Saturday, June 19, 2010

Sorta like "Clean Coal" ...

Chris:

And when they claim to be "pro-environment" they mean it in a BP drill, baby, drill kind of way. The group is funded by BP, Transocean, Shell, ConocoPhilips and other well known environmentalists.

...


These are your "Guardians of the Gulf". Something like the "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" of the Bush administration.

Great apologies in History ...

Comrade Misfit in great form:

...

The nations of Poland, Holland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Norway, Greece, Finland and the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union would like to apologize to Germany for not being hospitable to large German tour groups from 1939 through 1945.

...

More on Greene v DeMint

Lawrence O'Donnell, guest host at Countdown and obviously a regular reader of the Brain, picks up on my idea about South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A 2d Amendment Remedy

I hope I didn't start something yesterday, but I gotta run with this one:

Man accidentally shoots self in testicles

One less teabag...

Comments:

Aw nuts!!!!!!!!! Cleanup in lumber.

Now he really does have lead in his pencil.

A tip o' the Brain to David Aquarius.

Headline of the Day

South African Vuvuzela Philharmonic Angered By Soccer Games Breaking Out During Concerts

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

A little Motown in this too.

From 1982


Emmylou Harris ~ Rock & Roll Medley

Thanks to TheChoughs, UK.

What truck?

Blue Wave News

Dick Armey: Obama Forcing BP to Pay Damages to Gulf Oil Victims is… Unconstitutional?

While the existence of numerous species of fish, birds, and other animals are being threatened by the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico – to say nothing of the livelihoods of thousands of humans – one particularly stubborn creature is not only surviving but possibly thriving: the right-wing loon.

“There are all kinds of room in the Constitution for these roles to be taken up,” he said. “But it would begin with this: any law that extends the power of the state should be first judged against the Constitution… If I go park my truck on your yard, you don’t call the mayor, you call your lawyer and say we’ll settle this in the courts.”

Actually, Dick, if you parked your truck in my yard, my first call would be to you, asking you to move it, because I would assume that you, as an adult, would recognize what an assholish thing you had done and would be willing to rectify it. Since that would apparently be expecting too much of you, my next call would be to the police department, not my goddamned lawyer, because you would be violating the law. I sure as hell wouldn’t wait for the month or more it would take for this case to get before a judge. Hell, by then, you would probably have moved the truck from my lawn anyway.

There's more, but it's obvious that Armey The Head Teabagger runs in the rarefied atmosphere of lawyers up there in his political/high finance world and doesn't quite get how us little people do things.

The Blue Wave writer said it right, but he's pretty straight arrow.

For one thing, nobody but Dick Armey is stupid enough to park a truck in somebody's yard without permission, and certainly not stupid enough to walk away from it. If I had to deal with it, other than the obvious of catching the guy and telling him to move his goddam load outta my yard toot fuckin' sweet or there was gonna be trouble and let's get it over with, I'd do it in one of two ways.

First, if I just wanted the goddam thing outta my yard and I didn't wanta fuck with it, I'd just call ol' Edgar at Dependable Tow and have him come get it. As the property owner I can do that. It'd cost the owner about $300, more if I tell Edgar it belongs to a rich asshole. Edgar'd kick me down some change and everybody's happy but the truck's owner.

The second way, if I did wanta fuck with it is: Parking in my yard without permission is fine. It costs $300 (or whatever), per day, and I've got a whole buncha parts over here that I know will fit your now non-running truck, asshole, to ensure I get paid. Go get your money and come back. Bring some tools. Mechanic work's extra. If it takes you more than 5 days, not only do you owe me $1500, and it's only gonna go up, I'm gonna lien sale the sonuvabitch as an abandoned vehicle and sell it for whatever I can get for it. You can have it back anytime during the lien sale process at $300 a day. Or you can buy it back from whomever for whatever they want for it.

Actually, I have to send a registered letter to the owner of record and he can stop the lien sale process. The mail to him and back to DMV and back to me takes several days. If he does that, I take him to Small Claims Court. No lawyers. This all takes time and I have the truck in my possession. See "$300/day". Did I mention that I'm retired and have plenty of time for all this?

Lawyers as the answer for something like that. What a fuckin' outta touch asshole Armey is. But we knew that.

There's actually a third way to deal with it that would really be fun, especially if it was Armey's. Move the truck off my property and get Fixer over here to show me his specialty of how to catastrophically disassemble a truck with the parts all landing in specific grid squares. Or counties.

Truck? In my yard? What truck? I don't see no truck. 'Scuse me, pal, I gotta fill in this little crater here. Heh.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Kirtland Kabul Weapons Lab

Been to the Air Force's Kirtland Weapons Lab a couple times. Looks like they're taking the act on the road:

...

Setting aside the fact that using a "pain ray" in general is a horrible idea, how much more horrible is it to use in a country that already sees itself invaded by men who look like robot insects and where unmanned planes kill targets from a distance? It's hard not to see that as a weapons laboratory on a people who have no means to protest.

...


Yep, nothing like doing live testing in a place where lives come cheap.

The Nattering Naboblicans of Negativism

I just love "Nattering Naboblicans of Negativism"!

