Poking the Cobra

Will Durst via YubaNet.

Now is the time for all good men to put their hands together, pull them apart and rapidly put them back together again, and repeat, to give props to the president for not curling up into a fetal position with a "Kick Me" sign taped to his butt. You know. Like a Democrat.

He's taking it straight to his perceived enemy, calling both Fox News and Rush Limbaugh radical and out of the mainstream, making the two crazier than a preacher at a whorehouse with a parishioner working the door. Because that is exactly what they say about him. Methinks there may be a bad case of "can dish it out but not take it" going around.

Yep. They dish it out, deny it, can't take it, lie about it. Typical wingnut M.O.

Though he lacks military service, Barack Obama seems to grasp the concept of "target acquired." Obviously, this sustained adversarial offensive is all part of a choreographed campaign to marginalize critics. An effort to paint the GOP as a wee bit of a sliver of a party, chock full of pro-rape, white, Southern ditto-heads and fringe-licking extremists. Following the script perfected by that fabled wartime tactician: Karl Rove. If you're going to steal, take from the best.

It must be said that refusing to appear on Fox News does seem to fly in the face of the president's official policy to open a dialogue with all evil-doers. Which normally, he does. Iran. Hamas. North Korea. Syria. Everyone it seems, except Rupert Murdoch. "If we want fair and balanced, we'll get our fair and balanced from MSNBC, thank you very much." Not very Peace Prize-ish if you ask me.

A final concern is all this fresh flummery could cause Rush to bloat up to dirigible size and then explode, which some experts say may force the evacuation of the entire Eastern Seaboard due to fears of Oxycontin contamination. But most importantly, Obama needs to keep in mind the advice my father regularly spouted after his third six-pack: never get in a fight with an ugly person; he's got nothing to lose. You know. Like a Republican.

Freedom's just another word
For nothing left to lose.

I'll be glad when the Repugs set themselves free. Please go read the rest.

"She'll do down on you like a Hoover set on deep pile."

If the thought of gettin' yer knob polished by Olympia Snowe doesn't send ya screaming inta the woods, go read The Rude Pundit.

As for me, a double bleach straight up an' a side of heroin, please.

A coupla Quotes of the Day

From P.M.Carpenter in a larger article about health care:

Open a party's flaps and you get Big Tent Chaos; close them and you get small-minded, ideological insurgency -- either way, and in any combination, you get a legislative brick wall.

Nothing a suitable application of high explosives won't fix, old chap!

Sure, Congressional Democrats are, uh, dispiriting. But even the slightly suggested prospect of a Speaker John Boehner? A Majority Leader Eric Cantor? Pass the Prozac -- and supersize me on that.

A 55 gallon drum oughta do it...

Obama Signs Veterans Health Care Budget Reform

This is from a few days ago. Better late than never...

From Obama-Mamas (I swear!), includes video and full text of the Prez's remarks:

Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director & Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) announced some “big news” this afternoon. The President signed THE VETERANS HEALTH CARE BUDGET REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY ACT, permanently changing the funding process for VA healthcare.

Inexplicably, the VA used to have to request funds each and every quarter. Probably had something to do with not giving Vets what they had coming for too awfully long after their services to the country with rifles in their hands were no longer required. This now appears to be fixed. I say 'appears' because I'll believe it when I see it. Veterans will understand that because they know that anything involving bennies for the troops is usually as fucked up as Hogan's goat, to use an old apocryphal Marine Corps saying.

From the President's remarks:

We dramatically increased funding for veterans health care: more care for women’s veterans, for our wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injuries. For 500,000 “Priority 8″ veterans, we’re restoring VA health care coverage.

I'm a Priority 8. These are Vets with no service-connected health problems who were allowed into the VA program in the '90s when the VA was starting to run out of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam customers with service-connected health issues. Luckily, I needed health benefits before Vets started coming back from Iraq all fucked up and strained the system to the breaking point.

All told, we have made the biggest commitment to veterans — the largest percentage increase in the VA budget — in more than 30 years. (Applause.) And this includes funding the post-9/11 GI Bill — making sure it works as intended so our newest veterans and their families have the chance to pursue their education and live out their dreams.

But we’re here today because a problem that’s gone on for far too long — the delays and uncertainty that often plague funding for veterans’ health care. Over the past two decades, the VA budget has been late almost every year, often by months.

At this very moment, the VA is operating without a budget, making it harder for VA medical centers and clinics to deliver the care our vets need. The hardworking folks at the VA know this. I was there at headquarters this spring. Michelle was there — if I’m not mistaken, Ric — just this Tuesday. It’s frustrating for them and it’s frustrating for our vets who pay the price when budgets are delayed: the new doctors, nurses, and critical staff that aren’t hired; the new medical equipment that isn’t purchased; the construction of new facilities and clinics that isn’t started; the new programs for medical care that are delayed.

This is inexcusable. It’s unacceptable. It’s time for it to stop. And that’s just what we’ll do with this landmark legislation — the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act.

Good. Finally we may me leaving behind the Bush-era (shudder!) philosophy of 'no pull trigger, no get food'.

Also out of the House and under consideration by the Senate according to Nancy Pelosi's website is:

...the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act, to help service members take full advantage of homebuyer incentives.

I bought my first house with a Vietnam Era GI Bill loan guarantee. I hope this one passes and helps Vets out.

Veterans are more unique than ever in this society of me-me-me where most people never give a thought to anyone but themselves or recognize that someone actually sacrifices some time and maybe some blood or their life so they can have that despicable attitude without ever having to think about it other than putting a little yellow Chinese magnetic ribbon on their SUVs.

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines know that in the final analysis, their job is to stop bullets so the rest of Americans don't have to, or even have to think about why they're safe in their beds.

We owe Veterans a hell of a lot more than what they've been getting and I'm glad the Prez signed this bill.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

New Formula Adds 7 Million To Ranks of Poverty
They're now eligible to receive lip service.

Belief in Global Warming Wanes
Most Americans more concerned about Mayan calendar, Illuminati.

Denver Newspaper to Hire Medicinal Marijuana Reviewer
Publisher still sifting through 375,000 résumés.

??? ~ News Quiz ~ ???

T. Boone Pickens says the U. S. is “entitled” to Iraqi oil because:
A ) We spent a trillion dollars to get our hands on it.
B ) Our brave soldiers fought and died for it.
C ) We destroyed their country for it.
D ) Our government is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon/Mobil.
Hint: Actually, Chevron also has a piece.

But war is more important ...

Than health care for all. Right? Greenwald:

...

So according to The Washington Post, dropping bombs on, controlling and occupying Afghanistan -- all while simultaneously ensuring "effective governance, economic development, education, the elimination of corruption, the protection of women's rights" to Afghan citizens in Afghanistan -- is an absolutely vital necessity that must be done no matter the cost. But providing basic services (such as health care) to American citizens, in the U.S., is a secondary priority at best, something totally unnecessary that should wait for a few years or a couple decades until we can afford it and until our various wars are finished, if that ever happens. "U.S. interests in South Asia" are paramount; U.S. interests in the welfare of those in American cities, suburbs and rural areas are an afterthought.

As demented as that sounds, isn't that exactly the priority scheme we've adopted as a country? We're a nation that couldn't even manage to get clean drinking water to our own citizens who were dying in the middle of New Orleans. We have tens of thousands of people dying every year because they lack basic health care coverage. The rich-poor gap continues to expand to third-world levels. And The Post claims that war and "nation-building" in Afghanistan are crucial while health care for Americans is not because "wars, unlike entitlement programs, eventually come to an end."

...

If 45,000 Americans died per annum from a certain cause (from any other cause than the lack of health insurance), you can bet we'd have declared war on it. Instead, we bankrupt ourselves in a war we will never win while Americans lose their homes and become destitute attempting to make and keep themselves healthy.

Summer camp ...

Feels like summer here in NY for the past few days. Yeah, more French music but we had it on while I was working on the Mrs.' office today. This is one of our favorites:

Pierre Perret - Les Jolies Colonies de Vacances*

*The Beautiful Summer Camps

Take warning, 'tards

Rita Hosking is a local folkie in my area code. The other side of the hill down in Gold Country, I think.

Cousin Jack was the name given to the Cornish miners who came to California and Nevada in the 19th century.

This goes out to all Repugs.

Rita Hosking & Cousin Jack ~ Sow It On The Mountain

Thanks to Rita Hosking.

A little Sunday afternoon flatpickin'

Doc Watson plays a guitar pretty good for a guy who's never seen one...

