Saturday, June 26, 2010

Tempus Fugits Comparo

Here's Tony Rice and one of his bands (I can't keep track!) doing a Gordon Lightfoot tune. Featured is Jerry Douglas, the hardest working band/solo/session Dobro picker ever, for good reason!

Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Wyatt Rice, & Mark Schatz


Thanks to BluegrassLibrary.


Let it simmer for about 30 years and try it again. Still Tony and Jerry, but add fiddle virtuoso and all around pretty girl singer Alison Krauss and a little more modern recording equipment and this is what you get:


Thanks to WillisMcGillicutty.


Like you and me and everything else in this world that means anything, music only gets better with age,

Very Realistic Simulation!

MoJo

There's just one facility in the world where scientists and emergency responders can run full-scale oil spill response tests and research. It's housed at US Naval Weapons Station Earle in Leonardo, New Jersey. But when Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) tried to arrange a visit to the facility earlier this week, he learned that the facility is presently inoperable. Why? The tank researchers use to simulate spills has sprung a leak.

Oy...

D.C. "Press Corps" is Really a PR Shop for the Oligarchy and Ruling Elite

Stephen Pizzo

By the time I was done covering Washington politicians I’d came to the rock-solid conclusion that they were only half the problem. The other half were the people paid to cover Washington for major media outlets.

Bagging a White House correspondent post is to admitted to the most exclusive club in the world. I don’t use the term “club” by accident. These media “watchdogs” breathe the same rarified air, fly on the same comfy 747 and speed through traffic-free streets in the same convoys of blacked out SUVs.

And. worse yet, when it’s time to party they attend the same parties. Hell, they even throw parties for one another where they make where they celebrate their relationship with the kind of biting self-deprecating humor only the closest of friends could accommodate.

I came to the conclusion long ago that major media outlets should treat posts in Washington the same way the military treats assignments to active war zones; rotated in for a year or two, then rotate out for a year or two. Because when it comes to uncovering stuff, there’s nothing like the eyes and ears of a fresh reporter eager to make a name for him or herself.

Also editors need to enforce an ironclad rule against their reporters fraternizing with the people they cover. Building relationships of trust is fine. I did that with my sources, as does any good reporter. Burn sources and pretty soon all you’ll be reporting on is who died this week. But there’s a helluva difference between building relationships of trust by treating sources fairly and honestly, and dropping by their house on weekends for a pool party and BBQ.

But that’s what the Washington press corps has become. Those reporters and those they cover have developed a co-dependent relationship that borders on a protection racket. Familiarity has bred a strange mixture of mutual contempt tempered by the reassuring warmth of familiarity.

Which is why we now have to rely for real “scoops” on underground sites like wikileaks.com. And why it was Rolling Stone not the New York Times, or Washington Post or CNN or MSNBC who got the scoop on how General McChrystal feels about his Commander in Chief. (“the real enemy -- those wimps in the White House.”)

I have nothing to add.

Quote of the Day

Mustang Bobby:

...

And instead of being shocked and saddened by the vulture culture in Washington -- or anywhere powerful people gather -- Mr. Brooks ought to remember that it's called "reporting" for a reason.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

An old Louvin Brothers tune. With Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

GRAND OLE OPRY LIVE February 17th 2006


Emmylou Harris & Elvis Costello ~ My Baby's Gone

Thanks to DPAM1966, Japan.

Heh...

Hund vuvuzela verÃĪngstigt Boden pisst. FAIL !

Didn't look like the dog failed to me. Well, maybe a little. She shoulda took a dump.


Thanks to ehle2000, Germany.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Dawn Blitz

Oh swell. Give a training exercise a Wermacht-themed name in these days of invading nations for no reason other than imperialist/capitalist ideology. Officers, peh...

Photos: Marines amphibious training

The Marine Corps has not stormed a hostile beach since the Korean War.

While true in the strictest sense, the Corps has stormed hundreds of beaches since then, They didn't know if they were going to be hostile or not until they got there.

I guarantee this: once we have forgotten how to do it, we'll have to do it and Marines will die unnecessarily for not remembering how. Keep training, Jarheads.

