5 Years

Today is the fifth anniversary of my gig here at the Brain. Yesterday if ya count testing to see if it actually worked. It seems to have. In Blogtopia, that's an ice age!

When I started, I didn't know jack shit. I still don't, but I mean in the technical sense. I didn't know how to cut & paste, blockquote, upload and download graphic material, HTML, links (I thought 'hot links' were Louisiana sausage), none of the tricks and tidbits I use regularly today. There wasn't even any YouTube then, which seems stunning now.

I made one comment in my first post that embarrasses me a little still, which is that I wouldn't use quotes very much. For one thing, I didn't know how, I actually thought you had to type them and thought that was too much like work, and I didn't quite realize just how much work goes into original commentary. It didn't take me very long to understand that reference quotes are the life's blood of political commentary, and longer quotes are a great way to get someone else's good points or the meat of a subject across.

Fixer was very patient. He taught me a lot and I picked up more along the way.

Fixer and I have never met, although I hope we do some day. We've never talked on the phone, although we've heard each other's voices on videos. We communicate via e-mail and snail mail on a very irregular basis. The only editorial direction I've ever had from him was to "hold down the porn" when I discovered how to upload photos. He lets me do whatever I want completely how I want to, which is a polite way of saying I'm hung out to dry out here on the left coast all on my own, although I prefer to think of it as holding down the left flank without the possibility of reinforcements. It works out pretty well, and he and I agree on a lot more subjects and have more in common than I would have thought, considering the differences in our ages and backgrounds, which are really not all that dissimilar when you think about it which I'm sure we do and wouldn't have had we not hooked up, not to mention the cultural differences of being from opposite ends of the continent. Must be something to do with us both being mechanics: it's pretty near impossible to bullshit a broken car or bike into acting right, although we're both experienced enough to get away with it once in a while. I better stop that line lest I give away any trade secrets.

That said, I consider Fixer my friend and a potential dangerously hilarious running mate (visuals of the back seats of po-leece cars with CA and NY license plates, their occupants sitting on their hands and laughing like fiends). Heh. Alternatively, us laying on our backs looking up at the undersides of crapcan Humvees with sand blowing up our asses, figuring out how we're gonna liven up the EM/NCO Club later.

Which goes directly to the beauty of the internets: distance is no longer a bar to like minds or the dissemination of ideas. If nothing else, we find that we are all pissed off about the same things. It's also no bar to disagreement or learning, and we must listen to one another and learn something new every day or we will be just like our enemy, the right wing.

I love this gig. This is the best 'job' I've ever had, and I've never stayed on a 'real' job this long ever in my life. The pay is immeasurable. Literally, both in terms of money (none) and satisfaction (immense). This is the perfect spot for an opinionated retiree if only because it keeps me off the street and out of trouble.

Thank you, Fixer. You've given me a home and a voice and I'm here as long as you'll have me. I'd say "'til death us do part", but...

And thank you, dear readers, without whom this would just be graffiti.

I'll close this with a little ditty from my third-ever post:

"We're all friends on this old boat
And none of us are sissies.
We tuck each other in at night,
And blow each other............kissies!"

Hmmmm. Maybe not all that much has changed in 5 years after all...

A little more Tina ...

You can thank Gordon for getting me aroused yesterday.

First, the best version of this tune evah:

Ike & Tina Turner live - Proud Mary

Next, something a little closer to the 21st Century (after she unloaded Ike) that gets the blood going:

Tina at the Grammys 1985 - What's Love Got To Do With It?

And lastly, back to the "Good Old Days":

Ike & Tina - River Deep, Mountain High

Okay, I'm done ...

Accountability and Responsibility ...

