This bullshit is now pissing me the fuck off.

UPDATE:Wolfson now says definitively that the Clinton campaign didn't do it Very good. Very, very good. I was considering taking this down,but the points are still very valid. So, I've amended this post a  bit.


Pics from the Drudge Report Thank you mtdrake    for drawing my attention to them.



So I saw this picture on Fox News this morning and I KNEW that my blood pressure would be going to hell. And sure enough Ms. Clinton is now using this picture has been used to advance the meme that Senator Obama is not a patriotic American, but a foreign interloper who is likely to turn traitor as soon as he becomes President. Now, there's just one problem with that characterization...




What's that? Why YES, you ARE looking Ms. Clinton and Chelsea in hijab, and former Pres. Clinton in some kind of African outfit, in addition to Pres. Bush in a Chinese outfit. And yet, somehow, their patriotism is not in question. Why? Because they are white?mtdrake breaks down this bullshit in her kickass post:

It is not enough to imply that Black activists played a secondary role in securing their own rights. Nor is it enough to misrepresent someone's religion thereby fallaciously linking them to terrorism. Now Hillary Clinton is saying that if White politicians travel to various non-White countries and dress in indigenous clothing they are being responsive and sensitive to the culture but if Black politicians do it, it's unpatriotic and threatening. Well that to me is just flat out racist.

It's racist because that kind of misrepresentation is part of the Clinton campaign's attempt to make Barack Obama appear foreign, and outsider, and not a unique individual vested in the success of American culture and it's political process. This kind of misrepresentation depends on making brown people into an unindividuated threat and erases any contextual subtleties. Essentially, she's negatively evoking Obama's Kenyan heritage, nevermind that he was meeting with members of an ethinic group that IS NOT his father's ethnic group. In many ways he was a visitor on a good will mission as much as she was during her trip to Africa and the Middle East where she was photographed dressed in Hijab. Likewise with Sitting Pres. Bush in China and Former Pres. Clinton in Africa.

But no, these wondeful beneficient Whites are trying to make the natives feel comfortable. Barack Obama because of his Blackness...and foreign Blackness at that must never get too close because of his propensity to revert to his primitive nature. If you rolled your eyes and scoffed at my previous sentence then you see Sen. Clinton's attempt for what it is, transparent and racist. If you did not then perhaps you are the constituency to whom she is catering.


Dear Ms. Clinton, as well as all the rightwing, racist nutjobs who have the NERVE to be perpetrating the fuckery that only white people wearing Chinese-made flagpins, waving Chinese-made American flags,  and jingoistically chanting  "Long live America, America the perfect, there is no good country but America, America is the greatest country in the world, Thou shalt NOT criticize America!" at every opportunity; are patriotic...FUCK!!! OFF!!!

Dear CNN

Shakesville nails CNN on their despicable carrying of water for the Republican and Hilary Clinton nutjobs....


As I know you're not particularly great with doing your homework, let me reiterate the highpoint of my earlier missive for you: If you're trying to spy unpatriotic interlopers in the general Beltway area, keep your eyes peeled for a collection of despicable miscreants who have launched two failed wars, robbed the country blind, devastated via neglect and incompetence the national infrastructure, let an American city drown, flagrantly disregarded the Geneva Conventions to torture enemy combatants, engaged in extraordinary rendition, tossed out habeas corpus like day-old bread, illegally spied on American citizens, tried to codify discrimination into the Constitution, celebrated unfunded educational mandates, sent soldiers with no body armor to fight in unprotected vehicles, let energy companies write the national energy policy, continually sniffed at an unprecedented number of uninsured Americans, increased both the teen pregnancy and abortion rates by an intractable insistence on abstinence-only sex education, equated dissent with treason, and, among a nonillion other things I could mention, spent the last seven+ years exploiting a tragic terrorist attack on American soil for political gain.

Apparently, the MSM seems to have accepted the fuckery that jingoism is equal to patriotism. Flagpins are much more important indicators of an all-abiding love for your country than actually taking care of Americans. This kind of fuckery is reminding me of Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare. Talk about those who don't know their history repeating it. Fourth estate, my arse!


Oh dear, Obama goes there:



About not wearing an American flag lapel pin, Obama said Republicans have no lock on patriotism.

"A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed, or were sending troops over who were untrained because of poor planning, or are not fulfilling the veterans' benefits that these troops need when they come home, or are undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary?

"That is a debate I am very happy to have. We'll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism."


HA! About time the Democrats handed a couple of body blows to the right-wing and Hilary Clinton smear machine! Yes! *Punches fist in the air*

Real life hobbit houses!!!

