The Right’s Sickening Syria Spin

By Michael Tomasky. Today's 'recommended read'.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not very interested in being lectured that Bashar al-Assad has no real intention of giving up his chemical weapons by the very same people who a decade ago were pushing this country into war—and having the deranged gall to call the rest of us unpatriotic—on the argument that there was no possible way a monster like Saddam Hussein had given up his chemical weapons. Barack Obama has been forced to spend about 70 percent of his presidential energies trying to repair crises foreign and domestic that these people created, and forced to do so against their iron opposition on all fronts; and now that he’s achieved a diplomatic breakthrough, they have the audacity to argue that he sold America out to Vladimir Putin? It’s staggering and sickening.
...

The second question concerns Assad. Conservatives are now asserting that this deal means Assad has gotten away with it; that he used chemical weapons and will now pay no price. What does that even mean? If he even partly or mostly honors the terms of the deal, he’s paid a price. I suppose the critics really mean that Assad paid no military price, and strictly speaking that’s true. But do these critics really think Assad is sitting in Damascus laughing? He was afraid the world’s largest and best military was going to bomb him. And I’d bet he knows all too clearly that if he uses them again, he will be bombed. If Assad is mad enough to use them again, Obama won’t mess with Congress or even Russia. He’ll be credited by most observers—except America’s enemies and the Republican Party; food for thought there (my em)—for having shown restraint the first time, and more people will agree at that point that Assad must be punished
...

What Obama has screwed up on Syria is process stuff. He’s changed his mind. That’s unforgivable, in the Washington Village. It shows no “resolve.” Well, Bush showed resolve. I’ll give him that. And as he dragged us into a full-out war premised on lies that were crafted to shift an originally skeptical public sentiment in his favor, the pundits largely applauded. Obama has spoken honestly to the American people, obeyed their strong majority view, and secured a deal that for the moment represents the outer limits of the possibility of doing good in Syria. The brickbats thrown by the very people who turned the world against us are not only hard to take seriously, they’re a moral offense.

In related news:

McCain feels a ‘little lonely’ because nobody wants to attack Syria

Suck it, Grampa Walnuts. It must be an awful feeling to wave your pistol around, holler "follow me!", go over the top and get halfway across no-man's-land, turn to check on your devoted troops and [crickets]. The devoted troops are back in the trench divvying up your liquor ration and dry socks. Heh.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Standard & Poor’s Claims Government Lawsuit “Retaliation” for Its Downgrade of U.S. Debt
Fact that S&P committed massive fraud only “coincidence.”

There's Wall St. "thinking" for you!

Chinese Students Riot to Block Monitors to Prevent Cheating on National Exams
Insist sophisticated cheating methods crucial to hoped-for careers on Wall Street.

Japan's Damaged Fukushima Nuclear Plant Leaking Radioactive Water Into Ocean
But local authorities downplay health risks associated with glow-in-the-dark sushi.

Self-lighting raw fish. Swell.

Balloon Crossing of Atlantic Fails
But some kid in Newfoundland has a great birthday party.

Like, DUH Headline of the Day

“Brighter future for politics and policy requires a different Republican Party”

If a motorcycle was in the same state of disrepair as the GOP. we would say to remove the gas cap and slip a new motorcycle under it.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Published on Sep 3, 2013
Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band perform a live version of the Gram Parsons/Tom O'Brown song "Return Of The Grievous Angel" from a show in 1984.

Thanks to AlsoTakenAlso, UK.

Quote & 'Toon of the Day

From Tea party Sen. Ted Cruz is eager to force a government shutdown

Sanity, however, is seen as weakness by the Republican militants.

The GOP in a nutshell.

Oh, the irony...

I usually post this on Mondays, but I was driving and it slipped my mind 'til now. Just getting over truck lag.

Ironic Times

Report: NSA Can Decrypt Almost Anything
Only Navajo code talkers safe.

Sen. McCain Caught Playing Video Poker on His iPhone During Syria Hearing
He's holding aces and eights.

Now THAT'S funny!

Blaming Sequester, CIA Closes Office That Declassifies Historical Documents
Forced to choose between that and flying coach.

Texas Becomes More Eco-Conscious
Right: oil pump powered by clean, renewable wind energy.

Urp...

Stupid is as stupid does

Some days, it DOES pay to chew through the restraints! There's stupid, and then there's double-dipped right-wing hater stupid. Do not drink anything while you read this lest it comes out yer nose and shorts out everything in front of you.

Controversial pastor Terry Jones arrested before carrying out Quran book-burning in Mulberry

Mulberry, Florida -- 10 News has learned that controversial Gainesville pastor Terry Jones was arrested before he could carry out his plan to burn nearly 3,000 copies of the Islam holy book the Quran in Polk County on Wednesday afternoon.

Jones planned to burn the books at the county-owned Loyce E. Harpe Park in Mulberry, but was denied a permit, with officials saying he filed his request too late and that he does not have permission for an event of that magnitude.
...

But shortly before he planned to set the books on fire at the Mulberry park, Jones and associate pastor Marvin Wayne Sapp Jr. (aptly named! - G) were stopped. Their truck was towing a large barbecue smoker, which reportedly had copies of the Quran inside, already doused in kerosene.

"We couldn't allow that container to continue down the road, with the flammable liquid in that container," said Polk Co. Sheriff Grady Judd in a press conference. "It was flammable and it was dangerous."
...

Polk deputies took Jones and Sapp into custody at the Mulberry Pharmacy on N. Church Avenue on felony charges. They are both charged with unlawful conveyance of fuel.

Jones was additionally charged for unlawful open carry of a firearm, while Sapp Jr. was additionally charged with not having a valid registration for the smoker trailer. He will also receive multiple traffic citations for not having proper lighting on the trailer.

Some "Christians", huh? Jesus woulda had taillights on his Quran bomb!

I hope this incident keeps this "pastor" busy for a while.

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pita Place

The Daily Show

Sam Bee, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross apologize to the citizens of Egypt for sending America's three stupidest people to their country.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

What the hell was the State Department thinking, letting these yingyangs represent the United States abroad? Yeesh.

Get the net...

Following up on yesterday's Headline of the Day. I love the picture! From Addicting Info. This is NOT from The Onion!

Tinfoil Hat Alert: Obama Plots To Exterminate Human Race And Rule As Immortal Cyborg
...

Alex Jones has decided that the United Nations (and Obama, of course) have embarked on a course of destabilizing and destroying countries so they can reduce the world to a primitive state and control it from “jetcopters” as Methuselah cyborgs.

I swear I am not making this up. Here’s the eight minute rant via Media Matters but the good part comes at 5:40:

Got that? Agenda 21 will put us all back into the Dark Ages so the UN is evil. Science will allow the “elitists” to live longer and merge man and machine so science is evil. Hollywood is a propaganda tool to sell collectivism so Hollywood and its flying red carpets (Huh?) are evil.

But if you’re “informed” like Alex Jones (no really! He said that!), you know the truth about all of these insidious plots! Normally, this would be the part where I make fun of Jones and anyone stupid enough to buy into anything he says but, honestly, I know when I’m outclassed. Who could possibly add anything to that rant to make it even more of a parody?

My hat is off to you, Mr. Jones. You are truly a work of art.

"Work of art" is not exactly the term I would have used. "Piece of ... work" is more like it.

The upshot is that Obamacare covers Obama Derangement Syndrome but I think "Crazy Alex" has a terminal case. That's fine with me.

Facepalm Moment of the Day

Rand Paul asks Americans to form alliance with Assad regime

Note to Paul: Get "Political Aspirations" tattooed on your ass and kiss it good-bye after this suggestion. Yeesh.

9/11 Reflects...

The Rude Pundit

It's funny, 9/11 thinks. She feels weary, worn-out this morning, and it's strange because she believed that she would feel so much stronger than usual. After all, the new building is nearly done and, truth be told, it's so much better than the steel and concrete monstrosities that were leveled a dozen years ago. But, of course, one doesn't wish to do urban renovation through disaster and death.

