JABbering Stooge

Gag me with a spoon on this one. MSRNC is reporting that Sami Habbas, a Palestinian-American who served his country in the U.S. Army, received a credit card offer from JPMorgan Chase & Co. that began with three words: "Dear Palestinian Bomber."

A cursory glance at the article reveals the following:

The information came from a list Chase purchased from a vendor, said Kelly J. Presta, Chase Card Services executive vice president. Chase Card Services, the Delaware-based credit card line of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said it doesn’t know how that name was attached to Habbas’ address but it is investigating.

In other words, JPMorgan Chase goofed by trusting the accuracy of a third-party spam list. GREAT JOB, GUYS! Naturally, this implies that someone with a serious bug up their posterior about the Arab/Muslim community punk’d Mr. Habbas. As to who might’ve done it, I’d look over at the hatriots over at (Moslems)FreiRepublic, who wasted no time dragging the poor fellow through the mud rhetorically.

Seeing in a Mirror Dimly: A Preview of the Fall ’05 Political Season

As summer fades into autumn, students’ minds are filled with anticipation of the coming school year. This is entirely natural, as we humans often attempt – sometimes blindly – to prognosticate on the future in the hopes of a better world. With this in mind, I would like to offer a preview of the upcoming political season here in Texas and around the country.

There are a couple of recent stories that should serve as object lessons in why the concept of homo economicus drives corporations to screw consumers in favor of the almighty dollar, and why there needs to be a referee in a capitalist society.

Object Lesson #1: Big Pharmaceuticals

First of all, let’s look at the recent jury decision handed down in the Merck liability lawsuit. The jury in the case found the pharmaceutical company liable for $253.4 million in damages in the death of Carol Ernst’s husband.

The size of the award is not what is most impressive about the verdict, however. What is most impressive is that this was a Texas jury - not exactly known for sticking up for the little guy - in a case that was supposed to be easy for Merck to dodge accountability on just on the merits of the case.

(BTW, don’t expect Mrs. Ernst to see one dime of the award. Even assuming that the verdict is upheld on appeal - unlikely, given the makeup of the appeals courts in this part of the country - the lawyers’ fees are likely to eat up most, if not all of the award money.)

Oh boy. Remember how Pope Benedict Arnold I declared the pedophile priest scandal to be a figment of the evil "librul" media’s imagination? (This, of course, was after he was caught meddling in the politics of sovereign nations.) Well, it turns out that he was involved in helping cover up the problem in Texas. As usual, he’s tried to avoid accountability by claiming diplomatic immunity.

As always, conservative Catholics put their fingers in their ears and scream at the top of their lungs "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU EVIL LIBRULS TRASHING RELIGION AS ALWAYS!" But hey, at least the Pope likes cats, right?

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Aug. 17, 2005 3:45 PM)

As opponents of the Gaza Strip withdrawl continue to instigate Israeli-on-Israeli violence, we get yet another story of an Israeli gunman killing Palestinians.

In the West Bank, an Israeli settler grabbed a gun from a security guard in the Shilo settlement and started shooting Palestinians, killing three and wounding two before being arrested. The killings aroused fears of Palestinian retaliation and the disruption of the evacuation mission.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced the attack as "Jewish terror aimed at stopping the withdrawl." Quite frankly, in my eyes, The Butcher of Qibya, Sabra and Shatila has as much moral authority to condemn Israeli-on-Palestinian violence as Yasser Arafat had to condemn Palestinian-on-Israeli violence - which is to say, none.

So don’t come to me with this BS about how only Muslims are ultra-violent. Between this, terrorism against abortion providers and homosexuals by the "Christian" Right, and the antics of Osama bin Forgotten and his crew, is it any wonder why I hate organized religion as a whole?

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Aug. 17, 2005 3:21 PM)

Well, at least there are some decent people in the Mattlage family.

Protest campsite moving closer to Bush ranch
Relative of man who fired shotgun offers space to antiwar demonstrators

REUTERS

CRAWFORD, Texas - Antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, is moving her camp closer to President Bush’s Texas ranch.

The piece of private property was offered by a relative of a man who had fired a shotgun in frustration over the protests, a source in the Sheehan camp said. The property owner is also a veteran.

"A neighbor of President Bush’s has offered us his land," the source said. "It’s got plenty of acreage for us, it’s private land, we would have legal permission to be on it, it’s much closer to the ranch — in fact it’s across the street from his (Bush’s) church."

Strategically located near places Bush has to go if he wants to impress his theofascist base, on land being offered to them by the sane relative of a wingnut gunman? Who could resist?

The source said Fred Mattlage made the offer saying "I’m a veteran, I support what you all are doing and I want to offer you my land."

So…what was that about "some vets’ families think Sheehan is an evil, terrorist, traitor, Spawn-of-Satan who needs to be shot on sight" again, Bill?

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Aug. 16, 2005 9:18 PM)

The co-dependent Democrats have done it again. It appears that they’re going to give John Roberts the "up or up vote" that Bush has been throwing tantrums about. Way to cut yourselves out of the national dialogue on where this nation is headed. Just a few more cave-ins by you guys and we’ll be a one-party state. Oh, wait… We already are.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Aug. 16, 2005 12:41 AM)

Man fires shotgun in view of Camp Casey; Blogger embarrassed to be from Texas

Full report at MSRNC.

There are so many things wrong with the situation that I don’t know where to begin. How about the fact that this man, Larry Mattlage, shot off, in more ways than one, during a religious service?