Just fer shits 'n giggles, I'll let you identify this one. It won't be hard.

Thanks to Thespadecaller.

This is just for fun. From the EssEffChron. Links added by moi.

Two generations of Goodyear sightings have conditioned us to call it a blimp, but in truth the Eureka is a zeppelin. Whatever you call it, the world's largest airship - 15 feet longer than a Boeing 747 - launched its first full weekend of sightseeing flights over Monterey Bay last month.

Airship Ventures began flying over San Francisco Bay in November. The Eureka, which was built in Germany and is one of only three zeppelins in the world, berths at Moffett Field.

More.

"Eureka" is also fitting because it's California's state motto.

Morford on Palin:

I know, I know, we all said we were entirely sick to death of you, Sarah, never wanted to hear another folksy, semi-coherent peep, were hugely grateful that you had mercifully receded like a perky red tide back up to the rural bucolic animal-skinned parts of podunk rusticville from whence you came. I know.

I know, good Sarah, we said all that. And oh dear God, we meant every word, too. No lie. We really, really meant it. Like you cannot believe. Really.

But now, something is amiss. Something feels, how do I say this, a little bit sad. Now that you've up and quit as America's favorite hottie milf ditzball politico moose-slashin' anti-choice anti-feminist destroyer of linear grammar, we feel adrift and lost, a nation without its favorite squeaky purple balloon.

No one ever imagined you'd step up to the mike and deliver one of the most barely coherent, side-steppin', nonsensical, what-the-hell-is-she-talking-about resignation speeches of all time, leaving your role as the right wing's most unlikely taste sensation to ... well, no one knows exactly who. Michele Bachmann? Trust me, Sarah, that flat-out nutbucket can't hold a candle to your winkin', smirkin', carefully manicured caricature of a smart female. Her ignorance and homophobia are far too literal and obvious. You were so much more fun, largely because no one can really understand a single word you say.

So now, we take it all back. I know, it's a bit humiliating to admit, but the nation needs you, Sarah.

Or, more specifically, liberals and Democrats need you, given the simply spectacular job you've done of helping drag the Republican party, if not further to the extremist nutball right, certainly much further down the ladder of intelligence, respect and viability, than even Bush could've dreamed. As long as you're serving as the GOP's hood ornament, and as long as Rush and O'Reilly and Glenn Beck are behind the wheel, the Republican party has not a single prayer of relevance and capability in the next two decades.

In other words, Sarah, the best the left can hope for is for the right's most extremist, silly or otherwise unhinged figureheads -- that's you, Sarah! -- to keep doing exactly what they're doing, shoving out the moderate voices of their own party in favor of wacky fanaticism and raging on about homosexuals and abortion and God, thus locking in Obama's second term and further guaranteeing their own delightful irrelevance.

Do you see, Sarah? We need you here, to keep doing your fine and upstanding and nonsensical work, keep making the right the adorable laughingstock of the world it has so very become.

I don't know if 'adorable' is quite the right word, but who am I to argue with a word- and thoughtsmith like Morford?

And don't worry, Mark. She's not going anywhere. She quit to make money, just a career move - she has to go national because graft in Alaska is too slow. If she helps tank the Repug party the rest of the way, I'll say she deserves every goddam dime she can squeeze out of whatever it is she thinks she's got.

Dr. Fez:

... Mommy and Daddy pay off your mistress and her cuckolded husband. Now THAT'S the Republican way!

That probably more than one (just going by the odds*) advanced civilization is being destroyed?

Four galaxies collide. Pic from here via Oliver Willis.

*The Milky Way - the galaxy in which Earth and the Solar System is in a relative backwater - holds hundreds of millions of stars and is about a hundred thousand light years in diameter. It is home to at least one intelligent, advanced civilization (though that's a judgment call in my book). In four galaxies, there have to be two or three, unless you're of the belief that God created all this vastness just for us ... you know, the ones in the backwater of the Milky Way.

Maru:

...

The Minnesota GOP has sent a check to Senator Al Franken for almost $96,000 to partially reimburse him for defending the election contest under the state's "loser pays" law.

...

Yes! "Loser" being the operative word.

We got this from a comment on this post and I thought it deserved to be seen by all:

This is stolen from elsewhere, not written by me:

"McNamara's Damned"
(to the tune of "McNamara's Band")

Oh! His name was McNamara,
Was the leader of the damned.
Although they lacked in morals,
Somehow got to rule the land.
Invaded disobedient puppets,
And hated freedom for all.
Thousands did not get funerals,
After they're shot against a wall.

Oh! The guns go bang, the innocents hang,
And the corpses blaze away;
McCarthyists pump like old buffoons
While politics they do play;
Fascist sadomasochists think torture's a hoot,
And constitutions they disband;
A detriment to democracy was McNamara's hand.
Chopvac | 08.07.09 - 14:06 | #

Thanks, Chopvac.

The Rude Pundit, obviously a regular reader of the Brain, expands on Fixer's post:

Somewhere, you know the Clintons are laughing their asses off at Sarah Palin punking out of politics. And that'd be even as they shake their heads listening to bullshit pundit after bullshit pundit declare that poor Sarah Palin and her poor kids and her poor husband were treated oh-so-very cruelly by Katie Couric and the Bloggers.

Shit like this is on an endless loop on CNNMSNBCFox. It's pick and choose the most fucked-up stuff some commenter on Daily Kos wrote while insisting that the beleaguered Palins were treated worser than the worstest any family has ever been worstly treated in the history of worstness. Oh, and Tina Fey hurt her feelings.

Fuck them and fuck her. Sure, people are gonna say mean shit about her. Sure, Andrew Sullivan might get a bit obsessed over whether or not Trig's Palin's kid or not. And if a candidate preaches abstinence but her daughter gets knocked up before marriage? That'd be kind of relevant. But the mainstream media, for the most part, when it wasn't jacking off about how mavericky this moose-huntin' twit (Get an editor, RP. Shoulda been 'twat' - G) was, questioned whether or not Palin was smart enough or experienced enough to be vice-president. Hey, those are legitimate lines of inquiry, even if George W. Bush took them off the table for a few years.

And as for who's been treated worse?

Whether or not Bill and Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster murdered was discussed on mainstream news channels, not just dismissed as sheer madness. Elected Republicans made jokes about Chelsea Clinton's awkward adolescent looks. And when someone investigates Sarah Palin and talks about the shape of her vagina and how she sucks a dick, then we can even begin to talk about who is treated unfairly. It wasn't just some cranky-ass blogger. It was the way the national media functioned: as a nonstop Clinton attack machine. The Clintons fucking took it all, like Rocky against Apollo Creed, man, in Rocky II.

And all this shit was even before blogs existed. What kind of fucktarded shitstorm would have cycloned through the nutzoid right and the 24-hour news networks, desperately trying to fill time until the world ends, if blogs had been around? Oh, right, ask Barack and Michelle Obama about birth certificates, Bill Ayers, and secret Muslim terrorist agendas.

Palin got a taste of it, like a particularly intense amuse bouche. And, as the Rude Pundit said yesterday, if she were truly the honest person her plummeting number of supporters believe she is, she would have simply said last week that she couldn't take it anymore and everyone can kiss her ass. But, hey, maybe Rachael Ray needs some competition.

Shit, Moosebreath ain't a pimple on Rachael's ass. At least Rachael's cute and, lightweight TV cooking show/cookbook author/travel host that she knows she is, doesn't try to bullshit people into thinkin' she's something she's not, like Palin trying to convince people she's something besides another ignorant wingtarded white trash phony christian.

Palin? Honest? Not even when everybody commutes on flyin' pigs. Ain't happenin'.

Oh shit oh dear, I've victimized her...

New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels

We'll be able to get our recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C just by ridin' around with Fixer! Win-win!

Mark Karlin

The Republicans and their corporate sponsors have long known that if a governnment option gets a toe-hold it could to lead to a fundamental re-alignment in which many of the middle and working class Americans that they have demagogued to hate their government come to see the very same governnment as a friend and savior of their health. This is what has happened in nations around the world that have national healthcare -- and a government option isn't even national healthcare, but it will be in time because once you take the profit and excess healthcare costs created by private health insurance out of the system, the default will be Medicare for everyone.

Me 'n Mrs. G get Medicare next year. It's going to cost us about $15 Grand to get there. It hurts, but we can do it. We dare not let our COBRA lapse because at our age, anything can go wrong at any moment. Also, we're both motorcyclists and a rousing good broken leg can cost ten times that without insurance these days.

I think my point is that that's a lot of money for younger folks with kids who are just starting out in life with lotsa payments to make. If they don't get their insurance through their work, they're screwed whether they get sick or busted up or not. It's just too expensive.

I bring up my beer run metaphor once again: Everybody, even and maybe especially people who don't need much health care now, kicks in. Everybody gets the health care they need whenever they need it for life, and they will need it sometime. Socialized medicine? Sure, or maybe 'communal' as in 'shared' is a better word. Repugs don't like 'comm'-anything because it reminds them of communists and hippies whom they're scared of and don't like, and they ain't much for 'sharing' anything either, especially at a cost to profit.

Fuck them.

Maybe 'civilized medicine' is a better term.

