And spend money too ...

And here's where I give the finger to the fat man across the Hudson. Seems the man who's "not a fan of gay marriage" and crying about how broke his state is (he can't give as big a tax break to his millionaire friends as he wants to) can watch as NYC rakes in the cash for hotel rooms, meals in restaurants, and some serious shopping. Idiot:

New York City is holding a lottery to award couples the right to marry on Sunday, the first day same-sex couples can be wed under a new law.

The lottery will select 764 couples, and opposite sex couples are eligible.

"The number of couples who want to marry on Sunday is more than the City Clerk's offices could possibly handle," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

...

Cha-ching. See what equal rights will get ya.

Update:

The local ABC station did a story on just this subject this afternoon:

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Amy Eisinger works for weddingchannel.com, which has featured same-sex commitment ceremonies. Come next week, it will highlight legal weddings in New York as well.

Same-sex weddings are great for her business, but more specifically for venues, caterers, florists, dress and suit makers, bands, DJs, photographers, registry companies and even the travel industry. Those in the business are gearing up for the gay wedding community to bring approximately $300 Million in spending over the next two years.

...

Like I said, cha-ching.

Score one ...

For Secaucus Fats:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Doctors in New Jersey will be allowed to prescribe medical marijuana after Governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday he will let new legislation originally signed by his predecessor be implemented.

New Jersey will join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing marijuana for medical use, although the New Jersey legislation is more restrictive than elsewhere.

...

He's still an asshole, but I'll give him credit, rightly due, for this.

Since ...

Gordon is either getting hisself arrested or getting out of a previous one taking care of buisness with the DMV, I figured I'd jump on over to The Rude One's place (usually I just click on Gordon's link here that night or the next morning) and see what he has to say ... rudely.

Right up my alley today because I too have an urge, if I ever get within 10 feet of Grover "Don't Tax Me There" Norquist, to kick him squarely in the nuts:

...

The qualities of the pledge to Americans for Taxual Healing are many. First of all, there's the sweet, sweet release that one can get when one feels one's foot connect with the soft sack between Grover Norquist's legs. There's the hilarious slow motion look of horror on Norquist's face as he thinks, "Not again" and "Oh, my balls." Then there's the extra skip in one's step as one heads onto the floor to vote in whatever way one wants.

And then ATH can hold each signer to the pledge. If we hear that Grover Norquist was able to freely come within, say, three feet of a Congress member's foot and walked away with his balls un-kicked, well, we'll run a primary candidate against that Congress member, someone willing to follow through with an assault on Norquist's nuts. Our goal is to make Norquist's testicles feel a sharp pain whenever he gets near the Capitol and thus drive him away.

...

If I ever run for Congress, I'll sign that pledge.

Works for me ...

Heh ...

While answering questions before Parliament Tuesday, a man appeared to try to throw a pie in the face of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

...

Once Upon A Time...

Fixer's off to sit in judgment at a Grand Jury today and I have to go face inquisitors myself. I have an appointment at DMV. We'll see if they still buy my fairy tales explanations about some motorcycles. No proof to the contrary, they always have. It's just to save money, and my priest says I'm not going to go to hell for anything I tell DMV. See yas later.

Update:

In 'n out, 15 minutes, wallet lighter, paperwork all in order. I told the very nice DMV lady that the appointment system works quite well as opposed to taking a number and waiting. She replied "it did this time...". Heh.

Interview with CAFKIA

An interview with our pal CAFKIA. Starts at about 3:25. The video was way too big for our template and I probably made it too small, but enjoy anyway. You can fullscreen it. Taken from his Facebook page.

Note: I took down the video on 7/21 because a) it started automatically, and b) they changed it.

Only the General ...

Could validate Mark Halperin using the Book of Abraham via the lens of Mormonism:

...

It all began a few months ago when my grandson gave me a pair of crystals he had grown from a kit Jesus left under the Christmas tree. I quickly fashioned the crystals into a crude Urim and Thummim and began translating Facsimile #2 using the same method Joseph Smith employed--that is, as Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles describes it: “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light..."

I began by translating the Reformed Egyptian characters found on the upper outer edge, and was surprised to find that my translation differs from the Prophet Joseph's. I don't know why that is. Perhaps, God waited to reveal a second meaning until a more proper time. The context within my translation would support that.

...

In fact, the General has the whole race figured out.

...

What about the other candidates?

Herman Cain: Well, this is Mormon scripture. He's not...uh..celestially acceptable.

...

Heh ...

Heh ...

I could probably figure out the route, but I don't know about taking that left turn at Step 47.

Coincidence?

Seems too convenient:

...

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead.

...

Nothing to see here, move along:

...

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."

...

Yeah, that's it, he OD-ed. Couldn't take the pressure and offed himself. I betcha a buncha folks at the Yard and London Metro are breathing easier. Not saying there's a connection, mind you. Heh ...

Update:

Comrade Misfit is of the same mind I am, though she adds:

...

We'll also get to see whether or nor Eric Holder really has any stones.

...

Holder only has stones when it comes to busting poor and sick people (cancer patients) for smoking pot.

The only miracle in Texas ...

Is the fact it hasn't collapsed into a sinkhole under the weight of all that stupid:

...

Rick Perry like to pretend like Texas is some sort of economic utopia where they don't pass debts on to future generations and do just fine on their own without any interference from the gretbigoh fedrul gubmint.

It plays well on the stump as he addresses the true believers who will never question him or believe the evidence that proves otherwise, but in reality, it's a shameless lie.

