George Carlin and the Seven Dirty Words

Richard Nixon on Fred Thompson - "He's Dumb as Hell"

This assumes Nixon knew what the truth was of course.

Fred Thompson Plays the Michael Moore Card

What a pathetic waste of protoplasm this creep is!

Malaysian Health Minister Resigns Over Sex Tape

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia's health minister resigned Wednesday after acknowledging that he and a female friend were the couple in a secretly filmed sex video.

A one-hour DVD recording circulated anonymously last week showed Health Minister Chua Soi Lek, a married man with three children, performing sexual acts with the woman in a hotel room.

Chua, 61, acknowledged Tuesday he was the man in the video, and described the woman as a "personal friend." He refused to elaborate.

Damn. When are the Bush sex tapes going to come out?

Oh, wait. That would require that 1) someone would have sex with the miserable creep and 2) someone else with a camera didn't die laughing as they watched it.

Iraqi Civilian Deaths Rose in 2007

Iraq's government released statistics on the number of civilians and security force members it said were killed in 2007.

According to figures released Monday by the Iraqi government, 16,232 civilians, 432 soldiers and about 1,300 Iraqi policeman died in 2007. The previous year, according to the figures compiled by the health, defense and interior ministries, 12,371 civilians, 603 soldiers and 1,224 policeman were killed.

Wait. How can this be? Bush and the Repignofascist Party candidates to be another Bush, plus General Betrayus have all been telling us that the level of violence is down in Iraqnam. But if its down why are the deaths increasing? You don't suppose that the pro-Bush mainstream media have been lying to us to make it look like the surge is working do you??? Say its not so.

Oil Futures Hit $100 a Barrel - Another Bush Mission Accomplished

NEW YORK - Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies.

Heckuva job, Dubya. Heckuva job.

For Whom Would Michael Moore Vote?

Who Do We Vote For This Time Around? A Letter from Michael Moore

January 2, 2008

Friends,

A new year has begun. And before we've had a chance to break our New Year's resolutions, we find ourselves with a little more than 24 hours before the good people of Iowa tell us whom they would like to replace the man who now occupies three countries and a white house.

Twice before, we have begun the process to stop this man, and twice we have failed. Eight years of our lives as Americans will have been lost, the world left in upheaval against us... and yet now, today, we hope against hope that our moment has finally arrived, that the amazingly powerful force of the Republican Party will somehow be halted. But we know that the Democrats are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and if there's a way to blow this election, they will find it and do it with gusto.

Do you feel the same as me? That the Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and that none of them are the "slam dunk" we wish they were? Of course, there are wonderful things about each of them. Any one of them would be infinitely better than what we have now. Personally, Congressman Kucinich, more than any other candidate, shares the same positions that I have on the issues (although the UFO that picked ME up would only take me as far as Kalamazoo). But let's not waste time talking about Dennis. Even he is resigned to losing, with statements like the one he made yesterday to his supporters in Iowa to throw their support to Senator Obama as their "second choice."

So, it's Hillary, Obama, Edwards -- now what do we do?

Two months ago, Rolling Stone magazine asked me to do a cover story where I would ask the hard questions that no one was asking in one-on-one interviews with Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards. "The Top Democrats Face Off with Michael Moore." The deal was that all three candidates had to agree to let me interview them or there was no story. Obama and Edwards agreed. Mrs. Clinton said no, and the cover story was thus killed.

Why would the love of my life, Hillary Clinton, not sit down to talk with me? What was she afraid of?

Those of you who are longtime readers of mine may remember that 11 years ago I wrote a chapter (in my first book) entitled, "My Forbidden Love for Hillary." I was fed up with the treatment she was getting, most of it boringly sexist, and I thought somebody should stand up for her. I later met her and she thanked me for referring to her as "one hot s***kicking feminist babe." I supported and contributed to her run for the U.S. Senate. I think she is a decent and smart person who loves this country, cares deeply about kids, and has put up with more crap than anyone I know of (other than me) from the Crazy Right. Her inauguration would be a thrilling sight, ending 218 years of white male rule in a country where 51% of its citizens are female and 64% are either female or people of color.

