Charles Black, a top McCain adviser, said that a new terrorist attack “certainly would be a big advantage to [McCain].”

Ever wonder why there are 9/11 conspiracy theories all over the place?  Ever wonder where they get their ammunition?  Let’s look at the list:

• Government officials acting as if they’re hiding something
• Blocking investigations
• Refusing to testify
• Mishandling evidence
• Lying about trivial things
• Lying about important things
• Refusing to answer questions
• NEW:  Making cynical, dumbass statements like this.

Looks like Mr. Black let the cat out of the bag, confirming many long-held suspicions that the Republicans are lusting after another 9/11 to legitimize their wars, their military budget and agenda, their grievous attack on civil liberties and the consolidation of power in the Executive Branch.  That’s to say nothing of all the Halliburtons out there who would benefit from exclusive, no-bid government contracts for billions of dollars.

I think the fact that this guy wasn’t immediately terminated for the statement reinforces my opinion on the matter.  It’s as if the Cons are saying,”why bother?  They already know, we’re not fooling anyone.”  Fortunately for the CT’s, if we do get attacked between now and November, this statement gives them another argument to support their case:  a motive.  Good job, dumbass.

Ingredient: A Dash of Relief

The primary season is finally over! Thanks Hillary for saying you’ll support Barack Obama. You’ve run an incredibly bitter and negative campaign, and liberals everywhere thank you for aiming your cannons across the aisle for a change. Please, don’t play the veepstakes. That small percentage of extremely vocal and stunningly obnoxious supporters who say they’ll vote for McCain are now saying they wouldn’t vote for Obama even if you were on the ticket. They’re the weak-minded morons I have repeatedly described, and the Republicans are playing them like a fiddle. So please, let it go.

Yeah, yeah, party unity. I’m not interested in prolonging the division, but after running the kind of ruthless, cutthroat operation we’ve suffered over the last 4 months (let’s face it, February was when things turned ugly), she’s the one who need to make amends and redeem herself. To be honest, I hope she does. She could be a great asset to the Party and the country, but first she needs to lick her wounds and swallow her pride. Additionally, any Obama supporters who start pouring salt on said wounds by gloating should throw themselves off a bridge, right now.

Ingredient: A Healthy Smattering of Sleaze

I’ve got to hand it to the Republicans, who are proving to be every bit as stubborn and tenacious as the Clinton campaign was. I mean, seriously: internet trolls? That’s their strategy? It makes sense that the only thing they have to rely on are smear tactics, spreading rumors and subterfuge (let’s not be coy, they’re frauds). What else can they use? They set the standard for epic failure on issues like policy and record, and they know it.

For all you Vonsters and Dittoheads out there who believe Limbaugh’s crap that “the Democrats gave us McCain,” as justification for your fraudulent little campaign, read the “frauds” link. It wasn’t us who gave you John McCain. Sans Michigan and Florida, we were too busy making sure our favorite got the Democratic nomination to bother with foiling your plans. Maybe what Limbaugh and his followers have failed to realize is that they’ve become irrelevant. They failed to realize that they, not the “liberals,” are the problem and people are sick of their shit. They might have a few reasons to be bitter.

In short, the Republicans are going to lose because they deserve to lose. Cry about it somewhere else.

Ingredient - Road Rage.

I’m expanding my targets of gas price-related anger. Instead of focusing on a few, I’m going to spread my anger evenly on all those responsible, including the oil companies, the speculators, the GOP and the ones I get to deal with most, BFV drivers.

Big. Fuckin’. Vehicle.

Nothing bothers me more than seeing a BFV capable of hauling steel beams to a construction site in the bed of the truck, yet not have a single scratch on it. Why does this bother me? They don’t fucking need it! Get a car. Get a smaller truck, hell, get a Chevy Blazer. They drive well, they’re spacious, the gas mileage is better, and you don’t look cartoonish getting in or out of one. The bottom line: if you don’t use a truck for work, don’t buy a goddamn work truck, dumbass.

