Saturday, June 13, 2009

Incremental justice ...

John Yoo will have to answer some questions:

...

A federal judge has ruled that John Yoo, a former Bush administration lawyer who wrote crucial memorandums justifying harsh interrogation techniques, will have to answer in court to accusations that his work led to a prisoner’s being tortured and deprived of his constitutional rights. [em in orig]

...


Scumbag should be talking to a judge in The Hague, but one can hope more incriminating facts might come out of his depositions in federal court.

Ratcheting up ...

Digby on the Iranian 'elections' (you'd think it was Florida 2000):

...

This makes everything even more complicated. You have in power an Israeli hard liner with an itchy trigger finger and an Iranian nutball without any legitimacy. It's a recipe for serious misjudgment.

...


My sphincter tightens ...

Saturday Subliminal Gordon Music Blogging ...

I had this song in my head for a couple days and it's Gord's fault thanks to this post. So I give you:



Talking Heads - Burning Down The House

Saturday Norwegian Redneck Music Blogging

A boy and his tractor. Sigh. Some things are universal...

Ein Norsk humoristisk sang som omhandlar John Deere



John Deere song by Gunslingers

Thanks to frodemakestad, Norway.

Saturday Singing Pickup Truck Blogging

Dedicated to President Obama perhaps?


Ben E. King ~ Stand By Me

Thanks to Mogipbob, Canada. He's got a lot of these. Canadian cars, funny grilles and stuff.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

This video looks to me like the video and sound were captured on a pretty good quality telephone. I was watching it, and thinking it wasn't quite the quality I like to put up on the Brain, when it dawned on me:

It's perfect. You can barely understand the words of a sort of nondescript Canadian cowboy song, but you don't have to. Emmylou could sing the Beijing phone book and people would be moved by it. This captures her essence.

Emmylou Harris: Blackhawk: 3 Girls and Their Buddy: Toronto, June 5, 2009


Emmylou Harris ~ Blackhawk

Thanks to acoustic1, Canuckistan.

The Big Hate

A 'recommended read' by Paul Krugman on domestic terrorists and the right-wing pols and media who are using them to do the things they cannot.

There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.

And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.

What will the consequences be? Nobody knows, of course, although the analysts at Homeland Security fretted that things may turn out even worse than in the 1990s — that thanks, in part, to the election of an African-American president, “the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years.”

And that’s a threat to take seriously. Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.

I have known for forty years that the far right was the biggest danger to our country. While they were in power they almost destroyed it and were finally stopped when it got so egregious that people other than us political junkies woke up to it and stopped them, damn near too late. What is becoming increasingly clear is the depths they will sink to, sore losers that they are, when out of power.

For years they used their 'base' as a weapon, but the base is no longer enough. Now they are stirring up the crazies way beyond the base who make the base seem almost sane, almost Librul by comparison.

Now that the nation seems to be swinging slightly center left and the fearmongering of made-up outside threats has been seen for the scam it is, unleash the unhinged guntards. There certainly are plenty of them, and they have to be dealt with one by one as they pop up doing heinous, murderous acts. After the fact in almost every case and no telling who or where the next one will be.

You want fear, you godless commie scumbags, you Americans who have seen us for what we are at last? Oh, we got fear you ain't even seen yet.

It's the Repug equivalent of dying kicking and screaming and many will suffer for it. Pray for their quick and painful death.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Might as well ...

Quit smoking now. Won't be long before you can't get a good cigarette anyway:

By a 3 to 1 margin, the House of Representatives today approved a bill passed by the Senate yesterday that gives the federal government sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco.

...

For smokers, the law will mean confronting graphic warnings of the risks of their habit every time they pick up a pack, and possible changes to the formulations of cigarettes and cigars. The law bans most cigarette flavorings and orders the FDA to study the issue of whether menthol should also be banned, on the theory that the flavorings mask the harsh taste of tobacco and make it easier for first-time smokers to get hooked. [my em]

...


Can't ya let me kill myself in peace? Instead, I'm gonna go to the grave with the DTs and a shitty personality. Heh ...

Blah...



