Go Frogs!

Raw Story

French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to the press from Paris just before 11 a.m. EST. He confirmed that there would be U.N.-mandated military action to implement a no-fly zone over Libya in response to the violence and broken cease-fire in the country.
...

French state officials have confirmed the presence of French fighter jets flying over Libya, and Sarkozy said it is "our duty to respond to [the Libyan peoples'] anguished appeal....in the name of the universal conscience."

French fighter jets? In actual action?! Must be a Mirage*...

*Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Qaddafi is apparently not amused:

“This is injustice, it is clear aggression, and it is uncalculated risk for its consequences on the Mediterranean and Europe.

You will regret it if you take a step toward intervening in our internal affairs.”

Uncalculated risk for its consequences on the Mediterranean and Europe? I'll chance it!

Go Frogs!

Note to Mooamar: See that AWACS up there? That's ours. Don't fuck with it or we'll show you 'uncalculated risk' you won't fucking believe. Live with what the French do to you. Better yet, knock off the cheap shit altogether and go live near your money.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging. Maybe.

Something's up with mini-Hal and I can't hear any audio. Let me know in 'comments' if a) you can hear it, and b) is it a good song?

This song was released as a single only i Japan in 1992. The B-side was the song " Get up John" a song from the Live at the Ryma album....
Slow Dancer is a rare song, ad have never bee released again anywhere by Emmylou Harris. its a sought after song these days, so now you have a chance to hear it....
The musicans on this song is unknown but, it was written by W.R Scaggs-George Daly

Thanks to TheMorewood, Norway.

Nothing to see here ...

Move along.

So ...

The rumor is true? All black men have big cocks? Because the half-breed (I can say that, I'm one myself, heh ...) in the White House sure as hell thinks he does and now he's trying to wave it around.

President Barack Obama said Friday that "left unchecked, we have every reason to believe Gadhafi (will) commit atrocities against his own people" and the surrounding region could be destabilized.

...

Started off good ...

...

A cease-fire must be implemented immediately, and Gadhafi's troops must be pulled back from several cities, he said. Power and water must be restored to those cities, he declared.

"These terms are not negotiable," Obama said.

...

How did we go from hemming and hawing on the no-fly zone to giving ultimatums from Washington instead of the UN?

I mean, Jeez, Barry, couldn't you have said that when you were negotiating the health care bill? How about when it comes time for all the phony budget "cuts" the Rethugs want and you're caving to? The words "non-negotiable" are not in his vocabulary at all, except when it comes to bonking Muammar on the head with his newfound twelve inch schlong (He should be doing it to Boner). Heaven forbid he'd be so forthright when it came to his own people.

...

If Gadhafi doesn't comply, the U.N. resolution will be imposed through military action. The United States will work as part of an international coalition, Obama said, but American troops will not be deployed in Libya.

...

Yeah, whaddaya call the guys in the Hornets off Enterprise, idiot?

Personally, I'm hung like my mother, but I got a set of nuts that's gold plated cast iron. Hey, Barry, I'll trade you when it comes time to negotiate the new budget with the Republicans. I am so sick of him.

Headin' Out

We're going out to the coast today. See yas later.

Update:

Made it fine. Rain and gusty wind most of the way.

I offer a prayer for all the non-wet-weather-drivin' morons that were on the road: Lord forgive them for they know not what they do, and forgive me for my language and gestures.

Blonde vs Bear

I watched a show last night that you might like. It's called "Blonde vs Bear" on Animal Planet and it's about a local legend around here named Ann Bryant of the BEAR League and her efforts to keep bears from being killed because of stupid humans or the bears' own instincts that get them in trouble with same. This ol' gal is the bears' best friend around here and occasionally the center of controversy. She likes bears better than people and sometimes I don't blame her.

AP

RENO, Nev.—A longtime bear protection group at Lake Tahoe is the focus of an upcoming series of episodes on the national television program Animal Planet.

The three-part mini-series "Blonde vs. Bear" offers an up close look at volunteers for the Homewood, Calif.-based BEAR League as they respond to calls about bears and conflicts with humans around the lake and neighboring mountains.

The first episode is 10 p.m. Thursday with the others set for 10 p.m. March 24 and 31.

BEAR League Executive Director Ann Bryant says a film crew spent more than four months with volunteers last summer. She says they've had national media attention before but the Animal Planet shows will offer an in-depth study of the non-profit group's work to keep bears safe and wild in their natural habitat.

Animal Planet reruns stuff all the time, so check the listings for last night's episode. Give it a look. You'll get to see what my area looks like as well.

Breaking ...

Western nations left holding dick in hand.

No sooner had the no-fly zone been set up than the Libyan Lunatic declares a cease-fire.

Libya declared a ceasefire in the country to protect civilians and comply with a United Nations resolution passed overnight, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said on Friday.

"We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations," he told reporters.

