Are you sure the Coen Brothers started like this?

Thurday evening, while I was looking for discount coupons in the Costco mailer for our Friday shopping trip, I wasn't even seriously thinking about getting a camcorder although I've wanted one for a while. Until I spotted the $30-off coupon on the Samsung F33. When I saw it up close at the store, it was mine! The price at the link is the price I paid, $30 off the in-store price. The damn thing does everything but tickle yer ass with a feather. It came with a case, A/V and USB cords, a 131-page owners manual CD, and a program to capture it to my computer and upload it out. I think it works.

What you'll see below is what happened the third time I turned it on. The first two times were an 'oops' and 'did it really work?'. I took it with me on our noonday walk today and just turned it on and pointed it down the trail, and I make no apologies, either for the inaneness of this or the lack of plot and special CG effects. The camera works, it's easy to use (not to use well, of course, but ya gotta start somewhere), and I'm thrilled shitless with it.

Just FYI, the liver-and-white one is Tami, and the black-and-white one is Maggie.



My mind is anything but idle, but it is still the devil's workshop. Next up - the bike mount. The rest will be history.

I'll send ya all the stuff right away! Sure ya don't want my Social Security and credit card numbers? My sister's measurements? Yeesh.

I got this in my e-mail. I guess the 'Nigerian Prince' thing is wearing a little. Do they actually expect people to bite on this so obviously phony bait?

Dear Sir,

I am Major.scott J.wright, an American soldier in peace keeping force in Iraq, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armoured Division in Iraq, as you know insurgents everyday and car bombs are attacking us.

We managed to move funds belonging to Saddam Hussein's family in the tune of USD$ 45 Million Dollars in cash. We want to move this money to you, so that you may keep our share for us till when we will come over to meet you.

You are to take 40% of the total 45 Million Dollars and keep 60% for me and my partners. Please No strings attached, we plan on using diplomatic courier and shipping the money out of Iraq in three large silver boxes using diplomatic immunity.

The boxes can be shipped out in 48hrs,so If you are interested kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone numbers for quick communication, then we can send to you the shipment details and the fright number and labels.

goodluck,

major.scott J.wright.

C'mon, dudes, at least get an editor who can spell and punctuate and shit in American!

Fuckin' amazing.

Blanketass Ripoff Spoof

From 'comments' on the video:

Mr Greene did with comedy here what needed to be said. Its amazing how serious we can take things and never get the message but a little humor goes a long way.

I think that applies across the board. Put yer drink down!

Thanks to phoenixpa.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

From the Beeb, '94.

Emmylou Harris ~ Prayer In Open D

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Done!

Yesterday's spooge was the last thing I had to do on the house. While I still have a million things to do (touch up, dusting and cleaning, moving furniture, getting new carpet), for all intents and purposes, I'm fucking done. It's been a long 15 months.

I'm one happy camper and, better yet, the Mrs. is happy with the results. I'll post pics once everything is back together but for now, a little celebration:

The Who - Welcome

Friday night ...

Women getting you into trouble music blogging:

Grateful Dead - Mexicali Blues

Hot-tempered Latinas ... revisited

Because heaven forbid she's crazy and OTR.

The reason ...

Barry doesn't want to release the remaining Abu Ghraib photos. Larisa:

...

"The Daily Beast has confirmed that the photographs of abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, which President Obama, in a reversal, decided not to release, depict sexually explicit acts, including a uniformed soldier receiving oral sex from a female prisoner, a government contractor engaged in an act of sodomy with a male prisoner and scenes of forced masturbation, forced exhibition, and penetration involving phosphorous sticks and brooms.

...

No fucking shit. The King of Jordan will probably declare jihad on us but it's the bed we made. We should get it all out there and make our apologies, and then we should hand Bush, Cheney, and the rest, Colin Powell included, over to the authorities in The Hague.

...

What have we done and how will we be able to hold anyone to account?

PSA

I will never use the word "spooge" again. Heh ...

Quote of the Day

Dday on Bush finally opening his mouth after 5 months:

...

Well, those are two different things, aren't they? "What's legal" does not necessarily equal "What do the lawyers say is possible." ...

Shopping Day

We gotta spooge on over to Carson City today and do some stockin' up, so I'll just leave ya with some fun stuff.

Also, all you Social Security recipients, check yer bank accounts. Me'n Mrs. G just got a $250 each federal stimulus! In the proper spirit of 'stimulus' we will spend the crap out of it at a local merchant. New washing machine, come ta papa!

Limbaugh Says Republicans Are An 'Oppressed Minority' -- Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser

Is Rush still taking lots of Oxycontin?
Uh, yeah, and I also think one's
Got to assume if he sees any elephants
They probably are pink ones.

In the same vein (varicose?) go see:

Oh! Those Poor Old Oppressed White Guys!

And as if those weren't enough:

Wipe That Smile Off Your Face! Big Brother to Take the Fun Out of Going to the DMV

Gosh, how could anybody do that?

See yas later.

Late ...

Hadda spooge a coat of urethane on the dining room floor. Go surf the blogroll. TGIF!

Hot-tempered Latinas ...

The right is trying to turn Sotomayor into one of those "crazy Spanish chicks":

...

Nonetheless, Hannity and Co. proceed apace, attacking Sotomayor's "judicial temperament" by making it clear that she's just too hot-tempered to be a good Supreme Court Justice:

...

Why, it's almost someone describing a classic "hot-blooded and crazy Latina" stereotype.

Now, I'll tell ya about hot-tempered Latinas. I was seeing this Mexican girl when I was in the service who chased me around her apartment with a knife* for a half-hour ("I keel you, gringo bastard!") until I could get to the door and get my young ass outta there (she was quick). Not that I didn't deserve it, but in light of that, Judge Sotomayor is a pussycat.

