Last Call

It's the last call indeed for Glenn Greenwald's credibility after this weekend, and he finally just couldn't control his blind hatred for the President.  This time, he went too far.  Zerlina Maxwell at The Grio explains:

Greenwald has been one of the loudest and harshest critics of the Obama administration, and while not actually a liberal or an Obama supporter, he is frequently identified as a blogger who is "disappointed with President Obama" over what he sees as serious violations of civil liberties. The debate over the NDAA (and U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan) has been ongoing and frequently gets lively between Greenwald and his supporters, and pro-Obama bloggers like Imani Gandy, of AngryBlackLady.com and Balloon Juice (Gandy also contributes to theGrio.)

In a particularly heated exchange on Twitter Saturday night, a blogger named "DrDawg" tweeted about Gandy: "Obama could rape a nun live on NBC and you'd say we weren't seeing what we were seeing." In response, Greenwald chimed in, "No - she'd say it was justified [and] noble - that he only did it to teach us about the evils of rape."



When twitter exploded in attacks on Greenwald for making a "rape joke," instead of apologizing for the comment, Greenwald doubled down, tweeting that the reference to rape was not a metaphor and in fact Obama supporters would defend the president in the face of "ANY evil: assassinations, child-killings: EVEN rape violent crime like rape."

It gets worse from there.   Not only is Imani a personal friend of mine, but Greenwald's absolute dismissal of women, survivors of sexual abuse, and people who know them and support them is pretty much unconscionable in any context.  That he chose to make the situation worse by saying President Obama's supporters would in fact support him if he raped someone is the kind of vile, awful idiocy you expect from the worst examples that humanity has to offer, and yet as of today, Greenwald has refused to apologize.

I wonder how his employers at Salon feel about this.  They're well aware of the incident now.  I don't care how passionate your argument is, you cross this line, you deserve to be shitcanned so fast that neutrinos have trouble catching up.

We'll see what happens.  I'm betting Greenwald's not long for his current employment.

The Holidays End With A Bang

The UK Telegraph is reporting that if the number of background checks are any indication, November and December were record setting months for firearms sales in the US.

"I've sold probably four times as much in the last six months as I have in 20 years combined," said Cliff Hunter, owner of Tommy Bronson Sporting Goods in Memphis. "Hand guns and the tactical weapons, they're absolutely off the charts."

Most of his gun sales used to be for hunting, or personal protection in a city riddled with crime. But just before the November election, anxiety that Mr Obama would win and enact a radical programme of curtailing gun rights began drove business right up.

"Obama's a liberal socialist and I think he's proven quickly how extreme he is," he said. "When they get through healthcare, guns are on the table. They're not talking about it but it's going to happen."

The FBI recorded a 49 per cent rise in gun background checks during election week compared to the same week a year earlier. 

"Sales have been up 50, 60 per cent sinces Osama got elected," said Jay Hill, owner of the Classic Firearms gun store in Cordova, just outside Memphis, smiling as he deliberately mixed up the name of the US president with the leader of al-Qaeda. 

It's that last part that of course should concern people.  It's been three years and no "Obama gun ban" has even been "talked about" as Cliff here admits, but people aren't buying guns and ammo to hunt deer and elk.

They're buying it for use on other types of "game".  And it's not the recession, they've been doing this since before things got really bad in 2008.  The entire thought of a black President has made people not just buy guns then, but continue to buy guns now, and at a record pace.  Not a whiff of a gun ban has been seriously introduced.  They expect it anyway.

But the "mix-up" there gives it away.  They don't think he's President, you see.  And they're arming themselves as a result.

What happens if President Obama gets re-elected?  Steve M. lays out the groundwork:  Republicans see America with a black President, and see their America as over.  Society is dead.

To the average American wingnut, there are individuals and families -- and also affinity groups. There are fellow believers in "gun freedom." There are fellow "regular Americans" who aren't repulsive cosmopolitan liberal elitists. There are fellow Christians. There are fellow white people. These groups are worth defending. Society isn't. Any old SOB can become part of society -- Muslims, gays, people on welfare, you name it.