Greenwald gives Joke Line a lesson:

I'm ambivalent about whether even to acknowledge this obviously disturbed, Cheneyite rant from Joe Klein. On the one hand, I don't want to be dragged down into what is, for him, quite clearly a deeply emotional and personal matter (having its roots in things like this, this and this); I don't think very many people care about petty feuds and engaging them isn't the purpose of what I do here. Moreover, Klein's commenters (as usual) have done a thorough and masterful job of demolishing what he wrote, as have several others. On the other hand, when someone like Klein -- first in a secret club composed of several hundred journalists, editors, bloggers and other peers and colleagues, and then using a megaphone like Time -- repeatedly calls you a military-hating, unpatriotic, ignorant, Limbaugh-like, "mean-spirited, dishonorable, graceless, bully" who doesn't care if America Stays Safe, and that then is "reported" in various places, it's probably prudent to say something. So I'll just make a couple of general points illustrated by all of this that I think are worth making:

...

There's about 20 links in that paragraph and many more throughout the piece. Though it's a takedown of 'The Line', it applies to all the Washington 'insiders'. A good read.

...

(2) Klein's complaint that "twice in the past month, [his] private communications have been splashed about the internet" is revealing. The first incident was when he went to a beach party, spat a slew of insults (I'm not only a "civil liberties absolutist" but also "evil") in front of a group of people, all while speaking with an individual he didn't know but who happened to be a prolific and excellent blog commenter, sometimes blogger and I.F. Stone's granddaughter. She then wrote about what he said in a very widely-linked post. That's who Klein, in yesterday's post, bizarrely called a "rather pathetic woman acolyte of Greenwald's."

...

It's how Joke Line and his pals look at us all, like gum on the bottom of their shoe ... until it comes to buying the rags in which they're published.

A Little Tuesday Tina

Here's a little number about the future of our country after the Repugs get done with it if they have their way. They almost pulled it off with B&C, and they're still trying. The 'hero' we don't need is any more assholes like them.

Thanks to Ichnos71x2, Italy.

Animal House in Afghanistan

US Embassy Guards Go Wild In Kabul: Prostitution, Brawls, And Vodka "Butt Shots"

I'm almost ashamed of myself. When I saw that headline at HuffPo, my first thought was of old school Marine embassy guards. You know I had to read on...

MoJo

Drunken brawls, prostitutes, hazing and humiliation, taking vodka shots out of buttcracks — no, the perpetrators of these Animal House-like antics aren't some depraved frat brothers. They are the private security contractors guarding Camp Sullivan, otherwise known as the US Embassy in Kabul.

Mercs again. Thank God. I have never been this glad in my life to be wrong.

Not that there's anything wrong with prostitutes and brawls, but as an old man with an old man's puritan sensibilities, I just hope there's a shot glass clenched in between those buttcracks and the vodka...

I don't want my tax dollars going to perverts, after all. Unless they're Marines.

Update:

Here's another one:

Theft, hookers, melting down Iraqi gold to make cowboy spurs? All in a day's work for private military contractors in Iraq?

I say when the last of our troops leave Iraq, we don't tell the mercs. They'll find out in due time.

"We must slit our wrists!"

The Colorado Independent

In a fiery speech that had her conservative Colorado audience cheering, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann railed against the dangers of health care reform and other Democratic initiatives, warning the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever.”

“This cannot pass,” the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.”

Note to Ms. Bachmann: That's the best idea you've ever had, Fruitcake! I hope the whole damn Dead End Quarter takes your advice.

Don't take any chances that it won't work - slit 'em longways. Deep, too.

Mexico's health care lures Americans

USA Today

MEXICO CITY — It sounds almost too good to be true: a health care plan with no limits, no deductibles, free medicines, tests, X-rays, eyeglasses, even dental work — all for a flat fee of $250 or less a year.

To get it, you just have to move to Mexico.

¡Ay caramba!

Time to take Dick Cheney into Custody

I couldn't agree more. Here's the first and last paragraphs of a good post by ondelette at FDL:

I don't write about torture as much as I used to. But I do think a little clarification of what the law is, and what the obligations of Eric Holder and Barack Obama under the Convention Against Torture are, is in order. Further, if Mr. Holder, as expressed, wants to prosecute those who went beyond the good faith interpretation of the Department of Justice memos, then with all due respect, Mr. Attorney General, Richard B. Cheney should be a target of those investigations.

