Somebody Bring Me the Defib Machine

I'm having a heart-attack from not surprised:

The Texas prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Perry to chair a state forensics commission won't say when, if ever, his panel will hear from an arson expert who had been scheduled to testify about a flawed arson investigation that may have led to the death of an innocent man.

Asked, during a state Senate hearing, about when the Texas Forensic Science Commission would hear from nationally recognized expert Craig Beyler, John Bradley declined to give a specific answer.

Well, what the fuck else do we expect?  That Perry would've appointed somebody who'd do his fucking job just after firing everybody for doing their fucking jobs?

Perry won't face up to the truth.  He doesn't want to admit that Texas executed an innocent man.  And so the cover-up continues...

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

These dumbshits just don't know when to stop, do they?

This past weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned against allowing “anti-Muslim sentiment” to emanate from the shooting at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hasan. But that is exactly what some conservatives are doing. Dave Gaubatz, the controversial author of the controversial Muslim Mafia, called yesterday for “a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders.” On his 700 Club TV show yesterday, Pat Robertson claimed that Islam is “not a religion,” but “a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination”:

ROBERTSON: That is the ultimate aim. And they talk about infidels and all this, but the truth is that’s what the game is. So you are dealing with not a religion. You’re dealing with a political system. And I think we should treat it as such and treat its adherences as such as we would members of the Communist Party or members of some fascist group. Well, it’s a tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families who suffered. But those in the Army should be held on account for the fact they let this man loose.

Gee.  Not a religion.  That'll come as quite the shock to the folks who wrote my comparative religion textbook, not to mention the - lessee - 1.57 billion people who are under the impression that they are, in fact, practicing a religion rather than "a political system."

As for Pat claiming we should treat them like we do Communists or fascists, I don't know what country he's living in - last I checked, they were treated about the same way as Muslims - as widely despised minorities that nevertheless has the same First Amendment freedoms as the rest of us.  Indeed, the same freedoms as Pat "Ginormous Fucktard" Robertson himself has.  And I'm here to tell you, atheist that I am, that I'd take a Muslim over a lot of the frothing fundies and fascists, any damned day of the week. 

But I guess I'm missing the point.  Pat Robertson is a frothing fundie fucktard whose ignorance and bigotry knows no bounds.  Always has been, always will be.  So why waste time spanking him when I could be spanking Cons in Congress instead?

Yesterday, the conservative author of the new book Muslim Mafia, the foreword of which was penned by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), explicitly called for a "professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders" in response to the Fort Hood shootings.

So last night, we called Myrick's office to see if she had a response to Dave Gaubatz's remarks, given that his book, with her foreword, was released just last month. Since then, Myrick and three other House Republicans have cited the book as the source of their calls for a probe of Muslim intern "spies" in Congress.

Here's Myrick's statement, which does not denounce, or even address, Gaubatz's call for a backlash:

While I will continue to challenge radical Islamists and point out their ties to terrorism, I have been and will continue to work with mainstream moderate Muslim leaders because the only way to stop radicalization, and prevent the spread of this radical ideology, is to support these Muslim leaders in engaging their own community.

That's not a condemnation, Rep. Myrick.  That's not even decent spin.  All it proves is that you're still manifestly unfit for public office.  Alas, voters can all too often be absolute idiots.  See: Teabaggers.

I mean, seriously.  Even the frothing fundie fucktards behind Muslim Mafia were ashamed enough to do a half-hearted scrub of their site:

We don't know if this is reason for hope, or just low comedy. But the right-wing think tank that published conservative author Dave Gaubatz's call for a backlash against the "Muslim community" has now scrubbed the line and replaced it with a call for a backlash against the "Muslim Brotherhood."

Click the link if you want to see what a piss-poor job they did of it, but still, at least they tried.  Is it too much to ask Cons in Congress to at least make that much effort?

While we're on the subject of bigoted fucktards, let's talk about Ralph Murdoch, who's apparently done having a truce with the White House and didn't get the memo 81 advertisers sent him by canceling their ads on Beck's show:

And just a few days after Wallace's love-fest with Limbaugh, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch told Sky News Australia that Glenn Beck's infamous anti-Obama tirade -- Beck called the president a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture" -- was accurate.

SKY NEWS: The Glenn Beck, who you mentioned, has called Barack Obama a racist and he helped organize a protest against him. Others on Fox have likened him to Stalin. Is that defensible?

MURDOCH: No, no, no, not Stalin, I don't think. I don't know who that, not one of our people. On the racist thing, that caused a grilling. But he did make a very racist comment. Ahhh ... about, you know, blacks and whites and so on, and which he said in his campaign he would be completely above. And um, that was something which perhaps shouldn't have been said about the President, but if you actually assess what [Beck] was talking about, [Beck] was right.

A few things. First, Murdoch may not watch Fox News, but on-air efforts to equate Obama with Stalin are fairly common.

Second, Beck was "right" when he called the president a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture"? Murdoch isn't even willing to distance himself from obvious insanity -- which just so happens to have displeased 81 advertisers?

And third, within seven days of a reported "truce" between the Republican network and the Democratic White House, this is what we're seeing. I guess the "truce" is over?

Apparently so.  Then again, when could one ever trust Faux News, right?

The White House is apparently bored with the whole thing, because they're ignoring Murdoch's shot across their bows.  I think that's a good call.  Histrionic narcissists like that can't stand being ignored.  It should prod Murdoch to ever-greater heights of stupidity, and then we'll see if Faux News gets sucked into a deep black hole of same.

Should be fun.

