Party of Hate

Just listened to a Talk of the Nation segment on how the Republicans can recover from the last two election defeats.

Fortunately, for you and I, the callers all seemed to be in agreement that the way forward was through an emphasis on "social issues," or as we like to call it, "hate." It seems that the more they can hate gays, immigrants, taxes, and single mothers, the better off they'll be.

Unfortunately for you and I, there were GOP spokespersons on the program that seemed to realize that while the anti-gay marriage stance is currently a winner, the trend it toward more gay rights. Young people especially aren't going for the anti-gay thing. Blacks and Latinos might be going for it, but they are unlikely to be voting Republican in significant numbers any time soon.

The best part was listening to them talk about immigration as if flat-out racism had nothing to do with it. Everyone was very eager to make sure that everyone else knew that Republicans were not anti-immigrant, but rather anti-illegal immigrant. Too bad they have all fallen into the habit of dropping the "illegal" part whenever they speak about the issue for more than three sentences. Apparently, GOP passions get stirred up on this issue, not because of the color of anyone's skin or the ways of their culture (heaven's no!), but rather the fact that illegal immigrants have, by definition, broken the law, and that is something that will just set the blood to boiling. Lord knows, the GOP has taken a strong stand against any illegality.

Santorum seemed like he wanted to jump out of his chair and give full-throated support to the "social issues" agenda, but he also wants to be president in 2013, so he kept it to a minimum.

Oh, this is fun.

Change is

There's a fair number of people out there who - despite witnessing spontaneous worldwide street parties - are having a hard time actually grasping that this election really was about change and that more change is possible. That includes the vast majority of the Right and a decidedly small fragment of the Left. The former maintain that nothing's changed because we're still a center-right nation; the latter attributes stasis to Obama's centrism.

The Right is, of course, delusional, as dave has been busy (and I suspect will continue to be busy) documenting. The farther Left has a valid criticism, but misses the larger point.

While not discounting the change at the very top, it is the change in the attitudes and actions of the citizenry that is remarkable. Consider this: a presidential candidate spoke openly of sacrifice to the electorate and won. Before last Tuesday, there were very few people alive who could say they'd ever seen that. Not only that, during the campaign that sense of sacrifice was palpable - the Obama campaign ran on a huge and extraordinarily well-trained group of volunteers. Moreover, Obama carried professionals making over $200K - those who were explicitly told would have their taxes raised. A pluarality of Americans believed Obama was going to raise their taxes. They didn't care.

There's two things I carry from this - 1) A motivated chunk of the electorate understands the gravity of our current situation and is willing to sacrifice in order to meet those challenges and 2) this portion of the electorate now believes that it can rise to meet these challenges - after all, we just helped elect a black man to be President of the United States.

All of this is to say that in the past four years, a formidable, well-trained, and broadly-based left-wing grassroots coalition has matured. It will be mobilized to provide political cover for the initial pieces of the president-elect's agenda. It can be mobilized to pull that agenda a little further to the left.

There are millions of people ready to get to work transforming this country. Engage with them.

Really?

Ad on Facebook.

I have no idea, though. Anyone shave the chest on a regular basis? Getting tired of it? Is the chest here used as a place holder for other areas?

A Is A

Our good friend Ayn Rand taught us that there are no contradictions in this world.* If we arrive at an apparent contradiction, then we must reexamine our premises to find our error. This bit o' thinking is serving our friends across the aisle well these days, as they are forced to reexamine their premises. Here's what they had pre-election:

1. America is a center-right country.
2. Obama is a socialist-Marxist-terrorist.
3. Therefore, America will not elect Obama president.

Obama's election is an apparent contradiction, premises must be reexamined.

Obviously, one course of action would to be to blame the media for convincing Americans that they are not, in fact, center-right. And, as we know, there has been much blaming of the media. Never before in the history of mankind has the media been so in the tank for one candidate. Just look a Jay Leno's monologues for Christ's sake. (Oh, God, please don't. You'll hurt yourself.)

The problem here is that A is A. To suppose that the media could convince Americans to temporarily forget that they are center-right would be to acknowledge that A is sometimes not A, which causes a rip in the fabric of space-time, which could be dangerous, given that, as of yet, we have no way of routing a tachyon beam through the deflector shield.

So we must go back to those original premises. Perhaps the easiest route would be to conclude that maybe there is a fundamental problem with the first premise. To do so would be treason.

So, we must look at the second premise, that Obama is a socialist-Marxist-terrorist. Thank God for Sherlock Holmes, am I right? He taught us that when one has eliminated all possible solutions, save one, that one answer has to be correct, no matter how illogical. Let's take another stab at our logic puzzle, shall we?

1. America is a center-right country.

We know this is correct, because to believe otherwise carries implications too frightening to contemplate. Plus, conservatives really, really want to trumpet exit polling showing that voters identify conservative.

2. ???

3. Therefore, Obama wins the presidency.

What could fill that spot? America is center-right and Obama won. Then, logically, Obama must be center-right? No? Yes!

No one has put this as explicitly as Brent Bozell, but it ungirds the whole "If Obama governs from the left, then he'll lose the American people" line of bullshit.

And this same line of thinking explains the "Bush as liberal" line that was being advanced and is now accepted dogma all over wingnutia. His failure can only be explained by his being a liberal.

Obama is a Reaganite, while Bush is a big-government liberal. Good to know that even after the election, for some people white is still black and black is still white.


*I am aware that is not original to Rand, but like all good Americans I believe in only two philosophizers, Jesus and Rand, in that order.

Into the sunset

Beloved readers - with the conclusion of the 2008 presidential elections, I'm sad to inform you that we'll be retiring the "Maverick" label, that is, unless someone decides to get all post-partisan and nominate McCain to run Veteran Affairs (which would really, really suck). But before we bid adieu to that venerable label that has served us so well these past... how long have we been blogging here? Oh - served us, yadda yadda, we'd like to honor the man who inspired the label with what every True American Hero deserves: a photo montage set to a grunge-lite power ballad.



So long Mavericky McMaverick, and thanks for all the fish.

Music, sweet music

It is way better to be having a conversation about the difficulties in shutting down Gitmo than one about the necessity of maintaining it.

I'd also like to hear about people being held responsible for that particular criminal site, please.

The Gods Must Have Moved to Australia

When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke. About halfway through I realized that it was a joke, but in a different sense than I originally meant.

The Games We Play(ed)

Conversation down thread leads me to ask what competitive drinking games did you all play when you were in the age range of 16-26? (I put it this way instead of "in college" because I went to undergrad late and in graduate school the only competitive drinking I did involved seeing which would last longer, the pain or my liver.)

I'll start.

