"Another senseless tragedy"

Our pal pygalgia:

It started out a fairly typical local crime story. There was a car-jacking at the Grand Canyon. Later it was learned that this was on the heels of an apparent failed suicide attempt by driving into the Canyon. Two days and a cross state police chase later two men were dead.

...

One of them was a four-tour Iraq vet. His widow:

...

"All this violent behavior, him killing his brother, that was not my husband. If the PTSD would have been handled in a correct manner, none of this would have happened," she said in a telephone interview from Stafford, Va.

...

War on the cheap, like everything else Bush has done. And McCain wants another hundred years of this?

I can't wait ...

If (when) Barry gets the nod, I can't wait for the debates between him and McSame:

If John McCain goes ballistic every time he's mildly criticized by Barack Obama, this is going to be a much more interesting campaign than I thought ...

You betcha. I'm buying stock in Orville Redenbacher's.

Quote of the Day

The Rude One:

Bush's gallantry is to give [Sgt. Benjamin] Sebban's mom a hug. It's kind of like a boa constrictor thanking a rabbit after devouring her children.

Not this veteran's issues ...

McBush doesn't want to talk about his non-vote on the GI Bill he tried to undermine.

"I believe that I have earned the right to speak out on veterans’ issues," McCain said. "As a matter of fact I received the highest award from literally every veteran’s organization in America. I don’t know if the American people will judge Senator Obama as to whether he has military experience or not, but I think they may judge him as to whether he has experience and knowledge to make the judgment necessary to care for the veterans."

Listen, you old fool. I'd walk into Hell and back with Barry or Hil long before I'd consider going around the block with your senile, deluded ass.

And something completely different ...

Felix Mendelssohn - Piano Trio in D Minor

This was performed by three very talented young people from the Junior Chamber Music Series.

"I pray for revolution ..."

4 Non Blondes - What's Up!

Headin' out...

No blogging for a coupla days. Me'n Mrs. G are making a whirlwind trip to L.A. to pick up my new motorbike. There today, home tomorrow. A real highway thrash, but we get to visit a little with a coupla old friends.

Everybody have a nice weekend, and please take a moment to remember what Memorial Day is all about. Later.

Saturday whorage

Another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

Whore your own links in comments.

Dead Kennedys singer responds to Savage: How the hell does he get away with stuff like this?

Here's a little more in the vein of Fixer's post on the same subject.

Think Progress, lotsa comments.

Earlier this week, after Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was diagnosed with a brain tumor, right-wing talker Michael Savage offensively mocked Kennedy’s condition by playing the Dead Kennedys song “California Über Alles” and reading aloud its lyrics on his radio show. In an expletive-laden interview with the Boston Phoenix, Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra responded to Savage’s use of his song, saying he took the “song way the hell out of context and did it deliberately.” From the interview:

But the bigger issue is Savage himself and how the hell he gets away with stuff like saying this, and saying that people with AIDS should be put in concentration camps. And then when people protest at the station, he calls on his own listeners to come down and beat them up.

Good for you, Jello Man.

It makes me want to go to a protest at his station. No class fuckin' Weiner can call anybody he wants to. We'll see who gets beat up.

Dear Haloscan ...

WTF??? Over ...

Yeah ...

What Jello said:

...

But like it or not, [conservative talk show host Michael] Savage is the third-most popular radio-talk show host in this country behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Nobody from the other side is represented or promoted well enough by the big right-wing-owned radio networks to compete. That's one of the ways they mindfuck the country into being so dumb they vote for people like George Bush, Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The real issue here is why aren't the big candidates calling for media reform? Once upon a time there was a law on the books called the Fairness Doctrine, and it said that if somebody like Savage or Limbaugh or that skull woman Ann Coulter said something completely fucked up and dishonest on the air, somebody else was allowed to come on the air and reply to them without being told to shut up every 15 seconds by a power clown like Bill O'Reilly. That law was on the books for 50 years but was allowed to expire in the late '80s when a Democratic-controlled congress failed to override President Reagan's veto of the law.

...

Everclear to Gitmo

I never heard of 'em, but when I read the headline, I thought we were sending Gitmo some white lightning to put in the punch bowl. I was down wit dat. If I were stationed there, I'd want the strongest booze I could get aholt of! Then when I found out they're a band I wondered what the hell they did. Lefty lyrics? Go read if yer interested.

"[...} I’ve got a song I’m thinking about playing there for the first time, called “Jesus Was a Democrat.”
...

"[...] There’s a line in it that goes, “Jesus would be locked up in Guantanamo Bay if he were alive today.” I consider myself Christian but not in any traditional sense. I was brought up in a serious evangelical home, and always had problems with Christianity, like there was something great there, but that I wasn’t seeing it. I see why most people, especially young people, are afraid of Christians. There’s a line in the song that says, “I wonder if Jesus is as afraid of Christians as I am?” They’re scary!"

Yep, some of 'em.

Mythmaking for the next war

Chicago Tribune

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had some 45,000 nuclear warheads. At the moment, Iran has none. But when Barack Obama said the obvious—that Iran does not pose the sort of threat the Soviet Union did— John McCain reacted as though his rival had offered to trade Ft. Knox for a sack of magic beans.

Even if the Iranians would like to destroy Israel, they face a powerful disincentive: the prospect of radioactive incineration. The Tehran government has been intimidated by less. Israeli historian Gershom Gorenberg writes in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy magazine: "Iran agreed to a cease-fire in the war with Iraq once Iraqi missiles began falling on Tehran. The ayatollahs were willing to sacrifice soldiers—but not to pay a higher price." Even fanatics have their limits.

