A Matter Of Chance

I can't let 7 December pass without a Pearl Harbor story. Neither can the LATimes.

They were barely men at the time, unaware of each other but baptized by the same fire.

Paul Perrault was 21, a naval officer aboard the light cruiser Phoenix, anchored in Pearl Harbor's East Loch. He had just risen from his bunk when cannon-like blasts tore through the morning calm. Scrambling to his post in the gunnery, he saw a sky speckled with Japanese planes.

Across the harbor on Ford Island was Seaman 2nd Class Anthony "George" Mark, 18, who narrowly escaped as a plane strafed his area and bombs plunged into nearby hangars.

Twenty years later, two fathers met on a Monrovia cul-de-sac. One lived in a tan-colored home with his wife and two children. The other was moving his family of five into the house next door. After a month of small talk, the men learned of their shared past.

Chance had saved their lives. Chance made them neighbors.

The two belong to a dwindling fraternity. An estimated 4,000 Pearl Harbor survivors are still alive.

"It was just luck — where you happened to be and how the Japanese planned to bomb," Perrault said. "People say, 'God was with you,' but I think, 'How about the 3,000 that died?' How come God wasn't with them?"

There is little to be proud of when it comes to surviving a war, Mark said. "We got out and we're out, period."

Good story. Please read the rest.

Why do I have little trouble believing this?

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) December 7, 2010 – In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim.

Differences over his religious orientation have been a sore point between the President and his Republican foes for the past two years, but in agreeing that he is a Muslim Mr. Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus.

"The American people do not want to see us fighting in Washington," Mr. Obama told reporters at the White House. "They want to see us working together to improve their lives, and Allah willing, we will."

But Mr. Obama's willing to back down on his claim of being a Christian does not seem to have satisfied his Republican opposition, as GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) today insisted that the President must also agree that he was born in Kenya.

While Mr. Obama did not immediately agree to Rep. Bohener's demand, he hinted that yet another compromise might be in the offing: "My place of birth has been, and will always be, negotiable."

Spokespersons of US Right 'In Most Cases Stunningly Ignorant'

Excerpt from an interview in Der Spiegel about the Wikileaks with Zbigniew Brzezinski who's not running for office, has his F.U. money stashed, and can say what he wants:

SPIEGEL: And the American decline. Are Americans aware of that trend or does the fate of Carter await President Barak Obama should he openly address the issue?

Brzezinski: I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.

SPIEGEL: Yet the American right is still convinced of American exceptionalism.

Brzezinski: That is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant.

Duh, but thanks for saying it out loud, Zbig.

Compromise After Compromise Is Just Defeat After Defeat

I think it's safe to say that Obama just got our ass kicked to little gain exzcept to the rich. I've been looking around for somebody who says what I feel because other people write better than I do. The Rude Pundit comes as close as anybody.

His first paragraph describes how he'd feel this morning if he was a Democratic congressman who partied with his supposed buddy Barry: a colossal hangover, his head in a bucket, a sore ass, weird stuff written on his forehead, and no memory of what happened. Then he gets to it:

There's writers on the left trying to spin President Obama's deal on extending the Bush tax cuts for two years. They talk about long-term strategy and the potential for 2012. Essentially, what that means is that the President'll re-argue one of the very things that inspired a large majority to vote for him in the first place. In other words, Obama's next campaign would have to say something along the lines of, "Hey, you know how I said I'd let those tax cuts on the wealthy expire last time? Boy, I really, really mean it now." Yeah, man, let's have that soul-searching discussion of American tax rates. Let's see how it goes.

We're talking about a public that was too stupid to realize that health care reform was not a government takeover of Grandma's feeding tube. We're talking about a public that didn't realize that Obama lowered taxes for 95% of the population, that were dead sure that an evil socialist Kenyan was taking money out of their pockets to pay ACORN to have Black Panthers stare blackly and pantherly at white voters in Crackerville, Pennsylvania. Thumbs up for thinking ahead. How'd that kicking it down the road work out before the midterms?

