Oh, hey, look! It's exactly what everyone was saying the whole time!

Everyone with half a brain was saying that Saddam's refusal to allow UN inspectors into Iraq was because he didn't want to appear weak to powerhouse Iran, not because he was secretly hoarding away tons of WMDs. Oh, hey! Looks like that was exactly the case. Go figure.

In 2004, even after being captured by U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein told an FBI interrogator he believed Iran was a greater threat to Iraq than the United States, according to newly released FBI documents.

The FBI interviews took place while Hussein, then identified by the FBI as "High Value Detainee 1" was held captive by U.S. military forces at Baghdad International Airport between February and June of 2004.

Hussein regarded the Iranian threat as so serious that it was the major factor in his decision not to allow United Nations weapons inspectors to return, he said. Citing their shared border and his belief Iran would intend to annex southern Iraq, Hussein said he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses than repercussions from the United States and the international community. He believed that the inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq.

Approximately 100 pages of declassified interview summaries, previously classified as secret, were obtained by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The FBI declined CNN's request to interview special agent George L. Piro, the agent who interviewed Hussein. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson declined to comment on the declassified documents. "As a general rule, the FBI does not discuss FOIA'd documents. We let the information stand on its own," Bresson told CNN.

Piro, an FBI agent fluent in Arabic, conducted the interviews along with another agent whose name has been redacted from the documents. Although Hussein had been a prisoner for months, at one point during an interview he said, "I am not the ex-president of Iraq. I am still the president of Iraq."

Hussein also described al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a "zealot" and said he had never met or seen him. He also said the United States used the September 11 attacks as justification to attack Iraq, and that the United States had "lost sight of the cause." Despite Piro citing evidence of Iraq's contacts with al Qaeda, Hussein said, "The Iraqi government did not cooperate with bin Laden" and that the two "did not have the same belief or vision."

The former regime's alleged weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al Qaeda were the Bush administration's primary justifications for invading Iraq in March of 2003.

Piro and Hussein spoke extensively about Iraq's chemical weapons during the Iran war, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and in the years before the second U.S. invasion.

Hussein refused to answer a question about whether Iraq would have lost the war it fought with Iran from 1980 to 1988 if it had not used chemical weapons. He also said neither he nor any other Iraqi officials discussed using chemical weapons during the first Gulf War.

Hussein admitted that Iraq made a mistake by destroying some weapons without U.N. supervision. In his view, the inspectors wanted all of their expenses paid for by Iraq. Instead of waiting for the inspectors and paying the expenses, Iraq began destroying the weapons.

"We destroyed them. We told you, with documents. That's it," Hussein said.

When asked about restrictions he placed on weapons inspectors regarding which locations they could visit, Hussein responded, "By God, if I had such weapons, I would have used them in the fight against the United States."

Hussein commented about the mental state of U.S. soldiers occupying Iraq. "If you asked the American soldier -- who came to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, but none could be found, and who came to remove the leaders of the Hussein dictatorship, who are all in jail now, but are replaced with other dictators -- whether he wanted to stay or go, he would say go."

Hussein said he alone gave the orders to fire SCUD missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War, adding, "Everything that happened to us was because of Israel." He said he figured that the United States would stop the war if Israel was "hurt," and he wanted to punish the country he viewed as the source of all his problems.

Hussein recalled a meeting in Switzerland between his foreign minister Tariq Aziz and then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in January of 1991 shortly before Operation Desert Storm. According to Hussein, Baker offered no solutions to resolve the Kuwait situation and gave specific steps to Aziz that the United States wanted Iraq to do first, and Baker added "otherwise, we'll take you back to the pre-industrial age."

He also told Piro he wanted to have a relationship with the United States but was not given the opportunity because in his view the United States was not listening to anything Iraq had to say.

Hussein also revealed details about his security measures and movements before and after the second U.S. invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. He says he had only used a telephone on two occasions since March of 1990. He denied ever using body doubles, claiming, "This is movie magic, not reality."

He also said he never saw his sons use body doubles. "Do not think I am getting upset when you mention my sons. I still think about them and the fact that they were martyred. They will be examples to everyone throughout the world," he said.

Hussein also states he was not in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad on March 19, 2003, when it was bombed by coalition forces in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him. He says he remained in Baghdad until April 10 or 11 of 2003, when it appeared the city was about to fall to coalition forces. Before leaving the city, he said he held one final meeting with the senior Iraqi leadership and told them, "We will struggle in secret."

Shortly after his departure from the capital, Hussein began to gradually disperse his bodyguards, telling them they had completed their duty, so as not to draw attention.

Hussein also admitted that after participating in the failed assassination attempt against then-Iraqi president Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim in 1959, he had stayed at the same farm where he was captured by U.S. forces in December of 2003.
- Source

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Holy fuck! Asshole cop tasers 72-year old woman.

This is incredibly fucked up. This cop is totally gonna lose his job and get sued to hell and back. He'll probably also get the shit kicked out of him after he's fired, too.




^ Raw camera footage ^





^ Fox News coverage ^

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Wikipedia banhammers Church of $cientology.

If you've ever read any of Wikipedia's discussion pages for any Church of $cientology, you would totally understand.

In an unprecedented move, Wikipedia has banned edits from an entire religion — the Church of Scientology.

After four months of internal discussion, Wikipedia's top administrators decided Thursday to block Scientology-affiliated computers from changing items on any part of the free online encyclopedia, reports the British tech blog The Register.

Wikipedia famously lets almost anyone make changes to almost any article. Troublesome individuals have been blocked from editing — among them virulently anti-Scientology activists who altered pages relating to the religion — but this is the first time a religious organization has been blocked.

The encyclopedia's administrators found that Scientology computers had been repeatedly changing more than 400 pages related to the Church, deleting negative references and adding positive ones. The volume of changes was overwhelming administrators' ability to reverse them, hence the block.

Representatives of the Church of Scientology did not reply to FOXNews.com's requests for comment.

Wikipedia matches specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses — every device on the Internet has one — with certain users, and tweaks its servers to prevent those machines gaining edit access. Every IP address linked to the Church of Scientology is now banned from editing.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked," read a statement on Wikipedia, according to WikiNews. "Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses."
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Just because they're a scientist doesn't mean that they're not bat-shit crazy.

