It's kind of long for a sig line, but...

Digby is on a roll today:

I suppose you could call Bush an idealist. That whole smoking gun in a mushroom cloud thing was quite the inspiration. It's right up there with "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

How about this for a new and relevant liberal argument: anyone who supported the war was a fool or an asshole because it was patently obvious by 2002 that this country was in the hands of an insane megalomaniacal Republican machine and the braindead sycophantic mediawhores who gratefully dined on their droppings. Anyone with half a brain knew that it wasn't a good idea to give a blank check to crazed power mad freaks to start invading, torturing and killing at their discretion. Most of the world agreed. Not complicated. Not idealistic. Plain. Fucking. Common. Sense.

Some good news for a change

via Americablog

Ford says they aren't ready to climb into bed with the religious fundies, undoubtedly causing AFA leaders to burst into noisy tears, clutch their pearls, and stomp their tiny feet:

The Ford Motor Company today released the following letter clarifying that whatever did or did not happen behind closed doors with the American Family Association (AFA) two weeks ago, the company is NOT backing off of its support for the gay community or gay advertising (in contrast to what was reported over the past two weeks).

According to the AFA and media reports over the past two weeks, in order to avoid a boycott from the extremist gay-hating organization, Ford allegedly agreed to:

1. No longer run ads promoting Jaguar or Land Rover in the gay press.
2. No longer support gay events or organizations.
3. Continue running Volvo ads in the gay press, but no longer tailor those ads to the gay community (i.e., in the future such ads would be the same ads that are run in the mainstream media, rather than the crafting the ads to appeal to a gay readership).

Ford addressed and resolved each of our three concerns regarding the above:

1. Ford announced that it will continue to support gay organizations and gay events in the coming year and beyond.

2. Ford is going to run advertisements in the gay media NOT ONLY promoting the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, but the ads will promote ALL of Fords brands, by name, including Jaguar and Land Rover.

3. Ford states unequivocally that it will continue to tailor its ads for the specific audience it is trying to reach, and then goes one step further. Ford challenges us to keep an eye out on their upcoming ads in order to verify that they will in fact be tailored.

There is no other way to read this than that Ford did the right thing. Whether or not an agreement was reached with the American Family Association - and the AFA has a record of crowing about such "victories" when no such victory occurred (sounds a lot like our president) - Ford has rectified the real or perceived problem, and the AFA has been shown to have no clothes (other than a very rusty chastity belt).

All I can say is "Yay!" :)

This story just made my day

Animal Lovers: Were We Wrong To Beat This Guy's Ass?
by Black Max

Actually, "we" is a misstatement -- "she," as in my wife, did this all on her own. I miss everything by having to work.

So here's the deal, on the flip. You tell me what you think should have been done.

My wife went back to bed this morning with a sinus headache after packing all of us off to work and school. About 9:30 she wakes up hearing voices from the back yard. A man and his wife are roaming through our yard, the man holding a plastic retractable dog leash, obviously looking for a lost dog. No problem, she thinks, hope you find the missing puppy. She doesn't go outside because she's still in her pajamas and still feels lousy.

A few minutes later, she hears shouting and yelping just outside our back deck. He's found his dog, a not-quite-grown St Bernard full of vigor and mischief, and is squatting down over the dog, beating the hell out of it with the plastic leash. The dog is howling and yelping in pain.

That's when Mrs. Max leapt outside, in her pajamas, broom in hand, yelling "Stop beating that poor dog, you son of a bitch!" The guy looked up from his pounding on the cowering animal and yelled back a blistering tirade of obscenities which I won't repeat here. Mrs. Max -- God, I love that woman -- yelled back, "You aren't going to beat any dog for any reason on my property, you asshole!" At that point, he yelled, "No one tells me what to do with my dog, you feminist dyke," and advanced on her.

My beloved wife, peg o' my heart, lit into him like a Tazmanian devil with the broomstick. Broke his nose, broke out some teeth, and maybe cracked a rib before a deputy sheriff showed up and pulled her off of him. (Mrs. Max is a short, cute little blonde person; this guy was twice her size. She had him curled up on the ground, howling and whimpering and squealing obscenities. You would think the dog would have leapt to the defense of his master -- nope. He just sat on the ground and watched with great interest. The wife stood there yelling as well, but didn't intervene. Wonder if he beats her, too?)

Upshot: the deputy, whom we know, was quite understanding and gave the bloodied-up bastard two choices: assault charges against him (for coming at my wife in a threatening manner, forcing her to defend herself) and trespassing charges, or a citation for animal abuse and 24 hours to turn the dog over to the Humane Society. He cussed and blustered and took the second option. The cop had a little discussion with Mrs. Max about more appropriate ways to vent her spleen, Mrs. Max said, "Goddammit, anyone who beats a dog on my property is going to get his ass kicked, and you'll just have to arrest me," and the deputy left -- after saying, "That's a gorgeous dog. I might just go down and adopt the big fellow myself."

She told me about the whole incident after I got home, and said, "I'm just as glad you weren't here. You would have probably beaten him to death and broke both your hands in the process. Then we'd all be in jail."

So. Was she wrong?

Holy god, I'd have paid good money to see that beat down, I mean seriously good money on pay per view or something. Mrs. Max, whoever you are, you're my new hero.