Prince Saud al Faisal is a cockroach




If I was a Saudi blogger, I could be killed for writing that headline. This Saudi blogger stopped posting last August, for fear that the Saudi police goons would track him down.

So I was particularly incensed by Prince Cockroach's interview in today's Newsweek in which he praises the US/Saudi relationship, and insists that the homicidal nutjobs that run his country are doing all they can to bring personal freedom to The Magic Kingdom.
Q: Should Saudi women be allowed to vote in the next municipal elections?
PRINCE COCKROACH: Even the commissioner of elections has said that he is going to propose that they vote. So I am assuming that they will vote in the next election, and that is going to be good for the election, because I think women are more sensible voters than men.

Do you agree that women should take a more active part in your society?
I agree wholeheartedly. Things must happen in a gradual way. But I am proud that the Foreign Ministry is doing its part. For the first time, we are going to have women in the Foreign Ministry this year.
Yes, what a glorious time it is to be alive in Saudi Arabia! Women can maybe, almost vote, we know, because Saudi men are saying that they think it might be a good idea. Their patronizing tone - women are more sensible than men - is further evidence of Saudi male sincerity.

On the precious U.S.-Saudi relationship, his royal Cockroachness proclaims the relationship is going well. "(Bush) indicated that reform has to come from inside the countries of the region. He expressed the wish that this would happen quickly in the Middle East, and we express the wish that the Palestinian question be quickly solved. So I hope both our wishes will come through."

Translation: as long as the Palestinians are repressed, it's OK for the Saudi government and every other middle east dictatorship to repress their own people.
2.3.05 00:04


Where is Homeland Security?


Why is the White House ignoring the terrorist attack on America's heartland which occurred last Monday night?

What else to call the murders of Judge Joan Lefkow and her mother in their North Shore Chicago home? We now know the murders were carried out by white supremecists. Judge Lefkow had been the target of repeated death threats since sentencing a well known Illinois nazi two years ago. As David Neiwert tells us, the goal of the terrorists "is to intimidate the judiciary and to undermine the public's sense of security: if the government can't keep federal judges safe, who can they?"

No word yet from the Department of Homeland Security on selecting a color code for this latest outrage. No breathless White House press briefings are in order. No lawmakers of either party questioning what the country is doing to protect our homeland.

Would things be different if the killers were Muslim extremists, instead of their ideological soul mates, American neo-nazis? Can an honest case be made that the Islamofascists who stalk our shores are more dangerous than a creep like Matthew Hale, who once solicited an undercover cop to murder Ludge Lefkow?

The parallels between Islamofascism and American neo-nazis are stunning enough to go unnoticed not only by the brazen opportunists who use The War Against Terror to consolidate political power, but also by the Democratic opposition who can't quite bring themselves to loathe an enemy that murders people for the very act of being Jewish, homosexual, or liberal.

Case in point: These exists in America today a sizeable subculture of violent white supremecists who belong to a shadowy group called The World Church of the Creator, of which Matthew Hale is a leader. The WCOTC rejects all religions, even Christianity, because Jesus was a Jew. Hale and his acolytes even reject God. Instead, they worship white people, who are the "cream of creation".

Contrast Hale and his merry gang to radical Islamists. Bin Laden tells his followers that God wants then to kill all non Muslims. Jews must die. So must Americans and Europeans. Shiite muslims are unclean, and either need a good bath, or a killin'. Preferably a killin', according to Osama.

There is one important difference between these two groups: one is over there, and one is over here.
4.3.05 19:51


This is how we win


Eliott Spitzer is the pitbull attorney general for the State of New York who isn't afraid to take on Wall Street crooks and liars. He's been prosecuting white collar criminals for years, much to the delight of people who actually work for a living, which is most of us.

Now Spitzer is running for governor of New York, and he has something to say about George W. Bush's ill-thought plan to privatize social security:
"You have an administration that failed to protect investors. Failed to protect them. And yet they are the administration that is saying take the safety net that we have and invest it in a system that was fundamentally broken before others stepped in to try to save it," Spitzer said.

"On the one hand, they are saying the system does not need to be fixed, there was nothing wrong with it, they fought against the changes that we wanted, and then they say, 'Take your savings and put it into that very system.' Where would we be if those who are retiring had had their money in Enron and Worldcom?"

A spokeswoman for the White House declined to comment.
Sure they did. Bush's social security initiative is sinking fast, with a mere 30 percent approval rating, according to a recent Pew Poll. Spitzer, with his finger on the Rolex covered pulse of quaking Wall Street titans, knows precisely why: Americans may trust the former governor of Texas to manage The War Against Terror, but they still perceive the Prez as wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America. Enron, big oil, Halliburton and other shady business interests have all shot their DNA on the White House's pretty blue dress, and this time it isn't Clinton's fault.