Nor would Iran be so irrational as to give nukes to a terrorist group. That would be the worst of both worlds—giving up control of those weapons, while inviting annihilation the moment they are put to use.

But there is no reasoning with McCain and his allies, who yearn for the simple clarity of the Cold War. If we don't have an enemy on the mammoth scale of the Soviet Union, they will take a pint-sized one, inflate it beyond recognition and pretend that military confrontation is the only way to deal with it.

That was how we got into the war in Iraq and how, under a McCain presidency, we are liable to end up in a war in Iran. If he's looking for reckless judgment, he should look in the mirror.

There's that 'judgment' word again. Nothing much to add, just go read the rest.

Another neocon bunch bites the dust

Fixer posted about PNAC goin' tits up in the tall weeds. Policy Forum has joined them.

Another hard-line neo-conservative group — and one that received a nearly $80,000 grant from the Pentagon just last September — may also have died. In fact, its effective demise may actually have preceded the the grant’s approval by the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Eric Edelman.

Yeah, don't tell 'em yer dead until they cough up the taxpayers' money. Typical Repug shit. WTF are we doing giving our money to those bastards anyway? Oh, I forgot - the Pentagon's propaganda effort AKA the Ministry of Truth is 'government' funded.

This is just getting ridiculous

So far today, it looks like we have a theme of sorts: batshit crazy hateful ideologues.

Think Progress

Anti-gay group compares marrying same-sex couples to helping the Nazis.

Reacting to the California Supreme Court’s decision overturing a same-sex marriage ban, the far right group Campaign for Children and Families compares county clerks issuing same-sex marriage licenses to Nazis gassing Jews during the Holocaust. Here’s what they say on their website, SaveCalifornia.com:

Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order.

(HT: Andrew Sullivan) (Andy's piece is titled "Malkin Award Nominees". Heh - G)

And if that wasn't enough, in the post just below that one:

Santorum Mocks Gay Marriage: ‘I Love My Brother. Should We Call This Relationship Marriage Too?’

Note to ol' 'Man on Dog': if you really love him, it's OK with me. I don't understand why you would want to, but then I'm not a Repuglican.

Tricky Ricky then goes on about how permitting gay marriage has totally fucked up heterosexual marriage and contributed to an increase in out-of-wedlock births in Norway of all places. I don't see how same-sex marriage affects birth rates, but he mostly made it all up anyway.

I was enjoying thinking we'd heard the last from that ying-yang, but I guess these truly important matters bring him out of the closet from under his rock.

I watched a guy named Garry Wills on Charlie Rose last night. He was talking about a book he's flogging about the Gospels. It was interesting, but the talk turned to the separation of church and state and then to gay marriage. He said that government should not be in the business of telling folks how they can formalize their love with another person, and that government should permit civil unions and stay the fuck out of the religious concept of marriage that should be left to the discretion of individual churches. Government should concern itself with equity, justice, and humanity, to which I would add screw the phony moral values of the fundie dipshits. I tend to agree with him. Well worth watching.

So much for Parsley...

Looks like Fixer'n me gangin' up on McCain's ass over his other nutjob 'pastor' worked.

In February, Ohio televangelist Rev. Rod Parsley endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain called Parsley — who once said Allah was a “demon spirit” — his “spiritual guide.” In an interview with the AP today, McCain finally said that he rejected Parsley’s support:

McCain’s statement on Parsley came after the senator earlier in the day rejected the endorsement of radical pastor John Hagee.

There's more, including a video and comments, but who needs it?

There's three religions descended from Abraham, and McCain chose to seek endorsements from two batshit 'spiritual guides' who between them called for the destruction of two of them. I'm not a religionist and I don't have much use for any of 'em, but the 'better angels' of religion can do good. Trouble is, the 'worst angels' that have caused so much trouble for thousands of years and continue to do so are much louder.

You'd think McCain would have gotten better advice from his advisors, but I guess they were too busy rakin' in the dough from the despots of various dictatorships around the world.

I actually kinda wish he'da hung on to these dark clowns until the election campaign had gotten into full sway. This was yet another indicator of the kind of poor judgment we already have in the White House and don't need any more of.

Quote of the Day

Avedon:

American healthcare is like one big Tuskegee experiment, where everyone else gets actual healthcare and the United States just gets maintained on the commercial medical industry disease.

Now I'm outta here ...

"Now for Parsley..."

Expanding on Gord's Hagee post last evening, it's time to shame McSame into throwing the other nut under the bus too. Mr. Aravosis:

... This is McCain's other pastor buddy, Rod Parsley. He's a real piece of work. Check out the video below put together by PFAW. We wrote about Parsley's offensive rhetoric earlier today (Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil.") ...

Off to work. TGIF!

Incoming ...

This can't be good:

BAGHDAD - Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

...

Bad enough that this week our guys are being targeted by people who were on our payroll last week, now the big cheese has given his blessing to it. When I think about our troops having to operate in that kind of environment, where friends are 'allies of convenience' and could turn into enemies tomorrow, where the guy fighting next to you today will try to kill you tonight, it is surprising more GIs haven't gone over the edge.

It's time to go; not in a hundred years, not in 2013, yesterday.

Great thanks to Robert Farley for the link.

Heh ...

Stolen from our pal UL. Click to enolden.

You can have a peek ...

