Saturday whorage

Doing the detail work in the new dining room this weekend. Yeesh, what a pain in the ass.

As always, the next chapter of Birthright is up at The Practical Press.

And a little prog-rock for your Saturday night:

Yes - And You And I

Landslide

Caught a little of Stevie Nicks on Soundstage last night. I got reminded of how good this gal is, and picked this one out of 257 versions on YouTube. I like the one with The Dixie Chicks as well.

This is a song about getting older, which I hope to continue to do for a long time to come, and about things changing and resistance to that. Here's what I've learned - change happens and there's nothing you can do about it, but you can pick and choose. Choose the changes that you like and that help you grow and learn, and fuck the changes that don't, but be prepared to accept them anyway. F'rinstance, I still ain't comfortable with overhead cams. Heh.

Also, The Serenity Prayer ain't just fer drunks anymore, although that's how a lot of us came to learn about it. It esplains my Buddha-like countenance. Well, the chile rellenos and enchiladas help too...

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Enjoy.



Aw, what the hell, let's have a Stevie Nicks blowout!

Stevie Nicks and Don Henley performing their classic hit "Leather and Lace" live in 2005. Still sounds as awesome as it did back in 81!

Yeah, what skippy said ...

Whatever respect I had for John Edwards, whatever hope I had for his being different, went out the window today. He's just another politician.

Top 9 best new drugs

Now that I gotcha in the proper frame of mind, go read Mark Morford on the latest crop of pharmaceutical lunacy and its devastating side effects.

1. Scientists at the Ronald Wilson Reagan School for Pschyoeconomic Paroxysms have reportedly developed a new drug that, after just a few weeks, induces random bouts of forgetfulness combined with the ability to reverse ideological direction in an instant, most notably when large amounts of cash are placed directly in front of the face.

Code-named "the McCain," users report random outbreaks of very bad jokes coupled with an extremely combative nature, acute desire to detonate large explosive devices across multiple desert nations and a general feeling that the real problem with the world today is all the gul-dang gay young peacenik whippersnapper environmentalists who like to rub their iPods all over their Googles. Common prescription: "Take two McCains and call me in 1957."

8 more...

All things considered, I think mass quantities of 'shrooms, cow shit and all, would have been far better for the nation, particularly if they had been prescribed for wingnuts.

Add End 'Em:

I adore Grace Slick:

Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are both alumnae of Finch College. Grace was invited to a tea party for the alumnae at the White House in 1969. She invited the political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort, and planned to spike President Nixon's tea with LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering after being recognized by White House security personnel.

Oh, if only...

21st Century Motorcycle Manufacture

Normally, I would post something like this at Fixer & Gordon, but I'm not all that normal and neither is this video and I wanted to share. Listen closely to the rather fast-talking narrator.



Update:

I sent a link to this video to my old friend Gary. He worked for Triumph in England years ago, and is now in charge of their dealer network in Australia. Of course he was way ahead of me.

Hi Gordon

And its all true ! We ran this at the motorcycles shows in Ausytralia. It was a picture looking at the punters! Some got it –some didn’t ! Its true pythonesque isn’t it! Who said the limeys cant laugh at them selves!

It tickles me pink every time I watch it. By the way,do you know what a Gurning fool is ?

TTFN

Gary

'Gurning fool' is referenced in the video. I looked it up on the Google, but have cabled Gary for clarification. Later.

Quote of the Day

The last paragraph of a 'must read' column by Paul Krugman, with which I heartily concur:

In any case, remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen — not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.

Get him, grandma ...

Heh ... Talk about not getting what you expected:

HELL'S KITCHEN - (WABC) -- An 86-year-old woman attacked in broad daylight in front of her church took on her attacker.

The man was more than twice her size.

A 5-foot-10, 180-pound ex-con mugged Elizabeth Maropoulos this past weekend.

She has been known to chase men off with a broom stick from the pub underneath her apartment in Hell's Kitchen.

...

Video at the link. Good on ya, grandma.

TGIF. Off to work ...

Police states ...

They'd better pray they don't run into an asshole like me who has no qualms about shooting back:

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.

Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple.

...

I gave up being scared of assholes with guns, especially cops, about 30 years ago. Amazing how you look at things after having people actually trying to kill you. Badge or no badge, you try to kick in my front door, you're gonna get blown off the porch by a load 00-buck in your chest, period.

Like I told one young cop when a buncha idiots were trying to make a crack house in the abandoned home across the street and I had to handle the situation myself: "I was killing Communists before you were a gleam in your daddy's eye. The next time I call you, it'll be to bring bodybags."

Don't fuck with the crazy white boy ...

Fiscal stewardship ...

Not!

Pic thanks to Logan @ C & L.

[A big welcome to Avedon's readers.]

Quote of the Day - Zwei

Our pal UL:

... What is the fucking deal with these sexually repressed sick fucks [That would be conservatives. - F] ? Is it that they couln't get laid until they were in their thirties by an aging old semi toothless hooker and now they want to make up for lost time? ...

As someone who has gotten oral sex from a toothless old hooker, I can safely say, these guys never experienced it (actually ranked up in the top five). More like they got sex in their thirties from their sisters.

Weird Warning of the Day

Click to, er, tumesce...

More at LATimes.

Holy shit!

Raw Story

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the nation would be safe under a Barack Obama presidency and that she is ruling out a shot at the vice presidency under either Obama or Republican John McCain.

She damn sure just ruled that out, all right!

As much as I dislike the things she's done, and as much as it puzzles me why she went along with Bush's insanity (love conquers all, I guess), this is one smart woman. She and Obama talk a lot, and maybe the kool-aid's wearing off.

Don't anybody tell 'em about 'run flat' tires!

Click to emflate

The Secret Diaries of Dick Cheney

Check your blood pressure before you take a walk on the Dark Side and go read this. Not far off the mark.

Someone's got to be deep down there in the cave, making the decisions on the dark side that keep America one step ahead of China and Russia. The future is built upon our giant corporations. Congress doesn't matter much anymore. It's a quaint artifact, just a bunch of posturing popinjays. All that matters is that Exxon/Mobil could buy half of the nations in the world with a year's worth of company profits. Now, that's power. And my pals don't have to go to 435 representatives and 100 senators for permission to pull in that kind of dough and make a lot of people very wealthy -- and it's the wealthy who pull the rest of America along with them. You're darn tootin' about that. Only the big multi-nationals can keep us afloat, as long as we give them the military support that they need to expand their markets and extend their control over fossil fuels. And Americans just aren't equipped to understand all of this. We do it for them -- the forgeries, the manufactured provocations, the invasions, the torturing, the killing -- because you can't be a great nation and be wimpy when it comes to conquest.

Yes, he's done his best to see that we are no longer a 'great nation'.

“Make Way for the Trucker”

Go read an inspiring story about a lady running for Congress in Alaska against all odds. She's a Dem running against the well-funded Dem choice as well. She is my kind of candidate.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel

In these times, when the number of women in Congress has leveled off, it is great to see Diane Benson waging a spirited fight for Congress in traditionally Republican Alaska.

In 2006, Benson ran an impressive race against Republican Representative Don Young for Alaska's single at-large seat. She spent approximately 10% as much as her opponent but still won over 40% of the vote – only the third time in 33 years a Democratic challenger had crossed that threshold in vying for the seat.

I asked Benson how she responds to the fact that the Washington Democratic establishment hasn't supported her – or, at the very least – stayed out of the primary given her success in 2006.

"I think people are always scared of somebody who challenges their values," she told me. "I believe I have challenged the values of the party. I'm asking them to really step up to what they claim to be. And sometimes that's tough for people…. Not just in terms of the issues, which is one thing. There's a certain safety net in a good ole boy network. Insiders support insiders too often. And trying to break-up the game – it's like standing in front of a bunch of guys [who are watching] Monday Night Football [on] the TV set. Good luck."

But if there's one thing Benson has in abundance it's toughness. In her attempt to become the first Native American woman in Congress – as well as the first Alaskan Native man or woman – she calls on that toughness every day.

Benson's strength and determination stems at least in part from her background. She "grew up in logging camps, boarding schools, foster homes and even on boat houses," according to Indian Country Today. At times she was homeless. She worked her way through college as a Teamster truck driver and was one of the first women tractor-trailer drivers on the Alaska Pipeline – she often was the only woman on the jobsite. Benson said that was a tough job to get.

"I could prove that I could do the job and the union stood up for me," she said. "And they stood up for me time and time again, and I will never forget that."

Ms. Benson is one stand-up gal. We need more Reps with balls like that, men and women both.

