Headlines - Thursday June 10

Besides the Dutch offer to help with the oil volcano, twelve other countries offered technical assistance and all were rejected. This is something Bush would do.

 

 

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Yes, Democrats can be dicks too

Here's proof that one does not have to be a Republican to be a homophobic hate-mongering dick.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that he thought the military should keep its ban on openly gay service members in part because he did not want to open a national discussion about homosexuality. The chairman, Representative Ike Skelton, a conservative Missouri Democrat, said he thought the debate in Congress over the proposed repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy might force families to explain homosexuality to their children. "What do mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child?"

Sure, Ike.  When DADT is repealed there will no doubt be millions of 7-year-olds tuned in to Fox and MSNBC  or reading the New York Times shaking their heads and asking, "Mommy, what's a homofexual?"  Please.  And should they ask, try telling them the damn truth.  Tell them that there are all kinds of people in this world and that's what makes it so special.

But the real truth, Ike, is that you're nothing more than a pathetic homophobe lacking the moral and intellectual capability to understand that not everyone is like you, nor should they be.  You're less concerned about 7-year-olds than you are about protecting your right to be a narrow-minded bigot.

I have a question for you, Ike; what should mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child when they ask why intolerant ignoramuses like you exist in this world?  That I think would be a much more important question. 

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For reasons that could make sense only to the "effing retarded," the Obama White House has chosen not only to ignore virtually every Democratic voter group but to taunt them, rub their noses in it, and insult any Democrats who dare to demand better choices than the corporate shills that now control much of the Party and the White House: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/53812

 

 

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"Hard to believe, but when I prepare my economic forecasts,

I use the same magic crystal spectacles Joseph Smith used

to translate The Book of Mormon."

 

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Brilliant at Breakfast: Them that's got shall get, them that's not shall lose.

 

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I'd almost ask "whose government is it, ours or BP, but the answer is obvious

 

It is BP's government. For the Feds are still working hard with BP to limit access to the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe by reporters, photographers and scientists.

WTF is wrong with the Obama Administration? Why the hell are you letting BP employees decide who can fly over the Gulf of Mexico?

You don't think that we haven't figured out that BP has polluted the Gulf of Mexico with hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil, along with tons and tons of Corexit, the most toxic oil dispersant available? It is almost as though the intention of BP is to use its disaster as an excuse to kill every living thing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Why the bleep is our government continuing to cooperate with BP in its ultimately futile attempts to sweep this disaster under the rug?

 

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A federal appeals court has dealt a blow to a civil-liberties lawsuit against the New York Police Department, saying the police force is within its rights to keep secret some 1,800 pages of documents about its surveillance of protesters ahead of the Republican National Convention in 2004.

 

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For those who thought the end of the Bush Administration spelled doomsday for the neoconservative movement, think again.

According to a May report from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC think tank, neoconservatives associated with prominent figures like former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol and pundit Richard Perle are still broadly active, despite policy failures associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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Invisible Unemployed Mush Mouth & Accused Sex Offender Wins S.C. Senate Dem Primary

An unemployed black man who made no campaign appearances, has no campaign organization and mysteriously paid his $10,400 filing fee out of his own pocket handily won yesterday's Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina. RedState teabagger creep Erick Erickson twittered "hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha" upon learning the news, and Mother Jones quickly revealed that the new nominee — 32-year-old Alvin Greene — is facing felony charges for allegedly showing obscene maerials to a college girl and threatening to follow her to her dorm room. There is nothing at all suspicious about any of this. More here.

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Ha, remember way back in 2008 when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a tax-exempt religious organization based in Utah, poured a bunch of money and volunteer labor into the campaign that got gay marriage banned in California? And remember how a lot of people who were sort of startled when the proposition passed meekly said afterwards, "Uh, separation of church and state? Tax exempt status? Anyone, anyone? Hello?" Well, the Stalinist California Fair Political Practices Commission has deliberated on the matter, and has delivered an absolutely crushing blow to the church, ordering them to pay $5,538 in fines, which is roughly the amount the church collects every second in tithes. What specific vile crime did the Mormons commit to merit such a cruel and unusual punishment? Keep reading.

 

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Coastal protesters to link hands against spills.

