AGHS '63

Just a blurb to show you what I had to suffer through at last night's opening bash of Mrs. G's reunion. Man, can those old farts eat! I ate two of those plus sidearms. Today is the test of fire. Food and drink all day. Mini-Mariachi this afternoon, Mexican buffet for dinner. Morituri te salutamus...

The event is being held on a working farm owned by one of Mrs. G's classmates. There are crops growing about fifty feet from where the grill is. The farm is 100 acres, which is pretty good size for being right in town.

More later if I'm able...

Click to embiggen

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Busy day, big chicken dinner sluggin' me out, first night of Mrs. G's reunion get together. Not sure if I can keep up with these old farts, more later, zzzzzz....

Emmylou Harris ~ Not Enough

Thanks to 6hillsway, UK.

Yeah, it was us ...

You know, I have to go through life with the guilt (seriously) of what my people did to my wife's people. I don't like having Nazi Germany as part of my heritage but there ain't shit I can do about it. I wasn't born then and I take pride in the fact a book was written about how our town resisted Hitler and the Nazis.

Now the German Pope (didn't I tell you when he was appointed that you can't give Germans that much power) is blaming atheists for the Holocaust. I can't fucking win.

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The leader of the Roman Catholic church concluded a speech, made before the Queen and assembled dignitaries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, with the argument that the Nazi desire to eradicate God had led to the Holocaust and a plea for 21st-century Britain to respect its Christian foundations.

...

Dude, lemmie tell ya, the Nazis co-opted the Catholic church before Hitler became Chancellor.

Puppy Eve!

Heading to bed early tonight because we have to get up at Oh-So-Fucking-Early tomorrow to head out to Erie, PA to meet my pal Kathy and pick up our two new little monsters. I'm bringing the laptop with me and the local Red Roof says they have wifi, but so do cruise lines. I'll try to post but god knows what kind of bandwidth I'll have to work with. If you don't hear from either of us, consider it a weekend off at the Brain.

We'll be back Monday, at the least, Gord with stories of Mrs. G's reunion and me on our pupitude.

Ziva

Da Chooch

OMG! Oh Noes!!!

Elizabeth Warren might believe in ... social justice!!??? Good God, what is America coming to?

The Big Yawn ...

Burn what? Go ahead:

IN SCENES of calm bemusement not seen in the lower United States since John Scopes taught innocent schoolchildren evolution, it was reported yesterday that Pastor Terry Jones had given up on his plans to burn 200 Korans and was instead planning to incite atheists by soaking a gross of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in moonshine and putting a match to them.

Atheists, who hadn't been expected to come out in pick-up trucks with gun racks on their rear windows and circle his church with their engines revving like goaded Rottweilers, didn't.

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Very funny. Thank god it's Friday!

Thanks to Erin for the link.

That's entertainment ...

D-cap hits the nail on the head:

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The problem is Lewis is right. Most of this country could care less about the issues and would rather vote for someone that is "fun to have a beer" with or would be a good "roll in the hay." It doesn't matter that our previous beer buddy and current old man's wet dream both have a minimal grasp of reality, not one iota of worldliness and zero intellectual curiosity - they were (and are) very entertaining.

...

I must have said it a million times here. The American people have the attention spans of 3 year olds. Politics, like 90% of the crap on TV, is one big reality show. All that matters is who remains on the island in the end.

Boner Boehner Land

Nah, it ain't a 'pay-for-play' establishment in Amsterdam's Red Light District. It's about Johann van Oranje's* money connections.

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Even among Washington Republicans, John Boehner stands out for his especially deep ties to corporate lobbyists. They've committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign, played at luxury golf resorts alongside him, even thrown waterfront bashes and warehouse parties on his behalf.

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Yeah, he's looking out for the folks who live on 'Main Street'. Not ...

*"John of Orange" in Flemish.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Yes!

Finally, Barry did something for us progressives:

I'm going to come out of my blogging shell to praise President Obama for naming Elizabeth Warren to his team with a mandate to effectively run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Not only did he pick the best person to get the agency running, he's bypassing the mess that is the Senate appointment process. Strike one up for enthusiasm there ...

Personally, I didn't think he would.

Headin' out

Me 'n Mrs. G are heading out to the coast for a few days. Her High School class is having a "We're turning 65 party! Whee(ze)!". I won't turn 65 'til next Sunday, so I'm just going along as a stretcher bearer.

I'll leave you with a "how the fuck did we get into this mess?" piece by Robert Parry:

But how did the United States of America get here? How could the most powerful nation on earth with a sophisticated media that is constitutionally protected from government censorship have stumbled into today’s dreary place filled with such up-is-down commentary?

However, America’s decoupling from reality – and its disappearance into the swamp of unreality – began in earnest with the rise of actor and ad pitchman Ronald Reagan, who crafted a host of get-something-for-nothing policies that appealed to a nation that was struggling to adjust to a more complex world.

Yeah, America's a lot better at "Me first! Gimme! Gimmee! Now! Now!" than it is at 'complex'.

As a reward for wading through that and in case you missed it, here's a panel discussion in the wake of the teabagger primary victories that attempts to answer the question "How are the Democrats going to fuck this up?". Caution: John Oliver's final comment made me fall off the couch!

Also, Jon Stewart answers O'Donnell's question about masturbation, "...then what am I there for?". Heh.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Tea Party Primaries - Beyond the Palin
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

See yas.

Quote of the Day

Maru:

...

Think Progress reports that bringing a "diverse group of voices" that "reflect the cultural, economic, and political landscape" of the U.S. actually means "white, male, senior, and Republican"

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This ...

Is the idiot who wants to be our next governor.

Jerking off ...

It was when I realized I was an atheist. Almost 30 years ago, I was referred to the commanding general of the Air Force Chaplain Corps. A 3-star who was a Baptist minister. I had to see him because I pissed off my squadron's executive officer, another Bible-thumper, after telling him "Me and God made a deal, I won't get in His way and He won't get in mine. It's worked out well for both of us so far" when he asked me why I refused to go to church on Sunday.

So, I was sent to the General and he was supposed to put some Jesus in me. What I got was a lecture about sin. How God watches each one of us (He must have been pretty pissed at me for killing innocent people, but the General didn't want to hear about that) and frowns on unmarried sex (Jeez, this was the Air Force, we fucked everybody) and masturbation. My only question to him was "You mean God doesn't want me to jerk off? Why'd he give me this toy?" All that I got out of the meeting was being put on a shit detail for a couple weeks to "think about what was lacking in my life" (Beer? Pussy?).

That said, Athenae (the best ranter on the intarwebs) looks at the same mindset via the prism of Delaware's Republican 'contendah':

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I especially love O'Donnell's bit about how if her husband knows how to pull his pud, he won't need to have sex with her. I'm a chick, okay, so maybe I lack the mystical understanding of The Penis here, but ... is this at all the case? Unless you're yanking yourself sore like a teenager, do you really lose interest in all other forms of sex? Isn't the stereotype of males that they're CONSTANTLY after it and girls have to slow them down? "If he knows how to pleasure himself, what am I there for?" Um, I don't know, what are you there for? Do you really want your husband only fucking you because you're his only option as all else is denied by God? Isn't this how rent boys and airport bathroom liaisons happen?

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I don't know. When I was young I used to touch myself regularly and chase after any woman who'd give me the time of day. What is it with Republicans who are so obsessed with what I do with my privates?

Republicans Reap The Whirlwind

Hey, ya sow Big Windies, so shall ye reap.

TNR

The conservative movement* has spent the last 20 months sowing hysteria about President Obama's agenda. The most respectable Republicans call the president a socialist, a radical, a threat to freedom. The less respectable Republicans, many of them highly influential, call him an alien, a sympathizer of radical Islam, a conscious enemy of the United States who is trying to wreck the economy. Obama is a dangerous figure, he cannot be compromised with, and the fight against him is a twilight struggle to save the last vestiges of the Republic.

And so it has been amusing to watch Republicans as they desperately attempted to persuade Republican voters in Delaware to support moderate Mike Castle over Christine O'Donnell. The political logic is obvious: Castle would have been a near shoo-in to win, while O'Donnell is a near shoo-in to lose. [...]