A coupla signs at Camp Pendleton during my infantry training days: "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war" and "Let no man's ghost ever say we failed to do our job". Still true. Leave that shit to the Army, which doesn't train every soldier to be a rifleman, which can come in handy in a pinch.

My own amphibious training had me clamber down a cargo net into a Mike boat*, just like in the movies. I was one of the last to 'get' to do that. At least they don't do that any more. Then the Corps trained me to assault the enemy from an H-34 helicopter. With a 50-lb. battery charger in either hand in addition to all the camping gear and shootin' arn. I was so glad to survive the ride I'da charged hell with a bucket of water just to get outta the sonofabitch!

*A misnomer, but that's what we called them. They were actually 'Peter' boats, but we weren't gonna climb down inta no Peter! Again, leave that to the Army...

I'm amazed at the variety of modern gear to get the kids ashore these days. I hope they never have to use it for real but they'd better know how.

Quote of the Day

If God is in the details, then Wizarding World is the holiest place on Earth.

Better there than the Vatican or Mecca or Jerusalem.

Vicious Circles

MoDo on McChrystal and Chaos-istan:

Afghanistan is more than the “graveyard of empires.” It’s the mother of vicious circles.

So the commander in chief can be bad-mouthed as weak by the military but then he can’t punish the military because that would make him weak? It’s the same sort of pass-the-Advil vicious circle reasoning the military always uses.

McChrystal painted a vicious circle around his commander in chief. As Stars and Stripes summed it up: “Fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal and risk looking like he’s lost control of the war in Afghanistan. Or keep him and risk looking like he’s lost control of his generals.”

But he has met his match in Afghan warriors, who have clobbered every foreign invader since Alexander the Great. The average Afghan fighter lives on grain, a bowl of rice, a bottle of water. How much does it cost by comparison to have a foreign soldier in Afghanistan?

McChrystal never should have been hired for this job given the outrageous cover-up he participated in after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman. He was lucky to keep the job after his “Seven Days in May” stunt in London last year when he openly lobbied and undercut the president on the surge.

Third time's the charm. Same applies to movie references (see next two posts). There's a Star Wars one in the column as well. What's next, Mad Max? "Kundalini wants his arm back..."

It had to happen, didn't it?

US Army employee threatens vuvuzela blower with an ax

BP welcomes you to the apocalypse

Friday Morford with worst-case scenarios about BP's runaway gusher.

So there you have it. Toxic rain and supersonic tsunamis, the end of North America as we know it. Done. Finished. Certainly, one of those two scenarios is guaranteed to come to pass, right? Maybe, if we're really lucky, even both?

All right, fine. In the off-off chance that invisible Russian scientists and nutball doomsayers are wrong (impossible!), well, there is one more glorious mega scenario to consider. There is a backup to the backup to the backup. Hey, we're Americans. When it comes to dorky apocalyptic visions, we got you covered.

Here is your grand finale: A new survey says that a disturbingly large percentage of Americans -- 40 percent, to be exact -- actually believe Jesus will return by 2050, likely riding on the back of a flaming asteroid (30 percent think one will hit us by then), waving a cowboy hat and yodeling as he careens toward our hapless blue dot of inequity, pain and lousy AT&T reception.

Jesus will then crash land in Texas, wink at Dubya and Sarah Palin, and then sweep up all the True Believers in their beige Dodge minivans just as the earth shudders and implodes, just like one of those swirling black holes in "Star Trek."

How cool will that be? Answer: It will be very cool indeed. It is so cool, in fact, it totally wipes out the need to care much about anything at all. See how easy? Now, who wants pie?

Seems the Dr. Strangelove references are comin' outta the woodwork today. I think the first paragraph of the post below is entirely appropriate for this one too.

Crazillium in Afghanistan

The HORN

“Mr. President, I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.” These famous words of support were, of course, offered by Gen. Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott, in the classic black comedy, Dr. Strangelove, after a rogue U.S. Air Force general subverted America’s “fail-safe” system and sent a wing of nuclear-armed bombers to annihilate the Russians.

