Wednesday, January 7, 2009
News The Morning News
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 7:41 AM
He Gave His Life Defending Margaritaville: Soldier dies after bar fight over Jimmy Buffet song.
Illegally Imported Fruits?: Seattle couple charged with gay immigration fraud.
Gouging Season: Retailers fret while new-depression shoppers get used to freakish discounts.
What Part of Getting Struck with an Iron Brace Don't You Understand?: Bremerton woman clobbers her would-be rapist with big hunk of metal.
As a Felon, She's Forbidden from Owning a Gun Ever Again, and This Makes Her Madder Than Almost Anything: The Guardian interviews Lynndie England.
In Florida, You Can Be Arrested in Your Home for (Allegedly) Committing Incest: As this father and daughter found out the hard way. (Added bonus: Dad's an alleged child pornographer!)
Not Afraid to Ask the Big Questions: Where are the stars of Caddyshack now?
And to continue with the week's hiphop theme, here's Clipse's "Chinese New Year," a grade-A hunk of the art form that happens to detail the practice of robbing and shooting people. (The moral: Songs don't kill people, assholes with guns kill people, but maybe these assholes are egged on by songs that glorify violent crime, but maybe it's stupid to suggest that chronicling automatically equals glorification. The other moral: If Martin Scorsese's allowed to make art out of crime, so are these guys.)
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1
I admire the restraint of the Denver police. It must have been hard to comment on the dead soldier without adding that some people claim that there's a woman to blame.
2
this song rules
"WITH THEM NINE-ELEVENS REVVIN,
GUNFIRE LEAVES BRETHREN'S REMAINS
LIKE IT'S 9/11 "
"WITH THEM NINE-ELEVENS REVVIN,
GUNFIRE LEAVES BRETHREN'S REMAINS
LIKE IT'S 9/11 "
3
I'm having trouble trying to work out if it's wrong that the Chop Suey show last Saturday is still being advertised at the side of this page...
4
Well well well Obama just said Burris is a nice guy and he will work with him! Yes, you heard it here first: "where this leads" has always been very clear, it leads to Burris being sworn in.
Funny how the Prez elect, a former law professor, Reid and MSNBC and other media have had to walk backwards on this. MSNBC "noted" the "logic" of walkback to Reid is Burris would be a 59th D vote in the Senate.
Duh! The option of fighting Burris in court and going a year or so without the 59th D vote was always pretty dumb, I hope Obama and Reid aren't just now realizing part of their job is to count votes? TO work to *have* Democratic votes?
Meanwhile Blago now has a clean appointment also he ensured the US Senate isn't all white, so it's more likely 1 or 2 jurors will vote to acquit him. And as to impeachment, the incipient Burris-Rush alliance plus any favors coming down from the Governor will create a forgiveness faction in the Ill. Senate and he just may get off. (This is because the Ill. leg. doesn't move like a striking cobra to get rid of him -- instead of "change" in Springfield, it's the same old slow poke govt. in action. The guy's on tape and it's taking them months to impeach TMF!))
Let's hope this mishandling of Blago-Burris isn't characteristic of team Obama going forward. They need media to focus on things like his no earmarks pledge today and his aptmt. of a chief of govt. performance -- that whole change message gets a bit muddied when 80% of media time is spent on the Burris distraction.
Funny how the Prez elect, a former law professor, Reid and MSNBC and other media have had to walk backwards on this. MSNBC "noted" the "logic" of walkback to Reid is Burris would be a 59th D vote in the Senate.
Duh! The option of fighting Burris in court and going a year or so without the 59th D vote was always pretty dumb, I hope Obama and Reid aren't just now realizing part of their job is to count votes? TO work to *have* Democratic votes?
Meanwhile Blago now has a clean appointment also he ensured the US Senate isn't all white, so it's more likely 1 or 2 jurors will vote to acquit him. And as to impeachment, the incipient Burris-Rush alliance plus any favors coming down from the Governor will create a forgiveness faction in the Ill. Senate and he just may get off. (This is because the Ill. leg. doesn't move like a striking cobra to get rid of him -- instead of "change" in Springfield, it's the same old slow poke govt. in action. The guy's on tape and it's taking them months to impeach TMF!))
