News of the Restless

Dear Miami Herald: Learn how to spell TERRORIST!

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Luis Posada Carriles hasn’t been in Cuba for at least five decades now, and that’s not the only thing the Miami Whore–sorry, Herald–gets wrong about him. I’ll excerpt a few passages from one of their latest reports on him. It’s called “Cuban militant Posada is heard on tape discussing bombings”. See if you can spot their problem:

Jurors in the Luis Posada Carriles perjury trial on Monday finished listening to more than two hours of taped excerpts from an interview the Cuban exile militant gave to a New York Times writer 13 years ago in which he talks about bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist.

The excerpts were played for the jury by Posada’s lead defense attorney, Arturo V. Hernandez, in an apparent bid to show that his client did not admit to proud “authorship’’ of the Cuban bombing campaign as then New York Times writer Ann Louise Bardach and another reporter, Larry Rohter, wrote in a New York Times article based on the interview published July 12, 1998.

But in testimony Monday, her fourth day on the witness stand, Bardach again stood by the story noting that while Posada did not directly say he was the proud author of the attacks, he clearly conveyed proud authorship of the actions in the “totality’ of his statements.

It was the first time since the trial began Jan. 10 that the jurors have heard the entire tape of excerpts, two hours and 40 minutes, from Posada’s interview with Bardach in Aruba in June 1998. The jurors followed the tape, in which Posada’s words are hard to decipher, with a voluminous transcript.

In their story, Bardach and Rohter wrote that in the interview, “Mr. Posada proudly admitted authorship of the hotel bomb attacks last year.’’

That’s the first. Did you spot it? No? Here’s another. This is their sidebar:

This one makes it much clearer, because the mistake is repeated three times. In all three cases, Posada is referred to as a “Cuban militant”. A pretty grievous error, since he was never a, er, militant on behalf of Cuba, but on behalf of the CIA, against Cuba. Actual Cuban militants look more like this:

Or like this:

But not, most emphatically not, like this:

Cuba Journal reports that this was Luis Posada Carriles’s US Army photo. He was a second lieutenant with the rear-guard echelon of the infamous Brigade 2506. I say infamous because this brigade carried out the foiled assault on Cuba otherwise known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Posada wasn’t in it at the time, though; he joined the brigade AFTER that epic failure. Invasor reports that Posada was in the CIA’s training camp at the time. He didn’t get around to formally joining the US Army (no doubt working in what we laughingly call intelligence) until 1963.

A militant? Perhaps, but certainly not a Cuban one. A military member is a more accurate way of saying it; a member of the US military, more accurate still. Most accurate of all, though, would be to call him what he really was: a CIA operative and a professional terrorist. And he was also a torturer. But let’s let Invasor sketch the picture for us:

Posada was sent to direct the repressive organs in Venezuela, first in the Police General Division (DIGEPOL) and later in the Department of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP). He was connected to the assassination plots against Cuban officials in Chile and the one orchestrated against Cuban President Fidel Castro during his visit to that country in 1971. He had received and delivered to the commando in charge false documentation crediting them as members of the Venezuelan television team. He is also related to the disappearance of the Cuban officials murdered in August 1976 in Argentina.

He carried out several criminal missions in various countries of the area and created a team of terrorists that he sent to the Chilean Secret Police (DINA) during Pinochet’s fascist government.

Posada recruited two Venezuelans, Hernan Ricardo Losano and Freddy Lugo, to carry out Barbados Crime the sabotage against a civil Cuban airliner in Barbados. These two mercenaries placed the bombs on a CUBANA airliner minutes after the flight took off the Barbados airport in October 6 1976 killing all 73 people on board. He and Orlando Bosch Avila were arrested the following day for having sponsored the crime.

When the Venezuelan police arrested Posada Carriles on October 7, 1976 they found in his office a map of the city of Washington with drawings showing the daily journey Orlando Letelier-the former Chilean foreign minister-used to take to his office before being murdered.

On August 8, 1982 Posada escaped from jail and managed to get into the Chilean embassy in Caracas, but he was sent back to prison. On November 4, 1984 he tried again to escape but he failed. On August 18, 1985 he finally managed to escape from the maximum security prison in San Juan de los Morros.

