I'll foot the bill ...

To have it installed on the National Mall ...

Slide Job

A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan

Bonnie Raitt ~ Pride And Joy

Thanks, jazzbungalo.

Born Again American

I saw part of this on Bill Moyers Journal Friday night and went looking for it. Read about it at the link.

We're entering a new era come next Tuesday. I don't know about the 'Born Again' verbiage, hell, gettin' born an American just the once did it for me, and I'll never trust another so-called 'born again christian' after Bush again, but I get the idea. If our country ever needed rebirth, it's as soon as that son of a bitch and his ilk are gone.

Call me a sentimental old fool who wants justice for all, but this made me tear up a little.


Born Again American.org

Better get yer Johnson looked at, buddy!

Caution: think twice before you YouTooble up 'water landings' or related! You'll be gone awhile...



Yesterday's event was extraordinary. Here's a successful water landing from a coupla years ago. I think this is more what normally happens. This one's for real:

Gone, Bushes, Gone

The Rude Pundit

There’s one final myth about this President that the Rude Pundit would like to put to rest: George W. Bush is not a man you would want to have a beer with. No, not because if you saw him in a bar, you'd react like you had gone on the sex offender registry in Dallas and discovering that a guy who fucked babies in his basement was now living in the downstairs apartment. It's that, despite any feints at finding him charming, he is not, in his soul, a kind or decent person.

[...] The Rude Pundit doesn't drink with irredeemable dickheads, with self-righteous balls of fuck who think their very existence demands your respect and attention, with privileged cockmongers who can't manage even a moment of self-awareness.

And he will not drink with crazed, mad sons of bitches who can't be reasoned with when they're half a fifth in the bag, the kind of angry drunk who'll fight you for stepping on his shoes, who'll show up at your house with a group of shithead drunk friends, kick your dog, try to finger your wife's asshole, break your lamps while falling into your houseplants, shit on your front yard, set your porch on fire trying to light your barbecue, puke in your fishtank, read your diary to your whole family, and then demand that you give him a bed so he can just sleep it off, but when you won't, he threatens to cut your kids' throats and jack off in the wounds. Fuck him. He can drink alone for all eternity.

In my dreams, Bush'd come to my house and try that...

It's over. It's done. It is, yes, finally, history. Yet we can't just bury this presidency alive in the cold, cold ground and have a picnic on the earth above it, joyously toasting as it screams and claws and tries to get free before it inhales dirt, gags, vomits, and dies horribly, not knowing why it deserved such an awful fate. No, alas, no.

Because the reason I will unreasonably hate this man, these men, these women, as human beings, and not just for ideologies and actions, is because neither I nor most of you will live to see the day that all their hurt is healed.

I have nothing to add to that.

FYI

ARREST BUSH 2009

What's Hayden Hidin'?

Ray McGovern via Worldwide Sawdust

Outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden is going around town telling folks he has warned President-elect Barack Obama "personally and forcefully" that if Obama authorizes an investigation into controversial activities like water boarding, "no one in Langley will ever take a risk again."

It is not only a bit cheeky, but more than a little disingenuous that Hayden should think to advise Obama "personally and forcefully" against investigating illegal activities authorized by president George W. Bush, since Hayden himself can already be described as an unindicted co-conspirator based on publicly available information. He has bragged loudly about the crimes in which he was directly involved, and has defended others, like what he has called "high-end" interrogation techniques—water boarding, for example.

Could it be clearer? "Water boarding is torture," said President-elect Obama last Sunday to George Stephanopoulos. Torture is a crime. Obama added, twice, that no one is "above the law," although also citing his "belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backward."

Despite the President-elect's equivocations, it seems that President Bush and the current CIA director have a problem. And apparently Hayden's palms are sweaty enough to warrant, in his view, a thinly veiled threat.

In the outrage category, that threat/warning goes well beyond chutzpah. What an insult to my former colleagues at the CIA to suggest that they lack the integrity to fulfill their important duties in consonance with the law; to suggest that they would treat the incoming president like a substitute teacher!

Note to the CIA: If by 'taking risks', AF weenie Hayden means 'breaking the law and wiping yer ass with the Constitution and the Geneva Convention for political purposes because someone told you to', well, don't. You know that. Just do your job.

Note to Bush: You better get to buildin' some guest quarters down there in Paraguay. Your accomplices are runnin' scared. Sounds like you're going to have a lot of company.

Note to Bush & Cheney's accomplices: From my vast storehouse of legal expertise garnered by watching countless Law & Order reruns, the first one to roll over gets the best deal.

Note to Hayden: I hope you end your AF career with slick sleeves and a rag in your hand, wipin' the wings of O-1 Bird Dogs.

Threaten my President, willya?!!

Forgive And Forget, My Ass

Paul Krugman, in toto.

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.

Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.

