Saturday, July 23, 2011

Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, And Loud Loud Music. Been There, Done That, Got The Liver To Prove It...

Great article today in the LATimes Magazine about country music in Southern California back in the day. I well remember Town Hall Party on TV on Saturday nights. To a 13-year-old kid who was already a social outcast for liking country music, this was hot shit!

Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and LOUD, LOUD music) performed by Joe Maphis & wife Rose Lee, LIVE in 1959.

Maphis. known for the flatpicking style he developed in the 1930's, sings magnificent harmony with wife Rose in this 1950's crowd-pleaser.

Thanks to weirdovideos, Afghanistan (?!).

Hot enough for ya?

EssEffChron

(07-23) 07:21 PDT Reno, Nev. (AP) --

Hundreds of skiers and snowboarders are expected to hit the slopes as a Sierra Nevada ski resort opens for the day Saturday.

Boreal Mountain Resort spokeswoman Jody Churich says a record seasonal snowfall is allowing the latest opening ever at her resort located atop Donner Summit near Truckee, Calif.
...

Boreal reported receiving about 66 feet of snow this season, surpassing its record of 55 feet set in 1994-95.

It would be unkind to say "suffer, bitchez" so I won't.

Headline of the Day

Woman accused in penis attack may have tainted victim's tofu soup

That is just wrong on sooooo many levels...

Ziva and Da Chooch at the beach

Nothing like a cooling dip on a hot day! And something to herd as well! Life is good...

Thanks to ruste13, Oz, and the LATimes.

Another turd ...

In Rick Perry's pool:

... The National Review Online reports that Texas GOP governor Rick Perry appears to be getting serious about running for president because apparently he is "brushing up on foreign policy." And who is helping Perry with the brushing? None other than Doug Feith, whom Gen. Tommy Franks famously referred to as the "stupidest guy on the face of the earth." ... [my em]


If God didn't like him before, he's in for some smiting for sure now. Heh ...

Great thanks to Athenae for the link.

Said it before ...

And I'll say it again. Republicans just ain't funny.

Heh ...

Shouldn't lie to Parliament, you little shitbag:

A lawmaker referred James Murdoch to police Friday over claims of misleading parliament on the phone-hacking scandal as Prime Minister David Cameron said the media boss had "questions to answer".

...

During a tense appearance with his father before parliament's media committee on Tuesday, James Murdoch, denied all knowledge of an email suggesting the problem went beyond one rogue reporter before authorising a payout to a victim.

But Colin Myler, the former editor of the News of the World, and Tom Crone, former legal manager of the News International news group, broke ranks on Thursday to say James Murdoch's recollection of events in 2008 was a "mistake".

...


And you know what I say to that:



Nelson Muntz - Ha, ha

Fundies are fundies ...

Regardless of their persuasion.

...

At least 84 people died when a gunman opened fire at an island youth camp in Norway, hours after a deadly bombing in the capital, Oslo, police say.

Police have charged a 32-year-old Norwegian man over both attacks.

...


Norway is a wonderful, happy place, especially Oslo. I'd even consider living there if they didn't have only 6 weeks of summer and frightfully cold winters (another one of those places that's proud of their icebreakers). The Mrs. and I loved our time there and were quite shocked, when we talked last night, they could produce their own Tim McVeigh:

...

"We have no more information than... what has been found on [his] own websites, which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist."

...


Nah, can't be terrorism, he was a white Christian. They're all the same, whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew; if you're prepared to kill your own innocent countrymen to further your cause, you're a terrorist. In Europe, they know what the far right is capable of and keep their eye on them. Unfortunately, this nut fell through the cracks. Lately, it always seems to be right wing crazies doing shit like this, doesn't it? Always happens when you mix God with Politics.

Update:

Just watching the Beeb and their latest update is that the killer will be charged under Norway's terrorism law for each count against him. Good, may he rot in the deepest, darkest, coldest hole they can find in Norway.

Some pics of the area where the bombing took place in better days:





Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris performs "Red Dirt Girl" live at Farm Aid 2005 at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Illinois on September 18, 2005. Get this concert on DVD at: http://FarmAid.org/2005DVD

Thanks to farmaid.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Joe Morris Sr., Navajo Code Talker

In 2002 when I was at the VA in Prescott AZ it was my distinct honor to be a guest at a Marine Corps Birthday celebration with a Navajo Code Talker (go see) as the Guest Of Honor. I feel very sad when one of these guys passes away. There aren't many left.