One of the things I love most about people who deny that global climate is getting warmer or that there's no way the Twin Towers could have fallen due to jetliners smashing into them is the "trump card" of pulling out a scientist that agrees with them. All you need is one, right? And, suddenly, POOF! You're theory is valid. Except it's not. There's a thing called consensus. Besides, many scientists are nuts and believe all sorts of crazy shit.

Did a UFO deliberately crash into a meteor to save Earth 100 years ago? That's what one Russian scientist is claiming.

Dr. Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists that an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into the planet above Siberia on June 30, 1908.

The result was was the Tunguska event, a massive blast estimated at 15 megatons that downed 80 million trees over nearly 100 square miles. Eyewitnesses reported a bright light and a huge shock wave, but the area was so sparsely populated no one was killed.

Most scientists think the blast was caused by a meteorite exploding several miles above the surface. But Labvin thinks quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site are remnants of an alien control panel, which fell to the ground after the UFO slammed into the giant rock.

"We don't have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals," Labvin told the Macedonian International News Agency. "We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space."
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Red Bull gives you more than just wings.

Red Bull has cocaine in it? Apparently. However, it's not enough to actually get you high.

Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.
- Source

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Duke Nukem Foerever may be gone, but the hollowed out shell of 3D Realms will remain. To do nothing. Ever.

Seriously, what the shit is this? Okay, so 3D Realms has indeed canned Duke Nukem Forever due to lack of funding, but 3D Realms is still around? To do what? They couldn't even make Prey! It took 10 damn years and they still couldn't finish it so they handed it off to Human Head Studios. Valve spent 9 years doing Team Fortress 2, but in the end Valve actually did make the damn game! (and a mighty fine one at that!)

In light of recent press articles and statements by Take-Two (to the media and in a lawsuit), we want to set the record straight on some issues.

Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.

As some of you may know, Take-Two filed a lawsuit last week containing various accusations and claims against 3DR and the uncompleted DNF game. Take-Two never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5m in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game. This is the sum total Take-Two has paid 3DR in connection with DNF. Take-Two claims that they paid $12m to GT Interactive/Infogrames to acquire the publishing rights for the DNF game. To be clear, 3DR was not a party to that transaction and did not receive any money from it. When the DNF game was originally signed with GT Interactive in 1998, GT paid 3DR a $400,000 signing bonus. Up until July 2008, this was the only publisher money we received for the DNF game. Meanwhile, 3DR put over $20m into the production of DNF.

Take-Two retains publishing rights for the DNF game, although 3DR retains certain rights to sell the game directly to the public. Late last year, 3DR began negotiations with Take-Two to provide funding to complete the DNF game. In the meantime, 3DR was hitting mutually-agreed milestones, despite not having a new agreement finalized. Take-Two was well aware that 3DR needed the funding to continue the DNF game development. Suddenly, after months of negotiations, Take-Two materially changed the parameters of the proposed funding agreement. 3DR informed Take-Two that it could not financially afford the changes Take-Two was suggesting and would be forced to release the team if an agreement was not reached. Take-Two made a last minute proposal to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise and the 3DR development team. Take-Two's proposal was unacceptable to 3DR for many reasons, including no upfront money, no guarantee minimum payment, and no guarantee to complete the DNF game. From 3DR's perspective, we viewed Take-Two as trying to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise in a "fire sale." Those negotiations fell through on May 4th, a deal never materialized, and the DNF team was sadly released a few days later.

Less than a week after the DNF team was released, Take-Two filed its lawsuit in New York, seeking immediate temporary injunctive relief. The court denied Take-Two's request for a temporary restraining order. While we cannot comment on the details of the ongoing lawsuit, we believe Take-Two's lawsuit is without merit and merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher.
- Source

Okay, so, 3DR spent $20 million making DNF, but they have no abandoned it. They still plan to make other games based on the Duke Nukem franchise, though. What the fuck kind of stupid shit is this? You ABANDONED a game that you spent $20 million on and spent 12 years making, but now you're going to focus instead on making newer, different games? I'm sorry, but something does not compute with that. Mainly, what fucking games are you going to make? iPhone apps?

Dude, do the honorable thing and just close shop. This is embarrassing and complete bullshit. You guys haven't made a game since 1997. Stop pretending like you have even a semblance of integrity or respect, because you don't. No publisher is goin to want to fund you. It's sad, yes, but it's time to move on.

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Apple in the game industry? Yeah, that'll go over well.

So, I saw this piece about how Apple should get into the gaming industry, and the whole thing is juts one giant collage of dumbfuckery. Apple does some things well. The iPod was great. Not because it's better hardware, but because it capitalized on its simple interface. When people want to listen to music in their car or while jogging, they don't want to navigate a lot of menus and stuff. They want to find their music quickly, easily, and be done with it.

Anyways, here's a direct rebuttal and reasons why Apple should not get into the gaming industry. I really do love this shit, playing the devil's advocate against those that really don't know what the fuck they're talking about when it comes ot game development.

Reports are swirling that Apple is considering a move into the gaming market via an acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA). And while those are currently just rumors, what is confirmed is that Apple has recently poached Microsoft's former head of Xbox strategy, Richard Teversham.

Okay, let's look at what Taversham did.

The exiting Microsoft executive, Richard Teversham, most recently ran Microsoft's Xbox business unit in Europe. He worked at Microsoft for 15 years and was senior director of business, insights and strategy for the Xbox business group. Teversham told MCV he will work in some type of "education-related role" at the Apple European office.
- Source

Wow, that's fucking awesome. If I was going to start up a games division I would totally be looking for bean counters first and foremost. Forget that Taversham said he was going into some educational area for Apple's EU division. Even if he were working on a gaming-related division at Apple, he would most likely be pushed into Apple's iPhone department. Considering he's a business guy, aka number crunching, he'd be a good person to look at pricing and sales volume. Not for, you know, the actually important shit like hardware and development-related issues.