Yes, compromise supporters are correct that an extension of unemployment insurance for 13 months to those whose benefits are just running out (but not those whose ran out before now) is a good thing. And the only thing one can say to that is that the GOP sure fucking outgunned the Democrats without ever firing a shot. This is the end result of nearly two years of nonstop capitulation. Was there a single speech by the President where he said that Republicans were keeping food from the mouths of poor children in order for rich people to give their kids cars with sweeter rims? No, and that's because the poor are always the pawns, man, readily sacrificed until they're really needed. There were ways to have this fight. Get governors involved because a shift of 2 million people off unemployment would have meant a fuck of a lot of people needing public services mostly provided by overburdened, under-revenued states. Take the fight big and open instead of small and backroom.

Sorry, dear, sweet, strong Obama supporters. But congressional Democrats should rebel. They should tell Joe Biden today that it ain't gonna happen, that Mitch McConnell can shove it up his ass, that the minority leader needs to explain to America why it's more important to give the wealthy several hundred billion dollars in tax relief rather than extend unemployment, which would cost less then five months of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In fact, Nancy Pelosi should donate some of her spine to the President and tell him to join with them. How many more times does this happen? If Obama is willing to cave so quickly with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, what's he gonna do with a Republican House abetting a filibustering Senate minority?

To be sure, Republican bear almost the entire blame for this debacle. However, almost everyone on the left was telling the President that his approach to bipartisanship was going to bite him on the ass. Republicans acted like Republicans. Obama acted like his ass was made of titanium when it was just flesh after all.

We wanted this fight. Even though he had the edge and could've won, Obama didn't. If you don't fight a bully, you lose. End of story.

The guys who defended the Alamo didn't particularly want their fight, but they fought it. This came out about the same without all the bother.

Maybe Congress can save this, but I doubt it. On to our next ass-kicking.

P.S.: If someday Obama decides to fight, he's gonna say "Follow me!" and there'll be nobody behind him.

So ...

It's 2012, a Presidential election year, with the Republican/Conservative/Teabaggers in control of at least one house of Congress, and this "deal" Barry made with the Republicans is back up on the legislative calendar. What are the odds they'll repeal the tax cuts then?

...

The agreement would extend for two years the 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts at all income levels, continues federal unemployment benefits for 13 months at a cost of $56 billion, and calls for a 2-percentage-point cut in employees' Social Security payroll taxes that would add $120 billion to the deficit.

...

Yeah, thought so.

Quote of the Day

Rep. Anthony Wiener of New York:

...

"I think a lot of people are wondering why President Obama doesn't fight for what he believes in a lot more," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. "It seems like it goes from zero to fold in pretty fast time." [my em]

...

Listen to McCain (Mrs.)

MoDo's got a pretty good column on DADT.

As the troops waited for President Obama to come into the hangar at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, an Army band serenaded the crowd.

Not with Sousa or the theme from “Patton.” The band — drawn from the 101st Airborne Division and called Nuts after General McAuliffe’s rebuttal to a German surrender ultimatum — jammed to a more resonant tune.

The young female soldier who is the lead singer belted out “I Kissed A Girl” — Katy Perry’s ode to Sapphic smooching.

The lyrics about “the taste of her cherry Chapstick” and “just human nature” offered a cheeky counterpoint to the weighty debate going on half-a-world away as the Senate Armed Services Committee hashed over questions of human nature and sexual tension.

Heh. I gare-on-tee ya that some enlisted (wo)man came up with that addition to the play list! Officers ain't got the balls.

Even after a Pentagon report showing that most troops and their families think that allowing gays and lesbians to be themselves would not be a big deal, even after the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged the Senate to repeal the law that demands dishonesty, Democrats were still fending off a snarling John McCain and a few unreconstructed Southerners.

In yet another ludicrous bit of goal-post shifting, McCain said it wasn’t enough that the top two leaders of the military, and many of the troops, favored repeal. Now he wants to hold 13 hearings and solicit the views of senior enlisted personnel around the world, even though, as the Army chief, Gen. George Casey Jr., dryly informed the panel, the military is not a democracy. The five service chiefs agreed that, if asked, they could successfully carry out the changes.

