Saturday Emmylou Blogging

With The Red Dirt Boys

Emmylou Harris ~ Old Five and Dimers

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Titanic’s Wake: Shipwreck of the Century Retains Its Grip

Good article at Daily Beast/Newsweek, with video.

This part is my image of Fixer getting ready to go down like a gentleman. Except for the mistress part, of course:

[...] Among the plutocracy there were stylish stoics — most notably Benjamin Guggenheim, traveling with his valet, chauffeur, and (clandestinely) his mistress, the singer Leontine Aubert, and her maid. Guggenheim saw the women into a lifeboat and then returned to his cabin to don his tuxedo. “We have dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen,” he reportedly said, adding, “if anything happens, tell my wife I have done my best in doing my duty” (not mentioning that he did it by Leontine).

But then, some guys have all the luck:

Plenty of the dollar dukes went down like gents on the Titanic: an Astor, two Wideners, and a Thayer. But its real heroes were often among the crew, none more stirring than Second Officer Herbert Lightoller, who had survived one shipwreck and a cyclone before getting his position on the Titanic. He had gone off watch when the ship struck the iceberg but was the most energetic and resourceful in getting as many women and children as he could into the boats, which he knew very well would only have room for around half of the passengers and crew even when fully loaded (and many weren’t). Told at the end to get in one himself, his reply, without irony, was “not on your life.” Attempting to make the last “collapsible” lifeboat usable, the rush of water swept him away. The force of an engine explosion brought him back to the surface, where he managed to struggle to the capsized collapsible to which 30 men were desperately hanging. Such was the brutal frigidity of the - water—28 degrees -Fahrenheit — that hypothermia did half of them in during the night. Eventually transferred to another lifeboat, Lightoller was the very last of the survivors to board the Carpathia. He went on to serve in the First World War and took his converted yacht Sundowner to Dunkirk, where he got 130 off the doomed beach.

From swells and heroes, a look at steerage:

[...] Although the Titanic was memorably characterized by Walter Lord in his classic A Night to Remember as a “small town,” it was in fact made up of villages from an astonishing diversity of cultures. There were whole communities of Lebanese and Syrian peasants and townspeople, many on their way to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where some of their countrymen must already have settled. A community of Flemish sugar-beet farmers were headed to Ohio to work in the fields for American sugar companies. There were also Croatians and a big contingent of Finns, Swedes, and Danes.

Many had come from worlds embittered not just by poverty but by brutal class conflict: strikes, strike-breaking, and quasi-military industrial lockouts. Some of this acrimony touched the White Star Line directly and the crew closest to steerage — the stokers, firemen, and stewards — knew it. Titanic’s original master during trials at Belfast — one Captain Haddock (yes, honestly)* — faced a strike precisely over the inadequacy of lifeboat accommodation on the liners: the very thing that condemned 1,500 to death.

*I got this gag because I just watched The Adventures of Tintin which is a comic book made into a movie. Nicely done (Spielberg has a habit of that) and I recommend it as good light fun entertainment.

The Titanic might have avoided the iceberg altogether had one piece of technology been better suited to the monstrously sized ship. The rudder wasn’t up to moving the vessel with the speed it would need in an emergency. When Captain Smith had to turn the liner hard to starboard to try to avoid the berg, it took a full 37 seconds between the tiller’s command and the rudder changing course.

I can picture throwing a hard countersteer into my bike when some idiot driver turns left in front of me and the bike waiting a loooong second before turning. And the ensuing crash. Ships today pretty much have that fixed with all kinds of steering devices. The problem today seems to be even more dumbass skippers than Titanic had.

Enjoy the rest.

Irony Dead At Last

Fixer's way ahead of me on the "irony is dead" meme. Ever the cockeyed optimist, I've been holding out. This one nails the lid shut. Sigh.

Addicting Info, video of this moron if you're out of stuff to beat yourself in the head with.

We had a good run, Irony, but you are as dead as Ron Paul’s chances of winning the GOP primary. It’s been coming for some time now, as the Onion is finding it more and more difficult to parody the right but the final nail has been put into your coffin. Last week, Rep. Steve King (R-Why does it have to be the state I live in?), stood up in front of the United States Supreme Court and announced, on camera, that he was against the government telling the American people what to do with their bodies:

Moronic, lying spew follows.

I would have sold my left pinky toe to have been able to ask Rep. King if his aversion to government mandates included forced trans-vaginal probes and forcing doctors to read a script riddled with medical lies designed to both shame and scare women out of having an abortion. I’m going to assume that doesn’t count because it only affects women and, as every good conservative knows, women are sluts and whores anyway, so who cares?

Considering that the individual mandate was a conservative idea forwarded by the Heritage Foundation, a far right think tank, it’s interesting that the GOP is so opposed to it. The entire premise is that every person will eventually be in the health care system in some manner. They will get sick, have an accident or what have you. Everyone will need a doctor, sooner or later. If they never buy insurance when they can afford to do so then they are simply shifting the burden on to everyone else that does. Hospitals, by law, must treat anyone that requires it so in order to recoup the losses due to the uninsured, they charge the rest of us more. I thought Republicans worshiped “personal responsibility” and despised wealth redistribution? But, as always, consistency is not a conservative strong suit. No logic contortion is too much as long as it means standing in opposition to President Obama.

The GOP doesn’t stand for anything, anymore. They only stand against and that’s no way to run the country.

It's what they're against that's troubling - you and me.

We gotta take Congress back this November.

Senate Bill 2109 Seeks to Extinguish Navajo and Hopi Water Rights

Native News Betwork

TUBA CITY, ARIZONA – Senators Jon Kyl, Arizona - R, and John McCain, Arizona - R, will be in Tuba City on Thursday, April 5, 2012, to persuade Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribal leaders to give up their peoples' aboriginal and Treaty-guaranteed priority Water Rights by accepting a "Settlement Agreement" written to benefit some of the West's most powerful mining and energy corporations.
...