High school it was quarters. We played full cup of beer, bounce the quarter in the cup of beer, assign the cup to be drained, recover quarter, repeat. This game was not great for me in that until I was 25 or so, I could never burb. Not on command, mind you, but at all. So after chugging a few brewhas, I was bloated like a guy with three or four beers' worth of carbon dioxide building up in his stomach. I later discovered speed quarters, which was very fun, and burbing, which is just practical.

Post high school quarters were still played, but other games came up. Does anyone know "three man"? You roll dice and when certain number combination come up, a mini game was played or a certain function had to be preformed. We usually had "categories" when an eight came up. The roller would call a category, say "cars" and you'd go around the circle and have to name types of cars. When one repeated or the person couldn't think of one, they had to drink. Of course, the three man drank every time a three was rolled. It sucked to be the three man.

We also played a very epic game called "New Kids on the Block." My friend Mark had a deck of cards wherein the face cards were the five New Kids. The game was played like a combination of rummy and poker, where you went around the table and had to take the card off the top of the pile or draw, then discard. You were trying to collect a high poker hand. If you thought you had it, you had to call "New Kids" and everyone had one more chance to draw to beat you. In this last round cheating was freely encouraged. I don't know how many times I asked someone if it would possible for them to "slip me a Joe, if they had it." The highest hand was an NKOTB straight, holding all the New Kids, worth ten points. Or in our parlance, 10 drinks to assign out as the winner saw fit. If you called "New Kids" and lost, then you automatically had 10 drinks and had to pray you weren't assigned the other 10. A drink was commonly thought to be an ounce, but less strictly enforced as the game wore on. It sounds lame, but no one who played New Kids failed to enjoy it. Games would go on for hours. I wish I could play it with you all right now.

What you got?

Oh, the Places We'll Go

I am in Raleigh, home of...well not sure what Raleigh is the home of other than the NC State Wolfpack and the Carolina Hurricanes (hockey). I sure am looking forward to discovering things!

Ging and I went out last night. We're staying near the NC State campus, so we we're in a campus neighborhood, which fits right into our comfort zone. Here are some stray observations.

Our first reminder we were in the South came in the form of people smoking in the bars. It really wasn't so bad, although Ginger seems to think our clothes bear a permanent smokey smelly, so those pants and sweaters are out for a re-wear.

I order the house special chicken wings at a place called the East Village Bar and Grill, which our hotel's guide claimed to have the best appetizers in town. Now, I would not say I am a wing man normally, but when in Rome, right? Ordering a dozen chicken wings, I expect, well, what everyone expects when they order chicken wings, but I got a basket full of whole chicken wings. Still all tri-folded and everything. I immediately regretted having ordered the BLT to go with my "appetizer." Can't say they were all that spectacular, either. But then, they are just chicken wings.

On our way to another bar that was advertising that they were showing the Calzaghe - Jones Jr. pay-per-view fight, we stopped at a convenience store to get Ginger some conditioner. I had only been in the South for about three hours at that point, but
I came face-to-face with a walking stereotype. White guy, red hair, white dress shirt with light pink either stripes or checks, navy blue sweater vest, khaki pants. It was the notorious Southern Frat Boy come to life. Not only that, but he was carrying on about the doings "back at the house." Had I been here a week earlier, I would have applauded the perfection of the costume. As it was, I just tried to call Bob to get some snark in.

Finally we get to the bar. We're practically the only ones there and the only people interested in watching the fight. I guess this is why bars don't buy the ppv for these things. We watched a crappy undercard fight and we're in the middle of the main undercard fight when the bartenders and their friends haul out a table and put it in front of the teevee. Apparently, someone had decided it was time for some beer pong. Sure, set up the beer pong table in front of the only teevee anyone in the joint is watching. All of this was fine, as really I only had one guy's head blocking the screen every now and again. I have never seen people work so hard to drink 30 oz of Bud Light. With one round to go before the main event, they decide that beer bong wasn't good enough, they need some tunes to go with the pong, so they turn down the volume on the fight and put on some middling rock. Ginger identified it as Soundgarden, but I wasn't so sure and it sure as hell wasn't Badmotorfinger. We left. I don't think they noticed.

Other than that, not much has happened. We rented a car. I asked for a compact, they gave us a "Specialty/Novelty" car. I am driving a Chevy HHR LS. Oy. The turn signal noise is really high pitched "clickity-click" that never fails to draw laughs. There's no trip odometer, so no tenth of a mile reading, which can come in handy on a rental car, and I have a hard time not feeling like a git driving it. And of course, a rock hit the windshield and chipped it. Like any good American, I am trying to call the rental agency to tell them that the chip was already there, but they don't seem to be big on answering the phone.

These are just the beginnings of a week in vacation land. I have eaten nothing but meat in the last 24 hours, so I am sure some Courtneyesque bowel-blogging is coming up.

Our team

I love it when we're the ones who can speculate about our Dream Team Cabinet. As for who will run the show at Labor...

• Former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.)
• Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union
• Kay Hagan of North Carolina
• Jeanne Shaheen, former New Hampshire governor

As of right now, I see one and only one politically acceptable name for this post. Et tu?

Wall of shame

It's no surprise that social networking sites allow millions of individuals to put their jackassitude on display, but unless you're "friends" with these people (for some odd reason), their stupidity probably goes unnoticed by you.

Fortunately, said social networking sites also provide the tools for public shaming. And this bunch particularly deserves it.

Now, can we put the "post-racial" rhetoric to rest and honestly confront this nation's racial problems?

Am I Wrong Here?

I am being deluged with calls to hold Obama's "feet to the fire." With some exceptions, I didn't recall the people sending these missives being big Obama supporters in the first place. They are pissing me off already. This is why I have a blog, to spew about people that piss me off.

One, if you didn't support Obama because he wasn't "radical" or "progressive" or "leftist" enough for you, where do you get off attempting to hold his feet to anything? If you didn't support him, you're opposition. He has no more obligation to listen to you than he has to listen to Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich. You decided long ago that Obama was not the man for you. Guess what? He's still not the man for you. You can keep right on criticizing him for being a centrist sell-out, but you have no right to speak as if he owes you something. If you want to hold someone's feet to the fire, how 'bout you turn to your man Nadar and remind him that even though he is the most awesomist American evah!, that still doesn't give him the right to use racial slurs in the direction of our newly-elected black president.

Two, can you allow for the possibility that Obama is appointing people that he doesn't necessarily agree with? That he has no interest in surrounding himself with "yes" people? The he has some political debts he has to pay back and he's doing so by appointing big name friends of friends who may have little influence over him? If there is one thing Obama is, it is confident in what he is doing. How many times during that race did you doubt that he made the right move?

