Partybots in Space

I put one of these videos from Animusic (Wiki) up in Dec. '06 and it's 'no longer available'. Just the excuse I need to put up another one!

Caution: I highly recommend you do not combine the ingestion of mass quantities of cannabis-derived products and this list of other vids. We won't see you for days...

Starship Groove

A tip o' the Brain to Molotok.

Willin'

No message, this is strictly for yer listenin' pleasure. Linda Ronstadt does a Lowell George tune.

I've always liked this song. I've been from Tehachapi to Tonopah. Back roads? There's four U.S. Highways in maybe 300 miles between those burgs and they are back roads! I can relate to the 'weed, whites, and wine' and 'importing untaxed goods' parts as well.

Oh, I love Linda, too.

De furor over Der Führer continues

The Last Chance Democracy Cafe on Bush's 'appeasement' statement.

You have to give George W. Bush credit, in a “My, that leech certainly sucks blood well,” sort of way. Just when you think he can’t get any lower, he proves you wrong.

Every single time.

Consider, after all, the dreary parade of his past dishonor.

At this point, Steve considers the dreary parade of his past dishonor and marches it past us. A long parade, with plenty of elephant crap to sweep up.

But clearly I had underestimated the ingenuity of the Bush White House when it comes to finding new and even more pathetic forms of disgraceful conduct.

Yup, he’s done it: he’s found a way to sink even lower. He appeared before the parliament of a foreign nation, where partisan politics isn’t supposed to follow, and used the opportunity to accuse his political opponents of wanting to make love to terrorists. Pathetic. Simply pathetic.

You’ll have to forgive me, however, if I can’t quite summon up the energy required for the sort of no-holds-barred outraged response this clearly calls for: seven plus years of the Bush presidency has drained it out of me. So Bush said something offensive, moronic and disgusting. Well, I guess then this must be Thursday — or Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday.

On 'outrage':

To a significant extent it’s dead in me.

George W. Bush killed it. He drove it to an early grave through overwork.

I was outraged when Bush said this crap like most of us were, but my outrage level has subsided from a hot boil-over back down to its normal day-to-day simmer of anger at that punk and his mob.

I'm actually enjoying the reactions to his verbal spew. For years, the wingnuts have gone off the deep end when someone on the reality-based side has called these Nazis and Fascists Nazis and Fascists. Now it's our turn. Heh.

The wingnuts are solidly behind behind their little Chimperor, of course. As usual, they don't have a clue. If you haven't seen this video of Tweety's smackdown of one of 'em, well, yer TV's broke, so go see it. Matthews did his job for once, and he's not about to let anybody forget it! Ha! Priceless!

The Dem candidates Obama and Clinton have both done a solid job of refuting Bush's bullshit, and good for them. Many other Dems and even a few Repugs have done so as well.

The part that hasn't come up in the mainstream media yet, though it certainly has on the internets, is that Bush left himself wide open to an examination of his family's history of enabling Hitler for both ideology and profit. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a PBS special on it, but I do have a warm and fuzzy visual of Poppy Bush at the chiropractor getting his neck straightened back out and his mouth closed from all the head-shaking and jaw-dropping at his idiot spawn's outburst! Maybe even a major spinal adjustment from the heavy exertion of slamming all those closet doors over and over again to try and keep all the skeletons from getting out!

If the Dems play their cards right, Bush may have given all of us the gift that keeps on giving. A coupla more torpedoes like that into the floating hulk that is the hazard to navigation called the SS (heh) Repug and we may see a peaceful sea close over their crow's nest on 11.4.08.

Saturday whorage

The next chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press. Don't forget to check out the work of the other folks who post there as well. Odds are you stop at their blogs as you surf around Blogtopia (y!sctp!) every day.

Picture day at the garage: A little sign dedicated to yours truly at the shop, Gord makes fun of Ford and Nucks makes fun of me.

More house destruction today so I'll probably be back in the afternoon. Leave your links in comments.

Bill O'Reilly's Producer (Unseen Footage)

Following up on my earlier post, what can I say besides LIQUID ALERT!



A big tip o' the Brain to Barely Political.com.

There's no good reason for you to die tomorrow, Jarhead

At the risk of causing our readers to get DMO*, here's a Mötley Crüe (buncha L.A. boys. Heh.) number with a slight assist from R. Lee Ermey and an off-key platoon of Jarheads.

Here's what the guy who posted this at YouTube says:

I made this video to show support to our troops so please keep your negative comments to yourself.

Must be an old fart like me. 'Negative comments' about the troops seems, thankfully, to have gone away after Vietnam. No PFC started this criminal war or any other. Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Bush did. The troops go where they are told and do an excellent job at what they do. 'Support the troops' and 'stop this criminal fuckin' war' are different sides of the same coin.



*DMO - Deadly Music Overload

I couldn't resist...

Click to emgrande

McCain's one loooow-ridin' pendejo, that's fer sure. They don't come much lower.

Well, OK, thank you Georgie

Eugene Robinson

The Reagan era in American politics is about to end, and we have George W. Bush to thank for its demise.

It took a leader of the Decider's uncommon gifts to kill the philosophy he worships. To be fair, there is one area in which he has been the most proactive of presidents, to our nation's lasting discredit: Violating the basic rights of citizens and noncitizens alike in the name of his "war on terrorism."

