Digby's right ...

We can heap on the brown people all we want, but the truth of the matter is Osama bin Laden could have been hiding out here for all we knew:

In all seriousness, it is terribly ironic that [wanted murderer "Whitey"] Bulger was referenced by the Pakistanis as evidence that it's entirely possible for a notorious criminal to hide in plain sight and, lo and behold, it turns out he was doing just that.(Coincidence?)

...

This guy was on the lam 6 years longer than Osama and the FBI couldn't find him, though he was sunning his ass (and getting regular ass) in Santa Monica.

Maybe we should just shut up about "American Exceptionalism"; ya think?

Georgia is short 11,000 farm workers

Slippytoad at Kos pulls no punches:

I can't be condescending enough about the emerging economic clusterfuck in Georgia.

Arizona's massively racist immigration laws were seen to be a major political bonanza, and states across the nation have rushed to emulate it based on the fake popularity of the teabagger movement (and its inherent racism). So in 2010 Georgians voted in a raft of racist, stupid teabaggers to their statehouse. That racist teabagger government promptly wrote up and passed a racist immigration law that in no way, shape, or form took into account reality. Us stupid hippies on the left kept saying that the problem can't just be solved with a stroke of the pen, and that a lot of economic activity is predicated on the cheap illegal immigrant labor. And we were routinely mocked and ignored by right-wingers with partisan blinders stapled right the fuck over their corneas.

Well, as events have now shown, Georgia's farm economy faces a crisis of 11,000 laborers short and food is rotting in the fields. Nathan Deal, who looked like such a smug asshole a month ago as he signed the new racist immigration law now looks like a fumbling imbecile who will probably never hold public office again since he just deliberately derailed his states' economy.
...

I can't make it any clearer. I'm not happy that Georgia's farmers are currently hurting because they elected a racist fucknut to their Governor's office who then signed legislation that fucked over their economy. I'm just pointing it out for those who refuse to make the connection that these people are getting EXACTLY. WHAT. THEY. DESERVE.

I have zero sympathy for Georgia farmers. I hope it fucking hurts like hell, guys. You BLOODY WELL ASKED FOR IT.

It's almost too easy, but as ye sow, so shall ye reap. If there's little brown people to do your reaping, that is. The white farmers'd all have heart attacks and keel over in their fields if they tried doing that. I hope I am proved correct.

GA guv Fuckwad's got it all figured out:

Georgia authorities say there are about 100,000 people on parole in the state, of whom about 8,000 reside in the heavily agricultural southwestern portion of the state.

A quarter of the parolees in southwestern Georgia are unemployed, according to the governor.

Deal said that allowing parolees to replace the missing immigrant workers is an alternative which could at least partially solve the labor shortfall problem being faced on many Georgia farms.

"I believe this would be a great partial solution to our current status as we continue to move towards sustainable results with the legal options available," he said.

"Legal options available"? What? Round up parolees for forced labor at minimum wage or less if they can get away with it "legally"? I wonder what color the draftee farm workers will be?

And if the parolees don't wanta go, they can bust 'em for violating parole and put 'em back in the hoosegow. Then the state and private prisons can rent 'em out to the farmers at the minimum wage, pay the inmates a buck a day and pocket the difference. Sooner or later even the dimwit Georgians'll figure out how to skip the parolee middle-man. Look for an upswing of convictions for minor crimes come each harvest time.

There's an upside to this tho'! Good ol' nigger work songs!

Big deal ...

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats are leading the criticism of President Barack Obama’s troop withdrawal plan from Afghanistan, arguing that his timeline for bringing 33,000 U.S. troops home by next summer isn’t fast enough.

An initial drawdown of 10,000 troops is expected to take place in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home this summer and 5,000 more by the end of the year. An additional 20,000-plus are to follow by September 2012.

...

So what.