1. Apple Is Due: Some of the Cupertino crew's competitors are already well established in the gaming market with their own consoles. Microsoft has the Xbox and Sony has the PlayStation. While Apple has spent much of the last decade remaking the mobile music industry, the time could now be right for a foray into gaming. The brand has exploded in popularity since the release of the iPod in October 2001 (the Microsoft Xbox, as a point of reference, was released in November 2001), and it's not hard to imagine fanboys lining up to purchase an Apple-branded gaming device.

Good fucking grief this is stupid. Okay, let's look at Apple's market share in the PC market. It's between 10%-13%. That's it. Now, if you look at Apple's MP3 market share, it's somewhere in the 40% range, which is good. However, a game console isn't a fucking MP3 player and people aren't going to buy a several hundred dollar console just because. There has to be games and there has to be decent hardware. No one wants to invest in a fucking paperweight console. Ask Atari how well jumping into the game console industry with their Jaguar did. Oh wait, Atari is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

2. iTunes Store: Apple already has a well-established and viable way of distributing games to customers via the Internet. Downloading a song or movie through the iTunes Store is becoming a standard skill for many people. An Apple gaming console, then, could function similarly to the Apple TV or Xbox Live store. Droves of people already have accounts, so if Apple can distribute games directly to the console via iTunes, customers wouldn't even need to leave the house to get their game on.

Are you fucking retarded? Do you have any fucking clue as to how big games are? And I don't mean "big" as in popularity, but as in filesize. Try 3-6 GB. To understand that, in "music" size, you're talking 1,000 to 2,000 songs. For one game. Not to mention that people would need to have the proper bandwidth for that, which most do not. The average connection in the USA is about 512 Kb. Which is not KB (KiloyBytes). It's less than that. (one KiloByte = 8 Kilobits)

Also, how well has Apple TV done? Oh, that's right, it fucking tanked because it sucked shit. It was horribly inferior to other products out there and it lacked numerous crucial features. Face it, the only thing Apple has going for it is its iPod.

3. The iPhone And iPod Touch: Apple's mainstay portable devices are already beginning to establish themselves as gaming platforms. A quick look through the Apple App Store reveals a plethora of games that range in price from free to a few dollars. EA, for example, just released "Need For Speed Undercover" for the iPhone, retailing at $10. Apple customers are already playing games on the iPhone and iPod Touch, so why not tie those devices to a gaming console?

Because shitty iPhone games do not equal real games? How well has N4S:U done on the iPhone? Because it got horrible reviews and was widely panned by gaming critics. Most of the Apple iPhone games are pure shit. They are half-assed, bullshit clones of games from the 80's. If you really think playing games on an iPhone is at all comparable to playing on a console, then you're absolutely insane and don't have a clue what you're talking about.

4. Synching Between Console And iPhone: This seems like a no-brainer. iPhone users already sync their smartphones to a laptop for updates and purchases, so why not do the same with a gaming console? Games could be developed with special add-ons designed specifically for the iPhone or iPod touch. That way when a gamer has to leave the house, these side missions can be synched onto the iPhone, expanding Apple's gaming reach. Instead of riding the subway and listening to music or surfing the Web, users could continue to play the game they started back at home.

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE iPHONE NOT BEING A FUCKING GAMING CONSOLE!? Do you have any idea how shitty an iPhone game would look on a regular 480x720 resolution TV screen, let alone a 720p one? It would look horrible! The hardware and control limitations between a console and a portable device like the iPhone are so vast that making the assumption that the two could in any way be linked is more than just asinine, it is borderline brain dead. Even if you try to make the link between the iPhone's motion control sand the Wii, it still doesn't fit. The Wii has a much richer control set feature than the iPhone.

This is seriously one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard. It would be like saying that an Etch-A-Sketch could potentially be used to write programming languages. It is so far fetched and unrealistic that it's baffling that anyone would even come up with it, let alone publish an article saying this.

5. Better Talent: An Apple-branded console would attract top-notch talent to develop games for the platform. Just look at the success the company has had with independent developers creating applications for the App Store. Face it, not every game needs to be another installment of the "Call Of Duty" series. Assuming the iTunes Store is used to distribute the games, the process of getting a product listed there should be similar to the existing policy -- perhaps even a little less draconian. For bigger releases, companies such as EA would be facing a tough crowd of Apple fans who would expect nothing but the highest quality in the games on the platform. That would challenge publishers to bring on smarter talent and create better games, further enriching the gaming community.

Holy fucking... Okay, how much money does Apple have? Not much. Really, not much. It's true, whether you want to believe it or not. They don't have shit compared to Microsoft or Sony. Even Microsoft has decided to stop having in-house developers. Sony has an incredibly small handful. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Polyphony Digital, the makers of Gran Turismo. I don't think this writer understands how much money it takes to make a game, let alone start a whole new development softhouse. Here's a hint: AAA titles typically have budgets between $10-$30 million. That's just for the games. That doesn't include starting up the studios and everything else.

The process that developers go through with the iPhone app store is nothing like what goes on with major developers. The app store process works like this. Some guys makes something, submits it to Apple, Aple approves it or not, and then it's placed for sale or rejected. Major developers require licensing, SDKs, marketing, contractual obligations that actually mean something, and they don't want to sign on for some normalized bullshit that's the same with everyone. Do you think EA gets the same kind of contract that Atari gets? Hell no they don't!

The best part is the complete about-face this article does. So, not every game needs be Call Of Duty (I'm assuming they're referring to CoD4:MW, and not CoD:W@W, which sucked shit), but then says that Apple would require "top talent" that would "further enrich" the gaming industry. So, which one is it? Has he even bothered to look at most of the apps that sell on the iPhone? They're fart apps and stupid bullshit like that. Wow, talk about enrichment. Maybe I can get a "Pull My Finger" game on a console. That's be fucking sweet.

Really, all of this is just pure bullshit. This article has no idea what the fuck goes into gaming, and I didn't even start to bring out a lot of the other hurdles, namely development costs. The PS3 is still losing money on every console sold. MS is just now breaking into the black, and their console is already starting to age. If Apple were to try to get into the game console market, they'd have to be prepared to throw in a few billion dollars and be willing to lose it all.