She looks in a mirror and says to herself, "You think you'd be happy, at least a little." After all, while the candidates for mayor in New York City invoked her name more times than they needed to, including Bill de Blasio in his speech last night, she isn't tossed around as casually. She's been mostly absent from the discussion of bombing Syria. She was used to being paraded around, plastered with makeup, made a whore by Giuliani and Bush, imprisoned and roughly fucked by Cheney and Rumsfeld, burned with cigarettes and pissed on by Karl Rove, who jacked off into her hair after. Most of that ended a few years ago, of course, of course, although she pities her Libyan namesake who is little more than a fuck doll for conservatives who love having exotic tongue on their dicks and clits.
...

She stares back at the mirror. She can see herself. She's sure of that. "I'm not a ghost," she says. "Not yet."

She realizes, though, that she feels as if she is haunting the debate about Syria. She may not be called on by politicians or even many pundits to justify a new pseudo-war, a war lite, if you will. But she's sure that they've been ringing her door buzzer and running away. All of the terrible things done in her name - the Iraq nightmare, the Afghanistan slog, the breaking down of rights big and small, the drone attacks, the torture and indefinite detention, the surveillance state - hang there. She didn't want her existence to change so many things, but they did change. She didn't do it herself, but others say she caused them to do it. That's why, exhausted and used-up as she is, 9/11 feels it is her just punishment to take all who visit into her bed. Or, in the case of Rove, over the radiator, on the bathroom floor, or hanging in the closet.

There are those who tell 9/11 that she's suffered enough, that whatever implied sins she wishes to atone for have been fucked clean. They have it wrong, though. 9/11 says to them that it's not her sins that must be forgiven. It's that she is taking on the sins of others and trying to redeem them. She's just failed. She's failed, but she keeps trying.

Even as the cries of "Never forget" echo through the canyons of Manhattan, through the monuments of DC, 9/11 wants to be forgotten. Because it would be better to be forgotten than to be remembered in this way for all history.

I too wish she could quit being used the way she is, as a handy fuck piece for politicians.

21 awesome features missing from the new iPhone

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on Features He'd Like To See. Heh.

The new iPhones with iOS7 are packed, nay packed with amazing new features, colors, camera abilities, software doodads, and more. They’re nothing short of miraculous hunks of modern tech gloriousness. But they’re also, shockingly, missing a few key features we’d really like to see in future models. Such as:

1. Snicker Muffler. For every hipster under 40 who struggles to stifle a disbelieving chuckle when they see their Midwestern elders scooping heaps of freeze-dried, lint-colored misery from giant, Costco-sized tins of Maxwell House into pale mugs of watery sadness, and you’re all, like, “Really? You call that coffee? I pay six dollars for a single, hand-poured cup of Lost Guatemalan Ultra Orangutan Intestine Blend from Blue Bottle! [Snicker].”
...

14. Toxic Goo Proximity Sensor. Emits shrill alarm and displays a highly detailed photo of multiple gastrointestinal cancer polyps anytime your phone is within 100 feet of Taco Bell.
...

19. Wasabi Detector. Special sensor detects just how much wasabi the sushi chef snuck under that piece of hamachi nigiri before you eat it and your face explodes. Phone will tear up accordingly, wave hand in front of itself in desperate fanning motion as Siri goes “OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod” and reaches over and chugs all your sake.

22. Me. I wouldn't have one of those things up my ass if I had room for a boxcar.

Just ... go ...

Headline of the Day

Alex Jones: Syria diplomacy a plot to extinguish humans so Obama and elitists can be cyborgs

When I see shit this stupid I don't know whether to laugh at the asshole or cry for the morons who think it must be true because you can't put it on the radio if it isn't.

Headline of the Day

Home safe and sound. Between being burnt down to my socks from hangin' with all them 68-year-old party animals for three days and a helluva case of truck lag, I'm easin' back inta all the shit that's goin' on. This is as good a place to start as any:

Republicans Are Torn Between Their Racist Hatred of Obama and Eternal Love of Bombing the Crap Out of the Middle East

Enjoy!

No Saturday Emmylou Blogging

I'm being lazy. Fuck everything until at least Tuesday.

Headin' out

We're going out to the coast for a few days for Mrs. G's 50 year High School reunion. Blogging will be light to bupkis, but I'll do what I can. See yas.

Headline of the Day

Maddow to Iraq War architects on TV: ‘Your opinion is no longer required on matters of war and peace’

Word.

Note to Rummie: You better keep your lying pie hole shut and thank your lucky stars you ain't in prison.

Headline of the Day II

If We Stay Out of Syria, Assad Has Bush to Thank

No shit.

Quote of the Day

Tag line from a piece by Charles P. Pierce on the Syria hearings:

John Boehner has no power. John McCain has no power. Only the Stupid has the power now. Fear the Stupid.

Headline of the Day

REPUBLICANS OFFER SYRIA STRATEGY: “WE MUST DEFUND OBAMACARE”

Why do I have no trouble believing that?

The Burn

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford, back from Burning Man with 92 photos.

Keep in mind, this gallery is but a tiny sample, a glimpse, a taste; I’d say it represents not even 10% of what’s really out there. And it’s utterly impossible to capture the tremendous scale of the thing, the vast flatness, two miles across and 360 degrees of brain-melting, body-blasting, anima-pumping, skin-scorching sensory overload like you can find nowhere else in the world. Trust me. And that’s not just the stimulants talking. Mostly.

That's the only warning you're going to get. Heh. Enjoy.

The End of U.S. Imperium - Finally!

David Stockman

Next week Congress can do far more than stop a feckless Tomahawk barrage on a small country that is already a graveyard of civil war and sectarian slaughter. By voting “no,” it can trigger the end of the American Imperium—five decades of incessant meddling, bullying, and subversion around the globe that has added precious little to national security but left America fiscally exhausted and morally diminished.
...

The screaming strategic truth is that America no longer has any industrial state enemies capable of delivering military harm to its shores: Russia has become a feeble kleptocracy run by a loud-mouthed thief, and the Communist Party oligarchs in China would face a devastating economic collapse within months were they to attack their American markets for sneakers and Apples. So the real question now before Congress is, how is it possible that the peace-loving citizens of America, facing no industrial-scale military threat from anywhere on the planet, find themselves in a constant state of war? The answer is that they have been betrayed by the Beltway political class, which is in thrall to a vast warfare state apparatus that endlessly invents specious reasons for meddling, spying, intervention, and occupation.

I don't necessarily agree with all the writer's points but I'd like to see the end of American Imperialism, in particular the mess we've made for ourselves in the Middle East. Please read the rest.

"He knew that this was so wrong that he didn’t want to tell anyone"

Yes, Obamacare is going to be a disaster. To all the usual suspects' bottom lines.

Raw Story

Georgia governor gets paid through secret PAC to obstruct Obamacare
...

Contributors to Real PAC include Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross, United Health care and other interests that want to keep health insurance premiums and other costs as high as possible. Bryan Long of activist group Better Georgia told Raw Story that the list of donors shows who Gov. Deal really works for.
...

“What’s remarkable about this isn’t that there’s money in politics,” he continued. “We all know there’s money in politics. He knew that this was so wrong that he didn’t want to tell anyone. He tried to keep it a secret for two years.”\
...

Last week, state insurance commissioner Ralph Hudgens was caught on tape boasting to a crowd of supporters that his office is deliberately obstructing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As Floyd County Republicans called out “Amen!” and applauded, Hudgens said that his office is interfering with the certification of the ACA’s insurance policy “navigators,” individuals hired to help consumers choose policies on the open market.

“Let me tell you what we’re doing (about Obamacare),” he said. “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

Got caught because he bragged about it. Nothing will happen to this yingyang because IOKIYAR. Business as usual. Yeesh.

