I shovelled my deck

Before

After

Click photos to embiggen

Yay!!!!

Just got back from the vet with the little red beast. She got the staples out of her incision and Dr. Grove gave me clearance to turn 'em loose outside. I'm heading out with them to make sure the stir-crazy little varmints are good and tired. Heh ...

Tone deaf ...

Not really. Self-serving, most definitely. Ted Rall via Avedon:

...

Hard times, doncha know, are for the little people. "We had to [my italics] impose a freeze on pay increases for federal workers in the next two years as part of my overall budget freeze," said Obama. "I think those kinds of adjustments are the right thing to do [in Wisconsin]."

"Had to." Interesting pair of words. They imply that there was no other choice. What a brazen lie.

Three more words: Tax. The. Rich. Rich people and corporations are making out like bandits. If they paid their fair share, there’d be no need to cut budgets.

"Adjustments." How bloodless. For normal people, Herr President, losing two percent of one’s pay is not a mere adjustment. It hurts.

...

Ain't nobody gonna look out for us except us. No hope, no change, business as usual.

26 miles across the sea...

I spent the last hour (how did it get so late?) watching trippin' on videos of the Catalina Grand Prix motorcycle race, both old and new. Took me back to my youth, it did. Go see what I distilled 'em all down to at Fixer & Gordon.

We could have predicted this

Information Clearing House

February 27, 2011 "IPS" -- WASHINGTON - In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organized and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Among the letter's signers were former Bush Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Bush's top global democracy and Middle East adviser; Elliott Abrams; former Bush speechwriters Marc Thiessen and Peter Wehner; Vice President Dick Cheney's former deputy national security adviser, John Hannah, as well as FPI's four directors: Weekly Standard editor William Kristol; Brookings Institution fellow Robert Kagan; former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor; and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman.

The usual suspects.

There's more.

Note to Barry: Listen to SecDef Gates. Don't listen to the warmongers.

Afterthought:

Sometimes I think about things in terms of motorcycles. I have often maintained that there are a buncha old Russians riding around on and pumping water etc. with Beemers ("Kriegselefanten") and Zundapps left behind by Wehrmacht soldiers who thought they could get home faster without them.

In Libya, same-same, but add Moto Guzzis and Gileras to the list. The Eye-ties knew they could swim home faster without those.

Here's hoping future generations of Libyans are not so blessed with abandoned Harley-Davidsons*.

*It's a metaphor. I know our military uses Kawasakis.

Always start in the cheap seats...

Darrell Issa probes staff

Insert own joke here: __________________________________________________________

Daddy Frank is moving on

HuffPo

New York Times opinion columnist Frank Rich is leaving the newspaper after 31 years to join New York Magazine.

Rich will join New York as an essayist beginning in June, where he will write monthly on politics and culture and serve as an editor-at-large. Rich will edit a monthly section anchored by his essay as well as deliver weekly commentary on NYMag.com, according to an announcement. His final Times column will run on March 13.

Best o' luck, Pops. Just keep afflicting the comfortable.

Headline of the Day

Fetus To Testify in Favor of Heartbeat Bill

The crazy, it burns just like the stoopid...

Shouting at the wind ...

D-cap has a great post up* showing what we could do to make our government more representative of the people, as opposed to how it is now. Great suggestions and well thought out (like every post D-cap writes) but he knows how far it would go, had someone the Balls of Steel needed to attempt it in the first place:

...

It is really time Americans took a hard look at our system and organization of government (which we won't) and change the things that are driving us into the cesspool (which of course we won't). For over 200 years we have basically followed the principles and doctrines of the founding fathers -- Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and all the other 18th-century scholars. Stability in the process of law has been our strength. It might now also be one of our greatness weaknesses. Plus, it is the 21st century, and most Americans are barely treated as 3/5 of a person.

...

As we all know, in our current political environment, the people getting an equal say in how they're governed is the last thing our elected representatives want. Also, taking an objective look in the mirror has never been considered a virtue in America.

*I linked to his xpost at Michael's place because D-cap's page loads slowly on my machine.

On the sea ...

Aboard the good ship Lunatic.

As a cruiser, it's my worst nightmare accidentally getting on a ship (they generally book with Holland America Line, like we do when we go down south) with all those idiots. Thankfully no Caribbean for us this year so the odds are reduced.

We never learn ...

