Saturday Crazy Canuckistanian Redneck Music Blogging

Follow Me Down, the first music video from Ladies Of The Canyon's album "Haunted Woman," set for release on June 1. For more on Ladies Of The Canyon, visit www.ladiesofthecanyon.com

"We have power. You don't. "

Gene Robinson on "papers, please":

At least we don't have to pretend anymore. Arizona's passing of that mean-spirited immigration law wasn't about high-minded principle or the need to maintain public order. Apparently, it was all about putting Latinos in their place.

It's hard to reach any other conclusion given the state's latest swipe at Latinos. On Tuesday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a measure making it illegal for any course in the public schools to "advocate ethnic solidarity." Arizona's top education official, Tom Horne, fought for the new law as a weapon against a program in Tucson that teaches Mexican American students about their history and culture.

Horne claims the Tucson classes teach "ethnic chauvinism." He has complained that young Mexican Americans are falsely being led to believe that they belong to an oppressed minority. The way to dispel that notion, it seems, is to pass oppressive new legislation aimed squarely at Mexican Americans. That'll teach the kids a lesson, all right: We have power. You don't.

The new education law is gratuitous and absurd. Arizona can't be picked up and moved to the Midwest; it's next to Mexico. There have always been families and traditions that straddle the two societies, and there always will be. Mexican Americans are inevitably going to feel proud of who they are and where they came from -- even if acknowledging and encouraging such pride in the classroom are against the law.

You know kids. They'll just learn it in the street.

Hey, that's where we learned all the good stuff anyway.

Quote of the Day

On corporate personhood:

If BP were a person it would be a career criminal, a pathological liar and an international serial killer with a rap sheet several times the size of the Chicago Yellow Pages.

Headline of the Day

If you're not pissed off yet today, go read this one:

Republicans search schoolroom, remove pro-labor teaching materials

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Great line:

You looked for trouble and you found it son,
Straight down the barrel of a lawman's gun...

From Dutch TV 1978

Emmylou Harris & The Hot Band ~ Ain't Living Long Like This

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

And people ask ...

How Hitler could have come to power:

Recent polls are showing that Arizona's police-state immigration law is broadly popular with the public -- and boy, are they all over THAT story at Fox News.

Here are the ugly results:

...

Back then it was the Jews, gays, gypsies, and crazy people who were demonized. Today it's the gays and the Latin (and non-white) immigrants. Arizona is just the start. I can't believe, a year and a half after Bush/Cheney are just a bad memory, we're still sinking lower.

Godzilla does not like it when you shit in his bed

The Rude One on the only hero we need:

Sarah Palin could try to explain to Godzilla that more offshore drilling is needed in order to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Godzilla would have dropped a motherfucking bus on her before she got to "baby."

Oh, Godzilla, where are you when we need you? You could chow down on Rush Limbaugh and BP CEO Tony Hayward. You could head over to the Capital and fry Lisa Murkowski for blocking a bill to raise the cap on oil company liabilities. You could just wreck the offices of the Minerals Management Service, the federal office that somehow was allowed to function without managing minerals, which, one would think, would be first on their list of services they're supposed to provide. Go ahead, Godzilla. The scientists and researchers they consult would cheer you on, since their warnings were ignored or changed by whoremongering industry suck-ups working there.

And then, once you've fucked up the lives of every worthless stooge involved, Godzilla, once you've destroyed BP refineries and made a real dent in their bottom line, then you can return to the ocean, swim down to the bottom, and wrestle with that gushing pipe. Fuck, it's no more of a fantasy than any other method that's being tried to stop it.

Your Stimulus Dollars At Work

This has nothing to do with anything other than it's my old stompin' ground. Nice header photo of the last strip joint on the route. Been there, hope it ain't got the same gals...

Pensito Review

The Sunset Strip Is Being Resurfaced for the First Time in 75 Years

My first thought when I saw that, and it popped up out of a mighty deep recess in my mind, was, "Well, it hasn't needed it. It was made out of concrete."

The Strip has not been resurfaced in all these years primarily because it hasn’t needed it. The original concrete surface had held up well, mostly because the ground below it is never subjected to freezing. [...]

Damn, I'm good!