Hereinafter followeth the litany of crimes and an admission by the unrepentant evildoer.

In other words, Mr. Cheney is to be taken into custody on the allegation of torture, at the beginning of the proceedings, before the preliminary inquiry, not at the end, and foreign governments are then to be notified as to whether or not the arresting state is going to "exercise jurisdiction", i.e. conduct investigation, prosecution, punishment, and reparations. And there is nothing in the CAT specifying that special procedures are to be taken for former members of the fourth branch of government, regular guests on Sunday talk shows, or people whose daughters claim "political controversy" or "policy debate" on TV. U.S. Marshals, your duty is clear.

Go get him. Make Marshall Dillon and Mary Shannon proud! They're fictional characters of course, but the idea that Cheney is going to be arrested is fantasy even though it is supremely warranted.

Update:

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

Cheney and the 'No Attacks Mythology'

I guess the other thing that offends the hell out of me, frankly, Chris, is we had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from Al Qaida.

You know which other two-term administrations had "eight year track records defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from Al Qaida?"

All of them.

Every two-term administration ever can boast the same thing.

And they achieved it without selling out our values and breaking international law. Sorry, Dick, but you're a liar, a coward and a war criminal.

Bob forgot 'traitor'.

There are laws against us lying to the authorities, from the local cops on up, but there seems to be no law against them lying to us even if it starts an unnecessary war. There ought to be. Perhaps it comes under 'high crimes and misdemeanors'. Like treason.

Traitors and war criminals hang.

Cowards have to live with themselves. The same lack of character that makes them cowards makes it easy for them. Cowardice seems to be a 'moral value' amongst neocons although they think nothing of sending others into harm's way for no good reason.

They say a coward dies a thousand deaths. I'll settle for one state-sponsored one in Cheney's case.

A little Frank Zappa ...

His way of giving the Jesus freaks and snake oil salesmen the finger:

Frank Zappa Live - Cosmik Debris

Update:

For Oblio:

...

The price of meat has just gone up but your old lady has just gone down.

...

Quote of the Day

Our pal Nunya is reading Cruel and Unusual:

...

It's hard to go back over all the stuff that Bush/Cheney pulled. I don't think I've ever hated people that I never met like I hate that traitorous duo.

Oh. My. God!!!1!1!!!

(Stays on top today - G)

Dick Cheney is offended! No shit. He's complaining the White House is "politicizing the Justice Department", because AG Holder is looking into the torture of "enemy combatants" at Gitmo and black sites around the world.

You know, not that any government agencies were politicized during the Bush administration. Not that the CIA was tasked to gin up evidence of Saddam's "WMD program" as an excuse to invade Iraq. Not that FEMA was led by a horse lover and political hack who knew nothing about emergency management and allowed New Orleans to drown. Not to mention our emails and correspondence - and who knows what else - collected and scanned for 'subversive activity'. Not that a whole buncha U.S. attorneys were fired because they wouldn't falsely prosecute Democrats and look the other way when it came to Republican irregularities. Not to mention the manipulation of the color-coded terrorist threat status system when it suited.

You see, this is an opening that could send Cheney to jail. Now, being the cynic that I am, I don't expect more than a few low-level operators to eventually stand trial. I don't expect to see Yoo, Addington, or anyone else from the former administration to go to jail, let alone Cheney. Holder is using Yoo's memos as the legal yardstick to begin with, as opposed to the Geneva Conventions and settled U.S. law. The fact Cheney is so worried makes me happy but the only way they'll get him is if someone turns. Hopefully, the investigation will put enough pressure on Yoo, or another puppet, to give up his masters.

I'm disgusted the probe has such a narrow focus but if it will make those in power think twice about arbitrarily breaking the law in the future, I'll consider it a good thing. In a perfect world, the Dems would have shoved the entire Bush term up the Republicans' collective ass and they'd jam a single-payer health care bill down their throats. Neither is going to happen with the 'leadership' we have in the Congress and White House now but any gain is better than sweeping the whole thing under the rug. If they had a set of testicles (or any political sense) among them, they would use the crimes of the Bush administration to cripple the Republicans to the point of irrelevance.