It’s unclear why McCain is being so stubborn and stalling, particularly when those closest to him — his wife, his daughter and his cloakroom buddy Joe Lieberman — have all boldly spoken out on behalf of gays in the military.

It's clear as a bell to me - McCain is pandering to what he thinks is his 'base', the same throwback minority that couldn't elect him President, thank you Jesus. They resist change from the 'good old days' of happy straight white intolerance. If homos was bad then, they're still bad now because we're real Amurrikans and never wrong cuz blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus said it even if he didn't but would've if he'da thunk of the next election in which we gotta get everything back from The Others, like libruls and the darker-hued and reality. And the next one after that. And the next one after that.

Shit, even LIE-berman appears to have seen the handwriting on the wall on this one. The writing on the wall of the men's room is all McCain sees.

The problem is that each individual Senator has the power to gum up the works for the whole country with his own brand of cheap shit. This needs to change.

Quote of the Day dos

From a 'recommended read' on complicity in repression, "Happy As A Hangman" by Chris Hedges:

What is frightening in collapsing societies is not only the killers, sadists, murderers and psychopaths who rise up out of the moral swamp to take power, but the huge numbers of ordinary people who become complicit in state crimes.

Maybe Ugly Paranoia Doesn't Sell So Hot After All

Common Dreams

Hey, some vaguely, slightly, possibly good news! Latest cable ratings show Rachel Maddow's viewership up 20%, and Glenn Beck's - minus his 140 advertisers - down a whopping 36%. So the loonies get the press, but not the viewers? It's a start.

Operative words are "vaguely, slightly, possibly good news". Even down by 36% Miss Becky still gets several times Ms. Maddow's viewers. In other words, less crazies are still more crazies.

Quote of the Day

From "Teabuggering the Constitution" at Politics Plus:

Teabaggers have a rather selective understanding of what the Constitution guarantees, and seem quite ready to trash whatever portions thereof contradict their platform of guns, greed and hate.

Hear, hear.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Conservatives: Death Sentence For Those Who Leaked Classified Material
Except Scooter Libby.

Congressional Republicans Oppose Funds to Feed Hungry Children
Insist it takes away children's incentive to look for food themselves.

GOP Senators Pledge to Block All Democratic Bills
Result of election mandate to do nothing at all to help economy ever.

Russia, Qatar's Superior Bribes Earn Them 2018, 2022 World Cups
FIFA officials say they received substantially less from U.S., England.

At this point ...

We should just let all the tax cuts expire. If the growing national debt is supposedly the greatest danger to our economy, then we might as well all take the pain. Letting all the cuts expire will reduce the deficit by $3 trillion (as opposed to the relatively meager $700bln if only the top 2% get their taxes raised). Isn't that what we want?

Reporting from Washington — In a rare Saturday session, Senate Democrats and Republicans remained at loggerheads over whether to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts to all taxpayers, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to try to reach agreement before the tax cuts expire at the end of the year.

With Republicans unified in opposition, Democrats, as expected, fell short of the votes needed to overcome a filibuster and extend the tax cuts for all but the very wealthy.

...

If Barry had a ball or two, he'd veto any tax cut bill coming out of Congress but that won't happen. The White House has caved already, citing the need for 'compromise' and allowing extension of unemployment benefits to be linked to the cuts. Once again, those looking to 1600 for leadership are sorely disappointed.

Playing in the snow

I finally got to take my machine out on a sunny day! This is my longest time on it yet and I still have no idea how to ride it. The dogs had fun too.

At one point, the first time I ever nailed the throttle, you will hear me invoke Fixer and his 'famous last words' but nothing bad happened. This time. Heh.

1st sunny day after two weeks of storms and gray skies.

I got this Yamaha for FREE from a realtor who wanted it out of the front yard of the house two doors down that was in foreclosure.

It may be an old crapcan but it runs and the price was right. Also, it's probably slower than molasses in January, but I have very little experience with these things and it's scary fast to me!

'Don't ask, don't tell' on the way out

Debra J. Saunders is the conservative columnist at the EssEffChron. 'Conservative' does not have quite the same connotation in Frisco as it does in, say, Bachmann's district.

