Be careful what you wish for...

While I was lookin' up the link to my reunion photo for the post below, I ran across this Quote of the Day from May 30, 2007:

PNAC got its new Pearl Harbor. What we need now is a new Boston Tea Party.

Oy.

Wild Women Of Song

I had never heard of Pamela Rose or any of these gal songwriters of the Jazz Age until I read this article. I liked what I read so I went looking and found this vid.

"Pamela Rose takes jazz to historic heights with her show Wild Women of Song. And I mean that literally. Like some sort of younger and way more glam Doris Kearns Goodwin, she introduces nearly every one of her chosen female-written tunes with fact-filled vignettes about the composers, bringing her heroines to poignant, funny life with her stories of travail and triumph. (We knew Ms. Rose could sing, but she also tells a mean tale.) Then the prefaced melody begins, the band starts to swing, and you feel the tides of time sweeping along. It goes beyond a jazz show. It's a swinging honors course in womankind." - BRUCE KELLEY, EDITOR, SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE

WHAT? More glam than Doris Kearns Goodwin? No way...

On a personal note, Ms. Rose does a little of Peggy Lee's "Fever". I rode the school bus for years with Peggy Lee's daughter (photo, seated center). Didn't see her for 45 years until my H.S. reunion in '07 and now we keep in touch on Facebook.

Pamela Rose - Wild Women of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era

Thanks to DealMattersENT.

TSA in Philly Must Stand for Truly Stupid Assholes

Dave Lindorff at The Smirking Chimp. Last ¶:

So there you have it. Cut your hair in Philadelphia and to the alert agents of the TSA and the equally alert Philadelphia Police you are a potentially radicalized terrorist. (Geez, and I already went through that garbage back in the '60s, when my long hair used to routinely get me harassed by police. So I guess it's "long hair and beard = Commie" and "short hair and beard = Jihadi"). Carry language flash cards, or perhaps a book with an incendiary title, and you're a potential terrorist. Get the wrong TSA agent, and you may even end up having some terribly incriminating substance planted in your bag. And try to prove misbehavior or worse by the TSA and they'll casually destroy the evidence.

I'm really glad I hardly ever have to fly, and I feel for those of you who do.

Poison alert! A rose by any other name...

...won't kill ya near as dead as this shit will. See 'safety controversy'. If you drink diet sodas or use 'Equal' (the blue packets at restaurants), read this. Via BuzzFlash.

Aspartame has been renamed and is now being marketed as a natural sweetener

In response to growing awareness about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, what does the manufacturer of one of the world's most notable artificial sweeteners do? Why, rename it and begin marketing it as natural, of course. This is precisely the strategy of Ajinomoto, maker of aspartame, which hopes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public with its rebranded version of aspartame, called "AminoSweet" (my em).

Emphasis added so you'll know what to look for in the 'ingredients' panel.

I use Splenda which, though it has chlorine in it, has not had the kind of controversy about it that aspartame has. It has had some, a good deal of which I suspect is from other artificial sweetener manufacturers and the sugar lobby.

None of this shit is very good for you, but we like sweet.

Saturday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Funny! Unless you're in it. I am soooooo glad that not everybody carried around a camera during my drinkin' days like they do now.

And yes, I will admit to actually liking this song.

Zac Brown Band ~ Sic 'Em On A Chicken

Thanks to CheetoVonDeez.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Blue Cross Arena Rochester N.Y. 12-20-2003

Emmylou Harris and Dave Matthews ~ Oh Sister

Thanks to arthurfromholland, Netherlands.

Now I know where I'm gonna go...

Politics seems to be the same every day lately. The Repugs lie and obstruct, the Dems apologize for telling at least some of the truth and cave. Hope-y change-y? Nah. Suck-y fuck-y.

So I got ta contemplating the bigger things in life. Where am I gonna go when de volcano blow?