Joe Morris Sr. in 2007

LATimes

"My weapon was my language," World War II Marine veteran Joe Morris Sr. told a crowd of nearly 200 in a San Bernardino park on Veterans Day in 2004. "We saved a lot of lives."

Morris, one of the Navajo code talkers whose use of their native language in transmitting messages successfully thwarted Japanese code breakers in the Pacific during World War II, died Sunday at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in Loma Linda of complications of a stroke, said his daughter, Colleen Anderson. He was 85.

In a 2003 interview with the Navajo Times, Morris said they were told "if you get captured by the Japanese don't you ever tell them what you learned here."

If captured, Morris said, their instructions were simple: "Just die for your country."

Morris was born April 19, 1926. As the eldest of four children, he tended his parents' sheep and horses on the Navajo reservation, which he once described as a place where there was "no electricity, no running water, no school."

At age 12, he was sent to a government boarding school 70 miles away, where he learned English. Morris returned to the reservation after the school was closed during the war and turned into an internment camp for Japanese Americans.

He was barely 17 in 1943 when he went to the local draft board and said he was 18 in order to obtain a draft registration card, which was required to be hired for a job.

He had been working in an Arizona ore mine a few months when he was drafted. He credited a Navajo medicine man with keeping him safe during the war.

"He prayed a day and a half for me," Morris recalled in a 1998 interview with the Modesto Bee. "He said, 'Grandson, you will be safe, and you will come back so you can tell me all that happened.' "

There's a helluva lot of history in that quote.

Walk in beauty, Joe. Semper Fi.

Breitbart ‘rode that penis picture to the top’

Via RawReplay.


Thanks to lancebaxter.

God Urges Rick Perry Not To Run For President

From America's Finest News Source:

AUSTIN, TX—Describing Texas Gov. Rick Perry as grossly unqualified for the position, God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, urged Perry not to run for president of the United States Wednesday. “I prayed last night and asked the Lord to support my candidacy, and He said no,” Perry told reporters outside the Texas Capitol, explaining that God had cited the governor’s rejection of federal stimulus funds to expand state jobless benefits, his irresponsible speculation about Texas seceding from the union, and his overall lack of concrete solutions to nation’s problems as reasons why He could not endorse a Perry presidential bid. “I believe God made some valid points about my lack of credentials, and He’s absolutely right. My extreme beliefs when it comes to social issues and states’ rights are not only disturbingly narrow-minded, but would also make me a horrible president.” When reached for comment, God said He would not be present at Perry’s much-talked-about Christian day of prayer on Aug. 6, calling the governor’s use of his public office to endorse a religion both “irresponsible” and a violation of the Constitution.

Headline of the Day

The GOP to the Working Class is Like Colonel Sanders Promising a Good Life to Chickens

The corollary of course is the rich get a big chicken dinner.

Signing Away the Right to Govern

NYTimes editorial:

It used to be that a sworn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution was the only promise required to become president. But that no longer seems to be enough for a growing number of Republican interest groups, who are demanding that presidential candidates sign pledges shackling them to the corners of conservative ideology. Many candidates are going along, and each pledge they sign undermines the basic principle of democratic government built on compromise and negotiation.
...

But iron-clad promises were just what the most rigid Republican ideologues wanted. They had seen too many presidents — specifically Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush — bend when confronted by a complex national reality. Both those presidents agreed to new taxes and some Republicans said they did not fight hard enough to outlaw abortion or cut spending to the point where government was unrecognizable. In other words, they compromised a bit, to keep divided government from destroying itself. Washington, the ideologues decided, corrupted true conservatives into moderates.

More was needed to keep them in line, which gave birth to the signed pledge — no more enforceable than a spoken promise, but a politician’s actual signature was seen as more binding. [...]

Guess whose name comes up in the next sentence. Hint: rhymes with Grover Norquist.

Politicians' words aren't worth much, whether they sign their names or swear on a stack of bibles. Neither is ideological purity when it comes up against reality. Reality? Oh, that's the world most people in. Means nothing in politics, where 'reality' is the next election.

That pledge is the single biggest reason the federal government is now on the edge of default.