By the way, I've always gotten my health insurance through Mrs. G's employment. The health care plan at most of the motorcycle shops I've worked at was to drag you out in the middle of the street and call 911. Given that most motorcycle mechanics with sudden onset medical problems are already lying in the middle of the street courtesy of some moron in a Buick, it wasn't really much of a chore for the shop staff. And since some citizen would usually call the cops to come arrest the scooter trash who was blocking traffic and get him outta the way of their important mall run, the shop guys didn't even have to make the call. The Service Manager was more worried about the customer's bike anyway. That they had to go deal with.

We knew Obama in Illinois. As anyone who reads BuzzFlash knows, we fiercely fought for him in the Democratic primary and the general election.

But we did not know that his desire not to alienate the D.C. villagers would lead to his capitulation on change and evolve it into an acceptance that he is not going to risk leadership with the audacity of fighting for what Americans need for their healthcare, and what will be most cost-effective. In short, Rahm Emanuel and others are telling him that the moneybags of the health insurance industry have too much power to be defeated by the President of the United States.

In the case of Barack Obama not taking the fight for the government option to the mat, we may be seeing a serious character flaw -- a man who can't distinguish between the raised expectations of fighting rhetoric and an actual fight.

Mr. President, if those bastards are too much for you to handle, call a meeting of all the insurance and pharma people and their lobbyists and senators too. Have me and Fixer officiate at the meeting. We'll have single payer in ten minutes. Twenty minutes if there are TV cameras present because we'll have to be more gentle. You can get it through while they're all out cold. It'll only take that long because we'll want a smoke break. The 'rhetoric' will be pretty basic and I don't think it'll be much of a 'fight'.

As our BuzzFlash columnist Phil Carpenter noted this morning, if President Obama doesn't get a bill with a full government health insurance option, he may not only have caved into the powers with the profiteering billions, he may have lost his re-election campaign.

Maybe, maybe not. The stoopids amongst us elected a court-appointed Epic Fail president pretty recently. They might re-elect an elected one too.

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY by Brad Reed of Commonweal Institute

The Neocons Have No Credibility, So Why Do They Get So Much Media Exposure?

Shorter: Anything more complicated than the neocons' "We Have The God-Given Right To Rule The World By Any Means Necessary" message makes the highly-paid political analysts' heads hurt.

For those of you unfamiliar with the neoconservatives - or neocons, as they are often referred to - they're a clique of right-wing foreign policy ideologues who think the use of American military power is always justified under any circumstances. The endgame, as neocon Max Boot put it, is to have American troops occupy the "troubled lands" that "cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets."

That's the same outfit they have the hookers wear to administer the beatings. The English liked that too and they ruled the world.

Ask the Limeys how that's been workin' lately.

*In the neocons' case, Keep It Simple and Stupid.

Congressman Patrick Murphy (D - PA-8) gets Gordon's Alternate Brain Good Guy Of The Week Award.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jill has a question:

Can you imagine if the Republicans had the White House, the House of Representatives, and a 60-vote majority in the Senate?

The sphincter tightens thinking about it.

No longer the darling of most of the GOP (but still going strong with the spank-your-monkey faction - "Ooh, I love rubber!"), her only career from here out will be as a fishwife (Rush Lintball's fishwife):

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's campaign has no interest in help from Sarah Palin after the former vice presidential candidate stepped down as governor of Alaska, in part to help Republican candidates across the country.

...

Palin is getting a lukewarm response in Virginia, the other high-profile governor's race this year. Republican candidate Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had conversations with the Palin camp, but stopped short of saying whether he wanted her help.

...

The Rethugs might be losers, but they sure don't want to be linked to a quitter.

Great thanks to our pal Maru for the link.

Hillary Clinton was never viciously persecuted like Sarah Palin:

...

Has Palin been accused of murder? Have the charges been conclusively proven false by three separate special prosecutors to the tune of many millions of taxpayer dollars in investigations that last for years and personally cost her millions of dollars in legal fees? No? Then I think she needs to rethink her claims.

...

Is that all Republicans do? Whine?

Raw Story

Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed by lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in an interview Tuesday.

Rove’s deposition took place over a period of some eight and a half hours, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending around 6:30 p.m, ET — and the lawyers took several breaks, Conyers said.

Conyers wouldn’t say what Rove told investigators or whether Rove would appear before his committee again.

As long as we hear what he said used against him and others in court, I'll be happy.

Blogger Emptywheel, noted for her reporting on all things related to Plamegate, remarks, “Supposedly, there will be transcripts produced, Harriet and Karl will review them, and then we’ll all get our greedy little hands on them. Given that it’s summertime in our nation’s capital, it’ll take at least a few weeks for all that to transpire.”

“But we might get a Karl transcript before we get a Cheney interview,” Wheeler adds.

Cheney's runnin' out the clock. He knows he'll die before any of the details of his crimes are used against him. Later this afternoon would be fine.

AP. You can see the ad here. Caution: It's not at F** Noise, but it's their video.

A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing and taxing the drug could help solve the state's massive budget deficit.

The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders "are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes."

We're payin' 'em anyway. Might as well be for something good.

In a phone interview, Herndon said that before filming the ad, she had not told very many people about her marijuana use. But she said her concern over the state's fiscal crisis and her support of medical marijuana led her to go public.

"I came out of the closet with this ad," she said.
...

She said she was approached to star in the ad while her husband was taking classes at Oaksterdam University, an Oakland trade school that trains students to grow medical marijuana.

Speaking as a product of, and booster for, vocational education - hear! hear!

An ad at the bottom of that article led me to this:

Vaporize Your Herb

Other than being the most expensive bongs I ever heard of, what do you think of that?

We've come a long way from a Prince Albert can full of weed for $10, I think.

Folks can say whatever they want about how us Californians have fucked ourselves over financially with Prop 13 and our supermajority law and our demand for services all for utopian free and yada-yada, but if we get legalized marijuana, we won't even notice the blathering. Heh. The most serious problem will be the empty Sara Lee counter at the market.

Professor Smartass in reaction to WaPo's hurriedly-backed-off-of-since-it-got-out offer of access to public officials for money, just one of the reasons we seldom like to link any more to the Neocon Post:

Weymouth's hard-to-believe apology as well as the original idea for the event itself shows why newspapers and our democratic process are dying: the public is fed platitudes and PR spin to herd them toward pre-approved opinions while the real debate is going on behind closed doors between those who have the money to buy the outcome they want.

The original article shows one part of the problem is nepotism. Weymouth got her job not because she is the crème de la crème of journalists but because she is the grand-daughter of famed owner Katherine Graham. Owning the press no more makes you a competent publisher than being the first president Bush's son makes you a competent president.

Obviously, being part of the ruling elite doesn't make you smart, only greedy.

We need a new model of press, perhaps like the Guardian in the UK that is run like PBS & NPR here (but the Guardian doesn't have to beg for corporate donations). We should also fully fund PBS & NPR, so they aren't beholden to corporations and the foundations of the wealthy to stay in business.

If the presidency of George W. Bush, the Enron collapse, the theft of countless pensions, the attempted theft through privatization of Social Security, the banking crisis, our health insurance system that puts profits ahead of saving lives, and our on-going wars for oil and pipeline routes in the Middle East were not evidence enough, Katherine Weymouth provides further proof that the financial elite in this country is as morally and intellectually crippled as George W. Bush--and just as dangerous when their hands are on the levers of power.

It's not just newspapers. The 'financial/ruling elite' may be more dangerous than ever now that they've seen threats of a loss of power, however slight, with Obama and the Dems in the majority. They've circled the wagons and are doubling their efforts against us.

From a post by Thom Hartmann on a completely different aspect of the far right's war on us:

As the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Get ready.

We will be fighting against this forever. We must.

Bob Herbert on the Devil calling McNamara home:

Long after the horror of Vietnam was over, McNamara would concede, in remarks that were like salt in the still festering wounds of the loved ones of those who had died, that he had been “wrong, terribly wrong” about the war. I felt nothing but utter contempt for his concession.

McNamara, it turns out, had realized early on that Vietnam was a lost cause, but he kept that crucial information close to his chest, like a gambler trying to bluff his way through a bad hand, as America continued to send tens of thousands to their doom. How in God’s name did he ever look at himself in a mirror?

Lessons learned from Vietnam? None.

More than 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam and some 2 million to 3 million Vietnamese. More than 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq, and no one knows how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Even as I was writing this, reports were coming in of seven more American G.I.’s killed in Afghanistan — a war that made sense in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, but makes very little sense now.

Made sense then, makes no sense 7 years on. In the end, probably to no gain except profit. Two more parallels to Vietnam. Nice goin', George.

None of these wars had clearly articulated goals or endgames. None were pursued with the kind of intensity and sense of common purpose and shared sacrifice that marked World War II. Wars are now mostly background noise, distant events overshadowed by celebrity deaths and the antics of Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford and the like.

The obscenity of war is lost on most Americans, and that drains the death of Robert McNamara of any real significance.

It's not lost on me, but Herbert is right. The only significance of his death is to bring this shit up again. Not that anybody except us old farts care.

Stop whining about this ...

...

Jackson’s memorial service comes at a tough financial time for the California City. Last month when the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championships, the city was unable to scrounge up enough cash to hold a traditional victory parade, instead opting for a celebration at the Forum. Half of that $2 million tab was reportedly paid for by AEG Live.

...

... And send the remainder of the bill to the Jackson family. The taxpayers didn't ask to have this classless spectacle foisted on them and shouldn't be forced to absorb the costs of security for it. With all the records MJ sold since he died, a cool mil should be pocket change.

