Easy targets ...

Stewart and Bonds. Our friend Comrade Misfit makes a good observation:

... the Barry Bonds case and the multi-years' long efforts of the Federal prosecutors to put Bonds away for being an arrogant dickhead.

... The Feds also went after Martha Stewart for some of the same reasons, both the legal reasons and the unofficial ones.

...

But I can't help think this: The Feds have, to all appearances, not put forth any effort to go after any of the banksters, other than the schmucks who were running obvious pyramid schemes. There has not been, as far as I know, any sustained series of perp-walks for the banksters who violated their fiduciary duties to their clients.

...

High profile names the feds can point to in order to show the public they're "doing their jobs". For whatever reason (the bankers have Obama's balls in a vise or we just don't want to take on tough jobs anymore - except when it comes to killing "Little Brown Bastids"), America has become the "Land of the Mediocre".

"Investing in the Future"

They bandy that phrase around a lot nowadays. Thing is, all we're doing is investing in the past. Via C&L, compare the subsidies we give Big Oil next to what we give to the solar industry (you know, the future) and wonder in which direction the country's headed. If there was ever a time for leadership, it is now. Sadly, all we have are pretenders.

The Rumsfeltagon Papers

TPM just got a load of documentation from DOD under a FOIA request. Amazing to see what a sociopathic scumbag Rumsfeld is.

...

But he's also kept hundred of documents secret, and we used the FOIA to find them--we got everything that the Pentagon handed over to Rumsfeld, so we know what what he got and can see what he declined to publish. We received a few hundred pages in February, and just got another 1,300 pages, including memos urging President Bush to start toppling regimes in the Middle East just days after 9/11, suggesting that he thought Gen. Tommy Franks was lying to him, and chastising his generals for being too concerned about civilian casualties.

...

After reading this, it's obvious (as if Iraq and Afghanistan aren't proof enough) the man was inept and incompetent as a leader of men (and women) at war. He and his suck-buddy Wolfowitz should both have been up against the wall (or twisting at the end of a rope) by now.

Relating ...

A toon at Susie's.

The Conservative M-O ...

If they can't kill it outright, they'll defund it until it withers and dies:

As Leona Helmsley so sweetly put it, when speaking of the wealthy,"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes..." And thanks to the efforts of the Republican/Teabaggers in their budget negotiations, many more wealthy people will be able to say that.

...

They're coming for the tax collectors now.

Why?

Digby wonders why we don't seem to care about what's going on in Japan anymore:

...

It's hard for me to believe that the whole world isn't riveted on this story --- and maybe everyone but Americans are. This ongoing epic disaster is unfolding right before our eyes and yet we look away. Is it too much for us? Or are we just so self-absorbed that unless it affects us personally we lose interest?

...

Two reasons, my dear Digby.

1) Americans, collectively, have the attention span of a gnat. If shit ain't on fire, blowing up, or have military weaponry being brandished about, we lose interest quickly. A radiation disaster doesn't lend itself to the cable news cycle.

B) The Japanese are "Little Yellow Bastids". Of course Americans do nuclear better; we're Americans and that could never happen here.

These two statements also explain why we can turn our backs on places like Africa and why we intervene in places like Libya and Iraq. Ain't nobody here cares about any "Little ________* Bastids" unless they got something we need.

*Insert color of your choice.

Garden update ...

By 1130 yesterday, I was ready to jump on the train to the city and beat the shit out of the lyin' weatherman but the sun finally did come out and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. Me and the girls were out as soon as I saw the first break in the clouds (seems all my neighbors had the same idea because no sooner did we get outside than every other dog in the neighborhood went out too; the Canine Chorus was in full voice yesterday afternoon).



I got the perimeter beds cultivated and added about 800lbs of topsoil (organic stuff I get from a local Long Island company for $1.35/50lb bag) to the compost (I got my own that my mom started when I was a baby and we perpetuate; good soil) I put down last week.



I also added 4 more of the Sweet Flag grass next to the steps coming up from the house (pay no attention to the delinquents in the background; heh ...).

Click pics to 'fertilize'.

Glad I got the time (and the girls got the time) outside yesterday as we're having thunderstorms and rain until tomorrow night. They'll be stir crazy by Thursday (when the weatherman says the sun will come out again) but at least they're tired* today.