Oh wow, McSame is releasing his medical records ... sort of. Dr. Fez-head in toto (links there):

Two reporters get three hours to sift through years, and undoubtedly hundreds if not thousands of pages of McCain medical documents...but no copies.

On the Friday before Memorial Day?

Oh, no, nothing that could cause suspicion there.

The new GI Bill passes ...

And veto-proof at that. Feels good to win:

The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a new GI bill and billions in new domestic spending as part of the $165 billion Iraq war funding bill pending before Congress.

...

Turdblossom gets a Summons

ABC News

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former senior Bush advisor Karl Rove, a panel spokesman tells ABC News.

"Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters."

The subpoena calls for Rove to appear before the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. on July 10.

July? Shit, if it was me, I'da had him report right after lunch! If he didn't show up, he'd be there at 8AM tomorrow in irons'n orange.

Rove himself was apparently not available for comment. Too busy tryin' to get aholt of the Chimp for a pardon. Bush is probably hiding from him by being out on the White House lawn not playing golf.

Actually, the July date is OK. We don't want Rove indicted until after 1.20.09, when the 'executive' will be fresh out of 'privilege'.

Update:

Emptywheel's got a good post on this. Thanks, 'Nucks.

Song of the Day

Pink - Dear Mr. President



JG.

ающий фаллос

You ain't gonna believe this! Heh.

Trio

Screw what's wrong with the world for a few minutes and remember what's right with it. Three of my favorite old broads sing a pretty song, and they mention my back yard too!

"He's out in the garage blowin' the shofar"*

Talk To Action has the most comprehensive article I've seen to date on McCain's despicable anti-semitic spiritual adviser Hagee. Commentary, beaucoup links, videos.

Two days ago I discovered that, according to John Hagee's own written words in Hagee's "Prophecy Study Bible", members of John Hagee's Christians United For Israel routinely sing, at their "Night To Honor Israel" events, a joyful-sounding song which, in scriptural terms, refers to Israel's coming, expected invasion and devastation. Building on my last discovery, of a John Hagee sermon in which John Hagee claims God sent Hitler and the Nazis, to chase Europe's Jews towards Palestine, and that Jews have dead (or non-living, inert) souls (see YouTube video towards the end of this post), this new finding helps solidify my case that Pastor John Hagee, who also has given a sermon espousing a crypto anti-Semitic conspiracy theory - of "international financial power brokers based in Europe", is an anti-Semite of the first magnitude.

I think we get that. Go see this only if you have a strong stomach.

Also see:

Psycho Christians and the media

Why the press gives McCain a pass for consorting with batshit holy men, but condemns Obama to talk-show hell for the same sin.

[...] The issue isn't that journalists share Hagee and Parsley's views so much as that they know that they are widely held, which makes them reluctant to acknowledge how truly outrageous they are. After years of nodding at the whacked-out likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the media has, to borrow Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, defined right-wing religious deviancy down. More or less "orthodox" Christian-right insanity, of the sort espoused by Hagee and Parsley, is familiar and normal, whereas black-church radicalism, with its ties to left-wing liberation theology, is not. [...]

The 'media' has a lot to answer for. They won't, and even if they did they'd never tell us about it.

*Punch line to a really old joke. If you don't know what a shofar is, you might not get it. It is not the liveried gent who drives the car. McCain, Hagee, the media - they're all blowin' each other.

Update:

Wow! I had no idea my post would be this powerful! Musta been the 'blowjob' reference. The Repugs are rightly a little sensitive about that stuff. Heh.

McCain rejects Hagee's endorsement

Out of political expediency McShame has done half the 'Wright' thing. Now for Parsley...

Capitalism ...

Yeah, we taught the Taliban a lesson. A lesson in economics:

Afghan Islamic militants get some 40 percent of their revenue from the poppy harvest used in opium production, the head of the NATO forces in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

...

Afghanistan remains the world's top producer of opium, supplying some 8,000 tonnes last year, according to UN figures. The southern province of Kandahar and Helmand are the main growing areas.

...

How long we been there now? Yeah, we're winning.

Off to work ...

Re-fucking NOLA ...

Via Cookie Jill, the AP reports the 'heck of a job' repairs on NOLA's levees ain't worth a shit:

Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses.

Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.

...

Over the past few months, however, the corps found evidence that canal water is seeping through the joints in the sheet metal and then rising to the surface on the other side of the levee, forming puddles and other wet spots.

Engineers said the boggy ground is a more serious problem than the corps realizes. Bea said there is a roughly 40 percent chance of the 17th Street Canal levee collapsing if water rises higher than 6 feet above sea level. During Katrina, the water reached 7 feet in the canal.

...

Fuck 'em again; they're used to it by now ...

No more PNAC ...

Yay!

Apparently for financial reasons, the new American century has prematurely ended.

In a symbolic act, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), run by Bill Kristol and other neocons, has lost its internet presence.

When accessing www.newamericancentury.org one now gets redirected to the webhosters 'account suspended' page.

...

A part of the Neocon noise machine bites the dust. Looks like it'll be a good day.

Holy shit!

Our 'mechanic's blog' ("The Last Chance Garage" a.k.a. Fixer & Gordon) is 4 years old today. Time flies when yer havin' fun!

Good grief ...

Thankfully, we don't get many trolls here but it looks like we're gonna get a rash of 'em soon.

...

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.

...

Total Ayatollah Recall

A coupla good posts at Democracy Arsenal on McFlipFlop's attitude towards the leadership of Iran:

Following-up on Ilan's post, it seems to me that McCain has a real problem on his hands. This passage from a 2003 CQ piece suggests that when moderates held elective power in Iran, McCain himself acknowledged that the theocratic leaders (ie the Ayatollah and the Council of Guardians) wielded ultimate political power in Iran:
...

