God, guns, and...well, balls.

For those who don't know, Israel launched an attack into Syria today, supposedly against terrorist training grounds.

I'm watching CNN right now (Sunday night in Central Europe), and I can't believe my ears. The nerve...the absolute BALLS of the Israelis just never ceases to amaze me. Not too long ago, after Israeli helicopters had leveled several civilian apartments, I heard an Israeli spokesperson say "the disolution of the peace process is 100% the fault of the Palestinians." Well, just now, I heard something even more hypocritical...by quite a measure.

Syria, "concerned" that their nation was attacked today, called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, just gave an indignant press conference expressed his "horror and shock" that the Security Council is meeting on the evening before the "holiest of Jewish Holidays." Wow...that's some balls. Um...Dan. Sorry to point out the obvious, but it was YOUR country that launched an attack into Syria today. If you don't like the timing...well...yeah.

It gets better though.

He just said "for Syria to call a security council meeting is like Osama Bin Laden calling a security council meeting after 9-11". Holy shit, the way Israelis can say such things with a straight face never ceases to amaze me.

Israel, of course, has nothing to worry about from the Security Council, since they can depend on the United States of Veto to vote down anything that could be seen as remotely critical of Israeli action. An official spokesman from the white house towed the typical party line and said "Israel has a right to defend itself", and "Syria is on the wrong side of the war on terror." I guess "the wrong side" is the side on the business-end of Israeli bomb strikes.

God, Guts and Guns, part 2

Yes, this story reminds us that the NRA is NOT just another "boys club". You girls can get in on the fun, too!

Dumb and Dumber

I don't know which is worse, that the "president" of the US wrote this crap or that his wife was stupid enough to share it publically.

--"President Bush is a great leader and a husband, but I bet you didn't know he is also quite the poet," she said. "Upon returning home last night from my long trip I found a lovely poem waiting there for me." --

The "great poem" she referred to? Well, take your pick. The idiot-in-chief actually wrote three.

Number one: "Roses are red/Violets are blue/Oh my, lump in the bed/How I've missed you."

Number two: "Roses are redder/Bluer am I/Seeing you kissed by that charming French guy."

And the finale: "The dogs and the cat, they missed you too/Barney's still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe/The distance, my dear, has been such a barrier/Next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier."

Oh, and just in case you couldn't figure it out for yourself (and actually care), the article is kind enough to explain that, "Bush sometimes refers to his wife as a lump in the bed."

Interesting, since I sometimes refer to him as "the lump in the whitehouse".


(Thanks to Hesiod for the heads-up on this "news" story).

It's a Metaphor...see?

Jake over at Lying Media Bastards has a good piece on the latest WMD nonsense. Yes, apparently the Bush regime is now asking for a butt-load of money from congress to continue searching for some evidence of the infamous WMDs.

This line from Jake is particularly good: "600 million American dollars to search for weapons that probably aren't there. Jesus fucking Christ. Remember back at the beginning of this year, when UN weapons inspectors were investigating Iraq for free!?!"



As for why I titled this piece "it's a metaphor...": I caught a brief part of an interveiw on CNN today. It was with some guy named Tim Brown, who's a spokesman or official or something at Globalsecurity.com...whatever that is. Anyway, when asked what he thought about the report that says inspectors have found DIDDLY SQUAT in Iraq, he said--with a completely straight face, I kid you not--

"Well, the term 'Weapons of Mass Destruction is really a metaphor..." for Iraq's desire to manufacture weapons, or for the threat they posed to the world, or something...

A metaphor. Hmmm. I really hope Bush picks up that line, because it'll be a real laugh to see him try to explain the concept of a metaphor to the press.


Oh, and by the way, Rush Limbaugh is a "draft-dodger"
Okay, so I was planning to lay off the Rush stories now that he left ESPN, and I normally don't use the term draft-dodger, because the draft was immoral as was the war in Vietnam...but since you can be sure Rush would absolutely crucify any Democrat or "Librul" who did such a thing, I just have to post this story about Rush getting out of service due to a cyst or ingrown hair on his ass!

Thanks to Matt at The Daily Outrage for that little gem.

Um...well, no duh!

