Gee, ya think?

Right-wing religious nuts limit Republican Party's future

Who knew the christowhackos could do the country such a service?

Click to embiggen

From the LATimes

Headline of the Day

New brain study should probe shallow recesses of tea party minds

That'll be kinda "Brain Study 101". Not hard, won't take long, good practice for studying actual brains later on.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Guided Missile Destroyer John S. McCain Sent to Korean Peninsula to Deter Threats
If that doesn’t work, we’ll send John McCain himself.

How d'ya say, "hey you kids, get off the lawn!" in Korean?

Obama Apologizes for “Best-Looking” Remark About California AG Kamala Harris
Says he should have left it at “Va-va-va-voom!”

He's right, though. Kamala's a babe!

Researchers Find Computers Can Read, Record Our Dreams
New app records, edits dreams, uploads them directly to YouTube.

Stock up on bleach. There's gonna be a shortage...

Los Angeles First City to Synchronize All Its Traffic Signals
Now when you're stuck at a gridlocked intersection for thirty minutes, so is everyone else.

Various places in L.A. have had synchronized traffic lights for years. Steve McQueen said he could make all the lights on Ventura Boulevard at 3 AM if he was going 130mph. I have reason to believe he knew whereof he spoke.

A Majority of 52% Now Supports Marijuana Legalization
And nearly 40% say don't Bogart that joint.

My friend, pass it over to me...

Thanks to Andrey Milevskiy.

Heh.

Headline of the Day

Conservatives Are Morphing into the Party of Doomsday Preppers

“It’s not that conservative people are more fearful, it’s that fearful people are more conservative,”

Old Cold War bomb shelter joke, right after the nuclear holocaust:

Knock, knock...

"...Who's there?"

Scaredy cats suck and they're trying to take us down with them as a matter of policy.

Ding Dong!

The witch is dead!

Whatever else may be true of her, Thatcher engaged in incredibly consequential acts that affected millions of people around the world. She played a key role not only in bringing about the first Gulf War but also using her influence to publicly advocate for the 2003 attack on Iraq. She denounced Nelson Mandela and his ANC as "terrorists", something even David Cameron ultimately admitted was wrong. She was a steadfast friend to brutal tyrants such as Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Indonesian dictator General Suharto ("One of our very best and most valuable friends"). And as my Guardian colleague Seumas Milne detailed last year, "across Britain Thatcher is still hated for the damage she inflicted – and for her political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown."

To demand that all of that be ignored in the face of one-sided requiems to her nobility and greatness is a bit bullying and tyrannical, not to mention warped. As David Wearing put it this morning in satirizing these speak-no-ill-of-the-deceased moralists: "People praising Thatcher's legacy should show some respect for her victims. Tasteless." [...]

How George Bush Gave Krazy Kim The Bomb

From October 10, 2006 by Greg Palast.

How did a berserker like North Korea’s Kim Jong Il get the bomb in the first place? Answer: He bought it from the Dr. Strangelove of Pakistan in 2001 — while all our President’s men ordered our intelligence agents to keep their eyes shut tight.

Why would Team Bush pull back our agents from nabbing North Korea’s bomb connection? The answer in two words: Saudi Arabia.

The agent on the line said, “There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis.” Khan is Pakistani, not Saudi, but, nevertheless, the investigation led back to Saudi Arabia. There was no way that the Dr. Strangelove of Pakistan could have found the billions to cook up his nukes within the budget of his poor nation.

We eventually discovered that agents knew the Saudis, who had secretly funded Saddam’s nuclear weapons ambitions in the eighties, apparently moved their bomb-for-Islam money from Iraq to Dr. Khan’s lab in Pakistan after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990.
...

The U.S. government missed discovering Dr. Khan’s radioactive fire sale because our agents were hard at work ignoring the Saudi money trail. If the agencies had not been told to “back off” the Saudis and Dr. Khan, would the U.S. have uncovered the nuclear shipments in time to stop them? We can’t possibly know, but, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, it’s amazing what you don’t see when you’re told not to look.

Thanks again, Georgie. Worst. "President". Ever.

Well, that didn't take long...

Click to embiggen

Via Truthout.

Knuckledraggers of North Retardistan

Boy, just like Christians cherry pick the Bible, conservatives read the Constitution selectively, don't they?
...

I don't know why we're spending so much money and so many lives fighting the Taliban overseas when we have our own homegrown version right here at home. We have to get rid of these superstitious, anti-science, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-humanity, knuckle dragging Neanderthals or our country is doomed. Remember this story in the 2014 mid term elections.

Thanks to oldfartrants.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Published on Apr 5, 2013
Live at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Atlanta, GA, 4/4/2013

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell ~ Invitation To The Blues

Thanks to ra33ra33.