But others saw the effort as futile. "People go in there and meet the moderate foreign minister and the moderates around him, and they fool themselves into thinking the regime will change," said John McCain, R-Ariz., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The religious mullahs will never let them."

So, for McCain, when the moderates held elective office, the religious clerics were the final arbiters of Iranian politics and policy. But now that a more hard-line president has control in Iran, he is characterized as the true leader and the religious clerics are marginalized. [...]
...

[...] Even in January of this year, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather publicly overruled President Ahmadinejad in a way that directly contradicts McCain's recent assertions:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, ordered Ahmadinejad to implement a law that would supply natural gas used to heat remote villages. The issue has become critical during an unusually harsh winter in Iran, and illustrates Ahmadinejad's weakness on domestic policy despite the high profile the anti-American populist has acquired abroad.

It certainly is disconcerting, as Ilan stated, to have in McCain a presidential candidate who doesn't understand the basic nature of Iran's political system. It certainly undercuts any credibility he has on the issue, and for all his recent posturing on Iran, it demonstrates a world view in disarray, whether on purpose or not. But whatever the root of the confusion may be, it does, in the end, perpetuate the conservative tactic of muddying reality in order to beat the politically expedient drum of fear.

I have nothing to add to that.

Song of the Day

Today, with a special dedication to George W. Bush, we bring you Jimmy Buffett's, "The Asshole Song." Enjoy!



JG.

Have a fun summer...

Gas prices of Death (Valley)

Yikes.

Submitter Kristin sends us this crazy photo taken at a Death Valley gas station. Sends an involuntary shudder down your spine, no? "Mark Pozorski shot this pic two weeks ago in Death Valley; his record gas purchase. Most Motorcycles require Premium. It went up to $5.90/gal. last week," Kristin explains.

Click to inflate

Of course, you can always go to the cheaper station down the street. About 150 miles down the street.

Death Valley is an awfully long way from anywhere and delivery costs are very high, not to mention that in DV they gotcha where they wantcha, but it's a portent of things to come. Along with maybe the $10 burrito at the Food Mart. Thanks, George.

Just as an afterthought, old motorcycles require Premium. Most modern ones require 97 octane barbecue starter like everything else. Their owners don't understand technical shit like 'burn rate' and only want to buy the 'best' for their baby. That used to be OK, but at these prices just buy the cheapest grade of gas the engine won't 'ping' on.

Please note: The above advice only applies if you are not required by religious and/or party affiliation to throw your money at the oil companies.

Quote of the Day

SPR: McCain’s ‘Compelling Logic’ For Not Talking to Our Enemies:

"I really don't have to; their paid lobbyists already work for my campaign."

Good point...

Bill Richardson nails McSame

Mark Halperin

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson released the followings statements expressing their opposition to the Bush-McCain Cuba policy outlined today:

You can go read Dodd. Here's part what mi gente Richardson had to say:

“John McCain doesn’t understand as well as Senator Obama and I do how the Castro regime works. John McCain — like George Bush — is afraid to talk to bad guys. He feels safer pretending to talk tough by hiding from them. Unfortunately ordinary people will pay for his lack of diplomatic skill. [...]

Have paid and will continue to pay if there is a Bush III.

Why the fuck are we so afraid of Cuba? Jeezus, if it were a real threat we could sink it! Oh, I remember - the Repugs make up stories and tell us who to be afraid of so we'll vote for them so they can protect us from boogeymen who don't exist.

I think what Repugs are really afraid of is pissin' off the expat Cuban voting bloc in Florida. They've counted on the 'fraidy cats and crazies for years. One less bunch of crazies could hurt them at the polls.

I want normal relations with Cuba. It's way past time, and I still want a '59 El Camino.

MSM Drops Ball on Iran Again

Cmdr. Huber

The story that most likely would have knocked the bottom out of the Bush administration’s case for war with Iran occurred over a week ago, and the mainstream media hasn’t reported it.

While flipping through channels on the evening of May 12, I accidentally heard Keith Olberman referencing a story from the LA Times that told how the U.S. military was all ready to show the American press enclave in Iraq the big cache of Iranian arms that Iraqi security forces had captured from Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army during the recent fighting in the Iraqi cities of Basra and Karbala.

The arms, in theory, would have proven once and for all the administration’s assertions that Iran is arming Sadr’s Shiite militiamen. There was just one glitch; when U.S. inspectors went in to inspect the captured arms, they said that none of the weapons or ammunition could be reliably traced to Iran.

Olberman ended the segment with “You do realize they are making this up about Iran?” Yes, I do, Keith, I thought. I realized it two years and change ago.

“Top Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus had plotted a sequence of events that would build domestic U.S. political support for a possible strike against Iran,” Porter wrote. [...]

[...] You can bet your sweet bipi that if American inspectors had found so much as a slingshot with Farsi markings on it, you would have heard more about it overnight than you’ve heard about Britney Spears in the last six months.

I don’t know if everyone in the mainstream media is in the tank for Bush now or if they all just suck or what, but something smells to high heaven like a big honking pile of fresh laid, pure unadulterated monkey business.

Oh Jeff, how quaint! The MSM is thinking ahead. Being in the tank for Bush is soooo 2008. They're in the tank for McSame now.

Neocon monkey business continues to be steaming fresh, and not pure at all.

Voter fraud ...