This just in from the Office of Useless Studies and Obvious Reports (aka, The State Department): Many Muslims don't like the USA.

--The United States must radically transform its public diplomacy to combat increased hostility toward America in the Arab and Muslim world, a U.S. State Department advisory panel report said Wednesday. --

The report also stated that "hostility toward America has reached shocking levels".

--Researchers spoke with people in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Senegal, Morocco, Britain and France.

"What is required is not merely tactical adaptation but strategic, and radical, transformation," the report said.

Fawaz Gerges, professor of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College and author of the book "America and Political Islam," agreed with its conclusion.

"The roots of the problem lie with foreign policy rather than in society, civilization or American culture," Gerges told CNN.

"Neither spin nor propaganda will do. And what the studies show is what's needed is a radical transformation of American foreign policy" --

As promising as the initial rhetoric sounds, there's no substance behind it. Rather than recommending some real measures to combat the PR problems, such as stappling George W. Bush's mouth closed, or not being completely hypocritical toward the entire Muslim world, the report merely suggested forming a committee to draft a resolution to call for a change...or something else equally as useless and government-like. Think I'm engaging in hyperbole for comedic purposes? Okay...here's what the article reports.

--The report recommends a special White House Cabinet-level council to coordinate public diplomacy among all government agencies, as well as an "advisory board" to judge agency effectiveness. --

I may not be able to spell beauracracy, but I know what it means.

The Plight of Women in Afghanistan
Body and Soul has a nice piece on this, where the writer asks this simple question:

--Well, I was just wondering: How come conservatives have now dropped the issue of the lives of women in Afghanistan, and the only people who are still trying to gain some attention for the issue are feminists?

Check out the article and links. This was my comment:

It's a good question, but unfortunately the answer is simple. Because conservatives don't give a flying f*ck about women and only used the "feminist" angle against the Taliban when they needed some quick and easy propoganda to win support for a war in Afghanistan. Now they've gone back to ignoring the plight of women there just as they did in the years of Taliban rape and pillaging BEFORE September 11th.

The height of conservative hypocrisy was in the post 9-11 media frenzy, when several women who'd previously been denounced as "feminazis" (like Mavis Leno, for one) were welcomed with open arms onto the air at the FOX "News" Network to tell Americans why the Taliban was evil. The fauning and sucking up by the hosts ended abruptly, however, when one of the "feminazis" had the audacity to suggest the US should have never supported the proto-Taliban Mujahadin in the 80s and early 90s. (For more on this, see my rant about the US Propoganda machine from early 2002.)

Other than providing a haven for Osama Bin Laden and the small fact that they worship Alah rather than Jesus, the fact is that the Taliban is much closer to the kind of government the hard-core "christian" conservatives have wet dreams about installing in the US. Just look at Ashcroft: he's spent his entire political career trying to get laws and constitutional amendments passed that would FORCE women to give birth to their rapists' babies or, literally, to DIE TRYING. (For more on this, see my rant about the partial-truth abortion campaign.)

Real News. The "English Reagan" criticizes Iraq War.

That's right. Enough with the ESPN/Limbaugh distraction. Hesiod over at Counterspin pointed me toward this shocking development. Margaret Thatcher has come out AGAINST the British involvement in the Iraq war. As a popular and well-known conservative who stood side by side with Ronnie Ray-gun in the 80s, having Thatcher join us commie, pinko, anti-war pansies is probably the biggest blow to the pro-war hawks yet.

--"Britain should never have been involved and it will be very difficult to get our troops out in anything like the near future," she told Tory peers at a private meeting last week.--

Not only that, but she thinks a judicial inquiry should be held on the ENTIRE issue of Britain's war...not just the Hutton issue.

Not surprisingly, even though this was reported more than a week ago in the Mirror, I've seen nothing about it in the US media.

Limbaugh out...sane sports commentary back in!
So, after all of us liberal, commie, socialist whinners "made a mountain out of a molehill", Rush Limbaugh succombed to public outrage and resigned from ESPN. This is good news, but not great.

First of all, the down side of this is that ESPN didn't fire him.