Someone needs to tell the pols that their signatures and rigid ideology are the problem, and tell Groober to take his goddam 'pledge' and shove it up his ass.

Only one candidate, Jon Huntsman Jr., has refused to sign any pledge, saying he owes allegiance to his flag and his wife. It is refreshing in a field of candidates who have forgotten the true source of political power in America.

In theory, but short of 'rebellion' or an 'uprising' such as we are seeing the beginning of in some states, the true source of political power in America is the Koch Bros and their ilk.

¡Viva la revolucion!

I think I remember them ...

From a party I went to once. Heh ... Gotta qualify as a "Headline of the Day":

Horde of 'gay barbarians' glitter Bachmann clinic

Hard to run for President ...

When thy name is "Santorum". Heh ...

...

[Columnist Dan] Savage says his site hasn't been updated for years, yet it remains entrenched in the Google rankings. Not even Santorum's ascent as a Fox News contributor or his early campaign swings through the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire have managed to bury it. With Google results like this, what's an aspiring presidential candidate to do?

...


And since I'm doing my best to keep Dan's site high in the rankings, allow me to put a link to it right here.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Hot ...

We're a little late to the heat party that most of the country is sweltering through but we got blasted yesterday and it's gonna be worse today. It's 85 here at 7 a.m. and the government global warming conspiracy tells me it feels like 96 with the humidity. In this heat, the usually active Dingo Sisters are nothing but little blobs laying in the shade.

Good luck to all the tourists on the street in the city today. You picked a bad week to visit New York.

Update:

So it's 100 now (at 11:30) and I brought the girls in. Even though they're designed to work in the Outback, it's just too bloody hot (you know it's too damn hot for them when they didn't even bother chasing a couple of the yard rabbits). They're both parked in front of their fan (yes, my dogs have their own fan) on the cool tiles in my office, doing their best to ignore me. Heh ...

Update Zwei:

How hot is it? This hot:



Update Trois:

You know it's hot (102 as of 4 p.m.) when the weather lady on the local news is doing the "fry an egg in the car" trick.

Update Quattro:

It's so humid I can't break my reefer up to roll a joint. Where's my bong? I've officially had it with summer and am praying for snow. Go figure.

Another financial genius ...

Running the Republican fundraising machine:

It’s pretty surprising that the Republicans aren’t doing well raising funds, but even moreso that they did a better job under Michael Steele. Steele was a gaffetastic buffoon, but apparently knew more about raising cash – the real job of a party chairman – than Priebus does.

...


Steele set a pretty low bar to jump over. Looks like his replacement needs a ladder.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

House Republicans Have Morphed Into 'A Cult'

Elise Foley

"The sad thing is America no longer has a two-party system," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said at a press conference Wednesday. "One of our two parties has morphed into kind of a cult driven by a singular fixation and obsession: preserving tax breaks for the wealthy at all costs."
...

"Once again the radical right is more worried about protecting their next election than protecting the greatest generation or the next generation," Mikulski said at a press conference. "What a sham, what a scam. I'd be tempted to blow it off if it weren't so cruel, stupid and dangerous."

Note to right-wing cultists everywhere, and especially the Teabagger People's House: you should all follow the example set by that greatest of all cultists and a man who demonstrated the kind of leadership we would like to see from you, Jim Jones.

Headline of the Day

Alabama still collecting tax for Confederate vets

Why does this come as no surprise? Retard, thy name is Alabama.

An Etiquette Guide For Rep. Allen West

From Alyssa at Think Progress. Go see this.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) appears to have some fairly strong opinions about what it takes to act like a lady, and he expressed them in an email to his colleague, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) yesterday. “You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up,” he wrote to her. “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” Given the restrictiveness of Mr. West’s vision of ladylike conduct, I thought it was important to provide him with a primer on things ladies are allowed to do.

Primer follows. You'll like it.

It’s not surprising that West made the mistake of assuming that being a lady means a pliant, adorable cream puff. Lots of folks do. But Debbie Wasserman Schultz is heir to the best part of the lady tradition: the tough as nails one.

Being no stranger to tough-as-nails ladies (also drunk broads with guns, but that's another story) I say Amen to that!

I got an etiquette lesson for West on the end of my right arm. I'd like to use it if for no other reason than to see if black eyes would show on him.