Broadcast on Friday, May 8, 1981 on ABC's comedy show Fridays, Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band perform "Volcano" ... introduced by Nat E. Dred ... ya, ya ya!

Thanks to earthweek.

Then I chanced across this article in The Daily Beast:

How Rich People Smoke Pot

I'm not rich by American standards, but I'm probably richer than 90% of the people on the planet, so I shoehorned myself into 'rich' just for the moment, and now I know where I'm gonna go when de Volcano blow:

Out for munchies of course!

Dog The Bounty Hunter believes in Hawaii Health Care

In case you missed it.

Republicans want Hawaiians to know that their 40 years of government-run health care will not work. (07:11)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Apparent Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Hit him ...

Where it hurts. In the wallet:

...

Glenn Beck’s show in the United Kingdom has not run any commercials during the past three days (Tues-Thurs). Glenn Beck’s show in the UK used to run commercials. The shows that come on before and after Glenn Beck still run commercials. But, for the past three days, Mr. Beck hasn’t had any sponsors in the U.K. During the commercial break, instead of running ads, they cut away to Sky News updates or the weather. Perhaps they’re having trouble finding sponsors willing to subsidize Glenn Beck’s misinformation, vitriol, sexism and race-baiting?

...

As I've said many times before, most on the American Left would be considered conservatives in Europe. American conservatives are looked at as barking loonies my most folks across the pond.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Sorry ...

I wasn't around today but I was shoveling ... everything. First, had to dig out my car and driveway and then, after an extraordinary long commute, I had to dig out the shop. And then half my customers showed up with a foot and a half of snow on the tops of their cars (lotta yelling at people; "what am I, your personal fucking snow boy?") I have seriously had it with snow. Don't know how you do it, Gordon.

Update:

Oh yeah, I forgot, I had to shovel out a place for Shayna to do her business in the back yard, because the snow's taller than she is, so her gold-plated plated butt doesn't get froze. Heh ...

Oy...

LATimes

Reporting from Jerusalem - The camera zooms in on the face of an actor portraying a captive Israeli soldier as he reads a prepared statement.

"My captors are treating me well," says the anxious young man, who is meant to remind viewers of Gilad Shalit, a soldier held by Islamist militants for more than three years. "They are letting me drink and giving me food." A rifle barrel slowly peeks into the picture frame, and he quickly adds, "Kosher food."

The camera pans back to reveal that the kidnappers are not Palestinian terrorists, but Orthodox Jewish settlers, who are holding the soldier until the government allows them to continue building homes in the West Bank.

Irreverent and fearless, "Eretz Nehederet," Hebrew for "It's a Wonderful Country," is a "Saturday Night Live"-style satire that takes on everything from politics to pop culture, forcing Israelis to look in the mirror and laugh, but also to think.

If the extremists of Israeli society are losing their cool over something, it's a sign we're doing our job well. It's not surprising that extreme right-wing circles are outraged by this freedom of expression. This is what makes them extremists. And we are supposed to do our part [to] preserve this freedom.

More. You'll read, you'll enjoy...

Headline of the Day

Missouri Lawmaker’s Argument Against Repealing DADT: It Would Be A ‘Cultural Affront’ To The Terrorists

Un-fucking-believable. This may be the thinnest, most ridiculous argument yet. These morons must get into politics because they get tired of saying "want fries with that?". Yeesh.

Note to Obama: Recess Appoint All of Them

The Rude One

At some point, Barack Obama has to, in a very public way, reassert his dominance in the political debate. He's got to do something that has an impact, something unilateral, something that doesn't involve talking about an issue or having a meeting that's open to the public or inviting anyone anywhere for a long walk. It's gotta be something that he can say to Congress, "See? Look at that. All that shit you wouldn't do? It's done. I did it by myself, assholes."

Right now, Republicans in the Senate (and Republicans in general) are relishing the role of agenda serial killer. It's like Obama's plans and policies are tied to a chair and Mitch McConnell's dancing around like Mr. Blonde with a razor. And when he slices an ear off or cuts a jugular, the rest of the GOP dance in the warm, sticky spray. Put the bodies in the garage freezer, motherfuckers, so we can cook 'em up later.

