I didn’t believe your summary of Stossel, so I clicked through.

You were right, and my eyes are burning.

No offense Travis, but I couldn’t even make it through your summary. It’s just too painful.

Not to complain too much, but in 3 this week you used 2 sentances. Doesn’t that break the rules for shortering?

Sorry for the grammar.

This line from Chavez deserves an extra giggle. “Maybe this doesn’t seem like a major inconvenience to the average male, but I’m the sort of woman who doesn’t go to the grocery store without applying lipstick and mascara.”
I realize, of course, it’s sexist of me to find this fucking hilarious, but I can’t be the only one who finds it telling that this woman is terrified of other people knowing what she actually looks like.

Maybe Travis is trying to show the intellectual and literary growth of the Townhall Team.

[/sarcasm]

3 to 1 Malkin’s kids end up as gangsta rappers.

Teh ‘Stache:

Most people don’t realize that Enron favored the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and wanted energy regulations beneficial to itself; Philip Morris favors tobacco regulation; Wal-Mart’s CEO came out for a higher minimum wage; and General Motors embraces tough clean-air rules. Why? Because, as Carney points out, big companies with lots of lawyers and accountants can make the regulations work for themselves, while smaller competitors are hampered.

Oh, John, John, please put down that can of mustache wax and listen up. Corporations don’t want regulation. They want shitty regulation. General Motors doesn’t want “tough clean-air rules”; they want to be able to spritz some Febreze and then be able to solemnly intone how proud they are to defend the environment. They want to write bad regulation as a substitute for real change.

Remember when you were a wee tot, and Nanny said you had to have some of Cook’s spinach before pony-time. Did you let Nanny spoon the spinach on your plate, or did you insist on doing it yourself, gathering up the tiniest dribble and smearing it around so it looked for all the world that you were really, really eating it, no fooling? Same principle. Dumbass.

Strange how you all are glossing over the fact that the interrogation bill will be passed very soon by both houses.

The fact is that the Democrats know that they can’t win on national security, because they are weak on national security.

The fact is that the Democrats know that they would be epically spanked and humiliated if they went along with the obstructionist extremists who want to filibuster the interrogation bill.

The fact is that the Democrat Party is a party on the verge of complete irrelevance and total destruction.

The radicals will bolt the party over the Democrats lack of adherance to the pro-terrorist talking points.

And then the Democrats will never be close to winning elections again.

Malkin on Charlotte Church:

‘The new face of skankdom’.

And then the Democrats will never be close to winning elections again.

Hooray! One-party system, dictatorial power to the President, suspension of Habeas Corpus and other vital civil liberties… It’s like a conservative’s worst nightmare headiest fantasy. …Depending on who’s in the White House, that is.

Shorter Gary Ruppert: nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Seriously though, Gary lacks the gravitas of the Howard brothers.

The fact that you’re gloating about doing something which is morally wrong, Gary?
The fact that the gulags were one of the many important reasons why the Soviets were so bad?
The fact that torture goes against everything America was founded on?

So, Gary, which democrats do you want to spank? Go on, you can tell us, we won’t breathe a word to Netvocates.

Is teh Garybotâ„¢ channeling the sludge report for us? So thoughtful, that Gary.

From Shapiro:

Bill Clinton has always been a master of manipulation. Smooth. Articulate. Unflappable.

When he writes in staccato like that, he reminds me of Private Pyle talking to his rifle.

I had a dream that I was watching Give Me a Break on a train, and it DIDN’T make me want to puke. Prophecy, perhaps?

Hooray! One-party system

It won’t be a one-party only state, but just one where only one party matters.

The fact is that the Republican Party is a broad mainstream party that can be the cornerstone of American politics for the next five decades.

Democrats have nothing that they seriously believe in.

The Democrat Party would need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind is blowing. Or at least a poll on the matter.

The Democrat Party is a party with no foundation. The African Americans will leave the Democrat Party in many states because the Democrats don’t do anything for them.

