For you Saturday evening listening pleasure, an excellent version of one of my favorite Glenn Miller tunes:
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Maybe tomorrow ...
Mrs. F and I were out Christmas shopping for all the rugrats in the family this morning and we're heading out later for dinner with our cruise pals Annie and Joe (it's Annie's birthday) to plan more piracy and debauchery on our February cruise (they're going with us again). Heh ... Probably see yas tomorrow or some incoherent drunken ranting later when I get home.
For you Saturday evening listening pleasure, an excellent version of one of my favorite Glenn Miller tunes:
For you Saturday evening listening pleasure, an excellent version of one of my favorite Glenn Miller tunes:
Get Human
I got this gem from The Daily Beast. Might come in handy.
Nothing makes me angrier or more frustrated than when companies and corporations, especially those in the service sector, make it virtually impossible to reach and talk to a real person on the phone. Well now, there's help. It's a website called Get Human. Go to this site and you'll get the tricks of the trade -- the buttons on your phone to hit to automatically bypass voicemail hell and computer-generated voice prompts to nowhere and go right to a real human being. How cool is that? Whether it's the cable company, the Sears repair folks, or an airline, this is an indispensable website.
Heh ...
Big pussy and racist piece of shit Glenn Beck gets a dose of reality:
Poor baby, has to hide behind his security. In my neck o' the woods, you take responsibility for what you say, even if it means standing up to an angry trucker. That's the problem with these conservative assholes. Got a lot to say when they have a couple goons to give 'em cover.
Responsibility and accountability has become a thing of the past. From the pundits, to the corporations, to the White House, it's the same shit. It's the attitude that has CEOs demanding public money when they're not willing to take a pay cut. It's about starting two wars with no clue of how to fight them. It's fomenting hate and division from the pulpit and the studio while side-stepping the pile of shit they've created.
It's time people like Beck, Lintball, and all the others to take responsibility for the mess they've helped make of this country. Whether it's getting your ass handed to you by a pissed-off trucker who's seen his business take a big hit over the past year to having protesters sitting in front of your 'churches' for your sponsorship of a plan to deny a group of Americans their rights.
... I just want to Frosty™ please, the guy standing next to me, who, by the way, I may point out. Had food in his hair, is a truck driver and he turned around. He looked at me and the recognition was immediate and he said, You racist bigot! And I just said -- I wanted to say, I think you have me mistaken for someone else, but I knew he knew who I was and he just hated me for who I was. You conservatives that have destroyed this country! And the hatred was so deep, it was breath taking. Luckily the swat team was there and I just separated myself from him and he just shouted through other people and there were children in the restaurant and he blamed me for everything, I believe including the Holocaust, and the hatred was palpable. The guy screamed at the restaurant, you better not let me see you in the parking lot because I've got a truck and I'll run your ass over!
...
Poor baby, has to hide behind his security. In my neck o' the woods, you take responsibility for what you say, even if it means standing up to an angry trucker. That's the problem with these conservative assholes. Got a lot to say when they have a couple goons to give 'em cover.
Responsibility and accountability has become a thing of the past. From the pundits, to the corporations, to the White House, it's the same shit. It's the attitude that has CEOs demanding public money when they're not willing to take a pay cut. It's about starting two wars with no clue of how to fight them. It's fomenting hate and division from the pulpit and the studio while side-stepping the pile of shit they've created.
It's time people like Beck, Lintball, and all the others to take responsibility for the mess they've helped make of this country. Whether it's getting your ass handed to you by a pissed-off trucker who's seen his business take a big hit over the past year to having protesters sitting in front of your 'churches' for your sponsorship of a plan to deny a group of Americans their rights.
Great thanks to Maru for the link.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Show me who you run with ...
And I'll show you who you are. Greenwald:
Makes me so proud to be an American sometimes.
...
So, to recap the [International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists] award winners: we have a reporter persecuted by the Ugandan Government; another imprisoned by the Castro regime; a journalist-defending lawyer who faced down the intimidation and threats of Robert Mugabe; two journalists who work at great risk of being attacked by the Taliban; and one who was arrested by the U.S. military and then imprisoned for two years without any charges or due process of any kind by the United States Government. As happens so frequently now, that is the company we keep.
...
Makes me so proud to be an American sometimes.
A guy like me ...
They make cynics in Iraq too. Heh ...
After all these years of being shit upon by U.S. leadership, just as we were, the average guy on the street over there doesn't believe shit until he sees it with his own two eyes.
Like I said yesterday, talk is cheap.
...
"Americans won't leave," said Mazin Ali, 30, a coach driver. "They are the decision makers in all Iraq. The decision is theirs."
He and others on 14th Ramadan Street, a commercial strip in Baghdad's Mansour district, see too many signs of a long-term American commitment to believe that the U.S. will withdraw on the timetable in the so-called status of forces agreement.
...
After all these years of being shit upon by U.S. leadership, just as we were, the average guy on the street over there doesn't believe shit until he sees it with his own two eyes.
Like I said yesterday, talk is cheap.
Here comes Santa Paws!
Tomorrow is Santa Paws Pet Photo day to help raise funds for the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe. Here's Mrs. G in between administering doggie baths. I'm in here doing important work like embarrassing the shit outta her so I get to skate. Heh.
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?
Kickin' off the Brain weekend, Ry Cooder with a treatment of the Blind Alfred Reed tune. Flaco Jiménez on accordion.
From "Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have A Ball", a film by Les Blank taped at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA on March 25'th 1987.
The Pentagon's Argument of Last Resort on Iraq
A 'must read' by Tom Englehardt. Links at site.
All our shit's worn out from years of operation in sand. Protecting sand-scoured shit from salt air makes no sense at all. "No sense at all" is the Pentagon's main operating principle.
Every last piece of equipment over there is worn out and tore up from the floor up, or as good as, and will need to be rebuilt anyway, which is more expensive than buying new.
Let's take a lesson from the evacuation of Dunkirk.
First, blow all the stockpiled ordnance in place. I think Fixer would be glad to come help. Heh.
Second, treat the breeches and barrels of every artillery piece larger than an 81mm mortar to some thermite grenades to render them into unusable lumps. Keep the mortars lest the mortarmen have nothing heavy to carry and feel unloved.
Third, fly out everything flyable. For the rest, see "blow in place" and "thermite grenades".
Fourth, use every available vehicle to transport troops. Use the best vehicles to take them to Kuwait for transport home. The balance of vehicles take them to airfields and ports. The last man out of each vehicle will be the driver, who will drain the oil, restart the engine, and board outbound ships or planes.
Call this "Operation We Need All New Shit Anyway". It'll be good for our economy, not to mention a burgeoning Iraqi scrap-metal industry. Win-win!
All non-combatant civilians will have been evacuated first, of course. The mercenaries can find their own goddam way out.
It's the ultimate argument, the final bastion against withdrawal, and over these last years, the Bush administration has made sure it would have plenty of heft. Ironically, its strength lies in the fact that it has nothing to do with the vicissitudes of Iraqi politics, the relative power of Shiites or Sunnis, the influence of Iran, or even the riptides of war. It really doesn't matter what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or oppositional cleric Muqtada al-Sadr think about it. In fact, it's an argument that has nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with us, with the American way of war (and life), which makes it almost unassailable.
In a nutshell, the Pentagon's argument couldn't be simpler or more red-bloodedly American: We have too much stuff to leave Iraq any time soon. In war, as in peace, we're trapped by our own profligacy. We are the Neiman Marcus and the Wal-Mart of combat. Where we go, our "stuff" goes with us -- in such prodigious quantities that removing it is going to prove more daunting than invading in the first place. After all, it took less than a year to put in place the 130,000-plus invasion force, and all its equipment and support outfits from bases all around the world, as well as the air power and naval power to match.
Some have estimated, however, that simply getting each of the 14 combat brigades still stationed in Iraq on January 20, 2009, out with all their equipment might take up to 75 days per brigade. (If you do the math, that's 36 months, and even that wouldn't suffice if you wanted to remove everything else we now have in that California-sized country.)
