OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

Peanuts comics with the fourth panel removed are a bottomless pit of unrelenting, crushing depression. Proof:

So much more here!

London & Stuff

Go here and watch the Guardian's video coverage of the recent march to protest against government cuts to public services. More than 250,000 people took part in the march. The Guardian always provides great video coverage of events like this, but unfortunately you can't embed them, so I haven't posted them here before.

More and more, it seems to me that liberals' ineptitude and/or compliance with conservative factions of government is going to be what causes the ultimate downfall of the crumbling paradigm of neoliberalism. Clearly, the time in which neoconservatives had any sort of credibility with moderately competent minds saw it's definitive end in the last Bush administration. Thus, you now see conservative parties embracing idiocy, nationalistic fervor, and fantasy. This is a desperate act that history tells us is unsustainable, and an indicator of imminent demise (as if we needed another one).

Absent a contingent of liberals who non-elites can suitably delude themselves are working in their interest, when the idiots and tyrants are clearly running the show, is when the system becomes untenable. This is clearly the case now. When a government becomes openly combative with its workers in the face of failings of their own making, failings that directly and adversely effect the lives of the majority of their constituents, this is the time when people rise up and say, "Enough." This is what we are seeing all over the world.

This isn't like anti-war demonstrations, which many governments actually encourage. These are unorganized, massive demonstrations of total dissent. We are increasingly seeing people wise up and say out with the lot of you, whose complaints are directed at the system and those who enable it. Zizek's favorite Mao quote looks more and more fitting to the current moment in history. Maybe the lie has become so egregious that its defense is increasingly impossible, maybe this recent crop of liberals is just more brazenly corporatist than those before, or maybe they just badly misjudged the amount of abuse that their constituents would be willing to suffer. In any case, it's impossible to follow the current events like this most recent one in London (and even the disenchantment that caused most non-Republican voters to decide that voting wasn't worth their time, since neither party represented their interests, in the US in 2010) and not conclude that we are watching the beginning of a paradigm shift in Western political life.

"I know some of your friends, girls and boys alike, said Socrates, who walk around night and day with earbuds stuck in their narrow ear canals so as to funnel the hypnotic racket of their beloved songs into them. In the process, I admit, they deaden the angry impulse in themselves that constitutes the second instance of the Subject. They're like iron softened by a fire of melody, and in this way, from the unsociable wolves they were, they end up being like angora rabbits: fluffy, soft, civilized... But if they keep on diluting their lives in an ambient soundtrack, which is of course extremely melodious, the very principle of courage will eventually disappear and the Subject within them will lose all its tension, so that when war breaks out or when they have to confront harsh repression, they'll be, as Homer says about Menelaus, no more than 'feeble warriors.'"

Blame The Teachers

While blaming low-middle class workers for the country's problems seems to be a whole lot of fun (I don't know if you've noticed, but this tendency has been spreading out to cover a radius far larger than Scott Walker's asshole, where its most recent incarnation was birthed and, sadly, not flushed), maybe SOME of our budget problems are originated elsewhere? Like, to cite just one example, GE?

Libya

Good knowing you, Miranda rights!

Update: After watching tonight's Real Time with Bill Maher, I realized a couple of things. First, the phrase 'mouth breather' has been making a serious comeback these days. I love this. I feel like this is one of the most underused phrases in the American lexicon, which is especially shameful since there are more mouth breathers in this country than probably any other. These guys know what I'm talking about:

Secondly, through a confluence of events, I have been mostly away from the internet over the last week and a half. And boy have things been awful! Attempting to defund Planned Parenthood? President Obama unilaterally attacking a nation in the Middle East (even if it MAY have been the right thing to do, the unilateral part was textbook Dubya)? The removal of a mural depicting workers of different ages, genders, and races in the Department of Labor (!) in Maine because it was perceived as being "anti-business"?!?!?! Snoop from The Wire was arrested?!

About that last one, when asked for comment by Slate, David Simon (creator of and show runner for The Wire, your favorite show ever, duh) had this to say:

"This young lady has, from her earliest moments, had one of the hardest lives imaginable. And whatever good fortune came from her role in The Wire seems, in retrospect, limited to that project. She worked hard as an actor and was entirely professional, but the entertainment industry as a whole does not offer a great many roles for those who can portray people from the other America. There are, in fact, relatively few stories told about the other America."

"In an essay published two years ago in Time magazine, the writers of The Wire made the argument that we believe the war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass, that in places like West and East Baltimore, where the drug economy is now the only factory still hiring and where the educational system is so crippled that the vast majority of children are trained only for the corners, a legal campaign to imprison our most vulnerable and damaged citizens is little more than amoral. And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury's verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged.

"Both our Constitution and our common law guarantee that we will be judged by our peers. But in truth, there are now two Americas, politically and economically distinct. I, for one, do not qualify as a peer to Felicia Pearson. The opportunities and experiences of her life do not correspond in any way with my own, and her America is different from my own. I am therefore ill-equipped to be her judge in this matter."

