Wingnut and notoriously lazy blogger Confederate Yankee posts another gem.

In Conserva-circles, a “gem” appears to be a chunk of somebody else’s work that you mis-read, mis-interpret and then put up as your own opinion. Come to think of it, that’s also “rank stupidity” and “Conservative punditry,” something of a Norton Utility for right-wing internettia. If only “Norton” were “Kristolbennetto’reilly.” Anyway, it must be an especially useful practice when your own weak-backed analysis can’t manage more than 20 or 30 words of ricocheting irony.

This one’s a howler. In a post he titled “Governed by Fools” (*cough*), he bracketed the cut-and-paste job with the only effort he muscled up for the affair, two sentences:

They mismanage wars, economies, and even disasters:

[...]

Why, why do liberals place such blind trust in legendary incompetence of government bureaucrats, instead of the ingenuity of the people?

Why, oh why, my Jeebus? Governments and arrogance and fascism and bureaucrats and statism and socialism, oh lordy. When will you collectivist a-holes finally look to the individual? (In this case, by Yankee link, to a gritty American entrepreneur by the name of “Kevin Costner.”) When?!

Anyway, here’s the point, or someone else’s, so vital that he had to copy it onto his site:

The Dutch know how to handle maritime emergencies. In the event of an oil spill, The Netherlands government, which owns its own ships and high-tech skimmers, gives an oil company 12 hours to demonstrate it has the spill in hand. If the company shows signs of unpreparedness, the government dispatches its own ships at the oil company’s expense. “If there’s a country that’s experienced with building dikes and managing water, it’s the Netherlands,” says Geert Visser, the Dutch consul general in Houston.

That socialist Dutch government: there go a pile of bad-asses. No kidding, see for yourself.

It’s sad to have to post news like this, but it’s important to know the truth about what’s really happening down in the Gulf. I doubt that Americans really appreciate the amount of misery BP has caused. The oil conglomerate’s done a pretty professional job of keeping the bad press to a minimum, but that doesn’t do anything for the suffering of the people. It just keeps piling up:

FORT MORGAN, Ala. — An Orange Beach, Ala., charter boat captain shot and killed himself this morning just before his vessel was scheduled to set out to take part in oil cleanup and protection efforts, investigators said.

For some background on the tragedy, click over to this previous post: El Paso Border Patrol agent fires into crowd of Juarez rock throwers, kills 14 year old

Well, the first lies have already been exposed in the tragic shooting and killing of Mexican teenager Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. Stay tuned for more to follow.

Allegedly fearing for his life and surrounded by a “crowd” (as I wrote, above) of violent rock-throwers, the agent, patrolling in the culvert that forms the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, fired in self-defense and hit the 14 15 year-old’s head. Or so they said.

“Another agent arrived on his bicycle along the cement apron that forms the riverbank on the U.S. side,” [FBI agent Andrea] Simmons said in a release. “That agent detained a second subject, Augustin Alcaraz Reyes, but other subjects ran into Mexico and began to throw rocks at the agent.

“This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat,” Simmons said. “However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.”

A Top 10 Rule for Post-Modern Life: Don’t foist a despicable lie upon the public that tomorrow’s cell phone clip will blow out of the water.

Looks like stone cold murder to me. Unless they suddenly want to add the boy, incidentally, had a bazooka in his hands.

That’s all I want to say about this today. One, it’s just too sad. Two, this is an international scandal worthy of weeks of discussion. Three, Americans don’t give a fuck. They are a hard-hearted people when it comes to the deaths and lives of Mexicans.

It’s not enough that we back the Israelis no matter what they do — now we’re gonna borrow their tactics, too?

Wait, I take that back. The Israelis wised up long ago and learned to use rubber bullets in confrontations with rock throwers. Well . . at least some of the time. Not us, no sir. For us, teens throwing rocks across the border fence-line constitutes a “deadly force” incident. By all means, go shoot one of them in the head:

Mexico asks for probe into teen’s shooting death by U.S. border agent
By Arthur Brice, CNN
June 8, 2010 — Updated 2129 GMT (0529 HKT)

(CNN) — The Mexican government is requesting a quick and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent of a Mexican teen in Ciudad Juarez on Monday night, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The teen was shot during a rock-throwing incident, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

Mexico “reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter,” the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release . .