Getting out? Don't dream of it.
[...] As the Pentagon's budget soared, its civilians and the high command went on an imperial spending spree the likes of which may never have been seen on this planet.
For them, Iraq has been war as cornucopia, war as a consumer's paradise. Arguably, on a per-soldier basis, no military has ever occupied a country with a bigger baggage train. On taking Iraq, they promptly began constructing a series of gigantic military bases, American ziggurats meant to outlast them. These were full-scale "American towns," well guarded, 15-20 miles around, with multiple PXes, fitness clubs, brand fast-food outlets, traffic lights, the works. (This, in a country where, for years after the invasion, nothing worked.)
In other words, abroad, we weren't the Spartans, we were the Athenians on steroids. [...]
Now, back in the days when we had less experience fighting losing wars, Americans in retreat simply shoved those extra helicopters off the decks of aircraft carriers in chaos, burned free-floating cash in tin drums, and left tons of expensive equipment and massive bases behind for the enemy to turn into future industrial parks. At the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in April 1975, while everything in sight was being burned or destroyed including precious advanced electronic equipment, money actually rained down from the Embassy incinerator on the roof upon amazed Vietnamese allies huddled below, waiting for a promised airlift to safety that, for most, never came.
Withdrawal then was unsightly, unseemly, and environmentally unsound. But, as we know, the lessons of Vietnam were subsequently learned.
And don't forget the shrink-wrapping of those helicopters -- who knows how many -- for that long, salt-free sea voyage home.
All our shit's worn out from years of operation in sand. Protecting sand-scoured shit from salt air makes no sense at all. "No sense at all" is the Pentagon's main operating principle.
[...] When it comes to withdrawal, the most militarily profligate administration in memory has seemingly ensured that the highest military priority in 2009 will be frugality -- that is, saving all American "stuff" in Iraq.
Irony hardly covers this one. [...]
Every last piece of equipment over there is worn out and tore up from the floor up, or as good as, and will need to be rebuilt anyway, which is more expensive than buying new.
Let's take a lesson from the evacuation of Dunkirk.
First, blow all the stockpiled ordnance in place. I think Fixer would be glad to come help. Heh.
Second, treat the breeches and barrels of every artillery piece larger than an 81mm mortar to some thermite grenades to render them into unusable lumps. Keep the mortars lest the mortarmen have nothing heavy to carry and feel unloved.
Third, fly out everything flyable. For the rest, see "blow in place" and "thermite grenades".
Fourth, use every available vehicle to transport troops. Use the best vehicles to take them to Kuwait for transport home. The balance of vehicles take them to airfields and ports. The last man out of each vehicle will be the driver, who will drain the oil, restart the engine, and board outbound ships or planes.
Call this "Operation We Need All New Shit Anyway". It'll be good for our economy, not to mention a burgeoning Iraqi scrap-metal industry. Win-win!
All non-combatant civilians will have been evacuated first, of course. The mercenaries can find their own goddam way out.
Usefull Somali phrases
Traveling in the Gulf of Aden? From an article in Slate about the most FAQ about pirates, some useful phrases. Here's my favorite:
There wasn't one for "Feelin' lucky? Make a run for it." Drat.
ha dhaqaaqin hadii kale, ciidamada badda way ku dilayaan
Do not move or the Marines will kill you.
There wasn't one for "Feelin' lucky? Make a run for it." Drat.
The Felimony Tour
Some good news!
EssEffChron
Like, wooooow, man! Duuuude, sign my ass up!
EssEffChron
After more than 30 years, those comic poets of dope, Cheech and Chong, have reunited for their Light Up America tour, which arrives this weekend in the Bay Area. We caught up with the pair earlier in the week from a hotel room on the road and started by asking them why they've hit the road again.
Cheech: Actually, this is for his felony and my alimony, so it's the Felimony tour.
Cheech: Stoner culture transcends every group, just like Cheech and Chong. There's no group that doesn't like Cheech and Chong, whether it's young, old, black, white, Chicano, biker, straight, gay, Republican, Democrat. It's like butter. Everybody likes butter.
Chong: It's like pot, too.
Cheech: Yeah.
Chong: 'Cause pot got into all the culture. When I was in jail, I was invited into all the groups - from the white supremacists who liked cowboy music to the rappers and Arabs - every culture, the Hawaiians. Every culture in prison would have me as their guest of honor when they had going-away dinners for people.
Cheech: We're thinking of starting a religion next.
Like, wooooow, man! Duuuude, sign my ass up!
This is why I shop at Lowe's
Oxdown Gazette
This is what Home Depot's founder Bernie Marcus said on a conference call yesterday:
If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs.
It's nice to know Home Depot supports the death penalty for not contributing to their favored political causes.
Worthless ...
Thankfully it's almost over. I just wanted to pass along my thanks to the stupid, moronic, imbecilic, dumbass people in America who voted for our Idiot-in-Chief (half of you, you fucking idiots) twice. (I'll give anybody the benefit of the doubt once)
You've helped destroy almost every foundation and principle this once-great nation was built upon. The 'shining beacon of freedom and democracy' has become nothing but a Third World, banana republic, tin horn dictatorship.
Just because you fuckwits had to have a beer with the Chimp, this country is sliding toward the cliff, on the balls of it's ass, holding on for dear life. Your stupidity, as you repeated every stupid line Fox 'News' fed into you tiny pea brains, is vomit-inducing. If this weren't America, I'd let my German hang out. I'd have you all rounded up and sent to reeductation camps, to be reindoctrinated into reality. Those of you beyond hope would be sterilized to ensure they would not pass your fucked-up genetics on to another generation. But I'm not. I'm a proud American.
This nation is a bloody mess, the stains of which cover your hands directly, and all you can do is ... blame Clinton.
Do me a favor, morons. If you voted for Bush twice, tear up your voter registration card. It's obvious you don't understand how the system works, nor America's place in the world, and your involvement is detrimental to its future. You've taken the discourse to the level of an elementary school playground. It is not a game, nor is it a TV show. Stay home, watch reality TV and your favorite preacher man, and stay out of shit you know nothing about.
You've done enough, thank you.
Pic swiped from Michael F.
Quote of the Day
Watertiger:
When I saw it, I thought I was gonna puke. A 7th degree convicted felon should never have been allowed back in the Seante chamber let alone be given the floor. Our very own House of Lords.
Everything that is wrong with the Senate can be summed up in the standing ovation that Ted "HULK SMASH!" Stevens, convicted of seven felonies, just received from that august legislative body.
...
When I saw it, I thought I was gonna puke. A 7th degree convicted felon should never have been allowed back in the Seante chamber let alone be given the floor. Our very own House of Lords.
Karma ...
The Rethugs are reaping what they've sown. Unfortunately, he has a good health plan:
WASHINGTON (AP) ― Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech Thursday night and lost consciousness, a Justice Department official said.
...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Bachelor's Paradise
I was just out walking the pups and this panorama made me go get my camera so I could share. This is a rear view of my neighbor Jim's house. He rents out a coupla bedrooms and he likes peace and quiet, so he rents to middle-aged bachelors. They come and go, but there's always one or two around.
From left to right, notice the woodpile conveniently sited at pants-off-in-any-weather distance from the living room door. Then, two, count 'em two gas grills with sufficient fuel to process the catch of the day from the fishing boat on the far right (next to the spare grill! Yeesh. Wretched excess is barely enough!). Moving on, the roofed-over all-weather stoner couch with beer cooler, and last, the horseshoe pitch. All with a lovely southern exposure.
From the door next to the couch all the way to the left is the garage. Heaven.
The boys in my 'hood know how to live. Especially Jim. He spends his winters in Cali.
By the way, the old Toyota Land Cruiser to the right of the fishing boat belongs to Danny, who went to Cali with Jim last winter and never came back. He's got a pacemaker. I hope it's got a 'fast' switch on it. Heh. If yer in the market for a Jap Jeep with a Chevy small block (Chevota? Toylet?), lemme know.
