Let's talk about civility

and how all those stories about angry, out-of-control wingnuts at Palin rallies are just so much bullshit.

Right. Now that the media is considered fair game for the Hate Talk Express and its spittle-flecked supporters, maybe it's time they simply refused to cover any of Palin's rallies or speeches. Why give this idiot and her brain-damaged constituency any free publicity?

PBS strikes back!

Remember the Palin poll on the PBS website? The one that the fundie groups were sending all their members urgent emails about, instructing an immediate freepage assault?:

"PBS has a short video on Sarah Palin on the website. Also included is a poll that asks: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be VP?

I logged on a few minutes ago and 37% had voted YES, 62% NO.

Let's turn this around..... You don't have to give your name or email address in order to vote. It's very simple.

PBS hates conservatives."

Yeah, that's the one! Well, PBS caught the play and now they are the Pissed Broadcast System:

"I am writing in reference to the now famous "Palin poll" that appeared on the NOW on PBS homepage on September 5." [...]

"PBS headquarters made the decision on September 22, to implement a cookie registration system on the Palin poll. That system is now part of the poll's inner code, and as of September 23, a user can only vote once per computer. PBS acted because the entire pbs.org site had been experiencing system overload due to massive accessing of the poll."

HAHAHAHAHA, no more freeping, wingnuts! Of course, PBS is just doing this because they hate conservatives.

On Day One of our election campaign

... FDers are brainstorming up some pretty damn good ideas!


Hell yes, fuck yeah, Canadian conservatives -- by all means, write in "Sarah Palin" on your ballots. That certainly works for me.

Paranoia strikes deep

When I heard the horrendous story that the vicious murder of a passenger on a Greyhound Bus included decapitation, I knew, just knew!, that the Usual Suspects would immediately SHRIEEEEEK! spiral into a frenzy of furious Islamophobia-induced psychosis. But I really didn't expect the paranoid madness to continue once the killer's non-Muslim-sounding name was revealed.

Balbulican at stageleft documents the insanity.

UPDATE: Buckets weighs in with some of the reaction at FD.

Shrieeeekapalooza!!!

I guess things have slowed down a little over at "Free Mark Steyn", so in response to recent events (*cue sound of popping corks*), that blog's creators have a shiny new bloggy product up and running. Done in FMS's link-intensive style (which I personally quite like), it's cunningly named "UnAborted" (I read "UnAbomber" at first glance -- ack!). "UnAborted" is a specialty blog that focuses on one issue -- Dr. Henry Morgentaler's Order of Canada -- and compiles links to the shriekiest of Right Blogistan's moaning, groaning, peaking and freaking on the subject. And funny cartoons!


So if you're wondering what right-wingnuts and fetus fetishists are saying about this particular issue but can't be bothered throwing on the hip waders to plod through their aggregators and message boards, check out UnAborted -- your one-stop Outrage Shop! But do it soon... next week might be too late!

SHRIEEEK! Macleans CHRC complaint dismissed

Hands up, everyone who's surprised:

"The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint against Maclean's magazine over a controversial article on the future of Islam, magazine officials said yesterday.

Meanwhile, a decision from the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal over the same issue isn't expected for several months.

The Canadian Islamic Congress launched the dual complaints over an article by Maclean's journalist Mark Steyn. The article, The Future Belongs to Islam, came under fire by Muslim critics who claimed it spreads Islamophobia."

What? No hands!? No kidding -- the dismissal should come as no surprise to anyone with their head screwed on. It's the right decision and the one that's been expected by many for months. However, I'm sure it will be a massive disappointment to those who've been using this situation as an opportunity to shrieeeek! about persecution and pick up a little spare change from the cerebrally-deprived.

As stated, the BCHRT decision won't be known for awhile, but the CHRC's dismissal is probably a pretty good indicator of which way it will go. The only question is what will the shriekers shriek about when this is all over?

Expelled: No intellectual property theft allowed

It seems like right wingnuts are getting into the habit of "borrowing" other peoples' intellectual property:

"NEW YORK – Yoko Ono is suing the producers of a movie that challenges the concept of Darwinian evolution, saying they used the song "Imagine" without her permission and led the blogosphere to accuse her of "selling out."