Fuck it. Recess appointments are there. Ronald Reagan made 243 of 'em. And, remember, if Reagan did it, it automatically covers your ass because he was so fucking awesome when he wasn't soiling his diaper. Eisenhower did it with three Supreme Court Justices. Republicans aren't even really officially filibustering some nominees. They're using this bullshit "hold" that's a little like allowing each passenger on an airplane the power to determine when they land. At some point, the damn thing's gonna run out of gas.

So Obama should make a show of his strength, say, "Fuck you" to the Senate Republicans, and recess appoint every outstanding nominee awaiting confirmation. Not just a few. All of them. Dozens of people to fill positions that'll make the government work better. Take confirmation off the table as a negotiating tool. It's not like Richard Shelby's all of a sudden gonna start not filibustering legislation. And, by the way, the recess appointment is in the Constitution, Article II, Section 2. The hold is just a Senate practice to fuck with unanimous consent to proceed.

Obama has begged the GOP again and again to work with him. He started his term with a sign of good faith, by incorporating Republican ideas into the stimulus. That's the way it's supposed to work: the Democrats own game. If Republicans want to play, they have to play on the Democrats' board. But Republicans want to pull those razors again and force Democrats to hand over the game. Obama can use the recess appointment to show that the President has some power of his own to fuck with his opponents.

I couldn't agree more.

Update:

RP and me ain't the only ones:

Think Progress

Calling the holds “unfair,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took to the Senate floor last night to give a withering attack of Republican obstructionism and urge Obama to recess appoint “all” of his blocked nominees:

Maybe that empty space in his pants is starting to fill up a little.

Teabaggers upset Marvel Comics turned them into ’supervillians’

And rightly so. There's nothing 'super' about 'em.

Raw Story

It seems there's a new third rail in American politics -- don't mess with the Tea Partiers -- and Marvel Comics has inadvertently grabbed it with both hands. And even though members of the Tea Party movement have extracted a half-hearted apology and a promised retraction from Marvel, their anger has barely abated.

In a recent issue of Captain America, the long-time superhero and his African-American partner The Falcon travel to Idaho to investigate a white supremacist militia group, the Watchdogs, who are long-time villains in the Marvel Universe. On the way, they pass an anti-tax rally where the protesters are holding up signs bearing familiar Tea Party slogans, such as "Stop the Socialists!" and "Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You."

This implied mockery of the Tea Partiers quickly aroused a firestorm of indignation on conservative blogs and message boards, made even worse by the implied association between the protesters and the local racist militia.

One particularly angry blogger, Warner Todd Huston, wrote, "So, there you have it, America. Tea Party protesters just 'hate the government,' they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government."

That just about covers it. And your point is...?

The real bone of contention in this controversy, however, may be not whether Marvel consciously intended to link the Tea Parties to extreme right-wing radicals but whether such an association has any validity. In the current issue of Newsweek, for example, conservative Jonathan Kay describes (Don't miss! - G) his attendance at the recent Tea Party Convention and concludes that "the tea-party movement is dominated by conspiracist kooks."

"Within a few hours in Nashville," Kay writes, "I could tell that what I was hearing wasn't just random rhetorical mortar fire being launched at Obama and his political allies: the salvos followed the established script of New World Order conspiracy theories, which have suffused the dubious right-wing fringes of American politics since the days of the John Birch Society."

Heh. The resurgent* Birchers and the teabaggers are no doubt going to be accusing each other of being too far to the left.

*I thought they were safely dead and gone. Looks like they've clawed their way out of the grave. Probly smell bad too. Maybe they'll be in the comic book Tales From The Crypt?