Click to waaaay embiggen
From left to right, notice the woodpile conveniently sited at pants-off-in-any-weather distance from the living room door. Then, two, count 'em two gas grills with sufficient fuel to process the catch of the day from the fishing boat on the far right (next to the spare grill! Yeesh. Wretched excess is barely enough!). Moving on, the roofed-over all-weather stoner couch with beer cooler, and last, the horseshoe pitch. All with a lovely southern exposure.
From the door next to the couch all the way to the left is the garage. Heaven.
The boys in my 'hood know how to live. Especially Jim. He spends his winters in Cali.
By the way, the old Toyota Land Cruiser to the right of the fishing boat belongs to Danny, who went to Cali with Jim last winter and never came back. He's got a pacemaker. I hope it's got a 'fast' switch on it. Heh. If yer in the market for a Jap Jeep with a Chevy small block (Chevota? Toylet?), lemme know.
Arraignment set for Cheney, Gonzales
Raw Story
Fixer stated elsewhere that he was going to hold off on his masturbatory giddiness for a bit. I'm going to back-click to Janet's picture and indulge mine right now! Whee!
This gets even better:
Man, these South Texicans sure know how to have a good time! Heh.
A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a federal detention center.
Fixer stated elsewhere that he was going to hold off on his masturbatory giddiness for a bit. I'm going to back-click to Janet's picture and indulge mine right now! Whee!
This gets even better:
In the latest bizarre development in the case, the lame-duck prosecutor who won the indictments was a no-show in court Wednesday. The judge ordered Texas Rangers to go to Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra's house, check on his well-being and order him to court on Friday.
Half of the eight high-profile indictments returned Monday by a Willacy County grand jury are tied to privately run federal detention centers in the sparsely populated South Texas county. The other half target judges and special prosecutors who played a role in an earlier investigation of Guerra.
After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.
Man, these South Texicans sure know how to have a good time! Heh.
Teflon Joe!
Some Ideas For Lieberman's "Kick Me Outta The Party, I Freakin' Dare Ya" Campaign
The Georgetown Sleep-Around - Lieberman should begin seducing the wives of his fellow democratic Senators, trying to see how many Senator wives he can bed before the Democrats get angry enough to attempt to pass a resolution chastising Lieberman for being a D-bag. The resolution will fail to pass by eleven votes.
Down The Hatch - Lieberman should start voting with Orrin Hatch 90% of the time. If no one says anything, go for 100%. If no one says anything then, Joe should start concocting conservative positions of his own and convince Orrin Hatch to vote with him.
Hot-Crotching The Filibuster - Anytime one of his fellow Democratic senators gets ready to filibuster a bill, Joe should sneak into the Dem locker room and douse that Senator's jock with Liquid Heat ointment. Then Joe should watch the Filibuster giggling as the Senator tries to keep talking without running off the Senate floor to dip his nuts in a Gatorade jug.
Don't ask how I know this, but gettin' hot-crotched ain't funny. Except to everybody else.
Napolitano may head DHS
I'm down wid dis one!
Yahoo!News
This ol' mountaineer's got a 'political rise' right now too!
They fail to mention that she was elected Governor under Arizona's Clean Elections Act which is a big step forward, IMNSHO, from the normal Dirty Money System.
This is not a done deal, but I'm hopeful. Adios, Skeletor, hello nice western border state governor lady.
Tongue-in-cheek Update:
23/6
As opposed to us superbly hinged yet unoiled squeaky ones who don't give a rat's ass who she sleeps with as long as she does a good job?
Yahoo!News
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.
In 2005, TIME magazine named her one of America’s five best governors, calling her “A Mountaineer on the Political Rise.”
This ol' mountaineer's got a 'political rise' right now too!
Her official bio says: “Janet Napolitano was sworn in as Arizona’s 21st Governor on January 6, 2003. She is the first woman in the nation’s history to serve as U.S. Attorney, State Attorney General and Governor in immediate succession. Prior her election as Governor of Arizona, Napolitano served one term as Arizona Attorney General and four years as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. Born in New York City and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she is a distinguished alumna of Santa Clara University and the University of Virginia Law School. She has lived in Arizona since 1983, when she moved to Phoenix to practice law.”
They fail to mention that she was elected Governor under Arizona's Clean Elections Act which is a big step forward, IMNSHO, from the normal Dirty Money System.
This is not a done deal, but I'm hopeful. Adios, Skeletor, hello nice western border state governor lady.
Tongue-in-cheek Update:
23/6
...but what do we really know about the woman who may soon be arbitrarily adjusting the color-coded terror threat level? Read on and find out.
Current gig: Governor of Arizona, as if John McCain didn't need to have it rubbed in his face any more than he already has.
Homeland security credentials: Served as Arizona Attorney General, and as governor of a border state, has experience with immigration policy, border security, and talking down rifle-and-beer-cooler-toting Minutemen.
Is she...um...what's the deal with...you know?: Well, she's 50, unmarried, childless, and certainly seems to fit the profile. But she also opposes same-sex marriage and has long been a victim of a whisper campaign about her sexuality. So, the jury's still out, if by "jury," you mean unhinged internet bloggers.
As opposed to us superbly hinged yet unoiled squeaky ones who don't give a rat's ass who she sleeps with as long as she does a good job?
Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama
Cornel West is one of my favorite people in the whole world. I love to hear him speak. The only problem I have is that he speaks about three times as fast as I listen! If he were a used-car salesman you wouldn't know what make you had just bought for a hundred miles! My great phobia is that someday I will be sitting between him and the equally fast-talking Rachel Maddow when they are discussing something of earth-shaking importance. I calm myself by realizing that if I string together the one word in ten that I catch, it will still make sense...
Print slows him down a little. Here's some excerpts from an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, today's 'recommended read'.
Good on ya, Doc. We all have to do that.
Much more to read, but if you want to get the full effect, here's the video in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Treat yourself to this fast-talkin' smart brotha. I put him on in one window and keep on keepin' on in another.
Print slows him down a little. Here's some excerpts from an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, today's 'recommended read'.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Cornel West, you were a big supporter of Barack Obama, but you also have been giving speeches about holding him to account. What are the issues you are most concerned about right now?
CORNEL WEST: Well, I think, as a deep Democrat, I recognize I have some significant differences with Brother Barack. He’s a liberal. It looked like he wants to govern as a liberal-centrist, given the choices of Emanuel—Rahm Emanuel and others. And one has to be honest and candid in terms of one’s criticism, because in the end, it’s not about Barack Obama, it’s about empowering working people and poor people. It’s about trying to accent the dignity of those Sly Stone called “everyday people.” And when he moves in that direction, it’s good. When he doesn’t move in that direction, we need to criticize him. Same is true in terms of foreign policy: Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. We have to be honest about it.
For me, my criticism of Barack has to do with trying to acknowledge the degree to which, one, thank God we’re at the end of the age of Ronald Reagan, we’re at the end of the era of conservatism, we’re coming to the end of the epoch of the Southern Strategy. For the first time now, we’ve got some democratic possibilities. This has been a political ice age, and the melting is just beginning. And Barack Obama is a symbol, but we’ve got to move from symbol to substance. We’ve got to move from what he represents in a broad sense—and it’s a beautiful thing to have a black man in the White House, we know that, and black slaves and laborers and other white immigrants built the White House. And to have a black family there, significant; black face for the American empire, fine. Can we revitalize democratic possibilities on the ground with Barack in the White House? I think we can. We can put some serious pressure on him, and we can actually continue the democratic awakening among working people and poor people and push Barack in a progressive direction.
AMY GOODMAN: How about your colleague at Princeton University, Paul Krugman?
CORNEL WEST: Oh, Paul Krugman. Oh, my god. Yes, indeed, indeed. Paul is probably even a little bit too progressive and prophetic. He probably needs to stay outside, like myself, and be Socratic and prophetic and just tell the truth to the people in power. But he’s my very dear brother and comrade, and of course I salute his Nobel Prize. It’s rare that you see a progressive economist receiving a Nobel Prize in that way.