One gay service member noted that a repeal would "take a knife out of my back." Amen to that. They have our back; we should remove the knife pointing at theirs.

Besides, I have to agree with the gay service member who predicted, "If it is repealed, everyone will look around their spaces to see if anyone speaks up. They'll hear crickets for a while. A few flamboyant guys and tough girls will join to rock the boat and make a scene. Their actions and bad choices probably will get them kicked out. After a little time has gone by, then a few of us will speak up. And instead of a deluge of panic and violence ... there'll be a ripple on the water's surface that dissipates quicker than you can watch."

That doesn't mean that there won't be problems. As Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., noted during Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, the review also found that 58 percent of Marines in combat units and 48 percent of Army combat troops feared that repealing "don't ask, don't tell" would have a negative or a very negative impact on the ability of their units to work together. America is at war and Washington has to address the concerns of combat troops.

Besides the fact that the 'concerns of combat troops' are mainly leadership, intel, a good plan, ammo, comm, supporting arms on call, and a little food and water, that one's almost easy to understand: combat troops are generally cockstrong macho young guys, very fit, trained up to the nines, and with a sense of comradeship and invulnerability in their mission, as in "Yea though I walk through the Valley Of Death, I 'm the meanest motherfucker in the valley". Operative word is 'young' which presupposes the modifier 'dumb' - 'gay' does not fit well in their idea of the macho world they inhabit.

That said, the trigger-pullers are remarkably well disciplined and will do what they are told. No one took a poll before Iwo Jima or Normandy. They'll get over it about the time a gay corpsman patches one of 'em up under fire. Or when they are told to. Besides, Marines never leave their buddies' behind anyway. Heh.

What the troops 'think', heh, has never been much of a concern. Still not a problem.

Everyone knows that "don't ask, don't tell" eventually will be repealed. It's only a matter of time. So the question is: Will it be repealed by people who care about the military and the rights of dissenters, or will it be repealed by an arrogant judge with a political agenda? That is the choice before the Senate.

There's the rub. "Activist judges" seem to be OK when they decide that a corporation is a citizen with all the 'free speech' (actually many thousands of times the money 'free speech') of an individual, but not OK when they go against something the right wing wants its Senate lapdogs to be in charge of not doing.

One way or another, DADT is over but for the shouting. Or in McCain's case, the drooling.

Sunday Crazy Redneck 4-Wheel-Drive Music Blogging

C.W. McCall ~ Black Bear Road

Thanks to bucketogrits.

Obama as Patty Hearst

Daddy Frank

THOSE desperate to decipher the baffling Obama presidency could do worse than consult an article titled “Understanding Stockholm Syndrome” in the online archive of The F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin. It explains that hostage takers are most successful at winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.”

The captors will win this battle, if they haven’t already by the time you read this, because Obama has seemingly surrendered his once-considerable abilities to act, decide or think. [...]

Ooh! Cold shot, Pops!

How To Identify A Meth Lab

I got this by email from my pal Bev. Swallow your drink and make sure it's all the way down...

What I learned today...

Don't type in 'bottleneck guitar' unless ya got plenty of time! Ya go from this:

Thanks to BluesJammer, Russia.

Ta this:

Thanks to StevenBothwell, UK.

And everything in between!

And it's all good.

Saturday Anarchist Music Blogging

I'm probably way behind on this - "I must hurry and catch up with the others for I am their leader!" - but I never heard of David Rovics (Wiki, YouTube channel) until yesterday when me 'n Mrs. G caught him on KVMR while we were out looking for free toilets. We didn't find any because the town keeps sneakin' new streets in on us but now I know where to go. But I digress...

Anyway, Mr. Rovics sings songs that would get him locked up in a lot of places. Not here. Not yet. Here's a couple:

Thanks to hannicullen.

Thanks to trinity43875.

Many more at YouTube search, including a lefty's wet dream "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre".

Is there any way ...

To get rid of a senator for senility?

At the end of the today's hearings on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced that he will still block the National Defense Authorization Act if it includes a repeal of the policy.

"I will not agree to have this bill go forward," he said. "Because our economy is in the tank." [my em]

...