*Not the first time a woman tried to kill me. Shit, once some girl tried to kill me for something my buddy did.

Thursday Afternoon Doped-Out Longhair Santa Cruz Music Blogging

Fuck it. I need a break.

These guys have a definite Dead vibe. Watch the slide show.

www.hellboundhighway.com

To share any remaining brain cells in your memory bank about Timbercreek or the clubs, bands and other stuff related to the scene in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Silicon Valley area with the collection of folks, who think they remember the '60s or is that the '70s, send your email to: Timbercreek

Sounds like those guys would like to hear about a 'lost decade' or two. Heh.

Timbercreek ~ Hell In The Hills

Thanks, garrufat.

Kneejerk Retards

Thanks, YubaNet.

I was reading where Bill O'Rally and Michelle Ramalamadingdong are pitchin' a big hissy at one another over some sniveller's comment about Judge Sotomayor. O, teehee! They can scratch each other raw with their fingernails for all I care, but I think this a good illustration of what we, as in reality-based thinking people, are up against. It's not pretty.

Here's said comment (Don't go. You'll need therapy to get your IQ back above room temperature if you read more than the one. Yeesh.), posted by 'dogsoldier', who probly oughta label itself more like 'whinyassbitchwhoneverserved', I think it's a perfect example of wingtard 'Just Say NO' philosophy (too grand a word for their lack of a thought process) kneejerk retardedness:

Unqualified, militant and socialist. NEXT, please. The GOP has to block any of Husseins extremist picks.

In a nutshell, that's all they got . 'Nutshell' is a pretty good word for that whole bunch. They're awful loud, which is infuriating at times, but they got nothin'.

Let 'em squawk. They're not going to get their way anymore, no matter how hard they try, and hot air can't hurt us. Even as bad as theirs smells.

It's fun to post the slimier examples like that one, though.

Dick Cheney’s Torture Kabuki

Emptywheel

I wanted to pull three threads together in this post, which suggest how Cheney instituted torture in this country:

* Alberto Gonzales may have been approving torture even while Condi Rice and others went through the show of getting an OLC opinion to authorize it;
* CIA claimed to be briefing Congress when it wasn't;
* The Bush Administration then claimed Congress had bought off on torture to persuade those objecting to torture within the administration.

There are also certain parallels with the way Cheney implemented his illegal wiretap program.

Go read. Upshot:

This last bit--the claiming Congress approved when it didn't--is a tactic they used with the illegal wiretap program, as well. [...]

So: Alberto Gonzales approves a program he has no authority to approve. They create records after the fact--the content of which is contested--to claim they had Congressional approval for the authorization. And then use that purported Congressional approval (though apparently, more members of Congress approved of this than have of torture)to try to persuade those at DOJ who objected to the program.

Emptywheel, and no doubt many others are doing it as well, has tamped the progression of events into a nice neat brick. Which someday in the not too distant future I hope will be labelled 'Exhibit A'. Or maybe 'Exhibits A through ZZZZZZ'.

Gay marriage battle to return to Calif. ballot

AP

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gay leaders say they are moving into campaign mode with an eye toward trying to repeal Proposition 8 at the ballot box as early as next year after the state Supreme Court upheld the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages.

"So the court has said we have to go back," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California. "We believe the political drive, the momentum, is there to do that."

The court did refuse to nullify an estimated 18,000 marriages that took place before the ban was approved. For the couples involved, relief was mixed with a sense of being marginalized.

"It's a little strange to feel like we're part of a grandfathered minority," said Leanne Waldal, 38, wiping away tears after the ruling was announced. [...]

I bet ya never thought ya'd be a grandfather, huh, Leanne? (wink)

There's a lot more in the article, but the 'shorter' is, this ain't over by a long shot. Nor should it be.

The American people ...

Want single-payer health insurance (links aplenty) overwhelmingly. It's about time for the politicians to choose what's more important to them, campaign funds from Big Health and Big Pharma or actually getting reelected:

...

When the time came for questions, McArthur stood up and asked a simple question. Looking across a standing-room-only crowd of about 275, he asked how many were happy with their employer-based health insurance.

Less than 10 people raised their hands.

...

Case in point: The Mrs. has what is considered 'good' health insurance. Her company pays most (2/3) of the premium, though we still pay $400/month (plus the requisite co-pays for everything). Thing is, the insurance only offers two plans - one for single employees and the other is a family plan. If the Mrs. took the single plan, it would cost her about $30/month. So, instead, because she has me, we're paying the same premiums as an employee, with spouse, and as many kids as they can produce.

So, do you think I have a problem with paying $1000 - $1500 a year in higher taxes to have an insurance plan that doesn't take more from me than I take out of it? Not in the least. Would I mind getting that much taken from my paycheck every year if I didn't have health insurance? I would welcome it.

It's time to take the profit out of health insurance. The health of the nation should not be a "market". It should be part of the national infrastructure.

Quote of the Day

Maru on the fact Alberto "Abu" Gonzalez was on CNN (as opposed to in jail) giving his opinion about the nomination of his intellectual superior (by orders of magnitude) to the Supreme Bench:

"This is like bringing in Marv Throneberry to give his opinion of Willie Mays."*

*After having seen both men play baseball in the flesh, the analogy is spot on.

Kill me ...

Scott Lemieux (in toto):

When I see that Sonia Sotomayor's competence is being questioned by John Yoo -- you know, the guy who constructed a farcical argument that a Constitution that gave Congress numerous specific powers over warmaking was actually intended to replicate monarchical executive power? And did so to justify an arbitrary torture regime? -- I...what else can you say? [my em]