I do still support Brother Barack Obama gaining access to the White House, because he was the best that America could do at this particular moment in the midst of imperial occupation in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, financial Katrina, legacy of Katrina in New Orleans, wealth inequality, dilapidated housing in chocolate cities, disgraceful school systems, unacceptable levels of unemployment and underemployment, not enough access to healthcare for fellow citizens across race and region, not enough access to childcare. At this moment, the best America could do was Brother Barack Obama, liberal, centrist.
Will he govern like a progressive Lincoln? Will he triangulate like Clinton? Will he be an experimentalist like FDR? Those are the challenges. I hope he’s a progressive Lincoln. I plan to be—aspire to be the Frederick Douglasses against, to put pressure on him.
Good on ya, Doc. We all have to do that.
Much more to read, but if you want to get the full effect, here's the video in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Treat yourself to this fast-talkin' smart brotha. I put him on in one window and keep on keepin' on in another.
Quote of the Day dos
P.M. Carpenter
Drag away, boys, the longer the better.
It's astonishing, but at the rate things are going, the medieval Church's acceptance of the sun's solar-system centrality may someday seem like a snap decision compared to the agonized knuckledragging of the modern Republican Party.
Drag away, boys, the longer the better.
Questions ...
Billy asks them:
Ha ... Ha-ha ... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!1!!1!
The U.S. Capitol would be an empty fucking building. Off to work ...
What if electoral campaigns would require the candidates to take an IQ test?
Ha ... Ha-ha ... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!1!!1!
The U.S. Capitol would be an empty fucking building. Off to work ...
Not to pee ...
On anyone's sunshine a couple weeks after "America's Best Election" (serious, no cynicism there), but I can't get with all the happy.
Yes, I'm happy Obama won.
Yes, I'm proud to be part of, and witness to, one of the greatest milestones in American history. A black President has been too long in coming and a woman's time is long past due.
Yes, I'm thrilled Bush is starting to reap some of what he's sown.
And yes, I am absolutely aroused and engorged listening to the Republicans whine every afternoon on Wolfie while I'm playing Bob Vila.
That said, ain't shit been fixed yet. Ain't shit gonna get fixed until 21 January 2009 and after. I'll withold my masturbatory giddiness until then. I can't get excited over every appointment, over every speculation over what the agenda will be with this guy at HHS or this girl at State.
Let me see these people work as a team, under what seems to be good leadership so far (Barry's demeanor impresses me, reminds me of an old CO I had and respected greatly), as opposed to a buncha self-serving egomaniacs. We all know, with the crew assembled so far, either eventuality is possible.
After 8 years of nothing but disappointment, I refuse to let myself get all excited at "what might be". Been down that road too many times with this bunch and the Dems never fail to under achieve. When I see positive results, then you'll see me dancing in the streets, naked, with nothing more than a necktie, a cigar, and a tall glass of water.
Talk is cheap.
Yes, I'm happy Obama won.
Yes, I'm proud to be part of, and witness to, one of the greatest milestones in American history. A black President has been too long in coming and a woman's time is long past due.
Yes, I'm thrilled Bush is starting to reap some of what he's sown.
And yes, I am absolutely aroused and engorged listening to the Republicans whine every afternoon on Wolfie while I'm playing Bob Vila.
That said, ain't shit been fixed yet. Ain't shit gonna get fixed until 21 January 2009 and after. I'll withold my masturbatory giddiness until then. I can't get excited over every appointment, over every speculation over what the agenda will be with this guy at HHS or this girl at State.
Let me see these people work as a team, under what seems to be good leadership so far (Barry's demeanor impresses me, reminds me of an old CO I had and respected greatly), as opposed to a buncha self-serving egomaniacs. We all know, with the crew assembled so far, either eventuality is possible.
After 8 years of nothing but disappointment, I refuse to let myself get all excited at "what might be". Been down that road too many times with this bunch and the Dems never fail to under achieve. When I see positive results, then you'll see me dancing in the streets, naked, with nothing more than a necktie, a cigar, and a tall glass of water.
Talk is cheap.
"With the Marines at Tarawa"
Four years ago I posted on the Battle of Tarawa. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, I can bring you an Oscar-winning documentary now that I couldn't then.
Note: If you put your cursor on the print, not the video, press 'Ctrl', and roll your mouse wheel, the video will get bigger along with the print. At least it does on my set.
Tarawa, or Betio Island, was assaulted on November 20th, 1943 by the 2nd Marine Division. The Japanese defended Tarawa with approximately 3,000 men of the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, "Japanese Imperial Marines," and 1,000 Korean laborers. By the end of the battle 990 U.S. Marines were listed as killed-in-action. Out of the entire Japanese garrison 1 officer and 16 Japanese enlisted men survived. The American public was outraged; by the 3,286 casualties, inflicted on the Marines, for an island 1 square mile in size.
Marine cameraman took amazing combat footage of the 3 day battle. It was up to that time a shocking account of combat in the Pacific. So shocking was the footage, that many top military figures opposed releasing the film: "With the Marines at Tarawa." President Roosevelt overruled all opposition and the film was released for general circulation.
"With the Marines at Tarawa" won an Academy award for: Best Short Documentary in 1945
Note: If you put your cursor on the print, not the video, press 'Ctrl', and roll your mouse wheel, the video will get bigger along with the print. At least it does on my set.
Part 1
Part 2
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Observations ...
Over the last few days, Gord and I have become obsessed with hunting pirates. Think we were born a century and a half too late?
Quote of the Day - Zwei
The Rude One:
...
Here's a warning to the Democrats in Congress: you better fucking deliver on some shit. Or, unlike the bitches of the Christian right who just take it, we will make you pay. One of the lessons of this past election is that we've learned how to field and support candidates.
...
How they killed the Russians ...
It's amazing the deja vu going on here for me. A little over 25 years ago, we were involved in supplying money and arms through Pakistan to the 'freedom fighters' in Afghanistan. They used the same tactics against Russian convoys as they're using against us:
You can have as many 'boots on the ground' as you want. If you can't rearm, refuel, and replenish them, they ain't worth shit.
The Taliban (al-Qaeda) are making it difficult to resupply our guys, costing us more in lives and money. Eventually, it will be cost-prohibitive to remain. As I've said many times, just because people read history doesn't mean they learn from it. It is why we continue to make the mistakes of the past. Ask the British. Ask the Russians.
TORKHAM, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 -- A rise in Taliban attacks along the length of a vital NATO supply route that runs through this border town in the shadow of the Khyber Pass has U.S. officials seeking alternatives, including the prospect of beginning deliveries by a tortuous overland journey from Europe.
Supplying troops in landlocked Afghanistan has long been the Achilles' heel of foreign armies here, most recently the Soviets, whose forces were nearly crippled by Islamist insurgent attacks on vulnerable supply lines. [my em]
...
You can have as many 'boots on the ground' as you want. If you can't rearm, refuel, and replenish them, they ain't worth shit.
...
About 75 percent of NATO and U.S. supplies bound for Afghanistan -- including gas, food and military equipment -- are transported over land through Pakistan. The journey begins in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi and continues north through Pakistan's volatile North-West Frontier Province and tribal areas before supplies arrive at the Afghan border. The convoys then press forward along mountain hairpin turns through areas of Afghanistan that are known as havens for insurgents.
Drivers at this busy border crossing say death threats from the Taliban arrive almost daily. Sometimes they come in the form of a letter taped to the windshield of a truck late at night. Occasionally, a dispatcher receives an early-morning phone call before a convoy sets off from Pakistan. More often, the threats are delivered at the end of a gun barrel.
...
The growing danger has forced the Pentagon to seek far longer, but possibly safer, alternate routes through Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to Defense Department documents. A notice to potential contractors by the U.S. Transportation Command in September said that "strikes, border delays, accidents and pilferage" in Pakistan and the risk of "attacks and armed hijackings" in Afghanistan posed "a significant risk" to supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan.