This seemed an appropriate intro to General McChrystal’s meeting today with President Obama, where the general’s attempt to explain numerous slip-ups to his Commander-In-Chief predictably resulted in dismissal. Scott’s line is also the lead-in to my reaction to a piece sent to me by Bob Kincaid, host of our favorite nightly progressive radio show on the HORN, describing our pay-offs to Afghan travel agents–otherwise known as insurgents and warlords–to safeguard passage for our military convoys. In a campaign fraught with mistakes and distorted vision, buying into protection rackets which invariably end up funding our enemy seems like another in a series of tragic slip-ups.

We might as well be fighting space aliens on one of the moons of Saturn. Imagine the weekly briefing sometime in 2410: “Well General, how’s the mission on Titan coming along? What’s your assessment after 14 years of bloody warfare?”

“Well, we’re still taking it to them, although it would be easier if there was anything like a legitimate government or legal system up here. But we’re pressing on, and securing as much crazillium-7 as we can.”

“Sir, we understand United Crazillium is poised to make a fortune with the exclusive rights to sell this amusing and revolutionary energy source. Is that still our goal?”

“God willing. Their contractors have been working with us from the outset. Lord knows, they’ve written enough checks to right people.”

Four hundred years from now, those choosing to review the failed campaign on Titan will no doubt reflect on the history we ignored centuries before–and were thus doomed to repeat – of the conflict on a similarly hostile and formidable world known as Afghanistan.

That's about it. We never learn.

Gulf Coast Attorneys File RICO Class Action Lawsuits Against BP

HuffPo, links at site.

Gulf Coast law firms Levin Papantonio, Eastland Law and others have begun filing a series of civil RICO actions in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to hold BP accountable for the false assurances it gave the American people that it could handle a worst-case scenario deepwater oil spill. The suits allege that BP committed mail fraud, wire fraud and potentially other RICO predicate act violations when the company sought permits from the federal government for deepwater offshore drilling, knowing that it did not possess the technical expertise or equipment necessary to respond to an emergency such as the ongoing Deepwater disaster.

This is the first time I can remember a 'civil RICO lawsuit'. This is a good thing. Maybe it'll work, although BuzzFlash commenters bring up some cons:

Do corporations actually get taken to court these days or can BP just ask to have it kicked upstairs to Attorney Generals and higher courts that they've paid off?

Whatever happens in lower courts the Supreme Court can be counted on to "fix" everything, cf: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/business/25norris.html?hp

Good point. America is a company-owned town, after all. We will see.

For political gain ...

Unfortunately, the average American doesn't pay enough attention to how their country is being run to understand this. Either that or they think it's a game and it doesn't really matter which side is in charge.

Everybody's talking about Senator Debbie Stabenow's aggressive words today accusing the Republicans of tanking the economy and throwing millions out of work for political gain. I don't see why this is even slightly controversial. The GOP is a party whose mouthpieces said from the very beginning that they wanted the president to fail and that they were planning his "Waterloo." And anyone who understood how our government works (or even understands simple logic) knew that saying that in the midst of an economic crisis translates to making people suffer. There was no other way to interpret that so it makes sense.

...


Republican policies are not about the welfare of their constituents but about setting the table for the November elections. It's about being in power in order to protect their 'patrons' from their constituents.

You have the Republican Party standing up for BP (many saying we should pick up the bill for the clean up), Bobby Jindal and Hayley Barbour some of the loudest, under the auspices of "saving jobs", and this is taken as sane behavior in this country. Their states' economies have been ruined, hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives ruined, and hundreds of miles of delicate ecosystem destroyed, and they're 'worried' about the handful of jobs lost if a small percentage of deep water rigs are shut down? People have been institutionalized for saying shit like that in the past but today it's considered intelligent discourse.

And people will go out and vote for these idiots.

In my day, "USA" meant "can do". Now, it's just an acronym for "fail" and we have ourselves to blame. Collectively, we put them in office and now it's next to impossible to get them out. Who else you gonna blame?

Happy Friday!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

If not the Marines, then who?

Every time there's a military money problem, the Big 3 question the need for a Marine Corps. Since they've basically been used lately as conventional infantry who talk funny, it's no wonder.

Roger S. Galbraith* in the Blowback section of the LATimes

*director of public affairs for the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command. The fix is in. Heh.