I've always loved the interesting anecdote that Doc developed his now legendary flatpicking style while playing a Les Paul (electric solid body guitar) while he was playing in a Rockabilly band in the 1950's. Additionally, I've heard that he actually didn't even own an acoustic guitar at that time.
...

I've always wondered what kind of reception a picker would get at the National Flatpicking Contest in Winfield Kansas if he were to show up to compete with a Les Paul in hand!

Well, according to the rules, he could play it, he just couldn't plug it in.

Doc Watson ~ Black Mountain Rag

Thanks to UncleSkidder.

Dallas Pendejo Dept. Gives Traffic Tickets For Not Speaking English

Raw Story

Police officers in Dallas, TX have issued at least 39 citations to drivers in the last three years for the non-existent infraction of not speaking English.

Police Chief David Kunkle has apologized publicly to the city's Spanish-speaking community. "I was stunned that this would happen," Kunkle stated. "In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."

All pending citations will be dismissed, fines will be returned, and the offices involved will be investigated for dereliction of duty.

It's a sad commentary that people would actually pay fines for bogus tickets out of ignorance and/or fear than go against the system even a little bit.

Go see the photo of the lady who finally questioned this bullshit. Good on ya, Señora Mondragon.

According to WFAA, "Brenda Mondragon said her mother is still learning English. She added that she believes Officer Bromley -- who is still in training -- clearly needs more of it. "

Pinches chotas.

Note: besides being slang for 'cop', chota is also slang for 'taint' and for sitting in the middle in the back seat. Heh.

A Satisfied Mind

This is a counterpoint to Fixer's post. The richies better hope there's a lot to be gained in the afterlife with tons of money and what they had to do to other people to get it.

A Johnny Cash song performed by Gram Parsons when he was with the International Submarine Band - film clips taken from the Fallen Angels DVD, featuring clips of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Altamont Speedway 1969, Emmylou Harris.

Actually, it was first performed by Porter Wagoner.

Gram Parsons and the International Submarine Band ~ A Satisfied Mind

Thanks to harpohat.

Generic Pop-Up Meds

Got this via email from my buddy Arnie:

In pharmacology, all drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name. For example, the trade name of Tylenol also has a generic name of Acetaminophen. Aleve is also called Naproxen. Amoxil is also called Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

Pfizer Corp. announced today that Viagra will soon be available in liquid form, and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer. It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one. Obviously we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to the names of "cocktails", "highballs" and just a good old-fashioned "stiff drink". Pepsi will market the new concoction by the name of: MOUNT & DO.

Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

That's a truism! When it comes to sex, I can't always remember who gets tied up...

Saturday Cross-Cultural Chase Scene & Music Blogging

I like Latin music. Last night I watched Latin Music USA, described thusly by PBS:

Latin Music USA is a story about American music. Fusions of Latin sounds with jazz, rock, country, rhythm and blues - music with deeper roots and broader reach than most people realize. It’s a fresh take on our musical history, reaching across time and across musical genres to embrace the exciting hybrid sounds created by Latinos; musical fusions that have deeply enriched popular music in the US for over more than five decades.

The show traced the history of Latin music in the US from its days of anti-Mexican racism in the '50s, from groups like Little Joe and the Latinaires, up through Freddy Fender, Selena, Linda Ronstadt, and finally to the most popular group in the US that you've never heard of (10,700 YouTube vids!), el grupo Norteño Los Tigres Del Norte.

A good show and I learned some new things, like about Los Tigres. Some things I already knew were reinforced:

1. Country music is country music, don't matter what country or what they call it.
2. Any Mexican music with even a trace of 'oom-pah-pah' in it was influenced by German settlers along the border.
3. It's illegal for a Mexican song to not contain the word 'corazon'.
4. Some things are just fuckin' universal.
5. If ya work on the engine, work on the brakes too...

Los Tigres Del Norte ~ La Camioneta Gris (The Gray Pickup)

Thanks to eviljack80 (pronounced 'ayveelhahkochenta', I think), Mexico.

Why Journalists Shouldn't Be Defending Fox Newsl

It gives me great pleasure to type Dan Froomkin:

The Obama administration's recent characterization of Fox News is a long overdue acknowledgment of the obvious: Fox News is not a legitimate news organization -- indeed, after many years of serving as the research and messaging wing of the Republican Party, it has now gone beyond even that, to become the electronic evangelist of an ultra-partisan and non-reality-based world view.