Break the kids in early...

...in the school-to-prison pipeline. The Prison-industrial Complex needs a compliant taxpayer-funded labor force to keep the overhead down and enhance the bottom line.

Click to embighouse

Thanks to YubaNet.

Nuke Nuke Mickey Lover

Well, this oughta piss the kid off! Heh.

Anonymous hackers take control of North Korean propaganda accounts

Click to empiggen

"Zone Of Impunity"

HuffPo:

Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact

Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of names to produce ICIJ’s investigation into offshore secrecy
...

A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.
...

Mobsters and Oligarchs
...

Politically connected wealth

Promises like those have been met with skepticism, given the role played by key G8 members — the U.S., the U.K. and Russia — as sources and destinations of dirty money. Despite the new efforts, offshore remains a “zone of impunity” for anyone determined to commit financial crimes, said Jack Blum, a former U.S. Senate investigator who is now a lawyer specializing in money laundering and tax fraud cases.

“Periodically, the stench gets so bad somebody has to get out there and clap the lid on the garbage can and sit on it for a while,” Blum said. “There’s been some progress, but there’s a bloody long way to go.”

NAMES, dude, we want NAMES.

Update:

Leak of Identities & Emails of Rich Hiding *$32 Trillion* Offshore

Some names, but not nearly enough.

Be careful what you wish for

Colorado gun group leader: ‘There’s a time to hunt deer’ and a ‘time to hunt Democrats’

You better stick to deer, asshole. You're going to get more than you bargained for. Not all us Dems are peacelovedope hippies who won't shoot first. I've been shot at. Have you?

"Vote Sanford, South Carolina," By The People Of Other Awful States

Mr. Bilbeau of Goblinbooks is a wicked, wicked man. Heh.

Hey. It's Florida, Jersey, and a couple of the other guys. We're calling in a favor. We need you to elect Mark Sanford and give him a wide margin. We want a breather. No more bad press for awhile. We're tired of being known as the bad parts of the country. It's your turn, okay?

Florida is sick of everyone talking about how people are eating each other's faces off and voting Rubio. Texas wants to tone down the coverage about how you can bring a gun into a delivery room. And New Jersey just wants no one to mention it in any way. You guys are as terrible as we are. It's time people appreciated that. Vote Sanford. It's the right thing to do.

If you elect Mark Sanford, it will confirm every stereotype of asinine, hypocritical social conservatives who don't even know the Bible they like to beat other people up with.
...

We all have our rednecks lopping their limbs off in powerboat accidents and going to CPAC. But you guys started the Civil War, for chrissakes. Seriously. Why the hell does no one ever call you on that? You owe us.
...

Pick up that slack, South Carolina. The ignorant, heavily-armed people of this great land are counting on you. Be the jackasses we know you can be.

Heh.

Headline and Quote of the Day

Reaping What You Sow: Are White Supremacists Preparing to Fight a new Civil War?

The US Republican Party ignores any white hate group threat since these groups are largely anti-Obama and vote Republican.

White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and racists are the scum of the earth and should be shot on sight. Possibly a less-than-liberal viewpoint, but it's mine.

Related:

All charges dropped against 2 members of white supremacy group

Some others were convicted.

The convictions so far are: Christopher Brooks, 28, sentenced to three years in prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; Luke Leger, 32, and Kent McLellan, 22,both sentenced to four years of probation for pleading no contest to participating in paramilitary training.

All had been accused of training with AK-47s and other weapons to kill Jews, immigrants and minorities during a two-year undercover investigation of paramilitary activities in Holopaw, a remote area in eastern Osceola County.
...

In a similar case in 2007, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office intelligence unit duped a leader of the Aryan Nations hate group into allowing undercover deputies to form a motorcycle club known as the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade Motorcycle Division.

I bet their annual picnic was a hoot. Heh. Oy.

I have a sneakin' hunch we're going to see a lot more of this update:

Report connects Tea Party leaders with white supremacist groups

For some reason, this does not surprise me.

Why you probably suck at sex

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going on about ... teehee!


Go read. This one only needs one quote:

After all, when all you’re fed is junk food and Red Bull, who will teach you about duck confit and single malt? When all you have is a blunt sexual hammer, everyone just gets nailed.

Old Stoners Rule!

I love it when then the mysteries and wonders of the universe are reduced to one old stoner doing arts and crafts! And He created me in his own image!

Click to embiggen.

Thanks to the LATimes

Not much going on today so I'll just leave this so the spammers can earn their money.

