You've been played ...

And you're just asking for more:

...

It's all worked perfectly for them, hasn't it, these three decades of Republican dominance? They've wanted to dismantle programs that help anyone other than corporations, and now their latest hero, George W. Bush, put us in eight short years into a position in which the New Deal and the Great Society will have to be dismantled, because there's no money to pay for them. The middle-class is going to scream bloody murder at paying more taxes, partially because they are struggling themselves, but also because they were told by Ronald Reagan and others that if they just worked hard enough, they too could enter the Kingdom of Rich Men, when said Kings knew full well that they had no intention of letting even the hardest-working schmoe into their little club. These men begrudge even the existence of a middle class, and so they set out to dismantle it -- and have largely succeeded. [my em]

...

And if ya keep listening to Republicans, your lives will just get worse. We're all gonna have to pay to get ourselves out of this mess, rich and poor alike, and if we don't wrap our heads around that real quick, there won't be a nation left to save.

Listen to me: When you hear Wall St. types talking about "how productive the American worker is" vis a vis "corporate earnings", it's rich person talk for wringing as much as they can out of you. Odds are, if you work for a big American corporation, you're doing the amount of work once done by four people. The rich have increased their income 400% in the past 25 years and you're working 4 times as hard. Figure it out, schmeckelheads.

Update (Sunday morning):

Digby:

...

Why is it that these people keep alluding to shooting Obama all the time? (And why doesn't anyone give a damn?) Are they so far gone that they really believe that potential government spending requires them to start shooting? Seriously, nobody's taxes have gone up. Nobody's. The recession was already a year old when Obama took office and Bush spent a huge surplus on tax cuts for rich people which these fools all applauded like trained seals.

...

Quote of the Day

Susie:

This morning I’m thinking about some of the people I know who hated Teddy Kennedy. And I’m wondering if they ever did anywhere near as much for people as he did, and whether they will be as largely and openly mourned.

...

Don't let the door ...

Hit ya in the ass as you leave:

...

At present, the Texas Nationalist Movement has a petition with 1 Million signatures directly calling for a vote of secession.

...

See yas!

A Proper Irish Sendoff

This one's for Teddy.

Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell ~ Finnegan's Wake

Thanks to theconman18.

Katrina +4

Filmed in New Orleans. Check out the high water mark in some of the scenes.

We must never forget this.

Old Crow Medicine Show ~ I Hear Them All

Thanks to NettwerkMusic, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville and Hamburg.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

This could be me 'n Fixer after about a year in Afghanistan without the, er, comforts of home...

There's a little instruction for those of you who would like to join us.

Emmylou Harris & Jann Browne ~ Mexican Wind

Thanks to davewilson56, Sweden.

24? That's passé ...

The conservatives have a new film to fap to, craft policy from, supplant reality, review highly:

...

What I didn’t anticipate was the way the film would inspire certain bloggers to fashion their own Louisville Sluggers out of dense, straight-grained stupidity, and start swinging wildly at the heads of their readers. Dr. Melissa Clothier, the Opinin’ Osteopath, took several particularly vicious cuts the instant I clicked this link from Roy’s place.

...

First it was Jack Bauer in charge of the "War on Terror", now the Inglorious Basterds are showing us how it should have been done.

You know, I think if conservatives were actually forced to witness reality, they would all have to be institutionalized. They've lived in their own world (one they've created from wishful thinking and TV scripts) for so long that the real thing would loosen whatever grip they have left.

"Highway 61 runs right by my baby's Xmas tree..."

For Bob Dylan fans. Aren't we all?

Milf, Mouth & Mayberry Machiavelli

I haven't been reading James Wolcott much lately, but I'm glad I ran across this one:

Glenn Beck must have sent out a distress call because his superhero friends have flown into action.

I get a visual of "The Batshit Signal" beaming into the sky over Gotham City...

First, Sarah Palin, who appears to have vanished into a spa or perhaps is having electrodes attached for a Bride of Frankenstein unveiling, howdies all her Facebook fans to give Glenn's show a watch this week as he documents the Obama administration's secret termite cadre of communist infiltration.

