Duh.

Thanks to YubaNet.

Super-sized Lunar Eclipse on Dec. 10

This'll be totally bitchin'! Go see. Good graphics.

Ron Paul gets it right

I like Ron Paul. I like guys who go against the common idiocy, and his personal idiocy is anything but common. He'll never be President, of course, and he knows it, so we're safe from him. He's a pure Libertarian, which means he's a right-wing anarchist. The rest of the right wing, who claim to be against big government, really only want the current big government to be replaced by their big government so they can tell the rest of us what to do and make money. I picture a totalitarian right-wing United States as sort of a minimum-wage fundie-or-die coast-to-coast chain gang. Paul's idea of actual every-man-for-himself personal freedom will never fly with them. Or, frankly, with any of us who think if we don't hang together, we'll hang separately.

Another reason the righties don't like him, or maybe the main one, is that, batcrap crazy as he seems, he occasionally commits the biggest gaffe of all: sometimes he tells the exact truth, which is anathema to wingnuts on both ends, money and base alike.

Raw Story, links at site.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Thursday that President George W. Bush’s administration was actually happy after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011.

Speaking to about 1,000 students on the Iowa State Campus in Ames, Iowa, Paul explained that the Bush administration was eager to capitalize on the attacks.

“Think of what happened after 9/11, the minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat,” Paul told the crowd, according to Politico. “That’s exactly what they’re doing now with Iran.”
...

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked because you had bases on our holy lands in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment,” Paul said before being interrupted by boos from the tea party crowd. “I didn’t say that, I’m just trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombings.”

As you can guess, the neocons/Busheviks are not exactly thrilled with this, having spent ten years trying to hide the truth which was expressed in public in ten seconds. They're calling Paul crazy. Heh. The truth will set you free, which is the last thing they want because it will put them outta business.

Obama Derangement Syndrome: Hanukkah Edition

Media Matters, links at site.

Right-wing media have spent years claiming President Obama incorrectly celebrates or snubs Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas, so it's no surprise that this year, they're attacking how he celebrates Jewish holidays, too.
...

And blogger Jim Hoft featured a post about the Hanukkah celebration on his blog Gateway Pundit, writing, "It's OK. It's just a Jewish Holiday. Obama celebrates Hanukkah two weeks early and lights all the candles."

This follows the right-wing media's long crusade to desperately portray Obama as antagonistic to Jews. Blogger Pamela Geller has claimed that Obama was "wet-nursed on Jew hatred," while Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds suggested he "hates Jews." This year, conservative bloggers attacked Obama's Passover statement, calling him "vicious" and "tone deaf" and saying he "punch[ed] the Jewish people in the face" for comparing Passover's story of freedom to the revolutions that were then sweeping the Middle East; few of them noticed, though, that Sarah Palin made the exact same comparison in a Passover statement of her own.

And right-wing media figures have also claimed Obama is anti-Israel, saying his policies will lead to the "destruction of Israel" and claiming he's "sided with terrorists" and "people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to exist." Yet recent polls show that a majority of Israeli Jews support Obama.

First of all, Israel is well on the way to destroy itself, but that's not the point.

The fucking Repuglitards would climb Obama's frame if he started putting on a sock and a shoe rather than a sock and a sock and a shoe and a shoe, probably call it "socialist foot dressing".

Marine Hero vs. Defense Industry: A Cautionary Tale

Via Common Dreams.

Dakota Meyer was a 21-year-old Marine sergeant in Afghanistan when he came under ambush, defied orders to stay put, and under heavy fire saved 36 men, including two dozen Afghans. Back home, he was awarded a Medal of Honor and went to work for massive military subcontractor BAE Systems. But when he protested the sale of advanced thermal-optic scopes to Pakistan, his "superiors" launched a smear campaign against him to make sure he could never work in the industry again; he responded with a defamation lawsuit. A look at how veterans are used and abused by a defense industry interested only in the brutal bottom line.

Click on the 'smear' link.