I suppose this harks back to Tom's point about the links connecting Ron Paul's present-day libertarianism and the racist states' rights movement. I agree that it's about race to some extent, but I don't think it's just about race. It's more flexible than that. It's about reserving the unilateral right, or the affinity-group right, to decide who belongs here and who doesn't. It's about deciding, if you choose, that "society" is just you and your guns, and everyone else can just stay the hell off your land (though with the definition of "your land" extended to the creche in the town square and the vacant lot the local Muslims have purchased so they can build a mosque on it).

The people that elected Barack Obama?  They are nothing less than the enemy.  And the right is arming themselves to "take the country back" from them.  There's a reason they want to kick out all the "illegals" and the Muslims and the gays and the "bad minorities" and the "welfare queens".  They don't want them here anymore, because they've gained so much power, they've elected a black Kenyan Muslim atheist terrorist sympathizer socialist.  Their "America" is changing.  They will fight it every step of the way.  Resisting that change is now the raison d'être of the Republican Party.

It's war to them.  And so, they arm themselves for battle.

Expanding on this point, you can now see the entirely of Republican foreign policy:  with the singular exception of Israel,  the rest of the world can bugger off our lawn and go blow themselves up.  Everyone else on the planet is taking America's resources, and is just another source of aggravation, violence, crime, terrorism, and most importantly, non-Americanism.

GOP domestic and foreign policy?  "If you're not one of us, go screw yourselves.  And if you press the point, we're the ones with the guns.  Remember that."

It really is that simple.

Stumbling Into The Playoffs

Even with their ugly loss on Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals managed to fall into the last AFC wild card spot with, well, everyone else who could have gotten the spot losing too (including Tebow and the Broncos).

In front of a sold-out crowd at Paul Brown Stadium, the Bengals fell 24-16 to the Ravens as Ray Rice ran for 191 yards and two touchdowns. But with the Dolphins defeating the Jets and losses by the Broncos and Raiders, the Bengals secured the second and final wild card spot and will face third-seeded Houston at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Reliant Stadium.

The Bengals and Titans both finished 9-7 but by virtue of Cincinnati’s Week 9 win at Tennessee, the Bengals won the head-to-head tiebreaker. All seven of the Bengals losses are to teams in this season’s playoff field, including the Texans, who rallied for a 20-19 win at Paul Brown Stadium on Dec. 11.

While there was joy in making the playoffs, the feeling was muted by the loss.

“It’s kind of weird,” said quarterback Andy Dalton, who was 22 of 44 for 232 yards. “We obviously didn’t get it done today, but we still have a chance. It’s what we wanted at the beginning of the season. We wanted to come in and make the playoffs, because once you’re in the playoffs, records up to this point don’t matter. Win you’re in. Lose you’re out. We’re here.”

It's the fact that all seven losses have come to teams in the playoffs that makes me believe the Bengals will probably have been run out of their game next week against the Texans by the 2nd quarter, but it could happen.  But considering this is just the 3rd winning season for the Orange and Black in 21 years, we'll take it.

Of course, the Bengals haven't won a playoff game since 1990.  They're due eventually, right?

Ron Paul Is A Homophobic Bag Of Dog Crap And Other Revelations

WASHINGTON -- Despite recent accusations of racism and homophobia, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) stuck to his libertarian principles on Sunday, criticizing the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it "undermine[d] the concept of liberty" and "destroyed the principle of private property and private choices."

"If you try to improve relationships by forcing and telling people what they can't do, and you ignore and undermine the principles of liberty, then the government can come into our bedrooms," Paul told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union."

Now wait just a damn minute.  "If you try to tell people what they can't do," he starts off.  You mean like telling gay people they can't get married?  "Then the government can come into our bedrooms," he finishes.  You mean like telling gay people they can't get married?

"I'm the true civil libertarian when it comes to [race relations], and I think that people ought to, you know, look at my position there, rather than dwelling on eight sentences that I didn't write and didn't authorize and have been, you know, apologetic about," he told ABC's Jake Tapper on Sunday. "Because it shouldn't have been there, and it was terrible stuff."

