Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Sorry about my lack of blogging yesterday. The motel wifi was down. This thing turned into a fancy Freecell machine. Heh.

Thanks to kejiaquin.

Headin' out...

We're going out to the coast today so blogging will be etch-a-sketchy for a few days. Sorry, couldn't resist. See yas.

Scarce ...

I'l be scarce around here for the foreseeable future. They took dad-in-law to the hospital this early morning. According to them he suffered a massive stroke during the night. He's been unresponsive since. The doctors say it could be "minutes, hours, or days". The merciful conclusion for a 90-odd year old man with Alzheimer's would be sooner rather than later. See yas when I see yas ...

Update:

Dad-in-law passed at 1840 this evening. He's in a far better place.

The 4 Horsemen of Republican Failure

Gleefully gleeped in toto from our pal montag!

Radio Free America

My two favorite radio stations are independent community stations that come up with their own programs, KVMR and KTKE. Give 'em a listen.

Raw Story

FCC decision strikes critical blow to right-wing radio dominance

“Now these right-wing radio networks won’t keep getting their translator applications approved,” Renderos added. “That will severely limit their ability to expand.”

The FCC’s decision also set clear criteria for community radio stations in heavily populated urban areas, which are otherwise bombarded by the endless droning of commercial media full of snide opinion masquerading as news.

The FCC’s move Monday was the first step on a path laid out by the Local Community Radio Act, signed by President Barack Obama at the start of 2011, which represented the first real victory in activists’ long fight against the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) the radio industry’s biggest lobbying group. The bill freed up portions of the radio spectrum that had otherwise been kept empty by the larger broadcasters, who had long insisted upon four clicks of blank space on the FM dial to prevent interference. It also stipulated that new space on the dial must be reserved for community stations in urban areas where there might otherwise be none.

“There’s hardly news at all on commercial radio at this point, much less a diversity of viewpoints and a diversity of news.” Doyle concluded. “A lot of times corporate media doesn’t even cover things that are majority views, and there’s a disconnect between what we hear in the media and what we know most of our neighbors are thinking and feeling. This is a real opportunity for people to connect with each other and start building real alternatives.”

It's a real alternative to the crap Big Radio serves up.

Update:

Me'n Mrs. G are going out to the coast tomorrow. We like KPYG (or KPIG, it's complicated)(wiki) down there. With a logo like this, is there any question why? Listen online.

Quote of the Day

MFBTIR on Clusterfuckistan:

When you’re buried alive in the Graveyard of Empires, all you can do is claw your way out.

Racist? Us?

Seems the guys at Little Green Snotballs are put out by the racism of those on their side. Of course, they were part of the problem for a long time but no matter, it's good of them to see the light. Fortunately I don't have to link to them and I can send you to Addicting Info instead:

The right has truly perfected the Orwellian art of doublespeak. While screaming out of one mouth that liberals are the real racists (seriously, they do. Google it), conservatives, who will swear on a stack of Republican Bibles, engage in some of the most vile racism outside of a Ron Paul newsletter.

littlegreenfootballs.com has posted a partial list of the comments regarding the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. You’ll recall that Trayvon, armed with Skittles and a bottle of iced tea, was stalked by George Zimmerman and shot for the crime of walking while black. Three weeks on and Zimmerman has yet to be arrested. The Department of Justice and the FBI have announced that they will be investigating this…oversight as a hate crime. Apparently this has outraged the Fox News commentator community.

...

Calling all kinkster hippie sluts

Welcome to all you folks who googled "kinkster hippie sluts"! If it's Wednesday it's a Morford must read.

I know how it is. Have you been feeling it, too? The heat of recent media attention? The sour breath of bland, conservative evil on your nicely tattooed neck? Perhaps you've noticed. Sluts and sex, gays and deviants, perverts and hippies, yoga teachers and tattooed miscreants have been in the news a lot recently. More than usual, even. And that's saying something.

It's not difficult to see why. There's a very weird, grisly Republican presidential race underway right now, featuring some of the least appealing, most disagreeable conservative candidates to limp across the national stage in decades. And that's really saying something.

It's all a result of the sad fact that the once-noble GOP has devolved in the past few decades from a semi-reasonable party of stiff values and staid institutions, into a kowtowing, far-right, fundamentalist drainage ditch full of Christian fear, Bible literalism and anti-everythingism. Voilá: one hell of a kinkystrange little witch hunt, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Then he starts in on Frothy Mixture:

He's like an incontinent raccoon accidentally coming within hissing distance of getting into the Westminster Dog Show.

Much more. ends on a happy note:

You think for yourself, act for others, love without regard for church or country or sad conformist dogma. And let me just tell you, they hate that most of all. You slut.

Quote of the Day

Drifty:

...

The racket you hear beneath your feet is the sound of Abraham Lincoln spinning in his grave fast enough to give local spacetime a double swirly.

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Fox 'News' Lies Kills!

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Hallie Jean Mayes Knauss Culpepper passed away on February 16, 2012. Ten days earlier, she had fallen, but as Knauss says, refused to see a doctor. Her obituary notes that she was a "lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool Republican" who at one time had also been a business owner (TECO Products, now Griffin Products).

...

And it wasn't because she didn't like doctors. Shit like this really pisses me off.

Scary black man ...