Monday night’s incident started around 6:30 p.m. when Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States near the Paso del Norte port of entry, FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons said.

A suspect identified as Oscar Ivan Pineda Ayala was initially detained on the Rio Grande levy, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation.

“Another agent arrived on his bicycle along the cement apron that forms the riverbank on the U.S. side,” Simmons said in a release. “That agent detained a second subject, Augustin Alcaraz Reyes, but other subjects ran into Mexico and began to throw rocks at the agent.

“This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat,” Simmons said. “However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died” . .

Ciudad Juarez spokesman Sergio Belmonte identified the dead 14-year-old boy as secondary student Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca.

Belmonte said Hernandez was shot in the head.

“The young man was not armed,” Belmonte said. “He did not have the physical size to threaten anyone. The aggression (by the U.S. agent) is evident.”

Ugh. So, will Arizonans form massive support demonstrations for the brave Border Patrol agent defending himself against the violent Mexican thug? Will they go on and on about how impossible it is to routinely enforce immigration laws when the immigrants are universally angry, armed and anti-American? Will they point out that even Mexican 14 year-olds are dangerous because that’s just the way those people are, y’know, down there?

Will the Israelis go out of their way to support the right of the United States and its Border Patrol agents to defend themselves? Especially in light of the well-known dangers being constantly smuggled into lands we’re obligated to provide security for? Will they see the teen’s rock-throwing as a shallow p.r. ploy to goad American agents into violence meant to embarrass the U.S.?

Will John McCain make a series of campaign commercials highlighting the incident, calling the courageous but overburdened Border Patrol “HEROES”, similar to our Iraqi soldiers? Will he then draw up a plan for a “SURGE” down at the border in order to get our people the personnel and support they need to “win” the immigration “war”? Will he ride the mess to victory in November and return to the Senate so we can see him on teevee every Sunday morning for another million years?

I dread the fall-out from this sad thing.

So true! They suckered us all!

Probably crawling out of their coffins as we speak! The scamps.

As usual, Conservatives’ singing and lyrics are killer. I’M FUNNY TOO.

Gaza flotilla participants created war atmosphere before confronting Israel
Participants chanted Islamic battle cry invoking killing of Jews and called for Martyrdom
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

On the day before the Gaza flotilla confronted the Israeli navy, Al-Jazeera TV documented the pre-battle atmosphere created by men on board the flotilla, who chanted a well-known Islamic battle cry invoking the killing and defeat of Jews in battle:

“[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!”

Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad’s army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.

Al-Jazeera also interviewed a woman who said that the flotilla participants’ goal was “one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or reaching Gaza.”

Well, if it was a “war-like atmosphere” the day before, go ahead and kill them. Sporting that sort of attitude on a boat at sea, they get what they deserve. Especially when they’re arrogant enough to “confront . . the Israeli navy” by being overtaken and boarded.

Can’t take a righteous beating, huh?

Because anyone begging for an all-out clash with the Israeli Defense Forces brings “bats, clubs, knives, and slingshots.” So the IDF routed a flotilla of activist Boy Scouts, bravo. They sure as hell weren’t terrorists, those guys carry guns and bombs.

I’m going to try to keep this brief. I just spent, oh, 3 or 4 hours reading up on the disaster (actually, I’m lying, it’s probably double that), and I think it’s pretty clear what happened. It’d be easy to go on and on about it, but I’ll try to avoid that.

They were working on a well that they drilled, found their expected oil, and decided to shut it down in order to return to it later. They were capping it, getting ready to leave it behind, when it blew up. They had a violent, catastrophic ‘blowout’ that killed 11 people, their remains never recovered, and the well continues to gush something like 5,000 barrels a day out of the sea floor, threatening thousands of miles of American coastline and ecology.