Otherwise, he has interpreted Reagan's small-government mandate as an excuse -- or an instruction -- to abdicate government's most fundamental responsibilities. Anyone who wants to argue this point need simply remember the "heck of a job" our government did in handling the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

Evidence suggests that Americans are tired of a government that is slavishly beholden to a rigid do-nothing ideology -- and that they're ready to punish the president's party for its ineptitude and lassitude. Republicans have gone 0 for 3 in special elections this year for House seats, most recently losing a Mississippi district that gave Bush a landslide 62 percent margin in 2004. What a difference four years can make.

Party leaders speak of the need to refurbish the "Republican brand." The problem goes far beyond packaging, though. It's not that the box needs to be more colorful; it's that the ideas inside have long since gone stale.

'Gone stale' is a very polite way of putting it that the so-called Repug 'ideas' stink like death.

I'd like to deliver my 'thanks' to the Moron-in-Chief by writing 'Thanks, Asshole' on the bottoms of my size 10Ds and givin' him a fast flyin' pair of kicks in the slats.

Bush to Israelis: ‘Democrats are Appeasing the Pharoah’

SPR

"Under a Democrat President, they wouldn't even release the 'Ten Plagues' until there was already a mushroom cloud over your matzo-ball soup."

Where's your Charlton Heston now?

Dathan, pictured above as portrayed by Edward G. Robinson in The Ten Commandments, may have been the first Likudnik traitor to the Hebrews.

All the President's Nazis

In an Open Letter to Bush and today's 'must read', Larisa Alexandrovna hands the Chimp his ass in the wake of his despicable political comments in front of the Knesset.

Dear Mr. Bush,

Your speech on the Knesset floor today was not only a disgrace; it was nothing short of treachery. Worse still, your exploitation of the Holocaust in a country carved out of the wounds of that very crime, in order to strike a low blow at American citizens whose politics differs from your own is unforgivable and unpardonable.

Well Mr. Bush, the only thing this comment lacked was a mirror and some historical facts. You want to discuss the crimes of Nazis against my family and millions of other families in Europe during World War II? Let me revive a favorite phrase of yours: Bring. It. On!

The All-American Nazi

Your family's fortune is built on the bones of the very people butchered by the Nazis, my family and the families of those in the Knesset who applauded you today:

The All American Traitor

Your family did not stop with supporting fascists and Nazis abroad, did they Mr. Bush? Surely you must know of your grandfather's role in the treasonous plot of 1933 to overthrow democracy in America? Let me remind you.

Grandpa Bush -- that is to say, your grandfather -- wanted fascism imported into the United States, or as you now call this type of transformation, "exporting democracy." Prescott went so far as to subsidize a coup attempt in order to achieve his dream of a fascist America.

Now clearly the crimes of Prescott Bush are not your fault, Mr. George W. Bush. Let us therefore judge your actions and words on their own merit.

No, the war crimes of his grandfather are not his fault, but to quote a Hank Williams Jr. song, "It's a family tradition."

Your reminiscence today about the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany should have been seen as your own condemnation of your own abhorrent actions against Iraq. The morbid irony of what you said will likely never register with your or your speechwriter. To truly grasp the grotesqueness of what you said requires that you have both a conscience and some understanding of history. We know you possess neither.

My grandfather's sister and parents were having supper in their Warsaw home when a German bomb erased them from this planet. Your evoking the German atrocities against Poland in order to play dirty politics against Democrats is as offensive to me as if you had pinned a swastika onto your lapel.

Even your own words appear to be penned by Hitler's ghost all the while you imply that Democrats are Nazis and/or terrorists -- something you have done over and over. Your lies and Hitler's lies even have the same purpose.

At this point, she starts in on him.

Yes, you are an anti-Semite

[...] Consider your own words when you thought no one was keeping score:

"You know what I'm gonna tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don't you Herman?" a then Governor George W. Bush allegedly asked a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman. When the journalist, Ken Herman, replied that he did not know, Bush reportedly delivered the punch line: "I'm telling 'em they're all going to hell."

Only an anti-Semite would think this type of humor is acceptable. Did you tell the Jews of Israel they were going to hell? No, instead, you told them that American Democrats are Nazi sympathizers and in an act of sheer indecency, the right wing Likud party orchestrated the greatest applause you ever got. For shame!

For shame indeed, if he had a sense of shame, which he obviously does not, the insufferable little prick.

What this blind adoration finally proves to me is that the right-wing regime that has overtaken Israel cares nothing for its people, its heritage, and the tragic history that they now honor by applauding a man whose family-fortune was built on the bodies of their loved ones. Like their Republican (and Lieberman) counterparts in the United States, Likud does not represent its people, rather, it represents its owners. Likud has traded Israel, its Jews, their heritage and history for the same golden calf purchased and sold by the far-right wing in the United States.

I am ashamed of you Mr. Bush. I am ashamed of those who applauded your political porn played out against the hallowed backdrop of the Holocaust. I am ashamed of those reporters with you, who between them could not muster the moral courage to call you out on your ugly rhetoric and ask you about your own family Nazi ties. You are, sir, the most abhorrent human being of my lifetime. I dare say, in the lifetime of this nation.