In this age of sophisticated, cheap anti-ship missiles, I understand why one might question the need to assemble hundreds of ships for an Inchon-style beach assault or thousands of ships for another D-Day. As The Times reported in its June 21 article, "U.S. rethinks a Marine Corps specialty: storming beaches," assaulting a defended beach is seen as a thing of the past. If that is the only perceived mission for the Marine Corps, then why do we even need a Corps?

Our nation — a maritime nation — will always need to be involved with populations and crises across seas. What kind of crises and what kind of crisis response force (CRF, for the purposes of this article) will be required to carry out our nation's interests?

So we have done it. We have created a new crisis response force that economically transports itself over the sea, can provide humanitarian assistance and security, can provide for its own transportation and resupply until more help arrives, and can connect the lowest levels of command in the field with national goals and objectives.

Humanitarian assistance is worthy, but sometimes the door to providing it needs to be kicked in.

For over sixty years that I know of, there have been reinforced Marine infantry battalions on ships at various places in the world, which come and go and change locations with need. I went on two of those 'floats' or 'cruises', called 'deployments' now lest folks think there are buffets and waterslides and lounging in deck chairs in tropical breezes. The only 'tropical breezes' I remember were below deck and you could light them.

Don't worry too much about the Marine Corps. They went through a huge battle for their existence in 1947 and won Congressional legislation as a mandate for them to be. Their mission changes from time to time, but basically they come from the sea and fuck evildoers up.

Gonna buy five copies for my mother...


Thanks to YubaNet.


Also see this one. Perhaps more to the point.

Headline of the Day

Posted by Rack Jite in Dumbutt, Texas

Institute for Creation Research laughed out of court in Texas

Because they wanted to give Masters Degrees in Creation "Science". I think the "B.S." is automatic.

In Texas?! Imagine that...

Journalism Too

If you follow the last link in Digby's post referred to by Fixer just below, you come to Glenn Greenwald.

See The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes' two cartoons this week (one a republished classic from 2003) for her view about all of this.

The toons are good and the headline is:

The White House press corps, ready for the next party invitation

Then there are journalists who will never get a Beltway Cocktail Party invite. Not many and not enough, but they're still out there.

BuzzFlash Wings of Justice

Many of those in the mainstream media were appalled this week when Rolling Stone magazine published a story entitled "The Runaway General" that ultimately dethroned Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his position as commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The typical mainstream media reaction included snide references to the publication, saying that it appeared "in Rolling Stone, of all places." John Amato on the Crooks and Liars blog chuckled about Fox News contributor Brit Hume's reaction, saying in jest, "How dare (McChrystal) use a hippie rag instead of coming to a Villager?"

Just as an aside, I bought a subscription to the dead tree Rolling Stone because it was dirt cheap, and there is a lotta hippie shit to wade through to get to the good stuff. Naturally, as a subscriber I'll be the last one to see the McChrystal piece. Figures.

More examples and then the last ¶:

Go after the truth, wherever it may lie and regardless of whom it will taint. When comedians and high school students and a hippie magazine outperform you, then the journalists should take a long hard look at their profession.

There are still journalists who understand their craft and its purpose, which is to afflict the comfortable. They're a little hard to find sometimes, but once in a while their work leaps into public view.

Leave us hope that some amongst the oh-so-comfortable talking hatracks and Beltway Villagers of the mainstream Corporate & Cocktail Chattering Class still have enough of a conscience to realize that they long ago sacrificed principle and gave up real journalism to be insider nattering gasbags. Perhaps when they see an example of what they once were or aspired to be, they get a little twinge of regret in between the shrimp and appletinis for leaving those of us with The Need To Know in the lurch. Fat chance.

Note to real journalists who are out there dodging bullets and the slings and arrows of corporate and political criminals and regressives: We need you. Good on yas and continue the march.

Journalism ...

Digby sez it well:

...

As we've already explored in great depth over the years, the purpose of journalism is not to tell the truth or even straightforwardly give people the information they need to reach their own conclusions. It's to maintain the established order and obscure rather than reveal what's really going on ...


That's it. Gotta protect their place on the Georgetown Cocktail Party Circuit.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

We ain't the only ones ...

With dumbass politicians:

ROME -- Italian politician Umberto Bossi apologized Wednesday for his much-criticized remarks that Italy would "buy" a victory in a crucial World Cup group match against Slovakia.

