Liar, Liar, Preacher’s Pants On Fire!

Well Pat Robertson didn’t waste any time pulling out his weasel-out plan. 24-hours after calling for the US government to ASSASINATE Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Robertson did the expected about-face.

And guess what? I called it again! I predicted the various weasel-out options, and he basically pulled out a little bit of everything.

First he claimed that the Associated Press “misquoted” him, which is similar to saying he was being “taken out of context”. Oh, he “never said” that the US government should ASSASINATE Chavez! He just said that the government should “take him out”, which he “meant” was to kidnap Chavez.

No, sir, that is a bold-faced LIE! Here is the EXACT quote of what Robertson said:

“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”

Those were HIS WORDS! And believe me, they were replayed over and over again in the media, so there was no possible way that people could have “misquoted” him.

So first he claimed that the AP “misquoted” him, touching on weasel-out option number one, and hinting at weasel-out option number three (blaming it on the media). Later he begged for forgiveness and said that he spoke “out of frustration”, which touched on weasel-out option number four.

And I suppose that he expects the rest of the world to simply let it go right? Well I’m sorry, but I don’t think that the matter should be dropped. Conservatives want to downplay Robertson as being “old” and “out of touch”, but he is still the head mullah for the Christian Coalition. He’s the one who told conservatives in no uncertain terms just a couple of years ago “we put you IN office, and we can take you OUT of office”. There SHOULD be no mercy on him. He SHOULD face the music for what he said. He still has way too many people kissing his wrinkled old ass and doing anything he says for this matter to simply be “let go”. This man is a Christian mullah, and he should be treated no differently than mullah “chunky” (Muqtada al-Sadr) over in Iraq who was causing problems for US forces.

TWO things to think about today!

Hey, I got two goodies to consider today!

The first is from the First Amendment Center…

''We live in an age of offense. The cardinal sin today is to offend; the clearest badge of victimhood is to be offended.''
- Jeff Jarvis, media commentator, 2004

Yes, that’s right… Jeff Jarvis from www.buzzmachine.com

And the second is from the Daily Wav.

"Comedy should provoke! It should blast through prejudices, challenge preconceptions! Comedy should always leave you different than when it found you. Sure, humor can hurt, even alienate, but the risk is better than the alternative: a steady diet of innocuous, child-proof, flavorless mush! Demand to be challenged, to be offended, to be treated like thinking, reasoning adults! And raise your children to be the same! Don't let a comedian, a network, a Congressional committee, or an evil genius take away your freedom to laugh at whatever you want."
– Duckman (Jason Alexander) from “Duckman”

Check them out and feel free to sound off about them!

The Demon Shows His Horns!

Well congrats Pat Robertson! You finally showed your true colors!

For those who don’t know, the founder of the Christian Coalition just called on the US government to ASSASINATE a foreign leader on his own syndicated TV show!

Apparently Robertson has a pissing contest against Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez, who is buddy-buddy with communists like Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Venezuela also is one of America’s significant suppliers of foreign oil, and Chavez has just threatened to send his country’s crude elsewhere. So Robertson went on his 700 Club show and said that since Chavez is paranoid about US hit squads, we should just go ahead and KILL HIM! We’d supposedly be doing ourselves a favor, and it would “save” our supply oil because it’s just ONE MAN.

Bear in mind that this is not like previous statements that Robertson made regarding the “demise” of people he opposes. Previously he had publicly asked God to “retire” several members of the US Supreme Court. But now he’s not even waiting for GOD to do the job! Now he’s advocating the US Government to ACTUALLY MURDER someone!

GREAT! Thanks Pat! You’re finally justifying everything about yourself that people like me have feared. You’re showing your TRUE values, Pat! And guess what? Those values are no more Christian than the Pharasees that conspired to put Jesus to death!

Now comes the fun part… how will Robertson weasel out of this? And he had better think fast, because his conservative evangelicals aren’t going to back him up on this, and Chavez is threatening legal action. Robertson started an international incident! He could very well be charged with advocating acts of terrorism! That’s not good for his unholy empire.

If Robertson is true to form, his weasel-out plan will touch on one or more of the following…

1. Robertson will claim that his comments were “taken out of context”. This is a common tactic, and it’s the closest thing to outright saying “I never said that”. He could always claim that he wasn’t “speaking for himself” but rather on behalf of some “hypothetical listener”.

2. Robertson could always claim that he was “possessed by the devil” and that instead of speaking “God’s” words, like he supposedly does, he was actually channeling Satan. Maybe if he blamed it on some of those “miracle diets” that he used to peddle on his show, that might buy some forgiveness from his sheep.

3. Robertson could always claim to be a victim of the “vast left-wing conspiracy” that has been trying to take “God” out of schools and government and homes. He could always claim to be the victim of a “witch hunt” in the media. That’ll bring the conservatives back to his beck and call.

4. When all else fails, Robertson will BEG for forgiveness on his show and ask that people simply forget what he said. And especially he will BEG that the federal government simply “let this one slide”. After all, it was just a “slip of the tongue”. He didn’t really “mean it”, right? His “little mistake” shouldn’t result in him spending his remaining years of his life in Club Fed, right?

I think that pretty much covers the weasel-out plan. Did I forget anything? Oh, yeah, the midnight pardon from the Bush Imperium. Well, first they’d have to bring criminal charges against him in order to pardon him, and I just don’t see that happening. The Imperium doesn’t punish their friends. Why do you think that Darth Rove still has a job? Anyway, worst comes to worst, the Imperium will issue that midnight pardon for Robertson the night before Bush Junior leaves the White House in January of 2009.

And the screw-job continues at the pump…

I’ve been getting some interesting feedback from folks about the continual price gouging of gasoline, so I figured I’d give a few more thoughts on the subject.

Yes, I said it… PRICE GOUGING… because that’s what it is. We are getting SCREWED at the pumps, and it’s not just Americans. It’s anyone in the Western world that has a vehicle that runs on petroleum. There is no other way to say it. We are getting fleeced. We are getting ROBBED at the pumps!

And people, I know that they’re convenient, but IT IS NOT the fault of the gas stations for the prices, so knock off the crap and stop stealing their gasoline! These guys don’t work for the oil industry. They’re middlemen. They really don’t have a choice about the prices they put up there. There are gas stations that are already ending the self-serve system, or requiring you to pre-pay before you fill up, and that’s ALL because of the idiots who pump-and-peel. So thanks guys, you’re making ALL of our lives miserable just because you wanna steal from the small merchant. You are not hurting the gas companies at all when you pull that crap, so knock it off!

Second… sorry guys, but the oil companies are NOT a monopoly! They may act like a monopoly, but they are, by their very nature, NOT a monopoly. You can accuse them of collusion. You can accuse them of price-fixing. You can accuse them of price gouging. You can even accuse them of creating a VIRTUAL monopoly, but you cannot call them a monopoly! A monopoly means ONE company.

Now there WAS something that happened that DID save us from even WORSE gas problems. We stopped China from buying one of our oil companies! That was a good move, because we’re right now competing with China for the oil. They’re the second biggest oil pigs in the world, with us at the top trough and India pulling a close third. If China would have been allowed to buy one of our oil companies, then all of the oil that company produced that currently goes to us would be going straight to Asia! That would have ensured higher prices AND gas shortages. So thank you to the people who raised a stink about China!


Bush Junior’s energy policy was a good start, but it fell short in WAY too many places! While the price of oil and gasoline spiked, the Imperium was quick to point out that the energy policy would do NOTHING to stop the gouging from happening. That’s bad PR for the Imperium!

Then to make matters worse, you have a federal energy agency telling people to, quote, "get used to it" in regards to higher gas prices.

Hey Dumbass, that is THE WORST thing to tell a pissed-off populace! We’re pissed off about gas prices. We’re angry! This crap is HURTING us, and it is hurting the economy! You remember the economy, don’t you Dumbass? THAT is what is supposed to be going up, up, up… NOT our gas prices!

I’ll give you two instances where such STUPID remarks get you in trouble…

1) Leona Helmsley, the so-called "Queen of Mean", once said that "Only the little people pay taxes ". She got convicted of tax fraud and sent to Club Fed for a few years.

2) Marie Antoinette supposedly said "let them eat cake" in regards to the poor suffering in France. Historians now claim that she never even made that comment, but it was too late to save her life. The people revolted and she got her head cut off!

