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October 21, 2005
American racism alive and poppy!
Nobody's born a racist, but man, those white supremicists do start teaching hatred at a young age. Take 13-year old twins Lynx and Lamb (no kidding) Gaede of Bakersfield, California. Their mom and grandpa taught them to hate -- and to sing pop songs about it!
This is not a joke. ABC News has the story:
Known as "Prussian Blue" — a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes — the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine."We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."
Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."
April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs — specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.
[snip]
Songs like "Sacrifice" — a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer — clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."
[snip]
Prussian Blue supporter Erich Gliebe, operator of one of the nation's most notorious hate music labels, Resistance Records, hopes younger performers like Lynx and Lamb will help expand the base of the White Nationalist cause.
"Eleven and 12 years old," he said, "I think that's the perfect age to start grooming kids and instill in them a strong racial identity."
According to ABC, their popularity isn't exactly growing, though they did try to use HURRICANE KATRINA as an opportunity to build their fan base through handing out promotional materials along with financial donations. (I'm still not joking.)
Like many children across the country, Lamb and Lynx decided to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina — the white ones.The girl's donations were handed out by a White Nationalist organization who also left a pamphelet promoting their group and beliefs — some of the intended recipients were more than a little displeased.
After a day of trying, the supplies ended up with few takers, dumped at a local shop that sells Confederate memorabilia.
Last month, the girls were scheduled to perform at the local county fair in their hometown. But when some people in the community protested, Prussian Blue was removed from the line-up.
But even before that, April had decided that Bakersfield was not "white" enough, so she sold her home, and hopes that she and the girls can find an all-white community in the Pacific Northwest.
Racists are so...dumb.
05:15 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
October 20, 2005
Coup d'etat, Cheney-style
Colin Powell's chief of staff, a career soldier, a Republican, and a booster of President George H. W. Bush spoke out yesterday against a "cabal" led by Dick Cheney that has hijacked our government and our nation. This should be the TOP story on every news channel and nightly newscast. It won't be, of course. But here's a taste of it:
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.“Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.”
Why hasn't Wilkerson said anything yet?
Mr Wilkerson said his decision to go public had led to a personal falling out with Mr Powell, whom he served for 16 years at the Pentagon and the State Department.“He's not happy with my speaking out because, and I admire this in him, he is the world's most loyal soldier."
He has other charges to make, too:
■ The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”■ Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.
■ The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam. . . and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.
Read it all here.
07:30 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Imperial echoes
For those watching the quite good HBO series Rome, and seeing parallels between their tyranny-besotted republic and ours, there's a quote that you might enjoy. It wasn't specifically written about Cheney, Bush, Libby, Rove, Rummy, Perle, Wolfowitz et al. But it could have been.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the galleys, heard in the very hall of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor—he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and their garment, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation—he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city—he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.
Who said it? Cicero, in the year 42 B.C.E.
(Hat tip to commentor Salient at the Huff Post.)
05:22 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Another MUST READ
James Moore, who knows Karl Rove all-too well (Moore wrote Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential), has a simply remarkable piece of writing and reportage up at Huff Post.
I urge you in the strongest way possible to read this piece. The title says it all: The Most Important Criminal Case in American History.
Don't read your email. Don't change the laundry. Don't eat or drink or pee until you've read Moore's piece.
05:16 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Tim Russert: Bought Man
Digby has more on what a truly unrepentant scumbag Tim Russert is. Oh, Tim, what would Big Russ think?
This piece is a MUST READ.
04:47 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
NBC: Your ethical ratings stink, too
I'm on a Jane Hamsher kick today, and she has a great piece about how NBC employs neocon co-conspirators Russert, Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews. She nails the unethical coziness these heads-with-mics have had with the soon-to-be-indicted Libby, Rove and Cheney.
NBC has a lot of well-publicized problems. Surface. Joey. E-Ring. The low-ratings/creative-death problems. But those pale in comparison to their employees' involvement in Traitorgate. How much did these relatively unimpressive people -- Russert, Mitchell, and Matthews -- know that 1) helped make a case for invading Iraq and 2) helped stave off bad news until after Bush was "re-elected"?
Oh, and also, all three people are annoying. I mean avoid-at-a-dinner-party annoying. The braying voices, the preening grins, the horrible hair. But their voices and manner are doubtless just outward manifestations of their twisted and sad little hearts.
04:31 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Evil neo-con villain #4 (or is it #5?) in double-trouble
The always excellent Jane Hamsher has a great piece on Huffington Post about how neo-con Dean of Overt Evilness, Richard Perle, is in Patrick Fitzgerald's crosshairs -- and not only for TraitorGate. It seems Perle helped Lord Conrad Black steal $540 MILLION from Hollinger International, and Perle, of course, got his percentage. The SEC has also ruled that civil action can be brought against Black and Perle. And there are A LOT of angry shareholders of Hollinger who, one hopes, will only be too happy to strip these thieves of their ill-gotten gain.
Read Jane's piece at Huff Post.
04:20 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Frist: Doctor of Sleaze
So what did Bill Frist do with all the money he got from his insider-trading, non-blind family-run trust stock sale? Why, he used it to pay off his sizeable campaign debts, of course!
These guys have NO SHAME.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist paid $72,012 from his own pocket to his 2000 re-election campaign fund in August, two months after he was notified that trustees had sold millions of dollars of his stock in HCA Inc., the hospital chain founded by his father and brother.That Aug. 30 payment was disclosed in Federal Election Commission filings last Friday. The documents also show the campaign fund on the same day paid off a $349,107 outstanding loan from U.S. Bank Corp.
Both transactions enabled the Tennessee Republican to close the Senate campaign fund in anticipation of his retirement from the Senate next year and a possible run for the White House in 2008.
Oh, the hubris, the hubris!
04:06 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
October 19, 2005
Re-electing a guy in a mug shot
As the Republican party scrambles to find candidates for 2006 and beyond, they better include De Lay's district on their to-do list. Because mug shots don't make good campaign poster material.
03:27 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Eagerly awaiting mug shots
An APB is out on the Hammer.
A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.
He will be booked, finger printed, and his pugnacious mug shot in front of a wall with height lines on it.
Let's all dream of seeing Frist, Rove, Libby, Cheney, Hadley, and G. W. in similar straits soon.
03:23 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
October 18, 2005
Why I Heart the Huffington Post
From today's Huffington Post front page. These dual images make me laugh whenever I see them. And sure, I'm biased when it comes to the Huffington Post, but dammit -- Arianna and her crew deserve an award for posting these two photos side-by-side.
08:56 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
October 17, 2005
Bloody Sunday: U.S. bombing kills Iraqi civilians
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a weekend roadside blast, the military said Monday. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians.
So what is it? 70 militants or 31 militants? This war is disgusting.
10:56 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The funniest Maher bit ever
Bill Maher's HBO cold opens are usually great, but Friday night's opening bit was so spot-on and perfect, it deserves an Emmy. If you've seen the BASF series of "We make the products you buy better" commercials, you'll especially appreciate it.
09:03 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Indictments this week
Anyone else planning a "Down Goes Karl" party? Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide could face obstruction charges over whether he tried to shape a New York Times reporter's testimony about the outing of a covert CIA operative, people close to the case said on Sunday. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was likely to decide within days whether to bring charges over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, with announcements possible later this week. Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, and President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, were among the possible targets, legal sources said.
The key here is as follows... If the indictments are handed down, we really need to step up and hammer away on this and the other transgressions of the administration. Democrats have a way of becoming complacent. Let's not this time.
08:58 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
