"...all you scary women to please stop it with your needy n' terrifying vaginas"

Mark Morford on what a pathetic WATB we've become as a nation.

These are, from what I can glean, the most important questions of the day, of the month, of modern life itself. Hell, what with the economy and job situation, the housing market and the overall feel and texture of the nation right now, it's no wonder Americans are, by and large, a goddamn miserable bunch. We don't like anything right now. No politician, no decision, no situation, no inhale, no exhale. We are sick to death of all of it, including ourselves.

My God, did you hear that pathetic State of the Union? That guy, that President Obama? Disappointing times a thousand, am I right? What the hell happened to him? Why is he so weak and ineffectual? Why the hell can't he step up and fix the entire planet in under 400 days like he promised he would, in my dreams and fantasies and impossible liberal grass-fed organic tofu greengasms? Doesn't he know I put a goddamn bumper sticker on my Subaru for him? I've never done that for anyone. Bastard.

He's only accomplished what, about 100 of the things I expected him to accomplish by now? Big deal. I have, like, 5,000 more. Health care reform has failed. Guantanamo is still open. Wars are still warring. Jobs are still sucking. Gays are still unhappy because the entire human understanding of love and gender in this nation has not completely transformed within a year. Infuriating!

Shall we recall just how violently disappointed those fundamentalists were when Bush bumbled off the stage, the single greatest disaster as president we will ever know? They were, of course, mostly disappointed Bush wasn't able to do far more repellant damage than he did. They wanted nothing less than full-scale war on Islam, death to all abortion doctors, creationism in schools, homosexuality banned outright, all you scary women to please stop it with your needy n' terrifying vaginas. You know, the usual.

Maybe this, then, is the ultimate upshot of our endless, self-wrought swirl of sour disappointment, of never having our impossible needs fully met, of constantly being thwarted in our desire to have the world revolve around our exact set of specifications and desires.

Much more.

Re 'disappointment', I think it helps to have been in the service as a youngster. Disappointment, synergistically (1 + 1 = 11) coupled with neck-deep chickenshit, is a daily - nay, hourly - occurence and you whine, moan, bitch, snivel, and complain to no effect whatsoever because it makes you feel better and the Bigs don't give a shit what you think and you learn to just play through it.

It also helps to get old. Perhaps 'wisdom' isn't exactly the right word for what should but doesn't always come with age. Maybe 'acceptance' and the took-a-long-time-to-dawn concept that very little is as black and white as we'd like it to be and a lot of people get it wrong. Some is but an awful lot ain't and ya gotta know the difference. Frustration sucks.

As far as "needy n' terrifying vaginas", a lot of us Olde Phartes can recall needing tire chains for traction in those and don't scare easy. Ladies, we're here to help. Heh.

Update:

As serendipity would have it, I was listening to a Jimmy Buffett CD I picked up yesterday (at W**M***, shame on me...) and this song came on right after I hit 'publish yer tripe'. It kinda fits, so I went and found it for you. Enjoy.

"Better a bottle in fronta me than a frontal lobotomy"

Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band ~ A Lot To Drink About

Thanks to Parrotisla.

Americans trust DarthNews

A 'recommended read' in the Guardian UK:

In a development believed to have caused Thursday's international run on duct tape and tinned goods, an opinion poll this week suggested Fox News is the most trusted news operation in America. Dig into the data and it's a little more nuanced and complex than "flood's a comin'", but what it shakes down to is that 49% of Americans trust Fox. The survey of 1,151 registered voters was greeted by much wailing and gnashing of teeth – making it in many ways resemble a broadcast by Fox's most eye-catching lab experiment, Glenn Beck.

If the wailers and gnashers weren't such godless liberals, of course, they'd be thumbing their way to the bit in the Book of Revelation that predicts exactly this occurrence, but instead they have been plunged into shock. Yet is it all that surprising? Whether Rupert Murdoch's news network is to your taste or not, you have to concede that it is an awesomely effective product, and the news-as-telenovela concept has revolutionised the marketplace.

On the plus side, this week also saw Forbes magazine reveal the results of its poll to find America's 10 most trusted celebrities. And the Forbes poll doesn't so much put the Fox stuff into perspective as put the whole idea of trust into perspective.

