OK, I think what we all need to do here is pick a buddy, so that if your buddy mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night, we’ll all know that the bushies declared them to be subversives, and took them away.  I’m not exactly sure what to do after that, though.  I mean, it aint like you can report it to the police.  But at least we’ll know.

Before they come for you, you might want to check out Marc at Giggles in Seattle (where “Tickets Still Available” – of which I have two copies, because, even though I ordered “Not Sold Out,” somebody shipped me two of the same thing – was recorded) tonight, though.  I mean, what better way to get through those waterboarding sessions than to laugh while recallign a few choice Maron bits?

Be careful out there – it’s a brave new world.

I reckon dubya will sign his torture bill today. Maybe we can get them to declare September 29th a national holiday, in honor of the occasion. Torture, of course, is bad (seems odd to have to actually say that; somewhere along the way, being in favor of peace, civil rights, and the rule of law became subversive), but the most horrible thing to come out of this is the suspension of habeas corpus. To be allowed to imprison somebody without ever bringing charges, and with no hope for judicial review is so vile, so repugnant, so — yes — anti-American that it is beyond words.

To say I feel ashamed of this country seems inadequate. After all, it’s been quite a shameful half-decade in American history. You can point to NAFTA and welfare reform as terrible ideas, but they don’t compare to this. You can describe the failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda (or the bombing campaign in Kosovo, ostensibly done to prevent genocide) as shameful. You can point to exploitation of the poor, opression of minorities, Central American death squads — more offenses against humankind than I have the space (or even the awareness) to fully list here. But to codify the use of torture and permanent imprisonment without the benefit of facing your accusers and without being able to defend yourself against the charges — of even being charged — as US law is beyond shameful. It’s right there with slavery and the 3/5 compromise. I, too, can smell the sulphur.

I imagine I feel, today, the way Otto Wells (leader of the Social Democrats) felt in 1933 when the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving Hitler total power in Germany. I can only echo Wells’ words now:

“We…pledge ourselves solemnly in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible.”

Piss and moan about the Democrats all you want — I find them them spineless and reprehensible in their failure to fight this with every means at their disposal — but never forget who the real culprits are here. It is the Bush administration that has done this to our country, and it is their “enablers” in Congress (including 12 Democratic Senators – if you count Lieberman – and 34 Democratic Congressmen) who have let them do it. They need to be cut out of our government – excised like the cancer they are – whiel we still have some semblance of a democracy left in this country.

In happier news, those of you out in the vicinity of Seattle have four chances to catch Marc this weekend – shows at 8 and 10 tonight and tomorrow at Giggles. I know we have at least a couple of Seditionists making their way there, and hopefully we can get a few more. Tell him we all say hello. The rest of us will have to content ourselves with catching Marc on the Sam Seder Show tomorrow morning (if Sam can get Marc out of bed, that is). Have a good one.

Hey, it’s Thursday.  I haven’t got much to say at the moment, but hopefully you all do.  Play nice, now.

Please join me in wishing a happy birthday to Marc Maron today. :cake:

I invite everyone (and that includes you, too, lurkers) to head on over to the photo pages, find a picture you think Marc will like (there are some nice pix there – check out the “whatever” section, if nothing else), click on the eCard button – which looks like this: but that isn’t the actual button.  You have to go pick out a photo first, and then click the button – and send Marc your birthday wishes, so he knows the Seditionists are thinking of him today. If you don’t find something you like, feel free to register and upload a photo of you own. You should be able to use marc AT marcmaron DOT com to send him a happy happy.

Well, happy days are here again.  Yes, you can once again bring your toothpaste and hair gel on the plane with you. Makes me want to go out and fly somewhere.  Enjoy your flights (or whatever else you care to do) today.

Lots to do by midnight tonight (not to mention the rest of the week, but today’s gonna be difficult enough to get through w/o getting ahead of myself).  Nice to see Bill Clinton all intelligent and articulate yesterday, wasn’t it?  There was a time when that would be described as “presidential,” but not any more.  Now presidential means arrogant and ignorant (and that’s being pretty kind).  Oh well, maybe someday we’ll get another president I can not be ashamed of – whether I agree with him (or her) or not.  In the meantime, though, I guess I’d better get busy, on the odd chance that the end times won’t get here before my savings account runs out.  Have a good Monday.

Here’s an oldie but a goodie.