I'm tired. I've been playing catch-up after two weeks of can't-play-outside weather trying to assemble a coupla truckloads of yard waste for the one annual town-sponsored 'get rid of the shit for FREE!' day, which is tomorrow. I've got the Dakota loaded to the gunwales and I have the whole rest of the day to get another load bagged up. The weather's kinda gray and I might make it and I might not. Mox nix. I don't have a lawn or rose bushes or anything normally associated with suburban yards. I hate that shit. My yard is pine trees and forest/mountain meadow flora and clearing it is less like mowing grass and more like what jailbird fire crews do. I'm talkin' chain saws, (plural, I've got 1 gas, 2 electric, and a cordless one), a sharpened spade, loppers, rakes, and the fantastic Garden Grabber. I've cut brush and 5 little 4-6" diameter volunteer pine trees and cut it all up to fit in lawn & leaf bags. The slash, not the trunks, cut them in 4' lengths. Two to five hours a day since Monday and it ain't a patch on the ass of what needs to be done on my .47 acre Ponderosa. I don't care. There'll be plenty left for next year. There always is.

I'm tired of the goddammed 'news' too. All it is is right wingers whining about Obama and how their trailer trash goddess had a joke told about her kid, and sticking up for murderous loonies and trying to back away from their part in shoving said loonies off the edge. Total bullshit.

I'm taking the rest of the day off and going back out in the yard and cut shit up and throw tennis balls. That slows the work down considerable but it's joyous to play with the dogs.

Go see our local independent radio station, KTKE. Click around. Have fun. They claim you can listen to them live, but I haven't been able to make it work yet. The website is pretty new and the alleged streaming feature is newer than that. I usually listen to them in my truck. They don't always play what I like but my truck radio has buttons so no problem.

The only person I've met there is Shaggy. Nice guy. I went over to get a sticker for my truck and the door was locked. He heard me rattle the door and got up from playing records on the air and went out to his Jeep and got me a coupla stickers. Smokey's Kitchen, prominent on their site, is fifty feet across the parking lot from the station and has really good food if you're in town. I wouldn't doubt they get a lot of advertising for feeding starving DJs. Heh.

See yas later.

Republicans Whine About Every Way Obama's Trying To Clean Up Their Massive Mess

Tony Peyser

They still don't seem to have any shame
In addition to possessing no guilt
Like arsonists who complain about how
The house they torched is being rebuilt.

Excellent analogy.

DTV* ...

Thankfully, the switch will happen today. I am so fucking tired of the constant reminders on my local broadcast stations; almost as bad as campaign commercials. Look, you've had over a year (even got a few months' reprieve from the government and a subsidy for about 80% of the price). If you ain't got it by now, tough shit, you have no excuse.

*Digital Television

To-ga! To-ga!

Via Maru, if you ever wondered (I did) what your pets do when you're not home.

Feline wisdom ...

Fred the Cat comes out with some good stuff. Today, he looks at how Republicans formulate a "plan":

...

The Republican Energy plan
Put hamsters on steroids and put them in larger wheels

The Republican Health plan
Don’t get sick

The Republican Global Warming plan
No, it’s not

...


And people think animals don't get it. Heh ...

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Californians ain't alone ...

Gail Collins via Montag:

...

As the sun sank in Albany, the senators were fighting about which side had the key to the door. Lawsuits were threatened. Nobody was happy except the reporters, who had not seen anything this interesting since Gov. Eliot Spitzer was driven out of office in that sex scandal and Paterson marked his succession by calling a press conference to confess that he had cheated on his wife.

This is why New Yorkers believe they have the worst state government in the nation.

...

This is why ...

The Rethugs and Blue Dogs don't want a "public option" included in health care reform:

... The study say that 120 million Americans will choose to leave their private insurance coverage and take the public plan instead, because it's cheaper.

In other words, a GOP-style study admits that, if given the choice, Americans would flock to a public plan.

...


Update:

And D-cap dispells some myths about single-payer:

...

Socialized health care is not the right path for this country - Every other major Western country (and even non-major ones) has a single payer universal care system. And many of them have healthier populations who live longer lives. The real reason politicians (Republican that is) are against socialized medicine has nothing to do with principal - and everything to do with the huge drop in profits by the insurance companies. Folks in the general population who are against socialized medicine would be for socialized medicine in a New York minute if it meant affordable care for their kids. It is hard to believe most people (even the gun loving, anti abortion, hate the gays crowd) are against reform and change because of a word. It is also hard to believe people actually feel good about the current system. Well they feel good about it until they get sick. Idiots.

...

Gun Control

I don't know why I picked this topic today. Must be something subliminal in the air. There might be some value in knowing the subject matter, but since it deals with knowing how to kill people, aka 'reach out and touch someone', I sure hope nobody ever needs it.

I do not believe in violence to solve problems, although it does feel good sometimes, but I absolutely do believe in self defense and in getting them before they get you.