From Bob Dylan's "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues":

Now we all agree with Hitlers' views,
Although he killed six million Jews.
It don't matter too much that he was a Fascist,
At least you can't say he was a Communist!
That's to say like if you got a cold you take a shot of malaria.

The details and right-wing fringewads have changed a little, but they are still enemies of America. The song is as timely now as it was back then. Here's the rest of it:

Thanks to tomjunowak.

Eric Holder and the battle over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

An excellent and informative article in The New Yorker by Jane Mayer.

[...] An informed source said of the situation, “We were buried in an avalanche of shit.”

Now that Bloomberg, Kelly, and Schumer have withdrawn their support, the Justice Department is in retreat, and Holder is scrambling to find a venue for “the trial of the century.” Kate Martin, the Center for National Security Studies director, warns, “We can’t have a situation where political pressure forces the federal government to forgo criminal prosecution. That would mean the system is fundamentally broken.” Bill Martel, of Tufts, said, “When public fear coalesces, it generates forces that are almost uncontrollable by the political leadership."

To which I would add that the forces which generate public fear for political purposes are uncontrollable as well, at least by democratic and legal methods, and shame on them and the sheep that fall for the spew.

[...] David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, said, “They can’t say military commissions are less legitimate, because they’re still using them. But if they tried K.S.M. in a military commission they’d lose any chance of having a conviction seen as legitimate by the rest of the world.”

The article will be of particular interest to those critical of Rahm Emanuel.

Quote of the Day

From "The Wasilla Wonder Wows Tea Baggers with Lies and Deception" by Andy Ostroy:

...haven't these poor people yet realized they've named themselves after a nadsack on the chin?

Racial Discrimination - The Reality Show

From Brown Man Thinking Hard, links at site.

Perspective is one of the items that is missing from the national conversation on race. It is the lack of interest in fully appreciating the African American point of view when it comes to racial issues that has so many Americans clamoring for a "post-racial America", where they can conveniently ignore or sidestep many of the truths that Americas history of discrimination contains.

Let's meet at Java Juggs for a sexpresso!

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford.

Free indecent grope click here!

I can't improve on that. Just go...

For Conservatives, Everything Old Is New Again

El Rude-o in a post about one conservative's reaction to a gay & lesbian lit course at Texas A&M:

Every day, though, we're reminded that conservatives so idealize the past that they probably wish they could Superman the earth backwards and make the bathrooms re-segregated and the women re-tied to the domestic sphere. Of course, their taxes would be a hell of a lot higher, but, you know, that clouds the picture. Even the recent past is part of this strange, myopic vision of white utopia. For why else would Republicans right now be talking about privatizing Social Security? Or cutting taxes further? If the plunge in the stock market and the ratcheting up of the debt under George W. Bush didn't put those notions to sleep like the incontinent dogs they were, then nothing will. Christ, someone's even put up a billboard in Minnesota of the smiling bastard ex-president with the line "Miss Me Yet?" on it. That ain't nostalgia. It's psychosis.

Conservatives don't have much use for history because, time and again, it proves them wrong.

There's a great line in the song "Daddy Played The Banjo" on Steve Martin's "The Crow" CD:

With memories of what never was, become the good old days.

You don't know Ronnie ...

Like I know Ronnie. Christ:

If you ever needed evidence that right-wingers have no boundaries -- in terms logic, ethics, or basic decency -- that they will not trample all over in the defense of conservative "values" and leaders, check out Pam "Atlas Wanks Shrugs" Geller earlier this week on the Joy Behar show (along with Stephanie Miller), trying to tell Ron Reagan Jr. that his father would have been a big fan of Sarah Palin:

...

We got nuthin' ...

Montag on TARP administrator Elizabeth Warren's Op-Ed:

... Most Americans understand what she says, but we are only voters. We don't have enough money to be noticed by our Senators.

No doubt. And if you think it's bad now, wait until even more money flows into campaigns from Big Business thanks to the SCOTUS ruling a couple weeks back.

I'm not the only one ...