At the Justice Department, for example, political appointees illegally reserved nonpolitical positions for “right-thinking Americans” — their term, not mine — and there’s strong evidence that officials used their positions both to undermine the protection of minority voting rights and to persecute Democratic politicians.

The hiring process at Justice echoed the hiring process during the occupation of Iraq — an occupation whose success was supposedly essential to national security — in which applicants were judged by their politics, their personal loyalty to President Bush and, according to some reports, by their views on Roe v. Wade, rather than by their ability to do the job.

Speaking of Iraq, let’s also not forget that country’s failed reconstruction: the Bush administration handed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected companies, companies that then failed to deliver. And why should they have bothered to do their jobs? Any government official who tried to enforce accountability on, say, Halliburton quickly found his or her career derailed.

There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?

Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

One answer you hear is that pursuing the truth would be divisive, that it would exacerbate partisanship. But if partisanship is so terrible, shouldn’t there be some penalty for the Bush administration’s politicization of every aspect of government?

Alternatively, we’re told that we don’t have to dwell on past abuses, because we won’t repeat them. But no important figure in the Bush administration, or among that administration’s political allies, has expressed remorse for breaking the law. What makes anyone think that they or their political heirs won’t do it all over again, given the chance?

In fact, we’ve already seen this movie. During the Reagan years, the Iran-contra conspirators violated the Constitution in the name of national security. But the first President Bush pardoned the major malefactors, and when the White House finally changed hands the political and media establishment gave Bill Clinton the same advice it’s giving Mr. Obama: let sleeping scandals lie. Sure enough, the second Bush administration picked up right where the Iran-contra conspirators left off — which isn’t too surprising when you bear in mind that Mr. Bush actually hired some of those conspirators.

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

A good rule of thumb in making any decision is that the right thing to do is usually the thing you find the hardest to do. Painful to some though it may be, this one isn't hard. It's not even a decision, really. It's simply what needs to be done.

Quote of the Day

Dr. Fez-head:

...

The only "farewell address" I remember with an audience was Nixon's goodbye speech just before he got on the ol' helicopter.

Fitting then that Bush did the same thing.

Anybody watch the Chimp fling shit at us one last time? I didn't.

Mind if I park here?

Or is it an "alternate side of the street parking" day?

Pic from here.

If it weren't for Circle Line and NY Waterway Taxi there would have been big problems and serious casualties.

And I'll just mention that the pilot is ex-Air Force and performed one of the most masterful examples of airmanship I have ever seen. Had he made the slightest mistake, the aircraft would have cartwheeled (at the very least, the fuselage would have broken up and sank) and NYPD would have been fishing bodies out of the Hudson.

Exit Bush Zwei

The Rude Pundit weighs in on Bush & Cheney's 'exit strategy'. Scroll down and read 'em all. Excerpts from several:

You been watching these exit interviews with Bush and Cheney? These fuckers are scared. Something's got them worried and they're acting like low-rent hit men captured by the FBI, coming up with alibis and excuses faster than ex-guards at Auschwitz. The Rude Pundit can't figure out exactly what it is, but there's something spooking these two so that when anyone asks them about torture or Gitmo, they do a justification dance that's like Express Yourself Day at the spastic children's home.

With President Bush, it's all about the torture. 'Cause, you know, now that a Bush-appointed judge has declared that a Gitmo detainee can't be put on trial even by the bullshit military tribunals, because information was tortured out of him, well, then it oughta be time for George and Laura to gas up the jet and tell Dubai they're comin' to stay. On last night's Larry King Undead, Bush offered the defense of scoundrels on his orders on torture: "I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal." Don't tell him he broke the law: his lawyers said he didn't. It's like a another badly written episode of Law and Order.

Watching and listening to President George W. Bush at yesterday's ultimate press conference was not unlike being in a room with a tweaking meth head who's trying to roll a cigarette, with the sudden shifts and jerks in movement, the delusions of grandeur, the inability to just shut the fuck up, and even after he pisses himself, he just won't stop talking, and then he comments on shit that he has absolutely no idea about, vacillating between shaky threats and half-witted jokes because his hole-filled brain can barely articulate a demi-thought, let alone a full thing that we might call a sentence, between not giving a shit what you have to say to taking everything you say as a deeply personal insult, like you just said that you fucked his mom in the ass and she shit on your dick, between hating your fucking guts and desperately craving your approval, while standing over an anorexic meth whore's corpse and denying that he had anything to do with her, that he was just pulling that knife he's holding out of her and he doesn't know how her intestines became a necklace for him, and, hey, by the way, he tells you, "Did you see how I dragged that dead whore into an alley so no one has to look at her?"

And you just sit there, staring, thinking that he doesn't know what the fuck he's saying, he doesn't know how the fuck to say it, and isn't it just time that he cleans up the tobacco he's dropped and shuts the fuck up?