Speaking of racists.... seems Michael Steele might just be surrounded:

It's been a couple of weeks since the RNC's Michael Steele said something foolish and had to walk it back, so I suppose we were due for another gem.

Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele, who is known for making controversial statements, on Sunday said that white Republicans are afraid of him. [...]

The Republican chairman appeared on NewsOne's "Washington Watch" this weekend, a new Sunday political talk show aimed at a black audience. The host, Roland Martin, asked Steele how Republicans could reach out to black voters.

Roland Martin noted that he's long believed that white Republicans "have been scared of black folks."

Steele replied, "You're absolutely right. I mean I've been in the room and they've been scared of me."

From Steele's perspective, if he walks into a room of his fellow Republicans, and they're afraid of him, shouldn't that tell him a little something about his party's approach to diversity?

Probably, but he seems a little slow on the uptake.  Either that, or this is some elaborate prank at the GOP's expense, in which case he'll have to go down as one of the most brilliant pranksters in history.

Let's return to media assclowns for a moment.  Raise your hand if you're shocked that the New York Post has it in for Obama:

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports today that a fired New York Post employee, Sandra Guzman, has filed a complaint against the Post, the paper’s parent company News Corp., and Post editor-in-chief Col Allan “alleging harassment as well as ‘unlawful employment practices and retaliation.’” Stein reports that Guzman “paints the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house and Allan in particular as sexist, offensive and domineering. Guzman alleges that she and others were routinely subjected to misogynistic behavior.” But in addition to horrible workplace conditions, the Post’s news division is operating with a clear partisan bias, according to Guzman. She said the Post’s Washington D.C. bureau chief vowed to bring down President Obama:

She says that hiring practices at the paper — as well as her firing — were driven by racial prejudices rather than merit.

And she recounts the paper’s D.C. bureau chief stating that the publication’s goal was to “destroy [President] Barack Obama.”

My goodness, what a bombshell- a paper owned by the same shitheels that own Faux News want to bring down the President?  Never!  Wait a second - what color was the sky this morning?  Gray?  And we're where - Seattle?  Oh.  Yeah.  Right.  We're not in Bizarroworld and it's perfectly normal for a major media outlet owned by News Corp to go after the elected President of the United States for the crime of being a black Democrat.

On to Cons, then.  My darlings, Steve Benen found a perfect gem, and I will share it with you - but first, you must ensure you have nothing in your mouths that could cause you to choke or spray delicate electronics.

Ready?

Here ye go:

From Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) ...

Met with FDA today to make case for LA oysters - will keep pushing to protect these LA jobs and our ability to enjoy raw Gulf oysters.

As Steve said, "Note to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.): Given your sex scandals, it's best not to talk too much about your efforts to protect raw oysters."  Too fucking right.

Do you know how desperate Cons are for attacks?  Carly Fiorna's going after Sen. Barbara Boxer for wanting to be called Senator instead of ma'am.  Seriously.

What else can you expect from a bunch of fucktards still stuck in the 90s?

John Cole said it best when he said:

The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes. You see it in the way they treat women, you see it in the way they treat minorities, you see it in the way they treat homosexuals, you see it in the way they treat anyone who is not a white Christian, and you see it in the way they treat anyone who disagrees with them slightly about anything. They just have no respect for anyone, and it shows. People don’t like to be treated like crap, and grown-ups don’t want to be associated with people who yell “You lie” or scream “socialism” or “Hitler” or accuse you of being a terrorist whenever they don’t get their way.

If you read the Corner or the Weekly Standard, or listen to any talk radio or any of the mouth breathers on Fox, or read any right-wing blogs, you will instantly know what I am talking about. You can’t help but notice that they are just loudmouthed jerks, stubborn bully boys, and insensitive and insecure cads. James Wolcott once wrote that Eric Cantor looked like the “pricky proprietor of the Jerk Store,” and that could be applied to the majority of the prominent Republicans out there. I guess that should be suspected from a movement in which the only thoughts are “Fuck you, I got mine.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the above two paragraphs are the only things you shall ever need to know about the Con party.  Clip them.  Save them.  Keep them handy for when we go forth to conquer come next election.

Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Now that health care reform has passed the House, all eyes turn to the Senate.  TPM has the definitive rundown of the six Conservadems who could fuck it all up.

Two of 'em are already vowing filibusters: Lieberman will filibuster if there's a public option, and Ben Nelson will filibuster if the Senate doesn't include Stupak's incredibly stupid abortion restrictions.  Connecticut, your mission is to kick Lieberman to the curb.  Nebraska, likewise for Nelson.  Kick hard.  I want to see these assclowns go down to double-digit losses.

Speaking of abortion bullshit, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz vows the Stupak Stupidity will go down to defeat.  And so far, 41 House Dems are right there with her.  Who's for a nice game o' chicken, then?  I'm game.

If the Stupak Stupidity ends up in the final bill, I do hope the Amato Amendment will, as well. After all, every sperm is sacred.  Just ask the Catholic bishops who pushed for the Stupak Stupidity to begin with.

The Cons put on quite the show during debate on the Stupak Stupidity, going so far as to shout down any Congresswomen trying to debate the damned thing.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz returned some of their back-of-the-hand treatment today.  Good for her.  Oh, and in answer to Pete Sessions, who thinks women should pay more for insurance because "we're all different," and using smokers paying more as an example, let me just say: smoking's a choice, being female is not (without extensive surgery), you fucktard. 

The RNC seems to be feeling a bit frisky, declaring they'll give Blanche Lincoln the John Kerry treatment if she dares vote for cloture and then vote against the reform bill.  If they want to play that game, they can be my guest - it'll probably make it easier to get a more progressive Dem elected in a very regressive state.  But if Sen. Lincoln wants to retain her Senate seat, she should listen to Steve's sound advice.