Put it this way: top of the list was James Earl Jones. Now, you can tell me all you like that when people trust James, they're trusting His Majesty King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America. You can tell me that they feel comforted by his regal vocal presence in the Lion King. But you know in your heart that subconsciously, what they're trusting is Vader. People trust Darth Vader. And that's because people are stupid, and quite frightened, and it's quite easy to lie to them. Still, as no Fox News ­presenter has ever said while shrugging their shoulders, whaddayougonnadoaboutit?

As with Hollywood, so with this golden age of news-o-tainment. People will trust any old nutjob if they somehow inhabit the role, and then they're hooked. There was a long-running series of US pharmaceutical ads that would feature doctors from daytime soaps, who'd begin with the words "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV …" And viewers would flock to buy the medicine. The guys on Fox News aren't ­newscasters, but they do play them on TV – so we can't be all that surprised when people buy those drugs too.

Why do ya think they call it 'dope'?

Yay!

Raw Story

Voters in California will likely decide this November whether or not to legalize marijuana, after legalization activists handed in far more than the necessary number of petition signatures to get the measure onto the ballot.

Organizers of the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 filed some 700,000 petition signatures with county clerks around the state. The amount of signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot is about 433,000, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, so the measure is all but certain to be on the ballot in November.

They's some sorry-ass lions in the Repug den today...

Following up on Fixer's post:

HuffPo, links and videos:

President Obama traveled to a House Republican retreat in Baltimore on Friday and delivered a performance that was at once defiant, substantive and engaging. For roughly an hour and a half, Obama lectured GOP leaders and, in a protracted, nationally-televised question-and-answer session, deflected their policy critiques, corrected their misstatements and scolded them for playing petty politics. (Full video and transcript available HERE.)

White House officials told the Huffington Post they were absolutely ecstatic. MSNBC's Luke Russert, who was on the scene in Baltimore, relayed that a Republican official and other GOP aides had confided to him that allowing the "cameras to roll like that" was a "mistake."

Indeed, sunshine on a turned-over rock is harmful to the vermin.

So effective was the president that Fox News cut away from the broadcast 20 minutes before it ended.

F** turned away because truth occurred and they felt they needed to shelter their audience from it! I think I just came...

Politico

Obama urged Republicans to come to the table and work with him on policy compromises, saying Americans "didn't send us to Washington to fight each other in some political steel-cage match."

Oh yeah? Sez you, Barry! As long as there's meds to counteract the visual of all that flabby old fish-belly white skin in speedos...

Saturday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Slightly 'R' rated.

David Allen Coe ~ Jimmy Buffett

Thanks to collinswayne1, Canuckistan.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris ~ Born to Run

Thanks to DogSwede1, Sweden.,/h6>

Others will do ...

What we refuse to:

International arrest warrants have been requested for George W. Bush, Richard (Dick) Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzales at the International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands.

Professor of Law Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champain, United States of America, has issued a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court against the above-mentioned for their practice of “extraordinary rendition” (forced disappearance of persons and subsequent torture) in Iraq and for criminal policy which constitutes Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute which set up the ICC.

...

It would be nice if we took out our own trash.

Thanks to Maru for the link.

A battle of wits ...

Against unarmed opponents. Barry's visit to the Republicans' den was the most leadership he's shown in a year. He owned the room and showed them for what they really are. Good on him!

Corporation to run for Congress

It had to happen, didn't it? It's a shopping day today, so I'll just leave ya with this video. A tip o' the Brain to Think Progress. There's an article and another video there about this as well.

Thanks to murrayhillcongress.

Just a reminder ...

Since Gord's been taking ... liberties with her lately. Heh ...

Taken aboard Holland America Line's MS Noordam outbound from Manhattan. Click to make big.

Hello, sailor...

I've already ruined Fixer's favorite sight when he comes into New York once. He's gonna get me for this...

Thanks to Slate.

SOTU We'd Like To See

Fiore

The Walmart of Weed

EssEffChron

In a 15,000-square-foot warehouse just down the road from the Oakland Airport, an entrepreneur is opening a one-stop shop for medicinal marijuana cultivation that's believed to be the largest in the state.