Palin, Rush, Rove--for the extra-crispy conservative wing of the Republican Party, that's as big a trifecta as one can hit.

What does this tell us?

No, I suspect that what's really going on is that the boycott of Beck by Color of Change has really rattled their chassis. No, it hasn't cut into Fox News's ad revenues yet, but if the boycott sticks, it's going to make Beck's show look like a cable-access lemonade stand.

So that's what's in the Repug kool-aid - lemonade and the brown acid. Wavy Gravy (I think) warned 'em at Woodstock, but I guess these clowns didn't get the message.

Limbaugh might want to keep the phone number for ordering that penis-inflater pill handy, in case he runs short.

Don't worry, Jim. The boner pill guy is #2 on his speed dial right after the hillbilly heroin guy.

This shit's really fun to watch. It's like goin' to the circus. When you need a break from the action under the Big Top, you can go watch the freaks 'n geeks.

Alpha-Political Verse 2009

Mad Kane

From time to time, I write an alphabetical poem summing up a period’s zany and significant political moments. (My last one said goodbye and good riddance to Bush and Cheney.)

Although Barack Obama’s administration is still relatively new, there’s already plenty of material for another piece of alpha-political poetry:

A is for Alaska with its lovely Russian view.

B is for the Birthers who will rant and rave on cue.

C is for conservatives co-opted by the loons.

D is for each Democrat who caves and often swoons.

Lotsa Cs 'n Ds, huh?

You get the idea. There's a link at each one so you gotta go see.

There's also a nice limerick in tribute to Ted Kennedy.

Ms. Kane has an odd and charming habit for a big-time humorist: She follows up and visits blogs that link to her. It must take up a big part of her day. I will use this to attempt to communicate with her.

Dear Ms. Kane,

The photo at your site shows you to be quite lovely, with an air of insouciance and an expression that says "Oh yeah? Show me, Buster".

I am quite taken with you.

Could you please direct me to your swimsuit photos?

Your secret admirer, one of many, no doubt, and no mean limerickista his own self,
Gordon

Well, if that didn't scare her away, I hope it at least made coffee come out her nose!

Update:

Classy number that she is, Ms. Kane responded with a link to her going topless. Be still my, er, heart...

By the way, hon, us 60+ types couldn't care less how old yer photo is.

Daily Show Document Dump?

Jason Linkins at HuffPo.

It's not for nothing that many Americans cite Comedy Central's The Daily Show as the "most trusted name in news." Jon Stewart and his crackerjack staff of writers and researchers have evolved into regular and reliable wielders of analytical skewers, deftly eviscerating the tidy talking points of politicians and the tiresome conventional wisdom of the media.

Now, The Daily Show is on hiatus, for three long weeks.

Around the office, I often joke that the most dangerous time in America is when the show is taking a break. Again, this is meant as a joke! And so, despite the fact that after a summer of delays, the much anticipated torture documents were finally released on the first Monday of the show's hiatus, I think it would be unwise to suggest anything nefarious behind the timing. Right? I mean, to suggest that the torture documents were released to avoid the commentary of one of the media's few, reliable, anti-torture voices...this would be pure paranoia!

Why, to believe that, there would have to be some sort of extant example of a government spokesperson or agency citing The Daily Show as a reason to keep from disclosing information:

Examples of government spokespersons and agencies citing The Daily Show as a reason to keep from disclosing information follow.

Hmmmm. People speak of the "Colbert bump." Should we start monitoring for a "Daily Show document dump?"

UPDATE: Huffington Post Comedy editor Alex Leo reminds me: "Sarah Palin resigned the first day of his last hiatus." COINCIDENCE?

PREVIOUSLY, on THE HUFFINGTON POST:
DOJ: We Can't Release Cheney Records Because Of Late Night Comedy

Hmmmm indeed.

But ... Chappaquiddick!

JP:

...

