It’s A Dog’s World

Proving that there’s room at the ethnic starting line for a delectable addition to anyone’s grill, the Milwaukee Brewers expanded the lineup of their famous sausage race, which is held during every home game. ESPN covers the breaking news.

Wearing an oversized brown sombrero and a bright yellow shirt emblazoned with the No. 5, Chorizo became the fifth pork product to join the famed sausage races at every Milwaukee Brewers home game.

He signed a contract with Brewers general manager Doug Melvin at a news conference at the stadium and then trotted around the bases.

Chorizo, also known as "El Picante," will race for the first time on Saturday against the other sausages -- Italian, bratwurst, Polish and hot dog. But that'll be the only time this year he runs in the Klement's Sausage races, which have taken place at every home game since 2000.

Chorizo will be put through the grind in the minor leagues, so he can get some extra seasoning before rejoining the other sausages next season, Melvin said.

Chorizo said through an interpreter his dream has come true.

"I am very humbled to be in the presence of so many world-class wieners, but hopefully I can bring a little something new to the table, and Brewers fans will welcome me into their hearts and grills," Chorizo said in a statement that was read in both English and Spanish.

Ey-Chihuahua!

The Politics of War

When we noted that Fox has decided to turn current Middle East tensions into a world war, but couldn’t agree upon a number, we thought it was just the typical right-wing emotional hyperbole that passes for thought on that network. Little did we know it was really the opening salvo in Republican plans to convince the country that we’re in a world war as a campaign tactic for the 2006 midterm elections.

On Meet The Press on Sunday, the author of the mid-90's Contract On America, Newt Gingrich, pushed for declaring we’re in WWIII. It’s one thing when the mindless idiots on Fox go off on some jag, but when we see this rhetoric on MTP, we know what Fox is doing is just a piece of an orchestrated bigger picture. Here’s an exchange between Gingrich and Russert.

MR. GINGRICH: I mean, this is absolutely a question of the survival of Israel, but it’s also a question of what is really a world war. Look what you’ve been covering: North Korea firing missiles. We say there’ll be consequences, there are none. The North Koreans fire seven missiles on our Fourth of July; bombs going off in Mumbai, India; a war in Afghanistan with sanctuaries in Pakistan. As I said a minute ago, the, the Iran/Syria/Hamas/Hezbollah alliance. A war in Iraq funded largely from Saudi Arabia and supplied largely from Syria and Iran. The British home secretary saying that there are 20 terrorist groups with 1200 terrorists in Britain. Seven people in Miami videotaped pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda, and 18 people in Canada being picked up with twice the explosives that were used in Oklahoma City, with an explicit threat to bomb the Canadian parliament, and saying they’d like to behead the Canadian prime minister. And finally, in New York City, reports that in three different countries people were plotting to destroy the tunnels of New York.

I mean, we, we are in the early stages of what I would describe as the third world war, and frankly, our bureaucracies aren’t responding fast enough, we don’t have the right attitude about this....

MR. RUSSERT: This is World War III?

MR. GINGRICH: I, I believe if you take all the countries I just listed, that you’ve been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you’d have to say to yourself this is, in fact, World War III.

Of course, as Media Matters points out, two of Gingrich’s pieces of evidence were non-operational terror plots that were nipped in the bud. In fact, those arrested in connection with a desire to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago had nothing more than a half-baked idea. And the people charged with planning to attack New York commuter tunnels were busted because the only thing they had done is hang out in chat rooms.

But it’s not the evidence that’s important - that’s just window dressing, designed to distract you from the sleight of hand. Instead, it’s the politics. In an interview for the Seattle Times posted on July 15th, we find these revelations.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president.

"We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,' " Gingrich said. He talks about the need to recognize World War III as important for military strategy and political strategy.

Gingrich said he is "very worried" about Republicans facing fall elections and says the party must have the "nerve" to nationalize the elections and make the 2006 campaigns about a liberal Democratic agenda rather than about President Bush's record.

Gingrich said in the coming days he plans to speak out publicly, and to the administration, about the need to recognize that America is in World War III.

There is a public relations value, too. Gingrich said that public opinion can change "the minute you use the language" of World War III. The message then, he said, is "'OK, if we're in the third world war, which side do you think should win?"

This is a classic Republican tactic: preach fear, fear, and more fear and hope that the electorate will forget that this Republican-controlled Congress is easily the most venial and corrupt group of liars and looters since the days of Warren Harding. If there was ever a time to throw a huge number of incumbents out into the street as unceremoniously as possible, the 2006 general election is it. Unless, of course, you own a pharmaceutical, oil-and-gas, or military supply company.