This video is a little long at almost 17 minutes, probably longer than it took the Primary Marksmanship Instructors to teach us the same thing, but the PMIs had a slightly less gentle technique. So 'less gentle' in fact that I still remember it, and can still do it, after 45 years. The acronym is BRASS:

B - Breathe. Take a breath, let half of it out and hold it.
R - Relax. If you're tensed up the rifle will not be steady.
A - Aim. Sight picture and sight alignment
S - Slack. Take the slack out of the trigger.
S - Squeeze. Squeeze, do not jerk, the trigger or anticipate the shot. Jerking will cause the round to go high and to the right. Anticipating the shot, or 'bucking the round', will cause the round to go low and to the left. It should actually sort of surprise you when it fires.

If you do all this correctly, the person who is trying to kill you won't any more.

We practiced this and the various firing positions (standing (offhand), sitting, kneeling, and prone), sometimes with the instructor literally sitting on various parts of our bodies if we had trouble assuming the positions. We used a sling around the arm for further steadiness, and some guys got 'sling palsy' from the tight sling cutting off blood flow to the left arm. We 'snapped-in' in this manner for two weeks and then we fired every day, probably hundreds of rounds total, for a week. And not with that pansy little M-16, either. Back in the day, men were men and rifles had wood in 'em and weighed ten pounds. We used the Big Iron, the M-14. If you weren't a little careful, that sumbitch'd hurt ya, and it left your shoulder and cheek sore in any case.

I can not over-emphasize the importance the Marine Corps places on marksmanship. The phrase "Every Marine A Rifleman" is not just a motto. Artillery and tanks and air strikes are nice things, but their purpose is to get the infantryman into position to close with the enemy and kill him. That's called 'offense'.

There's an element of 'defense' as well. If the enemy assaults the chow hall to try and steal some food, the cooks and bakers need to know how to shoot too, for the infantrymen might be out doing something else. And the chaplain's assistant must always be ready to defend the chaplain's organ from attack as well.


Thanks to PublicResourceOrg. Posted 6 June 09.


You can always run out of ammunition. We will save bayonet training for another time.

A Few Random Observations on the Killing at the Holocaust Museum

The Rude One

1. Damn, James W. von Brunn hit the nutzoid racist trifecta: he killed a black security guard at a museum about the slaughter of Jews run by the federal government. Somewhere in southern Idaho, they're already building a statue to that motherfucker.

Wouldn't doubt it.

Beck Claims Leftist Nazis are Behind Right Wing Shootings.

I won't dirty the Brain with this video, but it's at Teablogging and you should see it. Go puke now so you won't have to clean your keyboard and screen.

Let the insanity flow from this amazing video. Feel the insanity. Feel it deep within your bowels.

This is an interpretation of the shooting that occurred in D.C. at the Holocaust museum. It is the most important piece of video ever to come from Fox News.

The end.

Do these wingnut bastards think their spew is helping anything? Oh yeah, they think it's helping them to defeat Obama. News flash: It's not.

If this shit keeps up, and keep up it will, both the fringe right extremism/terrorism and the anti-Obama gasbags' spew about it, there's going to be a backlash against the never-right like they've never seen. Of course, they'll blame it on 'leftist Nazis' which may be the very definition of 'oxymoron'. It never dawned on me just how fitting is the syllable 'moron' in that word.

I've moved ...

Under my bed and left no forwarding address.

You know, years ago I used to post about the cock-of-the-walk posturing by Republicans when it came to "Keeping America Safe" and "Fightin' them over there ...". All the tough guys talking about "killing ragheads because that's all they understand". All of 'em arming themselves to the teeth so they can "be safe and protect my family" in their living rooms.

Ah, well, that all changes now that we're releasing innocent people we've imprisoned without cause for years:

...

Writing on Michelle Malkin's blog Hot Air today, war-supporting tough guy Ed Morrissey is petrified about this development and, as a result, he has announced that he is now too fearful to consider visiting that island [Palau]:

...

It's hard to put into words how inebriated with irrational fear someone has to be in order to be so scared of 17 Uighurs -- who were never guilty of anything -- that they would avoid traveling to whatever place this handful of persecuted individuals is located. But this is the right-wing movement at its core: its leaders cynically ratchet up fear levels as high as possible to justify whatever they want to do (invade Iraq, torture people, spy on Americans with no warrants) and their adherents (along with plenty of others) become more and more paralyzed by their fears of anything Muslim. This, after all, is the same faction that continues to shake with terror at the very idea that accused Terrorists will be brought to the U.S. -- in handcuffs, imprisoned, and disappeared into super-max facilities. And it is the same faction that made accepting the Uighurs into the U.S. politically unpalatable by threatening legislation -- The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act -- that would bar their entrance.

...