We've touched on the SCOTUS ruling on the Indiana voter ID law here but PhysioProf goes more in depth:

...

Who are the people who are going to prevented from voting because they do not possess a valid government-issued photo ID? The poor, the homebound elderly, the homeless, and racial minorities. The Republican Party does not want these citizens of the United States to be able to vote because they will not be voting for the disgusting neo-feudal fucking demons that the Republican Party drags out of the shitstreams of its morally heinous conservative sewer to put up for election every year. [em in orig]

...

Goin' to work ...

Stop, yer killin' me ...

Who knew the House Minority Leader was a comedian? John Boner Boehner:

Washington - Washington is broken. You need look no further than $4 per gallon for gas to see how political gamesmanship in Washington is impacting your life. Two years ago, congressional Democrats promised "change" but what we’ve seen instead is business-as-usual.

...

Translation: We've fucked up everything, but the Dem majority in Congress can't fix it because we've obstructed them at every turn, so you might as well vote for us because shit won't change regardless of who's in power.

...

House Republicans have already offered legislation to provide for environmentally-safe energy exploration here at home, reduce the tax burden of middle-class families and stop the public funding of lawmakers’ pet projects. We will continue to offer the American people the kind of changes they want. We are offering real solutions – not slogans – for the challenges our families face every day. Together, we can deliver the change American families deserve.

...

Ha-ha-ha-ha, stop, yer killin' me ...

Great thanks to Maru for the link.

Joke Line grows a nut ...

And he actually calls McSame out for the bullshit he makes up:

Yesterday, Time's Joe Klein noted that he could find no evidence that Sen. Barack Obama had ever specifically said he would negotiate with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

...

KLEIN: The Supreme, you know, according to most diplomatic experts, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the guy who's in charge of Iranian foreign policy and also in charge of the nuclear program, but you never mention him. Do you, you know, um, why do you always keep talking about Ahmadinejad since he doesn't have power in that, in that realm?

MCCAIN: Oh I thin-Again, I respectfully disagree. When he's the person that comes to the United Nations and declares his country's policy is the extermination of the state of Israel, quote, in his words, wipe them off of the map, then I know that he is speaking for the Iranian government and articulating their policy and he was elected and is running for reelection as the leader of that country. Yes sir, go ahead.

...

Shows you the depth of McCain's foreign policy acumen when he doesn't get how the Iranian government is organized. It's especially telling since he also doesn't understand the differences between the Shi'ia and Sunni sects of Islam, or spouts crap about the Iranians (Shi'ia) supporting al-Qaeda (Sunni). I'm sure they're all just 'sandniggers' to him.

For those who wouldn't vote for Hillary or Barack for whatever reason and would rather vote for McCain I ask you this. Why would you want a President who doesn't have a clue about the people he'll be sending your children to kill?

Prayers ...

As most regulars here know, I'm a godless heathen infidel bastid, but that still doesn't keep me from hoping for some sort of divine intervention on behalf of Ted Kennedy. As someone whose family has been touched by cancer many times, I've seen people I love be devastated by the disease and also seen recoveries that are close to miraculous. I guess I'm asking for a miracle.

Take care of yourself, Ted.

How to do it ...

There has to be some intangible, some formula the Rethugs use to assure their great 'successes'. Well the oracle has been found:

republican problem solving handbook

when confronted with a 'problem' choose several activities from the list below:

Great thanks to bluegal for the link.

Hallowed Ground

I See Hawks In L.A. has a new album out today. Click and listen to some full-length samples. Good California Country. $13.50 + $1.50 shipping is a bargain, or iDownload.

Song of the Day

Springsteen - Chimes of Freedom



Click here for lyrics (Dylan)

JG.

Free tattoo!

If you are in the Philly area and have some blank skin left, here's the deal of the year!

"On a hill far away..."*

AJC.com

Columbus — Georgia Republican Party chairwoman Sue Everhart said Saturday that the party's presumed presidential nominee has a lot in common with Jesus Christ.

"John McCain is kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross," Everhart said as she began the second day of the state GOP convention. "He never denounced God, either."

Everhart was praising McCain for never denouncing the United States while he was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

McCain? Jesus on the cross?

After ten minutes of rolling on the floor laughing his ass off, taking some oxygen, wiping his tears, mopping his coffee out of the keyboard, and picking up everything he knocked over whilst falling out of his chair, your intrepid correspondent continues...

Well...lemme see now. Other than inviting the moneychangers into the temple, reserving the loaves and fishes for those who can afford them, changing beer into water instead of wine (have you ever drank Budweiser?), and a few hundred other things he's done just the opposite of WWJD, I got absolutely no problem with it.

Let's fast forward this deal. How about we have McCain's Good Friday this coming Friday? And since some of us have a mild sense of history, let's keep an eye on his tomb for a few days this time lest some prankster make off with his corpse when no one's looking. We've got 2000 years of seeing how well that went the last time.

Oh, and as far as McCain 'never denouncing the United States' whilst in the Hanoi Hilton, close but no cigar, lady. See also "Hanoi John: Manchurian Candidate?".

*Old Marine joke:

"On a hill far away
Stands an old rugged cross..."

"Charlie Battery, fire mission, over..."

A Twofer To Gladden The Heart

Click to embiggen

Gee, just like the dollar...

Think Progress, with video and comments:

Reacting to this morning’s story in the Jerusalem Post claiming that Bush will attack Iran before the end of his term, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters that the article “is not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

In taking on NBC News yesterday and the Jerusalem Post today, Henry said, “There’s a broader fight going on — which is the White House against the media.”