Nobody in their right mind, even one staunchly against the bill, could pull that out of their ass and say it with a straight face. Wonder what he's gonna be like when he gets into Strom Thurmond territory?

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou and Kimmie on a song they co-wrote and featured on the soundtrack of the film Happy, Texas.

Emmylou Harris & Kimmie Rhodes ~ Ordinary Heart

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Friday Monster Blogging ...

Chooch: "Guess what I'm gonna do with that camera, dad."

Ziva: "Who? What?"

Ya think ...

I know I have my curmudgeon on today, but you'd think, after 9 years of war, the President wouldn't have to sneak in like a thief in the night:

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Speaking to nearly 4,000 U.S. troops here after a secret overnight flight from Washington, President Barack Obama on Friday said they were making "important progress" against militants in Afghanistan.

"Today we can be proud that there are fewer areas under Taliban control," he said.

...

The world's most technically advanced, best trained, and most professional army and we can't beat a bunch of 12th Century goat humpers into submission? So what's winning gonna look like? Guess I shouldn't hold my breath for "MacArthur on the Missouri", eh?

New Lifeform discovered in California

Thanks to YubaNet.

When I heard about this discovery at Mono Lake, I just nodded my head. Mono Lake is the weirdest lake in California, if not the whole world. If something like that is gonna be found anywhere, it's there.

First of all, you would think that 'Mono' has something to do with 'one' or 'singularity' or something like that. It doesn't. It means "eaters of fly larvae" referring to its early inhabitants.

Mono Lake figures prominently in California's forever-and-forever-amen water wars. When I was a kid, the lake came right up to US 395. Not anymore. It's stopped shrinking and is growing in area again, but it took a decades-long lawsuit.

There's just too much info about this place to put it here. Suffice it to say it's an interesting place in an interesting area in my favorite part of my state.

My favorite Mono Lake story is about the bird island. Birds come from everywhere to breed there. As the water level dropped, a land bridge appeared and coyotes could walk to the island for lunch. The birds stopped coming. In their wisdom, the officials built a fence to keep the coyotes from the bird areas, but the birds didn't come back. Somebody finally figured out that the birds couldn't see the fence from the air and figured they were still on the menu and kept on going. Heh.

Quote of the Day

Pravda on Sarah Palin, via Crooks and Liars:

If anything is a threat to the national security of the United States of America, it is this screaming, unrefined oaf with as much class as a searing release of flatulence followed by hysterical giggling at a state banquet.

Much more at both links.

EV News

If you're interested in the future of electric cars, go see this interview on Charlie Rose.

Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place discusses his plans for an electric car infrastructure

It's well past the planning stage. Interesting stuff.

Busy ...

Trying to get my painting finished but just a thought.

Charlie Rangel said he did what he did not for personal gain but out of ignorance. Tell ya what. Go to any street corner in NYC and wait for a 5 year old kid to come by (30 seconds, minute tops). Stop him and ask him to tell you what the rules for owning a rent controlled apartment are. Betcha dollars to donuts he can recite 'em to you; it's in the DNA at this point.

Yes, Charlie, you are a crook.

Miss TSA 2010 Calendar

Mediaite via email from my truly sick pup of a schoolmate Paul in Hawai'i. Transparently NSFW!

WikiLoudmouths

Go read Glenn Greenwald on the WikiLeaks flusterpluck. All the usual suspects figure in. Links aplenty.

[...] ... as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon.

First we have the group demanding that Julian Assange be murdered without any charges, trial or due process. [...]

The "usual suspects".

The way in which so many political commentators so routinely and casually call for the eradication of human beings without a shred of due process is nothing short of demented. Recall Palin/McCain adviser Michael Goldfarb's recent complaint that the CIA failed to kill Ahmed Ghailani when he was in custody, or Glenn Reynolds' morning demand -- in between sips of coffee -- that North Korea be destroyed with nuclear weapons ("I say nuke ‘em. And not with just a few bombs"). Without exception, all of these people cheered on the attack on Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 innocent human beings, yet their thirst for slaughter is literally insatiable. After a decade's worth of American invasions, bombings, occupations, checkpoint shootings, drone attacks, assassinations and civilian slaughter, the notion that the U.S. Government can and should murder whomever it wants is more frequent and unrestrained than ever.