Dudes, you guys should be so "protected" by now, what with a black, Muslim, Socialist President who's gonna take your guns away and give 'em to the U.N., that should any of these people "get loose", you should be able to take care of the situation single-handedly.

Every one of these wimpy, quivering sacks of bullshit were cheering loudly when our troops crossed the line from Kuwait into Iraq but, I guess, it's easier when you have the full might of the U.S. armed forces doing your talking. Didn't matter what we did to "those people", innocent or not. Kill 'em all ...

Now we're scared? Now big tough guys like "Cap'n* Ed" are scared to take a vacation because 17 little Chinese guys without a country are living there?

...

Our stalwart, tough right-wing play-acting warriors should probably also avoid vacationing in Paris, the locale of recently released (and completely innocent) Guantanamo detainee Lakdhar Boumediene; Australia, where released Guantanamo detainee David Hicks is to be found roaming free; London, where released and tortured Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed currently resides; and, most of all, places like Washington D.C. and Kansas, where our own home-grown, decidedly non-Muslim Terrorists are thriving.

...


That's what they are - play actors. It's all good when someone else is dodging bullets or having to look over their shoulder, but when it could possibly show up at their doorstep, well that's another story. Shit, my wife has been in tighter spots than these basement-dwelling cretins have ever experienced and handled herself far better than these cowards do when merely a hint of danger is on the breeze.

I laugh at them. I ridicule them. I do not respect them as men. They should have no place in our political discourse.

Update:

Has Penrose been reading the Brain?

*It's to laugh.

Quote of the Day

I think this is the first time in 5 years I've quoted any of the idiots over at Little Green Snotballs (still won't link to 'em though):

With the Tiller shooting and now this — the DHS report that caused such an uproar has been vindicated.

...


I'll give 'em credit for finally getting it ...

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I told ya, Gord ...

Irony is dead. DBK says so too:

did dick cheney shoot irony in the face? it appears to be dead ...

I guess ...

This isn't terrorism either?

A month before a suspected white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington and opened fire, the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic right-wing extremism was the most pressing domestic terrorist threat that the country faced.

Conservatives were outraged that the DHS analysts had singled out antiabortion and antitax radicals for scrutiny. But the report was part of a series that DHS compiles on domestic dangers from all sides of the political spectrum, an area that's taken a back seat to overseas threats.

...


Just another guy exercising his First and Second Amendment rights, eh?

"All the pain in California..."

Steve Lopez (LATimes) on some possible painful remedies for California's fiscal meltdown:

We're in a bind here in California, mates, in case you hadn't noticed. The till is tapped, the budget deficit is bigger than the great outdoors, and lately even the sun has disappeared.

Reference is to the last coupla weeks of clouds, rain, and thunderstorms. It's been hell, I tell you. My motorcycling has suffered. The Sun has finally returned, but us folks with outdoor activities to tend to are still keeping one eye on the western sky.

What's crystal clear is that the governor can't fix this mess. His mouth still runs, but his muscle has turned to flab.

The last B actor(?) to be governor here was Reagan in the '60s. We're not over the fallout from that one yet, and God only knows how long Ah-nold's 'legacy' will be with us. No more carpetbagger bad actors, please.

The answer, Michael Daly told me, is not less suffering, but more. That's the only way out.

Gee, that sounds swell!

"I'm talking about real pain," he said, grimacing as though a dagger was at his throat. "Catastrophic pain."

The problem up to now, we agreed, is that middle- and upper-class people haven't had to feel any pain because budget cuts are always aimed at the poor, elderly and disabled. If Daly were king of California, he would swing such a mean blade that Republican legislators would start calling for higher taxes to pay for the services their constituents demand, and Democrats would have to make hard choices instead of throwing money at every social service imaginable while the state goes broke.

So how would Daly take aim at the middle class?

"If we shut down half the DMV offices in the state, that would cause real pain," he said with an evil grin.

He has got a point.

Take away state support for canes, seeing-eye dogs and wheelchairs and you might spark a small protest rally in Sacramento. But force people to drive past a shuttered DMV office to have a license renewed, only to find that the lines are twice as long as normal, and we'll have a revolution on our hands.

What other ideas does Daly have for wreaking havoc from Shasta to Sherman Oaks?

You can go see, but I'll give ya a tease: if yer house catches fire, you better have cash money on hand when the fire department shows up. Among other things. Let's just say that Daly isn't going to be 'King of California'.

It was in Orange County that candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger set things on the wrong track when he dropped a wrecking ball to symbolically crush the car tax.

I was there to see it, and now I'm looking at a budget gap which, at more than $20 billion, is roughly what Schwarzenegger's stunt cost the state in revenue.

