Life is Stranger than Fiction

They just identified the 9 year old girl who was shot today at the Gabrielle Giffords event as Christina Taylor Green. The irony of it is she was born on 9/11/2001 and died today 1/8/2011 (1+8=9) at the hands of an insane terrorist. I suppose all terrorists are insane to some degree. No sane person would fly a plane into a building, or shoot a 9 year old girl.



Such senseless violence, and for why? Because a psychopath was upset with our government? Even if the government is flawed is that any reason to kill people? I feel so sorry for the neighbor who invited her to attend the event, I'm sure they blame themselves in a way even though it isn't their fault.

A Terrorist by Any Other Name

They say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. And apparently that is the truth since some right-wing wackos are lauding Joe Stack as a hero. Joe decided that he was mad at the government and the IRS and flew a plane into a building housing the IRS in Austin.

You see, all terrorists are pretty much the same. They are mad at "the man" (the government, or other power) and want to strike out at it. Except that usually they never hurt what it is they're mad at. Stack didn't hurt the government at all. Just like the terrorists on 9/11 who flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They were mad at our government too. But in both instances, neither party hurt the government at all. All they accomplished was hurting innocent people and destroying the lives of those close to them.

Apparently Joe decided that our laws didn't apply to him at some point about thirty years ago and tried to get out of paying taxes. And you know what they say about fighting the law. It wins. The thing that really gets me, is that he was complaining about the government taking everything, but if he had just been a law abiding citizen and paid his taxes, he probably would have done well for himself. How many people can afford to own planes? And he owned a house too, in Austin, in a fairly nice neighborhood. I mean, seriously. He obviously wasn't poor, but by breaking the law and trying to avoid paying taxes, he lost, and in more ways than one.

People who think that by perpetrating violence on innocent people, that it will accomplish something, are seriously fucked up in the head. And those who think that this idiot is a hero, are as fucked up as he was. I suggest if they don't like living in a free and democratic society, where taxes pay for services like the fire department and the police, they should scurry off somewhere, perhaps to a deserted island and form their own country and leave mine the hell alone.

"Rudy and the Big Lie"

Sounds like it could be the title of a blockbuster movie huh?

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

*Sigh* It really makes Goebbels look like an amateur.

Oh, and Rudy here is a frickin' mathematician, 6 days is less than 10. Really? I would have never known that.





Just keep saying it.* The chattel will love you for it.

*"it" being 9/11

Republicans are Racist Bastards (but we knew that)

Of course the Republicans are kicking and screaming over Sotomayor. It's not enough that she's a woman, but she's a Hispanic woman! The Republican reaction?

Republicans: Oh noes!!11!!1! The colored people are wanting equality again and are gaining important positions, even the Presidency! :'( Drat! Our evil scheme is coming undone...

So now they're saying that she's associated with an "extremist" group. Apparently if you're associated with a right-wing extremist group though it's not a problem, and how dare you say anything bad about them, especially if they're infiltrating our military. {/sarcasm}

At any rate, I hardly call the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund an extremist group. They're like the NAACP... but I suppose the Republicans don't have the cojones to call the NAACP an extremist group because they'd have Jesse Jackson protesting outside their offices. I guess the Hispanics are just a little too mellow for that.

Hispanic Rights Group at Center of Sotomayor Fight

Conservatives have called the group's stances on capital punishment and abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, "extreme" and "shocking."...

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, used the word "extreme" to describe the PRLDEF's views on capital punishment and race...

So, what it boils down to is that this group supports rights for minorities and women, the enemies of the rich, white guys in the Republican party. Since the Republicans have no leg to stand on and nothing of substance to run on (and no brains I dare say either) they have to paint their enemies with the "terrorist brush." They basically have equated PRLDEF with extremists and terrorists in their opposition to Sotomayor. They did the same thing with Obama, so I suppose it should come no surprise to anyone that they should go as far as to paint Sotomayor with that same brush as well.

The Shoe on the Other Foot: Or How to Sue the DHS Over Nothing

I wound up with another right-wing wacko newsletter in my inbox this morning, this one from Townhall. Titled "Stop Janet Napolitano's War Against Americans and Our Constitution," it says that the Thomas More Law Center has filed a suit against Janet Napolitano for infringing on their first and fifth amendment rights (huh?), and they'd like for you to send them money, it's tax deductible. You know, I really think that some people should have their tax exempt status revoked when they pull shit like this. But whatever, the point is, they're mad because they lost and there's a black guy in the White House, so now they have to go and waste money on frivolous lawsuits over perceived slights against their freedom. The rant is long, incoherent and convoluted, but here's a snippet of it:

Why has Janet Napolitano diverted public attention from the real acts of terrorism in our country, which she now refers to as "man-caused disasters"? And why is she so willing to use the word "terrorist" to describe law-abiding Americans?

The truth is that Janet Napolitano is threatening Americans who disagree with the policies of the Obama administration to "Shut Up or else."

Would you ever have imagined our own government targeting as terrorists our returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who placed themselves in harms way to defend our country?

Would you ever have imagined our own government would target citizens based on their political and moral beliefs such as opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, or the social programs of the Obama administration?

Gee, that's really funny. I seem to remember G.W. Bush's supporters calling people unpatriotic when they questioned the un-Constitutional things that he did. Now that we have a chance to undo the damage the neo-Cons did to the Constitution, that's suddenly against the Constitution. Yeah. Thinking about it will make your head hurt. G.W. Bush can wipe his ass with our Constitution and use the DHS to strip us of our constitutional rights such as with the warrantless wiretapping and the use of torture, and these bastards didn't care about that, but warn that some right-wing wackos á-la-Timothy-McVeigh might have cause to do others harm, and oh-my-god-the-government-is-going-to-take-away-our-rights!

And all of this because she said that right-wing extremists might *try* to recruit veterans. This would seem like a joke if it weren't so troubling. The judge will probably throw it out as groundless, but you have to ask yourself this, why are these people so upset over the assessment that right-wing extremists are a danger to our democracy and safety? Unless Napolitano hit a nerve. Actually if you take into consideration all the right-wing wackos screaming for secession and the violent overthrow of a duly elected government, and thinly or not-at-all-masked neo-Nazi militias who want a white Christian America, you might see that perhaps Napolitano isn't so far off the mark.