Quote of the Day

From Will Durst on BP CEO Hayward's farce-fest with Congress:

Congressional hearings are to hypocrisy what green felt is to pool tables.

Yes, it is all about ideology

The Rude Pundit hadn't paid much attention to the Sunday blabfests yesterday because, even if it has its charms when you're participating, a circle jerk is just weird and depressing to watch, especially on a weekly basis. But then, in one of her standard blurps of incoherency, Sarah Palin tweeted from "her" Blackberry, "RahmEmanuel= as shallow/narrowminded/political/irresponsible as they come,to falsely claim Barton's BP comment is 'GOP philosophy'Rahm,u lie". The Rude Pundit's first reaction, after breaking out the decoder ring and setting it on "fucktard" (it's right after "Enigma"), was "Vicodin's a helluva drug." But then he wondered what President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the subject of such recent disdain out here in the hinterlands of Left Blogsylvania, had said.

Apparently, an unfed Rahm Emanuel is a worthless and/or destructive being (as in his unending willingness to compromise during the health care debate). However, you give him the raw meat of campaign mode, and that motherfucker becomes the nasty wolverine you want on your side. To those paying attention (like the aforementioned former demi-Governor of Alaska), on This Week with Placeholder Jake Tapper, Emanuel offered more for Democrats to battle for than any administration official has in months.

So Sarah Palin's thong was already twisted when Emanuel started offering up pieces of the GOP for devouring, as when he said, "The approach here expressed and supported by other voices in the Republican Party, sees the aggrieved party as BP, not the American -- not the fishermen and the communities down there affected. And that would the governing philosophy. And I think what Joe Barton did is remind the American people, in case they've forgotten, this is how the Republicans would govern."

And, as if to prove Emanuel right (and contrary to the desperate backtracking that Palin and Mitch McConnell and other craven Republicans are doing on Barton), here's crying California Rep. Darrell "Are the cameras on?" Issa on what he'd do with subpoena power in a House of Representatives run by Republicans: "I won't use it to have corporate America live in fear that we're going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing." You got that? Issa's saying that the White House is the enemy that needs to be attacked, not corporations that pollute and steal and kill.

Emanuel is testing a strategy here, laying out a case that ideology matters. If this is the battle line for the midterms, it's got possibilities. It ain't politicizing the oil spill - it's politicizing the Republicans' response to it. Not bad at all. When that snarling bastard Emanuel gets his teeth in something, he's gonna take chunks out of it.

Rahmbo has his place and attack dog is it. That wasn't on MSNBC. People besides us pinkos actually watch the Sunday political talk shows. Good on ya, Rahm. Sic 'em.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

England: Thong Awareness Day Observed
With special discounts for seniors.

My eyes! Aggghhhh...

World Cup Ball Universally Disliked
Everyone agrees it favors their opponent.

Kepler Telescope Spots Planet With Density of Styrofoam
Probably a fake, say astronomers.

Too Much, Too Little Sleep Can Shorten Life
Too much, too little information can kill you.

Too much or too little of the wrong information is what the teabaggers are all about and pisses the rest of us off.

I don't know ...

Thanks to a lot of whitewashing and cover-up, we will likely never know the real circumstances of, and leading up to, the terror attack of 11 September 2001. I'd rather not believe that our government would actually sacrifice the lives of 3000 innocent Americans in order to achieve some crazy ideological goal.

That said, via the Existentialist Cowboy's Facebook page, a few items to make you think. After 8 years of Bush/Cheney, and all the illegal crap they've done, it falls into the realm of probability.

...

9. "President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11..." ..."Tuesday's discussion followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney last Friday to make the same request."

10. The Project For a New American Century, which wrote of the need for a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," had members throughout the top of the government on 9/11 including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Bolton, Armitage, Abrams, Wurmser, as well as Bush's brother, the governor of Florida, Jeb.

11. Four days before 9/11, Jeb Bush activated the Florida National Guard, "Based on the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port." (Executive Order 01-261).

12. On 9/11 Jeb Bush declared a "State of Emergency" in Florida (E.O. 01-262). "I hereby delegate to the Department of Law Enforcement the operational authority to coordinate and direct the law enforcement resources and other resources of any and all state, regional and local governmental agencies..." And by 2am on 9/12/01, Jeb Bush was reported to have confiscated the police records in Venice, FL related to the Huffman Aviation flight school. Two rental trucks full of these records drove onto a C-130 military aircraft at Sarasota Airport and flew out with Jeb Bush aboard.