It used to be enough that the nation was at war in Iraq. Then, when it was revealed just how badly the administration of The Shrub had lied to do what they wanted to do the moment they took office, it became The War On Terror. Since one can’t really go to war against a tactic, and since that tactic will always exist, this became a mighty convenient rhetorical analogy to use to beat the drum of fear and acquiescence. But now, thanks in part to the incredibly incompetent foreign policy of these chicken-hawk war-mongers, and in part to the need to keep the political discussion away from what’s really been going on in Washington, D.C., even this isn’t enough.

And so, we give you World War Three.

One needs no more reason than this to remove Republican incumbents in November. Our country depends on it.

So Which World War Is It?

In a crass attempt to hype the escalating conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors (be glad you don’t live between Hamas and Hezbollah), the inane talking heads on Fox and their related minions are trying to sell the idea that we’re in another world war. Only trouble is, apparently they missed the morning planning meeting on the daily tactics to use to pander to the network’s viewing sheep, so there’s widespread disagreement as to just which world war this is.

Media Matters covers the latest fiasco of hyperbole from the right-wing entertainment channel here. Here are the possibilities and their champions.

Representing WWIII, Mr. Big Head, Bill O’Reilly and company.

Most recently, on the July 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said "World War III ... I think we're in it." Similarly, on the July 13 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, a graphic read: "On the verge of World War III?" As Media Matters for America has noted, CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck began his program on July 12 with a discussion with former CIA officer Robert Baer by saying "we've got World War III to fight," while also warning of "the impending apocalypse." Beck and Baer had a similar discussion on July 13, in which Beck said: "I absolutely know that we need to prepare ourselves for World War III. It is here."

In support of WWIV, various right-wing shills.

On the July 10 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson interviewed Michael Ledeen, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and said "some are calling the global war on terror something else, something more like World War III." But Ledeen responded that "it's more like World War IV because there was a Cold War, which was certainly a world war." Ledeen added that "probably the start of it [World War IV] was the Iranian revolution of 1979." Similarly, on the May 24 edition of CNBC's Kudlow and Company, host Lawrence Kudlow, discussing a book by former deputy undersecretary of defense Jed Babbin, said "World War IV is the terror war, and war with China would be World War V."

Other conservatives have previously suggested the "war on terror" as "World War IV." In a September 2004 article, Commentary editor-at-large Norman Podhoretz noted "World War III (that is, the cold war)" and that "the great struggle into which the United States was plunged by 9/11 can only be understood if we think of it as World War IV." And in January 2005, FrontPageMag.com hosted a symposium called "Ukraine and World War IV."

Not to be outdone, blowhard Sean Hannity weighs in for WWV.

On the July 13 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity declared: "we are loaded up today, as the Middle East on the brink of World War V, here." Hannity did not explain what he regarded as World Wars III and IV.

What a sad, sad commentary on how little these people understand about the history of real global conflict, its effects, and how serious another war truly deserving such a title would be. But anything to get the pulses of the sheep all a-flutter counts as “fair and balanced” where Fox and its ilk are concerned.

Slicing The Pig

Why is it that every time President Decider opens his mouth in the presence of a foreign dignitary, he insists on reminding the world what a complete yokel he is? On Thursday, while in Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bush had the following to say during the two’s joint press conference.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Chancellor, thank you very much. Thanks for the invitation. This is a beautiful part of the world, and Laura and I are so honored to come to your constituency and meet some of the friendly people who live here. I remember you coming to the Oval Office, and you said, if you are coming to Germany, this is the part of Germany I want you to see. And now I can see why you suggested it. I'm looking forward to the feast you're going to have tonight. I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig.

...

And I guess that's about all -- we discussed a lot of things, in other words. And thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to that pig tonight.

...

Q Thank you, sir. Just to follow up --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Follow up on?

Q On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war?

And on Iran, they've, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.

Is it any wonder mom considers him the black sheep of the family and is embarrassed to have him around? This is the supposed leader of the free world talking to the press during the worst crisis in the Middle East in years, and all he can keep talking about is the pig he’s going to have for dinner. What a stooge.

Thanks to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for the tip on yet the latest absurdity out of this assclown’s mouth. See the clip from his show about it here, including Bush during the press conference and Merkel’s chagrined reaction to hosting some stupid Texas hillbilly in a tie. Scroll through the videos and find the one titled "Slicing The Pig".