Who's had it with Rahm:

...

Emanuel has presented himself as the all-powerful. He's led Obama's presidency into a tailspin (and Obama let him). While Emanuel hasn't worked in the Senate, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, is a long-time former Senate staffer. How Emanuel and his crew destroyed the Obama brand so quickly will be the subject of debate for years to come.

...

It's time to can the little bastid. Repeating Digby's quote:

... You don't keep a nasty henchman who makes enemies of everyone and inspires loathing by his very presence if he can't even get the job done ...

It's all about results and the record so far is pretty dismal. There are a lot of Dems in Congress (Blue Dogs) who needed a nut-crushing by the White House and never got it. Republican obstruction means nothing if you can't get your team on the same page.

Quote of the Day - Zwei

Heather:

... When you've finally got Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd throwing you under the bus, you've got problems with ever being taken seriously as a future presidential candidate ...

In response ...

To Gord's post earlier.

Paris in a blizzard. Click to make big. And just a note in the name of accuracy, the date in the pic is wrong (I had camera problems). This was taken at the end of November 2005.

Yeah, I know ...

D.C. snowstorm forces good government

EssEffChron

Mother Nature's wrath has forced the U.S. House to scrap its work week.

And the next one:

With Congress on a previously scheduled break next week for the Presidents' Day holiday, lawmakers won't be back in Washington until Feb. 22.

Note to Barry: Can you say 'recess appointments'?

Paris - window-lickin' good

This one's for you, Fixer.

Dem to filibuster Obama's NLRB pick

HuffPo

In a move that will further irritate his Democratic critics, Sen. Ben Nelson (D(INO- G)-Neb.) announced on Monday evening that he would not just oppose but also help filibuster President Barack Obama's nominee to a key labor relations agency.

Note to Harry Reid: This guy's nominally a Democrat and you don't have to be afraid of him. Pretend you have some balls and practice making people who threaten to filibuster actually do it. First time you stand on your own two feet like a man is the hardest but it'll get easier. Try it, you might like it. This is your big chance.

Try grabbin' yer crotch and saying "filibuster this, Benny Boy". I say 'benny boy' in the sense of the Filipino crossdressers of Navy song and legend since Nelson is a Repug crossdressing as a Dem. He ain't what he claims to be.

Note to Benny Boy: Get up and read the phone book, asshole. When you have to go to the bathroom, it's over. How long can you go? Depends.

Headline of the Day - No Happy Ending

Palin’s ‘Hand Job’ Worst in History

Quote of the Day

The Rude One via Gordon's post yesterday:

It's a sad fact of America in the 21st-century that shallowness is a quality and depth makes you an out-of-touch elitist.

Here's the problem ...

With getting any kind of major reform through:

...

This bears out the pervasive "conservative" American ethos of "I've got mine, so screw you," so the problem is much bigger than health care reform. The idea that anyone could fall victim to negative circumstance or make a bad decision or just find themselves on the losing side of something is attributed to their own bad character --- or, perversely, to the government which has taken from you, the deserving citizen, and given it to someone else, thus unfairly placing you at a disadvantage. It's old style Calvinism mixed with adolescent Randism and it's a very serious problem for people who believe that social stability and economic justice are important.

Because, after 30 years of "greed is good", it's automatic by now.

We see crib notes ...

And a junior high school kid cheating on an exam. The teabaggers see this.

Obama Outsmarts the Terrorists. And the Repugs.

A good read by Peter Beinart.

President Obama isn't nearly as scared of the terrorists as Bush was — and that’s precisely why al Qaeda is falling apart.

Which brings us to Barack Obama’s “war on terror.” Conservatives keep saying that Obama doesn’t really believe we’re at war; that he sees terrorists as mere criminals, not the epic evil-doers that they really are. But here’s the irony: It’s precisely because he doesn’t see the terrorist threat as quite so epic that al Qaeda is falling apart.