Sgt. Meyer knew damn well that any military technology sold to Pakistan will end up being used against our troops, probably within days of delivery. He spoke out and the MIC is fucking with him.

These bastards would have sold 8-shot M1 Garands to the Wehrmacht to replace their bolt-action Mauser 98s during the Battle of the Bulge. Hey, it's just business.

Not only should we drop Pakistan like a hot rock, we should drop the Military Industrial Complex that sells arms to our enemies as well.

You go, Sgt. Meyer. Semper Fi. From some of us.

The Final Indignity

William Rivers Pitt

For the record, this program of indecent disposal of dead American service members began, and concluded, during the administration of George W. Bush. It is no accident, for that administration - despite perhaps the slickest PR campaign about America and patriotism and "Supporting The Troops" ever undertaken in our history - had no more regard or concern for the troops they consigned to death and dismemberment than a dog has for the snowbank it pisses on. They consigned thousands of US service members to death, tens of thousands of US service members to gruesome injury and the permanent aftermath of PTSD, and hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to the same fates, for two reasons: to win elections, and to make money.

The soldiers themselves? The ones who have borne the battle? They are turned away from VA hospitals for lack of funds or insurance coverage, foreclosed upon by predatory lenders, left to shrift for themselves if alive, buried in the cold ground of a soldier's grave if not, or simply tossed into a landfill like a bag of household garbage. If anyone ever needed to see and fully encompass the true sum and substance of the administration of George W. Bush, and of all that has gone wrong in America, this despicable scandal tells you all you need to know.

Amen.

A hundred years on ...

And Teddy Roosevelt is just as relevant today:

...

With only minor adjustments, Roosevelt could have said precisely the same thing today about Republican critics of the Occupy Wall Street movement who refuse to even consider the causes which first provoked average Americans to take to the streets to protest Wall Street abuses, preferring instead to focus entirely on the bad behavior of a few in order to satisfy themselves as to the stupidity and illegitimacy of the movement as a whole.

Many of us have been saying for the past three years that the hysterical nature of right wing attacks against this remarkable and much-maligned President -- called a dangerous radical bent on destroying the country and undermining its history, institutions and traditions -- says a lot more about the current state of the Republican Party than it does about Obama himself.

Extremists, after all, always need extremists on the other side to justify their own extremism. And claims that President Obama is a "radical socialist" were always preposterous when Obama's actual performance was placed within the currents of American history, since Obama has always been squarely within the American mainstream.

...

Teddy had the same things to deal with a century ago as we do today. I think Barry should (where he's here fucking up traffic anyway) take a little trip out to Long Island and visit Sagamore Hill. Some TR might rub off on him.

Outrage doesn't begin to cover it

TPM

The Air Force reportedly dumped the ashes of at least 274 U.S. troops in a landfill in Virginia before it ended the practice three years ago, according to records obtained by the Washington Post.

Somebody needs to be stood up against a wall and shot.

Savages

This must be the festivity mentioned by Fixer in 'comments' on this post.

NY Daily News. Video!

Update:

Do not miss the video! Heh.

Posters on Facebook, identifying themselves as cops, call participants in Brooklyn West Indian Day parade 'animals' and 'savages'

They say that like it's a bad thing. Looks like fun ta me!

Update:

Around here, we get guys in Sorels doing the manual of arms with snow shovels in the 4th of July parade. One sentence from Fixer led me to believe my scope was somewhat limited and inspired me to do some scientific research to broaden my cultural understanding. It's working...

Thanks to SpottedXtreme.

Frisco Steamer

Title reference is to the last line of this post. No, it's not a ship.

Nancy Pelosi provides Newt Gingrich ethics report

Here’s the 1280 pages of the Ethics Committee report.

I'll wait for someone else to read me the good parts.

Related:

"Progressives Must DIE! SHOOT Nancy Pelosi!"

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is five minutes with Glenn Beck and a bar of soap. I will need four of those minutes to wash thoroughly.

I've been a good boy this year. I deserve this. Please make my dream come true.

