I will not support Hillary Clinton for president
January 20, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas — I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

Go read the whole thing here. Tributes abound ’round the internets; try here, and here, and here.

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Tagged: Molly Ivins Hillary Clinton George W. Bush politics 2008 elections

Yeah, you. You totally suck.

Charges: Your whole life has been a pitiful exercise in rote mimicry, a meek subjugation of individuality in exchange for herd approval. Your delusions of “common sense” wisdom stem from an unwillingness to seek information and an inability to critically analyze it. You never hesitate to offer strong opinions on subjects you don’t know a damn thing about. You’re willing to believe anything a guy in a suit says on TV, as long as it doesn’t hint at your culpability in the negligent homicide of your country and planet or otherwise cloud your streak-free conscience. You’re more worried about friction on the “Desperate Housewives” set than the lack of health coverage at your tedious, soul-destroying job. You have no idea what is going on in the world, and you’re fine with that. You are why democracy doesn’t work.

Exhibit A: You’re Time magazine’s person of the year. So was Hitler.

Sentence: More of the same.

And so does your Jesus.

Charges: May not have existed, and if he did, probably wasn’t even American, but more of a dark-hued Jewish dwarf. A hygienically challenged hairball who rarely bathed or brushed his teeth. If alive today, he’d appropriately be branded as schizophrenic and disregarded by society. Sermon on the Mount was the very definition of socialism, and subsequently an affront to the self-regulating benevolence of the free market. An appeasing, cheek-turning pussy like this would never cut the mustard in America today.

Exhibit A: Contrary to prevailing pop theology, absolutely everyone, including the sheepishly devout, will be “left behind” at the apocalypse and forced to endure what biblical scholars estimate to be from 3 to 7 years of “hell on earth” before scoring that golden bus ticket to the gated community in the sky. Kind of a dick move, no?

Sentence: Second coming completely ignored, as it happens to coincide with Brangelina’s wedding.

So says The Beast, and who am I to disagree?

Obligatory end-of-the-year list here.

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Tagged: The Beast list 2006 loathsome Americans Dick Cheney Jesus you politics inaction

 

 
Full list here.

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Tagged: beer Jesus Christian xian godbaggers Flickr top ten

I haven’t had a chance to take any (decent) pics of the furballs lately, so we have a guest dog this week: “Pugsly Napoleon Cutie-Pants Pazu, Ph. D., M.D., D.V.M, J.D., C.P.A., D.D.S., Order of the British Empire, winner of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes.”
 

 
You can see more of Pugsly over at his father Dunechaser’s photostream.
 
Now on to the carnivals:

* Carnival of Satire 63

* Carnival of Hurricane Relief 72

* Carnival of Education 103

* Carnival of the Decline of Democracy 2.2

* Books Carnival 1

* Carnival of the Godless 58

* Carnival of the Green 61

* Erase Racism Carnival 8

* Carnival of Snark 25

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Tagged: Friday Random Cuteness carnivals link dump dog canine pug

 

 

(Via.)

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Tagged: you+tube religion god godbagger christianity

A few weeks ago, NARAL sent out an action alert to their list of subscribers inviting readers to “Share Your Story”:

In honor of the 34th anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade decision, tell us why you are pro-choice.

Maybe you had a poignant experience with friends at your first pro-choice march or rally, a memorable conversation with a close female relative about a woman’s right to privacy, or encountered difficulties firsthand when trying to access abortion care or other reproductive-health service where you live.

Tell us your story by filling out the form below.

My submission was short and sweet: “My body, my choice. End of story.”

It should be the end of the story, anyway. Ideally, the discussion would start and end with “My body, my choice.” No further explanation necessary. And you don’t have to be a hairy-legged, man-hating, fetus-eating feminazi to understand that, if men were the ones carrying The Baybeez! to term, “My body, my choice” would be the end of the logical line.

(Of course, you could also argue that pregnant men would make for matriarchal society, since the time spent incapacitated by pregnancy and saddled with dependents is a large part of what’s held women down, but that a whole nother discussion.)

