News of the Restless

Austerity overwhelmingly rejected in France, Greece

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Tabernac de merde! The IMF just got two more black eyes today. First, in France:

Socialist Francois Hollande swept to victory in France’s presidential election on Sunday in a swing to the left at the heart of Europe that could start a pushback against German-led austerity.

Hollande was set to beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy by a decisive 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent margin, the TNS-Sofres polling agency said in a projection based on a partial vote count.

The president conceded defeat within 20 minutes of the last polls closing at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), telling supporters he had telephoned Hollande to wish him good luck.

“I bear the full responsibility for this defeat,” he said.

Sarkozy, punished for his failure to rein in record 10 percent unemployment and for his brash personal style, is the 11th successive leader in the euro zone to be swept from power since the currency bloc’s debt crisis began in 2009.

Then, in Greece:

A cacophony of new voices will have their say in Parliament after a majority of Greeks rejected the two pro-bailout political parties that have dominated the country’s government since the fall of the dictatorship almost 40 years ago, according to an exit poll released after voting stations closed. A weak coalition government between the remnants of those major parties may be the result, analysts say, but its flexibility — and legitimacy — to push further painful austerity measures on the Greek people is likely to be tightly constrained.

The vote was the first chance for the land that invented democracy to exercise it since Greece was enveloped by an economic crisis in late 2009, and voters used the opportunity to topple old pillars of stability. The future of the $171 billion bailout, approved in February, is now further in doubt. If the Greek government fails to live up to promised plans to collect more taxes, drastically cut the size of the public sector and institute further cuts to services, the European Union and International Monetary Fund could pull the plug altogether.

That would likely cast Greece into bankruptcy and would put other European governments on the hook for the billions each has loaned the troubled country through the bailouts. No country has ever received such a large bailout — and no country has been asked to cut so much in return.

Surprise! People don’t take cuts in good grace when the cuts start costing jobs, livelihoods…and increasingly, in Greece, LIVES.

Also, democracy works, but not the way elites like the IMF would have it work. Which is to say, in favor of bailing out the rich while leaving the poor forever on the hook, suckered into paying off odious debts that the elites have no intention of forgiving. At least, not until somebody puts a boot to their collective throat…

It’s now time for the so-called socialist parties of both these countries to remember what their names actually mean, and start working for the people again.

After all, it wasn’t the corporations that elected them, and it isn’t the elites that they should serve.

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Posted in Economics for Dummies, EuroPeons, Greek Salad, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Morticia! You Spoke French!, Schadenfreude, Socialism is Good for Capitalism! | Comments Off

Music for a Sunday: Still rockin’ the Sure Shot

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Sabina Becker

I have a terrible confession to make: The Beastie Boys were so good at parody that they totally lost me early on. I thought they were actually serious about that misogynist party-animal shit…and I was seriously horrified. It wasn’t until later — much, MUCH later — that I finally twigged to what they were really saying. (Apparently I’m not the only one this happened to, so there’s that.)

The horror and the shame of it is, I missed out on some seriously great music that didn’t get the publicity (or the douchebag fans) that the parody-of-crap stuff did. So now I’m making up for lost time. And since life was too short for Adam “MCA” Yauch, who gets in the best lines above…

I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End

…I’m gonna make the most of this while I still get my shot. (Gonna have to do some record shopping too, I can see.)

Rest in peace, Adam…and reincarnate soon, because you are way too cool to stay gone for long!

PS: Coldplay pays an unplugged tribute, within hours of the sad news breaking. Who knew that song could sound so tender?

PPS: More good tributes and remembrances from Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, the New York Mets, Dangerous Minds, NPR, and the Criterion Collection.

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Posted in Music for a Sunday | Comments Off

Manuel Zelaya fractures femur, receives surgery in DR

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Sabina Becker

An x-ray of Manuel Zelaya’s femoral-head fracture, as reported in Contrainjerencia today. Here’s the story:

On Saturday, Dominican surgeons operated successfully on the former president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, for a broken femur, which he suffered in a fall on Friday, according to the politician’s daughter.

“A prosthesis was inserted successfully. The process of recuperation and later therapy begins,” tweeted Xiomara Zelaya, the president’s daughter, who informed on Friday that the doctors of the Centre for Diagnostic, Advanced Medicine and Telemedicine (CEDIMAT) were debating what treatment to apply, according to AFP.

Zelaya was in Santo Domingo to participate in a conference on the Central American Parliament during the 15th International Book Fair. He suffered a fall at his residence in the Dominican capital and fractured his femur.

