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April 05, 2008

The Sedition Act of 1918

I'm working on the book today and dug up the text of the Sedition Act of 1918. This was an actual law in America -- just 90 years ago:

…whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of war, and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.

That's one hell of a scary run-on.

02:30 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

07:18 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca

April 04, 2008

Worst President in The World

From Steve Benen over at C&L:

In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

At least two of those who ranked the current president in the 31-41 ranking made it clear that they placed him next-to-last, with only James Buchanan, in their view, being worse. “He is easily one of the 10-worst of all time and—if the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities matter—then probably in the bottom five, alongside Buchanan, Johnson, Fillmore, and Pierce,” wrote another historian.

But if you're a Bush Republican and this angers you, you can rest assured knowing that history has a well-known liberal bias. Just like science. And reality.

10:48 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Vintage Ads For Modern Products

This one made me laugh the laugh of all laughs:

More here.

09:48 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Jay Leno Says Someting Funny

Did you see Barack Obama bowling in Pennsylvania the other day? Oh that was bad. Bowled a 37 out of 300. No, but see that's good. No that is good. Because I want a president... that's bad at bowling. I mean, shouldn't he have more important things to do? Look, I don't know President Bush, but I'm willing to guess that he's a great bowler. [laughter] You know something, I'll bet you -- I'll bet you -- I'll bet you he's pretty good at darts, too.

I'm no Leno fan, but oh yeah. That's awesome.

(h/t Paddy)

07:41 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Support Rachel Maddow

Paddy at Cliff Schecter's place says that Rachel might be guest-hosting Countdown tonight. Please watch it if you can. Let's tell MSNBC that we want more voices of reason and reality on their network. Everyone else on that network outside of Rachel and Keith have been especially intolerable lately.

07:36 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

07:21 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

April 03, 2008

Big Fat Idiot

Sex tourist Rush Limbaugh on Senator Obama:

a rookie, radical black guy who can't tell the time of day

This coming from a draft-dodging, racist white guy who can't get it up.

10:11 AM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca

The Electoral Map

MSNBC is already analysing the November electoral map. And given that this is way, way, way, way too early to even bother, I saw a lot of red states there which leads me to ask the question: WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANYONE VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN AFTER THE LAST EIGHT YEARS? If you're a Republican and you vote for Senator McCain in the Fall, your party will be destroyed. Seriously.

You Republicans have an opportunity to hit CTRL-Alt-Del and reboot your shitty deal there by taking some time off. You elect Senator McCain and the disaster will continue -- with the economy, with Iraq, with outsourcing overseas -- all of it. And after another four years of Bush-McCain policies and after America is driven into the ground for the sake of electing another mayo-on-white-bread Republican, no-one will want to vote for another Republican for a very, very long time.

CTRL-Alt-Del.

07:59 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Rachel Maddow vs. Scarborough

The topic: Senator McCain selling out to the Bushies. Rachel Maddow totally made Joe Scarborough look like the droning apologist he is. Check it here.

07:54 AM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

(Not safe for work...)

Also, happy birthday to Alec Baldwin.

07:27 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca

April 02, 2008

New Huffington Post Post

In which I declare a 100 year war against Senator McSell-out.

03:17 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Senator Obama Leading In Pennsylvania

For the first time, a poll is showing Senator Obama with a slight lead over Senator Clinton:

Barack Obama 45
Hillary Clinton 43

Obama's steep rise could be a reflection of a growing sense among Democratic voters that a continued divisive nomination process will hurt the party's chances of defeating John McCain this fall. An Obama upset in Pennsylvania would be virtually certain to force Clinton out of the race.

Obama has his customary large advantage with black voters (75-17) and is keeping it relatively competitive with white voters (49-38)

10:07 AM | Comments (10) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Pre-Order My Book

Check it! I'm writing a book-length political rant about fear mongers and the cowards who love them. Pre-order the book here.

Here's the awesome cover which I designed myself using my favorite crayons and markers.

07:49 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

New season begins April 15!

07:38 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca

April 01, 2008

Also Not A Joke

The opening scene of the Oliver Stone "W" movie:

The first scene, in which Bush and his advisers brainstorm different terms to describe their global enemies, from "Axis of Hatred" to "Axis of Unbearably Odious," is followed by an early glimpse of the hard-drinking young man when he was a college student at Yale.

Axis of Unbearably Odious? That would've been awesome.

09:46 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca

That Is Fucked. Up.

First, it's President Clinton praising Senator McCain. And now... my governor, Ed Rendell praises FOX Fucking News Channel? In fairness, he starts out by praising FOX News -- as a joke. But then he makes a serious comment about how "balanced" they are.

"I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present -- FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I’m only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right." - Ed Rendell

Wow. That's awful. Someone send Governor Rendell a link to Media Matters.

08:02 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Not An April Fool's Joke

Rasmussen in Pennsylvania:
Clinton 47%
Obama 42%

07:48 AM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Office Pranks

Here are some good ones. Just trying to spread the mischief.

07:47 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

On this day in 1970, President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television, to take effect after Jan. 1, 1971.

07:36 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca

March 31, 2008

Lou Dobbs: "Cotton -- ermm -- Politicians!"

Watch this. Then come back.

Okay, so here's what Lou Dobbs, Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan and way too many white Americans don't get: when Senator Obama urged a discussion about race in his Philadelphia Address, that DID NOT mean that white people have permission to say stupid racist things (like "cotton pickin' politicians") and expect to get away with it under the umbrella of this race discussion.

The senator DID NOT tell the nation's white people: go ahead and say dumb shit -- it's okay as long as we're talking about it. Wrong! Senator Obama's message was that we talk about why -- WHY white people say stupid racist things and WHY black people are angry about it (and slavery and Jim Crow and all the rest of it).

I've seen this misinterpretation on the very serious cable news day after day. I've seen it in comment threads from both left blogs and right blogs. Senator Obama's speech wasn't an invitation for white people to make racist remarks. Sorry.

09:21 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca

President Booed At Nationals Game

But damn, he can bring some heat. Too bad he sucks at everything else.

UPDATE: From the comments: "did you see where the ball wound up? As in everything else he does, President Shithead's emphasis was on force, not accuracy."

07:31 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

Finally saw Into The Wild over the weekend. Definitely awesome. Chris McCandless went to my high school -- he was a senior when I was a freshman.

07:05 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca

March 30, 2008

Andrea Mitchell Needs To Address This

Mitchell was just on the Chris Matthews Show wagging her finger at Senator Obama, insisting that he hasn't sufficiently addressed the Reverend Wright situation. Are you kidding me?

Here's what I think: why hasn't Andrea Mitchell sufficiently addressed her marriage to a man who is responsible for one of the biggest economic downturns since World War II? Why hasn't she denounced her husband--Mr. Greenspan?

It's time, everyone. Time to shift gears away from hammering Senator Clinton and direct our attention at Senator McCain and the very serious traditional media who will be perpetuating attacks on Senator Obama while giving Senator McCain a free pass until November. Let's GO!

09:07 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Morning Awesome

Is it possible to cringe, scowl and smile at the same time?

08:39 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca