Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Great old tune, good pics. Please sign the petition.

Published on May 1, 2013
Finally, FINALLY here...From the album Cimarron...Emmylou.....Emmylou..Laying siege to the Anne Murray classic...I do not own anything as always. Help get Emmylou's mentor, Gram Parsons into the Country Music Hall of Fame by visiting and signing the petition at WWW.GRAMPARSONSPETITION.COM God bless all...

Thanks to Jojo heartspaypay.

Will Wonders Never Cease?! Headline of the Day

Congressional GOP beginning to notice their own incompetence

Notable quote:

"Stalemate" is the nice way of saying that House Republicans couldn't pass a bill to dial 911 if John Boehner were on fire.

Well, I can't really blame them for that. Heh.

Democracy works too well for Repugs' liking

From You’ll Find Koch Dollars At the Root Of the Calls for Armed Revolution Against Obama.

Well, of course you will. Worth a read.

It is difficult to imagine many Americans agreeing to abandon democracy for another form of government, but there are a frightening number of citizens who hate America’s representative democracy with such passion that they are leaning heavily toward overthrowing the government and installing a fascist dictatorship.
...

What the Republican threats of armed revolution really expose is that anything outside the conservative agenda, whether it is gay rights, contraception, clean air regulations, free and fair elections, immigration, or freedom from religious imposition is an assault on their liberty and more than enough reason for “armed revolution” against the government.

Buncha sore losers flappin' their gums. If they try a violent overthrow, it would be the best case yet for drone strikes on Americans in the United States. Turning 'em into red paste would calm 'em right down. It won't come to that. Chickenhawl pussies, the lot of 'em.

Headline of the Day

Dubya's Europe Trip Canceled After His Arrest Is Called For

Shit, nobody told that dumbass anything while he was in office, why start now? Drat.

Trapped in a Web of Truth, Frank Luntz is Whining

Bill Berkowitz

Republican Party political consultant, strategist and pollster Frank Luntz is whining. Being Frank Luntz, you can be sure that it's calculated whining, but it's whining nevertheless.

The man who has devoted the better part of his professional life to turning words into weapons of mass misdirection in support of his clients -- often resulting in their becoming weapons of mass indigestion for his clients' opponents -- is claiming that his privacy rights have been violated by a University of Pennsylvania student who secretly taped "off-the-record" comments made by Luntz about how certain well-known figures within the conservative movement are hurting the movement.

There are two storylines in play here: 1) The Original -- What Luntz actually said about divisive conservatives hurting the Republican Party; and, 2) The Conjured-- Luntz the aggrieved.

Clearly, Luntz's whining is aimed at changing the narrative from storyline one to storyline two.
...

The latest Luntz story has the no-longer boy wonder trying to finagle his way out of what can only be characterized as "another fine mess."

In late April, Luntz , a 1984 U of Penn graduate, was invited by the school's College Republicans to speak at a public event on campus. According to thedp.com's (The Daily Pennsylvanian) Sarah Smith and Will Marble, "During the speech, members of the audience asked Luntz about his views on political polarization in the United States. Luntz - who also taught at Penn in the 1980s - answered that he was hesitant to speak on the record." He then asked "if anyone was recording the speech." A Daily Pennsylvanian reporter covering the event "shut his recorder off. When Luntz asked College junior Aakash Abbi if he was recording, he told Luntz he was only taking a picture, but continued filming the speech ..."

Luntz then proceeded to go off on some of his longtime Republican Party-related brethren, particularly conservative pundits and talk-show hosts. "They get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it's really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It's only on the Republican side," Luntz said in the tape. "Democrats have every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take -- Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He's trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy."

The student who recorded Luntz's remarks sent them off to Mother Jones' David Corn, who, as Wonkette's Gary Legum pointed out, "is becoming a clearinghouse for this sort of thing," referencing Corn's work publicizing Mitt Romney 47% video.

"I made the choice to share my recording with Mother Jones because Luntz's comments are important. They illustrate one of the largest schisms within the GOP and expose the hypocrisy of Luntz's willingness to place blame for his party's division upon a media establishment he has helped build. Further, his request to be taken off the record was never one to which I acquiesced" Aakash Abbi wrote in a thedp.com column.
...

And in a final burst of Luntzian magnanimity, he announced that he would not renew a scholarship in his father's name for students to travel to Washington, D.C.

Ya see what happens when even a Repug powerhouse tells the truth just ONCE?!