Goddam! Ms. Alexandrovna has said it all. I have nothing to add except - Helluva good job, sister!

I learned something from her piece, and I'm sure Fixer can back me up on this: Piss off a Polish/Russian Jewish lady at your own peril! Too bad Bush won't learn anything from it.

Conyers: "We're closing in on Rove."

The Crypt

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.”

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn’t, said Conyers, “We’ll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We’d hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested.”

Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among other things.

“We want him for so many things, it’s hard to keep track,” Conyers said.

Just make a list, John. Coupla legal pads oughta do it.

I don't pray much, but I feel like goin' down to Our Lady of the Incorrect Assumption and splash some water, light some candles, kneel, and do some fast and furious bead mumblin' with all the old Mexican ladies to God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and all the Saints that we will soon be treated to the sight of Turdblossom in irons 'n orange duck walkin' his pasty, pear-shaped little self to the paddy wagon. Oh pleasepleaseplease....

Note to Self: Pull yer pants up before ya get outta the pickup at the church...

Do as I say ...

By November, McCain will be completely indistinguishable from the Chimp. Mr. Aravosis:

... That would make McCain a McHypocrite for blasting Obama for proposing the EXACT same thing McCain proposed only two years ago. But in all fairness to McCain, nearing the age of 72, maybe he simply can't remember his positions anymore ...

Please, please, please let us crush them in November.

Off to work. TGIF!

Instant moron ...

Just add alcohol. From Deepinahearta, Texas:

A Fort Worth man trying to scratch an itch on his back used a revolver and accidentally shot himself.

Jorge Espinal, 44, was drinking beer and playing poker around 3 a.m. Sunday in his home in the 3500 block of Montague Street, when he got up from the table and walked into another room, said Fort Worth police Lt. Kenneth Dean.

"He told officers he had an itch on his back and grabbed the first thing he could get a hold of, which was a revolver," Lt. Dean said. "The gun went off."

...

This is one of the reasons I left Texas as soon as the opportunity presented itself. No surprise he lives in Ft. Worth. 2 years there was more than enough. I just wish he woulda hadda scratch his balls but at 44 he's probably reproduced already. Can't fix stupid.

Great thanks to Maru for the link.

A little reality ...

Our pal Montag found some good toons.

Send 'em to Gitmo ...

And in the theme of my earlier post, Shakes has a story of some immigrants from Taiwan who were intercepted in Pennsylvania. Thank god for the postal service.

Over/Under

So, I just paid $4.10/gal for regular gas. How much you wanna bet it'll be $4.50 by Memorial Day and $5.00 by Labor Day?

Threats ...

To quote John Amato, "Dude, you have a weird name and are from a foreign land therefore you are deemed a security threat and maybe sent to Gitmo immediately." God, how fucked up can we get?

WASHINGTON — A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration for a new ID card allowing him to work around ships and docks.

What the student, Wilken-Jon von Appen, received in return was a letter that not only turned him down but added an ominous warning from John M. Busch, a security administration official: “I have determined that you pose a security threat.”

Similar letters have gone to 5,000 applicants across the country who have at least initially been turned down for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, an ID card meant to guard against acts of terrorism, agency officials said Monday.

The officials also said they were sorry about the language, which they may change in the future, but had no intention of withdrawing letters already sent.

...

Yup, gotta watch them Germans. America, land of the ignorant, home of the paranoid.

Song of the Day - Bonus

War - Bruce Springsteen

"In 1985, blind faith in your leader, or in anything, will get you killed."

1985? It's not as if the warnings weren't out there.



JG.

Song of the Day

War - Edwin Starr



JG.

Quote of the Day

Roger Ailes the Good:

The downside of tonight's election result is that Senator Clinton spent so much time in West Virginia that she surely has lung cancer by now.

Heh ...

Song of the Day

Coven - One Tin Soldier



JG.

Clintons forbidden to campaign on bombing range

I just threw this one in here because a long time ago I spent a coupla lifetimes months at Camp Fernando Luis Garcia on Vieques. I even wrote a poem about it and sold it to Leatherneck magazine, making me a pro-fesh-un-al published poet. Got ten bucks for it.

AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. Navy has denied Chelsea Clinton permission to campaign for her mother on a former bombing range on a small Puerto Rican island.

What's she goin' after there? The 'unexploded ordnance' vote? The Clintons are so desperate they'll try anything!

Actually, there was one little town on Vieques, Isabel Segunda. The whole shithole had been a 'destination resort' for Marines for years, but nowadays it's for people with money.

Bush committed political treason today

There's nothing new about Bush committing treason, of course. He does it every day, but this time there's a strange twist on Godwin's Law - the Nazi is doing it.

Attytood

President Bush went on foreign soil today, and committed what I consider an act of political treason: Comparing the candidate of the U.S. opposition party to appeasers of Nazi Germany -- in the very nation that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaust. Bush's bizarre and beyond-appropriate detour into American presidential politics took place in the middle of what should have been an occasion for joy: A speech to Israeli's Knesset to honor that nation's 60th birthday.

But here's what he said:

JERUSALEM (CNN) – In a particularly sharp blast from halfway around the world, President Bush suggested Thursday that Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats are in favor of "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way U.S. leaders appeased Nazis in the run-up to World War II.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," said Bush, in what White House aides privately acknowledged was a reference to calls by Obama and other Democrats for the U.S. president to sit down for talks with leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to the Israeli Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American Senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

As a believer in free speech, I think Bush has a right to say what he wants, but as a President of the United States who swore to uphold the Constitution, his freedom also carries an awesome and solemn responsibility, and what this president said today is a serious breach of that high moral standard.

A breach of our moral standard, that is. Bush has shown time and time again that he has none.

Mr. Bunch has a lot more to say and I suggest you read it. He closes with:

Today, it's a whole new ballgame. I believe this treacherous statement by a U.S. president in Israel is a signal to the Democrats in the House in Washington, that it's time to play its Constitutional role in ending this trauma, before even greater acts against the interest of America are wrongly committed in our name.

I heartily concur. Impeach the sonofabitch. Or whatever.

Update:

From 'comments' at the post:

As emptywheel points out over at FDL, Dubya's grandpa, Prescott Bush, was a Nazi Enabler. I'm "shocked" that Dubya didn't make reference to this in his speech.

Yeah. Shocked.

Update the 2th:

In the 'prepared text' of the Chimp's speech in the WSJ, he refers to Israel's '120th anniversary'. That punk motherfucker is dumber'n a post and a constant embarrassment to America.

Update the 3th:

AP

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals.

Said McCain: "This does bring up an issue that we will be discussing with the American people and that is why does Barack Obama, Senator Obama, want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism?"

Jesus Fucking Christ, you senile old moron, sometimes you have to talk with some pretty unsavory characters to get things done. More than once in my own checkered past I've talked to bikers and dope dealers, often the same person, and I never had any problems. I also had a revolver in my hip pocket just in case, but so did they.

Welcome to West Virginia. No Interviews.

We're allowed to vote for any candidate we wish for whatever reason, but sometimes the reasons are despicable, or at the very least bone ignorant. Jon Stewart, obviously a regular reader of the Brain, expands on Fixer's post about the, and I quote, "racist pieces of shit" that won't vote for Obama because he's black. Video also includes "West Virginia Douche-Off" to a stirring piece of music, and we know how that 'ended' up, so to speak.

And you wonder ...

Why the Mrs. is so happy she's been able to telecommute for the past 2 years? She goes in once a month to instill fear their hearts and make sure they remember what she looks like. Heh ...

I am so late for work ...

Everything's broken ...

What a lot of people don't get about their cars and their homes is that once they're built, they need periodic maintenance to keep them going. So do our bridges and roads:

...

In December, a commission established by Congress in 2005 under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) provided the sobering statistics. The United States needs to spend $225 billion annually — more than twice what it does now — for the next 50 years. That’s more than $11 trillion worth of fix-ups on surface transportation systems alone.

...

All for Iraq and Iraq for all.

Great thanks to SP for the link.

ST, er, H U, Bush

Keith Olbermann's best 'special comment' yet IMNSHO. Sic 'im, KO!

The Last Act Of Defiance

Dedicated to Hillary Clinton, a lady with a bucket o' balls, if not much hope.

Quote of the Day

Maru:

... Speaking to Keith Olbermann on Friday, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid suggested that the gpuke-asskissing quisling, who has endorsed republican John McBush for the presidency, is not guaranteed to keep either his chairmanship or the current shape of his brown-stained schnoz ...

Could it be? A Dem finally growing some?

Reality ...

Face it, Hil, it's over.

GOP's New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant

This'll crack ya up! HuffPo. links at site.

Leave it to the tone deaf GOP to find a way of attaching themselves to this election cycle's "change" mandate that simultaneously reinforces the fact that their failed policies have messed up the world to such an inhuman extent that many Americans now live their daily lives in a state of free-floating panic and paralyzing anxiety.

In today's New York Times' Caucus blog, Carl Hulse reports that House Republicans have got themselves a brand-new slogan:

It looks like Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, "the change you deserve." The first element of the party agenda developed over the past few months by the leadership and select party members will focus on family issues.

What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism. (Hat tip to Bluestem for catching this gem.)

Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment "of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults." Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - "electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'"

Not much different from the side effects of Repug rule. When they go away, so will the awful side effects.

Its less common side effects are equally awesome in their appropriateness.

And when the Food And Drug Administration reviewed the ad copy that included the tagline, "The change you deserve," it took issue with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Effexor, saying that the company made "unsubstantiated superiority claims." Sounds like the GOP have picked an ironically accurate tagline for their efforts!

Ya can't make up shit like this, but the Repugs blunder right into it! Well, 'blunder' is what they do best.

Come November, the Repugs are gonna need an antidepressant. We've needed chill pills all through their mis-reign and now it's their turn. I suggest self-medication by means of mass mixed quantities of alcohol and opiates, taken, er, Liberally!

Dear Customers ...

If you come into the shop telling me you're gonna vote for McCain over a black man because he's a black man, I'm gonna call you a racist piece of shit. Nothing personal (MandT are correct, it is personal). This is the 21st Century. Wake the fuck up.

Regards,

Fixer


You can guess I probably lost a customer today. Heh ...