The fact Cheney is out there at all, let alone getting "offended" says the investigation is on the right track. The fact he's putting pressure on his pals in the Fourth Estate to back him up speaks volumes about the degree of his concern. If there is any sense in the White House, now would be the time to increase Holder's mandate. The news of the investigation becoming more 'wide-ranging' would certainly increase the pressure on those with consciences, on those who put more value on their own skins than those of their former employers, maybe even enough for them to come forward in an attempt to trade their knowledge of misdeeds for their freedom. One can only hope.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their henchmen belong in jail (whether it be a federal prison or a penitentiary in Holland) for what they've done to this country and I hope prosecutions are coming. In this world, however, I'd settle for a little truth.

Siege warfare ...

I thought the hard part would be over when we got the Chimp to leave and kept McCain/Palin out of the White House. Looks like the hardest part is ahead of us. The Incomparable Krugman:

...

No, I haven’t lost my mind. Nixon was surely the worst person other than Dick Cheney ever to control the executive branch.

But the Nixon era was a time in which leading figures in both parties were capable of speaking rationally about policy, and in which policy decisions weren’t as warped by corporate cash as they are now. America is a better country in many ways than it was 35 years ago, but our political system’s ability to deal with real problems has been degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder whether the country is still governable.

...

I've wondered that for a long time.

...

Given the combination of G.O.P. extremism and corporate power, it’s now doubtful whether health reform, even if we get it — which is by no means certain — will be anywhere near as good as Nixon’s proposal, even though Democrats control the White House and have a large Congressional majority.

And what about other challenges? Every desperately needed reform I can think of, from controlling greenhouse gases to restoring fiscal balance, will have to run the same ga[u]ntlet of lobbying and lies. [my ems]

...

Our Congress is bought and paid for, and I don't have a clue how we can change that.

GOP Town Hall Handbook Revealed

[A big welcome to Crooks and Liars readers. Thanks, Mike! - F.]

CLG

Excerpts from the book entitled "Taking My Country Back from Those People"

Chapter One: Fail to the Chief

As you know, job one for the true patriot is to do whatever is necessary to make Barack Obama fail. Whatever he is in favor of you know is just his sick subversive plan to take away your guns, have illegal aliens take over your house, and grant abortions on demand to legally married gays.

(You will notice we don't call him 'President' because as you all know, he imported dozens of thugs from Kenya where he was born a Muslim, to rig the last election which he stole from our real president, Sarah Palin.) So, since Obama is in favor of health care reform, you have to be against it. Ignore all the America-hating liberals who tell lies that there is anything wrong with our health care system. Remember, if you don't have health care or your health insurance plan has just said they won't pay for your illness, it's only because you haven't been praying enough.

Chapter Five: Know your Rights!

When those Christ-haters who own the media start to tell you that bringing guns and shouting down any discussion on health care is wrong, just tell them you are exercising your First and Second Amendment Rights. Having the God-given right to shouting and waving guns are all you need to know about your rights. The other stuff in the Bill of Rights is Communist propaganda. When Sarah Palin takes her proper place as our real president, she will abolish the useless Third through Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and replace them with the Ten Commandments.

Actually, they are combining their First and Second Amendment rights. I've done it for years - they're shooting off their mouths.

Update by F on Wednesday morning:

Seems there's a quibble about attribution for the quotes. From comments:

You are pilfering and reposting a copyrighted essay by Citizens For Legitimate Government.
Attorney R J Shulman wrote that essay for CLG.
Please provide PROPER ATTRIBUTION:
http://legitgov.org/ shulman_gop_...led_310809.html
That is the source URL, despite your welcoming 'Crooks & Liars' readers who are reading *our* essay.
Thank you.
Lori R. Price
Managing Editor
Citizens For Legitimate Government
http://www.legitgov.org/

Everybody happy now, even though it's the same link Gordon posted? Christ ... Don't do much blog, do ya, lady?

Click on whatever fucking link you want.