Wait another damn minute. Which is it? Did he not write it? Because if so, that means all the rest is a bunch of fluffy bullshit. And if he did not write it, why be, you know, apologetic about it? Wouldn't you be a white hot nugget of nuclear pissed if you were accused of something to disgusting and had nothing to do with it?  He reeks of lies.

Barkin Up The Wrong Tree

Ellin Barkin had a tweet from the wee hours of the morning on New Year's Day:

Just threatened on my street by NYPD,cop shoved me,both hands,onto sidewalk..Is it a crime 2 stand in the street in NY?WTF is going on here?

TMZ and Huffington Post both ran posts filling us in on what went on. Basically, Barkin states a lifelong respect of police until that night, when several reports came in of police bullying and threatening people on the sidewalk. People who were not necessarily intoxicated or causing any problems (until they were approached and harassed by cops).

We are seeing this more often, and we have to continue to hold our officers accountable. Cops deserve our cooperation but there are times like this when abuse of power comes into play.  This was recounted by someone who seems to be fair and unbiased.  To call it like it is, Ellen Barkin is no crybaby and she's not the type to cry wolf.  I believe her account, including her assessment that it was unnecessary.

It sucks to feel helpless, attacked by the people you are supposed to trust.

What The Frack Is Going On Here?

In the wake of the EPA finding that hydraulic fracturing of rock to obtain natural gas -- fracking -- may contaminate groundwater and cause other environmental issues, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has discovered he has a soul after all and has put a hold on four new state fracking projects in the wake of multiple earthquakes in the drilling area.

State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio will be "indefinitely" prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said.


Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.

Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.

Andy Ware, deputy director of Ohio's natural resources department, told CNN on Sunday that Zehringer and Gov. John Kasich subsequently ordered that four nearby injection well projects will not open in the coming weeks, as had previously been planned. They 'll be inoperational until a determination is made in an investigation of a possible link between the earthquakes and the fluid-injection wells, he added.

"They will (not open) until we are satisfied that the process can be safely resumed," said Ware.

Kasich's approval rating is already in the toilet after his huge Senate Bill 5 disaster.  One whiff of anything going wrong with Ohio's fledgling fracking industry in an election year in a battleground state like this and it's lights out for him, and he knows it.  Suddenly in the last month, he's become Ohio's "environmental champion" on assuring that fracking is safe, vowing tough regulations and oversight on the industry.

The promised regulation will affect issues such as gathering lines, high-pressure pipelines, the kinds of chemicals used in the exploration and extraction process, "I mean, it's from A to Z," Kasich said during the news conference, which was streamed on the web.

"And let me also be clear that the biggest companies want strong regulation," he continued. "We don't want yahoos coming into Ohio and damaging the environment, and we are working on that every day. We want to be on top of everything because if it pans out, if it works out the way it looks like it will, it could bring an economic resurgence to all of Ohio, not just the eastern part." 

The Youngstown quakes are literally threatening to rip Kasich's little game apart here, and he damn well knows it.

Nuked Gingrich, Part 14

As Newt continues to self-destruct, it's funny to note that the further behind he falls in Iowa, the more desperate he gets for votes.  At this point, we've finally gotten to the "ACORN will steal the 2012 election!" nonsense.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., used a stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to accuse the Obama administration of trying to "steal elections" in the wake of the Justice Department's rejection of South Carolina's voter identification law.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division determined that the state's law requiring voters to show photo ID at polling places was discriminatory against minorities.

"...You have to ask, why is it that they are so desperate to retain the ability to steal elections and I think that what it comes down to," Gingrich said.

Because of course no black President could ever legitimately win an election in the first place, so of course he's going to steal re-election too.  Who will stop this evil, evil man before he destroys the country with left of moderate policies and common sense governance?