Speaking of that, I just heard West 'play the race card' as explanation for how people feel about him.

Note to West: There's a helluva difference between a black MAN and what you are, and that ain't it. The reason people don't like you is because you're a right-wing asshole.

The Lies Are Heating Up

Politicususa

Rush Limbaugh claims there is no heat wave, just a government conspiracy to make us think that it is hot.

According to Limbaugh, the heat wave is all part of giant government conspiracy to make people think that it is hotter than what it is in order to get them to believe that climate change is real. Limbaugh thinks this kind of heat wave happens every year, but it doesn’t. According to the National Weather Service 1,000 heat records have been broken across the United States in the past month.

There is no vast government conspiracy to make the heat wave seem hotter. This is a real and unprecedented weather event. Since Rush Limbaugh’s political ideology will not allow him to acknowledge that there might be something to this whole climate change thing, he has to explain it away with a silly conspiracy theory.

By the end of the week Rush Limbaugh will be blaming Obama and his top secret weather machine for the heat, because there is no home for reality in the right wing mind.

That fat fuck is getting desperate to find things to blame "the government", meaning the black man in the White House, for. He probably would be more correct, though still lying (that's what he does, that's who he is), to blame God for scorchin' 'em out as payback for right-wing sins.

Quote of the Day

Comrade Misfit:

...

It should be clear to everyone, by now, that if the choice was between having their mothers drown or having President Obama rescue them, Republicans would arrange for the funerals.

...

I betcha ...

Michelle Bachmann gives more migranes than she gets.

I am a neurologist at an academic medical center quite familiar with migraines. I think in general, most people would accept that a propensity to migraine should not disqualify one from being President. Readers of your site will all appreciate Rep. Bachmann has far more legitimate reasons to disqualify her.

...

Better make sure ...

You can deliver before you commit yourself. A big:



Nelson Muntz - Ha, ha


Goes out to the Tea Party Nation Corporation of Franklin, TN:

On Monday Venetian Casino Resort, LLC. filed suit against Tea Party Nation Corporation of Franklin, TN for $642,144 in unpaid hotel bills and interest. According to a contract attached to the suit, Tea Party Nation agreed to pay the resort $579,148 in the event of a cancellation. The Palazzo alleges the group still owes $554,148, plus [an] 18 percent interest charge of $87,996. [my bolds]

...


What gets me more than obligating themselves to a more than half-million dollar cancellation charge is their agreement to pay 18% interest. In this day and age, with the cost of money at next to nothing, to pay 18% on anything (except a revolving balance on a credit card) is nuts.

'Splains a lot about Teabaggers.

The last landing ...

Of the Space Shuttle Atlantis came off without a hitch. The American manned space program is essentially at an end, with nothing to take its place. From now on, we'll have to depend on the Russians to get any of our people back and forth to the space station. Who'da thought that would happen 30 years ago? A sad commentary about what we were able to achieve as a nation and how far we've fallen since then.

The Atlantis has landed at the Kennedy Space Center, 42 years to the day after the Eagle module of the Apollo 11 mission touched down on the surface of the moon.

Returning to Earth’s terra firma just before dawn in Florida, Atlantis’ final mission was also the 135th and the last of the space shuttle program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

...


I have a feeling that it'll be a long time before we can once again put a man in space as a country, if ever. By the time we're ready to commit, the commercial market will probably have taken over and any government attempt will be superfluous.

The Ronald Reagan act ...

Was in full swing at the "Murdoch Hearings" in Parliament. For a man who was supposedly so in touch with his media conglomerate that the term "micromanager" was bandied about constantly, it's amazing how much he didn't know about what went on under his nose. Hey, it's worked for me. I don't now how many times I've gotten out of trouble by acting the moron.

So, while none of us ever expected any great revelation before the MPs, JP has culled some gems from the blather:

...

10) Rupert Murdoch doesn't like pie.

...

5) Both Murdochs were completely ignorant of the fact that their media outlets hacked into cell phones over and over and (repeat 4,800 times)...

...

3) Pieman who'd gotten the jump on Murdoch was the only person in the UK who hasn't had his cell phone hacked.

...


Heh ...

Update:

And Digby asks a question I always have when these big shots act stupid:

...