Update by F on Thursday evening:

It goes on:

My reply to her in comments:

Lori, I'm welcoming Crooks and Liars readers who stop here, thanking Mike Finnigan for the link. That said, since the CLG link seems to not be good enough, I'll post your comment and links.

Figured that would be the end but no:

To Fixer, regarding this comment: 'Lori, I'm welcoming Crooks and Liars readers who stop here, thanking Mike Finnigan for the link.'
Understood, and thank you for the repost of the source URL.
Yes, you are correct that you did provide the link to CLG, so I'm sorry for assuming it was your blog that was at fault.
That having been said, the crooks and liars *at* Crooks and Liars should have provided the link to the original essay -- at CLG -- and not to the secondary/reposting site -- the Alternate Brain blog.
I pointed this out to them, but the no-integrity slugs at C&L kept it as is.
Finnigan is implying, with the layout of his post, that the essay is yours and not CLG's... pathetic is as pathetic does.
Lori Price

But a man has his limits:

Lori, every day, Mike links to blogs not as big as Crooks and Liars. He was linking to us because we referenced your essay and had some relevant commentary on it. He does this with a lot of blogs, I believe, to show us some love in the way of traffic. Do me a favor, Lori. Stop over at C & L every day for a week and you'll get what he's about. Over 4000 (at latest count) C & L readers have read your essay thanks to Mike sending his readers to us to see it. Those 4000 readers (at latest count) are also seeing you make a mountain out of a relative molehill.

I also won't sit back and let you impugn the character of people ("the no-integrity slugs at Crooks and Liars") I have come to respect over the past 5 years. At least, not here.

You're starting to get on my nerves and I suggest we call it a day before you start to piss me off. You got your attribution twice over. Be satisfied with that.

Schnozzology

CAMBRIDGE (IWR Satire*) - A study conducted by scientists at MIT found that, in general, Republicans have much longer noses than their Democratic counterparts. They said this was do to a "Pinocchio Effect" caused by members of the GOP telling a higher frequency of untruths than average Americans.

According to lead scientist, Heirlooom Tomotso: "It's not that Independents or Democrats don't lie; the problem with Republicans is that they believe their own lies after they make them up causing them to lie with impunity. This makes their noses to grow unaturally long as predicted by Darwin's law of nasal selection".

*Satire has to be clearly labelled these days because it is perilously close to be taken for the truth when applied to anything the Repugs do.

'Tenthers'

Yeah, ya are, lady

Think Progress, links and video

Texas Secessionist To Health Care Reform Advocates: ‘Go Back To The U.S. Where You Belong’

On Friday, ThinkProgress reported that “tenthers” in Texas were set to hold a pro-secession rally in Austin this weekend. According to the Texas Observer, upwards of 200 people attended the rally, where one speaker declared, “We hate the United States!”

We don't like you much either, asshole.

From The Texas Observer. Molly Ivins' old paper is still on the job.

So the secession leaders were a little peeved that they couldn’t get their good friends in the Texas GOP to show up today. After all, Fox News is paying attention: Miller was a guest on the Glenn Beck Program on June 23, discussing the possibility of Texas seceding.

Beck'll be a perfect fit in Texas. As a matter of fact, let's shove every right-wing loony in the country into Texas just before we slam the border gate shut on 'em.

Here's the best line from the Texas Observer article:

And they wonder why Perry and friends didn’t show up. Even for our governor, these people are toxic.

Note to Texas: You wanta secede? Here it is in words you can understand:

No deje que la puerta del éxito ya en el culo a la salida, pendejos.

Who's Funding The Taliban?

The short answer is: almost everybody in the world, including us, but there are no short answers in Afghanistan. A 'must read' if you're interested in why we're losing that clusterfuck when we didn't have to.

Time

To understand why America and its allies are losing the war in Afghanistan, consider the story behind one deadly attack. On July 6, in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, a powerful improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated under the wheels of a U.S. humvee. Four soldiers died, as did their translator and a bystander. The makeshift bomb was assembled with goods from the local bazaar. The man who placed it was probably paid the going rate of $750, according to government officials, or more if he captured video proof of dead soldiers. And though the local Taliban covered his expenses and fees, the cash very likely came from money donated by the international community to rebuild Afghanistan's roads, bridges, clinics and schools.