Here's a great new moniker for the GOP: grandstand, oppose and pretend.

Few people outside the Teabagger movement can make Sarah Palin look intelligent by comparison, but Fred Hiatt's doing his best.

Dick Armey wants us all to know he believes people should be denied for pre-existing conditions, and moreover, we've got too much health insurance.  That bullshit may be popular among the Teabaggers, but I have a strange feeling the majority of Americans aren't as impressed.

Former AMA president and current anti-reform dumbshit Donald Palmisano wants us all to know that reform's not necessary because doctors will be happy to treat you for free if you can't pay.  I'm sure that will come as news to other docs.

I find it interesting that Americans were watching the health reform debate on barroom teevees. 

Donna Edwards is paying it forward.  Have I mentioned lately how awesome she is?

And, finally, Steve Benen reminds us that, if health care reform isn't perfect right out of the gate, neither was Social Security.  That's a reassuring thought as we fight for as much progress as we can get.

Our George Spanks the Bigots

And he does not spare the rod.

First, he provides a Handy Marriage Chart, and then asks, "Oh, and while we’re on about it, how is it ever OK for people to vote about other people’s rights?  Maybe we should vote on everyone’s right to marry.  Or not."

Absolutely.

Then he delivers a message to the morons who voted to take marriage rights away in Maine.  And when he gets done with the message, he adds the perfect Parthian shot:

Those celebrating their “victory” in Maine, just think; are you so sure of God’s will that you will discriminate against “the least of these”?  By your own lights, you better be damned sure.  Me, I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but I know the world we do live in won’t be improved by prejudice or discrimination.

I know one thing for sure.  The world would be vastly improved if it contained more people like George.

Sign Here to Save Some Persecuted Folk

Go to Cujo's place and read about the three men Iran wants to execute for "enmity against God."  Then go sign a petition asking the UN to try to stop this travesty.

We may not be able to save a life by signing our names, but we can at least let them know people in the world care about their fates.

Update: Woulda been a good idea to include a link to Cujo's place... Now there.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Deary, deary me.  I take the weekend off, and the next thing you know, the stupid's blowing through the states at Mach 12.  Not that it doesn't do that when I'm around, mind.  Would that it were that easy - I'd never stop blogging, and this country would get a fuck of a lot smarter.

Sigh.

Time to take the Smack-o-Matic 3000 down off the wall and decide whose bottom needs attention first.  Decisions, decisions.

We still don't know enough about Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan to speculate as to motives, etc.  The man's barely just regained consciousness and started talking to police.  In a day or two, we'll have a clearer picture as to what was going through his mind, why he decided to solve his problems by gunning down so many people, and whether or not his religion had bugger-all to do with it.  Right now, it's irresponsible to speculate.

That hasn't stopped the vast majority of dumbfucks, and here comes Joe Lieberman to lead the shark-jumping charge:

Military officials are already conducting an investigation; there's every reason to be confident that they'll conduct a thorough probe; and it would be a mistake to jump to conclusions based on limited information.

And then there's Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- who's suddenly discovered his desire to use his committee gavel, and who has no qualms about speculating publicly.

A senior U.S. senator on Sunday said the shootings at Fort Hood could have been a terrorist attack, and that he would launch a congressional investigation into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman ... said initial evidence suggested that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was a "self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist" who had turned to Islamic extremism while under personal stress. [...]

Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had turned to Islamic extremism, "the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11."

"We don't know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," Mr. Lieberman added.

At one point in the interview, Lieberman said it's "premature to reach conclusions about what motivated" Hasan, and then spent several minutes speculating about the massacre, the gunman, and possible terrorist motivations.

Perhaps the senator is confused. If Lieberman prefaces his remarks by saying things like "we don't know enough to say" and "it's premature to reach conclusions," it doesn't give him license to then make a series of unproven allegations and speculate wildly on national television.

Can anyone tell me just what we get out of keeping this assclown in the Dem caucus?  Other than constant humiliation, that is?

Not to be outdone by a dumbshit Dem, the fucktard who set the howling mobs on Muslim interns is now baldly calling for a backlash:

Dave Gaubatz, author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America, made the comment in a semi-coherent interview with the group Family Security Matters.

In assigning collective blame for the Fort Hood killings, Gaubatz said:

Politicians, Muslims, and law enforcement are concerned about a 'backlash' against Muslims. Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders. Muslims know what materials are being taught in their mosques and they know many of the materials instruct young Muslims to kill innocent people who do not adhere to Sharia law. If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a "house cleaning." Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.

All of this might be dismissed as the ranting of a fringe lunatic, but for the fact that Gaubatz's work has been circulated and endorsed by prominent Republican officials.

Tell me something.  When a right-wing white Christian decides to shoot up whole buildings full of people, do we hear mobs screaming for a backlash against all Christians, moderately odd and batshit insane alike?  No, we do not.  Do we call for an all-out ban on Christians in the military? No, we do not.  And how do we know these howls for blood haven't been heard?  Because all of the white right-wing Christian professional victim groups would've been screaming at the top of their lungs.

But the AFA feels perfectly comfy screaming for a ban on Muslims in the military:

Now, however, in light of the Fort Hood shootings, the AFA has published a piece taking a strong interest in who does and doesn't wear the uniform. From an AFA-published piece:

It it [sic] is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels. [...]

Of course, most U.S. Muslims don't shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we'll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you're right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it's used, and we'll welcome you back with open arms.

This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.

Actually, it is idiotic. And ignorant. And bigoted.