El Salvador then became the favorite sanctuary of this Cuban terrorist. In September of 1985 he joined another terrorist of Cuban origin, Felix Rodriguez Mendigutia, who had arrived in El Salvador in February of that year following Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s instructions to organize the air supply to the “contras” in Nicaragua to support their insurgent actions.

That same year a group of terrorists from Miami visited Posada in his refuge in El Salvador and recommended he move to Honduras. Among them were Juan Perez Franco, then president of the Brigade 2506 and Rolando Mendoza, a former mercenary of the same Brigade who also visited him in December 1988 to organize an attack against the Cuban president when he would visit Venezuela.

Quite the criminal career for a mere “militant”!

The Herald slipped up a bit in its sidebar when it mentioned his CIA ties, but other than that, it sticks to the touching story of a brave, rebellious militant, fighting for freedom on behalf of Washington against evil wicked Fidel. Someone who couldn’t possibly have bragged to Ann Louise Bardach (then of the New York Times) for three whole days about his terrorist activities against Fidel’s “totalitarian” régime:

Hernandez zeroed in on the absence of any statement in the tape or the transcript in which Posada proudly admits authorship. Hernandez specifically noted that in one passage where Bardach asks Posada to confirm a Miami Herald story about his alleged role in the bombings, the exile militant answers: “More or less.’’

Hernandez then adds: “Posada says more or less, not the same as proudly admits, wouldn’t you say, Ms. Bardach?’’

“That is just not so,’’ Bardach said. “I would agree that in that one passage, it’s an admission.’’ Later she added: “You don’t contact a reporter from the New York Times and spend three days talking. He wanted publicity.’’

Surely not to help him, a veteran of the US Army and the CIA, gain legal, permanent resident status? No, he’s just a poor misunderstood “militant” who had to slink into the US illegally, and then lie about it, because his old comrades wouldn’t grant him residency any other way, boo hoo.

I just love how the Miami Herald takes up for him, ever so subtly, while pretending to report objectively on his case. It’s so cute, and even kind of touching.

But there are times, and this is one of them, where I really wish they would learn how to spell the word we all know they’d use if they were really objective. And it’s not spelled M-I-L-I-T-A-N-T.

It’s spelled T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T.

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Posted in Chile Sin Queso, Crapagandarati, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), CubanaBomber Death Watch, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Newspeak is Nospeak, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | 2 Comments

What’s wrong with these pictures?

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Germany’s Der Spiegel captions this photo as follows: “This photo shows the corpse of farmer’s son Gul Mudin, killed January 15, 2010, with a member of the ‘Kill Team’ posing behind it. Der SPIEGEL has published three photos from the possessions of the accused, who are alleged to have killed innocent Afghans out of pure lust for murder.”

Here’s another of the photos in question:

This one is captioned: “This photo was taken the same day, this time it’s soldier Jeremy Morlock grinning into the camera.”

Now, bearing in mind that the dead man has a name, and the name is Gul Mudin, tell me if you can see what’s wrong with this Reuters report:

(Reuters) – Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine published photos on Monday of American soldiers posed over the bloodied corpse of an Afghan civilian whose slaying is being prosecuted by the U.S. military as premeditated murder.

Disclosure of the images, among dozens seized as evidence in the prosecutions but kept sealed from public view by the military, prompted the U.S. Army to issue an apology “for the distress these photos cause” and condemning actions depicted in them as “repugnant.”

One photo shows a soldier identified as Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, of Wasilla, Alaska, broadly smiling in sunglasses as he crouches beside the bloodied, prone body of a man whose head he is holding up for the camera by the hair.

A second soldier, Private First Class Andrew Holmes, 20, is seen in a separate photo kneeling over the same corpse, also raising the victim’s head by the hair.

As published by Der Spiegel and circulated elsewhere on the Internet, the face of the body has been deliberately blurred in the pictures to render it unidentifiable.

Lawyers for both soldiers confirmed to Reuters that their respective clients are the soldiers who appear in the images. Holmes’ attorney, Daniel Conway, said the body in both photos is that of the unarmed Afghan man both men are accused of slaying on January 15, 2010, with a grenade blast and rifle fire.

Morlock and Holmes are among five Stryker Brigade soldiers facing court-martial at Joint Base Lewis McChord near Tacoma, Washington, on charges of premeditated murder stemming from the deaths of three Afghan villagers whose killings were allegedly staged to look like legitimate combat casualties.