...

Not going quietly ...

Which is why we love Elizabeth Warren:

Now that the White House has decided not to nominate Elizabeth Warren to run the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she's taking her fight to protect the new agency directly to Republicans. And she says the time has come either for President Obama to recess appoint his designated director, or to engage in a loud, public fight with the GOP senators who have vowed to block the confirmation of any nominee, regardless of ideology or affiliation.

...

It's about time Mr. Obama had "a loud, public fight with the GOP", though his past track record says otherwise. Hopefully, now that he has to run for President again, he'll be drawn into that fight on the campaign trail.

Perry's Call From On High

Thanks to IWR.

Getting to Crazy

Paul Krugman

There aren’t many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default. But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.

Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state.

Not me. I saw it coming when Reagan was governor of California. I thought it could be headed off by sanity, but sanity done flew the coop when he got made POTUS and it's been downhill ever since with one little uptick during Clinton.

Put it this way: If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy.

Beyond that, voodoo economics has taken over the G.O.P.

Does that mean they're stickin' pins in a little doll of the nation, trying to kill it? Maybe voodoo really works...

Go read the rest of this.

The Curse

A 'must read' at TPJmagazine:

The Republican curse is like a method of Roman torture whereby a rotting corpse is strapped to a healthy person’s body until the decomposing excrement and bacteria infects the living tissue and the healthy individual succumbs to a slow, torturous death. The dead body is the GOP and the living human – carrying around the weight of the decaying body while at the same time attempting to survive and provide necessities to sustain that existence – is the nation.
...

The Nazis Party, with its nasty little prejudices and cultic myths, was Germany’s dead corpse strapped to its back. Republicans are ours.

I was wondering what that stench is...

A Scene From Our Unshared Sacrifices

El Rude-o

The old lady at the pharmacy counter obviously wore an adult diaper. That tell-tale sharp urine scent half-masked by sweet-smelling chemicals emanated from her, and the Rude Pundit stood right behind her yesterday, waiting to pick up the pills that prevent him from going on a five-state killing spree. She was getting three prescriptions. The total was $6.00. This puzzled the old lady. She had never paid anything before, and even this seemingly small amount was obviously causing her consternation. The cashier checked with the pharmacist, who said that there had been a minor change to her plan, and now she had to pay a little for the scrips, a buck-fifty, three bucks. She apologized and put aside the couple of other things she was going to purchase to pay for the medicine.

Our savage economic inequality in this country is coming to a head. We talk about "spending cuts," as if what we're not really talking about is "making the poor pay more for stuff." We talk as if the services that are cut will be picked up by the aching states and cities. And we talk about nonsense like "shared sacrifice," as if that's the rational position in any of this. When the wealthy actually sacrifice something, we can talk about sharing.

At this point, any Americans earning above, say, to be generous, $500,000 a year who don't believe that they should be paying more in taxes are just goddamned greedy assholes who deserve a real Marxist revolution to take it all away. They have benefited from a country that generously gave them decades of low taxes in the hopes that they would help make this a better place. They fucked it up, and it's time to give back. If your parents supported you through college in order for you to get your MBA and get rich, then you take care of them if they go through hard times. You don't say, "Sorry, Mom, but how can I create jobs if I have to help you avoid losing your house?" Unless you do, in which case, you are a dick and deserve to be put up against the wall in the aforementioned revolution.

Back at the pharmacy, the old woman walked away from the counter, putting back the cheap socks and orange juice she was going to buy, leaving with her prescriptions, her sacrifice far from shared.

There is nohing I can add to that.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

DOJ Won't Prosecute Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown, Torture
May attempt second trial of Roger Clemens.

UN WORKING GROUP TO MERCENARIES: YOU NEED TO BE REGULATED
Mercenaries to UN: by you and what army?

Murdoch Not Involved in Hacking Scandal, Which Never Happened
According to Fox News.

Cuba Says 16% Online
Mainly on Craigslist seeking parts for '58 Chevys.

If you watched ...

The US womens team lose to Japan, you saw a team beat themselves.

Gotta head out east first thing this morning, to the Suffolk County Criminal Court, to try and give them a good sob story so they'll defer my Grand Jury summons until September. With the Mrs. leaving for Gordon's neck o' the woods tomorrow for a couple weeks on her semi-annual Wes' Coas' swing, I have to be available for dad-in-law if he needs it. Let's hope they're accommodating.

Update:

Yay! The nice court lady said she'll have me back on 12 Sept after I told her I wouldn't mind serving today (and for the next month) if I could bring an Alzheimer's patient and 2 Cattle Dogs with me. She said she would have liked to meet Dad-in-law Fixer (of course I went into the whole story about how he was a flight engineer on B-17s during the big one), but she knows all about Cattle Dogs and agreed they'd be better left at home. Heh ...

Rescue Plan

Thanks to YubaNet.

Sing like a birdie, Red

British police on Sunday reportedly arrested a former top aide to Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, over the hacking scandal that has led to calls for the break-up of the media mogul's empire in the country.

I wanta see the old Ozzie bastard doing the perp walk!

Good luck ...

To our womens national soccer team who will face the Japanese women this afternoon in the World Cup. I'm doing some work over at dad-in-law's this weekend (safety and accessibly things) because I'm on jury duty starting tomorrow (I'm picked for a grand jury, which I've never done so I don't know if they'll keep me there every day or allow me to call in) morning and god knows when I'll have the time.

Also, a couple pics from the yard/garden now that it's finished ... mostly. Heh ...