I remember at the end of the second debate where McCain, unprompted, launched into a closing where he touted his lifetime of service to America and his humble desire to keep on serving. Obama, awkwardly, went with being the son of a Kenyan immigrant, raised by his grandmother in Hawaii, etc. I was thinking, "No, no, no! Be All-American, emphasize your love of the flag, and that your dreams are the same as Joe the Plumbers'." I was wrong, he was right, and I was remind (when I shouldn't have to be) that his story is just as American as McCain's or Joe's.

Obama ran this campaign well. He ran as himself. I have no doubt that's exactly how he'll govern. As everyone has said, he'll make decisions and advance policies that we disagree with. He can't please everyone. Lord knows the progressive faction ain't exactly in agreement over EFCA and Big Labor ain't exactly the most progressive aspect of the Dem coalition.

Which is to say that before we go crying "Betrayal!" maybe we should wait for the man to actually "betray" us. I don't recall him promising to put together the most progressive transition team in the history of transition teams. Jesus, he turned nine Bush states blue, does that not earn him three fucking days of credibility?

More News You Already Knew

You can try to convince me otherwise, but I am seriously convinced that the Beastie Boys were on drugs when they made Check Your Head.

In other election news

True Blue, Baby!

It's official: We turned NC blue!

I am speechless.

(By the way, political junkie + newly-discovered battleground state = heaven. Best. election. ever.)

Woo hoo!

Oh Yes, Please God, Make It Happen

We're reading everywhere about Republicans returning to core principles of "small government" and "self-reliance." I hope to hell this is exactly what they do. In a time of (potential) global economic meltdown, I hope the Republicans return to their blame-the-victim ways.

I want to hear them tell the woman who was laid-off from her job that it's her fault that her company couldn't get a short-term loan to make payroll. I want them to keep decrying unemployment benefits. I want them to keep upholding Wal-Mart jobs and E-Bay profits as the solution to all our problems.

I want them to tell the family that is losing its home that it is their fault and they will have to make do. No "government handouts" for them, they would only destroy their will to achieve.

I hope that the 47 million or so people that will have brand-new government-backed health insurance keep hearing the GOP message that this is a horrible thing, and, worse yet, socialism!

In a time when people will be flocking to colleges and universities, I want the GOP voting against Pell Grants and touting the private sector loan system, which will be broken and unworkable, but better than the government paying someone to become a more productive citizen.

Speaking of education, I read somewhere (sorry), that given the huge number of young people that voted for Obama, it was time for the wingnuts to really crack down on the Marxist professors. Oh please, please do. Because, again, in a time of global financial panic, what people will want to hear about is the guy who got an F on his term paper because he was supposed to write about the causes of the Holocaust, but instead chose to write about the holocaust that is abortion.

Somehow, these crazy mofos have it in their head that people voted for Obama because McCain ran as a liberal. Please, let them return to core principles. (For now) The people have caught on and I believe that the words solidarity and brotherhood are about to have a rebirth.

Classic Seasonville

Fuck you, Ralph Nader

Seriously. Fuck you.

(via LGM)

What circular firing squads look like from the outside

Get the popcorn ready, because the GOP implosion is just beginning. The first order of business, it would seem, is to torpedo any possibility of Sarah Palin having a shot at national office. This morning we saw wardrobegate become more embarrassing, and now FOX (of all networks) airs this report:



And there's more to come.

While I'm certainly going to enjoy the show, it only increases my anger towards the conservative movement. It looks like Palin's dangerous lack of qualifications was an open secret in right-wing camps, and they didn't fucking care except to make her the first to take the fall. Fucking appalling.

Taking Their Time

Not sure why the vote count is so slow in Multnomah and Lane counties (Portland and Eugene), but with 70% or so of the vote counted in those two counties, Merkley has finally moved ahead of Smith. Right now it's by a few hundred votes, but with more than 125K left to count in Portland, where Merkley is winning 3-to-1, he should pull well ahead.

Measure 64 continues to pass. It is up by 15K or so, down from 25K earlier in the day. I'm not sure were going to make this one.

It's Not Over Yet

Why am I up at 8 in the morning? Because there's a Senate race still up in the air I can't sleep with that shit going down.

Oregon Live seems to have most up-to-date results.

From what I can gather, Lane county (home to Eugene) had a major glitch last night and only 33% or so of the ballots have been counted. They are also way behind on counting ballots in the Portland and Corvallis areas, so Merkley should pick up major votes there, but Smith is still ahead.

I am assuming that as Merkley goes, so goes Measure 64. It was passing last night, but should go down as blue ballots are counted.

I should also mention that the mayor's race Eugene is still up in the air, as is a very important bond for Lane Community College.

More later, surely.

[UPDATE]: Looks like the Minnesota Senate race will go into December. Sorry, Jen.

Back to work kids

Step one: Sweep the Dems into office. Boom.

Step two: Keep George Bush from burning down the house on his way out.

Step three: Get to work fixing the mess our country is in.

We're off to an awesome start. Now comes the hard part.

Liveblogging the Election

LA county is estimating 80% turnout...OC not so much.

BO just won PA... what is next?

VA too close to call...

The OG's Word Cloud for October

h/t Jason

created with wordle

There's Good Taste, Then There's NJ

Jeepers, nobody's closed any polls anywhere, but already the NJ pols are yelling out random names for US attorney. What is this, a cartoon?

The Red Guard

We in Eugene like to argue about whether or not the Register Guard, our locally-owned newspaper leans liberal -- The Red Guard, or conservative -- The Register Greed. It's one of those things that keeps this town lively and provincial.

To tell the God's honest, the Guard is pretty liberal in the opinion section. Only their complete and total anti-union stance keeps the argument alive. Every now and again, however, the newspage throws something out there that is so biased for Republicans, I am forced to go with the Greed crowd (greed is good, no?).

Today's front page had a blurb about Palin being cleared in the ethics probe in Alaska. Now, you and I know that the Personnel Board investigation was a sham put on by Sarah's own people to clear her of wrong doing, but the blurb gives no hint of that. The article itself is amazing. Check out the original article from the AP, then read the RG's "edited" version.

Palin cleared in ethics probe

ANCHORAGE, Alaska –

Gov. Sarah Palin violated no ethics laws when she fired her public saftey commissioner, the state personnel board concluded in a report.

"There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters," the personnel board's report said.

"Gov. Palin is pleased that the independent investigator for the personnel board has concluded that she acted properly in the reassignment of Public Saftey Commissioner Walt Monegan," her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said in a statement.

An earlier, separate investigation by the Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.

Monegan said he felt pressure from Palin, her husband and her staff to fire a state trooper who had gone through a contentious divorce from Palin's sister. Palin denied the claim and said Monegan was fired in July because she wanted the department to head in a new direction.