And by the way, can we put him to rest now and get on with real news? I am so fucking sick of this shit.

Regards,

Fixer

Does he get privileges with MFBTGR*? Good news from Glenn Greenwald:

Huffington says that it is Froomkin's views on the media that, for her, is his primary appeal. The key to vibrant, successful journalism, she said, is "getting away from the notion that truth is found by splitting the difference between the two sides, that there is always truth to both sides." Huffington argues that establishment journalism is failing due to "the idea that good journalism is about presenting both sides without a voice -- without any passion." The outlets that continue to adhere to that "obsolete" model "are paying a price." Froomkin -- who has written extensively about how passion-free, "both-sides-are-equally-valid" journalism is the primary affliction of the profession -- echoes that view: "The key challenge is to present an alternative to the 'splitting the difference' culture that has infested traditional media."

The split is to the right, Dan. If it was in the center it wouldn't be a problem. The right wing would never be mentioned in the same sentence as 'truth'.

*My Favorite Big Titted Greek Redhead

El Rude-o on Palin:

Hell, even if she had said, "Governoring is boring and I'm sick of people buggin' me for stuff. I'm headin' to L.A. to make shitloads of money, fuckers," it would have been more honest.

At this point, though, Michael Jackson's funeral has more dignity.

Thanks a great steaming pile for that reference, Rude One. Yeesh. Can't they just bury the poor bastard? Yeah, under the center ring at B&B.

[...] Reading Kristol's pathetic whine of a column is like taking pleasure in watching a man eat a shit sandwich and pretending it's fine ham.

In the Washington Times, Tony Blankley, a man who looks like he just ate a whole meatball sub, writes, "And though many a conventional politician might be seen as a quitter if he resigned from office -- I have a very strong hunch Mrs. Palin is constitutionally incapable of being seen as a quitter. Because she is not. She is constantly taking on the biggest challenge on her horizon." You got that logic? If anyone else quit, they'd be a quitter. But if Palin quits, she's not. Thus Tony Blankley finally achieved his goal of licking his own asshole.

Over on MSNBC's Morning Starbucks, Mika Brzezinski, who always looks like she's just aching for a spanking, said yesterday that if Palin were a man, we wouldn't be judging her so harshly for resigning. She's wrong on that account, but she's right that we'd treat a man differently. We'd call him a "pussy." (Bonus points: Brzezinski declared that she's not a feminist.)

Ever so much more...

After I read this article,

Rahm Emanuel Signals White House Is Willing To Compromise On Public Plan

I sent this e-mail:

Dear President Obama,

My wife and I voted for you and like you and want you to succeed, but...

If you do not get a 'public option', you have not 'reformed' health care and your Presidency will be a failure for the rest of your term. Period.

Pardon me for putting it this way, but screw the health 'insurance' industry and its Republican politicians. They're the ones who got us into this mess and they're not the ones who will get us out of it.

The time for 'health care for profit' is over. Unlike the dinosaurs of old, these dinosaurs see the end coming and are fighting it tooth and nail. The American people must win this one and enter the 21st century with health care for all like the civilized nations have.

Health care should be like a beer run: everybody kicks in, everybody gets it, nobody gets rich.

Please do the right thing.

Gordon

Not that it will do any good. I don't have $1.4M a day to spend. It just made me feel better.

The 'beer run' reference is from here.

Update:

I know the Repugs are not solely responsible. They have a lot of help from the Dems in holding us back from the correct path. I didn't mention that in my e-mail because I didn't want to further Obama's delusions about non-existent bipartisanship for any other reason than to keep the lobbyists' money flowing in like seawater into New Orleans.

Update II:

BuzzFlash headline:

President Obama Offers Weak Reassurance that He Will Back Government Option in the End.

Rahm's trying for the 'trigger' option. It won't work. Period. The big insurers will just co-opt it and nothing will change.

Note to Obama: Bitch slap that little fucker and get him pointed in the right direction. I like Emanuel, but not this time.

[Welcome to Crooks and Liars readers!]

Joseph L. Galloway at McClatchy

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." —Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Please read the rest. Mr. Galloway reminds us of David Halberstam, author of The Best and the Brightest which was an insight into the flawed thought processes that got us into "McNamara's War".

If you don't think the Vietnam War is still important, kindly remember that, coming on the heels of Civil Rights and being the main cause of social upheaval when many people saw the light and many didn't, it brought us Richard Nixon and the Reagan/Bush era. We have had one President and one president who were Vietnam-era draft dodgers, but the country is still too afraid of crazed Vietnam Vets to have one of them for Prez and we probably won't. The wounds are below the surface now, but they're still festering.

Those of us who came of age during those days will never, I say again never, forget it for all our days on this Earth. It still matters.

There's also a description of a bizarre event involving McNamara and the Martha's Vineyard ferry. The moral of the story is: Eat your Wheaties so you can throw rather than push.

One down, one to go:

Click it

According to Krugman and the CBO*, it works:

...

But last week the budget office scored the full proposed legislation from the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). And the news — which got far less play in the media than the downbeat earlier analysis — was very, very good. Yes, we can reform health care.

Let me start by pointing out something serious health economists have known all along: on general principles, universal health insurance should be eminently affordable.

...

We can afford 'socialized medicine', and no, I don't have a problem with the name:

...

After all, every other advanced country offers universal coverage, while spending much less on health care than we do. For example, the French health care system covers everyone, offers excellent care and costs barely more than half as much per person as our system.

And even if we didn’t have this international evidence to reassure us, a look at the U.S. numbers makes it clear that insuring the uninsured shouldn’t cost all that much, for two reasons.

...

The only thing standing in the way of a comprehensive health care overhaul are those in the pockets of Big HMO.

*Link thanks to Mr. Aravosis.

Our pal UL:

... I can see the end of Sarah Palin's political career from my house!

The Rude Pundit goes to a teabagging party, with pictures. His closing thoughts:

No, instead you sigh, thinking that it's too hot a day. You debate in your mind whether or not this is a real movement or just a bunch of people who too readily believe all the goddamn lies they're fed. You get a free sno-cone (sour apple flavor). You listen to the costumed kids sing, "God Bless America." You leave when the band starts to cover Lee Greenwood's fucking song. You go to see fireworks downtown after the local symphony plays. You hear that people around here don't put pro-choice or pro-Obama stickers on their cars because they'll get keyed. You know this is America, too, yes, and, unlike the tea partygoers, you recognize it because, even as they celebrate a so-called "revolution" and hope for another, some things never change.

Some things never change. Ya can't fix stupid.

From a photo gallery of Operation Khanjar ("Strike of the Sword").


If this dumbass Jarhead thinks those bullets are diggin' into the base of his skull now, wait 'til an enemy bullet hits one of 'em.

Note to dumbass Jarhead: Flip the belts over so the hurty things are pointin' away from yer apparently unused brain housing group.

He probably hangs his grenades by their safety pins too. Yeesh. Dibs on his iPod. If we can find it.

Note to the Commandant: I know where you can get an Old Corps Marine as a highly paid civilian consultant who can explain very simple things to today's young Marines in terms they can understand. Things like if they're gonna do stupid shit, at least don't get photographed doing them. I'll bring my own 2x4. At cost plus, of course.

Attytood, links at site.

Robert McNamara died today at age 93. As Secretary of Defense for Presidents John F. Kennedy and more notably Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s, it was McNamara who oversaw America's tragic military buildup in Vietnam. That made McNamara -- right up until today's news -- a vivid anti-icon to those Baby Boomers who opposed the war -- and I think you can make the case that his death is that of the most historical significance of the slew of recent "celebrity" passings, no matter how many millions of people are gathering outside the Staples Center to remember the Gloved One.

Bob McNamara was not a great man. He was a man with great intelligence that didn't prevent him from executing a plan that led to the unnecessary slaughter -- for reasons that remain hard to fully comprehend -- of tens of thousands of Americans and many more Vietnamese. [...]

The life of Robert McNamara was a personal tragedy, but it was also an American tragedy, our tragedy -- because even after McNamara spelled out everything that went so horribly wrong in Vietnam, he lived long enough to see a new generation of the self-appointed "best and brightest" in Washington pay absolutely no mind to the lessons of our recent past.

In Iraq, as in Vietnam, our policy-makers knew nothing or cared little about the long history and convoluted ethnic and religious politics of Mesopotamia's Fertile Crescent. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, there was no plan for the proper military follow-up to a period of "shock and awe" bombing. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we totally misjudged the "nationalism" of the people who lived there and how they would react to a long American occupation. And perhaps most importantly, In Iraq, as in Vietnam, there was no real "public debate" as we marched headlong and foolishly into the 2003 -- with way too many "unexamined assumptions," "unasked questions," and "readily dismissed alternatives."

I actually spoke, very briefly, on the phone with McNamara in early 2003 in an effort to interview him for the Daily News. Like a few other journalists in that critical hour, I was hoping some of his tragically acquired wisdom might infuse the tepid pre-war discussions, and like all other reporters in those pre-war months, he told me he was holding off on commenting (as noted in the link above, he had a lot to say in 2006 when it was too late). That was a damned shame -- even though I can't imagine it would have tipped the rigged scales.

It wouldn't have. The Vietnam War started as a response to supposed communist expansion during The Cold War, then lost its purpose and dragged on and on to no good end.