The Ostroy Report. Go see the poster of Rushole.

I have this friend out in LA. We'll call him Brad. Brad's a 100% narrow-minded, lock-steppin', self-serving, gated-community livin' Republican business owner (started by his dad) without an ounce of compassion for those less fortunate. All of which I can easily accept. I'm all for capitalism, political diversity and nepotism. I can even accept the wanton disregard for those in need. But what I can't accept about Brad is his shameful anti-Americanism. And there are plenty more Republicans just like Brad, lemmingly led by Rush "I want Obama to fail" Limbaugh.

Accusing someone of being anti-American is a serious charge, and I don't take it lightly, whether I am referring to Brad or whether the charge is hurled at politicians by the opposition simply over policy differences. So what makes Brad anti-American? It's simple. Brad is rooting for our president to fail. He is rooting for the economy to fail. He is rooting for the stock markets to fail. All because, to Brad, this failure translates to partisan victory in November. Brad, like so many Republicans, cheers with celebratory glee whenever there's bad news on Main Street or Wall Street. And there's nothing more unpatriotic than to want your government and financial system to fail, particularly for political reasons.

Anyone who calls me anti-American or a traitor or the like will rue his choice of words fucking instantly. I expect the same from those I call traitors. I'm pretty safe. They're all cowards.

What I don't get though is that Brad owns a successful business, a beautiful home and has a fat retirement account and two great kids. But you'd never know this judging from his sheer delight at even the slightest prospect of economic weakness. It's as if he'd rather be destitute, so long as Republicans regain power in November. And that's un-American, let alone just plain moronic.

But Brad is merely a symbol. He personifies today's highly charged, vitriolic partisan landscape, where one's misguided political passions often dwarf his own self-interests and those of his family. Is it possible that we can just be American on some issues? We all have a vested interest in seeing the economy recover. We all want to protect American's interests, both here and abroad. We all need improved health care coverage. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water. Does everything have to go through some convoluted partisan lens that turns bright, otherwise rational people into rhetoric-spewing automatons who root for failure?

Seems like it.

Analysis: Did the "gray lady" get played?

Global Post

Was The New York Times' story on minerals in Afghanistan smart or the result of Pentagon PR?

KABUL, Afghanistan — The New York Times' lead story Monday about “nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghaistan” was the kind of journalism that seemed at first glance to be a game changer.

Suddenly, there was something worth fighting for in Afghanistan beyond an ill-defined counterinsurgency campaign: the lithium batteries that power our cell phones. The story even quoted an internal Pentagon memo that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” And the article went further, trumpeting United States officials' belief that Afghanistan could eventually be “transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world.

And of course we mustn't let China get it. We must stay there forever. Or until we've got all the money.

A question that many media watchers, military analysts and pundits are now wondering is whether The New York Times gave that story shape or whether it was somehow played by the U.S. military to see the value of the mineral deposits at a moment in time when Washington appears to be increasingly concerned about the public losing confidence in the war in Afghanistan.

At a recent conference on Afghanistan, attended by several of the most respected research centers, the topic that drew the most heated response was the relative positions of the foreign troops and the Taliban.
...

“I told them they had already lost,” said one conference participant, speaking on condition of anonymity. The conference was trying to sail “under the radar” and was not open to the media.

“If you have 46 countries and the world’s most developed economies unable to defeat a bunch of insurgents, then you are just finished,” the attendee added.

This view was echoed at another super-secret gathering last week, where a prominent Afghanistan expert told high-level officials that it was time to get out of the country.

“You cannot win,” said the authority. “Make a deal and leave.”

No, we'll more likely make a deal with our mining companies and stay. Hey, our troops died for fucking bananas on behalf of corporate profit, fer chrissake. We'll lose a lot more over lithium.

The upshot:

Afghans, of course, immediately began dividing up the spoils from this trillion-dollar treasure chest. If history is any gauge, then the same problems that have kept them mired in war and misery for so long — poor governance, corruption and the less-than-tender attention of the world community in general and their close neighbors in particular — will more than likely plague them again and the people will just shrug and add the theft of their national treasure to their endless list of grievances.

The "news" about the minerals in Clusterfuckistan is not exactly new, but the timing of the NYT story is becoming more and more suspect. I wouldn't put it past the neocons in the military one little bit.

Joe Barton, Our Savior

Kinda on a Jesus thing today. Hmmmm...

P.M. Carpenter

Joe Barton's mike hadn't yet cooled from his searing stupidity about a tragic "$20 billion shakedown" before President Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, now of Organizing for America, fired off an email that, to be fully savored, should be delivered in the aesthetic tones of Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bulow:

"Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he 'shares' Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be 'fleeced.' Rush Limbaugh called it a 'bailout.' The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, [also] called it a 'shakedown.' "

All the above is less a mere reversal of fortunes than the epic granddaddy of them all.

It's the sparkling bull's-eye of 435 ruthless campaign ads, plus 36. It's a titanic reaffirmation that Bushism's Wildness receded not into the West in January, 2009; its ideological tentacles still clumsily flop and sprawl.

And it's a priceless reminder that one must never despair. As long as modern-day Republicans are free to talk like modern-day Republicans, there's hope.