Slug it out, boys. We're watching. I want the media to win this fight, but I want 'em to get good and bloody in the process. They damn sure got it comin'.

More McCain Foreign Policy Expertise

Think Progress with video and links:

Yesterday, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) often incorrectly portrays Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as if Ahmadinejad has a significant role in formulating Iranian foreign policy. He doesn’t. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s National Security Council set Iran’s foreign policy.

Yesterday, Time’s Joe Klein pressed McCain on the issue, but McCain refused to concede he was wrong, saying he disagreed that Khamenei runs Iranian policy behind the scenes. McCain added that because the “average American” thinks Ahmadinejad is Iran’s leader, that’s good enough for him:

But as the National Security Network’s Ilan Goldenberg notes, “if the ‘average American’ thinks that Ahmadinejad is the ultimate leader of Iran” it would be McCain’s job as president “to dissuade them of this notion - not reinforce it.”

True, but McCain is still only the candidate, and his job right now is to get elected. He knows damn good and well that an accurately, truthfully informed electorate is not in his or his party's best interests. Spin, lies, and disinformation to keep their sheeple in the dark and in fear are their only chance of success. Besides, it's Repug policy.

It's easy for McCain to appear sincere about all this - well, about every Bush/Repug talking point - because he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground about very much other than how to marry well anyway.

McBush would rather have a showdown with Iran than a sitdown, I think because they've seen too many old cowboy movies, and are in love with the image of themselves as Matt Dillon standin' out in the street with their fingers poised over their pistol butts. Talkin's fer pussies, Slade, slap leather. They don't give a shit how many people die or how much it costs. Or how fundamentally wrong they are. Diplomacy implies weakness to them. I guess the corollary to that is that arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, and bullying imply strength.

My fervent desire is that Bush, Cheney, McCain, the neocons, et al, get to ride off into the sunset draped over their saddles.

More on Bush's Nazi past

A good article by Robert Parry on Bush's Nazi-enabling forebears.

Bush might have noted that his family's wealth, which fueled his own political rise, was partly derived from Nazi collaboration and possibly from slave labor provided by Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Indeed, the quick dissipation of the Nazi financial scandal was only a portent of the Bush family's future. Unlike politicians of lower classes, the Bushes seemed to travel in a bubble impervious to accusations of impropriety, since the Eastern Establishment doesn't like to think badly of its own.

To this day - as President Bush showed by mocking the long-forgotten Sen. Borah and then wielding the Nazi "appeasement" club against Barack Obama and other Democrats - the assumption remains that the bubble will continue to protect the Bush family name.

'Bubbles' have had a history of popping lately. I hope this one does, but it probably won't.

Update:

View co-host brings up Prescott Bush's Nazi ties

Not, perhaps, the venue I would have hoped for, but it's a start. Go and scroll down and watch the blond wingnut bimbo get, and please pardon me for this, my darling amplitudinous View ladies, steamrolled by the other panel members.

One more ...

Before I split. Via Avedon, what if Barack or Hillary's pastor would have said shit like this?

Low class and detestable ...

Ol' Barack on GMA:

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into a Republican ad today that targets comments made by his wife, Michelle, and called the GOP tactic "low class" and "detestable."

...

Indeed, though in the article, it seems they left out the part -- I watched the interview -- where Obama said the Republicans just "make stuff up".

...

Obama praised his wife's patriotism and said that for Republicans "to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class ... and especially for people who purport to be promoters of family values, who claim that they are protectors of the values and ideals and the decency of the American people to start attacking my wife in a political campaign I think is detestable."

...

A chicken hiding under a desk and the words "low class and detestable" should be the coat of arms for the Republican Party. I hope Barack realizes, now that it seems he'll be the nominee, that the lowlife attacks are only going to get worse.

Off to work ...

Police states ...

As I've been saying for a while, I still don't believe Bush & Co. will go quietly in January. These people are too used to power and have committed too many crimes to just walk away and let the chips fall where they may. Digby is thinking along the same lines:

...

I don't know about you, but I sort of go with the assumption that there will be another terrorist attack on US soil at some point. I don't know if it will be Islamic or homegrown. (After all we've had big attacks from both in the last 15 years.) The difference now is that we have a big new police apparatus built up during the Bush years and an entire propaganda machine organized around the idea that the boogeyman is trying to kill us all in our beds. It's not a stretch to think that under pressure, any government could, (*ahem*) overreach just a tad and decide that certain political undesirables need to be dealt with. If they've built the capability, there is every chance they will use it. It's how these things work.

...

And Jersey Cynic alerts us that China, America's biggest supplier of crap, has a model ready for export and capitalism-friendly:

...

Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric. And the global corporations currently earning superprofits from this social experiment are unlikely to be content if the lucrative new market remains confined to cities such as Shenzhen. Like everything else assembled in China with American parts, Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you.

Strength ...

Stolen from Skippy:

It's Enough to Make you Feel All Warm 'n' Fuzzy.....

Are you on this list?

"There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated.

Read the full article here: Radaronline

Best Political Ad Ever!

Steve Novick is running for Dem Senator from Oregon.



More Novick ads here.

Quote of the Day

Go read Daddy Frank:

McCain Can Run, but Bush Won’t Hide

Pretty hard for McCain to run from Bush with his feet barely stickin' out of Bush's ass...

Pinball Wizard

A little different take on the the same subject as Fixer's post, i.e. our National Embarrassment.