The Money Shot:

(Brief note: Anything assumed about what Obama is going to do when he's actually president contains a certain amount of bullshit because we don't know what he'll do in office. See, for instance, George W. Bush, who all your punditry was saying was going to be some kind of shiny "compassionate conservative," which we learned, once he was in office, meant, "I won't rape you in public." Still...)

No, someone needs to tell Obama, one of the greatest faults of the Bush administration is its failure to look backwards, its refusal to understand what happened and why. Fuck this whole "move forwards" horseshit. That was the mantra of this White House. It's why they didn't even want a 9/11 commission. It's why they didn't want any real accounting of the Iraq War. When you're investigating crimes, you are always looking backwards. Stop damning us to repeat. You can be sure that, when they're no longer in office, there's a lot of White House officials who are gonna avoid going to most of Europe for fear of arrest.

Arresting these bastards is something we must positively, absolutely not let the Europeans beat us to.

And just because it's fun:

Why the Rude Pundit Will Not Be Writing About Ann Coulter's New Book (Other Than This):

1. Because fuck her.

Brrrrrr! RP, that may be the dirtiest thing you ever said!

3. Because it's not really what we would call a "book." No, it's just a series of subhuman grunts and yowls from a right-wing dye-job cunt who trolls the internet looking for anything tangentially-related to whatever point she's barely making so she can cut and paste it, all the while Joe McCarthy's ghost finger fucks her, Father Coughlin's gives her a rim job, and Anita Bryant's sits on her face and wriggles. Such tomes, typed by gnarled, nervous fingers while the typist is reamed by damned spirits, need not be recognized as worthy of discussion.

9. Because if she was some fat, bald guy with no fellatio abilities living in a tiny apartment in Idaho and writing these things, she'd've been arrested a long time ago.

Something to look forward to:

Tomorrow: The Rude Pundit's farewell to George W. Bush.

I'll set my alarm...

Reincarnation

Here's something a little different. I just love Cowboy Poetry. This is dedicated to George W. Bush.

Reincarnation
By Wallace McRae

"What does Reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,
And clean yer fingernails,
And lay you in a padded box
Away from life's travails."

"The box and you goes in a hole,
That's been dug into the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted 'neath a mound.
Them clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside.
And then yore just beginnin' on
Yer transformation ride."

"In a while, the grass'll grow
Upon yer rendered mound.
Till some day on yer moldered grave
A lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon this flower
That once wuz you, but now's become
Yer vegetative bower."

"The posy that the hoss done ate
Up, with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed,
But some is left that he can't use
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground
This thing, that once wuz you."

"Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this upon the ground,
And I ponders, and I wonders at,
This object that I found.
I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life and death, and such,
And come away concludin': 'Slim,
You ain't changed, all that much.'"

© Wallace McRae

Iran/Israel/Pakistan/North Korea/Nukes/Bush/Bay of Pigs

Go see this conversation between Charlie Rose and David Sanger on the NIE that reported Iran's suspension of its nuclear weapons program, Israel and Bush's reactions, covert U.S. ops in Iran, and what Obama is going to inherit. 30 minutes, but there are thumbnails with short snippets. Interesting.

Exit Bush

I can't wait for Bush to be an 'external load'.

Note to the pilot of Marine One: get some serious altitude and jettison that High Drag Low Value cargo. Call it a High Impact Air Drop.

Thanks, YubaNet.

Quote of the Day

Athenae:

...

This has been a wingnut article of faith for some time, that everything would have been fine if the Iraqis had been properly grateful for the freedom killing we did of them, instead of acting like children throwing an IED tantrum, and you expect this sort of shit from Little Green Fucktards and the Freepi, but you don't expect it out of the mouth of the vice president of the United States. Or maybe you do, which is why in six days he's going to be unemployed.

Shoulda been unemployed 4 years ago.

Jewish activists chain themselves to Israeli Consulate building

LATimes

Demanding an end to military action in Gaza, eight to 10 Jewish activists chained themselves this morning to the Israeli Consulate building on Wilshire Boulevard.

Other activists who were not chained to the building walked in a circle outside the consulate, chanting: "Let Gaza live! End the siege now." One of the signs they carried read: "The Israeli consulate has been closed for war crimes."

“Jews will not allow the violence that is being done in our name to continue," Howard said. "Not all Jews are united in support of Israel. We [also] recognized the humanitarian crisis in Palestine.”

That's all good, but there are two 'humanitarian crises' in Gaza. One is Hamas which is trying to stir shit up on the Arab Street by taunting Israel to come in and kill innocent civilians. They know damn well they can't eliminate Israel by firing glorified bottle rockets at 'em.

I doubt if Hamas' plan to get the other Arab nations to rise up against Israel will work, because no matter what the man in the street thinks, their governments don't like Hamas either.