The right, the far right, the Tea Party right and all other sub-manifestations of contemporary pseudoconservatism just don't get it.

It was first with a chuckle that moments before Mr. Barton revealed his sagging spirits that I read this, in Politico's "The Arena," by a certain Charles Calomiris, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute:

"Obama will lose in 2012. The most important reason he will lose is not the decline in his overall approval ratings, which reflect his radical agenda and increasingly unlikable demeanor, but rather his decline in approval in swing states and among independents.... But the end of the Obama presidency will begin after the 2010 election, when the radical agenda will cease to be viable in a Congress no longer controlled by the radical fringe."

Then came Barton, and my chuckle -- "radical agenda," "radical fringe" -- turned to a (dangerously) self-satisfied "Say again, Charles?"

The election of 2012 is a long way away, indeed, as is this year's November, so no preferred outcomes could possibly be in the bag. But I know one thing with a Bartonlike certainty of the "first proportion": The burden of any publicly perceived "radicalism" -- which in American politics portends electoral death -- just shifted to the other side.

Shit, "radical" has been on the Repug side since 1980. Maybe because of all the wacko shit they say now that they're so desperate for power that the gloves are off and they're outta the crazy closet, reg'lar folks might just notice, like a mule notices a 2x4 upside his head. Maybe.

The funny (not ha-ha) part is that the Repugs think the Dead End Quarter that actually believes in crazy is the same as "the American people".

I said yesterday sucked. I take it back. It turned out to be a wonderful day after all. Barton gave us a gift that hopefully will keep on giving.

Headline of the Day

MSNBC

'Intimate waxing' nearly costs man a testicle

Note to my own testicles: You can come out of hiding now. I was only kidding...

19 reasons why God torched Jesus

Friday Morford.

Charred remnants remained this morning of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night. -- Dayton Daily News

You ever have that fine, epiphanic moment when you realize an eyesore's an eyesore and it's time for some, you know, housecleaning? And what better way to rid yourself of some of the more hideous crap laying about than maybe tossing it into a nice bonfire? By the highway? In Ohio? God has those moments, too.

Sure, you could argue it's a form of the Savior that's just a wee bit tacky, insulting and childish, not to mention a laughable piece of "artwork" you wouldn't wish upon a blind quadriplegic goat herder. Whatevs. As the Pharisees used to say: "No such thing as bad press, yo."

5) He is resin.

Grooooan. Today is Punday, day of pest...

6) The real Jesus of historical record, being a grizzled, husky, musky, dark-skinned Jew with short, curly black hair who rarely showered and smelled of goat droppings and dried sweat, and who had a thing for screaming random prophesies in the streets and talking about doom, fire and the unbearable hotness of Mary Magdalene, well, the real Jesus' spirit has been quite displeased with being eternally depicted as a pale, soft-focus blond European hippie in bleached-out robes who likes to give lots of there-there-now hugs while watching professional sports. Basta.

8) Two more: Insurance money. God has been eyeing the new Cadillac CTS Coupe. In this economy? You do what need to do.

9) God: "Wait, what? That was supposed to be Jesus? It looked like Charles Manson after too many marshmallow peeps and a bad peroxide job. Aw, dammit."

10) Word has it the Hustler Hollywood sign sitting atop the adult bookstore across the street from the torched Touchdown Jesus was left unscathed, thus proving (once again) that God really does like porn. And irony. Or just needs a new contact lens prescription.

19) At last! The End Times hath arrived! Wrath, hellfire, lightning, burning Jesus, oil in the seas, plagues of grasshoppers, a black president, Gary Coleman dead, the works. About time, no?

Fuckin' A. Lets get on with it.

Actually, since it had a lot of metal in it and stuck up sixty feet in the air, it was a lightning rod waiting to do its thing. If the church had had the true symbol of Christianity, the collection plate, atop the steeple they wouldn'ta needed it.

You knew ...

Some stupid shit was gonna happen.

As I warned you all, every 4 years I get insane over the World Cup. If you're a friend of mine on FB, you're experiencing it first-hand (Come on, be honest, how many of you have already blocked my "daily recaps"? Heh ...). Thing is, I might be nuts but some people are getting really fucked up over this:

JOHANNESBURG -- Police say a South African man who wanted to watch a World Cup match instead of a religious program was beaten to death by his family in the northeastern part of the country.

David Makoeya, a 61-year-old man from the small village of Makweya, Limpopo province, fought with his wife and two children for the remote control on Sunday because he wanted to watch Germany play Australia in the World Cup. The others, however, wanted to watch a gospel show.

...


Figures Jesus was involved somehow.

As I said on FB, the Americans, English, and Germans are playing today. My productivity at work is gonna be at an all time low. TGIF!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Yeah, how come?

Another question in this series:

Really, one of the only questions left regarding the BP oil spill has to be "Why the fuck doesn't God get off his lazy ass and do something about it?" God's just sittin' around, eatin' Cheetos, trippin' balls, gettin' handjobbed by Marilyn Monroe while watchin' the World Cup, wonderin' what side he should take each game, and, hey, babe, could you use your other hand to pass that beer? Apparently, that holy sack of shit can't even take a second to pinch the oil well and seal it off.