The key to understanding the catastrophe is to realize that the oil, mixed with gases, is 18,000 plus feet down, hot and highly pressurized. Once vented by drilling into it, they had to be careful how they managed it.

Having tapped it and held it in check, they were sealing it. It’s here where the testimony between the three operators differs as to what they did, and who was responsible for the explosion.

British Petroleum has the rights to the oil, so they own the well on the sea floor. Transocean ran the giant floating rig, now dead. Halliburton were the hands-on contractors doing most of the work. In testimony Tuesday, they all blamed each other. What I believe is clear is this: they never properly ‘capped’ the well. [see diagram here]

The ‘capping’ of a well is a tricky thing, having to make the transition between having a constant, dynamic control of the situation and sealing it off, leaving it behind. With so much pressure in the well, the important thing was to keep the thousands of feet of heavy ‘drilling mud‘ in the riser (‘pipe’) above the well in the line. Everybody recognizes that. It’s what pushes back on the considerable pressure in the well.

The typical capping procedure appears to go like this:

1.) Cement the upper well area between the drilled rock and outer edges of the metallic well lining to provide a gas-and-oil tight seal.

2.) Drop a cement plug deep into the bore hole, above the oil.

3.) Drop a 2nd cement plug above the first, separated by some amount of drilling mud.

4.) Wait some amount of time to allow the cement to seal and to allow some testing of the ‘cap.’

5.) If assured of the seal, pump salt water into the riser to extract the drilling mud. The well is capped.

We know this: they were capping the well. But someone ordered the heavy drilling mud removed before the cap was properly set. At least one and maybe both cement caps were never set, but they began to back off the well anyways. With minimal ceiling pressure, the gases exploded out of the well and then ignited only a minute or two later, killing 11 people, sealing the fate of the rig and the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. Once exposed and embarrassed, once pushed into the spotlight for being horribly, perfectly wrong, somebody’s got to start repairing the facade of Conservative philosophy. It can’t be as stupid and reckless as we say it is.

So, one by one, the brave and the callow and the fearless crawl out from the woodwork to come up with whatever excuses they can to rehabilitate the brand and its brilliant proponents.

So, here we go again. There are almost no sea animals dead — have you seen any? It’s not so bad, c’mon . .

SEE? It’s nothing, pffft.

Hey – by the way — if we stop offshore drilling, the spilling of oil and the environmental damage will only get worse . .

Absolutely perfect timing. This ‘sabotage’ gambit about Bhopal is something right wingers love to pull out of their asses. It has never been substantiated and neglects to admit that the chemical plant was in wretched condition and dangerous as hell.

Accepting offshore drilling and its spills is better for the environment. See? It’s all so easy to understand, you people are upset for nothing.

Lastly: let’s face it, let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we? I bet you liberals just blew the rig up . .

Next up: the rig itself was liberal, and it failed exactly as they predicted . .

Let’s hope that it took so long because of a thorough, professional investigation:

Motivational speaker charged in sweat lodge deaths
By FELICIA FONSECA
Wednesday, February 3, 2010; 10:28 PM

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday afternoon on three counts of manslaughter for deaths that happened after a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona last year.

Ray was taken into custody on an indictment at his attorney’s office in Prescott and later led into the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and a dark jacket. His bond was set at $5 million, and his first court hearing was scheduled Thursday.

Ray’s attorneys said Wednesday he surrendered to authorities but that the charges were unjust and they were confident he would be exonerated in court. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 12 1/2 years on each count.

“This was a terrible accident, but it was an accident, not a criminal act,” Ray attorney Luis Li said. “James Ray cooperated at every step of the way, providing information and witnesses to the authorities showing that no one could have foreseen this accident.”

You only need to read some of the coverage I’ve given to this murderous narcissist’s behavior both before and after the sweat lodge deaths to see through his lawyers’ bullcrap. He deserves to get the book thrown at him.