Not only is the market already highly competitive, but where would Apple carve their niche? The kids market? Yeah fucking right. Nintendo has that on lockdown. The hardcore market? Sony and MS are already very aggressively waging a war in that market, good look trying to topple either one of them.

Finally, Apple would need to develop an SDK, get hardware manufacturers to work on specialty chipsets, amd be able to court third party developers to actually develop for their system. It's not as easy as "build it and they will come" which this article seems to think is the case. Developers already have a hard enough time trying to develop modern games for 4 systems (360, Wii, PS3, and PC), and adding a fifth isn't going to make things any easier. Not only that, but what kind of middleware will Apple sue? OpenGL like OSX? Because OPenGL vs DirectX is why you already see so few games for Mac.

This entire piece is nothing more than a pipe-dream, and not even a well though out one, at that. It has no basis in reality and doesn't even offer up a plan to the slightest bit of scrutiny. If Apple really thinks any of these reasons are why they should get into the gaming business, Apple better be prepared to go bankrupt, again, and pray that Microsoft will bail them out of such bankruptcy, again.

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Trucker hat = Serial killer hat?

Uh oh. I live near a truck stop...

The FBI suspects there's a link between long-haul truckers and serial killers, and runs a national program to track murders along popular trucking routes, according to a newspaper report.

The Los Angeles Times reports that federal authorities first made the connection five years ago while investigating a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states.

After patterns started emerging, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.

A computer database now includes more than 500 female murder victims whose bodies were discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations.
- Source

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You can lead an Islamic horse to water...

SO, this is what the men and women of the armed services have died for? Great. Awesome. IF this is what democracy in the Islamic world means, what the fuck is the point? Why not just let the Taliban rule? It would basically have the same result.

What am I talking about? A recent Afghanistan law that states that a woman is required to have sex with her husband every fourth night if he so desires.

As first lady, senator and then Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton was vocal in her fight for the rights of women in Afghanistan.

But, as President Obama's secretary of state, Clinton now finds herself in the uncomfortable position of watching as the U.S.-backed Afghan president signs a law that critics say gives Shiite men the right to rape their wives.

International criticism pressure forced President Hamid Karzai to say Saturday that the law is under review, and he has spoken to Clinton about it.

The developments come as Obama seeks NATO support in Europe for his plan to ramp up the war against terrorists in Afghanistan. Back at home in Washington, administration officials have struggled this week with how to respond to Karzai's signing of the so-called Shia Family Law without debate in the Afghan parliament. The law's most controversial provisions address sexual intercourse in marriage.

"As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."
- Source

Yea! for progress!

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CDs killed the record label.

Well, I partly agree with the idea put forth, but I think it glosses over a few things. Namely, the price scheme. I remember when CDs were first emerging and the line was touted that, as the prevelance of CDs grew and the medium got cheaper, albums would cost $10. They never did. You can find some new albums for $15, but most are $20 or more.

Anyways, the notion that cheap CDs and shoddy album compilations is what really caused such massive revenue loss for record companies is interesting.

Traditionally, the majors blame the internet for devaluing music, but the most forward-thinking in the business are starting to reverse this equation. “In a way, the CD is what destroyed the music business,” says Joe Mardin, a musician, producer, arranger, and engineer. Mardin grew up in the music business; his father was Ardiff Mardin, the legendary producer of Hall & Oats, Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin, and others. “People were buying millions of CDs to replace their catalog," says Mardin, explaining how industry greed ended up killing the Golden Goose. “There was this imperative that started to emerge: 'You must fill up a CD with as much music as possible,’” Mardin says. “The rest was filler. You ended up with albums that were one or two hits and a bunch of wanna-be hits.” The record industry itself killed the album, trying to maximize profits.

"The very concept of the album itself, a consecutive body of work designed by the artist to be experienced in its entirety, has been lost," explains Caraeff. And as a result, the traditional labels are contracting radically, morphing into a much humbler business. "The labels will survive," Mardin predicts, "but with much smaller margins and sales." And that might not be such a bad thing for music—or musicians.

After the current contraction, a few artists, like Lil' Wayne, will still be able to rake in large sums. But the top-heavy shape of the industry as a whole will change. There will never be another 100-million-selling album, there may not ever be another 20-million-selling album. “The profits were just gloriously obscene,” says Bob Sherwood, who was head of marketing for Columbia when Faith was released, and has had top positions at Mercury Records, CBS Records, and Sony. “You can’t do that today.”

Yet there will always be fans, always be musicians, and—of course—there will always be money. “If you find 100,000 fans who are willing to contribute $15 a year for your music, that’s one and a half million dollars," says Goldberg, doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation. "If you can find a way to get your music to them efficiently and for them to get that money to you efficiently, you can make a very nice living.” It's the internet, not the labels, that connects musicians to their audience. What's gone is the major-label hit-making machinery. “The top is going to come down," says Goldberg, "but the middle class is going to grow."
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Keith Olbermann is on fire.

I know most people consider Keith Olbermann to be liberal jerk-off material, but this is really is so spot on.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Keith Olbermann and Eugene Robinson roast Joe The Plumber.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Tom DeLay wants Obama to fail.


As an aside, it's nice that someone is finally saying it. Reagan didn't decrease the size of government. He didn't decrease government spending. For all of the bullshit aggrandizing of Reagan and searching for a "new Reagan"; if the GOP were to meet the actual Ronald Reagan, freshly resurrected from the grave like Jesus, they would pass him up as being "not Reagan enough." That's because the Reagan that the GOP harps so much about NEVER existed.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Is Michelle Bachmann really that stupid? Moreover, is the audience really that dumb to believe her?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ How is it that this kind of massive fraud against our troops and against our nation has gone so unmitigated? That is unpatriotic.

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Bobby Jindal caught in a spindle. That was bad wasn't it?

Oh, Bobby Jindal. Not only did many of the GOP think your speech sucked, but it turns out that you lied your ass off about your retelling of events in Katrina.

It looks like Bobby Jindal's staff has been trying to do some damage limitation on that phony Katrina story -- with some help from Politico. But it's blowing up in their faces.

Picking up on an earlier post at Daily Kos, we wrote a post yesterday that raised questions about a key anecdote in Bobby Jindal's big Tuesday night speech.