...

Can you imagine ...

How far we could go with Rachel Maddow as President?

Dry Hole Charlie and the Lakeview Gusher

Today sucks. Between Palin making O'Rally look almost intelligent by comparison, and oil pols apologizing* to BP for the 'tragedy' of the 'shakedown', I've called today off for lack of interest. I just need a break from all those assholes. If today was my job, I'da called in drunk.

Then I ran across a historical article in the LATimes that perked me right up outta my funkin' ennui. I love to read about California history and I recalled hearing about this quite some time ago.

This is about a huge oil spill in Kern County in 1910. Kern County is kinda California's Oklahoma. Two of its main products are oil and cotton, and the descendants of the local Dust Bowl refugees still have Oklahoma accents. This is Grapes of Wrath country.

California is a good 'union' state, and in this case and still, that means Union Oil and its successors.



Horrific though the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been, its output is still short of what occurred a century ago in scrubby brush about 110 miles north of Los Angeles — site of the Lakeview gusher.

While some experts believe the well off Louisiana has spewed upwards of 60 million gallons of oil into the gulf, the Lakeview well rained about 378 million gallons over an area between the towns of Taft and Maricopa.

I think the 60mil gal estimate is a little low. 60,000bbl/day @ 42gal/bbl for about 60 days is about 150mil gal, but it's anybody's guess. It's a lot. But I digress...

The spill following the April 20 oil rig explosion in the gulf is, of course, a much bigger environmental and economic disaster. But the two wells had one thing in common -- neither could be immediately capped.

Lakeview's geyser of crude, in fact, flowed for more than 17 months.

"It roars and rips like hell," the publication California Oil World said at the time. "It smells and terrifies like hell….Some of those who watched it the first night declared that it ejected glowing stones."

And to think, Lakeview's foreman was a guy nicknamed Dry Hole Charlie because of his association with unproductive wells.

Kinda like George W. Bush who figures prominently in the Gulf spill.

Then, on March 15, 1910, 2,200 feet below the surface, the well blew. (Some sources give the date as March 14.)

The eruption not only demolished the wooden derrick but created "such a large crater that nobody had a chance to get to what was left of the hole to try to control it," author Max Miller wrote.
...

The site became a tourist attraction.

Today, of course, the T-shirts would have been on sale within hours.

Some folks saw the gusher as a sign of disapproval from the Almighty. Hadn't one preacher in Pennsylvania warned drillers that the oil was meant to remain in the earth to "kindle the fires of Hell"?

Finally on Sept. 9, 1911, thousands of feet below the surface, the well caved in and sealed itself. It "died as suddenly as it was born," wrote author William Rintoul.

...

Of the 378 million gallons of oil that gushed out, about 40% was captured. The ensuing surplus dropped the price of oil by about half, to 30 cents a barrel.

Dry Hole Charlie moved on and in the following years "lived up to his previous reputation by drilling only dry holes, one after another," Miller wrote.

Makes ya wonder how he did at chasin' wimmen - the one he caught musta been a doozie...


Thanks to californiacrude, who has lots of CA oil patch videos.


I'll put my tinfoil hat back on tomorrow.

*Update:

Looks like Barton (Oil company suck-up - TX) got the word from On High and has backed off his apology which was apparently misconscrewed by the commie media so it was reported as what he actually said on live TV. Damn those media Libruls!

The asshole stomped on his weenie so hard it looks like a Vibram imprint on a dog turd.

Substance ...

It was a relief to see Obama put the pressure on BP yesterday, especially after that limp speech Tuesday night. Michael looks at the details and notes Republicans showing their true colors once again:

...

As you might expect, though conservatives are not amused. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, for example, is worried that the fund will slash BP's profits, which, presumably, are more important than the environment and economy of the region, not to mention the way of life of and very welfare of those who depend on the Gulf, a clean Gulf, for their livelihood, many of whom of Barbour's own constituents.

And Michele Bachmann, finding conspiracy at every turn, thinks that the escrow account amounts to a huge "redistribution-of-wealth fund," as if the massive wealth of BP and its larger shareholders matters more than those in the fishing and tourism industries, among others, who are suffering immensely as a result of the spill, and who may never recover.

...


The Republican Party: Wholly owned subsidiary of Corporatist America.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Lottery ...

Harry Reid should play it:

Former Nevada state Rep. Sharron Angle, who has become the Tea Party favorite in the Republican primary for Senate, is now working to distance herself from a possible weakness in the race -- accusations that she has ties to the Church of Scientology.

...


Because he is the luckiest sumbitch in these U-S-of-A. This woman is a nut and if he can't put her away, he deserves to lose. Gord knows more about the politics in Nevada than I do but I doubt even the teabaggers can get behind a Scientologist who wants to reinstate Prohibition.

Heh...

Thanks to YubaNet.

Also see this one. And this one too.

Headline of the Day

Lawrence O'Donnell To Host MSNBC 10PM Show

This is good. Olbermann is funny and emotional. Maddow is sharp as a tack, funnier'n hell, and can talk faster than anybody except Cornel West, but you can understand her. Heh.