Here's his last chance to leave a legacy he can be proud of.

Don't be such a girlie man with the budget cuts, Arnold.

Make them hurt in Brentwood and beyond, and bring the partisan hacks to their knees.

Like you used to say when you worked with those other dumbbells:

"No pain, no gain."

I guess I'm gainin'. My vehicles cost significantly more to register this year than they did last year. It's supposed to decline over time.

What we need to do is get rid of the 2/3 requirement to pass anything in our state legislature. The 'ballot initiative' deal has taken a hit lately because the only way for anything to get done here is to put it to a vote, and a lot of times things get voted in or out that should go the other way. Public opinion is not always, in fact seldom is, right. Occasionally something comes along that the voters need to go over the heads of the legislators for, and that is what the ballot initiative is for. It gets misused due to the legislative lack of inertia.

The last two special elections here were all Ah-nold's initiatives, mostly to try and get people to raise the taxes on themselves. All. They all failed miserably. Except for 'no raises for legislators'. Heh. So much for 'taking zee issues to zee people'.

Much of our state spending has been enshrined into law and cannot be cut without a change in the law. Since the laws were passed by legislators for special interests, and the 2/3 logjam exists, the laws are not about to be changed though many need to be.

Social services spending is not covered by law and thus is easy to cut. The poor folks take it in the shorts because they have no political power. The definition of 'political power', of course, is lobbyists who shower the pols with money.

Another problem with the legislature is turning out to be term limits, strange as that may seem. When these clowns get in office they know they have a limited time to be there so they go hell for breakfast for their own agendas and fuck everybody else.

The flip side is that we have some very good legislators who try to do good work, and they are required to leave after they term out. Not good.

I do not know the answers to California's fiscal problems. Neither does anybody else, really. The ideas and spending cuts so far are hurting all the wrong people and won't make much of a difference, I don't think. The items that will save big money are not on the table.

I'm not getting any cuts in my state services because I don't get any. Don't give me any guff about roads and other infrastructure, either. 99% of that money goes to the cities to facilitate the daily commute. Around here, we just trust heavy-duty suspension and try to dodge the really bad patches.

One thing I do know is that, whatever 'remedies' these clowns come up with, I will be paying for other people's mistakes. So what's new?

Here's a word of advice to any of you 'hometown heroes' who want to come to California and dazzle us: Don't. Whatever you've got, we've seen it before and we're not easily impressed. If you're smart and work hard, you are welcome, but if you think Californians are lazy and you're gonna clean up by out-work-ethicing us, I guess you're welcome to try, but you ain't seen nothin' yet. If everybody who has moved here and failed would just go the fuck back where they came from, we wouldn't have the problems we do. Shit, if you came out here and made a pile, you can live a lot cheaper elsewhere. Please split. If that sounds harsh, tough shit.

Sorry. I'm goin' off the rails a little bit, but I was born here and have watched California turn to shit. It pisses me off, has for years, and there's not a goddam thing I can do about it until I'm Emperor.

This gent goes by 'HomePicking' and this Gatlin Brothers tune tells it like it is.

3 Reasons Why Murdering an Abortion Doctor Isn’t Being Called “Terrorism”

Thomas Paine's Corner. Worth a read.

[...] U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the murder an “abhorrent act of violence,” but he hasn’t used the word “terrorism.” Not once.

Why?

As a bit of context, if you’re new to this website, the FBI labels the animal rights and environmental movements as the “number one domestic terrorism threat” even though those activists have never harmed a human being. [...]

When animal rights activists or environmental activists are arrested, though, the government immediately sends out press releases and holds press conferences trumpeting the arrest of “eco-terrorists” and “domestic terrorists.”

What gives? Why hasn’t the murder of an abortion provider been labeled “terrorism”?

It’s not a threat to profits. Time and again, we’ve seen that a driving force behind the domestic “War on Terrorism” is protecting corporate interests. The ELF, ALF and above-ground, lawful activists all directly target profits. As the Department of Homeland Security said in a memo, “Attacks against corporations by animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists are costly to the targeted company and, over time, can undermine confidence in the economy.” Similarly, the State Department has warned corporations how to protect their profits from “eco-terrorists.”

It’s not threatening the “American way of life.” In my reporting I’ve found that the word “terrorism” is typically applied to two types of crimes. The first are crimes that go up the chain of power (so, for example, the U.S. military bombing civilians is not terrorism, but an Iraqi civilian bombing the military is).