I still have to find flagstones for the walk but that'll have to wait until we get back from Europe. I'll be around the house today, playing Chinese Laundry making sure everything we plan to take with us is clean (you know, being aboard a British-flagged ship - Queen Elizabeth - during the Royal Wedding, there'll be some sort of gala the Mrs. - and my buddy Terry's Mrs. - will make us go to**). Hopefully, the Mrs. will be home from Jersey early enough to play crash test dummy occupy the Dingo Sisters so I can watch the Chelsea v. Manchester United match this afternoon in peace. Heh ...

*A tired Cattle Dog is a good Cattle Dog.
**Me and Terry would much rather sit in the bar, watch football, and swap war stories.

Sesquicentennial

Today is the 150th anniversary of the day the Confederacy started the Civil War by attacking the 84 personnel at Fort Sumter. Southerners call it "The War Of Northern Aggression" because The United States hit back.

The peasants will pay in Idahole

Raw Story

Idaho Republicans ‘run amok’, sue taxpayers for $100K

According to Spokane, Washington's Spokesman-Review, Republicans in the Idaho state legislature rushed a bill through in the final days of the legislative session to pay the Idaho Republican Party $100,000 in attorney's fees and legal costs for a primary election lawsuit that it brought against the state and won.

Though it’s not uncommon for prevailing parties to get their legal fees paid in a federal civil rights case, what’s unusual is how the Idaho GOP set up its fee arrangement with its attorney – a rare “contingent fee” deal in which only the taxpayers would have to pay, not the party, regardless of the outcome.

Democratic lawmakers were agog at the Republican Party's conduct. Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise said, “I have to point out, we’re paying $100,000 for the Republican Party to sue the Republican Legislature, defended by the Republican secretary of state, in order to close primaries in Idaho – I just think this is so bad it’s comical."

Comical indeed! Works out to a little less than 7¢ per Idahoan, which is still too much. Not only are the goddam Repugs rich, they're cheap. Anything to avoid opening their own creaky purse, eh?

Yes, always better to put it off onto reg'lar folks. Musta took a page from Lyin' Ryan.

Freudian Psychotic Right-Wing. So what's new?

I won't link to Newsmax, but you can go look for this at BuzzFlash.

Freudian Slip From Psychotic Right-Wing NewsMax:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is vowing to Newsmax readers that organized labor will not steal back the dramatic come-from-behind victory of Supreme Court Justice David Prosser even if unions end up paying for a recount.

Come-from-behind attempted election theft is more like it. Steal back is the operative Freudo-slip. Heh.

Headline of the Day

How the GOP came to view the poor as parasites—and the rich as our rightful rulers.

The rich gave them lots of money and told them so?

Fun Fact

From The Rude Pundit:

Fun facts that you should have heard elsewhere but probably haven't: Federal funding of Planned Parenthood was started by President Richard Nixon with the support of Congressman George H.W. Bush. The rumor is that they were once considered Republicans. Conservatives supported it because contraception kept women from having more babies and kept them all off welfare. An ounce of prevention, you know. But that's when "conservative" didn't simply mean "bugnuts." History is awesome.

History is also largely ignored by the right in favor of failed ideology, as are reality, facts, and compassion.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

SHUTDOWN AVERTED, COMPROMISE BUDGET DEAL REACHED
Republicans agree to sell out social conservatives, Tea Partiers, Libertarians; Dems agree to sell out poor, sick, elderly.

Public Thinks Public Broadcasting Receives 5% of Budget
The rest goes to providing abortions to illegal immigrants.

GOP Proposes Trillions in Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to Poor, Elderly
Reassures Republicans none of them will be affected.

Researchers Develop Cannabis-Like Drug That Dulls Pain Without the High
So far they've received no offers of funding.

Thus proving Fixer's point on the beer IV drip...

Some Prepare for End of World on May 21, Others on Dec. 12, 2012
Some buying survival gear now, others waiting for summer sales.

Buying survival gear for the end of the world is like buying new chrome for a blown-up wrecked motorcycle.

How I keep in shape ...

The Fixer exercise program. The puppy had a bug up her ass (we're waiting for the sun to come out to dry off the cement in the kennel) to play and her big sister was passed out under my desk. In that situation (happens a couple times a day at the least) guess who gets tagged to humor the red beast until she loses interest? Yup. It does do wonders for upper body strength though. Heh ...

I turned on the webcam for a couple minutes this time.

Remember this ...

Jill:

...

Wait till you see what they say about those of us who manage to slip in under the wire. Wait till you see what they DO to those of us who manage to slip in under the wire. Rest assured, if you are in your mid-fifties or early sixties and you think you have nothing to worry about, guess again. The public sector workers who are now being scapegoated for the misdeeds of bad state governments making bad investments of pension fund money with sleazy bankers and hedge fund managers are the canary in the coal mine for tomorrow's Social Security recipients.