And yet, I am sad to say, nothing has disappointed me more than the disastrous, premeditated vote by Senator Hillary Clinton to send us to war in Iraq. I'm not only talking about her first vote that gave Mr. Bush his "authorization" to invade -- I'm talking about every single OTHER vote she then cast for the next four years, backing and funding Bush's illegal war, and doing so with verve. She never met a request from the White House for war authorization that she didn't like. Unlike the Kerrys and the Bidens who initially voted for authorization but later came to realize the folly of their decision, Mrs. Clinton continued to cast numerous votes for the war until last March -- four long years of pro-war votes, even after 70% of the American public had turned against the war. She has steadfastly refused to say that she was wrong about any of this, and she will not apologize for her culpability in America's worst-ever foreign policy disaster. All she can bring herself to say is that she was "misled" by "faulty intelligence."

Let's assume that's true. Do you want a President who is so easily misled? I wasn't "misled," and millions of others who took to the streets in February of 2003 weren't "misled" either. It was simply amazing that we knew the war was wrong when none of us had been briefed by the CIA, none of us were national security experts, and none of us had gone on a weapons inspection tour of Iraq. And yet... we knew we were being lied to! Let me ask those of you reading this letter: Were YOU "misled" -- or did you figure it out sometime between October of 2002 and March of 2007 that George W. Bush was up to something rotten? Twenty-three other senators were smart enough to figure it out and vote against the war from the get-go. Why wasn't Senator Clinton?

I have a theory: Hillary knows the sexist country we still live in and that one of the reasons the public, in the past, would never consider a woman as president is because she would also be commander in chief. The majority of Americans were concerned that a woman would not be as likely to go to war as a man (horror of horrors!). So, in order to placate that mindset, perhaps she believed she had to be as "tough" as a man, she had to be willing to push The Button if necessary, and give the generals whatever they wanted. If this is, in fact, what has motivated her pro-war votes, then this would truly make her a scary first-term president. If the U.S. is faced with some unforeseen threat in her first years, she knows that in order to get re-elected she'd better be ready to go all Maggie Thatcher on whoever sneezes in our direction. Do we want to risk this, hoping the world makes it in one piece to her second term?

I have not even touched on her other numerous -- and horrendous -- votes in the Senate, especially those that have made the middle class suffer even more (she voted for Bush's first bankruptcy bill, and she is now the leading recipient of payoff money -- I mean campaign contributions -- from the health care industry). I know a lot of you want to see her elected, and there is a very good chance that will happen. There will be plenty of time to vote for her in the general election if all the pollsters are correct. But in the primaries and caucuses, isn't this the time to vote for the person who most reflects the values and politics you hold dear? Can you, in good conscience, vote for someone who so energetically voted over and over and over again for the war in Iraq? Please give this serious consideration.

Now, on to the two candidates who did agree to do the interview with me...

Barack Obama is a good and inspiring man. What a breath of fresh air! There's no doubting his sincerity or his commitment to trying to straighten things out in this country. But who is he? I mean, other than a guy who gives a great speech? How much do any of us really know about him? I know he was against the war. How do I know that? He gave a speech before the war started. But since he joined the senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.

But this may be a bit harsh. Senator Obama has a big heart, and that heart is in the right place. Is he electable? Will more than 50% of America vote for him? We'd like to believe they would. We'd like to believe America has changed, wouldn't we? Obama lets us feel better about ourselves -- and as we look out the window at the guy snowplowing his driveway across the street, we want to believe he's changed, too. But are we dreaming?

And then there's John Edwards.