Monegan said he was "perplexed and disappointed" by the latest report. It was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board.

"It conflicts with the first investigation and then casts doubts on both of them. So, it doesn't really resolve anything," he said.

Red Guard, indeed.

I Felt the Same Way About Wham!

In an otherwise banal editorial decrying sexism and fantasy in rap lyrics, Daily Emerald author Natasha Martin concludes with this mind-blowing sentence:

If people continue to listen to and use this music carelessly, I'm frightened that future generations will entirely wipe out real meaning in music.

just thinking aloud

shouldn't we all be a little dismayed by the preponderance of logistical mishaps with the early voting (i.e., people having to wait in long and time-consuming lines?) why don't we have the infrastructure in place to handle 100% voter turnout? i mean, couldn't we put a bunch of people to work constructing electoral infrastructure? it'd like, encourage participatory democracy and crap.

evil r + b guy could hang weird "murals," and in return be paid $47,500.

Surrogates

(via tbogg)

What I deduced from empirical evidence today

Martinique, apparently, does not observe the temporal strictures of Daylight Savings Time.

Prisonship Self-Cleaning Survey Module (c)

The "Say Something Nice About Led Zep" edition.

The other nite, Dave3544 questioned my loyalty to the albums of Led Zeppelin. I mean, jeepers!

Let's all take a moment to mention something specific we love about the boys.

For me, I'll mention "Dancing Days." It's so, so weird. The Jimmy Page gtr melody is so, so weird. It's total DC math-rock at points. What a weird, awesome song. Led Zep!

PrisonShip Self-Cleaning Survey Module: Name Yr Subs!

Let's talk periodicals!

Name 5 such publications that yr household subscribes too.

I'll start:
1) The American Prospect
2) The New Left Review
3) Baseball Digest (!)
4) Anthropology of Work Review (snore!)
5) Artforum

(I wish I could mention Backstreets, the official fan publication of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; however, I let that sub elapse when Bruce put out that fucking Pete Seeger alb. I mean, who the fuck cares, am I right? And didn't Pete Seeger name names in the Party when the heat came down? That's how Tom Scharpling tells it.)

Makes Me Proud

Avi Zenilman and Ben Smith give credit where credit is due, to the "older, industrial unions" that have, in their opinions, actually answered Obama's call for dialogue about race in the USA. I've over-ranted about this aspect of "Labor 2008" already, but the fact is that it's a welcome galldarned thing.

Baby Bear's Porridge

How desperate is Gordon Smith? He is trying to defeat Merkely by running as a Democrat, which has opened the door to an attack from his right. He must be feeling the heat, because he is running attack ads against Merkely and Constitution party candidate Dave Brownlow. Apparently, Brownlow is "too liberal" for Oregon. That's right, the man who says this on his website is "too liberal":

Our Constitution authorizes the federal government to perform a very specific - and very limited - set of functions; provide for the common defense of the states, secure our borders, coin (real) money, regulate inter-state and international commerce, protect our inalienable rights - and very little else!

Sounds like a commie to me, Gordo. Thank God your delightful blend of voting with Bush 90% of the time, but coming out against the war five years in when, it is widely upopoular, but then still voting for funding and against withdrawal is just right.

Two gripes and something cool

• Taking up a whole bench on the Metro with your iPod on, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep during rush hour is a dick move, guy.
• How much righteous hatred is too much for parents driving their kids door-to-door trick-or-treating?
• I saw three different African-American kids, somewhere in the 7-10 range, dressed up as Obama tonight. Just thinking about them makes me smile.

We Can't Say We Weren't Warned

Lips and I have been reading the wingnuts over at Townhall all afternoon. In the course of our comments perusal, we came across a man (?) named retired geek who, no matter what the subject, had the most incoherent things to say. As it happens when you're surfing, we click on his name hoping it took us to further adventures of retired geek, possibly on his very own blog. We were thinking that he might have some obscure blog containing his unread rantings, but he actually has a blog at Townhall itself. They love his rantings too, but in a different way.

His blog is, in a word, awesome. One post in particular stands out. We were going to post it here, but then we read the comments where we came upon a sad bit of news. Apparently, the retired geek will only allow his his posts to be reposted in the interest of fighting reds. Or as he put it:

As long as you are fighting communisim or socialism you have my permission to post anything I post.

We were set to pay this no never mind, but he followed up with this:

They are to be used for reference only to be used to defeat communisim.

In a word, fuck. But it really, really is too good not to repost and we do so in the spirit of an anti-communist, socialist-type way. Fuck Stalin! Go Debs!

Here are the 45 Communist Goals from 1963 in full. Enjoy.

Communists 45 Goals in 1963

Posted by Geek Perspective on Monday, August 18, 2008 9:50:15 PM

Communist Takeover of America - 45 Declared Goals

You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As you read this, 39 years later, you should be shocked by the events that have played themselves out. I first ran across this list 3 years ago but was unable to attain a copy and it has bothered me ever since. Recently, Jeff Rense posted it on his site and I would like to thank him for doing so. http://www.rense.com

Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963

Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963 .

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.

At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record back this far has not be digitized and posted on the Internet.

It will probably be available at your nearest library that is a federal repository. Call them and ask them. Your college library is probably a repository. This is an excellent source of government records. Another source are your Congress Critters. They should be more than happy to help you in this matter. You will find the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto interesting at this point.

Webmaster Forest Glen Durland found the document in the library.

Sources are listed below.

Microfilm: California State University at San Jose Clark Library, Government Floor Phone (408)924-2770 Microfilm Call Number: J 11.R5

Congressional Record, Vol. 109 88th Congress, 1st Session Appendix Pages A1-A2842 Jan. 9-May 7, 1963 Reel 12

1963- The Year That Changed America

By Greg Swank

She Said It Would Never Happen

Full Members = 1049
Total Bargaining Unit = 1311
Membership Percentage = 80.02%

Not quite clear on the concept

I think that this is the very definition of irony... or stupidity.

Lilith Was Right

David--

This is not an easy time to be conservative. In 6 days we might wake up to read that Barack Obama and liberal Democrats have seized total control of Washington.

Take it from me. For 20 years, I played Dr. Frasier Crane on TV, and it is not easy being openly Republican in a Democrat town like Hollywood. But even when the odds are against us, we must never stop fighting for this country.

Will you help stop liberals from seizing total control of our government?

Barack Obama and his liberal allies claim to support the working man. They want us to think they are all Joe and Jane Six Packs. But we all know -- that when they think no one is listening -- the liberal elite arrogantly snicker about the unwashed masses in fly-over country and suburbia.

They ridicule Sarah Palin...they laugh at Joe the Plumber...and they condescendingly refer to middle-class Americans as "bitter."