Let's hope this mishandling of Blago-Burris isn't characteristic of team Obama going forward. They need media to focus on things like his no earmarks pledge today and his aptmt. of a chief of govt. performance -- that whole change message gets a bit muddied when 80% of media time is spent on the Burris distraction.
6
Martin Scorsese give David Schmader autographed copy of GoodFellas, David Schmader watch GoodFellas, freak out, gangsta out, DAVID SCHMADER BECOME GANGSTA RAPPER SCHMAY-DAWG!
SCHMAY-DAWG WILL SMASH ALL OTHER PRIVILIGED WHITE BOY GANGSTAS IN SEATTLE, HOOK UP WITH EMINEM, MAKE MOVIE ABOUT "THA THUG LIFE," MOVIE WILL BE EVEN WORSE THAN SHOWGIRLS! SCHMAY-DAWG WILL THEN SHOW MOVIE AT CHOP SUEY WITH FULL NARRATION BY SCHMAY-DAWG!
And no, I don't feel like letting it go.
SCHMAY-DAWG WILL SMASH ALL OTHER PRIVILIGED WHITE BOY GANGSTAS IN SEATTLE, HOOK UP WITH EMINEM, MAKE MOVIE ABOUT "THA THUG LIFE," MOVIE WILL BE EVEN WORSE THAN SHOWGIRLS! SCHMAY-DAWG WILL THEN SHOW MOVIE AT CHOP SUEY WITH FULL NARRATION BY SCHMAY-DAWG!
And no, I don't feel like letting it go.
7
RE: The attempted rape
You gotta love the police quote at the end:
“Very brave, probably the right move on her part. Who knows what would have happened if she complied and gone along with him,”
PROBABLY? Really? You mean, because she escaped largely unscathed and supplied the information required to arrest the perpetrator promptly?
That was PROBABLY the right move?
You have the roots of the second amendment here. Authorities want an exclusive franchise on violence. Effective self-defense worries them - regardless of the outcome.
You gotta love the police quote at the end:
“Very brave, probably the right move on her part. Who knows what would have happened if she complied and gone along with him,”
PROBABLY? Really? You mean, because she escaped largely unscathed and supplied the information required to arrest the perpetrator promptly?
That was PROBABLY the right move?
You have the roots of the second amendment here. Authorities want an exclusive franchise on violence. Effective self-defense worries them - regardless of the outcome.
10
Poor Lynndie England. She's the real victim. And poor West Virginia. Has anyone been more oppressed and victimized than the West Virginians? Imagine how much better off they would be now if they had been treated fairly instead of being oppressed for so long? I think there should be a huge Federal program to go into West Virginia and help everyone there because they are definitely the real victims. I want Lynndie England and everyone in West Virginia to know how sorry I feel for them. So very sorry...
11
There's no business like show business
If you tell me it's so
Traveling through the country is so thrilling
Standing out in front on opening nights
Smiling as you watch the benches filling
And see your billing up there in lights
There's no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Even with a turkey that you know will fold
You may be stranded out in the cold
Still you wouldn't trade it for a sack o' gold
Let's go on with the show
Let's go on with the show!
The show!
The show!
If you tell me it's so
Traveling through the country is so thrilling
Standing out in front on opening nights
Smiling as you watch the benches filling
And see your billing up there in lights
There's no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Even with a turkey that you know will fold
You may be stranded out in the cold
Still you wouldn't trade it for a sack o' gold
Let's go on with the show
Let's go on with the show!
The show!
The show!
13
Regarding incest: Why is it illegal for an adult to have consensual, incestuous sex? Child porn, obviously, arrest the dude, but why did the 25-year-old daughter need to be arrested? Say it's illegal because IF she happened to get pregnant, the baby MIGHT have birth defects. Is it illegal for people with genetic abnormalities to have sex? No way, that would infringe on their right to privacy. "Ick-factor" laws like this drive me insane.
14
I do feel sorry for Lynndie England. She still has no idea what happened to her, and her life is ruined. She's unemployable, unlovable, and lives in a thrashed-out shithole. She didn't set up the conditions in Abu Ghraib that made those abuses possible, yet she and a couple of other low-life flunkies are the only ones who will ever pay for their crimes. Think about her for a minute; how would you like to be her, look like her, live like her?