Earlier Friday, Moammar Gadhafi's regime defiantly closed Libya's airspace to all traffic while the West made plans to enforce a no-fly zone and prevent his forces from attacking rebels after the UN authorized “all necessary measures” to protect the Libyan people, including airstrikes.

...

So, now what?

Do we just sit back and merely enforce the no fly zone? Do we continue with the military buildup and pursue "regime change"? Or do we live with a stalemate until Gadhafi figures out how to bring the rebelling tribes into 'compliance' covertly?

With all the bullshit going around since this shit started (Should we help the rebels, should we not? - Who should help the rebels, who should not?), I'll betcha nobody gamed out this scenario.

Update:

Via C&L, a few things to think about concerning Libya:

...

So what should our forces do if Qaddafi quashes the rebellion despite the no-fly zone? Do we slink away quietly? Or, as is perhaps more likely, do we escalate our military intervention with either more aggressive rules of engagement, or the introduction of ground forces, to rescue the routed rebels? Shouldn't we consider whether we want to take on such a commitment before we head down a path of supposed limited intervention that could tilt steeply toward a much deeper involvement?

...

Flashbacks ...

For those of you in my generation (who remember the nightly reports on the news from Vietnam), doesn't this sound familiar?

...

"The enemy is indeed on the run," she said.

"It is demoralized and divided. Let us not give up now. Let us not betray the sacrifices of our men and women serving in harm's way and ask for nothing in return except our full support."

...

That was Republican rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen explaining why she voted against the bill (it failed in the House) to accelerate the timetable for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Which brings me to our good friend Comrade Misfit, who made another Vietnam analogy that brought me back to my youth:

...

For decades after the Vietnam War, the prevailing military thinking was that focusing on body counts had been a bad thing, that it was a false metric. As it was pointed out by the dissenters then, the U.S. had a huge firepower advantage and the fact that there were more enemy dead also indicated that there were more enemy soldiers to kill.

And so it is here. The Taliban has small arms and IEDs. The NATO Coalition has artillery, attack aircraft, helicopters and armed drones.

...

The American people get it. 64% of us at least. When I was in we used to laugh at the Soviets; calling it "their Vietnam" and how they should have learned the lessons we did in Southeast Asia.

Wonder who's laughing now?

Da, is "Americanski Afghanistan". Heh ... More vodka, Boris.

Probably right ...

Our pal Lambert:

One of life's little ironies is that "we" fought the war in Iraq for the oil, and then Eurotrash like BP got first dibs on the contracts. But there's more oil to be had in Libya!

...

Knowing how "corporate-friendly" Obama is, how long once Gadafy Kaddaffi Godawful ... whatever his name is, is out (and you know, now, that since the UN gave their blessing, we're going all the way) before we hear Exxon or somebody else has exclusive rights to their oil fields as "payment" to us for saving their asses? Wouldn't surprise me if Barry arranged the quid pro quo already.

Too good ...

Found this through the ASPCA's Facebook page:

Beef flavoured, non alcoholic and non carbonated beer brewed especially for dogs. Dogs love human beer but it is really unhealthy for them so after a lot of research we developed DB-Dog Beer which is safe for them to drink.

...

Our Ziva is a little drunk (she's constantly trying to get at my beer). She'll love this.

"So, when's it getting here, dad?"

Thank god ...

I'm a white guy (sorta) and I live on Long Island. I'd love to pack the wife and the dogs into the car for a road trip to Buffalo so I can punch this motherfucker out (I'll let the Dingo Sisters have him once he's down):

Congressional candidate Jack Davis shocked local Republican leaders in a recent interview when he suggested that Latino farmworkers be deported -- and that African-Americans from the inner city be bused to farm country to pick the crops.

...

We're gonna party like it's 1865!

Thanks to Mr. Field Negro for the link.

I'm surprised ...

The wingnuts haven't called for war with Japan:

Small amounts of radioactive isotopes from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant are being blown toward North America high in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and will reach California as soon as Friday, according to experts.

...

Oh noez, they attacked us with a dirty bomb!!!1!!!eleventy!!1 Pearl Harbor! Kill the Gooks!!1! USA! USA!

Quote of the Day

Drifty:

...

I am not interested in the opinions of Conservatives.

I am interested in seeing how far into the political desert they and their Centrist enablers can be driven.

...

Later

Got a lotta runnin' around to do today so we can get outta town tomorrow and go to the coast for the weekend, right next to Diablo Canyon. I feel radiant and tingly all over just thinkin' about it! Gotta get a bottle of iodine ta chug in case of mishap, like another jellyfish attack. See yas.

In my dreams...

Sharron Angle jumps into Nevada congressional race

My dream is to meet her and shake her hand in front of TV cameras:

"Hiya Sharron! Nice ta meetcha! You're the hooker from Elko*, right?"

* If I had hookers that looked like Angle working for me, I wouldn't put up their pictures either.