9 Years

Today is the 9th anniversary of my tour at the Brain. Fixer started it on 4 July 2004. Lotta water under the bridge. I came along a little later, and depending on who's telling this war story, I was either left on his porch in a basket with a $50 bill pinned to my chest or he tracked me down with dogs. Either way, he gave me a home and I've never looked back. I didn't even know how to cut and paste when I started. I know a lotta tricks now.

A few specs: We've had 1,126,894 pageviews; 20,471 posts; 12,471 comments; and thank you to our 53 followers. We get 1000+ pageviews per day on average, and have had as many as 5000. The trick is to use the same headline as the article I'm posting so it pops up on browsers. Heh. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

A lot has changed in 9 years. When we got going, Kerry was running for POTUS against the Chimp, and Repuglican't Rule lasted 4 more years. Nowadays, the Repugs are well on their way to being an officially backward and shrinking party of old scared Southern white people and their ilk elsewhere. Their antics have gone from day-in-and-day-out outrageous to mostly comedy gold, and I'm enjoying the shit out of them swirling the drain.

On the federal level, that is. If you live in one of the states they run, times are bad. Throw 'em out in '14, '16, whenever you get the chance. Show up and vote. Dems in general dropped the ball big time in '10 and I hope we've learned our lesson: Off-year elections get less turnout, but ALL the morons we're trying to defend against crawl out from under their rocks and vote and so must we or we're screwed. 2010 NEVER AGAIN!

I figured out early on that opinion writing is too much work so I find real writers who say things I like and quote them with short, pithy even, diabolical genius comments of my own. I'm spending more time on Facebook these days, like Fixer is, and I know the Brain has suffered for it. On the flip side, I get a lotta good material off there.

I discovered I'm not as liberal as I once thought I was. I believe in liberty and justice for all, and if that makes me a godless commie fuck, so be it. Damn, I wish a 'bagger would say that to my face just so I could tell him to tell his friends he got those shiners from a pussy liberal!

I believe that Repugs in any of their 5 factions are the worst enemy our country has ever faced, and anything else is better. Despite his flaws, I'm still down with Obama and will be with Hillary too.

This isn't as much fun without Fixer.

Thank you all for reading and commenting. You're the reason I plug away at this. Here's to 9 more.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

PUBLIC DOESN'T SUPPORT STRIKE ON SYRIA
Supports strike on Time Warner Cable.

Heh.

Revealed: NYPD Has Secret Spy Cab
Discovered when someone got a ride from the airport and was driven directly to their destination and charged the proper amount.

Obviously unclear on the concept.

Oxford English Dictionary Adds “Twerk,” “Selfies” and “Vom”
Removes “linguist,” “spinning” and “grave.”

Unpaid Laborers Begin Raising Billions for Their Wealthy Masters
College football's back.

Women Protest Across the Globe August 25th
on Go Topless Day
And you missed that?

How the Republican Party lost its mind

Excellent article at Salon.

Now, in 2013, we have the politics that 50 years of this process have created. The Democratic Party has fewer conservatives than it once did, but is still a broadly coalitional party with liberal and moderate elements. It controls the coasts, has strength in the industrial Midwest, and is making inroads in the upper, more urbanized South and in Florida. It confronts a Republican Party almost wholly dependent on the interior states of the old Confederacy. (The party continues to win in the mountain and prairie West, but the region is too sparsely populated to provide any real electoral heft.) Because of its demographic weakness, it is more beholden than ever to the intensity of its most extreme voters. This has engendered a death spiral in which it must take increasingly radical positions to drive these voters to the polls, positions that in turn alienate ever larger segments of the population, making these core voters even more crucial — and so on. We have a name these days for the electoral residue produced by this series of increasingly rigorous purifications. We call it “the Tea Party.”
...

Unfortunately, our government isn’t designed to function in these conditions. The peculiarities of our system — a Senate, armed with the filibuster, that gives Wyoming’s 576,000 people as much power as California’s 38,000,000; gerrymandered districts in the House; separate selection of the executive and the legislature; a chronically underfunded elections process, generally in partisan hands and in desperate need of rationalization — simply won’t permit it. What we get instead is paralysis — or worse. The Republican Party, particularly in the House, has turned into the legislative equivalent of North Korea — a political outlier so extreme it has lost the ability to achieve its objectives through normal political means (my em). Its only recourse is to threats (increasingly believable) that it will blow up the system rather than countenance this-or-that lapse from conservative dogma. This was the strategy it pursued in the debt ceiling debacle of 2011, and if firebrands such as Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have their way it will guide the party’s approach to the same issue this fall, and perhaps to government funding (including “Obamacare”) as well. Realignment and polarization have led us to gridlock and instability.

The relentless radicalization of the Republican Party since 1964 is the most important single event in the political history of the United States since the New Deal. It has significantly shaped the course of our government and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But this means it has also shaped the individual life of every citizen— the complex amalgam of possibilities and opportunities available (or not) to each of us. The conservative visionaries of the ‘50s and ‘60s wanted a new world. We’re all living in it now.

We have been for thirty years and it sucks.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou gets more of an assist on this one. That's OK. I've been a Linda fan even longer.

Thanks to Larry Privat.

"I wish I had another fifty years in me."

Robert Reich

A few days ago I had breakfast with a man who had been one of my mentors in college, who participated in the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s and has devoted much of the rest of his life in pursuit of equal opportunity for minorities, the poor, women, gays, immigrants — and also for average hard-working people who have been beaten down by the economy. Now in his mid-80s, he's still active.

I asked him if he thought America would ever achieve true equality of opportunity.

"Not without a fight," he said. "Those who have wealth and power and privilege don't want equal opportunity. It's too threatening to them.They'll pretend equal opportunity already exists, and that anyone who doesn't make it in America must be lazy or stupid or otherwise undeserving."
...

But have we really made progress? Inequality is widening. The middle class and the poor are in many ways worse off than they were decades ago."

"Yes, and they're starting to understand that," he said. "And beginning to see that the distinction between the middle class and poor is disappearing. Many who were in the middle have fallen into poverty; many more will do so."

"And, so?"

He smiled. "For decades, those at the top have tried to convince the middle class that their economic enemies are minorities and the poor. But that old divide-and-conquer strategy is starting to fail. And as it fails, it will be possible to create a political coalition of the poor and the middle class. It will be a powerful coalition! Remember, demographics are shifting. Soon America will be a majority of minorities. And women are gaining more and more economic power."

"But the 400 richest Americans are now wealthier than the bottom 150 million Americans put together — and have more political influence than ever."

"Just you wait," he laughed. "I wish I had another fifty years in me."

Me too, and even that may not be long enough. Dammit.

Old men try to turn back clock

This is specific to North Carolina but applies across the U.S.

Asheville Citizen-Times

What we’ve been witnessing at the General Assembly in Raleigh the past few months is the futile attempt by fearful, old, white men to hang onto the power and control to which they assume they’re entitled. These extremists imagine that if they can push women, gays, blacks and Latinos back to the status these groups held before the mid-20th century, they can hang onto their perch at the top of the pecking order.

Now don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against old white men. In fact, I am one. But I do take issue with any group, regardless of skin color, sex or age, that abuses its power in a deceitful and un-American attempt to keep others from experiencing the fruits of liberty — equal rights for all, the unfettered opportunity to vote, a quality education for all our children, clean air and water for every citizen. ...

I could go on.

If you look at the data, it’s clear that the demographic shift taking place in our nation will be the death knell of this Caucasian paternalism. [...]

Soon, please.

Thus, no matter how forcefully the Tea Party (née GOP) shamefully endeavors to suppress the vote, strip women of their rights, push people of color to the back of the bus and keep our children from developing the skills they need in the 21st century, the appalling efforts of our state legislators are doomed to failure in the long run.

I'm hoping it's the last gasp of the throwback mentality but I know it isn't.

It’s obvious from their strident protestations that most of these right-wing zealots imagine they are doing God’s work (though it’s quite clear they are actually following the marching orders of ALEC, the Koch Brothers and Art Pope).
...

So we North Carolinians who are deeply concerned about our state’s current backward direction have choices to make: We can sit around for a decade or two while the old guys pass from the scene; or we can stand up for our values and vote the instigators of the most abhorrent state legislation in the nation out of office.

I wish there was a faster way, but that's how we do it, people.

"2010 NEVER AGAIN!"

Adelson Pays Out to the U.S. Government

The Daily Beast

Adelson’s casino company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., cut its losses this week when it agreed to pay $47 million to the U.S. government to settle a federal money-laundering investigation with ties to a Mexican methamphetamine cartel. In exchange, Obama’s Department of Justice agreed not to prosecute the company for failing to report suspicious activity on the part of Zhenli Ye Gon, a high-rolling customer whose shady money transfers ought to have alarmed casino compliance officials and been reported to authorities.

Known as “Mr. Ye” on the Strip, the Chinese businessman gambled at least $126 million from 2006 to early 2007—most of that at the Sands’s Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip—prior to his arrest by Drug Enforcement Administration agents. A suspected money launderer with alleged ties to the violent Sinaloa cartel, Ye Gon currently faces potential drug-trafficking charges in Mexico. (Similar charges in the U.S. were dismissed.)

When Ye Gon’s home near Mexico City was raided in 2008, agents found approximately $207 million in U.S. currency. Some of the fat stacks of $100s were held in place by Venetian casino wrappers. In the non-prosecution memo in the case, Adelson’s company admits Ye Gon was “the largest all-cash, up-front gambler the Venetian-Palazzo had ever had to that point.”
...

For his part, the usually loquacious Adelson is so far uncharacteristically quiet. The mercurial and litigious casino baron, whose profits from casinos in Triad-infested Macau have helped drive his personal net worth above $25 billion according to published reports, is suspiciously silent.

When he was busy trying to pave Mitt Romney’s path to the White House last year, Adelson was a veritable quote machine. Perhaps he figured sometimes it’s better to shut up and cut the check.

$47mil is about half of what Adelson flushed down the shitter to try to get Willard elected, or at least someone who could stop the investigation. It's a drop in the bucket but at least he's STFU.

Doom, gloom, shut up and smile

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on climate change.

Good news is, climate change is an equal opportunity offender: you will be affected no matter if you’re a vegan libertarian, shrugging nihilist, Wall Street millionaire or a Tea Party dingbat who believes that thousands of the world’s most distinguished scientists, climate researchers and Nobel Prize winners are no match for your skeptical 5th-grade home-schooled right-wing dumbed-down Christian mal-education.
...

Elsewhere and not long ago, for a sexy but little seen publication, I wrote the following:

Some Hindu scholars believe we are in the midst of what’s called the Kali Yuga, the fourth and final, darkest stage of grand cycle of humanity marked by vice and greed, violence and superstition. The Kali Yuga is the most intense, nonspiritual period when man is most divorced from his higher self, deceit and duplicity run rampant, and our natural storehouse of wisdom and virtue is nearly empty, soon dwindling to zilch until Shiva cracks his third eye and it all starts over again.

Or maybe not. [...]

All will be revealed. Go...

Just sayin'...

If I were Emperor (EOTUS) and be glad I'm not, and it was up to me to retaliate against Syria, here's what I would do:

The chemical rockets were apparently fired from four military bases. I would send FIVE strikes. The four bases and Assad's Palace or White House or whatever it's called. Then five more just to make the rubble bounce because I could.

Then, after a decent interval to allow people's ears to stop ringing and let government agents swarm these places looking for survivors or whatever, five more strikes with chemical weapons, mustard gas, tear gas, shit plant residue, whatfuckinever, to render them uninhabitable for a long fucking time.

Then, just for shits and giggles, I'd find a very remote spot in Syria and blow off a nuke right in the middle of it. Sort of a "knock off the cheap shit" message.

Without too much provocation, I'd do the same thing in the more egregious red states too.

And I'm supposed to be a pussy peace/love/dope Liberal. Heh.

I know I'm gonna get suggestions. Let 'er rip!

Quote of the Day

From El Rude-o on the CIA's admission that the U.S. was complicit in Saddam's use of chemical weapons.

We are a nation that has been led by war criminals. Hell, they even worried a little bit about that in those CIA files.

Once again, once again, we're in the position of now Knowing For Sure what we knew but didn't have confirmed.

I think it was pretty well confirmed years ago but it's never for sure until the lawyers say it's OK to say it on TV.

Da Jesus Book

Dis is jus' too good! Via my Facebook and actual frien' Jeff Apaka.

Dis, da Hawai`i Pidgin New Testament (Da Jesus Book) wit 39% a da Ol Testament (Da Befo Jesus Book) dat stay ready fo use. You can find any chapta an verse. Fo any word, you can find all da places wea get dat word. Make um easy fo read an study da Bible.

On da firs' day, Godfella him go surfin'...

Former U.S. Attorney Reads Breitbart's Butt Boy The Riot Act

Via TPM.

The conservative video maker James O'Keefe has turned his cameras on the former federal prosecutor whose office brought charges against him and his accomplices in the phone-tampering of a Democratic U.S. senator.

In a video released by O'Keefe's Project Veritas on Monday, former U.S. Attorney James Letten can be seen shouting at O'Keefe and his colleagues. Letten can also be seen filming O'Keefe with his own smart phone.

"You went to my house, you terrorized my wife, you're violating federal law, you're trespassing, you're a nasty little cowardly spud," Letten says in the video. "All of you, you're hobbits. You are less than I can ever tell you. You are scum. Do you understand?"

That ain't the half of it! Not sure that "hobbits" is the correct choice of words, but they probably won't be offended since they don't exist.

This is an O'Keefe video, so the usual caveats and grains of salt apply.

Just turn it off when the shit starts getting deep.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Solar Panels Re-Installed At White House
First installed by Carter, then removed by Reagan, they'll remain until next Republican president removes them.

29% of Louisiana Republicans Blame Obama for Poor Katrina Response
42% blame Carter for Watergate.

Geez, Carter got two mentions already today!

Review of 63 Scientific Studies: Atheists Smarter Than Believers
But, believers say, according to The Bible, they're smarter.

Heh. Keep telling yourselves that, believers. It's what you want to hear.

GOP Congressman: Businesses Can't Find Enough “Sober,” “Drug-Free” Workers
And when they do, they turn out to be humorless party poopers.

Who won't work for minimum wage. Dope 'n booze cost money, you know!

The Nor Cal Tea Party and Fracking

An entertaining read at YubaNet. Shorter: the frackers know exactly where to go to find people who will fall for their snake oil.

The Nor Cal Tea Party Patriots were sponsoring a discussion on "fracking" by an "energy expert". This energy expert was a person my wife had tried to hear at an industry summit, but she was turned away at the door for being on a "Do Not Admit" list. No Enviros Allowed.

This was a "two for one" in my twisted mind: an industry apologist and a meeting of right wing extremists. [...]
...

John McDonald is part of the Industry Front group: the Coalition of Energy Users. Their sole purpose is to create the political and intellectual space for large scale Fracking operations to begin in California.

"Low cost energy is freedom" McDonald said, "High cost energy leads to the Obama Plantation" Yes, he actually said that. John started out with economic and social advantages with the new fracking revolution that has increased gas and oil production in the United States, disproving Hubberts peak. "If you care about the poor, you want low cost energy". McDonald swooned.

This led McDonald into talking about the wonders of Texas. "Texas is amazing" stating that if Texas was its own country, they would go from being 12th in the world in oil production to 9th, this year alone. Texas is currently pumping 3 million barrels a day, because of fracking. All of it on private land. And with oil production comes money to the Texas coffers: Texas will bring in "900 million dollars in revenue due to oil".

But is it safe? "All my life, when I look at what Environmentalists really state, I find lies", adding: "They lie every time". In a more hopeful tone, swarming to the enraptured crowd of Social Security pensioners, "You can combat the lies".