Will you help stop the liberal agenda?

America doesn't want Barack Obama and a rubberstamp liberal Senate to "spread the wealth around."

Regular people get it. The liberal agenda of bone-crushing tax hikes and out-of-control spending in the middle of an economic crisis is a disaster waiting to happen.

Will you join me in taking a stand against Barack Obama and the liberal agenda?

The 2008 election is one of the most important we'll ever live through.

With just 6 days until Election Day, time is running out to protect the firewall. So, we must move fast. Please contribute at least $30 today.

For all of us, there comes a time when the choices are so stark, the risks so great, that we have to take a stand.

Sincerely yours,

Kelsey

P.S. If you have contributed before, please do so again. A donation of $30 from you will make the difference between winning and losing in 1 or 2 key Senate races.

Game-Changers?

1. Matthew Rothschild enjoys a low-key "told you so" moment - didn't we all? - over Randian Alan Greenspan's recent admission that, shucks, his belief in a financial system unfettered by regulation might've had a few flaws.
   

   “I have found a flaw,” Greenspan testified.

   That’s kind of like the astronomer Ptolemy saying, “Something’s wrong here, maybe the sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth.”

   Or like the biologist Lamarck saying, “Maybe the giraffe doesn’t get a longer neck by stretching for high leaves.”

   Or like the Pope saying, “Maybe the earth wasn’t created in seven days.”

   Except that the consequences of Greenspan’s blunder are much more severe than the fallacies of the past.

   He and his faulty free market philosophy have precipitated a global recession.

   Millions are losing their homes. Millions more will lose their jobs. And tens of millions have already lost their retirement funds.

   All casualties of Greenspan’s belief in a fable.

2. Harold Meyerson on Working America's inroads with working-class whites in Ohio, and labor's mixed record in the 20th century to protect its better angels (i.e., the social-democratic ones) at the expense of the lingering racial insecurities and, shucks, hatred:
   

In a sense, overcoming the nation's racial rifts has always been the distinctive challenge facing American labor. Unlike its European counterparts, its own working class has always been multiracial -- a fact that explains a great deal about the failure of the United States to ever have a powerful socialist movement or a more solidaristic consciousness.

At their best, unions have been an indispensable force in combating American racism -- but even the best unions have not always been able to enlist their white members in that cause. Under the leadership of Walter Reuther, the United Auto Workers (UAW) funded and provided most of the resources (e.g., buses) for the 1963 March on Washington. For decades, it had championed the rights of black autoworkers, and African Americans generally, in Detroit and other industrial cities. Such policies did not win universal approval within the union, however, which was chiefly made up of Appalachian whites and Southern blacks, who both had traveled north for the work. During World War II, the union worked constantly to keep its members in the newly integrated defense factories from attacking each other. From the 1930s through the 1960s, the UAW did persuade its white members in and around Detroit to vote for progressive Democratic candidates for federal and state office. It failed continually, however, to persuade them to vote for liberals at the level of Detroit city government. From their city council, their white members wanted housing laws that would keep their black union brothers out of their neighborhoods, and a police force that would keep them more generally in their place.

ACORN TV Ad - Not This Time

ACORN speaks

That's Just $600 a Month

I don't know why I love the Right Wing Professor, but I do. I am insanely jealous he gets way more comments than we do, but then I also realize that 50% or so of his comments are from people who disagree with him. I am a bit of a troll over there, although I like to think my trollery is more of the ass-kicking nature than the random spewing nature.

Anywho... I thought I'd replicate his latest post in whole, as I love every last bit of it. Note, please, the lack of link to the alleged call for school and work skipping [I swear it wasn't there the first time I read the post] and his complete lack of understanding of how the "investment" in education works. His implicit call for higher wages for graduate assistants must, however, be applauded.

Skip class to work for the Obamessiah!

Barack Obama is asking students to skip class (ask your professors first!) in order to volunteer for him on election day. Just yet another example of a man whose ego seems to know no bounds.

Heck why not skip class!? Consider it an investment in your future. Under the Obama-Biden plan anyone can get a fully refundable $4000 tax credit, i.e. the first $4000 of your tuition every year can be wealth confiscated from someone else and handed to you in the form of a check. Can someone please explain to me, if a college education is supposed to be such a wonderful investment, why liberals think it needs to be so heavily subsidized by the government.

At the state colleges in New York, tuition is $4350 a year, with room and board expect $13,000/year. Even if a student borrows every penny of this money he leaves with a debt of $52,000. For a 10-year loan this works out to around $600/month in payments. Annoying, sure? Affordable for someone with a college degree? Absolutely! Even with a starting salary of only $30K this leaves $23K to live on in the first year, way more than our Ph.D. students are living on and way more than I lived on for 5 years of graduate school. And this assumes the student doesn't work during the year or in the summers, which can easily cut that debt figure in half.

Love him.

I Can't Get Enough

From the comments at Real Clear Politics:

Posted by: Marion Valentine Oct 28, 10:45 AM

---

After spending nine years in Navy Intelligence as a Cryptologist, intercepting communications from Marxist/Socialist countries, breaking their codes, and gathering intelligence in "other" ways. I am familiar with their methods of using the media for propangada, using the educational system to indocronate young minds, using the judicial system, and voter fraud to steal elections.
This is what is happening now in america.

From everything I have researched in the last two years, has lead me to conclude that Obama was selected, tutored, groomed, scripted, and financed by Radical Marxist/Socialists to become the puppet leader of the USSA.

There is a vast difference between Social Democrats and Radical Marxist/Socialists. Hillary Clinton is a Social Democrat. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Schumer, Durbin, Franks,Boxer, and a few others now in Congress are Radical Marxist/Socialists.

On my website: [valsword.spaces.live.com] I have a 16 minute video of an interview with Yure Bezmenov a KGB agent who defected in 1970. This interview was recorded 24 years ago,
and the transcript highlights, in Yuri's own words confirm what I mentioned in the first paragraph.

I pray that I am wrong, but from everything I have researched, I believe Obama, with a Reid Pelosi led Congress, with a radical judicial system will pull a Hugo Chavez.

Meet your new press secretary

Should we do the work necessary to get Barack Obama elected next Tuesday, I'm hoping that this man will be our new daily press wrangler:



More like this, please.

We're Screwed

An article at American Thinker tell us that the MSM wants us to believe that Obama is going to win, but it is not true. From the article and the comments the signs/reasons McCain is going to win this thing. And no, I am not making these up.