Back later, now that The Google likes me again.

Song of the Day

Phil Ochs - One More Parade




JG.

Conyers grows a pair

A quickie before I go get poked in the eye. See post below.

Kos

The truth is, the only difference between the runup to the Iraq invasion and the current buildup to a war with Iran is that this time we are the wiser. We have the benefit of hindsight this go around. We're more familiar with the modus operandi of the Bush regime now, and, we know how Dick Cheney & company will resort to bold-faced lies and slick obfuscation in making their case for perpetual war.

This time though, every piece of trumped-up evidence against Iran that Cheney comes up with or every time one of his acolytes hypes the threat, it seems to be falling more and more on a skeptical Congress. In addition, the notion of another war seems to be bombing (no pun intended) in general with the American people as well.

John Conyers’ letter is a direct shot across Cheney’s PNAC-powered bow. Now, whether Conyers’ stark warning is due directly to his aversion to war or it goes straight to a proverbial line in the sand regarding the separation of powers is unclear. But at this point it simply doesn’t matter. America wins either way.

From the letter:

[...] As one legal expert has explained, your Administration’s "preventive paradigm" has asserted "unchecked unilateral power" by the Executive Branch and violated "universal prohibitions on torture, disappearance, and the like."

Late last year, Senator Joseph Biden stated unequivocally that "the president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran, and if he does, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, I will move to impeach" the president.

We agree with Senator Biden, and it is our view that if you do not obtain the constitutionally required congressional authorization before launching preemptive military strikes against Iran or any other nation, impeachment proceedings should be pursued. [...]

Yea, John. This is a step in the right direction.

Eye, eye, eye...

Light blogging today. I gotta go to the hospital and have a little remedial work done on the lens that replaced the cataract in my left eye eight years ago. There's a plastic film encasing the replacement lens, and it has degraded to the point where, when I look at a light at night it has about the same effect as a 'star filter' on a camera lens. The doc who did the cataract job told me it would happen sooner or later. Basically, Doc Shakes is gonna point a laser at it and punch a hole in the film.

Ya haveta put up with aftermarket parts since OEM stuff ain't available fer us older models.

It's disconcerting, particularly when driving at night, which I do very seldom, but I gotta get any eye work done pretty soon since Mrs. G is going to retire in a coupla months and her vision insurance is going to retire at the same time.

It's not serious, only takes a few minutes, but I gotta go through the whole pre-op rigamarole, so it will probably keep me away from this thing all morning.

Later.

Update:

Well, that didn't take long. An hour and a half door to door. The actual procedure took about five minutes.

The laser machine was a 'Lumenis' and was foot-operated like a spot welder. Chin and forehead rests of course, but the thing was from Italy and had handlebars so I knew what to do: hang on for dear life just like on a Ducati!

I just have to share this exchange between me and the doc:

Him: "Clamp yer teeth together."

Me: "I don't have any."

Him: "OK then, don't."

(rimshot)

Mrs. G has a lot of sick days to scrub off before she retires - she never gets sick - so she took the whole day off to care for me. Ha! Later on, we're going over to the Truckee P.D. for their Peace Officer Memorial and Open House which includes a free barbecue. Note: the 9 officers they're memorializing are from all over California, not just from our little town!

It will be a real treat to eat some po-leece food for once without gettin' it handed to me through the bars...

By the way, the cop shop is in the same building where Mrs. G works, so I have to wear my Blind Man Willie Hollywoods and fumble around a lot in case her boss sees us!

Um, no ...

I got rid of my V-8 cars, I plan my trips better, I recycle and donate stuff I don't need anymore, and I support green causes, but I draw the line at giving up beef. Sorry ...

You are staring into the face of one thing you can do to fight climate change: Leave the cow alone.

According to the United Nations, 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from sending beef and dairy products to your kitchen table.

...

One of the few good things about living in Ft. Worth for 2 years was gaining an appreciation of good beef. I can only eat so much chicken before I start farting feathers.

CA-04 FeatherFest

American River Canyon is in rare form and tipped us off to this. Just go have some fun with CA-04 politics at the aptly named FeatherFest Parade. Many photos. Liquid alert!

Imagine you're me, going up to Oroville this fine Saturday morning to mess around the Festival, and you've got your spouse to come along, and your camera. You intend to kick back under a shade tree near the starting point, catch Charlie Brown as he goes by, then puddle around a bit foraging in the vendor booths. Approaching Butte County, you see a thick, nasty smog haze lurking over Table Mountain, so you use your asthma inhaler, just in case. You arrive in Oroville, and now need a potty break, so you go to a convenience store, come back to near the parade start, park on a side street, start walking down towards route again, and hope you haven't missed anything and see....
a Giant Bowling Pin walk by, followed by Doug Ose. Republican candidate for Congress, in CA- 04. One of the "Doesn't Live in the District" Republican Candidates for Congress.
Followed by Team Ose riding oil drum barrels towed by a 4 wheeler.
Followed by a Moving Van.
The moving van has what looks to be a .... Court Jester in front of it.
The Moving Van is towing a U-Haul trailer filled with children.

Jeebus.

I can't make this stuff up.

It's not the Onion. It's my Congressional district. You remember, the one with one of the highest mortgage default rates in the country. In the state that President Bush told the EPA to stuff it when we asked permission to enact better fuel milage standards for cars.

