See yas...

It's not raining or snowing today for the first time in about a week so I'm gonna get outside and do stuff. I'll leave ya wit a coupla 'toons to amuse ya. Hopefully we'll hear the last of this tripe pretty soon. At least until the next kerfluffle comes along to titillate the talking heads and clog up the news cycle. Sigh.

Thanks to YubaNet.

Run on this x 435, ya rat bastids

This is my congressional district. It's huge in area but probably has about the same number of people in it as the rest of them, 639,000 at the latest count.

Report: Impacts of Republican Medicaid Cuts in California's 4th Congressional District

This analysis provides information on the impact of the Republican Medicaid proposals in the 4th Congressional District of California, which is represented by Rep. Tom McClintock. Currently, 88,000 individuals in the district receive health care coverage under Medicaid.

That's about 1 in 7-8.

In the 4th congressional district in California, which Rep. Tom McClintock represents, these provisions could:

- Reduce coverage for 16,400 dual eligible seniors and individuals with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to supplement their Medicare coverage or pay their Medicare cost sharing.

- Jeopardize nursing home care for 1,400 whose expenses are paid by Medicaid.

- Impair the health care of 47,000 children, including 1,800 newborns each year, who receive coverage under Medicaid.

- Cut payments to hospitals for 14,000 emergency room visits paid for by Medicaid each year.

- Cut payments to hospitals for 4,800 inpatient visits paid for by Medicaid each year.

- Reduce jobs and hurt economic growth by eliminating $1.2 billion in Medicaid spending.

Yeah, Repugs. Run on "poor and old people can go fuck themselves". I want you to.

Should You Be A Patriot?

TPJ Magazine

Patriot is a word much abused in today's America. The simplest definition of patriot is one who vigorously supports his country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. Yet, many who wave the flag, associate the nation with a superstition (one nation, under God), support every war, approve laws dubious at best if not unconstitutional (e.g., The Patriot Act) render patriotism unattractive. Today, many would say, If that's patriotism, count me out.

There are some things about this country that many of today's flag-waving, USA USA, We're # 1 patriots don't want to learn, think about or acknowledge. Many Americans, perhaps a majority, know little about some extraordinary realities of the nation's history. I'll give you one example. The example I have in mind reflects a fact about one entire section of the country, the Southern states. I believe the situation, what it reflects and how it is viewed today shows that there is profound ignorance about the evil nature of a good proportion of the American people who lived at that time.

Today, patriots in the south honor those who fought for slavery. There are parades in their honor. Statues line a main avenue in Richmond. Robert E. Lee, who turned against his country to lead a rebellion, is judged a hero by most people throughout the present souther states. It's mind-boggling and infamous.

Who better to put the nature of the southern (white) people then and their apologists today in perspective than Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), who fought valiantly as a Colonel in the Army of the Republic. In his Decoration Day Oration in 1882, he said:

... in the South, the negro toiled unpaid, and mothers wept while babes were sold, and at the auction-block husbands and wives speechlessly looked the last good-bye. Fugitives, lighted by the Northern Star, sought liberty on English soil, and were, by Northern men, thrust back to whip and chain. The great statesmen, the successful politicians, announced that law had compromised with crime, that justice had been bribed, and that time had barred appeal. A race was left without a right, without a hope. The future had no dawn, no star -- nothing but ignorance and fear, nothing but work and want. This was the conclusion of the statesmen, the philosophy of the politicians -- of constitutional expounders: -- this was decided by courts and ratified by the Nation...Ours appeared to be the most prosperous of Nations. But it was only appearance. The statesmen and the politicians were deceived. Real victories can be won only for the Right; The triumph of justice is the only Peace. Such is the nature of things. He who enslaves another cannot be free. He who attacks the right, assaults himself. The mistake our fathers made had not been corrected. The foundations of the Republic were insecure. The great dome of the temple was clad in the light of prosperity, but the corner-stones were crumbling. Four millions of human beings were enslaved. Party cries had been mistaken for principles -- partisanship for patriotism -- success for justice.

But Pity pointed to the scarred and bleeding backs of slaves; Mercy heard the sobs of mothers raft of babes, and justice held aloft the scales, in which one drop of blood shed by a master's lash, outweighed a Nation's gold. There were a few men, a few women, who had the courage to attack this monstrous crime. They found it entrenched in constitutions, statutes, and decisions -- barricaded and bastioned by every department and by every party. Politicians were its servants, statesmen its attorneys, judges its menials, presidents its puppets, and upon its cruel altar had been sacrificed our country's honor. It was the crime of the Nation -- of the whole country -- North and South responsible alike.

So what's new? Go read the rest.

The Tea-Party Utopia

In toto from Crooks and Liars. Links at site and you should go see the photo.

Nicholas Kristof had quite an interesting rumination imagining just what the ideal American society should look like according to the values of ultra-patriotic Tea-Partiers. Our country should have the lowest tax burdens of any major country: fewer than two percent of the people would ever pay any taxes. Government would be so limited that burdensome regulations could never kill jobs. Our American rightwing Eden would embrace traditional religious values and a conservative sensibility, where school prayer is mandatory, same-sex marriage is unthinkable, and criminals are never coddled.

Our economy policies would make a strong military, the nation’s most respected institution, the number-one budget priority, and politicians would defer to the advice of military generals. Citizens would be deeply patriotic, and nobody would ever burn the flag. Sounds like the perfect society according to the opinions of Tea Party Republicans and their champions, Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, etc. Right?

The problem is, this Republican Utopia already exists.

It’s Pakistan.

Cold shot! Right on the money too.

We can only hope the 'baggers will see this and move there where they will get the rudest and most deserved awakening of their lives.

Rude Headline of the Day

Stupid Fucking Sarah Palin Quotes You Didn't Hear About

Just...go.

Related:

Tony Peyser

Sarah should be feeling more than

Just a little bit skittish

Because he was warning Americans

Not (as she claims) the British.


Whenever there's an easy answer that

She manages to botch, a

Quick defensive move is defensively

Whining it was a "gotcha."

Squeeze in, fellas ...

We gotta get another one into the 2012 Republican Clown Car:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum formally launched his campaign for president Monday, offering himself as a tested leader with the "courage to fight for freedom . . . to fight for America" against the power of an expanding social-welfare state.

...

I wonder who gets to sit next to "The Frothy Mixture"?

A dick is a dick ...

And if you can't keep it in your pants, you're a dick. I'm very disappointed in Anthony Weiner. I thought he was different but he's just like the rest of them. Whether it has to do with money, power, or both, I don't know, but I'll never get it. If want to play around with other women (or anybody else), don't get married. Promiscuity doesn't bother me. The fact that people look to fool around after they made a promise to be faithful to their spouse does.

I'm one who has very low expectations of my fellow man. I don't expect anyone else to share my work ethic, my values, or my sense of duty. It's not prejudicial, I just prefer to hold myself to a high standard*.

I expected better from this man.

*I don't always live up to my self-imposed standards, but I try hard to.

Don't fence me in ...

I was gonna put up pics last night but I had a lotta shit to do (the Mrs. is away on business). The dog kennel is finished and the Dingo Sisters are happy (they just got another 800 square feet).

Troubador Of Troubled Times

Good article about Dave Alvin (his site) in the LATimes.

Over the course of roughly three decades, Alvin has compiled one of the great, if underappreciated, California songbooks, cataloging the people and places most overlook or choose to ignore.

His is not the confectionary California of endless summers and Hollywood glitter or the kooky capital of New Age seekers and sunbaked hedonists. Alvin sings of life on the margins and between the cracks, of farm workers and illegal immigrants, of meth heads and lost souls and places like Bellflower, Fontana, the High Sierra and the 605 Freeway.

He sings in a throaty rumble of love and loss and ghosts of things past. California natives, Alvin believes, suffer an odd kind of nostalgia that comes when talk of old times refers not to generations ago but a period only a few years back. “By the time you’re 20, you’re 40 in the sense of waking up in the morning and thinking, Let’s go see the orange groves. But they’re not there anymore,” he says. “They’re just gone.”

Alvin, 55, has never been an overtly political singer, in the sense of writing protest songs or lending his name to a cause. But he is an acute observer of politics—especially California politics—and with the Golden State in seemingly perpetual crisis, with high unemployment, meat-cleaver budget cuts and a government paralyzed by partisanship, he suggests the state, as we know it, may be headed the way of those orange groves. Listen closely, and you might hear it in a song.

Red flames are growing
At the top of the hill
If the fire don’t get ya
Well, you know the
mudslide will

For all the darkness, that resilience shows through in Alvin’s music. In “Dry River,” the ode to a trench, he sings hopefully of the water returning and the blossoms blooming. It’s the kind of defiant optimism that marks a true Californian—and the stuff that keeps dreams from dying.

California’s burning
No one knows when this will end
Well, what that fire burns down, boys,
We’ll just build it back again

The great Dave Alvin with Cindy Cashdollar and Christy McWilson at Eddie's Attic. Feb 25, 2010

Thanks to stynger.

Dave is singing about "someday it's gonna rain" and "it won't be dry any more". Be careful what you wish for. "California Dreaming" right now is hoping the rain and snow will stop.

I coulda told 'em that...

Eating dirt can be good for the belly, researchers find

It's true. In thousands of miles of desert motorcycle riding over many years I've eaten tons of the stuff, and my belly is magnificent!

Now if they could just do something do ease the, er, passage of cactus thorns and puckerbush stickers...

The Daily Show ratings soar, Fox News slumps

Raw Story

The new Nielsen numbers show that "The Daily Show" averaged 2.3 million viewers, beating every program on Fox except Bill O'Reilly's average of 2.8 million. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" beat all other cable and broadcast programming in a number of categories, including having the most affluent viewers and the most active web-sties.

Makes perfect sense. Stewart's a helluva lot better at fake news than the real fake news network.

And we like to consider ourselves an active web-stie. Heh.

Sarah Palin Radically Revises Her Revisionist History on Paul Revere

SPR

“HE WAS RIDING TO WARN SAMUEL ADAMS THAT THE BRITISH WERE COMING TO CONFISCATE REAL AMERICAN BEER, AND REPLACE IT WITH CASES OF WARM NEWCASTLE BROWN ALE.”

Rise, Americans! And defend your right to drink goat piss!


Update because it's not worth a whole new post:

Fox News uses Tina Fey photo for Sarah Palin report

My God! F** can't even tell their real fake political shills from the fake fake ones!

My sides, they hurt...

This just in:

Palin fans attempt to rewrite Paul Revere’s Wikipedia page

Un-fucking-believable. Belay that, all too fucking believable.

The Rise of the Second-String Psychopaths

Last coupla ¶: of a post by David Schwartz:

The US has been endowed with abundant resources, and there have always been a more than sufficient supply of psychopaths of the first intellectual grade to supply corporate suites and their subsidiary, the Congress. Why is there now a downgrade to the dumb ones, like the lowering of standards for military recruits to deal with a shortage of cannon fodder?

It is no secret that the Koch brothers and others of the super-rich seem to have undertaken a final push to consolidate control through the conversion of a marginally democratic to an essentially fascist state; extreme right-wing, authoritarian, and demagogic. This kind of government is ideal for control of a populace by the moneyed elite. To carry this out requires the employment of many ‘kept’ politicians to excite and misdirect scared and angry – and ignorant – voters. Lest the citizenry realize who stole their money and storm their castles with torches, the rapacious elite need politicians who will carry out the work of re-directing anger at teachers, or labor unions, or the poor. I can only conclude that the people who now own the country couldn’t find any first-rate psychopaths to carry out their work. Or maybe the smart ones were all occupied. So they had to go to second-stringers, people who could actually believe what they were told to say.

We are a country who has become second-best, even in the quality of our psychopaths.

Word.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

French Riot Police Up in Arms Over Ban on Drinking on the Job
Say cracking heads no fun while sober.

U.S. Surpasses France for First Time in Wine Consumption
Still trails in soft cheese, frogs, snails.

I'd drink on the job too if that's what's for lunch...

Study: New Pill Could Erase Painful Memories
Unfortunately, your spouse will remind you.

Obama, Boehner Will Play Golf Together June 18
After cage fight falls through.

Drat! I had ten bucks on the skinny brotha from Chi-town.

Just a reminder ...

These guys (and gals) "fought for our freedoms"*. Remember them well.

*As opposed to being used as cannon fodder in wars that only benefit the corporatist state, dressed up in "fighting for our freedom" to make it easier for the masses to swallow.

Waiting ...

The fence guys are supposed to be here shortly (between 8 and 10 am) to expand the girls' kennel. The little varmints are pissed because they're usually outside by now. Back later ...