Then there are the BFV drivers who have no courtesy or regard for others on the road. As I sit here trying to imagine the elitist attitude and sense of entitlement of those who would purchase one of these things, I can’t what is going through the mind of one of these miscreants as they pull into a gas station and neglect to pull into the far end of the pumps, thus forcing you to go around them, missing the pump they should have used because of the width of the turn you had to make due to the unnecessary size of their vehicle.

I got to experience this last night, and for the last time, I swear. The cocksucker in the drivers seat, naturally, was the only one riding in their 10 mpg vehicle. Great. They come out wearing nicely tailored garments undoubtedly made from linens skillfully crafted at the hands of a 7 year old working in a garage-turned-factory on the outskirts of Calcutta. I finished pumping gas and went inside to pay.

After waiting in line for about five minutes, the same shithead cuts in front of me in line. I responded with a booming voice that wasn’t quite a yell, but designed to be loud and imposing,”EXCUSE ME I WAS STANDING IN LINE FIRST,” then stepped in front of them. If the fucker would have said anything, I’d have been more than happy to give them a pipe wrench polish on their BFV as soon as I stepped out the door. Assholes.

When they’re not cutting me off, trying to hit me or doing something completely rude, my encounters with BFV’s and their owners tend to be benign. When gas is at $4/gallon, the economy is in the shitter, our illegal invasion is going terrible and the asshole in the BFV has a GOP election sticker on their bumper, I tend to get a little less friendly.

Most of the time when I see someone driving a BFV, I simply think,”Nice SUV. Sorry about your penis.”

As an aside, can anyone tell my why the fuck there are so many Impala’s on the road? I can’t drive for 5 minutes without seeing the ugly ass-end of one of these things staring me in the face.

Ingredient: 1 lb of Satisfaction

After running the most positive campaign I can recall, Barack Obama came out swinging in the GE. Now the crybaby pisspants Republicans are whining about it by calling him a hypocrite. Why? Because it’s “politics as usual” and “negative campaigning.”

Really? I haven’t seen any ad hominem by the Obama camp. I’ve seen some propagandistic comparisons to “Bush’s third term,” but nothing serious. In fact, almost every attack has to do with McCain’s stance on the issues and, by extension, calling his election Bush’s third term does a pretty good job at summing it up.

What the wingnuts are really saying is “you can’t attack us, period.” I can see why they’d adopt this attitude, considering how their shitty policies led us to an illegal war and an economic recession while letting companies run amok with little or no regulation and are thereby directly responsible for the fix we’re in.

They’re certainly not pulling any punches though. They’ve already called Obama a liar. Then there’s the internet trolls and his shameless speech last Tuesday, in which he criticized Obama’s proposals while repeatedly lying through his dentures. Ooh, a point-by-point with the transcript could be fun…

Ingredient: Republicans are fucking scary.

It seems the average Conservative is still excessively bad at making a case for… well, for anything, really. Take, for instance, your average dittohead troll:

It’s the same old spill from liberal bloggers. They are blinded to the facts. Obama is not a reliable candidate. He has not even finished his term at present. Do you think if there were a higher office he would quit the presidency to run for it? There is not a higher office in America. Maybe they do agree with his voting record, as short as it is. To associate MCcain with the klan is completely ignorant on their behalf. His record shows bipartisan efforts. Obama’s does not. McCain’s past shows strong leadership and reform. Obama’s does not. Of course it does not matter to the leftist. They will continue to attack based on their biased,bigotted forum.

This is an excellent example of what I’m referring to. The have a penchant for making broad-based, absolute statements. They state them as if they were set in stone, factual and unchanging. What’s terrifying about it is that they never question themselves. They say what, but they never, ever, ever say why. “They are blinded to the facts.” How? “Obama is not a reliable candidate. He has not even finished his term at present.” Why does that make him unreliable? “Do you think if there were a higher office he would quit the presidency to run for it?” Moot question, implications appeal to ones ignorance rather than their reason. “There is not a higher office in America.” No shit? Was this written by a fourth grader? There is one higher office you Cons recognize: CEO. “Maybe they do agree with his voting record, as short as it is.” Who agrees? Are you talking about this voting record? John McCain has his share of No Votes too, buddy.

