Ask an Adorable Kitten

You could spend hours weighing the pros and cons of showing the bin Laden death photos. You could debate the ethical considerations or the foreign policy implications. Or you could just ask an adorable kitten.

You know how I know that showing bin Laden's picture is a bad idea?

Because Sarah Palin thinks it's a good idea.

 

 

And what the hell do my feet have to do with anything?

You think these paws are afraid of offending anyone?

Bin Laden's just lucky he didn't come face to face with these claws!

 

Seriously, though, it's a pretty good rule of thumb. If Sarah Palin thinks it's a good idea, it's probably a bad idea. If Sarah Palin says to you, "hey let's go try that new pizzeria that just opened around the corner," do not eat there.

You can rest assured that it will taste bad and you'll get food poisoning 

and have to take horrible medicine.

 

And if she says "yellow is definitely your color," you'd better believe you're going to look ridiculous in that yellow sweater she knitted for you.

And if she's helping you look for an apartment and she says "this seems like a good neighborhood," run. It's probably full of monsters!

Rick Snyder is the Worst Governor In America or Any other Country

Gov. Rick Snyder says public school cuts will be 'difficult,' but denies he's trying to break unions

Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 6:00 AM     Updated: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 12:25 PM

By Julie Mack | Kalamazoo Gazette    

Oh, really, you're not trying to bust the Unions? So you're just fucking over the schools because what, you just don't like kids? You don't want them gettin too much of that fancy book-lernin?

Okay, Class. Who can tell me what the fuck Rick Snyder is thinking?

'Cause that's kinda what it seems like, since you're cutting the education budget at a time when there is "a projected $652 million surplus in the state's school aid fund for fiscal 2012." (source)


And one of your proposals to "improve" school performance is eliminating the minimum number of hours or days students must attend each year? Because, what, the problem with student achievement is that they're just spending too darn much time getting taught stuff?

But there's plenty of money to give businesses a $1.73 Billion tax cut, right? (source)
Although, to be fair, that cut is apparently paid for by squeezing more money out of Michigan's retirees.

Snyder’s proposal applies the personal income tax to public and private pension income, eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit that low-income senior wage-earners rely on, scraps the $2,300 exemption seniors can claim on their returns and could lessen the value of the Homestead Property Tax Credit for senior households.

Because obviously, Ford Motor Company needs tax relief more than Grandma Oldenstein.

Seriously, Rick Snyder has got to be the worst governor in America.


The Kalamazoo Gazette

The Word is TORTURE

How many headlines like this have been pooping up since bin Laden's well-deserved death?

Bin Laden killing won’t settle debate over enhanced interrogations


Harsh Interrogation Tactics: Did They Work?


Did enhanced interrogation lead U.S. to Osama bin Laden? 
 
The word is torture. Waterboarding is torture. This has been established since at least the Philipine Invasion of 1898.  United States Military courts have convicted US Marines of torture for using what was then known as "the water cure." (link) 
 
On the way home from work today, some reporter on NPR was referring to "harsh interrogation techniques" and "methods some have referred to as being torture."
 
I don't get why we have to pussy-foot around this. Waterboarding is torture. Torture is a war crime. It's like if the press said the John Dillinger committed what some have called bank robberies. Or The Unabombers harsh anti-technology persuasion methods. It bullshit, and everyone knows it.
 
The word is torture. Why can't we just say it?

Sorry It Took So Long

(via Sober in a Nightclub)

Donald Rumsfeld Bitch-Slaps Peter King

Since the news of Osama bin Laden's death, Rep. Peter King (R-Douchebagington) has been all over the airwaves touting this line:

Rep. Peter King: We Should Still Use Waterboarding Because That’s How We Captured Bin Laden 

 

KING: Well I don’t know if everyone knows this or not, but you mentioned the fact that we obtained information several years ago, vital information about the courier for Obama [sic]. We obtained that information through waterboarding. So for those who say that waterboarding doesn’t work, who say it should be stopped and never used again, we got vital information which directly led us to bin Laden. 

Sounds impressive, no?

But then here comes creepy, evil Donald Rumsfeld with this statement:

“It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.” 

 

Oh, snap!

And this from a guy who defends torture the way the Pope defends pederasts!

 

Also, there's this from the NY Times:

Prisoners in American custody told stories of a trusted courier. When the Americans ran the man’s pseudonym past two top-level detainees — the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed; and Al Qaeda’s operational chief, Abu Faraj al-Libi — the men claimed never to have heard his name. That raised suspicions among interrogators that the two detainees were lying and that the courier probably was an important figure. 

So basically, the two guys that we admit to waterboarding continued to lie under torture. So torture not only did not yield actionable intelligence, it really did just the opposite. It was only because interrogators  assumed that the guys being tortured were lying that they latched on to this courier.

Not that any of this is going to stop Pete King and the FOXies from spreading the lie that torture worked.