Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tuesday Night Music 6 29 10



I was listening to Devo when I was a kid. Freedom of Choice was one of my first LPs, and people thought I was a total weirdo. My stepfather gave me guff one time because he was amazed I'd listen to people who were five dentists from Ohio who'd given up the trade for music. Why not listen to good musicians? he asked.

Of course, that story was not true. It was just another rumor that was spread around as part of the overwhelming mass of truths, half-truths, and outright lies that made up the band and their multimedia presentation. You either got it or you didn't, but even those who didn't get it spread it around. It was SuBvErSiOn, dammit.

But... did you ever think you'd live to see the day Devo was on NPR? Well, spudboys and spudgirls, that day has come. There's a really good interview with Mark Mothersbaugh up, online, where they showcase everything he's done that you didn't know about, and discuss Dr. Moreau, Kent State, and whether it's de-vo or De'VO.

You can also listen to "What We Do" and "Fresh" off the new album, which I highly recommend.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Proof that James O Keefe III is a LIAR

okeefe liar


James O Keefe III. "Investigative journalist without formal training." "Guerrilla documentarian." "Daredevil videographer."

Sleazy, lying fuck.

Remember when he got famous for "exposing" ACORN? Well guess what - he, in turn, has been exposed. A lengthy investigation into the matter has shown that the two large examples of his anti-ACORN sting - the human smuggling and pornography ring "help" they gave him - were not as they appeared to be. In the former, the person asked more questions so, as we've since learned, he could call the police on O'Keefe and his accomplice, and in the second, the ACORN employee turned away from O'Keefe as soon as he revealed she was a "prostitute" and talked directly to her, to tell her she could do anything she wanted.

He didn't even go into the offices in the pimp suit, as he claimed!

It's all here in this bit by Rachel Maddow. Watch it for the full story.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



Obviously, ACORN is not squeaky clean. They have made mistakes. Not all of them were simple, innocent goofs. But the things that they were accused of doing by O'Keefe - and got employees fired - appear to be total misrepresentations of what actually happened.

Lies, in other words. Damned, disgusting lies that were told with the hopes of making O'Keefe some cred with the FOX News crowd and taking down a valuable community service.

I think some people at FOX need to be making some apologies. Of course, they never will.

I also think O'Keefe needs to be shamed out of holding a camera ever again, except to take a picture of how pathetic he looks on any given day as he's sitting in jail for whatever bad stunt he's pulled this week.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tuesday Night Music 6 22 10



I'm great with remembering songs, but not always go good at knowing who they're by, or what the name was. It may have something to do with how I can't remember people's names so well, or maybe I just don't catch them. I dunno.

For years, I had no idea who Boz Scaggs was. I heard he hated the Dead Kennedys but that was all I really knew about him. I thought - perhaps unfairly - that with a name like that he was probably some 70's cock rocker who sang about fast cars, faster women, and what happens when your penis won't work.

And I supposed I'd probably heard something by him - some snazzy, hard rockin' ballad about the night she came home and announced she'd found a man with a better car and a working dick - but damned if I knew what it was.

So tonight, at work, a customer comes up with some $6.66 treasures from our speed table, very vocally happy to have found these hard to find things. One of them is one of Boz Scaggs albums, and I mentioned that I had no idea what any of his songs were. He said they were good, and brought back memories of when he was in college, so I said I'd have to youtube him when I got home.

And yes, I DO know Boz Scaggs. I liked "lowdown," and "Lido Shuffle" was one I remember from when I was a kid - whenever my dad and I were driving somewhere, it would invariably come on, and he'd sing along with it (sort of). I thought it was "leo," and had no idea what he was singing about. Maybe it's just as well?

Just goes to show - there's all this stuff from your childhood that you don't quite remember correctly, and there but for the grace of some gray cells go our recollection of times gone by. But the music's still out there, waiting for us to rediscover it, one youtube dive at a time.

So here's something I don't normally play here - jazzy soft rock from the 70's. I'll play some songs about your woman helping satan steal and screw your car next week. honest.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

"Birther" Elections Clerk Changes Story on TV

Just when you thought the case of Tim Adams couldn't get any stranger, he goes on television to reiterate his story, yet goes back on what he said before, and bites the hands that have fed him. Is he lying, changing his story, or losing the plot?

tim adams lie


I'm sure you'll recall the recent "revelations" of Honolulu's "senior elections clerk," Tim Adams, who claimed that, while working in the elections office in early 2008, he was told by unnamed others that Barack Obama does not have a Long Form Birth Certificate on file in Hawai'i. I came to the conclusion, based on research others have done, and Mr. Adams' seeming recanting of the story - followed by what seemed like a reiteration of it on WND - that Mr. Adams is possibly lying, and possibly trying to get attention.

Well, the story's gone around and around a few times, and now Mr. Adams has gone on TV to discuss that matter, as well as a few other things he'd like us to know. What I would like to know, after listening to this, is what sort of game he thinks he's playing at.



Not only is he blatantly contradicting what he said on the Political Cesspool, but most of what he claims is true is simply not true. And his attempts to cast aspersions onto others' characters - while possibly accurate - still doesn't explain what he was doing at the Council of Concerned Citizen's convention in the first place.

First off, he repeats the crux if his story: he was "told" that there was no long form birth certificate for Barack Obama. Told by whom? He doesn't say. How would they know, given that they don't have immediate, legal access to that kind of information, and wouldn't have needed it since he wasn't going to vote in Hawai'i in that election? He doesn't bring that up.

Then he claims that Obama does have a Certificate of Live Birth, but claims it's given to residents of Hawai'i whose children are born out of state. That is flat out false. The Certificate of Live Birth - as has been explained numerous times - is what you've given when you need a record that you were born in Hawai'i, and serves the same purpose as a Birth Certificate.

(There is a provision for COLBs to be given to people who were born out of state, or in foreign countries. However, they would clearly state that these people were born where they were born, and not in Hawai'i. Obama's COLB says he was born in Hawai'i, which should be case closed for any reasonable, rational-thinking individual.)

He also repeats the story about "some of his family members" claiming he was born overseas. This is a result of someone only listening to half of his step-grandmother's interview, and has been debunked many times.

However, at this point Mr. Adams crosses over to the other side of the road, and directly contradicts what he said earlier.

He claims that he believes that, because Obama has a COLB, he is obviously a natural born citizen of the united states. And if you take his (mistaken) word for it - that COLBs are given to the children of Hawai'i citizens who are born elsewhere - then yes, that makes a kind of sense, so long as the residents were citizens, themselves, or Obama was born in America. And he says that "they" did not like that conclusion... whoever "they" are.

But that is a 180 degree turnaround from what he said before.



The direct quote is: "In our professional opinion, Barack Obama was not born in the United States."

How do you go from that to this, which he wrote in an email to Right Side of Life?

I believe Pres. Obama was born a United States citizen, and is eligible to hold office

He also says that, given that Obama was vetted by the heads of the Democrat Party, he has to have been eligible, otherwise they wouldn't have let him through. A pity such common sense is so uncommon!

And then he throws in the kicker. Why the hub-bub? "Some people are basically racist." Given that he made his comments to the Political Cesspool while attending the national conference for the Council of Conservative Citizens - a white separatist organization that's against "race mixing" - one has to wonder why this is now a concern for him. Did he know what he was getting into by attending? Or is he throwing his real beliefs under the bus, now that things have gotten a little too hot for him to handle?

Even more damning, especially for World Net Daily and the people who've been trumpeting his comments as "proof" that they were right:

"People nowadays constantly refer to the government as an enemy of the people, or a problem for the people. But the role of the government is to serve the people. And so I think we're getting to the point where no one can talk to anyone else, that the rhetoric has become so divisive... so I kinda dove in and tried to start a conversation, and have paid for it dearly (laughter)"

So he tried to start a conversation to downplay the "rancor" he's complaining about, by giving the radical fringe of Obama's critics exactly what they wanted to hear? Yeah, right. Pull the other one there, Tim.

If you go back and listen to Adams' interview on the Political Cesspool, you will note he does not give both sides of the conversation. He tells them he doesn't believe that Obama has a Hawaiian birth certificate, and was not born in America at all. It's only later, when people start questioning his story, and he gets an email from the Right Side of Life, that this kinder, gentler Tim Adams appears.

So what's going on here? I think my previous assessment has to stand: Mr. Adams is obviously not telling the truth about something, but I think this is primary an attempt to gain attention. But now that he's got it, he's not handling it very well. So hopefully he will do the sensible thing and go back to being anonymous before he gets publicly called on his massive reversal.

Also: against my humble expectations, World Net Daily actually HAS written an article concerning this new development*. In it, they shamelessly reprint his comments, which stand almost contrary to their own narrative, and accuse those like them of having anti-government, and possibly racist motives. It would appear the cognitive dissonance of this bombshell has caused WND to suffer cerebral whiplash, thus rendering them temporarily incapable of realizing they've been called on the carpet. They also seem incapable of calling him on his massive reversal of story.

But give them time. They may someday realize they may have been played like a three-penny flute. And Tim Adams may change his story yet again.

-----------

PARTIAL RETRACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been pointed out to me - quite rightly - that what I have said Mr. Adams said is not what he actually did say.

Tim Adams did not directly contradict what he said earlier. He just added a piece of information that he either neglected to tell the people on the political cesspool, or that did not turn up on the show: in his views, President Obama IS eligible to be President, based on what Mr. Adams thinks the COLB stands for (which is wrong), and his belief that the DNC would have dropped Obama if that wasn't so.

How could I have made that mistake? I don't know. Maybe all these chirping little birther eyeasses' story that if you're not born in America, you're not an NBC, got stuck somewhere it shouldn't and made me read things I didn't. But then it's also possible I jumped ahead of the fence, scenting blood, and trumpeted the kill before I realized I'd shot an old boot, instead.

Either way, I would be incredibly churlish and hypocritical if I insisted that others (Farah, Taitz, Berg, et al) correct their public errors without identifying and correcting my own. I apologize to my readers, and to Mr. Adams, for this mistake.

Having said that, Mr. Adams' story still smells extremely fishy - high noon in an unrefrigerated fish market fishy - and he is still flat out wrong about why one gets a COLB, and what it means. I'm also not 100% sure that his latest admission - that the President is eligible - is legitimate, or if it's just him pulling his fat out of the fire he lit. And there's still the issue of why he was at the CCC conference in the first place... and so on.

So yes, I screwed up on the details, and humbly retract the mistake. I believe there is still something to this story, but I will redouble my efforts to be careful in presenting further installments.



* As of now, my anti-virus program is no longer crying in alarm at the state of World Net Daily's website, so perhaps they've attended to the virus-laden sidebars. On the other hand, maybe I just got lucky. Please use caution while navigating their sorry turd of a website.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Tuesday Night Music 6 15 10

As an add-on to our previous post, we have an after picture, and footage of the burning Swamp Jesus, itself.



In honor of the wrath of God in action, we have an oldie but goodie from the Bloodhound Gang: Fire Water Burn



What could these things have in common...?

The Jesus from the Black Lagoon - Destroyed by God!

Better get your umbrella - it's irony season, and it is raining ten-pounders out there, some days.

jesus from the black lagoon


On I-75, between Dayton and Cincinnati, lurked a beast from beyond time.

Passersby from out of state would sometimes catch a glimpse of the monster as they drove on by, and wonder if they actually saw what they thought they saw, there by the side of the road. Meanwhile, those who were native to the area would just nod knowingly, as they'd made their own, separate peace with the creature, long ago. Either that or they'd left the area, or gone quietly mad in its shadow.

The wisdom of the ancient ones said it best - leave things from the elder times alone, and they will assuredly do the same for you.

It went by many names, this atavistic beast from the time before. Touchdown Jesus. Big Butter Jesus. MC 62-Foot Jesus. Swamp Jesus. Swim Meet Jesus. The I-75 Savior. Christ in a Life Preserver...

But those who knew of the fear it commanded - the sheer terror it engendered - the pulse-pounding, limb-throbbing, mind-shattering, brain-fucking HORROR it caused... they called it something different.

They called it the Jesus from the Black Lagoon. And they rightly feared its wrath.

But we come not to praise the monster, nor condemn it, but to bury it. For we have learned on this day that, as if in answer to the fearful prayers of an entire nation, the mighty hand of God has at last struck the monster down.

A lightning strike, or so say men of science.

Already the effect of his presence is waning. The good people of the I-75 corridor seem a little happier, this day - a little more free.

Little Bobby Freeder no longer dreads doing the paper route in the morning for fear of vanishing, like the ten paper carriers before him. Mrs. H. Watkins, 45, no longer feels in danger for her life for seeing Mr. J. Thompson, 26, on the side when her drunken husband is out of town. Bars have re-opened, peep shows openly advertise, and the dish has run off with the spoon.

But calls to rejoice in the mighty doings of a just and noble God seem hollow. For news reaches us that those who unearthed the beast in the first place - all $250,000 of him - and build special walkways so the rightly-terrified could placate his savage appetites, plan to rebuild the demon yet again, so that it might loom over the freeway once more.

Still, the good - but not perfect - people of Monroe, Ohio can breathe easy, at least for the moment. A reminder that, while the Bible does not promise a world free from ancient monsters, it offers hope that both justice and vengeance are that of the Lord.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Did WND Get Punked by Birther Elections Clerk?

The latest scoop from World Net Daily tells us that a Hawai'i elections clerk learned Obama has no long form birth certificate. But does his story add up? Or did WND get punked yet again?

tim adams lie


Back in March, we reported that World Net Daily - website of Joseph "Mr. Mustache" Farah, who is NOT a Birther (really) - had been fooled into reporting a false fact.

Not that WND ever lets true facts stand in the way of its odd, rightward agenda, of course, but it was rather amusing to see them lean out so far over the cliff to grasp a story that, with a little digging, could have been handily disproved. As of this date, we have yet to see a retraction, which would seem to go against Mr. Farah's claims of being a journalist.

Well, it seems like lightning has struck twice! World Net Daily has yet another big scoop on its hands, and they aren't being shy about trumpeting it, in spite of its questionable provenance.

Hear now the words of Tim Adams, former "senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu during the 2008 election":*

"There is no birth certificate," he said. "It's like an open secret. There isn't one. Everyone in the government there knows this."

...

"I had direct access to the Social Security database, the national crime computer, state driver's license information, international passport information, basically just about anything you can imagine to get someone's identity," Adams explained. "I could look up what bank your home mortgage was in. I was informed by my boss that we did not have a birth record [for Obama]."

At the time, there were conflicting reports that Obama had been born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, as well as the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children across town. So Adams says his office checked with both facilities

"They told us, 'We don't have a birth certificate for him,'" he said. "They told my supervisor, either by phone or by e-mail, neither one has a document that a doctor signed off on saying they were present at this man's birth."

...

Adams, 45, stressed, "In my professional opinion, he definitely was not born in Hawaii. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he was not born in Hawaii because there is no legal record of him being born there. If someone called and asked about it, I could not tell them that person was born in the state."


Oh dear, that usurper's in big-ass trouble, huh? Maybe Obama should go get on a plane and high-tail it back to Kenya - TONIGHT!

Well, not so fast. First of all, let's consider the source.

Tim Adams came to people's attentions by way of the appropriately-named "Political Cesspool" - a "Pro White"(that is, racist) broadcast that claims to be "the South's foremost populist radio program." And it's carried by, amongst others, Stormfront Radio. Remember our friends at Stormfront? I bet you do...

The Political Cesspool is hosted by James Edwards: a "pro-white" (that is, racist) member of the anti-race mixing Council of Conservative Citizens (that is, racistS).

Tim Adams just happened to be attending a recent Council of Conservative Citizens national conference in Nashville, TN, where "someone" brought him to the attention of James Edwards and his co-host. An interview ensued (started out, quite oddly, by the theme from "The Prisoner." Who is Number One?)



Note that he calls himself the "Chief elections clerk." There is no such thing as a "chief elections clerk." The WND article correctly identifies him a "senior elections clerk." That could just be a slip, but you have to wonder.

Now, admittedly, nailing the message because of the messenger is a little unfair. Truth comes in odd guises, sometimes. But we should remember that it's never a good idea to trumpet a massive "expose" based on the testimony of a walk-on guest at a rather questionable (that is, yes, racist) gathering.

Especially when the subject is the eligibility of America's first black President.

Does that stop World Net Daily? Oh hell no. They get in contact with him, verify his story, and, as of this date, have updated that he's willing to testify to what he knows in court.*

Now for the democratic response: our friends at Oh For Goodness Sake and Obama Conspiracy Theories have done a yeoman's job of investigating further. And what have they found?

First off: Tim Adams may have been working there, but he should not have had any access to the data in question, nor should anyone else at that office. According to Doc Conspiracy:

Our records indicate that Mr. Adams was employed in a clerical position as an Elections Clerk. Our office does not have access to birth records. Birth records are handled by the State of Hawaii, Department of Health.

In fact, even if they did have access to that kind of information, looking up someone else's personal information to satisfy personal questions is a Federal offense. Would his boss have really gone digging in Obama's files to see if they were there if they didn't have to? One year in the Federal pen and $10,000 says otherwise.

Secondly: According to the chronology OFGS determined, based on Mr. Adams' own statements and blog posts, he was only in that position until August of 2008. Surely that is way too early to have been processing anything relevant to this matter.

Thirdly: Even if Adams did have the power to be verifying people's birth records, he wouldn't have had any reason to be verifying Obama's information. In 2008, Barack Obama was living in Illinois, and registered to vote in that state. Not Hawai'i.

And then the kicker: Tim Adams himself seems to be backing away from the story!

Thank you for the Email. Actually I believe God has a sense of humor, because I thought these notions were pretty well common and not very important. I was actually just in Nashville, observing a conservative political conference, I’m not a member of any kind of group, and too liberal for these guys, when James Edwards, the host of the Political Cesspool, heard about me from someone and asked if I would simply state what I had observed and been told while working in Hawaii. I believe Pres. Obama was born a United States citizen, and is eligible to hold office, I find the idea that because he was probably born outside of the U.S., he must be some kind of alien to be basically racist. I do think we should close this issue and pass legislation requiring office seekers to prove identity before running for elected office.

That was posted on the 11th. However, as of the 13th, Tim Adams is telling WND a much different story.*

"The things I've said, I don't mind testifying in court," Tim Adams, the senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in the 2008 campaign, told WND in an exclusive interview.

"I was working there, and this is what it was. I'm not a lawyer, just a civil servant. I know what I know. I know what I was told by the hospitals and by my supervisors."


So what's going on here? A man goes to a highly suspect (that is... yes, you guessed it, racist) political conference, tells a tale to an audience that's ready to eat it up, then seems to backtrack away from it in private, but continues to push his story to the wide-eyed goobers at World Net Daily? Are there two Tim Adams at work, here?

Maybe there are.

While investigating the story, OFGS discovered that Mr. Adams is a self-published author. His book, a fictional work entitled Stories I've Finished Before I'm dead., has recently been redone as a "motivational" work called The River and Other Stories.

According to OFGS's encapsulation: He hated everybody and everybody hated him. His brother put him in a clothes dryer when he was small and turned it on. His schoolmates cut off a German Shepherd’s head and put it in his locker. He tried to kill his own brother who abused him. The Army later diagnosed him as mentally ill and his fellow soldiers wouldn’t be in the same room with him

Not to knock a man when he's been kicked down, and then tried to make money off it when he grows up, Dave Pelzer style. (Some might even call it the American way - Lemons, lemonade, and all that) But this wouldn't be the first time in recent memory that someone pitched us a story that was true, only to turn out not so true, would it?

Remember James Frey and A Million Little Pieces? It turns out that when he was first shopping the book around, it was fiction with pieces of his own life in it, and wasn't going anywhere. But then someone told him to sell it as a straight autobiography, which he did. And it sold, and he got famous, got on Oprah, and then got busted by The Smoking Gun.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, when we first encounter the book, it's fiction, but now it's "self-esteem." So is it real or fake? Was it fiction all along, or not?

Because if it was "fiction" then, and is "true" now, then one of two things is possible. Either it was true all along, and he just needed to get all that out of his system, and can now own up to it having been true, OR it was never true - or not wholly true - and he's passing it off as being true enough to be called "motivational" because he wants more money and/or attention.

And if it's attention he's wanting, then suddenly a lot of things about this story make a whole lot of sense.

I must stress that I do not know this for certain. My ability to read minds over a distance has been severely hampered over the last few regenerations - it's a good day when I can tell you what our cats are thinking. But a cursory exploration of the life and times of Mr. Adams - as painstakingly researched by OFGS - leads me to believe there's something a little off going on here. And I don't think it's the poi.

We'll have to see what shakes out of the tube as this story develops - or doesn't - but I'm pretty certain we're going to hear a lot out of Mr. Adams for a very short period of time, followed by one hell of a backtrack, or a total vanishing from the scene. I'm also pretty certain WND will never admit to having been punked, yet again.









* NOTE: As of 6/13/10, every time I went to World Net Daily, my anti-virus told me a virus was trying to load itself onto my deck by way of their sidebar advertisements. For this reason I am not linking to WND for the immediate future. The story in question was on their front page, and its "facts" will probably be repeated in future Birther story postings by their various and sundry "reporters," so I don't feel bad about not hyperlinking under the circumstances. Feel free to check it out on your own, but I wouldn't recommend going to Farah's little turd of a site unless you've got good anti-virus.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Lakin Waives Preliminary Hearing - It's Court or Bust!



Something of a shocker: rather than going ahead with a preliminary hearing - in which the Birther evidence he'd wanted to present was denied - LTC Terry Lakin has decided to waive the hearing, which will take him direct to a possible Court Martial, perhaps to come this Fall.

Why? According to the Press Release Lakin put out today at Safeguard Our Constitution, the Army has made it “impossible for (Lakin) to present a defense”:

Lakin, through his legal defense team, requested the testimony of Dr. Chiyome Fukino of the Hawaii Dept. of Health, and all of that agency’s records that exist concerning the president’s birth. Lakin had also requested the testimony of the custodians of records of, and the records relating to Obama’s admission and financial aid that exist, of the Punahou School, Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School. All these requests were also summarily denied, leaving Lakin without any ability to mount a defense at the hearing.

In other words, the Military - as they've gotten very good at since Vietnam - excised any fluff that would obscure the real issue: did Lakin disobey a lawful order, or not? Since he did, and he not only admitted that he did, but said in advance that he planned to do it, the matter should be about as open and shut as a well-oiled door.

Of course, Lakin isn't done. He plans to "renew his requests to the Military Judge at the appropriate time." The fact that these requests will, most likely, be scuttled as well doesn't seem to be deterring him from this course of action. One interesting thing will be to see if they let Alan Keyes and Ret. Major Vallely speak at the Court Martial, as they were prepared to do at the Preliminary Hearing. But, as we mentioned before, they're unlikely to have much of an impact, except to make fools of themselves.

Lakin has also provided a new video to go along with the press release. It scans like a "birthers greatest shits" - all the exaggerations, misstatements, misunderstandings, and flat out lies we've come to expect from a movement designed to appeal to the dumbest common denominator.



Watching him spout this junk is a sad reminder that no one is immune to drinking the kool-aid - a lesson to us all, perhaps.

(And if you're wondering about anything he said here, I recommend a trip to Obama Conspiracy Theories for an anti-kool-aid immunization.)

So what happens now? Another hearing sometime this month, followed by an actual trial date in the Fall, maybe. That is, of course, unless LTC Lakin gets informed by some kind soul that he's being used as a hand puppet for Satan. Maybe if we all told him?

But I'm looking into the future, and in it I see a sad sight: former LTC Lakin is breaking rocks at Leavenworth, all by his lonesome, with no visitors other than friends and family, as the nasty paws that led him down the road of Good Intentions are elsewhere, bringing some other, poor soul down the same exact path... and writing books about how they're going to bring down "Barry Sotero" if it's the last thing they do!

There HAS to be a better outcome than that. There just has to be.

(HT to Oh For Goodness' Sake)

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Orly Loses, Damon Wins - Let the Lawsuit Storm Begin!

As expected - unless you were living on Planet Duh - Orly Taitz lost her primary bid to become California's Secretary of State. What? 'Is she taking it gracefully?' Are you STILL on Planet Duh?

orly loses primary

No, the outcome was never in doubt - unless you were deluded, MIA, or watching the hysterical spin some political blogs put on it yesterday. But yes, in case you didn't hear, Orly Taitz is not going to be the Republican Candidate for California's Secretary of State. Her chief rival, Damon Dunn, beat her with about 75% of the vote.

Is she taking it at all well? No she is not.

In an open letter to failed Republican Gubernatorial candidate - and "billioner" - Steve Poizner, she revealed that there may have been... a plot!

In my election in Los Angeles county I got over 30% and statewide 26%, but all in all there was a wall, and tea party backed candidates, anti illegal immigration candidates, pro second amendmet(sic) candidates, anti-corrupt establishment candidates were kept behind that wall.

...

If they go through amnesty, it is the end of the republic as we know it. We will be a de facto destitute third world banana republic

I hope Steve Poizner [who lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to Meg Whitman] does not stop the fight. He is a billioner.

He can provide financial support for legal actions, canvassing, analysis of Diebolt and Sequoia voting machines, outreach to the voters to fight corrupt and toxic thugs in the media.

He is a father. I hope he wants his daughter and his future granchildren to live in a constitutional Republic, not tyranny that we are seing today.


In other words: Orly and those like her were "diebolded" out of their rightful spot in the election, toxic thugs in the media are going to keep quiet about it, and Steve Poizner should send some money. Like soon. Maybe before the $20,000 she still owes is asked for, more forcibly this time...

And then there's the matter of the lawsuit her and her flying monkey, Pamela Barnett, are trying to get going to as to bar Damon Dunn from being on the ballot. They claim he is in violation of election rules because he was a registered Democrat within the last 12 months. As with many things Orly, this is simply not true, but that hasn't stopped them from claiming conspiracy!!!!!!!!! and suing accordingly.

Damon Dunn is, to his credit, taking the high road and trying not to get tangled in a war of words with his self-appointed Javert - not even using the microphone to mock her when she interrupted his speech at a Tea Party gathering to try and start with him. To the rest of us, that shows class. To Orly it probably just meant he had something to hide...

I don't think this saga's going to be over for some time. And, as a sad postscript, while it's good that Dunn cleaned Orly's clock at the ballot box, we still have to remember that, even in California, 372,490 people thought she would do a better job than him, even though it was readily apparent that, all other issues she brought up notwithstanding, her main goal for her time in office was to try to bring down the President of the United States on specious charges...

hey, wait. What was I saying about Planet Duh?

In other electoral news, Jerry "moonbeam" Brown came in first in the Democratic Primary for Governor, which means that it's time to dust off those old Dead Kennedys records and remember when...



MELLOW OUT OR YOU WILL PAY!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Tuesday Night Music 6 8 10



One of the pioneering synth bands in the English electronic music scene, Cabaret Voltaire are rightly hailed as having a massive influence on Industrial music. They also sound fresh and exciting, even decades later - music to hear the world fall apart and reassemble itself to.

This is the theme from earthshaker, followed by Sensoria. If you have nothing better to do, follow the prompts after the songs are over and rediscover the Cabaret, one dance at a time.

Ari Fleischer's Revenge on Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas' comments on Israel and Palestine were highly questionable, but it appears our old friend Ari Fleischer has at last gotten his revenge for several years of having to fend off her tough questions. Revenge - a dish best served on red-hot news days.

ari versus helen

Listening to Helen Thomas, I can't help but remember when Bill Maher got in hot water over comments he made on his show, "Politically Incorrect." How could I not, when Ari Fleischer inserted himself into both controversies?

Ari then, as White House Press Secretary: "These are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say and what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that. There never is."

Ari now, as, well, former White House Press Secretary (and sports marketer): "She should lose her job over this. As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling. She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs."

Ari apparently felt so strongly about this that he spent the weekend emailing other journalists to get them onto the story. Nice to see his liking of her precluded a phone call to ask what the heck she was thinking, or, more charitably, what she meant!

The results were both similar. Bill Maher tried to explain his comments, but his talk show was not renewed, and he found himself out of a job. Meanwhile, Helen Thomas tried to explain hers, but was dropped by just about everyone, and had to retire before she was shoved out.

My initial reaction was that this was why you shouldn't pipe up about a contentious issue while you're drunk, bereaved, or ticked off. I thought perhaps she was venting in the wake of Israel's murderous handling of the blockade-breaking flotilla situation, and made the mistake of doing so in front of a camera. It wouldn't be the first time the mighty have been brought low by an off-color comment that went on the record.

But then I found out that I was wrong - she was just early to the party.

These comments were made on the 27th of May, at the Jewish Heritage celebration at the White House. They just didn't surface until the 4th of June, after the attack on the flotilla, when critics of Israel - both Judeophobic and otherwise - had taken several days to go after the Jewish state, and its politicians were finally joining its apologists in telling the rest of the world to shut up and mind its own business.

One might almost say this was neatly choreographed. Long-time foe of Ari Fleischer says something dumb - and it WAS dumb, to be charitable - about Israel and Palestine. Then, by some stroke of "luck," Israel does something dumb - and that's putting it mildly - and gets itself in the news for the wrong reasons again.

And in the middle, there's Helen Thomas and the turd she left floating on the youtube bowl. And there's Ari, with a fresh video, a working email account, and a black book filled with names from his old job...

How could Ari not pounce? This was probably the moment he'd been praying for since he'd left the White House. At last, revenge for all those years of having to stand there as Helen Thomas, one of the most tenacious reporters out of the whole White House Press Pool, eviscerated both he and his boss on a regular basis, whether they tried to answer his questions or not! It must have seemed like manna out of Heaven, or at least a floating dagger following a hated "guest" up the castle steps.

So yes, Ari Fleischer has clearly gotten his revenge. It would be interesting to see through timespace and determine if, minus his involvement, the weight of Helen Thomas' comments would have sunk her career, or if this would have been just another questionable statement about Israel in a career full of them. One never knows.

But I am reasonably assured that, even into his twilight years, Mr. Fleischer will probably be eating out on how he finally got one over on that lady in the front row who, for good or ill, spoke her mind and kept asking questions. It's a shame that, for all her time trying to entrap others into unwittingly telling us how they really felt, she let one truth too many leave her lips, and at the worst possible time.

It's also a shame that Pat Buchanan, Michael Savage, Anne Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck still have jobs with major media outlets, in spite of the numerous potential career-enders they've racked up over the years. What's good for the goose...

Meanwhile, Ari's advice is still in effect: watch what you say, because you never know who's listening, who's recording, and who's going to rub their hands in glee for having finally got you in a "gotcha" moment - especially when the news changes. Helen Thomas really should have known better.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Al, Tipper, and ManBearPig - A Story About Letting Go

al loves manbearpig



Place: The Gore Mansion, just recently. Tipper Gore is in her bedroom smashing rock and roll records with a demonic look on her face. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door.

Al Gore: Tipper? Can I come in?

Tipper Gore: Oh... uh... can you give me a minute, Al? I'm kind of busy.

Al Gore: It's really important, hon.

Tipper Gore: Can't it wait until later?

Al Gore: No it can't. I'm super super cereal about this.

Tipper Gore: Oh! That sounds bad.

Tipper quickly kicks the broken records under the bed and lets Al in. Al looks sad.

Al Gore: Thanks, hon. I've been trying to think of a way to say this... and I don't know the best way to say this. How is it I can get in front of millions of people and talk to them about the bad state of Mother Earth but I can't tell the truth to my own wife?

Tipper Gore: Oh Al, what is it? Did you take more bribe money from environmentalists again?

Al Gore: No, nothing like that.

Tipper Gore: Did those goofy kids on South Park make fun of you again?

Al Gore: Oh, I only wish. Tipper... I need to... I mean... *sigh* I'm in love with someone else.

Tipper Gore: *GASP*

Al Gore: I've been in love for some time now-

Tipper Gore: What? Have you been unfaithful?

Al Gore: *longer sigh* yes dear.

Tipper Gore: Oh my god! Who was it? Was it an intern? Or that damned spotted owl again?

Al Gore: No, no. We talked about that, hon. That wasn't love. That was just needing a strange piece of ass on the campaign trail.

Tipper Gore: I thought you'd learned your lesson then! All those feathers...

Al Gore: It's ManBearPig, Tipper. We're in love. And... it's cereal.

Tipper Gore: *blinks a few times* Honey, ManBearPig isn't real. I've been trying to tell you for years-

Al Gore: No, Tipper. He IS real. I finally caught him out in the wilds of Arkansas. I'd tracked him to a boy scout camp, and got there too late to stop him. It was... *shudders* it was terrible.

Tipper Gore: Oh no.

Al Gore: It was just some troop of boys and their den father, or whatever they call them these days. All out spraying Off on spiders and carving their names on trees, and he'd attacked and eaten them all. But as I sat there, watching him chomp on their broken little bodies like babyback ribs at an all-you-can-eat joint, I finally realized... every time he's ever attacked and killed someone, it's always been because they've been abusing Mother Earth.

Tipper Gore: Oh. So... well, what did you do?

Al Gore: I walked out of the bushes, laid down my guns, and I asked him 'can you ever forgive me?' And he roared and offered me some boy scout. And... God help me, Tipper. I ate them.

Tipper Gore: You're kidding. Right?

Al Gore: No, Tipper. I ate their broken little bodies. I'm totally cereal.

Tipper Gore: Well, that's not entirely without precedent, Al. Remember there's such a thing as Stockholm Syndrome-

Al Gore: And then we had hot sweaty mansex for hours.

Tipper Gore: *GASP!* You pig!

Al Gore: See? This is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd get angry.

Tipper Gore: Well... well duh! How long have we been married? How many kids have we had together? How many times have we had to use this perfect little family of ours to win elections or make money? And now you want to throw it all away for... for what? Some big thing that eats boy scouts? And is... is gay?

Al Gore: I don't know if gender really applies in this case, dear. But, yes... there WAS another penis involved.

Tipper Gore: Oh... OH... OH! Oh fudge!

Al Gore: Look dear, I know you're angry. And I don't blame you. But let's be honest - this has been coming for a long time. At the start of our life together, the things that we shared were wonderful, and the things we didn't share just added some sexy danger. I mean, I liked Frank Zappa, and you burn rock records, but we could both agree that Twisted Sister was a primary danger to America's youth.

Tipper Gore: Heh, yeah. Those were the days.

Al Gore: And they were GREAT days, hon. But you know... we've grown apart more than we've grown together. Our kids have left the house. I've got my environmental activism and my shameless huckstering, and chasing ManBearPig. And you've got... well, you've got your broken head full of competing psychoses, your attempts to stay relevant in a world where you got almost everything you wanted... and, yes, there's your photography-

Cut To: Tipper's face as she thinks of her and the camera. She poses in increasingly-risque outfits for a smiling camera that can take its own pictures. Prince's "Darling Nikki" plays in the background. And then-

Al Gore: Tipper? Did you hear what I said?

Tipper Gore: Oh, uh, yes. Yes!

Al Gore: You see what I mean? Even now that I'm bearing my soul to you, you're only half interested in what I have to say. You're thinking of what it'll mean to you, instead of what it'll mean to our family... such as it is.

Tipper Gore: I guess you're right, Al. Maybe I have been selfish. Maybe we really need to show how much we really love each other by finally letting go.

Al Gore: Thank you. I love you, dear.

Tipper Gore: And I love you, too, Al.

Al Gore: Will you come to our gay wedding?

Tipper Gore: Don't push it.

Cut To: A montage, set to the Partridge Family singing "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" Al and Tipper face the cameras to announce their separation; Al and ManBearPig go on a date in the deep woods; Al and ManBearPig get married in New England; ManBearPig catches Al having sex with a spotted owl; Tipper Gore gets married to her camera

Everyone happy. The End.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Lakin's Eligibility Defense Gets Torpedoed - Now What?

It looks like Lakin will not be able to call the President's eligibility into question at his Court Martial. Is his goose cooked, or will Alan Keyes save him?



Don't you hate it when you're right, if only for someone else's sake?

In my case, it's for LTC Terry Lakin's sake. As of this moment, it has been made clear to him by the Investigating Officer of his upcoming Court Martial that his attempt to defend his insubordination by questioning the eligibility of his commander in chief is not going to happen - period. The attempt to subpoena the President, scads of his documents, and record custodians of the State of Hawai'i was shot down before takeoff, much to Lakin's (and World Net Daily's) dismay.

Lakin said the result "makes it impossible for me to have a fair hearing."

"I cannot even raise the issue of the president's eligibility, on the grounds that my position has 'no basis in law,'" he said.


Well... they have been trying to tell you that, sir! Have you not been listening as numerous people, much more well-versed in Military Law that you - apparently - have been saying that you have no case?

I guess not!

The only surprise here - and I'm not the only one, I'm sure - is that Alan Keyes and Ret. Major General Paul Vallely were allowed to be subpoenaed. I have no idea what the hell they think they're going to say, other than make fools of themselves and the person they've chosen to champion, but the IO wanted to be thorough and inclusive. Or maybe he just wants to see how badly the train wrecks.

To top it all off, the Investigative Officer politely shat all over the Defense's rather shoddy filings, and poor attempts at argumentation. It would seem that our poor assessment of Paul Rolf "Otis" Jensen's legal acumen would seem to be accurate. This means that, if nothing else, the upcoming hearing is going to be nothing if not sadly amusing.

Is it too late for LTC Lakin to just throw up his hands, cop a plea, and beg forgiveness? It might not do him or his career much good, at this point, but it would at least save him the eternal embarrassment that this legal spectacle will otherwise case.

If there's peace with honor card left to play, I hope he takes it. I also hope the taking involves him discussing - preferably at some length - the means by which his new Birther friends recruited him, and what their long term plans might be.

I know I'm kind of curious - aren't you?

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Tuesday Night Music 6 1 10



Some time ago, I linked up to a song from Trent Reznor's new project - How to Destroy Angels. If you liked it as much as I did, I have wonderful news. You can download the whole ep, for free, off their website.

Click here to go get it. You can thank me later :D

Supreme Court - Silence isn't enough?

It turns out you can't just be silent to get your Miranda rights - you actually have to say you want to be silent. Is that really how it should work?



Okay, yeah, wrong Miranda. But, much like the legal protection that shares its' name, they are both weird and misunderstood things, open to constant interpretation. That's what happens when you say an arrested individual can choose to not cooperate with Police, and remain silent - everyone wants to niggle as much of it away as they can.

So it's no surprise that the Supreme Court just determined - 5 to 4 - that if you want to invoke your Miranda rights, it's not enough to actually remain silent. You have to say you want to remain silent, or they're no good.

Is that really how it's supposed to work?

The ruling comes in a case where a suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, remained mostly silent for a three-hour police interrogation before implicating himself in a Jan. 10, 2000, murder in Southfield, Mich. He appealed his conviction, saying that he invoked his Miranda right to remain silent by remaining silent.

But Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the decision for the court's conservatives, said that wasn't enough.

"Thompkins did not say that he wanted to remain silent or that he did not want to talk to police," Kennedy said. "Had he made either of these simple, unambiguous statements, he would have invoked his 'right to cut off questioning.' Here he did neither, so he did not invoke his right to remain silent."


Apparently the fellow inadvertently "confessed" to murder while being questioned non-stop, was subsequently convicted, but had the conviction overturned on appeal because he was trying to be quiet during the interrogation. A higher court overturned the overturning, and the Supreme Court has just upheld that.

I think it should be assumed that if the person you're grilling isn't talking, they're taking advantage of Miranda and should be left to stew. I also think it's a good idea to assume the person you're grilling is dumb as a post, and needs to have their options spelled out for them, so as to keep guesswork at a minimum and avoid lengthy appeals.

There is one good thing that's come out of this: the newest Judge on the Court, Sonia Sotomayor, is showing that we made a good choice in putting her in there.

(Sotomayor) wrote a strongly worded dissent for the court's liberals, saying the majority's decision "turns Miranda upside down."

"Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent — which counterintuitively, requires them to speak," she said. "At the same time, suspects will be legally presumed to have waived their rights even if they have given no clear expression of their intent to do so. Those results, in my view, find no basis in Miranda or our subsequent cases and are inconsistent with the fair-trial principles on which those precedents are grounded."


Nice to see we didn't put a stealth bomb on the bench by mistake!