Back in the '60s, the Strip was the place to go cruisin' on weekend nights. Once each way was enough for me usually and then on to somewhere else, but it was fun. The Strip runs along the side of a hill, so a quick dive to the south into the heart of WeHo or a couple mile run to the north to the Valley, a coupla blasts on the throttle and you were back to sanity. Relative sanity, it's L.A. after all.

There was bumper to bumper traffic, lotsa people and cars and bikes, the new phenomenon of long hair and hippies and gals with no bras, an emerging music scene, plenty to see. Almost never stopped there because there was no place to park. That changed when the first topless club appeared - I found parking! Heh.

I got my first street bike in the late '60s and that made it a lot easier. I got cut off by a car once and, quick thinker that I am in matters of survival, took a handy driveway and rode about a block on a pretty crowded sidewalk. Folks just grinned and waved. My pal Barbara Anne was on the back seat stoned outta her gourd and didn't even notice.

Memories.

Pretty good post. Go read. This is a political blog, so here's some politics:

Not everyone is happy about these long overdue improvements, of course. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who is facing reelection and running scared that he’ll be targeted by tea baggers who hate any government spending that doesn’t suit their own selfish needs — not to mention the fact that he’s facing voters for the first time since it was revealed that he has had a predilection for prostitutes — called the project funding “wasteful pork barrel spending.” The Senate Republican leadership put the project on its hit list, sneering at it as “a free million-dollar nose job from Uncle Sam.”

For the record, the congressman who represents the Strip is Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The senators are both Democrats, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

Diaper Boy v Hammerin' Hank. No contest.

"I'll play this hole with a mini-wood"

From, of all places, the New York Post:

When President Obama was asked if he would play a round of golf with his talk-radio nemesis Rush Limbaugh, the response, relayed by a top Democrat, was: "Limbaugh can play with himself."

Oh, he does. Every time he hears a fat boy fart his right hand automatically curls up.

Is Pickles Going To Hell?

Friday Morford.

And over here we've got what we can only hope will be the final nationwide appearance of any kind whatsoever of one dangerously prim, heavily shellacked Laura Bush, trotting herself out like some sort of equestrian trophy on Larry King Live to shill for her new book, "Shut Up and Sit Quietly, You're Just a Woman" -er, "Spoken from the Heart."

But just so we're clear on some details, oh sweet, pitiable Laura: You had, back in 2000, two young, party-riffic twentysomething daughters, you were, for better or worse, the default role model for women everywhere, you were the emblem for female freedom and feminine empowerment to a hundred nations, and you... did whatnow? Lied outright? Lived in quiet denial? Slaughtered your own core beliefs? Kept your second-class Southern wife mouth shut tight and sat by quietly while the men did the "real" thinking? You sacrificed your own daughters to the sweaty altar of Karl Rove and the fundamentalist anti-choicers? I see.

Oh sweet Laura, it is very likely you are going to hell.

Look, I don't care if Dick Cheney threatened you with razor wire and concrete pumps. I don't care if Karl Rove said he'd suffocate you with his giant clammy hog thighs if you dared to speak up. You did a violent disservice, even outright harm, to women the world over, for nearly a decade. You helped allow virulent homophobia to rage in the nation and in your own husband's tiny soul, when you were in an insanely unique, privileged position to a stand, even a modest one, and help defy a deep hatred and ignorance in this country.

[...] But they say, Laura, that behind every great man is a great woman. George Bush was a small-minded, incompetent puppet. Shall we guess what that makes you?

[...] Laura Bush was a role model for terrified Southern housewives stuck with idiot-boy husbands, sad, lost women who, in Laura's case anyway, could have made a real difference, could have been downright historic, had she the slightest bit of nerve and soulful integrity.

I would say that Laura's been in her own private Hell since she came to and realized what she had married, compounded by the fact that he quit drinking and didn't die like he was supposed to and leave her a rich widow and then went on to destroy the world as we know it.

Note to Pickles: Drugs and alcohol will dull the pain, my dear. But you already knew that.

Quote of the Day

From a Tomgram on the teabaggery afoot in the land:

Americans, it’s been said, learn geography when they go to war. Now, it seems, many get their history when they go to a Tea Party rally or tune in to Glenn Beck.

Good article. Shorter: Yes, it is all about race.

I've had it too ...

JP has some good reasons to emigrate.

...