O'Donnell knows his shit about politics and ain't afraid to smack the Repugs upside they head. This is another progressive step forward, even though:

At MSNBC, people treat with great seriousness ratings fluctuations roughly equal to "the number of people who would go to the bathroom during a 'West Wing' episode," as O'Donnell wryly puts it.

If MSNBC lied like F**Noise I wouldn't watch it no matter how much I agreed with the general point of view, but it's more reality based, i.e. they tell the truth lots more often, and small as it is, it's ours.

Out West Here, we get two 'prime times' - MSNBC's lineup and the 8-11 one on the other networks. Win-win!

Growin' up too fast...or too slow...or both...

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on growing up in our culture.

Here's the thing: Endless are the studies and countless are the shrill advocacy groups, politicians and bewildered grandparents lamenting just how harshly kids are raised these days, how we're sexualizing them at younger and younger ages, front-loading them with far too much stress and hardship, and drowning them in the ugly realities of the world before they even hit puberty.

Possible upshot: We're robbing our children of any vestiges of true innocence, never giving them a shot at stability or happiness before they're stamped with a Disney branding iron and force fed to the demons of K Street, violent videogames, porn, prescription meds and oral sex on the school bus field trip. Perilous!

One of the reasons I don't pray is that my prayers for oral sex on school bus trips were never answered.

[...] ecause gosh golly, life is hard and rent is expensive, and who needs that when your parents let you move back home after college and live there well into your 30s, so you never have to fend for yourself, can't cook and don't know how to drive a car because you spent so much damn time on Facebook and MySpace that you never grew a real personality?

I lived at home until I was 26. See rent, expensive. Musta been ahead of my time. I do know how to drive a car. Sorta. Damn things sure are hard to lean inta turns. Probly wouldn't if we'da had all the social networking, but we had to go out to try to get laid and fail. I will let others comment on my personality, and it's none of my business what they think.

Possible upshot #2: A whole generation stuck in eternal, insufferable adolescence, emotionally stunted and immature, never fully desiring (or requiring) to settle down, "get serious," get a life. Marriage? Kids? A career? Maybe someday. Maybe when I'm, you know, 40.

So, which is it? Are we eternally adolescent or prematurely old? Reluctant to grow the hell up, or taking on way too much, far too quickly? Can it be both? I think it might be both.

Speaking for only myself, growing old at any age sucks and I'll stick with "eternally adolescent", thank you very much. I think we had it easier way back when than kids do today.

Enjoy.

Why the Far Right Hates the World Cup

Dave Zirin in The Nation:

Every World Cup, it arrives like clockwork. As sure as the ultimate soccer spectacle brings guaranteed adrenaline and agony to fans across the United States, it also drives the right-wing noise machine utterly insane.

“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us,” yipped [1] the Prom King of new right, Glenn Beck. “It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.”

As for Liddy, let’s be clear. There is not in fact hard anthropological evidence that early soccer games were played with a human head. Interestingly, though, there is an oft-told legend that the sport took root in England in the eighth century because the king’s army playfully kicked around the detached cranium of the conquered Prince of Denmark. Notice that this tall tale is about Europe, not “South American Indians.” I think we’re seeing a theme here.

But maybe this isn’t just sports as avatar for their racism and imperial arrogance. Maybe their hysteria lies in something far more shallow. Maybe the real reason they lose their collective minds is simply because the USA tends to get their asses handed to them each and every World Cup. After all, as G. Gordon asked, “Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?” When it comes to the World Cup, the exceptional is found elsewhere. Could Beck, Liddy and company just have soccer-envy? Is it possible that if the USA was favored to win the World Cup, Beck himself would be in the streets with his own solid gold vuvuzela? I feel that to ask the question is to answer it. In fact, this is as good a reason as any to hope for a mighty run by the US team. It would be high comedy to see Beck and Friends caught in a vice between their patriotic fervor and their nativist fear.

It would be high comedy to see and hear their spew coming out of a vuvuzela stuck up their ass.

Update:

Also see:

The Right-Wing War Against Soccer

[...] Whether one is a fan of the world's game or not, the notion that soccer's growth is part of some plot is reflective of a conspiratorial nativism all too prevalent among the right wing. [...]

Another right-wing claim is that soccer can be liked by socialists only. [...] Gainor said, "the problem here is, soccer is designed as a poor man or poor woman's sport," adding the sport "is being sold" as necessary due to the "browning of America." [...]

I think it's because soccer is a game we didn't invent and a game popular in the rest of the colored commie world just ain't fer good Amurikkkans. We don't seem to have a problem with blacks in football and basketball, and browns in baseball.

Then there's hockey. Buncha white commie Canuckistanians and Russians and such. I don't know what to think about that other than our inferior darker-hued brethren obviously aren't smart enough to live in snow and ice and darkness half the year. Heh. Football'd probably interest me more if they used sticks and really sharp shoes on each other.

The same kinda parochialism exists to a lesser extent between the all-American sport of motorcycle flattrack racing and the international sport of speedway racing, which has its own World Cup. Honkin' big and fast mostly American Iron that can throw their riders for a 100-foot walk on the wild side v spindly little sissy commie bikes that can only manage 50 feet. Both are exciting to watch.