On the bright side, Sen. Toomey did that recently as well. Truth-telling by Repugs twice in one week! The earth has shifted on its axis...

Recent Polls Demonstrate Why We Are So Fucked

A 'must read' by The Rude One, many links.

A recent poll of 863 registered voters, conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson (which also happens to be one of the Rude Pundit's nicknames for his penis) University's Public Mind showed that 44% of Republicans believe "that an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary in the next few years." The overall number, 29% of respondents with 18% of Democrats and 27% of independent voters believing the same, is alarming enough. But that nearly half of Republicans think that they might have to take up their AR-15s of freedom in order to go to war with their government? Man, a bunch of people are living in the kind of fantasy land where their giant beer bellies are seen as sexy and that the greatest threat in the world comes from a black Kenyan in the White House. Partly, the Rude Pundit thinks, "Oh, c'mon, motherfuckers. Wheeze yourselves out of your scooters and just try it. You'll be drone missiled into a red paste in no time." But mostly, he just feels sad.
...

Seriously, it's like the GOP is a bunch of whoremongers driven mad by syphilis, refusing any medical treatment because penicillin is from the Devil and they'd rather scrawl filthy manifestos against Obamacare in their shit and howl at the moon and call it "genius."
...

We are so very fucked because Americans are so fucking dumb, especially the Americans belonging to one particular political party. When a large number of a nation's citizens are more willing to entertain armed insurrection than providing health care for the poor, well, it's pretty goddamn hard to make the case that we're the Greatest Country in the History of Everything.

I have nothing to add.

One more reason why I hate Repugs

I'm glad one of them finally said it out loud. Article and videos at HuffPo.

Just for fun

Daddy Frank

Last week, Politico published a piece by Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei simultaneously criticizing and celebrating Times reporter Mark Leibovich for writing a book on D.C. culture while also being part of it. This past Saturday night was the annual journalist-celebrity-politician schmooze-fest that is the White House Correspondents' Dinner. How uneasy are you with this brand of Beltway navel-gazing?

Mark Leibovich is one of the wittiest writers about politics around. If he is already provoking Politico to take a preemptive strike at a book that no one has read and isn’t out until July, he must be doing something right. Indeed, we’ll know Leibovich’s book, titled This Town, is a success if he can never eat lunch in that town again. As for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, it is what it is — a campy hoot as long as you don’t have to attend. Just seeing (on C-Span) how the Washingtonians are dressed as they saunter down the red carpet is hilarious; the town’s fashion sense hasn’t changed all that much since I attended the senior prom of my D.C. high school, Woodrow Wilson, quite some time ago. This year, as in other recent years, the only real winner at the dinner itself was President Obama. He was funny, and watching journalists and politicians squirm as the president mocks them is always a fabulous spectator sport. The black-tie audience in the ballroom looked as if it was having about as much fun as the Broadway opening-night crowd at Springtime for Hitler.

Heh.

Headline of the Day

Poll: Plurality Wants One Party To Control White House, Congress

Note to Repugs: It ain't YOU they want. Wise yer asses up.

Everybody’s all gay now

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on gay athletes. This ¶ sums it up pretty good:

While I don’t watch pro sports or have the slightest interest in the lives of its players or teams, I do delight when the open palm of raw history slaps an excessively masculine, long-repressed institution across the face (Catholic church, US military, Republican party), and I certainly recognize the awesome refrain currently being blared out far and wide right now in regard to gay athletes in pro sports in general: “It’s about goddamn time.”

My sentiments exactly.

Memo to the South: Go Ahead, Secede Already!

This is along ideological and philosophical lines instead of the practical line of not having to prop the southern takers up any more, but worth a read. Pretty tongue in cheek, too. At least I hope it is. They can go ahead and secede for all I care, but this guy is kind of an elitist jerk about it.

Daily Beast

But I don’t want to appear blindly partisan—a sundering of the union would make the other half of America equally fulfilled. The red-state republic could finally establish a theocracy in which the fundamentalist Christian church would legislate all the important aspects of civic life. It could either send its illegal and/or legal immigrants northward or reinstitute a reformed system of indenture whereby immigrants are purchased by bona fide citizens who have a fully modernized respect for private property. It could, taking the lead from the pioneering Kansas legislature, abolish the income tax, raising revenue from, for example, a “pay to work” program. It could ban abortion in all instances, including rape and incest, and use the growing population of orphans to establish an impressive standing army.

