Category: Politics

Thousands protest in Iran, defying crackdown vow – washingtonpost.com.

Ahead of the protests, Tehran’s governor Morteza Tamaddon accused “foreign counterrevolutionary networks” of plotting new marches. “If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to (protest) calls … they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said late Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Irony is forever. The fact that a man whose last name, Tamaddon, translates as “civility” or “civilization” would utter such hateful words comes as no surprise, therefore. The continued piling of such evidence on the smoldering ash heap of human history confirms this axiom of humanity.

Irony is forever.

Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran – washingtonpost.com.

It was what many among us had suspected all along, principally among them Harry Shearer, who said just as much in one of his Le Show broadcasts back in 2003 or 2004.

Perhaps we need more real comedians in politics, instead of boneheads who are accidentally funny. Let’s hope–nay, pray–that this reasoning is born out in Al Franken‘s election.

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Senate GOP leader: Party must explain core values

Yes, Mr. McConnell is right. The GOP must explain its core values to everyone because after 12 years of exercising nearly absolute power in the United States government, not a soul among America’s nearly 300 million people can discern anything that may conform to the denotation or any connotation of the word “value” in the Republican Party’s platform, its legislative achievements or its military ambitions.

Considering the fact that Republican rule has resulted in a mangled global economy, unbridled corruption in corporate and government affairs, two failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and thousands of deaths, an apology might be more appropriate, for it is difficult to imagine any rational explanation for it all.

A fishing expedition for “values” is not likely to generate any love for the GOP. The GOP may never understand the limitations that sophistry and political correctness impose upon the wielding of power.

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CIA, intel director locked in spy turf battle – Yahoo! News

Ah, yes, isn’t it nice to know that nearly six years after the 911 commission called for the major intelligence agencies to share relevant information more freely in order to facilitate the process of foiling terrorist attacks the major intelligence agencies have not changed one bit. All of which confirms that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was nothing but a red herring designed to draw attention away from the incompetent politicians (nearly all Republican) who failed to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks from happening.

The typical Republican attack on anyone who is not Republican is “tax and spend liberal”. It is quite clear that the only thing that distinguishes Republicans from anyone else is that Republicans like to tax the nation and squander the money on endeavors that fail. The war in Iraq has been an instance of highway robbery conducted by war profiteers without any net benefit to American prestige or American safety. The missile defense system has been branded as useless by the military brass itself. And, now, we learn that the establishment of an entirely new beaurocracy, the Department of Homeland Security, has had no effect on the most fundamental issue that caused the 9/11 tragedy: inadequate sharing of intelligence. In fact, if the article above is reliable, then the intelligence sharing agency created by Bush is hindering the sharing of information.

And these guys say that a national healthcare system would be a waste of money.  What gall!

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Canada’s governor general eats seal heart – Yahoo! News

Apparently bothered by the European Union’s ban on the import and sale of all seal products from Canada, Canada’s Governor General elected to gut a seal puppy, tear its heart out and swallow the heart as a form of protest.

Asked later if her actions were a message to the EU, she said: “Take from it what you will.”

In a related story, Rush Limbaugh tracked down a donkey, killed it, gutted it, and ate its heart.

He subsequently ate the animal whole, from hoof to pointy ears.

Asked later if his actions were a message to the Democratic party and his faithful followers in the Republican party, Limbaugh said “No. I just like to eat ass.”

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BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Cameron in ‘people power’ pledge

The unfettered redistribution of wealth in favor of the avaricious seems to have made bumbling fools of both American and British conservatives. Michael Steele routinely retracts any reasonable statement he might have made, and now David Cameron, the British conservative party leader, is pledging “people power” ahead of the British elections. The conservatives on the West side of the Atlantic are hell bent on defying any reasonable reform against horribly flawed and failed ideology, and those to the East of the Atlantic are proudly parroting 60s era hippie catch phrases.

Clearly, both “conservative” parties are content with inane media campaigns that they feel will buy them enough votes for power. Just as clearly, neither “conservative” is willing or able to provide a rational framework for governing and for solving national problems. Anglophone conservatives seem to have a preoccupation with political correctness rather than an obsession with ending a wealth redistribution scheme in which economically powerful entities leverage their full economic might to the detriment of the nation. Yet, somehow, they manage to convince themselves that an imaginary “liberalism” is the culprit.

Their reasons for believing that they should be taken seriously remain a mystery only to them.

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