• PUMAs -- Pollsters have not taken them into account
• Lack of Obama buttons in evidence on West Side of NYC
• Lack of Obama lawn signs in upstate NY
• 30% of the electorate is undecided, but the MSM will never tell you that
• McCain's strategy is to wait until Friday and place campaign workers across the country in venues where young voters are like to be--pep rallies, frat houses, campuses, football games, and pubs, etc.
• 18% of Hillary voters won't vote for Obama
• Blacks won't admit to pollsters that they are planning to vote for McCain
• Comments about the article on American Thinker running 5 to 1 against Obama
• Obama has 90% of the black vote sown up. He has the pointy-headed, Marxist, Michael Moore, academic vote (hey that's us!) sown up, but this accounts for only 4% of the population. The rest of the Democrats are up for grabs and are feeling very uneasy about Obama
• Divine intervention
• People are scared to tell pollsters how they are really going to vote because they fear "Obamanistas" getting their face.
• Pollsters hang up is you start to say you are going to vote for McCain
• Obama has never been ahead in the AOL online poll
• Elderly voters in Florida know that McCain loves America and will fight for the American people
• Republicans are telling Republican GOTV walkers that they support McCain
• In South Jersey there is less enthusiasm for Obama than there was for Kerry
• Lack of Obama yard signs in the suburbs of Chicago
• A remember poll from long-ago suggests that 20% of Democrats won't vote for Obama...Rush is citing it!
• "Grassroots" bloggers tell a different story from the MSM!
• Lack of Obama signs in LA
• Obama will lose OH, thanks to Joe the Plumber. The MSM wants you to think he has a chance in VA, but he does not. He will lose, PA. May not hang on to MD.
• Lack of Obama signs in South Florida
• People won't admit to supporting McCain because they are afraid of being labeled a racist
• People will have a last minute change of mind and vote McCain
• There is something deep down inside of everyone that wants to do right and good and at the last minute Obama supporters and even donors (!) will realize they just can't vote for him and vote McCain
• Lack of Obama signs in Seattle
• Lack of Obama signs in Silicon Valley
• The kids can't possibly be "inspired" by the nothing that is Obama
• Lack of Obama signs in DC
• Obama fad set to end on November 3
• Rain
• Obama too leftist
• Lack of Obama signs in Texas

PRM - Glove Smelling Edition

I don't think of Spinal Tap as a "1984" movie because I didn't see it until much later. It wasn't foundational to my youth in the same ways as Red Dawn, Karate Kid, Police Academy, Romancing the Stone, Revenge the Nerds, well you get the idea, were. Each one of these movies shaped and formed who I am today. The Tap is a great movie. Invented a whole genre. But, for me, it is just for giggles.

That said, the OG family is a younger crowd and I recognize that. For many of you Tap was a foundational experience and the movie is an all-time classic. All hail Spinal Tap!

This poll also reveled that while we love Prince's music, we'd rather not have to watch him act. Or "act," if you will. Purple Rain the movie did give us one important thing, however, Morris Day and the Time. Some say that Day's unceasing support of Walter Mondale was the only thing that kept Reagan from capturing all 50 states. For that we owe Purple Rain a heartfelt thanks.

Alright, what you all came for:

Hillary makes more appearances than EZ

Just saw this noted at Talkleft:
Hillary made her 65th campaign appearance for Sen. Barack Obama in Aurora, Colorado today. Also on hand: Gov. Bill Ritter, Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter.


She has been more active these past weeks than I have.

I apologize for the light posting recently. I have had midterms and election panels on top of in law visits and remodeling......

This Is Not Good

Reprehensible? A legit issue? I find myself saddened when this commercial comes on.

An Important Message from Barack Obama about Jeff Merkley

Boom! Boom! Boom!

(h/t Ben Smith sur le Politico)

McCain as Ward Littel

Great stuff from Patton Oswalt.

Not the Kind of Thing Defend Oregon Would Send Out

This is too awesome not to post. From our friend Steve Novick:

One of the most important things you can do this election year is tell everyone you know to Vote No on Bill Sizemore’s Measure 64. A bizarrely technical measure – it’s a sort of attack on the use of a form of direct deposit by public employees – it would have the effect of making it much more difficult for union members to advocate for education and health care, more difficult for organizations like the Food Bank to advocate for social justice, and more difficult for the unions to fight Bill Sizemore’s other measures.

It’s important for you to know that the public employee unions are our first line of defense against devastating Sizemore initiatives like Measure 59, which would gut public services to give tax cuts to the wealthy. A lot of us understand that Sizemore’s measures are bad, and do our part – but the truth is that most progressives tend to focus our resources on candidate campaigns (thanks again for your help on mine!), and it doesn’t occur to us that we need money and manpower for the initiatives, too. It is no exaggeration to say that if it were not for the public employee unions, Bill Sizemore would have burned the state to the ground long ago. He knows that. That’s why he wants to cripple their ability to fight him.

If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, think of Oregon as the Shire and the unions as the Dunedain. They don’t get a lot of credit. But as Aragorn said to Boromir at the Council of Elrond:

"Peace and freedom, do you say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us. What roads would any dare tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dunedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?

And yet less thanks have we than you. Travelers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. 'Strider' I am to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly."

The fact is that every Oregonian lives under the shadow of foes like Sizemore and his backers, like Loren Parks the Nevada sexual hypnotist and Dick Wendt of Jeld-Wen. They would lay our little state in ruin, if it were not guarded ceaselessly – by our friends in organized labor. Don’t let Sizemore drive the Dunedain into the grave.

Vote No on 64, and make sure all your friends do, too.

**** Shocking Election News **** **** Campaign Changing Day ****

**** Pollsters reveal Democratic bias *****

**** Obama loses in Hawaii courtroom trying to hide birth records ****

**** Obama in Hawaii to keep grandmother quiet ****

**** API to release tapes soon: MO: "I hate Whitey and so does Barack!" ****

**** Hotel receipt a plant by the Democrats to make right-wing look bad ****

**** Media focuses on clothes while naked Democratic fraud goes unnoticed! ****

**** Obama BFF calls for genocide! ****

**** Young people flock to McCain/Palin ticket ****

Much more to come in the next 11 days!

Obama to Godwin land-speed record

Behold, and you really do want to take some time with the comments on this one.

And you didn't mention this why?

Smaller media markets, like, say, Eugene, OR, tend to have... let's call it quirkier on-air personalities for their local shows. Like the newscasts. Eugene has some memorable weathermen; John Fischer, Tim Chuey, and the bald guy on the NBC affiliate - you tend to remember the face of the guy telling you the forecast for the next 200 days is some variation of "rain." I still encounter Joe Giansante if I happen to catch a Ducks game on some bar's satellite feed. And who can forget the woman who looked like Ally McBeal when the FOX station tried to put together a local newscast (didn't she end up reporting at some other local channel?)(is it wrong to admit that I had a crush on her?)?

