Monthly Archives: June 2009

Caption Contest!

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Rush Limbaugh is a...

Rush Limbaugh is a...

This is your Saturday Night Cesspool Party in disguise as a Caption Contest. Don’t tell the chimps, I told them we didn’t need them tonight.  I just didn’t want to deal their naughty antics tonight.  ;)

The bar is open so help yourself.

PS:  I found this picture on facebook.  I’m sure they found it somewhere else.

All hell is breaking loose in Tehran (UPDATED)

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Lots of news on CNN.

Nico Pitney continues to live-blog news from Iran here.

UPDATE:  Statement by President Obama on Iran.

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

UPDATE:  A young girl dies after being shot by a Basij member.  Apparently, she was watching the protests, not participating.

WARNING, this video may be disturbing to sensitive viewers!

UPDATE:  I’ve been watching the coverage on CNN.  Frustrating, because it’s so sanitized — too many talking heads.  MSNBC is MIA today, and Fox has too much lip gloss and political posturing.

Huffington Post has photos on their front page, here.

Nico posted this commentary from the photographer:

I could not get through. the guards were hitting people really hard to block their way. I got hit a few times, fortunately a few bruises but nothing major. they were hitting the women as hard if it didn’t seem harder. they smashed all mobiles and then smack the mobile owners with batons. they also blocked all above ground routes out. the only way out was via the metro

Also via Nico’s live-blogging, this text from an op-ed piece by Roger Cohen in the New York Times:

The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”

A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of “Join us! Join us!” The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes.

UPDATE:  MSNBC is reporting that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is threatening even tougher crack-downs if the protests by the people continue.  Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was not present at today’s confrontations, but called for the people to strike if he is arrested.

Chants of “Death to the dictator!” were heard in the streets of Tehran, and police responded with tear gas, water cannons and live ammunition (as evidenced by the video above).

Mousavi says he’s ready for martyrdom, and will continue on his present path.

UPDATE:  More video from Iran.  I can’t help thinking that this should have been us in 2000 — minus the violence, if possible.

HT: Nico at HuffPo

UPDATE:  DailyKos has an unconfirmed report that the young girl shot to death in the video above was named Neda.  Her father was next to her when she died.  Heartbreaking…

UPDATE:  Nico is reporting that according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, injured demonstrators seeking medical attention at hospitals are being arrested.

The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered at the hands of security forces when they attempted to exercise rights guaranteed under their own constitution and international law is deplorable,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign. “It can only be taken as a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the well-being of its own people.

UPDATE (Sunday):  More information on Neda from Nico:

6:55 PM ET — A bit more on Neda. A blogger apparently in touch with Neda’s family members offers some new details (translated by reader Nima): she was born in 1982, apparently her full name was Neda Agha-Soltan, and she was at the protest with one her professors and several other students. She was, they said, shot by a basiji riding by on a motorcycle. Also, she was apparently buried today at a large cemetery in the south of Tehran. ABC News’ Lara Setrakian writes, “Hearing reports Neda was buried in Behesht Zahra cemetery earlier today, memorial service cancelled on orders from authorities.”

Born in 1982, the same age as my oldest son, and shot down in cold blood because she attended a protest objecting to an obviously stolen election.

Neda has become the face of this potential revolution.  Moussavi was a moderate who most likely wouldn’t have shaken things up too much, but he stood for equal rights for women.  It seems that was a bit too much for the dictatorship.  They shot Neda down in cold blood, and the world has witnessed it.  May her death not be in vain…

UPDATE:  Andrew Sullivan has lots of coverage at The Daily Dish.

Saturday Open Thread – The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot

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In our June 7th Open Thread, we covered the 1942 Battle of Midway which marked a decisive event that set the Japanese Navy back two years in its war effort. In the two intervening years, Japan had rebuilt its forces and was ready to rechallenge the US Navy.  They met their match in a modernized force that faced them in the Battle of the Philippine Sea which ended on June 20, 1944.

In two days, the Japanese Navy lost what was effectively two years of  rebuilding its fleet. Newly developed Hellcat carrier planes were clearly superior to the the Zero that was already old in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Friday Open Thread – Juneteenth

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Today, June 19th, is celebrated as Juneteenth[1], commemorating the date in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas were told that they were free by Union forces.

Click on the image to to read about the meaning of this day – there is no place that better describes the meaning and history of a struggle that has yet to be finalized.

Thanks to Juneteenth.com for the detail behind the image.

[1] infoplease

The haunting sound of revolution

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This video is from Nico Pitney’s live-blogging of the Iranian election protests on Huffington Post.