ABC News

President Bush lectured the Arab world Sunday about everything from political repression to the denial of women's rights but ran into Palestinian complaints he is favoring Israel in stalled Mideast peace talks. "Freedom and peace are within your grasp," Bush said despite scant signs of progress.

BuzzFlash put it a little more succinctly:

"Bush Lectures Arab World on Political Reform." We're All Ears, George.

The deaf dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball.

Go watch Bush in action just finding the pinball machine, my metaphor for 'couldn't find his ass with both hands' AKA 'running the country'. Thank God he didn't have a rubber hammer! He'da wrecked the joint!

Oops. He already did wreck the joint. My bad.

My most sincere apologies to Roger Daltrey and deaf dumb and blind kids.

The fake on the lake

The claim that John McCain is a man of the people
Is hooey that's too much to take
Let's just say that this boast at the end of the day
Is as fake as his artificial lake.

Tony Peyser

Real people who fish don't have private artificial lakes on their 10-acre estates. Real people don't have lakes built for them on their estates. That's left to the elites and the modern day aristocrats. But guess who else has built their own lake to go fishing? John McCain's bff (butt effin' friend? - G) George Bush:

Now, I know the traveling press corps wouldn't ever equate McCain with being rich or elitist. That might make him mad and no one who spends time around McCain wants to evoke his out-of-control temper. And, we know the press types like getting invited to the private estate in Sedona for barbecues.

McCain and Cindy are very, very, very rich people. Very rich. When you own nine homes (or is it ten?), you're among the elite, no matter how you cut it. [...]

A coupla 'comments' from the above article;

Sedona, by the way, is considered the cosmic center of the universe for old school new-agers: chock full of "energy vortexes" and other unholy portals... a veritable playground for Satan-the-Trickster!

Just an aside: In the Navajo culture, and possibly that of the Yavapai folks around Sedona, 'Satan-the-trickster' is also called 'Coyote'. Very apt symbol for McCain. From 'Tricksters':

But Old Man Coyote shakes his head. "These are powerful songs. You can't mess around with these songs. If you want to dance, you're going to have to dance just like I tell you to dance."

"Well okay," them geese agree.

"Keep your eyes closed!" Coyote says, and he hits one of them geese with his sticks. "Wait, stop!" says Coyote. "This here geese opened his eyes and now he's dead! You'd better all keep your eyes closed."

But one old geese, he opens one eye just a peep, and now he sees what's goin' on. "Run away, brothers!" he cries, and off they go — but not before Old Man Coyote fills his belly real good.

"That was sure some good trick," says Coyote, and he goes along his way.

I get carried away sometimes and put things in odd places, but that's the best description of the Repug agenda I've seen in quite a while! Back on track now...

and we all know that the code word "elitist" when referring to African Americans means "uppity".

We just went through Sedona last year, it is rich people mostly. If you aren't, don't know how you survive there. There are rivers and streams there, it's beautiful with the red rock.

I love Sedona. It's a wonderful place to visit, lots to see and do in the area, but it is not exactly typical small-town America.

The 'New-Agers' are called 'Sedona Woo-Woos' by the locals. The locals who actually work in Sedona mostly can't afford to live there and live in Cottonwood and Camp Verde and commute.

I think it is the heighth of arrogance to have a private artificial lake in an arid area like that, which has been in a drought for years like most of the Southwest. It has to be kept filled or it would evaporate. The water could be used for better purposes in a region where residents have gravel for front yards, even paint it green sometimes, instead of lawns.

Just fer fun, go see what passes for a natural 'lake' in that part of Arizona. Heh.

Rich people think they can get away with anything because they can pay for it. Once they get in politics, they get away with all kinds of bizarre shit and make us pay for it after first making sure they're insulated from paying for anything that serves the greater good.

McCain a man of the people, my ass.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Leave the Batteries at Home, This Bra's Solar-Powered!
Gals on the go -- when your cellphone or iPod needs a charge, all you do is step outside in full view of the sun, rip off your blouse and let this dual-purpose wonder bra lift, separate and soak up those rays. Envious onlookers will wonder how you're generating so much energy just by standing there. $125, at all Charge It! stores.

By George, I think they're onto something! They just need to work on miniaturization of the components...

GOP Fears Losing Core Constituencies
Evangelical Christians, shady energy entrepreneurs, male escort service operators no longer a sure thing.

Polar Bears Given Limited Threatened Species Status
They'll be protected as long as they stay out of ANWAR and practice abstinence.

Methane Emissions, Mostly From Cows, Greater Threat Than CO2
Experts call for massive, sustained barbecue.

Same-Sex Relationships Common Among Hundreds of Species
Only porcupines specifically forbid it.

Talk about gettin' wrecked...

Following up on Fixer's demolition post, look at all the stuff he found in the walls and rafters that he'd forgotten about over the years! I don't know what its R-value is...

Song of the Day

Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower



Click here for lyrics

JG.

Immense Political Rally for Obama in Portland, OR

Being from Jersey City, I'm a political junkie by birth. I have been following politics at one level of intensity or another for most of my life. I can honestly say that I have never, ever seen anything that even approaches this:



JG.

a tip of my Jersey Giants* cap to culture kitchen

*One has to be of a certain age to get that reference. ;)

My song ...

Or it should be after this weekend.

Sting - Demolition Man

Been wrecking shit all weekend and I got more to do when I get home from work today. Oy!

Sock puppets ...

Our pal PC has come upon something interesting:

...