Update:

I almost feel bad. The guys are working using manual post hole diggers (I figured they'd have a gas one with a big ass augur bit in it). I almost want to grab mine out of the garage and help them ... almost.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went out and asked the guy why he didn't use an augur. He said he had one and it got caught on a rock and broke his arm so he sold it. Works for me.

Due nude ad Auschwitz

This video got me ta thinkin' on more levels than I can shake a stick at.

Alfredo Speranzoni and Massimo Plati. Trip to Auschwitz by bike, Kawasaki ZRX 1200 R and Honda CB 1300 F, january 27 2010 day of memory. With electrically heated clothing by Klan srl.

I'm sure the clothing kept them warm and the grim irony of the 'Klan' brand name on their way to Auschwitz went right over their heads for sure.

Tomorrow is 6 June, the 67th anniversary of D-Day, which in the final analysis of WWII was all about ridding the world of the mentality that spawned places like Auschwitz. It didn't, but it got rid of that bunch.

'Nude' and 'naked' refer to motorcycles without fairings. Woulda been a really fun video otherwise! Nobody's that crazy!

I'm sittin' here watchin' these dumbass Guidos do this crazy ride and I got ta thinkin' what a pussy I've turned into by waiting for sunny warm days to ride my bike. Then it slowly dawned on me - I've grown maybe a little sane! Perhaps wisdom comes with age after all...

Then again, perhaps a coupla hundred miles of cold and wet and misery and falling off and pain puts you in the right frame of mind to visit a place like Auschwitz.

The song is "Bring It On Home". Appropriate. We need to constantly bring it on home the lesson of places like this. Never forget, never again.

A 'day of memory' for sure.

Thanks to alfredosperanzoni, * Italy.

*Gives his age as 56. Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway. There's hope for me yet! Heh.

Sunday Afternoon Waiting For Spring Music Blogging

This is a pretty song, one of me'n Mrs. G's favorites, and we've worn out two vinyl copies of the album of the same name. These gents do a nice job of of it, but my point is more about the setting, that here's a buncha Krauts havin' a good time on a sunny spring afternoon at a birthday party. Around here, we're still hoping spring will come. I've got things to do, but if I go outside to do them I'll just make it rain some more. Sigh.

Thanks to OldtownIrishFolk, Germany.

"Moider Da Bum" Takes On New Meaning...

Kissinger mulling over FIFA offer

In related news, Ratko Mladic is rumored* to be pondering an offer to become Commissioner of Baseball...

*I started it.

I'm-Not-Making-This-Up Headline of the Day

Boehner Won't Bite On Weiner

Walk Like Past An Egyptian*

*Egyptian Theatre, that is, with apologies to The Bangles.

Bored outta yer skull? Dreary weather, like here? Put on yer best trannyhookerwear so you'll blend in and

Take a virtual tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Times’ virtual tour puts readers on the streets of Hollywood to visit the nearly 2,400 stars on the Walk of Fame.

Select a category to learn more about the bombshells, cowboys, crooners and other entertainers who are honored on the walk. An interactive map then takes readers to the exact location of each star along the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

My favorite category is Cowboys.

My best memory of the Walk of Fame is my friend Maylee, a professional dancer, doing a number on Reagan's star (while he was the Governor) that drew applause!

"American voters have the attention span of high-speed lint"

Will Durst on the Repugs' "Kill Medicare" program.

Specifically, their plan to reform Medicare, which some folks say is akin to a tornado's plan to reform trailer courts.

The scheme involves replacing blanket care for elders with fixed-value vouchers. You know, like coupons. That's right; he's going to hand out health care coupons. Why? Because it would save lots of money, which could then be given to wealthy people through increased tax cuts and besides, everybody knows old people love coupons.

Yes, we do.

Cognizant of seniors' tendency to mislay important objects, Ryan thoughtfully unburdens them with having to handle the grubby little coupons physically; those will be given directly to the insurance providers for safekeeping. And when people run out of coupon value, banks could be enlisted to suck out account funds for a nominal transaction fee. You know, for our convenience.

I think 'automatic withdrawal' is a big part of the Repug agenda. Why filter it through fraudulent mortgages or the government as bailouts? More efficient and less paperwork to just let them take it directly from the folks who earned it. It's the American way! American bankers, that is.

