Guess what I'm doing today?

Snowthrower next winter (if I survive this one), bet the house on it. My backyard is beautiful but I got a ton of shoveling to do. Woke up to another 18" this morning.

Click to make big.

Update:

Of course the ladies don't want to come in the house:

So much for free speech and telling the truth

Raw Story

Border guard fired, ‘interrogated’ for saying pot should be legalized

ACLU slams 'ideological purity' test for government employees

As well they should.

In documents (PDF) filed in a federal court in west Texas last week, Bryan Gonzalez alleged that he lost his job in 2009 after telling a colleague on the Mexican border that he believed legalizing marijuana could reduce drug war violence.

Gonzalez was issued a termination letter stating that he was fired because he "held personal views that were contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps," according to the lawsuit.

"I was asked if I wanted to overthrow the American government," he said. "I was asked if I was a socialist."

But his only transgression was to say that legalizing marijuana would "eliminate a lot of unnecessary deaths."

"Firing a public servant because of their political opinions is an egregious violation of the First Amendment," Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU's New Mexico branch, said in an email.

"We cannot require nor should we expect uniformity of thought within our law enforcement institutions," he continued. "Purging the ranks of government employees who fail 'ideological purity' tests is about as un-American as it gets."

No shit. Un-American is the New American Way on the right.

"Ideological purity" is a right-wing thing, and there's an awful lot of money to be made in Border Enforcement and The War On Some Drugs. Even a casual disagreeing statement, no matter how true, is sufficient to complete the offense.

Iron Highway Bust

AZ Central

The seizure of more than 700 guns and the indictments of 34 people announced on Tuesday are further confirmation that Arizona has become an iron highway for weapons into Mexico, according to federal authorities.

Many legal purchases by straw buyers at Arizona gun stores are being financed and orchestrated by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, federal officials said.

The cases announced Tuesday involved the purchases of many AK-47s, .50-caliber rifles and other semiautomatic weapons in single-day transactions at gun stores by straw buyers paid by the cartel, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke said.

All of those indicted are U.S. citizens or legal residents.

Teriffic. American citizens fueling the Mexican drug war for the almighty dollar. It's the American Way!

Everything's happening in Arizona these days and we're so lucky it's just across the river. Be sure to tip the ferryman.

10 amazing truths you already suspected Volume VI

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford.

1) The end is near-ish! Government overspending will be the death of us all! Massive, crushing debt will blot out the sun and ruin your lawn! Buy gold and hoard it in your small intestine for the End Times that are coming soon! The GOP and Glenn Beck hath spoken!
...

Ironic, then, how it's actually the Tea Party-riffic red states that suck up far, far more in government handouts than the blue. Did you already know? I bet you did. Even more amusing is the inverse relationship: The more red/Republican a given state votes -- and hence the more loudly it complains about government spending -- the more it swallows federal handouts like Charlie Sheen inhaling Bolivia. It's true. It's also sort of amazing.

2) It all dovetails sweetly with the fact that the more morally righteous and fundamentally Christian a red state is, the higher its teen pregnancy rates, the sadder its abortion rates, the less it cares for its poor and its needy, the more awful its sex education, the less it contributes to the national dialogue and the more paranoid its gun-loving, Bible-misquoting, Fox News-adoring citizenry.

Does it matter? Nope. As evidenced by the last election, the Republicans know -- and brilliantly leverage -- a rather vile truism liberals cannot seem to grasp: When all is said and done, it pays to be a hypocrite.

3) Fox News makes you stupid. Fox News makes you stupid. [...]

Duh. Duh.

6) The pope! Right. Wouldn't be a proper "10 Truths" list without a mention of the ever-quotable P. Benedict, always ready with a fine, hoary excuse for the gay porn palace that is the Catholic priesthood.

8) Mmm, Taco Bell. [...]

Retch. Someone, somewhere, must think the Taco Bell crap is Mexican food. It's barely food at all, and the closest it comes to being Mexican is that Mexican kids reconstitute it and heat it up and hand it to you.

Speaking of Mexican food, Mrs. G is completely recovered now, so tonight we're going to go to Las Panchitas to quell a monster jones for an Early Bird Special discount combo plate and so she can get a $3 Happy Hour Cactus Smoothie Frozen Concoction That Helps Her Hang On*. All's right with the world.

*Wishing a speedy recovery to Jimmy Buffett after his massive face plant.

And I prefer the term "thrifty senior citizen" to "cheap old fart", thank you.

But I digress.

9) America's favorite book? The Bible. The single tome that tops the bestseller list every year and is cited by all GOP hopefuls as their favoritest book ever next to "The Hungry Caterpillar" and "Curious George Disappears Into a Gay Pride Parade and Emerges Four Days Later Wearing Nothing But a Cock Ring and a Smile"? The Bible.

The book the vast majority of Americans know the least about, never fail to misinterpret their facts when referencing, generally haven't actually read and largely haven't the slightest clue what they're talking about despite how they claim to set their wobbly moral compasses by it? One guess.

That's an easy one: the Constitution.

The impression I got ...

From the SOTU is that is was the rhetoric of a dying empire. It seemed more like a speech given at a pep rally than what was really needed.

One thing that struck me:

"We will invest in biomedical research ..."

Cue the Republicans teabaggers yelling about some derivative of 'eugenics' in five, four, three ...

Note to Republicans:

Investment = Improving the educational system and sponsoring scientific research that will yield benefits in the future.

Spending = Dumping money into two useless wars and overpriced weapons systems to combat an enemy that doesn't exist anymore.

Jesse Ventura Sues The TSA

TPMMuckraker

The complaint further argues that a body scan amounts to a "warrantless, non-suspicion-based, electronically-recorded strip search" and says the "demeaning and degrading" scans "meet the definition of unlawful video voyeurism."

I agree that TSA goes too far and all for naught and needs to be reined in hard, but it must have been extra embarrassing for he-man Jesse when the screener called all his buds over to look at his little juice nuts. Heh.

Headline of the Day

Rahm Emanuel: Illinois Supreme Court issues order keeping him on ballot for now

This comes as no surprise. At least he's Chicago's problem now.

The weather's here, wish you were beautiful

Actually, the weather's beautiful and I wish you were here. Our normal January thaw is lasting longer than usual and everybody's waiting for the other snowshoe to drop.

On the supposition that large weather events anywhere have some effect everywhere, go read everything you need to know about the current La Niña.

Might be best to read at bedtime, to wit:

Atmospheric indicators (in terms of sea-level pressure, winds, cloudiness, etc.) show this La Niña episode to be one of the strongest of the past century, while oceanic indicators have been at moderate to strong levels, with sea surface temperatures averaging around 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler than normal in the east-central tropical Pacific. There has been a robust ocean-atmospheric coupling, as evidenced by reduced cloudiness and stronger trade winds in association with cooler sea surface temperatures.

Much more...zzzzzzz...

Bud in a Bottle

New Marijuana Soda to Launch in Feb.

According to the Sentinel, Butler's soda pot line will include the "flagship cola drink Canna Cola, the Dr Pepper–like Doc Weed, the lemon-lime Sour Diesel, the grape-flavored Grape Ape and the orange-flavored Orange Kush."

The mind boggles as to what might happen when this is used as mix for cocktails!

Or just straight - "Buuuuuuurp. Oh woooooooow dude!"

Giants do not fall easily

William Rivers Pitt on Olbermann:

People are understandably outraged and disturbed over his abrupt and ill-defined departure from MSNBC…so how, in the face of all this, can I justify my “Meh” reaction?

Well, I already explained the first reason.

The second reason is simple: Keith Olbermann is not dead. He was not beamed to Neptune, never to be seen or heard from again.

Write it down, carve it in stone, make a note, and bet the farm:

Olbermann will be back.
...

Giants do not fall easily. Count on it.

OK then!

Update:

From a good piece on KO by Will Bunch:

[...] ...the inevitable discussion panel yesterday on that network's "Reliable Sources" with Howard Kurtz occasionally touched on a "talking point" certain to drive progressives crazy -- which is that Olbermann has been the perfect left side of a mirror image with angry conservative Fox hosts like Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck.