Labor will leave the Democrat party because they are more concerned about morals.

The common man has left the Democrat Party, because the Democrat Party no longer stands up for him.

The Democrat Party is a party of a bunch of cowards and a bunch of leftist Chavistas. But, I’m redundant there.

The Democrat Party can’t make a rational case against more efficient interrogation powers.

They stand in the way of every major weapon that we need in the War on Terror.

They are not progressives, they are obstructors.

The Democrat Party is the second party of American politics, and they will soon be in the dustbin of history.

Read about habeas corpus, Garybot. You might learn something.

Shorter Ruppert:

” It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”

It remains to be seen whether the authoritarians (Ed Koch, Mike Bloomberg, Joe Lieberman) migrating into the Republican party will be outweighed by the anti-authoritarians (including many thousands of people in Kansas quite recently) who are migrating into the Democratic party. Speaking for myself and other New Yorkers, we saw and felt the towers come down, and we smelled the stench of the burning pile for months, and we’re still not terrorized by Al Qaeda, so we’re certainly not terrorized by a sadistic torture-loving troll like Gary, who himself is apparently not merely terrorized, but scared witless, the poor thing.

All those wingnuts and no Doughy Pantload?! That saddens me.

Oh well, I guess he’s still licking his wounds from the beatdown Glenn Greenwald gave him. Here is my Executive Summary of the critical points of his Monday whinefest:

Clinton & Wag The Dog
a) I find people who point out GOP lies to be annoying.
b) It wasn’t us Republicans crying Wag The Dog, it was just in the air at the time. Especially at all the Kool Kids cocktail parties.
c) Look! I found a non-Republican who talked about Wagging The Dog, but then dismissed it.
d) It’s everybody’s fault, really, that Bush ignored Clarke and Clinton warning him about terrorism and did nothing. So don’t blame Bush.

Could someone send Gary R. a fresh box of “ic”? He appears to be completely out. I think he must’ve used all his up on Islam Fascists.

Amongst themselves, they drop the “ic” and they drop the middle “c” and they call our crowd “demoRATS” and they piss their pants cause they’re so clever. Apparently they never took a Dale Carnegie course.

Gary must have blown through all of his “A” material on the pro wres message boards. “Democrat Party” OH NOES

PS Charlotte Church, so hot right now

The Republican party will soon fall from power.

The fact is that the Republican party is an extremist party that scares the shit out of most Americans.

Republicans will say or do anything to get elected.

The Republican party only believes in one thing: the rich getting richer.

The Republican party is crooked and corrupt. Even white guys in rural America are abandoning the party because of the party’s extremism.

Labor will never embrace the Republican party because the Republican party is all about exploiting workers.

The common man is waking up to the fact that the Republicans couldn’t give two shits about the common man.

The Republican party is a bunch of bullies and Stalinists. But I’m redundant there.

The Republican party doesn’t realize that torture is in fact a very inefficient interrogation policy.

They have completely fucked up the war on terror beyond all recognition.

They are not conservatives, they are totalitarians.

The Republican party is on the way out, and will be out of power for a long, long time.

Shorter Gary Ruppert: Those quaint old American values like human rights, privacy, liberty and civilian rule were ok in their day, I guess, but a society modeled more closely on the old Soviet Union would really work better for me…

mikey

Shorter Mikey: The Geneva Conventions apply to people who are not part of a national army. And we need to keep coddling terrorists.

The fact is that the Democrat Party knows that America is on Bush’s side. So they’re going to side with him and hope for the best. Like they tried to do in 2002.

no no no we need to start CUDDLING terrorists

“the Democrat Party”

America is on Bush’s side
D’oh!

And as for Stosstache, I think the shorter really ought to be: Government regulations benefit business more than consumers, so we should stick it to those mean corporations by doing away with regulations entirely.

The Geneva Conventions apply to people who are not part of a national army.

Sweet-cakes, that’s shorter reality. Or haven’t you ever heard of civilians?