...
The Taliban (al-Qaeda) are making it difficult to resupply our guys, costing us more in lives and money. Eventually, it will be cost-prohibitive to remain. As I've said many times, just because people read history doesn't mean they learn from it. It is why we continue to make the mistakes of the past. Ask the British. Ask the Russians.
Thanks to b @ MoA for the link.
Auto Execs’ Private Jet Travel Like Guy At ‘The Soup Kitchen In High Hat And Tuxedo’
Think Progress, with video, links, and comments.
That's the way those dinosaurs think: we want billions of taxpayer money but we're special and refuse to give up anything in return, let alone change our way of thinking that has made us all rich, impoverished our companies, and threatened the livelihoods of millions of peasants.
GM needs to be dealt with in a way that puts the writing on the wall for the other two of the Big Three: Fire all these clowns, make 'em stop thinking they're too big to let fail, let 'em go Chapter 11 bankruptcy, loan 'em some money due to the credit crunch so they can restructure and demand it be repaid, make 'em get lean and mean and go green, and get on with it, smaller and wiser.
I'm pro-union, but I haven't bought a new UAW-made car in many years. I've never made more than $10 an hour in my life. Why should I buy a car made by folks who earn three times that when I can get a better vehicle that's made in the U.S. by reasonably well-paid non-union American workers a lot cheaper?
I'm sorry about the effect all this is going to have on UAW members but that's the way it's going to have to be. The old days are gone for management and worker alike.
Since health care costs are part of the old auto industry's non-competitiveness, it deserves a word: Medicare in the short term, single payer universal health care in the long term.
If you would like to read a prescient old book about the American automobile industry's downfall, find a copy of Whatever Happened To The British Motorcycle Industry?. Shorter: complacency, short-sightedness, and greed.
Today, the CEOs of the Detroit Big Three returned to Capitol Hill to ask for $25 billion in loans. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner insisted, “We’re all slashing back” on non-essential expenses, promising, “We’re going to be dramatically leaner.” The other executives echoed Wagoner’s pledge to be “leaner” in the future.
However, as ABC news reported last night, all three executives flew private jets to Washington, DC, for yesterday’s and today’s hearings:
Minutes after Wagoner claimed to be “slashing back” on expenses, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) evoked their private jet travel, calling it a “delicious irony.” Ackerman said the CEOs’ profligacy made Congress “a little bit suspicious” of their austerity pledges:
There’s a delicious irony of seeing private luxury jets flying into DC, and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hands, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses. It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. Kind makes you a little bit suspicious as to whether or not…we’ve seen the future. There’s a message there. Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled to get here? It would have at least sent the message that you do get it.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked if any of the executives planned to sell their private jets; none raised his hand. Sherman was exasperated: “I don’t know how I go back to my constituents and say, ‘The auto industry has changed,’ if they own private jets which are not only expensive to own but expensive to operate and expensive to fly here rather than to have flown commercial.”
That's the way those dinosaurs think: we want billions of taxpayer money but we're special and refuse to give up anything in return, let alone change our way of thinking that has made us all rich, impoverished our companies, and threatened the livelihoods of millions of peasants.
GM needs to be dealt with in a way that puts the writing on the wall for the other two of the Big Three: Fire all these clowns, make 'em stop thinking they're too big to let fail, let 'em go Chapter 11 bankruptcy, loan 'em some money due to the credit crunch so they can restructure and demand it be repaid, make 'em get lean and mean and go green, and get on with it, smaller and wiser.
I'm pro-union, but I haven't bought a new UAW-made car in many years. I've never made more than $10 an hour in my life. Why should I buy a car made by folks who earn three times that when I can get a better vehicle that's made in the U.S. by reasonably well-paid non-union American workers a lot cheaper?
I'm sorry about the effect all this is going to have on UAW members but that's the way it's going to have to be. The old days are gone for management and worker alike.
Since health care costs are part of the old auto industry's non-competitiveness, it deserves a word: Medicare in the short term, single payer universal health care in the long term.
If you would like to read a prescient old book about the American automobile industry's downfall, find a copy of Whatever Happened To The British Motorcycle Industry?. Shorter: complacency, short-sightedness, and greed.
Marijuana: Safest 'Drug' On The Planet?
Truthout
The article is all about prescription drugs that people can use recreationally or become addicted to. I actually wonder more about the drugs that are advertised on TV every day that are for other kinds of ailments and aren't used recreationally. The ads tell you how wonderful the dope is for one-third of the ad, then the other two-thirds describes the side effects, often including the word 'death'. Some of those side effects seem worse than the original ailment and would require medication themselves!
I think the government, and this or any Repug administration in particular, thinks it's OK to kill yourself with drugs if they are manufactured by and bought from their contributors. Grow 'em yourself or get 'em outside Big Pharma's profit chain, you're a criminal and deserve to go to jail.
Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans Than Illegal Drugs
A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.
An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.
In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero (my em), for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.
Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all.
While the number of dead bodies containing heroin jumped 14 percent from the prior year, to a total of 110, the number of deaths influenced by the painkiller oxycodone increased by 36 percent, to a total of 1,253.
Many experts attribute the trend to the increasing popularity among doctors of prescribing painkillers, combined with a leap in direct-to-consumer marketing by drug companies. For example, promotional spending on Oxycontin increased threefold between 1996 and 2001, to $30 million per year.
The article is all about prescription drugs that people can use recreationally or become addicted to. I actually wonder more about the drugs that are advertised on TV every day that are for other kinds of ailments and aren't used recreationally. The ads tell you how wonderful the dope is for one-third of the ad, then the other two-thirds describes the side effects, often including the word 'death'. Some of those side effects seem worse than the original ailment and would require medication themselves!
I think the government, and this or any Repug administration in particular, thinks it's OK to kill yourself with drugs if they are manufactured by and bought from their contributors. Grow 'em yourself or get 'em outside Big Pharma's profit chain, you're a criminal and deserve to go to jail.
Indian warship sinks pirate ship
The Indian Navy, obviously regular readers of the Brain, fearing that me 'n Fixer might actually show up out there in the IO and destabilize the entire region, took some good action.
AFP
Go see this Tabar site. She's a beautiful, modern, armed-to-the-teeth Russian-built frigate. I got no idea what kind of ship the pirates were using to haul their assault boats, but I think they must have been chewing waaaay too much khat if they thought they could take her on! I can just imagine a grinning Indian skipper when threatened: "Oh yes, blow us up, very nice! Watch this, pirates, please...". Heh.
Tabar has been busy. Last week she prevented two hijackings.
Zeenews on 11-11:
Good on yer, Mates!
Seems kinda odd to me that with half the mighty U.S. Navy in the region that it falls to one Indian man o' war to do all the work. I guess all our smaller warships are for is to protect our aircraft carriers from the Iranian submarine.
Gee, F-Man, if you an' me had one of those Talwar-class jobs we could sweep the seas clean from Chennai to Mombasa. I bet we could pick up girls with it too...
AFP
An Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday, as bandits demanded a ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized in the most daring sea raid yet.
"The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," the New Delhi navy spokesman said.
"But on repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it approached," he added.
An exchange of fire ensued, causing explosions and the Indian navy ship then used heavy guns. "From what we see in photographs the pirate vessel is completely destroyed," a senior officer said on condition he not be named.
It was the first time a mother ship had been destroyed, in the most significant blow to pirates to date.
Go see this Tabar site. She's a beautiful, modern, armed-to-the-teeth Russian-built frigate. I got no idea what kind of ship the pirates were using to haul their assault boats, but I think they must have been chewing waaaay too much khat if they thought they could take her on! I can just imagine a grinning Indian skipper when threatened: "Oh yes, blow us up, very nice! Watch this, pirates, please...". Heh.
Tabar has been busy. Last week she prevented two hijackings.
Zeenews on 11-11:
INS Tabar intervened to thwart two near-simultaneous attacks by pirates on an Indian cargo vessel MV Jag Arnav and a Saudi flag carrier MV NCC Thihama within 25 nautical miles of each other this morning.