 

How about never voting for anyone ever again that takes money from Big Oil, and instead vote for candidates who will promote alternative energy? Or using your hands to clean up the oil?

 

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James Cameron has volunteered to go down to the Gulf of Mexico and consult. I love it when a guy who's an expert in fake disasters gets involved. And if that doesn't work, they're going to contact Superman and he's going to weld the pipe with his X-ray vision." –David Letterman

 

At least it's more than Hopey's doing, David.

 

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"No statement shall be made containing promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal." BP's 2009 Oil Spill Response Plan,  Link

 

I don't know about the rest of you, but having witnessed the tabling of the most important parts of virtually every piece of reform undertaken so far... most before they ever had a chance to be discussed openly and with no public input until after the fact... I'm guessing that BP is going to weasel out of a large chunk of the responsibility being assigned to them now when it's politically expedient to do so.  There is a big difference between talking tough for public consumption and making it stick in court.  

And there is, after all, an extremely relevant precedent.  Looking back at the two decades of litigation that has ensued from the Exxon Valdez incident... which shows no sign of ever coming to any kind of satisfactory conclusion... I truly doubt the will or the ability of our government to stand up for us in this one.  

When the corporations own the lawyers who will oppose the government... as well as the government itself... it shouldn't require too much of a stretch to figure that this case is going to go pretty much the same way the Exxon one did.

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"When you ...see birds covered in oil, and you talk to fishermen who are on the verge of tears, it gets you frustrated. But it has not reduced my confidence that our trajectory is right." Obama, apparently still a fan of off-shore drilling, Link 

That seems suicidal, for the Gulf and for Obama's political career.

Jesus, he's needs advisors who aren't 100% politically tone-deaf, but if he's STILL a fan of off-shore drilling, I withdraw my offer to help.

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Unbelievable pencil art by Paul Lung.

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"On no issue has the evidence of my foresight and keen political instincts been more compelling 
  than that of the environment. Come, let us count the ways:  The Earth's ecosystem is not fragile, 
  and humans are not capable of destroying it." Rush Limbaugh, "on the issues" Link  

  

No matter how big he lies, he's never held accountable.
Of course, I blame the surrender-monkey Democrats and the whore press.  

Pigboy Quotes

"Big-government regulation is not the best way to protect the environment." Rush Limbaugh,"on the issues" Link  

He's right - we should leave it to BIG OIL to police themselves because we know they would always put OUR interests before making excessive profits year after year after year.

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Wow. Tone deaf AND self-unaware

BP has no idea why its stock price is dropping like an oil-soaked dead pelican?

BP is jointly listed on the New York Stock Exchange - and trading in its US shares closed nearly 16% down on Wednesday night.

In response to the sharp fall in the US, BP said it was "not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement".

It's not rocket science, you criminally insane assclowns.

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I have no idea what has happened to the Democratic Party.

Also, what driftglass said, too.

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I'm cryin' here

Poor babies. Only making $311K a year.

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Wisco: Teabaggers are getting their candidates - and that may cost them.

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We need a new phrase for what's happening in Afghanistan - catastrophic clusterfuck just doesn't cut it anymore. "Four Nato soldiers have been killed as their helicopter was shot down in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Nato said the aircraft was hit by "hostile fire". The troops were Americans, said US military spokesman in Kabul, Lt Col Joseph T Breasseale. The helicopter crashed in the Sangin district, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi. The Taliban claimed its fighters had shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said it had been brought down in the Sangin district bazaar on Wednesday morning. "We brought it down with a rocket," he told AFP news agency."

 

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Tell ya what, Ken, you moron: no more drilling for oil until the Gulf of Mexico is cleaner than it was on April 19. "US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has told a senate panel that a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling will stay in place until safety is assured. But he sought to reassure senators that the moratorium - imposed after the huge Gulf of Mexico spill - was a "pause" rather a permanent halt to exploration. Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen said the amount of oil captured from the leaking well could almost double by next week. President Barack Obama has criticised BP's efforts to deal with the spill. He is due to make his fourth trip to the Gulf of Mexico next week. Mr Salazar's announcement came a day after he announced plans to bolster safety requirements for shallow-water oil drilling. He said that drilling would continue, but it "has to be done in a safe way"."

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Israel can run, but it cannot hide, from history: http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/5854/israel-can-run-but-not-hide-from-history