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Ono accuses the producers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" of suggesting to viewers that those who guard John Lennon's legacy somehow authorized or sponsored the film.

The producers of the film, which challenges Darwinian theories that prevail in academic circles and suggests that life could have emerged through intelligent design, said they used only "a very small portion of the song.""

Only a very small portion? So I guess it'd be okay for me to take over a very small portion of Ben Stein's house? As long as it's just, you know, a very small portion... like the bathroom?

"Based on the fair use doctrine, news commentators and film documentarians regularly use material in the same way we do," Premise Media said in a statement. "Unbiased viewers of the film will see that the `Imagine' clip was used as part of a social commentary in the exercise of free speech and freedom of inquiry."

And there's that "Free Speech" thing again. Look, wingnuts: "free speech" doesn't include libel, it doesn't include inciting hate, and it doesn't include theft. Please stop, you are devaluing the term "free speech" every time you abuse it this way.

(h/t reality bites in the comments)

Weather: enemy of free speech

Robert at Myblahg asks


I'll tell you what happened. That damnable leftist libtard lieberal pinko commie weather, that's what happened.

To the barricades! And don't forget your mittens-on-a-string!

Political endorsements

Some endorsements lend credibility. And then there's the other kind...

Conservative Party's Ass, meet (one of) the jaws that'll come back to bite you.

Ooops!

Bite me, Frum

It's Bizarro-World... one of the Bush Administration's chief warpig propagandists, David "Axis of Evil" Frum, pontificated recently in the National Post about how a legal decision giving women the right to abortion "cheapened the worth of human life". Typing was no doubt difficult with hands still sticky from the dried blood of Iraqi children, but nonetheless Frum managed to peck out a screed against the Morgentaler Decision, saying:

"On January 28, Canada marks the 20th anniversary of what may be the most astounding decision in the nation’s legal history: R. v. Morgentaler, the case that struck down Canada’s abortion laws.

The Morgentaler case was followed the next year by Daigle v. Tremblay, which clarified and amplified the Morgentaler ruling.

The result of the two decisions was to give Canada the western world’s most radical abortion regime. The mother’s ownership of the pregnancy is absolute and final, and she may end it at any moment, for any reason. Neither the father of the child-to-be, nor the government, nor the child itself has any rights in the matter at all."

"The western world's most radical abortion regime" -- gee Dave, you say that like it's a bad thing.

In fact, that radical freedom of choice is something many women, including myself, take as a point of pride. "Most radical?" -- in a world of repressive, sexually-twisted authoritarians who'd gladly dictate every aspect of our personal lives, maybe so. But one could also characterize Canada's "abortion regime" as the western world's most respectful of a woman's right to privacy and self-ownership. Thanks to Dr. Morgentaler, we have unrestricted reproductive choice. Thanks to Chantal Daigle, nobody can fuck with that choice by using (abusing) the legal system to force women to be unwilling incubators. Remember "freedom is on the march" and "let freedom reign" and "they hate us for our freedom"? Freedom is good!

Frum went on to damn late-term abortions -- no zygote zealot worth his salt will forget to give disproportionate time and space to the less than 1% of crisis abortions performed late-term. He ended:

"... the answers offered by R. v. Morgentaler will look more and more inadequate, shallow, short-sighted, and obsolete."

On that much we can agree. A woman's right to reproductive self-determination, including the choices of contraception and abortion, should be explicitly enshrined in the Constitution. Maybe then the Frums and the other anti-choice nitwits of the world will finally mind their own business and... (you know what's coming) get their snouts out of our crotches!

(h/t TGB)

And speaking of Ashcroft

Okay, everybody stay cool and queue up nicely -- no pushing, no shoving, no bullying your way to the front -- just a nice long organized lineup to get in on a piece of this:

"Last night, former Attorney General John Ashcroft delivered an address on national security at the University of Colorado." [...]

"Ashcroft also responded to questions from the audience. The first question came from a woman who asked if Ashcroft would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding.“The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do,” he said."

Weekly FD tour

This week's tour was most enlightening. Now I know where my relationships went wrong -- too much enjoyment and not enough restraint, discipline, sacrifice and suffering:

Sounds serious. Where abortion and contraception go, death, destruction and, um, tolerance follow. Huh? What!?

Ever wonder how Madame Zelda's Spankatorium stays in business? Wonder no more.