The crux* of the biscuit:

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So, both rhetorically and tactically, moves are being made that would lead one to think that military action of some kind [in Libya] is coming. Whether that’s the right thing to do is something nobody seems to be considering.

We have no money. Our military is stretched thin. We're bogged down in Afghanistan.

Considering all that, I can't believe we actually think it might be wise to get involved in yet another Middle East (yes, I know it's North Africa, you know what I mean) conflict**.

Didn't anybody listen to SECDEF's speech the other day?

As he winds down a remarkable Pentagon career – overseeing two long and very costly wars, wrestling with a military-industrial complex resistant to his budget moves aimed at questionable weapons, and shaking up the senior officer corps – Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a message for his successor.

"Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it."

...

The vets who hang around here know how it goes. First we establish a "no-fly zone" (we saw how well that worked in Iraq between wars there). Next, we send in some "advisers" to "help them transition". And as soon as the first boot touches the ground, we'll be there to stay.

Barry and Hillary ought to have their heads examined forthwith. My advice: Leave it to the Europeans. It's in their backyard.

(And just saying, this has AIPAC's fingerprints all over it, for the usual reasons.)

*Link thanks to Sean Paul Kelley.

**And you know, if we asked them, I'd wager a great sum that the Libyan people don't want us there, in any capacity, either.

What is it ...

With God's mouthpieces? You know, if there was the god the Jesus freaks claim keeps an eye on us all, how come he hasn't smited any of these assholes?

Asshole #1, in my backyard:

...

Police say 30-year-old Juan Carlos Amaya raped a 12-year-old girl in their church's youth group.

A member of the Iglesia Evangelica church told reporters to leave today after the arrest of Amaya. Investigators say he was in a position of power, planning spiritual events and even counseling teens.

...

Asshole #2, in Louisiana:

The Rev. Grant Storms, the Christian fundamentalist known for his bullhorn protests of the Southern Decadence festival in the French Quarter, was arrested on a charge of masturbating at a Metairie park Friday afternoon.

...

A couple questions:

1)Were I god, I'd be one pissed off Mohican these idiots are using my name and values to molest little kids. How can God sit back and let this happen? I mean, I'm always hearing about "miracles" happening (aren't they attributing one to Pope John Paul), how god cures people and shit. How about a couple miracles now; a strategically placed lightning bolt perhaps?

B)And the reply is often "God works in strange ways and he has a plan for us we can't understand". Hey, I'm down with that but I don't know. Seems to me that if I were the loving, benevolent god they claim He is, I can safely assume there would be no place in my master plan that involves little children being raped.

You can all fuck off.

Quote of the Day

Thers:

...

Damn do I wish the "Obama" the wingnuts think is president, were president.

...

A question ...

For these crazy, Jesus freak, anti-choice assholes:

First, it was South Dakota. Then Nebraska and Iowa. The similarly worded bills, which have quietly cropped up recently in state legislatures, share a common purpose: To expand justifiable homicide statutes to cover killings committed in the defense of an unborn child. Critics of the bills, including law enforcement officials, warn that these measures could invite violence against abortion providers and possibly provide legal cover to the perpetrators of such crimes.

...

The newest incarnation of craziness.

My question is this: How come, if you people care so much about the unborn, so much about protecting every fetus and allowing them to come to term, you don't have some kind of support and adoption network for the unwanted children?

I mean seriously; these people want to force women to have children, regardless of their financial situation or any other factor women consider (I'm not a woman so I certainly don't feel qualified to speak about what they go through when having to make this difficult decision) when deciding to have an abortion. Fine. You wanna do that, make sure the children are taken care of after they're born. If you force a woman to bear a child against her wishes, you'd better be there to pay the bills and raise the kid after they're born.

It's about time somebody stood up and framed it like that. These people are always going on about "personal responsibility"; let them take responsibility for their actions because Jesus sure as hell ain't gonna do it.

The Oscars are drivel, but...

Sorry about this. I just had to.

Slate

Some winners, most notably supporting actress winner Melissa Leo, talked so long it started to get uncomfortable. "I'm speechless, I really am," Leo gushed as she took the mic, and, puzzlingly, it was true. With the virtual lock she had on this award, should she not have prepared some remarks in advance? The unintentional F-bomb was sort of cute ("Kate [Winslet] made this look so f**kin' easy two years ago"), but Leo's dizzy, disorganized ramble finally came off as ungracious, not toward her various agents and directors and co-stars—I think the woman may have thanked the Kodak Theater parking valet at some point—but toward the audience. That's great that Leo really wanted an Oscar and got one, but we really wanted an Oscar show. Do our needs count for nothing?

