emphasis on the Patriarchal society and the disputes settled by judges rather than looking for Big Government.”

Free the Slaves

http://www.freetheslaves.net

(h/t to Digby)
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What Digby Said

'Human rights are not "issues" to be finessed in order to procure votes.'
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Anti Choice Group Opposes Attempts to Block Premium Increases

Via the NYT:

The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion rights, on Monday criticized President Obama’s proposal to give the federal government new authority to review and potentially block premium increases by private health insurers.

Mr. Obama included the proposal in his version of a comprehensive health care overhaul unveiled by the White House on Monday. Officials said it would protect consumers from unjustified rate hikes, particularly in cases where state regulators fail or refuse to act.

In its statement, the National Right to Life Committee said that the president’s proposal “limits rights of Americans of all ages to use their own money to save their own lives.”

Burke Balch, the director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Powell Center of Ethics, likened the president’s plan to imposing a limit on the cost of restaurant meals.

“It is as though a government, concerned about the high cost of restaurant food, imposed a price limit of $5 per meal, and then asserted that for those who like their restaurant food, nothing will force them to change their eating habits,” the statement said. “The reality, of course, is that restaurants would be unable to afford to offer meals at prices below the cost of their ingredients. Consequently, about all restaurant-goers would be able to get would be fast food.”

Via Digby:

Yes, indeed. We must do everything possible to protect individual liberty and freedom of choice. No systems should ever be put in place by the government which could possibly result in people's options being restricted. Welll ... unless you happen to be a woman, in which case government bureaucrats are morally required to pass laws which force you to undergo pregnancy and childbirth regardless of your wishes in the matter.

But, that one teensy, unimportant impediment to our libertarian paradise excepted, we should thank the Good Lord that these defenders of freedom are here ensure that the government never interferes with the price structure of a Big Mac or forces an insurance company to settle for something less than a 50% profit margin. Don't tread on me, bitchuz.

Via me: Not to mention that the restaurant analogy is just plain stupid. For it to make sense, the Obama Administration would have to be attempting to control what doctors/hospitals could charge, not what insurers could charge. Besides, if these idiots don't want their insurance to be cheaper, they can simply pay out-of-pocket for everything and pay the very highest rate which apparently would make them all happy little clams. See? Choice it's a beautiful thing...
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Sen. Boxer: Viagra Rider

Sen. Boxer Challenges Men Who Support Nelsons Abortion Amendment:


Methinks Boxer reads Digby...
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Don't Come Around Here No More

Since we've been neglecting the local stuff*, here's something that Digby wrote about Pittsburgh native Dennis Miller:

Nevertheless, as God is my witness, if Dennis Miller tries to come back in the fold I will make it my life's work to destroy him. I'll show up at this concerts with pictures of dead Iraqi children. I'll organize boycotts of every comedy club he tries to appear in. I'll make it my business to ensure that nobody ever forgets what a fucking jackass he has been for the past eight years.

He was on O'Reilly earlier this week, revealing his puerile sexual imagination once again, but also giving a tiny hint that he might just be tacking back to the left in light of the fact that his affiliation with the right is no longer fashionable -- even among them...

Agreed!

My little Dennis Miller story

Back in the 80's I had a part-time gig in NBC's Election Division doing polling. We were on the same floor as the Saturday Night Live writers (used to bump into Al Franken in the elevator). One evening I was waiting for the elevator to leave work with several of my coworkers. The elevator door opens and there's Dennis Miller with two of the female cast members on each arm. He struts out and he stops and poses -- he even shook his hair back like some model with a long mane -- waiting for some acknowledgment from us.

He got nothing.

Maybe an eye roll (certainly from me). He finally left so we could get on the elevator. I guess he was waiting to be asked to sign an autograph or something. What a conceited jerk.

*Yeah, yeah, I'm pushing it. Got to get back to paying attention to Lil Mayor Luke, or Council, or the non Ethics Board...
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Why any Dem is better than any Repug for the White House

They're all nuts on Iraq! From last night's debate:


(Yeah, Paul is OK on Iraq, but he's a crazy old racist and a loon on everything else.)

(h/t to Digby)
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The Aristocrats

From Digby:

But looking at that amazing picture of the Bush clan in the White house --- the former president, the current president, the Governor of one of the largest states --- all together in the White House says everything you need to know about what true conservatism is really all about.