15 months to bring a third of our troops home? That's nothing and can easily be "surged" back when some ass-kissing flag officer decides we're "losing" again. The only thing I'll be satisfied with at this point is if the President comes on the TV and gives a firm date for all of our troops to come home. Fuck Karzai and fuck the Afghans. It's almost 10 years; if the Afghans wanted to "build a nation", they'd have done it by now or at least been well on their way. Another 5 years ain't gonna make a damn bit of difference one way or the other.

Achtung und Vorsicht!

Der Kommissar geht 'rum:

Republican/Teabaggers have long been known for their contempt for democracy. When the Republican/Teabaggers took over all three branches of the Michigan government, one of the first things they passed, after tax cuts, was a law overturning democratically elected city and town governments in favor of a Commissar with Plenary powers appointed by the governor. This was only to be done in emergencies, a common ploy of power grabs by tyrants, with the governor determining what is an emergency. Now a group of Michigan citizens have filed a law suit to declare this law unconstitutional and regain their democracy.

...

What's happening in Michigan is a little Fascist's wet dream.

A little musical accompaniment:

Falco - Der Kommissar (German)

Equivalence?

I think not.

(h/t Scout)

Up from the memory hole

Sarge's comment at this post reminded me of a heartwarming little poem, author unknown:

We shot the Krag at San Juan Hill,
The ought-three at Verdun,
The M-1 when there was killing to do,
The carbine just for fun.

Grrr...

Heads had better fucking roll over this.

Click 'toons to embiggen

Thanks to YubaNet.

Senseless, Reckless Driver Injures Cattle Dog, Animals, During Cattle Drive

Not as bad as the incident in Fixer's post but horrible just the same. This one happened in the next small and rural county north of me.

Maggie working the herd

YubaNet

June 21, 2011 - We started out the day on our annual cattle drive into the mountains with family and friends, and also celebrating Father's Day. This annual trek to the mountains involves about 200 head of cattle, a pilot car with signs and flashing lights, many riders and the cooperation of nearby residents.
...

The people living along the approximately two-mile stretch of road (Alleghany, Ridge Road east of Hwy 49 above North San Juan) bring their families to watch the cows go by, set up chairs roadside, take pictures and wave to us as we go by each year. It's usually a special event and most people love to watch it.

About 40 minutes into the event, an individual drove his car into the herd at high speed.
...

We all screamed for the driver to stop and spare the dog. He accelerated right into our dog and ran over her twice, then sped away at high speed on a rural road in Sierra County. Witnesses further down the road saw the driver racing along the road at extreme speeds.

The vehicle has been identified and the name of the suspect has been provided to Sierra County Sheriff and to CHP. This person is still on the loose and has not been apprehended yet. It happened Sunday on Father's Day about 9 am.

Editor's Note: According to the latest update, Maggie is doing better. Her owner, John Reader, hasn't been able to visit his dog yet as they have been in the mountains trying to find the hurt cattle from the incident.

There's a lotta meth out in those hills and I suspect it is involved here. I hope the bastard tries to escape and the cops have to shoot him. Not to kill him, just to cripple him.

By the way, Sierra County is so small and lightly populated that it doesn't have its own jail. It has one flashing red traffic light. There aren't many cops either, sometimes no backup at all. You don't fuck with 'em.

Hummmmmm...

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford. Links.

A mysterious throb deep in your bed

I get that too, but it stops if I don't put quarters in it...

We think we know so much. For every answer and breakthrough, a hundred more questions unpeel and spin off into the ether, beckoning us to follow. Maybe the Hum is just the Earth itself, doing what it's always done, vibrating low and deep, singing its timeless tune, occasionally reaching a pitch baffled bipeds can barely hear. Maybe it's the shift of the planet itself, the poles calmly realigning for the giant 2012 metaconscious whoopjamboree. Maybe the great goddess left her vibrator running. Again.

Creepy. Fascinating and entertaining too. Enjoy.

"one of the scariest sights in the entire American cultural tableau"

Opening ¶s from a piece by Matt Taibbi on the Crazy White Woman in Rolling Stone:

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don't laugh.