Nearly every gunman involved in tragedies like the one last week is a man. Are we going to prohibit men from military service until there's a madman-detector that works every time it's used?

Good question.

On a slightly more amusing note, check out Crazy Pete Hoekstra stamping his little feet because the CIA doesn't think he necessarily needs to be trusted with sensitive national security information.

And on a really amusing note, there's now an official Tea Party in Florida:

Politico’s Ben Smith reports that some Florida Republicans recently registered an official “Tea Party” to challenge both Republicans and Democrats:

“The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control the leadership of both parties. It’s time for real change,” says Orlando lawyer Frederic O’Neal, the new party’s chairman, who couldn’t be reached immediately by phone, in a press release.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State, Jennifer Davis, said the party had registered in August.

I hope their tea-bagging ways work as well for them in Florida as they have in Ohio:

Southwestern Ohio has become something of a Mecca for Tea Parties. On Labor Day weekend of this year a Tea Party was held at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio in which an estimated 18,000 tea baggers showed up. In the lead up to last week’s NY-23 race, John Boehner even brought up this event while talking to John King, which was held within walking distance of his home.

So knowing this, you would expect that any tea party-style candidate would be a shoo-in for local office in this area, wouldn’t you? Well, don’t be so sure:

The reign of the anti-school tax activists on area school boards was a short one

[SNIP]

Fairfield School Board incumbent Arnie Engel, who tried four times to get elected to Fairfield Schools governing board before finally winning in fall 2005, this time finished a distant fourth in the race for three open seats.

In Warren County's Mason School Board race, self-proclaimed "Christian conservative" incumbent Jennifer Miller ended up fifth out of eight candidates vying for three seats.

In the Monroe school board race, fiscal conservative Mike Irwin lost his re-election bid, finishing dead last among five candidates.

All three of the school districts mentioned above surround the district where the big Labor Day Tea Party was held, and they are all represented by John Boehner and Jean Schmidt. They are also parts of the reddest corner of Ohio.

Idiots may look formidable when they're gathered in herds.  Problem for them is, the sane citizen herd's got 'em outnumbered at the ballot box.  But it's nice of them to get so noisy and politically involved.  It makes it easier to decide which candidates not to vote for.  If you hear the Teabaggers are supporting someone, you can be reasonably sure that candidate is a batshit frothing insane fucktard, and can be safely disregarded without further investigation.

It appears that now that the Cons can't win by hook in so many districts, they plan to win by crook:

In 2008, election integrity advocates in Tennessee won a hard and long-fought victory as the state legislature finally passed, on a bi-partisan basis, the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) requiring the state's wholly unverifiable touch-screen voting machines to be replaced with precinct-based optical-scan paper balloting in time for the crucial 2010 general election.

But in November of 2008, as the state was still using its completely faith-based electronic voting systems, it somehow managed to buck the national trend as the only state in the nation to see legislative gains for the Republican Party which managed to win a majority in the statehouse in the bargain. Ever since, the GOP majority, along with the Republican Secretary of State and Election Director, have been fighting against implementation of that paper ballot law.

What a shocker, eh?  Head to the link for the whole sordid story, including plenty o' Con lies.


 Time now for a quick sweep of the other stupidity currently flooding the place. 

Sarah Palin's being more of an idiot than usual.  She's whining over the motto "In God We Trust" getting moved to the edge of our coins, forgetting two small facts: a) it was a Con Congress that decided the edge would be fine and b) a Dem Congress that decided to put it back on the front because so many frothing fundies flipped out.

Not content with that dumbfuckery, she reprised the debunked death panel claims.

And this is the GOP's great hope for 2012.  Weep, Cons, weep.

Goldman Sachs' CEO is giving her a run for the money in the dumbshit department.  The man has some rather spectacular entitlement issues, and a sense of self-importance so inflated that I'm surprised he fits through doors.

And, finally, let's hop into the wayback machine and see what Jeff Sessions thought of judicial filibusters before the Dems took back the White House:

David Hamilton of Indiana, President Obama's first appeals court nominee, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee 158 days ago. Care to guess how many George W. Bush nominees were held in limbo this long in the last Congress? Zero.

And yet, Hamilton's nomination hasn't been brought to the floor due to unprecedented Senate Republican obstructionism. This week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to force the issue, bring Hamilton to the floor, and seek a cloture vote.

Leading the charge against Hamilton will be Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama. Perhaps now would be a good time to point out what Jeff Sessions had to say about blocking judicial nominees as recently as four years ago:

"I have stated over and over again on this floor that I would refuse to put an anonymous hold on a judge; that I would object and fight against any filibuster on a judge, whether it is somebody I opposed or supported; that I felt the Senate should do its duty. If we don't like somebody the President nominates, vote him or her up or down. But don't hold them in this anonymous unconscionable limbo...."

"Unconscionable."

At the time, Sessions added that denying a judicial nominee an up-or-down vote was inconsistent with a process that has been in place "since the founding of the republic."

I guess he's changed his mind. How convenient.

Indeed.

Hypocrites, dumbshits, and con artists.  Quite the merry bunch of fuckwits the Cons have gathered, innit?

The Wall Came Down...

...20 years ago today.

Demolition for freedom, my darlings.  Of all the memories of my young life, I think this is the most positive: people peacefully, joyously, taking freedom into their own hands.  Divisions between East and West breaking apart overnight.  It was an extraordinary, glorious night.  Unforgettable.


Happy anniversary, Berlin. 