According to his lawyers, Morlock has agreed to plead guilty later this week to three counts of murder and other offenses and to testify against his co-defendants.

Under the plea deal, still subject to approval by a military judge, he would receive a 24-year prison sentence, as opposed to the life term he faced if convicted of all charges in a trial.

Holmes has reached no such deal. Defense lawyers insist Holmes is innocent and have sought, so far unsuccessfully, to force the military to unseal a number of photos that they say would help exonerate their client for the single murder with which he is charged.

The murder cases, which grew out of a probe into hashish use by American GIs, stand as the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by U.S. military in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001.

Photos like those published by Der Spiegel have drawn comparisons with pictures of Iraqi prisoners taken by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004.

In its statement, the U.S. Army said the photos depicted “actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army.”

“We apologize for the distress these photos cause,” said the statement, issued through the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, adding that actions shown in the photographs were now the subject of court-martial proceedings.

“The photos appear in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that have characterized our soldiers’ performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations (in Afghanistan).”

Geoffrey Nathan, one of Morlock’s civilian attorneys, said publication of the photos would have no impact on the outcome of his client’s case.

“The court will render its verdict based upon the pleadings and agreement among the litigants, and the photos are not in evidence,” he told Reuters in an e-mail.

That was the entire report. Notice anything missing?

That’s right: Gul Mudin is not named.

I’m sure that’s no coincidence. This farmer’s son, Gul Mudin, is not real to them. He’s not a person to Reuters, and by extension, to anyone reading the Reuters report. He’s just a corpse being held by the hair. A half-naked corpse being posed for trophy shots by a bunch of grinning human-hunters. The way the photos were taken, we are meant to see Gul Mudin as his murderers saw him: A thing, not a person.

This all has a bearing on the report, too, and whose viewpoint is reported, and how. Notice the wording:

Disclosure of the images, among dozens seized as evidence in the prosecutions but kept sealed from public view by the military, prompted the U.S. Army to issue an apology “for the distress these photos cause” and condemning actions depicted in them as “repugnant.”

Objection, Yer Honor!

It is not the act depicted in the pictures, but the publication of the pictures, that causes “distress”, in actual fact; it was the disclosure, not the murders, that was the real grounds for “distress”. Whose “distress”? That of the US Army, of course. After all, these images tarnish their image as Good Guys to the World. Because as “repugnant” as these actions are, they’re nothing new. They are as old as war itself; the US military was doing the same things in Vietnam, as the Winter Soldier hearings made painfully clear:

So don’t anyone be fooled by the army’s efforts to sweep these pictures under the rug. What happened in them is not anomalous; it is typical. The only thing repugnant here is that they actually came to light, and the public saw what the army tacitly condones and even encourages.

Remember the Abu Ghraib photos? They weren’t supposed to come out either. When they did, it was all dismissed as “bad apples”. But somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon, someone selected those “apples”–precisely because they had those psychopathic “Kill Team” tendencies, which the US Army in fact considers to be not merely acceptable, but highly desirable. They don’t want humanitarians in the Army; humanitarians won’t fight or kill on command. They want nice, obedient boys who won’t question orders–or better still, sick puppies, hillbillies from Wasilla who think of guys like Gul Mudin as just wolves to be shot for sport. This is a sad truth you won’t hear from mainstream sources like Reuters.

The original Winter Soldier testimony was largely suppressed by the mainstream media for the same reason: it’s all about the good-guy, GI Joe image. Any other images would spoil the heroic narrative that we’ve been meant to swallow holus-bolus. Vietnam was supposed to be about Freedom and Democracy™, not senseless indiscriminate killing for the hell of it. Afghanistan, Iraq, and now, Libya–same thing. They always tell us the same lies, and always we believe…until the “repugnant” pictures come out to show us the real story, that is.

As for poor Gul Mudin, notice that not only is he not named, his family, his village, all those who were distressed by his loss are also left out of the story.

What’s wrong with these pictures? I think you know the answer to that one as well as I do.

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Posted in Angry Pacifist Speaks Her Mind, Barreling Right Along, Confessions of a Bad German, Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Fine Young Cannibals, Isn't That Illegal?, Newspeak is Nospeak, Sick Frickin' Bastards, The 'Stans, The United States of Amnesia, The War on Terra | 5 Comments

Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx goes (off) nuclear

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Cats are creatures of nature par excellence, which is why the not-entirely-natural disaster at Fukushima, Japan, has Ms. Manx doing a near-constant facepaw, followed by a good ol’-fashioned kitty duck-and-cover. She peeked out between her furry toes just long enough to spot these links of interest, which she asked me to pass along to you:

First up, from Japan’s Kyodo News, a creepy revelation. A neutron beam has been detected at one of the Fukushima reactors, at least 13 times. The report seems to seek to downplay that, but when the shit is actually beaming out of the fan, that can’t be good.

And, according to the NY Times, salt from evaporated seawater used to cool the reactors could lead to further cooling problems down the road. Catch-22 à la japonaise.

And that 1600-times-higher-than-normal radiation? Not a good sign. The worst thing about radiation is that without a Geiger counter, you can’t detect it. It’s invisible, inaudible, colorless, odorless, tasteless. Even radiation burns can’t be felt until after the damage is done. It’s all too easy to absorb a lethal dose through your lungs or your gut.

Courtesy of Germany’s Der Spiegel, a terrific article about how TEPCO’s general crappiness (complete with prior scandals and serious safety failures!) made a nuclear disaster in one of their power stations not only likely, but inevitable. The LA Times has its own article to similar effect.

Meanwhile, in the good-news department, Germany has been gradually weaning itself off nuclear power since the Chernobyl disaster showered the entire country in radioactive fallout. Green energy is becoming the Germans’ electricity of choice, with wind and solar growing. The Stumpy Cat is flapping her little German flag proudly, and half wishing she had a tail she could fly it from.

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Environmentally Ill, Morticia! You Spoke French!, She Blinded Me With Science, Short 'n' Stubby, Turning Japanese | Comments Off

Economics for Dummies: Jump, you fuckers!

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Sabina Becker

This one’s not entirely new, but it still sums up very accurately what I think/feel whenever I see yet another fucker spinning the old greed-is-good lie on TV or the Internets. Usually, it comes as part of a concerted effort to pry the Little People’s ever-shrinking wallets out of their hands, while shielding the already too-well-padded and adding to their padding. “Too Big to Fail” is another fine lie, and next time we hear it, I say we play this and call their bluff:

I think the screaming, falling fuckers at the end are a nice touch, don’t you?

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Posted in Economics for Dummies | 1 Comment

A few random thoughts on Libya…

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Sabina Becker

…for whatever it’s worth:

1. I am most emphatically NOT in favor of Moammar Gaddafi. The man is a son of a bitch. And he’s been just about everyone’s son-of-a-bitch at some point, including the CIA’s. I will never be in favor of anyone they ever co-opted.

2. I am most emphatically NOT in favor of a “no-fly zone”, either. It’s a war measure by any other name, and it sure as hell doesn’t smell like a rose, even if the UN okays it. If you think it works worth a shit, I’ll point you toward Kosovo and Iraq (which had not one but two of them between the Gulf Wars). Worked great for them, eh? No flying, no problem–you can still slaughter people just as easily from the ground. And that’s just what’s happening now.

3. I don’t know who are the “freedom fighters” in Libya, or what their real motives are. (And yes, I said “motives”. I’m pretty sure they don’t have just one.) If I don’t know who they are, or what their motives, I don’t know if I can support them, notwithstanding Point #1. “Everyone in Libya except Gaddafi and his loyalists” doesn’t tell me enough about them for me to truly feel confident supporting their uprising. Which I sadly note has NOT been peaceful. Benghazi is no Tahrir Square.

4. I’m all for freedom and democracy. Especially when people in the Middle East and North Africa take courage in hand to obtain those for themselves. I admire the people of Egypt and Tunisia in particular; they’re keeping their good fight up.

5. I am NOT for “freedom” and “democracy” (note the quotation marks) imposed by third parties, at gunpoint, from without. Not even with a UN sanction. Imperialism by any other name still stinks as foul.

6. Chavecito may have taken his anti-imperialist stance a bit too far with the wrong man here (see Point #1), but he’s nevertheless right, in principle–foreign military interference is the same thing no matter what it’s called. And it is uncalled-for in Libya, no matter what “benevolent” official pretext is used. Ironically, Chavecito is the only person who offered to help forge a peaceful way out of this, and he was spurned not only by the rebels, but by all the “benevolent” internationalists are now bombing the shit out of Libya. Coincidence?