The fact is that the Democrat Party knows that America is on Bush’s side.

Well, about 40% of America anyway.

That can’t be the real Gary. I refuse to believe he’d attempt the shorter format.

Charlotte Church, so hot right now

Can’t say I’m much of a fan of her music, but this? All over it.

She sings?

Shorter Mikey: The Geneva Conventions apply to people who are not part of a national army. And we need to keep coddling terrorists.

Umm, Gary? Do you READ these threads or just drop your little Repub talking points and bail? ‘Cause if you had read some of the stuff I’ve dropped here, you’d know I have admitted to my share of personal geneva convention violations – against POWs who were part of a national army. Now I deeply regret some of that shit, and I’ll have to deal with it forever, but I do find it a little ironic that I’m the one you’d call out on this. I mean, how many folks do you talk to in the course of your day who HAVE killed soldiers attempting to surrender?

mikey

Shorter Gary: Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Brilliant as usual. With all of Mike Adams’ dissing his boss, I guess Tenure Courage makes one even braver than the Dutch variety.

The Geneva Conventions apply to people who are not part of a national army.

And what about people wrongly accused of being terrorists? They’re just fucked, I guess. Here’s to freedom!

And what about people wrongly accused of being terrorists? They’re just fucked, I guess. Here’s to freedom!

Oops, sorry, that was me. Forgot to change my name back. I guess that blows my cover. Okay, I’m “Bizarro Gary.”

Mike Adams is the master of the apocryphal story. I’ll bet you NONE of his little anecdotes have ever happened in the real world.

JK47: Yeah, the mystery professors line at the end of the Amazing Crack Bust story didn’t sound like anything someone would say. And what’s with the free mansion part?

Re: Malkin

Thank heaven for little girls
they grow up in the most delightful way!

universal Gary: I Love Big Brother.

I read Malkin’s description of Church and then I watched a clip from her new show on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hlyWPeSMYQ) Watch it and try to imagine that the vile creature she spoke of with such loathing could be the same talented, funny, composed young woman you just saw.

Why won’t the Martians leave our planet?

Well. she may not have Charlotte Church to look up to any more, but Michelle will always be able to count on Prussian Blue

The Geneva Conventions apply to people who are not part of a national army.

Oh, and Gary why don’t you read Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions before you spout off about something you don’t know shit about.

It really astounds me that people will make definitive declarations about a legal document that they couldn’t find even if you typed the URL into their browser and couldn’t read even if you locked ’em in a room with it for 2 weeks. Sheez.

Wait, Malkin bought her daughter a Bratz lunchbox? And she’s complaining? What a fucking hypocrite.

Shorter Michelle Malkin: It’s a liberal plot that teenage stars don’t stay 14 forever.

Corporations don’t want regulation. They want shitty regulation. General Motors doesn’t want “tough clean-air rules�; they want to be able to spritz some Febreze and then be able to solemnly intone how proud they are to defend the environment. They want to write bad regulation as a substitute for real change.

Oh, and large corporations do want expensive regulations. I mean, really. Microsoft would be ecstatic if each and every new operating system first had to pass a million-dollar government compliance certification process – assuming it applied equally to them and every little upstart genius around.

Anyone who can advocate torture and feel they still have a clear conscience should take a dozen or so stung-gun jabs to the crotch, followed immediately by being duct-taped naked to a chair, receiving a few hundred paper cuts and being slathered in a paste of lemon juice and salt

I used to do some security work for some shady bastards about 14 years ago and one time, the people from whom i was guarding them got the drop on me dragged me off to god-only-knows-where and worked me over pretty badly (see above torture description, plus beating the absolute screaming bejesus outta me) to see what i knew about …um…well…i’ll just say “stuff”…and then thinking me dead, left my battered carcass in my employer’s driveway… I didn’t tell them anything of any use because i didn’t know anything, but i told them what i thought they wanted to hear just so that it would stop and they’d either let me go or just say “fuck it” and kill me (and by that point either one was fine with me)

so unlike Gary and the rest of the pro-torture jackoffs out in the political arena, the media and the wingnuts in the blogosphere, i know whereof i speak.