Gordon

P.S. There'll be some single malt scotch and a plate of Alice B. Toklas brownies for you in my living room. Not a bribe. Think of it as a lobbying effort.

He said 'gay' heh ... heh ...

Beavis and Butthead in Michigan:

Talk about a war on Christmas.

The music teacher at Cherry Knoll Elementary School in Michigan decided to replace the word “gay” in the popular Christmas carol “Deck the Halls” because students were giggling.

...

I giggled (and so did all my buddies) too when I was 8 years old. They're kids. Seems the teacher hasn't made it out of high school yet. At least emotionally ...

Quote of the Day

The "Frothy Mixture":

"If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?"

The man truly has no grip on any part of reality.

Yay!

Good news from up north:

Former White House financial reform adviser Elizabeth Warren has jumped to a healthy lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race, according to the new University of Massachusetts-Lowell/Boston Herald poll.

...

Christ ...

John Bolton for Secretary of State? Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General? And people actually think these are good ideas?

We don’t even a have a Republican nominee yet, but they’re floating names for cabinet appointments.

Why don't they just get Cheney to run for VP?

Thanks to MBRU for the link.

Good ...

They should be scared:

...

And yet organized resistance to foreclosures and evictions continues to grow, thanks to the joint efforts of Occupy Our Homes and Take Back the Land to occupy empty houses while calling attention to fraudulent business practices by the big banks. The resistance is having an effect, as a leaked memo from Bank of America indicates:

...

Rat bastids created the mortgage crisis and then screwed thousands (if not millions) of Americans out of their homes. We should have nationalized all the big banks and carted their CEOs and boards of directors off to jail.

Tickle yer ass with a feather, officer?

I was reading this NYT article on "When the Police Go Military" wherein "Occupy" is mentioned a lot.

Yet lately images from Occupy protests streamed on the Internet — often in real time — show just how readily police officers can adopt military-style tactics and equipment, and come off more like soldiers as they face down citizens. Some say this adds up to the emergence of a new, more militaristic breed of civilian police officer. Others disagree.

The cops are probably the ones disagreeing. They lurves them some macho gear to deal with unarmed protesters, the more heavy-handed the better. Nip those kids, nip 'em in the bud! (Visual of Barney Fife in an exoskeleton maintaining law and order in downtown Mayberry.)

It dawned on me some time back that one of these days some police department or other is going to need to be taken down. A campus cop force seems like good place to start, especially after that dick move with pepper spray at UC Davis. They're small and not particularly well trained, sometimes staffed with badge-heavy wannabe badasses who couldn't hack it in a real police department, and could be overpowered by motivated protesters with a little training.

Remember, the idea is to humiliate them, not hurt them. Well, not too badly anyway. They've got a few lumps and bumps and bruises coming.

I've been thinking of ways to best accomplish a cop takedown. First, pick your target. Make sure they deserve it, that they're acting like total dicks. If they're just trying to keep the peace and not using excessive force, go with the flow. Don't fuck with guys who aren't fucking with you.

Next, block access to other law enforcement reinforcements. Bodies, lots and lots of people, as many as you can get. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. It's what we have the most of to counter a few cops with weapons. The whole point is to keep the cops from using the weapons and embarrass the crap out of 'em in the process.

Also to take the establishment's only real power - violence - away. That'll scare the shit out of the front office.

I came up with a three-men-per-cop tactic. Not to exclude the ladies by any means, but it will take strength. It will also take practice. One man dives for the cop's legs and bear hugs 'em. One man grabs each arm and takes him down. The man with the cop's gun hand hangs on tight, the other sits on the sonofabitch. Then use the cop's own handcuffs or those big cable-tie ones you wisely stuck three of in your pocket first. If the cop needs a little extra persuasion at this point to quiet down, so be it. Line 'em all up in a nice neat row for the TV cameras.

Let's say 20 cops, 60 men to do this, all going down with split-second timing. Perfect.