...

It just makes we wonder why none of our elected representatives want to "look back" at anything the previous administration has done.

California Gal Music Blogging

When ya think of 'California girls', sometimes ya gotta forget the blond hair and store-bought chachabingoes of song and legend and pop culture bullshit and just go with talent. This is Kathy Kallick (website) and her band performing in Denmark, I presume. I just got her new CD, "Between the Hollow (pronounced 'holler' - G) and the High Rise" in the mail the other day.

Kathy's been around a while. Check out her discography. I've only been a fan for about 30 years and I'm glad her stuff is showing up more and more on YouTube.

Sometimes I'm appalled by the sound quality on these videos and sometimes I'm amazed at how well the tiny mics on the vidcams work. This is one of those times.

The song is "You Took Me Away" I think.

The Kathy Kallick Band

Thanks to ngifoto, Denmark.

Stop the presses! California university will allow media at Sarah Palin event!

The Political Carnival

After months of requests from reporters, a California university has agreed to allow members of the media to attend a fundraiser next week featuring Sarah Palin. [...]

...

How out of whack are we if reporting that a public figure with an inappropriate amount of influence is “allowing” us to find out what she’s saying at a fundraiser?

As a mechanic, I'm used to things being "out of whack". I keep refill cans of "whack" in stock in pints, quarts, and gallons. For the "press" and the 1st Amendment I may have to special order the 50-gallon drum.

Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock

Here's the last coupla ¶ of Daddy Frank's column today:

When Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, revived Rand Paul’s defense of BP last week by apologizing on camera to Hayward for the “tragedy” of the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown,” the G.O.P. establishment had to shut him down because he was revealing the party’s true loyalties, not because it disagreed with him (my em). Barton was merely echoing Michele Bachmann, who labeled the $20 billion for gulf victims a “redistribution-of-wealth fund,” and the 100-plus other House members whose Republican Study Committee had labeled the $20 billion a “Chicago-style shakedown” only a day before Barton did.

These tribunes of the antigovernment right and their Tea Party auxiliaries are clamoring for a new revolution to “take back America” — after which, we now can see, they would hand over America to the likes of BP. Let Deepwater Horizon be ground zero for a 9/11 showdown over the role of government. There couldn’t be a riper moment for Obama, as a man once said, to bring it on.

Always remember the First Law Of Bar Fights: Ya gotta bring some ta get some.

The Second Law jumps around that: The sucker punch is yer best friend. The Repugs are sucker punchin' themselves. Heh. Another draft an' some popcorn please, barkeep!

Sorta like "Clean Coal" ...

Chris:

And when they claim to be "pro-environment" they mean it in a BP drill, baby, drill kind of way. The group is funded by BP, Transocean, Shell, ConocoPhilips and other well known environmentalists.

...

These are your "Guardians of the Gulf". Something like the "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" of the Bush administration.

Great apologies in History ...

Comrade Misfit in great form:

...

The nations of Poland, Holland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Norway, Greece, Finland and the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union would like to apologize to Germany for not being hospitable to large German tour groups from 1939 through 1945.

...

More on Greene v DeMint

Lawrence O'Donnell, guest host at Countdown and obviously a regular reader of the Brain, picks up on my idea about South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A 2d Amendment Remedy

I hope I didn't start something yesterday, but I gotta run with this one:

Man accidentally shoots self in testicles

One less teabag...

Comments:

Aw nuts!!!!!!!!! Cleanup in lumber.

Now he really does have lead in his pencil.

A tip o' the Brain to David Aquarius.

Headline of the Day

South African Vuvuzela Philharmonic Angered By Soccer Games Breaking Out During Concerts

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

A little Motown in this too.

From 1982

Emmylou Harris ~ Rock & Roll Medley

Thanks to TheChoughs, UK.

What truck?

Blue Wave News

Dick Armey: Obama Forcing BP to Pay Damages to Gulf Oil Victims is… Unconstitutional?