Here in the US we call Rupert's strategy the "Ken Lay" defense, which amounts to "I didn't know nothin' about anythin'" which has always brought to mind a big question for me: if they didn't know anything about what was going on in their companies, why in the hell were they paid so much money? It should, by all rights, inspire some sort of re-evaluation of CEO pay if nothing else.

...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Trouble with meeses...

My tactical mouse quit on me and my running spare is acting up and it's making posting a pain in the ass and I quit for today.

From Gallipoli to Singapore

Interesting stuff on Rupert "The Chin" Murdoch by MoDo.

As a young journalist during World War I, Keith Murdoch became famous when he visited the Gallipoli campaign and broke censorship rules barring any criticism of the conduct of war or tally of casualty figures. He wrote home to the Australian prime minister, a family friend, and he sneaked off to London to blow the whistle there — in a jingoistic, exaggerated way his son would appreciate — about the incompetence of the British command in charge of the decimation in Turkey, where 120,000 soldiers died, including 8,500 Australian infantry and light horsemen.

Old posters for the brilliant 1981 movie “Gallipoli” give Rupert Murdoch a producing credit. He financed half the movie to show the world why his father had been right.

Rupert wanted to avenge his father with the British establishment, and what sweeter way to do it than to take over the British press, including its most prestigious broadsheet, The Times of London, and help decide who runs Britain.

His most revealing moment was when he volunteered his admiration of Singapore, calling it the most “open and clear society in the world.” Its leaders are so lavishly paid, he said, that “there’s no temptation, and it is the cleanest society you’d find anywhere.”

It was instructive that Murdoch chose to praise a polished, deeply authoritarian police state. Maybe that’s how corporations would live if they didn’t have to believe in people.

That is how they live, Red, and they don't.

Ah, Sweet Schadenfreude Headline of the Day

Anti-Gay Alabama A.G. Caught Being Gay

And spend money too ...

And here's where I give the finger to the fat man across the Hudson. Seems the man who's "not a fan of gay marriage" and crying about how broke his state is (he can't give as big a tax break to his millionaire friends as he wants to) can watch as NYC rakes in the cash for hotel rooms, meals in restaurants, and some serious shopping. Idiot:

New York City is holding a lottery to award couples the right to marry on Sunday, the first day same-sex couples can be wed under a new law.

The lottery will select 764 couples, and opposite sex couples are eligible.

"The number of couples who want to marry on Sunday is more than the City Clerk's offices could possibly handle," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

...


Cha-ching. See what equal rights will get ya.

Update:

The local ABC station did a story on just this subject this afternoon:

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Amy Eisinger works for weddingchannel.com, which has featured same-sex commitment ceremonies. Come next week, it will highlight legal weddings in New York as well.

Same-sex weddings are great for her business, but more specifically for venues, caterers, florists, dress and suit makers, bands, DJs, photographers, registry companies and even the travel industry. Those in the business are gearing up for the gay wedding community to bring approximately $300 Million in spending over the next two years.

...


Like I said, cha-ching.

Score one ...

For Secaucus Fats:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Doctors in New Jersey will be allowed to prescribe medical marijuana after Governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday he will let new legislation originally signed by his predecessor be implemented.

New Jersey will join 15 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing marijuana for medical use, although the New Jersey legislation is more restrictive than elsewhere.

...


He's still an asshole, but I'll give him credit, rightly due, for this.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Since ...

Gordon is either getting hisself arrested or getting out of a previous one taking care of buisness with the DMV, I figured I'd jump on over to The Rude One's place (usually I just click on Gordon's link here that night or the next morning) and see what he has to say ... rudely.

Right up my alley today because I too have an urge, if I ever get within 10 feet of Grover "Don't Tax Me There" Norquist, to kick him squarely in the nuts:

...

The qualities of the pledge to Americans for Taxual Healing are many. First of all, there's the sweet, sweet release that one can get when one feels one's foot connect with the soft sack between Grover Norquist's legs. There's the hilarious slow motion look of horror on Norquist's face as he thinks, "Not again" and "Oh, my balls." Then there's the extra skip in one's step as one heads onto the floor to vote in whatever way one wants.

And then ATH can hold each signer to the pledge. If we hear that Grover Norquist was able to freely come within, say, three feet of a Congress member's foot and walked away with his balls un-kicked, well, we'll run a primary candidate against that Congress member, someone willing to follow through with an assault on Norquist's nuts. Our goal is to make Norquist's testicles feel a sharp pain whenever he gets near the Capitol and thus drive him away.