Torture is worthless for extracting information because the subject will say ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY ANYTHING if they think it will make the pain stop, truth be damned. A torture victim will sell out their grandma and their yet-to-be-conceived offspring even if it is a total lie if they think it will make the torturer relent.

I guess the rousing success (from a modern judicial standpoint) [/snark] of the witch trials of the 16th and 17th century didn’t teach these faith-based butt-dumplings anything at all

It’s not that torture is useless (which, of course it is)

It allows douchebags like Gary to pretend they are tough men who would ‘never break’

But in the end, it’s because they … like it. It makes their little things wiggle.

Like O’Brien says in 1984, “The purpose of torture is Torture. The purpose of power is Power.”

Not only is the Crapture right on all points, but it’s even worse than that. I saw the South Vietnamese military intelligence guys in the mirror shades and the american cia cowboys work out on some of the dudes we pulled in. See, here’s the problem. Most of us won’t do that “work”. Most of us would vomit and report them up the chain of command. Sure, a little human decency, but also because we don’t want to end up being the dipshit that serves the time for the crimes. So the net result is that the guys that will actually do the torture, ours or our “friends”, do it ’cause it gives them a boner, not because they actually care about extracting information. They don’t care, and don’t bother to ask the kind of questions that go back and check the data. They just inflict the pain and let the tape recorder capture the “intel”.

This is important. Torturers don’t do it for god, or country, or the ticking bomb. They are NOT Jack Bauer. They do it because they are sadists that have found a place to play. Everybody stayed well away from those sick bastards, because they would get the same rush from hurting us as they got from hurting “the enemy”. And we all said in private we’d kill them before we’d let them interrogate us….

mikey

I tend to believe the Mike Adams stories where he *almost* says something brave to people who are being mean to his wife.

And, Dan Someone, thank you for your call back to reality after that weird Stossel column. I was wondering if the libertarian stache had gotten into the libertarian stash.

Gary, we believe in not torturing people.

We believe people who work forty hours a week or more deserve not to be poor. In fact, many of us believe the phrase “working poor” is an abomination.

We believe in universal health care (and so do most of our fellow citizens).

We believe that killing or jailing innocent people is bad.

We believe in one person, one vote.

We believe in the right of soldiers to know that their commanders will not throw them away as though they were pawns in a poorly thought out game of chess.

We believe war is a last resort.

We believe that love, between consenting adults, and for a family, is something that ought not to be discouraged as though it were the moral equivalent of burning down the neighbor’s home.

We believe in the right to speak and worship and associate as you choose.

We believe in the right of the people to see what its government is doing.

We believe in the right of people to go to lunch without getting salmonella, and the right of people to have sex without dying from an ectopic pregnancy (this is a right men already have. Why shouldn’t women?).

We believe that leaving a massive debt load and a ravaged planet to future generations is inherently selfish and cruel.

We believe in seeing things clearly: history should not be whitewashed. Spin should not replace truth. Government, including trials, should not be conducted in secrecy. If there are things our government is doing that are wrong, we believe in fixing them, not pretending they’re not there in the name of some shallow patriotism.

We believe that bad things can happen to good people, and good things can happen to bad people. Poverty and wealth are very often the result of the circumstances you were born into. We believe in giving people the opportunities to improve their lot.

We believe that science has more answers than the Bible or any other holy book.

We believe that fanaticism is the problem, not Islam or Christianity.

We believe all people should have access to schooling and libraries and hospitals and parks and government.

We believe that government can be used to help people.

We believe that government should be used to help people.

We believe lots of things. What do you believe, Gary?

At the risk of expressing redundant love, I love you D Sidhe! I can sign onto every bit of that, and call it a manifesto…

mikey

mikey, I love you more with every day. Whatever you may have been and done, you are now an exceptionally compassionate and decent human being, and you are often our conscience here. Thank you for being you.

