"Occupy Wheelie the Big Apple!"

Here's a coupla different styles of "Occupy New York City" that I'm totally down wid! I even kinda like the music.

Ride hard, young gentlemen. You may not get to ride too long for one reason or another. Handcuffs or headstones. Heh.

That said, it does my heart good to see that motorcyclists have evolved since I was a young man. These guys are ten times as crazy as we were.

Thanks to SLDNX.

That one was to ease ya inta this next sorta semi-pre-post-apocalyptic version.

Thanks to Ozzy75x666.

Update:

Old school "extreme" stunts. The Indian Army, who ride my brand. From HuffPo. Slide show also, most of which could be titled, "Gee, Sarge, when we gonna get a truck?"

Limbaugh freaks as Romney lays claim to Obama's bailout

LATimes

Rush Limbaugh is freaked out by Mitt Romney giving backhanded praise to President Obama for saving the American auto industry.
...

Limbaugh has gotten his voluminous knickers in a twist because Romney is essentially acknowledging that what Obama did was a good thing. Limbaugh and his legion of cranky followers believe Obama’s action was a frightening display of big government socialism aimed at preserving union pensions and union jobs. To them, Romney’s words are capitulation, if not treason.

In fact, the Republican front-runner’s comments amount to something else: another huge flip-flop. In a New York Times op-ed piece in 2008, Romney wrote, “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."
...

Limbaugh huffs and puffs and fumes because Obama’s approach put workers ahead of bondholders. Romney’s original plan would have been much more to Limbaugh’s liking in that regard. Now, it’s not exactly obvious where Romney, the son of a former auto executive, stands on this issue.

Does Romney favor government intervention to save American industries? If so, he’s anathema to Limbaugh’s "dittoheads" and most of the tea party. If not, how can he claim any share of credit for one of Obama’s biggest bragging points?

Basically, Willard's a lyin' sacka shit is how.

More butter on the popcorn this time, please. This is more fun than the time Uncle Clem went to shit and the hogs ate him!

New Word

LATimes

Santorumonious -- maintaining an extreme and unreasonable belief in the piety or righteousness of one's own actions or opinions, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

--HiVeloCT

Well done, Speedy!

Heh ...

Stolen from Americans Against the Tea Party's Facebook page.

Seriously ungood ...

How in Hell does this happen in this day and age?

Three people have died and at least 50 more are missing after a cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers, including 24 British holidaymakers, ran aground off Italy's coast.

One of the victims was a man aged in his 70s who reportedly died of a heart attack caused by the shock of the icy water when he dove in during the chaos.

A major rescue operation was launched last night after the Costa Concordia began sinking near the island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast.

Five helicopters plucked people to safety after they became trapped on the ship when it listed so badly they could not launch lifeboats.

...

Cross-posted at Worlds.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Thanks to mondoBLIND.

Happy Blame Someone Else Day

Happy "Blame Someone Else Day," celebrated on the 1st Friday the 13th day of the year:

Happy Blame Someone Else Day (Tanka*)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Blame Someone Else Day:
Annual celebration,
with one exception —
the Republican Party
commemorates it daily.

*tanka (a haiku plus two more seven-syllable lines).

Note to Mad: Your rhododendra need watering, my dear. The vegetation is getting a little sparse out here and not providing very good cover. :-)

Beyoncé’s bootylicious fly

You ain't gonna believe this!

Religious Right Leaders Meet in Texas to Unite

Talk To Action. A serious article but fuckin' hilarious nonetheless.

Can right-wing evangelical leaders unite in a last-ditch effort to nominate anybody but Romney? Which candidate would it be?
...

The problem is agreeing on a candidate. Richard Land, headlined in the TIME article, is strongly opposed to Gingrich because he has too much baggage, or "too much freight," as Land stated. Wildmon has endorsed Gingrich. Gary Bauer has endorsed Santorum. This is just an example of the fracturing that has taken place since Perry's catastrophic failure on the national stage.

I hope they prayer-whip each other to death.

I'm guessing Mormons aren't invited, but I think they oughta let some Catholics in there. There's plenty of wingnut mackerel snappers, like Opus Dei or Bill "Please tell the truth about my Mother the Church so I can go on TV and tell you how anti-Catholic you are and make some money" Donohue. Shit, these guys think the Pope's a commie. They'd fit right in, and the rattlin' o' the beads would be awesome musical accompaniment to the speaking in tongues and throwin' rattlesnakes around and all-around good-time holy rollin'.

Regardless, the inability of the right wing of the GOP to coalesce behind an alternate to Romney is the challenge. If they could unite, they might change the course of the GOP primaries. But, as one mainstream press outlet stated, it would take an "act of God."