It's hard to get past the hair, isn't it? But once you do -- and recently I have chosen to try -- you find a man who is out to take on the wealthy and powerful who have made life so miserable for so many. A candidate who says things like this: "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy." Whoa. We haven't heard anyone talk like that in a while, at least not anyone who is near the top of the polls. I suspect this is why Edwards is doing so well in Iowa, even though he has nowhere near the stash of cash the other two have. He won't take the big checks from the corporate PACs, and he is alone among the top three candidates in agreeing to limit his spending and be publicly funded. He has said, point-blank, that he's going after the drug companies and the oil companies and anyone else who is messing with the American worker. The media clearly find him to be a threat, probably because he will go after their monopolistic power, too. This is Roosevelt/Truman kind of talk. That's why it's resonating with people in Iowa, even though he doesn't get the attention Obama and Hillary get -- and that lack of coverage may cost him the first place spot tomorrow night. After all, he is one of those white guys who's been running things for far too long.

And he voted for the war. But unlike Senator Clinton, he has stated quite forcefully that he was wrong. And he has remorse. Should he be forgiven? Did he learn his lesson? Like Hillary and Obama, he refused to promise in a September debate that there will be no U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of his first term in 2013. But this week in Iowa, he changed his mind. He went further than Clinton and Obama and said he'd have all the troops home in less than a year.

Edwards is the only one of the three front-runners who has a universal health care plan that will lead to the single-payer kind all other civilized countries have. His plan doesn't go as fast as I would like, but he is the only one who has correctly pointed out that the health insurance companies are the enemy and should not have a seat at the table.

I am not endorsing anyone at this point. This is simply how I feel in the first week of the process to replace George W. Bush. For months I've been wanting to ask the question, "Where are you, Al Gore?" You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don't blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn't going to save the world. All it's going to do is make us more agitated and jumpy and feeling like once we get home we haven't really left the office.

On second thought, would you even be willing to utter the words, "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy?" 'Cause the candidate who understands that, and who sees it as the root of all evil -- including the root of global warming -- is the President who may lead us to a place of sanity, justice and peace.

Yours,

Michael Moore (not an Iowa voter, but appreciative of any state that has a town named after a sofa)
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Names of Accused Priests to Remain Secret

A judge has halted an unprecedented attempt by the family of a slain Hudson, Wis., mortician to force the Catholic Church to release the names of clergy accused of child molestation.

The family of Dan O'Connell, one of two men shot to death by a priest at his family's Hudson funeral home in 2002, sued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in August 2006, asking for the names and locations of some 5,000 clergy members "credibly accused" of sexually assaulting children. The family said the lawsuit, which sought no monetary reward, was an attempt to make the information public to protect children and families.

But on Friday, Judge Eugene Harrington dismissed the lawsuit, which he termed an "ambitious request," and said the court cannot legally make the church release such information.

It may have been an "ambitious request" as the judge pointed out, and it would be nice to know the names of the accused but there is just one little thing people seem to forget. The issue of identifying those who have been accused of a crime - doesn't mean they did it. How many school teachers have been accused of inappropriately touching a student, then lost their job, only to be exonerated later? While accused their name was released and they became a pariah. How many divorced fathers have had their pyschotic ex-wife accuse them of molesting their child(ern) as a way to get an upper hand in a court battle only to find out later that dad did nothing? Still his name was ruined.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see the names of every Catholic priest who sexually molested anyone, and I'd like to see that information yesterday. But until they are convicted their name shouldn't be released. We used to live in a land where you are innocent until proven guilty and until the Bush Abomination, a land where we lived by the rule of law. Its time to continue that legal tradition. The judge in this case did the right thing.

Peace Activists Arrested in Huckleberry's Des Moines Office

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three protesters seeking a commitment from Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee to end the Iraq war were arrested Monday for refusing to leave his office.

Police arrested Mona Shaw, 56, of Iowa City; Robert Braam, 51, Manhattan, Ill.; and Kathy Kelly, 55, of Chicago, around 1:20 p.m., Shaw said. They were charged with criminal trespass.

Des Moines police spokesman Vince Valdez said the three were taken into custody without violence and released.