Well, let’s start with Fux News, which I ordinarily wouldn’t recommend to anybody, but (as everybody here knows) today is the day that Bill Clinton kicks the crap out of that weaselface little prick, Chris Wallace, on Fux News Sunday. No doubt you’ve already read the transcript at Think Progress, but it ought to be a lot of fun watching Bubba wipe that smirk off his greasy little piece of shit face. Mike Wallace must kick himself in the ass for letting Mrs. Wallace breast feed that little schmuck until he was 23.

Otherwise, speaking of Clinton, he’ll also be on with Timmy Potaohead on Press the Meat. Also on are Unocal consultant Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, and former Senator John Danforth. You’ll have to wait until after coverage of the Ryder Cup, though, as Press the Meat will be delayed until 1:00 Eastern time, when most people will probably be watching The Jets kick the crap out of Buffalo (hopefully).

Faze the Nation will be on at the regular time, but who really wants to watch Bendover McCain justify the torture of detainees? I hope he wakes up covered in sweat, acutely reliving the pain his captors inflicted on him, for every prisoner our grand democracy “legally” tortures. Joining the “maverick” is White House bitch and WaPost National Political Editor, John Harris.

Over at the Goebbels Brodcasting Company, it’s Bill the cat vivisectionist Frist, (not much of a temptation to end my boycott there), and then a story on the NJ Senate race between Menendez (not one of the ones that offed his parents, I assume) and the son of sellout Tom Kean. At the rondtable it’s Frank Rich, who might be worth making a boycott exception for, if it wasn’t for the fact that he’ll be on with yet another graduate of the NPR school of hackery, Martha Raddatz, plus the dean of dull, George :jerk: Will. Also on will be Bob Newhart, who apparently used to hang out with Lincoln and Reagan. I like Bob, but not enough to lower myself to watching anything on that Mickey Mouse network.

On CNN, you can see Wolf Blitzer’s Late Emission (funny, I’d take him to be more on the premature side), with (I guess he’s making the rounds today) Hamid Karzai, yet another fake moderate Republican sellout creep, Arlen Specter, DINO Jane Harman, Al Haig (must be he’s not dead yet), former ambassador to the UN (not to mention Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, Ambassador to Germany, and Peace Corps director, among other things), Dick Holbrooke, Matthew Dowd (because you can never get enough Republican scumbags), and Stan Greenberg (too bad it isn’t Stan Freberg).

Later, on 60 Minutes, Katie Couric has an “initmate” profile of the Lizard Queen, Condi Rice. :barf: Gee, guess I’ll have to set the DVR for that one. I think the whole segment ought to be sponsored by Geico.  And I guess Steve Kroft will be speaking with budding author (and President of Pakistan), Pervez Musharraf.
New episode of The Wire on HBO at 10:00, though, so I guess the day isn’t a total waste.

In the meantime….

Ah, Saturday, when my mind turns to thoughts of…well, death, actually.  My brain has been somewhat obsessed with it lately.  I dunno if it’s having el diablo sulfurado for president,  seeing my country embrace torture, humiliation, and death (not necessarliy in that order), or just that I have so much shit to do that death seems like a good way to get some friggin’ sleep.  But, no rest for the weary here, so I guess I better get busy procrastinating.  You still have another chance to catch Marc at the CanWest ComedyFest if you’re up that way.  Enjoy.

Hey, looks like a big weekend ahead.  First, Marc’s scheduled to be on Sam Seder’s show, and then of course all of you out in the general vicinity of Vancouver get the chance to see Marc and a lot of other comedians at the CanWest ComedyFest, plus we can all go out and torture somebody, now that tough-talkin’ dubya and maverick mister principles John McCain have come to the glorious “compromise” (this was one of Uncle Karl’s finest moments: a fake “dispute” between John “Bend Over” McCain and the White House that allowed both of them to get what they wanted – dubya looks “tough,” McCain looks “independent,” and the Democrats look like impotent surrender monkeys).  And Happy 55th Birthday to Mark Riley.  :cake:

Enjoy your Friday.

Not much to say this morning, except if you’re out there in the vicinity of Vancouver, you should head out to the CanWest ComedyFest over the next few days to see the likes of Marc Maron and Janeane Garafalo.  And nobody could really blame you if you decided to just stay up there.  In fact, if you set up a safe house, let me know; I’ll be along shortly.