*A very apt description of conservatives. I had a 'movement' this morning. It was anything but conservative...

But the Republican base has been taught not to think this way. This isn't just politics, remember? This is a twilight struggle for freedom. And Mike Castle didn't just cast a couple bad votes. He acquiesced in a sinister plan to undermine capitalism. How could they ever support a candidate like that?

Moreover, Republican voters have luxuriated in the belief that they represent the true majority of the American people. Obama may have won by fooling the voters, or possibly by stealing the election with Acorn, but the enduring majority of the public is staunchly conservative. Indeed, Republicans only lost because they strayed from the true faith.

But the conservative base is not in on the joke. And so Republican elites found themselves with just a few frantic days to undo the toxic and intoxicating effects of 20 months of relentless propaganda. Vote for the man who compromised with evil! The true conservative can't always win! They couldn't do it.

I won't say that the Republican base strategy has been a total failure. But it is nice to see it blow up in the face of the establishment from time to time.

The Repug establishment preached extremism and watched it catch on amongst their sheeple all too well and now they are surprised the base took over from them and the extremists won?

I'm enjoying the shit outta all this. I almost, not quite but almost. want the damn teabaggers to win all these seats. They'd fuck things up so bad that in 2, 4, 6 years there wouldn't be a Repug party. They're almost there now.

As a country, of course, we don't have the time for as colossal a step backwards as that, and I'm not getting any younger either, but in a way I'd like to see just how low a bottom the nation could hit, like an alcoholic before he admits to himself that his way isn't working and he needs help from adults.

Turdblossom - the new Jane Hamsher?

I'll give ya a minute to wipe off your keyboard. Sorry 'bout that.

TPMDC

With the battle won by the ultra-right in Delaware, the national conservative pundits who backed Christine O'Donnell in last night's GOP Senate primary have turned on a man who is presumably one of their own: Karl "The Architect" Rove. After Rove bemoaned O'Donnell's nomination as the end of the GOP's chances to take back the Senate in a heated interview with Sean Hannity last night, pundits and tea partiers have slammed him as a traitor and even called for Fox News to suspend him as an on-air analyst.

In one five-minute interview, it seems, Rove went from keeper of the conservative cause to the next Jane Hamsher in the eyes of those who are ostensibly his allies. [...]

I hope Jane's laughin' her heinie off at that one!

"Bemoan" is a good word. Not only they be moanin', they be whinin'. One hopes they be losin' too.

And what does the Virgin Teabag say?

O’Donnell blasts GOP ‘cannibalism’: Everything Rove says is ‘unfactual’

We've known that for years. There may be the barest glimmer of a grasp of reality in her, if such can be inferred by her seeing the blatantly obvious.

As for Repug cannibalism? Ess, ess mein kindt!

Fun With Christine O'Donnell

The Rude One

Hey, GOP, have a blast with Tea Partying non-fucking primary winner Christine O'Donnell, who is basically William Donohue in a skirt (she's one hardcore . It's kind of nice that the Republicans just teabagged themselves out of any chance of winning back the Senate. You've heard about O'Donnell's stance against self-fingering. But there's so very much more.

2. "I'm a young woman in my '30s and I remain chaste." - From MSNBC's Scarborough Country, November 13, 2003. O'Donnell was 34. She is now 41 and unmarried. Because of her strict views on abstinence, she is either a virgin who has never even masturbated or a liar. Or perhaps, last night, after her victory over the man she projected gayness onto, she leaned forward against the center of the lectern where she gave her victory speech. Perhaps in the wood there she could feel, just lightly on her edges of her tightly covered pussy, the vibrations of the sound of applause from the crowd. Perhaps, her body acting without her even realizing it, she moved ever so slightly so that her clitoris was now pushed against the lectern, and, perhaps, the roar of her supporters made it shake just enough to alert her long-dormant desire, her subconscious need, and her clit became engorged with blood, which only heightened her sensitivity. Perhaps this confused O'Donnell's nerve endings, unaccustomed to an application of such delicacy, and perhaps she pushed even more against the lectern, almost as if her labia were drawing her toward the vibrations, the flute-playing swami to her cobra, making her subtly hump it. Perhaps, and only maybe, she felt flush, wondering what this sensation was, that victory combined with adoration was making her feel all a-tingle. Perhaps she came, quietly and just once, climaxing with the end of her speech. Perhaps she wondered what it meant. Perhaps she took it as a sign from God that it's okay to touch herself. Or, more likely, perhaps she wondered who let the devil into the Dover Elks Lodge.