...

Bossi reportedly said "they [Italy] will buy it," responding to a question about which team would win. He said he expected two to three Slovak players to surface in the Italian league next season -- apparently as compensation to the Slovakian team.

The Italian federation immediately described Bossi's remarks as "disconcerting and offensive." It said that Bossi, a maverick politician known for his anti-establishment rhetoric, had gone "overboard."


I'll let you know when the Serie A season starts.

Quote of the Day

Adrastos:

... Not only does he deserve to be shitcanned for mouthing off but his favorite beer is Bud Lite Lime. Holy girl drink, Batman ...

Shopping Day

Since Mrs. G re-retired, we've gone to Plan B about shopping days. Today is the 4th Wednesday of the month, or "payday" for us direct-deposit SocSec recipients, so we're off to The Big City with a fresh charge of jing in the ol' bank account. The dogs get a spa day, we get breakfast at Q's, a little Costco, a few other stops.

See yas later.

I can feel it slippin' away...*

*Apologies to Jean Shepard.

Bob Herbert on the United States goin' down the shitter:

As a nation, we are becoming more and more accustomed to a sense of helplessness. We no longer rise to the great challenges before us. It’s not just that we can’t plug the oil leak, which is the perfect metaphor for what we’ve become. We can’t seem to do much of anything.

We are submitting to this debacle with the same pathetic lack of creativity and helpless mind-set that now seems to be the default position of Americans in the 21st century. We have become a nation that is good at destroying things — with wars overseas and mind-bogglingly self-destructive policies here at home — but that has lost sight of how to build and maintain a flourishing society. We’re dismantling our public school system and, incredibly, attacking our spectacularly successful system of higher education, which is the finest in the world.

How is it possible that we would let this happen?

We’ve got all kinds of sorry explanations for why we can’t do any of the things we need to do. The Democrats can’t get 60 votes in the Senate. Our budget deficits are too high. Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck might object.

Meanwhile, the greatness of the United States, which so many have taken for granted for so long, is steadily slipping away.

On the bright side, a little humility might do us some good.

Same old song and dance ...

It's what got us into this financial mess and will also prevent us from moving away from fossil fuels. For 30 years, we've been convinced we can have what we want and never have to pay for it. It's why everybody mortgaged their homes to the hilt to buy cars and second homes, pools, and take vacations when money was free and you had 30 years to pay it back (provided you'd survive the interest rate adjustment 3 years in). It's why it took $4.00/gal gas for people to finally stop buying Hummers.

Overwhelmingly, Americans think the nation needs a fundamental overhaul of its energy policies, and most expect alternative forms to replace oil as a major source within 25 years. Yet a majority are unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.

...


Now, I understand a lot is on the shoulders of the "small people" already. We pay more than our fair share of taxes and higher gas prices will effect regular folks long before the rich, but this isn't something we can wait for until the rich finally pay their fare share. It's on us and unless we get it done, we'll continue to have messes like we do in the Gulf and Alaska, and the effects of burning fossil fuels on the atmosphere.

...

Large majorities disapprove of the way BP is handling the spill and have little faith in the oil industry generally to act in the public interest. By a 2-to-1 margin, they trust the federal government more than BP to handle the cleanup efforts in the gulf.

Yet they also think the Obama administration could be doing more to fix the damage from the leak. Fifty-nine percent said Mr. Obama did not have a clear plan for dealing with the spill.

...


These are the same folks who rail against "Big Government" yet now bitch the regulatory system is inadequate and corrupt, and resources are slow in coming. Same folks who don't want to pay taxes, yet bitch about the roads falling apart and trains not running on time.

There is a price for everything and if our elected representatives refuse to make the rich and corporations pay their share, then it's on us. The free ride is over and I suggest you all get that straight when you go to the voting booths this November.

Thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

The Devil you know ...

John McCain may return to the Senate after all (I don't expect a Dem to win in Berlin Arizona), thanks to the goober who's running against him:

Oh, what a gift to John McCain. We've all seen commercials/infomercials like this before. If you just fork up $1,000, you can learn how to realize all of your dreams by learning how to get rich by applying for government grants. The hawkers claim you can send your kids to the best schools, live in that big house you always wanted, and live your dreams for the low, low price of $1,000 to attend the only conference on the planet designed for YOU.