We allowed them to impeach the duly elected president who beat the father, for trivial reasons. We allowed the father's appointees to settle a dubious election result in the son's favor. We have watched them as they created a presidency insulated from popular or congressional oversight in which they have gone so far as to set forth the idea that the president has no obligation to follow the law. They lowered taxes on the very rich to a level not seen in many decades and created an income disparity between the very, very rich and everyone else that is unprecedented in the modern era. They eliminated the single best means of ensuring that an aristocracy will not truly form --- the estate inheritance tax. The ten year campaign to repeal it was bankrolled by 18 of the richest families in America.

Who says Bush isn't a real conservative? Why he's the most purely conservative president in American history.

Read the rest here.

Is it safe to come out yet?

It's like I'm waking up with a hangover from a binge that began a couple of weeks ago.

The binge started with Rumsfeld's and Cheney's charges that anyone who disagrees with the War On Iraq are morally confused, fascist appeasers who invite further violence -- and as always -- must hate America.

It continued with the Disney/ABC 9/11 tragedy porn mockumentary that rested the full blame for the attacks on 9/11 with Clinton's penis and Sandy Berger's and Madeline Albright's suppossed malice. It also included the following:

The film shows a scene, dated September 4, 2001, in which Condi Rice tells Richard Clarke and George Tenet that President Bush is very worried about the contents of the Presidential Daily Briefing from August, the one that says bin Laden is determined to strike the US, and that the president is tired of swatting at flies.

Only problem? It was back in March of 2001 that the president was tired of swatting at flies, with regards to terrorism. I can find no record of Condi Rice bring up Bush's supposed concern about the PDB at any September 4 principals meeting. Note that the movie also does not show Bush receiving the memo a month earlier and doing nothing about it - what a convenient ommission.

This scene was also left on the cutting room floor:




The climax was El Presidente's zipping around from New York to Shanksville to Virginia and then back to DC to give a speech in which he said:

“Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country. So we must put aside our differences, and work together to meet the test that history has given us. We will defeat our enemies, we will protect our people, and we will lead the 21st century into a shining age of human liberty.”

To quote Digby:

"Put aside our differences?"

You first.

Despite all protests by the administration to the contrary, Bush used the occasion of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to spin politics. He spent much of the speech defending his War On Iraq. A defense that most Americans find increasingly offensive.

But this is an administration that is floundering. September 11th and terror is all they've got. It's what's always worked for them.

They are addicted to it.

It's obvious that they will, once again, run their entire party on 9/11 in November.

So I'm going to have to pull out something Bill Maher said almost exactly two years ago today:

And finally, New Rule: You can't run on a mistake. Franklin Roosevelt didn't run for re-election claiming Pearl Harbor was his finest hour. Abe Lincoln was a great president, but the high point of his second term wasn't theater security. 9/11 wasn't a triumph of the human spirit. It was a fuck-up by a guy on vacation.

Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. President. I'm not blaming you for 9/11. We have blue-ribbon commissions to do that. And I'm not saying there was anything improper about your immediate response to the attacks. Someone had to stay in that classroom and protect those kids from Chechen rebels.

But by the looks of your convention, you'd think that the worst thing that ever happened to us was the best thing that ever happened to you. You just can't keep celebrating the deadliest attack ever as if it's your personal rendezvous with greatness. You don't see old men who were shot down during World War II jumping out of a plane every year. I mean, other than your dad

[snip]

So I say, if you absolutely must win an election on the backs of dead people, do it like they do in Chicago, and have them actually vote for you.

You're just going to have to stop it, Mr. President.

Stop the spin, stop the lies, stop the division.

Stop the 9/11 tragedy porn.

We the People in the cheap seats just aren't buying it anymore.

The Republicans are just going to have run on their whole record -- their real record.

Oh yeah.

I guess I see your point...

Arrogant Little Git

By now you may have seen this exchange that took place at yesterday's White House press conference between Dumbya and Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times:

Bush: Yes, Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?

Wallsten: I can take them off.

Bush: I’m interested in the shade look, seriously.

Wallsten: All right, I’ll keep it, then.

Bush: For the viewers, there’s no sun. (Laughter)

Wallsten I guess it depends on your perspective. (Laughter)

Bush: Touche. (Laughter)

Wallsten was wearing shades because he is legally blind.

He has a rare genetic disorder called Stargardt’s Disease. The disease is a form of macular degeneration that can be slowed “by wearing UV-protective sunglasses and avoiding exposure to bright light.”

Now Wallsten has said that there was no reason that Bush should know that he needed the shades to protect what's left of his sight and Bush later apologized, so end of story?

I don't think so...