Plame Takes The Offensive

Outed ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, have filed suit against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and 10 other unnamed top government players for their typically ugly and illegal hit on her designed to discredit her husband’s exposure of the Bush Administration’s lies which claimed Iraq attempted to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger and to intimidate other potential knowledgeable critics into silence.

A couple stories posted on MSNBC are here and here. A .pdf file of the lawsuit itself is posted here.

In spite of President Decider’s pledge to fire anyone involved with leaking the name of a CIA agent, he, as usual, has proven his words are nothing but lip service. What else is new? Let’s hope this civil process finally results in some measure of justice against the cheap and sleazy politics of Cheney and Rove.

Clueless George and the Missile Shield

While there has been much concern expressed about North Korea’s Fourth of July missile tests - seven in all - apparently Clueless George thinks the homeland is safe from such ballistic threats.

Appearing on the Larry King Live show on July 6th, President Decider and Larry had this exchange.

G. BUSH: And I had been in Fort Bragg speaking to our troops and, you know, the system worked well. Don Rumsfeld called me and said, "Look, he's fired, you know, rockets, some of them scuds, you know, that went in the Sea of Japan. Looks like he fired his long- range rocket that tumbled out of the sky."

But we responded very quickly. We had a plan in place to respond if he were to fire these things.

LARRY KING: Were you prepared to shoot it down?

G. BUSH: If it headed to the United States, we've got a missile defense system that will defend our country.

Ah, no George, the United States doesn’t. After 20 years and over $100 billion of screwing around with hair-brained schemes born from the fantasies of Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program, what the best minds and virtually unlimited budgets have been able to produce is a demonstration system that can’t even reliably shoot down a test missile whose trajectory is known in advance and doesn’t employ any evasive tactics, such as releasing decoys or multiple warheads.

In a NYT article published on June 21st concerning the prospect of North Korea missile tests, the subject of the US missile defense system came up. This is what the Pentagon had to say.

Pentagon officials refused to discuss the current status of the system. "We have a limited missile-defense system," said Eric Ruff, the Pentagon spokesman. "We don't discuss the alert status or the specific capabilities."

Well, of course they won’t discuss it. It doesn’t work. Here’s its real status, as reported in the same article.

Critics asserted that the missile defense was an illusory shield against a threat that had yet to materialize. "The system being declared operational is no more than a scarecrow, incapable of fooling anyone except perhaps some members of the administration who want to pretend to be defending the country against a North Korean missile attack," said Robert G. Gard, a retired Army lieutenant general and a senior fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation.

Now why would someone not required to stick to the party line say this? Because, as the same article reports, “The Pentagon has deployed 11 missile interceptors in a test status in Alaska and California and has not conducted a successful interception test in four years.”

Moreover, Media Matters coverage of this issue notes the following.

The two most recent flight tests -- in December 2004 and February 2005 -- both failed when the interceptors did not launch. A June 16 Reuters report stated that, since those failures, the United States has suspended tests in which the missile defense system launches an interceptor that attempts to hit an incoming warhead. A March 2006 GAO report found that the "performance" of the interceptors that have been deployed "is uncertain because inadequate mission assurance/quality control procedures may have allowed less reliable or inappropriate parts to be incorporated into the manufacturing process." The report also stated that the GMD system had "not successfully completed an end-to-end flight test." The Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) news website does not indicate that such a test has been attempted since the GAO report was released.

So, George, here’s the reality: if for some insane reason you manage to provoke the highly unstable Kim Jong Il into actually targeting the US, and if his missile actually manages to last more than a minute the next time, there’s not a damn thing you’re going to be able to about it. So, please. Stop wasting tax dollars on a fantasy boondoggle that only encourages military escalation on the part of belligerent nations and figure out how you’re going to keep the US from coming under attack in the first place. It’s pretty nice here out west, and we’d like to keep it that way in spite of your need to play cowboy.

Coulter Responds - Kind Of

It wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t turn on the tube without the self-obsessed face and shrill voice of Ann Coulter popping up to flog her latest twisted psyche-dump. But now that the cat’s out of the bag about who’s really doing some of her writing, she’s suddenly unavailable to appear on outlets that might be less than fawning.

This story from Media Matters reports that while CNN invited her to appear during a segment regarding the charges of plagiarism made against her, her publicist told CNN she couldn’t appear on camera.