And for anyone who can't understand why the pro-choice side of the reproductive freedom equation won't give an inch, there ya go. That should tell you all you need to know.

The silence is deafening

Apropos to the previous post about the nitwit who thinks he shouldn't have to pay taxes if a few cents are spent on something he doesn't like. At Free Dominion someone has also posted about this topic, naturally expecting a clamorous and supportive response to this fine example of an anti-choice "crusader" willing to go to jail for the cause... aaaaaaand:

Now that's interesting. Could be that civil disobedience, jail time and fines aren't the kind of yardstick by which most anti-choicers want their efforts to be measured. It does make plastic fetuses look pretty lame.

The cartoon that launched a thousand spittle-flecked rants

As would befit a time of solemn remembrance, this past weekend was calm, peaceful and introspective, until:

That big city commie propaganda rag, the Red Star *GASP* published an editorial cartoon -- bastards!!! -- and the wingnut-o-sphere erupted with outrage, spewing righteous indignation from every orifice like out-of-control sperm whales.

The Star could have picked a better time than Remembrance Day weekend to run that particular cartoon. It's actually pretty lame anyway, but one can see its point. Given the pseudo-military lingo used by PR and political hacks ("strategy", "targeting", "attack ads" etc), and the fact that Toronto is (and always will be) an impenetrable barrier between Harper and his vaunted majority, it sort of works. But it would have worked a little better a week later. It had nothing to do with Remembrance Day, and if I'd seen it prior to the outburst of outrage I doubt I'd have made the connection, but then I'm an insensitive thug with no military background. Oh well, "mistakes were made", as they say.

But wow, whew! You'd think the cartoon depicted some bozo desecrating a cenotaph by the level of outrage it provoked. I mean, RAGE! In response, the ever-highbrow SDA did a classy little re-tooling of "In Flanders Fields"(!!), tweaking it to add some partisan political shots -- probably not exactly what Lieut.Col. McCrae had in mind when he wrote it, nor the soldiers in whose honour it was written. I can't ask my great-grandfather who died in WWI, because he's, you know, dead.

Not all denizens of the wingnutosphere were impressed with the off-target attempt at irony, but those who were were defended it as "having to fight dirty with dirty fighters" (or tacky with tacky, or disrespectful with disrespectful or some such happy horseshit). Taking it to the next level, they're sharpening their crayons for a "Letters To The Editor" assault, demanding! an apology! to the people of Canada!, as is their right, so sure, that's all good. But what I want to know... is...

... if the Star owes Canada an apology for the cartoon, all things being equal (yeah right), doesn't that mean SDA owes veterans an apology for trashing McCrae's iconic poem? Just sayin'!!!

Update: On apologies...

What a relief

No need to worry about the implications of the Conservative government's sudden refusal to ask for clemency on behalf of Canadians facing the death penalty in other countries, because -- "Tories deny hidden agenda on death penalty":

"The Harper government scrambled yesterday to clarify its position on capital punishment amid opposition accusations that the Tories are harbouring a hidden agenda to bring back the death penalty in Canada.

The accusations followed Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's surprise announcement Thursday that Canada will no longer seek clemency for Canadian murderers sentenced to death in other democratic countries after a fair trial.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the new policy is not a prelude to bringing back the death penalty in Canada. "We have no desire to open the debate on capital punishment here in Canada," he told reporters in Halifax."

Well of course they deny it; it wouldn't be a very "hidden" agenda if they fessed up to it, would it now? But seriously... one couldn't be blamed for wondering what's up with the sudden reversal in what's become standard procedure for such cases. Opposition to the death penalty being a Canadian principle, when a citizen -- no matter how much of a douchebag he may be -- is so sentenced in another jurisdiction, our government seeks clemency. This isn't interference in another country's due process, it's standing up for a Canadian principle.

I wondered if this was a way of gauging public opinion of capital punishment, especially when Stockie, in that sly, stupid way of his, insinuated that asking for clemency wouldn't send a good law and order message. Red herring alert!!! -- capital punishment has nothing to do with Canadian law and order. But it's hard to believe that even this current crop of Yeehaw Conservatives would consider a move as negative and controversial as bringing back capital punishment. It has little support even among Conservatives... or does it?