Peter Daou thinks that Bush's "humor" is misplaced:

"Bush's clownish banter with reporters - which is on constant display during press conferences - stands in such stark contrast to his administration's destructive policies and to the gravity of the bloodbath in Iraq that it is deeply unsettling to watch. This may be impolitic, but wouldn't refraining from frat-style horseplay be appropriate for this man? Or at the least, can't reporters suppress their raucous laughter every time he blurts out another jibe... the way they did when Colbert put them in their place?"

But, its more than that.

I agree with Daou that Digby's got it right when he commented about this AP story:

He stopped by Broward Community College, where government officials set up tents and tables with laptops to help dozens of seniors there choose among the myriad plan options available.

Bush visited with some waiting in a courtyard where Frank Sinatra's "Young At Heart" played on the loudspeakers, then he went indoors where people were looking over the laptops. He walked around giving handshakes and hugs to those who rose for his entrance, and greeted a man who remained sitting in a wheelchair with, "You look mighty comfortable." (emphasis added)

Digby said regarding this incident:

"There's an interesting simple psychology involved in such things. If someone can coerce those in a group to help him attack a single member they become his accomplices. For instance, getting everybody in the press corps to laugh at a reporter's baldness makes those reporters part of the president's gang. And, of course, it intimidates them. If they stray, they too will be subject to that kind of public humiliation. It's the evil fratboy theory of social relations, very primitive stuff. That Bush may be reduced to plying this unconsciously with senior citizens in wheelchairs is not surprising, given his poll numbers."

Now, watch the video of the Bush/Wallsten exchange at Crooks & Liars.

Bush is being pissy when he first asks, "Are you going to ask that question with shades on?"

Maybe he wanted to be able to look into Wallsten's soul, but I think this is just another example of Bush's supreme arrogance. Remember how upset he got with a reporter for calling him "sir" instead of "Mr. President?" I think Bush somehow believed that Wallsten addressing him in "shades" wasn't being servile enough.

For a great example of Bush's real character, take a look at this video.

You'll see that "during a commercial break on the David Letterman show, producer Maria Pope was on stage and discussing something with Letterman, and while she was standing there in front of Bush, George leaned forward, grabbed the back of her sweater and used it to clean his glasses."

That's the shitty little frat boy in action.

That's an arrogant little git.

More proof that they hate women and they hate sex

From feministing:

Looks like South Dakota is the new black. A Louisiana bill that would ban almost all abortions passed a Senate committee and is on its way to the Senate floor.

Senate Bill 33 by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, cleared the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare after the provision was added. The bill would allow abortions only to save the life of the mother. But Sen. Diana Bajoie, D-New Orleans, said she wanted to "make it more pro-life" by not allowing any exceptions.

So banning abortions for rape and incest victims isn’t quite enough. She also wants to do away with the exception that would save a woman’s life. Yeah, that’s sounds really “pro-life” to me. Lovely.

From feministing:

Also, [Christina] Page suggests we ask ourselves why one of the biggest supposedly pro-family groups in the country, Concerned Women for America, doesn't offer maternity leave to its employees. If having and cherishing babies is its foremost agenda, why wouldn't that group?

From DARE Generation Diary via Boing Boing:

Lucy’s Love Shop employee Wanda Gillespie said she was flabbergasted that South Carolina’s Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys. But banning the sale of sex toys is actually quite common in some Southern states.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

"Officer Smith, does this Pez dispenser look like a sex toy to you?"

"Hmm... check to see what the manual from the Office of National Dildo Control Policy has to say."

"It's rather ambiguous. It is pink and plastic and about the size of *ahem* well, you know. But it also dispenses small tart candies."

"Hrm. Better bring it into the lab for testing."

From Digby:

"Purity Balls"

...this is what that little girl is reading to her father from that card:

I pledge to remain sexually pure...until the day I give myself as a wedding gift to my husband. ... I know that God requires this of me.. that he loves me. and that he will reward me for my faithfulness.

And this is what Daddy says in turn:

I, (daughter’s name)’s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.

He's the "high priest" in his home. Are we getting the picture?

Blogroll!

It was long past time that we updated our blogroll.

First, two local blogs have been removed because it's been more than six months since they've posted -- Freedom's Gate and Urban Democracy -- but we will happily add them back if they start blogging again.

We've added the following local blogs:
I Heart Pgh
Lou's List
MacYapper (John McIntire's blog)
Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
Tunesmith & Anthony

While I Heart Pgh and Tunesmith & Anthony aren't exactly political blogs, they do occasionally stray that way. And, T&A's "Pigeon Sniper Video Tribute" (May we never forget…) is must viewing!

We've also added the following non-local blogs:
feministing
Firedoglake
Hullabaloo (Digby)
The Huffington Post
Think Progress

As always, blogs are added because someone here at 2pj reads them regularly.