The parallel between NASCAR and auto rally racing is similar. You can't beat rallying for action, but it's not all that popular here. Might be "big engines, turn 'em slow" v "little engines, rev the shit out of 'em". Americans lurves them some big engines! It might be because rallying is point-to-point and promoters can't sell a coupla million dollars worth of seats and T-shirts and hot dogs and TV rights inside a stadium they own all in a few hours. Also, rallies take days. NASCAR engines barely last all afternoon, just long enough for the spectators to spend all their money. Again, the rest of the world is way ahead of us on this one except for making money on it. NASCAR ain't nearly as exciting since they banned fist fights amongst the drivers and crews.

Which brings me, for some strange reason known only to three neurons in my brain, to long distance running. You'd think Americans would love that. Americans are way too fat and lazy to do it themselves, of course, but Africans and some Mexican Indians are really good at it. Amurikkans love to see those kinda folks running because it means they're up to something and can be shot at. The NRA is missing a bet here by not sponsoring this sport.

Git yer vuvuzela ...

Outta my ear!

The Brits (and those of us who follow the English Premier League) will have an earful when the season starts later this year:

...

England fans in the UK appear to be heeding his call; Sainsbury's sold 22,000 red vuvuzelas – or "Vu Vu horns" as it brands them – in 12 hours before England's game – one every two seconds. The supermarket chain has ordered 25,000 extra horns but thinks it may run out before Friday's game against Algeria.

There were none left at Sainsbury's in Emmersons Green, near Bristol. A few miles away in Chippenham, Wiltshire, half a dozen remained on the shelves.

Mike Brown was buying two for his children. "I could be making a terrible mistake but I think I'm going to have to make a rule that they can only blow them during the actual games. But the kids wanted them and I can't resist it when they get excited about something like the World Cup."

Amazon said sales had increased by 1,000%. David Broughton, from Northamptonshire-based company thevuvuzelaman.co.uk, said the country was gripped with "vuvuzela fever". [my em]

...


Ya think, pal?

How much you wanna bet the Germans will ban them for the Bundesliga season? "You vill leaf your schtoopit horn at home or ve vill insert it in your rectum!" (Personally, I'm waiting for a YouTube of a guy blowing one with his ass). Heh ...

As for the vuvuzelas, I really don't care. Like I said on my FB page, a stadium full of 40,000 drunken Englishmen singing their team songs and chants at the top of their lungs ain't high art either. And the players should just stop whining and play football. With the money they make, they should be able to play under any circumstances.

Thanks to Chris for the link.

What Creature said ...

In toto:

I just don't know who the speech was intended for. It didn't play well with me, but for those who don't pay as much attention I suspect it may have done the job.


I wasn't as pissed as Olbermann obviously was, but good god, couldn't Obama at least have told us a little about the ass kicking he's gonna deliver ... someday?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

We is gettin' us a casino!

It looks like another Indian casino is on the way.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation of Southampton, Long Island, a place best known as a summer retreat for wealthy Manhattan cliff dwellers, received final recognition from the federal government Tuesday as an official Indian tribe.

That acknowledgement clears the way for its members to finally achieve their long-sought goal of a casino which they say is vital for their economic well-being.

...


Wonder where all these folks are getting the money to throw away at yet another casino within driving distance, but it ain't my money so have at it.

It's good they're finally getting formal recognition by the country that screwed him like the rest of the Native-Americans but I don't think the best thing for tribes is to indulge the White Man's vices (although I do get cheap smokes at the tribe right down the road from the Shinnecocks).

God's pissed ...

Heh ...

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

...


I'd say it's a 'message'. Don't get no better'n this ...

Thanks to Watertiger for the link.

Headline of the Day

Huge obstacles seen in exploiting Afghan minerals

I think the main 'obstacle' is that Afghanistan has no Mining Act of 1872, like we do here, that would keep them from getting some of the money for their own resources. Like we do here.

If it ain't 'go in, dig the shit out, keep all the money, and fuck the locals', it ain't happening. It's the American way.

Oil is a green fuel. Say what?

Just go read this twisted brain fart by Doughy Pantload. Un-effin'-real.

Tesla IPO

This is reasonably good news.

LATimes

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. plans to raise about $167 million by selling stock to the public later this year.

The Palo Alto maker of a $109,000 Roadster electric sports car said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that it planned to sell as much as 12.8 million shares for up to $14 to $16 each in an initial public offering.

The offering is "highly anticipated" and values the company at about $1.5 billion, according to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.

Good news for at least some of the folks who built my Tacoma and the Bayarrhea Bay Area in general:

Tesla also has an agreement to pay $42 million for a shuttered auto factory in Fremont, Calif., which Toyota and General Motors Co. formerly operated jointly until earlier this year. Tesla will make its new Model S sedan at the plant.

Tesla is controlled by Musk, a PayPal Inc. co-founder who made millions when he sold the online payment business in 2002. Musk then invested in Tesla and Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is developing the Falcon 9 booster, a nine-story-tall private rocket that recently had a successful debut launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Ol' Elon likes stuff that goes fast, huh?

Are B-Flat Fart Horns* On The Way Out?