I guess I should have given you a "liquid alert". Sorry 'bout that...

On to the business of oil: "You can't get around the laws of business". We shouldn't "demonize things that are precious and beautiful. It is wrong to criticize oil companies". "We need to be kind and loving to our oil companies". We need to tell these companies we love them".

Yes, he said that. All of it.
...

The crowd was pretty excited about all the money that awaits us because California has 2/3rds of the recoverable oil and gas in the United States. We just need to stop the nasty Liberals and Environmentalists from getting in the way of the prosperity that is our birthright.

Most of the attendees at this snake oil commercial won't be around when their grandchildren enjoy the "prosperity" of having to buy "safe" drinking water from Nestle et al because of the fracking.

Sheriff Joe: Armed militias beware or be shot

This one's for Badtux from PoliceOne.com:

PHOENIX — Tough-talking Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is warning civilians who embark on armed patrols in remote desert terrain that they could end up "seeing 30 rounds fired into them" by one of his deputies.

His unapologetically terse comments came Tuesday after a member of an Arizona Minuteman border-watch movement was arrested over the weekend for pointing a rifle at a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy he apparently mistook for a drug smuggler.

"If they continue this there could be some dead militia out there," Arpaio said.

Yeah, like that'd be a big loss. Heh. Go read the rest.

¡Sin Precio!

The Political Carnival puts a little el spinno and logical expansion on Canuckistanian Cuban Cruz's supporters' viewpoint.

Thanks to The Texas Tribune.

Our own Lucian (@lwdgrfx) spotted more right wing hypocrisy, stupidity, and even found some humor in this eye-popping post at Raw Story.

Birther Christina Katok, of course, an avid Ted Cruz fan, proves once again how so many of these right wing extremists are of very little, if any, brain.

Brain? They're Teabaggers. Don't need no steenkin' brain!

But Katok doesn’t seem to understand a few basics, as you can see in the video where you can watch her say the following at a Texas tea party rally:

“As far as I’m concerned, Canada is not really foreign soil,” she explained, adding that she was more worried about the president’s “strong ties to Kenya.” She noted that Obama had not released his long-form birth certificate until after he was elected.

What if Canadians were brown people who didn’t speak English, Birther Christina? Would you make the same claim, as far as you’re concerned? What if President Obama’s skin was as white as yours?

I’ll dispense with further snarky commentary, because Lucian nailed it in two sentences. As he points out so astutely:

“If Canada ‘is not really foreign soil’ because they’re our neighbors, then neither is Mexico. Therefore, we no longer need to worry about deporting Mexican citizens here without papers because hey, what’s the problem – they’re not foreigners!


Trying to maintain Ted Cruz is eligible for the presidency but President Obama is not? Priceless.”

I have only three things to add:

1. IOKIYAR

2. Bwahahahaha!

3. ¡Hola, amigos!

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Published on Aug 20, 2013
Click here for complete concert - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
***
Vorst Nationaal, Brussels, Belgium
26th May 2006

Thanks to Best KNOPFLER Channel.

Arpaio's Cops and Militia Dolts Almost Kill Each Other

Operative word is "almost". Dammit.

The Rude Pundit is back from his vacation to Cape Breton Island (Canuckistan) and seems very relaxed. Heh.

So it must have been something of a surprise when one of these armed assholes at the border, thinking some Messicans were about to jump him, pointed his gun and yelled orders at one of Arpaio's deputies. The pure comedy part? When the deputy identified himself, the Minuteman, who we'll call "Cooter," because fuck that guy, said, "You aren’t taking my weapons." Poor Cooter. He never had a chance. Of course they took his weapons. Of course they arrested Cooter.

And, of course, Sheriff Joe made a statement where he said his deputies could have put "30 rounds" in the guy and added, without a hint of his own complicity, that there will be chaos "if you’re going to have private citizens dressed just like our deputies taking the law into their own hands." It's like Jeffrey Dahmer saying that the latest Cleveland serial killer should cut it out. Cooter, for his part, went full Zimmerman, saying that he was standing his ground. According to his statement, "[H]e had the right to point his rifle at the individual because he had reasonable suspicion to believe a crime was occurring."

Now Cooter faces felony assault charges. And the Minutemen no longer have Sheriff Joe on their side. But the more important lesson here is for every barrel-fellating gun nut who thinks that he can defend himself from the evil government: you can't, Cooter. You just can't. In this case, the deputies of the man the militias thought was on their side disarmed the 2nd Amendment lover and threatened to kill him. Oh, Cooter, it's different facing armed authorities and not poor immigrants. And when you're cornered, you'll surrender without a fight (my em).

That last line tells the whole story on the wannabe militias.

Question of the Day

Why Is Ted Cruz Giving Up His Chance to Be Prime Minister of Britain?

Note to Cruz: Don't limit your options. You stand a way better chance of being Blighty's PM than you do of ever being POTUS and I'm all for it. You'd be a pain in their bum instead of ours. Heh.

Bang-head-on-keyboard Headline of the Day

New Poll Shows Louisiana Republicans Blame Obama For How Bush Handled Hurricane Katrina

The stoopid, it burns...

DOJ Asks Court to Grant Immunity to George W. Bush For Iraq War

War Is A Crime.org

In court papers filed today (PDF), the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law.

Plaintiff Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the planning and waging of the war constituted a “crime of aggression” against Iraq, a legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II.

"The DOJ claims that in planning and waging the Iraq War, ex-President Bush and key members of his Administration were acting within the legitimate scope of their employment and are thus immune from suit,” chief counsel Inder Comar of Comar Law said.

The “Westfall Act certification,” submitted pursuant to the Westfall Act of 1988, permits the Attorney General, at his or her discretion, to substitute the United States as the defendant and essentially grant absolute immunity to government employees for actions taken within the scope of their employment.

In her lawsuit, Saleh alleges that:

-- Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz began planning the Iraq War in 1998 through their involvement with the “Project for the New American Century,” a Washington DC non-profit that advocated for the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

-- Once they came to power, Saleh alleges that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz convinced other Bush officials to invade Iraq by using 9/11 as an excuse to mislead and scare the American public into supporting a war.

-- Finally, she claims that the United States failed to obtain United Nations approval prior to the invasion, rendering the invasion illegal and an act of impermissible aggression.

“The good news is that while we were disappointed with the certification, we were prepared for it,” Comar stated. “We do not see how a Westfall Act certification is appropriate given that Ms. Saleh alleges that the conduct at issue began prior to these defendants even entering into office. I think the Nuremberg prosecutors, particularly American Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson, would be surprised to learn that planning a war of aggression at a private non-profit, misleading a fearful public, and foregoing proper legal authorization somehow constitute lawful employment duties for the American president and his or her cabinet.”

Best of luck to Ms. Saleh and her attorneys but I think the fix is in on this one.

Pyongyang Ice

Sounds like North Korea has more in common with the U.S. than we knew. Heh.

WSJ

The 25-year-old North Korean man knew there would be no turning back once he escaped from North Korea across to the Chinese side of the frozen Tumen River. It was February 2009 and he knew he’d need to be swift to avoid detection by the armed North Korean and Chinese border guards.

He says only one thing could give him that clarity—the narcotic crystal meth, or methamphetamine.

“I inhaled about ten hits before I went to the river,” said the man, who now lives in Seoul and asked for his name not to be used. “I felt really focused, all I could think was go, go, go. I didn’t sleep for two days after that.”

Before his defection to South Korea, he says he used the drug, known as “bingdu” or “ice” in the North, off and on for about three years. He says it was easy to score, dealers worked the streets of his hometown of Hamhung, South Hamgyung Province.

I wonder if they get Breaking Bad on state-controlled TV?

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

AREA 51 DECLASSIFIED
All extraterrestrial artifacts, remains, ongoing research transferred to still-classified Area 52.

GOP Votes to Bar CNN, NBC From Hosting '16 Debates
In talks with SyFy, Cartoon Network

They coulda left out the comma...