But they aren’t. And it’s not. And here we are, blogging for choice.

There are dozens of reasons why I’m pro-choice. Some are selfish: I’m not particularly fond of baybeez, and if I were to ever accidentally find myself with child, I’d abort it in a metaphorical heartbeat. Even if I were sterile, though, and the issue of choice didn’t affect me personally, I’d still want that right for other women. It’s a matter of basic human rights: no one, male or female, should be required to surrender their body, in whole or part, to another. So-called “pro-lifers” (who in reality aren’t very “pro-life” at all) would never even consider legislation that forces parents to donate their organs to ailing children; why, then, is it perfectly acceptable to demand that women hand over their bodies to unborn, non-sentient feti?

In one word: misogyny.

It’s all about punishing women who dare to have teh sex. It’s about control; controlling women’s sexuality, regulating their power, usurping their autonomy. About claiming their very bodies. Dehumanizing them and treating them like livestock.

“Pro-life” rhetoric is oftentimes framed in religious terms. Yet, I find such arguments disingenuous at best. “Pro-lifers” are more likely to identify as political conservatives who support the war in Iraq; oppose universal health care; and embrace tax breaks for the rich and disapprove of social programs that help those struggling with poverty, mental illness, unemployment, drug addiction, etc. In other words, in all but the sexual arena, these so-called “pro-life Christians” are quite un-Christlike.

Like religion itself, forced pregnancy is more about controlling women than honoring “God”.

Of course, our Constitution also guarantees the separation of church and state - meaning that religious anti-choice arguments are irrelevant in the “abortion wars”. If your God says that abortion is immoral, that’s fine by me. You have every right to follow your own religious mandates (as long as they don’t harm other living - and by “living”, I mean “born” - beings), just as I have every right to follow my secular humanist mandates. And neither of us has the right to force our own choices on the other.

My body, my choice. End of story.
 

 
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Tagged: blog+for+choice blogging+for+choice repro+rights abortion pro-choice feminism feminist religion misogyny animalswomen

Seeing as I can’t lay down for more than five minutes without feeling like I’m drowning in my own snot, and slaveboy isn’t here to pamper me*, I’m not really in the mood for cuteness today.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
 

 
Yeah, that’s about right.

Now for them carnivals:

* Carnival of the Green 60

* Carnival of Hurricane Relief 71

* Brain Fitness 1

* Carnival of Satire 62

* Carnival of Feminists 30

* Carnival of the Liberals 30

* Carnival of Education 102

* Carnival Against Sexual Violence 15

* History Carnival 46

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* Supposedly he’s bringing me back a few dozen Vegan! Donuts!, in which case, all will be right in my world come Sunday.

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Tagged: friday+random+cuteness carnivals link+dump ugliest+dog dog canine

Coming soon eventually to a theater near you (if you’re a New Zealander) - The Violence of the Lambs:

Pair this with Mad Cowgirl, and you’ve got yourself one sa-weet double feature at the drive-in.

Time for me to get the flock to bed.

(Via.)

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Tagged: animals animal+rights animals+fight+back you+tube sheep movies new+zealand

“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher. The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD.”

- Concerned parent and godidiot Frosty Hardison, on the screening of Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in Federal Way, Washington classrooms. Unsurprisingly, the School Board voted to teach the controversy.

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Tagged: quotes al+gore an+inconvenient+truth education school godbaggers christianity end+times global+warming

“The prospect of a virulent flu to which we have absolutely no resistance is frightening. However, to me, the threat is much greater to the poultry industry. I’m not as worried about the U.S. human population dying from bird flu as I am that there will be no chicken to eat.”

- The executive editor of Poultry magazine, in a 2005 editorial, as quoted by Michael Greger in Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.

FYI: The good folks at Lantern Books sent me a copy of Bird Flu to review on easyVegan.info, and seeing as I just finished it today, a review and discussion should be coming soon. Keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, you can read the entire tome for free online. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’ve got a chance. Or, um, even if you don’t. Scary shit.

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Tagged: quotes animals animal+rights animal+welfare poultry birds bird+flu avian+flu priorities capitalism