7. Also, Chavecito never sold weapons to Libya. Unless you call a replica of Simón Bolívar’s sword–a gift–a weapon. Who did arm the son-of-a-bitch, then? You might be surprised. I am not. Those “benevolent” internationalists are wolves in sheepskins.

8. Saying “But he’s a son-of-a-bitch, so we have the right” is a great, beautifully simplistic justification for imperialism. Hey, it worked with Saddam, right?

9. Unfortunately, even getting the son-of-a-bitch in the end doesn’t make a country free or democratic. Iraq has sham elections and zero freedom. I wouldn’t call it a democracy.

10. The motive for interference in Libya is the same as that in Iraq, ultimately.

11. And it ain’t freedom OR democracy.

12. If it were, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria et al would have had no-fly zones, too.

13. Also, Palestine. What’s left of it, that is.

14. There is no oil under Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, et al.

15. None under Palestine, either.

16. There is, however, plenty of oil under Libya. And Venezuela. And off the coast of Cuba a massive deposit, yet to be developed.

17. Therefore, even liberals agree that it’s okay to declare war on Libya, Venezuela and Cuba–in the name of getting rid of leaders they’ve been well trained by a steady stream of crapaganda to detest.

18. Liberals are sure easily misled, aren’t they? Not as easily as conservatives, mind you, but they are perfectly open to accepting crapaganda as truth if you keep bombarding them with it, and denying them any alternatives, for long enough. They’re remarkably ignorant about the real popularity of the leaders of Venezuela and Cuba; ignorant enough to equate them with Gaddafi. With whom there is no such equivalence.

19. Therefore, don’t look to liberals to be any more genuinely principled on this matter. They are just more dedicated to believing the best of a bad situation because this time, it’s their man leading the corporatist bayonet charge. And they have high hopes for his exceptionalist “leadership”.

20. Barack Obama has not earned that pre-emptive Nobel Peace Prize. I don’t think he ever will. I don’t think he’ll return it, either. Not even in the name of common decency. And yes, I am deeply disappointed in him. But then, I have been for the past two years. He campaigned on hope and change, and so far, in all truth, he hasn’t delivered.

21. He is, however, bidding fair to dethrone Henry Kissinger as the least deserving recipient of said prize. And that’s really saying something.

22. This will not end clearly or well, even if the Pentagon tries to spin it as such. Remember “Mission Accomplished”? This will be a quagmire–one from which Barack Obama will have no choice but to extricate himself ignominiously, if at all. Or else his unlucky successor.

23. This is not a humanitarian mission, even if it was initially couched as such in the media. This is war on Libya–a cowardly, undeclared war. It’s the same shit no matter who’s the asshole.

24. This was Libya’s civil war. Win or lose, only Libyans should have fought it.

25. No matter who “wins” now, Libyans will lose. Foreign imperialists will take charge of the country and its oil. “Freedom” and “democracy” will be sham. Remember Iraq?

26. It doesn’t matter if you like Gaddafi or not. It doesn’t matter if you can bear to keep him in power or not. As it is, your government was probably responsible anyway, for keeping in power and rehabilitating the image of the very man you now want to see gone.

27. Remember Saddam? He, not the Castros or Chávez, is Gaddafi’s real moral equivalent. After all, the west whitewashed him, too…right before it destroyed him.

28. The Libyan rebels may celebrate for a short time, but they will ultimately come up empty. Only Big Oil actually stands to gain amid all this. After all, it’s their crude under Libya’s soil. And on that point, Washington agrees.

29. Look at Iraq. That’s Libya’s real future, as of now. If you support military interference in Libya, that’s what you’re really supporting, no matter how liberal you think you are.

30. And yes, I will say I told you so. But if it’s any comfort, I will not relish being right. No matter what happens, Libyans will lose. And that’s nothing to be happy about.