I would like to commend ARC as well for taking his life in his hands by going to the methamphetamine capital of Northern California!

Bush's Bitch

Click to embiggen the McBitch

A Sneak Peek Behind-the-Scenes of the Hamas Superdelegates

"Can you believe those Americans keep falling for that old reverse psychology trick. We endorse Obama, we get McCain elected, and we keep breaking our own recruitment records."

Thanks, Don.

Halle-fuckin'-lujah!

Here's some fairly good news, if you can believe ol' Douchebag For Liberty:

Evangelicals, Huckabee allied to sink McCain?

An element of the Christian community is not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regards the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as 'God's candidate' running for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.

Nevertheless, reports out of the evangelical community dispute Huckabee's support. One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used (He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken! Heh. - G) told me Huckabee in personal conversation with him embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals, that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.

Well, isn't that special! Or is it...SATAN?

Whatever. Let's pray, just this once, that one of those 'biblical prophecies' finally comes true. Remember the main premise of Christianity, at least as practiced by those with an agenda of control over the populace: Miracles yesterday, miracles tomorrow. Sorry, no miracles today.

POTUS 'n SCOTUS

Robert Parry

If John McCain wins the presidency – and gets to appoint one or more U.S. Supreme Court justices – America’s 220-year experiment as a democratic Republic living under the principle that “no man is above the law” may come to an end.

To put the matter differently, if a President McCain replaces one of the moderate justices with another Samuel Alito – as McCain has vowed to do – then Justice Department lawyer John Yoo’s extreme vision of an all-powerful Executive could well become the new law of the land

But the “strict constructionist” phrase is really a euphemism for a double standard, objecting to judicial decisions that conservatives don’t like while justifying judicial activism when it serves right-wing causes, such as giving President Bush authority to brush aside the Constitution as he prosecutes the “war on terror.”

Thus, perhaps more than any other question, the November election will settle whether a future Supreme Court will reshape the United States into an imperial system both at home and abroad – or roll back President Bush’s expansion of executive power in the direction of the Founders' original vision.

Or, do Americans want to go down the path marked by the likes of Yoo, Alito and Bush – ceding virtually all power to one individual who can operate beyond all laws and outside the rules of human behavior – and do so with the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court?

Some do, and I hope there's not enough of 'em.

Even with the appointments of Roberts and Alito, we've been lucky. Justice Stevens just turned 88 years of age, and Justice Ginsberg is 75. Their positions will almost certainly come up for grabs during the next Presidency. Right now, their doctors are the most important people in America.

The future of our country as it oughta be, and not in the direction it's going, depends absolutely on McCain not getting the Office of President.

The Truth About Veteran Suicides

[A big welcome to Crooks and Liars readers. - F]

Here's some excerpts from an article on a huge problem that is not being adequately addressed, and the huge cover-up of it, in Foreign Policy In Focus:

Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.

These are statistics that most Americans don't know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.

We should all be angry about what has gone on here, Filner said. This is a matter of life and death for the veterans that we are responsible for and I think there was criminal negligence in the way this was handled. If we do not admit, assume or know then the problem will continue and people will die. If thats not criminal negligence, I dont know what is.

Its also part of a pattern. The high number of veteran suicides werent the only government statistics the Bush Administration was forced to reveal because of the class action lawsuit.

Another set of documents presented in court showed that in the six months leading up to March 31, a total of 1,467 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claim would be approved by the government. A third set of documents showed that veterans who appeal a VA decision to deny their disability claim have to wait an average of 1,608 days, or nearly four and a half years, for their answer.

Other casualty statistics are not directly concealed, but are also not revealed on a regular basis. For example, the Pentagon regularly reports on the numbers of American troops wounded in Iraq (currently at 31,948) but neglects to mention that it has two other categories injured (10,180) and ill (28,451). All three of these categories represent soldiers who are so damaged physically they have to be medically evacuated to Germany for treatment, but by splitting the numbers up the sense of casualties down the public consciousness.

Heres another number that we dont often hear discussed in the media: 287,790. Thats the number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who had filed a disability claim with the Veterans Administration as of March 25th. That figure was not announced to the public at a news conference, but obtained by Veterans for Common Sense using the Freedom of Information Act.

Why all the secrecy? Why is it so hard to get accurate casualty figures out of our government? Because the Bush Administration knows if Americans woke up to the real, human costs of this war they would fight harder to oppose it.

According to an April 2008 study by the Rand Corporation, 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans currently suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or major depression. Another 320,000 suffer from traumatic brain injury, physical brain damage. A majority are not receiving help from the Pentagon and VA system which are more concerned with concealing unpleasant facts than they are with providing care.

In its study, the RAND Corporation wrote that the federal government fails to care for war veterans at its own peril - noting post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can have far reaching and damaging consequences.

Bush and Congress have the power to stop this problem before it gets worse. Its not too late to extend needed mental health care to our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans; its not too late to begin properly screening and treating returning servicemen and women whove experienced a traumatic brain injury; and it is not too late to simplify the disability claims process so that wounded veterans do not die waiting for their check. As the Rand study shows, this isnt only in the best interest of veterans, its in the best interest of our country in the long run.