Repug Meltdown In Wisconsin

A 'must read' at Kos:

Wow, that M&I bank boycott has the GOPers suffering from a severe attack of the vapors. They're talking about having a witch hunt, firing all the cops and firefighters, and bringing in the National Guard. Moe Lane and the boys have taken to the fainting couch over this, and RedState has two diaries this week:
...

They want the Wisconsin government to force the police and firefighters to not join the bank boycott, although they are a little hazy on how that would work, but of course their imagination immediately leaps to bayonets and bloodshed whenever strikers are involved. These guys clearly want Madison to be some sort of company town or Soviet work camp, because not only do they want to be able to control union membership they want iron-fisted control of where people shop.

Wisconsin cops & firemen break their oaths.
Posted by Moe Lane
Saturday, March 12th at 8:00PM EST
It would seem that loyalty to their union masters take precedence over loyalty to the people of Wisconsin. From a contemptible letter written to M&I Bank threatening a boycott....

Really Moe, they took an "oath" to use that bank? Really?

They howl that the firemen are threatening to let the bank burn down.

Accusing firefighters of threatening to let the bank burn down is not the result of madness or drug use, it's how a ringleader whips up a crowd, often for group violence: "She's a witch......that stranger on the tour bus is here to steal children....my horse died because that Jew poisoned my well....the uppity niggra looked at my daughter....that wizard stole my penis (you can look up "penis theft") .... Obama is a Mau-Mau and he just raised the price of gasoline."

Nobody questions the accusations of disloyalty against the cops and firefighters, and there are demands for the iron fist:
1) The boycott should be prosecuted under the RICO act, because nothing says organized crime like not shopping at some place you don't like.
2) The National Guard should be called in (again)
3) The cops and fire fighters should be fired and put in prison, and their jobs given to temps? Interns? Or Republicans! Because you know, "merit based" means Republicans.

More...............

No shit 'more'! Go!

Shopping and putting your money where you want to instead of where the Repugs tell you is definitely 'uppity' and you should be in prison!. The Repugs up there are spinnin' down inta Crazyland and I'm enjoying the shit out of it!

One more quote:

The second diary publishes the email of firefighters and police union board members so wingnuts can pester them.

Oh yeah, that is such a good idea, sending loony wingnut rants to the police.

Oh, by all means, do! Bwahahahaha!

"... Charlie Sheen counter-insurgency strategy ..."

Or, "Baghdad Bob Does Afghanistan".

Heh ...

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) accused Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, of employing a "Charlie Sheen" strategy in trying to convince the American public to stay the course in Afghanistan.

"General Petraeus is giving us the Charlie Sheen counter-insurgency strategy, which is to give exclusive interviews to every major network, and to keep saying 'we're winning' and hope the public actually agrees with you," Woolsey said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday.

...

Erin-go-bragh (less) ...

A happy St. Paddy's Day to my Leprechaun Irish friends, both actual and imagined. Be careful and don't run afoul of Mayor Bloomberg's Morality Police:

...

If any people hope to get inebriated today at the parade, they'll have to deal with the police.

The NYPD says it will enforce a zero-tolerance policy toward open containers.

...

I realize the parade has gotten out of hand in years past (just ride the Long Island Rail Road this afternoon and you'll see what I mean) but to the NYPD, "zero-tolerance" is code for "bust some heads". Try not to be on the wrong end of a baton or taser.

I know it was built well ...

For the time because my dad did all the testing on the structure and containment during construction. The plant paid a lot of bills in this house as I was growing up and my dad was always proud of the work he did there. The words "Indian Point" were used a lot around here for nearly a decade when I was a kid. "Where's pop," I'd ask and the answer would inevitably be "at Indian Point; he'll be home Friday night". Sad to see one of the touchstones of my life end up being one of the things that might possibly kill me:

...

And it turns out that the nuclear reactor in the United States with the highest risk of core damage from a quake is not the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, with its twin reactors tucked between the California coastline and the San Andreas Fault.

It's not the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a four-hour drive down the Pacific coast at San Clemente, surrounded by fault lines on land and under the ocean.

It's not on the Pacific Coast at all. It's on the Hudson River.

...

Indian Point was state-of-the-art for its time (unfortunately a lot has fallen into disrepair) and its license comes up for renewal in 2013. Hopefully, Governor Cuomo does what he promised and not renew it, but a lot can change in 2 years.

Yeah ...

Let's all just run out and buy iodine. It seems we prove, daily, that we are a nation of idiots.

Quote of the Day

Wiki

The original San Onofre Unit-1 Power Plant was used as the "Gotham City" Atomic Reactor in the 1960s Batman TV show starring Adam West.

Ulllp...

Just for you, Froggy

"Vegas, Baby!" Heh.

But what about ...

That extra eye you have, Watanabe?

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. military took new steps to shield personnel from radiation spread by Japan's crippled nuclear plant on Tuesday, redirecting arriving warships to safer waters and telling some forces to limit time outdoors.

...