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Posted in Angry Pacifist Speaks Her Mind, Barreling Right Along, Do As I Say..., Economics for Dummies, Fascism Without Swastikas, Good to Know, Huguito Chavecito, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Obamarama!, Rivers in Egypt, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia, The War on Terra | 16 Comments

Music for a Sunday: Two from the Stranglers

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Sabina Becker

I was in the mood for something punky and kick-ass today, sooooo…

And just for good measure, this as well:

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Posted in Music for a Sunday | Comments Off

Wankers of the Week: Odyssey Dawn (of the Dead) edition

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Crappy Equinox, everyone! How are you liking our latest “multinational” farce? Courtesy of the Nobel Peace President, fronting for the usual suspects at the Pentagon, we get yet another meaningless, vaguely “heroic” designation for a war based on pretense, lies, doubletalk…and oh yeah, OIL. Notice how the same people clamoring and yammering for the west’s need to “liberate” Libya from its tyrant didn’t lift a finger even to tweet the same in favor of Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria or Morocco? I did. None of Europe’s or ExxtortionMobil’s oil under any of those, so no wonder. I think this latest Pentagon world takeover bid should’ve been called Operation Absolute Fucking Motherfucker, just to keep things truly honest. And here’s who else I noticed being an absolute fucking motherfucker this week…

1. Chuck Fucking Colson. Don’t you love the euphony of that? It sounds better to my ears than Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” does to his, I can assure you. And while said song may indeed sound like a mash-up of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and “Ray of Light”, which makes it of dubious merit for a queer anthem, the fact is that LGBT folks are indeed “born that way”. In fact, one might even say they were conceived that way, since the biological traits that determine gender and sexual orientation become detectable as early as 12 weeks’ gestation. Which means that Chuck’s dumbfuck self-expression sheds no rays of light whatsofuckingever.

2. Rick Fucking Santorum. Last week we got to laugh at Newt Fucking Gingrich and his assertion that his multiple moral failings were actually a sign of moral fitness to be president. This week, we get to do it all over again, and this time at the expense of Icky Ricky, the necrophiliac fetus fetishist who gave us “man on dog” sex and whose surname is now synonymous with, er, you know.

3. Alexandra Fucking Wallace. Claims to be a poli-sci student at UCLA, but looks (and sounds) much more like a reject from a porn video, to be quite frank. And if it offends you to hear me say that, you should hear what she has to say about Asians, and then ask yourself if I’m not being waaaaay too kind*. If she’s any indication of what “American manners” really are, then you can stop fucking wondering where the phrase “Ugly American” came from. It’s not any better manners to air your closeted racism to the world on YouTube than it is to yak on your cellphone in the library. And it’s really bad fucking manners to hold yourself up as a paragon of good “American” manners when in fact, you’re nothing but a RACIST–er, ‘scuse me, POLITICALLY INCORRECT–little snotwad. PS: She was actually planning to make this a regular feature on a racist blog? Disaster averted!

*Apologies to any porn video rejects I may have offended with that inexcusably odious comparison.

4. Randy Fucking Hopper, again. Last week I expressed the hope that his soon-to-be-ex-wife would join in the effort to get this teabag state senator from Wisconsin recalled. Looks like she will, indeed, do so. You go, lady!

5. Martin Fucking Harty. Maybe he’s not “defective”, and I’m not so sure about dying in Siberia…but surely I’m not alone in thinking this old coot belongs on his own ice floe.

6. Virgil Fucking Peck. Last time I looked, Kansas was mostly empty. The idea that it’s overrun with “feral hogs” in human form is ludicrous, but it’s a great way for ignorant feral jackasses like Virgil Fucking Peck to rally the even more ignorant to their lack of a cause, apparently. It’s also a great distraction from the ugly truth that jobs, and people, are leaving Kansas for places much more attractive–and less overrun with religiously insane imbeciles gone hog-wild. This one can join #5 on the ice floe. Anyone whose “solution” to the “problem” of non-conforming people involves death should enjoy a taste of his own eliminationist medicine.

7. Kirsten Fucking Powers. Another nutjob ideologue who can’t get it through her head that birth control prevents abortions, rather than causing them. Not surprisingly, this ignorant slut is on FUX Snooze. All I can give her by way of advice is “Don’t have sex, or you’ll pass on the stoopid!”

8. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. No, environmentalists are NOT cheering about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. Because all three of those things are seriously bad for the environment, duh. What’s even worse? The toxic racist crap and hot air the Pigman spews on an almost daily basis. It pollutes not only the atmosphere, but brains, too.