ADD: Nothing on his website yet. But there is a posting there from a few days ago asking people to read his interview in ‘New York’ magazine where he defends himself against the accusations of criminal negligence and discusses, up to the point that his lawyers step in, what occurred:

Did you tell sweat-lodge participants that vomiting was good for them, that the body was purging what it doesn’t want?

I may have mentioned that I had been told by many shamans that the body purges and there’s only certain ways that it can purge. Obviously, you know the bodily functions, so there’s only certain ways that things exit the body.

What did you do after making sure 911 was called?

I did everything I could to help. There was a medical doctor there, and I was having her make sure that everything was being run appropriately. I held people’s hands, I stroked their hair, I talked to them, I held IV for the paramedics. I was there the entire time doing whatever I could do to help until I was detained by the detectives.

One of your former employees, Melinda Martin, has said that you did nothing to help. Where was she when you were helping?

She was performing CPR, which she was trained to do. And I was there behind her at one time until I was asked to go look for a defibrillator.

You’ve been quoted as saying, in the tent, “You’re not going to die. You might think you are, but you’re not going to die.” Did you say that?

I think those statements have been—in fact, I don’t think, I know those statements have been taken completely out of context. There’s no one who would say that I was talking literally. If you look at the Judeo-Christian tradition, it’s full of references to death and rebirth. In fact, the apostle Paul, who was pretty much the founder of Christianity post-Jesus’s death, said, “I die daily.” Now, did he really mean that literally? No, of course not. What is meant there is that, you know, you let go of the things that no longer serve you and you move forward. You know, from a physical perspective, a lot of times people running a foot race will be completely winded and say, “God, I feel like I’m going to die,” but do they mean that literally? No, absolutely not.

As linked above, you can read in multiple posts how he presented the ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat as some opportunity to ‘die’ your current self and bring out a new one. So if he was telling people who were passing out and puking they weren’t going to die, it had to be in the literal sense. He’s lying.

Nonetheless, he was linking to the interview at the top of his website, so he must have thought he’d done a pretty good job of handling the issues and deflecting blame. He was wrong.

When you spend time in Haiti like me, you ‘feel the evil’:

Republicans have an instant explanation for everything that happens. It’s always about behavior. The great blessing of Conservatism, never being plagued with mysteries.

Chuck Norris got off a typically stupid and cynical take:

Save Lives in Haiti, End Lives in America?

While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was announcing Friday all that the present administration was doing to save lives in Haiti, he reported that President Barack Obama was meeting with both the House and Senate Democrats to resolve how they could provide federal funds via Obamacare to terminate more American lives in the womb…

What a great time to scream at us about abortion. But Ann Coulter is the Queen, as usual:

“Stop asking about Rush’s statement. I made some controversial statements this week too,” Coulter said on Geraldo at Large.

Then she went on to prove it. Discussing the bi-partisan humanitarian effort by former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Coulter said Clinton is a “national embarrassment” and Bush shouldn’t be “forced” to partner with him.

“To force poor ex-President Bush — like he hasn’t suffered enough — to be hanging around with Bill Clinton, who’s leaving his essence on Kleenex in the White House…” she said to a chorus of groans from the rest of the panel…

Latest death toll: 200,000. Toll on right-wing egos: climbing by the minute.

Media Matters has it covered. Except for Ancash (Peru) in 1970, it’s the worst, most devastating earthquake in the Western Hemisphere in over a century. But Fox ‘News’ isn’t interested in it.

REPORT: Top Fox News programs devote scant coverage to Haiti earthquake

On January 13, Fox News’ three top-rated programs for 2009 — The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, and Glenn Beck — devoted a combined total of less than 7 minutes of coverage to the earthquake in Haiti, instead choosing to air such things as Beck’s hour-long interview with Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly’s discussion of Comedy Central host Jon Stewart, and Sean Hannity’s advocacy for Massachusetts candidate Scott Brown’s Senate campaign. By contrast, the content of MSNBC’s three top-rated shows underscored the significance of the Haiti disaster; Countdown, The Rachel Maddow Show, and Hardball devoted a total of more than two hours to the earthquake.

Liberals have a reality bias.