  


You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

More pics and how they did it here

*Flails incoherently* Pretty!!!Gorgeous!!! So creative!!! WANT!!!!! Via Shakesville

I. WANT!!!!!!!!

Introducing the Aptera

Wired article






Having only 3 wheels, the Aptera is classified as a motorcycle. So far, there are two prototypes being worked on: one that is all electric and another that is a plug-in hybrid which uses diesel fuel. Initially, the vehicles will be marketed only in California. With the impressive mileage efficiency that it can achieve, I imagine it wouldn't take long for the rest of the nation to take a look:

The initial prototype of the Aptera achieved 230 mpg, a number that is 195 mpg over the projected standard outlined in President Bush's recent energy bill. As of now, the developers still have more time to work out the kinks and improve its efficiency -- AC expects the Aptera to be ready for Californians in late 2008.




I've got a science-fiction kink. And HOLY FUCK does this car design satisfy it. I. am. in. LUST!!!!

Jaw Drop!!!

Take a look at the early voting numbers in TX. We all know that much more people than normal are coming out to vote. And we know that so far the Democrats have been the overwhelming majority in this primary season. But take a look at the early, yes I said early voting results for Texans compared to previous years (courtesy of Burkablog) .


Republicans
Harris 04 -- 1,929
Harris 06 -- 1,194
Harris 08 -- 8,886

Dallas 04 -- 1,162
Dallas 06 -- 2,145
Dallas 08 -- 6,847

Bexar 04 -- 1,205
Bexar 06 -- 1,902
Bexar 08 -- 7,028

Tarrant 04 -- 1,005
Tarrant 06 -- 2,299
Tarrant 08 -- 7,394

Travis 04 -- 1,737
Travis 06 -- 1,239
Travis 08 -- 3,792

El Paso 04 -- 890
El Paso 06 -- 1,227
El Paso 08 -- 2,623

Collin 04 -- 1,244
Collin 06 -- 1,538
Collin 08 -- 4,805

GOP early voting has doubled in El Paso County this year; tripled in Bexar, Tarrant, Dallas, Travis, and Collin counties, and shot up sevenfold (!) in Harris County. Not bad -- until you see the Democrats' numbers.

Democrats

Harris 04 -- 2,392
Harris 06 -- 1,379
Harris 08 -- 26,729

Dallas o4 -- 2,314
Dallas 06 -- 1,636
Dallas 08 -- 23,312

Bexar 04 -- 3,022
Bexar 06 -- 3,845
Bexar 08 -- 20,926

Tarrant 04 -- 1,005
Tarrant 06 -- 679
Tarrant 08 --15,888

Travis 04 -- 3,743
Travis 06 -- 1,367
Travis 08 -- 18,389

El Paso 04 -- 4,637
El Paso 06 -- 5,221
El Paso 08 -- 12,807

Collin 04 -- 503
Collin 06 -- 156
Collin 08 -- 6,845 (No, I not did not a mistake.)


Jay-sus Ke-rist! Its a fucking blowout! Would that everyone's enthusiasm stayed like this in every general election!

Me? I will just be sitting right there in the corner, squeezing my toe...

Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.

The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate, according to people involved. The secretive effort underscores the enormous risk senior GOP operatives see for a party often criticized for its insensitivity to minorities in campaigns dating back to the 1960s.


“You can’t run against Barack Obama the way you could run against Bill Clinton, Al Gore or John Kerry,” said Jack Kemp, the 1996 GOP vice presidential nominee, who expressed concern that the party could be reduced to an “all white country club party” if it does not tread cautiously.

As per usual, the need for what should be simple decency, attack the man or woman on the issues, not on their gender, skin colour or outright lie about his/her religion is all the fault of the PC police...

“The P.C. [politically correct] police will be out and the standards will be very narrow.”

Via:Politico



In the meantime, while the national party is trying to whitewash their more egregious facets, the folk in Florida have not yet got the message...


"Florida state Rep. Donald Brown (Republican) introduced a bill last week to create a “Confederate Heritage” license plate for the state. Saying “it would give motorists a way to show pride in their heritage,” Brown proposes a $25 charge for motorists to purchase a plate with “a shield displaying the rebel battle flag symbol surrounded by several flags from the Civil War era.” The money would benefit “educational programs run by Sons of Confederate Veterans,” which considers the Civil War to be “the Second American Revolution.”

Via Balloon Juice, Think Progress and the Daily Kos pointed me in their direction.


Now the GOP could simply avoid all these polls and experts and money spent and simply sincerely work on their racism and sexism, of course.*sound of industrious crickets chirping* Uh-huh.