9. and 10. Ricardo Fucking Martinelli and Alvaro Fucking Uribe. I’m trying really hard to work up a head of steam to declare that I am shocked, SHOCKED that these two right-wing corruptos are in bed together to try to topple Chavecito. Unfortunately, I am not even a little bit surprised. Nor am I surprised at how the lamestream media whores up here are practically paving this scandal over, preferring to screech (and just flat-out lie) instead about Chavecito’s “support” for Moammar Gaddafi (which actually amounts to nothing more than an effort to broker peace in the Libyan civil war, and a prudent refusal to blindly condemn anyone before all the facts are in), or even on what Chavecito is doing right, such as his denunciation of needless plastic surgery. Boob job on yer brain, anyone?

11. Kathleen Fucking Passidomo. Is there anything more unattractive than an ignorant slut of the right blaming an 11-year-old gang-rape victim for what happened to her, and likening her to a prostitute 10 years older? If there is, I don’t wanna hear about it. Just having heard these ugly remarks was enough for me.

12. Scott Fucking Armstrong. Uh, that “tyranny of the majority” that this SupposiTory is nattering about? It’s spelled D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y. And we all know what the Suppositories would do in the unlikely event that they EVER get a majority in Parliament, don’t we, kiddies? (Ahem. Not that they haven’t done it already, WITHOUT said majority. Which is why they’re up on contempt-of-Parliament charges now, for the first time since a communist spy scandal many decades ago.)

13. Ron Fucking Ramsey. No, of course Tennessee isn’t Wisconsin. It’s fucking WORSE! And when you call the working people of your state “professional agitators” for trying to stop you turning them all into fucking SLAVES, you don’t deserve to hold public office anymore.

14. Bruce Fucking Carson. How corrupt are the SupposiTories? Their cronies–er, ADVISORS–are literally trying to funnel federal money to “girlfriend experience” hookers. And this one even plans to marry the hooker in question, who is literally one-third his age. Ain’t boughten “love” grand?

15. Ann Fucking Coulter. Oh joy, the Coultergeist is now a nuclear scientist. Hey Ann, if higher-than-natural levels of radiation are really good for you, what say you chow down on some “depleted” uranium breakfast flakes, and STFU?

16. James O’Fucking Keefe. Sorry, punk-ass, but you do NOT have the right to lie, blatantly and for ill-disguised political purposes, and then try to pass it off as (a) a freedom-of-speech issue or (b) a joke. Your 15 minutes are up, now FUCK OFF!

17. Michel Fucking Martelly. A murderous homophobe, you say? Then should such a person be allowed to run for president in Haiti? And should the Fucking New York Whore Times be giving him a free pass with the flippant descriptor of “roguish”? They make him sound like Sarah Fucking Palin, fergawdsakes.

18. The Fucking Wall St. Urinal. Speaking of free passes, what do they think they’re giving home-grown right-wing terrorists–who happen to comprise the majority of terrorists in the US? But no, no, let’s defend poor oppressed Peter Fucking King, lonesome anti-jihad crusader (and heir to McCarthy and Palmer, for sure). And let’s do it by blatantly misrepresenting the findings of a report. At long last, you fucking idiots–have you no goddamned shame?

19. Sylvain Fucking LeMay. No, of course police chiefs aren’t biased against demonstrators, especially not demonstrators against police brutality. Why else “warn” local residents that the demos in question have a “history of vandalism and violence”? Why else gloss over the fact that the police in Québec have a history of planting provocateurs to generate said violence? And why else carp about the demonstrators’ unwillingness to obtain a permit–as though their brutalizers were perfectly willing to grant such a thing in the first place? Since when does one need a permit to dissent here in Canada, anyway? Oh yeah: Since the police decided that democracy and its concomitant freedoms of speech and assembly can be suspended without notice at their pleasure. Of course.

This is what the chief calls “violence” and “vandalism”. No shit! These are actual demonstrators from that march he was trying to prevent. Scaaaary. That one on the left is positively Black Bloc. My gawd, you can see her face…and it’s smiling! Hide me!

20. Newt Fucking Gingrich. Last week we snickered at his chutzpah…to spin his own lack of moral fitness as a surplus of patriotism that caused him to schtup his mistress (now Wife #3) uncontrollably. This week, we get to snicker at another chutzpah-licious instance of his moral unfitness to be president of the United States–namely, his willingness to give corporate tax dodgers a free pass, and his insistence that their free pass be paid for by the Little People, instead. Oh, and this moral lapse? Bought and paid for with a $100,000 “donation” by a coal company. Newty may be a total fucking whore, but he’s plainly not cheap.