This is hardly a fringe business. When iGrow opens today, at least three City Council members will attend. So will most of the leaders of the cannabis industry in Oakland, a city long at the vanguard of medicinal marijuana.

Today's opening also comes on a key day for proponents of a statewide ballot measure to allow recreational marijuana. They plan to turn in about twice as many signatures as needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

But, he believes, the issue is a moral one.

"It's not fair to medical patients to put them in a gray area where they have to be involved in criminal activity to stay healthy," he said. "That's like not having health insurance."

At a dispensary, a patient might spend $120 a week for a quarter-ounce of marijuana.

However, it might cost $1,000 to set up an eight-plant system, said Zeta Ceti, one of iGrow's "indoor growing technicians." But in the course of a year, they might only use half of their harvest and be able to sell the remaining 3 pounds for $12,000 to a dispensary.

This is getting better and better!

Army uses mothballed super ferries to speed troops, supplies to Haiti

This is just way cool. Article here or here.

 

Headline of the Day Zwei

Landrieu phone plot: Men arrested have links to intelligence community

Headline of the Day

Oregonians Raise Taxes On Rich, Big Corporations to Fund Critical Services

Oregon's voters did this. Good on ya, Beavers!

It will rain blood and tea...

Bill Berkowitz on what he feels is a flawed Field poll:

California’s Field Poll finds that three in ten registered voters ‘identified’ with the Tea Party movement and three in ten don’t believe Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen.

According to Field, The poll was “conducted among a statewide sample of 1,232 registered voters in six languages – English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese,” and it showed “that about 61% of this state’s voters say they are aware of the movement, and 28% say they identify with it either a lot (12%) or some (16%).”

28% is within the margin of error for the Dead End Quarter.

[...] "The world is run by those who show up,” Nehring said. “Tea party activists show up and that's important."

That's good! If they all show up at once, we can get 'em all with one round!

Charlie Battery, fire mission, over...

Gunning for the First Amendment

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president, Military Religious Freedom Foundation. A 'must read' on the subject:

The Constitution won a battle last week, and Lady Liberty is smiling. But will that duo be able to fully triumph in the war against other threats to U.S. security - the war that's every bit as critically important as the one against Al Qaeda and the Taliban? That "other war," heretofore rarely seen in the mainstream media, is against the unbridled fundamentalist Christianity that has nefariously infected the U.S. armed forces.

Let me make one thing clear: Our problem is not with evangelical Christians whose beliefs say they must witness to as many people as possible but respect the law and the Constitution. Indeed not. Our problem is with what is called "dominionists/fundamentalists," who think they can do whatever they want to, irrespective of time, place and manner, in the name of their personal Christian faith, including heinously violating the First Amendment while serving in uniform. In the eyes of American law, their weaponized gospel of Christianity has absolutely no favored position of special recognition superior to the myriad of the other existing faith groups or even to the many no faith groups. The Constitution grants level playing field status for all to comprehensively celebrate their faith, or no faith, without the fear of "favored status" to only one. Believing otherwise is patently absurd. And as Voltaire said, "He who can lead you to believe an absurdity can lead you to commit an atrocity."

Our honorable armed forces don't swear an oath to serve the Torah, the Qur'an, the New Testament or any other religious book. They swear to protect and defend the Constitution and the United States of America. Period.

Period.

Quote of the Day

Ol' Fez:

...

[Supreme Court Justice Samuel] Alito has now spoken more in the House Chamber than Clarence Thomas has in the Supreme Court.

...

He's Black??? Holy shit!!!!!

There's a reason I call Chris Matthews an idiot. He is an idiot:

...

If only Tweety's brain was post-racial. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that MSNBC is going to do some apologizing tomorrow.

Big dumbass ...

What it boils down to ...

Plain and simple from Athenae:

...

Look, we can argue all day long about the merits of various policies and who should be doing what but can you honestly, honestly tell me the rules aren't different for Democrats?

No shit. Barry's biggest problem has been Republican hypocrisy and obstructionism. I regret the Dems didn't do more of it when the Chimp was in the White House.