At the Yokosuka Naval Base, 200 miles (320 km) south of the plant, the U.S. Navy recommended personnel and families to take precautions after detecting low levels of radiation there. The same instructions were given to personnel at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which is about 150 miles (240 km) from the plant.

...

Seems to me that if the U.S. military is concerned enough to move their people at least 50 miles from the Daiichi nuke plant and give warnings to the troops in Yokosuka and Atsugi, the Japanese government isn't being forthcoming with its people.

...

Edano told reporters that beyond the 12-mile radius the level should be reduced to one where harm to human health would be minimal or non-existent, although that would depend on wind speed and direction. He said a "minimal amount" of radioactive material might spread to metropolitan areas, but not at harmful levels, adding: "We want you to keep calm. We can continue with our daily lives."

...

Sorta sounds like the Chimp telling us to go shopping after September 11th.

Titled at last...

The idiotic and criminal way "Project Gunrunner" has been totally mishandled has turned into my pet peeve of the moment. Backstory here (via Liquida - it's amazing what ya find when ya google Brain posts to find them)).

TPMMuckraker

Feds Indict Mayor, Police Chief Of Border Town As ATF 'Gunrunner' Program Faces Heat

Much more and you should read and here's the 'heat':

The Obama administration has been so nervous about Project Gunrunner that in 2009, they ordered the ATF to clear all media requests directly by the Justice Department, according to internal e-mails obtained by TPM through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. A number of e-mails remind staffers that "DOJ Office of Public Affairs wants to review and approve all national/international media requests on southwest border-related issues before interviews are conducted."

Not "knock off the cheap shit and start keeping those guns from getting across the border or I'll tear ya a new asshole", but "don't talk to anybody about this clusterfuck until ya clear it with the home office". Hey, dudes, the coverup's worse than the crime, remember? In this case it's not but it's still bad.

If I was in charge of this, and the perpetrators better be damn glad I'm not, I'd have whichever ATF brain surgeon came up with this idiocy go down to Mexico and personally retrieve each and every firearm he let 'walk'. There are approximately 2500 of them. I betcha after 3 or 4 hundred brain surgeons come back in tiny little boxes the border would magically seal up.

Saved By Sharia

TPM

The diplomatic standoff over CIA contractor Raymond Davis ended on Wednesday, after a Pakistani court acquitted and released Davis, who had been held for almost 2 months after shooting two men dead on the streets of Lahore. But the resolution came only after a deal was reached to pay the victims' families what the Punjab Law Minister called "blood money" -- in accordance with Islamic law.

In other words, Davis may have been bailed out by sharia.

As we know, there are a buncha right-wing yahoos proposing legislation to ban Islamic sharia law in this country, not that there's a chance in hell of it but it plays well to the tiny-brained. As soon as they find out that all you have to do to be acquitted of a crime even as serious as murder, i.e. declared as pure as the driven snow simply by paying off the victims, they'll change their tune.

The American Taliban will be on this like stink on shit (carefully chosen words). Oh, they'll change sharia's name to something like "God's Good White Christian Law" and call it The American Way. It's tailor-made for Repugs.

Or maybe they'll cut to the chase and make it a crime to be one of their victims or complain about their treatment of people. That's probably more like it.

FYI: TMI = $$

AT&T to cap users’ Internet access, impose fees for too much information

If you didn't see Rachel ...

Last night, you missed a good, "layman-friendly" segment on how the Japanese nuclear reactors work and why another big problem is the "spent fuel pools". Catch it on her blog.

It's amazing ...

What you see when you turn the lights on. For instance:

Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.

...

A US embassy cable obtained by the WikiLeaks website and seen by The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed expert who expressed concern that guidance on how to protect nuclear power stations from earthquakes had only been updated three times in the past 35 years.

...

The cables also disclose how the Japanese government opposed a court order to shut down another nuclear power plant in western Japan because of concerns it could not withstand powerful earthquakes.

...

In this day of lousy reportage on anything aside celebrity meltdowns (and there we learn every insignificant detail), we should all thank our lucky stars for organizations like Wikileaks.

Link thanks to DU.

My Senator ...

Has bigger balls than the President:

Between General Petraeus and President Obama there have been enough fudge factors and weasel words spoken to make it impossible to say if we will ever end Obama's shitty little war in Afghanistan. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand D-NY has called for a clear timetable of withdrawal and support for Senator Boxer's Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces from Afghanistan Act.

...

Nice to see somebody supporting the troops.

No more links ...

To the Huffington Post and they've been deleted from the blogroll. Why?

...

Yes, folks -- this is what HuffPo has come to -- giving Andrew Breitbart a podium to defend a sniveling little rat-faced git who ought to right now be a prison bitch for a 350-pound mass murderer.

...

Sorry, Arianna*, but you're one of the problems with this country. You value money more than principle. You're outta here.

*Sorry, Gord, I know she's your FBTGR but she stepped on her dick with this one.

Question:

Is The U.S. Prepared For A Radiation Emergency?

Answer: No

As Japan struggles to bring its spiraling nuclear catastrophe under control, a new study in a journal published by the American Medical Association (AMA) finds that, from a public health standpoint, U.S. states are "poorly prepared" to respond to a major radiation emergency.

...

We can only count on the safety of nuke plants as far as it doesn't interfere with the bottom line. After that, we're on our own.

Quote of the Day

Herr Aristophanes:

So Let Me Get This Straight …

The wingnut message is basically that we should simultaneously expand our use of nuclear energy while shrinking government’s ability to regulate it.

...

And to prove this anecdotally, my wingnut brother-in-law is already parroting the Fox "News" line that the liberal media are blowing the Daiichi meltdown out of proportion. He was on the phone with the Mrs. yesterday and I knew he'd gone to that political place when I heard the Mrs. say "you gotta stop watching Fox".

And just a note, I have the child lock (password protected and I forgot the password) on Fox "News" Channel on every TV in the house, even the guest rooms. You can watch all the porn you want here but FNC ist verboten in this house.

Light blogging today

Things to do today. See yas.

There's always another one waiting in the wings...

TPM

That freshman New Hampshire state Rep who said "defective people" (including the mentally ill, the retarded and the drug addicted) should be sent to Siberia to die has now resigned.

Press statement from the New Hampshire House Speaker after the fold ...

That's good, but...

KS GOP State Rep. Compares Undocumented Immigrants To Pigs, Suggests Shooting Them From Helicopters

Note to anyone pushing a lawnmower (do people still do that?) or a baby carriage or havin' a smoke outside the back door of a restaurant, duck if ya hear a helo!

Where do we get these yingyangs? Oh, that's right, the tiny-brained elect them as representative of themselves.

We're in real trouble.

Good ...

Hit 'em where it hurts:

...

With over $6 trillion of workers’ money in retirement plans, pension funds, profit-sharing and stock plans and union reserve funds, workers have the ability to reshape the economy and political priorities of the economic elite.

Greedy bastids never thought about the fact the public still holds a lot of money and if they invest it as a bloc, it'll screw all these rich motherfuckers to hell.

Thanks to Susie for the link.

I hate to say it ...

But, as someone who has been in the nuclear field both as a civilian (my dad's business was a testing lab, destructive and non-destructive) and in the military (2 years in SAC, working with nuclear-armed B-52s), word coming out of Japan doesn't sound good.

It's one thing for them to release ionized inert gases (Nitrogen-16) and deal with the consequences of that (shower decom + iodine pills) but when the heavier particles (Cesium isotopes) are released, you know you've got a big problem on your hands. Let's hope the powers-that-be start mandatory evacuations before the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki become all too real once again.

See yas!

This is all I need to hear:

Is Afghanistan a sovereign nation or not? I guess we'll find out. During a meeting in Kunar to discuss recent civilian deaths including those of children, President Karzai said:

"On behalf of you and the Afghan people, today I would like to respectfully, and not arrogantly, ask Nato and the US forces to stop their operations in our land"

...

We should up and split so quick, Karzai's funny little hat would spin around.

Christ ...

When I said this:

...

Don't we sell planes to Saudi Arabia?

...

I didn't mean they should do this:

...

It’s a move that undercuts the Obama administration’s rosy portrayal of the monarchy. Despite a paroxysm of violence in February when security forces attacked protesters in the capitol city of Manama, “today, the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain is a place of nonviolent activism,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured reporters on March 1. After a visit last week to Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Gates said he was convinced the royals “are serious about real reform.”

If so, that lasted until about when Gates’ plane went wheels-up. Security forces are now trying to clear Manama’s financial district of protesters, firing tear gas canisters into demonstrators’ chests. About 1000 Saudi troops entered Bahrain on Monday, ostensibly to protect government installations, but protesters at the Pearl Roundabout set up barricades in preparation for the Saudis attacking them. The leading Shia opposition party, Wefaq, called it a “declaration of war and an occupation.”

...

That's nice. So, I wonder what the White House will say to the Bahrainis now. Is he gonna say the Royal Family should go, just like the Libyan? Should the Saudi Royal Family have to make the decision to stay or go too, Mr. Obama?

I will direct the President to refresh himself about recent history, 30-odd years in fact, the last time we propped up a Middle Eastern royal family in the face of a Shiite uprising. You'll see an Ayatollah running the place before you see "democratic reform", whatever that means in this day and age. But hell, this is the guy who chose to escalate in Afghanistan instead of running like the wind. I wonder how fast the 5th Fleet can get underway once the revolution comes to Bahrain?

If you think Libya is a mess, wait until the Emirates start falling and gas prices go through the roof. Wait until Iran is the major player in the region. If Obama is smart, he'll stick every spare nickel we have in alternative energy because if the Emirates go down, ain't nobody gonna be able to drive, or fly, or take the train anywhere.