Hand these clowns Assange and a Ka-Bar and tell 'em to have at it. I think we will find that they have no stomach for killing and want someone else to do it, like the anti-choice gasbags. A gutless peanut gallery. So what else is new?

Excellent post by Greenwald. Go.

Happy Chanu Hanuk Khanoo fuck it Festival Of Lights

Thanks to TheJennwag.

Bizarro World Headline of the Day

Christian Minister: Muslim Congressman's Support Of 'Homosexuals' Is Part Of Sharia Plot

The stoopid, it burns...

Fixer's Next Cruise?

KY Gov. Beshear Unveils Plans For Creationist Theme Park Complete With Full-Sized Ark

"We will be offering a historical tour of back before Jesus buried the dinosaurs" said Captain F. Flintstone.

I mighta made some of that up.

"TPM Photo Illustration"

Since the "creation" meme is an Old Testament deal, I think every Jew on the planet should show up on opening day. Heh.

Headline of the Day

Nigeria to charge Dick Cheney in $180 million bribery case, issue Interpol arrest warrant

Nice to see, but he'll be dead soon anyway. Unicorn blood is getting scarce..

My fellow Americans ...

This is what happens when nobody wants to pay taxes:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker began firing 15 percent of his police department today, illustrating the actions that cities in the second-wealthiest U.S. state are being forced to take to confront lower aid and tax revenue.

...

You want cops to protect your home, firefighters to put it out if it catches fire, and FEMA to rebuild it if it floods, right? Who the fuck do you think is gonna pay for it?

Heh ... that idiot Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels took to Newark streets 2 nights ago to supposedly help protect the neighborhoods thanks to the police layoffs and one of them got mugged. Might wanna raise taxes and rehire those cops before the rest of your tax base moves out to safer climes.

I was wondering ...

What it would take to make the Catholic League's resident blowhard Bill Donohue crawl back out from under a rock just before Christmas. It is Jihad, I tell you.

In a holiday season driven by Black Friday deals, ostentatious house lighting and stories about jolly men with tiny helpers and flying reindeer, it's sometimes easy to forget that Christmas actually has something to do with Jesus. But a well-placed billboard from American Atheists is arguing that the story of Jesus's birth is just as fantastical as a story of a fat man in a red suit shimmying down a chimney. The billboard at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey reads, "You KNOW it's a Myth / This Season, Celebrate REASON!" And wouldn't you know it, it's making some people pretty angry.

...

Of course, Donohue has nothing bad to say about Athiests, as long as they just keep their mouths shut.

...

American Atheists president David Silverman found the irony in the Catholic League's new billboard. He told NorthJersey.com, “They stole our scene and copied what we’re doing, and that’s fine. Once again, the Catholic Church is co-opting something that isn’t theirs, just like they did to Christmas. It’s a great analogy, and I love it.” Catholic League president Bill Donohue insists he has nothing against atheists, but "I have something against militant, in-your-face atheists that use our season to make their statements." Unlike equally in-your-face Catholics that claim the season is theirs and theirs alone. And considering we've actually seen this billboard in New Jersey, perhaps it's time to give the atheists a fair shot at ad space. [my em]

...

Was a time, the Catholics sent troops to kill anybody, or make life really miserable for those, who spoke against the Church. I guess they're mellowing. Seems like every 3 months though, ol' Donohue needs something to justify his existence. The gift that keeps on giving. 'Tis the season!

Happy Holidays!

A good Hanukkah to all our Jewish friends.

Reich

Robert Reich has so much good shit on his blog that I can't begin to pick just one thing to post. Bookmark him and visit often.

