"Former Virginia governor won't run for president in '08"

By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
October 12, 2006
RICHMOND, Va. -- Democrat Mark R. Warner, the former governor of Virginia, has decided not to run for president in 2008, Democratic officials said Thursday.

Warner scheduled a late morning news conference in Richmond to make the announcement, according to two Democratic officials who refused to be identified because they did not want to upstage Warner's announcement.

The reason for Warner's announcement was not immediately known.
Hampton Roads, VA Daily Press.com

People who know Warner say his wife and daughters have never been eager to see him run for the presidency. His wife, Lisa Collis, was not a prominent Virginia First Lady and often remarked to people close to her that she did not like the political limelight.

Warner went to Italy for a family vacation this summer, reportedly to have the final decision-making conversation with them. Several people close to him have said that conversation did not take place.
Washington Post.com

Crap. I deleted emails from the Iowa Democratic Party and Polk County Democrats trumpeting that the above named DINO would be in town today in at a pre-debate warm-up for Chester. Too bad. Of course, I wouldn't walk across the street to shake hands with him, so I didn't care in the first place.

Why don't Democrats say more about "Pagegate?"

The Pagegate scandal that's blown up around gay-blade pedophile and Republican fundraiser extraodinaire Florida Congressman Mark Foley is only the tip of the GOP iceberg of corruption and legerdemain.

For the past twenty years or so, almost all the legislation that's come down from Capitol Hill has been shadow boxes, except those that strip our Consititonal liberties. The Democratic Party could regain a majority position if it would just point out all the Republican posturing for what it is: A three card monty game on a national scale.

But they can't because most establishment Democrats are in on the con-game.

How is the administration going to spin this?

From Editor & Publisher.com

NEW YORK A new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates. This far exceeds normal media counts and is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December.

The study by [Dr. Gilbert] Burnham, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and others is to be published Thursday on the Web site of The Lancet, a medical journal.

The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to says it is "way too high," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. He criticized the way the estimate was derived and noted that the results were released shortly before the Nov. 7 election. "This is not analysis, this is politics," Cordesman said.

Ronald Waldman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for many years, called the survey method "tried and true," and added, speaking to The Washington Post, that "this is the best estimate of mortality we have."

I've answered my own question, haven't I. Anthony Cordesman, a John McCain functionary and DoD waterboy,is always an objective observer. We can rest assured that we, the American sheeple, can ignore a scientific study by one of the nation's top research universities.

Quote of the month

"The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power." Tucker Carlson

LTE:October 8, 2006

The reason Iowa Fifth U.S. Congressional District Representative Steve King says the things that he does is that he knows that it gets him press coverage, “Love Him or Loathe Him, October 8, 2006.”



The Kiron, IA Republican, fashioning himself the “blue-eyed Tom Tancredo” after the xenophobic Colorado congressman and front man of the Bay Buchanan chaired Team America PAC, spent the last year bashing illegal immigrants



Yet according to campaign finance watchdog Web site Open Secrets.org, big agribusiness, long the primary employer of illegal immigrants, is King’s biggest overall contributor.



Congressman King is on record supporting the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which, to much fanfare, President Bush recently signed legislation into law making this possible. But shortly thereafter, on October 6, the Republican dominated U.S. House and Senate passed appropriation bills so full of loopholes and exceptions as to render the border fence porous as Swiss cheese.



Representative King is not ignorant of this vote, yet that will not stop him from making outrageous race-baiting statements. It’s his stock in trade and what keeps him in the cushiest job he has ever had in his life.

Republican border fence bullshit

As suspected the Republican Party has fashioned the bogus illegal immigration "issue" to their advantage, knowing all along that nothing meaningful will ever be done. It's a given that it's Republican Party strategy to play to white America's xenophobia while at the same time playing up to the big argibusiness lobby, the outfits that hire the majority of "illegal" immigrants.

To much fanfair pResident Bush play-acted that he was signing a bill into law authorizing a 700-mile, $1.2 billion fence along the Mexico-United States border Wednesday. But wait! What does that law really do? And what will GOP lawmakers do to ensure the continued flow of illegals to meat packing plants, vegetable farms and hotel and fast food restaurants?