It allows douchebags like Gary to pretend they are tough men who would ‘never break’

They support torture because that’s what they’ve been told to think. Period, end of story. Right wingers will believe whatever they are told, as long as they get to “win.”

I pretty much read every S,N! post and comment thread everyday (but rarely comment) and have so for a long while. But Mikey, you are such a wonderful voice here, I just want to say, Thanks! (And also, don’t feed the annieangel troll. As Jillian has pointed out, no good can come from it.)

As for Stossel’s ridiculous “Big business wants government regulation” piece….BULLSH*T. I’ve worked on global warming for over a decade, both in and out of government. Oh these f**king companies talk a good game in their PR, but their lobbyists on the Hill consistenly oppose any real action on climate change. Bastards, all of them!

D Sidhe, let me delurk to say that was awesome, please email it to the Democratic leadership. If I may, shorter D Sidhe: We believe in the Constitution and the people of the USA. Because, really, what else is there?

What do you believe, Gary?

I believe in keeping America safe from terrorists.

I believe in finishing the job in Iraq in order to give them a stable Democracy.

I believe in low taxes because that’s the best solution for the economy.

I believe that the Constitution forbids Abortion, because it forbids taking life without due process. I also believe that all innocent persons have a right to life.

I believe in marriage, the traditional way, with one woman and one man/

I believe in the First Amendment, in being able to speak your mind, contribute to candidates, and advocate positions. As well, I believe in being able to practice religion, as noted in the 1st Amendment, and also acknowledge it in public with no fear or reprisal.

I believe in secure borders and removing illegal immigrants.

I believe in keeping our economy strong and trade unrestricted.

I believe in Capitalism.

I believe in having the best tools possible to win the War on Terror.

I believe Osama bin Laden is a bigger threat to America than George W. Bush.

How does that work for ya?

Gary, we believe in not torturing people.

That’s nice, but what’s happening is not torture, it is interrogation. I believe our soldiers in Guantanamo over a bunch of terrorists.

We believe people who work forty hours a week or more deserve not to be poor.

That’s called socialism. If you’re good enough at working, eventually you will no longer be poor. If you blow your money on booze, then you deserve to be poor.

In fact, many of us believe the phrase “working poor� is an abomination.

There’ll always be poor, because there’ll always be people at the bottom of the ladder.

We believe in universal health care (and so do most of our fellow citizens).

It doesn’t work in Canada and it won’t work here.

We believe that killing or jailing innocent people is bad.

Daring statement there. Who thinks it’s good?

We believe in one person, one vote.

And you extend it to the dead and to illegal immigrants.

We believe in the right of soldiers to know that their commanders will not throw them away as though they were pawns in a poorly thought out game of chess.

And that’s not happening. We have the best Veteran treatment centers in the world.

We believe war is a last resort.

Same here. And it was the last resort in Iraq.

We believe in the right to speak and worship and associate as you choose.

Daring statement!

We believe in the right of the people to see what its government is doing.

Unless the Democrats run things, then you won’t like that. Transperancy is good. A Republican is sponsoring a bill for all that too, named Coburn.

We believe in the right of people to go to lunch without getting salmonella

You’re making up rights now.

We believe that leaving a massive debt load and a ravaged planet to future generations is inherently selfish and cruel.

But then again, the Democrat congress ran up the debt in the 80s, and continued onwards with that later.

We believe that science has more answers than the Bible or any other holy book.

The left has never been fond of Christianity.

We believe that fanaticism is the problem, not Islam or Christianity.

But, you’ll say the one fanatic Christian is the same as the millions of fanatic Muslims.

We believe all people should have access to schooling and libraries and hospitals and parks and government.

And candy too. Don’t forget that for your socialist dream world.

We believe that government can be used to help people.

Turns out that when Government “helps” people, it actually hurts them by making them dependant on the government.