Well, they all can be loud and take strong points of view, but otherwise the comparison is more than a tad ridiculous. Olbermann's list of worst transgressions would be headlined by an over-the-top rant about Sen. Scott Brown -- which he quickly apologized for! -- and violating a policy he said he didn't know existed by giving money to three Democratc candidates. Compare that to the unapologized-for sins of Beck -- telling viewers last summer of progressives to "shoot them in the head" or claiming that President Obama has "a deep-seated hatred of white people" -- or O'Reilly's frequent harangues against "Dr. Tiller the baby killer," who was later murdered by a right-wing zealot.

Beck's words have not only inspired death threats against an elderly female professor but actual gunmen like Pittsburgh's Richard Poplawski, who bought into the host's conspiracy theories before killing three cops. I challenge anyone to find an act of Olbermann-inspired violence or threats (and while you're searching, check out his record as host of "Countdown" in supporting charitable causes).

The irony here -- and it's a big one -- is that one of Olbermann's best contributions to our political dialogue was going after the bogus idea of false equivalency, that people on the left and the right are always equally bad in equal proportions while only centrists are the possessors of beauty and light and truth. Ironic because no one has been a bigger victim of false equivalency than Keith Olbermann himself.

It's like comparing me with Valentino Rossi as the best rider with the fastest motorcycle.

One of my relatives ...

I presume:

An owl that had evidently drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles was so inebriated that it got picked up by police. The bird will be released once it has sobered up.

German police said on Tuesday they had discovered a paralytic owl that appeared to have drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles.

...

I wonder if it was "bathtub" schnapps or the good stuff?

Thanks to Athenae for the link.

Legislation?

I call it "culling the herd" (I have little tolerance for stupid. If your particular brand of stupid gets you killed without taking anybody else with you, oh well):

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Lawmakers in at least two states are looking to pull the plug on texting pedestrians and iPod-obsessed runners, claiming their diverted attention borders on disaster.

...

Hey, if you're dumb enough to cross a city street with your head up your ass, well ...

...

Democratic State Sen. Carl Kruger in New York has been trying since 2007 to ban the use of cell phones, iPods and other gadgets by pedestrians in major cities while crossing the street. The proposal would ban the use of an electronic device while crossing the crosswalk in a city with a population of one million or more. Violators would face a $100 civil fine.

Kruger said a series of accidents in his Brooklyn district made him concerned about the number of pedestrians he saw paying closer attention to their devices than what was in front of them.

"They were basically oblivious to the circumstances around them," Kruger said. "They got wired up, and . their head was just in a different place . I don't think it's that much different than a ban on cell phones while driving or any other distraction."

...

It's one thing banning texting and driving (you're trying to control a 2 ton missile with your head up your ass) in the interest of public safety. It's another to save pedestrians from themselves. Ain't nobody but you getting hurt if you end up with a Mack Bulldog where the sun don't shine.

Bachmann. History. Fail.

From HuffPo. A tweet by Andrew Romano:

On C-SPAN, Bachmann tells Iowans the Founders fought "tirelessly" until slavery was abolished. In 1865? They must've been exhausted.

The pain inside my head has equalized with the pain 1/4" inch away outside my head caused by banging my head on the table and I can continue.

Sometimes I think Palin and Bachmann are twins who were separated at birth in some insane asylum to spread the stoopid over more than one place. Seems to have worked. Yeesh.

The Recession has hit everybody.....

I got this from my old school pal Steve:

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can't afford batteries.

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America .

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

The Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally...

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan , and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Stick or automatic? Split axle?

Guide To Mobster Country

TPMMuckraker

More than 120 suspected mobsters were arrested in yesterday's massive mafia bust. And along with the arrests came hundreds of pages of court documents detailing alleged illegal activity taking place across three states: New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. From allegations of extortion in Midtown Manhattan and murder in Queens, to strip clubs in Providence and gambling on Long Island, allow TPM to take you on a little tour of the underworld:

From the interactive map it looks like you could ride around with Fixer on his errands and see most of it.