Obviously the American voters have the attention span of high-speed lint and it's a long way to the 2012 elections. But you might want to install a protective filter on your TV for the impending tsunami of ads featuring parades of elders being attacked by Paul Ryan's Tax-Cut Zombies from the Planet NO!

Much more.

Headline of the Day

School yearbook lists Bush, Cheney among the worst people ever

They placed fourth and fifth, respectively, right after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, terrorist figurehead Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson.

Heh. That truth-tellin' commie school will be a vacant lot before the next term starts.

‘Anybody could be president in this dumb f*cking country’

Expanding on Fixer's post just below. Watch Ms. Harris-Perry crack up!

From Raw Replay:

The Americans are coming!!!!

Oh ... wait ...

Just about any student of American history knows about Revere's midnight ride to warn about the impending British attack. Not Sarah Palin. Apparently, she was absent that day. The GOP presidential contender (or not) thought Revere was warning the British about something:

...

Only in America.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou at The Royal Festival Hall London 1 June 2011

Emmylou Harris ~ Beneath Still Waters

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Please forgive me

I don't think I'm going to be able to order a hot dog with a straight face ever again...



By the way, this 'toon is quite timely.

Shorter Obama to Cantor: Cry me a river*

*From MinistryOfTruth at Kos

John Amato at Crooks and Liars, with video:

I read Jake Tapper's article on the meeting between the President and the House Republicans with bated breath. Republicans described the meeting as being "frosty, good group therapy, nice conversation, frank and productive and even non-confrontational." Wow, who could have guessed that?

This is my favorite part, and it features Eric "The Tornado" Cantor:

Cantor also criticized Democrats’ “Medi-scare” attacks, saying that the charges that the GOP is taking medicine from grandma to pad the pockets of the rich isn’t helpful.

Oh, but they are doing exactly that, but that's beside the point. The President replied:

The president added that he is all for a reduction of demagoguery, an issue he understands since he is the ‘job killing, death panel, probably-wasn't-born-here president.’

The Prez zinged him good but I betcha it went right over Cantor's head.

Eric Cantor, who heartlessly has been refusing to help the tornado victims in Joplin, MO, unless they are first paid for with politically-motivated spending cuts, is openly complaining to the president about how mean they've been treated.

Never fear, The Onion is in no danger. Unintentional irony and self-satire from people who don't get the joke isn't funny, just pathetic.

From the MOT link:

Republicans are wusses. When it comes to beating up on people who are defenseless, people like tornado victims, women, teachers, people who are dependent on MediCare, or anyone who can not afford to make Big donations to the GOP for that matter, Republicans are big badass bullies, but these same tough guys cry their eyes out at how mean that tyrant Obama is when he tells the American public the truth about the GOP's plan take "medicine from grandma to pad the pockets of the rich. " as Eric Cantor so aptly put it.

The Truth has a well-known Liberal bias. To the never-right wing, that's Communism and must be avoided at all cost.

Run, Rick, Run

Another possible entrant into the Repug Presidential Special Olympics For The Terminally Backward. Bob Moser at The Texas Observer, which we remember as Molly Ivins' paper.

It was the strangest thing. Mortifying but illuminating. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, or Donald Trump suddenly realizing he’d been out-Americaned by Barack Obama. The truth struck me like lightning during the turbulent middle week of May. The week that was supposed to end in the Rapture. The week when Texas legislators decided, once and for all, that they were going to gut public schools, dismantle social services and damn the consequences. The week when Rush Limbaugh & Co. restarted the Perry for President bandwagon with a desperate vengeance.

My revelation? I want Rick Perry to run for president. Texas needs Rick Perry to run for president. It could be the only hope, I suddenly saw, for reclaiming this state from the plutocracy whose interests Perry has served with Machiavellian cunning. The only way that this shriveled husk of a human being would ever be put in his rightful place—the only way he’d be unmasked, once and for all, as a pernicious, corrupt and morally bankrupt politician.

And now imagine the questions from the panel of reporters. George Will, George Stephanopolous, Anderson Cooper, Lady Gaga — doesn’t matter. It goes something like this:
...