Rusty Trombone

El Rude-o explains a few things I think I was better off being ignorant of. And then...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Have Any Excuses Anymore

Of course, Republicans in the Senate are going to block any repeal of DADT. Their putrid lie that they were just waiting for the Pentagon report won't make a goddamn bit of difference. We can demonstrate hypocrisy after hypocrisy, and it won't change a thing. Here's Alabama's Jeff Sessions in September on filibustering a DADT repeal: "The Senate’s consideration of a repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law is premature because it preempts the findings of our commanders on an important military policy...Repealing the policy now, before the Pentagon's study is complete, sends the message that election-year politics are more important than military readiness." Let's all hold our breath to see if Sessions says that he'll vote to allow debate now. They're already saying that the report didn't report on the right issues. They're saying that the bigots in the military might leave. They're saying anything they can to avoid pissing off the yahoos.

Because the truth of the matter is what conservatives fear more than anything is that society stops giving a fuck about denying gays and lesbians equality. Because if a good chunk of that 25-30% suddenly realizes that queers are people, too, and are worthy of living lives without getting beaten and mocked, then that might cause them to question other things that they've been force-fed their whole lives, like religion and Limbaugh. Or, at the very least, one of the right's fundraising and vote-getting foundations will be swept away.

And, despite how the Pentagon report tries to minimize it, President Harry Truman did issue an executive order in 1948 that integrated the military. What he also did was order a committee to be established to make it happen, not to study the effects of what if maybe perhaps please some nice Senators would allow it if we all beg and plead and offer to blow them on demand. Again, this was when over 60% of whites in the military opposed integration. In other words, he said, in essence, "If you can't stand the heat, go fuck yourself." Alas, such leadership does not exist in this cowardly age.

Sad but true.

It's now or never

TPMDC

Republicans Threaten To Block All Dem Initiatives

Goddammit Obama, the handwriting on the wall is plain as day, the size of a fuckin' billboard, and not exactly in code.

"Bipartisanship" is a myth and "reaching out" to the Repugs means doing stuff their way. Get tough with these bastards quick or you're through. Period.

Update:

Kos

GOP continues to make fool out of Obama

I can see the Obama braintrust deliberating right now -- if only they unilaterally capitulate on five, maybe six other GOP agenda items, maybe then Republicans might be nice enough to negotiate in good faith!

I mean, nothing projects strength and resolve more than conceding the game before the teams have even taken the field. Nobody could've predicted that Republicans would respond this way.

Nobody. Only everybody.

Obama, it's over. We know you tried but it didn't - and won't - work. Punch that fuckin' bully in the nose now, or at least hit him in the back of the head with a 2x4 or you're a pussy and deserve whatever you get. You're supposed to be frontin' us and we don't deserve it but we'll get it too, damn you.

Headline of the Day

C-Span mic catches US Senator’s candor: The Senate ‘is all rigged’

Duh. He's a FNG. He's catchin' on.

Five Questions the Mainstream Media Won't Ask About the Wikileaks Release

Michael Moore

2. Do the King of Saudi Arabia and Glenn Beck share a speechwriter with Saddam Hussein?

According to the cables, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the world's 5th worst dictator, has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran in order "to cut off the head of the snake." Saddam Hussein used to refer to the Iranian government as "Khomeyniite snakes." And Glenn Beck has said we need to "pop the head of the snake in Iran."

Is this snake fixation a strange coincidence? Or have Abdullah and Glenn Beck hired the same guy who used to write Saddam's stuff? If so, this person needs to stop recycling their material and come up with something fresher.

4. Are Iranians a completely different species from Americans?

A cable from 1979 makes a good case that Iranians are so different from us here in the U.S. of A. that they maybe shouldn't even be classified as people. For instance:

"...the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism...The practical effect of it is an almost total Persian preoccupation with self and leaves little room for understanding points of view other than one's own."

You see? As humble Americans, who spend every second of every day trying our best to look at things from other people's points of view, we're so completely different we'll probably never be able to comprehend the Persian Mind.

Heh. More like the Iranians have their heads up their asses just like us.

5. When did the U.S. government decide to buy keyboards that WEREN'T ALL UPPER CASE?
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IN THE MEANTIME, I ADVISE ALL MY FELLOW AMERICANS TO HIT THE CAPS LOCK, ESPECIALLY WHEN TALKING TO FOREIGNERS. THEY WILL RESPECT THIS AS A SHOW OF STRENGTH.

