The Atheist Communist Caliphate Made Flesh, Spread the Clusterfuck Around Thread

[Brownie]

Maybe German politics are even sillier than ours.


"Debate is raging in Germany over whether a campaign poster using a now infamous photograph of Chancellor Angela Merkel in a deep-cut evening gown is cleverly ironic or downright tacky.

However you see it, the poster is adding some spice to what is shaping up to be an otherwise dull campaign leading up to Sept. 27 German parliamentary elections.

The poster shows a picture of Christian Democrat candidate Vera Lengsfeld, 57, in a low-cut evening gown alongside a well-known 2008 photo of Merkel, the party leader, taken at her appearance at the gala opening of Oslo's opera house.

"We have more to offer," reads the slogan under the revealing photos of the two women's chests — a twist on the Christian Democrats official slogan, "We have the power."









Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/13/international/i100637D19.DTL#ixzz0O6k9y2To

Thanks Stew, always good to keep abreast of European affairs.

It's good to know that the Germans have boobs running for office too.

[CT III]

CT Scans never show anything anyway - they're rather nondescript.

I'm not sure whether to groan or applaud.

CT scan results are almost always inconclusive.

[MAD]

Maybe German politics are even sillier than ours.


"Debate is raging in Germany over whether a campaign poster using a now infamous photograph of Chancellor Angela Merkel in a deep-cut evening gown is cleverly ironic or downright tacky.

However you see it, the poster is adding some spice to what is shaping up to be an otherwise dull campaign leading up to Sept. 27 German parliamentary elections.

The poster shows a picture of Christian Democrat candidate Vera Lengsfeld, 57, in a low-cut evening gown alongside a well-known 2008 photo of Merkel, the party leader, taken at her appearance at the gala opening of Oslo's opera house.

"We have more to offer," reads the slogan under the revealing photos of the two women's chests — a twist on the Christian Democrats official slogan, "We have the power."









Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/13/international/i100637D19.DTL#ixzz0O6k9y2To

Merkel's boner?

[Jon]

CT Scans never show anything anyway - they're rather nondescript.

I'm not sure whether to groan or applaud.

CT scan results are almost always inconclusive.

"I don't know what to make of this. Your CT scan reads: present."

[RV]

Serious (and most likely stupid) question for all you conservacrats: are income disparities like this a bad thing for a country/economy in the long term? As a wretched commie pig, I understand there are haves and have-nots in every society, but the bleeding heart connected to my gut tells me income concentrated this highly in a small group is not a good thing. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise by a well-supported argument that is heavy on science and light on shiny fascist jackboot kicks to my derriere.

[CBStew]

Serious (and most likely stupid) question for all you conservacrats: are income disparities like this a bad thing for a country/economy in the long term? As a wretched commie pig, I understand there are haves and have-nots in every society, but the bleeding heart connected to my gut tells me income concentrated this highly in a small group is not a good thing. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise by a well-supported argument that is heavy on science and light on shiny fascist jackboot kicks to my derriere.

I didn't realize how bad the Nixon-Ford-Carter years were for us plutocrats.  We are finally  making up for those bad years.

[PenFoe]

Serious (and most likely stupid) question for all you conservacrats: are income disparities like this a bad thing for a country/economy in the long term? As a wretched commie pig, I understand there are haves and have-nots in every society, but the bleeding heart connected to my gut tells me income concentrated this highly in a small group is not a good thing. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise by a well-supported argument that is heavy on science and light on shiny fascist jackboot kicks to my derriere.

All I see is a lot of hard-working, loyal American, ExxonMobil employees pulling themselves up by their bootstraps in 2003.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Rick Perlstein, whose "Nixonland" is discussed (briefly) over in paperbacks, shakes the crazy tree...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401495_pf.html

So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers -- these are "either" the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president -- too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters' signs -- too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don't understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can't understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.

...

Liberals are right to be vigilant about manufactured outrage, and particularly about how the mainstream media can too easily become that outrage's entry into the political debate. For the tactic represented by those fake Nixon letters was a long-term success. Conservatives have become adept at playing the media for suckers, getting inside the heads of editors and reporters, haunting them with the thought that maybe they are out-of-touch cosmopolitans and that their duty as tribunes of the people's voices means they should treat Obama's creation of "death panels" as just another justiciable political claim. If 1963 were 2009, the woman who assaulted Adlai Stevenson would be getting time on cable news to explain herself. That, not the paranoia itself, makes our present moment uniquely disturbing.

It used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

I b lookng at u ChkGrsly

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Either that, or everyone starts packing and the tensions on both sides continue to ratchet up until the Hegelian dynamic finally explodes in an inevitable Aufhebung of motorcycle marauders.

[Quality Start Machine]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

I'm guessing someone will take a pop at Obama.

The challenge will be for guys like Limbaugh and Beck to blame the Libruls instead of their own rhetoric aimed at the low-hanging fruit.

[Brownie]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

I'm guessing someone will take a pop at Obama.

The challenge will be for guys like Limbaugh and Beck to blame the Libruls instead of their own rhetoric aimed at the low-hanging fruit.

Nah, the blame would fall squarely on the guy who would take a pop at Obama.

[Quality Start Machine]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

I'm guessing someone will take a pop at Obama.

The challenge will be for guys like Limbaugh and Beck to blame the Libruls instead of their own rhetoric aimed at the low-hanging fruit.

Nah, the blame would fall squarely on the guy who would take a pop at Obama.

Nobody is happy with things that cut-and-dried anymore. There will be finger-pointing going on, on both sides.

Just as there is with everything else.

[thehawk]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

I'm guessing someone will take a pop at Obama.

The challenge will be for guys like Limbaugh and Beck to blame the Libruls instead of their own rhetoric aimed at the low-hanging fruit.

Nah, the blame would fall squarely on the guy who would take a pop at Obama.

Do you think that would be the case when one of these guys flinches or the shoulder strap on their AR-15 slips and a sniper takes them out?

[Brownie]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/twelve-carry-guns----including-assault-rifle----outside-obama-event.php

About 12 people were carrying guns, including at least one semi-automatic assault rifle, outside a building where President Obama was speaking today.

No one was arrested outside the VFW National Convention in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press, where hundreds of people demonstrated both for and against health care reform. There are no reports that the 12 were part of an organized group.

The man spotted carrying the assault rifle and a pistol, who gave his name only as "Chris", was asked why he was armed. "Because I can do it," he said. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms." You can watch the video from ArizonaCentral.com (go to about 1:30). He's being interviewed by a man who's also wearing a handgun.

Two police officers kept close by. Carrying guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle, is legal under Arizona law.

"If we need to intervene, we will intervene at that time," said Detective J. Oliver.

If this trend continues, eventually, someone's gonna cross a line.

Somewhere, an otherwise law-abiding citizen, carrying a gun at a Presidential event ("because I can"), will get too close for Secret Service comfort and be temporarily relieved of their firearm and/or freedom.

Further proof, of course, that Obama wants to take our guns.

The contradictions heightened.

I'm guessing someone will take a pop at Obama.

The challenge will be for guys like Limbaugh and Beck to blame the Libruls instead of their own rhetoric aimed at the low-hanging fruit.

Nah, the blame would fall squarely on the guy who would take a pop at Obama.

Do you think that would be the case when one of these guys flinches or the shoulder strap on their AR-15 slips and a sniper takes them out?

Absolutely.