Has anyone else noticed that you never ever hear any of the Repignofascist candidates talking about substantive issues like ending the illegal occupation of Iraq, or reducing the 9 Trillion dollar national debt, or improving the nation's infrastructure? Nope? You havnen't either? All I hear them talking about is non-issues like "god" or how horrible immigrants are (forgetting that every damned one of them is the product of an immigrant) or how wonderful it was that Britney Spears 16 year old daughter decided to keep her child.

Never do these bastards discuss whats really important - only what will rile up the base and get them out to the polls.

Wake up sheeple.

Scott Ritter on Bush's Imperialism

More than 5 years ago but still valid today. And nobody listened.

Legal Fictions

The Bush Administration's Dumbest Legal Arguments of the Year

Read them and weep. And while weeping remember that not long ago this was a nation of laws.

32 Dead From Suicide Bomb at Iraqi Funeral

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-rigged vest at a Shiite funeral in Baghdad, killing 32 people gathered to mourn the death of an Iraqi army officer killed in a car bombing, police and ambulance officials said.

I'm not sure about you but I'm certainly glad that the level of violence in Iraqnam has declined as much as the Bushies have told us. These 32 newly dead people and their families are likewise glad that the level has declined as well.

Woman Escorted Off Bus For Reading Bible Aloud

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion.

Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus.

What Christine failed to mention was that her disruptive reading of the fairy tale book "the bible" was causing others on the bus to feel invaded. She may have had her "religion" discriminated against, but what about the hapless people trapped on the bus with this religious zealot?

She can read the damned bible in her home or in her church. She doesn't have to foist it on people sitting around her simply because she thinks "god" wants her to.

Given his abysmal poll numbers I wouldn't be surprised to see the Chimpy McFlightsuit fly up to Dallas and take control of this situation like he did when the entire Repignofascist party pushed itself on the husband of Terri Schiavo. Of course Bush won't do that now because he doesn't have a stake in the 2008 election like he did the one in 2006.

34 Years Ago This Morning

Thirty four years ago this morning, January 1, 1974, the air temperature in my hometown of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, dipped to a chilly -62 degrees F. I distinctly remember spitting as I walked from our barn to the house after milking cows. The saliva was a little crystal of ice before it hit the snow, as if it was right out of Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire."

The erstwhile news reporter on WJMC radio in Rice Lake reported that outside it was -62 degrees at the local airport, about as "official" a reading as you could expect.

Being in northern Wisconsin in winter we kept our cars warm and easily started by plugging in a head bolt heater. I waited that morning until about 10:00 when it had warmed up into the mid 40 below range and took off to check beaver traps set on a colony along Pokegama Creek a few miles from home. To get to them I strapped on snow shoes and, along with my Chesapeake Bay Retriever, hiked 1 1/2 miles from the road to the beaver colony where I discovered that I had caught two animals. One, a 60 pound female was entirely encased in ice. The other, a 30 pound yearling, was almost as ice-covered. Removing them from the traps and cleaning as much ice as possible from them, I put the carcasses in my backpack and began the snowshoe trek back out.

I had dressed quite warmly that morning but on the way back out, with 90 pounds of beaver in my pack and probably 40 pounds of ice encrusting them, I started shedding clothes as I walked. By the time I reached my car I was down to a long-sleeved insulated t-shirt on my upper body. Even still the steam was pouring off me as I walked.

Three years later, on January 17, 1977, during one of the more brutal winters of recent history, the temperature in Rice Lake dipped to -60 degrees, and several times in the 1990s I'd check in at home and be told that the temperature had dropped to the mid-50 below range. As my mom used to say, "What's the big deal? It's Wisconsin."

Meet the Poor Souls Who Have Died For Bush's Lies in Iraqnam

Here is a tally of the more than 3,900 American kids plus all of the coallition of the unwilling who have died for Bush's lies in Iraqnam since the illegal invasion and occupation began nearly 5 long years ago.

Heckuva job, Dubya.