Saturday, March 20, 2010

Another self-serving jerk ...

Who wants to run New York. My county executive is switching parties (D to R) to run for governor in the Rethug primary against Rick Lazio, the schmuck who ran against Hillary for the junior senate seat. The smart money is on Andy Cuomo to win in the end.

ALBANY — Fresh off an announcement that jolted the New York political world, Steve Levy, the Long Island Democrat who abandoned his party to run for governor as a Republican, is working to secure endorsements as he tries to gain an edge in the contest for the nomination.

...


Hopefully, this idiot's fifteen minutes will soon be over.

Charity for me ...

Not so much for thee:

Fux Nutwork host’s military charity a scam


Hey, charity begins at home, don't it?

Friday, March 19, 2010

Iraq?

It's been 7 goddamn years.

The crux of the biscuit ...

Nobody can rant like Athenae (Mr. A must have an ... interesting life) and she boils down the whole opposition to a few sentences in the middle of one of her classics:

...

The entire debate has been about making you afraid of some imaginary (or even real) person who'd make you feel like a fool for trying to take care of him, because that's the real lizard fear of the supposed middle-class, feeling like you got taken. Feeling like you played by the rules and somebody else didn't, and he's better off and you're fucked.

...

Quote of the Day

Jim Hightower

Does the Republican Party have a secret "Stupid Farm" where it breeds and raises senators?

Well, Jim, if they do, and I don't doubt it, it's probably down there in your neck of the woods in Texas.

Balls of steel ...

That would be Lt. Dan Choi:

Lt. Dan Choi, the openly gay Iraq war veteran who has been an outspoken opponent of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, was arrested Thursday after chaining himself to a fence at the White House.

The Advocate reports that Choi, along with former Army infantryman Jim Pietrangelo, was arrested after chaining themselves to the fence following a rally in Washington for repeal of the policy, which bans gay men and women from serving openly in the military.

...


The time is long past to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", regardless of what anybody says, including retired generals.

Late for work, go surf the blogroll. TGIF!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

If I can just get offa this L.A. freeway without gettin' killed or caught...*

Following up on my earlier post:


Ah, Grasshopper, does crick embiggen foto?


Lots more stuff to tell ya about but I'm tired again. Two days and I already need to get home from vacation so I can rest. Four days to go. I think I'm toast...

Later on down the road I'll tell ya how to get the voice in yer dashboard-mounted GPS, whom I call Miz Magellan, to cuss ya out and call ya names. Heh.

*Apologies to Guy Clark. While Mrs. G was at her conference today, I ran about 30 miles up the 710, the 10, and the 5 and hung out with my pal Dave. The freeways here move slower than I remember, mostly cuz they're in such bad shape. The only things haulin' any serious ass are Priuses. Heh.

Years ago, we used to call the freeways by their names, not their numbers like they do these days. After typing out the ones above, the Long Beach Freeway, the San Bernardino Freeway, and the Golden State Freeway, I unnerstand why they changed that - slows down the Sigalerts.


Thanks to JAZZCAF, UK.

Nice and neat ...

Time to get on board. There are some good parts of this HCR bill. My pal Creature in toto:

Great numbers all around. Serious deficit reduction. Donut hole closure. Medicare solvency. Bunches of people covered. And, it's all paid for. It's time for Blue Dogs to get off the damn fence and every other Dem to get out and sell this thing.

Bloody twats* ...

Real big hard-hitting interview of the President on Fox yesterday. Even if I'd concede that dork Brett Baier was doing his job, it'd be nice to take a wayback machine to be there live, when they fellated interviewed President Chimpenstein Bush or Vice-President Satan Incarnate Cheney:

...

First off, let's just say that Baier interviewed a president like a president ought to be interviewed, with the news person as an aggressive antagonist and questioner, not taking what the president says at face value. Truly, honestly, Baier was at least in the ballpark of how, say, BBC journalists talk to their leaders. And however irritating Baier's interruptions were, Obama recognized, at the end, that this was the way it's supposed to go. "That's OK. That's your job," Obama told him after Baier apologized for doing so.

Of course, any time a reporter from anywhere dared to question George W. Bush with the same persistence that Baier used with Obama, it was an outrage, like a midget had punched Bush in the nuts. Remember when Irish reporter Carol Coleman took apart Bush and the White House actually lodged a formal complaint with the Irish Embassy? Now, of course, it's totally okay to confront the president repeatedly, and the right will gleefully cheer it on, as if yelping, "Yeah, make him your bitch, Ailes." [my em]

...