How would you have responded to the conditions in that prison, filled with frightened and frightening prisoners, many of them seriously and obviously mentally ill, with no education, no training, no guidelines, no life experience, no anything except Charles fucking Graner telling you what to do and a command line all the way up through to the President of the United States that makes it clear that as far as they're concerned you're on Mars and there are no rules?
No, Lynnie England is a "slut" and a "torturer", a convicted felon living in Toilet Bowl, WV, while Donald Rumsfeld walks free and dines off of fine china.
How would you have responded to the conditions in that prison, filled with frightened and frightening prisoners, many of them seriously and obviously mentally ill, with no education, no training, no guidelines, no life experience, no anything except Charles fucking Graner telling you what to do and a command line all the way up through to the President of the United States that makes it clear that as far as they're concerned you're on Mars and there are no rules?
No, Lynnie England is a "slut" and a "torturer", a convicted felon living in Toilet Bowl, WV, while Donald Rumsfeld walks free and dines off of fine china.
15
Isn't there also another sergeant from Abu Ghraib who's currently sitting in Guantanamo, awaiting....something? In the meantime all the officers and DoD staff involved are quietly shuffled off to other duties.
16
@7,
Sometimes fighting back makes the situation worse. He was the one with the knife after all.
@13,
I'm pissed that the daughter was arrested, but mainly because of the likelihood that she's been abused by that motherfucker since she was a child.
Sometimes fighting back makes the situation worse. He was the one with the knife after all.
@13,
I'm pissed that the daughter was arrested, but mainly because of the likelihood that she's been abused by that motherfucker since she was a child.
17
@13
Rhetorical question, right?
Of course it's because we live in Jeebus-land, the country where the bible overrules freedom.
Rhetorical question, right?
Of course it's because we live in Jeebus-land, the country where the bible overrules freedom.
19
@16: Agreed, his obsession with child porn and the fact that she was still having sex with him suggest she was abused. But I don't think they should have had anything to charge her with at all, above the fact that she shouldn't have been charged.
@17: Right. It's stupid.
@17: Right. It's stupid.
20
In my home state, "Appalachian" was a check-box on applications for Financial Aid and various other forms of public assistance. Not to bust up your sarcasm party, but actually there is historical precedent for regarding the inhabitants of that region as a disadvantaged minority. Not that this excuses Lynndie England by any stretch, but just so you know.
Has anyone been more oppressed and victimized than the West Virginians?
In my home state, "Appalachian" was a check-box on applications for Financial Aid and various other forms of public assistance. Not to bust up your sarcasm party, but actually there is historical precedent for regarding the inhabitants of that region as a disadvantaged minority. Not that this excuses Lynndie England by any stretch, but just so you know.
21
Keshmeshi @16: "Sometimes fighting back makes the situation worse. He was the one with the knife after all."
We're not talking about a hypothetical here. It wasn't a "sometimes", it was a particular instance, in which it turned out well. It was a statement to a particular.
But I take your point - you don't want to encourage people to resist and have the kidnapping-and-rape-at-knifepoint thing turn out badly. It's important that things proceed smoothly and no-one get hurt.
Victim-thinking at its finest.
We're not talking about a hypothetical here. It wasn't a "sometimes", it was a particular instance, in which it turned out well. It was a statement to a particular.
But I take your point - you don't want to encourage people to resist and have the kidnapping-and-rape-at-knifepoint thing turn out badly. It's important that things proceed smoothly and no-one get hurt.
Victim-thinking at its finest.
22
I'm not sure which is worse -- that Lynndie thinks apartments in New York can be had for $1,500 a month, or that trailers in WV can be had for $200 a month. I'll bet Don Rumsfeld's place costs closer to $15,000 a month.
23
@20
Mr. Banjo, if my tax dollars had been spent overcoming the oppression of West Virginian victims of oppression, then why aren't they grateful? The only logical explanation for their attitude is that nothing has ever been done for them.
Mr. Banjo, if my tax dollars had been spent overcoming the oppression of West Virginian victims of oppression, then why aren't they grateful? The only logical explanation for their attitude is that nothing has ever been done for them.
24
@23: I have no idea what you are trying to say in this post. I tried to parse it through my sarcasm opposite-o-meter, but I still can't decipher it.
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