Bush's War was about ideological and personal selfishness, arrogance, and ego.

The big constants between them were corporate profits and hundreds of thousands of deaths to no good end.

So long, Mac. I hope you fuckin' fry for eternity.

Ironic Times

IRAQ: U.S. OCCUPIERS FINALLY DRIVEN OUT
Search begins for exiled tyrant Bush.

Percentage of Americans Covered by Private Health Insurance at 50-Year Low
But thank God we don’t have socialized medicine.

Many States on Brink of Financial Collapse
Residents of neighboring states advised to purchase firearms.

FBI: Saddam Told Interrogators He Bluffed Having WMD to Scare Off Iran
Worked like a charm.

The tea baggers are back.

The Republican Party of Duval County is backing away from their promotion of an event that featured numerous controversial comparisons of President Barack Obama with German Dictator Adolf Hitler. The event, a Tea Party held at the Jacksonville Landing on July 2, was organized by the First Coast Tea Party. However, the Duval County Republican Party promoted the event with e-mails that stated "Paid by Republican Party of Duval County" ...

Pics of Stupid Republican Tricks at the link. I'm running late this morning. Hope you all survived the 4th.

Great thanks to Digby for the link.

More than one blogger has problems with what Vice President Biden told Little George this morning concerning Israel vis a vis Iran:

...

"Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," he said, in an interview taped in Baghdad at the end of a visit there.

...

As I heard it, Joe is giving Israel enough rope to hang herself. It might be in Israel's interest to bomb the shit out of Natanz but it is Israel's greater interest to continue getting the level of subsidy it currently enjoys from us. I wouldn't presume for one second Biden is giving them carte blanche.

Update:

After sleeping on it, I'm inclined to think, should Israel bomb the shit out of Natanz, the protection of the U.S. veto at the U.N. might disappear, rather than American donations.

[A big Brain welcome to Crooks and Liars readers.]

Just a great quote from Smedley Butler:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Some things never change. Sigh.

Fixer likes ta play that highfalutin' classical stuff. Well, two can play at that game!

Invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. Music by Wolfgang A. Mozart. Played by French artist Thomas Bloch, exhibiting the glass harmonica in the Paris Music Museum, Nov. 29, 2007.

From elsewhere at YouTube:

The instrument, an invention of Benjamin Franklin, was quickly banned after its inception. It was said to provoke insanity. The unique harmonics have also been said to import therapeutic powers.

Yes, insanity is therapeutic...

Thanks to johntamaro.

Dated 15 Jan '09. Still waitin'...

Thanks to KOCHRECORDS.

Think Progress, with video:

During a townhall in Waukon, IA Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was asked by a constituent of his: “Why is your insurance so much cheaper than my insurance and so better than my insurance?” When Grassley struggled to explain the details of his own health care plan, the elderly man followed up, “Okay, so how come I can’t have the same thing you have?” Grassley said, “You can. Just go work for the federal government.” (my em)

How about you Iowans exercise yer 'public option' and send this clown back where he came from?

...the weird turn pro" - Hunter S. Thompson

Paul Begala

[...] Sarah Palin makes Mark Foley, the congressman who sent filthy emails to pages look almost normal. She makes David Vitter, the senator who was hanging out with hookers, look almost boring. She makes Larry Craig, caught hitting on a cop in a men's room, look almost stable. She makes John Ensign, the senator who was having an affair with a staffer, look almost humdrum (and compared to the rest of the GOP whack-jobs, he is). And she makes Mark Sanford, the governor with the Latin lover, look positively predictable.

It was an almost impossible mission, but in resigning from office with 17 months to go in her first term, Sarah Palin has made herself the bull goose loony of the GOP.

Now that's an accomplishment!

[...] A lot of people thought that about George W. Bush. He couldn't be so block-headed, they said. He couldn't be as childish and churlish as he came off. Oh yes he could. And so, too, might Ms. Palin be as vapid and puerile as her inane statement suggests.

We will know. In the fullness of time (and I predict, not much time) we will know. Again and again in her statement, Gov. Palin returned to the nettlesome ethics inquiries that have been visited upon her since she signed on to be John McCain's running mate. No doubt they are annoying. But does anyone believe that's why she's resigning? No, there's more to this story. And Ms. Palin's resignation only increases the chances that we will all know the rest of the story soon. Or, as she might put it:

We will all KNOW the "rest of the Story" *((SOON!))*

Waiting with bated breath...

Let me clue you in to something. Bloggers don't scare easily.

...

"I'll sue you for defamation!" is the toothless wonder of the legal world. The bluster is meant to scare people, intimidate them, and get them to be quiet. In this particular case, it's not going to work ...

It's time for you, and your attorney, to STFU and realize your fifteen minutes is up. The more you yell and threaten, the more dirt we're gonna dig up on your ass. If there's one thing we've learned after 8 years of Bush is how to play the Republican game if we have to. Only you know how many skeletons hang in your closet and it's up to you whether they stay there or not. Good luck.

Regards,

Fixer

Mr. Aravosis:

Liberal groups, such as MoveOn and SEIU, and liberal bloggers (such as Jane Hamsher and our own Joe Sudbay) have been pressuring Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu to support the public option in health care reform (i.e., some kind of public health insurance plan). Landrieu has been adamantly opposed to anything resembling a public option. So groups like MoveOn have been running ads against her.

Well, our president will have none of that, He want us all to stop trying to get Landrieu to support a public option. Specifically, he wants them to stop running this ad.

Yes, let's not pressure bad Democrats to support keep provisions of the most importance piece of legislation of Obama's presidency, let alone the next decade.

...

Look, Barry, if you don't want a public option, don't even bother. Without the public option, it Ain't. Fucking. Reform.

That would do it for me, as in "You may pat me in the face with a spade now. I are happy!"...

Thanks to poupystar, France.

Labels: Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Me 'n Fixer finally get to crawl out from under them humvees and get to town!

Watch the gal Fixer's dancin' with from about 1:39. She musta known he was comin' and had a coupla extra joints installed! I make my entrance at about 2:05...

A scene from Buck Privates featuring The Andrews Sisters. Thanks to twobarbreak.

You can hear some NPR folks read the Declaration Of Independence here. The text is there as well.

My favorite parts in the birth certificate of our nation:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
...

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
...

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

So, how's all that workin' out?

Sky News

North Korea has test fired seven missiles off its eastern coast, according to South Korea.

Yo, NK - fire a few off yer west coast and see what happens! Heh.

The move is likely to be seen as another act of defiance against the US - coming as it does on Independence Day.

I think what we need, since it's Independence Day, is a little time-on-target exercise. Every U.S. base and sub that's got missiles should fire 'em so they explode above North Korea at the same time high enough that they can be seen from Tokyo to Beijing. The warheads should be loaded with fireworks that spell out, in Korean and English:

"Kim Jong-Il Sucks Wet Monkey Ass"

[A big welcome to Jim's readers @ Skippy's.]

Yep, Gord and I (and the rest of the bloggers who've graced our page) have been 'giving our opinions' on ... well ... everything for 5 years.

I am appreciative of all the readers and commenters who've come through this place over the past half-decade. You've made this so much more than the anger management class it started out as, a way to 'rage against the machine', and I thank you for your input, feedback, and friendship.

As I've said many times, without you guys, the Brain would be nothing more than graffiti - a couple old guys writing on the wall.

I wish you all a safe and happy 4th.

I've posted this song before and I like it so I'm doing it again. The song is about spousal abuse, but it hits on other levels as well. Check out some of the lyrics;

"Let the weak be strong"

Ya listenin', Dems?

"Let the Right be wrong"

Ain't they always?

"Let the guilty pay"

Bush/neocon/Repug reference. Fuckin' A.

"It's Independence Day"

Best one in years, too. Have a good one. My unsolicited, free advice on this day is translated from the Chinese - "Light fuse. Retire quickly."

Thanks to icechick65.

And yes, Hannity plays this song. Click on the 'before' link above and read what the gal who wrote the song and I have to say about that. Also, click on the video after it starts and read the first few comments.

USA Today

A spokesman reports Sarah Palin is resigning as Alaska governor effective July 26.

Yeesh. Good for Alaska. The rest of us are fucked until she burns out on the national political scene. Sooner rather than later would be good.

Update:

Go see The Coming Scandal Behind the Resignation.

Thanks, Nancy.

Photo gallery from the Marine operation in Afghanistan.




If I saw this, er, presidential election worker approaching my front door, I think I'd

a) Give up

b) Identify myself as a former member of 3rd Battalion 8th Marines and hope nobody in 3rd Battalion ever fucked this guy over, and

c) State loudly and clearly, "Your man's got my vote. Which one o' them sonsabitches is he?"

So far, the grunt outfits I can identify in this op are 1/5 ("Make Peace, Or Die" - you tell 'em they shouldn'ta used the comma!), and 2/8 ("America’s battalion").

Marines have tribal memories.

One-Five fought at places like Guadalcanal, the Chosin Reservoir, Hue City, and Fallujah.

Two-Eight fought at Tarawa, Saipan, Okinawa, and Grenada, and served in Lebanon in 1958 and mounted out for the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Marines are indoctrinated from birth not to let their forebears down. I'm sure these young Marines in Helmand Province will do 'em proud.

BTW, my old outfit's motto is "Fortuna Favet Fortibus", which I think translates as "Good Luck Not Pukin' On The Bus Back To Base".