The White House "attack" on Fox is being derided as bad politics, as ineffective and as a distraction from more important issues -- all of which may be true. But doesn't it kind of matter that, when it comes to the substance of what Anita Dunn, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, and now even Obama himself have said, they're exactly right?

Pretending that Fox News is fair and balanced only serves the right wing, in the same way that it only served the Bush administration when traditional-media reporters pretended Bush didn't have a credibility problem -- and didn't call him out for his lies -- for fear of appearing partisan. It's self-muzzling, plain and simple.

One of the startling shifts in the last decade has been how so many of the most important policy issues of our time have become matters not of honest political debate, but of competing realities (only one of which, mind you, is supported by facts.) During the Bush years, whether it was related to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, progress in Iraq, torture, or tax cuts for the rich, Bush and his acolytes operated in their own fictional world -- with the traditional media only rarely issuing a reality check.

And Bush seemed positively furious by the end of the interview, when Engel had this to say: "The war on terrorism has been the centerpiece of your presidency. Many people say that it has not made the world safer, that it has created more radicals. That there are more people in this part of the world who want to attack the United States."

Get it? The difference here is that everything Engel said was true. He was doing his job very well indeed -- with a rare amount of courage. That was his big "mistake" in the eyes of the White House -- speaking the truth to the president.

But for Washington's real journalists to rush to the defense of Fox News would be extremely short-sighted, and yet another dismal example of inside-the-Beltway camaraderie run amok. Sure, some of these people may be our friends -- and there are a few journalists at Fox who have maintained a modicum of integrity -- but the fact is that overall, these are people who have made a conscious decision to get out of the truth business. They don't deserve our support -- or our silence about what they really are.

Much more, including an exhaustive description on:

A message from Dan about how to find me:

We'll find ya, Dan!

Once a Dick, Always a Dick

Hillbilly Report

The Republican Party as a whole is suffering from a huge case of mass amnesia. They seem to forget that they are the ones that crashed our economy. They seem to forget that they are the ones that made the whole world hate us. They forget that every policy they enacted was a miserable failure and that our country is paying huge, steep price for it now. In the case of Dick Cheney, he has forgotten that he was the one that dropped the ball on Afghanistan by insisting on a failed, costly in lives and treasure, war in Iraq.

Months after thankfully being escorted out of public life, and months after making a fool of himself speaking on things he obviously knows nothing about, Dick Cheney has been proving yet again that well, Once a Dick, always a Dick.

Enjoy the rest, including videos and this jewel:

Frank Gaffney to Ron Reagan Jr. "Your father would be ashamed of you."

Ron Reagan Jr. to Frank Gaffney: "You Better Watch You Mouth About That Frank"

That's the ticket! We need more of that with these Repug throwbacks! Kudos, Ron.

Unlike wealthy Americans ...

Well-to-do Germans understand the idea of "shared sacrifice". Auntie:

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

...

What was that? Not "I got mine and fuck you"? How is this possible?

...

"The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice," they say in the petition.

...

Bleedin' Commies, they are!

Great thanks to Chris for the link.

Friday Evening Emmylou Blogging

A song about the dangers of drinking. (Wink)

Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers with The Oak Ridge Boys ~ Leavin' Louisiana

Thanks to bluegrassrootstv.

"I ain't drunk ...

I'm just drinkin'." Heh ... The great Albert Collins:

Albert Collins - I Ain't Drunk

Hellfire justice

I see where we're deploying MQ-9 Reapers off Somalia to 'monitor' pirates. This is good. Coupla Hellfires, 'monitoring' done for the day, it's Miller time.

I suggest we expand this program to include the 'pirates' we're paying big money to besmirch our name.

A federal judge's ruling Wednesday won't shutter a war crimes suit against the security contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater, despite the fact that lawyers must refile their claims against the company.

64 Iraqis -- including the estates of 19 who died -- have sued the company, now called Xe, for indiscriminate beatings and killings.

Judge TS Ellis III dismissed several of the suits on Wednesday, citing a new ruling by the Supreme Court which raises the bar for allegations of war crimes.