...


I mean, aren't "government handouts" socialist? Aren't they "entitlements", something most Republicans are against?

I'd say McCain could make some hay over both points but then hypocrisy is perfectly acceptable in conservative circles.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Russians Are Coming Here!

EssEffChron, photo gallery and videos.

The first Russian surface warship to visit San Francisco in 147 years is docked on the Embarcadero this week on a visit that combines friendship, history and a display of military power.

The ship is the cruiser Varyag, a sleek gray vessel that is the flagship of Russia's Pacific fleet. It made the two-week voyage from Vladivostok in the spirit of friendship, as Russian Rear Adm. Vladimir Kastonov said more than once during a news conference aboard the ship at Pier 30-32 on Monday.

The ship's visit also commemorates a nearly forgotten bit of Russian-American history. Czar Alexander II sent a fleet to San Francisco and New York in 1863 during the American Civil War to show support for the union.

Thanks for comin' back an' checkin' up on us, Ivan!

'Varyag' is a traditional name in the history of the Russian and Soviet navies, including an aircraft carrier they sold to China.

Currently the ship is being examined and repaired by China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) after purchasing it at auction[5]. It was widely reported that the ship would become a casino in the Chinese SAR of Macau. [...]

Since the Varyag currently in SF is known as an 'aircraft carrier killer', I bet the Chinese 'repair' consists of trying to find homing devices in her hull. Heh.

Two cruisers in the Russian Navy and one in the Soviet Navy have been named Varyag after the Varangian people, the Viking ancestors of the Rus.

Very interesting article. Enjoy.

Note to U.S. flattop sailors: Be glad this thing never had to come after you.

Finally:

On Wednesday, the Varyag's crew will participate in a cookout and sports competition with sailors from the U.S. Navy cruiser Bunker Hill, which is also in port.

Note to Bunker Hill sailors: If you hear the Russian squids say 'Na zdrovyeh', stand by for a ram. Heh.

"We're going fishing, baby"

If you're a fan of Deadliest Catch (wiki) like I am, go read this.

Headline of the Day

Boing! Feds say Magic Power coffee contains Viagra drug

Hmmmmm, maybe a cuppa 'boner joe' before bedtime wouldn't keep me awake in the bad way...

Quote of the Day

From Juanita Jean's, "The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon:, Inc."

“Haley Barbour is cross eyed, buck toothed, loud mouthed son of a motherless goat, dammit,”

She's just getting started. I'm glad Juanita ain't mad at me!

Good News Headline of the Day

The GOP is blowing it

"The Halliburton Loophole"

In case you missed it.

Josh Fox talks about the toxic materials from hydraulic fracturing that are turning up in people's water supplies. (07:50)

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Josh Fox
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party

The next MacArthur ...

In my day, Gen. McChrystal would have "retired"* by now.

The top U.S. war commander in Afghanistan apologized Tuesday for an interview in which he said he felt betrayed by the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

The article in this week's issue of Rolling Stone depicts Gen. Stanley McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to convince even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

...


Yet he remains in charge of our longest war. A war which is probably unwinnable, no matter who is running the show, regardless of what the definition du jour of "win" is. Just ask Alexander the Great, the British "The Sun Doesn't Set On Us" Empire, and the Soviet Union, among others.

A corollary to the above by Cdr. Huber.

As Renaissance political scientist Niccolo Machiavelli noted, the fall of Rome came about when its military elite, known as the Praetorian Guard, gained control over the emperor and the Senate. Had irony survived the Bush Jr. administration, it would relish that America’s empire is crumbling under the undue influence of its military elite, the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

...

*Thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

I've wondered about that ...

Many times. How people can make that leap, how they can put their morality aside in favor of ideology or money or both. Aside from the BP shills who are obviously paid to support the company line, there are those who find a bright spot in all this, even the worst case scenario.

Athenae goes off while sitting in for Tbogg:

...

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? I mean it, what is that, you fucking moral dyslexic? You’re basically cheering on the possible implosion of an entire ocean because it will remedy "infantile optimism" of "post-JFK America?" What the fuck does that even mean? I just … I’m … What in the blue hell has to happen inside your brain that makes writing that okay?