Shift Seen in Federal Policy On Crime, Drugs
Justice Department hints it might start going after actual criminals.

Actual crime-fighting as opposed to busting stoners at the Sara Lee display?!

Gen X Slackers Reach Middle Age
Time to take stock and think seriously about moving out of parents' house.

Aw, Mom 'n Dad dudes...

Headlines of the Day

Reince Priebus Admits the CNN and NBC Ban Is a Scam Because Republicans Fear Debates

Can't say as I blame him. He must have watched the Repugs' clown show last time. Heh.

The Republican Party is scared of Hillary Clinton, scared of the nation’s changing demographics, and most of all they are terrified that you will find out what they really stand for.

We are.

GOP: "Blatant Attempt by Obama to Provide Hi Speed Internet Has Founding Fathers Turning in Graves"
...

Another day, another laugh out loud headline, courtesy of today's Republican Party. Call it The Revenge of The Toobz. Of all the things for Republicans to pick on this is a really pretty weird one.
...

Rep. Grimm knows what Americans want (even though he refuses to hold a Town Hall during his 5 week summer recess). They want to use tin cans tied with string!

You have to stretch the string pretty tight to get those to work. I don't think the Repugs have that good a grip on anything. Heh.

Why an Iraqi Single Mom Is Suing George W. Bush for War Crimes

Why an Iraqi single mom and a tech lawyer think they can prove the Iraq War was a “crime of aggression” under U.S. law.

Doh - because it was?

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

An old favorite and one of her signature tunes.

Published on Aug 13, 2013
Click here for complete concert - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
***
Arena di Verona, Verona, Italy
3rd June 2006

Thanks to Best KNOPFLER channel.

Headline of the Day

GOP Congressman Gets Fact Checked By His Own Constituents On Obamacare: ‘Stop Lying!’

Even the wingers are catching on to the horseshit they've been force-fed. The end is in sight.

Republicans’ big problem with crazy

From The Guardian via Raw Story. You'll never guess whose picture they use to illustrate "crazy". Heh.

After three and a half years of legislative hostage-taking and policy nihilism and unceasing, uncompromising obstructionism of President Obama’s agenda, the message from the Tea Party is a simple one: we want more crazy.

So what’s going on here? Quite simply, Republicans are being destroyed by the rightwing monster they created.

And rightly so!

Any hope that the defeat of Mitt Romney in November 2012 would begin to drain the GOP’s fever swamp has gone by the wayside – and Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. In nurturing and radicalizing its extremist fringe – in pursuit of short-term gain – the Republican establishment created a political Frankenstein. Increasingly, however, it looks as though the monster’s first victim is going to be them.

The sooner the better.

'We're building a domestic army'

Kos

A Marine Corp Colonel spoke out at a August 12, 2013 Concord, NH council meeting after the Concord Police Department requested armored vehicles. This video needs to be shared far and wide. The militarization of our local police departments is something we should all be concerned with:

More from the Huffington Post on the militarization of police:

Today in America, SWAT teams are deployed about 100 to 150 times per day, or about 50,000 times per year -- a dramatic increase from the 3,000 or so annual deployments in the early 1980s, or the few hundred in the 1970s. The vast majority of today's deployments are to serve search warrants for drug crimes. But the use of SWAT tactics to enforce regulatory law also appears to be rising. This month, for example, a SWAT team raided the Garden of Eden, a sustainable growth farm in Arlington, Texas, supposedly to look for marijuana. The police found no pot, however, and the real intent of the raid appears to have been for code enforcement, as the officers came armed with an inspection notice for nuisance abatement.

Where these teams were once used only in emergency situations, they're used today mostly as an investigative tool against people merely suspected of crimes. In many police agencies, paramilitary tactics have become the first option, where they once were the last.

“It’s really about a lack of imagination and a lack of creativity,” says Norm Stamper, a retired cop who served as police chief of Seattle from 1994 to 2000. “When your answer to every problem is more force, it shows that you haven’t been taught and trained to consider other options."

Old Russian Army proverb: "When your only tool is a hammer, treat everything like a nail". We do not need, nor should we tolerate, jackbooted thugs with the power of the state, i.e. they can kill you legally, roaming our streets disguised as Officer Friendly.

We need to get rid of the Patriot Act and prevent the Department of Homeland (I hate that word) Security from funding this crap.

We have a new Chief Of Police in my town who says he learned a lot about police work while serving in Iraq. I haven't met him, but I did tell one of our Barney Fifes to remind him that our little mountain town ain't Fallujah.

Gov't Hypocrisy On Weed

Raw Story, with video.

CNN contributor Dr. Sanjay Gupta followed up on his reversal of course regarding medical marijuana in an interview with Anderson Cooper on Tuesday by slamming federal policy regarding medical marijuana.

“The U.S. holds a patent [on marijuana] on one hand, and on the other hand, same government says it has no medical applications,” Gupta told Cooper. “Journalists are trained to hate hypocrisy. This is hypocrisy. I’ve never seen it quite like this.”

The Department of Health and Human Services, Gupta explained, holds a patent on medical marijuana as “a protectant for the brain, giving voice to an argument made by medical marijuana proponents. The pro-marijuana site Weedist reported in May 2013 that the patent states that, “cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

There's too much money in the War On Some Drugs, the Prison-Industrial Complex, Big Pharma, and Big Booze for them to quit being hypocrites. Facts, perhaps even Truth, be damned.

Who’s afraid of a little sodomy?

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going on about Da Cooch of Virginia, the most sexually repressed AG in the country. By far too much so to be in charge of anything involving the law.

“The Cuccinelli.” Now available at participating Virginia Walmarts*

*That is called a "masturbation device". If you know how to masturbate with that, you best keep it to yourself. Heh.

There is something a little sad, if not enormously disturbing, about people like Ken Cuccinelli, the intensely troubled AG of Virginia and one-man Tea Party sideshow who is currently running for governor and who, if he has his way, will hereby outlaw sodomy and oral sex. For everyone. Forevermore.

Something desperate. Something lost. Something demented and strange, like rolling around on broken glass, like slapping yourself in the face with a furious eel, like openly molesting a bunch of baby asparagus. That’s Ken for you.

Have you heard? Virginia’s deepest embarrassment is making national news, again, for out-Rick Santoruming the legend himself.

Ooh! Make my mixture double frothy please!

In short, Ken Cuccinelli detests and fears pretty much everything you and I stand for, and we are hereby grateful he is lives so far from the Left Coast, and offer heartfelt sympathies to anyone left in Virginia with an active mind, heart or vagina.

Let us waste no more energy pointing up the absurdity of Ken’s agenda. Let us, instead, ponder widely to the heavens: What happened to him, growing up? How do people like Ken turn out this way? How does a single human accumulate so much shame and fear, to the point where they wish so much oppressive ill on the rest of the human race?

My theory is the other kids called him "Coochie, Coochie, Coochie!" until he went crazy.

It is, or course, a timeless and not at all insignificant question. It goes beyond simply wondering just how many women, homosexuals, playground pals and household pets rejected Ken and his awkward sexual advances when he was younger. It’s beyond pondering just how terrible were his parents, or if he was addicted to huffing glue as a teen, or if his father whipped him with a belt for enjoying “The Little Mermaid” a little too… vigorously.

That all might or might not be true. I am not a trained psychologist. I do not have professional insights into the cracked Wiffle Ball that is the Tea Party soul.
...

We must also remember that America remains a broken and uneven sidewalk. There are still 13 states with anti-sodomy laws on the books, despite the unconstitutionality, and it will take another 10 years, minimum, before these backwater hateswamps catch up to the basic human rights enjoyed by the rest of us, and another decade on top of that before they come anywhere near what, say, California already enjoys in terms of sexual education and fearless, albeit imperfect, play.

By then, Ken Cuccinelli and the rickety clown car that is the Tea Party will be long gone. Will new versions step up to take their place? Will wanton human sexuality still be under ridiculous duress? Does a pope sin in the woods?