The larger problem of course is that the only possible explanation that Gingrich can find for opposing a law designed to disenfranchise voters is a massive conspiracy to steal elections, because all Republicans know that Democrats only win by stealing elections.  No actual living Christian Americans would ever vote for a Democrat, and America is a Christian country, so really the only way Republicans can lose is if Democrats steal the contest.

It's complete nonsense, of course.  But Newt won't pay any price for accusing the President and all Democrats of stealing elections and defrauding the country.  Hell, it'll help him in the primaries.  That's why he's doing this.

And because Virginia Republicans don't want to get tarred with this same brush, Virginia's GOP Attorney General will of course seek to drop the state's primary ballot requirements that excluded most of the GOP candidates, including Newt.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) announced today that he will intervene to ensure that more Republican presidential candidates will appear on the state’s primary ballot.

 Thanks to newly stringent enforcement of rules requiring 10,000 valid signatures, only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney made it onto the ballot for the state’s March 6 primary. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry both cried foul, with the latter suing in federal court. Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman all signed onto that effort on Saturday.

So to recap, when a Republican changes the election rules for a state, it's liberty and freedom and justice and apple pie.  When a Democrat does it, it's stealing elections.

That's how the game is played.

StupidiNews!

• Arab League officials are calling for the withdrawal of observers from Syria, claiming they have done nothing to stop the brutal crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad.
• Mount Rainer National Park was closed Sunday as California law enforcement officials searched for a gunman who shot and killed a female park ranger.
• Intelligence analysts say Pakistan's military is betting on impeachment to rid them of President Asif Ali Zardari, rather than relying on a messy military coup.
• Wendy's is adding a $16 foie gras burger to its menu in Japan, hoping to attract the nation's picky fast-food connoisseurs and trendsetters.
• Stanford University has opened up its collection of Apple historical archives to the media, including an early look at Steve Jobs in a Ghostbusters parody employee video.

Last Call

Things are getting weird in North Korea, even by standards of recent weird North Korean behavior.

North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong-un and protect him as "human shields" while working to solve the "burning issue" of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong-il.

The North's three main state newspapers said in a policy-setting editorial traditionally published on New Year's Day that Kim Jong-un has legitimacy to carry on the revolutionary battle initiated by his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and developed by his father, the iron-fisted ruler who died two weeks ago.

"Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of our Party and our people, is the banner of victory and glory of Songun (military-first) Korea and the eternal centre of its unity," the 5,000-word editorial carried by the North's state KCNA news agency said.

Asserting that the inexperienced young Kim, in his late 20s, is "precisely" identical to his father, the editorial said "the whole Party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong-un unto death."

Human bulwarks?  Really?  I guess there's no danger of the Powers That Be here deciding Lil' Kim is the wrong guy anytime soon.  PS, THIS is what real "Dear Leader" and "cultist" stuff actually looks like, for the record.

Iran, So Far Away, Part 4

There is something in the NDAA bill that we all actually should be concerned about, even more than the sturm und drang over detainment...and that's the fact the law does contain strict financial sanctions of not only Iran's central bank, but any country that deals with Iran's central bank as well.

President Barack Obama signed into law on Saturday a defense funding bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, while allowing for exemptions to avoid upsetting energy markets.

The sanctions target both private and government-controlled banks - including central banks - and would take hold after a two- to six-month warning period, depending on the transactions, a senior Obama administration official said.

Under the law, the president can move to exempt institutions in a country that has significantly reduced its dealings with Iran and in situations where a waiver is in the U.S. national security interest or otherwise necessary for energy market stability. He would need to notify Congress and waivers would be temporary, but could be extended.

Sanctioned institutions would be frozen out of U.S. financial markets.

"Our intent is to implement this law in a timed and phased approach so that we avoid repercussions to the oil market and ensure that this damages Iran and not the rest of the world," the senior U.S. official told Reuters.

Iran's central bank is the main conduit for Tehran's oil revenues.