The leak we've been waitng for

At last, a 'crosshairs' reference no one will mind! Except B of A of course, and fuck them.



Think Progress

The pro-WikiLeaks hacktavist community* known as “Anonymous” released a series of emails today “provided by a former Bank of America employee who claims they show how a division of the bank sought to hide information on foreclosures.” Commenting on the documents, one member of “Anonymous” said, “The way the system is, it’s made to cheat the average person.”

*Goes to bankamericasuck.com which features a 'short' 30min video on why it's called the American "Dream" and the emails and links.

Ya think Wikileaks caught some shit for the Afghan and State Dept. leaks? Now they're fuckin' with the moneychangers. And rightly so, but when it comes to retaliation they ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Note to Anonymous: Ask Jesus how that worked out for him. Watch your backs.

Here's hopin' we see some details in the corporate media and not just on the 'toobz, but more likely we'll hear about what an awful crime the leak is. The Captains of Finance can rape, pillage, plunder, and steal all the money in the world with the help of their Repug toadies and no one says a word, but exposing them is a no-no.

Update:

More here.

The core of conservative ideology

This should remove any lingering doubt for those just returned from off-planet. TPM:

CNBC host Larry Kudlow apologized Friday for a startling remark made after the devastating earthquake in Japan.

"The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that," Kudlow said.

Apology or not, he's a dick.

Where's Moses when we need him?

Stay seated, Mr. Heston.

Thanks to Slate.

Owsley Stanley - '60s counterculture icon

You probably have to be my age to remember this guy. "Owsley" acid was the Gold Standard back in the day.

EssEffChron

Owsley Stanley, an icon of Bay Area counterculture in the 1960s and a longtime associate of the Grateful Dead, died Sunday in a car accident in his adopted home of Queensland, Australia, according to family spokesperson Sam Cutler. He was 76.

Known as "Bear," Mr. Stanley came to prominence as the first to manufacture LSD in quantity. Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" was believed to have been inspired by a particularly potent batch of Mr. Stanley's product. The Dead wrote the song "Alice D. Millionaire" in his honor after a headline in a 1967 newspaper article referred to him as an "LSD Millionaire."

Many of Mr. Stanley's live recordings of the Dead were released as albums. Along with Bob Thomas, he also designed the band's famous lighting bolt skull logo, known officially as Steal Your Face.

Before enrolling at UC Berkeley in 1963, Mr. Stanley served in the U.S. Air Force and studied ballet in Los Angeles. He dropped out of school after one semester once he discovered the recipe for making LSD in the Journal of Organic Chemistry at a UC Berkeley library.

Air Force...ballerina...I'm sure there's a connection there somewhere and why can't I make winky smiley faces with this thing?

While working a technical job at KGO TV, Mr. Stanley started manufacturing large quantities of LSD. Bear Research Group reputedly made more than 1.25 million doses between 1965 and 1967, essentially seeding the entire modern psychedelic movement.

I'm not sure how 'modern' the 'psychedelic movement' is since most of us are old farts like me now, but Mr. Stanley was certainly at the forefront of it.

So long to Frank Rich

Excellent post by Jurassicpork:

This quote mirrors my sentiments exactly:

I was a relatively late newcomer to Frank Rich's genius. I didn't begin to read the Op-Eds until I became a political blogger over six years ago (rivaling Rich's 17 year-long tenure at the Times in blogger years). Later, when that venerable institution made the colossal blunder of trying to put their Op-Ed columnists behind the velvet rope of Times Select, thereby making them available only to paying subscribers, my interest in the Op-Ed, and Rich's canon, really took off. Back then we bloggers would vie to see who could poach Rich's byline first and get the coveted link (and maybe, Oh God, the Big Headline) on Buzzflash when it was still Buzzflash.

Rich didn't have the brutal elegance or write the perfumed poison pen belles letters of a James Wolcott nor did he turn into some tiresome nickname-slinging insider like Maureen Dowd. Somehow, over the course of nearly 20 years, he'd avoided espousing controversial, and bigoted, opinions that would end his career. It's to his enduring legacy that he never suffered the same fate as Helen Thomas.

He nails The Gray Lady to the wall too. Sorry about that visual:

Indeed, not only had the NY Times dropped the ball on that, as it had during Vietnam, but also on 9/11, Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina (.pdf of the original article, not the silently-amended one in the Times' archives), etc. Judith Miller, in fact, was so embedded with the weapons inspectors and the Screaming Eagles that she was practically writing policy and was squarely in the middle of the Valerie Plame outing. And who that follows the Times can forget the fake articles of Jason Blair?

Not only that, to this day they're still censoring the late Molly Ivins because of a PG-13 joke about "chicken pluckers," hardly the grudge that one would expect for a newspaper branded for decades by conservative mouth breathers as being a bastion of liberal propaganda. Like Rich, Ivins, the ultimate liberal pundit, felt the Times was too claustrophobic and creatively stifling.