(click the pictures for sources)

Sunday Sensational Science

Shocking Truth About Aftershocks

Foreshock - Main Shock - Aftershock Sequence

USGS

We've discussed earthquakes before, and everybody's probably pretty aware of the fact that when you have an earthquake, you're probably going to have an aftershock.  Or two.  Or two dozen.  Most of us think those aftershocks will last, at most, a few days. 

New studies suggest that some aftershocks will go on - are you ready for this? - for a few centuries:

Many researchers assume that small-scale seismic activity reveals where stress is building up in the Earth’s crust — stress that can cause larger quakes in the future, says Mian Liu, a geophysicist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. However, Liu and Seth Stein of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., report in the Nov. 5 Nature, many moderate-sized temblors that occur far from the edges of tectonic plates could be merely the aftershocks of larger quakes that occurred along the same faults decades or even centuries ago.

[snip]

Stein and Liu analyzed earthquake data gathered worldwide. For major quakes that occurred where the sides of a fault moved past each other at average rates of more than 10 millimeters per year — as the two sides of many tectonic boundaries do — aftershocks died off after a decade or so. But for faults where the sides scraped past each other at just a few millimeters per year, aftershocks lasted about 100 years, the researchers reported. The longest series of aftershocks, some which have lasted several centuries, were triggered by quakes that occurred in continental interiors along slow-moving faults.

Bet you folks in the Midwest didn't think New Madrid was sending you old news, did you?  But it certainly seems so.

Let's step back a moment and take a look at the mechanics here:

Large earthquakes are often followed by aftershocks, the result of changes in the surrounding crust brought about by the initial shock. Aftershocks are most common immediately after the main quake. As time passes and the fault recovers, they become increasingly rare. This pattern of decay in seismic activity is described by Omori's Law but Stein and Liu found that the pace of the decay is a matter of location.

At the boundaries between tectonic plates, any changes wreaked by a big quake are completely overwhelmed by the movements of the plates themselves. At around a centimetre per year, they are regular geological Ferraris. They  soon "reload" the fault, dampen the aftershocks, and return the status quo within 10 years. In the middle of continents, faults move at less than a millimetre every year. In this slow lane, things can take a century or more to return to normal after a big quake, and aftershocks stick around for that duration.

It's a tale of two faults!  Let's have a look at New Madrid, shall we?  Go ahead.  Search for photos of "New Madrid Fault."  I'll wait.

Lots of maps, not many photos, right?  That's because not a lot's going on there.  Here's the best I could do:

Ed Yong says,

Again, New Madrid proves the principle - a cluster of large earthquakes hit the area in the past thousand years, but the crust shows no sign of recent deformation according to two decades of GPS measurements. It seems that recent activity really is the legacy of centuries-old quakes, a threat that has since shut down.

In other words, not a lot going on that would show at the surface.  It's a slow, sleepy fault, despite the excitement it caused over the winter of 1811-1812.  Compare that to the San Andreas, which is bleeding obvious:

Compared to New Madrid, the San Andreas fault is a speed demon, and it shows.  There are other differences, of course - one's a transform fault where two plates are scooting past each other, the other's more of a rift type thing where North America started developing a split personality and then changed its mind(s?) - but the main thing is speed.  Cecil Turtle compared to Speedy Gonzales, shall we say.  According to the study, San Andreas locks and loads within a decade or so, leaving the aftershocks in the dust and nervous Californians waiting for the Big One.  New Madrid's still squirming around trying to get comfortable after a fairly dramatic disruption.  And every time it twitches noticeably, folks in the Midwest experience a nervous attack of their own.

The river did, after all, run backwards the last time this thing went crack.  Bound to worry folks a bit.  But according to Stein and Liu, there's nothing much to worry about - at least, not where New Madrid's concerned.  You're just in for hundreds of years of aftershocks, since the fault moves more than 100 times slower than the San Andreas.  This is good news.

And the data are beautiful:

"A number of us had suspected this," Liu said, "because many of the earthquakes we see today in the Midwest have patterns that look like aftershocks. They happen on the faults we think caused the big earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, and they've been getting smaller with time."

To test this idea, Stein and Liu used results from lab experiments on how faults in rocks work to predict that aftershocks would extend much longer on slower moving faults. They then looked at data from faults around the world and found the expected pattern. For example, aftershocks continue today from the magnitude 7.2 Hebgen Lake earthquake that shook Montana, Idaho and Wyoming 50 years ago.

"This makes sense because the Hebgen Lake fault moves faster than the New Madrid faults but slower than the San Andreas," Stein noted. "The observations and theory came together the way we like but don't always get."

This might be of some comfort to residents near the epicenter of the Hebgen Lake Quake.  Then again, it might not.  It's rather hard to feel comforted by the fact that the fault moves slower than the San Andreas, and therefore shall have aftershocks longer, when the last big quake took down a mountainside, ripped open roads, created a new lake, and left fault scarps all over the damned place, right?

And this study points to the fact that the small isn't always a foreshadow of the big:

The new results will help investigators in both understanding earthquakes in continents and trying to assess earthquake hazards there. "Until now," Liu observed, "we've mostly tried to tell where large earthquakes will happen by looking at where small ones do." That's why many scientists were surprised by the disastrous May 2008 magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan, China -- a place where there hadn't been many earthquakes in the past few hundred years.

"Predicting big quakes based on small quakes is like the 'Whack-a-mole' game -- you wait for the mole to come up where it went down," Stein said. "But we now know the big earthquakes can pop up somewhere else. Instead of just focusing on where small earthquakes happen, we need to use methods like GPS satellites and computer modeling to look for places where the earth is storing up energy for a large future earthquake. We don't see that in the Midwest today, but we want to keep looking."