THAT IS ALL. (Oh, and can we just bomb Iran and get it over with? I'm tired of the tease! We've already crapped up Iraq and Afghanistan -- what about the country located between them? They need a good ol' American... shellacking.)

Shellack's too messy and takes too long to dry. I suggest a coupla coats o' good ol' marine spar varnish...

How to talk trash with Almighty God

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford.

What are you gonna do, cause a famine? Melt the ice caps? Induce global pandemics, war and rape and disease, sadness and poverty and earthquakes? What you got, oak blight? Bedbugs? Jersey Shore?

Truth is, billions of flawed bipeds have been languishing under a million-year worry that if we jump out of line, blaspheme to your holy face or even draw a cute n' bearded cartoon of one version of you that you'll ... well, who the hell knows what? Flood the oceans with blood? Snap Italy like a twig? Make all women wear giant potato sacks and never have sex? Explain what "brimstone" is? As if.

Let's just say it outright: Big deal. Enough of you. Enough of this. Something's gotta give, you know? It's high time we as a generally rashy, hugely confused but still relatively high-functioning mammal spoke some hard truth to divine Christian/Muslim/Jewish power. Because the fact is, you ain't all that. Not anymore, anyway. What, you got some lightning for me right now? Locusts? Sure you do.

I had a friend in the Marine Corps who would go outside in thunderstorms in North Carolina and holler heavenwards in a loud voice whilst making an 'X' on his chest with his finger, "Hey God, you ain't got the balls to get me!". Once right after he did that lightning struck about fifty feet away. He just smiled and looked up, "And ya couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle either!". Heh.

Oh, I know the risks of speaking up. They say you are not to be mocked. They say the sinners and the blasphemers, the perverts and the kinkmonkeys will get theirs in the end, a big day of atonement in the sky full of hacksaws, screaming and the new KeSha CD piped in like the devil's Muzak.

Of course, those who believe in that also believe in pregnant virgins, crimson demons and fat babies with wings. These lost souls tend to take it all embarrassingly literally, like a five-year-old hearing Peter Pan for the first time. Hey, mythology is fun, right up until it's dangerous and bloody and rapes your livestock during the Crusades.

It's the people who believe that shit that make it dangerous to read the riot act to the nonexistent product of fear and ignorance and superstition. Or the casual observer who thinks he's talking to himself and gets him committed.

Unless ... wait, unless we've been going about this God thing all wrong? Unless you're actually not some sort of scowling robe-clad deity hanging out right there in the end zone, the political rally, the mosque or temple or shrine, but are rather this sort of indefinable hum and thrust and pulse, constant and forever, emanating from and penetrating into everything at all times everywhere? Because that would be weird.

Just as weird as the God shit. A lot less harmful though.

I've had it ...

With this guy. I realize Obama ain't a flaming Lib. I realize that his definition of a "progressive agenda" is far different than mine. But Jesus H. Christ, after 2 years of having Republicans piss on him and tell him it's raining, you'd think he'd have enough of their bullshit, especially since he, over the next 2 years, will probably face impeachment at their hands.

A political summit between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders Tuesday yielded further talks on how to extend Bush-era tax breaks scheduled to expire at the end of the year, as well as an acknowledgement from Obama that he needs to reach out more to Republicans. [my em]

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I'm sorry, I want a President who stands up for himself, his administration, and those of us who voted for him. I don't need one who bargains away most of his position before he even begins negotiations, or one who gets abused for 2 years and then comes out and says he hasn't been attentive enough to Republican needs.

Fuck him.

Can we put Howard Dean up against him in a primary in '12? I want somebody with a set of balls and principle, not a meek, spineless asshole who thinks capitulation to bullies is the way to win.

No wonder ...

The dogs were nuts yesterday morning:

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The earthquake was off the Long Island coast but its tremors were felt in western Nassau County and in the East End.

The epicenter was 79 miles south-southeast of Southampton at a depth of more than 4 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and registered 3.9 on the Richter Scale at 10:45 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

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I didn't feel a thing but, after having dogs for 40 years, I know they have some sort of intuition about these things.