The anchors, on the other hand, are a little less memorable for me. I can see faces, but couldn't give you names. Except for one, who was exceptional in that he offensively and unapologetically embraced his role as "the anchor," whose faux gravitas dripped with cheese, whose bright human interest stories were gaggingly cloying... for some completely irrational reason, I could not stand the sight nor sound of this person. It was the one network whose local newscast I would actively avoid.

And now Rick Dancer is running for statewide office? As a Republican? And no one bothered to mention this? Had I known this I would've been donating to Kate Brown a long time ago, just to spite him.

(George) Strait Talk re: Bolivia

Alright, listen. I know I'm the guy around here who writes the things that "don't make any sense." I am one opaque mother, I know, absolutely. (And thanks for having me, I don't say it enough.)

Because I know this, I don't know who would possibly be on board with my erratic references to the situation in Latin America - let alone Bolivia. So often buried beneath shout-outs to Tom Scharpling, Ric Flair, Vin Novarra, et. al... well I just don't feel confident that anybody's wading through all of that, at least not more than mebbe, like, twice.

But, should such people (as those outlined above) happen to exist, I now happily present to them this very interesting clip (text or video) Forrest Hylton discussing how "the fight is not over by any means but [Bolivia] has entered a new phase."

So this really represents in some ways a closure of that process that was initiated when people began to demand a new constitution and a new constitutional assembly through mass direct action in the streets, which was capable of overthrowing two presidents.

Castro, Chavez, and Goldberg?

Floating around the internet is this bit of intellectual fluff from Jonah Goldberg defending Palin against the charge that her "tax the wealthy oil companies" program in Alaska is more socialist than Obama's "repeal the tax cut on the top income bracket" plan (ed: We are all socialists now!):

In Alaska, the people own the oil as opposed to in Ohio where the people don't own Joe the Plumber. That's the system that Sarah Palin inherited. It's also the system that produced a lot of political corruption, which is the logical result of the sort of corporatist policies favored by Barack Obama. Sarah Palin did much to clean up that corruption. Obama never dreamed of doing anything comparable in even more corrupt Chicago. The tax increase on oil companies in Alaska may or may not have been well-advised (my in-laws have very strong feelings on the matter). But as a philosophical matter comparing Barck Obama's argument that we should soak succssful [sic]small businessmen to spread the wealth is really not comparable to the steward of a resource owned by the citizens of Alaska in effect renegotiating the deal to more favorable terms for the owners.

Apparently, Goldberg believes that the people own the national resources in America. While this is news to you, me, and everyone but the ISO, it would seem to suggest that allowing oil companies to make billions in profits exploiting our natural resources while providing crappy jobs and polluting the environment is the ultimate form of wealth redistribution. I mean, wouldn't a smart government be renegotiating these "deals" until oil company profits were so low, that Exxon decided it just wasn't worth it? (Understanding that, for now, neoliberalist ideology runs so deep that the notion that the government could exploit those resources in the name of the people just as efficiently and cheaper is a non-starter. Now that's Socialism with a capital 'S'!). Every dollar they keep is a dollar the people lose, no? It's our oil, they're our dollars.

Goosebumps.

Holy shit.

I believe.

No. Fucking. Shame.

John McCain is a fucking liar:

"I think she's most qualified of any that has run recently for vice president, tell you the truth," McCain said, citing her experience as a small-town mayor and Alaska governor. He added: "Bill Clinton was pretty well derided when he came out of a small state to run for president of the United States," and he pronounced himself "amazed" at the criticism.

The "most qualified of any that has run recently for vice president." More qualified than George H.W. Bush. More qualified than Al Gore or Jack Kemp. More qualified than the man who is currently running our government - Dick Cheney.

And Bill Clinton. Who had a law degree from Yale. And was a Rhodes Scholar. And was governor for over a decade. She's at least as qualified as Bill was, probably moreso.

OMFG.

It was enough to foist her upon us in the first place and pretend that she was qualified to run the country. But to offer this stunningly over-the-top endorsement is a transparent lie. And he knows it.

cardinology streaming

sur le facebook, of all places. have at it, fiends!

(three tracks deep, and "fix it" still stands out.)

on the other hand

On the "substance" front - let me say that I'm interested by (but unsure how to approach) the issues tied up in Ezra Klein's recent work on the mainstream media's consensus that the U.S.A.'s an intrinsically "Center-Right" country.

On the other hand, on the "sonics/phonics" front - it is kinda nice to hear the word "socialism" tripping off so many Americans' lips, these days.

Saturday Night in 1993 Will Never Be the Same

MillerCoors ends production of Zima

1 day ago

MILWAUKEE (AP) — MillerCoors LLC says goodbye to Zima.

The joint venture between SABMiller's U.S. unit and Molson Coors Brewing Co. told distributors in a letter Monday that production of the malt liquor beverage was discontinued as of Oct. 10.

Chief Marketing Officer Andy England says the decision was due to weakness in the "malternative" segment and declining consumer interest.

He says distributors can get remaining Zima inventories most likely through December.

Distributors are being asked to put products from caffeinated alcoholic beverage Sparks on retail store shelves to make up for Zima's absence.

The brand came to the joint venture from Molson Coors, maker of Coors Light and Keystone.

h/t: AP

Don Imus re: Rev. Wright and Don Imus

h/t to Ben Smith, 'glad to see that the Maverick is doing right by the I-Man and responding to his "tough questions" (about himself, the I-Man). Yeah, I-Man!

"When I got in the mess that I got in, Senator Obama was the first one to jump up and suggested that I be fired, which I didn’t have any problem with. And when the wheels came off with Reverend Wright, the first thing Senator Obama said was that we should put his remarks in context and also we should consider all the wonderful things that Rev. Wright had done throughout his life," Imus said. "That was a luxury that he was affording Reverend Wright and himself to get out of that mess, and something that he was unwilling to afford me – not that that would have been appropriate, by the way. But I thought that revealed a disturbing level of hypocrisy and a willingness to employ a double standard and something worth talking about."

I mean, leave it to a self-absorbed wanker like BHO to not distinguish between a) his pastor, and b) a washed-up, unfunny moron who essentially mocked black women athletes for being black!

Worst Ever

In another giant "Fuck you" to the American people, the Bush administration's Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to "read" 200,000 citizen comments on their plan to radically alter the endangered species rules in just 32 hours. Fish and Wildlife assembled a team of 15 people to read the legally mandated citizen comments. They started yesterday at 9 am and plan to work 8 hour days and finish up Friday afternoon. For those playing at home, that's 13,333 comments per person. That works out to 416 comments per hour. 7 comments per minute. These comments are written by citizens, including scientists and lawyers and often run to dozens of pages.