During the night, protestors shout “Allaho Akbar” to one another, as a sign that their protest still lives.

Part way through the video, a woman speaks.  This is a translation of what she is saying:

The woman in this video is saying something that really touched me. She is saying that they can take our phones, our internet, all our communication away, but we are showing that by saying “allaho akbar” we can find each other. She ends it my saying that tonight they are crying out to god for help.

It sends chills down my back.  I have so much respect and admiration for the courage of the Iranian people.

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PETA’s heartbreak…

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Funeral rites for the fly will be held on a date to be announced…

The Associated Press

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he’s bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”

Right…

I’ll take that into consideration as soon as flies stop gobbling piles of shit — and arrive on the Endangered Species List.

Wednesday Open Thread – The Watergate Break-in

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On June 17, 1972 a guard at the Watergate complex noticed that several office locks had been taped open. He removed the tape and on a later pass noticed that the locks were again taped open. At that point, he called on the police and thus started a sequence of events [1] that led to the resignation of the president of the United  States – Richard Milhous Nixon a bit over two years later (August 9, 1974) and stretched into the 21st Century.

The Watergate Complex

The Watergate Complex

 The Watergate Break-in[2] was a watershed moment in American history. This was not the first illegal entry of Democrat offices by Republican operatives.  An earlier break-in[2] had gone undetected. Nixon would have probably escaped with only a few scrapes if he had not vigorously pursued a cover-up of the incident.

And just yesterday, the FBI released its records on E Howard Hunt[3]. It bears today’s date because Japan is on the other side of the IDL.
[1] The Washington Post
[2] Wikipedia
[3] Japan Today

It’s the End of the Show As They Know It

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The right wing is going nuts about the idea that Obama might want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. They claim that it would destroy right wing radio. There are a lot of things wrong with this argument, but in the meantime, let’s make fun of them with the help of R.E.M. (whose lead singer happens to be openly gay, so that ought to tweak ‘em a bit more.)

It’s the End of The Show As They Know It
Original Words and Music “It’s the End of the World As We Know It”
by Bill Berry, Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck 1987
Additional Lyrics by Wayne A. Schneider 2009

That’s great it starts with a fruitcake,
Words of hate to entertain, Michael Weiner’s gone insane

Guy on the radio, listen to his head blow.
Words serve the right’s needs, dummies hear their own needs,
Continue reading →

A Whole Mess…

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…of Stupid. Yessiree, Bob. Been makin it right here in America for bout 50 year. Mebbe longer but we didn’t git serious bout it til real recent. Took us that long to sneak up on folks so’s they didn’t git all riled up. Yessir, been

Mmmmm...

Mmmmm...

dumbing folks down little bit at a time and sellin em pie-in-the-sky so now they got doodly squat in their pockets and fer some, less than that in their heads.

Sort a like you comin in this here cafe and orderin yogurt and fruit and a bran muffin. And now yer complaining cuz I set down one of the finest plates of biscuits and gravy ever served. Lemme tell you, bud, ole Cookie, he was a cook in the Army and our boys dearly loved his biscuits and gravy so you best just pipe down and support the troops. Heckfire, I know you didn’t order it but its your patriotic duty to eat what gets put in front of you.

What’s that? Well, I guess you could take your bizness elsewhere. My cousin Billy owns the next place down the street and Aunt Lou has a diner in the next town so you might git something different there. Doubt it though. See, we done figgered out that if everybody gits fed the same, they come to ’spect it. Boy howdy, ain’t it jest grand how you can go jest about anywhere’s in the whole US of A and find you the zact same food waitin fer ya? Same clothes, same groceries, same jest about everything. See, we done figgered it was too damn hard on folks if they had to go and think about makin choices, we just set things up so’s they’d be made fer em so’s folks could git on with the important stuff like where ta spend a car payment on a night out jest a pushin ‘n shovin to listen to some clown sing or watch a buncha folks chase a ball around.

Now don’t you go gitting all upset about them sick folks who cain’t git health care. If God didn’t want them to be sick, they wouldn’t be. Sides, if they had more gumption they’d be takin care of their own selves. And you jest know God knows what he’s talkin bout, ’specially since he’s done got him so many people gitting paid big money to git his word out.

Aw, now you done let yer food git cold. No nevermind, we got a whole messa stupid jest awaiting to dish out. Maybe we cain’t sell it to furriners but we done got us a real captive market right here at home.

~Written by our bloggy friend Medjhiesco.  For more of his writing, visit his blog here.