Another good article by Robert Parry. Not too long and a 'recommended read', just to keep fresh in our minds the biggest crime of the 21st century so far which is still going on and will haunt our country for generations to come. Thanks, George.

President Barack Obama and Iraqi leaders may try to sugarcoat the bitter pill for the United States by talking up the achievements of the six-year occupation, but the public celebrations by Iraqis marking the American pullout from Iraq’s cities tell the painful story of a U.S. strategic failure.

The big news organizations also didn’t want to admit their own complicity in this crime since almost everyone in American journalism, who wanted to keep a comfortable seat at the Establishment’s table, either endorsed the enterprise or kept quiet.

So even today – more than five months after Bush left office – it’s still much easier to dismiss what happened as “unnecessary,” to cite the pre-war “intelligence failures,” and to criticize Bush primarily for his tactical misjudgments in planning an effective occupation -- not committing enough troops and not having a detailed enough post-invasion plan.

Accusing him of criminality is much trickier. After all, in the view of the mainstream news media, war crimes are something that “rogue states” commit, petty tyrants from Rwanda or Yugoslavia who can then be dragged off to The Hague and put on trial.

Such humiliations are not for the former “Leader of the Free World” and his subordinates (nor for an ex-British prime minister). [...]

At this point, chances of any serious accountability look slim to none. Though a vocal supporter of international law, President Obama has made it clear that he won’t tolerate any serious investigation of the Bush administration’s crimes. Obama says he wants “to look forward, not backward.”

As part of that ducking of the past, Obama also can be expected to avoid describing the war as a failure. That would only provoke Republicans and right-wing pundits to accuse him of defeatism and “apologizing for America.”

Instead, to protect the withdrawal’s political flanks, Obama will pretend that the sacrifice of American troops achieved great things in Iraq.

The irony was that Bush’s desire to use the SOFA to cement a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq had the opposite result.

Given broad Iraqi opposition to the U.S. occupation, Iraqi political factions decided to position themselves as defenders of the nation’s sovereignty, not as American puppets.

The likely outcome in Iraq now appears to be the departure of U.S. forces with Washington left with little to show for its investment in blood and treasure. As the Washington Post reported on June 30, “there is little talk among U.S. commanders and diplomats of engineering a victory in the 2½ years they expect to remain here.”

For the United States, memories of its military intervention in a country halfway around the world may fade gradually into history, swallowed by the shifting sands of the ancient land of Mesopotamia, another chapter of failed imperial overreach in that region, a long and bloody saga dating back to Biblical times.

Despite the terrible price in lives, money and prestige, little may remain of Bush’s macho adventure besides the eventual recognition of a painful strategic defeat for the United States.

It's what happens when you let a moral weakling get put in charge by neocon/corporate criminals. We haven't yet begun to see the damage Bush let them cause. Nor are any of us alive today likely to see the end of it.

Just so we don't forget.

Robert Parry

The FBI has released reports on 20 interviews and five conversations conducted with Iraq’s deposed dictator Saddam Hussein before he was put to death, but none of the disclosed Q and A deals with the role of the Reagan administration in delivering key components for Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons in the 1980s.

The gaps in the FBI reports also underscore the historical travesty that resulted from the Bush administration’s handling of Saddam Hussein after his capture on Dec. 13, 2003, near Tikrit, eight months after the U.S.-led invasion toppled his government.

Instead of being turned over to the international criminal court at The Hague, where he could have been thoroughly interrogated, Hussein was kept under tight U.S. control until he was handed over to his Iraqi enemies on Dec. 30, 2006, for a chaotic hanging.

While President George W. Bush and many of his supporters were thrilled with the execution – what the New York Times called Bush’s “triumphal bookend” to the Iraq invasion – the hanging was not just rough justice meted out to a harsh dictator. It also snuffed out a dangerous witness who could have implicated senior Republicans, including Bush’s father.

Important chapters of history died with Hussein on the gallows. Hussein was a unique witness with the broadest knowledge about who arranged and sold the precursor components for his unconventional weapons that were used to kill Iranian troops and Iraqi civilians.

In death, Hussein couldn’t disclose what George W. Bush’s first Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during that famous hand-shake meeting in 1983, nor whether he got an alleged message from Vice President George H.W. Bush in the mid-1980s about how best to deploy Iraq’s air force against Iran, nor if then-deputy CIA director Robert Gates was running interference for Iraq’s military supply line in the 1980s.

It was the elder George Bush, as Vice President, who allegedly oversaw the covert U.S. operation to assist Hussein’s war machine during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War; Rumsfeld, as special U.S. envoy to the Middle East, held private chats with the Iraqi dictator about his war needs; and Gates, as a senior CIA official, reportedly rebuffed Israeli protests about U.S. tolerance for third-country military shipments to Iraq, including precursor chemicals.

All those important Republicans and more could breathe a little easier after the hangman’s noose choked the life out of Hussein. (Gates remains in government as President Barack Obama's defense secretary.)

Mark Morford

Behold, the ongoing, increasingly startling research: homosexual and bisexual behavior, it turns out, is rampant in the animal kingdom. And by rampant, I mean proving to be damn near universal, commonplace across all species everywhere, existing for myriad reasons ranging from pure survival and procreative influence, right on over to pure pleasure, co-parenting, giddy screeching multiple monkey orgasm, even love, and a few dozen other potential explanations science hasn't quite figured out yet. Imagine.

Are you thinking, why sure, everyone knows about those sex-crazed dolphins and those superslut bonobo monkeys and the few other godless creatures like them, the sea turtles and the weird sheep and such, creatures who obviously haven't read Leviticus. But that's about it, right? Most animals are devoutly hetero and straight and damn happy about it, right?

Wrong.

"Giddy screeching multiple monkey orgasm". Get that visual outta yer head. Heh.

We're goin' shopping. See yas later.

Is a nuclear detonation. Athenae:

...

It's finally happened. They broke my brain.

...

The crap that's been coming out of conservatives lately is beyond crazy.

"... They're waiting for you at Bellevue
With their oxygen masks ..."

Apologies to the Boss.



And of course Bruce's record company won't let YouTube play his stuff so I stole this from zerobio who does a great job with the tune.

Update:

More scary crazy.

If our spineless Dems actually grow a ball now that they have the 'Magic 60'. Mr. Aravosis (in toto):

Well, this should be interesting. We've been hearing for years that the only thing stopping the Democratic party from asserting itself, from following through on its promises, was the lack of that all-mighty 60-vote majority in the Senate. And now they have it. So, Senator Reid, and President Obama, bring it on.

Oops, never mind.

Ain't shit gonna change.

This goes out to Mark from Jenny and everybody else in South Carolina.

Thanks to BlueGrassRootsTV.

This article in the EssEffChron about one California county sums up Repug - and some Democratic - hypocrisy beautifully:

Sprawling across the northeastern corner of California, this huge, thickly forested county with more cows than people epitomizes the Western frontier - and what seems to be a two-faced political ideology.

Modoc has the highest Republican registration of any county in California, it unfailingly elects anti-tax Republicans to office, and the vote here against last month's ballot measure that would have raised a variety of taxes was one of the most lopsided in the state. And yet, per capita, Modoc County gets more state taxpayer dollars than all but one of California's 58 counties.

The prevailing attitude among the right-wing ranchers and modern hippies who define Modoc County is of fierce self-reliance - but more people here than just about anywhere else depend on welfare checks of some kind to get by.

So with state Republicans blocking new taxes and insisting on deep cuts in taxpayer-funded services, does that make this most solid of GOP bases politically conflicted? Or, worse, just plain ignorant?

Yes.

Shorter: Government should stay the fuck out of our lives. Except for sending us other people's money.

Much more in the article.

I've just finished reading "It Came From Wasilla" by Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair. Here's the last paragraph of a very good and worth reading six-page article:

On a rare fine day in Juneau, not long ago, Palin was seen sitting in the sunshine in the broad plaza near the state capitol, alone with her thoughts and some reading material for more than an hour and a half. Down the hillside below her, the big cruise liners that ply Alaska’s Inside Passage in the summer months were beginning to call in the port. Only two years have elapsed since William Kristol and his colleagues disembarked from one of them and hearkened to her siren call. Sarah Palin might well have been wondering whether her own ship is going out, or just coming in.

I took two things away from the article:

First, I'm almost grateful to the far right whackos for getting her onto the McCain ticket. That act, perhaps more than any other single thing, absolutely, positively ensured that Obama would be elected President, and

Second, that Fixer gets advance copies of V.F. and/or has mad sardonic skillz of prophecy!



It was a simple matter for me to dive in with a paintbrush and change SS McCain to SS Moosebreath on her stern. Hmmmmmm. Perhaps I could have chosen better wording than 'dive in' and 'her stern' in the same sentence whilst referring to Palin. Nah, it's OK. She has people to do that.

Update:

In related news, the V.F. article has touched off yet more feuding deep within the diseased bowels of the Repugs. Good.

Here's a teaser. Swallow first. Heh.

“I'm sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”

Loyalists to Palin, including Kristol, were outraged at Purdum’s piece, believing it to be another example of what they see as elite media contempt for the Wasilla native.

And yer point is...?

Total soap opera shit. Go see. Have some fun.

Update II:

You can get to the V.F. article all on one page from The Political Carnival, whose post title is:

Cue the shrieks-- It Came from Wasilla: Miss Personality...Disorder

And from a comment:

[...] Before, during, or after 2012 she's gonna make Blagojevich look like a paragon of mental health and reason.