However, according to CNN, Coulter’s book publisher, Crown Forum, did have this to say: “We have reviewed the allegations ... and found them to be as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible."

Ah. And so the typical spinning of a crackpot liar begins. Repeated evidence of plagiarism is now “trivial”. I suppose when one completely lacks any integrity whatsoever, this could possibly be the case, but for the rest of the world that cares whether someone steals the works of others and sells them as her own, trivial is about the last word that comes to mind.

The closest to denying the charges is calling them “meritless”, but, of course, this isn’t actually saying Coulter didn’t plagiarize, but rather is an attack on the source of the evidence, iParadigms, the company that used software and an extensive database to discover Coulter’s been repeatedly lifting the work of others and calling it her own.

The most interesting part of the response, however, is that it is constructed so that however much the plagiarism charges are “trivial” and “meritless” is dependent on how much they are “irresponsible”. Well, these charges are anything but irresponsible, so we must conclude that Coulter’s own book publisher acknowledges that they are not trivial and that they have plenty of merit. In the biz, this is what’s known as a non-denial denial, because it relies not on a straight-forward statement that says Coulter didn’t plagiarize, but instead counts on its recipient to make the mistake of assuming its author does in fact believe the charges are irresponsible when no such thing has been said.

One thing’s for sure. If anyone should know the meaning of irresponsible, it’s Coulter’s book publisher. For instance, the blog Atrios offers up these examples of just how twisted Coulter’s mind is from her latest work.

Fisting

In Coulter's latest book she reveals an interesting obsession.

Page 12:

Liberals used to tell us they were teaching fisting to fourth-graders because ‘kids are going to have sex anyways!’ (Yes, ‘fisting’ is exactly what it sounds like; have a nice day!) Now they’ve dispensed with that and openly concede that they believe virtue is just one of many equally valid points of view that must be counterbalanced with the argument for promiscuity, group sex, fisting, and other lifestyle choices.


Page 175:

Anal sex, oral sex, fisting, dental dams, ‘birthing games’—all that would be foisted on unsuspecting children in order to protect kindergartners from the scourge of AIDS.


Page 251:

From the reaction of the evolutionists, you would think the Dover schools were teaching fisting to twelve-year-olds (when, as any student knows, that’s not covered until junior year).

The problem isn’t so much just how obsessed Coulter reveals herself to be with alternative sexual acts; spend five minutes watching her (a challenge to one’s sanity, to be sure) and it’s obvious how screwed up she is. Rather, it’s that there are, sadly, a large number of people with so little interest in the truth and so much repressed anger at a world they can’t control who will snap up these passages and go about convinced that these absurdities are what’s really going on in schools.

So, Crown Forum (which is part of the Random House empire), if you really want to see what irresponsible looks like, read your own authors’ books. Your titles are nothing but emotional fodder for right-wing wackos convinced the world is spinning out of control and only they can save the rest of us fools who can’t see this. But at least as far as we know, it’s only Coulter who needs help making up these preposterous lies that feed the fringe on the right. The rest of your stable seems perfectly capable of doing that on their own.

Coulter’s Crazy, But Hardly Original

Ann Coulter, the far-right shrew who’s made a career out of trying her best to dispel persistent rumors she’s really a man while leading the pack in the race to the top of which nutcase can broadcast the most outrageous, twisted screeds, is, among many things, a plagiarist.

According to this report in the New York Post, both Coulter’s latest ‘book’ (if one can be so liberal in using that word to describe the deeply psychologically disturbed rantings of a crackpot) and her syndicated weekly newspaper columns of at least the past 12 months contain passages lifted virtually verbatim from other sources without any attribution or citation.

The Post reports,

John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book's text through the company's digital iThenticate program.

He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter's weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

Should anyone be all that surprised? Coulter’s obsessed with attention, not accuracy or ethics. Al Franken’s already thoroughly skewered her and the way she repeatedly lies as the primary tactic in her jihad against anyone who’s not a reactionary sheep with an IQ greater than her age in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. That it turns out Coulter can’t even think for herself, but merely regurgitate the rhetoric of others, sounds about what one should expect from someone who’s primary occupation is selling her/his body as why someone should listen.

We listen. And what we hear deserves an intervention and a very long stay in a professional psychiatric facility. Only in America does an escapee of The Cuckoo’s Nest make the New York Time’s Best-Sellers List and garner such coverage. And in the same way we slow down for gruesome auto accidents, we can’t wait for her encore.