So go ahead, Dumbass, tell the American people to "get used" to being RAPED at the pumps. Tell them that they will have to endure increased financial hardships just to get to and from work. See how they react to it! See how they will look at an Imperium that spends FIVE WEEKS chilling in Crawford while they get screwed by the oil companies day in and day out. It may be the cold hard truth, but that’s not something that the American public needs to hear.

And make no mistake, this PRICE GOUGING is hurting the economy! We’re already seeing the effects of it right now! Wal-Mart is losing money. The airlines are losing money. The automakers are losing money. The service industries will have to raise their rates to make up the difference. The delivery services are ALREADY adding the difference to their bills.

Is there something that can be done? You bet your ass there is something that the Imperium can do! The Secretary of the Interior can compel the Environmental Protection Agency to scrap the current regulations regarding gasoline refineries and come up with JUST ONE refining system for the whole country. ONE! Not fifty, not twenty-five, not five, not two… ONE! Ensure that the gas pumped in California is the SAME blend and mixture as being pumped in Maine. That way the price and the supply of oil can be stabilized across the country. If you have a refinery in Texas that goes out, you can have the other refineries make up the difference.

That’s one thing that the Imperium can do. You want to know what else can be done? Tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to stabilize the prices. If Venezuela is cutting back and OPEC is at maximum, then we need to stop the bleed. At the very least stop trying to top off the reserve. If we’re being told not to top off our tanks, then the SPR should do the same!

These aren’t IMMEDIATE steps to bring down prices, but the news of these things happening would certainly go a long ways to stabilizing the speculation panic that’s out there right now. But the worst thing that can be done is to simply sit back and let Bush Junior play Nero, fiddling away in Crawford while our economy burns. THAT is what’s happening right now

If there is ANY lesson that Bush Junior should have learned from his daddy, it’s not to ignore the economy.

Something to think about...

Here's today's First Amendment Center quote...

''People are too quick and too willing to judge the First Amendment solely by the company it keeps.''
Robert Richards
Journalism educator, Pennsylvania State University 1998

And that's pretty much the truth! We are prejudiced about free speech because the people whose rights get attacked. Flag burners, strippers, radio shock jocks, and amateur publishers (and now website bloggers) are always on the front lines of persecution because they are the easiest groups to target and marginalize.

But think about this for a minute... if these groups can be outlawed and silenced, what is there to stop that same government from silencing anyone else?

Garrison Keillor got censored by a Kentucky radio station simply because he said the word "breast" in a poem! Why? Because that radio station lived in FEAR of what the Federalist Christian Censors would do! It took a groundswell of pissed off listeners for that radio station to flip-flop and put "The Writer's Almanac" back on the air.

If simply saying the word "breast" can cause a knee-jerk censorship reaction - with a STRONG emphasis on JERK - what is there to stop the censorship of other forms of speech? How about criticizing religious groups? Political groups? How about opposing anything from the Bush Imperium?

So boys and girls, give thanks to your local stripper, flag-burner, or shock jock. You may not like what they do, but they're taking the lumps so YOU won't have to!

Here’s a good argument to legalize marijuana…

Two good reasons to make pot legal…

• Oil hitting $67 per barrel.
• Gas hitting $2.50 per gallon in Atlanta.
  

Why? Because of hysterical speculation from the oil markets!

We need to dope these bastards up and get them to mellow out! Maybe then the market won’t be going into a hissy fit just because some sheik stubs his toe in Saudi Arabia.

By the way, where are all of these so-called "watchdog" politicians who claim to be on "our" side on this matter? Where are all of the politicians who are bitching and crying about social "loopholes" that allow people to act without the blessings of some government agency? We have trucking companies on the verge of bankruptcy because of these high gas and oil prices! You’d think that at least the Teamsters would be sounding off on this stuff, right? Where are the unions on this subject? Where’s the AFL-CIO (or what’s left of them) now?

Where’s Elliot Spitzer? You know, the famed antitrust super-prosecutor? Why isn’t he going after the oil companies? Why isn’t he investigating the oil speculators?

