Speaking of rightwing batshitcrazy ...

Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

While it's a positive thing that two high-profile women in US politics appear to be supportive of one another, most of the pronouncements uttered by these 2 BFFs are lacking in substance and typical of the phenom described by Chet of The Vanity Press here.

In addition, Bachmann and her family have been receiving hundred$ of thousand$ of munee from the "Big Government" she and her fellow Tea Bag Party Patriots denounce. It's

Wingnut Welfare, in fact.

Here is a good description of the political trajectory Bachmann has charted in recent years, becoming more frantic and irrational in her claims and actions.

In a recent appearance at a Heritage Foundation luncheon, Bachmann defended BP and referred to attempts to set up a $20 billion escrow fund to pay for claims and clean-up "extortion" (in case you've been in a coma for the last six months, British Petroleum's massive oil spill is responsible for the worst environmental disaster in US history).

She asserted: "…If I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there: 'We're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced.' And they shouldn't be. They shouldn't have to be fleeced and made chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest..."

While Minnesota - Bachmann's home state and constituency - may actually benefit from the BP disaster since it's a major producer of bio-fuels, it doesn't explain why she would so rabidly defend the multinational corporation. Unless of course, it might be of benefit to her, and her re-election campaign.

Hoaxing the humour-deprived.

Ha! via Canadian Cynic: You keep using that word "attack" ... we learn of a brilliant piece of political theatre, à la parti Rhinocéros, and of the humour-deprived 'Secrets of Vancouver'.

The Yes Men are famous for their hoaxes, usually through their impersonations of corporate executives, and BeyondTalk calls for nonviolent resistance to the drivers of climate change.

Shows how far they fgo in the name of Global Warming, and if it were real, why would you need deceptive tactics like this?

If it were real? Oh, I get it. One of your 'secrets' is that you don't believe in science.

Deceptive tactics? You mean like the glurge and the glossy spreads of fetal remains that abortion-criminalizers like to wave around as though the sight of their anti-choice will drive onlookers to their knees and force them to breed against their will?

As I've mentioned before, with respect to the howls of outrage produced by the dimmer bulbs of the rightwing neocon religious fundamentalists and assorted nutz, SOV's would be testerically funny if it were a parody. Since SOV's shrieeeking appears to be 'real', according to SOV's self-defined reality, it is retarded (as in regressive) and pathetic.

Not like the other.

This may well turn into a series about the ongoing lies and stupid propaganda by infuriated rightwing zealots and their pathetic attempts to show moral equivalence.

Gateway "Miss The Point Much?" Pundit compares and contrasts photographs. The first shows a view of lawn around the Mall after the 70,000 Teabaggers March on September 12. The other depict Washington streets after the US presidential inauguration in January 2009.

The difference is that presidential inaugurations are events open to the public. There is a budget allocated for clean-up afterwards, and the crowds are messy, regardless of which party owns the presidency. Those pictures could have been taken after the Santa Claus parade, in any major US or Canadian city.

The Teabaggers shindig likely needed a demonstration permit, and those responsible would have had to post a bond worth several thousands of dollars to cover clean-up after the crowds disperse. If the organizers convince the participants to clean up their litter, they get the bond back.

Is that simple enough for you? It's all about the money, thus not evidence that Teabaggers are "cleaner" or less filthy, though commenters at GP seem to think so.

Showing the Pink.

Now, now. Keep those minds out of the gutter.

The women of DAMMIT JANET! are proud members of the constituency Stevie has labeled "left-wing fringe", along with francophones living outside the province of Québec and - of course! - gay and lesbian equal rights-seeking organizations. That's quite a number of citizens the future 'former prime minister' has managed to offend in one go.

Isn't it interesting how progressives get labeled that way, more proof the ReformaTories are no longer even pretending to court our votes. Add up all those so-called "special interests" and "left-wing fringe" groups and you've got a considerable number of Canadian electors riled up at you and your party, Stevie. A majority of them, I'd say.

And though rightwing lunatic fringe groups might whip up the fury and the fear once more on your behalf, Stevie, I'm predicting they won't. In your desperate attempt to re-brand yourself as some sham 'conservative moderate', you didn't deliver the goodies you promised to your fundamentalist religious base.

So fuck you, Stevie. And fuck your blue-boy sweater. Look for me at election time. I'll be one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of women flaunting a pink T-shirt. I won't be voting for you. I'll be voting for a party that will cure this country of the Con curse and pestilence.

The money raised by T-shirt sales should be channeled towards the organizations whose core funding you slashed when you savaged Status of Women Canada, that bone you threw to R.E.A.L. women.

The photo of a sculpture by Kate Carr is from this website.

Organ-ized Socialism!

What is that, depicted above?

1) A spotted dick.

2) A microscopic view of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in situ.

3) A greatly magnified view of those bits of Rush Limbaugh that he imagines threatened by the Satanic Scissors of Socialism.