The second are crimes that challenge dominant American values. Let me explain: Attacking African American voters is not terrorism, right-wingers like Chuck Norris calling for armed revolution is not terrorism, Timothy McVeigh bombing the Oklahoma City building is not terrorism. Why? Because the values behind all of those actions– racism, capitalism, and Christian fundamentalism—are business as usual.

What was McVeigh, merely a disgruntled right-wing militiaman exercising his right of free speech? Yeesh.

So, for example, if Dr. Tiller had been murdered by Muslim extremists proclaiming jihad against the West, the government would be labeling this “terrorism.” The exact same crime committed by Christian extremists is merely a “wicked deed in Wichita”

There you have it.

I don't agree with the writer 100%, but I think he's very close.

Quote of the Day

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

... Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Its function is not to provide quality health care for all, but to make huge profits for those who own the companies ...


Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Shaddap!



Pic stolen from our pal Nunya.


Update:

And a perfect companion piece to the pic:

...

Barack Obama may have no realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, but neither do Republicans. "Tax cuts" to "create jobs" aren't going to do it. George W. Bush cut taxes for the wealthy time and time again, and unemployment exploded under his tax policies. So can we please stop this "rich people create jobs" nonsense? They had eight years of paying ever less taxes and instead of creating jobs, they created bonuses for themselves. As for spending cuts, let's see Republicans come up with a realistic plan to eliminate the deficit. Elminiate Social Security and Medicare? Go ahead. Propose it. See how far you get, especially among families where one or both breadwinners are unemployed, the savings account they set up for the kids' college has been decimated by the economic crash and their parents have lost most of their retirement savings at the same time. Tell these families that their elderly parents now have to pay all their medical expenses on their own. Then if the other breadwinner loses his or her job, and they start sliding down into poverty, tell them there's no more SCHIP. No more food stamps. No more job retraining. Nothing for them, because "deficit reduction is the only important thing." See how that will fly. [my em]

...


The Mrs. is working from the city office today so I gotta kick her out at the train station before I go to work. See yas later.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Terrorism works ...

Just ask Osama bin-Laden or Scott Roeder*:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- George Tiller's slaying has accomplished what anti-abortion activists had tried to do for decades: The doors to his Kansas clinic will shut forever.

The announcement Tuesday from Tiller's family was a tainted victory for the nation's anti-abortion movement. For years, it had focused on Tiller, making him the target of protests, legislation and legal attacks. His death reignited a public debate over some abortion opponents' tactics and left many wondering how it will transform the abortion battleground.

...


So, who's going to serve the women of this community now?

I say we waterboard the bastid.

*Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

An Email About George Tiller's Killer

A 'Non-Obscene, For The Kids' post from The Rude Pundit on Dr. Tiller's terrorist assassin. Links at site:

In today's post, attracting much warranted attention was the letter from rude reader JC, who is from Wichita. Here it is in a profanity free entry so blogs with delicate sensibilities can link to the fascinating information contained therein:

"For some few years I volunteered as an escort at Dr. Tiller’s and several other clinics. I didn’t know the good doctor well, but met with him on several occasions and was impressed with his kindness and the care he obviously felt for the women who needed his services.

"Of course I have been heartbroken by his assassination, but I’m not so full of hate towards his killer. I’ve seen too many of his kind on the lines; in fact I remember seeing him. We knew Mr. Roeder as 'Prom Queen' from the flowers he usually carried there, and the screaming fits he would throw when approached by escorts. He was one of many not-too-bright mentally ill recruited by various self-appointed fundie leaders who groomed them to scream the threats they themselves were so careful not to utter aloud.

"I’m pretty sure that he has been exploited again to shoot Dr. Tiller. I don’t know who is using him this time- when I saw him, he was in Troy Newman’s stable of nuts, but the fundie leaders are an incestuous bunch who tend to swap followers as needed.

"According to papers Roeder filed today, his possessions amount to a 16yr.-old Taurus and $10, and he only works occasionally at minimum-wage jobs. Yet he managed to finance several 400-mile round trips to Wichita from the KC area in the last month to case the church and know Dr. Tiller by sight, bought a handgun, gas and meals etc. Also, he asked- begged- for bail to be set today, despite his total lack of assets. Obviously, the poor bastard expects someone to post it, all of which leads me to believe that he is not the solitary nutcase the fundies claim he is.

"Somebody had to put him up to it, help him plan it and pay his expenses, and will now feed him to the sharks. Hopefully, and maybe with a bit of psych help, he will realize how he was used and name names."

As soon as this murderer realizes he's been hung out to dry and that the people who put him up to this have washed their hands of him and deny any responsibility for his actions and leave him to rot like it was his own idea, I hope he starts singin' like a little bird and the Feds can get these American Taliban under RICO and close 'em down and lock 'em up.