Personally, I'd rather have a senator representing my state whose father was a bootlegger than a chief executive who used Daddy's money to steal an election and whose father's father was a Nazi financier who made enough money for Adolph Hitler to buy and make armaments that would go on to kill American soldiers. I'd also rather have in the Senate a man who spent a lifetime in public service to make amends for one tragic mistake than have as a president an incurious intellectual bulimic whose grandfather made money off concentration camp slave labor, tried to overthrow the government in a fascist coup and later lined his pockets with that slave labor money when his trust fund kicked in and would never find the cajones to decry his grandfather's seditious shortcomings.

...

Going to work; glad it's Friday ...

Meanwhile, on Planet Me ...

Digby:

...

Evidently, these people all believe that if you get sick you either did something to deserve it, in which case you also deserve to go bankrupt even if you have insurance -- or, if you are a "good" person, perhaps you can be taken care of by charities, at least until they "push" you out. On their planet, there are no insurance companies denying care to people, no decent hard working Americans losing everything they have to a health crisis, nobody tied to a job they hate because they won't be able to get insurance if they leave, no CEOs making sickening profits while people suffer, no health care inflation making it impossible for businesses to compete. On their planet it cannot happen to them.

...

Liberal

Thanks to YubaNet.

I'll stop with the Ted Kennedy stuff pretty soon. We owe the guy big time. He's our Rock Star, and we can only hope to be anywhere near the Liberal he was.

In Memoriam

I suppose it was inevitable that someone would put this lovely song up for Ted Kennedy. I doubt if anyone did the same for Bob "Douchebag For Liberty" Novak. People only do this for people who they like.

Stolen from our friends MandT of Adgita Diaries, and posted at YouTube by karmanot, whom I suspect know one another.

Ted Kennedy: There Went A Man

The Rude Pundit with two 'must reads' about Ted Kennedy. The first, on Kennedy the man:

Finally, we must take a measure of the man. Not the person, or the legislator, or the family member. No, the man. Ted Kennedy was more of a man's man than any of the brush-clearing, hick-talking, pick-up driving politicians who overcompensate again and again by faking it. No, Kennedy demonstrated, through all the ups and downs, again and again what a real man is. It is a type of masculinity that we rarely see anymore because it is a fearlessness that few are allowed to embrace.

A man works to help those who need help. A real man is a liberal because a real man is unafraid of change and progress and difference. Let us come back to the money. The Kennedy family has always seen wealth as a privilege, a burden, and an opportunity to do good for others. Yes, it is easier to support charities and to have the time to work for various causes. But Kennedy made it his role in government to level the playing field. Where do you wanna go with this? Other than his work that climaxed with the Americans With Disabilities Act, other than his support for civil rights legislation going back to the 1964 act, we could talk about the Ryan White CARE Act, which gave funds to cities hardest hit by the AIDS crisis; we could talk about his intense support for the rights of workers through raising the minimum wage and supporting union goals; we could talk about his work for housing, for education, for women and children, for the Family and Medical Leave Act. We could talk about how he opposed the Iraq War, how he was working to provide educational opportunities to kids in Muslim countries, how he helped end the war in Northern Ireland. We could talk about how he believed, his entire career, that health care for everyone was a right, not a privilege, with COBRA and S-CHIP having been accomplished because of him. He was an unabashed, proud liberal whose full-throated speeches roared in defense of the whole ideology against the ignorance of those who would keep progress from being achieved.

Much more.

The second, on Kennedy the Senator:

A Message on Ted Kennedy to Conservatives Who Hated Him (Mostly Profanity-Free for the Kiddies)

His idea of 'mostly' may differ from the actual definition of the word 'mostly'. Heh. It's hard when you're talking to or about Repugs.

Do you like your state and not the federal government controlling the curriculum of your kids' schools? Thank Ted Kennedy.

Do you like being able to vote starting at age 18? Thank Ted Kennedy.

Do you think low-income people should get help with heating their homes in the winter? Thank the man.

Do you think the federal government should fund cancer research? Yep.