...


If I ever run for Congress, I'll sign that pledge.

Works for me ...

Heh ...

While answering questions before Parliament Tuesday, a man appeared to try to throw a pie in the face of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

...

Once Upon A Time...

Fixer's off to sit in judgment at a Grand Jury today and I have to go face inquisitors myself. I have an appointment at DMV. We'll see if they still buy my fairy tales explanations about some motorcycles. No proof to the contrary, they always have. It's just to save money, and my priest says I'm not going to go to hell for anything I tell DMV. See yas later.

Update:

In 'n out, 15 minutes, wallet lighter, paperwork all in order. I told the very nice DMV lady that the appointment system works quite well as opposed to taking a number and waiting. She replied "it did this time...". Heh.

Interview with CAFKIA

An interview with our pal CAFKIA. Starts at about 3:25. The video was way too big for our template and I probably made it too small, but enjoy anyway. You can fullscreen it. Taken from his Facebook page.

Note: I took down the video on 7/21 because a) it started automatically, and b) they changed it.

Only the General ...

Could validate Mark Halperin using the Book of Abraham via the lens of Mormonism:

...

It all began a few months ago when my grandson gave me a pair of crystals he had grown from a kit Jesus left under the Christmas tree. I quickly fashioned the crystals into a crude Urim and Thummim and began translating Facsimile #2 using the same method Joseph Smith employed--that is, as Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles describes it: “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light..."

I began by translating the Reformed Egyptian characters found on the upper outer edge, and was surprised to find that my translation differs from the Prophet Joseph's. I don't know why that is. Perhaps, God waited to reveal a second meaning until a more proper time. The context within my translation would support that.

...


In fact, the General has the whole race figured out.

...

What about the other candidates?

Herman Cain: Well, this is Mormon scripture. He's not...uh..celestially acceptable.

...


Heh ...

Heh ...

I could probably figure out the route, but I don't know about taking that left turn at Step 47.

Coincidence?

Seems too convenient:

...

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead.

...


Nothing to see here, move along:

...

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."

...


Yeah, that's it, he OD-ed. Couldn't take the pressure and offed himself. I betcha a buncha folks at the Yard and London Metro are breathing easier. Not saying there's a connection, mind you. Heh ...

Update:

Comrade Misfit is of the same mind I am, though she adds:

...

We'll also get to see whether or nor Eric Holder really has any stones.

...


Holder only has stones when it comes to busting poor and sick people (cancer patients) for smoking pot.

The only miracle in Texas ...

Is the fact it hasn't collapsed into a sinkhole under the weight of all that stupid:

...

Rick Perry like to pretend like Texas is some sort of economic utopia where they don't pass debts on to future generations and do just fine on their own without any interference from the gretbigoh fedrul gubmint.

It plays well on the stump as he addresses the true believers who will never question him or believe the evidence that proves otherwise, but in reality, it's a shameless lie.

...

Not going quietly ...

Which is why we love Elizabeth Warren:

Now that the White House has decided not to nominate Elizabeth Warren to run the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she's taking her fight to protect the new agency directly to Republicans. And she says the time has come either for President Obama to recess appoint his designated director, or to engage in a loud, public fight with the GOP senators who have vowed to block the confirmation of any nominee, regardless of ideology or affiliation.

...


It's about time Mr. Obama had "a loud, public fight with the GOP", though his past track record says otherwise. Hopefully, now that he has to run for President again, he'll be drawn into that fight on the campaign trail.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Perry's Call From On High

Thanks to IWR.

Getting to Crazy

Paul Krugman

There aren’t many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default. But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.

Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state.

Not me. I saw it coming when Reagan was governor of California. I thought it could be headed off by sanity, but sanity done flew the coop when he got made POTUS and it's been downhill ever since with one little uptick during Clinton.

Put it this way: If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy.

Beyond that, voodoo economics has taken over the G.O.P.

Does that mean they're stickin' pins in a little doll of the nation, trying to kill it? Maybe voodoo really works...

Go read the rest of this.