The public's distrust of Bush's attack on social security reveals an deep fault line in the Republican base. For the past 20 years, the GOP has benefitted by an unholy alliance between social conservatives who criticize the entertainment culture, and the corporate interests that produce and fund the culture. It's always been easy for the Republican faithful to rationalize bad corporate behavior as "just business", especially when it's the Republican leadership that seems sympathetic to cultural issues, and not the Democrats.

But in social security, Spitzer and other wise heads have found an issue that can redefine corporate excess. It's one thing to be embarrassed by Will and Grace. Quite another to have your retirement nest egg pilfered by a cabal of Wharton grads you will never meet.


Inside Heraldlbog

Just added Site Meter to my blog. Noticed that somebody visited after Googling "free" + "Inside Paris Hilton"

Sorry. But I do have free Gmail invites!
5.3.05 17:43


Our Lady of the Processed Snack


Behold the latest entry in America's Anthropromorphic Food sweepstakes: a Rolled Gold Pretzel that looks exactly like the Madonna and child! And if you don't see it, you hate Christians.




Gmail User Pities Hotmail User

OLYMPIA, WA—Recent Gmail convert William Ramsak, 23, said Monday that his "heart goes out to" friend Kelly Oldenburg, who still sends e-mail through an MSN Hotmail account. "I feel so bad for you, needing to squeeze into 250 MB of storage space," Ramsak wrote to Oldenburg in an e-mail. "And I hate thinking of you sorting all your old e-mail, while Gmail automatically indexes mine so they are searchable." Ramsak then asked Oldenburg when he was going to "stop being a Microstooge and join Team G."

From The Onion, of course.
6.3.05 00:32


Behold my ham




Monday ham blogging.


No Child Left Behind: the football version

from 2005_03_06_southernappeal_archive.html#111020251047568263">Southern Appeal
1. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all must win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities.

ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.

3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in 4th, 8th and 11th games.

5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.
No Child Left Behind is a terrible law, whose only virtue is it frustrates folks on all sides of the political spectrum.
7.3.05 18:36


Apparently, not a big U2 fan


But he has something to say about Nascar, so cut him some slack:
As for the "Vertigo" song itself, it's a mix of twangy guitars, unnecessary spanish, and Bono's stupid glasses. By the way, just because a singer wears stupid goggles doesn't mean that they're suddenly cool or hip. Oooh look! Bono the rock star is wearing redneck Nascar goggles, let's all fellate him for being so rebellious; take that Hollywood! They're still the same goggles that dumbass Nascar fans wear to every boring Nascar "event." Man I hate Nascar. And while I'm at it, here's a quick open letter to the NASCAR community: quit writing poems about Dale Earnhardt. Nobody cares. And no, it wasn't NASCAR's fault for not making the tracks wide enough. Nobody would watch NASCAR if it weren't for the wrecks because it's BORING. You love the wrecks because it gives you people something to talk about in your boring lives; don't get all teary eyed when one of your redneck heroes bites it, you hypocritical turds. The wall won, get over it.
8.3.05 19:39


Copycat crap


It's bad enough that these guys rely on straw man argumentation and cliché to spread their political message, but can they at least be creative enough to come up with their own words?

Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons recently told a Lincoln Day Dinner crowd "I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock stocking wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else." Turns out the speech was plagiarized:
The speech delivered by U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., during Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner in Elko was largely plagiarized from a copyrighted speech by Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman.

Chapman told the Elko Daily Free Press this morning Gibbons had not requested permission to use her speech, which she said she delivered Feb. 2, 2003, at a Stand Up for America rally in Alabama.

She said Gibbons apologized today for using large portions of her speech. "I spoke with him this morning and he has apologized," she said.

Chapman, a Republican, said Gibbons told her he did not realize the speech was copyrighted.

During his speech at Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner, Gibbons did not mention that the speech had been written and previously delivered by Chapman.

"I don't remember where I got it," Gibbons said this morning. "I had no idea it was copyrighted."
Hey Representative Gibbons, the next time you decide to plagiarize the words of an ideological soulmate, you can avoid embarrassing phone calls by stealing from a dead guy:
Everything we admire on this earth today - science and art, technology and inventions - is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps of one race. On them depends the existence of this whole culture. If they perish, the beauty of this earth will sink into the grave with them.
But you didn't hear it from me.
10.3.05 16:28


 [next page]