Do you believe that Meals on Wheels is a good thing? Ditto.

The list goes on and on.

You agreed with Ted Kennedy far, far more than you want to think you did, dear conservatives. Still, go ahead and dance your mad jigs on his still-warm corpse. Why not? We on the left certainly did when Jerry Falwell, Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helms kicked. Hell, one asshole blogger even celebrated the death of Ann Coulter's father. But know that you dance in ignorance. Ask Orrin Hatch.

But, of course, you want to address the far more pressing issue of whether or not Ted Kennedy killed Mary Jo Kopechne back at Chappaquiddick all those decades ago, no matter what the investigations said. There's only a couple of things to say about that: The glib response is, "Yeah, and Thomas Jefferson nailed his slaves. What's your point?" More directly, Kennedy asked the people of Massachusetts if they wanted him to quit. They did not. The rest of the nation may have not wanted him as president, but for Massachusetts, Chappaquiddick quickly became a settled issue and distant history. That's all that mattered to keep him in the Senate, just like Louisiana will have to judge whether or not a prostitute-lovin' David Vitter should go back. That's democracy, gang, like it or not.

And Ted Kennedy did more for real, actual democracy than almost anyone else in our entire history as a nation.

Please go read these.

Great White Hope

Raw Story, more links at site.

A junior Republican congresswoman thinks her party needs to find the "Great White Hope" to fight President Barack Obama's agenda.

Yes, those were the words she used.

In a conservative town hall forum Aug. 19, Topeka Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins declared that her party would need to embrace a "White Hope" to derail the agenda of President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

The comments were revealed by The Topeka Capital-Journal.

A Jenkins spokesman, contacted Wednesday by a local paper, said the congresswoman didn't mean her remarks to be offensive.

I'm sure they weren't offensive at all at a conservative town hall forum in East Dumbfuck, Kansas.

The phrase "Great White Hope" is most well-known as a reference to heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries, used by the press before a 1910 boxing match. The media referred to Jeffries as a "Great White Hope" capable of fighting off African American boxer Jack Johnson.

"I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro," Jeffries said.

At the match, a ringside band played, "All coons look alike to me."

I'm actually glad she said that. The quicker that what remains of the rapidly shredding veneer of Repug 'moral values' drops away and reveals the endemic racism of the Dead End Quarter (y!Fctp!), the better.

Now you can do it right ...

Avedon:

...

Well, obviously, if anyone was in a rush to pass the plan so Teddy could see it signed, that urgency is gone, and if any good can come of his passing, I hope it's that they rethink this whole hurry-up-and-wait-for-worse-than-nothing project the Blue Dogs (including, as near as I can tell, Obama himself) have been saddling us with.

It's time to junk the whole current proposal and go back to square one. Demand single-payer now, at the very least. Do it for yourself, and your family and friends, and your country - and, perhaps, in memory of all the times he really did hold the line and remember what it's all about, do it for Teddy.

Off to work ...

Shit parts in cars ...

Ain't as bad as putting them in airplanes. I've written quite a few times over at F&G about customers trying to save a little money by buying cheap parts and bringing them to me to install. Hey, I'll put anything (unless it's blatantly unsafe) on your car that you want, but don't come crying to me when the shit fails long before it's expected to (shops generally buy top-quality parts because they don't want to do the job again - and for free - or have to warranty shit). In the big scheme of things, it's not a big thing in a car; you don't have to worry about falling 30,000 feet when it fails.

U.S. Federal air-safety regulators are investigating how unauthorized parts were installed on at least 42 Southwest Airlines jets, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the details.

The regulators are examining why the carrier's maintenance-control procedures failed to flag the problem, the people told the paper.

...

Of course the bottom line is more important than a couple hundred lives. The shareholders demand it! Pencil-whip them forms!

I've seen guys in the Air Force go to Leavenworth for doing that.

Great thanks to Chris for the link.

Quote of the Day - Zwei

Montag:

Drug Limbaugh marks the passing of Ted Kennedy with all the class of a shit stain on a wino's underwear ...