Gary’s an authoritarian thug. I’d be happy to throw hands with the totalitarian fucker. He’s so afraid, he’ll change what America is to save him from the muslims. I’m not afraid of them, and Gary? I’m not afraid of you, kitty…

mikey

Ooh, Gary fails the Turing test again: that’s a list of Rovian talking points straight from the fax machine, pumpkin seed, not a credo. Here’s a couple thoughts: “due process” doesn’t apply to fetuses, but it does apply to prisoners, even they make you scared. Poor people aren’t always, or even usually, poor because they deserve it, any more than most rich folks. Of course, most of your attributions to the left are just as stupidly bullshit, and if you weren’t so badly written (VBScript? Inquiring minds) you’d realize that. Why don’t you reinput D Sidhe’s arguments and try to return something valid next time.

And please, whoever, quit sending the troll betas here.

I’m authoritarian because I stand up to the people who want to make America a theocracy?

Ooook

Hahaha! Gary’s so damn CUTE! Awww, I’m buying you a pink collar, man.

Democrats want to make the US a theocracy?
Shit, that wasn’t in Kos’s memo!
Oh GOD, now I don’t know WHAT to believe.

Good point, Gary. Democrats also believe that all children should have access to candy.

Why do you hate Halloween and children, Gary?

Gary, since you decided to become so responsive, how about responding to Maher Arar’s rendition.

On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times, assured the world that “torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.�

That’s why he needs to get amnesty for all the torture he is responsible for. Pronto.

Sometimes I can barely stand reading even the shorts of the townhall nonsense. When I read it my eyes start to burn, my hair begins to fall out, my tongue itches, my IBS start acting up and I basically turn into a liberal version of dubyya, stuttering and drooling all over myself. And that’s probably that part I hate most about it. Cause when you get down to it, reading crap like TH will eventually turn you into a lump of jello so Travis, please take care along with the rest of our fellow brothers and sisters in arms. Turning into jello is a messy way to go…and plus I’d end up getting eaten by my children…and I wouldn’t want that on their conscience…it’s bad enough they have to admit to being American in these times of horror for our once great country and will be great again as soon as we get the crooks and liars out of office.

Gee, GaryBot showed up to spout crap in the comments but seems to have forgotten to confront the point I raised about Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Seems he’s programmed to cough up talking points but can’t respond to arguments that can be settled definitively by referrring to the document in question or facts at hand.

Gary says that the Conventions only apply to uniformed troops and Common Article 3 (among others) clearly disproves this. Gary knows that he has never read even 10 words of the Conventions and, so, his only response is to try to pretend that he can’t hear me.

Gary,

So does Dick M. Scaife pay by the post or by the word?

Hey, Gary, how does this grab you?

I believe that every country has a right to be kept safe from terrorism, whether in the form of fanatics flying jets into buildings or bombs being dropped by armed forces engaging in illegal wars of aggression.

I believe that a stable democracy is hindered, not helped by US troops in Iraq. I believe that Iraq will have to go through a civil war before getting there, if it ever does, and US presence both delays this war and excaberates the underlying tension. I believe that any stable Iraqi democracy will not be to the US liking, and that US leaders use the term “democracy” when they mean “government sympathetic to us, even if it is a sham.”

I believe that empirical evidence shows that low taxes are not necessarily required for economic wellbeing, and that in no way should “the economy” be mistaken for the social welfare of the country or the commonweal.

I believe that the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution forbids any person from being deprived of life without due process. I also believe that in 1776 English common law (and the writers of said Constitution) understood that fetuses prior to “quickening” were not people. I’m willing to give the status of “person” to any fetus who complains in court that their mother is trying to abort them.

I believe in marriage, the traditional way, with one woman and one man. I also believe in marriage the non-traditional way, one woman and one woman, one man and one man, and (assuming the administrative hassles can be worked out) more than two of any combination of genders. I believe that marriage is a human right and that one religion’s prejudices should not determine human rights in secular law.