What kind of insulated, sheltered, non-reality reality do you have to be swimming around in that you can sit there and say that the killing of an ENTIRE OCEAN and the destruction of an ENTIRE THIRD OF THE DAMN COUNTRY’S ECONOMY would be okay because hey, then everybody will realize that Nixon was right and fuck Cambodia anyway and hippies smell?

...


I believe that to be a conservative, not just an uninformed, FOX "news"-watching prole but part of the Machine, you have to abdicate any right you have to a soul.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Bootstraps ...

[A big welcome to Jim's readers over at Skippy's - F]

You know, I'd better not hear anybody from the Gulf states saying shit like "poor people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps" or that "they don't really want to work" or some other conservative horseshit. I hope now they realize that shit happens to regular folks every day that puts them in a bad way, whether it's a disaster (natural or man made), or unemployment, or a sickness, or a hundred other reasons.

Maybe they'll realize, now, that they've been voting against their own interests and think about what really matters to them. Their way of life, their children's health, and making sure their job ain't outsourced or destroyed in an effort to make rich people richer. I hope they'll realize, now, that there are people standing in line for checks through no fault of their own.

"Show me your papers" revisited.

I posted on Palast's article back in April. Here it is in video.

Quote of the Day

From Will Durst on BP CEO Hayward's farce-fest with Congress:

Congressional hearings are to hypocrisy what green felt is to pool tables.

Yes, it is all about ideology

The Rude Pundit hadn't paid much attention to the Sunday blabfests yesterday because, even if it has its charms when you're participating, a circle jerk is just weird and depressing to watch, especially on a weekly basis. But then, in one of her standard blurps of incoherency, Sarah Palin tweeted from "her" Blackberry, "RahmEmanuel= as shallow/narrowminded/political/irresponsible as they come,to falsely claim Barton's BP comment is 'GOP philosophy'Rahm,u lie". The Rude Pundit's first reaction, after breaking out the decoder ring and setting it on "fucktard" (it's right after "Enigma"), was "Vicodin's a helluva drug." But then he wondered what President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the subject of such recent disdain out here in the hinterlands of Left Blogsylvania, had said.

Apparently, an unfed Rahm Emanuel is a worthless and/or destructive being (as in his unending willingness to compromise during the health care debate). However, you give him the raw meat of campaign mode, and that motherfucker becomes the nasty wolverine you want on your side. To those paying attention (like the aforementioned former demi-Governor of Alaska), on This Week with Placeholder Jake Tapper, Emanuel offered more for Democrats to battle for than any administration official has in months.

So Sarah Palin's thong was already twisted when Emanuel started offering up pieces of the GOP for devouring, as when he said, "The approach here expressed and supported by other voices in the Republican Party, sees the aggrieved party as BP, not the American -- not the fishermen and the communities down there affected. And that would the governing philosophy. And I think what Joe Barton did is remind the American people, in case they've forgotten, this is how the Republicans would govern."

And, as if to prove Emanuel right (and contrary to the desperate backtracking that Palin and Mitch McConnell and other craven Republicans are doing on Barton), here's crying California Rep. Darrell "Are the cameras on?" Issa on what he'd do with subpoena power in a House of Representatives run by Republicans: "I won't use it to have corporate America live in fear that we're going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing." You got that? Issa's saying that the White House is the enemy that needs to be attacked, not corporations that pollute and steal and kill.

Emanuel is testing a strategy here, laying out a case that ideology matters. If this is the battle line for the midterms, it's got possibilities. It ain't politicizing the oil spill - it's politicizing the Republicans' response to it. Not bad at all. When that snarling bastard Emanuel gets his teeth in something, he's gonna take chunks out of it.

Rahmbo has his place and attack dog is it. That wasn't on MSNBC. People besides us pinkos actually watch the Sunday political talk shows. Good on ya, Rahm. Sic 'em.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

England: Thong Awareness Day Observed
With special discounts for seniors.

My eyes! Aggghhhh...

World Cup Ball Universally Disliked
Everyone agrees it favors their opponent.

Kepler Telescope Spots Planet With Density of Styrofoam
Probably a fake, say astronomers.