Yes, young Mark, there will always be anti-fun people.

Do yourself a favor and puh-leeze read the rest of this!

Open letter to Donald Trump -

- America’s Premier Racist Blowhard Capitalist Pig

The Political Garbage Chute

You’re fired.

To enhance that phrase:

You’re fuckin’ fired;. now shut the fuck up and go the fuck away forever.
...

You’re an opportunistic slug who lucked into his fortune by way of whose biological detritus from whence you came. Had you been born into the working class I have no doubt you’d be just another weird, bitter old white guy. You know how I know this? You won’t drop the Birther bullshit. Put that down as one more huge clue about life you still haven’t gotten. You’re awfully good at self-promotion, but other than that you are clearly as clueless as any of the ridiculous cast of morons the GOP trotted out last year. Oh wait, that’s right, you were one of them for a brief moment. Did you not learn the lesson the first time you were embarrassingly drummed out of the election once people realized, “Oh yeah, he’s just a toupee’d, loud-mouthed, racist, Plutocrat”?
...

Believe it not, you actually do have to be somewhat likable to win a presidential election. Contrary to what some on the right may be saying right now, the problem hasn’t been that Republicans haven’t nominated a true conservative in a long time, it’s that they haven’t nominated someone that the electorate really likes. They’ve been counting on the hatred of the Democratic president or nominee to carry them, but as it turns out the electorate isn’t falling for it. Sure, there are any number of complaints you could make about the Democrats in Congress. They are after all one-half of the most useless gaggle of dipshits in a long, long time to sit on the Hill. But for the last twenty years, America’s demographics have been shifting in such a way that the policies the GOP stands for just make them look old, angry, bitter and scared.

Or to put it another way: Like you, Donald.

I miss the old Donald Trump. The one that was an annoying, loud-mouthed, misogynistic asshole that at least knew his place in society. You should be really embarrassed for yourself. Deep-down you know you’re not serious about any of this stuff. The truly sad part is that I don’t know if you’re really a racist or are just embracing all the racist birther stuff to keep a toe-hold on all the bitter, old, white voters. I don’t know what’s better for my opinion of you — that you’re a real racist or that you cynically play one on TV. Oh, I can’t decide, so let’s just say there’s literally nothing you could do short of sewing up your mouth and having your vocal chords removed to improve my view of you.
...

Now go marry another woman who’d much rather lick the back of a stamp made of dog shit than spend five minutes for you if it weren’t for the size of your…bank account.

Note to Mr. Schlarmann: Try and come outta yer shell and say what you really mean, dude. Heh.

Sounds like a good opportunity for some drone practice...

The Political Carnival

“Post-racial America”: KKK to host cross burning in Kentucky; “tons of food, fun” and of course kids welcome!
...

But come on, America, it’s not really all that bad, because the KKK calls it a “cross lighting” now, not a cross burning, and their members are “nice” because they donated an arena on which their family valuesy family members are invited to join the KKKlub.

And hey kids! There will be tons of food and fun! But because they’re such a wholesome bunch, NO DRUGS!

Oy gevult.

Texas struggles to defend discriminatory voting policies

Pretty blatant, and it's the same story in every other Repug-controlled state: If ya can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

Maddowblog

As Kevin Drum explained, Texas' first argument, as pushed by state Attorney General Greg Abbott, "is that, sure, Texas has tried to discriminate as recently as 2011, but their efforts were overturned by a court. So that means there are no current violations, and thus no reason to grant any kind of 'equitable relief.'"

The second argument is the half-glass-full tack. As Serwer put it, "[T]he state claims, even if Texas did discriminate, and the state stresses that it did not, it was nothing as bad as 'the 'pervasive,' 'flagrant,' 'widespread,' and 'rampant' discrimination that originally justified preclearance in 1965.' So as long as Texas skies aren't alight with flames from burning crosses, what's the big whoop?"

But it's the third argument that's truly amazing.

From the brief filed by the state:

DOJ's accusations of racial discrimination are baseless. In 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party's electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats....The redistricting decisions of which DOJ complains were motivated by partisan rather than racial considerations, and the plaintiffs and DOJ have zero evidence to prove the contrary.

Got that? Texas wasn't trying to discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities; Texas was simply trying to discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities who vote for Democrats.

In other words, Texas' defense is that state policymakers were trying to crush the Democratic vote, and this led to inadvertent discrimination against African Americans and Latinos. As such, the argument goes, Texas was motivated by crass partisanship, and not racism, so the discrimination doesn't really count.

Any chance this might be persuasive in court? Brenda Wright, a voting law expert with the liberal think tank Demos, told Serwer, "I don't think it's going to work, frankly. The mere desire to achieve partisan advantage does not give Texas a free hand to engage in racial discrimination. If the only way you can protect white incumbents is by diluting the voting strength of Hispanic citizens, you are engaging in intentional racial discrimination, and the courts will see that."

First, "inadvertent" my ass and second, SCOTUS willfully didn't see it when they overturned parts of the VRA.

It's 15 months 'til the '14 elections. I hope that's time to get everybody IDs because that's probably not enough time for this to work its way through the courts in these red states. I hope this pisses folks off enough that they take special pains to jump through all the flaming hoops and vote these shitepokes outta office.

I'm not trying to piss off all you anarchists and third-party advocates, but our only hope in the near term is to get Democratic control of the House and Senate and Democratic controlled state legislatures.

More than nuts. Anti-democracy criminals.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times showed up late today.

Terror Threat Continues, Say Intelligence Agencies
Won't end until legislation to limit power of intelligence agencies goes away.

Sounds about right.

Childhood Obesity Rates Decreasing in Some Areas
Fast food industry spokesman calls findings “troubling.”

That sounds about right too.

Sun About to Reverse Its Magnetic Field, Effect on Radio Transmissions Uncertain
Could turn some hip-hop stations to country and western.

Cool! Both kinds of music - country and western! I'm down!

Oppressive Heat Waves the New Normal,
Say Meteorologists
So get used to it.

Related:

Longer Breast Feeding Boosts Intelligence
Claim Ph.D candidates still nursing.

Wait'll I'm done with lunch and just call me "Doc". :-)

Quote of the Day

From Why Hillary Terrifies the GOP:

“Hillary Clinton—the name alone strikes dread in the heart of freedom loving Americans.”

Bwahahahaha!


Bonus QotD:

From A pathetic day for the Republican Party:

Mitch McConnell is humiliated by a staffer, but can't fire him -- because the Tea Party has more power than he does

A second Bwahahahaha! of the Day too. Man, I'm lovin' this!

Holy Crap! Another one!

Santorum: Liberals ‘make it uncomfortable’ to shower at the YMCA

He must be afraid to find out the truth about "frothy mixture".

My sides, they hurt...

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Barbara Allen from the Songcatcher soundtrack.

Thanks to Jim Parris.

Kochstarter!

HuffPo

"Citizen Koch," a highly regarded documentary about the billionaire Koch brothers and the growing influence of money in politics after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, suffered a major setback earlier this year when PBS pulled the film and the $150,000 in funding that had been promised. Scrambling to find a way to distribute their film, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin turned to Kickstarter in a highly successful move that recently surpassed the funds they had previously expected to receive from public television.
...

“Thanks to thousands of small donors, the public will be able to see this film," Deal said in a release. “We hope public television executives get the message that when they allow private interests to dictate their programming and funding decisions, the public will take notice and take action.”

Reports at the time of PBS' decision to pull the film from its stations suggested that executives had bowed to pressure from David Koch, a major donor to powerful PBS affiliates. Deal and Lessin's work focuses heavily on the election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and his subsequent push to curtail union rights in the state, a push that led to massive backlash in Madison in 2011. Some reviews have suggested that much of the material is partisan and unkind to the Kochs, who are at one point described on screen as "TWO BILLIONAIRE EXTREMISTS."

That's about right.