Sounds like a very good idea to me.  Anything we can do to increase the chances of successful earthquake prediction could help save a lot of lives.  And it allows us to rest easier when we find out that those little temblors are just past earthquakes saying "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Ourselves a Health Care Reform Bill

H.R. 3962 passed with 220 Yeas.

T'ain't perfect, but it'll do for a start.  The bits that people are moaning over can be remedied later.  Folks, we have momentum for reform such as we have never seen before.  Let's not minimize that.  Remember Aristotle's rule of great drama: start small and build.  Well, sometimes that works for legislation, too.  And we're not exactly starting small, now, are we?

36 million more people will be insured or become eligible for Medicaid
There will be a trillion dollars raised to help subsidize this.
There will be multiple measures to help control the costs of Medicare
We will stop subsidizing private insurers in Medicare Advantage
Closes the donut hole
Allows Medicare negotiation for drugs
Includes the seeds of a public option
Prohibits denials based on prior conditions; ends rescissions except for fraud
funds more education for doctors/nurses
Begins dozens of health prevention programs, pilots, surveys
Creates entities to evaluate and recommend better treatment, cost saving
And on and on.

This will put enormous pressure on the Senate to deliver.  This puts us within reach of reform.  And it's even bipartisan - Rep. Joseph Cao shocked the shit out of me by voting Yea.  That's made a liar of Eric Cantor and will have the Teabaggers in a screaming fury.  I loves it.

Once reform passes and is signed into law, we will have a scaffolding in place upon which we can build.  That means electing not merely more Democrats, but better Democrats.  We shall have a useful list of targets in all those Nay votes.

My darlings, it's open bar. 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to return to my regularly scheduled writing...


(Thanks to rekenner for drawing my attention to the great good news)

The Writer is Out

Aside from Sunday Sensational Science, I'll be out of the cantina until Tuesday morning.  Help yourselves to the bar.  And if you care to leave a verb in comments, please do.

Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the evils of government health care:

About 20 minutes into yesterday's right-wing rally on the Hill in opposition to health care reform, one of the protestors suffered a heart attack. Fortunately, as Dana Milbank reported, medical professionals were able to respond quickly.

Medical personnel from the Capitol physician's office -- an entity that could, quite accurately, be labeled government-run health care -- rushed over, attaching electrodes to his chest and giving him oxygen and an IV drip.

This turned into an unwanted visual for the speakers, as a D.C. ambulance and firetruck, lights flashing, pulled in just behind the lawmakers. A path was made through the media section, and the patient, attended to by about 10 government medical personnel, was being wheeled away on a stretcher just as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) stepped to the microphone. [...]

By the time it was over, medics had administered government-run health care to at least five people in the crowd who were stricken as they denounced government-run health care.

As far as I can tell, neither the conservative lawmakers or the far-right protestors actually voiced opposition to the government health care services, or called on the elimination of the Capitol physician's office.

Government-run health care -- the scourge the Republicans assembled to denounce -- may be poised to contribute to the end of Western civilization, but it can also apparently be pretty helpful and effective.

Horrible, isn't it?  I shudder to think of such prompt and life-saving care being applied to the country at large.  It's the stuff of nightmares.

Speaking of the big 11/5 rally, Michele Bachmann has a bizarre definition of an "organic" movement.  I don't think she quite understands what an organic grassroots movement really is.

And, apparently, Thursday just wasn't enough - Rep. King wants to do it all over again on Saturday.  At the rate these corporate backers are spending on busing in dumbshits to wave offensive signs on the White House lawn, I'm afraid they'll be begging Congress for a bailout before year's end.

Speaking of Saturdays, we may end up getting health care reform by the end of the year after all, if Harry Reid follows through on his threat to make the Senate work Saturdays until the bitter end.  He's also giving the Cons hell over their obstructionist ways.  You go, Harry!

You can now Twitter your rep in support of reform.  Couldn't hurt.  While you're at it, flood Blue Dog Tanner - he's come out in total opposition to reform, and perhaps needs reminding as to why he got his ass elected.

New York's 23rd district deserves a round of applause for electing Bill Owens, who's wasted no time announcing his support for the House reform bill. 

Blue Cross's former "spokesjerk" also deserves a round of applause for his efforts to get reform passed.  Nothing quite like health insurance industry defectors coming out for reform, is there?

You all should get a good laugh out of Rep. Pence's idea of "addressing" pre-existing conditions.

You'll get an even bigger laugh out of this:

I noted yesterday that, in its own quiet way, the Congressional Budget Office gave the Republicans' health care bill a failing grade: A package seemingly meant to address the problem of the uninsured that does almost nothing to expand insurance or lower premiums.

But somehow, someway, conservatives don't seem to have noticed. In fact, they're celebrating!

"As a result of the House Republican bill, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office now confirms that families will see their health care premiums reduced by up to 10 percent and hard-working taxpayers can expect deficits to decrease by $68 billion over the next decade," reads a statement from Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

Let's go to the tape:

"By 2019, CBO and JCT estimate, the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be reduced by about 3 million relative to current law, leaving about 52 million nonelderly residents uninsured. The share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage in 2019 would be about 83 percent, roughly in line with the current share."

And: "[I]n the large group market, which represents nearly 80 percent of total private premiums, the amendment would lower average insurance premiums in 2016 by zero to 3 percent compared with amounts under current law, according to CBO's estimates."

Where does Pence get his numbers?

His arse, I'd imagine.  Seems to be where Cons keep most of their numbers, after all.

And you know what kind of health insurance the Cons' bill offers?  Sweatshop insurance, that's what.  Seriously.

It's going to be hard to pick the most comedic political move of 2009.  But I'd say that the Cons' introduction of their ridiculous bill has a damned good shot at #1.