Too Much, Too Little Sleep Can Shorten Life
Too much, too little information can kill you.

Too much or too little of the wrong information is what the teabaggers are all about and pisses the rest of us off.

I don't know ...

Thanks to a lot of whitewashing and cover-up, we will likely never know the real circumstances of, and leading up to, the terror attack of 11 September 2001. I'd rather not believe that our government would actually sacrifice the lives of 3000 innocent Americans in order to achieve some crazy ideological goal.

That said, via the Existentialist Cowboy's Facebook page, a few items to make you think. After 8 years of Bush/Cheney, and all the illegal crap they've done, it falls into the realm of probability.

...

9. "President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11..." ..."Tuesday's discussion followed a rare call to Daschle from Vice President Dick Cheney last Friday to make the same request."


10. The Project For a New American Century, which wrote of the need for a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," had members throughout the top of the government on 9/11 including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Bolton, Armitage, Abrams, Wurmser, as well as Bush's brother, the governor of Florida, Jeb.


11. Four days before 9/11, Jeb Bush activated the Florida National Guard, "Based on the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port." (Executive Order 01-261).


12. On 9/11 Jeb Bush declared a "State of Emergency" in Florida (E.O. 01-262). "I hereby delegate to the Department of Law Enforcement the operational authority to coordinate and direct the law enforcement resources and other resources of any and all state, regional and local governmental agencies..." And by 2am on 9/12/01, Jeb Bush was reported to have confiscated the police records in Venice, FL related to the Huffman Aviation flight school. Two rental trucks full of these records drove onto a C-130 military aircraft at Sarasota Airport and flew out with Jeb Bush aboard.


...


It just makes we wonder why none of our elected representatives want to "look back" at anything the previous administration has done.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

California Gal Music Blogging

When ya think of 'California girls', sometimes ya gotta forget the blond hair and store-bought chachabingoes of song and legend and pop culture bullshit and just go with talent. This is Kathy Kallick (website) and her band performing in Denmark, I presume. I just got her new CD, "Between the Hollow (pronounced 'holler' - G) and the High Rise" in the mail the other day.

Kathy's been around a while. Check out her discography. I've only been a fan for about 30 years and I'm glad her stuff is showing up more and more on YouTube.

Sometimes I'm appalled by the sound quality on these videos and sometimes I'm amazed at how well the tiny mics on the vidcams work. This is one of those times.

The song is "You Took Me Away" I think.


The Kathy Kallick Band

Thanks to ngifoto, Denmark.

Stop the presses! California university will allow media at Sarah Palin event!

The Political Carnival

After months of requests from reporters, a California university has agreed to allow members of the media to attend a fundraiser next week featuring Sarah Palin. [...]

...

How out of whack are we if reporting that a public figure with an inappropriate amount of influence is “allowing” us to find out what she’s saying at a fundraiser?

As a mechanic, I'm used to things being "out of whack". I keep refill cans of "whack" in stock in pints, quarts, and gallons. For the "press" and the 1st Amendment I may have to special order the 50-gallon drum.

Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock

Here's the last coupla ¶ of Daddy Frank's column today:

When Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, revived Rand Paul’s defense of BP last week by apologizing on camera to Hayward for the “tragedy” of the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown,” the G.O.P. establishment had to shut him down because he was revealing the party’s true loyalties, not because it disagreed with him (my em). Barton was merely echoing Michele Bachmann, who labeled the $20 billion for gulf victims a “redistribution-of-wealth fund,” and the 100-plus other House members whose Republican Study Committee had labeled the $20 billion a “Chicago-style shakedown” only a day before Barton did.

These tribunes of the antigovernment right and their Tea Party auxiliaries are clamoring for a new revolution to “take back America” — after which, we now can see, they would hand over America to the likes of BP. Let Deepwater Horizon be ground zero for a 9/11 showdown over the role of government. There couldn’t be a riper moment for Obama, as a man once said, to bring it on.

Always remember the First Law Of Bar Fights: Ya gotta bring some ta get some.

The Second Law jumps around that: The sucker punch is yer best friend. The Repugs are sucker punchin' themselves. Heh. Another draft an' some popcorn please, barkeep!