The other humanitarian crisis in Gaza is Israel's right-wing hard-line oppression of the Palestinians and they aren't doing themselves any favors with it. Hamas doesn't care. The Israelis could give the Palestinians luxury condos and the keys to the kingdom. Hamas wants Israel gone, no matter what.

The fight going on is far right Islamists against far right Israelis. Just as here, the far right doesn't give a damn about their citizens or human rights or compassion or any goddam thing besides their own agenda.

To settle the Israeli-Palestinian deal, one side or the other is going to have to die and that's what scares me.

"Queen of Obama’s hot nerds"

Note: I know some of our esteemed readers don't like MoDo. That's fine. You're entitled to your opinion and to put whatever you wish in 'comments'. This isn't about her. We don't want to lose you as readers, but please put a sock in it.

Hillary aced her Senate hearing on Tuesday, performing as the A-student she is. As one of her former campaign aides said, whatever else you say about her, she is always prepared.

With Chelsea sitting protectively behind in a plum dress and glam ’40s hairdo — Bill was watching on TV with his mother-in-law — Hillary showed the reasons she could be a star at state and queen of Obama’s hot nerds.

She was on top of all the issues, no matter how obscure. She batted around our “stale” arctic policy — who knew? — with Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who doesn’t seem to realize we’re sick of Alaska.

She was up to date on the inevitable Law of the Sea Treaty.

She ladled up the broth of flattery expected in the Senate with a chef’s finesse. Even after Senator Dick Lugar, the ranking Republican on the panel that was questioning her, tut-tutted that her links to Bill Clinton’s foundation carry the “risk” of foreign governments “and entities” trying to curry favor with Madam Secretary by donating money to her husband, she deftly buttered up Lugar.

“Your leadership and inspiration with respect to arms control and especially nonproliferation and the efforts to contain and destroy loose nukes and other materiel, and now moving into the pathogen area, which is particularly dangerous, is a great example to me of what we should be doing,” she told a beaming Senator Lugar.

Not many women can talk about “the pathogen area” with such authority and yet femininity.

After enduring endless pompous lecturing from John Kerry on what she should read and think — a thinly veiled attempt to show the world that he would have made a better secretary of state, and indeed, thinks he was promised it by Obama — Hillary slathered on the oleo.

After his windy discourse on how scientists had “revised the levels of supportable greenhouse gas emissions from 550 parts per million to 450 to now 350,” Hillary replied: “You are eloquent in describing it, and you’ve been a leader in trying to sound the alarm on it for many years.”

That seemed to calm Kerry down a bit.

The only one who attempted to joust with her about Bill’s unappetizing gravy train was David Vitter, the Louisiana Republican who was caught messing about with the notorious D.C. Madam in 2007, and he wasn’t the right messenger.

Hillary swatted him away.

Mrs. G calls Vitter "Diaper Boy". Heh.

She will easily intimidate the world’s dictators, just as she often intimidated Obama in the primaries. But it remains to be seen whether she can put aside her tendency to see disagreement as disloyalty. Can she work at the State Department with those who deserted her to support the usurper Obama? Can she manage Foggy Bottom better than she managed her foggy campaign?

Obama and Hillary continue to be engaged in an intense tango.

As long as they don't lambada. I couldn't handle the visual.

Hil's gonna do just fine, I think.

Kids with Nazi-themed middle names in state custody

The Inquirer, Philly

The three New Jersey children with Nazi-themed middle names have been placed in the custody of the state, police said.

The children and their parents, Heath and Deborah Campbell, received attention last month when a northwestern supermarket bakery refused to put Adolf Hitler Campbell’s name on a birthday cake.

Note to NJDYFS: change their names and cut their dad's nuts off so he can't breed again.

In my town there used to be a Frenchman who had a microbrewery that made excellent beer. He always made sure that our VFW Post's activities were well supplied with his products free of charge.

When we asked him why he felt such good will toward Veterans, his simple reply was, "You killed Nazis".

It's about all you can do with them.

Inauguration Day Protest

Raw Story

A group calling itself "Arrest Bush 2009" has announced its intention to hold a "Yes We Can Arrest Bush" event in front of the FBI Building in Washington, DC during the Inaugural Parade.

Arrest Bush 2009, which is sponsored by the Washington Peace Center, After Downing Street, and Shoes For Bush, is demanding that Bush be arrested for war crimes and for lying to the American people.

According to the press release from Arrest Bush 2009, "We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for instigating war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat, wanton attacks on civilian populations, use of torture, and violations of the U.N. Charter. We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, for the deaths of US service members and Iraqi civilians, and for the abuse of the United States Constitution."

Let's hope this turns into something even the media can't ignore.

Note to the new Prez: If you want to show the world that the U.S. means business about restoring rule of law and condemning war crimes, nothing will do it better than Bush et al standing very public trial.

Bush Hands Keys To Obama

Thanks, Dan.