Now, this is a major ratcheting up of international financial pressure on Iran.  Unless the President issues a waiver to the country/central bank or commercial bank in question, they are frozen out of the US financial system.  And it's pretty clear that in order to earn a waiver, these countries and banks have to significantly reduce their financial transactions with Iran's central bank.  Oil is exempt, so far, but Iran imports and exports plenty of other things, and two of Iran's biggest trading partners are Russia and China.

You see now where the trouble is starting.  Iran has already responded.

Iran announced a nuclear fuel breakthrough and test-fired a new radar-evading medium-range missile in the Gulf on Sunday, moves that could further antagonize the West at a time when Tehran is trying to avert harsh new sanctions on its oil industry.

That's the bad news.  The good news:

At the same time, it signaled on Saturday that it was ready to resume stalled international talks on its nuclear programme.

It says the programme is completely peaceful and, in what Iranian media described as an engineering breakthrough, state television said Iran had successfully produced and tested its own uranium fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants.

The rods were made in Iran and inserted into the core of Tehran's nuclear research reactor, the television reported.

So Iran is now willing to come to the table, even as it fires off a test missile and claims it can make nuclear fuel rods.  And if you're thinking the folks running against President Obama have any intent of talk rather than war, you'd be mistaken.

Republican Rick Santorum says that if he’s elected president, he would bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities unless they were opened for international arms inspectors.

Santorum says President Barack Obama hasn’t done enough to prevent the Iranian government from building a nuclear weapon and has risked turning the U.S. into a “paper tiger.”

Santorum tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would tell Iranian leaders that either they open up those facilities, begin to dismantle them and make them available to inspectors — or the U.S. would attack them.

In the hands of President Obama, these sanctions are a tough weapon, more "smart power".  In the hands of someone like Rick Santorum, we'll be at war before the end of 2013.  Also note that it was President Obama who fought for and received the waiver changes to the Iran sanctions.  Again, if you think there's zero difference between the GOP and POTUS, judge their actions.

Birds! Birds!

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.

Police in Beebe said dozens of blackbirds had fallen dead, prompting officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks Saturday night. It wasn't immediately clear if fireworks were again to blame, but authorities weren't taking a chance.

Later in the article scientists hypothesize that the fireworks sent the birds into a panic, causing them to dive-bomb and hit random objects, killing them.  There's just a few problems with that:

Earlier in 2011, this same thing happened.  They could not tell if the trauma came from striking an object or falling to the ground.  But there were no fireworks.

There were fireworks all around the country, so why just here?  Are we supposed to believe that there is some special sort of reaction in this small area?

It still doesn't explain the fish that died by the tens of thousands, and that happened at the same time.

I totally understand wanting to get the right answer here.  But let's try to do that, instead of slapping half-assed solutions on the problem and calling it solved, shall we?  I don't have high hopes for scientific standards in Arkansas overall, but even if you set the bar low this is ridiculous.

Starting 2012 Off Right

Those darned Canadians, their life is so peaceful that even minor mishaps seem blown out of proportion.

Or maybe it's just this guy:

BARRIE, ONT. - Having your foot run over by a shopping cart is not an emergency, a male shopper learned Tuesday.

Police responded to a 911 call around 3 p.m. from a man in distress because, he said, a woman accidently ran over his foot with a shopping cart and he required police assistance.

Police said the woman promptly apologized for the mishap, but the man was unsatisfied with her apology and wanted an officer to speak with her.

I figure most of you are hung over, so I'm keeping it light today.  Happy New Year!

The End-Of-Year Emopants Blowout

Both Glenn Greenwald and Taylor Marsh saw fit to end the year with massive anti-Obama rants where they basically announce openly their opposition to the President for 2012.  Not that their opposition didn't exist before, it's just now official.  First, Double G defends Ron Paul's "effect" on our political discourse:

There are very few political priorities, if there are any, more imperative than having an actual debate on issues of America’s imperialism; the suffocating secrecy of its government; the destruction of civil liberties which uniquely targets Muslims, including American Muslims; the corrupt role of the Fed; corporate control of government institutions by the nation’s oligarchs; its destructive blind support for Israel, and its failed and sadistic Drug War. More than anything, it’s crucial that choice be given to the electorate by subverting the two parties’ full-scale embrace of these hideous programs.