While the existence of numerous species of fish, birds, and other animals are being threatened by the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico – to say nothing of the livelihoods of thousands of humans – one particularly stubborn creature is not only surviving but possibly thriving: the right-wing loon.

“There are all kinds of room in the Constitution for these roles to be taken up,” he said. “But it would begin with this: any law that extends the power of the state should be first judged against the Constitution… If I go park my truck on your yard, you don’t call the mayor, you call your lawyer and say we’ll settle this in the courts.”

Actually, Dick, if you parked your truck in my yard, my first call would be to you, asking you to move it, because I would assume that you, as an adult, would recognize what an assholish thing you had done and would be willing to rectify it. Since that would apparently be expecting too much of you, my next call would be to the police department, not my goddamned lawyer, because you would be violating the law. I sure as hell wouldn’t wait for the month or more it would take for this case to get before a judge. Hell, by then, you would probably have moved the truck from my lawn anyway.

There's more, but it's obvious that Armey The Head Teabagger runs in the rarefied atmosphere of lawyers up there in his political/high finance world and doesn't quite get how us little people do things.

The Blue Wave writer said it right, but he's pretty straight arrow.

For one thing, nobody but Dick Armey is stupid enough to park a truck in somebody's yard without permission, and certainly not stupid enough to walk away from it. If I had to deal with it, other than the obvious of catching the guy and telling him to move his goddam load outta my yard toot fuckin' sweet or there was gonna be trouble and let's get it over with, I'd do it in one of two ways.

First, if I just wanted the goddam thing outta my yard and I didn't wanta fuck with it, I'd just call ol' Edgar at Dependable Tow and have him come get it. As the property owner I can do that. It'd cost the owner about $300, more if I tell Edgar it belongs to a rich asshole. Edgar'd kick me down some change and everybody's happy but the truck's owner.

The second way, if I did wanta fuck with it is: Parking in my yard without permission is fine. It costs $300 (or whatever), per day, and I've got a whole buncha parts over here that I know will fit your now non-running truck, asshole, to ensure I get paid. Go get your money and come back. Bring some tools. Mechanic work's extra. If it takes you more than 5 days, not only do you owe me $1500, and it's only gonna go up, I'm gonna lien sale the sonuvabitch as an abandoned vehicle and sell it for whatever I can get for it. You can have it back anytime during the lien sale process at $300 a day. Or you can buy it back from whomever for whatever they want for it.

Actually, I have to send a registered letter to the owner of record and he can stop the lien sale process. The mail to him and back to DMV and back to me takes several days. If he does that, I take him to Small Claims Court. No lawyers. This all takes time and I have the truck in my possession. See "$300/day". Did I mention that I'm retired and have plenty of time for all this?

Lawyers as the answer for something like that. What a fuckin' outta touch asshole Armey is. But we knew that.

There's actually a third way to deal with it that would really be fun, especially if it was Armey's. Move the truck off my property and get Fixer over here to show me his specialty of how to catastrophically disassemble a truck with the parts all landing in specific grid squares. Or counties.

Truck? In my yard? What truck? I don't see no truck. 'Scuse me, pal, I gotta fill in this little crater here. Heh.

The Kirtland Kabul Weapons Lab

Been to the Air Force's Kirtland Weapons Lab a couple times. Looks like they're taking the act on the road:

...

Setting aside the fact that using a "pain ray" in general is a horrible idea, how much more horrible is it to use in a country that already sees itself invaded by men who look like robot insects and where unmanned planes kill targets from a distance? It's hard not to see that as a weapons laboratory on a people who have no means to protest.

...

Yep, nothing like doing live testing in a place where lives come cheap.

The Nattering Naboblicans of Negativism

I just love "Nattering Naboblicans of Negativism"!

The Ostroy Report. Go see the poster of Rushole.

I have this friend out in LA. We'll call him Brad. Brad's a 100% narrow-minded, lock-steppin', self-serving, gated-community livin' Republican business owner (started by his dad) without an ounce of compassion for those less fortunate. All of which I can easily accept. I'm all for capitalism, political diversity and nepotism. I can even accept the wanton disregard for those in need. But what I can't accept about Brad is his shameful anti-Americanism. And there are plenty more Republicans just like Brad, lemmingly led by Rush "I want Obama to fail" Limbaugh.