Obama's marijuana prohibition acid test

The Free Press

The parallels between the 1933 coming of Franklin Roosevelt and the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama must include the issue of Prohibition: alcohol in 1933, and marijuana today. As FDR did back then, Obama must now help end an utterly failed, socially destructive, reactionary crusade.

Like the Prohibition on alcohol that plagued the nation from 1920 to 1933, marijuana prohibition (which essentially began in 1937) feeds organized crime and a socially useless prison-industrial complex that includes judges, lawyers, police, guards, prison contractors, and more.

Hemp growing was mandatory in some circumstances in early America, and again during World War II, when virtually the entire state of Kansas was planted in it. The current ban on industrial hemp costs the U.S. billiions of dollars in lost production and revenue from a plant that can produce superior paper, clothing, fuel and other critical materials at a fraction the financial cost and environmental damage imposed by less worthy sources.

As a whole, the violent, repressive War on Drugs has been forty years of legal, cultural and economic catastrophe. Like FDR, Obama must end our modern-day Prohibition, and with it the health-killing crusade against this ancient, powerful medicinal herb.

Much more.

As much as I would like Obama to do what these authors demand, I doubt that going up against the very powerful prison industry complex, not to mention the puritan anti-fun people, has much chance of finding a place in his schedule. He has an awful lot of Bush/Repug/neocon shit to un-fuck up.

I think he should start with legalization and encouragement of hemp cultivation as part of the 'green revolution' for all the common sense reasons in the article above that we've known for years. I think the female plants have to be separated anyway, and they should be destroyed by burning in very small quantities a little at a time so as not to foul the atmosphere. The psychoactive elements of the parts of the plant generally considered unburnable in this manner because they tear the paper can be dissolved in butter and used in snacks. It is our patriotic duty to assist in this, something we can do for our country.

On the other hand, I think it would be great fun to burn mass quantities of the herb upwind of, say, Congress. We'd see who's smoked it before and also who can't hold their mud. It would be a YouTube and cable news moment of the first order!

If this was my kid's teacher ...

Our parent-teacher conference would be quite ... interesting:

A set of handouts used by John Freshwater in his 8th grade science class have featured in the testimony of several witnesses over the course of his termination hearing. As I reported a day ago, Dr. Patricia Princehouse critiqued those handouts on Friday, January 9. I thought it would be helpful for readers to have a clearer idea of just what kind of trash science Freshwater was purveying in them. I’ll reproduce excerpts from his "Giraffe" handout below and add some commentary of my own. Dr. Princehouse had more extensive commentary.

The Giraffe below the fold.

The "Giraffe" handout was used as a "bell ringer," according to testimony. That is, it is a fill-in-the-blanks exercise for use in a few spare minutes just before the bell rang ending class. According to people I’ve talked with, they’re handed out just before the end of class, and the teacher reads through them giving the ‘correct’ answers to be filled in the blanks. At the end of class they’re returned to the teacher. We have copies because over the years several students hung on to them and took them home to show their parents.

...

Now, you wanna teach Intelligent Design in your private school? Have a nut. It's still America and if people want to pay to send their ankle-biters there for a thorough brainwashing, god bless 'em. When this Jesus-drivel makes it into a public school, and is peddled by a science teacher, I got a problem.

It's why I've been yelling for years for a nationally standardized public education syllabus. A set of standards where the kids in public school learn the same things, from state to state and across the country. It is a crime to allow local school boards to decide for our children (the future of our country) whether fairy tales and myths be taught or not.

Nobody can give me a good reason why children in different parts of the country are taught differently. What are they saying? Kids in certain areas are morons? Listen to me. They all have to attend the same colleges and if they ain't prepared, they ain't gonna get in. The world is a lot smaller nowadays, especially since the interwebs became a big part of our lives. There are necessary things the children must learn and to allow local power mongers to decide whether or not they do is unconscionable in this day and age. I'm not saying we should abolish local school boards but when it comes to the curriculum, they should not be allowed to inject them with their personal beliefs.

If we plan to work ourselves out of this financial crisis, we must produce intelligent children to compete with others who place education as a far higher priority than we do. Spend some time in Korea and you'll be amazed at what the kids learn at what ages and their hunger to do so. Education is stressed, almost from birth. Same with most of the nations in the EU. The 'Stupid is Chic' mentality of the last 8 years must be reversed in order for us to become competitive again.

President (it's less than a week, fuck that "-elect" shit) Obama's views on education are welcome and say he understands that educated, worldly children are America's key to a financially secure future. I'll be more enthusiastic when he comes forth with an actual plan but his words give me cause for optimism. In general, it's a refreshing change to have a President who can speak intelligently and thoughtfully, an educated President. Next Tuesday can't come fast enough.

Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

How it's done ...