If you haven't read that essay linked to in the quote, you really should. Also, because David Simon is the best and why not, here's an interview he did with Newsweek before the premiere of the final season of The Wire, in which his response to the interviewer's first question led with the sentence "I disagree in all respects with the premise [of the question]," and ends with this exchange, which is a mild spoiler if you haven't seen The Wire, in which case I don't want to be your friend:

"When a friend who loves the show asked me to describe the fifth season so far, I told him "Everyone pretty much goes nuts." It's a flip summary, for sure, but is it accurate?
I think it's flip, sorry. The season is about how far individuals and institutions and society in general can go on a lie. And if you think that theme is hyperbolic and that lies as big as manufactured serial killers and hyped newspaper copies are too big and too outrageous to sustain themselves, I'd simply point to this ugly mess of a war we are in, why we are in it, what was printed and broadcast and declared by the nation's elite and its top media outlets. You look at Iraq and how we got there and McNulty and Templeton are pikers by comparison. The season is about the chasm between perception and reality in American life and how we are increasingly without the tools that allow us to recognize our true problems, much less begin to solve them. Everybody goes crazy? Who? McNulty? Freamon? They quit playing by the rules in a rigged game. That's almost a form of sanity, self-destructive as it might turn out to be."

So, yeah, read the interview for more trademarked Simon's Gold.

no one's above the law

Pictures!

Seems about right:

From Japan:

It's a metaphor, fool! And, you know, a tragic reality.

I'm pretty sure this is the best available analysis of and commentary on what is happening right now in Libya:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6457

SF

miss ya

From This Month's Harper's Index

A particularly good one:

Chances that an American describes his or her diet as healthy: 9 in 10

Amount Massachusetts has allocated since 2000 to decrease class size and increase teacher pay: $1,200,000,000

Percentage of that allocation that has gone to cover rising health care costs: 100

Percentage by which books on contemporary ethics are more likely than other books to be stolen: 50

Minimum cost of a "pleasure palace" being built for Vladimir Putin: $1,000,000,000

Rank of Communist China among the "greenest" regimes in history, based on total atmospheric carbon reduction: 1

Of Genghis Kahn's Mongol Empire: 2

Number of militias active in the United States in 2007 and in 2010, respectively: 43, 330

Respective number of states with budget shortfalls in those years: 1, 48

Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who think violence against the US government is justified: 17

Date on which Glenn Beck hypothesized that an attempted assassination on Sarah Palin "could bring the republic down": 1/10/11

Number of American soldiers who died in combat last year: 455

Minimum number who committed suicide: 407

Number of states that have applied for funding under the 2010 Affordable Care Act: 50

Number that have joined a lawsuit challenging the act's constitutionality: 26

Average minutes more exercise per week that a heavy drinker gets than a non-drinker: 21

Further Proving The Point

From Salon:

"After claiming for weeks that it was essential to strip government workers of collective bargaining rights in order to help balance the budget, Wisconsin Republicans pulled a neat legislative trick on Wednesday night: By defining the collective bargaining rules as non-budgetary in nature they were able to go ahead and pass their stripped down bill.

"Let's repeat that: Wisconsin Republicans stripped the "fiscal" elements of a "budget repair" bill in order to pass it. If that sounds like a contradiction-in-terms to you, you're not wrong."

It looks inevitable that these Senators, as well as Governor Walker, will be recalled. So we'll see just how long this bill lasts and, if it does, in what form. But this has been one of the more disgusting political acts in a decade absolutely overflowing with them.

In other news, noted racist and Islamophobe Peter King, who once said that he believed 80 percent of mosques were controlled by "extremists" and wants to label Julian Assange a terrorist, all while claiming that the IRA are in fact not a terrorist group because "The IRA's violence is only a reaction to violence started by the British Government," (Someone educate this guy on US foreign policy in the Middle East, please) is holding "anti-radicalization" hearings today, in which he will continue to posit that American muslims should bear more responsibility for policing their own, insinuating not at all subtly that all muslims bear the burden of responsibility for the actions of a very small minority amongst their very large number. So that is what racism looks like.

This Is What It's All About, Kids

Some Stereotypes Are True: The South Sucks

They are the most obese, diabetic, uneducated, impoverished, religious, child abusing people who also just happen to live in states that have an extreme disparity between rich and poor, whose public employees frequently have no rights to collectively bargain, that take more money than they give back to the government, yet also most consistently vote Republican. Maybe it's because they have the lowest average IQ.

It's all here.

(via Reddit)

In other news you already knew, since being elected President of Yikesville, Barack Obama has compiled a truly atrocious resume on civil rights (aside from his recent laudable, but belated and legally obvious, rejection of DOMA). His latest accomplishment: making the Bush-era policy of indefinite detention without trial something that is legal.