That would be correct. In the face of greatness, your needs ain't shit. After gettin' nekkid in The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada, Ms. Leo can do no wrong.

Yet another act of Congressional cowardice

Not quite related to my post about the ATF scandal of aiding and abetting gunrunners, but a step in a better direction.

LATimes editorial

For years, U.S. officials have been promising to clamp down on gun-runners who supply drug cartels and human smugglers. Now, the Obama administration has the opportunity to make good on that pledge, by granting a request by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track bulk sales of semiautomatic long guns. The new rule would require the 8,500 licensed gun shops in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to report to the agency any sale of two or more rifles of greater than .22 caliber to the same person over five days.

Unsurprisingly, the National Rifle Assn. and its allies in Washington oppose this perfectly reasonable proposal. The administration, however, shouldn't be cowed by Congress, which, in a rare and unexpected show of bipartisanship, has vowed to foil the plan.

Earlier this month, the House voted 277 to 149 to block the ATF's request by barring the use of federal funds. Lawmakers contend that it threatens Americans' 2nd Amendment rights and creates an undue paperwork burden on gun sellers. But the rule would merely allow the ATF to track bulk gun sales. Americans would remain free to buy as many guns as they wish — more, frankly, than we'd like. Furthermore, gun sellers are already subject to similar reporting requirements involving multiple sales of handguns.

Lawmakers are less concerned about the Constitution than the cash that could be spent against them if they anger the NRA.

That's disgusting. And typical.

[...] As modest as the ATF's plan is, it's far better than what Congress is offering: the continued flow of instruments of death across a dangerous border.

And another call for leadership goes unanswered.

Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program

REPORT: Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About

[...] But Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations, and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class. These lesser known proposals in the 144-page bill reveal how radical Walker’s plan actually is:

Go.

[...] As Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said Tuesday, Walker has stopped acting like the Republican governor of a Midwestern state and has instead “basically taken on the position of a dictator” with a “vision of America that’s similar to somewhere like Nigeria or Pakistan.”

Absolute rule and lotsa cheap labor. I think Nigeria and Pakistan have been looking to the Repugs for a role model. Let's send the Kochs and Murdoch to help them.

Note to Nigeria (most Pakis don't eat capitalist pig): they'll be delicious with ketchup or pepper sauce.

"You go to war with the army you have, but the facts you want. "

MoDo on Rumsfeld's book of lies:

Donald Rumsfeld is starting to make Robert McNamara look good.

At least McNamara felt sorry at the end for all those lives and limbs lost because of his colossal misjudgments and cretinous refusal to admit mistakes.

Cretins like the last administration's liars and war criminals look at admitting mistakes as weakness. We still have way too many like that.

Anonymous targets Koch bros

Examiner.com National

Anonymous, the notorious collective of unnamed Internet activists, is declaring war on the controversial Koch brothers. In a press release this weekend Anonymous accuses the brothers and their financial empire of attempting "to usurp American Democracy," and call for a "boycott all Koch Industries' paper products." Anonymous accuses the Koch brothers of taking "actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin."

Note to Anonymous: Keep on truckin'! See if you can tap a few hundred of their bank accounts for a nice donation to organized labor and other worthy causes.

Update:

More here.

"Governor Walker's union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process," they explained. "The Koch's have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state's power supplies.

The group, which was responsible for taking MasterCard Worldwide offline for an entire day -- along with numerous other organizations that plotted against secrets outlet WikiLeaks -- said it would now be "actively seeking vulnerabilities" in Koch industries.

Good hunting, Anon!

Walker 86ed

Current.com

WI Governor Scott Walker Shunned; Asked to Leave Restaurant

The other day, a blogger reports, Wisconsin fascist governor Scott Walker went to a restaurant and the people in the restaurant raised such a ruckus, yelling at him, that the restaurant's management asked him to leave.

I'da kicked his ass outta anywhere I worked without a ruckus. Beat feet, fool, I don't serve assholes.

The problem is, apparently, right wingers didn't like this action, so they threatened the restaurant.

Figures.

This raises a wonderful point. Why should a restaurant owner be afraid to refuse service to any person? Would the same people have started calling that restaurant and making threats if the person they asked to leave was Black? Muslim? Democrat? No. No they would not.

No. No they would not. White corporate power flunkies are sacred to them, though.