Not so much. The last conversation Trayvon had before that cracker asshole killed him for Walking While Black:

...

Recounting her conversation with Martin, the teen girl said, "He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man."

"I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run," she said.

After a few minutes, the girl said, Martin thought he was safe. But eventually the man appeared again.

"Trayvon said, 'What are you following me for?'" the girl said. "And the man said, 'What are you doing here?' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the [phone’s\] headset just fell."

...

Way cool ...

I've seen this before and I think it's the coolest thing. Chalk art.

Small government ...

Yeah, right:

More toons here.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

ROMNEY OUTLINES HIS FOREIGN POLICY
Would look for a failing country, take it over, oust its leader, deport most of its citizens and then sell it for a huge profit.

Go with whatcha know...

Republicans Split on War In Middle East
Half want to attack Iran, half want to attack Syria.

The third half wants to attack both at once.

This next one is no shit, with or without the squiggly:

Norwegian Study: LSD Helps Treat Alcoholism
Primarily through one-time, life-changing revelation: you’re a drunk.

Theory: Internet Flame Wars Actually Good for Society
When you consider most of these people would otherwise be marching down Main Street in Nazi uniforms.

Heh. Good point.

Really, Joe?

HuffPo

Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff, Says Media Conspiracy Against Birthers Is 'Bigger Than Watergate'
...

Arpaio also maintained that his own political leanings were irrelevant to the investigation.

“I don’t care about the politics,” he said. “That has nothing to do with it.”

Really, Joe?

Comment from Facebook:

Walter K Maier Isn't it about time he got the jacket where the arms tie around the back?

Yep. It's too dangerous to let him reach his handgun.

New Bill Requires Man To View Sonogram Photos Before Having Sex With Someone Half His Age

Goblinbooks

A controversial new bill is making its way through both houses of Congress that would require older men to view sonogram photos, grade school class pictures, and birthday video footage of women half their age with whom they wish to engage in sexual intercourse. The Family Values Law, as it's called, is supported by a variety of activist groups, but it is bitterly opposed by a coalition of state senators, church leaders, and corporate CEOs.
...

Political insiders speculate wildly on whether the bill will ever make it out of Congress. On one hand, many of the most powerful legislators in both the House and Senate will be directly affected. But the bill is gaining widespread grassroots support that makes it difficult to oppose. Religious figures -- many of whom are elderly men themselves -- are staging a massive write-in campaign against it, arguing that Scripture and church traditions don't prohibit an old man betraying his marriage vows and moving in with his massage therapist.

"This law would discriminate against people like us," says the pastor of a Norfolk-area megachurch who spoke on condition of anonymity, because of pending legal issues. "God wants everybody -- all straight, elderly, rich men -- to be happy. That message is throughout the Bible."

"He's right," admits Schell. "Then again, there's some really sick crap in that book."

Most wingnut christowhackos' Bibles fall open right at those passages as well.

Note: CLEARLY LABELLED SATIRE. I hope.

What is this 'vote' you speak of?

Because if it was up to the Republicans, half of us wouldn't get the opportunity (who needs those stinking 'rights' anyway):

...

“This wave of restrictive voting laws is inexcusable, and the numbers clearly show the impact it could have on this year’s elections,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “These laws represent the most significant cutback in voting rights in decades. Rather than erecting senseless barriers to voting, we should make our voting system work for all Americans by upgrading our ramshackle voter registration system.”

...

The conservatives can "vote early and often". The rest of us, not so much.

How you know ...

Our national media is broken.

What could happen?

Arizona is going the way of Afghanistan:

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But not the Special Missions Unit. Oh, no. A state senator named Sylvia Allen wants to spend $1.4 million to arm and "train" a militia of armed volunteers who run around Arizona busting anyone suspected of "cross-border criminal activity," including both Mexican drug cartels and the units of the Hezbollah who, Ms. Allen believes, are inches from pouring over the border in force from their training camps in Mexico. Of course, exactly who will train these citizen soldiers, and how they'll be trained, has been left somewhat vague, because what can possibly go wrong with arming government-sponsored vigilantes and loosing them upon the populace in a place where racial distrust and division has been at high tide for two years.

...

Um, like I said before, Arizona already has a militia. It's called the National Guard.

For those who are interested ...

My homemade dog waste recycler is working as advertised.

Quote of the Day

Robert Fisk via our pal Montag:

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Now this was an extraordinary plea to come from the US commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder. I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this? I rather fear it has. Because – however much I dislike generals – I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings – and might decide to go on a revenge spree. Hence he tried desperately – in a statement that was as shocking as it was revealing – to pre-empt exactly the massacre which took place last Sunday.

...

"I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan?"

I know a couple old NCOs (*cough* Gord and F-man *cough*) who've been saying it was gonna come to this for years.

And let me just add: I don't care how professional, elite, or well-disciplined your army is, if you put them in theater for 10 years without a defined mission and endgame, among a population of which you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys, there will be a breakdown in discipline. When you keep rotating troops in an out, for four, five, or six tours, when you have to medicate troops to keep them from completely losing their grip, there will be more and more of these incidents and tragedies. Afghanistan is just another Vietnam and until the generals and chickenshit civilians realize that, incidents like this will become more and more frequent.

Heh ...

Stolen from the Americans Against the Tea Party FB page.