*Thanks to Fixer on Facebook.

World Cup organiser mulls vuvuzela ban

Criticism of the vuvuzelas has been almost as loud as the instruments themselves with broadcasting companies complaining the din is almost drowning out commentary.

The horns aren't at all musical, they're just noisemakers. I've heard them exactly once and I thought a swarm of locusts was devouring the stadium. Irritating as all get out. If they get rid of the horns because they're fuckin' with the broadcasts that the broadcasters no doubt paid big money to do, that's fine with me.

Sell the fans cowbells. Heh.

Update:

Video at LATimes. Memorable line:

"Going into stadium without vuvuzela is like going to war unarmed."

Oooooookay....

Update il due:

EssEffChron

Finally a good use for vuvuzelas - cat toys:

One hopes the soccer fan gave up his vuvuzela voluntarily...

Click fotos to embiggen


And finally (if all goes well, but I doubt it), here's what the World Cup is all about:

This should hold me until halftime: It's understood that if you get up to get a Budweiser at the World Cup, you come back with a round. How you carry that round is a matter of personal preference. There's the Six-pack Strangler, the Saint Bernhard and this guy - who seems to be a hybrid of the the Claw and the Labrador Retriever. (Serbia vs. Ghana in Pretoria.)



Budweiser? In South Africa? I heer'd they had animals in Africa. Haven't they got any local critters that can piss in a bottle? "This batch ain't quite done. Run it through the giraffe one more time."

Boiling it down ...

If you listen to the 'deficit hawks', it's Social Security that's bankrupting the nation. Comrade Misfit (with the help of Jon Stewart) gets right to the crux of the biscuit.

...

If you are not wiling to cut deeply into programs that are near and dear to your own constituency's interests, then your concern about the budget deficit is just eyewash.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Quote of the Day

Adrastos:

... I'm always grateful when another state's politics are wackier than Louisiana. Thanks, Palmetto bug state ...

Obama adviser questions legitimacy of SC candidate

AP via Yahoo!News:

South Carolina Democrats chose a political unknown, 32-year-old Alvin Greene, to run against Republican Sen. Jim DeMint this fall.

Greene is an unemployed military veteran who hardly campaigned for the office, and his victory last Tuesday has raised questions about who backed his candidacy.

And it turns out that he's facing a felony charge.

Obama adviser David Axelrod says South Carolina Democrats deserve a strong, credible candidate. He says it's a big mystery how Greene won.

I saw Mr. Greene on Countdown. The guy's in way over his head and I felt kinda sorry for him. The Dems think he's a GOP plant and he may very well be, given batcrap crazy SC politics. But I got ta thinkin' about it...(uh-oh!)

Note to Axelrod: Yer missin' a bet here, pal. Promote Mr. Greene for all it's worth! Get him elected!!! He won't be any trouble once he's in and he'll vote the way you want him to, but the biggest and best part is DeMint will be gone! Senator Greene, having no power or agenda and knowing absolutely nothing about politics, will be a better Senator than DeMint on his sanest day (rare and not very).

Oh, and try to keep the guy outta jail.

Will the Cruise Ship Industry Do BP's Dirty Work?

Interesting angle from MoJo.

How the cruise ship lobby could help BP dodge liability for workers killed on the Deepwater rig.

Chris and his father Keith have pleaded with Congress to fix the law so that any employer can be held accountable for negligence—regardless of whether an employee dies on land or at sea. Last week, Senate Judiciary chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation that would do just that.

But Leahy's bill faces an ugly political fight. And giant oil corporations—the most obvious potential opponents of such legislation—may not even have to flex their lobbying muscle. There’s another powerful industry with an interest in doing BP's dirty work to preserve the status quo. That would be cruise line operators—and when it comes to Beltway battles, the cruise lobby is no Love Boat.

Just ask Son Michael Pham, the vice president of the International Cruise Victims Association. In 2005, his parents went on a Caribbean cruise and never came back. Carnival Cruise Line, one of the world’s largest cruise operators, never offered any explanation for what had happened, and has refused to discuss the incident with Pham and his family since then. That was how Pham discovered the horrible divide in the way the law treats people killed through negligence at sea. "We couldn't take legal action to get justice," he says. Long before the BP explosion, his group was lobbying Congress for DOHSA (Death on the High Seas Act of 1920 - G) to be overhauled.

Finally, in 2009, the cruise ship victims succeeded in getting legislation introduced with help from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that would have updated DOHSA in just the way Leahy has proposed. That change would have allowed families of cruise ship victims to sue for non-economic damages—a huge deal for cruise-goers, because so many are retired and have no salaries that would provide the basis of a legal award under the current law. It also would have saved the Jones family a trip to Washington to plead their case on behalf of Gordon’s widow and children.

But the cruise industry spent $2.2 million fighting these changes. The Carnival cruise line company alone has donated more than $400,000 since 2007 to members of Congress from both parties, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The offending provision was eventually removed from the cruise-ship safety bill.

If there are loopholes BP thinks it can wriggle out through, they'll damn sure try it.

Related:

Facing South

BP hires company to handle oil spill claims whose goal is "reducing payouts" for clients

Fuckin' weasels. Go read.