I wish there were someone who did not have Ron Paul’s substantial baggage to achieve this. Before Paul announced his candidacy, I expressed hope in an Out Magazine profile that Gary Johnson would run for President and be the standard-bearer for these views, in the process scrambling bipartisan stasis on these questions. I did that not because I was endorsing his candidacy (as some low-level Democratic Party operative dishonestly tried to claim), but because, as a popular two-term Governor of New Mexico free of Paul’s disturbing history and associations, he seemed to me well-suited to force these debates to be had. But alas, Paul decided to run again, and Johnson — for reasons still very unclear — was forcibly excluded from media debates and rendered a non-person. Since then, Paul’s handling of the very legitimate questions surrounding those rancid newsletters has been disappointing in the extreme, and that has only served to obscure these vital debates and severely dilute the discourse-enhancing benefits of his candidacy.

He spends the rest of the article saying the President Obama is just as bad if not worse overall than Paul, and far worse than Paul on the specific issues that matter to him.  He then proceeds to attack President Obama supporters as evil hypocrites who "don't want to hear" his "truths", accusing them of being stuck in Bush-era binary worldviews but then weasels out of endorsing Paul with constant whining about how nobody but Glenn Greenwald is smart enough to understand his carefully nuanced argument that he's not endorsing Paul, he just wants someone like Paul to win over the hated, evil Obama.  (Apparently that other person is Gary Johnson.)

The projection is apparent in the first hundred words when you realize that it's Greenwald who has adopted the binary worldview, completely choosing to ignore the circumstances and nuance of realpolitik and the other two branches of government to say "You know, if it wasn't for the bigotry, the racism, the utter disregard for the federal government and the supposition that states should have the right to discriminate freely, Ron Paul isn't such a bad guy.  Unlike Obama."  Silly, I know.  But that one issue is enough for Greenwald to search for an alternative to the President...any alternative.

Replace Ron Paul with Hillary Clinton, and "civil liberties" with "women's issues" and you get Taylor Marsh's end of year screed where she declares her vote is now open.

It’s now even considered an extreme position to think women’s individual freedoms are important. On Obama’s conservative Plan B decision, you get replies like “it’s smart politically” or his fans argue from the right using parental rights over individual female freedoms.

Then there’s the reality that most women have more dire issues on their mind, because reproductive health choices are considered by most to be a given. For sexually active young females, poor women and those in rural areas, however, these issues are attached to one another. However, their stories don’t equal the same coverage as the majority of reports about women today.

Women often share the breadwinner role, so their focus is on who is protecting their bottom line.

Recently on MSNBC when they asked voters in Iowa about their choices, a woman said, “I need to take care of my paycheck, that’s why I’m supporting Romney.”

Why should women automatically bet that Pres. Obama will help their bottom line more than Mitt Romney?

Is it enough that the 111th Congress passed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Pres. Obama signed? Women of all political persuasions need to expect all 21st century politicians to support economic equality. We should also demand that when it’s found out we aren’t being treated equally we have recourse, which is what Ledbetter is all about. Would any other Democratic president not have signed the Ledbetter Act? To laud something so simple as financial equality for the same job done reveals women are expecting way too little from politicians that depend on our support to politically survive.

And she too falls into the "no real difference" between the parties, as well as pushing for Ron Paul.  They all "hate women" equally, to the point that feminists should strongly consider Mitt Romney for President, and that the "only argument" Obama supporters have is that the Republicans will be worse on the issue.  In a sane world where Marsh sees Republicans doing everything they can to rid the country of abortion altogether, that argument would be enough.

Instead, we get a long morose piece on how the Democrats are no longer worth supporting, and that a feminist is all but washing her hands of voting in 2012, and doesn't really care if the Republicans win in 2012 or not.

And I shake my head, because these arguments are so terrible that I have to conclude that neither Greenwald nor Marsh actually believe them.  At the very least they maintain their "integrity" by convincing us to not vote at all, and will spend 2012 doing so.  And that's the real danger, here.