Accusing someone of being anti-American is a serious charge, and I don't take it lightly, whether I am referring to Brad or whether the charge is hurled at politicians by the opposition simply over policy differences. So what makes Brad anti-American? It's simple. Brad is rooting for our president to fail. He is rooting for the economy to fail. He is rooting for the stock markets to fail. All because, to Brad, this failure translates to partisan victory in November. Brad, like so many Republicans, cheers with celebratory glee whenever there's bad news on Main Street or Wall Street. And there's nothing more unpatriotic than to want your government and financial system to fail, particularly for political reasons.

Anyone who calls me anti-American or a traitor or the like will rue his choice of words fucking instantly. I expect the same from those I call traitors. I'm pretty safe. They're all cowards.

What I don't get though is that Brad owns a successful business, a beautiful home and has a fat retirement account and two great kids. But you'd never know this judging from his sheer delight at even the slightest prospect of economic weakness. It's as if he'd rather be destitute, so long as Republicans regain power in November. And that's un-American, let alone just plain moronic.

But Brad is merely a symbol. He personifies today's highly charged, vitriolic partisan landscape, where one's misguided political passions often dwarf his own self-interests and those of his family. Is it possible that we can just be American on some issues? We all have a vested interest in seeing the economy recover. We all want to protect American's interests, both here and abroad. We all need improved health care coverage. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water. Does everything have to go through some convoluted partisan lens that turns bright, otherwise rational people into rhetoric-spewing automatons who root for failure?

Seems like it.

Analysis: Did the "gray lady" get played?

Global Post

Was The New York Times' story on minerals in Afghanistan smart or the result of Pentagon PR?

KABUL, Afghanistan — The New York Times' lead story Monday about “nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghaistan” was the kind of journalism that seemed at first glance to be a game changer.

Suddenly, there was something worth fighting for in Afghanistan beyond an ill-defined counterinsurgency campaign: the lithium batteries that power our cell phones. The story even quoted an internal Pentagon memo that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” And the article went further, trumpeting United States officials' belief that Afghanistan could eventually be “transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world.

And of course we mustn't let China get it. We must stay there forever. Or until we've got all the money.

A question that many media watchers, military analysts and pundits are now wondering is whether The New York Times gave that story shape or whether it was somehow played by the U.S. military to see the value of the mineral deposits at a moment in time when Washington appears to be increasingly concerned about the public losing confidence in the war in Afghanistan.

At a recent conference on Afghanistan, attended by several of the most respected research centers, the topic that drew the most heated response was the relative positions of the foreign troops and the Taliban.
...

“I told them they had already lost,” said one conference participant, speaking on condition of anonymity. The conference was trying to sail “under the radar” and was not open to the media.

“If you have 46 countries and the world’s most developed economies unable to defeat a bunch of insurgents, then you are just finished,” the attendee added.

This view was echoed at another super-secret gathering last week, where a prominent Afghanistan expert told high-level officials that it was time to get out of the country.

“You cannot win,” said the authority. “Make a deal and leave.”

No, we'll more likely make a deal with our mining companies and stay. Hey, our troops died for fucking bananas on behalf of corporate profit, fer chrissake. We'll lose a lot more over lithium.

The upshot:

Afghans, of course, immediately began dividing up the spoils from this trillion-dollar treasure chest. If history is any gauge, then the same problems that have kept them mired in war and misery for so long — poor governance, corruption and the less-than-tender attention of the world community in general and their close neighbors in particular — will more than likely plague them again and the people will just shrug and add the theft of their national treasure to their endless list of grievances.

The "news" about the minerals in Clusterfuckistan is not exactly new, but the timing of the NYT story is becoming more and more suspect. I wouldn't put it past the neocons in the military one little bit.

Joe Barton, Our Savior

Kinda on a Jesus thing today. Hmmmm...

P.M. Carpenter

Joe Barton's mike hadn't yet cooled from his searing stupidity about a tragic "$20 billion shakedown" before President Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, now of Organizing for America, fired off an email that, to be fully savored, should be delivered in the aesthetic tones of Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bulow:

"Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he 'shares' Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be 'fleeced.' Rush Limbaugh called it a 'bailout.' The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, [also] called it a 'shakedown.' "

All the above is less a mere reversal of fortunes than the epic granddaddy of them all.