[...] "The Taliban obtains revenue from a variety of sources, including extortion of funds from both legitimate and unlawful activity," says David Cohen, the Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing. Major General Michael Flynn, senior military intelligence official at NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan stresses Mafia-like activities such as extortion and kidnapping for ransom. "I would say that there is more money going into the pockets of local leaders [of the insurgency] from criminal activities than there is from narcotics money," he says.

It's important to remember that the Afghan insurgency is not a cohesive movement but rather a loose affiliation of groups united by a common goal: the expulsion of foreign troops. Provincial rebel leaders are left largely to make their own plans and find their own funding. Drug money is more likely to go to national leaders of the insurgency, like Mullah Omar, who provide guidance and training for local groups. Local commanders, on the other hand, "absolutely raise their own funds through criminal activities to pay for food, IEDs, weapons and salaries," says Flynn. The billions of dollars spent on reconstruction projects are far too tempting a target to pass up. As a result, the Taliban, once an organization of seminary students seeking to establish a caliphate, is embracing criminal elements that feed on insecurity for financial gain. Together with poor governance, ineffective policing and a weak justice system, the nexus between the Taliban and crime is becoming dangerously entrenched in Afghan society. "The Taliban are acting like a broad network of criminal gangs that enables them to utilize different sources of income," says Ahmad Nader Nadery of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Afghans are learning the hard way how difficult it is to deal with this level of criminality. The day after the American soldiers died in Kunduz, Jan's construction site was hit. A bulldozer and 12 trucks were torched and two of the drivers caught by the Taliban and held for ransom. Jan, 72, with closely cropped hair, a thick white beard and a string of amber prayer beads, claims he was targeted in retaliation for not paying off the Taliban, even though the provincial governor and district governor say he did. Not that Jan would have refused — he says the Taliban never asked. "If the Taliban had asked for $100,000, I would have gladly paid them," says Jan. "This equipment was worth $230,000." What probably happened, says Abdul Wahid Omerkhil, district governor of Char Dara, where the attack took place, is that Jan paid off the wrong people. "It usually happens like that. You pay one group and you don't pay the other, and they will burn you."

[...] "The problem is that the people here are demanding a school or a road or a bridge, and the foreigners want to help," Omer says. "If we don't build, the people complain, but if we do, this problem arises. Either way, the Taliban benefits." A foreign official in Kunduz who asked not to be identified says, "No one is going to come save these construction companies. The Taliban know that the international community is concerned about security, but they also know it wants to pursue development as much as possible. So extortion is the easiest crime."

It's not just the big foreign-aid projects that get hit. Local businesses are victims too. In Kandahar, says a businessman who asked for anonymity out of fear of Taliban retribution, even the smallest shops pay a "business license" to the Taliban. [...]

There is some disagreement about what to do about this or even if anything can be done, but they all miss the most obvious solution:

Kill Taliban.

Update:

A 'Quote of the Day' from "Obama's Next Afghan Move" by Joe Klein in Time:

"Last week I spoke to a couple of Army Rangers who had just engaged the enemy," Mullen told me. "They said it was like fighting the Marines. The Taliban were well trained, better organized, much tougher fighters than they'd been in the past."

Uh-oh...

Rangers are tough bastards, but if they had fought the Marines they most likely wouldn't be in any shape to talk about it.

Update II:

Dexter Filkins, NYT:

The situation on the battlefield is difficult on its own. But it is, of course, inevitably bound up with the political stalemate in Kabul. As American commanders and diplomats have said repeatedly here, no amount of troops can substitute for a lack of political consensus among ordinary Afghans.

In this way, the politics in Kabul and the fighting in the south feed off of each other, for better or worse.

“If people decide that we could not give them anything through the democratic process, then the insurgency will be strengthened,” Mr. Abdullah said. “And then the United States will need to bring more troops and more resources here — and for what?”