Much more, many links.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Qaddafi Promises Real Reforms, Free Elections
Once opposition has been crushed.

Teachers Under Attack Across Country
Blamed for making us so stupid.

Gingrich Blames His Love Of Country for Past Affairs
Assures current wife he'll keep his patriotism in his pants.

Makes ya wonder what he waves at parades...

Revealed: Many Callers to Morning Radio Shows Actors
Also: hosts phonies, listeners idiots.

If it were up to me ...

Obama would be facing a primary next year:

...

And so we who abhor what is going on -- the government's authority to invade privacy, among other things, under the Patriot Act; the treatment of Bradley Manning; Gitmo remaining open with detainees kept indefinitely and subjected to military "trials"; etc. -- end up backing Obama (and his Democratic enablers) just because the other side is worse. Which is hardly much of an endorsement of the president.

...

No hope, little change. That's what we have to look forward to.

Moggie!

Everything that's old is new again! Something verrrrrry strange and wonderful at Fixer & Gordon.

Madness in Mad Town

Will Durst

Best be vigilant for an inadvertent head butt as the eyes of the world recoil from that crazed leader, besieged in his own capital, defying reality while obstinately holding onto a tenuous power and attacking his citizenry through a conflicted security force. Of course, I'm talking about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Think a slightly less swarthy Midwestern version of Col. Gadhafi.

Wisconsin is the birthplace of the Progressive movement, with a long, proud history of activism. So, this naked power grab runs the risk of offending ordinary Wisconsinites like a New York cheddar winning the blue medal at the State Fair. And whose legality is more suspect than heroin in a holding cell.

More paranoid people might smell a conspiracy. Wealthy Wall Street bankers cause an economic meltdown, make obscene profits in the ensuing recession, then convince the populace that everything can simply be fixed through more tax cuts. So they can create jobs. Of course with $5-a-gallon gasoline, that two-way commute to China is going to be a bitch.

But if you think The Walker Coup means this issue is dead, you've obviously been spending too much time toasting the sunset while eating watercress sandwiches on the bridge of your yacht. As is their way, the GOP might once again have overreached and awakened a sleeping giant. Today, we are all Cheeseheads. Or as JFK might have said, "Ich bin ein kaasekopf."

All heck is about to break loose. While sanctions and a no-fly zone may not be on the table, recalls, retribution and recriminations definitely are. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear the Pooh-Bahs in the upper echelon of the AFL- CIO decide to bestow Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with its Organizer of the Year Award. Richy-Richly deserved.

Didn't Dubya get the same award from al Qaeda?

I've said it for years - next time we get to be the Viet Cong...

A Little Sunday Afternoon Chanky-Chank!

Make sure your knees are clear of the keyboard. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Un titre supplémentaire: "Lève Tes Fenêtres Haut*" avant le rappel: "Jambalaya" par SARAH SAVOY et les FRANCADIENS au Festival Musique et Danses Cajun & Zydeco de Louisiane à Pontchartrain, le 21 mai 2010.

*Literally "Get up your High Windows". Probably slang for "Let's blow dem windows out!"

Un Pont vers la LOUISIANE - Sarah Savoy & les Francadiens (2) - PONTCHARTRAIN 2010

Thanks to PatakaisseTV, France.

The Plan to Steal Everything and Sell the People into Slavery

Counterpunch

On Wednesday evening, in a veritable Night of the Long Knives, Wisconsin's integrity was brutally murdered on the floor of the state Capitol in Madison. [...]

I think Night of the Long Knives is an odd reference, but it satisfies Godwin's law, I guess. If Walker was pulling off a modern Kolibri of the Teabaggers v the Repugs, then it fits. Since it was mostly an attack on working people, I see it as being a little closer to Kristallnacht as a reference. Mox nix, a takeover is a takeover. But I digress.

Economics textbooks, along with Fox News and shout radio commentators, spread the myth that fortunes are gained productively by investing in capital equipment and employing labor to produce goods and services that people want to buy. This may be how economies prosper, but it is not how fortunes are most easily made. One need only to turn to the 19th-century novelists such as Balzac to be reminded that behind every family fortune lies a great theft, often long-forgotten or even undiscovered.

But who is one to steal from? Most wealth in history has been acquired either by armed conquest of the land, or by political insider dealing, such as the great US railroad land giveaways of the mid 19th century. The great American fortunes have been founded by prying land, public enterprises and monopoly rights from the public domain, because that's where the assets are to take.

Throughout history the world's most successful economies have been those that have kept this kind of primitive accumulation in check. The US economy today is faltering largely because its past barriers against rent-seeking are being breached.

Nowhere is this more disturbingly on display than in Wisconsin. [...]

They're keeping it quieter elsewhere.

A peek into Governor Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" reveals a shop of horrors that is just the opposite of actually repairing the budget. Among the items listed in the bill until Wednesday night were selloffs of state power generation facilities – in no-bid contracts notoriously prone to insider dealing.