I believe that the interpretation of the First Amendment to allow “speech” to be defined as legalised bribery by corporations is a direct cause of many of the US’s current problems, and the major reason why democracy in the US is held in contempt by truly democractic countries.

I believe that Americans cannot complain about illegal immigrants until they first ensure that they have kept all the treaties they ever made with the Native Americans.

I believe that people matter more than money, and that while economic wealth is good for a country, sacrificing people to get there is immoral. I believe the market is a mechanism, not a god, that regulation of commercial activity is necessary to align blind corporate profit-seeking with actual social good, and that the economy exists to serve the society, not the other way round.

I believe in entreprenial capitalism as the major basis for an economy, with light regulation aimed at ensuring that corporatist forces are aligned with the good of the community, and some judicious socialism in limited areas where supported by a pragmatic argument.

I believe any country able to communicate with its neighbours and having more than a thousand soldiers already has the tools necessary to “win” the “War on Terror”. I believe in having the best minds and best policy possible to reduce and mitigate terrorism.

I believe Osama bin Laden can kill Americans. I believe George W Bush has started the process of killing America.

I believe people who attempt to parse torture off as interrogation are immoral

I believe people who use the term “socialism” without reference to collective control over the means of production are ignorant.

I believe people who attempt to justify the existence of the poor without having a working knowledge of the GINI index are puppets to someone else’s ideology.

I believe that people who state that universal health care doesn’t work in Canada first need to show why the US has louser health statistics.

I believe that killing or jailing innocent people is bad. I believe that this also applies when said innocent people are brown, Muslim, and captured as part of the “War on Terror”. I’ll even go further and state that those people captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan (the defacto government of the time) or as part of an Iraqi resistence against the US occupation are also innocent, at least to the extent of being prisoners of war rather than criminals.

We believe in one person, one vote. Diebold or Katherine Harris is not that person.

We believe that commanders have a responsibility to use their armed forces only in the defense of their nation, in the collective defense, or in the defnese of innocents – not in useless aggressive wars.

We believe that George Bush chose to fight in Iraq, killing scores of thousands. In the absence of any plan for Iraqi troops to strap water-wings to their arms, swim the Indian and Pacific Oceans and invade California, the Iraq war was a war of aggression by America. We believe that George Bush is therefore a war criminal under the Nuremberg principles.

We believe that government is justified by the defense of the rights of its people and the promotion of the commonweal. This includes the right of people to go to lunch without expecting to get salmonella.

We believe that the US was running a budget surplus in 2000. We believe it is not now. We have read David Stockman’s “The Triumph of Politics”.

We believe that science has more answers than the Bible or any other holy book. We believe this is proven each and every day through medicine, through industry and through technology. We believe there is more empirical evidence for Maxwell’s Laws than Noah’s Ark.

We believe that schools, libraries, hospitals and parks enhance the commonweal. We believe that, in a democratic system, it is right and good to levy taxes and authorise government to pay for these things.

We believe that corporations never freed the slaves; a government did. We believe that corporations never willingly protect the right to life; governments do. We believe that corporations never willingly gave us an eight hour day; government legislation did. We believe that the natural state of unchecked, undiluted government is best typified by Stalinist Russia – but that the natural state of unregulated, undiluted capitalism is best typified by a East Asian sweatshop.

We believe that we don’t have to live in either, and that those claiming we do are dangerous fools, whether they worship Marx or Friedman.

The fact is that Gary Ruppert owns the intellectual-property rights to the whole Two-minute / Shorter format. You’ll find no effete fripperies like ‘arguments’ or ‘explanations’ in his comments — just the sound-bite. This is the future of rhetoric.

You may laugh, Travis G., but you’ll be hearing from Gary’s lawyers as soon as they’ve wrapped up “Ruppert vs. Oxford University Press” (the case of the Shorter English Dictionary).

We believe in the Constitution and the people of the USA. Because, really, what else is there?

I want that on t-shirts and bumper stickers and billboards and most of all party platforms. Absolutely, Aquagirl. Absolutely.