But seriously folks. This latest insanity from a man who couldn't catch a view of his genitalia without a mirror, a flashlight and a block-and-tackle hoist is the convergence of 1) inflammatory lies about health care reform, 2) Birthers' loathsome hallucinations about Obama and 3) the Republicans' deepest fears regarding the loss of their political potency.

Limbaugh: You'll pry my foreskin from my cold, dead hands

If you had to whip up a too-good-to-be-true story for the right-wing pundit class to freak out over, what elements would you include? There would have to be, of course, an element of command-and-control socialist-fascist invasion and regulation of the most private parts of our lives, in the name of some spurious "common good." But that alone is a little pedestrian nowadays, so you'd want to add a nice dollop of male sexual neurosis to really kick it up a notch. Then add just a hint of racial fear and beat to a froth.

From here.

Bonus: It appears that the more rightwing Republicans unintentionally parody themselves, the more material they provide for The Onion to exploit - brilliantly, as always.

The Me, Myself and Irony Booby Prize to Jonathan Kay.

for his precious and self-effacing piece about Christopher Hume.


Lunatic overstatement? Oh puh-leeze, Jonathan? Aren't you running out of shelf space already, for all those trophies you've been awarded several times over for the "Most Afraid of Pustules on my Willy", the "I-Ran-Out-Of-Ideas-So-I-Borrowed-A-Cup", the "How Dare You Attack Me I'm on Your Side", the "Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day", the "I'm Being Persecuted by Fundamentalist Secularists", the "Vive le French Colonialism!", the "I'll Tell You What Censorship Is", the "Let Me HyperBole That For You", the "I Know It's Elitism Because I'm Excluded From It", the "Most Disingenuous Title", and so much more.

It does bring to mind that old saying about people and glass houses. Just saying.

Kathy Shaidle is a Prevaricator.

But then you already knew that, right?

Two headlines - the first from CNSNews.com and the second from Shaidle.

Obama’s Science Czar Said a Born Baby ‘Will Ultimately Develop Into a Human Being’

FOX: Science “Czar” believes babies “will ultimately develop into human beings” only after birth.

Then she provides her NewsRealblog readers with the 'money' quote.

"The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."

In Holdren’s defense, such views were not entirely out of the mainstream in the 1970s, when leftist pro-abortion activists routinely described fetuses as mere “blobs of tissue,” and technology such as the prenatal ultrasound had yet to be developed.

Wrong, Kathy. According to the History of Ultrasound, a team of specialists presented and published their first obstetric scans at an internationally attended Ultrasonics Symposium in the US in 1962. Gynecologists in Canada have used echography as a diagnostic tool for high-risk pregnancies since the 1970s. Doesn't it make you wonder what else she gets wrong, or baldly lies about to put her point across?

Also, the "view" that Shaidle cites, is selective and deliberately misleading when detached from its context. Here is the full quote, from CNSNews:

"To a biologist the question of when life begins for a human child is almost meaningless, since life is continuous and has been since it first began on Earth several billion years ago," wrote the Ehrlichs and Holdren. "The precursors of the egg and sperm cells that create the next generation have been present in the parents from the time they were embryos themselves. To most biologists, an embryo (unborn child during the first two or three months of development) or a fetus is no more a complete human being than a blueprint is a building. The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being. Where any of these essential elements is lacking, the resultant individual will be deficient in some respect."

Shaidle claims that Holdren has a "history" of promoting the kind of radical environmentalism that privileges the planet over people and has done little since his appointment to distance himself from past controversial statements.

Putting aside the fact that Shaidle twisted information to support her attack on Holdren, isn't the rest of her opinion piece a classic example of the narcissistic views that childless, dessicated, rightwing harridans like Shaidle and Ann Coulter - individuals who truly don't give a damn what happens to humanity and to the planet in 10, 30 or 50 years from now - regularly spew?

A purveyor of hate speech.

Shane Murphy, the second-in-command aboard the American merchant ship seized by pirates, lashed out at Rush Limbaugh for the talk show host's racial characterization in discussing the rescue of the ship's captain by the Navy. Murphy ... called Limbaugh a purveyor of "hate speech."

From here. As Limbaugh's tin star rises in the firmament of tea-baggers, Joe-the-Plumber wannabes, disgruntled Republicans and assorted religious fundamentalist rightwingnutter neo-cons in the US, a number of individuals and organizations are sensing a sea-change and are lambasting the porky talk-trash radio host.

Murphy will be branded a “RINO,” or a tool of liberals, or a liberal himself — or, worse ... someone who is just too dense to get Limbaugh’s humor, sophisticated wit, cutting-edge satire, insightful political perception and brilliance of analysis.