The 37 facilities he wants to sell off that produce heating and cooling at low cost to the state's universities and prisons. Walker's budget repair bill would have unloaded them at a low price, presumably to campaign contributors such as Koch Industries – and then stick the bill for producing this power at higher rates to Wisconsin taxpayers in perpetuity. (And this is all being sold as a "taxpayer relief" plan!) Invariably, this will make its way into new legislation once attention is diverted from the current controversy.

The budget bill also plans to tear down the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). This is not New Jersey, where a succession of corrupt governments have underfunded (read: stolen) the state pension system in order to shift resources to pay for budget shortfalls in general revenues caused by tax breaks for the rich. The WRS is one of the nation's most stable, well-funded and best-managed pension systems. [...]

I'm sure the $75B the WRS has in reserves look pretty good to the Kochsuckers as well.

Other proposals suggest selling off Wisconsin's public northwoods lands with their cornucopia of mineral and timber wealth. And much more is said to be in the works.

So Walker's war is not only against the Democrats and labour, it is against Wisconsin's Progressive Era institutions. His policy threatens to pauperize the state and deal a coup de grace to Progressive Era institutions and impoverish the state's middle class. Contra John Maynard Keynes's gentle suggestion of "euthanasia of the rentier", it is the middle class that is being euthanized – throughout North America and Europe.

I think pitchforks and scythes respect the 'rule of law' every bit as much as the Repug thieves do. Soon...

U.S. border town mayor arrested on gun running charges

TPM

The U.S. Attorney's office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment.

The operation comes days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered an investigation into a controversial ATF operation that allowed guns bought in the United States to slip into Mexico, in the hope of nabbing major drug kingpins.

The U.S. Attorney's office said every effort had been made to seize firearms from defendants nabbed in Columbus to prevent them from entering Mexico. It added that no guns were knowingly allowed to cross the border.

Yeah, I'm sure the official line is something like, "Gee, we have no idea where all those AKs went..."

Columbus NM is remembered mostly for being attacked by Pancho Villa in 1916.

Our Mexican cross-border culture is one culture with a line drawn through it from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and called two cultures by people who think the line makes a difference.

Daddy Frank's Last

Daddy Frank is moving on. This is his last column at the NYTimes.

That’s just one of countless reasons I leave The Times feeling as reverent about it as I did when I arrived. Neither it nor any other institution is infallible, as was illustrated most recently during the run-up to the Iraq invasion. But The Times is our essential news organization, and more so now than ever, when so many others have dwindled in size, ambition and scope. Should anyone have even an iota of doubt about The Times’s crucial role in helping its readers navigate the tumult of the 21st century, just revisit its reportage from the roiling tempests of the Middle East in recent weeks. There is nothing like it in American journalism, and that will still be the case whether you read The Times on paper or get it beamed directly into your brain once Apple unleashes that app.

Being a columnist at a place like this can be exhilarating. But not because the job is as influential as some loyal Times readers still seem to think. A columnist’s clout may well have been overstated even in Lippmann’s heyday, but it has certainly dimmed in an age when everyone can and does broadcast opinions on the Web, Facebook or Twitter, let alone in print, or on cable or radio. No opinionator in any of these media could prevent the war in Iraq or derail the rise of Sarah Palin. Nor did pundits create phenomena like Barack Obama or the Tea Party. The forces of history are far bigger than any of a democracy’s individual voices, however loud or widely disseminated. That’s one reason America is so thrilling to write about.

So long, Pops. Write when ya get work.

Tomorrow ...

Should be an interesting day. Let's see if we'll hear anything about it in the MSM:

...

Monday, when Anonymous releases the information on Bank of [America], may be a day that goes down in history as 'the day, the tide turned and the criminals who have destroyed [our] national and international economies,' are finally held to answer to the taxpayers who bailed their asses out, while they continue to cover up this epic illegal transfer of wealth to the top one percent of our nation, and continue daily to fleece Americans which is being given the Good House Keeping Seal of Approval by Ben Bernanke, and the Federal Reserve.

...

I got a $20 bill that says Obama/Holder/Bernanke try to sweep this under the rug post haste. In case that plan goes to shit, they will stall investigations until we forget about it. I'm pretty confident, judging from the track record, that nobody's going to jail here either.

What?

Don't any of them have an air force?

RAS LANUF, Libya and CAIRO March 12 – Arab countries appealed to the UN to impose a no-fly zone on Libya as pro-government troops backed by warplanes fought to drive rebels from remaining strongholds in the west of the country.

...

Don't we sell planes to Saudi Arabia?

Now, I don't have a problem with us helping those who ask for it but there are 26 members of the Arab League. Can't they get together and figure out a way to get The Man Whose Name None Can Spell out and protect the civilians?

This is their and the Europeans' backyard, let them step up. We've got enough problems in that part of the world. Besides, we're "broke" aren't we?