If We Had Wanted More Republicans…

Please follow directions. by tread @ Flickr

…we’d have voted for them, damn it.  We didn’t.  We voted for you.

In 2006, We The People of the United States of America, as a group, decided we had finally had enough of the raping of the Constitution by the Republican party.  In no uncertain terms we threw them down from their high and lofty pedestal of power, from whence they had been dictating this republic into a theocracy.

It should have told you something.  Apparently, you’re as deaf as a rock to the subtleties of a sea-change election.  Let me make this a little more clear for you then.

Stop.  Get up off your knees, Congresspeople and Senators of These United States.  The time for sychophancy and capitulation is long over.  The man in the White House is no longer the defacto dictator in these parts.  You are not required to march to the beat of his drum.

Get us out of Iraq.  Now.  Not later.

Desist supporting the hair-brained religious pandering, the head-in-the-sand sex mis-education programs, the promotion of mythology over reality, and the invasion of our most intimate moments.  Get out of our bedrooms, and get Jesus out of our legal system, our marriage laws, and our taxpayer supported programs.  Bring back the secular republic our forefathers bled and died for, and so meticulously set up for us.

End the “Domestic Surveillance Program“, which is clearly a violation of the Constitution.  You remember that thing, right?  The piece of paper that stands as a wall betwixt us and him?  The supreme law of the land that he’s been ignoring since he took up residency in the nation’s capital?  Remember that?  Remember your promises to us that you would put an end to his shredding of the contents of that document?

Apparently, a bunch of you forgot all that stuff, that cool November night the election results came in.

Fortunately, we didn’t.  And equally fortunately, some of us are about to remind you.

From whence came the art:

That image it titled Please follow directions, by tread, and is licensed by the artist under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 license.

Filed under: Antiscience, Biology, Education, Equality, Fundies, Peace, Politics, Rants, Religion, Science, Sex , Get off your knees now., Impeach Bush, Liberty and Justice for All, Republican War on the Constitution, Stand up and be counted, Stop Capitulating, The Glorified Houseplanet Who Would Be Caesar, Where are the Democrats we elected?

Who Would Jesus Vote For in ‘08? The Republican Edition

A peek above our garters to Kevin at the church for this:

I find it really odd that Christians are Conservative Republicans, when the Republican Party platform is so at odds with the teachings of Jesus. That video ain’t the half of it.

Jesus was a hippy, a flaming liberal. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that he’d be well left of the Democrats. You’re not likely to hear that mentioned much at all in any church I’ve ever been to, though.

I’m going to talk seriously about religion here for a moment so if that bores you it’s time to stop reading, but it bears directly on the political discussion.

(It’s below the fold.)

Filed under: Blogs In Our MonkeySphere, Entertainment, Friends, Fundies, Peace, Politics, Religion, Video, YouTube , JanieBelle for President, Jesus the Anti-Republican, Jesus the Hippy

Juxtaposition

Filed under: Images, Peace, Politics, Rants , , Priorities, War v Health Care for Children

Orbs

Via Dame WigglyButt, comes this video. I’m late, but I wanted to share anyway.

Filed under: Peace, Politics, Rants , Dick Cheney, High Crimes, Impeach, Treason

Some Things

So anyone else think His Holiness, The Glorified Houseplant Who Would Be Caesar is watching the goings on in Pakistan and drooling all over the notes he’s taking?

Elizabeth over at SitPS brings us the good news/bad news on Genarlow Wilson and the ENDA situation, and Chris gives us the naked truth on Barbie Porn.

Two of my favorite science blogs are in the running for Best Science Blog of 2007. Go vote for BadAstronomy or Pharyngula, if you love your momma, apple pie, beer, and good sex. If you don’t, the terrorists will win.

[ETA - Too late, they did.]

The space shuttle Discovery went up, it came down, it’s safe and sound. Going ’round the earth in circles seems kind of pointless to me, though. I’d much rather we work on a way to zip on over to 55 Cancri f, where a fifth planet has been found around the very sun-like star. It’s in the habitable zone, but about Neptune sized so it’s probably not much like Earth. It’s probably perfect for the Transgendered Purple Octopus Aliens, though. Y’all thought I was kidding about them, didn’t ya’?

The Flyboys are much improved over last year. They’re gonna kick some butt this year. Uncle Kev the sports machine is picking them for the cup. The Eagles, not so much. The Phils dudded. Other than the dreamboats on ice, it’s sucking to be a Philadephia sports fan these days. (I don’t follow basketball, and I despise the Eagles, but I feel for Uncle Kev. He had such high hopes for the birds this year.)

Matt flings some poo at this new classic from perennial nutjob MinTheGap, who tells us that if there is such a thing as Global Warming, it’s just God using the weather to draw our attention to our sin. That guy’s so far out there, he’s half-way to 55 Cancri.

Blake Stacey cracks me up.

Criss Angel exposes a fraud on TV, Rebecca tells us as she recovers from a nasty shiner. Ouch. My own eye hurts from just looking at that picture!

From whence came the art:

::That image of His Holiness, The Glorified Houseplant Who Would Be Caesar is called Morph: George W. Bush and Nero, and was created using Morpher by Flickr user Wm Jas::

Filed under: Astronomy, Biology, Blogs In Our MonkeySphere, Education, Equality, Family, Flyers, Friends, Fundies, Hockey, Peace, Politics, Rants, Religion, Science, Science Links, Sex, Sports , Random goings on

Single Best Rememberance I’ve Read Today

In memory of the people who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11^th, 2001, Kevin says Fuck That.