Where are the liberals on this subject? Oh, yeah, that’s right, I forgot… many of them are being oil apologists, talking about how gas NEEDS to be this damned high so it can match what Europeans are paying thanks to their tax-gouging social programs.

Meanwhile, of course, hard-earning Americans are getting GOUGED at the pump. We are getting SCREWED OVER because of these damned oil speculators.

Someone needs to ship every one of these oil "experts" to Amsterdam and lock them in a hashish store for the weekend. Let them chill out and dine on hash brownies for a few days. Then bring them back to the markets and watch the price of oil drop to about $10 a barrel.

"What? Some loser in the mid-east is threatening to bomb refineries? Duuuuude! Give him some munchies and let him chill!"

"Some tanker captain got stoned and made a wrong turn in the ocean. Whoa… no more for him!"

"What do you mean there’s not enough oil? Dude, there’s enough oil to last DECADES! Chill down and have some of this blunt! We’re gonna, like, bring the price of oil down a bit and get people to calm down and all because there’s just too much stress."

Hey, I can see it now… gas crunch solved by getting world market high!

As Judy Tennuda says… "it can happen!"

So now it's "Islamic Extremism"...

Well the Bush Imperium quantified yet another one of their points. We're not in a war against "terrorism"... we're in a war against "Islamic extremism".

There's a reason why the Imperium had to quantify it... and that was to justify them ignoring the OTHER extremists, including the ones in our own country!

You guys remember Eric Robert Rudolph, don't you? He's the TERRORIST who bombed the Atlanta games in 1996, as well as a few women's clinics and a nightclub. But you don't hear that word being uttered in the media, and you especially don't hear it being uttered by those from the Imperium. Do you know why? Because Rudolph is a CHRISTIAN TERRORIST! In fact what Rudolph supports to this day is the same kind of stuff that conservatives and neo-conservatives support. The only difference is that Rudolph crossed the line, repeatedly, and now he's paying for it.

This quantification is also to excuse the more extreme voices who have the ear of the Imperium. They can't really claim to be waging a war against "terrorism" when there were CHRISTIAN TERRORISTS like Rudolph running around. The can't claim to wage a war against "extremism" when they turn a blind eye to their own extremism. So now they have to quantify this as being "the War on Islamic Extremism".

Maybe they should have stuck to calling it "the war on bad-guys who don't think like us."

Novak loses it!

Well you probably heard about it... Robert Novak, the conservative columnist who first outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, had a hissy fit last week in the middle of a live broadcast of CNN's "Inside Edition".

The strange thing is that the hissy fit had absolutely nothing to do with Plame, or the federal investigation on him breaking federal laws. It was about Katharine Harris, the former Florida official who got caught in the middle of the 2000 Presidential Fiasco. Seems she wants to run for US Senate and the GOP doesn't want her to rock the boat. So the discussion was about whether the GOP will sabotage Harris' senate campaign. Novak was being the usual GOP apologist, and he was getting the usual barbs from James Carville, Bubba Clinton's political guru.

Carville is basically a used car salesman on amphetamines... he's always running his mouth, and he shoots from the hip. That's why the media love to put him on the air. And for some strange reason, Carville made a comment about the Wall Street Journal's editorial board that pissed Novak off. Novak uttered one of the FCC's forbidden words and then stormed off the set in a huff while the host continued to blather on like nothing happened.

Now first, WHERE is L. Brent "freedom should be forbidden" Bozell and his freedom-hating crusaders over at the Parents Television Council??? Why aren't they leading the charge to have Novak banned from television? He just CURSED on the air! Granted it was bleeped, but that doesn't matter, right? HE CURSED! If it's good enough to persecute Howard Stern and South Park, then it's good enough to be used on a PRIME-TIME news broadcast!

Well CNN decided that maybe it was time for Novak to take a breather... and that's probably a good thing. But to be honest, they should have done that when the whole Plame investigation started and Novak sucked up to the prosecutor. He's in it up to his neck, and until the "Plame Game" (as I called it on a recent audio rant) is resolved, his credibility is questionable.

By the way, if anyone in CNN is reading this blog, I'd be happy to fill in for Novak while he gets his act together. I'm not a conservative, nor a Bush Imperium apologist, but I do some pretty good rants and give the people something to think about!