Secondly--although this shouldn't really surprise anyone familiar with Rush's obvious mental problems--the porcine pontificator insists that there was nothing wrong with his statement. Not only does he NOT understand why his statement was offensive from a racial perspective ("There's no racism here. There's no racist intent whatsoever"), but he's actually saying this: "If I wasn't right, there wouldn't be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sports writer community." That's typical Limbaugh "logic".

Thirdly, and probably most disappointing about this whole affair is that both Limbaugh and ESPN got exactly what they wanted out this whole affair. ESPN got more press for their network and NFL show and got rid of Rush before they lost any hard-core viewers. And Rush got more press and can prance back to his "ditto-head" listeners proclaiming to be a victim of the "liberal media" yet again. This third point is while I'll continue to boycot ESPN even though the loudmouth lout is gone.

I'll give the final word on this to a well-respected athlete and spokesman (and yeah, he happens to be black):

Former San Diego Chargers star Kellen Winslow, spokesman for a group that monitors racial issues in the NFL, called the resignation "great news. Now, ESPN can get back to covering football."

More Anger at Rush

I'm sure it's to Rush Limbaugh's surprise (since he once told a black caller to "take the bone out of your nose"), but black men can not only play quarterback, but can give press conferences, too!

And Donovan McNabb did just that, defending himself against Limbaugh's race-centered remarks (see my previous post).


McNabb, who was runner-up for the league MVP award in 2000 and has led the Eagles to two straight NFC championship games, said he has no quarrel with Limbaugh's comment on his playing ability. "I know I played badly the first two games," he said Wednesday.

McNabb got off to the worst start of his career this season and was the NFL's lowest-rated starting quarterback after losses to Tampa Bay and New England. Still, the Eagles are 36-22 in games he started.

He said Wednesday that Limbaugh's comments about his race were out of bounds and added that someone on the show should have taken him on. Among the other panelists are former players Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson, both of whom are black.

"I'm not pointing at anyone but someone should have said it," McNabb said of the panelists, who also include Chris Berman and Steve Young. "I wouldn't have cared if it was the cameraman."


Hesiod over at Counterspin is keeping a good eye on this. Apparently, Rush has been whining and saying something to the effect of "I thought we had freedom of speech in this country". For a man whose career is based on hypocrisy, this may be one of his most hypocritical statements yet. Limbaugh has made himself rich acting as the Joseph Goebbels of the party that would LOVE to do away with the Bill of Rights (except for the 2nd amendment, which they would set in stone on every capital building and engrave on all coins and license plates). Not only that, he's cut off more callers on his show than any AT&T line outage ever could.

Yes, when it's YOUR show, you can cut the other guy off any time you want and say "sorry...you're outa here, idiot". Well, it's ESPN's show...let's hope they do the right thing.

Bum-Rushing ESPN

Living in Europe, I'm blessed with Europsport and some other sports outlets that show tons and tons of "real" football (that's soccer to you yanks). I haven't seen an NFL game in more than a year and don't really miss it (though I do miss the college pigskin tussles). However, at times like this, I almost wish I could see ESPN's NFL show, just so I could boycott it.

It was bad enough when the network hired Rush Limbaugh, giving the hate-monger an outlet for his filth (some specifics of which I discussed in an earlier post). Well, it didn't take the lout long to unleash some "minor" racism on his unlucky viewers. Aside from being racist, his comments struck NFL fans who actually know something about the sport as...absolutely WRONG. As Phil Sheridan points out in his article, the sports network MUST have expected such an outburst, and viewers should make them pay the price.

--But why is anyone surprised? This is the same man who once told an African American caller to "take that bone out of your nose and call me back." The same man who once said, "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"--

So, here's the link to give ESPN feedback, in case you want to write them, as I did yesterday.
After telling ESPN I had begun boycotting their NFL shows when Rush was hired and citing reasons for being opposed to his working there, I went on to add this: "Now, I'm not content with boycotting the program myself, I will boycott all ESPN programs AND be WRITING TO A FEW COMMON SPORTS SPONSORS and my local newspapers to alert other concerned citizens to do the same. At a minimum, Mr. Limbaugh should publically apologize...at best, you should fire the atavistic lout."