I don’t have anything to say about 9/11 except fuck.

I don’t care whether the massacre of 9/11 was the work of Osama or Bush, it was a political act to achieve a political goal. Fuck that.

Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons died that day. Just to make a point. Fuck that.

Amen, brother.

Filed under: Blogs In Our MonkeySphere, Friends, Peace, Politics, Rants

I Guess We All Know Where This Is Going

The full article at CNN is excerpted below:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Coalition raids aimed at disrupting the flow of weapons and fighters between Iraq and Iran resulted in at least 20 militants killed early Monday in eastern Iraq, according to a statement from the U.S. military.

Coalition aircraft were called in to strafe fighters who attacked Coalition troops in Amarah and Majjar al-Kabir, two Shiite cities in the Mayson province bordering Iran, the military said.

“During the close air support, at least 20 terrorists were killed and six suspected terrorists were assessed to be wounded by the strafing,” the military said. “A vehicle being used by the terrorists as a fighting position was also destroyed by the close air support.”

Coalition forces captured militants who are “believed to be members of the secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training,” the military said.

The military said it has intelligence reports indicating that Amarah and Majjar al-Kabir are safe havens and smuggling routes for terrorists to import Iranian weapons into Iraq for the insurgency.

Any questions?  Any doubts how this will turn out?  Any bets on how long it takes for Dubya to expand the invasion across the border?

I suppose it was inevitable, given the current administration here, the direction the war has gone there, the political climate in both places.

It’s entirely plausible that Iran is feeding weapons to the fundamentalist insurgency there, but considering the track record of the Bush Corporation regarding intelligence and policy, it’s certainly not a given.   Either way, it’s just the sort of thing to wind up allowing He Who Would Be Caesar to invade Iran and claim we were attacked first.

Even a con-artist psychic (I know, somewhat redundant there) can predict where this is going.

What a depressing way to begin the week.

(Note:  I may work on The Lilith Quotient again today, in which case I may be less than responsive here and elsewhere around the blogosphere.  Just so y’know.)

Filed under: Peace, Politics, Rants

Politicians Actually Responding?

I don’t know about you, but I was pretty pissed when the Democrats rolled over and stuck their asses in the air for He Who Would Be Caesar on the timetable/funding bill a few weeks ago.

The Democrats were elected on a mandate to get us out of Iraq.  We don’t belong there, we’re only making things worse there, we never belonged there in the first place, and we were lied to to get us there.  At this point, anyone with even a tenuous grasp on reality should be calling for criminal charges to be filed against the war criminal who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Somehow however,  the party that promised to give our country back to us forgot about that promise.  While that itself is unsurprising, the speed at which they forgot certainly was.

Apparently, they have been reminded by the loud public outcry over the last month or so.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Democrats will once again try to impose timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday.

Reid said Democrats will use a defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2008 as a vehicle to revive two Iraq timetable amendments that they pushed unsuccessfully during a fight over Iraq funding in May.

The first, sponsored by Reid and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would set a goal of beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops by April 2008, unless the Iraqi government demonstrated political and security progress. However, President Bush would have the power to waive that requirement.

The second, sponsored by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, would go further and cut off funding for the Iraq war by next April, without giving the president any flexibility to extend the mission.

“On Iraq, we’re going to hold the president’s feet to the fire,” Reid said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

While I’m sure it’s too much to ask to hope for impeachment hearings and really hold his feet to the fire, it’s at least a start in the right direction.

Filed under: Peace, Politics, Rants

Cindy Sheehan Throws In The Towel

In disappointment, in disgust, in dejection, Cindy Sheehan announced today that she’s packing up and going home.

After her son Casey was killed in the war in Iraq, Cindy set up camp in Crawford, Texas down the road from the Bush “ranch” to protest the war. She demanded to see and talk to the President regarding the war, but was unsurprisingly rebuffed and ignored by He Who Would Be Caesar.

She stood her ground and fought the good fight, founded an organization called Gold Star Families for Peace, and I dare say played no small role in making it socially acceptable for patriots to speak out loudly and publicly against the illegal and insane debacle which is our involvement in Iraq.

But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.

She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said “often puts personal egos above peace and human life.”

As The Boy mentioned in our local ENCToday forum,

…it is rather distressing to realize that politicians (of whatever stripe) are not beholden to the voters to keep the promises they made to get themselves elected. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a Representative Republic.

We feel your pain, Cindy. It’s totally understandable that you feel so frustrated, disappointed, and disillusioned. Democrats were overwhelmingly elected in November to end the war, and when the chips were down they folded like Tyson in the Buster Douglas fight.

It’s disgusting.

We’ll miss you, Cindy.  You’ve left some rather large shoes to fill.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  -Margaret Mead

Filed under: Peace, Politics, Rants

The Chicks Online!

A peek above our garters to Damewigginsoflee (I affectionately think of her as Dame Wiggly Bottom) for this.  I had no idea this would be online.

A while back I posted about the Dixie Chicks and their vindication at the Grammy Awards.

Here’s the song of the year, from YouTube.

Filed under: Entertainment, Equality, Peace, Politics, Video