It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

Go.

One more:

In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like having a big right hand in boxing; you've always got a puncher's chance. And Bachmann is exactly the right kind of completely batshit crazy. Not medically crazy, not talking-to-herself-on-the-subway crazy, but grandiose crazy, late-stage Kim Jong-Il crazy — crazy in the sense that she's living completely inside her own mind, frenetically pacing the hallways of a vast sand castle she's built in there, unable to meaningfully communicate with the human beings on the other side of the moat, who are all presumed to be enemies.

Shorter: Batcrap crazy and no joke.

I don't care where, just hope it's soon...

Crazy White Woman announced her candidacy at the tiny-brained forum, er, 'Repug debate' the other day but nobody was watching so she's going to do it again this coming Monday in Waterloo IA in hopes someone other than the Dead End Quarter will notice. Or give a shit.

I offer her this classic old country song. I think it would make a nice campaign theme:

Thanks to rflowers57.

Took 'em a couple days ...

But they got this cocksucker:

Suffolk police Wednesday morning arrested a Medford* man in connection with the quadruple murder at a Medford pharmacy, according to a source familiar with the case.

Police took David Laffer, 33, into custody three days after the murders at Haven Drugs on Sunday, the source said.

...

Bastid killed 4 people, including a 17 year old girl, in cold blood in a pharmacy on Sunday for prescription drugs. Good on the Suffolk County PD. Times like this I like the death penalty.

*About 6 miles from my house.

Quick, fast ...

Trying to get shit done before it starts raining. Later ...

Dirt Bike Shootout!

Last week I posted on the non-ridin' puke playing Jon Huntsman in a campaign video. Santorum's fighting back. At least he got an actor who can ride. Probably had to pay him extra to take a dive as Huntsman at the end.

By the way the correct "Frothy Mixture" for the Huntsman/Santorum motorized turkey slap should be about 32:1. Heh.

TPMDC

Thanks to RickSantorum. No link for you.

On a personal note...

I was going through some old - and I mean old - family photos and ran across this one of my dad, Harley Atkins Moore, receiving a military education at Wentworth Military Academy, Lexington, Missouri, in 1910. That's him in the center. I think he's just made a strategic rollout and the other cadets are straining to see his point...

Click to embiggen

One more. Here's dad, center, eight years later at the United States Army School of Military Aeronautics at the University of Illinois in Champaign IL in 1918. He went on to be a Jenny pilot at Chanute Field, Rantoul IL. Air Force weenie, my ass. State of the art though they were, it took a pair to go up in one of those crates!

I don't know who the gents flanking him are, but at least they don't have MP armbands.



The white hat bands signify Aviation, but the other UofI students told the local girls it meant they had a venereal disease.

Pullin' The Dwarf Train*

Thanks to YubaNet.

*If you don't get the reference, ask.

Rabid Dog Mistaken for Tea Party Candidate

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (The Borowitz Report) – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.

The dog, later identified by its owner as “Mister Buster,” held the crowd spellbound as he barked, growled, and frothed at the mouth, eventually receiving a standing ovation for his exertions.

“I liked what he had to say,” she said. ”He reminded me of Glenn Beck, only furrier.”
...

“I liked the way he bit off that guy’s hand, and the way he did his business in the middle of the stage,” she said. ”We need more of that in Washington.”

An understandable mistake, given the tone of the 'Bagger candidates and the intelligence of their supporters.

I wonder if he got road rash?

Think Progress

Prostitute Enthusiast David Vitter Continues To Be Embraced By GOP Leadership

I have nothing against enthusiasm for any particular activity of choice. I'm a Motorcycle Enthusiast, but I don't do it in diapers. Heh.

Question of the Day

When Did the US Begin Sacrificing Freedom and Democracy for Corporate Governance and Wealth as a Sign of Virtue?

Short A: The day Ronald Reagan got inaugurated.

Headline of the Day

Missing Iraq cash 'as high as $18bn'

AlJaYeesh...