To quote the Rude One from four or five years ago (it's in the left sidebar): "The right is nothing, if not filled with liars and hypocrites."

*To be pronounced with a proper Welsh accent. Don't ask, but if you know a Welshman, ask him to say it for you.

Idiots in quantity ...

You know, it really bugs me that people can be so self-centered, and so hurtful in the process:

...

Activists staged "competing rallies" outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s (D-OH) district office yesterday, in a noisy, often confrontational attempt to influence the undecided congresswoman’s vote. At one point, a man with a sign saying he has Parkinson’s disease and needs help sat down in front of the reform opponents. Several protesters mocked the man, calling him a "communist" with one derisively "throwing money at him." "If you’re looking for a handout you’re in the wrong end of town," another man said. Watch it (at approximately 0:51):

...


Video and links aplenty at Digby's page. As she says:

...

Remember how John Edwards used to say there were two Americas? This is the other one. And they are always pissed off when anybody else gets something they don't have. Even if they don't need or want it. You know the types.


And the conservatives have played these people like a Stradivarius. I have a sticker on my laptop that reads: "Never underestimate the power of idiots in large groups". These people may be idiotic assholes but, sadly, there are a lot of them. That's what makes them dangerous.

Made it

Hi gang. Got in an hour ago, wicked tired, more tomorrow. Nice motel. Mrs. G really knows how to pick 'em. The sign's in Chinese. Heh. I'll get a picture and prove it, but not tonight.

I was gassin' up at Costco in Lancaster and thinkin' about dinner when what did I spy across the street but a joint called Chronic Tacos. Buncha young jokers in there, but they throw together a helluva burrito! Tasty. I'll let ya know how it worked out, or if you don't hear anything from me ever again, that'll tell ya something too...

Better go before I zzzzzzz...

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Quote of the Day

Maru on Rep. Alan Grayson:

... Awesome. He’s got brass balls so big, they have their own gravitational field ...

Headin' out...

Me 'n Mrs. G are headin' for SoCal today. Mrs. G has some company business in Monterey Park tomorrow and then Friday we're going to the Central Coast for another of her High School shindigs. If it wasn't for her, I'd never get to go anywhere!

It's funny, but even though I lived in L.A. for 35 years, the only time I've been to Monterey Park was to go to traffic school at East L.A. College. I used to get to go lotsa places for those. Heh.

I'll just leave ya with a 'must read' Mark Morford:

Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, History

Never doubt America's irrefutable greatness, kids. Our prison system, for example, is the finest in the world. Also, dirty Mexican people had no role whatsoever in the Civil War or U.S. history (except as troublesome immigrants, yuck), hip-hop music is in no way, shape or form to be considered a significant cultural movement -- unlike totally awesome Country & Western, and the War on Drugs is going spectacularly well, thanks to our fine military, numerous Afterschool Specials and the deep love of Jesus -- who, if you look really closely at those old photographs from the Bible, is clearly wearing a U.S. flag pin on his robes to go along with his friendly, competely legal sidearm. God bless America.

These irrefutable facts -- and many more just like them -- are brought to you by the Texas State Board of Education, packed like a jug of rancid tartar sauce with intellectually numb simpletons who smell like ignorance and taste like fear. The TSBE: We make revisionist brainwashing fun!™

Must go now. It's a long drive down our beautiful 'back road' and we wanta get off the road before the wannabe Irishmen get done with Happy Hour.

See yas later.

To my Irish friends ...

Happy St. Paddy's Day! It's gonna be amateur hour today in New York. Oy!

Erin go bragh-less!

Circling the bowl ...

I have the misfortune of having to see Rick Sanchez' show when I get home from work and want to catch up on what went on during the day. They have that other idiot, Tom Foreman, who looks like he's somehow related to Glenn Beck, and Wolfie has this constant deer in the headlights look that makes me wonder why he even bothers to show up; it's not like he actually calls anyone on their bullshit.

So, it's no big surprise they hired this idiot:

(CNN) – Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA¸ the network announced Tuesday.

...


And don't even get me started on John King, Dick Cheney fellator extraordinaire.

Thanks to Watertiger for the link.

Get out ...

Dirt bag NY state senator Hiram Monserrate (convicted girlfriend beater and all around asshole), who was thrown out of the Senate (if you're bad enough to be thrown out of the dysfunctional NY Legislature, you really suck) was running to get his seat back in a special election. Thankfully, the people of Queens weren't swayed by his argument that he was "one of them".