LOL Pollyticks Time

Because I needed a good laugh, that's why.  And so do you.  Admit it.

Damned good advice:

Matters of interpretation:

Pollyticks of scale:

Good question:

What Does It Take to Get a Little Unemployment Extension, Here?

Overcoming not one, not two, but three - count 'em, three - Con filibusters.  That's what it takes.

Why Cons pull this kind of shit when the jobless numbers are this horrible is beyond me.  Are they telling us they want to lose in 2010?  Is that it?  Because if it is, I'm more than happy to ensure that happens.

And so are - lemme see - 200,000 unemployed Americans who lost their benefits while the Cons played their little con games.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Most of you are probably aware of the tragic shootings at Ft. Hood by now.  We here at the cantina extend our deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and victims.  What they're going through is unimaginable.

Steve Benen had a good rundown of the details we know so far.  More, no doubt, will come out as investigations proceed.  In a situation like this, the first few days are chaos - no one knows quite what happened, or why.

That, of course, didn't stop the dumbfucks from running wild, especially when they learned the shooter's name:

On "Fox & Friends" this morning, the hosts speculated about the need for "special screenings" of Muslim officers in the U.S. military. It follows a certain child-like reasoning -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went on a deadly rampage yesterday, shooting 43 people. Hasan is Muslim. Therefore, Muslims in uniform may be untrustworthy.

Soon after, Allen West, a top recruit of the National Republican Congressional Committee in Florida, announced his belief that, in light of the Fort Hood tragedy, the "enemy is infiltrating our military." West, one of 32 new members of the NRCC "Young Guns" program a congressional candidate in the Miami area next year, added, "Our soldiers are being brainwashed."

Now, at this point, we have no idea what led a 14-veteran of the U.S. Army to commit such a heinous crime, but there's a frightening ease with which too many conservatives embrace bigotry like this.

Spencer Ackerman gets this exactly right.

To make a point no one should have to make: earlier this year, a deranged Army sergeant named John Russell opened fire near a combat stress clinic -- sound familiar? -- at Baghdad's Camp Liberty and killed five of his fellow soldiers. No one speculated about any religious motivations. No one suggested he was part of an enemy "infiltration," or suggested that U.S. troops have been "brainwashed." Everyone understood that Russell was a deranged lunatic, not an advance scout for a conspiracy to subvert the military internally. It's funny how double standards work.

Actually, no. It's disgusting.

It is.

Geraldo Rivera, of all people, provided the lone voice of reason amidst a parade of Faux News fucktards:

On Fox and Friends this morning, Geraldo Rivera warned against casting “a gloomy cloud of suspicion over all the Muslim G.I.s who serve with great honor”:

RIVERA: I think that the great tragedy of this incident is that it will cast a gloomy cloud of suspicion over all the Muslim G.I.s who serve with great honor and who are an amazing assist to the United States in this conflict we’re having with radical Islam. This will, and also, I remember my dad, just very briefly. When we were growing up there would be a notorious crime and my dad used to gather the family. We used to say, like a little prayer, “please God” that it’s not a Puerto Rican. You know because we had, dealing with so many social pressures and prejudices, dealing with all the rest of it, we didn’t want one of these awful examples to cast aspersion and negativity on our group. And this is the same thing with American Muslims now, specifically American Muslim G.I.s.

I wish his colleagues would listen to him.  He's right.

C&L's Nicole Belle gave the rest of the media, who were scarcely more responsible than Faux News itself, a good hard spanking:

Dear 24 Hour Cable News Channels:

I understand your dilemma, I really do. You have 44 minutes on the hour to fill with content. And it has to be compelling stuff, so that the viewer isn't tempted to channel surf to your rivals. In the situation like the Fort Hood shootings, where news is coming scattershot and conflicting, it's even more difficult.

See? I get it.

But having said that--and I say this with love and respect--PLEASE, SHUT. THE. F#@K. UP. Don't spend time guessing on motivations when there is so little information available. Don't surmise terrorist intent when you can't possibly know. And for the love of everything holy, don't go to criminal profiler Cliff "A Hammer Sees Everything As A Nail" Van Zandt (a crime of which Keith Olbermann is also guilty) to make up utter bovine excrement.

At the time that Van Zandt was waxing rhapsodic over possible terrorist inclinations, remember, the news was that there were two or three shooters, one of whom was dead (Hasan, the single shooter, was alive and being treated at the time). That Maj. Nadil Hasan was of Jordanian, Arab, or Palestinian birth (he was born in Virginia of Palestinian immigrant parents), that he was a recent Muslim convert (he had been a practicing Muslim his whole life), that he was suffering from PTSD, or secondary PTSD from his work with returning vets in Virginia, that he was sympathetic with suicide bombers, angry at bad evaluations, upset at being deployed to Iraq, frustrated by the Army's dismissal of the harassment he got at Ft. Hood about his faith and/or desperate to get out of his upcoming deployment.

Bottom line: we didn't know enough.

[snip]

Don't you get it? "Terrorism" is not defined as "any violence by any Muslim anywhere at any time for any reason."

Dear MSM: Please print that last sentence out in very large font.  Use it to wallpaper the newsroom.  Have it tattooed on your foreheads.  Recite it a hundred times every night before you go to bed, and a hundred times when you wake up in the morning, until you do get it.  Most of you obviously don't.

And remember, the WorldNut Daily has no fucking clue what it's talking about:

I guess this was bound to happen, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

WorldNetDaily falsely claimed that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan "advised Obama transition" in the headline of an article by Jerome Corsi highlighting his listing as a "participant" in a report for the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University's Presidential Transition Task Force.