The rest of it is just too goofy to mention. Obama, for instance, had a reputation for getting the other side involved at the state level. McCain, if you read the news, has turned out to be a political wind vane. Whichever way the wind is blowing, especially around an election, John McCain is sure to follow.

This, I think, is why I want to be an educator, especially at the college level. Maybe, just maybe I can lead someone to reason before they become assimilated. At the very least, it would be a victory to get someone to reason with themselves to at least express why they think that way, instead of just presenting their opinion to the world. Saying why you think someone is a communist is worth far more than simply stating that you think they’re a communist. Better still is to logically demonstrate how your reasons are valid. Not a single one of the conservative dipshits who’ve left comments on my blog have done this, but I’d shake the hand of one who finally does.

The sad thing is, this comment was one of the better ones! Blows ol’ Vonster right out of the water. Sure, it reads like it was written by a third grader, but at least the person was trying.

…apparently forgot to renew his domain name.

Bill, this Bud’s for you:

Might as well update this with what I had in the comments, since they basically tell my theory on what happened.

A) He let it expire on accident. I don’t think it would be on purpose, as he gave no indication that he was leaving the blogosphere.

B) Some scumbag ad company picked up his domain as soon as it had expired and want to charge him exorbitant amounts to “buy” it back from them. This would probably have to be settled in court, as is usually the case with scumbag companies.

C) Someone “hacked” his site by using a scumbag registrar to pick up the domain the very moment it expired, similar to what happened with Al Jazeera after the dead U.S. soldier photos controversy. This isn’t really hacking–it’s fraud.

D) He just didn’t pay the bill.

—

I checked the whois information, and the contact for the domain is the same as of 10:40am today. The domain was set to expire on the 14th (Monday), but is marked as updated on the 15th. Now it is not set to expire until 4/14/2009.

I guess the real answer to what happened lies with Mr. Dennis. If he registered using enom.com, he should be in the clear. If he didn’t, well, looks like someone else did.

UPDATE:

Upon further investigation, it seems his site WAS snatched up by one of these scumbag ad companies, called nuseek.com. They have almost 85000 other websites registered under their IP.

Bill, if you need some temporary hosting, I’ve got plenty of space. You’ve got my email address.

This entry now falls into another category: scumbaggery.

UPDATE:

Bill has the story on how it went down here.

But it looks like I was right–the domain expired and some scumbag company picked it up.

UPDATE:

Yay, a happy ending!

Consistently, I see polls that show smart people supporting Obama and, well, not stupid people, but less educated ones supporting Clinton. To wit:

Clinton continues to lead among women, whites, voters older than 45 and those without college degrees. Obama leads among men, blacks, voters with college degrees and those under 45.

Old. White. Feminists. That’s where Clinton leads. Just priceless.

After beginning to read through Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father,” I’ve really begun to put a more human face on the superstar Senator. This book makes him more knowable and I highly recommend it so far. Up to this point it has talked about race, but it isn’t preachy or guilt-ridden like some other books I’ve read.

The reason I’ve decided to blog is to address, yet again, the Clintonian brand of hypocrisy that causes me to wonder why anyone can take her seriously.

Earlier this month I went on about how Hillary remarked that this is one of the most positive campaigns she’s ever participated in. When I see that, I see head games being played with the rest of us. Not merely “do one thing and say another,” but acting as if what you say is more real than what you’ve actually done. It is very reminiscent of what we’ve seen during the Bush administration. Bush claiming the economy is great and working how it’s supposed to, yet people are losing their homes left and right while individuals and businesses with flawless credit are being flatly denied for loans they’re fully capable of repaying. Among others, far too many for me to list here while keeping on-topic.