“Governor Perry, you have hinged your campaign on your success in bringing jobs to the State of Texas. But during the period you boast about, your state added more minimum-wage jobs than the 49 other states combined. Texas now has more citizens living in poverty, more uninsured children and adults than any other state. Is that your vision for America?”

Mote.

Mr. Moser, I understand you're trying to do your best for Texas by getting Goodhair out of the Governor's office and for good reason, but the rest of us are perfectly happy and content to keep your crazy and deluded and corrupt pols inside the asylum/zoo so we can watch from afar.

Quote of the Day

Jurassicpork:

If any more Republicans join the 2012 presidential race in this upcoming political Special Olympics, they may just put the Onion out of business ...

Heh ...

So when ...

Does this stupid shit qualify as terrorism?

A 'sovereign citizen' in Pensacola, Florida allegedly opened fire at a seafood market after learning that they had run out of crawfish.

42 year-old Larry Wayne Kelly allegedly fired upon the L&T Seafood Market with an AK-47 from the window of his pickup truck, after he was told they had sold out of crawfish on Sunday.

...

Another 'isolated incident' I presume? Just because the perpetrators are a rich combination of drunk and stupid doesn't make it less of a crime. To Gitmo with him!

Taxes ...

Are for the little people:

Yesterday, I wrote about how the GOP is falsely pushing the argument that America’s corporations are overtaxed. I included some great data courtesy of conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett whose New York Times piece did an extraordinary job of putting the lie to the Republican assertions.

Today, and not a moment too soon, the non-profit Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) has put out their findings revealing that twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%*.

...

*In other words, they got a refund.

Hopefully, according to Robert Reich in Gord's post below, people are starting to wake up but there are still far too many who buy the corporate line. If the rich and corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes, it's all on us. If we can't afford it anymore, the nation begins to crumble. It won't be long before you're afraid to go over a bridge or through a tunnel for fear of it falling apart and killing you in the process. Ask the people in Minnesota how that goes.

Great thanks to Chris for the link.

A Corporate 2x4 Upside The Head?

Robert Reich

How to Get Washington's Attention

We're coming full circle: The stock market is dropping because corporate earnings are slowing. Corporate earnings are slowing because consumers are pulling back. Consumers are pulling back because they don't have enough jobs or adequate wages.

The leaders of the Street and big business may now have to wake up to a reality they've tried to avoid — that the central economic problem of our time isn't the long-term budget deficit but the immediate deficit in aggregate demand.

They may not yet see the necessity of a renewed social contract linking pay to per capita productivity, but they will understand something must be done to fuel jobs and wages.

Never underestimate the power of Wall Street and big business to set the terms of the economic debate in our nation's capital. After all, Wall Street and big business pay the tab of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Even if the middle class can't get the attention our representatives in Washington, those who fund their campaigns can.

The question is - will they? They've stolen damn near all the money already. What more do they need?

Scammin' Farm

Union Leader

Romney, who fell short in a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, made the announcement before a crowd estimated by the campaign at about 1,000 supporters amid the rolling hills of former New Hampshire House Speaker Douglas Scamman's farm (my em), which has been the scene of a host of political events over the years.

Well, now we know where they get Repug pols from. They grow them. Must use lotsa manure and toxic chemicals.

The article apparently misspelled "Scammin'" in the name of the farm.

One-Stop Shopping

Raw Story

Medical marijuana superstore opens in Arizona

WHERE?!!! Irony, it appears, is still kickin'.

The 21,000-square-foot store offers some 2,000 products, including soil, grow lights and irrigation trays, specially designed for effective marijuana growing, Mann told Reuters.

A doctor also is on site to furnish eligible patients the initial medical approval needed to apply to the state health department for cards authorizing them to legally grow and use marijuana as treatment for a variety of qualifying ailments.

Alluding to some of America's leading big-box chains, the company's own press materials describe the weGrow franchise as the "Wal-Mart of Weed," while various media reports have referred to it as "Home DePot."

Park once, getcher scrip and growing supplies. Can a bakery and food court be far behind?

Major panel: Drug war failed; legalize marijuana

EssEffChron

A high-level international panel slammed the war on drugs as a failure Thursday and called on governments to undertake experiments to decriminalize the use of drugs, especially marijuana, to undermine the power of organized crime.

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," the report said.