However, Corsi himself acknowledges that there is no evidence that "the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition" - indeed, the Task Force was initiated in April 2008; moreover, while Hasan was listed as one of approximately 300 "Task Force Event Participants" in the report's appendix, HSPI has reportedly said he was not a "member" of the Task Force, and was listed because he RSVP'd for several of the group's events."

The National Enquirer is more credible than the fucking WorldNut Daily.  At least the Enquirer got a story right once.

Of course, what would any tragedy involving a man with a Muslim name be without the batshit fucking insane Con in Congress ready to jump all over it?

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), who wrote the foreword to Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America, said today she is "very concerned" about infiltration of the military by jihadists.

"We can't continue to be so politically correct that we're going to say this wasn't religiously motivated," Myrick told the Charlotte, North Carolina, CBS affiliate. She noted the reports that Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" before he allegedly opened fire in the shooting spree at Fort Hood Thursday.

Look, you stupid fucking bitch.  No one - let me repeat that - no one - knows what Hasan's motivation was.  The fact that a Muslim man with a Muslim name shouted an Islamic phrase used by every Muslim in the entire universe does not make him a fucking jihadist.  It does not make his crime "religiously motivated."  And to have a member of Congress spewing this wild-eyed frothing fundie right-wing Teabagger bullshit, to have an actual member of Congress, who should be a responsible fucking adult, stand up and, on the strength of absolutely no evidence at all, claim the military's being infiltrated by evil Muslim jihadists, is outrageous in the extreme.  It's irresponsible, reprehensible, and it should be the kind of behavior that makes you immediately ineligible to hold public office of any form at any time, starting fucking immediately.

I hope I've made myself clear.  There is no place among our elected leadership for this kind of idiocy.  None.

It's too bad so many of my fellow Americans are too stupid to realize that, and vote for these asshats anyway.  It'll be up to the rest of us to counter that stupidity come election day.

Moving on.  Yesterday, the Teabaggers descended on D.C. to prove that they're disgusting dipshits who have no idea what health care reform entails.  We'll be having some fun with them in Your Daily Dose.  For now, I just want to ask a simple question that's nearly impossible to answer: why the fuck do Cons find it so motherfucking hard to count?

On G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show today, producer Franklin Raff, who was on the ground at the rally, told guest host Joseph Farah that the crowd is “just as big or bigger than” the 9/12 rally, which Raff estimated “at about a million.”

[snip]

Capitol Hill police told NBC’s Luke Russert that the crowd was about 4,000.

Eric Cantor talked of "tens of thousands."  And I'm sure we've seen Cons spout every number in between.  I'm surprised we haven't heard "billions and billions" yet.  Let's just have a tale of two pictures, shall we?

Obama's Inauguration - 1.8 million:

Nov. 5th Teabagging:

Maybe Teabaggers are just reely small.

But the really important question is this: why do the Cons want Americans to all die in their beds?  This is the only conclusion we can come to, since they ditched important national security votes to go tea partying:

Several Republican members of Congress yesterday blew off votes on the signature anti-terror legislation of the post 9/11 era to attend Michele Bachmann's Tea Party rally against health-care reform.

Reps. Steve King of Iowa, Trent Franks of Arizona, Randy Forbes of Virginia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Louie Gohmert and Ted Poe of Texas all took time out yesterday for the "Super Bowl of Freedom," as Bachmann has called it. And all missed votes in the House Judiciary committee on Republican-sponsored amendments to the reauthorization of the Patriot Act -- measures that would have toughened the Act, but narrowly failed. Those votes took place, a committee staffer confirmed, between noon and two -- the very time when Republican lawmakers were rallying the Tea Party troops on the Capitol steps.

And guess what?  A bunch of amendments beloved by Cons, absolutely vital to our national security and the only things standing between us and eeviiil Mooslim terrurists murdering us all, failed to pass because some Con fucktards couldn't bother to show up to vote.  Priceless.

Speaking of priceless, don't miss Kos pwning Tancredo.

And on the fear manufacturing front, the IAEA inspected Iran's super-secret nuclear site and found nothing to worry about.  Nothing.  It's a site set up for generating nuclear energy, just as they've always claimed, and buried in a bunker because they know Americans and Israelis are awfully trigger happy.  But (and you knew there was a but coming):

But, let's not let you get too comfortable about Iran...GuardianUK's Julian Borger comes up with a new scare:

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Ooooh...booga booga booga! Two things that glare out for me: one, Borger cites the IAEA unpublished report without one single quotation. Two, Borger claims the "two point implosion" is "officially secret" in the US and UK, but how secret can it be when it has its own Wikipedia page? 

The media really does think you're dumb and can't figure out teh Google.

That's probably because so many of them pander to right wing fucktards, who really are that dumb, and seem to have a compulsive desire to shit themselves with terror.

Our public discourse, ladies and gentlemen.  I'll understand completely if you decide to weep.

Carnival of the Elitist Bastards XVIII: "It's For Research"

I'll let yer Captain make the announcement:

Did ye think we'd never get away from the dock? Hah! The Elitist Bastard is cutting water and breaking ice. And woe betide any con ships that cross her path this month! Get the top-secret skinny on her mission at Decrepit Old Fool: Carnival Of The Elitist Bastards, the "it's for research" edition.

It's readily apparent I'm no sea-dog, but luckily the crew is fully seasoned!

 Captain George be more sea-dog than he admits!  Ye're in for a treat this month, me hearties - and I hope ye brought yer experimental ammo.  Ye'll see what I mean.

(Postdated to ensure no one misses the news.  New content be below.)