GOP leaders have singled out the fence as one of the primary accomplishments of the recently completed session. Many lawmakers plan to highlight their $1.2 billion down payment on its construction as they campaign in the weeks before the midterm elections.

But shortly before recessing late Friday, the House and Senate gave the Bush administration leeway to distribute the money to a combination of projects -- not just the physical barrier along the southern border. The funds may also be spent on roads, technology and "tactical infrastructure" to support the Department of Homeland Security's preferred option of a "virtual fence."

The loopholes leave the Bush administration with authority to decide where, when and how long a fence will be built, except for small stretches east of San Diego and in western Arizona. Homeland Security officials have proposed a fence half as long, lawmakers said.

The split between GOP leaders hungry for a sound-bite-friendly accomplishment targeting immigration and others who support a more comprehensive approach also means that the fence bill will be watered down when lawmakers return for a lame-duck session in November, according to congressional aides and lobbyists.
Spencer Hsu, Washington Post

You can bet that our diligent fourth-estate will widely report this follow-up story. If the Democrats win back the majority in both house of the federal Congress, you can also bet that, because of this deliberately flawed law, illegal immigration will come back to haunt them. The only way out of this dilemma is for this nation is for Congress and the president to authorize a Marshall-like plan to reinvigorate the economies of Mexico and Central America. Fences and prisons will never work.

Cognitive dissonance, or Wha'th'Fuck!?

Here's a "Wha'th'fuck!?" story on the Iowa First US Congressional District race between Republican businessman Mike Whalen and Democrat, and lawyer, Bruce Braley.

A new poll released Wednesday shows Mike Whalen leading congressional election rival Bruce Braley by 13 percentage points.

The new Reuters/Zogby poll, conducted Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, says Whalen leads Braley 47 percent to 34 percent.
Now, here comes the "wha'th'fuck!?" statement by a Whalen functionary.In a prepared statement, Russ Perisho, Whalen’s campaign manager, said the poll shows voters are responding to the Bettendorf businessman as an outsider who would “upset the apple cart in Washington"(emphasis added).

An "outsider" who will "upset the apple cart..."?! Pull-eeze. A Republican businessman, Whalen owns the over-rated, over-priced, choke and puke Machine Shed Restaurant chain. Whalen's business both caters to and is a front for big agribusiness lobbys: Our home style, made-from-scratch cookin' continues to win numerous awards from farm groups like the Pork Producers and the Beef Industry Council.

And, of course, Whalen's Machine Shed is "family" oriented so everything's always on the up and up in a "Christian" sort of way. Take this little incident from three years ago, of instance:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court here against Heart of America Management Co., which does business locally as the Machine Shed Restaurant. The federal agency's suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 charges that the Machine Shed permitted the sexual harassment of Joetta Haas, a server at its restaurant located at 7475 East State Street (Route 20) on the commercial strip west of Interstate 90. EEOC said Haas worked at the restaurant for 15 months until she resigned in September 2001 because of the continuing sexual harassment.

EEOC said that its administrative investigation which preceded the lawsuit revealed that the harassment, which was carried out by a male server and observed by other employees, involved almost daily propositions and explicit sexual remarks which were graphic and offensive in the extreme, as well as the man physically grabbing the woman. At one point, while at work at the Machine Shed and in front of other servers, the man recounted a dream he claimed to have had in which he and the server were having sex. After the server married, the man escalated his harassment, told her "I can do a better job . . . than your husband," and graphically described his sexual desires.