Who needs Republicans disenfranchising people at the state level when Greenwald and Marsh will do it for free?

Zandar's 2012 Predictions

Well, let's see what's ahead for 2012:

1. President Obama wins re-election.  I just think whomever the GOP candidate is, they'll be driven so far to the right they'll get stomped in the general.  And a grand total of none of these clowns can handle Obama in debates.
2. But...the GOP retains one, if not both chambers in Congress.  The most likely scenario is that the Dems lose control of Congress and enough GOP redistricting nonsense locks down their control of the House for two years.  If that happens, the GOP may very well eliminate the filibuster in order to force shutdown/hostage scenarios approximately every 37 seconds, and their demands will not be small in 2013.  I'd love to be wrong about this.
3. The Eurozone finally blows up.  Austerity economics in Europe are finally going to cath up with them in 2012.  European countries will be in recession, and if things get bad enough, it's Global Financial Crisis time again.  It could weigh very heavily on the economy.
4. At least one GOP candidate, somewhere in America, will refer to President Obama with the N-word.  It will happen.  It just has to.  Most likely it will be some state-level douchebag, but I wouldn't be surprised if it slips out at a Congressional or even GOP Oval Office candidate level staffer.  But this, I feel confident of.
5. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be driven from power.  There's just too much bloodshed and anger at this point.  I'm not sure how long the road will be, and over how many Syrian corpses it will travel, but it will happen.  He has lost the right to rule.
6. There will be a military incident on the Iran-Iraq border.  No brainer, especially with US fighting troops gone.  And the Saudis and Israelis will have kittens when it happens.
7. The GOP will shut down the Federal government.  It may be just a partial one, but it'll happen, especially if there's good economic news and/or POTUS starts pulling ahead in the polls.  They will literally go for broke.
8. 2012 will be a record box-office year.  Just too many good films out for 2012, and a lot of people will be looking for an escape.
9. The push for Sarah Palin as the GOP VP candidate will be massive, but she won't be the choice.  I still think it'll be Chris "Bag O Donuts" Christie, but if the GOP were smart, it would be Huntsman on the ticket for anyone but Romney, and Romney will take Christie.
10. We'll still here end of next year.  Bon and I have been busy as hell this year, and we're both writing for other blogs (and Bon has an awesome side project in Dead Shuffle).  But ZVTS is our baby, and we're going to raise the little tyke right through year four.

We'll see how I manage.  Into the Future files you go.

Parent Of The Year: Epic Fail

Two northern Arizona parents were arrested after photos of their young children allegedly being abused were posted on Facebook.

An anonymous Facebook user reportedly alerted authorities on Wednesday after seeing two children, an infant and a toddler, bound with duct tape around their wrists and ankles in photos posted to the social networking site, Fox affiliate KSAZ-TV reported.

The children's mouths were taped shut, and one of them was hung upside down by some exercise equipment, according to the Coconino County Sheriff's Office in Flagstaff.


"They did indicate that they were simply joking, however, it is apparent through the photographs that this was not a joke. The photos depicted the children's faces in sheer terror," Gilliland said. "Clearly, you can't tape another person's hands and mouth shut -- especially small children. It is clearly child abuse, and they were charged appropriately."

The children, a 2-year-old and a 10-month-old infant, are being taken care of by family members while the investigation continues, according to the station.

You have people so stupid they would do this to kids.  Then they are so stupid they post it on Facebook.  Then they are so stupid they say it was a joke.  The obvious concluison is that these people are too stupid to have kids forced to depend on them for food and shelter.

I had a relative who was nearly this stupid.  He also duct taped my mouth, hands and feet and tickled me until I passed out.  Not from mirth but from lack of freaking oxygen.  I'm grateful for law enforcement, because this brought out a violent "beat some sense into them" reaction from me.  I would beat these people nearly to death, then let them have a break and go at it again.

The Bon is pissed.  Let's hope local law enforcement feels the same way.