Part of what I’ve seen from the Clinton camp has been a kind of immaturity. Thinking back to my childhood, I remember how all the petty arguments between playmates seemed to go. “You’re stupid!” “Nuh uh! You’re stupid!!” “Nuh uh!! You are!!!” One thing I’ve observed on several occasions is the Clinton campaign pulling a “Nuh uh! You are!”

Take, for instance, the blatant refusal of Hillary Clinton to distance herself from Geraldine Ferraro after her racially charged comments concerning Senator Obama. Her denunciation of those remarks was lukewarm at best. She didn’t ask Ferraro to leave, at least publicly, and only mildly criticized statements that required a strong, decisive response.

Then, through some super-human act of contortion, Ferraro turned it around to claim that the entire fiasco–over statements she made–was somehow the fault of Barack Obama. Somehow, drawing anger from people for suggesting that the only reason Obama is where he is is because he’s black means that people are being racist towards you because you’re white? How does that even make sense? How, in any way, could this be blamed on Obama?

The response from the Clinton campaign? Silence.  I wouldn’t characterize the Clintons as racists, but it’s pretty shameful that they’re still willing to exploit the issue for power.

For the tepid reaction, prominent figures from around the country made their disdain heard. Keith Olbermann and many others accused Hillary of campaigning against Obama by acting as if he were the Democrat, and she were the Republican.

What did the Clinton campaign have to say about this? “Nuh uh, he is!” It was perhaps a week ago when I saw this claim by Clinton’s campaign manager. Do they just copy what the other side says every time they want to make a comeback?

It gets me every time how Clinton gets all high and mighty over the matter of ethics. On the matter of such she says she’s been fully vetted, thus making “vetted” the latest buzzword amongst the news crowd. Because she has been fully vetted, it is argued, she is the most electable candidate. The overtones are obvious in this one: Barack Obama hasn’t been looked into like I have, and therefore has undisclosed baggage of the ethical variety.

Is that so? Senator Obama has released his tax returns and openly addressed controversies surrounding his dealings with Tony Rezko, who is under investigation for corruption charges, as well as the controversial statements of his pastor. As a response to the claim that he hasn’t been given the rubber glove treatment by the media, the Obama camp demanded that Clinton release records of her tax returns as well as a list of financiers for the Clinton library. For this, Obama is compared to Ken Starr–a name reviled by numerous Democrats–special prosecutor whose report eventually led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

So she hasn’t been fully vetted after all. Looks like she does, in fact, have something to hide. One can only wonder how much they cook the books for her tax returns and list of donors to her husbands library before finally releasing them.

The troubling part is not that she has something to hide–the Clintons have been hiding crap for years, we expect that. It’s the sheer hypocrisy of it all. How dare Barack Obama question Hillary Clinton’s integrity, yet she does the same thing by suggesting he’s got enough skeletons in his closet to cost him the general election? Then goes on record perpetuating myths against him with statements like “(he’s not a Muslim) as far as I know” yet expects us to buy her victim facade as her campaign releases unflattering photos and digs up dirt wherever they can get it, all while claiming that the media has given him a free pass?

Where does the madness end? Does anybody really buy this shit? Oh, that’s right, she’s attracted the uneducated majority. No wonder they keep falling for it. I guess I’ve answered my own question.

So here we are, at a Congressional hearing with a House Oversight Committee into the events that led up to a recall of beef tied to a Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse in which downer cows–that is, cows that cannot walk or stand–were treated inhumanely via kicking, beating and repeated electric shock, then were sent directly to the “kill box,” illegally bypassing an inspection of the cattle by a USDA veterinarian, as mandated by law.

I only caught part of it on CSPAN today, so I had to resort to a Google news search to fill in the gaps. Naturally, media outlets like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal show more support than disdain of the meat industry. Steve Mendell, president of the company in question seemed to be at war with himself over what he was saying.

On one hand, he’s the president of the company and is under the threat of having his whole world turned upside down with the largest beef recall in history. On the other, as one panel member pointed out, he didn’t find it in his best interests to spend six minutes of his time watching the videos in question. Indeed, he claims that the first time he had seen the videos was at the hearing yesterday. Way to be prepared, guy.