I've kicked down to Kickstarter for a coupla projects, but I feel a little guilty for not knowing about this one. This is an important film and needs to be be seen far and wide. The Kochsuckers have pretty much funded the Teabaggers and bought our political process lock, stock, and barrel. They're not alone of course, but they need to be made an example of if we want democracy back.

A thought on the embassy closings

What if the al Qaeda bigwigs, knowing full well the western world is listening in on them, did their 20-something person conference call to make plans for a big attack without actually planning to do it? What if the phone conference was enough? What if it was the whole plan all along?

If so, al Qaeda must be laffin' their asses off at the reaction.

Tinfoil Hat Brigade Rides Again!

Jonathan Chait, links (if you must) at site.

The new right-wing book of the moment is American Betrayal, by Diana West, which offers the thesis that American foreign policy under presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower was secretly controlled by the Soviet Union. If this sounds like the sort of tract that would be written by somebody who thinks Joe McCarthy was absolutely right about everything, well, that’s exactly what Diana West does believe. She’s also quite the birther.

But her book has managed to attract quite a bit of support from respectable and semi-respectable outlets on the right. The Heritage Foundation feted West, Amity Shlaes blurbed it, the American Spectator and Daily Caller issued raves, and Breitbart is actually serializing the book.

That pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Blaming the U.S. for provoking Pearl Harbor is the sort of claim that might offend modern conservatives, except that West further argues that America was controlled by the Soviets all along. Likewise, she tells us, the U.S. could have supported anti-Hitler Nazis and ended the war, but didn’t, because its goal was to help the Soviets occupy Eastern Europe. (“The war had to last long enough for the Soviet Army to roll into the heart of Europe on those fleets of Lend-Lease Dodge and Studebaker trucks Uncle Sam had generously provided.”)
...

Our readers may not grasp just what it takes to be called a right-wing kook in Front Page Magazine by Ron Radosh. The bar is high. Radosh himself is quite conservative (he’s called President Obama a socialist). FrontPageMag is … well, suffice to say, its official motto is “Inside Every Liberal Is A Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out” — which is surely more evocative, if less credibility-rendering, than "All the news that’s fit to print." It currently features stories with such headlines as “Islamic Group in America: We’ll Impose Sharia on Christians” and “Seven More Reasons to Impeach Eric Holder.”

Indeed! Being called crazy by the certifiably insane makes you the Bull Goose Loony!

Daddy's 5th Deferment Fraudulently _________

Fill in the blank with whatever you want. Heh.

From Wyoming's News Source via TPM.

Senate candidate Liz Cheney improperly received a state resident fishing license based on an application with incorrect information, according to Wyoming Game and Fish Department records.

Cheney, who last month announced she will challenge Sen. Mike Enzi in the 2014 Republican primary, received her resident license just 72 days after closing on her Wilson house in May 2012. State law requires residents live in the state 365 consecutive days before they can receive a resident hunting or fishing license, which are cheaper than out-of-state licenses.

Cheney’s application also lists her as a 10-year resident of Wyoming.

The Game and Fish records are incorrect, Cheney told the Star-Tribune.

“The clerk must have made a mistake,” she said. “I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”

That's about par for the course, privileged rich white lady, blame the clerk. It is not in the Cheneys' makeup to ever admit a mistake. Or worse.

It has been my experience that every government form, application, etc. has at the bottom a phrase something like "I hereby certify the above to be true and correct". Directly below that is your signature.

Should this ever go to court, which is unlikely, the opposing lawyer will simply show her the form and ask "Is that your signature?"

Who will she blame then? Don't worry, she'll find somebody.

There are penalties for submitting incorrect information on an application, he said.

The fine for a false statement on the application is $220 and is a misdemeanor, he said. If Game and Fish imposes the fine and Cheney chooses to contest the fine in court, a judge could ratchet up the fine to $1,000.

“At this point we’re going to follow up on this like any other residency issues,” Nelson said. “It’s at the initial stages of verification.”

Yes, they are no doubt "verifying" whether or not to take on the Voldemorts Cheneys over such a small matter. After much carping and floundering, probably not.

100 percent all natural lies

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going on about food labelling and bottled water.

Here is all natural. Or rather, “all natural.” Here is this completely empty phrase/marketing ploy that has been in use for decades and which adorns hundreds of food products from here to peanut butter marshmallow bacon-wrapped blueberry graham cracker deep-fried microwave pizza colon bombs.
...

Once in a great while, someone will complain (read: sue) loudly enough, and a given company is forced to sigh an evil sigh and remove the words “all natural” from a particular label, given how the product is actually derived from old motor oil, pulverized cardboard and the tears of tortured migrant workers. You know, more or less.

"The tears of tortured migrant workers" can be found on the label as "sodium".

But maybe these lies are just a little bit important? After all, the wise ones tell us the simple truths are the most profound. It’s why we seek out “all natural” or drink water in the first place, because they’re supposedly pure, unspoiled, free of politicized bulls–t and corporate lies.

And when we find out they’re not, that we’ve been lied to and casually insulted for years and even decades, well, something cracks, and bitterness and cynicism sneak in. And baby, those are the most dangerous poisons of all.

Pah. In this political environment they are the stuff of life and nourishment for the soul.

Are ya pissed off yet today?

You will be, but I doubt you'll be very surprised.

Young Progressive Voices

Audio Emerges Proving Secret Conservative Organization Behind Benghazi “Scandal”

Groundswell, the conservative behind-the-scenes organization that forms a coalition between prominent Republicans, right wing media, and conservative activists to wage a “30-front war against Obama and progressives” has been revealed to have played a role in the hype and false scandalization of the Benghazi “controversy.” A secret tape released by Crooks And Liars (audio below) has detailed the cooperation between House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ginni Thomas (the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), former Rep. Allen West, as well as high-ranking members of Judicial Watch and Breitbart. The meeting was presided over by Catherine Engelbrecht, one of the founders of the voter suppression group, True The Vote.

All the usual suspects.

True The Vote and Groundswell also played an interesting role in the false IRS scandal, when conservatives exploded in rage after the IRS investigated the tax-free status of obviously conservatively partisan nonprofits, despite later finding out that progressive groups were targeted as well.

Crooks And Liars establishes a timeline of events, showing the role of political operatives in engineering the false scandal:

On May 8, 2013, True the Vote is a facilitator and presenter at a meeting where Ginni Thomas and others are key players. TTV presents their plan to attack “the left” for daring to register voters. They’re committed to stopping them from challenging any and all efforts to disenfranchise voters. Or as they describe it, securing the vote. Others might call it democracy corrupted.

The wingers are losing and they know it. They are despicable in their death throes. I can live with it as long as I get to feel schadenfreude when I hear their death rattle.

Repugs are scared shitless of Hil

Good. They know... TPM.

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus on Monday called on both NBC and CNN to drop their planned film productions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or face losing their partnerships with the RNC for 2016 presidential primary debates.

There's more, and you can read the actual letter.

Here's one reaction:

Plouffe: RNC Should Hold Debates In ‘Sealed Fox Studio’ To Hide ‘Crazy Sh*t’

Bwahahahaha! No shit! The less people know about their candidates and agenda, the better for them. And the worse for the nation. The Repugs know that too.

Update:

Reince: NBC, CNN Are Hillary’s ‘Campaign Operatives’

Fine with me. Remember, "Reince Priebus" without the vowels is "RNC PR BS". Heh.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Residents in Washington, D.C. Looking Forward to Significant Crime Reduction in August
When Congress leaves town.

GAO: USDA Has Paid Out Millions to Dead Farmers
To stay competitive with foreign dead farmers.

"Yeah, Gramps stinks. We'd bury him but we want his check."

Manning Acquitted on Aiding the Enemy
But still faces up to 136 years for making the government look bad.

Limbaugh Losing His Radio Outlet
You'll still be able to hear him within a couple of blocks of his house.

There goes the neighborhood...

New Zealand Man Building 3-D Printed Aston Martin
To tool around town with his inflatable woman.