That’s a question that President Obama, General McChrystal and, ultimately, the American people, will have to decide.

Uh-oh...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

RNC Mailer: Dems' Health Plan Could Deny Medical Treatment to Republicans
Unless they need an abortion.

Or euthanasia and sterilization.

Glenn Beck Loses More Advertisers
White Citizens Council, American Nazi Party, KKK pull spots.

India Legalizes Gay Sex
Primarily to irritate Pakistan.

Musicians Beaten by Taliban at Wedding in Afghanistan
Doors tribute band returns to U.S., calls “gig in 'Stan” a big mistake.

Sunday Clunker Blogging

A coupla old trucks wait for that last cocktail...

The Dirt Band w/Linda Ronstadt ~ An American Dream

Thanks to Mogipbob, Canada.

How to turn a one-holer into a four-holer

Four Marines clear a portable toilet during a field operation in Okinawa, Japan.

I've cleared a few in my time too. Didn't need no gun neither...

Thanks to KyoraStryker.

Marijuana's new high life

LATimes

Cannabis is moving into the mainstream, with fashion, films, TV and politicians acknowledging it's here to stay.

Marijuana's role on TV and in the movies is no surprise, says Robert Thompson, a professor of television and pop culture at the University of Syracuse S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. "The people who are making movies and television shows, from the scriptwriters to the director and the producers -- a very large chunk of those are probably people who grew up not only much more comfortable with marijuana's presence in society, but probably as consumers themselves of it.

"As a result," Thompson said, "it's almost switched with alcohol. Think back to Dean Martin and Foster Brooks -- their whole comedy act was the fact that they were in the bag -- that now is seen a lot less often. The stoner is the new drunk."

Shorter: "Hic!" has been replaced with "Duuuuuude...".

Did something happen between 2003, when Tommy Chong started a nine-month stint in federal prison for selling a mail-order water pipe, and the June THC Expo, when he stood signing autographs and shaking hands, barely a roach clip's throw from row upon row of swirling glass pipes, smoking devices with octopus-like tentacles, whirring motors and price tags as high as $800?

Some people point to the Obama administration as the biggest game-changer. "It was when [former President George W. Bush] and his boys were run out of office, that made the biggest difference," Chong said by phone near the end of the "Light Up America and Canada Tour" that reunited him with Cheech Marin.

Roberts cited the election as the tipping point as well. "The whole show teetered on who won the election," he said. "If McCain had won, I'd have never have put up my money. But Americans are no longer living in fear."

In addition, trend watcher Laermer points to a more subtle shift: aging baby boomers -- a generation famous for tuning in, turning on and dropping out -- who are keeping their party habits going into their golden years.

"It's hard to fathom that the fifty- and sixtysomethings would be against pot after all the pot they smoked," Laermer said, "Their kids would laugh them out of the room if they started telling them not to smoke pot."

And their grandkids...

Roberts, for one, is ready. He's already booked 50,000 square feet at the Los Angeles Convention Center for next year's THC Expo. It's going to happen April 23-25 -- right after the April 20 date that's become a kind of pot smokers' national holiday.

"They're happy to have us back," Roberts said. "They told me the food concessions sold $38,000 worth of food on the first day alone -- and that's more than they do in a whole week at the California Gift Show."

Heh.

As an example of how people aren't afraid to talk about weed anymore, I offer this quote by Joe Klein - yes, that Joe Klein (I only call him 'Joke Line' when he's fuckin' up) - from an article about Ted Kennedy in Time magazine:

[...] But we talked again about that day soon after, and memorably so, since neither of us was sober. It was at a cocktail reception at Ethel Kennedy's home, for recipients of the Robert F. Kennedy journalism awards, one of whom happened to be me. In celebration, before the ceremony, a Kennedy who shall remain nameless took me down to the barn for an intense herbal experience. When I returned to the house, there was Teddy — and it was immediately apparent that he was as shiffazed as I was stoned. We greeted each other like old comrades in arms, sat in a corner and talked... [...]

I rest my case. I like 'shiffazed' too.