Another thing that concerned panel members about his actions is that while he responded to the accusations and depictions of excessive animal cruelty by ordering cameras for the slaughterhouse within days of the charges, he didn’t order a recall of the beef, even though downer cows were said to be in the video, heading straight for the kill-box. His argument was that even though they were mere feet away from the slaughtering area, there is no video showing the downer cows actually entering the box. Certain members of the panel were aghast that he and his company were unable to connect the dots and make a reasonable assumption that the sick cows were being processed alongside the rest of the beef.

One thing he said, which I do believe, is that he did not directly view or supervise the slaughterhouse. I believe that. Why would the president of a company, whose job is mostly administrative work, go into such a facility but once in every great while? My problem with his statements is that he seemed to be claiming that the slaughterhouse was not being supervised by anyone he was asked about. Instead, he said in vague terms, to paraphrase,”I’m sure middle-management was supervising at the time.” And nobody did anything about it?

As a defense, he touted that the USDA had, in fact, been there for inspection of the facilities. Indeed, he had documentation out the wazoo. However, the panel noted that the inspection time had been scheduled in the four-hour period between times when cattle are regularly scheduled to be moved. This, according to the panel, was the absolute most crucial time for them to be observing the facility as it would have at least shown the downer cattle to have been present.

Democratic members of the panel noted that the company did not actually execute a recall until it was told to by authorities, citing the number of days that had passed between when they knew about the charges and when they were told to recall. They said that there was a clear business incentive, regardless of the health-risks to American citizens, not to recall. They’re planning to introduce legislation that would grant the authority for other food-related agencies such as the FDA to instigate a recall in situations like these, remarking that the USDA process for recalling a product is “long and involved.”

Republican panel members, naturally, were a considerable amount softer on the company’s president.

The question in my mind is why did it take so long for the recall to happen, and why didn’t the company initiate it? The obvious answer: money! I thought Mendell came off as being mostly genuine, but reserved enough to be considered questionable. I don’t think, however, that he should stand to take all the heat for this. It was the company itself that acted inappropriately by beating the shit out of cows that weren’t even fit for consumption, then processing them as if they were! It is those who oversaw the process and knew about the abuse and violations who should be held criminally accountable, as well as the employees who did the beating.

The company itself, if it hasn’t gone bankrupt from the recall, ought to be fined to the point of bankruptcy–as well as any company that knew about the danger but refused to initiate a recall on products which used the beef. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Republicans, I know what you’re thinking. “Oh great, another round of regulation by the evil liberals!” Tough shit. One company spoiled it for the rest of ‘em, proving once again that private interests, like the government, are beyond the realm of public trust. When there’s money at stake, they’re the last ones we can count on. That’s why we’re going to regulate them, whether they comply or come kicking and screaming. They just can’t be trusted, and they’ve shown us this over and over.

“This is one of the most civil and positive campaigns that I can remember.”

I can’t believe I let this slip under my radar. I also can’t believe the statement was made about the current Democratic primaries, and by Clinton, of all people. Hillary Goddamn Clinton, who has run the most negative campaign I’ve ever seen. If anyone has been paying attention this year, they know it’s been anything but positive from her side.

Obama? Way positive. Clinton? What has she attacked so far: Obama’s experience, his record, his competence, his readiness, his integrity (funding), has engaged in race-baiting, compared him to Ken Starr and refused to apologize for it, releasing embarrassing photos to propagate the Muslim characterization/falsehood, among many others. At least when someone on Obama’s side talks shit, he disowns it. His people are respectful enough to resign over things like calling Clinton a monster, but calling Obama a monster (Ken Starr) is, according to Hillary at a press conference,”a true statement.”

She really is a monster, and I’ve said it before: she’ll do whatever it takes to win, no matter how absurd. She’ll say anything to win, because this race is all about her. Hillary is in this to advance Hillary’s career, not for the good of the nation. After everything that has been said and done, I don’t see how anyone could doubt that. Don’t be surprised if this ends up in an “I told you so.”