To start with, the Bush Administration needs to give us some honest information about the true human costs of the Iraq War.

Well, that isn't going to happen, and neither will Veterans get the services they need and deserve from the current regime. They only care about money going to the military industrial complex, which includes themselves, and control of oil. They care not one whit about the human carnage they have created in the lust for profit. After all, it's other people's kids who've been dying and suffering. The administration has lied and conned them into volunteering by disguising their true agenda and wrapping it in the flag. They pay great lip service to 'support the troops', but it's just more of the lies and bullshit that characterize the Bush junta.

I am down-deep certain that someone, somewhere, in this administration is hoping, perhaps to a level of policy, that if enough Veterans kill themselves, die awaiting treatment that may never come, get locked up, or just shut the fuck up and stay out of sight, the problem will go away. Not having served themselves, they don't understand Veterans very well. Not being good human beings, they don't understand obligation to those they've hurt either.

This is just one more mess they've left for the next and subsequent administrations to deal with. And those had better.

As a nation, we will be cleaning out Bush's stables for the next generation and beyond, and I hope the crap lands right on those responsible, but I'm sure that in the world of reality they'll duck it and prosper as always. Dammit.

1.20.09

Crossposted at The American Patriot Institute.

Quote of the Day

Greenwald:

Most of what this government has done -- including, certainly, its most incriminating behavior -- remains concealed by the unprecedented wall of [secrecy] behind which this administration operates.

I'll betcha it'll take 20 years to understand the full depth and breadth of this administration's crimes.

On 'balance' ...

Froggy hits the nail on the head:

...

Balance is killing journalism. Balance in journalism these days means that no matter how factual a report, you have to include a contrary opinion, not so much in the way of giving a fuller picture of things but rather to avoid offending people who don't agree with you. See, I don't offer balance. I take a set of facts and go with that and try to get at truth. That's why I'd be a lousy journalist and CNN would do well to stay far from me. Instead of "offering balance", I offer the facts that tell the story accurately, even if it means somebody won't like it.

...

Update:

And so does Avedon, speaking about Joke Line and his sources:

... "But Klein seems to completely miss the point that, at root, this story isn't about the journalists. It's about the Pentagon. Good journalists shouldn't be trying to argue that they weren't misled -- despite the existence of a broad conspiracy to mislead journalists and the public. Good journalists should be outraged that the integrity of their stories can now be questioned. Good journalists should be running back to their sources and demanding assurances that they aren't paid shills." ...

It is why, over the past 4 years, almost 300,000 people have chosen to stop here to hear two crazy old vets and their pals give their take of what's going on. What Joke Line and other 'journalists' don't get is the damage they've done to their profession over the past 8 years and have probably assured its extinction. At this point it would be no great loss.

If anything ...

Remember this:

...

The Republican party is George W. Bush --- there is no daylight. They acclaimed him as the second coming of Winston Churchill and Alexander the Great just three years ago. They put him back in the White House and then swaggered around calling Democrats neutered farm animals.

...

They can run from that but they can't hide. Bush and the conservative movement he represents need to be tied around McCain's neck so tight he can't breathe.

Do not believe any Republican is different from the Chimp. McCain is not a moderate, not a maverick, and certainly not a 'straight-shooter'.

John McCain's Vietnam-based view of war

Glenn Greenwald on McCain's 'stabbed in the back in Vietnam' mindset:

[...] That narrative, says Carter, "is popular among American military officers of a certain age, who believe if only they'd had gutsy political leadership, support from the homefront, and a willingness to steamroll North Vietnam with overwhelming force, we might have won the war." As Carter documents (emphasis in original): "It's a good story, but it's wrong. No amount of America firepower could have crushed the North Vietnamese people's will."

What almost always goes unmentioned when this myth is discussed is that one its most faithful adherents is John McCain, and he applies this mentality not only to Vietnam but also to every subsequent military conflict, including the current one in Iraq. [,,,]

That's the very embodiment of the "stabbed-in-the-back" Vietnam narrative. We had our greatest success when we could bomb North Vietnam "not constrained by either congressional or presidential mandate." That's when we almost brought them "to their knees." But incessant complaints about civilian casualties and anger over irrelevant matters such as the bombing of hospitals is what prevented us from winning -- "which still angers him," because the number of dead North Vietnamese wasn't really "exorbitant." There was room for plenty more. Ponder what that means for Iraq, Afghanistan and any other new countries on which a President McCain decides to wage war.

"Bombing them into submission" only helps against industrialized countries whose war factories can be destroyed. The last time this worked was in WWII.

The tonnage of bombs dropped in Vietnam just in the Battle of Khe Sanh alone surpassed the entire tonnage dropped in WWII, and that was a use of strategic assets in a tactical application. I have no idea how much got dropped on North Vietnamese civilians, but I'm sure it was considerable.

It was wrong to bomb civilians as a terror tactic then, and it didn't work to shorten that war. It's still wrong, and it isn't going to work now.

It keeps the bomb factories and jet fuel makers happy, though, and isn't that the most important thing to Repugs?

Burnin' The Troops. Literally.

Fallen U.S. troops cremated at Pet Cremation Service.