Five Fantasy State of the Union Speeches

El Rude-o

1. Obama walks to the podium with Joe Lieberman's ragged-necked, bloody, disembodied head and announces that the Connecticut Senator has been kicked out of the Democratic caucus. He tosses the head at Mitch McConnell, who weeps as he fucks Lieberman's grotesque, frozen-in-mid-scream mouth. The President says, "The State of the Union is who's next?"

3. He has the Sergeant-at-Arms drag in a chain gang of men in striped prison garb, Joe Arpaio-style. The bedraggled men are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and more. Obama asks children in the gallery to come down and pelt them with rotten fruit. The President says, "Now this is how you blame the current crisis on the previous administration."

4. Obama assures the nation that health care reform will not only pass, but that he will personally make sure that Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are declared insane and a danger to themselves and others and made wards of the state. The President says, "We will start with electroshock therapy. But lobotomies may be needed."

5. He announces that he's sending tea partyers to assist in the rebuilding of Haiti as part of his jobs program. The President says, "It will also be an education program in what it's like to live without government."

Headline of the Day Wingnuts' Heads Are Exploding. Whee!

Expanding on Fixer's post:

Breitbart admits paying activist who tried to bug Democratic senator

Update:

Salt Lake City GOP Cancels Keynote Speech By Inspirational Speaker ACORN Pimp James O’Keefe

Liquid alert:

The Salt Lake County Republicans scrubbed their website of promotional material about O’Keefe’s speech soon after announcement of his arrest. The website had noted that the Republicans planned to be inspired by O’Keefe’s work exposing “unethical behavior.”

From O'Keefe's twitter account last night:

I am a journalist. The truth shall set me free.

Note to O'Keefe: You're a paid Repug dirty tricks operative and you're deluded if you think that makes you a journalist. Well, maybe you're a ClusterFox News-style journalist, I'll give you that. The truth is going to get your young ass locked up, but look on the bright side: when you get out, you'll have been porked in the heinie enough to be qualified to run for the Senate.

Update II:

Fox News Devastated Over Arrest Of ACORN Pimp

There's a lot of joy in this story!

The question I have is this: How did the FBI know to be there to catch them in the act? Did Senator Landrieu's staffers get suspicious and call them, or had the G-Men been watching these Reperps, or both? I'm sure this will come out. Inquiring minds want to know!

10 amazing truths you already suspected

It's Wednesday, and that means Morford.

7) Speaking of needful females, as mentioned in a previous column, after a million years and two million studies and roughly three billion fake orgasms, the female anatomy remains as inscrutable as a gay Republican at an anti-gun rally. Recent example: Try as they might, British scientists simply could not prove the existence of the acclaimed G-spot, that mythological cervical hotbutton in the female anatomy reportedly responsible for laughter in small children, peace in the Middle East, the perfect Manhattan, and -- perhaps quite literally -- the Big Bang.

Of course, being British, they were reportedly employing large hunks of fried cod, heavy dark beer, and an antique brass 1874 ship's compass to try and find the damn thing. Also, they were looking in the ear. So, you know, caveat emptor.

I believe it. I've seen Limey motorcycles...

Don't miss No. 8. What'll they think of next?

South Carolina Republican Assailed For Comments About Welfare

Tony Peyser

Vile things once whispered
In corn pone tones
Now are openly announced
Before microphones.

Cornel West Calls Out Obama

Dr. West is one of my favorite speakers. This time he slows it down so I can catch every word.

Cornel West's note to Obama - January 20, 2010
by Ladypolitik

Mighty wind ...

Despite a crippling recession and tight credit markets, the American wind power industry grew at a blistering pace in 2009, adding 39 percent more capacity. The country is close to the point where 2 percent of its electricity will come from wind turbines.

...

Good news.

...

The American Wind Energy Association, in its annual report to be released on Tuesday, said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year.

The group said the growth of wind power was helped by the federal stimulus package that passed a year ago, which extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry.

...

Give Barry credit where it's due. The stimulus is starting to work but you know the fiscal scolds won't allow another, something the alternative energy folks could use. We'll see what he has to say tonight.