Happy fucking Tuesday.

Update: Oh yeah, and this is a very good editorial by Michael Moore.

Arizona: Still The Worst

Announced today:

The Arizona State Legislature has passed a bill allowing individuals to carry guns at public events. The bill’s passage comes less than two months after Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot during a public event in Tucson, Arizona.

LIVE FAST, EAT CAKE

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool. -Kurt Vonnegut

First, a recommendation:

I've been working through this the last couple of nights and it is really one of the most remarkable documentaries I have ever seen.

And now, a video:

The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the US is both undeniable and horrific. Glenn Greenwald notes:

"Next week, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY)will convene a Congressional hearing to investigate the loyalty and "radicalization" of American Muslims. Earlier this week in Tennessee, a bill was proposed to make it a felony to follow sharia law -- which would essentially criminalize the practice of Islam in that state. Last year, mosquesin Tennessee, Oregon and Georgia were targeted with apparent arson. The case against the Park51 community center -- including from mainstream TV journalists -- was grounded in the warped premise that Muslims generally bore guilt for the 9/11 attacks. All of these sentiments are regularly bolstered by a deranged cult-leader/TV personality followed by millions."

Few seem to be taking this as seriously as the situation warrants. A lot of the focus on the racism within Tea Party factions seems to be focused on the bigotry inherent in their rhetoric concerning Barack Obama's birth certificate and the lack of African-Americans within their ranks, which is indeed repellant. But, to my eyes and ears, the rhetoric against Muslims seems to be laced with exponentially greater malice, and seems to be much more widespread. Not only that, but it is also resulting in actual acts of violence and open racism. And most disturbingly, while everyone with any sense is quick to point out and condemn the racism in which they couch their criticisms of Obama, comparatively few are speaking out against the rising tide of Islamophobia in this country.

Another article Greenwald posted today deals with the 22 additional charges the US government announced it has filed against Bradley Manning, the whistle-blower who sent all those documents to WikiLeaks. One of the charges is "aiding the enemy" and, if convicted of this charge, Bradley Manning could be sentenced to death. Greenwald spells out the dangers convicting Manning of this crime, and why it is unwarranted:

"In light of the implicit allegation that Manning transmitted this material to WikiLeaks, it is quite possible that WikiLeaks is the "enemy" referenced by Article 104, i.e., that the U.S. military now openly decrees (as opposed tosecretly declaring) that the whistle-blowing group is an "enemy" of the U.S. More likely, the Army will contend that by transmitting classified documents to WikiLeaks for intended publication, Manning "indirectly" furnished those documents to Al Qaeda and the Taliban by enabling those groups to learn their contents. That would mean that it is a capital offense not only to furnish intelligence specifically and intentionally to actual enemies -- the way that, say, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen were convicted of passing intelligence to the Soviet Union -- but also to act as a whistle-blower by leaking classified information to a newspaper with the intent that it be published to the world. Logically, if one can "aid the enemy" even by leaking to WikiLeaks, then one can also be guilty of this crime by leaking to The New York Times."

"But does anyone actually believe that Manning's intent was to ensure receipt of this material by the Taliban, as opposed to exposing for the public what he believed to be serious American wrongdoing and to trigger reforms? Indeed, in the purported chat logs between Manning and government informant Adrian Lamo, Lamo asked Manning why he didn't sell this information to a foreign government and get rich off it, and this is how Manning replied:

"because it's public data. . . . it belongs in the public domain -information should be free - it belongs in the public domain - because another state would just take advantage of the information… try and get some edge - if its out in the open . . . it should be a public good"

"This prosecution theory would convert acts of whistle-blowing into a hanging offense."

On that note, I would like to point you towards this, one of the many pledges by Candidate Obama that have proven antithetical to the modus operandi of President Obama. From the Obama/Biden website:

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

The website (change.gov, LOL) is filled with such empty promises. In fact, I find it impossible to argue persuasively that the situation in the US is better now than it was when George Bush was president. The reason being, having a Democratic president who is in all important respects Bush's mirror image serves only to render the Democrats in Congress impotent, with only a select handful willing to speak out against a president who is "their guy." The absence of mainstream voices of dissent regarding the abuses of power of the administration continues to aid in the ongoing cementing of authoritarian-type policies, and the longer this trend continues, the less we can delude ourselves into hoping that the government will, or can, do anything to reverse them.

Reminder: Manning has been held in 23 hour a day solitary confinement for 10 months now, and also subjected to other treatments intended to cause psychological stress. All without "full access to courts and due process."

Update: This is the kind of degradation Manning is being subjected to at the moment.

Jon Stewart FTW

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

There are not enough Ugh's in the world for these fucking people. I was going to break down what is wrong with these arguments, but I don't have all night, and that is how long it would take, because they are all so wrong in so many ways. I trust you to figure it out.