Yet even as we drown in goods and are bombarded by services ranging from mortgage refinancing for homes we no longer own to lengthening our penises, we still produce less and less because all the jobs have been outsourced overseas. Despite supporting two losing and unwinnable wars, we have never had to sacrifice one teaspoon of sugar, candy bar or pair of nylons, have never once orchestrated one rubber, paper or scrap iron drive to support these war efforts. Almost 6000 families notwithstanding, We the People have sacrificed... nothing.

Well, I'm not OK with this. And while my emigration from this country will not change anything and few will care and none will remember, I think it's only important to enumerate my reasons for doing this if given the first available opportunity.

Our bought-and sold government is corrupt to the core, our sociopathic corporations are corrupt, our so-called culture is corrupted and talent, virtue and righteousness are punchlines.

...

This isn't the nation I put my ass on the line for.

I hope dad-in-law lives a long time but when he's gone there will be nothing holding us here. We'll be moving within a year after that. This country is so dysfunctional that any real change in my lifetime has become a pipe dream. I don't want to live out whatever "Golden Years" I have left in a place where people like Sarah Palin are taken seriously and corporations make government policy; where the rich use the U.S. Treasury like an ATM.

After 8 years of Bush, I really thought the American people had their eyes opened. I thought they saw what bad government could do and would want to bring about change. Sadly, a good portion have learned nothing. Enough still vote against their own interests and blindly support politicians and policy designed to strip them of their rights and money. They don't want single payer health care when they can't get any or are going bankrupt because they got sick? They don't want financial reform when the big banks have swindled the American people for trillions? They support wars that are lost and should never have been fought in the first place while our children die needlessly? They support offshore oil drilling, and reject "green energy" in general, while our environment is being polluted at a ghastly rate?

We used to be the best and brightest in the world. What the fuck happened?

So I'll be leaving soon enough, hopefully before shit gets really bad. I'm tired of waiting for the American people to do the right thing because it'll never happen. If Bush the Stupid didn't scare them into action, nothing will. If you would have asked me 25 years ago, if I'd consider living in another country, I'd have laughed at you. Today, I'd laugh if you asked me if I were staying around any longer than I have to.

Government Oversight Is for Pussies

El Rude-o:

Everything you need to know to understand just how ridiculous our American approach to the interaction between government and industry has become is contained in this exchange: It's from the Coast Guard's hearing on the oil spill that was held on Tuesday. The USCG's Captain Hung Nguyen asked about the blowout preventer that was supposed to, you know, prevent the blowout, "It's my understanding that it's designed to industry standard and it's manufactured by the industry, installed by the industry, with no government witnessing or oversight of the construction or installation. Is that correct?"

To which Michael Saucier of the disgraced Minerals Management Service responded, "That is correct."

You got that? The very thing that's supposed to prevent, say, a massive, environment-despoiling, economy-wrecking incident was not subject to any government oversight. If you think that's okay, then you better be on the payroll of BP or else you're just a fucking fool, the kind of person who really ought to have their citizenship taken away and be sent to live on an island run by investment bankers, lobbyists, and free market whores. Oh, wait. That'd be America.

Saucier explained to Nguyen that his agency doesn't certify blowout preventers, but it will send out letters, "notices to lessees," if MMS has some problem it would like a driller to address. The driller usually responds with "Yeah, hey, and while you're down there, don't neglect the balls."

More.

Republican Congressional Candidate Proposes "Hunting Liberals"

The Progressive Professor

A Republican candidate for a Congressional seat in the San Francisco Bay area of California has published a statement on his website promoting an "open season" on "hunting liberals" between now and Election Day, November 2!

This man is named Brad Goehring, of all names! LOL The similarity to Nazi leader Herman Goering is stark! :)

He said on his Facebook site that his purpose was to "thin the herd" of liberals and he had no limit on taking them out, which sounds like a veiled threat to promote assassination of liberal candidates and office holders!

Not 'veiled' at all. Threatening us godless commie fucks is how these ying-yangs pander to the Dead End Quarter, the 20 or so % who can't elect them anyway. CA-11 is a swing district, but I don't think this kind of rhetoric will fly there.

The one thing that MUST be done is that the GOP repudiate this man, and knock him off the ballot as an unacceptable representative of their party! If they do not, it means they are endorsing him!

Fat fuckin' chance. Get outta the classroom once in a while, Prof. The Repugs love this kinda shit. It appeals to the lowest among us, aka their 'base'. They're all flaps and no throttle. Well, they 'flap' their lips a lot and spew a lotta gas, but to no forward progress.