State Assemb. Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) won a commanding victory Tuesday night for the state senate seat once held by Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled following a domestic violence conviction.

...


Now get out, and don't let the door hit ya in the ass.

An addendum: Monserrate, scumbag that he is, is hinting he might run for Peralta's seat in the Assembly now that it's vacant. Let's hope he gets the same response.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Toyota management is a buncha NUMMIs

The Big Time Back East Media folks are catchin' on to something that's been in the news for some time out here.

Bob Herbert

California has been very, very good to Toyota. It is one of the largest markets in the world for the popular Prius hybrid. Nearly 18 percent of all Toyotas sold in the U.S. are sold in California. The state has showered the company with benefits, including large-scale infrastructure improvements for its operations and millions of dollars for worker training. California is one of the key reasons that Toyota is the wealthiest carmaker on the planet.

Toyota is paying the state back with the foulest form of ingratitude.

The company is planning to shut down the assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., that makes Corollas and the Tacoma compact pickup. The plant closure will throw 4,700 experienced, highly skilled and dedicated employees onto the street during the worst job market since the Depression, and it will jeopardize nearly 20,000 other jobs around the state.

Some o' them Easterners must be a little slow in keeping up on pickemup trucks. The Tacoma used to be a compact pickup, but has only been a mid-size pickup for five years so I guess it's understandable that the media back there hasn't, er, picked up on it yet. Heh.

The Toyota/GM plant, NUMMI, pronounced 'noomy', not 'nummy' as in referring to their management, is where my Tacoma was built. I got my dog Maggie from one of its employees, so I have a personal connection to the workers' plight.

Those who are trumpeting the alleged fact that the recession is over should consider that the unemployment rate in California in January (the last month for which complete statistics are available) was a mind-numbing 12.5 percent. That was the fifth worst in the nation. In eight California counties, the jobless rate — not the underemployment rate, mind you, but the official jobless rate — was higher than 20 percent. Those counties are suffering through a depression.

The human toll behind such data is of no apparent interest to the fabulously wealthy Toyota operation.

Well, Mr. Herbert, you've finally caught on to Big Biz' M.O.

Please read the rest of the editorial. It has a lot in it.

My Tacoma is without a doubt the best vehicle I have ever owned. The brakes work, the throttle doesn't stick, and we installed our own floor mats (where Mrs. G found floor mats that cost a hunnert bucks a set I'll never know, but find them she did!). It doesn't rust, bust, fuck up, or stink in hot weather. I like it a hell of a lot better than I like the management of the company that built it, who have been fuckin' up by the numbers here of late. They probably smell bad too.

That said, I would probably buy another Toyota. We keep our vehicles a long, long time as in 15-20 years, so my money has to go where I perceive the most value. The management of GM, Ford, and Chrysler aren't much better and their products aren't nearly as good, all things considered, and an awful lot of them are already built in foreign countries like Canada, Mexico, and Texas as well.

A Headline of the Day That Boggles The Mind

Rove: Obama ‘let a cowboy president…violate a fundamental principle of the Constitution.’

He's talking about Honduras, but he's very familiar with the concept from eight years of enabling it.

Headline of the Day

Following up on Fixer's post:

Conservatives Who Demanded We ‘Listen To’ And ‘Stand Behind’ Gen. Petraeus Now Disregard Him

The worms turn on their hero when he's right and doesn't agree with them.

Racism is linked to Religious dogmatism

A post you should read at Center For Inquiry.

This study finds that a denomination's demand for devout allegiance to its Christian creed overrides any humanistic message. By demanding such devotion to one specific and dogmatic Christianity, a denomination only encourages its members to view outsiders as less worthy.

--- Let's read that conclusion again: "Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant." Why would religious agnostics be more humanistic and less racist?

Religious agnostics would be people who combine a religious/spiritual attitude in living life with a humble admission that they don't know if their approach is the only right way. Religious agnostics are pluralistic -- they have no problem admiring how different people can enjoy different religious paths. And it is precisely this lack of dogmatism which permits humanistic values to shine through. Religious exclusivism defeats humanistic universalism, but religious pluralism enhances humanistic universalism.

[...] Revere your own religious path, but also respect and revere others' ability to devote themselves to a higher good in their own way. It is precisely that kind of universal respect for all paths which can reduce prejudice.

I do not think the results of that study conflict in any way with what we've been saying around here for going on six years except that we have absolutely no respect at all for religionists whose credo is "my way or the highway".