And absolutely unworkable. A platoon of Marines could pull off shit like that because they work at training day in and day out. Civilians who have to go to classes to try and learn something so they can hopefully get a better job than the one they've got to get through school and still try and sleep a coupla hours a night haven't got the time.

The whole point is to immobilize the cops. If they can't move, they can't fuck with you, right? I thought of hosing 'em down with fast-drying concrete or that foam crap they ship Harley-Davidson engines in, but that brain fart passed pretty quickly.

I thought of boleadoras and other variations of ancient hunting weapons. Wow, a coupla those wrapped around a cop and he might as well turn in his time card for the day! Then my research turned up this:

The reason sectional, chained or flexible shafted tools make such excellent weapons is because of the "whip" amplifying effect of the "cords" causing a small hand movement to be translated into a much larger movement and hence bigger momentum. This then translates into either a greater throwing distance and/or bigger impact once the head of the weapon hits the target. You will most likely already know this if you have ever been hit by some fast moving poi.

Had that happen at a luau once. Ouch. No, swinging bits of whatever flying around in a crowd would have unintended consequences, like knocking out everyone but the intended. Why do the cops' work for them? Nope.

What to do, what to do. Came to me almost by mistake while I was culturally expanding my understanding of the performing arts whilst watching this. Research takes me many places.

Boas. Lots and lots of boas. Hundreds, thousands of boas, each in the hands of a scantily clad twisting gyrating nubile young Freedom Fighter! Extra long boas, perhaps modified for the job at hand by the addition of a length of ultra-flexible 7x7 motorcycle throttle wire down the long axis. To the beat of drum circles, the gals close in on the cops, mesmerized by the jungle beat, the bare skin, the bouncing butts 'n boobies! Then the dancers STRIKE! In one swift motion, the boas are whipped around the cops, two, three to a man, strategically placed, arms, legs, a neck or two of the worst offenders, pulled tight and the ends done up with a granny knot.

Deal done. The cops can't move. The TV cameras would have a field day with the brightly colored bits of feathers that took down America's Finest. Those cops would slink off as laughingstocks from the annual cop goat roping or whatever it is they do.

And let that be a lesson to the rest of 'em. Harrumph.

Ah, to dream... That was good shit ya sent me, F-Man...

They're almost gone

The Beeb

The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association said it would disband after this year's landmark commemoration because so few veterans remained.

Those guys made the rest of us who have served since look good. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Probably not the best place to put this next, but...

It was the last assault on US soil until al-Qaeda's attacks of 11 September 2001, another surprise offensive that shocked the US into military action and transformed its strategic outlook.

If Bush had been Preznit on 7 December 1941, he would have declared war on Mexico and told everyone to go shopping. War with Germany would have been out of the question. The Bush Crime Family was making too much money there.

Please text me your naked email URL

If it's Wednesday, it's Morford on a whole bunch of social communication problems that until recently we didn't know we would ever have.

And so I thought, I need to reconnect with her. Need to send her a note. Need to say hi and see what's what and how wildly her world is spinning.

So I reached for the phone to... wait, no, I clicked on the link to... no no, I opened the chat window to... um, text her an email about the Facebook photo I was about to Skype in the... dammit, wait a second.

I was, for a ridiculous and surreal moment, paralyzed. What's the best way to reconnect in this particular context? Which mode has the right tone and feel? Should I send her a text? A funny photo? Facebook message? Skype? How about a more thoughtful, considered email? It's been a few months, after all. Maybe a postcard? An iPhone Postagram of an Instagram of a Hipstamatic snapshot of a letter I wrote on an iPad chat window's notebook app? Who can tell?

Or maybe I should do the least common, most archaic thing of all, something with which the next generation apparently has almost zero skill and hence which might just spell the end of civilization as we know it, and pick up the damn phone?

I've got email, Facebook, Alternate Brain, and a land line and sometimes that's too many. Sometimes there are advantages to being a dinosaur.

Quote of the Day

John Perr:

Florida Governor Rick Scott now slightly more popular than ebola virus.

Heh ...

A good ugly Christmas sweater.