Must see TV! I kinardly wait...

Snowe: Public Option Would Be Too Cheap For Consumers!

That says it all in a nutshell.

It's about god damned time:

Xerox has named Ursula Burns as its new chief executive officer, making her the first African American woman to run a Fortune 500 company.

Burns will take over on July 1, 2009, replacing Anne Mulcahy.

The 50-year-old new boss worked her way up the corporate ladder from a summer internship in 1980 to the CEO position. She has also been a member of the board of directors since 2007.

...

Good luck and godspeed, ma'am.

Heh ...

Invent a time machine and go back to June 2005. Make bets with people that in four years’ time we’ll have a black Democratic president with the middle name “Hussein.” Then up the ante by predicting that the Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate. Then top if off by betting that one of those seats will belong to Al Franken.

I mean, four years ago, I would have been too ashamed to post such a prediction anywhere, even if I were anonymously trolling over at Red State. Times do indeed change.

...

In the absence of any thought process besides the right-wing whackjob agenda, of course she does.

Think Progress, links at site.

Last year, Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern (R) drew well-deserved criticism for an outlandish rant against the gay community, in which she compared homosexuality to “toe cancer” and said “it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.” “Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country,” said Kern.

Kern is now pushing a “Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality” that blames America’s “economic woes” on “abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse ,and many other forms of debauchery”:

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery;

Our 'economic woes' were caused by the other end of the Repuglican't party, but it will never do to place the blame where it properly resides or people like this would never get elected or re-elected. The money comes from big biz, the votes come from small minds.

Reality, after all, is a Liberal hoax.

The Beeb

Only one of the bidders for the eight contracts to run oil and gas fields in Iraq has accepted oil ministry terms.

Six oil fields and two gas fields were available in a televised auction that was the first big oil tender in Iraq since the invasion of 2003.

BP and China's CNPC agreed to run the 17 billion barrel Rumaila field after Exxon Mobil turned it down.

Well of course Exxon Mobil turned it down. BP and CNPC are only going to get $2 per barrel and Bush told ExMo they were going to get it all after he killed 4000+ soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to steal it for them. Who knew the Iraqis would figure out it was theirs?
.

From Raw Story:

The Minnesota Supreme Court affirms that Franken won his Senate seat.

Governor Tim Pawlenty said on MSNBC Tuesday that he would sign the certificate if the court ordered him to.

Note to the Minnesota Supreme Court: Order him to.

Why do I think this isn't over yet?

Update:

Former Senator Norm Coleman has conceded. Al Franken will be Minnesota’s new U.S. Senator.

Halle-fuckin'-lujah. If Pawlenty does what he's supposed to do, it's finally over.

Except for possible Repug obstruction in the senate.

Why do I think this isn't over yet?

There are some green things you shouldn't eat, particularly if they didn't start out that way. And who can forget this?


Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

I've eaten at Taco Bell, but a) it bears no relation to Mexican or food whatsoever and b) the can of war surplus life raft rations that I've had in the garage for forty years is probably more nutritious and better tasting.

Or: Pray for money. Our pal Montag:

For most people religion is source of guidance for their lives and comfort when they are troubled. For some it is just a big, fucking Gravy Train.

...

Not that it's a surprise, but this clown has found a way for tax dollars to subsidize him.

Running late. Off to work ...

Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group yesterday discussing Sanford. Heard it with my own ears, paraphrased it in between them:

"Hockey players began using protective cups in the 1870s but didn't start wearing helmets until the 1970s. That should show where men's priorities lie!"

Zing!

This has been a bad week for showbiz.

Some of you youngsters might not remember Gale Storm, but I sure as shit do. We got our first TV set in about 1953. In those days Los Angeles only had seven stations and if it was snowing on Mt. Wilson, it was snowing on the TV too.
There weren't many viewing choices, but My Little Margie was a good one and we watched it each week without fail.

I don't watch sitcoms much any more because most of 'em are not-very-funny crap, but those were simpler times, gentle innocent humor that wasn't all put-downs like it is now. Stuff that wouldn't cut it today was terrific back then.

LATimes

Gale Storm, who shot to the top on television as the vivacious star of two popular 1950s situation comedies, "My Little Margie" and "The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna," has died. She was 87.

A summer replacement for "I Love Lucy," "My Little Margie" ran from 1952 to 1955, with Storm starring as the plucky young Margie Albright and Charles Farrell as her widower father, Vern. Although critics generally panned "My Little Margie" as a lightweight farce, the public fell in love with the mischievous Margie. A 1953 poll of the most popular TV stars listed Storm at No. 2, behind TV comedy queen Lucille Ball.

After "My Little Margie" ended, Storm starred in "The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna," in which she played social director Susanna Pomeroy aboard the luxury liner the SS Ocean Queen*. The situation comedy, featuring Zasu Pitts as the ship's flighty beautician Elvira "Nugey" Nugent and Roy Roberts as Capt. Huxley, ran from 1956 to 1960.

*Homeported at Fire Island, perhaps? The reference would never have crossed anybody's mind back then. ZaSu Pitts was funnier'n shit. My folks remembered her from silent movies.

I didn't know about this but I can relate:

In 1980, she returned to the limelight as the commercial spokeswoman for Raleigh Hills Hospital, the now-defunct alcohol treatment chain where she had been treated for a serious bout with alcoholism.

I beat alcohol when I was in my fifties as well. Good for you, lady.

Her obit has a pretty good account of her life. Please go read about her.

Thanks for the memories, Ms. Storm.

The title of this post is from a 'comment' at Think Progress, links, videos, comments, the works. Hit 'em all! I'm callin' Maximum Liquid Alert! Put your drink in the next room!

Fox Nation Pushes ‘Satire’ Site’s Article About Ridge Attacking Limbaugh As Fact-Based Truth

On his radio show, Limbaugh responded to Ridge, saying, “I must have missed something, because I remember that Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat, Barack Obama, at a strategic point in the campaign in 2008.” The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:

So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”

Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”

Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:
...

This isn’t the first time Fox News has promoted a parody as truth. In 2007, the network aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.

None of this is surprising given that there's no distinction drawn at F**Noise between fact and fiction, but Jesus Christ, Ridge, three rounds? There's a little old lady who takes ten minutes to walk her Chihuahua past my house every day using two canes and a walker that could take that fat pile of crap in one!

From the Silicon Valley MercuryNews, which used to be called the San Jose MercuryNews. Sigh.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—The Air Force successfully launched an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile Monday from the California coast to an area in the Pacific Ocean some 4,200 miles away.

I think the operative word that makes what used to be a common event newsworthy is 'successfully'.

My in-house missile launch expert is Mrs. G, who grew up fifteen miles north of Vandenberg. She says the Minuteman launches were boring because they were too fast. It took a little while for the shock wave to get to her house and by the time the windows rattled signifying a launch and she'd rush to the window to watch, they were gone.

The Titans were a lot slower and she had time to watch the rocket exhaust going up with a flame at the top.

The best ones of all could be seen from Los Angeles to Frisco and perhaps even farther away. Those were the night launches that went awry. The contrail, lit up brilliantly in shades of green by high altitude sunlight, would make patterns in the sky ranging from a series of 'Z's to a macramé-looking bunch of loop-the-loops.

The best part of all was when the operators blew it up. For just an instant, you coulda read a book by the light all along the West Coast, and then the glowing and contrails of all the pieces would blossom out and up and down like the 4th of July. All this light would hang up there for quite a while, broadening out until it dispersed. Wow, like, totally bitchin' light show, dude! The entertainment was a great use of taxpayers' money.

Afterthought:

I wonder if I posted this as some kind of subconscious reaction to this morning's aftermath of the events of yesterday? Maybe something having to do with a stream of fire shootin' out my...

Ironic Times

NYC Drivers Voted Angriest, Most Aggressive
Celebrate victory by roughing up police, burning taxicabs.

Rep. Bachmann: Census Could Be Used to Put People in Internment Camps
Her thesis: census takers hired by ACORN identify God-fearing patriots, report them to liberal authorities who arrest them or have them thrown in a wood-chipper or, in her case, examined by a team of psychiatrists.

Book: Great Works of Literature Reduced to Tweets
Cliffs Notes reduced to three syllables.

The dumbing down of America is nearly complete.

American troops begin leaving Iraqi cities for the oil fields the more rural areas, turning over security duties to the Iraqi Army and police tomorrow. Now that we've fucked their country to Hell liberated the Iraqis from a tyrant, after 6 years of crusade and occupation regime change and winning hearts and minds, what do you think is gonna happen?

Is it gonna be an all-out civil war between sectarian interests or will the Iraqis step up and keep the militias in line? Or maybe a little of both? What do you think we have to look forward to from here out?

I'm a desperate man*:

MEXICO CITY — The Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted by the army on Sunday after pressing ahead with plans for a referendum that opponents said could lay the groundwork for his eventual re-election, in the first military coup in Central America since the end of the cold war.

...

*Apologies to Warren.

Warren Zevon -Lawyers, Guns, and Money

We're going today to the Truckee Chili Cook-off which is being held at Truckee River Regional Park three blocks from my house. I have no idea what to expect since it's the first time this has been done, but I've been to chili cookoffs before and they're fun. You get to sample different kinds of chili which can be a little risky vis-a-vis highly incendiary gut bomb fare, but they're usually pretty good.