You can watch the key excerpt here, but here's the transcript:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

In our post, we reported -- among other red flags -- that we couldn't find any news reports that put Jindal on the ground in the affected area during the time when a boat rescue would have been needed. As we noted, we called Jindal's office twice before posting to ask them to verify the incident, but heard nothing back.

This morning, Politico's Ben Smith, noting that we and others had raised questions about Jindal's story, posted a response from the governor's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell:

It was in the days following the storm. Sheriff Lee was a hero who worked tirelessly to rescue those in danger, and he didn't take kindly to bureaucrats getting in his way.

That didn't really seem to clear things up either way -- indeed it admitted that it wasn't "during Katrina" as Jindal had originally said. Still, the headline of Smith's post characterized the statement as "stand[ing] by" the anecdote.

Team Jindal probably would have been wise to leave things there.

Instead, they went back to Smith, now telling him, in Smith's words, that Jindal "didn't imply" on Tuesday that the story "took place during the heat of a fight to release rescue boats." (Take 30 seconds to read Jindal's actual words, and you'll see that's flatly untrue -- but no matter.) Rather, Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers told Smith, "It was days later .. Sheriff Lee was on the phone and the governor came down to visit him. It wasn't that they were standing right down there with the boats."

Smith added:

She said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, "was doing an interview" about the incident with the boats when the governor described him yelling into the phone.

In other words, Jindal only heard from Lee later that this had happened. He didn't actually see it happening and played no role in it himself. We posted a few hours ago, noting that Jindal's office had admitted the story was false.

But then things got weirder: Jindal's people went back for yet more.

Smith soon posted an update explaining that he had misunderstood Sellers earlier. According to Teepell, Smith now wrote, rescue efforts were in fact still underway when Jindal met with Lee. And Jindal overheard Lee yelling on the phone to justify a decision he had previously made, not giving an interview about the episode, as Sellers' earlier version had had it.

In fact, that whole thing about Jindal overhearing Lee giving an interview? It's now gone from Smith's post (though, thanks to the dangers of syndication, it remains here) as if Jindal's office never said it.

There's more. Amazingly, Sellers then argued to Smith that there is no difference between Jindal's original story as told Tuesday night, and the one her office finally settled on this afternoon. And even more amazingly, Smith added another update in which he transcribed that argument without comment, as if it were reasonable.

Then the capper: With Jindal's office now satisfied with the third iteration of its story -- a version that clearly acknowledged that the first version, told Tuesday night to millions, was false -- Teepell went back to Smith with the following comment:

"This is liberal blogger B.S. The story is clear."

And Smith, in yet another update, published it.

Good work all round!
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Glenn Beck debating marijuana legalization.

You probably know that Glenn Beck is insane as a shit-house rat. But maybe you don't know that Glenn used to do a lot of drugs. I don't know if he "chased the dragon", but he did do cocaine, pot, and was a huge drunk.

Anyways, here's a little vid of Glenn debating Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project. I don't know what the fuck Glenn was/is on, but he should cut it out. It's making him act like a weirdo. I also like that Glenn can't come up with any arguments against ending marijuana prohibition, but he's still against it anyways. Why the harping of "they shouldn't do it juts to raise money!" Did it ever occur to Glenn that maybe it's not just the money, but actually because of all the reasons why Kampia mentioned?

nothing after the jump

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GOP oreinted, social conservative, Christian states have higher porn consumption.

From Andrew Sullivan's blog:

Surprise! There's a significant correlation between consumption of online porn and Christianism:

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama. Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage...

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."

Utah is the country's single biggest consumer of online porn. You've got to love those Mormons.
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nothing after the jump

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That asshole clerk might have once been a CEO.

Saw this on the Consumerist and thought it a rather interesting read. Next time you're at a gas station and the cashier's being a huge dick with an inflated sense of self-importance, it may be because they actually were important once.

Meet John Eller. Five years ago, he was a Sprint executive earning $150,000 for managing 7,000 employees at 13 call centers. Today, he's a grocery store baker making $10 an hour. The Times tells us he's not the only former executive now working for minimum wage.

nterviews with more than two dozen laid-off professionals across the country, including architects, former sales managers and executives who have taken on lower-paying, stop-gap jobs to help make ends meet, found that they were working for places like U.P.S., a Verizon Wireless call center and a liquor store. For many of the workers, the psychological adjustment was just as difficult as the financial one, with their sense of identity and self-worth upended.

"It has been like peeling back the layers of a bad onion," said Ame Arlt, 53, who recently accepted a position as a customer-service representative at an online insurance-leads referral service in Franklin, Tenn., after 20 years of working in executive jobs. "With every layer you peel back, you discover something else about yourself. You have to make an adjustment."

Some people had exhausted their jobless benefits, or were ineligible; others said it was impossible for them to live on their unemployment checks alone, or said it was a matter of pride, or sanity, that drove them to find a job, any job.

In just one illustration of the demand for low-wage work, a spokesman for U.P.S. said the company saw the number of applicants this last holiday season for jobs sorting and delivering packages almost triple to 1.4 million from the 500,000 it normally receives.

It's nothing new, but it shows just how far anyone can fall. Something to keep in mind next time you're talking to a customer service representative.

"It has been the hardest thing in my life," said Arlt. "It has been harder than my divorce from my husband. It has really been even worse than the death of my mother."
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Am I high? DEA to stop raiding medical marijuana clubs.

Holy shit. Am I high? Really, am I? I don't think so... I did drink a pint of Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot barleywine, but I don't think that would make me loopy enough to start seeing things. Apparently Eric Holder has called for a halt on the DEA raids for state-recognized medical marijuana clubs.

Supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries.

Federal raids on medical marijuana distributors continued at least into the second week of Barack Obama’s presidency, when federal agents shut down at least two dispensaries in California on Feb. 3.

Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of Mexican drug cartels. He said such operations would no longer be conducted.

“What the president said during the campaign ... will be consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What (Obama) said during the campaign ... is now American policy.”

Obama indicated during the presidential campaign that he supported the controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes, saying he saw no difference between medical marijuana and other pain-control drugs.