Okay, so it seems the big problem with closing Gitmo (from what I understand) is what to do with the hardcore assholes whom we know are dangerous yet the evidence we have against them is tainted by 'improper interrogation techniques'.

No problem.

Let them go.

Indeed, let them go about a hundred yards and have a Marine Corps sniper put a bullet in the backs of their heads*. Got that? It's called pragmatism. I didn't say it's right, or moral, or something we should be proud of, but that's the reality of life ... and death.

And let that be a lesson to us the next time we decide to build a concentration camp.

*Addendum: This should not be done on American soil, nor within 5000 miles of our borders.

Oy!

Gleefully gleeped from YubaNet.

Huckabee Goes Off On Coulter. Heh.

Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee gave conservative pundit Ann Coulter a warm welcome when she appeared on his Fox News show on Saturday, but it didn't take long for the knives to come out.

After confronting Coulter with a series of her insults and lies about him during last winter's primaries, Huckabee proclaimed, "This is my 'get even' moment with you, Ann. I've been waiting for this for a long, stinking time."

Go read the rest. Unfortunately, the phrase 'lying, delusional, AFAB* wingnut slut' did not appear.

A Democrat could never have gotten away with calling out the darling little bitch of the far right. I'm glad the Huckster did.

Now that he's not in danger of being President, if he ever was, I'll admit to kinda liking him, especially after this.

*AFAB - Anything For A Buck

Quote of the Day Zwei

A comment from Fixer's post below:

Well, ain't this a bitch? I burn myself out from Bush-bashing, and now it's all the rage.

Damn.
Jim Yeager

Jim's been a friend of ours for years and we watched him burn out. It wasn't pretty. As much as you'd like to throw your arm around his shoulder and soothe him, the blogosphere doesn't really allow for that. Everybody's on their own, and do what they have to do as is their sacred right. We're damn glad he still comes to visit.

A casualty of the various wars being waged against this nation by the right wing, and not the only one by a long shot.

I must admit to no small amount of satisfaction that the gasbags of print and the small screen (larger than the one I'm looking at and much more widely viewed) are starting to grow some little ones and are catching up to us, 'us' being Left Blogtopia (y!sctp) in general. They're not calling for his head yet as they should, so they still have a ways to go.

Note to the Press Corpse: you were Bush's Monica, and now you're crawling out from under his desk is about what it amounts to. You swallowed everything that came out of him, balls and all, so just wipe yer chin. And don't get all uppity and righteous just because you're not smokin' his pole any more. The truth was out there the whole time for all to see and you bungled it, pretty much on purpose. Shit, he had you thinkin' that little cocktail weenie of his was a summer sausage and you made a meal out of it and asked for more, please sir. We'll remember.

I have a little badge I wear on my hat sometimes that has the following phrase on it that I think exemplifies the majority of the media:

"I must hurry and catch up with the others, for I am their leader!"

Money shot: WE HAVE BEEN RIGHT ALL ALONG AND KNOW IT. And now, like a vacation spot known only to a few that suddenly gets discovered by the masses, Bush-bashing is indeed all the rage.

Looking at it a different way, we have been holding the fort praying reinforcements would come, and now that it's safe, they have. They will of course take all the credit for their foresight and bravery about Bush. It's all bullshit, but at least they're here, puny as they are.

Damn.

Question of the Day

Asked by BuzzFlash:

Do you believe that Barack Obama's efforts to play nice and 'bipartisan' with the Republicans will yield any positive results?

To which I replied:

Submitted by Gordon on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 1:06pm.

It's laudable for Obama to want to play nice with the Republicans, but I think he's going to learn that it's like playing nice with a schoolyard bully. You have to kick his ass first. Besides, kumbaya-singin' liberal attitude aside, I think we deserve some payback on those sonsabitches. Stomp 'em flat for all the harm they've done. Then we'll talk.

Proudly lowering the tone of political discourse on a large news link! And they let me! It doesn't get any better than this!

Quote of the Day

Maru on the idea of Bush writing (heh ... Bush writing) a memoir:

Shit. Maybe he should have Barney write the damn thing. It would have more truth in it.

Woke up way late. See yas later ...

You know ...

Every fucking cable and broadcast channel is gonna have "a look into the Bush Presidency" special program over the next 8 days. I just got one question.

Where the fuck were all you people while this guy was fucking up?

Seems like the only people yelling about all Bush has fucked up over his term were me, Gord, and the couple thousand other bloggers who've been at this every day for years. Now there's a cottage industry for slamming Bush? Aside from Olbermann, Air America, and us, who in Hell had the balls to ask the questions that needed to be asked?

Not Tweety. Not Dead Ass Timmeh. Not Little George's Hair. Not Uncle Charlie. Not Tom, The Greatest Generation. Fuck all these spineless bastids who lined up, on their knees, with their mouths open, every time the White House issued a set of talking points. I don't want to hear it. On Thursday, the Chimp is gonna say goodbye and that'll be the end of it. Trust me, you ain't 'cutting edge' beating on Bush now. You ain't even 'fashionably late'.