When Joetta Haas complained about the constant harassment, according to the EEOC investigation, management told her that she "shouldn't get worked up about it," that there was "nothing [they] could do," that she should avoid the harasser, and that the harasser claimed that she had been making sexual remarks to him. The investigation also indicated that, after Haas was forced out of her job by the harassment, the harasser was eventually discharged because her complaints were corroborated by other employees.(emphasis added)

Ms. Haas said, "When I went to work at the Machine Shed, I didn't count on constant sexual harassment being part of the job. When it went on and on, and I complained, I really believed that management would do something about it. But nothing was done, and I was forced out of my job. I'm glad the EEOC is getting involved, and I hope there will be some real change at the restaurant and at Heart of America."
EEOC.gov

We can be sure one of the "apple carts" Whalen wants to upset is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

To be fair, I've eaten at the Urbandale, IA Machine Shed restaurant on several occasions and I found both the food quality and service to be spotty, ranging from good to, well, downright surly. Why? According to a Quad Cities Times report on Septermber 22, 2006,"...servers in his restaurant make $3.09 per hour base pay plus tips. He said the hourly wage, including tips, is $10 to $15 per hour for most servers." Ain't he a generous sonuvabitch?

Let's see, speech is only free if Veep ain't around

This is a story that sould have been frontpage news when the incident occured, but it doesn't come to light until the lawsuits are filed.

A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.

Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.

According to the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Denver, Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.
Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Needless to say the bogus charges brought by agent Reichle Jr. were dropped. But the real lesson of this story, if there is one, is that Vice President Cheney's shell-pink ears are so sensitive, to even mild criticism, that upon hearing any disparaging remarks he begins bleeding from the eardrums.

Hang Down Your Head, Mark Foley

Received this in the good, ol' e-mail late yesterday afternoon. My friend writes,"Sorry, but I couldn't resist putting some different words to a "Tom Dooley." He even provided the chord changes for any of you who can strum a guitar! Denny Hastert can led all the US House Republicans singing this at the next GOP (Gathering Of Pedophiles) hootenanny
Mark Foley – apologies to the Kingston Trio and everyone else.



D

Hang down your head Mark Foley,

G7

Hang down your head and cry,



Hang down your head Mark Foley,

D

Your boyfriend’s still in junior high.



You saw him in the hallway,

And flashed him a big smile,

You got his name and address,

And e-mailed him through the night.



Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Hang down your head and cry,

Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Your boyfriend’s still in junior high.



This time tomorrow,

Reckon where you’ll be,

If it hadn’t been for bloggers,

You’d have gotten off scot-free.



Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Hang down your head and cry,

Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Your boyfriend’s still in junior high.



This time tomorrow,

Reckon where you’ll be,

Hiding out in some clinic,

Getting treatment you don’t need.



Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Hang down your head and cry,

Hang down your head Mark Foley,

Your boyfriend’s still in junior high.

Tony Perkins of "Family Research Council" weighs in on Foley scandal

Pro-Homosexual Political Correctness Sowed Seeds for Foley Scandal
Democrats seeking to exploit the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) are right to criticize the slow response of Republican congressional leaders to his communications with male pages. But neither party seems likely to address the real issue, which is the link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse.

Foley, an unmarried 52-year-old representative, had always refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation. Now that his emails and messages to teenage male pages have been revealed, it appears clear that Foley is a homosexual with a particular attraction to underage boys.

While pro-homosexual activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. Although almost all child molesters are male and less than 3% of men are homosexual, about a third of all child sex abuse cases involve men molesting boys--and in one study, 86% of such men identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual*.

Ignoring this reality got the Catholic Church into trouble over abusive priests, and now it is doing the same to the House GOP leadership. They discounted or downplayed earlier reports concerning Foley's behavior--probably because they did not want to appear "homophobic." The Foley scandal shows what happens when political correctness is put ahead of protecting children.
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

I broke Perkin's blog into paragraphs for clarity. Obviously this pious knucklehead skipped English class in pursuit of other pleasures. And it makes me wonder what his spelling might be like without the aid of "SpellCheck" freatures on this computer? Hey, don't get me wrong I'm not the greatest speller in the world, or typist for that matter.

As Foly represented a typically gerrymandered Florida federal district, he ran against only token opposition, but, in the parlance of today's politics, he was a "good fundraiser." And raise funds he did.

Foley's resignation from Congress does not affect his $3 million war chest.

Federal campaign finance laws allow former lawmakers to use surplus campaign funds to pay certain legal expenses and other continuing costs, such as campaign-related record-keeping. They also are allowed to donate the money to other candidates or political parties, within contribution limits, or to make contributions to charity.

In the past, many former lawmakers have kept their campaign funds alive for many years, long after their political careers have come to an end.
TCPalm.com

That's why GOP House leaders looked the other way while Foley diddled teenaged men. Political correctness had nothing to do with anything.

*Using Perkin's math, and I'm bad at math, this means that two-thirds of all children molested are girls! Therefore, the vast majority of child abuse is meted out by heterosexuals. Lord, save us from heterosexuals!

Labor scores a rare victory in Supreme Court

Posted on Editor & Publisher.com

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court sided Monday with Detroit newspaper unions and employees who were fired for their actions during an 18-month strike in the mid-1990s.

Justices declined to hear the newspapers' appeal of a National Labor Relations Board ruling ordering the partnership that prints, distributes and sells advertising for the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press to reinstate fired employees.

The workers lost their job after the newspapers said they blocked entrances at a distribution facility and the Detroit News Building in violation of court orders during the strike that ran from July 1995 to February 1997.

The labor relations board determined that the employees had not engaged in misconduct, but were instead exercising their right to strike. It ordered the employees reinstated with backpay.

It will cost those smart bean-counters in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press more to reinstate the fired workers than it would have cost to settle the strike.

In light of of Mark Foley scandal...

In light of the Republican Party's current scandal over Florida Congressman Mark Foley, it's time to look into the triangular friendship of Rock In Prevention Svengali, Pat McManus, Jeff Lamberti and Democratic State Senator Matt McCoy.
See Spoon Letter Anthology, July 23, 2006

LTO: October 1, 2006

Jim Nussle’s a self-pinned op-ed, “Here's why I merit your vote: I'll energize state's future,” October 1, 2006, the Republican gubernatorial candidate outlines a series of proposals to create a more business friendly climate in the state, hinting at more corporate welfare through tax incentives and cuts thereby further eroding the state’s income and property tax base, leading to more reliance on regressive local option sales tax schemes.

The congressman’s proposals on education and health care are little more than sparkling generalities. Nussle falls back on the bromide that more of the right kind of education leads to higher wages and prosperity. The fact is that between 1979 and 2003 hourly wages for workers without college degrees fell while four-year degree holders’ compensation rose by less than a percent over that same period. His health care proposals are merely a sop to the insurance lobby.

And why does Nussle think creating a new bureaucracy will restore the public’s trust in state government? Can we trust an “inspector general” appointed by a Republican governor to investigate not only Democratic high jinx but GOP wrongdoing?

Democrat Chet Culver is only marginally better, but the voters of Iowa can do Congressman Nussle a favor and sent him back to Washington, D.C. so he can pursue a lucrative career as a K-Street lobbyist.

Sometimes the best way to hide is out in the open

Consider the sorry tale of Florida Representative Mark Foley(NAMBLA):

Beginning with his 1993 sponsorship of a measure in the Florida state legislature to seize the cars of men who solicited prostitutes, former restaurant owner and real estate agent Mark Foley repeatedly attracted a flattering political spotlight by inveighing against those involved in sexual crimes and presenting himself as a protector of exploited children.

Foley was until two days ago a deputy whip for the House Republicans and a co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. A Web site for the bipartisan group states that it was formed to "create a voice within Congress" on that issue and to operate a hotline for tips about "online child sexual exploitation" that could be passed to law enforcement agencies.

In 1998, he sponsored legislation allowing the Boy Scouts and other volunteer groups to get access to an FBI criminal database so they could weed out child predators. In 2003, he pressed Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) to investigate a nudist camp for teenagers, noting that "I have been fighting for years to eliminate both child pornography and so-called exploitive child modeling Web sites."

During the congressional debate in 1998 over President Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern, Foley called Clinton's actions vile and told the St. Petersburg Times that "it's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
Washington Post.com

This pathetic puke covered his predilection for little boy butt by being the noisiest monkey in the anti-pedophile tree.

Now, one must ask himself, why do so many Republican oppose same-sex marriage?