It's the sparkling bull's-eye of 435 ruthless campaign ads, plus 36. It's a titanic reaffirmation that Bushism's Wildness receded not into the West in January, 2009; its ideological tentacles still clumsily flop and sprawl.

And it's a priceless reminder that one must never despair. As long as modern-day Republicans are free to talk like modern-day Republicans, there's hope.

The right, the far right, the Tea Party right and all other sub-manifestations of contemporary pseudoconservatism just don't get it.

It was first with a chuckle that moments before Mr. Barton revealed his sagging spirits that I read this, in Politico's "The Arena," by a certain Charles Calomiris, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute:

"Obama will lose in 2012. The most important reason he will lose is not the decline in his overall approval ratings, which reflect his radical agenda and increasingly unlikable demeanor, but rather his decline in approval in swing states and among independents.... But the end of the Obama presidency will begin after the 2010 election, when the radical agenda will cease to be viable in a Congress no longer controlled by the radical fringe."

Then came Barton, and my chuckle -- "radical agenda," "radical fringe" -- turned to a (dangerously) self-satisfied "Say again, Charles?"

The election of 2012 is a long way away, indeed, as is this year's November, so no preferred outcomes could possibly be in the bag. But I know one thing with a Bartonlike certainty of the "first proportion": The burden of any publicly perceived "radicalism" -- which in American politics portends electoral death -- just shifted to the other side.

Shit, "radical" has been on the Repug side since 1980. Maybe because of all the wacko shit they say now that they're so desperate for power that the gloves are off and they're outta the crazy closet, reg'lar folks might just notice, like a mule notices a 2x4 upside his head. Maybe.

The funny (not ha-ha) part is that the Repugs think the Dead End Quarter that actually believes in crazy is the same as "the American people".

I said yesterday sucked. I take it back. It turned out to be a wonderful day after all. Barton gave us a gift that hopefully will keep on giving.

Headline of the Day

MSNBC

'Intimate waxing' nearly costs man a testicle

Note to my own testicles: You can come out of hiding now. I was only kidding...

19 reasons why God torched Jesus

Friday Morford.

Charred remnants remained this morning of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night. -- Dayton Daily News

You ever have that fine, epiphanic moment when you realize an eyesore's an eyesore and it's time for some, you know, housecleaning? And what better way to rid yourself of some of the more hideous crap laying about than maybe tossing it into a nice bonfire? By the highway? In Ohio? God has those moments, too.

Sure, you could argue it's a form of the Savior that's just a wee bit tacky, insulting and childish, not to mention a laughable piece of "artwork" you wouldn't wish upon a blind quadriplegic goat herder. Whatevs. As the Pharisees used to say: "No such thing as bad press, yo."

5) He is resin.

Grooooan. Today is Punday, day of pest...

6) The real Jesus of historical record, being a grizzled, husky, musky, dark-skinned Jew with short, curly black hair who rarely showered and smelled of goat droppings and dried sweat, and who had a thing for screaming random prophesies in the streets and talking about doom, fire and the unbearable hotness of Mary Magdalene, well, the real Jesus' spirit has been quite displeased with being eternally depicted as a pale, soft-focus blond European hippie in bleached-out robes who likes to give lots of there-there-now hugs while watching professional sports. Basta.

8) Two more: Insurance money. God has been eyeing the new Cadillac CTS Coupe. In this economy? You do what need to do.

9) God: "Wait, what? That was supposed to be Jesus? It looked like Charles Manson after too many marshmallow peeps and a bad peroxide job. Aw, dammit."

10) Word has it the Hustler Hollywood sign sitting atop the adult bookstore across the street from the torched Touchdown Jesus was left unscathed, thus proving (once again) that God really does like porn. And irony. Or just needs a new contact lens prescription.

19) At last! The End Times hath arrived! Wrath, hellfire, lightning, burning Jesus, oil in the seas, plagues of grasshoppers, a black president, Gary Coleman dead, the works. About time, no?

Fuckin' A. Lets get on with it.

Actually, since it had a lot of metal in it and stuck up sixty feet in the air, it was a lightning rod waiting to do its thing. If the church had had the true symbol of Christianity, the collection plate, atop the steeple they wouldn'ta needed it.