Drone On

"Oh, why do they hate us?!" wail the idiot sheeple and American Exceptionalists every time you turn around.

Predictable: Pauley kills what Leon resurrected

Well, I was my usual fly-in-the-ointment self last week. While people were crowing over Judge Richard Leon's ruling in favor of We The People and against the NSA, I kept saying, "Don't get your hopes up. It's not going to last. It'll be appealed, and the next judge who comes down the pike will strike it down."

Eat the Rich? (nah, not very nutritious)

As people assess their charitable giving in 2013, choosing which causes are most dear to them and also looking for a few tax breaks (as well they should, especially given that so much of our money goes to war and destruction), some recent research is sobering:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's something I wrote 6 years ago, for a now-defunct blog. Of course, it rankled the p.c. folks no end. I'd like to hope they've grown up since then, but somehow I doubt it:

In addition to Papa Bear O'Reilly's inane "War on Christmas," there are other seasonal idiocies afoot. One is the taking-offense by certain wet blankets when someone wishes them a Merry Christmas. So if I may:

Ted Rall again on Dems & Repubs

Ted Rall encore. As always, click to enlarge.

Angela Merkel invokes the Stasi in comparison to the NSA

From the Guardian: 

In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up.

. . . Livid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the Americans were listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: "This is like the Stasi." 

But when the rest of us say it, we're accused of being "hyperbolic" and "lunatic."

The only lunatics out there are the naysayers who refuse to acknowledge what's right under their noses. To wit, that the U.S. is morphing more and more into a police state with every passing day. Especially if you're young and black, and just waiting for a bus. And the U.K. is no better. Its cops, too, like to Taser people just for the hell of it.

Ted Rall on Republicans and Democrats

Another great cartoon by Ted Rall. As always, click to enlarge.

TSA propaganda cartoon aimed at children

“Stop. Screen. Go.”

Those are the magic words in a new TSA video cartoon aimed at children, called Prepare for Takeoff. It’s on a nifty page — “TSA Kids” — that’s part of the “Official Website of the Department of Homeland Security,” which also includes links to other fab TSA stuff, such as “Fun Page” and “Parents Page.”

As all propagandists know, you gotta get ‘em while they’re young.

TSA’s John Pistole shovels the shit yet again redux

The media are once again doing the TSA’s dirty work for it. Who needs PR flacks when you have newspapers, TV, radio, and the internet?

In Pa, Alabama, and Texas, drivers pulled over, asked for blood and saliva

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke. No, it isn't a scene out of a dystopian novel. It's just another day in the good ol' USA.

In Alabama, in Texas, and now in Pennsylvania, drivers have been flagged down by police and told to pull over into a parking lot so that a survey company can "ask" them for blood and saliva.

What exactly are they "surveying"?

Christmas

Media finally catch on to TSA pre-check scam

Some people in the media are finally catching on to what we here at TSA News have been saying for two years: Pre-Check is a joke. We’ve been pointing out the facts about this program from the beginning.

DOJ backpedals on claim that Guantanamo searches are like TSA’s

This past summer, a U.S. judge issued a rare ruling on the side of justice and the rule of law. Then, just as quickly, his ruling was appealed by the Department of Justice (sic) and overturned.

I wrote about that case here, in a post called “Guantanamo’s Prisoners Groins Protected; Too Bad Yours Aren’t.”

59% of Americans want to arm the TSA

Proving once again that you can’t underestimate the stupidity of the American public, over half of citizens polled favor putting guns in the hands of TSA agents.

Ryan-Murray budget deal would raise TSA fees

While half the country is up in arms over the Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal in Congress — with both conservatives and liberals disliking it for their own reasons — I see a twinkling, nay glittering, silver lining.

Glamour Girl: Paris Haute Couture

New Glamour Girl post is up, here.

WTF: Cops Shoot at Unarmed Man, Hit 2 Bystanders, Charge Man with Assault

Another in our continuing series called WTF. When I first read the following headline, I was sure it had to be from The Onion. But it's not. It's real:

Another Person Abused in Cavity Search by U.S. Authorities

As I said here, and I quote, "that means there are more. Logic dictates that there have to be more."

I was right.

David Simon Nails It Again

I've written before about local and national treasure David Simon (click the tag "David Simon" anywhere on this blog or check out this link). He keeps ringing alarm bells, and people keep ignoring them. Well, lots of people, not all of us. But our overlords are certainly ignoring them.

TSA seizes terroristy sock monkey, confiscates “gun”

“Appalled and shocked and embarrassed”?

That’s one way of putting it.

That’s how Phyllis May of Redmond, Washingon described her reaction when the brainiacs of the TSA seized a little cloth sock puppet — sock monkey, to be exact — in her bag and discovered the monkey’s nefarious intent:

Octopus Seal: Looks Like It's From The Onion, But It's Not

Another in our continuing series called WTF.

Really, you can't make this shit up. These people have no sense of themselves other than as characters in a science fiction novel. I don't have words for the levels of inanity, depravity, obliviousness, arrogance, unintentional revelation, and just plain immaturity this represents.

Mandela Dies, Obama Lies

The news that Nelson Mandela has died is, of course, bringing forth a ton of speeches, tributes, and encomia from all over the world. Not surprising, most of it self-serving. Let's recall that Mandela was taken off the U.S.'s official list of "terrorists" only in 2008. And that the CIA outed his whereabouts to the South African apartheid regime in 1962.

The transcript of Obama's comments is particularly galling. I know this man lies through his teeth as smoothly as any snake oil salesman, but he outdid himself yesterday:

Ted Rall Fires Back

In case you missed it yesterday, Ted Rall's brilliant riposte:

Poor and Rich

Mr. Fish on Terrorism and Chickens Coming Home to Roost

Daily Kos's Hypocrisy and Ted Rall's Capitulation

UPDATED BELOW.

As you know, I'm a great admirer of political cartoonist Ted Rall. I've done many posts on him and his brilliant, scathing political cartoons (click the tag "Ted Rall"). Along with Mr. Fish, he's one of the most provocative and truthful cartoonists out there.

Which truthfulness and provocation, of course, makes them both ripe for attack.

And attack is what's happening to Rall right now, thanks to the hypocrites and Obamabots of Daily Kos.

Hopscotch Crosswalk -- another in the continuing series of Why I Love Baltimore

I love my adopted hometown, for many reasons -- the architecture, the low cost of living, the lack of pretention, and yes, the much-vaunted and authentic quirkiness. Baltimore is full of characters -- John Waters didn't have to make anything up for those in his movies -- and I think it's one of our strengths.

So of course I flipped over this story about a Hopscotch Crosswalk downtown. It's just one of many artistic crosswalks being painted as we speak.

I wonder how many people will actually use it? I would. I will, next time I'm down there.

Luv ya, Charm City.

(Photo courtesy of Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and the Baltimore Sun)

Glamour Girl: Motilo

OH. 

MY. 

GOD. 

Glamour Girl has just stumbled upon these amazing shoes—actually, “shoes” doesn’t do them justice—and she is about to lose her mind. Of course she can’t afford them, but she is dreaming and swooning and calculating numbers in her busy brain nonetheless. They are: 

TSA exit portals or detention pods? You decide

A few weeks ago I caught wind of another nifty whiz-bang airport innovation guaranteed to make your journey even more onerous than it already is. And of course, it’s brought to you by our trusty friends at the TSA.