Republicans who keep defending, enabling, and apologizing for Limbaugh’s shtick are indeed tolerating it. Each time we do a post critical of a Limbaugh comment we get lots emails, often bordering on the abusive, and quite often with the same accusatory tone filled insinuations as Limbaugh’s broadcasts. Almost all say those of us who criticize Limbaugh and how he has lowered the bar on serious debate and sandbagged bipartisan cooperation and respect in this country “just don’t get it.” The fact is: Democrats, independents and Republicans who don’t approve of Limbaugh’s brand of rhetoric DO get it.

As for Limbaugh's favourite props, sexism and misogyny ... let's hear it from our Tennessee feminazi sisters:

Speaking of sexist creeps who pollute the public airwaves with misogyny, there are rules against broadcasting offensive garbage during the hours when children are the possible audience. But it is perfectly acceptable for sexist swine like Rush to use the public airwaves to defame and denigrate women and girls at any and all hours of the day. Women will never attain equality while it is acceptable, and even profitable, to pollute the culture with misogyny!

The Young Limbaugh, terrorized by his audience.

Thanks to Canadian Cynic, we link you to this archival recording of Rush Limbaugh from 1990. The misogynist, rightwing religious fundamentalist homophobe was confronted by pro-choice and gay rights activists. His response was to have the audience removed.

As CC notes, this experience likely shaped the once-and-future-reactionary gasbag's decision to forego live audiences and to broadcast from the hermetically-sealed safety of his media bunker.

Pay Equity for Blob Blogging Wingnut.

When LuLu posted about Suzie ALL-CAPS latest dumbassitude, who knew that the comments would foment a ground swell of agitation, demanding that SHE (also known as Blob Blogging Wingnut) receive the same monetary compensation as HER rightwingnutter male homologues. As sooey says:

"Gee, Mark Steyn and David Warren get paid big bucks to say the same stupid shit. Suzanne should go after some pay equity."

There is of course a teeny problem with the notion of demanding justice for Blob Blogging Wingnut since she is so virulently anti-feminist. We wouldn't want to be forcing the principle of fairness with regards to blogging production, against HER will, would we? After all, does SHE try to force HER ideological beliefs on other women? Thus we at DAMMIT JANET! want to be MASSIVELY democratic about the process of agitating for equal pay for work of equal value for Blob Blogging Wingnut.

So we've started a poll in the sidebar. If you feel that SHE deserves to be paid the same remuneration as HER male equivalents who are blogging the same inane, inept, vapid, vacuous and obfuscating crap - vote yes to question #1. If you feel that HER male equivalents should be paid the same stipend as Blob Blogging Wingnut, which is a BIG FAT nothing - vote yes to question #2.

My suggestion is that you hurry though, in posting your answer. Stevie and his RepubliCons are planning to abolish pay equity, as directed by the membership of the ReformaTory Party at their Winnipeg convention in November 2008. You may recall it was one of the points that Flaherty presented in his budget forecast that precipated a major political crisis and a stand-off between the Progressive Coalition and the forces of evil Cons.

Two by two, to procreate as intended …

Thank the goddess that BigCityLib is keeping an eye on the Lifeshite fetus fetishists. We learn from his blogpost that the abortion criminalizers have compiled a list of the candidates that they consider to be in their camp.

That, along with April Reign’s reflections upon Stevie’s little parable about Noah and his ark, made Birth Pangs think that this approach, where sex = breeding has become a most unsavoury meme in this election campaign. Especially since since Lifeshite clearly labels its procreation political stance as one for “Serious Christians”, aka zealots.

Meanwhile in the US, Repulsican rightwing rhetoric cranked up the fearmongering to such a degree that even some ideologues are starting to panic over the ’stormfront’ that may have been unleashed. Good luck with that.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

More SHRIEEEKKK needed for the perfect storm ….

Many fundamentalist fanatic, rightwingnutter and fetus fetishist bloggers are on SHRIEEEKKK mode today. It’s rumoured that Dr Henry Morgentaler will be awarded the Order of Canada on July 1st. Normally, only the Governor General’s staff and the recipients know in advance who will be receiving these awards.

It would appear that someone in The same-old same-old New™ Government leaked the information to Lifeshite. Pro-choice groups have observed over the years the multitude of slurs that anti-choice organizations have spewed about Dr Morgentaler. And of course, we have seen how some PredaTories view Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean.
All that would be required for fundamentalist fanatic, rightwingnutter, and fetus fetishist heads to irrevocably explode would be if Tomson Highway and his partner were to be married by the Honourable Madam Justice Louise Arbour, at Rideau Hall on Canada Day. Just saying.

The gentleman receiving the Performing Arts Award in that photograph is Peter Boneham and yes, that is k.d. lang in the background.

UPDATE: An article in today’s Globe and Mail seems to confirm that it’s official. It provides a timeline that succinctly sets out Dr Morgentaler’s role in ensuring that women have the right to choose. Controversy has occasionally been sparked by the Order of Canada awards, starting with its creation in 1967.

First posted at Birth Pangs.