The former president, who was exiled in the Dominican Republic after being ousted in 2009, was admitted to the Armed Forces Hospital and later referred to CEDIMAT.

Zelaya sent a message of thanks to all the Latin American heads of state who expressed concern for his state of health.

Translation mine.

It’s not clear what “prosthesis” Zelaya’s daughter, also known as La Pichu, was referring to in her tweet, but I’m guessing he had a femoral head replacement, which is a common treatment in injuries like this. It’s hard to set a broken femur, and all but impossible when the fracture occurs this close to the hip joint. It’s also painful and nasty as hell; as someone who’s suffered a shattered pelvis, I know all too well what bone pain in that region feels like. He’s going to be needing a lot of bed rest and painkillers, and he’s going to have to relearn to walk, as I did. Yikes! Feel better soon, Mel, you’ve had entirely too much rotten luck in the last three or so years.

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Posted in Not Hiding in Honduras, She Blinded Me With Science | Comments Off

Quotable: Adam Yauch on human rights

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Sabina Becker

RIP Adam. You are missed!

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Posted in Quotable Notables, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

Wankers of the Week: Cinco de Morons

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! And a happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate. And look! Out the window! It’s a full Moon! You know what that means…it means the weirdos are out in force. And sure enough, here they come, in no particular order…

1. Clive Fucking Palmer. Oh sure, build another Titanic! What could possibly go wrong? Let’s not forget that megalomania and stupidity were what sank the original. On second thought, let’s forget…because wouldn’t it be the most awesome adventure to watch a boatload of money go down with the ship?

2. Davis Fucking Williams. Dude, when people say there’s a party in their pants, they don’t mean a fucking mobile meth lab.

3. Alex Fucking Wiles. What do you get when you pit the Second Amendment against the First? Bullet holes everywhere, and a gun-totin’ homophobic yahoo’s video goin’ viral on the Internets. Yeeeeeehaw!

4. Rob Fucking Ford. With his credibility shot, and running out of good ways to pander to rednecks in the GTA, Robbo is now railing against lifesaving no-brainers like lowering the fucking speed limit on the local thoroughfares. And given that Toronto is overrun with insane drivers anyway, it’s a no-brainer to see why that’s a no-brainer. But since Robbo panders to road-warriors, well…would it be a no-brainer to conclude that he has no brains? PS: Or scrambled brains. Srsly, WTF?

5. Haley Fucking Barbour. What is he, a closet Mormon? No one gets to appropriate Anne Frank to THEIR religion. NO FUCKING ONE!

6. Michael Fucking Coren. I’m not saying he’s a washed-up old fascist skinhead hack but…oh, who am I kidding? He fucking well IS, and he’s too fucking cowardly to admit it, which is why I hold him in deep fucking CONtempt. And if you want to talk “extreme and talentless”, Mikey, you’re IT. Good thing you’ve got your fellow hacks at SunMedia to publish your snotty maunderings, because no one else will. And your professional jealousy of Silver Donald Cameron is most unbecoming, although it’s also quite unsurprising. He has his finger on a pulse; you have yours up your bum. But thanks for turning me on to the Chronicle Herald, I like it; it’s a paper that tells it like it is.

7. Joe Fucking Oliver. Ah, the hard-knock life of a SupposiTory lapdog. All the oil-industry champagne you can guzzle, all the oil-industry caviar you can snarf, and all the oil-soaked duck à l’orange you can lick off your oily, oily paws. “Elegant”, yeah, that’s the word for it. Doggie wanna Milk-Bone? Roll over and play dead!

8. Mike Fucking Schouten. The only law we need when it comes to abortion is one that keeps fetus-fetishizing control freaks out of our uteri. Especially ones with a history of racist exclusionism, not to mention perpetually sweaty hair, beady eyes, and creepy little chin-whiskers.

9. Chris Fucking Loesch. Boo fucking hoo. Cry a little louder, you big fat wimp. If you can’t fucking take it, don’t fucking dish it out!

10. Paulina Fucking Gretzky, again. Doesn’t she ever learn? Can’t she ever keep her clothes on? And doesn’t she have a job to do, or an education to complete, or something?

11. Jerry Fucking Smith. Does this nutty Texas judge use a penis pump under his judicial robes? It would explain a lot…

12. Greg Fucking Abbott. And in other dick-pump news, how about this one? Apparently he’s the one who swayed #11 — not that he needed much, since both are fanatical right-wing freakazoids.

13. Scott Fucking Walker. Trying to take credit for something that’s not your baby is a pretty big wank. Trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater first, then charging ostentatiously in to the “rescue”? Yup, doublepluswank.