Heh. Ain't gonna happen. God's layin' chilly because these assholes embarrass even Him and besides, He's been overruled by Wall St. on the choice of nominee.

So go have a swell time, christowhackos. Get some pizza and hookers (any kind) like you do anytime the ol' lady ain't around. Make up any shit you want about what God's telling you like you always do. It won't make any difference except maybe in the collection plate, but that's what it's all about anyway, right? The tiny-brained'll fuckin' love it and you can say you tried to stop Willard.

"And the faithful shall defecate in terror..." - Gordon 1:13

Yes, the Masters Of The Universe really can do whatever they want

Millionaire CEO breaks waiter's finger for "bad service"

They don't try that on their mechanics. Not twice, anyway.

Now I know ...

What it is about Romney that puckers my sphincter so badly. Perfesser Krugman hit's it:

...

The point isn’t necessarily that Romney has lived in privilege all his life; so did FDR. It’s his apparent inability or unwillingness to imagine what it’s like for those less privileged, his complete failure to try, even in his imagination, walking in someone else’s shoes that stands out.

Exactly.

Shhhhhh!

Charles P. Pierce

And, suddenly, the dogwhistles have turned into air-raid sirens.

I think, maybe, it's time for the nation to rise up and point out to the Republican party that, root and branch, it is a racist embarrassment to democracy and a blight on this nation that all the world can see. [...]

Note to Charlie: Look, you know it, I know it, we all know it, the whole world knows they're a buncha fuckin' racists. Let's not let the Repugs in on it 'til after Obama gets his second term, not that it would make any difference.

Quote of the Day

Tengrain:

As I keep saying, “once you go blah, you’ll never go bah.”

Headline of the Day

Bain Capital Owns Clear Channel (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Etc.)

Yes Willard, you still suck.

A tip o' the Brain to The Christian Left.

These are the people ...

Who are supposed to know what's going on. In fact, they're less qualified to run the economy than I am. Set the Wayback Machine to 2006, when the bottom was about to fall out of the housing market. We look in on the Fed meeting of that time:

...

But the officials, meeting every six weeks to discuss the health of the nation’s economy, gave little credence to the possibility that the faltering housing market would weigh on the broader economy, according to transcripts that the Fed released Thursday. Instead they continued to tell one another throughout 2006 that the greatest danger was inflation — the possibility that the economy would grow too fast.

“We think the fundamentals of the expansion going forward still look good,” Timothy F. Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told his colleagues when they gathered in Washington in December 2006.

...

You know Geithner, the President's economic 'wizard'.

...

The transcripts of the 2006 meetings, released after a standard five-year delay, clearly show some of the nation’s pre-eminent economic minds did not fully understand the basic mechanics of the economy that they were charged with shepherding. The problem was not a lack of information; it was a lack of comprehension, born in part of their deep confidence in economic forecasting models that turned out to be broken.

...

Of course, when you realize these are all Wall St. alumni, the incompetence makes perfect sense. Many of us were running around with their hair on fire, knowing that housing prices couldn't be sustained at those levels and the people who were buying those houses couldn't afford them. It always amazed the shit out of me that a family of four with an annual income of $45K could be put in a house and given a mortgage that I, who made considerably more at the time, wouldn't have touched with a 10 foot pole. It was a recipe for disaster that many saw coming. Unfortunately, not the folks who were in a position to stop it.

Thanks to Mr. Philadelphia for the link.

Ho Hum...

It's kind of a slow day. The hills are alive mostly with the sounds of the intra-Repug steel cage match and my biggest problem is wondering if there's enough bleach to get rid of the visual of Neutie in a Speedo...

When your enemies are killing each other, eat popcorn and enjoy.

And clean your rifle. Buff the lands and grooves to a high polish, put fresh Lubriplate on the bolt, practice your sight alignment and trigger squeeze. One of them will be left standing and by way of thanks for him doing your work for you, you owe him a nice clean bullet delivered in a professional manner.

Before ...

You get your panties in a bunch about all the money we borrow from China, give a look over this graph showing who owns our debt and how much, and how deeply each of the last few presidents got us into it.

Graph thanks to MoveOn.org

Where the money comes from ...

Digby has some good graphs about where the money for the SuperPACs comes from.

Wah, wah, wah ...

I wonder what they'd say if union folks sued when companies demanded they cut their compensation for the good of the firm?

According to the WSJ, Wall Street's end-of-year bonuses will shrink drastically thanks to dismal fourth-quarter figures. Around 400 partners at Goldman Sachs will see their net pay cut in half, while Morgan Stanley's bonuses may dip from 40% to 30%. Some socialist bankers (they exist) might suggest that a falling tide sinks all boats, but those idiots clearly haven't stepped aboard the Serene. Never ones to take fairness lying down, a group of executives at the brokerage firm Jefferies Group are threatening to sue or quit or both if their pay isn't up to par.

...

Whiners ...

Great thanks to our pal Comrade Misfit for the link.

Same old song and dance ...

Winning hearts and minds ...

Not*:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a video that appears to show US Marines urinating on the bloodied corpses of several Taliban fighters.

...

The footage shows four men in military fatigues appearing to urinate on three apparently lifeless men. They have brown skin, bare feet and are dressed in loose-fitting outfits. One appears to be covered in blood.

...

Now, I really don't give much of a shit for violent right-wing theocrats but if we're there for the reasons we say we are (making Afghanistan into something more than a lawless patch of the 12th Century), this ain't gonna get it done. Idiots.

*Video at link.

Quote of the Day

Jill:

...

From 1989-1993 we had a president who made clear that he regarded the world as a fiefdom for his family and friends to plunder as they saw fit. From 2001-January 2009 we had another one. Why on earth would we give the keys to yet another soulless bastard for whom no amount of money can fill the black hole in his soul?

...

New definitions ...

Lke "Santorum", we now have a definition for "Romney":

romney
(rom-ney) v.
1. To defecate in terror.

Teacher: "F-man, use the word "Romney" in a sentence."

Me: "I was camping in the woods when I came upon a grizzly bear and romneyed myself."

Heh ...

Thanks Montag!

Welcome to New York ...

Getting less fun by the minute:

If Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his way, getting a drink in New York City is going to get a little bit harder.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that the city Health Department wants to cut the number of establishments that sell alcohol as a part of their Partnership for a Healthier New York City initiative.

...

God, I hate this little bastid.

CSI: Liberty Island

Thanks to Slate

.

Headline of the Day

10th Circuit Court Of Appeals Declares Oklahoma’s Sharia Ban Unconstitutional

Thus tacitly approving the constitutionality of the imposition of American Sharia if the fundies get their way.

Where's Chicken Little* when we need him?

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford gone all stream-of-inner-consciousness about the front-loaded year we're in.

It goes by many names. The Apocalypse. The Rapture. The Second Coming. The Quickening, the Singularity, the Great Shift. Armageddon, Doomsday, The Grand Awakening, The Endtimes, Judgment Day and also, for some reason, Elmer Lovebutton Puddingtop III (don't ask).

No matter what you call it, many believe it's coming in 2012. The transformation, that is. Something Big. Something extraordinary, something beyond what's ever come before in any other year or epoch ever, because that's just the way we like it.

The beautiful part is that there's fuck-all we can do about it. Heh. Enjoy.

*Reference is to a famous barnyard prophet who's been as accurate as any other, but a failure nonetheless because he didn't get his own religion.

If you don't think ...

We and/or Israel are behind these targeted assassinations, you've got your head in the sand:

A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran, reports say.

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and another unidentified person were killed in the attack.

...

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US.

...

Personally, I don't give a shit about ops like this. It's the way shit's been done for a long time. The Republicans see the way to achieve ends internationally is to go to war. Iran's nuclear ambitions are seriously diminished thanks to these operations and no American boots hit the ground. I'm not a fan of assassinating people we don't agree with, but I'll take it over sending the Marines in to accomplish the same task.

The moral of the story is ...

Don't think with your dick. Heh ...

One of the leading white supremacists in the nation wants his followers to be wary of the women in their lives after an attractive female informant infiltrated the ranks of his associates.

“I always warn these guys, watch out for these women, man,” longtime racist organizer Tom Metzger told TPM last week. “They’ll get it out of a man before a man could get it out of a man.”

The caution comes after federal investigators used the informant to get two of Metzger’s longtime friends, a pair of white supremacist bombing suspects in Arizona, to brag about serial bombings and shootings supposedly dating back to the early 1980s.

...

Congratulations, you idiots are going to jail for the rest of your natural lives. I wonder if we'll send these terrorists to Gitmo? Oh, that's right, they're white so they're "patriots".

Quote of the Day

Charlie Pierce:

...

There is no fringe or mainstream in the Republican party any more. There's only the crackpots who get votes and the crackpots who don't.

...

Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Problem

One more reason Israel is going down the shitter - right-wing throwbacks. Sound familiar?

Dan Ephron

Israel’s Haredi communities are booming. Why that Spells trouble For the country’s future.

The impact will reach well beyond the neighborhood quarrels over segregated buses or modest attire—another Haredi preoccupation that has stirred tensions across Israel. Most ultra-Orthodox Jews lack the skills to work in a modern economy, having studied little or no math and science beyond primary school (their curriculum focuses almost entirely on religious texts such as the Torah and Talmud). As a result, more than 60 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 12 percent among non-Haredi Jews. Most also opt out of military service, which is compulsory for other Israelis. The net effect: as the Haredi community expands, the burden of both taxation and conscription falls on fewer and fewer Israelis. (Secular Israelis joke bitterly that one third of the country serves in the military, one third participates in the workforce, and one third pays taxes—but that it’s all the same third) (my em).

As is often the case in closed societies, the extremists tend to set the tone.

This is a microcosm of right-wing religious philosophy here, played out on a much smaller playing field. Difference is Canada and Mexico aren't looking for a chance to destroy us.

All the Arab nations have to do to destroy Israel is wait for bumpkins like the Haredi to do it from within.

What's in a name?

LATimes

A Wisconsin man was expected to be charged today with possessing a small amount of marijuana and a knife.

Why in the world is this news, you rightfully ask?

Because the suspect's name is Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-bop-bop.
...

Here's hoping that there's a video camera in the courtroom when the judge tries to keep a straight face while calling out the suspect's name.

And how would you like to go through life answering to "Doo-Doo"? Heh.

Results are in!

HuffPo

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman each won 2 votes of the 9 cast in the contest. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) each received 1 vote. Three Democratic ballots were cast for President Barack Obama.

Cool! Obama got re-elected! Can we go back to sleep now?

Heh ...

He feels your pain ...

Not*:

At a town hall in Bedford,New Hampshire on Monday, Mitt Romney encountered an uninsured voter who pressed him on his opposition to universal healthcare.

...

"When you signed into law Romneycare, I was excited," the woman said. "You seemed proud to do that. And then when the country copied you, it just seemed like there was hope for people like me."

"How have you done since then?" Romney asked flippantly, talking over her.

"I don't have health care, sir, and I'm scared," she said.

“That tells you something doesn’t it?” Romney said. “Tells you something.”

Scumbag.

*Video at link.

What?

The nerve of the Obamas wanting to live like white folks. Rush the Shitbag knows that only white people work for what they've got:

...

“I believe that whatever drives Obama and his party is the pursuit of money without having to work for it… If you look at the way the Obamas live, with Michelle and her separate vacations and not being concerned about how much it costs to take separate airplanes – an opportunity to live high on the hog without having it cost them a dime. They justify it by saying well we deserve this, we’re owed this because of whatever happened to our ancestors.”

...

You know, if you're black and well-to-do, somebody must have given it to you, probably taking it from a well-deserving white billionaire's kid.

Romney's like the kid ...

Who acted like a jerk, knew he acted like a jerk, knew everybody thought he was a jerk, and still insisted on coming around and acting like a jerk even though he knew nobody wanted him around acting like a jerk:

...

You’d expect to see the opposite at this point, as GOP voters get a better look at their presidential field. But as it turns out, the more Republicans learn about their choices, the more they’d like to support someone else.

And that’s just the rank and file. Among the prominent party voices, Ross Douthat called this “the weakest presidential field of any major party in a generation”; Bill Kristol has invested quite a bit of time urging late-entrants to get into the race; and Fred Barnes put it this way last week: “Would Romney be odds-on to win the nomination if Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie or Paul Ryan or Jeb Bush were in the race? Not likely.”

...

And this from all the other jerks who are his friends.

So ...

Neut's on our side now?

...

The theme here is that Newt Gingrich has decided to hit his opponents where it hurts, even if with the same attacks liberals would make. Giveaways like the Pittsburgh stadiums are not exactly a liberal policy. In fact, the business the stadiums generate (or that their owners say they do) is an excuse team owners use to get taxpayers to pay the bill in the same way that corporations get better treatment from Republicans when they ask for lower tax rates in order to create a business-friendly environment. Similarly, the attacks on Romney’s record in private equity is identical to the liberal attack on what conservatives often see as a sacrosanct industry.

But Newt is not the candidate he was this fall. Now he says he would vote for Obama over Ron Paul, and is helping Democrats by lobbing liberal critiques at both Romney and Santorum.

Heh ... More popcorn. Neut's going full-metal jihadist.

Titanic show in NY

Of interest to cruisers. Article and photo gallery.

"Pardon me, sir. Could you make it your last cup? Sinking, you know."

Headline of the Day

Other Republicans Agree Not to Tell Rick Perry Where Next Debate Is

‘Only Humane Thing,’ Candidates Say

Heh.

Quote of the Day

The Rude Pundit and I continue to see eye to eye in a larger post you should read.

[...] Whether it's campaign contributions or PACs, this nomination process was over before it began because the very, very rich Romney is Wall Street's pick. [...]

All this primary nonsense is entertaining to be sure but the outcome was decided long ago.

Bonus quote:

...the real story of this primary process, the first presidential election since Citizens United, has been consciously ignored when, indeed, it is more significant than who Republicans pick to lose to President Obama.

The Repugs are gearing up for '16. Willard is their sacrificial goat because it wouldn't look good if they sat this one out. Their first job is to quiet the Tea Party Backfire down. The tail was not supposed to wag the dog.

Ironically, we owe Obama's second term to the teabaggers.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Ohio Earthquakes Linked to Fracking
Company responsible says ground shook because of too many regulations.

Pat Robertson: God Told Me Who the Next President Will Be
And asked me to please, please, please not tell anyone.

Because it's going to be Obama and the donations might stop if he said God told him that?

You know ...

I wouldn't vote for Mitt for the sole reason that he took Secacus Fats on the road with him. That means I have to see Christie's mug on my TV more than normal (which is often enough being Jersey's next door).

At a rally for GOP hopeful Mitt Romney Sunday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) called an Occupy Wall Street protester “sweetheart” and told her she was going to “go down.”

...

The Mittster's record ...

Of job creation through the eyes of Perfesser Krugman. The key paragraph is this:

...

But his claims about the Obama record border on dishonesty, and his claims about his own record are well across that border.

...

Translation: The Mittster is a lying sack of shit.

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Heh ...

Reminds me of my dogs when I get the vacuum cleaner out:

Ya just never know...

This is from my Facebook page, lucky you!

I just have to share this. Diane and I were out on a normal shopping expedition yesterday. It didn't stay normal for very long.

We were leaving Mountain Hardware and as we got to our truck, three folks approached us, two men and a woman. Young, clean cut folks. The gal told me that they were on a scavenger hunt as part of a friend's 30th birthday party and one of the things on their list was to get a photo of one of their number kissing a dog and could they kiss one of our dogs? Fine with me and all I could think of was "Do ya wanta kiss the one that eats poop or the other one?". They just shrugged, like mox nix, the photo's the thing.

Two of them selected the third as a volunteer. In the space between two diagonally parked cars, the doors came open, the gent squeezed in, Tami was first on scene, and "smooch the pooch" was done, photo was taken, and they were on their way.

Safeway was the next stop. As we were about to cross the traffic lane to go into the store, four women passed me with sheets of paper in their hands. Since fools rush in where angels fear to tread, I asked them if they were on the scavenger hunt too.

They asked how I knew about that and I told them. Turns out they were on the same team as the previous folks at the hardware store. One of them said they needed to get a photo of one of them giving a piggyback ride to a total stranger/senior citizen/unwary fool (the details were a little unclear) and would Diane mind? Ever the sport, Diane agreed. Uh-oh...

The gal who was gonna be the ride-giver was about twice as tall as Diane. Diane warned her that she was a little, er, sturdier than she looked. The gal said, "That's OK, just hop on up there!"

Remember, these gals were less than half our age. "Just hop on up there!" is not on the to-do list of most 66-year-olds. They started on flat ground. I saw this one coming but it was too late. Diane gave "hop on up there" her best shot and the end result was both of them on their asses on the asphalt. No damage done, thank goodness. Then they started with Diane up on the curb. Success! It wasn't really a "ride", just the youngster bent over double with Diane on her back, but the deed was done.

One of the gals called her husband on the phone and said they'd got one of the goals from the same folks whose dog he had kissed. They were pretty elated and went on their way.

We got a big kick outta all these shenanigans and it kinda made our day. You never know what's going to happen when you go to town. Usually nothing, but this time showed that unforeseen events can have a great sense of humor!

Suspended?

He should be run out on a rail, never to be heard from again:

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan has been suspended indefinitely from MSNBC, according to a statement from that network’s President Phil Griffin. An Associated Press article onCBSNews.com blames reaction to Buchanan’s latest book Suicide of a Superpower for his ouster from the cable network, as well as a campaign by the advocacy group, Color of Change.

...

If you lay down with a racist dog like this, you most certainly wake up with fleas.

Just like Bush ...

Only dumber:

Rick Perry established a new gold standard for hawkish foreign policy at Saturday night’s GOP debate in New Hampshire. Not only is he mad President Obama withdrew US forces, he wants to put them back on the ground there immediately.

...

There ya go. They all believe this but Gov. Goodhair is the only one dumb enough to say it in public. It would be nice if somebody, just once, asked the Iraqi people's opinion before we made decisions about their sovereignty for them.