Fuck Kansas, and fuck the horse it rode (into the Union) on.
...

The. Country. Is. Split. Right. Down. The. Middle. May I, with the subtlety of cannonballs falling upon Fort Sumter, suggest that we stop using the anodyne categories of red and blue, and start calling the two sides “Confederate” and “Union,” which is what they really are?
...

Little Czechoslovakia split itself in two; why can’t we?

I'd like to let them secede for a "trial period". See how long it takes them to go totally third world and want to come crawling back to a rich nation that will support them like they're used to.

They can come back, but this time there will be RULES. Mostly about how ignorance and rule by religion and hate will no longer be tolerated.

Bizarro World Headline of the Day

Inside the CIA Mission to Haul Plutonium Up the Himalayas

Headline of the Day

Justice O’Connor: Maybe Bush V. Gore Was A Mistake

Gee, ya think? Thanks a great steaming pile, lady.

Irate Boston man confronts ‘sh*theel’ Alex Jones reporter over ‘false flag’ claim

Via Raw Story:

In the YouTube video posted on Friday, a man can be heard tearing into Infowars.com reporter Dan Bidondi over “right wing conspiracy theories.”

The day of the bombing, Jones had tweeted that “this thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag,” adding that “the FBI has been behind virtually every domestic terror plot in the US.”

“Your boy said this was a false flag, the bomb that blew up people was a false flag,” the angry man in the video notes. “The FBI is behind the bombing, that’s what you’re here to cover. And that’s why I’m the asshole? Because the FBI blew up those people at the Boston Marathon? That’s right. That’s because you’re a dope. And what you say is dangerous and people like you shouldn’t be able to drive a car, much less espouse your opinions in public.”

“But we have a First Amendment, got to protect it. But you’re an asshole. And so is Alex Jones… And that’s the nicest thing I can say about you, you son of a bitch.”

“Anything else you got to say?” Bidondi asked.

“Yeah, I just said it, motherfucker,” the man shot back. “I am the smart guy because I’m not standing here saying the FBI blew up the people at the Boston Marathon, you fucking shitheel.”

“We got the photos to prove it,” Bidondi insisted.

“You got shit, you got jack shit, you got your dick in your hand,” the Boston resident replied. “You fucking asshat.”

Give that man a fucking medal! The wingnut asshats need to be called out like that every time they open their lying pieholes!

Here's the vid:

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

New Fears of Civil War in Iraq
According to Déjà Vu News Service.

Congress Quickly Allocates Funds to End Airport Delays
Just before booking flights home for one week vacation.

Let's hope their vacations are taken up with their constituents' complaints about cutting Meals On Wheels and Medicare cancer treatment.

Twinkies Return to Shelves Later This Year
Same ones that were removed from shelves early last year

FDA Finds Fraudulent Botox Being Sold in U.S.
And yet victims haven't raised an eyebrow.

Grooooan...

The Great Degrader

Paul Krugman on Bush, in toto.

I’ve been focused on economic policy lately, so I sort of missed the big push to rehabilitate Bush’s image; also, as a premature anti-Bushist who pointed out how terrible a president he was back when everyone else was praising him as a Great Leader, I’m kind of worn out on the subject.

But it does need to be said: he was a terrible president, arguably the worst ever, and not just for the reasons many others are pointing out.

From what I’ve read, most of the pushback against revisionism focuses on just how bad Bush’s policies were, from the disaster in Iraq to the way he destroyed FEMA, from the way he squandered a budget surplus to the way he drove up Medicare’s costs. And all of that is fair.

But I think there was something even bigger, in some ways, than his policy failures: Bush brought an unprecedented level of systematic dishonesty to American political life, and we may never recover.

Think about his two main “achievements”, if you want to call them that: the tax cuts and the Iraq war, both of which continue to cast long shadows over our nation’s destiny. The key thing to remember is that both were sold with lies.

I suppose one could make an argument for the kind of tax cuts Bush rammed through — tax cuts that strongly favored the wealthy and significantly increased inequality. But we shouldn’t forget that Bush never admitted that his tax cuts did, in fact, favor the wealthy. Instead, his administration canceled the practice of making assessments of the distributional effects of tax changes, and in their selling of the cuts offered what amounted to an expert class in how to lie with statistics. Basically, every time the Bushies came out with a report, you knew that it was going to involve some kind of fraud, and the only question was which kind and where.