To understand why, it helps to understand that al Qaeda is one of the weakest enemies America has ever faced. In their day, the Nazis and communists each ran a great power. (In the case of the communists, two). What’s more, during the Depression, vast numbers of people across the globe—including some of the most famous intellectuals in the United States and Europe—believed the fascists and communists could build societies that were more prosperous and dynamic than their democratic competitors. Barely anyone has ever believed that about al Qaeda. Not only have the jihadists never controlled a powerful country, but no one really believes that if they did it would be anything other than a basket case. To millions of people, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia once offered compelling visions of modernity; Taliban Afghanistan never did.

The dirty little secret of the “war on terror” is that America is winning. We began winning during George W. Bush’s second term, when al Qaeda’s violence began corroding its support among Muslims, and we’re doing even better under Barack Obama, because the U.S. now presents a less menacing face. The best chance al Qaeda has is another American overreaction of the kind the GOP demands: reckless military attacks by the United States or Israel, mass profiling of Muslims, a return to torture. Perhaps Obama’s Republican critics do take the terrorist threat more seriously than he does. I’d rather take it less seriously, and win.

Another dirty little not-so-secret is that the Repugs are al Qaeda's biggest ally. The Repugs' war is against Obama and by extension, reality, and the worst thing that could possibly happen is for him to wage a successful intelligence and law-enforcement campaign against terrorists under the rule of law.

Heave a ho

Some advice for the Prez from Will Durst:

I'm only guessing, but a major problem with being president has to be people around you being more likely to stick their face in a cast iron oscillating fan than tell you the truth. Let's say you slip and fall and rip a hole in your pants down to your ankle while spilling hot coffee on a little blind girl in a wheelchair in front of a nationally televised audience. The worst you could expect to hear from a staffer is "Well, that could have gone better."

First thing. Don't worry so much about the Republicans. They're going to do what they're going to do. You don't even enter into the equation. [...]

It's your so-called friends you need to watch out for. The ones who smile and nod and laugh at your jokes to cover the slip of a shiv between your third and fourth ribs on the left side. Trust me, with friends like these, you don't need Richard Shelby. Unfortunately, most of your buddies are Democrats. Which is a lot like saying most of a general's fighting force is terra cotta. The difference being terra cotta soldiers don't cut and run so fast they leave little puffs of cartoon smoke.

The second thing is, you need to develop an "or else." Work with you, or what? Or Joe Biden sits next to you in the Congressional dining room and cuts your meat every day for a week? Lyndon Johnson plucked at the horsehair holding up the sword of Damocles for his "or else." Walk the line or find yourself whisked back to your home district as a clerk in Park and Rec's lost and found. His idea of compromise was letting you use his pen to sign your vow of allegiance.

Finally, your people have lost all sense of urgency. You got to fire somebody. You know -- ax. Can. Dump. Sack. Pink slip. Terminate with extreme prejudice. Discharge. Unassign. 86. Downsize. Furlough. Ease out. Make redundant. Perform a bum's rush. Give the boot. Hand someone their marching orders. Assist in an accelerated career-development shift. Impose a synergy-related headcount restructuring. Heave a ho.

Go see who he thinks Barry should fire to make a statement. Heh.

Men Without Pants

EssEffChron

Super Bowl advertisements were a little bit bolder, a lot weirder and definitely featured more pantsless men than previous years. Pantsless men in the workplace. Pantsless men striding purposefully down fields of gold. Pantsless men facing sumo wrestlers.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Or their lack of taste and couth.

You can watch all the ads without having to watch millionaires beat the crap out of each other to gain control of a pig bladder here.

Sarah Palin Is a Fucking Retard

The Rude Pundit on Palin and the appalling fact that anybody takes her seriously. I'm callin' it a 'must read'.

[...] It's a sad fact of America in the 21st-century that shallowness is a quality and depth makes you an out-of-touch elitist.