The Coming GOP-Evangelical Divorce

Michael Tomasky

What are evangelical conservatives going to do? I ask the question not with any sympathy, but with a mountain of schadenfreudian glee—I am profoundly reassured about my country’s direction every time I hear Tony Perkins bemoan it. But however it’s asked, it’s a question that’s growing more and more urgent. Mike Huckabee says that if the GOP embraces same-sex marriage, “evangelicals will take a walk.” Others pooh-pooh this on the usual grounds that they’ve got nowhere else to go. But they do: back to private life. And it’s my bet that in, say, eight or 12 years’ time, that’s where a lot of evangelicals will be. Having gotten into politics to rescue America from the sinners and fornicators, I reckon a critical mass will decide by 2024 that it was fun while it lasted, but that the fight is hopeless.
...

Then what for the Christian right? They got into politics in the 1970s. Remember, Jerry Falwell himself, in a 1965 sermon called “Ministers and Marches,” denounced mixing religion and politics. But then came late-’60s tumult, Roe v. Wade, and kindred signs of the devil’s grip (preceded by the Supreme Court’s decision to take God out of the classroom). Religious conservatives got into politics to undo those things. And here we are, 50 years later, and it’s only gotten worse as far as they’re concerned. By 2024, if my forecasts are correct, things will get only worse still.

Well, how much patience can a movement have? By 2024, evangelicals will have been up to their armpits in politics for half a century. With what to show for it? A country where (I’m betting) abortion is still legal, and now Adam and Steve are saying vows. And their vehicle for their agenda, the Republican Party, will be walking away from them to a place where they smell more votes (and money).

The money boys, aka the "Repug establishment", have been working the Bible thumpers like a red-headed stepchild for their votes for forty years and not given them a damn thing they wanted. I'll be glad to see a really bitter divorce of a marriage made in hell.

Make up your own "Defense Of Marriage" jokes. Heh.

Guns for Gays

The Rude Pundit

Here's what has to happen: we gotta get gays and lesbians by the thousands...no, no, by the tens of thousands to buy guns. No, wait, even better. Someone call George Soros for some major scratch. We gotta start a program to arm Ls and Gs and Bs and Ts and even Qs with the baddest ass guns currently legal, motherfuckin' AR-15s and fuckin' .50 caliber rifles, toss in some pistols like Glocks and Magnum revolvers. And get 'em all concealed carry and whatever other licenses they need. Then, once all the gays got themselves armed, they need to start showing up with their guns, all tricked out in the most over-the-top outfits that play right into what ostensible straights fear most about the LGBT community, crazy stereotypes, like cross-dressed feather queens and tight-pants and cropped shirts on skinny boys and the bull-dykiest-lookin' lesbians that you can imagine. Send 'em out with their guns to shooting ranges, to gun shows, to pro-gun marches, every fuckin' place that NRA gun nuts and militias and white supremacists and worse show up.

A queer army, man, of locked and loaded leather studs and lipsticked femmes. And it's not just a show, motherfuckers, although what a goddamn show it'll be.

I like it! And the guns will be fabulous!

This ain't some April Fool's Day joke. It's time to go all Black Panther on their asses. We can have a fabulous group of armed drag queens show up with their AKs strapped to the back of their sequined dresses and promenade around downtown because it's their constitutional fuckin' right. We can have a troop of muscle bears and suit-wearing butches show up at Tea Party events locked and loaded, wonderin' why "freedom" doesn't have anything to do with who you love. And, just to be helpful, we'll need to have a security team of trans gun owners to guard schools, all wearing school uniforms, of course, of course.

Yeah, some of the gun-noids will be fine with it, happy that more people are armed for the coming black helicopter zombie nightmare. But you can bet there's gonna be a whole lot of 'em that start reconsidering this whole "no compromise" position on gun "rights."

Yep. It'll scare the shit outta the lily white gun nuts when The Other, Any Other, show they have rights too.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Growing Fleet of New Warships Under Command of Various Chinese Gov’t Agencies Harrassing Neighbors in Disputed Waters
After Chinese Navy, second-most powerful regional force is now Beijing's sanitation department.

GOP Balks at Official Path to Citizenship
Prefers free market solutions such as forgery, bribery, identity theft.

French Province Using Drones to Deliver Newspapers
Featuring computer-generated content and printed by automated presses, it's delivered right to the door of its humanoid readers.

The kid who used to deliver it on his bicycle is now operating the paper drone from his mom's basement and becoming obese. The progress of man.

FAA Predicts 10,000 Drones In Skies by 2020
Majority will be operated by 14-year-old boys.

Watch out for falling newspapers.

Bad News: Deaths Tied to Painkillers Rising in U.S.
Good news: you won’t feel a thing.

It's a blessing...