Here’s One Way for Obama to ‘Move On’ From Bush’s Illegal Policies

SPR

"Exactly 24 minutes after I'm sworn in, I'm gonna have Jack Bauer swoop in, arrest Bush and Cheney right on the podium, and have them renditioned for some enhanced interrogation techniques. Now, unnerstan', I normally don't believe in shipping jobs overseas, but we simply have to put some things behind us and move on."

Don's being satirical because that's what he does, but it's a damn fine idea.

I wouldn't use the fictional Bauer though. He's gotten this country in enough trouble already, since that show is where Bush and Cheney got a lot of their ideas on torture in the first place. Life imitating bad pop art.

I would use really large nasty-ass combat Vet Marine Gunnery Sergeants. Give 'em armbands and sidearms and arrest warrants and carte blanche to use whatever tactics they choose and tell them to treat B & C like they were the guys who had sent so many of their comrades to unnecessary deaths in Iraq. A thorough background in how White House politics caused there to have to be two battles in Fallujah when the Marines were mere yards from winning the first one oughta do for motivation.

Another phalanx of MPs would bring in a whole lot of neocons in their usual gentle, caring, sensitive manner.

Then I'd have 'em all 'renditioned' to Base Building 3 at Camp Lejeune. The brig. Put 'em in with a buncha Iraq Marines whose conduct upon return due to PTSD or TBI put 'em there. I think it'd be really fun to see what Yoo and Addington think of torture after a coupla weeks of that! Probably not too much since they'd likely be dead. Why waste money on lengthy, costly trials for war criminals?

At some point, I'd offer the Decider and Bush their choice of ways of doing the right thing and see if they have balls to do it. Pill or Pistol. See if they're the men Hitler was. My bet is they aren't.

Be glad I'm not in charge of this country. There'd be some Change all right.

Speculation In The Pursuit Of Profit Screwed Us All. So What's New?

Excellent bit on 60 Minutes last night. Worth a look if you missed it.

Q: Which is the largest oil company in America?

A: Morgan Stanley.

Awwwwww...

I stole this charming picture from TBogg because I'm a coward. Go read the short post that goes with it. I think I like those folks.



I have many photos of Mrs, G in similar circumstances with our pups, Princess Perfectpants and The Goofiest Springer On The Planet, but she has told me that I will only post them on my last day on the right side of the dirt, for indeed the day that I post them will be my last.

I shudder to think of what would have happened if I had chosen 'large' instead of 'small' for the picture size! It would have spilled over onto people's sets down at Starbucks!

Why Bush Loves Violence

The News Shrink

George Bush’s presidency is the culmination of a lifelong history of sadistic practices that he must deny in order to maintain his fragile psychological equilibrium. Since childhood, Bush was labeled a bad child, a troublemaker, and a delinquent. He stuck firecrackers into frogs and exploded them; he shot and wounded his little brothers with a b-b gun; he branded fraternity pledges at Yale with red-hot coat hangers; he mocked others and was a verbal bully, irreverent about anything serious.

Now, as this bad-boy president prepares to leave office, many of his critics are pinning his failures on bumbling incompetence. The conventional wisdom holds that Bush is either a good hearted guy who got in way over his head—or the puppet of Dick Cheney. But if he were simply good-hearted he wouldn’t have mocked his own reasons for committing our young men and women to war; if he were a puppet, he was a puppet who chose his puppeteers. In my psychoanalytic exploration, the trail of destruction wrought by Bush over the last eight years is the direct consequence of handing a man with a destructive personality profile tremendous power.

By January 20, George W. Bush will have inflicted enough damage worldwide so he can retire to a quiet life of watching others scramble to clean up his mess. The missions he accomplished as president all bear the personal brand of his destructive streak: astronomic debt to China, horribly wounded veterans, a crippled health care system, and America’s damaged international reputation. And they will continue to be felt for years to come. What once started as cruelty to animals, siblings, and fraternity brothers has blossomed exponentially.

Eight years of him pulling the wings off the biggest fly he could have ever imagined - the world and all the people in it. His mother and father must be very proud.

Fan mail ...

As an author, I love getting feedback on my books, especially good feedback. Heh ... I got an email this morning about my novel Special Operations (you'll have to buy it, sorry) from a fellow Air Force vet and aside from the kind words, he has a problem that maybe one (or more) of our readers might be able to help him with:

Mr. [Fixer],
I do hope this actually reaches you. It was the only address I could find. I just finished reading your novel "Special Operations". It was recommended by an old active duty officer friend, who knows of an interest and background of mine. I must say I not only enjoyed it, but have to ask if you perhaps received any "ideas" when on active duty.