“My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana, then that’s something I’m open to,” Obama said in November 2007 at a campaign stop in Audubon, Iowa. “There’s no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain.”

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro hinted at the policy shift shortly after the California raids, telling The Washington Times that the dispensaries were legal in California and that the Obama administration’s stance was that “federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws.”
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So, with Obama pledging to cut the deficit and taking a strong stance on state's rights, does that mean he's more conservative than Bush?

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Want more Futurama? Buy the DVDs.

And more stuff from Matt Groening.

Sometimes it's a chuckle of uncertainty, as when he talks about the fact that his weekly comic strip, "Life in Hell," is being dropped by its flagship newspaper, LA Weekly, after 22 years. Sometimes it's a snort of mischief, as when he describes working with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, with whom he allegedly has a feud.

But mostly it's a big, rollicking guffaw, the sound of a man who still can't quite believe how much fun he gets to have at work -- work that includes "The Simpsons," still going strong after 20 years, "Life in Hell" and "Futurama."

It's the latter that's the ostensible reason for a phone interview with Groening. "Futurama," which aired on Fox from 1999-2003, then in reruns on Cartoon Network and Comedy Central, has apparently concluded its run with a new DVD movie, "Into the Wild Green Yonder" (Fox Home Entertainment), which came out Tuesday.

As with the three previous "Futurama" DVD films -- "Bender's Big Score," "The Beast with a Billion Backs" and "Bender's Game" -- "Yonder" will be split into four parts and aired on Comedy Central, which has the rights to the series. But Groening's not willing to say goodbye -- yet.

"We have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know. Maybe," he said. "I think one of the factors will be how well this DVD sells, because of these troubled times where everybody's gnashing their teeth and biting their nails."

Along with "Futurama," Groening ("rhymes with 'complaining,' " as he's often pointed out) also talked about "Life in Hell," "The Simpsons," MacFarlane and pretty much anything that tickled his fancy. The following is an edited version of the interview, with some laughs included.

CNN: I feel like Comic Book Guy talking to Jack Kirby -- or perhaps Jack Davis.

Matt Groening: (huge laugh) Well, I've met both of them -- Jack Kirby and Jack Davis! They're both heroes of mine. So I can relate. They're definitely part of my pantheon of great artists.

CNN: Let's move over to "Futurama." Is this the end?

Groening: We hope not. If it is, we feel we're offering an emotionally satisfying conclusion to this epic science fiction saga. But we did leave the door open just a bit in case we get renewed. iReport: Tell us your favorite "Futurama" moments

CNN: Is that in the offing?

Groening: We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me. (laughs)

CNN: With all the insider references in your work, do you still think of yourself as a subversive in an industry that doesn't exactly prize subversiveness?

Groening: I don't know how subversive you can be when you've been on the air as long as we have. But we try to sneak some stuff in here and there, and gladden the hearts of sensitive viewers. ...

I always thought that television was the way to go in my goal to invade pop culture (laughs) because it got to towns in which there were no bookstores. That's how I used to think of it: How do I reach kids who not only don't read but probably have no access to much in the way of books?

And "The Simpsons" basically -- and "Futurama" -- are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated. And if you don't get it, it's OK -- you have a nice entertainment experience -- but if you've gone to college and seen a few movies, you can appreciate the shows on a much more satisfying level. Listen to Groening talk about his recent favorite films

CNN: How did the plot to this film come together?

Groening: The set of four movies were done by the core writers of "Futurama" headed by David X. Cohen ... [who's been] my partner on "Futurama" from the very beginning. We [planned] these four movies -- one was time travel, next was sword-and-sorcery, third was a space monster movie and the last one is a grand ecological science fiction epic which also has some emotional payoffs for the characters if you've been following the series from the beginning. ...

In a way there was a checklist component to this -- well, let's do this, we haven't done that yet -- and then just great ideas. Ken Keeler, who wrote the script, is very, very smart, and very rarely will concede a factual point, even if it means that we (laughs) postpone getting work done for hours. (laughs) And when you have writers as smart as the "Futurama" writers, you can waste two days on scientific tangents. Listen to Groening talk about the writers' cleverness

CNN: Seth MacFarlane has a role in this.

Groening: Oh yes! That was a real treat to work with Seth and confound the people who want to believe there's some kind of feud between Seth and myself.

CNN: How do you feel about the children of "The Simpsons" -- MacFarlane's "Family Guy," "South Park"?

Groening: I'm a fan of animation and so, the more stuff that doesn't look like the other stuff that's out there, I'm in favor.

There's a staggering array of completely wild animation on TV now ... Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network is unbelievable. And "South Park" continues to do great stuff. And "Family Guy" and the various other Seth MacFarlane projects are amazing.

And I want more. Good! Cartoons! Cartoons that don't look like anything else. Very good. Listen to Groening talk about the animation boom

CNN: To the root of animation, cartooning: You're still doing "Life in Hell," correct?

Groening: Um, yes, but ... well, I feel like the floodwaters are rising.

CNN: Really?

Groening: Yeah, the alternative newsweeklies are really struggling. In fact, this coming week will be my final week after 22 years in the LA Weekly. I and all the other cartoonists are being dismissed because they can't afford to pay.

We'll see. I'm still in a bunch of other papers, so I may continue to do my strip, but it doesn't look good. Listen to Groening talk about the poor treatment of comics

CNN: Have you considered just doing it online?

Groening: Yes! Yes, I'm toying with that. But it's very strange. I've been doing the weekly comic strip for 29 years, "The Simpsons" weekly for 20 years, the "Futurama" weekly for five years and then a little break and then the four movies, and then the "Simpsons" movie, ... so I have a series of ongoing deadlines. So the idea of establishing a Web presence that I'll have to feed on an ongoing basis doesn't give me a lot of pep. (laughs) One more treadmill.

CNN: Let me finish with the traditional "Simpsons" question: Is it going to continue for the foreseeable future?

