Frog march
1.11.05 22:26


You're doing a heck of a job, Tommy


Bush crony and incompetent buffoon Kenneth Tomlinson has resigned from his post as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His resignation comes at a propitious moment: the CPB's inspector general had, the day before, issued a report critical of Tomlinson's leadership.

Tomlinson has spent his time at CPB hunting liberal bias with the same zeal as Michael Brown looking for a five-star steak house in Baton Rouge. Two years ago, Tomlinson famously contracted with a consulting firm to monitor Bill Moyer's PBS program NOW. And then he lied about it, saying somebody else signed the contract. He's spent his entire term whining about liberal bias in public broadcasting, when what he really objects to is the refusal by journalists to parrot GOP talking points. Because, you see, it's not enough for Karl Rove to have Fox News in his pocket. He needs PBS, too.

Tomlinson's war on public broadcasting is reflective of this admininstration's "for us or against us" mindset that should be deeply troubling to anybody who cares about this country.

h/t Carpetbagger


Worst album covers ever

I guess that one of the advantages of CDs over vinyl is that CD covers are smaller, so there's less to offend the sensibilities when graphic artists attack:






Want to see more? Of course you do!
4.11.05 16:07


What color is the sky in Bill Bennett's world?


Virtuous Bill Bennett takes us for a stroll down Hypocrisy Lane in today's National Review, telling us that The Washington Post, not Scooter Libby, is the real threat to national security. Bennett ignores the special prosecutor, the director of the CIA, and the President himself when he tells us that Valerie Plame was not a covert agent. Bennett's source? Shhh! It's a secret!

No, the real crime in Bill's World is that the whole world now knows in which countries the CIA is holding terror suspects. The fact that the CIA was holding suspects abroad has been well known for years. WaPo just identified the countries.

The WaPo story is a legitimate investigation of the administration's failure to abide by the Geneva Conventions with regard to the treatment of prisoners. The CIA knows it can't hold terror suspects in the US, because then it would have to abide by American laws. So it imprisons - and tortures - suspects in former East Bloc countries, using the same prisons where Communist goons once tortured pro-democracy demonstrators.

Ahhh, but freedom is on the march!
4.11.05 19:50


Bush's minstrel show


President Bush and his wife visited Howard University the other day, the predominantly black school in Washington, DC. Thursday was soul food day at Howard, and students were looking forward to a lunch of chcken, collard greens and corn bread. Unfortunately, the Secret Service put the cafeteria off limits, so the Prez could attend a "Youth Summit" and Blackburn Hall, where the cafeteria is located. Tempers flared, and a student protest ensued. While Bush waved at the television cameras, students tried to break through the security personnel to get to the cafeteria. Eventually, campus officials let students eat lunch, if they lined up at the back door of the cafeteria and asked for a chicken plate to go.

Hey, it's better than dogs and fire hoses!
4.11.05 20:23


Why does this sound familiar?


From Reuters
Ahmed Hamidi, a white-bearded Moroccan electrician long resident in France, had no patience with politicians in Paris, which lies hardly an hour away but seems like another planet.

"All the politicians care about are laws for homosexuals and all those immoral things," he fumed. "They are against headscarves, against beards and against the mosques.
Fortunately for America, our repressed religious minority has a firm grip on power. Otherwise we'd see the Southern Baptist Convention burning cars and shooting at police. God bless America!
5.11.05 17:38


Saudi blogger is back


The Religious Policeman, a reform-minded Saudi blogger with a scathing sense of humor, is back. He left his readers concerned last year after telling us that strange things were happening in his neighborhood, and then signing off indefinitely. RP blogs from one of the most repressive police states in the world, and thus risks imprisonment, torture and death for saying really funny, un-Islamic things, like this for instance:
Yes, folks, it's Muslim Mayhem Month again, the time of year when our brothers all around the world compete to see who can win the "Ummah Cup" by inflicting the most destruction and misery, and proving that ours is indeed the Religion of Trouble!

Let me remind you of the rules once again. All types of violence and nastiness by Muslims are elegible, the more ingenious the better, and while it helps if it is done in the name of Islam (for example, shouting "Allah Akhbar" at the same time as burning someone), that isn't necessary, just so long as it's done by a recognisably Muslim group, and so brings publicity and credit to Muslims the world over.
Notions of liberal and conservative, hawk and dove just aren't relevant when reading this guy. He can go from bleeding heart liberal to Abu Limbaugh in the same paragraph, and I don't even notice. He is most touching when he writes about abuse of women in the name of Allah, and he dedicated his blog to the 15 Saudi schoolgirls who burned to death in 2002 when Saudi religious police wouldn't allow the girls to flee a burning building without their headscarves. But he can be critical of what he sees as a Muslim culture of victimization, as when he tells the French Arab rioters to get jobs and quit using drugs.

His is a rare, insiders view of Saudi politics, written in fluent, idiomatic English, by a man as comfortable praying in a Saudi mosque as he is shopping for ties on Saville Row. He is particularly hilarious when skewering the Saudi royal family. Citing a Saudi news story, King Abdullah arrives in Jeddah - The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz arrived here Thursday from Makkah, RP writes:
Makkah to Jeddah, that's a journey of about 80 kilometers, or 50 miles. One hour by car. And he did it all by himself, with no grown-ups. However, there were a few adults seeing him off, just to make sure he headed in the right direction.

He was seen off in Makkah by Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, the deputy premier, minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, a number of other princes and officials.

You can just imagine the conversation.

"Here, wipe your nose"
"Here's a bag of candy, but don't eat them all at once"
"Give me a ring when you get there, so I know you're safe"
"Don't lose your coloring book"
"Are you sure you've been to the toilet? Better go again, just to be sure"

"Are we nearly there?"
Anyway, welcome back Muttawah!
7.11.05 17:15


America's boy President


News from President Bush's awesome Latin American adventure:
At one point, (Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula) da Silva even exhibited a map of his country, which is larger than the continental United States. "Wow! Brazil is big," Amorim quoted the U.S. president as responding.
That's really neat!




Pointless Hyman

Ted Remington watches Sinclair executive Mark Hyman's uber-dopey editorials, "The Point", then he posts his response on The Counterpoint. Check it out. Funny stuff.
8.11.05 16:38


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