My name is all over the Net trying to find data on and offering rewards for information about the 601st DASS (Direct Air Support Squadron), the guys who "First" wore the Black Berets, and "other" events and places. Yes, we wore them even before even CCT did, though theirs was also Black, and in I wore that one too. You see, the Air Force claims that several units I served in as a ROMAD, especially the 601st (for 4 years) never existed, and as a CCT member too! (1268th Aerial Port Sq, another non existent unit that died about the time you were in middle school) Nor, did we do the types of things you described. I doubt anyone did just as you described, but the 602nd DASS, which WAS stationed in Korea, had several very highly classified missions that could have been altered very little, and fit right into the first few chapters of your book. By the time I was on the tenth page or so, my mouth was hanging open. I helped plan many of them for the entire ROMAD field, worldwide. You were jsut [sic] a decade or so off!

You see, the AF, and the US Military in general will never admit that AF units, especially, ever did such things. Well, guess what? They lie a lot!

I started as a Ground Radio Technician, which is the career field that all ROMADs came from, mostly non voluntary. I was one of the wierd ones who loved it. I would be packed in ten minutes if they called me, and 8 of that would be to pack my pain meds and braces. I first served as a ROMAD in 1967, starting in Peshewar Pakistan, at the base Gary Powers took off from. According to the AF, we were never there. Makes you wonder how he got that plane off all by himself!

I served up until 1974, when we were told that ROMADs would be "phased out", and joined CCT (my flash says "Combat Control Team", not AF Combat Control like the nice shiny target ones do) as a Ground Radio technician member also (there were 2 to a team then, the rest being Air Controllers). I was medicaled out of the field due to injuries before the ROMAD career field (then 275X0, now 1C4X0) was created. Sometime in the mid to late 70's all of those units "disappeared". FOIA requests get you the answer they never existed. In fact, if you ask for MY records you will find the National Archives say I went to Peshewar on a TS assignment in 1967, and evidently never made it back, because that is the last entry in my entire personnel record. My reenlistment DD214s all show overseas duty, (2 reenlistment's were AT those non existent units!) but my discharge DD214 at retirement, with 20 years, 21 days (medically ordered, not allowed to re-up because of medical disabilities (probably received carrying radios) shows I ONLY server 2 years and 4 months at Vandenberg AFB, CA, where I retired. NO other entries at all, and strangely enough, showing NO overseas duty at all. I have never been able to get that corrected as if I was overseas, where was I? No place I list existed. I must have been in limbo.

Not getting into it too far, but your book was NOT as totally "fictional" as stated. I wonder what your career field and rank were? I could find little on the Net, and have no time to "poke" too far. But, could have some of those story lines come from experience, rather than imagination? Regardless, a very good read. I am glad it was recommended to me, and now see why. Thanks for a little "go back memory", even if it didn't really exist.

[Name and personal information withheld]

Now, I know certain shit doesn't make it into personnel records (like our time operating around the 'Iron Curtain') due to the sensitivity of the times (the height of the Cold War). The time frame this gentleman is interested in happened before I went in and I hope one of our readers can help him. Email me if you have any info and I'll pass it on. Thanks for your help.

Weekend whorage

Oy, I've barely had time to post here, let alone anywhere else. Dad-in-law Fixer has been in the hospital since New Year's Eve and that's been taking up most of our time.

New chapters of Birthright will be up in the coming week. Sorry about the delay. If you like sci-fi and haven't started it, now's a good time to catch up.

I've also been crazy in the house, trying to get a lot done before we leave for the Caribbean in a few weeks.

And to top it off, I had a job in the shop that broke my balls. Gimmie a Jaguar any day.

And on that note, a little theme music:

Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley

Sunday Crazy Northern Arizona Martian Hillbilly Music Blogging

Got this from FullMoonGrassGurl. I put it up for ya for a coupla reasons:

Northern Arizona, i.e. north of the Maricopa County line, i.e. a long way from Phoenix, is one of my favorite places in the world. One of the few places I could live other than here in the Sierra Nevada.

We all like Townes Van Zandt songs.

These guys are good.

The Mars Hillbillies at the Wine Loft in Flagstaff, AZ, May 2008. This fine band performs the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of every month. Snowin' on Raton is a Townes Van Zandt song and one of my all time favorites :-) Great job fellers!!

This gal obviously likes Bluegrass, and one of the things she likes to do is videotape drives and set them to music. She's got some good ones. Check 'em out.

Note to FullMoonGrassGurl: I don't care what color Grass yer smokin' under that FullMoon, Gurl. Good job. Keep on truckin'.

"Cars" Our Town

Silly sentimental me. Here's a scene from one of my favorite movies. Grazie to treunonove.

Bellissima scena del film col sottofondo cantato dal grande James Taylor.
© Pixar

If ya look close, you can see Fixer and the joint where he works. Heh. I'll probly catch it for that one...