Like many cable news junkies, I find myself in a perplexing state of (I can't believe I'm writing this) missing the days of Hannity AND Colmes. Now that he is alone Sean has seriously gone off the deep end. After whining and sobbing for years that the "LIBERAL main-stream media" was being unfair to Bush and not supporting the President. Now, less than one full week into President Obama's first term, Sean already has an entire segment attacking the administration. In the defense of the evil main stream liberal socialist communist partisan democrat tree-hugging chai drinking crunchy granola media, they at least weren't dedicating whole segments of their shows to attacking George until after the man took us into two awful wars and took away the very rights he said those poor soldiers were sent to protect.
Sean, please look over some of your old episodes and realize what a raging hypocrite you are. You aren't an ideologue because to have a real ideology takes integrity and understanding of that ideology. All you are is a stray dog that's frothing at the mouth and snapping at anything that moves. Grow up.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Jon Stewart says what's funny
So now that Barack Obama has been inaugurated the pundits have begun their big fat lies. As if it wasn't bad enough that in the lead-up to the election the stupidest talking heads that flap their big dumb mouths were saying that Jon Stewart wouldn't want a democrat in the White House because he wouldn't be able to make fun of them. I think that he answered this exact line of questioning most eloquently back in 2004 when asked a similar question on the air and his response was (and I'm paraphrasing here) "yes, because I care so much more about my ratings than my country" (read that with a typical heaping dose of Stewart sarcasm.
There's really no excuse for this nonsense, especially a day after their Changefest '09 episode in which they lampooned President Obama's inauguration speech by comparing it to speeches given by the now former President, George W. Bush.
Hey pundits! He says what's funny and makes fun of the ridiculous side of politics and American pop culture. Have you not been watching? The Daily Show mercilessly attacked Obama all the way through the campaign just as they did McCain. Obviously with McCain's schizophrenic campaign and vice-presidential nominee Annie Oakley there may have been more jokes about them than Obama-Biden but the Daily Show, to their immense credit, have never pulled a joke for ideological reasons.
The idiot pundit that I saw tonight was a bald dude on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Don't know his name and I hope he's eating dog food and living on the street soon.
There's really no excuse for this nonsense, especially a day after their Changefest '09 episode in which they lampooned President Obama's inauguration speech by comparing it to speeches given by the now former President, George W. Bush.
Hey pundits! He says what's funny and makes fun of the ridiculous side of politics and American pop culture. Have you not been watching? The Daily Show mercilessly attacked Obama all the way through the campaign just as they did McCain. Obviously with McCain's schizophrenic campaign and vice-presidential nominee Annie Oakley there may have been more jokes about them than Obama-Biden but the Daily Show, to their immense credit, have never pulled a joke for ideological reasons.
The idiot pundit that I saw tonight was a bald dude on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Don't know his name and I hope he's eating dog food and living on the street soon.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
1000 dead - half of them women and children
While the pro-Israel lobby evades questions about morally bankrupt weapons and their media teams assault journalists and politicians to avoid condemning their actions, the IDF has killed over 1000 Palestinians. They claim to be targeting Hamas leadership and they claim that this action is in response to Hamas breaking a ceasefire by launching rockets into Southern Israel. While the western news media has repeatedly reported that Hamas broke the ceasefire the fact is that the Israelis broke the ceasefire by storming into Gaza on November 4th and killing 6 members of Hamas.
As for the Israelis claim that they are targeting Hamas only and that the civilian deaths are an unfortunate consequence I have only this to say. If you have killed as many or more civilians than legitimate targets you are either horribly inept and should not be engaging in military action, or you are lying and the civilians are intended targets.
In America, so much energy, money and passion is devoted to the "pro-life/anti-abortion" movement. The idea that every life is sacred, even the little zygote is a human being. But where are these voices when 300 children, human beings with names, and dreams, and hopes, and parents, and siblings, and teachers are killed. Where is the outrage at the murder of all these children? My guess is those same people who beat the drum about the sanctity of life for the blastocyst are also rallying behind Israel on this one in the hopes that this conflict will bring about their much anticipated revelation that they learned by reading Left Behind.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
Who shat in Katie Couric's cornflakes this morning?
Hey Katie,
What crawled up your ass today? I saw your interview with the head of the UAW and hostile would be an understated description of how you questioned him. I didn't know CBS' official position was that unions are bad and your attempts to put the blame on them for the piss-poor management of the auto industry is insulting to the news profession.