The Rude Pundit watched Palin's speech Saturday night at the Tea Party Convention at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. He saw all of it, her hair fixed perfectly to look like she had just finished fucking Andrew Breitbart (who introduced her), her practiced folksy nasality that has become a parody of a parody, her ludicrous call to revolution, which apparently means slightly lower taxes on small businesses and war with Iran. Somewhere in heaven, James Madison said, "Tell you what, bitch, you risk getting executed by the British for a cut in the marginal tax rate on your fishing boats and we'll talk."

Her speech was nonsense, a bowl of bullshit and lies that she digested and vomited out into the hungry mouths of the hatchlings in attendance, who gobbled it down like they had never tasted something so sweet. [...]

She's fucking retarded. As in stupid. As in she shouldn't be trusted to hand out carts at a Wal-Mart. That's this elitist's opinion. What backs him up? Two quotes:

Go.

"...we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland."

Paul Krugman

We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.

What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.

What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.

A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.

Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.

A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.

Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.

In the past, holds were used sparingly. That’s because, as a Congressional Research Service report on the practice says, the Senate used to be ruled by “traditions of comity, courtesy, reciprocity, and accommodation.” But that was then. Rules that used to be workable have become crippling now that one of the nation’s major political parties has descended into nihilism, seeing no harm — in fact, political dividends — in making the nation ungovernable.

How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.

Shudder! That's bad!

And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.

After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually — after the country’s post-World War I resurrection — became the country’s national anthem. It begins, “Poland is not yet lost.”

Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.

Please read the rest.

Headline of the Day

Christians claim hate crimes law an effort to ‘eradicate’ their beliefs

Gee, they say that like it's a bad thing...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Top Generals: Drop “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”
Replace it with: “You Are! Who Knew?”

Study: Drivers Who Text 6 Times More Likely to Crash
But friends can participate in final thoughts: “OMG, crsh!!!”

We-are-so-screwed dept.:

Poll: Fox Most Trusted Name in News
Glenn Beck most trusted man in America.

Quote of the Day

Fez:

Avoid the *face-palm* Sarah you'll smear your forehead.

Heh ...

I'm waiting ...

For the Republicans to say that thanks to their (and G.W. Bush's) "policies" toward New Orleans after Katrina, New Orleans won the Super Bowl. Laugh if you want, I wouldn't put it past 'em.

Palin's Tea Party Crib Notes

Following up on Fixer's post, there's no longer any doubt about it.

Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet

Daddy Frank on Mullen, Gates, and Powell, er, coming out against DADT. Links at site:

A funny thing happened after Adm. Mike Mullen called for gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military: A curious silence befell much of the right. If this were a Sherlock Holmes story, it would be the case of the attack dogs that did not bark.

[...] Recalcitrant Congressional Republicans will have to explain why their perennial knee-jerk deference to “whatever the commanders want” extends to Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal on troop surges but not to Mullen, who outranks them, on civil rights.

The right would much rather the military would wage misbegotten wars abroad and STFU on civil rights and equality.

The more bigotry pushed out of the closet for all voters to see, the more likely it is that Americans will be moved to grant overdue full citizenship to gay Americans. It won’t happen overnight, any more than full civil rights for African-Americans immediately followed Truman’s desegregation of the armed forces. But there can be no doubt that Mike Mullen’s powerful act of conscience last week, just as we marked the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit-in, pushed history forward. The revealing silence that followed from so many of the usual suspects was pretty golden too.

Fuckin' A, Pops! The more 'golden silence' out of the homophobic wingnuts, the better.

Uh ... George Washington!

Only in Republican World ...

Losses ...

We're losing one of our smartest, most eloquent voices. D-cap packs it in.

You know, Pat ...

I'll stop being condescending to teabaggers, birthers, and wingnuts when they stop being gullible idiots and ripe for the picking by every snake oil salesman and con man who tells them what they want to hear. Fucking ignorant cowardly lemmings, all of 'em. If that makes me an elitist then so be it.