There's no better place to get a reading on the pulse of wingnut opinion than the good old Western Standard. If the Standard isn't grunting out its unequivocal support for capital punishment, it's safe to say none exists. Over at the Shitgun, I mean Snotgun, I mean Shotgun Blog, they're talking about it. But as I read through the comments I was surprised to find that although most felt the convict "had it coming to him", there was little enthusiasm for reviving capital punishment here. ("Little" meaning there was some -- "The death penalty saves lives!" squealed one character -- and Irony is alive and well at the Shotgun.)

So. Breathe a cautious sigh of relief. Judging by response at the Shotgun, it's unlikely that there's any hidden agenda to reintroduce the death penalty -- support for it would certainly be strongest in that rabid venue.

But it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on things!

UPDATE: On the other hand...

UPDATE 2: Mike has a more eloquent explanation than I'm capable of as to why the refusal to seek clemency is so wrong.

New nitwit in town

Time to see what new trials, tribulations and idiotic appointments our friends south of the border have to endure. The latest one is Susan Orr, appointed this week by Bush to oversee federal family planning programs. Oh dear -- where does Georgie find them? Right, the Family Research Council -- he has to throw a bone to the whackjobs once in awhile.

But I digress... Ms. Orr is supposedly highly-qualified. Just not for this particular post -- she refers to contraception -- contraception, mind you, not abortion -- as part of "The Culture of Death" these drooling anti-choice cretins are so fond of referencing as they swoon and clutch their pearls. Here's part of Orr's curriculum vitae:

– In a 2001, Orr embraced a Bush administration proposal to “stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees” to cover a broad range of birth control. “We’re quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease,” said Orr.

– At the 2001 Conservative Political Action Conference, Orr cheered Bush’s endorsement of Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy,” which required NGOs receiving federal funds to “neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.” Orr said that it was proof Bush was pro-life “in his heart.”

– In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Orr railed against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. “It’s not about choice,” said Orr. “It’s not about health care. It’s about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.”

– Orr authored a paper in 2000 titled, “Real Women Stay Married.” In it she wrote that women should “think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves, but upon the families we form through marriage."

Oh, yeah! -- hand someone who's against contraception for gawd's sake a huge budget for family planning services and watch her blow it on abstinence-only plans that are proven failures. Duh!

And not to be outdone by MM

Shorter Ann Coulter on American Jews: "they need to be perfected".

Didn't Hitler think along those lines? Am I the only one who's starting to feel like I'm living in some kind of twilight zone populated by the batshit insane?

SCHIP kid's family and wingnut fatwa

The right-wing scream machine hasn't lost any momentum yet... the Frost family has now received death threats. Well-played, wingnuts, well-played. Now, can anyone tell me how this is different from the death threats radical islamists have made to author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, because that certainly seems to get the right's rage on.

But never mind that -- it looks like the family's private information may have been acquired through Republican senator Mitch McConnell:

It’s been reported on MSNBC that erroneous assertions about the Frost child and family that have spun out of control to allegedly include death threats and falsehoods broadcast via internet and radio, may have originated, in part, from the offices of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell who represents Kentucky… ironically, a state that has many constituent families and children who would dearly love to have the benefit of SCHIP.

It is alleged that the falsehoods about various aspects of the Frost family’s life were contained in an email from Senator McConnell’s office to a certain journo. Thus far the Senator’s office is said to be refusing to confirm or deny."

Wow. It's bad enough when cretins like Malkin industriously dig up the private information of a family whose only "offense" is needing medical assistance. But if the information came from a government official... a senator, no less... wow. McConnell would have to know what Malkin's constituency of drooling jackbooted knuckle-draggers would be likely to do with the info.

In other news, it just got a little harder for moderate Republicans to distance themselves from the feces-flinging imbeciles who've commandeered their party.

Update: Yep.

Ready for Freddie

Fred Thompson. What a friggin dullard this guy is. After months of endlessly fucking around, last week he finally announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination (on the Leno Show no less, because everyone knows how much conservatives just looooove Hollywood). Fred seems to be running as a social conservative, having already fired off a few "baby-killing"-type comments about abortion... although this could be damage control following his red-handed pinch for the lucrative pro-choice lobbying he did in the 90's.