Suggestions are made to shower superdelegates with email. Vicious attacks on Democrats and Democratic politicians, and even the small-d democratic process. The disaffected are urged to vote for McCain, harrass Obama supporters, flood their legislators with mail and calls, turn to Faux News for information and shun all other sources.

What do you think? Sounds pretty fishy to me.

...

So what?

Our national embarrassment was in the Middle East for the last couple days, taking the time to kiss Likudnik ass in Israel before making an ass of himself in front of the World Economic Forum.

...

In Egypt, Mr Bush urged Arab leaders to work hard to advance democracy and civil liberties, and to isolate sponsors of terrorism.

He told the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh that states needed to diversify their economies, invest in people and extend the reach of freedom.

...

Just like we have here, right? Bush is just the guy to lecture on human rights and democracy.

...

Mr Bush said politics in the region too often "consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail" and that the time had come for nations to "abandon these practices, and treat their people with the dignity and respect they deserve".

...

Yeah, like rigging the vote, stop-lossing our vets in Iraq, and letting the oil companies gouge us in their rush to accumulate the most profit before a Dem is elected in November. And, speaking of oil, the Chimp went to Saudi to beg for an increase in oil production and they promptly told him to fuck off. And these are our friends in the region?

...

It was Bush’s second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, head of the monarchy that rules this desert kingdom that is a longtime prime U.S. ally and home to the world’s largest oil reserves. But Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president’s national security adviser told reporters.

...

In other words, it ain't the worldwide demand for oil that's raising prices here, it's the folks who are selling the oil in the US who are driving up prices. You know, the Chimp's cronies.

So now the little bastid is back and what has he accomplished? Nothing. Nothing good comes out of the White House, only fuck ups. Been that way for 8 years.

Supporting the troops ...

In their usual style. The Chimp threatens to veto the Webb GI Bill when it gets to his desk. Says Sen. Webb:

... And then we see this president, he’s fine with sending these people over and over again where they’re spending more time in Iraq than they are at home. He’s fine with the notion of stop loss, where we can, we can make people stay in even after enlistments are done. And then we say, “Give them the same benefit that the people in World War II have,” and they say it’s too expensive.

...

As opposed to tax breaks and subsidies for the oil companies, right? As opposed to tax cuts for the rich?

Cross-posted at API.

Quote of the Day

Athenae, commenting on the same Poor Man post I did this morning:

...

I think if we weeded out all the things people said over the past years that were complete horseshit, only by identifying the long pause after they said something hateful, much like the space in the script where it says "wait for applause or gasps of amazement at your genius or exclamations of admiration for your courage," we would excise perhaps two-thirds of all commentary ever from the public record.

...

Sunday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

LISTEN TO THIS ONE! Liquid alert!

Weird Al Yankovic - Truck Drivin' Song

Satan's Jewel Crown

I spend a lot of time 'auditioning' music videos for the Brain. It's hard work, but someone's gotta do it.

Sometimes I really like a particular artist, or a particular song, or both, but I wonder if they'd be appropriate. On the theory that at least some of us Godless commie fucks maybe ain't, or like this kind of music anyway, I decided to just throw it out there and let you, dear readers, decide. Subtitled for your convenience. Heh.

This is a song about redemption, and I dedicate it to Dick Cheney, for whom there will be no redemption. Wear the crown he gave you all you want while you're here, Dick, 'cuz when you go to your reward and reunite with your soul Ol' Scratch is gonna take it back. Eternal suffering is a small price for you to pay for all the suffering you've caused, asshole.

Emmylou Harris

The guy with the 'Indians' shirt is Dr. John Starling, a former member of the bluegrass super group The Seldom Scene. He quit that to go make a living in his practice, but has returned to music with Carolina Star.

The other gent is Carl Jackson, who is simply the best multiple Grammy winning long-time country music superstar singer/songwriter you've never heard of.

Blowing Away

Ya can always get me with a pretty girl singin' Lowell George - Fixer

Gotcha, boss! Doubled up on ya with the pretty girls, too! Damn, I'm good! Here's a quickie with

Linda Ronstadt & Bonnie Raitt

Song of the Day

Tom Paxton - George W. Told The Nation





JG.

Hat tip to Gordon for the centering.

Still crazy ...

The Editors look at the hard core:

...

Bush = good. Muslims = evil. The government is owed our unconditional support. It is our duty to defeat the false religions. It’s all sensible because I choose to believe it. I am very brave for saying so. One suspects these few self-evident truths can be repeated at very high volume for long, long periods of time, endurance extended beyond normal human limits by excising any vestigial doubt. This is - minus the charmingly parochial idea that we must wage War on Islam out of a concern for gay rights, obviously - the Republican base, still crazy after all these years.

...

Sad to say, there's no hope for the 28-percenters.

Update:

Oliver Willis finds the latest incarnation of 'Republican crazy'.

Debbie Schlussel, who is sort of the K-Mart version of Ann Coulter, along with others on the right, is trying to fuel yet another attack on Sen. Obama for his meeting with Imam Hassan Qazwini, a muslim leader in Detroit. Schlussel is one of the reactionary nutjobs on the right and as soon as they see someone who isn’t Christian they automatically assume that they are terrorists. So they tie themselves up in knots, and accuse Obama of meeting with the enemy or some other such nonsense.

...

God, they make it so easy.

...

Using the logic of absolute morons like Debbie Schlussel, we can only surmise that President Bush is a secret agent of Iran who wants to force us to gay marry while converting to Sharia law.

...

Well, he sure has enabled Iran to get more powerful, hasn't he?