One of the highlights will be the presence of the Railroad Regulators 601, a local western re-enactment group composed of many of our leading citizens.

Now, with more than 30 members, the regulators put on such events as Railroad Days and Windows on History, to entertain and educate locals about the rich history of this little mountain town. Apparently, Truckee wasn’t as sleepy in the 1800s as many believe it to be.

Even their name, the Regulators 601, is historic, borrowed from other groups that lived in Truckee near the end of the 19th century.

These groups' main tools were tar, feathers, and nooses. Called by some these days 'supplements to law enforcement', they were vigilantes who would often settle personal scores with their quasi-official status along with legit public safety incidents.

To keep in line with the times, Deveney says its important for this "bunch of old guys playing cowboys" to have their own corruptible politician at hand, namely Susman. "He can’t be bought, but he can be rented damn cheaply," Deveney jokes.

Well, that's some historical accuracy that persists today! Mr. Susman is a real nice guy and a former Mayor of our town. Go read about these folks at the link.

One of my oldest friends in town, Dennis Cook, is one of the ramrods of the Regulators. A Vietnam Navy UDT Vet who still has to kill you after he tells you where all he went from Vietnam, and bail bondsman. I've worked for him on occasion going after bail skips. Pretty boring, not at all like 'Dog the Bounty Hunter', although when Dennis hands you a snubnose .38 and tells you to watch his back, it gets real interesting real quick!

The Regulators go to all our local events, and put on a good, fun show. The best one I saw was when they were staging a ten-participant shootout and one of 'em didn't quite get his old-fashioned .45 hogleg out of the holster before it went off and got himself right in the foot with a blank! Extremely entertaining! We're talkin' dumbass country fuck type fun here, folks!

I'll either find ya a video of these gents in action or maybe I'll take one myself. See yas later.

Update:

We're back. The event was a lot of fun. We were there for about an hour and a half, and in that time there was a band doing '60s tunes and an a cappella men's chorale in proper western dress.

Did I mention there was chili tasting? Admission was free, but tasting cost ten bucks. Well worth every penny, and the money went to the local Rotary Club.

The Truckee-Donner Public Utility District was there promoting their conservation program by giving away CFLs. I brought home a dozen 13-watters in a nice canvas shopping bag. I've been using these for a while, but if it's for free, it's for me.

There were 16 different chili cooks there. The basic load-out was a 4oz. cup from each one, but you could have all you wanted. You do the math, I'm afraid to. It's doable, but the jury's still out on the wisdom of it. I'll let ya know. Realistically, I scarfed down somewhere around a quart of some really good chili, from hot sauce with hamburger in it to granola bar tofu chili with added soybeans and lime, and everything in between, most of it recognizable as chili. It was all good.

I hope the term 'cook-off' isn't prescient. If a coupla o' them 16 chilis get ta arguin' in my innards, a 'cook off' is not out of the question. So far, so good...

Most of the cooks were locals, such as the local firefighters, the aforementioned TDPUD, and some restaurants. There was "Old Fart's (sic) Makin' Chili" and one eerily titled "A Journey's End". Go see. Cynthia had never considered the dark irony of naming a chili that until I brought it up. Cracked her up. Heh.

My favorite display was "Gilmore's Garage Chili". Click the pic and blow it up. Note the display of air fresheners, jumper cables, fan belts, and funnels, all essential accoutrements for serious chili eaters.



I sorta missed the very beginning of the Railroad Regulators act with the camera. These were the only ones who showed up. Two of the old farts pushed each other around and insulted each other quite comedically and brandished foot-long Arkansas toothpicks at each other. And then the sheriff stepped in and...



Just as an aside, the early '50s Chevy pickup was for sale, asking price $22,000. That's an awful lot for one of those. Mrs. G's niece just picked up a '50 one of those, one owner with an actual 100,000 miles on it for $8000 (deductible as business expense, her husband owns a supermarket), and I thought that was a lot. When I think of the ones I've bought for $250, got runnin', and sold for $500 and thought I was gettin' over...

We had a great time. This was the '1st Annual' one of these deals, and we'll be there at the second and beyond. There's always stuff like this goin' on in small towns and all ya have to do is get off yer ass and go to have some fun.

In two weeks it'll be Cannibal Cruise time again.

Having been on the PTSD rollercoaster for 5 years of my life, I can spot the signs. It's time to get Michael Ware out of Iraq and find him some help. I love the guy and the job he's done over there, but for the last few months it's been obvious (to me anyway) he's losing his grip. I'd hate to see such a capable, talented journalist (there are so few of them as it is) completely come apart at the seams.

Scientology is illegal in Germany; thought of at the same level as Nazism. Via Digby, a 3-part report on the inner workings of the cult. Should be illegal here too.

I realize your average, run-of-the-mill, man-on-the-street wingnut is generally a moron (the smart ones don't believe their own bullshit and are just in it for the money) but this hate letter to Kos seems too dumb.

dear socialist fuckstick,

i am well awear of the fact that liberals are immune to logic and reason, but allow me to try to prove to you that you are communist scum thrugh something called the scientific method:

1 a) FACT: you suck obamas cock every chance youget. you defend everythign he does and says and you are nothing more than an apologist. this makes you complicit in obamas actions.

1 b) FACT: obama is a well known socialist. this is evident his policies and his love of SELFDESCRIBED COMMUNISTS LIKE BILL AYERS!!!! so dont thinkthat he can hide his true nature for much longer. he will eventully be exposed and impeached. SOCIALISM CANNOT WORK OR RUSSIA WOULD STILL EXIST AND THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE LOST THE COLD WAR TO REAGAN!!! retard.

1 c) you are thusly a pro forma socialist; whether you like it or not. logic dictates this.

(2) FACT: you, sir, are a illegal immigrant. i dont give two shits whether you are an american citizen or not: you came here on taxpayer expense and you continue to drain our limited resources. you should be ashamed and go back to guatemala or whatever fucking middleeastern asshole you came from and try to sell yor leftwing bullshit there.

(3) FACT: you are also OBJECTIVELY ANTIAMERICAN!!!!!!!! dont even try to deny this for there is ample prof: in 2004 you openly supported the murder of four brave american soldiers in falluja. you tryed to weasel out of your responsiblity, but you cant hide the fact that you hate america and american soldiers and you love al queda and other muslim terrorists who have killed THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS!!!! and will never stop unless they are killed. and whose going to kill them? you? LOL you dont even own a gun because you leftofascists want to repel the second amendent.

(4) FACT: it is clear that you are a socialist illegal immigrant america hater. there is prima facies proof as above. and if logic and science says you are scum then you are scum (remember global warming? no proof, just science and that makes it true for you liberals) no matter what you think. however, i dont think you are a homo, just a homo enabler.

this doesnt mean that we cant have common ground. if you stop publishing antiamerican communist screeds, then i will stop hating you. fair?

sincerely yours

glenn

Do you believe it's real or a lefty doing a parody? Vote.

This is my favorite line: "remember global warming? no proof, just science and that makes it true for you liberals". Heh ...

This is my second: "... OR RUSSIA WOULD STILL EXIST AND THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE LOST THE COLD WAR ..." I don't know about Russia being gone. I'll let you all know when I get to St. Petersburg next year.

[all emphases mine]

In my never-ending and always-fun attempt to reconcile Fixer's and my widely disparate musical tastes even just a little bit, I proudly present:

The Lovell Sisters perform at Bonnaroo 2009 on "This Tent" Stage!! Song: Bleeding Heart (written by Jimi Hendrix) | For more information about The Lovell Sisters, visit: www.lovellsistersband.com

Or their YouTube channel. This is about as heavy metal as it gets, though.

I think the lead singer on this one has a little Janis vibe goin' on.

Thank you, Lovell Sisters.

Around here anyway. Backstory: Mrs. G needed a new washing machine to replace her 25-year-old Kenmore. Serendipitously, as Social Security recipients we received a one-time (so far) federal stimulus of $250 each last payday, which is the 4th Wednesday of every month. So, half a large of returned tax money in hand, a-shopping we did go.

We wanted to spend the money locally as opposed to going to a chain store in Nevada, so first we went to the only long-time independent appliance dealer in town. They had a machine Mrs. G liked, but then they wanted to charge us $75 to deliver it one mile, along with $25 to haul the old one away and properly dispose of it. That was the deal breaker. I told the salesman he'd just scared us off and we left. Those guys were the only game in town for forty years and it shows in their attitude: pay what we want or drive for an hour. I'm not the only one displeased by it. Read their review at the Sears link below. Heh.

We were all dejected about probably having to go out of town to get a machine, and we made it all of a block before the light went on in my head: our town has a pretty new Sears Hometown Store! We'd never been there before, but, gee, I think Sears sells appliances...

It ain't yer father's Sears. It's not a big department store like Sears stores used to be, maybe still are, I don't know. Pretty small, but well stocked with home appliances and yard stuff, no clothes or hand tools, but you can order those.

We got about two steps into the store and a young salesman was on us like white on rice. I pointed at Mrs. G and away they went. He showed her every washing machine in the joint and she decided on one and the deal was done. They had other brands, but she chose our third Kenmore. I guess we're in a rut. It was the one that had all the features she wanted and was 'energy star' qualified.