Now, with all the hot air being wasted in Washington, if we put a wind farm on the Potomac ...

Thanks to Chris for the link.

The "new" Watergate* ...

So "Pimp Boy" and some of his butt buddies pulling "a Liddy"? Think the Dems will use it to political advantage? Yeah, me neither.

*Though some of us might say the Republican burglary of the U.S. never ended after Nixon left.

How 11 Green Berets Rebooted Afghanistan

This also shows how Karzai came to power.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

11 Green Berets did all that? I got a idea here: bring all our troops home and send 11 more Green Berets over to Clusterfuckistan and tell 'em to continue the march. Probly wouldn't hurt to give 'em the radio with Strategic Air Command at the other end either.

Bush's minimal success at very low cost and then his decision to put Afghanistan on the back burner in favor of his criminal war in Iraq was like plugging a leaky toilet with cheap silicone seal and walking away - the next thing you know, the house is full of shit and you're up to your neck in it.

Group Receives 'Tsunami of Vile Hate' After ABC Exposé on U.S. Military 'Jesus Rifles'

If the subject of the religious right's massive infiltration of the military in which I proudly served disturbs you as much as it disturbs me, go read BradBlog, links at site.

One excerpt from an email from a US soldier:

Nothing in my first 2 deployments prepared me for what happened with the Trijicon ACOG gun sights during my 3rd deployment to Afghanistan. I will never forget the day it occurred. It was morning and there was a mandatory formation of several companies. A very senior NCO was yelling at us which is not that unusual. He asked a private what it was that he (the private) was holding in his hand and the private said it was his "weapon" several times to which the senior NCO replied "and what ELSE is it"?

FInally, the senior NCO said that the private's rifle was also something else; that because of the biblical quote on the ACOG gunsight it had been "spiritually transformed into the Fire Arm of Jesus Christ" and that we would be expected to kill every "haji" we could find with it. He said that if we were to run out of ammo, then the rifle would become the "spiritually transformed club of Jesus Christ" and that we should "bust open the head of every haji we find with it.'"He said that Uncle Sam had seen fit not to give us a "pussy 'Jewzzi' (combination of the word 'Jew' and Israeli made weapon 'Uzi') but the "fire arm of Jesus Christ" and made specific mention of the biblical quotes on our gun sights.

There's a "senior NCO" (No Chance on the Outside) that needs to be made a slick-sleeve private and start his military career over. And just for motivation he should stay in the same outfit with the soldiers he tried to intimidate with his phony xtian bullshit.

From a hate email from a 'Task Force Patriot':

I am amazed with the zealotry with which you attack this poor group of old veterans. I am not amazed, though, that you are a jew.

You do not fool me, I've done my research on you and your "organization". You are no better than the ACLU and are just one small part of the effort of those that would destroy this great nation from within.

I will see you in the streets.

I'm a Veteran too, asshole. Name the street. You ain't got the balls to show up.

Headline of the Day

Mr. President, Here's A Healthcare Bill That Will Do More Than Yours Did, And Can Actually Pass

Bush & Clinton on Haiti

I'm convinced that Europeans get better TV coverage of us than we do.

Thanks to OuiCestBon, Netherlands.

Heh ...

Rush writes ... for The Onion:

...

Try to look at it from my point of view. I have no reason to live. In my 59 years, I've made millions of dollars, built a veritable media empire, and accomplished virtually everything that a man of my limited imagination and worldview could possibly accomplish. And yet, at this point, in no way could you refer to what I'm doing as "living," exactly. I just sort of exist. I derive no real pleasure from life. Oh, sure, I talk a big game about what a golf nut I am and how much I enjoy the taste of a fine cigar, but it's all horseshit. Complete and utter horseshit.

...

I don't get him ...

So the President went on ABC with Diane Sawyer saying "I'd rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre 2-term President."

Lemmie ask ya something, pal. If you were a one-term President, what would follow you? The Dems wouldn't primary you. A 3rd Party candidate couldn't win, but would throw the election to the Republicans.