Headline of the Day

GM's China sales top U.S. total, a first for the automaker

"We still have a very pretty Speaker of the House."

This may be way too late, but - LIQUID ALERT!

From The World's Most Reliable News Source.

Olbermann has been disappeared. What next?

Robert Parry

Now, with Olbermann’s permanent departure on Friday, the remainder of MSNBC’s liberal evening line-up, which also includes Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell (who will fill Olbermann’s 8 p.m. slot), must face the reality that any sustained friction with management could mean the bum’s rush for them, too.

The liberal hosts also must remember that MSNBC experimented with liberal-oriented programming only after all other programming strategies, including trying to out-Fox Fox, had failed – and only after it became clear that President George W. Bush’s popularity was slipping.

The troubling message to progressives is that they remain essentially orphans when it comes to having their political interests addressed by any corporate news outlet. While the Right has built its own vast media infrastructure – reaching from newspapers, magazines and books to radio, TV and the Internet – the Left generally has treated media as a low priority.

As I wrote in an article last November, “Olbermann and the other liberal hosts are essentially on borrowed time, much the way Phil Donahue was before getting axed in the run-up to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, when MSNBC wanted to position itself as a ‘patriotic’ war booster.

“Unlike News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who stands solidly behind the right-wing propaganda on Fox News, the corporate owners of MSNBC have no similar commitment to the work of Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.

"For the suits at headquarters, it’s just a balancing act between the ratings that those shows get and the trouble they cause as Republicans reclaim control of Washington.”

This dynamic has been instrumental to the Right’s political victories over the past three decades even as those policies – from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush – have worsened the lives of middle- and working-class Americans.

The sudden disappearance of Keith Olbermann from television is another ominous omen that this dynamic will continue.

Worst-case scenarios tend to be self-fulfilling by design when the right-wing and Big Media are in charge. And they are most definitely in charge. We will see.

The Final Solution to the Conservative Question

"The Final Solution" is an inartful term that pushes the exact same buttons as "Blood Libel". This time, however, I'm down wid it.

A 'must read' on "The Conservative Question" at A Blister to My Eye.

At one time, Conservatives could be divided into Not Overly Conservatives, Strong Conservatives, and Utterly Wackadoodle Conservatives. For many years, the Utterly Wackadoodle branch was the smallest and most easily ignored. There was reason to hope that the Not Overly Conservatives could eventually be fully integrated into normal American society. It even seemed possible that the Strong Conservatives would moderate their beliefs in the face of reality, or at least that they could be marginalized and rendered harmless. But in the mid–1960s, the Utterly Wackadoodles began a strong resurgence. Over time, they managed to purge their ranks of all Not Overly Conservatives and most Strong Conservatives. It’s fair to say that now Conservative is nothing more than a synonym for Utterly Wackadoodle.

At the same time, Conservatives merged with the rising tide of religious insanity welling up from America’s mental dark places. [...]

In politics, this causes them to constantly yearn for the semi–divine Messiah who will save them from the hordes of savages who surround them. This Messiah, they believe, will give them dominion over the nations of the earth. As shown by the examples of Ronald Reagan and George the Lesser Bush, the blanker the slate onto which they can project their poorly disguised homoerotic yearning, the better.

Conservatives worship authority figures. They listen in rapt and worshipful attention to the ravings of hate–mongering zanies on radio and television, even if the hate–monger is a cigar–chewing walrus or a babbling crying man. They treat as gospel the rambling writings of a blonde female zombie or a sexy but deranged Filipina. This is clear evidence that they are utterly out of place in America and must be isolated to keep the rest of us safe.

Just...go.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Hu Assures U.S. That China is No Threat
“If you can't trust your banker, who can you trust?”

We are so screwed...

Study: 129 Million Americans Under 65 Have Preexisting Conditions
They all suffer from delusions.

Tourists Name Los Angeles Rudest City
Especially people who live at addresses mistakenly listed on star maps.

The star maps listed my address for Jimmy Stewart's house and people occasionally knocked on the door wanting to meet him. I tried to be polite when I snitched off his real address. Musta not done very well.