Good on yer, Mates!
Seems kinda odd to me that with half the mighty U.S. Navy in the region that it falls to one Indian man o' war to do all the work. I guess all our smaller warships are for is to protect our aircraft carriers from the Iranian submarine.
Gee, F-Man, if you an' me had one of those Talwar-class jobs we could sweep the seas clean from Chennai to Mombasa. I bet we could pick up girls with it too...
Texas grand jury indicts Cheney, Gonzales
Reuters
I have no doubt that the indictment will be dismissed at the next level in the system, but it's a step in the right direction and hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
A grand jury in South Texas indicted U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and former attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday for "organized criminal activity" related to alleged abuse of inmates in private prisons.
The indictment cites a "money trail" of Cheney's ownership in prison-related enterprises including the Vanguard Group, which owns an interest in private prisons in south Texas.
Former attorney general Gonzales used his position to "stop the investigations as to the wrong doings" into assaults in county prisons, the indictment said.
I have no doubt that the indictment will be dismissed at the next level in the system, but it's a step in the right direction and hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
Two for one ...
Good shootin', moron:
You know, the more I see of Alaska, the less I want to take a cruise up there.
WASILLA -- Two Wasilla men are recovering from an accidental shooting that occurred while a gun was being cleaned.
Alaska State Troopers say 23-year-old Joshua Jones was cleaning his semiautomatic pistol Thursday evening when the weapon accidentally discharged.
Troopers say the bullet went through Jones' left hand and then struck 26-year-old Clayton Naczi in the thigh.
Both men were taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Troopers say the men are in stable condition.
...
You know, the more I see of Alaska, the less I want to take a cruise up there.
Link grabbed from our pal Montag.
Quote of the Day
Driftglass:
That about sums it up. Too bad a lot of blue collar Americans don't get it.
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It's simple: Republicans love White Collar men who smell of freshly printed currency, and loathe Blue Collar folks who have to shower after their shift is over.
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That about sums it up. Too bad a lot of blue collar Americans don't get it.
Great thanks to Avedon for the link.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Congratulations to Senator-elect Begich
KTUU "Alaska's News Source":
Note to Teddy: Happy Birthday, ya old bastard. Your present is that you won't be expelled from the Senate. And don't worry too much about being sodomized in prison - anybody crazy enough to pork your crusty old ass is probably in a separate facility and heavily medicated. Not to say you won't be someone's bitch, but it'll probably just be laundry, making pruno, stuff like that. Don't tell 'em yer teeth come out though, or you will be just a series of tubes.
Note to Moosebreath: Sorry, bee-yotch. You won't be able to appoint yerself replacement senator. You'll have to run for it in 2014. I hope you have to 'run for it' long before that. In the meantime just leave us some peace and quiet, in other words, STFU. Same for '10 and '12.
Stevens down. Coleman and Chambliss to go.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Mark Begich, the Democratic Anchorage mayor, has defeated Sen. Ted Stevens in a closely contested, see-saw race for the United States Senate, according to Associated Press projections.
Note to Teddy: Happy Birthday, ya old bastard. Your present is that you won't be expelled from the Senate. And don't worry too much about being sodomized in prison - anybody crazy enough to pork your crusty old ass is probably in a separate facility and heavily medicated. Not to say you won't be someone's bitch, but it'll probably just be laundry, making pruno, stuff like that. Don't tell 'em yer teeth come out though, or you will be just a series of tubes.
Note to Moosebreath: Sorry, bee-yotch. You won't be able to appoint yerself replacement senator. You'll have to run for it in 2014. I hope you have to 'run for it' long before that. In the meantime just leave us some peace and quiet, in other words, STFU. Same for '10 and '12.
Stevens down. Coleman and Chambliss to go.
Home is the sailor. With nothing to do...
Upon successfully vanquishing the Somali pirates and one or two of the world's less effectual navies, me 'n Fixer discuss the most likely liberty port for a little gleeful debauchery economic revitalization.
Ever the over-achieving multitaskers, we may find a way to study the effects of recession on older, heavier, more reassuring babes at the same time! Win-win!
We have a few days before we have to return our rental to Liberia. ALWAYS get the extra insurance!
I will leave you now with a chorus of our ship's song*:
"We're all men on this old boat
and none of us are sissies.
We tuck each other in at night
and blow each other...
...kissies!"
Ever the over-achieving multitaskers, we may find a way to study the effects of recession on older, heavier, more reassuring babes at the same time! Win-win!
We have a few days before we have to return our rental to Liberia. ALWAYS get the extra insurance!
Click to emhugen
I will leave you now with a chorus of our ship's song*:
"We're all men on this old boat
and none of us are sissies.
We tuck each other in at night
and blow each other...
...kissies!"
*Thank you, Martin Mull.
B&w photo is of USS New Orleans at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, 1942, after having her bow and forward turret blown off by a Japanese torpedo. I was at the VA facility in Prescott AZ with a man who was in her when it happened.
Fantastic experiment Mexican-Italian fusion cuisine
Normally I don't do recipes, but I think sometimes we need something to get our minds off of shit like the Dems caving on Lieberman. Or whatever the outrage of the day is.
This oughta do it! Found it in the LATimes.
Note: Mrs. G cut & pasted it into Wordpad and it came out as a printed recipe without the pictures. Then she had me copy it with the pictures. I had to do it twice. I ate the first one.
This oughta do it! Found it in the LATimes.
Note: Mrs. G cut & pasted it into Wordpad and it came out as a printed recipe without the pictures. Then she had me copy it with the pictures. I had to do it twice. I ate the first one.
Quote of the Day
David Brooks says something useful for once:
I hereby bravely volunteer as point man for the task force that must be convened to get to the bottom of this claim!
[...] Tamar Lewin of The New York Times reported on studies that show that the women selected to be Playboy Playmates of the Year tend to look more mature during recessions — older, heavier, more reassuring — though I have not verified this personally.
I hereby bravely volunteer as point man for the task force that must be convened to get to the bottom of this claim!
Spineless ...
As usual. Once again, the Dems show their true colors:
If Holy Joe was a Republican and he pulled this shit on them, we'd find his dead carcass hanging in a tree, his genitals removed and sown up in his mouth.
The Dems act like nothing's wrong.
If this keeps up, by 2012, there will be another Republican administration in the White House and a Republican majority in both Houses of Congress.
Update:
And Greenwald looks at the mindset of the Dem leadership like only he can:
It now appears that Joe Lieberman will get a symbolic slap on the wrist tomorrow from the pantywaists known as Democratic senators ...
If Holy Joe was a Republican and he pulled this shit on them, we'd find his dead carcass hanging in a tree, his genitals removed and sown up in his mouth.
The Dems act like nothing's wrong.
If this keeps up, by 2012, there will be another Republican administration in the White House and a Republican majority in both Houses of Congress.
Update:
And Greenwald looks at the mindset of the Dem leadership like only he can:
...
This little vignette provides a very vivid and crystallizing illustration of how Congressional Democratic leaders think and behave. They consider it a good thing -- not a bad thing -- when they anger their own base. They're thrilled when they get accused -- accurately -- of acting like Republicans and supporting right-wing measures, particularly on national security and "terrorism" issues. They consider it a benefit -- an incentive -- when they are attacked for embracing Republican political policies and violating the principles of their own base.
...
Numerous sources -- including this one and this one -- are now reporting that the Senate Democratic caucus has reached a deal with Joe Lieberman, and he will retain his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. The deal will be ratified in a vote tomorrow morning (and will entail his losing a totally meaningless subcommittee chair).
Nobody who has watched Congressional Democrats over the last many years could possibly have expected any other outcome. This is who they are and what they do. The silver lining is that it will once again remind people, still euphoric over the election results, of this reality. [my em]
...
What?
You mean, the Bible isn't a reference text?
No shit? I thought the world was 6000 years old and there was this big, white haired guy sitting in the sky keeping score?
