Punditician

A place to rant about politics, the media, and especially the electorate. Much like alcohol, the electorate is both the cause of, and the solution to, all of America's problems.

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Location: Seattle, Washington

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Southerners Don't Care That They've Been Lied To

From Zogby Polling:

In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country.

Among those living in the Western states, a 52% majority favors Congress using the impeachment mechanism while just 41% are opposed; in Eastern states, 49% are in favor and 45% opposed. In the South, meanwhile, impeachment is opposed by three-in-five voters (60%) and supported by just one-in-three (34%); in the Central/Great Lakes region, 52% are opposed and 38% in favor.

Impeachment is overwhelmingly rejected in the Red States—just 36% say they agree Congress should use it if the President is found to have lied on Iraq, while 55% reject this view; in the “Blue States” that voted for Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry in 2004, meanwhile, a plurality of 48% favors such proceedings while 45% are opposed.

Southerners ("good whites") often complain about being made the butt of jokes and of receiving disproportionate amounts of unfavorable attention. Typically in this regard one will hear them say things of the form "there's racism everywhere". And literally taken, this is true. But the conclusion the "good whites" want, viz. that there's nothing special about the south, simply doesn't follow.

The Zogby information gives one good reason for continuing to hold a special place in our hearts for the south, and for southerners. In a nutshell: they don't care if their President lied to them in order to start a war that has killed 2000 Americans - many of them southern!

It's just hard to get anywhere with a group of people that feel this way - they threaten the very foundation that America is built on. By virtue of feeling this way, they are explicitly abdicating their constitutional role as a check against a variety of governmental abuses.

Rendered down, the only thing southerners care about is faggots getting married, wetbacks migrating over the border, and niggers stealing their women. Anyone who has the "right" mindset on those issues is all good with southerners. That's why, of course, southerners were all in a tizzy about Clinton's lies about sex. It was neither the lies nor the sex for southerners - they'll accept both. Rather, Clinton's sexlies were simply an opportunity to git someone who wasn't part of the club.

Now, of course, we have a White House that solicits the services of a gay male prostitute, and there's nary a peep from southerners. Now, of course, we have a President who deliberately lied to our country in order to start a war - again, nary a peep from southerners. Southerners care about neither lies nor sex per se - only about their bigoted issues. That's all.

That's why I have no respect for those on my side who jabber on and on about how "we need to reach out to the south", and "we need to try to understand the south". Fuck those fucking wussy wimps. The south is perfectly well understood, and has been for years - by anyone willing to call a spade a spade. The south has no interest in the truth. The south has no interest in justice. The south cares only about childishly holding onto its bigoted heritage.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Republicans Are Pussies - all of them

Yellow. Cowards.

From the College republicans National Convention:

A little later, Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council took the stage, noting with courageous enthusiasm, "There are some things that are worth fighting for." He proceeded to talk about the Iraq War, and some very heroic veterans (give credit where credit's due, 'sall good). Then he said, "They're giving their lives as you're giving your time."

Let's see... We have 5 female GIs blown up today, if I recall correctly... Yah - that's the same as cold-calling people to tell them about the evils of gay marriage.

You want the war? You fight the fucking war. Cowards.

Oh - who's some of you may not know who this Tony Perkins character is. There are many answers to that question, but perhaps Perkins-hearts-the-KKK is good enough:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/9/103953/1544


Bigoted cowards - that's what republicans are.

Correction: 4 servicewomen, 3 marines, and 1 sailor died. Not to mention the 11 injured women.

I wonder if Karl Rove ever walks anywhere in public? There's an awful lot of non-conservative deaths - I wouldn't feel terribly safe in public if I were him...

Friday, June 24, 2005

Just Too Priceless...

Someone said:

... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Does that remind you of anything?

Here's the source.

Your Government.... Always With Your Best Interests At Heart

So the FDA has been literally begged for over a year now to, um, test cows and enact rules aimed at preventing mad cow disease. For example, 8 months ago:

FDA must immediately close loopholes in its rules on animal feed that could allow the disease to spread,” said Michael Hansen, Ph.D., a research biologist at CU.

Predictably, republicans, and cattle ranchers, didn't care for the idea of, um, making sure that our food was incurable-disease-free. Worse yet, those very people are part of our government:

"U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle For Mad Cow:" (04/10/04): "The Department of Agriculture refused yesterday to allow a Kansas beef producer to test all of its cattle for mad cow disease, saying such sweeping tests were not scientifically warranted. Lobbying groups for cattle ranchers and slaughterhouses applauded the decision, but consumer advocates denounced it, saying the department was preventing Creekstone from taking extra steps to prove its product was safe. Under the Virus Serum Toxin Act of 1913, the department decides where cattle can be tested and for what.

You read that right. Sure, ranchers aren't typically going to be inclined to do any more testing than they absolutely have to. But it doesn't matter - even if they wanted to do more testing, they CAN'T.

The result of all of this? Predictable:

Tests Confirm Second Mad Cow Case in U.S.

What I find ironic about all of this is that the ranchers, and the republicans, thought they were protecting big business, by (a) saving them the expense of testing, and (b) saving them from the truth (no testing = no failing). But it wouldn't surprise me if, now that there's another mad cow, the American beef industry might well be headed straight to Enron-ville.

Would YOU, if you were another country, trust American beef? Did they trust British?

Thursday, June 16, 2005

The Common Denominator Is?

(1) Attractive white American women are the only missing persons the media deems worthy of screen time.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_06_12_atrios_archive.html#111885640260129528

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_06/006516.php


(2) The torture of suspects by America and its allies is not deemed worthy of criticism by the White House.

http://billmon.org/archives/001911.html


(3) Senate republicans couldn't bring themselves to apologize for not taking a stand against lynching.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/15/115756/291


(4) Both the White House and the republican Congress fought valiantly for a patient who was already dead, and both refused to lift a finger for a baby who had a real chance at living.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/06/16.html#a3472

http://www.democrats.com/node/3907


Conclusion 1: If you're white, the media, the executive, and the legislature will bend over backwards for you. If not, you're on your own.

Conclusion 2: The media, the executive, and the legislature are both put and kept in place by the American public at large. The public at large is the true source of all these phenomena.


It's both true and important to blame the individual actors in the play - gw, Rupert Murdoch, and so forth. But I think it's also very important to never forget the great, idiotic, bigoted ocean from which they draw their power.