And no, this wasn’t standard practice before. Politics ain’t beanbag and all that, but the president as con man was a new character in American life.

Even more important, Bush lied us into war. Let’s repeat that: he lied us into war. I know, the apologists will say that “everyone” believed Saddam had WMD, but the truth is that even the category “WMD” was a con game, lumping together chemical weapons with nukes in an illegitimate way. And any appearance of an intelligence consensus before the invasion was manufactured: dissenting voices were suppressed, as anyone who was reading Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) knew at the time.

Why did the Bush administration want war? There probably wasn’t a single reason, but can we really doubt at this point that it was in part about wagging the dog? And right there you have something that should block Bush from redemption of any kind, ever: he misled us into a war that probably killed hundreds of thousands of people, and he did it in part for political reasons.

There was a time when Americans expected their leaders to be more or less truthful. Nobody expected them to be saints, but we thought we could trust them not to lie about fundamental matters. That time is now behind us — and it was Bush who did it.

I have nothing to add.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

An oldie but a goody!

Published on Apr 26, 2013
The wonderful Emmylou live on the OGWT in 1977. Luxury Liner features some Hot Guitar Pickin' from Maestro Albert Lee...........

The Hot Band: Glen D.Hardin, piano; Rodney Crowell, rhythm guitar & vocals; Emory Gordy, bass & vocals; John Ware, drums; Hank De Vito, pedal steel guitar; Albert Lee, lead guitar & vocals

Thanks to Muppet1950, UK.

Quote of the Day

From Charles Pierce in "The George Bush Manure Locker Is Now Open".

The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question while New Orleans drowned, and while the economy was bubbling toward disaster.

Yep.

What If Bush Had Done Nothing?

Charles Pierce via Kos.

The elite press is dedicating an entire day of coverage to the perpetuation of a monstrous public lie. Electing George W. Bush twice was a monumental act of democratic self-destruction from which the country has yet to recover. Celebrating him celebrating himself is simply to pour battery acid into the still-open wounds.

In order to take in the ginormous magnitude of Dubya's project to destroy the American Dream, ponder this simple question -- what if he'd done nothing? Follow me below the fold for this speculation...

It's a deep dive. Hold your breath...

What always struck me about Bush and his incompetent cronies is the activist nature of their "wreck everything quickly" administration. All Bush had to do was NOTHING to have a successful presidency. Everything he touched turned (immediately) to shit...and yet he couldn't wait to destroy more. Thank goodness the American people turned on him during the post 2004 "Wind At My Back" "Hand Social Security Over To Wall Street" debacle.

I'm convinced that someday, 50 years from now when historians are analyzing the moment that "broke the back" of the American dream, they'll focus on the Bush Administration -- specifically the catastrophic response to 9/11. Karl Rove's goal was always to repeal the New Deal, monkey-wrench the government to make it untenable, and hand the burning wreckage over to his billionaire pals who are greatly inconvenienced by all those middle class "entitlements", environmental protections and Union rights.

All he had to do was nothing. Instead, he almost wrecked everything.

Word.

The 1 Percent’s Solution

Paul Krugman on austerity.

Thus, the average American is somewhat worried about budget deficits, which is no surprise given the constant barrage of deficit scare stories in the news media, but the wealthy, by a large majority, regard deficits as the most important problem we face. And how should the budget deficit be brought down? The wealthy favor cutting federal spending on health care and Social Security — that is, “entitlements” — while the public at large actually wants to see spending on those programs rise.

You get the idea: The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1 percent wants becomes what economic science says we must do.

Does a continuing depression actually serve the interests of the wealthy? That’s doubtful, since a booming economy is generally good for almost everyone. What is true, however, is that the years since we turned to austerity have been dismal for workers but not at all bad for the wealthy, who have benefited from surging profits and stock prices even as long-term unemployment festers. The 1 percent may not actually want a weak economy, but they’re doing well enough to indulge their prejudices.

And this makes one wonder how much difference the intellectual collapse of the austerian position will actually make. To the extent that we have policy of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, won’t we just see new justifications for the same old policies?

Yep. What the 1% wants, the 1% gets. So far. This may change after we eat them and turn them into liberal shit. Heh.

Update:

Business Insider

The Economic Argument Is Over — Paul Krugman Has Won

You can go read the details, but was there ever any doubt? :-)