The 19-member commission includes former presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, Greece's prime minister, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. officials George P. Schultz and Paul Volcker, the writers Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa, and British billionaire Richard Branson.

I'm not sure about the rest of 'em, but I'm pretty sure Branson knows whereof he speaks when it comes to weed. Heh.

The office of White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said the report was misguided.

Of course he did. All these distinguished and erudite panel members, however practical and correct their findings, missed the point entirely:

Enforcement of marijuana laws is too good a method of oppression of The Other* and there's way too much money in the Prison Industrial Complex to liberalize the laws.

*In this case, minorities and anybody else the power structure and the anti-fun people suspect may be having a good time smoking a plant that didn't come from Big Corpora.

Me Lover's Pizza With Crazy Broad

In case you missed it. Noo Yawkahs are serious about their pizza protocol!

The Daily Show - Me Lover's Pizza With Crazy Broad
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I love pizza, but I must confess my dirty little secret - I, too, eat pizza with a fork. I will try to mitigate this horrid revelation - first, I have no teeth, so biting a chunk off the pointy droopy end of the slice is outta the question. It gets messy. Second, I like a thicker crust and my pizza loaded. Folding the slice makes the topping separate so I eat my slice flat. Actually, I use a hybrid method. After the first coupla forksful, the slice is wider and I can gum chunks off it so I pick up the slice and eat it slightly bent.

In my own defense, I would never do this - Trump explains in the 'moment of Zen' that he eats The Holy Pie with a fork so he can get just the topping because he doesn't like the crust. That's just plain un-American! Why doesn't he just order melted cheese with stuff in it? Put it in a bowl and use a spoon.

Ya think this'd fly? "Yo, Tony, gimme a large pie! Hold the crust..."

Weinergate

You simply must go read El Rude-o on Weiner's alleged 'junk shot'!

C'mon, Andrew Breitbart. Where's James O'Keefe's rape boat now? Why not send out that supple little bitch out all cross-dressed to flirt with Weiner and try to get him all erect and bothered and then video that shit and then edit it so that it looks like Weiner gets a hard-on when he sees a tranny?

If I was Rep. Weiner, I think I'da said something like "I don't own any skivvies like that, but it sure looks like someone photoshopped my magnificent crank into 'em!"

I understand ...

About pilots needing to get in their qualification time and that they have to fly regularly, not just on actual operations, to keep up. But, to fly in to your son's baseball game, and then have a limo drag your big ol' ass a hundred yards to the grandstand is just so wrong on so many levels.

... All governors will abuse their state police aircraft, it goes with the turf. But most of them can walk a 100 yards ...

Firstly, it feeds the stereotype that all overweight people are lazy.

Secondly, it's unseemly when you're complaining that your state is broke, and its cities are cutting their police forces in half, and then using an able-bodied NJ State Police aviation team and chopper for personal shit (and the limo to drag him and Mrs. Fats 200 yards, to and fro from said aircraft). Let's remember, he flew off in the 5th inning to meet with "big Republican donors" from Iowa about running for the presidency so none of this could be classified as "state business".

Thirdly, it's a giving a big middle finger to the people who voted for you thinking you were a "fiscal conservative".

Somehow, I think Secaucus Fats' chances of becoming president are getting ... slimmer. Heh ...

I love the wide eyes, the long fall, the puff of dust...

Thanks to YubaNet.

Coyote

The Coyote mythos is one of the most popular among Native American cultures. Coyote is a ubiquitous being and can be categorized in many types. In creation myths, Coyote appears as the Creator himself; but he may at the same time be the messenger, the culture hero, the trickster, the fool, the clown. [...]

See also Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman:

But the hungry and mythical trickster Coyote is waiting, as always, in the shadows to add a strange and deadly new twist.

Myth, trickster, fool, clown. The blanketasses described the Repugs perfectly centuries ago. Musta been the peyote...

No wonder there's a war on drugs.

Related:

Donald Trump: Ryan’s Plan Is A ‘Death Wish’ For GOP

I hope Trump's right for once even if it screws up his batting average. Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.

People with a 'death wish' usually connect if they're serious about it. I wish the GOP much success.

Also Related:

Paul Krugman:

Mr. Ryan may claim — and he may even believe — that he’s facing a backlash because his opponents are lying about his proposals. But the reality is that the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan’s critics are lying about it, but because they’re describing it accurately.

"Twisting his words by repeating them verbatim". Thank you, Tina Fey!

What the Ryan plan is, instead, is an attempt to snooker Americans into accepting a standard right-wing wish list under the guise of deficit reduction. And Americans, it seems, have seen through the deception.
...

What of Mr. Ryan’s hope that voters will realize that they’ve been lied to? Well, as I see it, that’s already happening. And it’s bad news for the G.O.P.

Good news for us.

Living in sin is now the norm

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford.

Here now, a hot factoid of curious news that will stupefy your parents and confound any extant grandparents and make many fundamentalists and most Mormons clutch their dogmas to their quivering breasts in mild but surefire panic.

The item goes like this: For the first time in US history, married couples are no longer the majority of domestic couplehoods in the United States, and have instead been replaced/outnumbered by... what shall we call them? The unsure? The pleasantly stoned? Freedom fighters? Those Who Still Have Somewhat Hot and Mostly Regular Sex?

For the rest of us, it's easy to get snagged on one of the polarizing views. On one hand is the typical conservative recoil, claiming the very cornerstones of what once made this country great -- early marriage, traditional family structure, factory jobs, free guns at church, xenophobia, mommy's vodka and daddy's stash of gay porn -- are crumbling to dust, America is in a liberal-induced deathspin and the "Greatest Generation" now only refers to higher Medicare payments and sepia-toned WWII Spielberg movies on HBO.

Be married. Or don't. Wait longer. Or don't. Have beautiful children, buy a home, get a certain kind of job, settle down, follow some sort of path you think you're supposed to follow. Or don't. There are alternatives, variations on a theme, inversions and permutations and reinventions on a dime, and this is generally a very good thing indeed.

To think it's supposed to be some other way? To keep believing that if everyone would just follow a similar and harshly regulated path to the same narrowcast ideas of love and marriage, that we'd somehow have peace in our time and Jesus would finally return carrying a million pink roses and a billion $99 heart pendants from Zales? That we think we have the slightest clue how it's all supposed to unfold? This is, by a huge margin, the most dangerous idea of all.

Me'n Mrs. G have been married for 38 years. Like the fellow who jumped off the 30th floor said as he went by the 15th, "So far, so good..."

What the fuck do we know about "how it's supposed to be"? Works for us. We like pushrod engines and revolvers too. Throwbacks 'R Us.

By the way, our pal Bustednuckles, "Ornery Bastard", is engaged to Nasty Girl. Besides wanting to see that in the Wedding Announcement section of the paper, congrats and welcome to Officially Behind The Times. Heh.

There's no sin in a loving relationship. There may be in living a lie and being miserable. Hey, whatever blows yer skirt up.

No surprise ...

But it's nice to see it quantified:

...

The result of this concerted campaign of disinformation is a viewership that knows almost nothing about what’s going on in the world. According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers. They are 12 percentage points more likely to believe the stimulus package caused job losses, 17 points more likely to believe Muslims want to establish Shariah law in America, 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming, and 31 points more likely to doubt President Obama’s citizenship. In fact, a study by the University of Maryland reveals, ignorance of Fox viewers actually increases the longer they watch the network. That’s because Ailes isn’t interested in providing people with information, or even a balanced range of perspectives. Like his political mentor, Richard Nixon, Ailes traffics in the emotions of victimization. [my ems]

...

The Dead End Quarter.

A small part of a Rolling Stone article on Roger Ailes and Fox 'News'.

Thanks to karoli for the link.

But will we learn?

The International Atomic Energy Agency has released its report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Whether the sea wall protecting the plant was swamped because "no one could have known" or because of allegiance to the bottom line by Tokyo Power and Electric (I'm going with the latter), the protection was sorely inadequate ... obviously.

...

The inspectors pointed out a key failure, already admitted by Japan, to plan for the risk of waves crashing over the sea wall and knocking out the plant's back-up generators.

Even though a major faultline lies just offshore, the sea wall at Fukushima was less than 6m (20ft) high. The height of the tsunami wave was about 14m.

"The tsunami hazard for several sites was underestimated," the UN team's three-page preliminary report said.

...

The thing that cracked me up was this quote:

...

The report also emphasised the importance of independent regulators in the nuclear industry.

...

Yeah, ain't happening in America, that's for sure.