IT BURNS! BURNS! BURNS!

But when it comes to lying about things that really matter, you can’t beat those on the left. Back in the bad old days of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union built what were called Potemkin Villages. These were show places designed to convince gullible American tourists that the Soviet Union was the workers’ paradise they claimed it to be.

That burning ring of stupid...

Potemkin Villages were purportedly fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787.

BURNS! BURNS! BURNS!

From "Weeds" and Marijuana Chic

• BOO!

Barack Obama brought his traditional values tour to North Dakota on Thursday, but ended up struggling to explain how his upcoming trip to Iraq might refine, but not basically alter, his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war.

snip

He left the impression that his talks with military commanders could refine his promise to remove U.S. combat troops within 16 months of taking office.

It'll go like this:

Barack Obama: This war is stupid, I'm going to bring all of you and your men home.

Military Commanders: Cool but if we leave odds are this place is going to explode and CNN will show mass slaughter every night for like a month.

BO: Ah, let me refine my original statement, this war is stupid and I'm going to leave you and your men here to keep killing and dying until it gets smart.

Sure it was Bush that dropped America into but that won't change the reality that it's all now Obama's responsibility and who would want to be responsible for a massacre that would end with a new Saddam or Ayatollah running the dump from atop of a pile of bodies?

And when McCain wins it'll be four more years of things getting worse then better and that better being declared "progress!" and ignored when it goes back to worse, it'll be like Bush never left!

America will be in Iraq until a genuinely friendly government with complete control over a stable nation is formed or something so horrible happens that it'll be impossible for them to stay.

Given the history of the region, the players and the situation which scenario is most likely?

Happy July 4th!

Because he was nearby when the story broke, no really:

Boost for McCain as US Hostages Head Home in Time for July 4

What other news for parrots wingnuts is there?

A federal appeals court gave an anti-abortion group the go-ahead Wednesday to drive trucks with enlarged photos of aborted fetuses past California schools, saying the Constitution protects the display of disturbing messages.

Really? Well now, let's slap up a shot of Goatse.cx and put that sucker to the test.

The Iraqi government has banned candidates in upcoming provincial elections from using pictures in their campaign materials of people not running for office, the government's spokesman said Thursday.

The ban primarily affects Shiite religious parties such as the movement of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that use images of clerics in campaign posters. The government also banned candidates from campaigning in mosques or other places of worship.

snip

For months, the Sadrists have been complaining that their Shiite political rivals in the government have been targeting their movement ahead of upcoming elections, arresting many of their followers under the pretext of security crackdowns.

Hey, remember how America started mucking around with Iran? How they supported the pro-Western candidate and all his dirty tricks and oppressive tactics back in the 70s? This is totally not the same thing at all and even if it was it's so going to work this time.

Iraq's foreign minister said Wednesday that concessions by both sides had advanced the prospects for a new security agreement needed for U.S. forces to remain in the country beyond the end of the year.

Seeking to dispel criticism that the agreement would infringe on Iraqi sovereignty, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the opposition was based on "misrepresentations, confusion and politicizing."

The agreement being negotiated would be in effect only one or two years and it would not sanction any permanent U.S. bases, Zebari said at a news conference.

Sanction? Why would America need sanction to do stuff that they're already doing in the country they've invaded, occupied and run? Does anyone seriously think that the US has sunk millions into the Biggest Base in Iraq just to leave? That they turned an Iraqi air base into Smalltown USA just for laughs? The embassy / palace, that's just for show? The only way the Americans will ever leave is if there isn't any profit in staying and considering how much oil is worth? Well two dead soldiers and $255 million a day certainly isn't enough in the loss column to change any minds anytime soon.

UPDATE:

Remember how cell phones and satellite dishes were signs that Baghdad was a darn good successful mission accomplished? The bar has been lowered even further:

There is an unexpected air of normalcy prevailing in Baghdad these days, with consumption flourishing and confidence in the government growing. The progress is astonishing, but can it last?

Pork is available in Baghdad once again.

snip

For four years, selling pork or alcohol in Baghdad was a security risk. But the acts of terror committed by Islamist fundamentalists, who once punished such violations of their interpretation of the Koran with attacks on businesses and their owners, have gradually subsided.

Wow.

Hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, the region and world further destabilized so Iraqis can enjoy Homer Simpson's favorite meal and drink.

And of course you could get bacon and booze when Saddam was running the joint

Soon the wingnuts and warfloggers will be trumpeting Baghdad's gravity.

Talk about your original sins, that just has to be a new one.

(Via a reader, thanks A!)

the coolest or stupidest thing I've ever done in my life.

In a nutshell I just sent my CV off and if I get the job I may end up in Kandahar giving the finger to the Taliban by teaching chicks how to desktop publish / graphic design and play Guitar Hero.

I'm doing the Guitar Hero thing as a side project, I shan't mention it at the interview.

To be be fair I thought the guy said "Candyland" and from what I understand there may be a difference between the two.

In the unlikely event I get the job / don't chicken out there will be a conversation with mom that will start awkward and possible end with my kneecaps busted.

Anything to avoid another fucking winter... Afghanistan is one of the warm places right?

He admits it:

I’m ashamed of Canada and Canadians

The reason is that Dr. Morgentaler got the Order of Canada for all his baby killing or at least that's how Wingcanucks like Joel see it. It's driven him quite batty, here's some choice specks of rabid foam:

Pro-abortion monster, avowed socialist, and state-run media anchor all now in Order of Canada

Huh, are there pro-life monsters?