21. Sarah Fucking Palin. An ever-growing legend in her own mind, now she thinks she would have become president in 2008, had she only been on top of the ticket instead of that old fart, what’s-his-name in the adult diapers–you know, the one who picked her for his running mate (out of a grab bag, it appears). Yeah, sure…with an unmarried teenage daughter to showcase those impeccable Christian Family Values™, a room-temperature IQ, an ever-growing list of ethics scandals, an actual marriage to an actual member of a fascist Alaskan separatist party, and so much more! Yeah, sure, Sawah, you were a shoo-in, and you wuz robbed! Robbed, I say!

22. Nicolas Fucking Sarkozy. Why?

That’s why. Va baiser ma fesse, con de merde.

23. Stephen Fucking Harper. Who dragged Canada into Libya? Not the Government of Canada; the Government of Harpo. Who else would be fucked-up enough to drag us into yet another worthless, unwinnable war over oil? We do NOT want to be in Libya, but some of us are, thanks (but no thanks) to you-know-fucking-who. Why did he do it? Contempt of Parliament, duh. The evidence against him is mounting. Never mind his blah-blah-about “freedom”; if he cared about that, he’d give it to Canada first. Instead, he’s pretending to give it to Libya. And he’s tap-dancing around the issue of an election, one in which he hopes to gain the majority he’ll never get. He had to do SOMETHING to burnish that tarnished image, after all, and his actions at home are not likely to inspire confidence.

Plus, I don’t think he should be allowed to live down that look anytime soon. Especially not in light of his sudden foray in to yee-haw foreign policy.

And finally, to the spammer from Bangor, Michigan, IP #67.142.130.26, who left the following droppings on my “For those with vaginas” entry: “I really just hate jews. Is that so wrong? Seriously. And mexicans. What’s up with them, I mean, haha.” Well, what can I say to that, except this? “I really just hate hatemongers. Is that so wrong? Seriously. And people who can’t capitalize proper nouns. Or punctuate correctly. What’s up with them? I mean, ha-ha, what fucking losers.” Welcome to my spam grinder, jackass. That’s as close as you’ll ever get to seeing the light of day around here.

Goodnight, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | 2 Comments

Your attention, please…

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Sabina Becker

While you’re waiting for me to finish that weekly work of genius that is my wankapedia, I want you to welcome a new kid to the blogosphere. He goes by the name of VeeeATCH!, and he’s very VeeeATCH-y indeed. He will be taking up residence on my blogroll, and yours too, if you’re smart.

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Posted in Bina's Band of Brigands | 3 Comments

How the Venezuelan oppos conduct a hunger strike

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Unlike the late, misguided anorexic Franklin Brito, these opposition students have a different take on the whole concept of a hunger strike:

A video was filmed by residents of an area where some opposition students were using the extreme measure of a “hunger strike”, in order to pressure the national government in supposed defence of their universities.

The host of the program “La Hojilla”, Mario Silva, presented this video on Wednesday night. In it, students on a supposed hunger strike can be seen consuming cachitos and refreshments, and when they remain unsatisfied, they head for a local fast-food joint and chow down on some succulent hamburgers.

[…]

In Venezuela, a cachito is a salted bun, usually stuffed with ham or cheese.

Translation mine.

What a strange, topsy-turvy universe these oppo kids live in, where a hunger strike means stuffing yourself with hi-cal sammies, and coming out looking more like the Michelin Man than you did going in. And some of these kids were pretty damn chubby to begin with–which kind of puts the lie to the frequent oppo contention that Venezuela is starving to death under Chávez!

Even stranger, the students in question were “striking” for a less democratic university model than the one put forth by the Bolivarian government, in response to the demands of students and workers. ¿Qué h’éso?

And while we’re at it, can someone please explain to me how a government that creates a ministry for education to be run by students is “dictatorial” and “tyrannical”? Or why, if the oppos really feel so voiceless and oppressed, they just refuse to show up at a televised debate on that very issue? Because I’m confused here. Just as confused as I am by people who think a hunger strike means you can snarf down cachitos and fast-food burgers by the bagful.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Fine Young Cannibals, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Law-Law Land, The WTF? Files | 1 Comment

Festive Left Friday Blogging: A show of solidarity

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Sabina Becker

Soccer-mad Bolivians always know how to turn their passion toward a good cause. At a recent game, they played to raise funds for Japan. And this player (unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find out his name) took his support a step further: