"Academic" Salaries

Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama's Placenta

WASHINGTON–In the continuing controversy surrounding the president's U.S. citizenship, a new fringe group informally known as "Afterbirthers" demanded Monday the authentication of Barack Obama's placenta from his time inside his mother's womb. "All we are asking is that the president produce a sample of his fetal membranes and vessels—preferably along with a photo of the crowning and delivery—and this will all be over," said former presidential candidate and Afterbirthers spokesman Alan Keyes, later adding that his organization would be willing to settle for a half-liter of maternal cord plasma. "To this day, the American people have not seen a cervical mucus plug, let alone one that has been signed and notarized by a state-certified Hawaiian health official. If the president was indeed born in the manner in which he claims, then where is his gestation sac?" Keyes said that if Obama did not soon produce at least a bloody bedsheet from his conception, Afterbirthers would push forward with efforts to exhume the president's deceased mother and inspect the corpse's pelvic bone and birth canal.

Government Run Health Care

This is an actual quote from a "town hall meeting." How do you fight idiots?

Another Hubble Picture to Impress How Minute We Are

I think I count 8 items in this photograph that are not galaxies. This picture is of a chunk of sky about the same size as a star.

The McVeighists

I ran into this term being presented as a descriptive of the far-right gun loons: McVeighists. I'll just snag the word's usage from the thread:*

...Makes you wonder if somebody should start the American Security Foundation for Regulating the Militia Well. And we need to start calling them the McVeighists. Posted by Overreach THIS!

...Mercy me! The *REAL* history of militia in Whiskey Rebellion is that a bunch of insurrectionists didn't want to pay a tax. So, like these modern-day McVeighists, they took up arms against the United States government, i.e., a terrorist "militia." The United States used well-regulated troops (*not* seditionist wackaloons) under George Washington, fortunately, to successfully put down the treasonous "militia." ... Posted by Overreach THIS!

The McVeighists is very, very good. As in "There's way right, and then there's McVeigh right."

Or, if that's too subtle: " The McVeighists. Polite society brought to you by the people who blew up a day care center full of kids." Posted by erica

I agree, Erica, that we need to go there. That's who these people are. With their watering the tree of liberty by killing people. Domestic enemy is good, too. Let's try some honesty. "The McVeighists and our other domestic enemies." Posted by Overreach THIS!

*Found in the really excellent comments for this article. Starting with this one (read the whole thread if you have time).

Like Alice Down the Healthcare Hole

John Stewart's full interview with Betsy McCaughey, one of the main sources of lies against the Clinton healthcare program, and now the source of the "Death Panel" lies. Through the fucking looking glass, no doubt. This will eat up over 16 minutes of your life but it's well worth watching Stewart defend sanity and rational thought.

Exclusive - Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 1

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Exclusive - Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 2

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Congress Deadlocked Over How To Not Provide Health Care

Leaders on both sides of the aisle try to hammer out an agreement on fucking over Americans.

WASHINGTON—After months of committee meetings and hundreds of hours of heated debate, the United States Congress remained deadlocked this week over the best possible way to deny Americans health care.

"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It’s a very complicated issue."

"Ultimately, though, it's our responsibility as lawmakers to put these differences aside and focus on refusing Americans the health care they deserve," Pelosi added.

cont'd at The Onion

Heil Hitler, She Said

A white "teabagger" woman yells, "Heil Hitler" at a Jewish man at a town hall. I wonder what it's like to be an adult but think and act like a thirteen year old.

Still Wrecking Cars...

...at least in the last frame, anyway.

The Blackwater Problem

I have been suspicious of the move to use private contractors for government work (especially military) since the days of Reagan. It appears to be cheaper only on paper. For instance rather than have a buck private drive a truck we pay a private contractor over $100,000/year to do it. Instead of training and deploying army electricians on bases in war zones we hire KBR at outrageous rates who then electrocute our soldiers. Perhaps the most bothersome is that security for the State Department as well as the army (which confuses the crap out of me. Shouldn't soldiers be the best people to provide security?) is provided by the shadowy mercenary company Blackwater (renamed to Xe Services). We are allowing civilians to operate for profit in war zones with fully armored vehicles, automatic weapons, and apparently little or no culpability for their actions.

And now the inimitable Jeremy Scahill has dug up this frightening story:

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
...
...the former US marine who worked for Blackwater in Iraq alleges that he has "learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former colleagues that one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in suspicious circumstances." Identified as "John Doe #1," he says he "joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel." It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working with the company as he states he is "scheduled to deploy in the immediate future to Iraq." Like Doe #2, he states that he fears "violence" against him for "submitting this Declaration." No further details on the alleged murder(s) are provided. The Nation

Not only are these people war profiteers and mercenaries, they're also religious crusaders and zealots. The damage that the Christian Right has managed to do to the integrity of our government and military during the rein of King George the Shrub is deep and systemic. Can we weed these people out and shut them down? They are at war with the American way of life while claiming to be protecting it. Fascism wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross...

The Lou Dobbs Problem

The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.

- “The Mindscape of Alan Moore” (2003) via uncertain times