14. Alex Fucking Castellanos. I would write more about this condescending turd, but I just found Rachel Maddow’s pwnage so satisfying. You will, too.

15. Bryan Fucking Fischer. Wow, what a “big win” — hounding Mittens’ token gay guy out of a job! Congratulations, Fishy, you purged the Party of the Closet…of one UNcloseted guy. Yeah, that’ll really show them uppity faggots…why gays should avoid conservatives like the poison they are. Pat yourself on your big old closeted back!

16. Sean Fucking Harris. Hey, I have a terrific idea: Let’s punch all the bible-thumpin’ homophobes and crack their wrists to make ’em limp! See how well that shoe fits when it’s on the other foot? PS: I don’t believe you. If you were joking, why is nobody laughing? PPS: I don’t believe this, either. Jesus said NOTHING about de-gaying the gays. And if it were a disease to be cured, don’t you think he could have cured it? He did with paralytics and lepers…

17. Ezra Fucking Levant. He has a new pantload — er, that is to say, a new BOOK — out. It is just as much of a pantload as all his previous scribblings, alas and alack. Long on self-righteous wind, and therefore suckitude; short on any facts that he actually bothered to dig out himself. Instead, he expends a lot of time and energy slamming my j-school classmate, Michelle Shepherd, who literally wrote the book on Omar Khadr. And who actually did all the fact-digging for Ezzy the Putz, when you get right down to it. Oh yeah, and he’s also short on CLASS. Surprise!

18. George Fucking Zimmerman. Looks like someone forgot to lock down his MySpace page. And thanks to the magic of the Internets, we now know beyond all shadow of a doubt that he is a racist and a sexist bigot, as well as a vigilante looking for trouble (and not above making it himself when he can’t find it). And for those who want to scream “But he’s Hispanic!”, cool your fucking jets. He hates the “Mexicans” too. Which is more than a little ironic, when you think about it…

19. Kyle Fucking Scott. It. Doesn’t. Matter. If. An. Accidental. Upskirt. Shot. Was. On. TV! You. Still. Have. No. Right. To. Use. It. To. Draw. Hits. To. Your. Shitty. Fucking. Blog.

20. Michelle Fucking Malkin. Fucking Unhinged. That is all.

21. Ruben Fucking Diaz. No, Hitler was NOT pro-choice. He deprived German women of the right to choose abortion (ever hear of Lebensborn, Ruben? Yeah, forced breeding is SO pro-choice!) And also, Jewish women, men and children of the right to decide whether to go on living in freedom, or die being starved and overworked and/or gassed. What is so fucking “pro-choice” about that, you fucking Godwin-violator? Honestly, this abortion-holocaust trope must fucking DIE.

22. Margaret Fucking Wente. It’s getting harder and harder for me not to type her name as “Twente”. Guess why.

23. Conrad Fucking Black. Privilege has its privileges, and nowhere is it more clear than when a convicted felon can buy his way back into Canada for just $200. He even got it fast-tracked while he was still in the clinker! (The Fucking Harper Government™, needless to say, is complicit in this wank.)

24. Joe Fucking Warmington. No, #23 does NOT “deserve his freedom”. What he actually deserves is a life sentence, because his entire life has been one long episode of bilking, swindling and ripping people off. His criminal career began when he was in prep school; he made extra pocket money by selling cheat sheets to his classmates. But of course, since only poor people can be hardened criminals, only poor people should make it to Millhaven. Isn’t that right, Joe?

25. Stephen Fucking Harper. Deny favoring #23 all you like — we still won’t believe you. He’s your crony, and you crony capitalists all stick together. And besides, you’ve made it quite clear that you plan to drag this country kicking and screaming back to its bad old “Child of Empire” days. Conrad Black is your Beaverbrook. Having a disgraced “Lord” (of noplace!) back on our turf is just the feather for your imperialist cap.

26. and 27. Jodie and Peter Fucking Bruntstetter. I’ve long suspected a skulking racist component to the anti-equal-marriage argument, so it’s kind of nice to see it put so baldly for a change. Unfortunately, banning same-sex marriage is not going to do a goddamned thing for the white birthrate, because (a) gay people will reproduce (or not!) whether or not you let them marry their true loves, and (b) straight people aren’t going to be motivated to reproduce just because you won’t let the queers marry, because (c) ALL people still need a means of supporting all those babies, and that’s not forthcoming from you right-wing idiots because you’re so fixated on stopping people from having non-reproductive sex that you’ve forgotten all about the fucked-up global economy. Which your people, incidentally, fucked. So yeah, I guess what I’m trying to say here is, go right on trying to stop the queers from marrying. In the end, the only “race” that’s going to die out is that of stupid fucking right-wing politicians.