Groening: Yes. I'll be surprised if we close up anytime soon. I don't see it. The popularity of the show all over the world continues and it is gratifying, and the show's still fun to do. That's always been my ultimate deciding factor: Is it still fun? And it is. ... I get to go in and listen to these brilliant actors make funny lines written by geniuses even funnier. It's a totally entertaining experience from my point of view -- in the middle of it.
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Don't put your dick in these holes! Don't put your dick in these holes!

I've seen stories about people fucking puppies, goats, cows, there's even the infamous Mr. Hands who was killed when the horse that was fucking him in the ass went too deep and ruptured his colon. But this, this... Well, it just takes the cake.

A Saginaw County man has pleaded no contest to indecent exposure after police say he was arrested for performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum.

The Saginaw News reports 29-year-old Jason Leroy Savage of Swan Creek Township entered the plea Wednesday in Saginaw County Circuit Court.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but will be treated as one at sentencing on March 25.

Police say Savage was arrested after a resident called officers early on Oct. 16 to report suspicious activity at a car wash in Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Defense attorney Philip Alexander Sturtz had no immediate comment Thursday.
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^ Mr. Show's "The Farm House Musical"

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Chavez ramps up his control, seizes rice processing plants.

I remember whan Chavez was first elected. Oh, how people wooned over him. Look at how progressive and fair he is! Look at how much he is helping the poor! What a savior he is! Except each and every day he is further showing that he is nothing more than a power-hungry despot.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered troops to immediately take over rice-processing plants in his country, accusing some businesses of ignoring prices set by the government.

"What are some of the sectors of the agricultural industry doing? They buy rice from producers, and they don't want to produce regulated rice," Chavez said in a televised address Saturday.

"Well, I've ordered the intervention, starting right now, of all those sectors of the agricultural industry."

Chavez did not say how long the takeover will last, but warned that some companies could be nationalized if they tried to interrupt supplies.

U.S.-owned Cargill, with 2,000 employees spread among 22 locations in Venezuela, is among the major rice processors in the country.
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Since winning re-election in 2006, Chavez launched a campaign to nationalize strategic segments of Venezuela's economy, including cement companies, a steel mill and oil ventures.

Last month, Venezuelans approved a Chavez-backed constitutional referendum that allows him to run for a third six-year term in 2012.
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Some might say, "surely, this isn't a bad thing. He is trying to regulate rice costs for his people." That's not the real issue. What he is doing is seizing the rice processing plants in a power-grab. By controlling the rice plants, he can subsidize the poor with rice, all but cinching his re-election. The poor will be happy because, hell, at least they have food. Meanwhile, Chavez will simply gain more power until the entire country is within his grasp. It's an obvious move towards dictatorship.

I remember when he first got elected and began outlining and enacting his policies, I said that he would try to negate election term limits. I was right. He has said if the people vote him out, then he will leave. What makes you think that he will fairly count those votes? What makes you think that it will even be a fair election? Instead, Chavez will continue to drive towards being a dictator while posing under the guise as being democratically elected.

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Take back the country. One dead liberal at a time.

Rush Limbaugh gave a roaring and invigorating speech yesterday. Calling, numerously, on his creed that Obama wants socialism and to destroy capitalism. He called for caonservatives to "take back" America and defended his remarks desiring Obama to fail with more asinine assertions.

"We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are, because we make the mistake of assuming that people know. What they know is largely incorrect, based on the way we're portrayed in pop culture, in the drive-by media, by the Democrat party," the conservative talk show host told a mostly young crowd of energized supporters.

"We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, freedom -- and the pursuit of happiness," he said, pausing several times for enthusiastic applause.

Really? Then why the attempts to mar the constitution by injecting religious dogma into its foundations? Why has he defended Bush's curtailing the law of the United States by issuing warrant-less wiretaps on American civilians? Also, why is he citing the Declaration of Independence while talking about the Constitution?

Limbaugh used his self-described "first national address," which ran more than an hour longer than his allotted 20 minutes, to accuse President Obama of inspiring fear in Americans in order to push a liberal agenda of "big government."

"He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day, because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and demonstrated. Doesn't matter. They'll have control of it when it's all over. And that's what they want," Limbaugh said.

What the the fuck has Rush been smoking? What has been the GOP modus operandi for the entire Bush administration? Fear mongering. Fear mongering over bogeymen and that they are coming for you in the night. Obama, on the other hand, is talking realistically about a very real disaster that is unfolding right in front of our eyes: economic collapse. Is it fear mongering to tell a frostbite victim that they may very well lose an extremity, or is it simply addressing the realities of a dire situation? Apparently, Rush can't distinguish the two, so he simply goes into rhetoric attack mode.

Limbaugh praised Obama as one of the most gifted politicians he has seen, but said, "It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite."

Yeah, really. What an asshole Obama is. Trying to inspire people to volunteer to help their communities, to conserve resources, to fix their failing infrastructure and strengthen the country as a whole. What a bunch of bullshit. Why doesn't he inspire us to be the best that we can be, like Bush did. Y'know, where he tells us to go out and shop till we drop so the terrorists don't win. Or maybe Rudy Giuliani who openly mocked (to much applause) community organizers that take active roles in trying to better their community.

Limbaugh's rollicking speech came the day after Obama supporters put out a political ad implying that the conservative radio host has become the de facto head of the Republican Party in the absence of a clear GOP leader.

The ad argues that the Republican leadership in Congress is following Limbaugh's lead in opposing the Obama administration's stimulus package.

"So who are Republican leaders listening to?" the announcer asks, before the 30-second ad cuts abruptly to footage of Limbaugh saying, "I want him [Obama] to fail."

It was paid for by Americans United for Change and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, two groups that supported Obama during the election and are advocating for his agenda.

Limbaugh doesn't speak for all Republicans or conservatives. Copies of the American Conservative magazine with the headline "How radio wrecks the right" were distributed to CPAC attendees, Preston said.

"There is some criticism of Rush Limbaugh. Some people think he is a reactionary," Preston said.

Well, no shit. All he does is piss and moan about how liberals are destroying everything. Even when a matter is clearly the fault of the GOP, Rush will still spin it as created by liberal agendas and ideals. It's like during the very beginning of Obama's term, Limbaugh constantly deduced that falling stock prices was because of Obama. Yeah, because it's not like we were in a recession with dozens of banks falling, a housing bubble run amok collapsing, and record high unemployment continuing to escalate. None of that mattered. It's all because of Obama.