Roeder can still rot in jail for what he did. In a perfect world he would have a lot of company.

Krugman's Enigma


Paul Krugman

We’re in London, and trying to do a few human things before the lecture series starts. Since it was D-Day, we visited Bletchley Park.

And that, all you crypto-buffs, is an Enigma machine.

Wow! My aunt used to love to give me enigmas when I was a kid, but she didn't have a neat-lookin' rig like that! Leave it to those Krauts! Where d'ya hook up the hose?

Colbert Goes Commando

Accompanying article at The Daily Mail (UK)

Then Colbert asked if he would make a good soldier, but General Odierno said 'only if you get your haircut like these guys out here'.

As the troops cheered, Colbert stonewalled, telling the bald general: 'With all due respect sir, you're not the best advert.

'Frankly sir, its going to take more than a four-star-general to get me to cut my hair.'

At that moment, President Obama cut in via a satellite link, and told Colbert he had been eavesdropping.

'Are your spy satellites really that good?' Colbert asked.

'No, but my ears are really that big', the president replied.

'As Commander-in-chief, I hereby order you, general, to shave that man's head.'

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama Orders Stephen's Haircut - Ray Odierno
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorStephen Colbert in Iraq


The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sign Off - New Haircut
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorStephen Colbert in Iraq

Colbert's a good sport, but it's a good thing he's with the Army. If I'da shown up with a buzzcut like that, my Gunny woulda told me I looked like a goddam hippie and to go get a haircut. He'da told Obama the same thing.

Un-American Trash Talking

Ann Davidow

Distorting the ideals that define us as a people has become a national pastime for some of our public figures. In addition to obvious face-saving lies, unsubstantiated 'facts' are served up by right-wing politicians and surly Fox News media types. Providing a platform for far-right rants and lending media space to comments like those of Oklahoma's Republican Senator Inhofe, who called the president "un-American," test our patience and the limits of our commitment to "freedom of speech."

If lies and whining and libel were not permitted under Freedom of Speech, the airwaves would be silent.

Dealing with the country's most troubling challenges requires the diligent efforts of well-intentioned adults not allegiance to partisan absolutism. Fixing one's political star to hard-right propaganda and talking trash about a president who is trying to change the course of a foundering ship of state is about as "un-American" as it gets.

Yes, it's un-American, but it's about as Repuglican't as it gets. They got nothin' else and S'nTFU is out of the question for them as a matter of party policy as long as the Ds are ostensibly in charge.

Weather prediction: Hot foul-smelling air from the Far Right is likely to continue unabated for the foreseeable future.

Quote of the Day

Maru on Sen. Chuck Grassley's snivelin' over gummint-sponsored health care:

...

Blogger says that Sen Grassley has nerve whinging now when he and his fellow repukes sat back with their thumbs up their precious assholes as their codpieced faux-cowboy disastermonkey fucked this country over. With their help. So fuck you, you autofellating shitbag. You have as much cred here as a fucking bowel movement.

...

Oh, and fuck you, you pathetic drama-queen.


In-fucking-deed!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Monday Revisited


Jimmy Buffett ~ Come Monday

Thanks to starsonthewater1.

So what's there to do on Monday? How about this?

Note to Fixer: (wink)

Comes the dawn...


Thanks, YubaNet.


Trying to hold back the light:

Robert Reich

How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do

You know why, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, "unfair" is anything that undermines their profits.

All this will be decided within days or weeks. And once those who want to kill the public option without their fingerprints on the murder weapon begin to agree on a proposal - Snowe's "trigger" or any other - the public option will be very hard to revive. The White House must now insist on a genuine public option. And you, dear reader, must insist as well.

This is it, folks. The concrete is being mixed and about to be poured. And after it's poured and hardens, universal health care will be with us for years to come in whatever form it now takes. Let your representative and senators know you want a public option without conditions or triggers - one that gives the public insurer bargaining leverage over drug companies, and pushes insurers to do what they've promised to do. Don't wait until the concrete hardens and we've lost this battle.

You know what to do.

Obama the antisemite

EssEffXam, links at site.

They didn't even wait for the speech in Cairo. According to a report in Courrier International, on June 3rd, over 130 people gathered in front of the American Consulate in Jerusalem to protest against President Obama's Middle East tour. Protesters carried banners that defended the extension of settlements into Palestinian territory. Extreme right wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir stated that 'we have apparently reached a yellow line that the most antisemitic of American presidents has crossed; we will launch a campaign against Barack Hussein Obama. He is bad for the people and the State of Israel and his policies will lead us to disaster'. Sounds a lot like Dick Cheney, doesn't it?