We, meaning the United States, are doomed

Nothing more sobering than Paul Craign Robert's latest CounterPunch.org op-ed, Here are a few random quotations from the article:

The attacks on middle-class jobs are lending new meaning to the phrase "class war". The ladders of upward mobility are being dismantled. America, the land of opportunity, is giving way to ever deepening polarization between rich and poor.

The offshore outsourcing of American jobs has nothing to do with free trade based on comparative advantage. Offshoring is labor arbitrage. First world capital and technology are not seeking comparative advantage at home in order to compete abroad. They are seeking absolute advantage abroad in cheap labor.

At a Brookings Institution conference in Washington, D.C., in January 2004, I predicted that if the pace of jobs outsourcing and occupational destruction continued, the U.S. would be a third world country in 20 years(emphasis mine). Despite my regular updates on the poor performance of U.S. job growth in the 21st century, economists have insisted that offshoring is a manifestation of free trade and can only have positive benefits overall for Americans.

The United States is the first country in history to destroy the prospects and living standards of its labor force. It is amazing to watch freedom-loving libertarians and free-market economists serve as apologists for the dismantling of the ladders of upward mobility that made the America of old an opportunity society.

This, the economy, stupid, is what should be the main focus of the current political debate. But, instead, we are distracted by a "war on terror," "illegal" aliens and the propect of "gays" getting married.

I just want the collapse, when it comes, to be short and final.

A nation of fools

The current Reuters/Zogby poll shows that President "Dim-Son" Bush's approval rating has slithered back upward to 42% after a dip to 31% in June. Who thinks this Harvard School of Business MBA recepient isn't fucking up as much as he did this summer?

The Reuters/Zogby survey shows that members of the President’s political base are giving him better marks than they did a few months ago, as 44% of men, 44% of Catholics, 46% of married respondents, and 52% of regular WalMart shoppers(my emphasis) rated his work well.

A sorry commentary on the state of education and collective intelligence in the United States.

Now, I have to go and puke.

MBA candidates cheat

Like that's news. Really I saw this the other day and I want to save it for future reference:

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Students pursuing a master's degree in business administration cheat more than other U.S. graduate students, according to a study for the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.

The study found 56 percent of MBA students acknowledged cheating, compared with 54 percent in engineering, 48 percent in education and 45 percent in law school.

Earlier studies have found a high incidence of cheating among undergraduate business students. In 1997, McCabe, a professor of management and global business who is regarded by ethics professors as a leading researcher on cheating and plagiarism, found 84 percent of undergraduate business students said they cheated at least once, compared with 72 percent of engineering students and 66 percent of all students.
Here's the real laugherOfficials at top business schools said they didn't see much cheating. Honor codes that require students to sign a statement on each test saying they had not cheated -- and some requiring students to report cheating by others -- are a powerful deterrent, as are frequent classroom discussions about ethical behavior, they said.
Bloomberg.com

Coincidence, we now have the first president who holds a Master's of Business Administration from the Harvard School of Business. We have a president who has never really had to think his way out of any situation. And we have a president form whom a democratically structured system is anathema, corporate management structures are hierarchical, everything flows from the top down. I've heard many people over the years ask "why can't the government be run like a business?" Well those idiots got their wish. This government is being run like a business, a badly managed business. And for all their talk about "thinking outside the box" once these business school morons get an idea fixed in their tiny minds, they'll run with it, and the company, or in this case the government, right into the ditch.

Pot police state

Now what the fuck's wrong with this?!

by Mark Bruggom, KICD, Spencer

Someone who knew or cared for a northwest Iowa child has turned the child's parents in for smoking pot.

Spencer couple's been arrested on drug charges after they consented to a search of their home. Jerry and Samatha Wise are both 35 years old and both face charges of posession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The Iowa Department of Human Services had received a tip drugs were being used in the Wise home, in front of a child. Both were booked at the Clay County Jail and then released.
Radio Iowa.com

O', my fuckin' gawd, the parents were smoking pot in front of the kid. The fuckin' kid's going to get hooked on marijuana if some one don't intervene. Take the little bastard out of the house and throw the parents in jail and throw away the key!!

Y'know, what kind of sick society do we live in where a child can be taken out of her home, because the parents partake of a recrational drug that does no one any harm, soothes, relaxes and only documented side-effect is weight gain, on hearsay. The poor kid's probably more traumatized by seeing mommy and daddy in handcuffs than from knowing they smoke pot.

The view from Olympus

Alexander Cockburn,at both his CounterPunch.org web site and at The Nation.com writes:

Outrage burns in many an American breast, but there's scant outlet for it in the political arena. A friend of mine took his family to the annual Puyallup Fair near Tacoma, Washington. There was a CNN booth, in which a mini "Democracy Wall", an 8-by-4-foot sheet of butcher paper, was available for people to scrawl their sentiments in felt-tip. Fast as the CNN staffers changed the paper, scores more hastened forward to scribble their views, almost all of them harsh in language toward both CNN and the President. Families photographed each other in postures vulgarly disrespectful to the life-size cutout of Wolf Blitzer. When an older man -- he turned out to be the retired commander of a nuclear submarine -- rebuked the crowd and called for loyalty to Bush, the mood turned ugly, and for reasons of his personal safety he was advised to leave. "And yet," said my friend, the anthropologist David Price, "try getting these people to an antiwar rally."

This is the jumping off point for a Cockburnian diatribe on the looniness of the 9/11 conspiracy aficionados. He simply dismisses them all as nuts, there is no bin Laden-Bush 9/11 conspiracy, end of discussion.

All this nuttiness, continues Cockburn, is merely a distraction:

I'm sure that the Bush gang, and all the conspirators of capital, are delighted at the obsessions of the 9/11 cultists. It's a distraction from the 1,001 real plots of capitalism that demand exposure and political challenge.

This is easy for him to say. Cockburn, after all, whether he likes or even wants to admit, is the product of privilege though his official biographies are very coy about his family and education, it's as if he burst forth on the journalistic stage fully-grown, as Athene from Zeus' head.

Yet for all of Cockburn's outrage and all his sarcasm and condescension he never once, at least from the little I've read of his works over the years, offers up any perscription for what ails us. And this is precisely why I have a love/hate relationship with Cockburn's writing: While many of his columns are spot on and I wholeheartedly agree with his conclusions, when it comes to shaking the grimy hands of the working class, Cockburn instinctively recoils. Socialist son of a Communist he maybe, but please don't mistake Mr. Cockburn for an eight-hour-a-day man.

Jesus Christ, lighten up Muslims

I vacillate between which of the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the sickest. Mostly it's a toss-up. Practitioners of the three get their tits in an uproar over the most trivial of things, seemingly at the drop of a hat.

Anyway, this morning we have another instance of endless Muslim outrage.

CINCINNATI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.

"They are planning on launching a jihad on the automotive market and their representatives would be wearing burqas ... ," Mirza said. "They mentioned the pope in there and also about giving rubber swords out to the kiddies -- really just reprehensible-type comments."

Details of the radio ad, which has not yet been broadcast, have been reported in the local media, but officials at the dealership declined to comment about the content of the radio spot.

He also said the Council on American-Islamic Relations would likely contact the dealer to "offer some kind of cultural or sensitivity awareness training."
Reuters.com

Actually, it sounds kind of funny, like something out of the old movie Used Cars. But, nooooo. Like the current uproar by the world's Catholics over Madonna's mock crucifixion during her stage show, Ohio's Muslim community is offended, offended they tell you! by radio commercials which haven't even been aired as of this time. I know, I'm sounding like your average white American reactionary, you know the kind of idiot who says something like, "We called the one black kid on our high school football team "N_____" all the time and he didn't seem to care."

But that's not it at all. I am just fed up with religion in general and monotheism in particular. And I have a simple solution for bringing about harmony among all the adherents of the world's three great monotheistic traditions, three nuclear bombs: one for Jerusalem, one for Mecca and one for Vatican City. We could also do with smaller conventional bombs on the Thomas Road Baptist Chruch in Lynchburg, VA and Pat Robertson's home in Virginia Beach, VA for starters. Maybe a nuke on Salt Lake City for good measure.

My message to all the world's religious leaders: Grow the fuck up.