Law requires the administration to read and comment on public response to proposed rule changes, and this is an attempt to get this process done and the changes in place before a new administration takes office. If the rule change is still "proposed," then it is easily undone. If the the change is complete, then a new administration would have to go through the entire process again.

I guess it should come as absolutely no surprise, but jeebus. Democracy means absolutely nothing to these people, does it?

i don't never go see no movies no more

but maybe i should start reading slashfilm.com anyway. see what i mean? no? look below.

Former US Football star Ken Harvey (Arizona Cardinals, Washington Redskins) will visit the Globa Space Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi next month in an effort to find financial backing for a film about playing sports in space, according to The National. The film tells a story of a young boy who joins “a space-sport team in his quest to avenge the death of his father and to win the rights to mine for Helium-3″, which is thought by some scientists to be a possible fuel. Yeah, the stoyline doesn’t sound too promising. Harvey is also promoting his company Space Sportilization, with the purpose of promoting interest in playing sports in space.

Real quick. Can I have a show of hands from those who're against playing sports in space?

Volcker and Obama

story of the day, though I cannot link you to the actual WSJ content without all of us subscribing. Former Fed Chair Volcker (1979-1987), more than Reagan, inaugurated domestic neoliberalism in the USA as an inflation-fighting deficit hawk. Now he's presiding over what many are calling the "end" of neoliberalism.

Minimizing Expectations

Seems like maybe Orrin has given up on the House and the Presidency.

Defeating Senator Landrieu will not only give us a solid fiscal conservative in State Treasurer John Kennedy, it will stop the liberals from seizing complete control of the Senate and forcing their far-left agenda on the American people.

Please note that Orrin has been reduced to pinning his hopes on races where a poll have his guy 5 points behind with two weeks to go. This is Kennedy's internal poll. Rasmussen has Landrieu by 13.

This is what winning feels like. I like it.

Mo' Money

Last I had heard, Prop 8 in California, which would overturn their gay marriage law and take away gay rights, was going down to easy defeat. Apparently, this not the case.

On a not entirely unrelated note, the attempt in California to pass a referendum banning same-sex marriage, and thus strip marital rights from hundreds of thousands of citizens who were granted those rights by the California Supreme Court earlier this year, is looking stronger and stronger, largely as a result of huge amounts of out-of-state money from the Mormon Church and other religious fanatical groups which realize that denying same-sex marriage rights to California citizens will set back the cause of marriage equality by years, if not decades. The campaign in opposition to that pernicious referendum is sorely in need of more funding, and those inclined to donate can do so here.

Join me in giving No on 8 some coin, won't you. If we can win California, eventually the rest of the nation will have to fall in line.

If Joe Biden-qua-Veep is Wrong...

h/t to Chris Cilizza for hipping me to Ryan Lizza's in-depth profile of Joe Biden, veep-aspirant, and his forebears/foibles. i like the idea of him as an LBJ-ish "Master of the Senate," counting votes and pushing BHO's agenda.

They Have Them, Too

I was reading a Dennis Prager article wherein I learned there are two Americas. (No credit to Edwards was given). It seems these two Americas occupy a "Left" and a "Right." They have competing visions for America and even different ideas of what America is, but only one of them is correct. You guess which one.

The article itself is decently neutral and I found a lot to agree with. The fun of any Prager column comes in the comments.

Apparently, the US is on the verge of becoming a socialist paradise, as we are presented the choice of electing the far-left socialist/communist America-hating Barack Obama, or the leftist socialist America-loving, but sadly deluded, John McCain. Unless the US is already a socialist country or even a full-blown Marixist state.

A good many people are ready for the coming Civil War that will surely take place when Americans wake up and realize that they have elected an America-hating socialist Muslim as the president and he comes to take their guns away and "re-educate" them. Unless we agree to divide the country and give people the choice of living in the United States of America or the Socialist States of America, except that the SSA can not survive without all the hard-working God-fearing Americans, so war is practically inevitable. Unless, of course, people refuse to believe the media's attempts to tell you the election is over. How come it always seems like the media tells us the Democrats are ahead by 25% or so, but they only win very close elections? Of course, it really doesn't matter how people vote, as ACORN has the election pre-rigged. When Obama and his people are burning down your city in celebration, just like they do after the NBA championship, I bet you won't be able to find one white person who says they voted for Obama. One that's not a committed socialist anyway.

But the Obama presidency will be good, better than a McCain presidency, because it will snap people out of it and they will wake up and realize what has happened to their great country. A McCain presidency would just allow the media to keep on portraying the GOP as "conservative," when we all know there are very few true conservatives in office any more. Yep, an Obama presidency would surely move the country to the right, so it would be a good, good thing. (Unless, of course, Sarah is really the behind-the-scenes brains behind a McCain presidency. That would be a very good thing.)

Below are my two favorite comments from the 150 or so I read (there were 550+).

Mike Location: RI
Reply # 19
Date: Oct 14, 2008 - 1:21 AM EST
Subject: "Great Article"
This is so absolutely frighteningly true!! I believe the division in our great country will increase and I for one, a decendent of Henry Adams, great great grandfather to our second president John Adams, stand as my great ancestors did before me, by the hand and teachings of God, against the tyrrany of the LEFT!! We came to America to be Free!!

A clear message to you Lefties-we don't get on the Mayflower this time, YOU DO, and I got more news, don't expect "our government" to pay for your tickets-this will be your one way trip!!


Stunned Location: NV
Reply # 77
Date: Oct 14, 2008 - 2:55 AM EST
Subject: US Census 2006 shows 80% white in USA
Now for all you lefties out there, do you really think Barak Hussian Obama is going to get the necessary 270 electoral votes this election? You really think people in OH, Penn, Mich, NY are going to vote for this muslim, African, socialist "snake oil" saleman??? Unless Acorn rigged the election.

We will still be stuck with big gov't, John McShamnisty; just as we had some real wimps in congress and even Jorge Bush. You can't both say the sky is different colors without one being right, and the other being wrong, no matter what the reason. (Even saving the planet and the children)

hate deluge

horrifying voicemails and emails are crowding ACORNS's inboxes these days. such as:

"You liberal idiots. Dumb shits. Welfare bums. You guys just fucking come to our country, consume every natural resource there is, and make a lot of babies. That's all you guys do. And then suck up the welfare and expect everyone else to pay for your hospital bills for your kids. I just say let your kids die. That's the best move. Just let your children die. Forget about paying for hospital bills for them. I'm not gonna do it. You guys are lowlifes. And I hope you all die."

check it out at rightwingwatch.

PRM (Poll Results Monday)

The people have spoken and they much prefer this:



to this:

Grandma