The UAW is fighting efforts to strip the unions of the hard-fought battles they've won in the past the same way they must fight every time contracts come up for negotiations. The facts are these: the corporations will always try to swindle workers out of their rightly deserved benefits and they will use any downturn in the economy to impose these cuts. Rarely when companies are making money will they suddently toss extra money and benefits to the workers so why should those same workers take a cut because management has screwed the pooch?
Also, when you tried to pick on them for their vacation days and holidays, tell me Katie, how many vacation days do you have a year? How many holidays do you get to leave the evening news desk and go spend time with your family? This was a shameful interview and your questions undermine the legitimacy of CBS as a news provider.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Quebec Election Update
A big to-do is being made in the Canadian press about last night's victory for Jean Charest (that's the equivalent of John for you American readers) with words like "mandate" being tossed around and many reporters remarking the historic nature of a 3rd consecutive election win.
First of all, being elected a third time in the amount of time that one Premier would normally serve one term is nothing to be proud of. Mr. Charest, your elections have cost the province untold millions and have not made the province any richer or any better off. As far as winning a "mandate" do not forget Mr. Charest, that you won less than 45% of the popular vote and you squeezed into a majority by less than 10 seats.
The real losers in this campaign are the people of Quebec who once again were faced with no real choice. I'm sorry, that's not entirely true. If, for example, you are a right wing nut case and want to see everything that Quebeckers have fought for melt away so that a few corporations and some corrupt cronies can line their pockets in Quebec City, then you had quite a bit of choice in this election. You had the option of the Liberal Party of Quebec, whose name must confuse a lot of Americans, because they have been enacting all the conservative policies that warm Prime Minister Harper's cold black heart each night. You could have also voted for the Action Democratique de Quebec and championed the xenophobic policies of Mario Dumont. And if having those two options wasn't enough, you could have even voted for the Parti Quebecois whose policies have been increasingly conservative as more and more sovereigntists show their true colors and stop pretending that an independent Quebec would be a progressive Quebec.
Next, for those die-hard separatists on the left, there's Quebec Solidaire. A party that began as a worker's party and promised to improve the lives of the working class, but was sadly taken over by sovereigntists to become a poor man's Parti Quebecois. While their one seat victory in Mercier riding is encouraging for those struggling to make ends meet today, the fact that they jumped onto the independent Quebec has been like booking a last minute ticket on the Titanic or the Lusitania.
For the conservative separatists, as mentioned above, they have the PQ.
This leaves many Quebeckers out in the cold without a real choice in the election. Those of us who see the need for strong progressive policies but also a preference for staying with Canada have little options. Obviously, we could vote for the Green Party, but c'mon...seriously, we need a better option.
What is becoming more and more apparent is that that Parti Quebecois have learned from their unfortunate experiments in power and have realized that so long as there is "money and the ethnic vote" Quebec is not ready for sovereignty. Instead of working on behalf of Quebeckers to improve the province they would rather watch it burn and cry out that the only way to fix it is through breaking free of Canada. This is not a good argument. If you think you are prepared to run a country, then show it, but running a province. Take a referendum off the table for the first term and watch the votes flood in.
There are plenty of English speakers in Quebec who are the real victims of sovereignty politics because they vote for Charest and the LPQ out of fear. They do not want to be torn from Canada but they also don't like the policies of the Charest government. Unfortunately, until things get much worse, that fear of losing Canada works to both Charest's and Pauline Marois' advantage and against the good of the province.
The saddest thing about this election has been the timing. After such a momentous election south of the border, where change has taken root, for our election to be so static, and the issues before the voters so meaningless is truly depressing.
It is true, we are, or are headed for harsh economic times. Charest and the LPQ's plans to shove more Public Private Partnerships down Quebec's throat is only going to make matters worse. Marois and the PQ's chant of "sovereignty! sovereignty! sovereignty!" doesn't address the issues facing Quebeckers and detracts from any good policies they might have to offer. Quebec Solidaire and the Green Party are just too small for people to take a chance on and even if they would, Solidaire's stance on independence has lost it whatever support it might have found in progressive anglophones. This is a sad time for Quebec.
Congratulations Mr. Charest you won 3 elections in 4 years. Aren't your terms allowed to go for 5 years?