You wonder why the world is so fucked up? This, or some form of it, has set the course for humanity since we fell from the trees. Some idiot found Dick n' Jane, and other children's stories 2000 years ago and used it as a manual.
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A visually stunning two-hour special edition of "Nova" examines decades of archaeological studies that contradict much of what is in the Bible. The entire Exodus story is debunked, as is the idea that the Israelites were monotheistic following the contract made between God and Abraham. It turns out idol worship was common through the reign of King David and right up to the Babylonian exile.
Is the Bible the word of God? Only if God dictated it to dozens, maybe hundreds, of different writers, each of whom wrote and modified stories using different patterns of language over a period of centuries.
...
No shit? I thought the world was 6000 years old and there was this big, white haired guy sitting in the sky keeping score?
You wonder why the world is so fucked up? This, or some form of it, has set the course for humanity since we fell from the trees. Some idiot found Dick n' Jane, and other children's stories 2000 years ago and used it as a manual.
"The white flag of surrender ..."
By gosh, it's been less than a month since McLame/Failin' accused Barry of wanting to "surrender" in Iraq and "leave in defeat". My, how times change:
Who's surrendering now, bitchez?
...
But now, they have agreed to a fixed timetable with a full withdrawal by the end of 2011:
...
Who's surrendering now, bitchez?
Monday, November 17, 2008
Aargh, Mateys...they done it again!
The Beeb
One shipful can do that? Yeesh.
A fat lot o' good that seems to be doing! You'd think some of these navies could provide an escort while the ships transit the danger area. Or a squad of Marines.
I would like to see the emergence of modern Q-ships. Or a return to armed merchantmen, used since the days of sail. Maybe since the days of oars fer chrissake! Or me and a coupla other ol' farts from The American Patriot Institute with a Ma Deuce. If ya see some small boats approaching your ship out in the middle of that particular stretch of the goddam ocean, you should know they're not going to try to sell ya t-shirts. Seems to me that a watchful eye and an itchy trigger finger could prevent a lot of this shit.
Pirates have seized a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast and are steering it towards Somalia, the US Navy reports.
The US-bound tanker was captured on Saturday some 450 nautical miles south-east of the port of Mombasa, and is now approaching the Somali port of Eyl.
The Sirius Star is carrying its full load of 2m barrels - more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output.
It is about as long as a US aircraft carrier and, when loaded, weighs more than three times as much.
"It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated," said Lt Christensen.
News of the attack raised crude oil prices on global markets following an earlier slump, Reuters news agency reported.
One shipful can do that? Yeesh.
Attacks on shipping off the Horn of Africa and Kenya by pirates, who are mostly Somali, prompted foreign navies to send warships to the area this year.
A fat lot o' good that seems to be doing! You'd think some of these navies could provide an escort while the ships transit the danger area. Or a squad of Marines.
I would like to see the emergence of modern Q-ships. Or a return to armed merchantmen, used since the days of sail. Maybe since the days of oars fer chrissake! Or me and a coupla other ol' farts from The American Patriot Institute with a Ma Deuce. If ya see some small boats approaching your ship out in the middle of that particular stretch of the goddam ocean, you should know they're not going to try to sell ya t-shirts. Seems to me that a watchful eye and an itchy trigger finger could prevent a lot of this shit.
Palin could rake in $7 million from book deal
I think it's telling that this story appeared in the Entertainment section of the news! Moosebreath absolutely deserves the company of Britney, Lindsay, Paris, or whoever's next.
I got no problem with her getting lotsa money. I hope the publisher stipulates she must write the book herself. We'll never see her again, please God.
On the other hand, if she uses a ghost writer, may I suggest Fixer? It'll be a best-seller and we'll never see her again! Heh.
I got no problem with her getting lotsa money. I hope the publisher stipulates she must write the book herself. We'll never see her again, please God.
On the other hand, if she uses a ghost writer, may I suggest Fixer? It'll be a best-seller and we'll never see her again! Heh.
Panel finds widespread Gulf War illness
Rome (GA) News-Tribune
One in four is a lot of Veterans. You'd think the VA would have noticed.
Oh, they have noticed. They're trying to squirm out of taking responsibility, aka paying for treatment. As usual.
Well, the thinking was that there were going to be chemical agents used against the troops. The brass was right again. We provided them when Saddam didn't.
They should say "Ooops!" and do whatever it takes to fix these guys. Fat chance.
I watched a friend die from ALS. It's not pretty. His mind stayed sharp 'til the end while his bodily systems and functions shut down one by one over a considerable period of time. Awful. I can only imagine what it looked like from inside.
We've certainly come a long way in warfighting. It used to be that only the troops were affected. Now, the troops are genetically altered and they pass it on down. The effects of war are now going to be with us for generations. Swell.
It took many years after Vietnam for the government to admit to the effects of Agent Orange, which the higher-ups did to the troops without (I hope) understanding what its effects would be. Whether they knew or not, they're doing the same thing to the Gulf War Vets of seventeen years ago.
The government is pretty good at taking care of soldiers who get holes shot in them or get something blown off. No immediately apparent physical damage, not good at all. Things like PTSD and TBI will be showing up for the rest of the lives of Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan Vets, along with latent effects of exposure to all sorts of things.
It shouldn't take seventeen years for them to admit to it. Which, despite this study, they haven't yet. Too much money to treat Vets, less profit to the MIC. That's the way it is when the Repugs are in charge: use up the troops 'til they can't be used any more, then kick 'em to the curb.
I hope in the upcoming administration that someone with the troops' best interests at heart is made Director of Veterans Affairs.
At least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multi-symptom illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during the conflict, a congressionally mandated report being released Monday found.
One in four is a lot of Veterans. You'd think the VA would have noticed.
For much of the past 17 years, government officials have maintained that these veterans -- more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed -- are merely suffering the effects of wartime stress, even as more have come forward recently with severe ailments.
Oh, they have noticed. They're trying to squirm out of taking responsibility, aka paying for treatment. As usual.
“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that ’Gulf War illness’ is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,” said the report, being released Monday by a panel of scientists and veterans. A copy was obtained by Cox Newspapers.
Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain. It may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes.
Two things the military provided to troops in large quantities to protect them -- pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide (PB), aimed at thwarting the effects of nerve gas -- are the most likely culprits, the panel found.
Well, the thinking was that there were going to be chemical agents used against the troops. The brass was right again. We provided them when Saddam didn't.
While it called some new VA and DOD programs promising, it noted that overall federal funding for Gulf War research has dropped sharply in recent years. Those studies that have been funded, it said, “have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans, and for research on stress and psychiatric illness.”
The report also faults the Pentagon, saying it clearly recognized scientific evidence substantiating Gulf War illness in 2001 but did not acknowledge it publicly.
It said that Acting Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Gulf War illnesses Lt. Gen. Dale Vesser remarked that year that although Saddam Hussein didn’t use nuclear, biological, or chemical agents against coalition forces during the war -- an assertion still debated -- “It never dawned on us ././. that we may have done it to ourselves.”
They should say "Ooops!" and do whatever it takes to fix these guys. Fat chance.
He was not among the 100,000 U.S. troops who were potentially exposed to low-levels of Sarin gas, a nerve agent, as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah, Iraq, in 1991.
Troops who were downwind from the demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans, the report stated.
The extent of the deficits - less brain “white matter” and reduced cognitive function -- corresponded to the extent of the exposure.
In addition, the panel said, Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than other veterans.
I watched a friend die from ALS. It's not pretty. His mind stayed sharp 'til the end while his bodily systems and functions shut down one by one over a considerable period of time. Awful. I can only imagine what it looked like from inside.
White said that while there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of Gulf War vets contracting multiple sclerosis (MS), studies haven’t confirmed a combat link to that degenerative disease. Questions also remain about rates of cancers, disease-specific mortality rates in Gulf War veterans and the health of veterans’ children.
We've certainly come a long way in warfighting. It used to be that only the troops were affected. Now, the troops are genetically altered and they pass it on down. The effects of war are now going to be with us for generations. Swell.
It took many years after Vietnam for the government to admit to the effects of Agent Orange, which the higher-ups did to the troops without (I hope) understanding what its effects would be. Whether they knew or not, they're doing the same thing to the Gulf War Vets of seventeen years ago.
The government is pretty good at taking care of soldiers who get holes shot in them or get something blown off. No immediately apparent physical damage, not good at all. Things like PTSD and TBI will be showing up for the rest of the lives of Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan Vets, along with latent effects of exposure to all sorts of things.
It shouldn't take seventeen years for them to admit to it. Which, despite this study, they haven't yet. Too much money to treat Vets, less profit to the MIC. That's the way it is when the Repugs are in charge: use up the troops 'til they can't be used any more, then kick 'em to the curb.
I hope in the upcoming administration that someone with the troops' best interests at heart is made Director of Veterans Affairs.
Oh, the irony...
Ironic Times
McCain is gonna find out that honor is like virginity. Once it's gone, it's gone. It doesn't grow back.
Dems Issue Warning to White House: Preserve All Records
Move prompted by delivery of three dozen heavy-duty shredders, blast furnace to Vice President's office.
Bush Flooded With Pardon Requests
Many in his own handwriting.
Maliki, Ahmadinejad Reach Accord
On timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Fed Lends AIG Another $150 Billion
For next weekend's junket to Cabo.
McCain Campaigns for Chambliss in Georgia
Offers one last chance to vote against change.
McCain is gonna find out that honor is like virginity. Once it's gone, it's gone. It doesn't grow back.
Being the asshole ...
Been there myself. Comes a time when someone has to stand up and say "enough", regardless of the consequences:
It's called 'pragmatism' and it's time for the hard decisions to be made. The war is killing us financially (not to mention the lives that are actually being lost) and we should have left years ago (and no, we shouldn't have been there in the first place but we're there now) and it's time to say "We're leaving now".
Same thing with Gitmo. If the NYPD had arrested these folks and treated them this way, their cases would never make it to trial. A judge would throw them out on a host of technicalities. If we're supposed to be a "nation of laws", we have to obey those laws or what's left of our credibility will never be restored. We have to turn 'em all loose and if we catch them again, they have to be prosecuted properly, under the "Rule of Law".
...
There is no middle way. That's the point, really. The point of this was that there is no middle ground. This is the With Us or Against Us strategy; there's no way out of this that doesn't involve being the asshole, and in fact the whole system is predicated on the idea that politicians are too cowardly to ever accept that somebody's just gonna have to be the asshole.
The war worked the same way; if we leave things will be bad and we'll have screwed the Iraqis over and killed lots of them for no good reason. Things are bad anyway, not likely to get any better, and we broke this country and screwed it all up, and I hate as much as anybody being the asshole who says, "Nothing we can do to unbreak it, let's get the hell out" because that sucks, but there's no way to stop it anymore. Same with this, our "detainees." Somebody's gonna have to be the guy who says okay, and opens the prison doors.
...
It's called 'pragmatism' and it's time for the hard decisions to be made. The war is killing us financially (not to mention the lives that are actually being lost) and we should have left years ago (and no, we shouldn't have been there in the first place but we're there now) and it's time to say "We're leaving now".
Same thing with Gitmo. If the NYPD had arrested these folks and treated them this way, their cases would never make it to trial. A judge would throw them out on a host of technicalities. If we're supposed to be a "nation of laws", we have to obey those laws or what's left of our credibility will never be restored. We have to turn 'em all loose and if we catch them again, they have to be prosecuted properly, under the "Rule of Law".
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Weekend whorage
Been loony this weekend but I managed to get the next chapter of Birthright up at The Practical Press.
And for your Sunday evening listening pleasure, two of my favorite artists, backed up by one of my favorite bands, doing one of my favorite songs. Enjoy:
Yeah, and it's a rehearsal. The show musta been unbelievable.
And for your Sunday evening listening pleasure, two of my favorite artists, backed up by one of my favorite bands, doing one of my favorite songs. Enjoy:
Annie Lennox, David Bowie, and Queen - Under Pressure
Yeah, and it's a rehearsal. The show musta been unbelievable.
Letters From Sea
A big part of the fun of YouTube is ending up in very strange places, listening to truly weird and wonderful stuff. I was cruisin' fer sea shanties, which I like, which inevitably led to tavern songs, which I like, and in short order I found LordDracoArakis who puts these songs to anime, which I also like some of.
This one has two songs by 'The Merry Wives Of Windsor', who say of themselves:
Very practical ladies, I think...
The first song is about a gal whose husband has been away at sea for waaaay too long. The second song is about a gal whose father sired 'All The Lads In Town' and contains this line that shoved me off the edge and made me put this up:
"The boy that I will marry will keep me satiated
And ev'ry night in bed I'll pray that we are not related!"
How could I resist? Please enjoy. These gals are good!
This one has two songs by 'The Merry Wives Of Windsor', who say of themselves:
There has been much debate as to how to describe The Merry Wives of Windsor's music. The obvious choice is to use terms like "nagging" or "man-hating," but that's not the case. Our attitude toward men is more of a despondent pity, like a mother who has come to the grim realization her child is an idiot
Very practical ladies, I think...
The first song is about a gal whose husband has been away at sea for waaaay too long. The second song is about a gal whose father sired 'All The Lads In Town' and contains this line that shoved me off the edge and made me put this up:
"The boy that I will marry will keep me satiated
And ev'ry night in bed I'll pray that we are not related!"
How could I resist? Please enjoy. These gals are good!
Sunday Crazy Limey Redneck Music Blogging
Lyrics? Song title? Puh-fooey!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope 'n throw 'n brand 'em!
Think 'Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy' on acid! Enjoy!
Make your travel plans for "Rockabilly Rave '09"! Or lose yer mind a little cheaper with past ones. Be sure to check out 'Omar & The Stringpoppers'!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope 'n throw 'n brand 'em!
Think 'Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy' on acid! Enjoy!
Ms Mary Ann & Rockin Bonnie & The Ragtime Wranglers
Make your travel plans for "Rockabilly Rave '09"! Or lose yer mind a little cheaper with past ones. Be sure to check out 'Omar & The Stringpoppers'!
The Moose Stops Here
Don't miss Daddy Frank today!
Well Pop, not for a while we don't. There's a lot of repair work to do.
ELECTION junkies in acute withdrawal need suffer no longer. Though the exciting Obama-McCain race is over, the cockfight among the losers has only just begun. The conservative crackup may be ugly, but as entertainment, it’s two thumbs up!
The trouble is far more fundamental than that. The G.O.P. ran out of steam and ideas well before George W. Bush took office and Tom DeLay ran amok, and it is now more representative of 20th-century South Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America. The proof is in the vanilla pudding. When David Letterman said that the 10 G.O.P. presidential candidates at an early debate looked like “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club,” he was the first to correctly call the election.
The Republicans did this to themselves, yet a convenient amnesia can be found in conservatives’ post-Election Day soul searching. There’s endless hand-wringing about Bush and McCain blunders and Abramoff-Stevens corruption, but there’s barely any mention of the nasty cultural brawls that defined the G.O.P. campaign narrative this year as the party clung bitterly once more to its 40-year-old “Southern strategy.”
There were as many Republican prejudices as candidates. [...]
In defeat, the party’s thinking remains unchanged. Its leaders once again believe they can bamboozle the public into thinking they’re the “party of Lincoln” by pushing forward a few minority front men or women. The reason why they are promoting Palin and the recently elected Indian-American governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, as the party’s “future” is not just that they are hard-line social conservatives; they are also the only prominent Republican officeholders under 50 who are not white men. The G.O.P. will have to dip down to a former one-term lieutenant governor of Maryland, Michael Steele, to put a black public face on its national committee.
[...] The worse news for the country is that at a time of genuine national peril we actually do need an opposition party that is not brain-dead.
Well Pop, not for a while we don't. There's a lot of repair work to do.
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