28. David Fucking Vitter. Oh look, Diapers is back in the news! And he’s very uncomfortable about the Secret Service prostitution scandals, probably because they remind him too much of his own, which should have killed his career but somehow didn’t. Did I mention the diapers?

29. Peter Fucking Kent. No, environmental groups do NOT launder money. But I know one shitty hack of a so-called environment minister who washes brains on a regular basis!

30. Peter Fucking MacKay. And speaking of shitty ministers named Peter (and brains), this one decided to cut mental-health services for military vets. Right at a time when soldiers are returning from Afghanistan with PTSD. Given the high suicide rates among military vets, this could turn out to be so much worse than a wank. And of course, he will NEVER be held accountable. Have I mentioned yet today how much I hate these people?

31. Skyy Fucking Fisher. How the hell does such a sexist homophobe get elected to a school board in the first place? And why is he still in his seat? He called Trayvon Martin a faggot, and the local school superintendent a bitch. And that’s not all the embarrassing shit he said, by a long shot. Charming!

32. Patrick Fucking Lanzo. Suddenly, it’s not racist to flat-out call somebody a nigger anymore. Especially if you happen to advertise your bar as a Klan hangout. Well, then, I guess it’s not insulting if I call this guy an inbred, gap-toothed, cousin-fucking gomer, eh?

33. Ted Fucking Nugent. Why is this fucking pervert running loose? Why is he allowed to own firearms? Why is he not locked away and Thorazined within an inch of his miserable, no-good life? Whatever the reason, I don’t want him within a mile of me. My clit shrinks at the very sight of him.

34. Michele Fucking Bachmann. The Lord may nor may not have told her to get in the Repugnican presidential precandidacy race, but one thing is for certain — he had NO intention of letting someone so bat-shit crazy win. In fact, if I had to guess at any divine purpose behind that head-scratcher at all, I’d have to say he wanted her there so the whole fucking slate would look bad, and so that the least evil candidate — Obama — would eventually win.

35. Jan Fucking Brewer. And speaking of batshit crazy, you can’t get more so than to be a bitchy old bat who hates her own sex. Why else so much rubber-stamping for draconian anti-choice legislation?

And finally, to all the media morons and blogtards who’ve taken it upon themselves to prematurely announce Chavecito’s death, call him a dictator/authoritarian/terrorist/whatever, and speculate on who his “successor” will be. I realize that you’re in the business of writing obits ahead of the actual death of the decedent; I also realize you’re full of “rah rah U-S-A” shit. Could you please try not to do both simultaneously? I’m in serious danger of laughing myself to death every time I check my Google alert.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | 3 Comments

Cops Behaving Badly: Drugging the Occupiers in Minneapolis

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Journalist and independent filmmaker Dan Feidt has produced a shocking documentary that accuses the Minneapolis police force of offering illegal drugs (and sometimes, cigarettes and/or food) to Occupy Minneapolis activists, in an effort to corrupt them and get them to inform on their comrades.

You know the War on Drugs has failed when the cops themselves — who are supposed to arrest people for drug possession! — are playing the pusher.

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Posted in Cops Behaving Badly, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia, The WTF? Files | Comments Off

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Viva Repechaje!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Sabina Becker

The man with the megaphone calls himself Repechaje, and in the afternoons he can be seen rapping in the Plaza Bolívar, Caracas, expounding on his support for Chavecito, the dangers of US imperialism, the political interference of the archbishops (and other religious leaders), and the importance of opposing violence. People like him are the unseen faces of the Venezuelan revolution; contrary to what the lamestream media up here would have us believe, it is NOT a one-man show. Street politicians abound in Venezuela, as do street activists. It’s no coincidence that during the coup of ’02, it was concerted street activism — and word of mouth — that reversed the fascist putsch and brought back Chavecito. There are millions like Repechaje, even if not all of them can be seen daily in the Plaza Bolívar with megaphones.

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Posted in Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito | 2 Comments

Cops Behaving Badly: In which the 1950s prep school nerd really comes out

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Yeah, that’s right. The grandpa sweater and glasses aren’t a pose. Nice, friendly, circa-1957 plainclothes “Hipster Cop” (real name: Rick Lee) really IS a nerdburger. A nerdburger who hates Beltane, May Day demonstrations, and music.

And he’s also now a meme. Just so his Bad Cop counterpart, Pepper Spray Cop, doesn’t get too lonely over there on the Occupied side of the Internets. Most topical: