Saturday, April 19, 2014

Real, phony, mox nix. Fuck each other up toot de sweet. For the children...

The Difference Between Real And Phony GOP Civil Wars

Just a taste:

[...] But as we learned the last week, Paul is exposed as a heretic whenever his positioning takes him beyond standard GOP Obama-bashing into the past or future.

The 2009 video of Paul suggesting that the 2003 Iraq War was in no small part the product of Dick Cheney’s concerns for Halliburton profits didn’t just anger hard-core neoconservative defenders of the nobility of that war. It also carried him well beyond the pale of acceptable criticism of GOP foreign policy and of the two-term elected GOP Vice President of the United States.
...

In the end Paul may have made at least mild dissent from decades of Reaganite pro-military orthodoxy a bit more acceptable within the Republican Party. But anything more fundamental would indeed require a “civil war.”

Prediction: Not only will Ayn Rand Paul never be President, the next Repug President hasn't been born yet. Other than that, I hope all the different Repug factions stomp each other into mudholes and walk each other dry.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

CORRECTION: Mrs. G informed me that we sat two rows behind Linda and Bernie Leadon at the Ash Grove when we went to see Country Gazette. If the memory ain't the first to go, I can't remember what is...

I have been a Linda Ronstadt fan since before I even heard of Emmylou. The closest I've been to her is the width of Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. I worked at the Standard Station across the street from The Troubadour where she played frequently in the late '60s. This is about Linda.

Published on Apr 11, 2014
A tribute to Linda Ronstadt. With Glenn Frey. Recorded in Brooklyn, NY on April 10, 2014

Thanks to Johnny Rotten.

Bonus Twofer:

Published on Apr 14, 2014
Inductor Glenn Frey of The Eagles and friend Emmylou Harris each talked about the talent, friendship, and health of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Linda Ronstadt as she was tributed with an all-star singing cast of Harris, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Carrie Underwood, and Sheryl Crow.

Thanks to ArtisanNewsService.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Bundy is a lawbreaker, freeloader, and thief

There's been an awful lot of stuff on RWNJ rancher Bundy and his standoff with the feds out in East Cow Pie, Nevada.

States' rights activists flock to Nevada (video)

"Cliven Bundy is not a hero; he's not a victim. He's a guy who got away with breaking the law for 20 years." –Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston"
But ... IOKIYAR

Cliven Bundy Exposes the Cravenness of the Modern Right

Call it "individualism" or "libertarianism" or whatever you want, but those who declare themselves a Republic of One and raise their own flags are in a very literal sense being unpatriotic.

That's why I'm alarmed by the support in many conservative precincts for the Nevada scofflaws who have been exploiting public lands for private purposes and refuse to pay for the privilege because they choose not to "recognize" the authority of the United States. Totally aside from the double standards involved in expecting kid-glove treatment of one set of lawbreakers as opposed to poorer and perhaps darker criminal suspects, fans of the Bundys are encouraging those who claim a right to wage armed revolutionary war towards their obligations as Americans. It makes me really crazy when such people are described as "superpatriots." Nothing could be more contrary to the truth.

The details of the Bundy case have gotten a lot of attention at conservative sites, but the details really don't matter. Bundy has a baroque claim that the United States has no legal right to grazing land in Nevada; for over a decade, every court has summarily disagreed. It's federal land whether Bundy likes it or not, and Bundy has refused for years to pay standard grazing fees—so a couple of weeks ago the feds finally decided to enforce the latest court order allowing them to confiscate Bundy's cattle if he didn't leave. The rest is just fluff, a bunch of paranoid conspiracy theorizing that led to last week's armed standoff between federal agents and the vigilante army created by movement conservatives.
Read "Koch brothers' AFP".

The fact that so many on the right are valorizing Bundy—or, at minimum, tiptoeing around his obvious nutbaggery—is a testament to the enduring power of Waco and Ruby Ridge among conservatives. The rest of us may barely remember them, but they're totemic events on the right, fueling Glenn-Beckian fantasies of black helicopters and jackbooted federal thugs for more than two decades now. Mainstream conservatives have pandered to this stuff for years because it was convenient, and that's brought them to where they are today: too scared to stand up to the vigilantes they created and speak the simple truth. They complain endlessly about President Obama's "lawlessness," but this is lawlessness. It's appalling that so many of them aren't merely afraid to plainly say so, but actively seem to be egging it on.
I'm not going to rehash Ruby Ridge which was an FBI fuckup or Waco which didn't have to happen either.

Here's the deal - that land is our land which the feds administer for us and usually not very well, but Bundy is refusing to pay us for its use to his own profit. He's a lawbreaker, freeloader, and thief in the guise of a "patriot", in other words. an average wingnut teabagger.

Note to Bundy: Yo dude, ass, gas, or grass, nobody rides for free. Cough it the fuck up.

If it had been me in charge, I would have rounded up his cattle, sold them on the free market, and given him the change on his prison commissary account.

Further, I would have gone all Louis L'Amour on the fucking militia wannabes that gathered around him. Metaphorically speaking I'da flipped the loop off the hammer of my revolver and told 'em to open the ball. When the dust cleared, it would have been from them making tracks running away.

I know the feds don't want a shooting confrontation and that's why they returned his cows, but dammit, someone needs to take those fuckers on and settle it once and for all.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Oh, the irony...


Ironic Times

Rand Paul: GOP Can't Just Be “Party of Fat Cats, Rich Guys”
Shown: speaking before group of fat cats, rich guys.

Report: Hillary Clinton “Thinking” About Running for President
Also “thinking” about when to take next breath.
Heh.

By 2030, ¼ of U.S. Licensed Drivers Will Be Older Than 85
Blind as bats, mostly lost, mad as Hell.
You rang, bunkie?

Colorado's First Pot Vending Machine Operational
Not shown: line three miles long waiting to use it.