Trouble is that the majority of Americans agree with the president's policies which include a two-state solution for Israel/Palestine, and a complete halt to settlement activity and a return to the conditions of the road map which was re-drawn at Annapolis. Additionally, Sima Kadmon of Yedioth Ahronoth reported on a Dahaf Institute polling of Israelis, following Obama's speech in Cairo:

Q: Should the illegal outposts be evacuated?
Yes - 70%
No - 25%

I like the term 'illegal outposts' as opposed to 'settlements'. 'Settlements' sounds like hardy pioneers instead of the criminal territorial expansion that it is.

I'm glad Obama finally gave a little push back to Israel. They worked Bush like a rented mule.

Fuck AIPAC too.

Right-wingers are right-wingers. Anywhere. Period. They're no damn good.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Minnesota: Coleman Still Holding Out Hope
Hope that meteor hits Franken.

Foolproof plan to get a decent bipartisan health care bill through the Senate.
·All Democratic Senators draw straws.
·Short straw switches parties, becomes a Republican.
·Republican votes for decent health care bill.
·Bill passes with 1 Republican vote.

Hummer Purchased by Firm in China
Where they'll be sold as housing.

I don't like Mondays ...

Sir Bob and the Rats.



Boomtown Rats -I Don't Like Mondays

A few "bad apples"?

I don't think so. Greenwald looks at the torture memos and the response by the career DOJ folks. It goes all the way to the top:

...

But the real story here is obvious -- these DOJ memos authorizing torture were anything but the by-product of independent, good faith legal analysis. Instead, those memos -- just like the pre-war CIA reports about The Threat of Saddam -- were coerced by White House officials eager for bureaucratic cover for what they had already ordered. This was done precisely so that once this all became public, they could point to those memos and have the political and media establishment excuse what they did ("Oh, they only did what they DOJ told them was legal"'/"Oh, they were only reacting to CIA warnings about Saddam's weapons"). These DOJ memos, like the CIA reports, were all engineered by the White House to give cover to what they wanted to do; they were not the precipitating events that led to and justified those decisions. That is the critical point proven by the Comey emails, and it is completely obscured by the NYT article, which instead trumpets the opposite point ("Unanimity at DOJ that these tactics were legal") because that's the story their leaking sources wanted them to promote. [my ems]

...


All the evidence is out there in black and white. All we're waiting for is the political will by AG Holder and the President to see these assholes in jail. It's time to use this to finally drive the stake through the neocon heart.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Obama's Overseas Tour


Thanks, YubaNet.

Sunday Maybe Not-So-Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

There are a lot of levels to this song. Faithless love, guilt, alcoholism, PTSD, no redemption on this side. Pick your own.

I was gonna make a crack about the video starring Rick Schroder as the world's oldest army Private but with all the Guard troops that have had their lives jerked out from under them, I'm not so sure there ain't some even older slick sleeve Privates somewhere. Maybe some Guard or Reserve former Sergeant Major who told his CG where to put his fourth goddam Iraq tour.


Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss ~ Whiskey Lullaby

In 2008, CMT named the video #2 on the 100 Greatest Music Videos.

Thanks to sexylipgloss15, NY.

Green History Blogging


Thanks to Weeds.

Oh, the Humanity!

You know how much the French hate us ... not:

The AP has a bunch of photos documenting this terrible treatment of visiting Americans. They're lining up on the streets to protest the visitors, surely, because everyone knows that the French are always up to no good and detest all things American. Clearly the sneaky Frenchies don't know that they owe us for saving their bacon. Besides, just because they helped win independence for America doesn't matter because it was too long ago to matter. Brace yourself for horrible scenes below and if you can stand it, here's a video of them protesting as well. They go so far as to comment on the big American automobiles! Oh the humanity!

...


You know, as an American who speaks very little French, you would think (from everything you hear in this country about the French) I'd have nothing but hassle when I went over there. Well let me tell you, after numerous trips to Paris and the French countryside, we have never had a problem or been met with disdain. And no, we don't hide the fact we're Americans.

What they do have a problem with is Americans coming over there with the attitude that we know and do everything better. It's the "Ugly American" act that doesn't fly over there, or anywhere else in the civilized world for that matter.

Diversions ...

While Mozart moves me the most of the classical composers (the shout of "Rock me, Amadeus!" is heard frequently around here), his "Divertimento" are my favorite of his pieces. A small sample for your Sunday:



Mozart - Divertimento K-136(I) (II, III)