Note to Herr Goehring: Bring it. Some of us godless commie fuck good American Libruls are tired of your RWNJ shit and welcome the chance to shoot back. Or first. We'll see whose herd gets thinned. Put your money where your big fat loud mouth is. Yeah, like that'll happen. Given the military records of most Repugs, one round over their heads and they'd shit themselves out of existence. Hey, whatever works...

Repugs are too hard to clean and too dirty to eat, but we can send their corpses to China for fertilizer. On crops for domestic use only, of course.

I could probably use a requal with the Big Iron anyway. It's been a while. I hope I can keep my old badge. I'd hate to have to wear crossed Mattels...

NeoNazi/AZ GOP connection exposed

Nothing new about that, but this is from an interesting source from either New Jersey or Brazil, I can't tell which.

Moses Apsan, Esq. at Jornal.US:

Evidence that Arizona's new anti-immigrant law was was written and introduced to Arizona congress by Neo Nazi supporters has come to light. Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, who submitted the bill has, for many years, been associated with local Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. Look at his background.

His backgound ensues along with those of others.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League have connected these groups with racists, white supremacists, and political extremists.

The Tanton message is blatantly clear - no more immigrants in the U.S. and those that are here should leave.

These are the background players in Arizona's new anti-immigrant laws.

Notice how the words "undocumented" or "illegal" are left off from in front of "immigrants"?

Big corporations writing our laws is bad enough. Now we've got white supremacists and Nazis doing it. And governors signing them. And teabaggers applauding bigger government as long as it's directed at convenient minorities and not at themselves.

This shit's gotta stop.

Alert Border Guard Saves U.S.!

The headline at BuzzFlash for this one asks the question, "Is America going through a psychotic episode?". Seems that way.

CBC News

A young woman from Gatineau, Que., says she was strip-searched and stranded in Windsor, Ont., in the middle of the night by U.S. border officials.

Vroemen, who studies theatre at Concordia University, set off from Montreal on May 5 on a Greyhound bus. She had found the volunteer job in California through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and planned to spend a month helping run art workshops at the farm. She thought she would explore the U.S. by bus on the way there.

Just as an aside, I rode the Dog from Los Angeles to Phoenix a few years ago. Great opportunity to learn foreign languages.

The bus arrived at the Windsor-Detroit border at 2 a.m., and Vroemen was interviewed about her plans by a U.S. border guard.

"He was trying to make it seem like … because I was getting room and board, that was considered being paid," said Vroemen, who had previously volunteered through WWOOF in Europe. "He told me that I was taking jobs from American citizens because I was going to help out on this community workshop."

Note to the border guard: As I drive the length of California, I pass many, many farm workers out in the fields picking lettuce and celery and stuff. There ain't a Canuck among 'em. You're doing a great job of protecting the U.S. and this time you've outdone yourself by protecting us from a Canadian college kid who was going to wreak havoc on our economy by volunteering at an artsy-fartsy hippie organic farm for room and board on her summer break. Bravo!

I think you deserve a promotion. I think you need to be promoted to our southern border and work your magic there and give more Americans the opportunity to do the stoop labor they're clamoring for. Of course, the northern border will be left undefended and the next time I drive down California all the farm workers might be Canadian. It's a chance I'm willing to take.

Asshole.

To Miss Vroemen: On behalf of whatever sane Americans remain, I apologize.

Headline of the Day

Bankers jailed, sued as Iceland seeks culprits for crisis

Quote of the Day

Ahnold:

...

"I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend," he said. "But with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me."

...

East Arizona ...

A.k.a. Jackson, NY. We have a town called Jackson? Who knew, but it seems a buncha idiots live there.

Under the microscope ...

Seems some more white collar crooks are being scrutinized:

morgan stanley is now being investigated for "criminal" behaviour ...

In my book, if corporations are people, then corporations (meaning their boards of directors) can go to jail too, just like regular folks.

An aside: There are a few oil industry executives I can think of who should be wearing orange jumpsuits too. The Senate Sergeant at Arms should've taken them into custody as they tried to leave the hearing room the other day. If the NYPD arrested 3 guys and they came out with a bullshit story and finger-pointing that these execs did, all of 'em would be in a cell on Rikers lickety split.