A lot of people are delighted that Fred's thrown his hat in, and I am one of them, though for different reasons. Just from what I've seen over the last few months, I expect that Fred will be a Comedy Gold Motherlode, and I look forward to mining it. Just a few nuggets he's upchucked in the last couple of days:

Fred on Osama (ooh! sounds like fun!): This is a two-parter. 1(a) OBL is dick squat, just a symbol... aaaaaannnd: 1(b) OBL is dangerous. KILL HIM! KILL 'EM ALL!!!

Fred on Iraqis coming to US side: the reason so many Iraqis are joining the US side in the battle (they are?) is because al qaeda told them to quit smoking. Huh? Huh!? Huh?!? Does that even make sense?! Huh?!!

Fred on Iraq War: Freddie's one of the 26% of mental defectives who thinks the Iraq War was the right thing to do. Now we know what they look like.

Fred on withdrawing from Iraq: Fwomp! The whole middle east turns into a big sheet of glass.

Fred on dissent: Freddie don't like dissent, which is too bad because it's kind of central to democracy but Oh Well. Freddie says "Dissent makes us weak and carries a heavy price". Oh really? And what might that be?:

"If you're politically committed against this war and to do something to further harm the president, the way the Democrats seem to be in Congress, then anything [in the Petraeus Report] that's a mixed message is going to be seized upon in a negative way," Thompson told Fox News on Thursday. "If we look weak and divided in this country, we're going to pay a heavy price for it in the future," he went on."

A price so heavy that it defies description, I guess. Didn't the Bushies say that same kind of thing in 2004, not the "price" but something like it... oh yeah, "The Stakes". A commercial so scary that everyone just about died laughing when they saw it on the GOP website. So now it's "The Price". Nice to see Freddie following in Georgie's footsteps, and in more ways than one. Fred's being spun as a good old down-home aw shucks kind of guy... the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with. And apparently, he just isn't very bright. He sounds... My God!! He sounds just like Georgie! Oh no: meet the new simpleton, just like the old simpleton!

And that's just the beginning, the comedy gold has only just started rolling up from the mine. Sadly, I don't expect Freddie to last very long: 3 months maybe? His so-con credentials are already tarnished, and he's spent a lot of time in that bastion of Moral Values, Hollywood. It's only a matter of time til a few more skeletons boogie out of the closet, and that'll be that. At least I hope so. If another guy as dumb as Georgie gets elected, we are fucked sideways.

Wartcott mayoral campaign hits MSM

It's true -- anyone can run for political office.

When I first read about it, I thought it had to be a joke: the notorious Bill Wartcott, running for mayor of Edmonton? Of all the fetus-fetishing, homophobic, racist religious wingnuts that might come squirming out if one were to turn over the most maggoty, shit-encrusted, smeg-smeared rock in the septic field, Wartcott is surely one of the bugshit craziest. (He got the boot from Free Dominion -- d'oh! Kind of says it all.) Nope, you still can't make this shit up. Look out anal warts and prolapsed rectums of Edmonton, here comes Wartcott:

"An anti-gay activist who was fined $17,500 for distributing graphic pamphlets condemning homosexuality two years ago has thrown his hat into Edmonton's mayoral ring.

Bill Whatcott, the fourth candidate to announce he will run in the Oct. 15 vote for mayor, was fined by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal in 2005 for distributing flyers that called homosexuals "filthy" and "perverted."

His anti-abortion and anti-gay protests in Edmonton -- including the 2,000 pamphlets he stuffed into mail boxes that called gay marriage "sodomite marriage" -- have also caught the attention of the Edmonton Police Service."

How old Bill supposes he might get elected is a mystery. He managed to alienate even his fellow batshit crazies by obsessive-compulsively posting gross, graphic (and probably photoshopped) images on FD. (Not surprisingly, he was at the centre of their recent CHRC complaint.) I wonder what his campaign signs will look like -- a blood-and-ketchup-drenched fetus with anal warts and a prolapsed rectum giving the thumbs up and saying "Vort for Wart!"?

UPDATE: Commenter "valiantmauz" says this story about BW is better than the one I cited above, and I have to agree. Thanks, VM.

(Image: BW marching alone before gay pride parade. That looks like the kind of sane and rational guy who'd make a good mayor, right?)