And Phoenician in a time of Romans, yes. I don’t always agree with you, but you’re always worth listening to. And there is nothing I want for the citizens of my country that I do not want for the citizens of every other country as well. I want an America that works with other advantaged countries to help give everybody what they need, not what we think they want, and not what we can pretend we think they want. I hope we can have that, but we have a lot of digging out to do first.

I still want to know why Gary no longer posts on pro wres message boards. I know of at least 3 where they’d welcome you with open arms!

From Bob Dylan:

The Democrat Party would need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind is blowing.

To Leon Trotsky:

The Democrat Party is the second party of American politics, and they will soon be in the dustbin of history.

What has Gary been up to?

Wait….did Gary just say that people “having access to government” is socialism?

Because the last time I checked the state-approved textbook I’m using to teach American schoolchildren about government, that example above was called “representative democracy”.

I mean, it’s not surprising that teh Garybot would think that democracy = socialism, because he’s a Republican-programmed Turing machine, and the Republican party is the party of The New Fascism®. Fascists actually DO think that democracy equals socialism. I’m just sorta surprised to see any of them admitting it so openly.

Gary: Back away from the base pipe. Repeat after me…”51% is -not- a mandate”. Thank you.

Gary, how come fetuses get due process and prisoners don’t? How would due process work for a fetus?

So does Dick M. Scaife pay by the post or by the word?

The ‘make money at home, in your spare time’ ad that I saw, paid by the post. That is, IIRC, 30 comments per day spread out amongst several different blogs.

Apparently Gary has plans for later today, and is trying to eke out his quota early.

geez Gary sounds way to aroused – he really needs to keep his hands in plain view.

*too, damnit

Gary, you ignorant slut.

where do you draw the line between “interrogation” and “torture”

I’m sure the inquisitors and witch-burners of previous centuries thought that racks and hot coals and iron maidens were just “potent tools” for the purposes of gathering information.

And if it is just “interrogation” why is this joke of an administration going through such gyrations to insulate themselves from the potential consequences of these “interrogations”

It’s just like you clowns say about surrendering civil liberties “if you have nothing to hide, then why should you worry”

By that same standards, if the administration isn’t using torture, why are they trying to redefine the concept?

Wake me up when you can say put forth a rhetorical point that actually stands up to any logical scrutiny, Gary

eliminating communication between family members – as my wife mentions in her best-selling book, The Case Against Divorce.

So which book did Mr. Stossel use to communicate back to his wife? After she refused to open that racy tantric yoga one, that is?

Yes, it’s really repetitive of me, but:

Shorter Jacob Sullum: As a libertarian, I believe the United States should honor higher standards of human rights than Syria.

Yet again, Mr. Sullum comes through with something that is self-evident to all of us, but at Townhall stands out like a villanelle in a book of limericks.

I’m authoritarian because I stand up to the people who want to make America a theocracy?

Gary, the irony is so lost on you that I just know you’re a parody.

I have a theory about Medved. I don’t think he was always a wingnut. Years ago he seemed pretty reasonable. I think the self-loathing homo met the wingnut Diane and found she was the only woman he could function sexually with, so he clung to her and adopted her wingnut conservatism. It was an interview of him i saw years ago, shortly after he got married that makes me believe this.

I lurve how certain troll-like beings can waltz in here and whether the topic is solidly focused on one thing, or if it’s snarklet chip cookies like “Two-Minute Townhall” and suddenly turn the subject of nearly all subsequent posts to themselves. Everybody falls for it every time. And, it’s so easy. Just wander into a random thread–don’t bother reading it or its comments–for our purposes, the more OT you are, the better. So, cut-and-paste (mmmm… paste! ) from Unkka Karl’s latest talking points, not that they ever change that much, and drop that turd in the punchbowl! You can hang around and spar with the regulars after if you feel like it, though they’re bound to be hostile ‘cos you’re being a major asshat. Step 3, Profit! And, yes, larf all teh way to teh bank! Voila!