"Ellis's ruling was not necessarily a response to faulty pleadings by the Iraqis' lawyers, but rather appears to be the result of a Supreme Court decision that came down after the Blackwater cases were originally filed," The Nation's Jeremy Scahill, who has covered the case closely, wrote Thursday. "In a 5-4 ruling in May 2009 in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the court reversed decades of case law and imposed much more stringent standards for plaintiffs' to document facts before going to trial, According to Ellis's ruling, which cites Iqbal, the Iraqis must now file complaints that meet these new standards."

Another right-wing ruling to protect powerful right-wing outfits from 'justice'. Yeesh.

Blackwater's image has been so tarnished that the company was forced to change their name. In August, two former Blackwater employees accused the company of pimping out Iraqi children.

The declarations described Blackwater as “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” They added even though Prince frequently visited this camp, he “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”

One of the statements also charged that “Prince’s North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince’s top executives.”

According to the two former employees, Blackwater supervisors in Iraq sometimes sent men back to the United States for wanting to “kill ragheads,” excessive drinking, steroid use, or failure to follow weapon safety procedures, but “Mr. Prince and his executives would send them back” with a reprimand to the supervisor for costing the firm money. Blackwater even fired “those mental health professionals who were not willing to endorse deployments of unfit men.”

The former employees stated that Prince was engaged in illegal arms dealing, money laundering, and tax evasion, that he created “a web of companies in order to obscure wrong-doing, fraud, and other crimes,” and that Blackwater’s chief financial officer had “resigned … stating he was not willing to go to jail for Erik Prince.”

There's a video as well.

A little 'Hellfire justice' would go a long way towards setting Blackwater/Xe right.

Marijuana Prohibition: Another Failed Social Engineering Idea

Good article by the improbably named Nuke Brunswick in The Mountain Messenger (photo - no website yet) via YubaNet:

The fall marijuana harvest is pretty much over; the stalks are hanging upside down to cure, law enforcement is sitting by the fire with its feet up, having done the show-and-tell tip-of-the-iceberg photo op pot busts, destroying crops with a street value greater than the cost of the Afghanistan war. Right.

Where did all this Reefer Madness come from?

It wasn't church groups or enraged parents or law enforcement that plunged America into the first skirmishes of the disastrous and incredibly expensive war on drugs. It was Big Cotton. Hemp was promising to be a better and more useful crop for making fabrics than the white stuff, so the cotton industry sent a wave of lobbyists, armed with FEAR, to Washington.

About then Harry Anslinger appeared on the scene. [...]
...

Anslinger found a powerful ally: William Randolf Hearst, who had invested heavily in the timber industry to feed his chain of newspapers and didn't want to see the development of hemp, a possible competitor to wood. DuPont joined the crusade, wanting to remove hemp as a possible competition to its new product: nylon.

Let the hysterical times roll! And the newspapers of the day were up to that challenge. "The marihuana cigarette is one of the most insidious of all forms of dope, largely because of the failure of the public to understand its fatal qualities," editorialized a paper in the nation's capitol.

Racism was a powerful weapon wielded by the opponents of cannabis. A Montana legislator said, as his state prepared to outlaw the weed, "All Mexicans are crazy and this stuff is what makes them crazy." A newspaper editorial in 1934 told its readers, "Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows, and look at a white woman twice."

Yellow journalism won and The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed.

When Nevada County District Attorney Mike Ferguson was getting ready to retire I asked him about the War on Weed. Did he think the DEA should switch its emphasis from marijuana to meth?

"I think it's a good idea," he told me. "When you look at the impact of what meth is and what it does to people, it should be prioritized." He agreed that the old concept of "Reefer Madness" applied more correctly to meth than pot.

He's off somewhere on his sailboat now and law enforcement still finds it a lot harder to nab the highly mobile meth cookers than it is to bust something that stands in one place for six months.

Editor's note: The Mountain Messenger, California's oldest weekly newspaper since 1853, is published on Thursdays from Downieville, California.

I just threw that last bit in there because Downieville's main claim to fame is:

In July 1851 Downieville gained a distinction it may not have wanted when a mob lynched a Mexican woman, known as Juanita, for the murder of a white miner. It remains the only lynching of a female in California history.

I think I would qualify that by saying it is the only recorded incident of lynching a woman. Those old mining camps were pretty rough.

It's actually a nice destination for lunch on the hotel deck where you can be wetsuit-mooned by gold panners in the Downie River.