One of many 'comments':

I think this despicable administration would throw the bodies into a ditch, if they thought they could get away with it…

I don't think this matters much to the crematee, but it should to us.

It also brings up this horrid thought: pet crematoria offer a choice between 'individual' and 'communal' cremation...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq Arrested
Hunt begins for new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Russia Close to War With Georgia Over Sovereignty
Florida close to war with Georgia over water.

High Gas, Food Prices Force Tough Choices
Walk to McDonald's or drive to soup kitchen.

Consumer Spending Rises
Mainly in bankruptcy filing fees.

Many more, including my favorite for today:

Study: Breastfeeding Boosts IQ
At any age.

Oh baby, make me smart!

Bonus:

The Beer Factor in Electing a President

Update Bonus:

Classic rock music to stay in presidential campaigns for a long, long time

George W. Bush also falls under the Baby Boomers category; to his base, there was quite a bit of older country music on his iPod. The London Times described his list as having "No black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles."

I am a little nervous to realize that the one thing we have in common is our love for the Knack's "My Sharona."

O'Lielly Flips His Wig

Normally I wouldn't waste space on this asshole, but this video will make you smile! Language, Billy, language! And, oh yeah, nice rug...

Betraying The Troops Is Big Bucks

Go see this video interview. Put something in between your teeth so you don't grind them to dust.

In their recent book "Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War," Dina Rasor and Robert Bauman present firsthand accounts of fraud, deception, negligence and treachery by contractors during the privatized invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This is the first war that was designed to rely on contractors - private companies with profit as their top priority - for transportation, food, water, spare parts and even protection. As a result, according to Rasor and Bauman, the government has been bilked out of billions of dollars, Americans and Iraqis have suffered and died, and the war effort as a whole has been deeply weakened.

Dina Rasor founded the Project On Governmental Oversight and now serves on the board of directors. She sat down with me to discuss the ongoing problems with military contracting and the complete lack of fraud prosecution at the Department of Justice.

For more information on Rasor and Bauman's work, visit Follow the Money Project.

Crossposted at The American Patriot Institute.

Dumbasses ...

This is why I worry about the Dems' chances in November:

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

There are a lot of morons like this running around.

Late for work. I hate Mondays ...

Haven't we been down this road ...

A couple years ago?

There was something interesting missing from Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner's introductory remarks to journalists at his regular news briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday: the word "Iran," or any form of it. It was especially striking as Bergner, the U.S. military spokesman here, announced the extraordinary list of weapons and munitions that have been uncovered in recent weeks since fighting erupted between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and Shiite militiamen.

...

Didn't we 'capture' Iranian weapons in Iraq just before the last election?

...

Not once did Bergner point the finger at Iran for any of these weapons and munitions, which is a striking change from just a couple of weeks ago when U.S. military officials here and at the Pentagon were saying that caches found in Basra in particular had revealed Iranian-made arms manufactured as recently as this year. They say the majority of rockets being fired at U.S. bases, including Baghdad's Green Zone, are launched by militiamen receiving training, arms and other aid from Iran. [my em}

...

Once again, the facts don't support the propaganda. You know, at this point, even if we did get the truth from this administration we wouldn't notice in the sea of horseshit they've shoveled over the past 8 years.

1.20.09

Great thanks to our pal UL for the link.

Distance ...

For the last few months, since the Chimp's ratings have gone totally into the dumper, all the Rethugs are trying to distance themselves from his ass. Even McCain. Thing is, all they're doing is talking a good line. Seems the leadership thinks another four years of Chimpishness is a good thing:

Bless his little heart, let’s have House Minority Whip Roy Blunt on every week to talk up John McCain’s candidacy! Talk about living within a bubble, Blunt thinks nothing of touting the McSame presidency as a Bush third term, despite the record disapproval rating for the man and the vast majority of the country believing that the country is going in the wrong direction under his leadership. Apparently, Blunt didn’t get the memo that McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush and as Rep. Chris Van Hollen points out, on the two most important issues to the American people, McCain absolutely equals Bush. And Roy, that’s not such a good thing.

...

Go read the transcript of Wolfie interviewing Roy Blunt.

A.A.A.D.D.

Got this from my pal Larry:

[Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder. Somehow I feel better, even though I have it!!

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table, Put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup.

As I head toward the kitchen with the cold coffee, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need water.

I put the Coffee on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, nut first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The car isn't washed

The bills aren't paid

There is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the counter

The flowers don't have enough water,

There is still only 1 check in my check book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail....

Do me a favor. Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember who I've sent it to.]

That, folks, was no shit!

Stimulating the economy ...

24 hours ago, I didn't need a new bedroom set. 3 hours ago, I bought a new one. Details and a little story from my childhood.

Quote of the Day

Dem Underground

HANNITY on Foxnews: "Republicans need a new Contract ON America" (instead of a new Contract with America).

What, the old one didn't transfer wealth and power to the Repugs well enough? Out of the mouths of boobs...

Happy Mother's Day

To all you mothers out there. A couple from one of my favorite bands. First, our wedding song:

Led Zeppelin - Thank You

And second, one of the best blues songs evah:

Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You

Sunday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

"How Do You Like Me Now?" was a big hit for Toby Keith. He must be an awful good sport to participate in this!