First of all, being elected a third time in the amount of time that one Premier would normally serve one term is nothing to be proud of. Mr. Charest, your elections have cost the province untold millions and have not made the province any richer or any better off. As far as winning a "mandate" do not forget Mr. Charest, that you won less than 45% of the popular vote and you squeezed into a majority by less than 10 seats.
The real losers in this campaign are the people of Quebec who once again were faced with no real choice. I'm sorry, that's not entirely true. If, for example, you are a right wing nut case and want to see everything that Quebeckers have fought for melt away so that a few corporations and some corrupt cronies can line their pockets in Quebec City, then you had quite a bit of choice in this election. You had the option of the Liberal Party of Quebec, whose name must confuse a lot of Americans, because they have been enacting all the conservative policies that warm Prime Minister Harper's cold black heart each night. You could have also voted for the Action Democratique de Quebec and championed the xenophobic policies of Mario Dumont. And if having those two options wasn't enough, you could have even voted for the Parti Quebecois whose policies have been increasingly conservative as more and more sovereigntists show their true colors and stop pretending that an independent Quebec would be a progressive Quebec.
Next, for those die-hard separatists on the left, there's Quebec Solidaire. A party that began as a worker's party and promised to improve the lives of the working class, but was sadly taken over by sovereigntists to become a poor man's Parti Quebecois. While their one seat victory in Mercier riding is encouraging for those struggling to make ends meet today, the fact that they jumped onto the independent Quebec has been like booking a last minute ticket on the Titanic or the Lusitania.
For the conservative separatists, as mentioned above, they have the PQ.
This leaves many Quebeckers out in the cold without a real choice in the election. Those of us who see the need for strong progressive policies but also a preference for staying with Canada have little options. Obviously, we could vote for the Green Party, but c'mon...seriously, we need a better option.
What is becoming more and more apparent is that that Parti Quebecois have learned from their unfortunate experiments in power and have realized that so long as there is "money and the ethnic vote" Quebec is not ready for sovereignty. Instead of working on behalf of Quebeckers to improve the province they would rather watch it burn and cry out that the only way to fix it is through breaking free of Canada. This is not a good argument. If you think you are prepared to run a country, then show it, but running a province. Take a referendum off the table for the first term and watch the votes flood in.
There are plenty of English speakers in Quebec who are the real victims of sovereignty politics because they vote for Charest and the LPQ out of fear. They do not want to be torn from Canada but they also don't like the policies of the Charest government. Unfortunately, until things get much worse, that fear of losing Canada works to both Charest's and Pauline Marois' advantage and against the good of the province.
The saddest thing about this election has been the timing. After such a momentous election south of the border, where change has taken root, for our election to be so static, and the issues before the voters so meaningless is truly depressing.
It is true, we are, or are headed for harsh economic times. Charest and the LPQ's plans to shove more Public Private Partnerships down Quebec's throat is only going to make matters worse. Marois and the PQ's chant of "sovereignty! sovereignty! sovereignty!" doesn't address the issues facing Quebeckers and detracts from any good policies they might have to offer. Quebec Solidaire and the Green Party are just too small for people to take a chance on and even if they would, Solidaire's stance on independence has lost it whatever support it might have found in progressive anglophones. This is a sad time for Quebec.
Congratulations Mr. Charest you won 3 elections in 4 years. Aren't your terms allowed to go for 5 years?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Out with the old!
Shame on you Barack!
I was trying to reserve judgement on your cabinet picks until you were actually President but now I am so repulsed by what you are doing that I can't stand it. Robert Gates represents the the Bush Administration and the policies of President Bush's failed wars. We need new leadership in the White House and in the Pentagon. Get rid of Robert Gates and bring someone new in, someone who isn't tainted by the policies that were maintained after Rumsfeld was shown the door, and someone who hasn't been supporting policies that CANNOT work in the long term.
What am I talking about? Isn't the surge a success? NO! The relative peace that exists in Iraq today is due to the gratuitous cash payments that are being made to the militias. In effect, we are paying people not to fight us. These cash payments are part of the giant cost of the Iraq occupation and need to be stopped, but once they are the violence will resume and the supposed gains of the surge will be wiped out.
Get rid of Robert Gates! Shame on you Barack!
And fuck you Joe Lieberman and the spineless democrats who voted to keep him!
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