Limbaugh defended his remark about wanting Obama to fail, comparing it to his desire to see the Arizona Cardinals "fail" in this year's Super Bowl game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"This notion that I want the president to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got," he said.

"What is so strange about being honest and saying, I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?" he said, bringing the crowd once again to its feet.

"Did the Democrats want the war in Iraq to fail? Well, they certainly did. And they not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure."
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Except that's not at all how it was. Those of us on the left didn't want Iraq to fail, we feared that it would. We feared that the monetary and human life costs would not be worth the outcome and that it would only further destabilize the region. Guess who the fuck was right? I'll give you a hint: Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators.

Those on the Left wanted Hans Blix and the UN to finish their assessment. The Right wanted to go rushing on in the Iraq and kick some ass. Hans Blix was prematurely pulled from Iraq, not allowed to finish his inquiry, and troops were soon dispatched. The notion that anyone on the Left wanted Iraq to fail simply isn't true. Instead, that was the tagline used by Rush Limbaugh to demonize liberals as hating our troops and despising America. He uses his own twisted logic to justify further twisted logic.

If this really is the path of the GOP - by listening to the sheer amount of GOP senators that go onto and then harp the words of Hannity and Limbaugh, I can only deduce that it is - then the nation should brace for even more instances like the shooting death of Arkansas DNC Chairman, Bill Gwatney.

The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party died Wednesday, about four hours after a shooting at the party's headquarters, police said.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him several times in the upper body, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
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It was never clearly concluded what the motivation was, as the shooter was later killed by police after a high speed chase.

Johnson's relatives could offer no insight. A sister said he normally voted Democratic.
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Except that turns out to be absolute bullshit.

Is there any chance political passion played a role? It is far too early to say. But, for the record, we obtained Johnson's voting record in White County. He was a regular voter, casting ballots 13 times since November 2000. He voted Republican more often than not in primary balloting. He voted Republican in 2002 and 2004 primaries and the 2008 presidential primary. He voted in the Democratic primary and Democratic runoff primary in 2006. There was no record of a vote in this year's May primary on either side.
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Voting in Democratic Primaries doesn't mean the guy was a "mixed voter." Limbaugh and many in the GOP (as well some for the DNC, such as pinhead extraordinaire Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos) have called for voting in opposition primaries to beef up votes for the weaker candidate. However, it seems that we will never know exactly. what the motivation was, but it does seem odd that he stormed into the DNC headquarters and shot Gwatney for no apparent reason.

Then there is the more direct and clearly motivated attack on the Tennessee Unitarian Church.

It was a simple plan, he wrote, borne out of hopelessness but rooted in patriotism.

“The future looks bleak,” the ex-soldier lamented. “I’m absolutely fed up! So I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til (sic) the cops kill me.”

With what he believed to be his last pen strokes, Jim David Adkisson urged other suicidal soldiers against the “liberalism that’s destroying America” to leave their own trail of carnage behind.

“I’d like to encourage other like-minded people to do what I’ve done,” Adkisson wrote. “If life ain’t worth living anymore, don’t just kill yourself. Do something for your country before you go. Go kill liberals.”

[...]

n his manifesto, Adkisson deemed his rampage part “political protest” and part “symbolic killing.”

“This was a hate crime,” he wrote. “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”
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Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.

[...]

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.
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So, what exactly do the nation's favorite mainstream conservative casters say that could spur such attacks?

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.”

Vester: You say you’d rather not talk to liberals at all?

Coulter: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.

So for those of you who haven’t read any of my five best-selling books: Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly.

“I’d say something about John Edwards, but if you use the word ‘faggot’, you have to go to rehab.”

“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee. … That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”

“Patriotic Americans don’t have to become dangerous psychotics like liberals, but they could at least act like men. “

“I don’t know if he’s [Bill Clinton] gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore — total fag.”

They say there's a word of truth behind every joke. The fact that Coulter thinks beating our political leaders and those with differing points of view is "funny" shows how much of a fucking lunatic she is. But why stop there, there's plenty more to choose from.

Ruch Limbaugh:

“They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?” [To a caller who said black people need to be heard.]

“…If you want to know what America used to be — and a lot of people wish it still were — then you listen to Strom Thurmond.”

“I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus — living fossils — so we will never forget what these people stood for.”

“Because we are sympathetic, we are compassionate people, we have responded by letting our government literally feed these people to the point of obesity. At least here in America, didn’t teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn’t teach them how to butcher a — slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter. The real bloat here, as we know, is in — is in government.”

You have to slaughter cows to get butter?

Pat Robertson (founder of the Christian Coalition with over 1.7 million members)

“How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshippers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?”

“When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals–the two things seem to go together.”

“Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”

“Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up.” [Speaking about bombing the State Department]

Michael Savage:

“I can guarantee you [liberals], you wouldn’t be in business too long. I can guarantee you you’d be arrested for sedition within six months of my taking power. I’d have you people licking lead paint, what you did to this country.”

“Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, The New Yorker, CBS have destroyed the war effort against terror. And if, God forbid, a suitcase bomb goes off you’ll know who to blame. I’m — hey I’m not going to mince words, there’s no grey zone here. It’s black and white, it’s them versus us and the enemy within on their side.”

“My fear is that if the Democrats win [in the November midterm elections], and I’m afraid that they might, you’re going to see America melt down faster that you could ever imagine. It will happen overnight, and it could lead to the breakup of the United States of America, the way the Soviet Union broke up.”

Bill O'Reilly:

“Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you’re a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they’re undermining everything and they don’t care, couldn’t care less.”

“Americans will respect your beliefs if you just keep them private.“

“You want to have two guys making out in front of your 4-year-old? It’s OK with them. A guy smoking a joint, blowing the smoke into your little kid’s face? OK with them. And I’m not exaggerating here. This is exactly what the secular movement stands for.”

“Conservative people tend to see the world in black and white terms, good and evil. Liberals see grays. In any talk format, you have to pound home a strong point of view. If you’re not providing controversy and excitement, people won’t listen, or watch.”

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