Governor-General should be fired; and the position aborted

This is actually something I agree with, I know it's all symbolic but if I had my way we'd shred every and anything to do with the monarchy even when they GG is a babe.

Here’s some advise for Canadians: The governor-general, the former state-owned, state-run CBC reporter Michaelle Jean, who was appointed by the failed Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, should be fired and her position aborted. She approved nationally awarding a despicable man —an abortion mill operator. With our nation’s highest honor. On Canada Day. In a special Canada Day ceremony.

I can’t even imagine worse judgment than that.

That's because he's not very smart.

Morgentaler is an extremist monster. At the minimum, he’s a controversial figure in the most extreme way imaginable.

I know, don't even try, it's just causes ice-cream headaches.

At worst, he makes Canadians vomit with moral, physical, and emotional grief and outrage and shame.

No, that's just the Canada Day aftermath. Fun fact, they have to hose down some of the streets in my neighborhood, they woke me up doing it this morning.

So approving Canada’s highest honor for him on Canada Day is exactly the worst possible thing the governor general, who should be the very epitome of a moderate, stabilizing, uniting figure, could possibly do.

Except most Canadians appreciate Morgentaler and his work so, no, not really.

A traditionalist conservative-thinking Canadian person with a generation or two of deep traditional Canadian heritage —and a stable mind— should be hired as a temp for the job, while the government works on aborting the now fully tainted, and in any case ridiculous position, altogether. Change the constitution. It needs a lot of work in any case.

Stable mind? Well that leaves Joel out.

Naturally the Order of Canada honor should now be aborted. It is now not necessarily wanted or needed or loved.

Ho!Ho! You see what he did there?

But I'm glad that he now understands that he's not "Proud to be Canadian" and never has been. He's one of those wee brained fools that confuse what he thinks to be with what is and the dichotomy confuses and angers him to no end.

Learn from the best has always been my motto:

A training course at Gitmo was modeled on tactics that Chinese forces used to interrogate American prisoners during the Korean War, according to The New York Times.

The paper reports that interrogation trainers used a chart with "coercive management techniques" that were "copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners."

Yeah but when America tortures they do it for good so how can it be bad? Anyway when you've invaded and occupied a country in a blatantly illegal way torture is just a drop of blood in an ocean of the stuff.

A family in Margate said they saw the image of Jesus on a palm tree outside their home.

Family members said they can see the image when they are standing at least 2 feet away from the tree. As they get closer, they said, the image disappears.

Huh... you get close and the image vanishes... that's sounds familiar.

Via Sadly, No! we have a Gabby Johnston award (given to a person or collective that presents an example of authentic frontier gibberish expressing a courage that is little seen in this day and age) winner who is a little more correct in the grammar department than most “winners” but makes up for it by being the sort of bat-shit insane theist that makes atheism easier than Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith (seriously, I blazed through “medium”, getting mostly five stars, wasn’t booed off once). Meet Tom Kovach outspoken Christian and raving loony. (crazy long ass post here).

They're just so... oh what's the word?

''While they still can conduct the occasional bombing, and they desperately seek a high value media event, they essentially now pray (sic) on the helpless and engage in futile attacks against the Iraqi Security Forces,'' said Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq.

And by "occasional" he means "daily" and by desperately hell, I have no idea why they keep on blathering so.

There's been so much progress that:

The Pentagon is preparing to order roughly 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year, The Associated Press has learned.

The move would allow the U.S. to maintain 15 combat brigades in Iraq through 2009.

The deployments would replace troops currently there.

snip

Overall, there are about 146,000 troops in Iraq, and that number is expected to dip to about 142,000 by mid-July when that last unit is all out. That total is at least 7,000 more than the number of troops in Iraq before the buildup began early last year.

Huh, now that's weird because we were told last year that:

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he hoped troop levels in Iraq could be reduced from the current 169,000 to about 100,000 by January 2009, when the next U.S. president will take office.

I guess they want all of the American soldiers to enjoy the parades and candy throwing.

Or maybe they want to make sure that nothing goes wrong here:

The Iraqi government is to award a series of key oil contracts to British and US companies later today, fuelling criticism that the Iraq war was largely about oil.

Well it better be now, have you seen how expensive that shit is? Hopefully President McCain will be better at stealing than Bush was. I'd feel weird about sending soldiers to risk their life and limb so I can pay a bit less at the pumps but I'm not American, that may have something to do with it.

Seriously, right down to the name they gave the .jpg, I'm going to pop that into the Wikipedia entry.

Is there a heavenly vision in Dallas? You decide.

A slab of marble is getting a lot of attention.

A customer says there is a picture of Jesus that's naturally appeared on the rock. The owner of the marble company says the slab came from Brazil, already cut from igneous rock...rock that's older than Jesus.

Customer: "I think it's interesting to see an image of what we know as our Redeemer, millions of years ago, before he ever came to earth to save the people."

So.

God made the cosmos about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago but made it look billions of years older and just for strange and mysterious shits'n'giggles, in prehistoric rock he carved a snap-shot of his offspring that he was going to nail-up so he wouldn't be so pissed-off at his creation for behaving exactly how he created them in the first place?

And this carving wouldn't be found until someone decided they needed a new coutner-top?

There's a book called Letting go of God about a woman's struggle towards atheism I've got that I haven't read yet but I'm curious about it, can't begin to imagine why it would be hard not to believe in god stuff.

It never, ever, ever makes any sense, what more do you need?

Marvel Comics had a better sense of continuity and logic in the 1970s, perhaps theism needs some sort of "no-prize" system.