Speaking of 'energy star', this thing is so much more efficient than our last one that our power company is going to send me money! The trade-off is that, just like TV sets, the new appliances don't last as long as the old ones. That's progress for you.

They wanted $50 to deliver it and the standard $25 haul-it-away fee, but they were to be refundable from Sears corporate. It was delivered a few days later exactly 5 minutes before they said they'd be there.

Just as an aside, the delivery guys didn't wheel it up to my house on a dolly. Since they had to walk about 100 feet through the forest clearing that passes for my back yard, they put straps under it and walked it all the way up from the street. They said that's pretty normal around here. The head (driver and paperwork guy) delivery man's assistant turned out to be a Mexican-American biker dude about my age from Bakersfield. We shot the shit and let the white kid do all the installation work. Heh.

The thing works fine and all is well. For the technically curious, it's a Kenmore 2982.

I wrote a check for $648.76, which breaks down as follows:

$526.99 - Cost of the machine, on sale at $80+ off list
. 46.77 - Sales tax @ 8.875%. Fuck you Ah-nold. No, no, no, fuck you Gor-don
. 75.00 - Delivery and get-that-fuckin'-load-outta-my-sight fee
$648.76
-100.00 - Power company rebate for 'energy star'. Actual money, not a credit on my bill.
- 75.00 - Delivery fee refund 'gift card' from Sears, just like money
$473.76 - Actual cost, said and done

Leaving me with $ 26.24 to fritter away as I please! Thank you, Barry.

Went back to Sears yesterday and frittered ten bucks of it away on one of these (roll over the picture. Wow.). First one, always used analog. Half-price sale.

We spent our stimulus responsibly as we were supposed to, and we spent it locally for something we needed and we have enough left over for a down payment on a pizza. We're so proud of ourselves we could just shit.

And our Sears store has a coupla satisfied new customers.

P.M. Carpenter

And here, from this week, is an example of how Rush is faring. In sorting out the why's and wherefore's of "this [Gov. Mark] Sanford business," Limbaugh said, he actually said:

This is almost like: I don't give a damn! Country's going to hell in a handbasket. I just want out of here! He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn't want any part of it. He lost the battle and said, "What the hell? The Federal government is taking over! I want to enjoy life!"

In other words, it's all Obama's fault. Oy.

Yes, it's one for the psychiatric record-books, folks: In Rush Limbaugh's increasingly dark, desperate and distorted mind, a $787 billion economic stimulus package is believable-enough stimulation to send a perfectly proper, right-thinking Southern governor into a follow-up exploration of Argentina's forbidden bush country.

So I put this to you: That's beyond strategic broadcasting; that's just plain nuts. And it just may be that Rush has been acting the lunatic for so long -- stridently bashing the left and absolving the right for ever-greater fun and profit -- he has finally become a genuine, certifiable one.

It's $40,000,000 a year nuts, Carp. The dittostooges eat it up. The more way out ludicrous his spew, the more his audience nods its head and drools and buys the Zicam.

I don't blame them for wanting to lose their sense of smell either. Bullshit's a lot more appetizing when you are willingly force-fed it if it you don't have to smell it. I want them to spray it on their reproductive organs.

Heeeeeere's Stephen!:

Zicam Recall

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Note: The video had a broken tag deep within its bowels and I fixed it all by myself! Thank you Blogger for pointing at it and thank you Fixer for teaching me about tags. It's amazing what a little / and > can do.

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Get up and get going.

The Who - Sally Simpson

You pundits get an intern to work on the Friday afternoon document dump. Your utter distraction and preoccupation with The Croaked One the last day or so has been so blitheringly obvious that they mighta slipped some important shit in there that they're sure you'll miss.

Click to embiggen

I got this from a house painter friend of my neighbor who was the only human being in the vicinity after all the commotion died down. Those guys breathe a lotta fumes so take it with a cup of kosher salt. My next door neighbor got bellowing drunk and fell down and hit her head. Another well-meaning neighbor saw it and called 911. The cops were there in number because the EMTs couldn't find her. I know the gal, and she probably hid out so she wouldn't get in any more trouble over alcohol. Didn't work. The cops found her and the medics hauled her away. I saw 'em loadin' her up and she didn't look too damaged. She'll get outta the ER with yet another court date in her pocket.

This kinda shit ain't happened around here since I quit drinking.

I'm not naive, not by a long shot, but it's still hard to wrap my head around the fact there are people like these in 21st Century America:

WASHINGTON - The family of a woman killed Monday is dealing with more than just grief in the aftermath of Metro's deadliest accident in history.

The family of Ana Fernandez says they have been getting hate-filled telephone messages about whether or not Fernandez, a mother of six, was a legal immigrant.

...

How do you bring yourself to intrude on people's lives after they've suffered such a tragic loss to compound their grief because of a last name?

Link thanks to Jill.

Mark Morford, obviously a regular reader of the Brain and probably sore that the F-Man beat him to it, expands on Fixer's post:

[...] Pop culture just died. Didn't you hear?

First, it was the beauty. How many countless millions of feverish boyhood fantasies were spawned by 1970's Farrah Fawcett? How many of our admittedly vapid and slightly sexist, yet somehow also wondrous and utterly divine ideas of lust and desire and perfect all-American prettiness were inspired by her uncomplicated sparkle, that Barbie-doll hair?

I am unashamed to say, I had that poster on my wall. Most every male I know of that generation had that poster on his wall. It was some sort of boyhood law, a requirement, a key to the Kingdom of Testosterone. Chances are you don't even need to click that link to know which poster I'm talking about. Chances are you can close your eyes and see it in a split second, and sigh. Sex and beauty and Americana and teeth and sex and hope and hairdryers and carefree love and bathing suits and shimmer and sex. Farrah made it all possible.

But even that glorious, soft-focus icon is no match for the King of Pop. There is no contest.

Well, I guess who ya jacked off to is your business...

There musta been millions of you young, er, squirts doin' it simultaneously. The rest of us are lucky ya didn't bounce the Earth off its axis!

Good. Now we can leave. Maybe Iraq will come up with a Marshall Plan for us?

NYTimes

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken to calling the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq’s cities by next Tuesday a “great victory,” a repulsion of foreign occupiers he compares to the rebellion against British troops in 1920.

The day itself has been declared a national holiday, though it is not yet clear whether Iraq will hold the “feast and festivals” he recently promised.

Too bad they couldn'ta held off a few days. Iraq and the U.S. coulda shared Independence Days.

More than 150 American bases or outposts have been closed in Iraqi cities this year — 85 percent of the total, an Iraqi official said — including some that commanders considered crucial.

The Americans asked to keep open an outpost in Sadr City, the Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad that once served as the base of Shiite militias, only to be rebuffed.

“This is one we wanted,” Brig. Gen. John M. Murray said. “The Iraqi government said ‘no,’ so now we are leaving.”

Far from a celebration, the deadline has provoked uncertainty and even dread among average Iraqis, underscoring the potential problems that Mr. Maliki could face if bloodshed intensifies.

Even some Iraqi officers are worried. Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Muhsen, a commander with the First Division of the Iraqi National Police, grimly predicted that sectarian violence could return. He warned that control of Iraq’s borders remained ineffective, allowing more foreign fighters to enter.

“They are taking away all the equipment that the Americans provide,” he said, “and with the agenda of countries neighboring Iraq, it is a recipe for disaster.”

You want disaster? We'll show you disaster. We fucked your country over goin' in, we fuck it over while we're there, we fuck it over goin' out. You ignorant little brown people weren't properly grateful for your liberation by white imperialists, which is to say that you didn't give us all your oil even though we spent our military and all our money. Woulda been cheaper just to buy the shit, but Bush wasn't that smart. Disaster? The neocons invented it. Join the club.

“When the Americans get out of city centers, a big war will start,” a woman who identified herself as Um Hussan said amid the wreckage of a bombing on Monday outside her house in the Ur neighborhood of Baghdad. It has been months, she added, since she last saw American forces there.

“We ask God to help us for what is coming,” she said

Sorry, lady. God The Dick told Bush to invade your ass in the first place. You see how that worked out. Maybe you'll have better luck.

In related news:

Iraq opens fields; Exxon, Shell seek foothold

“Iraq is the big prize in the region,” said Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst at consultants PFC Energy. “It is one of the only remaining areas that provide the level of upside for companies who want to access reserves.”

Ah, fuck. Big Oil is about to have interests that need defending again. We ain't goin' nowhere. Army and Marine 'reserves', prepare to be 'accessed' for forty more years.

From HumorGazette via Boston Herald. Liquid alert.

Media Matters

Fez:

I guess we'll have to put up with one long, one-week media circus bukkakke of freakishness about Michael Jackson ...

Sorry, Gord. It ain't gonna stop until they've milked it for everything it's worth.

And just a question: Don't any of these people have lives? Jobs? Responsibilities? Obligations?

...

"We were just lucky to be here today," said Kyle Joyce of Sacramento, who came to the hospital after hearing the news while walking on Venice Beach. "We just wanted to see it with our own eyes."

...

Me? Not so much.

I'm gonna be 47 years old in a couple months and, for the life of me, I don't get how an entertainer (or someone else famous) these people never met (and know only through their art or profession) can fill so much of their lives that they have to drop everything to "be there". But then, I still don't get the whole Elvis/cult/thing either.

And an observation: The happiest guy in the world today is South Carolina Governor Mark "I Cry For Me, Argentina" Sanford.