3. For anyone who wonders if O'Donnell can pull out an upset, let's put her numbers in context:
Number of registered voters in Delaware: 621,746
Number of registered Republicans: 182,796 (29%)
Number of votes O'Donnell received: 30,561
By the Rude Pundit's awesome abilities with a calculator, that means she received: 16.7% of registered Republicans.
Number of registered Democrats: 292,738 (47%)

Or, in other words, Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, and the Tea Party can go fuck themselves.

Better themselves than us.

Damn you Muslims, get off my lawn

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford,

This much we know: America needs its demons. We need our enemies, our menacing and dark-eyed nemesis, that foreign and terrifying thing we do not understand and against which we must rally and wail, push and pule, fight and destroy.

Communists. Arabs. The Japanese. Blacks. Native Americans. Hippies. Gays. "Gooks." Immigrants. Chinamen. The poor. Women. Teenagers. Vegans. Science. What's the problem with this nation? What's really eating at our soul and threatening our honest love of an angry God, apple pie and giant homoerotic firearms? It ain't us. It's them. They're trying to mess with our heads, steal our freedom, impregnate our virgins, poison the water supply. Damn them to hell, and where's my shotgun?

The sentiment has since grown in fits and farts and boozy burps, fanned by Rush Limbaugh's moron Dittoheads, Glenn Beck's gullible simpletons, and of course, the Tea Party, perhaps the first significant political movement entirely dependent on our failing educational system to survive (my em). Truly, the Tea Party might just be the dumbest gaggle of humans ever to rally around a nonsensical, as-yet-unstated worldview no one can quite spell out. Because they have no clue what the hell it is.

Wait, did I say this enemy-invention thing was an American tradition? Far from it. Demonization of the Other as a means to boorish, violent nationalism is universal to nearly all cultures, all nations worldwide. We are, you can say, a planet of self-righteous, petulant tribes, claiming this or that strip of dirt, crying that God chose us as his most favorite, flinging feces at each other like deranged monkeys, signifying nothing. Ain't it grand?

Yeah, just fuckin' peachy.

The Confederate Party ...

It boggles the mind ...

God bless the Tea Party ...

Our local Tea Party nuts nominated themselves an idiot to run for governor against Andy Cuomo. Heh ...

NEW YORK -- Political novice and tea party ally Carl Paladino has beaten the Republican designee in the race for the party's nomination for New York governor.

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Rick Lazio (he ran against Hillary for her Senate seat) is level-headed and not crazy. He would have given Cuomo a tough run but instead they put up a nut who Cuomo, should he not fuck up, should defeat handily.

Remember the 'Nader Days' when Ralphie would siphon off votes from the Dems? It's nice to see the Rethugs dealing with it for once.

Update:

The nuts won in Delaware too. Heh ...

"Do you make ...

$250K a year?"

When I hear somebody kvetching about Barry raising taxes, that's what I ask 'em.

If they say "no", I ask 'em why they're so worried about it. Heather explains:

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And if you're making that much a year you can afford for your taxes on your income over the $250,000 household threshold go up a little. Speaking of which, that's another thing I get tired of while hearing these guys cry about how those tax cuts expiring are going to harm the ones right on the edge so badly. They act like the higher rates are going to affect their entire income. If you made $250,100 for the year after your deductions, the only part of your income that's going to be affected by the higher rate is that last $100, not all of it.

Someone needs to explain the concept of tax brackets to these clowns and the media needs to quit allowing any of them who are confusing the public about just how much more a year anyone that's just above the $200,000 a year individual income of $250,000 a year household income would actually see their taxes rise if the Obama administration's proposals end up being enacted.

It's a shame the conservative "base" is so stupid and gullible, or, maybe at this point, in denial that they've been played for fools for so long.