So, in four years you'll be able to say "It's been fun" and walk off into the sunset while a Republican dismantles all the "really good" stuff you've done? This is, of course, assuming your next 3 years go better than this first one.

You know, I'd like a President who has a vision past the first 4 years; someone with a 'master plan' of where he wants the nation to go over the next 50. I don't want a guy, a year in, to be accepting the fact he might not win a second term. Instead, I'd like him to get on the stick and do what he promised to do; at the very least, give it a wholehearted attempt.

My tax dollars at work

So there I was, looking out the kitchen window while making lunch, when this monster hove into view. I grabbed the cam and headed outside to film it at work. I made it halfway down the driveway in a coupla inches of snow before I realized that my moccasins had no tread on the soles and that I was in imminent danger of falling on my ass! The operator stopped the machine for a few minutes and I slipped and slid back up to the house and put on some shoes.

Note the 'drift cutters' sticking up in front of the augur. Some places around here, they don't reach the top of the snowbank.

The berm was installed only moments before by this guy's partner whom you'll see in the vid. Wet and heavy, my little 8-tiny-horse & 1-old-jackass-powered snowthrower wouldn't have made a dent in it. The big cutter saved me maybe thirty minutes work with my idiot stick.

This all happened about thirty minutes ago. Ain't the interwebs grand?

...of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations...

There are more of these at YubaNet.

All-star concert honors life of Norton Buffalo

Here's a follow-up on my post about the passing of Norton Buffalo.

EssEffChron

When Buffalo was diagnosed with lung cancer in September after getting off his summer tour with the Steve Miller Band, his longtime bandleader and close friend talked to Buffalo about putting together a benefit concert.

Three days before he died, a few short weeks later, Buffalo OKd Miller's plans to bring some of Buffalo's friends together for a pair of concerts that took place over the weekend at Oakland's recently refurbished Fox Theater.

He died knowing that friends and admirers like Miller, the Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Musselwhite, George Thorogood and Huey Lewis agreed to play the shows. He told Miller he wanted the proceeds to pay off his mortgage.

The five-hour concert laid out a banquet of music. Everybody played with everybody. Bishop joined the Doobie Brothers to sing his song "My Dog" and rattle off some blistering guitar. He came back to play with Miller and add still more blistering guitar. Blues harmonica virtuoso Musselwhite sat in with Raitt, the Doobies and Miller. Raitt traded molten blues guitar solos with the boys - Miller and Bishop - during the Miller band set and sang "Listen to the Music" with the Doobies.

George Thorogood played Bo Diddley with Miller, shaking Buffalo's maracas. Michael Carabello of the original Santana band took over for Buffalo on congas in Miller's set. Miller himself played the harmonica part to "Livin' in the U.S.A." - like he did before and hasn't since Buffalo joined the band in 1977.

Attorney General (and next Governor of California! - G) Jerry Brown , who as mayor oversaw the downtown Oakland development that the new Fox anchors, wandered around backstage, looking a little like he showed up at the wrong party. Of course, the entire place did reek of marijuana smoke.

Good word, reek...

Please read the rest if you're interested.

Who's got the best weed?

EssEffChron

It's like a beer competition for marijuana.

A cannabis festival in Aspen this spring will be the first in the state for approved growers to put their strains in a contest.

The Western Slope Cannabis Crown will have about 50 state-approved medical marijuana growers enter their strains of weed. The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels. Growers will also be able to sell to medical marijuana patients. The customers would vote on a "people's choice" strain.

The Cannabis Crown organizer, Bobby Scurlock, says about 1,500 tickets have been sold for the two-day event.

Sounds like it's not so much gonna judge the best weed, but only the strongest. Weed these days is all pretty much "one hit, no shit" stuff.

To judge that much weed correctly as to the type of high would take about a month, so I don't blame them for doing it this way.

The fact that they're going to have this kind of contest at all is the best news.

Quote of the Day

The Rude One on the Massachusetts voters who voted for Brown:

As the tea party protests and town hall screamers demonstrated, our delusional fucktards no longer have to stand on street corners in rags.

Headline of the Day

Ed Schultz Tells Robert Gibbs He’s ‘Full Of Sh*t’ And ‘You’re Losing Your Base’

Video and many, many comments.