Good luck, Diane.

Vote for Bush? Pay up

Mark Morford

Did you help put America's worst prez into power? Time to make amends

Sure, you could start with an open-palmed apology, a profoundly contrite on-your-knees sort of thing, maybe an open letter in your local paper or a heartfelt speech at your next dinner party whereby you stumble though some sort of "I don't know what the hell I was thinking" or "I must've been blind" or "Wow, that mescaline sure was potent" type of defense for your unfortunate and reprehensible choices.

But the fact is, that's not really gonna cut it.

So then, what can you do, all you increasingly humiliated, disillusioned, deeply mistaken Bush voters? How can you, having hopefully realized by now the violent error of your ways, take steps both small and large to try and make amends for shoving Dubya down the throat of the world, for your tiny but oh so poisonous contribution to the worst and most demeaning eight years in modern American politics?

Mr. Morford offers several ways for them to atone without seeming to. Example:

While you're at it, mention to your buds that the steaks they're eating are actually locally raised and grass-fed, not because you give a good goddamn about humane animal treatment or toxic industrial feedlots (though you really should), but because the meat tastes better and costs less and you wanna save some dough to, you know, buy more guns and porn. Hey, whatever works.

But don't stop there. Might as well tell your homies to throw their food scraps in your new compost bin, too, not because you care about garbage, but because you learned how to cultivate some great topsoil in which to grow your heirloom tomatoes for your famous spaghetti sauce for NASCAR night. Look at you! Actually caring about the health and the environment, but pretending not to! Hey, it's a start.

You get the idea? Really, compared with the disgusting levels of damage wrought by your support of the dark armies of Bush, these suggestions are nothing. You actually owe quite a bit more. OK, a lot more. Incalculable, really.

But for now, let's be reasonable. After all, the sooner you realize that the world is, in fact, not America's bitch, that it's actually a living, humming organism, interconnected and interdependent in ways and on levels no organized religion or fear-based neocon political agenda can possibly comprehend, much less bomb into submission, well, the sooner we can get our collective s— together and move the human experiment forward once again.

And after what you've put us all through, it's the very least you could do.

There is very little that I can add to this gent's work. Please read the rest.

Groups predict prostitution spike at RNC

Denver Post

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Advocacy groups that fight prostitution in the Twin Cities are gearing up for what they believe will be a surge in activity during the Republican National Convention—even though police say they aren't expecting it to be a problem.

It shouldn't be a problem for the cops. It won't be out on the street. The Repugs have money, so it'll all be in the hotels.

Vednita Carter, executive director of Breaking Free, a St. Paul organization that helps women escape from prostitution, told the Star Tribune that talk among prostitutes is that there will be a lot of money to be made.

They're the ones who know.

And by the way, what's this 'spike' of which they speak? Is this something new I don't know about yet?

Mom wins! And so do we.

BuzzFlash

Randi Rhodes and Air America Win Big Court Victory Against Alleged "Torture" Contractor

CACI International had sued Rhodes (now with NovaM radio) and Air America for remarks she made about the alleged involvement of CACI "interrogators" in abuses at Abu Ghraib.

In what is considered a "conservative" federal appeals court, a three judge panel ruled that Rhodes was well within her First Amendment rights in making her comments about CACI:

"Rhodes's criticism of CACI's role and conduct was unbridled, caustic, and indignant," Judge M. Blane Michael wrote. But the right to speak freely is an "essential privilege" that "minimizes the danger of self-censorship on the part of those who would criticize, thus allowing robust debate about the actions of public officials and public figures (including military contractors such as CACI) who are conducting the country's business."

A district course judge had earlier dismissed CACI's lawsuit as groundless and without merit. CACI appealed and its claim resoundingly rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond (4th Circuit).

The ciruit court decision in favor of Rhodes and Air America was made on August 5 and was unanimous.

Thanks to the Court for affirming that we can still call 'em as we see 'em even if we're not nice about it. Free speech ain't dead yet despite some mighty efforts against it by the criminal elite.

Quote of the Day

Avedon Carol on the guilty verdict in the first Gitmo 'trial':

... Interesting; war crimes have been defined down and up at the same time. Torture isn't a war crime, but driving is ...

Skitchin' ...

Anybody who's grown up in a place where they get snow knows what that is. Here's the non-snow version. Heh ...