Technical Question of the Day

How Does Kevin Costner's Oil Cleaning Machine Work, Exactly?

Interesting. I hope it actually works and there's enough of them.

And yes, I liked Waterworld.

You might be a Republican IF.....

Loren Adams at TPJmagazine.

You might be a Republican IF…
...

You find nothing contradictory about your sign that reads "Hands Off My Medicare" next to a "Government Run Healthcare Makes Me Sick" sticker on the bumper of your gas guzzling Humvee,
...

As part of your boycott of all names French, you change the name of your favorite sex toy to "freedom tickler."

You think the 2000 election was fair & square when Bush stole the White House but the 2008 election was stolen by ACORN for Obama.
...

You feel your duty in the war on terror is to hunt down Mexicans crossing the border. (Then you hire undocumented workers to do your lawn and housework.)
...

You think WMD are still in Iraq but hidden by liberals to make Bush look bad.
...

You've ever blamed anything on "Activist Judges" while supporting the Supreme Court decision to reject corporate spending limits on political campaigns.
...

In honor of Terri Schiavo, you kept the deer you shot alive for twelve days.
...

You make your wife wear a "no spin" t-shirt during sex.

Redundant, but it's only once a year anyway. Most of Repug women I've seen ain't exactly 'spinners' but it'd be good for some laughs if they tried it. On somebody else. Heh. The skinny pinch-faced dry-twatted Repug women are all on TV.

There are so many of these to choose from I gave up. The whole deal is Below The Fold for easy reference.

Quote of the Day

Pelosi: We'll Stop Blaming Bush When the Crises We Face Stop Being His Fault

In the year 2525,,,

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Month-Long Hooligan Gathering Kicks Off in South Africa
Some soccer fans may also attend.

War in Afghanistan Now Third Longest in U.S. History
Trails only War on Drugs, War on Poverty.

Jockeying for Helen Thomas’s Front-and-Center Seat in White House Press Room
Struggle between subservient toadies and ass-kissing sycophants is fierce.

??? ~ News Quiz - ???

Which of the following “ordinary and necessary” business expenses are fully deductible for corporations in the United States?

A ) image repair PR campaigns
B ) punitive damages paid for violations of law
C ) bribes of public officials

Hint: we no longer use the word “bribe” in polite society.

Trick question. The answer is "All of the above".

Once again ...

Money trumps common sense.

Atrios points us to this article about gas mining in Pennsylvania:

Pennsylvanians are only slowly becoming aware that we are under siege. More than a thousand Marcellus Shale drill sites are in the works, with tens of thousands more poised to descend on Penn's Woods, its towns and neighborhoods, threatening to poison water tables, suck streams dry, pollute the air with ear-splitting noise and toxic fumes -- all without meaningful regulation, without meaningful taxation.

...


I'll say the same thing I said to the folks in the Gulf. You all made money selling the leases and rights to these pirates, you didn't want government involved when it came to regulating the polluting assholes (it's not that they didn't have a track record), yet now you're crying because you can light your tap water on fire.

Now the federal government has to come in and clean up the mess you invited upon yourselves. It just kills me that people who don't want big government, don't want to pay taxes, and generally don't want to be bothered, look to that same government to drop everything and come running. If it didn't effect the rest of us in such a meaningful way, I'd tell you live with it and make "lemonade from lemons". I mean, you can always use your tap water as a substitute for gasoline, right?

If ya think we're leaving ...

Anytime soon, you got another thing coming, Bucko:

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

...


At least we don't have to think up some stupid excuse to invade ...

Normal dysfunction ...

In my lifetime (at least since I was aware) the NY State budget has never been finished on time. This year is no different:

A shutdown of state government in New York is looking increasingly likely.

New York lawmakers in Albany continue to work in an effort to pass a balanced budget in order to avoid a shutdown of state government.

State leaders said on Sunday that they expected to pass another short-term emergency spending bill on Monday, averting a government shutdown, though they could not say exactly how they would muster enough votes in the narrowly divided State Senate to do so.

...


The most useless governing body ever created by man.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

What price oil?

Young Ezra (I remember when he was blogging before he reached puberty; he makes us so proud) at WaPo with a look at the true costs of our oil dependence:

How much does a gallon of gasoline cost?

It seems like an easy question. You might ask whether I mean regular or premium, and where in the country I'm buying. Beyond that, though, the price is displayed in giant numbers on most main roads. It's such common knowledge that we ask politicians to rattle it off to show that they retain some minimal awareness of the world they claim to represent.

But as the sludge choking the Gulf of Mexico shows, nothing is easy when it comes to oil. Not even the price. In fact, especially not the price.

...


Indeed. We're paying a "mortgage" that won't be satisfied for generations, just because we still have to burn things to live our lives. We should have weaned ourselves off oil 40 years ago.

Thanks to Mr. No-Fun-On-The-Highway-For-You for the link.

RIP Mercury

Another old car brand has bit the dust. Bustednuckles writes an epitaph at Fixer & Gordon.


Jackson Browne & David Lindley ~ Mercury Blues

Thanks to floflo34600, France.

Ain't it the truth? Sigh...


Thanks to YubaNet.