Update:

Gibbs responds: I told Ed Schultz he was intentionally lying to ‘get people to watch his show.’

Note to Gibbs: You're full of shit and you're losing your base.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Report: Company Inscribing Bible Quotes on Its Military Gun Sights
To be used in war against religious extremists.

Study: Only Eleven Minutes of Actual Action in NFL Games
Remaining two hours, forty-nine minutes made up of milling about, arguing, waiting for stretcher.

All-White Basketball League's First Season Begins in June
League's founder already being called “the Abe Saperstein of racism.”

??? ~ News Quiz ~ ???

The Supreme Court held that restrictions in McCain-Feingold on how much money a corporation can spend to influence elections are unconstitutional because:
A ) a giant corporation is legally the same as “a natural person.”
B ) giant corporations have feelings, too.
C ) corporations don’t have enough influence on elected officials yet.
Hint: there are one or two members of Congress still up for sale.

Carnival Bans Cougars, Cubs From Cruises
But not elderly gentlemen traveling with their nieces.

Can't say as I blame 'em. Older ladies travelling with younger men spend too much time in their cabins and not enough in the shops, exactly the opposite of elderly gentlemen who have more time to spend money on their nieces...

Sobering ...

Read Avedon today:

...

But Ian Welsh is right: The Supreme Court has affirmed a right of Malefactors of Great Wealth to buy elections, thus making the United States officially a fascist state. Absent a Congress willing to impeach the anti-Constitutional scum who currently infest the court, you don't have anything resembling Constitutional government anymore and you aren't going to.

And that means you have to make a decision: Fight or escape.

And you have to ask yourself: "Do people like me have sufficient strength to win this fight? Is there any hope of getting it?"

And I can't bring myself to tell you that you should fight, at the expense of everything you've got. Not you, not your economic well-being, not your family will be safe from the evils and predations of these truly vile people and the hideous system they have created out of what used to be a fairly promising country that once held out hope and lighted a path for the world.

...

We're screwing ourselves to hell.

I hope ...

Somebody in Washington will read this. Sen. Bernie Sanders via Cookie Jill:

...

In the overwhelmingly Democratic Senate the situation has been equally dismal. There, the Senate Finance Committee created a Gang of Six that included three Republicans--two of whom (Grassley and Enzi) are extremely conservative--to determine the shape of healthcare reform. Amid cries of "death panels," "socialized medicine" and "government takeover of health care," the meetings dragged on and on. On the floor of the Senate, the situation has been even worse. The Republicans have played the most obstructionist role ever with a record number of filibusters and other delaying tactics. The Republicans recently even voted temporarily to deny funds to our troops in the field of combat as a way to delay healthcare reform. They are also unanimous in opposing the increase in the debt limit, which if not raised would likely cause the collapse of both the American and the international financial systems.

...

The Dems and the President had better wise up quick or we'll be talking President Brown and Vice President Palin in 2012. The last thing this nation needs is another Republican majority.

Black helicopter alert ...

You know how the conservatives are afraid the progressives are beginning the 'New World Order', you know, "black helicopters" and "The world governed from the UN" and "foreign troops patrolling American streets". Well, thanks to SCOTUS, we'll have foreigners messing with our political system ... legally.

...

What's that old adage? Beware of the unintended consequences. Clearly, that's something that neither the Supreme Court nor the Republican Party factored in before crowing about the heinous Citizens United v. FEC ruling last week.

For all his high-falutin' talk of free speech and transparency and being able to face down those big bullying unions, it has apparently never occurred to Sen. Jim DeMint that SCOTUS just opened doors to multi-national corporations--i.e. FOREIGNERS--meddling in our elections.

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Well, it looks like the conservatives have taken the first step down that road.

Day Off

I'm taking the day off from blogging and shovelling. The most energetic thing i'm going to do today is watch this video:

Live in Cape Breton, 2007
Medley includes:
Flea as a Bird Clog
Tribute to Stan Chapman Reel
The Night We Had The Goats Reel
The Marquis of Tullybardine Reel

Natalie MacMaster

Thanks to morigue.