The Curse

A 'must read' at TPJmagazine:

The Republican curse is like a method of Roman torture whereby a rotting corpse is strapped to a healthy person’s body until the decomposing excrement and bacteria infects the living tissue and the healthy individual succumbs to a slow, torturous death. The dead body is the GOP and the living human – carrying around the weight of the decaying body while at the same time attempting to survive and provide necessities to sustain that existence – is the nation.
...

The Nazis Party, with its nasty little prejudices and cultic myths, was Germany’s dead corpse strapped to its back. Republicans are ours.

I was wondering what that stench is...

A Scene From Our Unshared Sacrifices

El Rude-o

The old lady at the pharmacy counter obviously wore an adult diaper. That tell-tale sharp urine scent half-masked by sweet-smelling chemicals emanated from her, and the Rude Pundit stood right behind her yesterday, waiting to pick up the pills that prevent him from going on a five-state killing spree. She was getting three prescriptions. The total was $6.00. This puzzled the old lady. She had never paid anything before, and even this seemingly small amount was obviously causing her consternation. The cashier checked with the pharmacist, who said that there had been a minor change to her plan, and now she had to pay a little for the scrips, a buck-fifty, three bucks. She apologized and put aside the couple of other things she was going to purchase to pay for the medicine.

Our savage economic inequality in this country is coming to a head. We talk about "spending cuts," as if what we're not really talking about is "making the poor pay more for stuff." We talk as if the services that are cut will be picked up by the aching states and cities. And we talk about nonsense like "shared sacrifice," as if that's the rational position in any of this. When the wealthy actually sacrifice something, we can talk about sharing.

At this point, any Americans earning above, say, to be generous, $500,000 a year who don't believe that they should be paying more in taxes are just goddamned greedy assholes who deserve a real Marxist revolution to take it all away. They have benefited from a country that generously gave them decades of low taxes in the hopes that they would help make this a better place. They fucked it up, and it's time to give back. If your parents supported you through college in order for you to get your MBA and get rich, then you take care of them if they go through hard times. You don't say, "Sorry, Mom, but how can I create jobs if I have to help you avoid losing your house?" Unless you do, in which case, you are a dick and deserve to be put up against the wall in the aforementioned revolution.

Back at the pharmacy, the old woman walked away from the counter, putting back the cheap socks and orange juice she was going to buy, leaving with her prescriptions, her sacrifice far from shared.

There is nohing I can add to that.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

DOJ Won't Prosecute Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown, Torture
May attempt second trial of Roger Clemens.

UN WORKING GROUP TO MERCENARIES: YOU NEED TO BE REGULATED
Mercenaries to UN: by you and what army?

Murdoch Not Involved in Hacking Scandal, Which Never Happened
According to Fox News.

Cuba Says 16% Online
Mainly on Craigslist seeking parts for '58 Chevys.

If you watched ...

The US womens team lose to Japan, you saw a team beat themselves.

Gotta head out east first thing this morning, to the Suffolk County Criminal Court, to try and give them a good sob story so they'll defer my Grand Jury summons until September. With the Mrs. leaving for Gordon's neck o' the woods tomorrow for a couple weeks on her semi-annual Wes' Coas' swing, I have to be available for dad-in-law if he needs it. Let's hope they're accommodating.

Update:

Yay! The nice court lady said she'll have me back on 12 Sept after I told her I wouldn't mind serving today (and for the next month) if I could bring an Alzheimer's patient and 2 Cattle Dogs with me. She said she would have liked to meet Dad-in-law Fixer (of course I went into the whole story about how he was a flight engineer on B-17s during the big one), but she knows all about Cattle Dogs and agreed they'd be better left at home. Heh ...

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Rescue Plan

Thanks to YubaNet.

Sing like a birdie, Red

British police on Sunday reportedly arrested a former top aide to Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, over the hacking scandal that has led to calls for the break-up of the media mogul's empire in the country.

I wanta see the old Ozzie bastard doing the perp walk!

Good luck ...

To our womens national soccer team who will face the Japanese women this afternoon in the World Cup. I'm doing some work over at dad-in-law's this weekend (safety and accessibly things) because I'm on jury duty starting tomorrow (I'm picked for a grand jury, which I've never done so I don't know if they'll keep me there every day or allow me to call in) morning and god knows when I'll have the time.

Also, a couple pics from the yard/garden now that it's finished ... mostly. Heh ...