If you were making plans for your elderly years that included Social Security, you'd better start making other plans. Because you might get your check for a couple of years, but there are going to be a lot of angry younger people coming after you; some of them your own kids.

...

Indeed. They're gonna come for the seniors next.

Quote of the Day

Nicole:

...

The simple truth is that news is a business now. Glenn Beck was bad for business and therefore, the management was no longer willing to keep him on the air. The free market, you tea-baggers, at work. Your ideas just don't work in the marketplace of ideas.

Let's hope it's a trend.

How far would you go?

As everybody here knows, I'm a lunatic soccer fan. At Christmas, I put up a commercial for World Soccer Shop, basically depicting how silly I get when I receive a new football shirt (it's one of my little things) from a team I like.

They have some great commercials and they just put this one out; the adventures of 3 monks in a monastery in Nepal. I get a kick out of it every time I see it. It's funny with a great soundtrack so I'll share it here before I head out to the garden.

World Soccer Shop - How Far Would You Go?

I can relate.

Now what?

Okay, so everybody's patting themselves on the back in Washington, all taking credit for "preventing a government shutdown". And I'll give it to Barry for standing firm on funding for Planned Parenthood. Of course, we'll all find out what they agreed to in the middle of the night as the dribs and drabs come out this week. By Friday, we should see how badly most of us got screwed.

Now the Rethugs are already warning the President that they'll break his balls on the Debt Ceiling vote in a few months. So, I'm sure the Dems are gonna cave some more to get them to go along with raising the debt. How much are they gonna extort this time?

And then they're gonna start on the 2012 budget.

Hopefully, over the next few months, the President will grow a set of balls. If he has to "compromise" anymore, there will be no money for anything. Considering his track record so far, I ain't hopeful. Not when his habit is to govern with the strength of overcooked linguine.

It's got to the point where the Republicans/Tea Party have gotten almost everything they demanded, compromise coming only from the Left side of the aisle. When is the time when the President and the Democrats will say "enough"? When is the time the President will get up in a public forum and say that the middle class and poor have given enough, that it's time for the rich to pay (finally) their fair share? When is the time when someone (Mr. Obama) will stand up and say that cutting spending alone will not fix the deficit and we have to increase revenue? Will it happen before 2012, or will he let them get away with more until he is reelected (if that happens)?

These are a lot of questions I shouldn't have to ask of a Dem President. I should know he'll be fighting for his supporters, not wondering just whom he thinks his supporters might be. Say what you will about George Bush, you knew where he was coming from. You knew he would take care of his pals (and throw some fresh meat to his base every now and then) to keep them in line. So far, Barry's taken care of the corporations and appeased the Republicans. From his actions, he's been more like Republican-lite than a Dem.

Like I said, I certainly don't know what the answer is. The alternative is unthinkable. The Republicans have gotten away with a lot as the minority party, I could just imagine the damage they'd do if they were in the majority, with a Republican President signing every piece of shit bill that came out of Congress. But I would like a real Lefty to challenge Obama in a primary. If anything, it might steer him a little more to the left, maybe he won't be as willing to take us for granted, that he has our vote just because the conservatives suck so much more.

That type of logic will bite the Dems in the ass sooner rather than later, yet I have zero hope they'll change anytime soon. Unfortunately, things will probably get worse before they get better.

***

Sorry about my absence this weekend but I've been running around like an idiot the last couple days. Leaving for London in a week and the Mrs. has business travel all this week so we got most everything done this weekend. I'll be in this afternoon after I finish the beds in the new garden.

Dueling Dobros

This is just cool!

long time ago my friend Urbil Artola from the Basque Country and i decided to record a video and upload it in YouTube. Here is the result. It was lots of fun doing it and I tell you Urbil is the BEST !

St. Anne's Reel & The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Thanks to MartinGross, Germany.

TableTender

Something new, or I just haven't heard of it. From BrandX via the LATimes:

At first glance, City Tavern might seem like the quintessential modern American gastropub: exposed brick walls, bare beams, walnut surfaces, reclaimed wood flooring and a long line of local craft beer taps standing at attention behind the bar. But three booths near the back boast something never before seen in California: TableTenders. They might seem precarious to those wary of binge drinking, but these self-serve spigots offer curious imbibers the opportunity to sample beer at their own pace, while giving managers the ability to monitor and control the amount of beer their patrons consume in real time.

“People just want to pull the handle.”

Can the beer IV drip be far behind?