Senate Bill 2109 45; the "Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2012" was introduced by Kyl and McCain on February 14, 2012, and is on a fast track to give Arizona corporations and water interests a "100 th birthday present" that will close the door forever on Navajo and Hopi food and water sovereignty, security and self-reliance.

What the white man failed to accomplish with genocide, disease, starvation, and alcohol, he will finally accomplish with the stroke of a pen and a lot of lobbyists' money.

Kyl and McCain - and all the Repugs who will vote for this - disgust me. Nothing new.

Suppressing Evidence

MoJo

The Secret Torture Memo Cheney Didn't Want You To See

It appears that Zelikow was right about the archives: the secret memo, which he called a "direct assault on [the Bush Justice Department's] interpretation of American law," was finally released by the State Department on Tuesday, three years after the National Security Archive and WIRED reporter Spencer Ackerman (then at the Washington Independent) first requested it under the Freedom of Information Act. You can read it here:

Runs to six pages, esplaining Cheney's war crimes to him. He knew anyway.

Neil Kinkopf, who worked for the Justice Department under the Clinton administration (and is now an Obama administration official), told Mother Jones in 2009 why Cheney might have wanted to get rid of the document: "People in the White House — Dick Cheney for example; David Addington, his legal adviser — didn't want the existence of dissent to be known. It's not hard to imagine David Addington playing very hardball internal politics and not only wanting to prevail over the view of Zelikow but to annihilate it. It would be perfectly consistent with how he operated."

Zelikow told WIRED on Wednesday that he believes the Bush administration's harsh interrogation techniques constituted a "felony war crime."

It looks like they got away with it unless someone gets on it pretty quick and that's unlikely. I think The Dick, and The Chimp too most likely, will be long dead before they are prosecuted for their crimes and since they'll be dead, no one will bother. The Devil will welcome them with open arms.

And then Cheney will take over Hell.

Hit the deck ...

I'm tired and sore from moving heavy shit. Started work on the deck today.

AMA Bessie Stringfield Award to Gabby Giffords

Bessie Stringfield

The American Motorcyclist Association has awarded the Bessie Stringfield Award to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The AMA Bessie Stringfield Award, first awarded in 2000, memorializes the accomplishments of AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame member Bessie Stringfield, an African-American motorcycling pioneer of the mid-20th century. The award recognizes individuals who have introduced motorcycling to emerging markets. Until her recent retirement announcement, Rep. Giffords was the co-chair of the Congressional Motorcycle Caucus. As a rider for more than 20 years, and as a member of the U.S. House and the caucus, she worked with the AMA and the motorcycling community on a number of issues to protect and promote motorcycling. Arguably, Giffords is the most visible woman motorcyclist ever elected at the national level, and her embrace of motorcycling encouraged many other women to take up riding.

"This is a great honor from the AMA," said Gifford's husband, astronaut Mark E. Kelly, on her behalf. "Gabby and I have been motorcyclists for many years, and I can tell you that motorcycling, and motorcyclists, have been important in our lives. She has been able to inspire so many others to take up riding, particularly women."

Kelly added that Giffords is progressing in her recovery from the failed assassination attempt on her life in January 2011, and that the couple hope to ride together again one day in the future.

That's good!

More about Ms. Stringfield:

Bessie Stringfield (1911–1993), nicknamed "The Motorcycle Queen of Miami",[1] was an African American woman credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African American motorcyclists. She was the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo and during World War II she served as one of the few motorcycle despatch riders for the United States military. The award bestowed by the American Motorcyclist Association for 'Superior Achievement by a Female Motorcyclist' is named in her honour. In 2002 Stringfield was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.[2]

Stringfield was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1911, but her parents migrated to Boston when she was still young. Her parents died when Stringfield was five and she was adopted and raised by an Irish woman.

At the age of sixteen Stringfield taught herself to ride her first motorcycle, a 1928 Indian Scout. At the age of nineteen she commenced travelling across the United States and eventually rode through the 48 lower states. During this time she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows.[2] Due to her skin colour, Stringfield was often denied accommodation while travelling, so she would sleep on her motorcycle at filling stations.

During WWII Stringfield served as a civilian courier for the US Army, carrying documents between domestic army bases. During the four years she worked for the Army she crossed the United States eight times. She regularly encountered racism during this time, reportedly being deliberately knocked down by a white male in a pickup truck while travelling in the South.

From the AMA Hall Of Fame:

In the 1930s and 1940s, Bessie took eight long-distance, solo rides across the United States. Speaking to a reporter, she dismissed the notion that "nice girls didn’t go around riding motorcycles in those days." Further, she was apparently fearless at riding through the Deep South when racial prejudice was a tangible threat. Was Bessie consciously championing the rights of women and African-Americans? Bessie would most likely have said she was simply living her life in her own way.
...

Late in life, Bessie suffered from symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. "Years ago the doctor wanted to stop me from riding," she recalled. "I told him if I don’t ride, I won’t live long. And so I never did quit."

Fuckin' A, lady! That's the spirit!

Soooo...in the face of societal discrimination against Afro-Americans, women, and motorcyclists, even while they were doing their patriotic duty, here was a fine lady and role model who prevailed over it all.

There's a lot more at the links.

Citing Safety Concerns, Somali Pirates Refuse to Board Cruise Ships

MOGADISHU (The Borowitz Report) April 5, 2012 – In yet another public relations setback for the beleaguered cruise industry, Somali pirates today said they would no longer board cruise ships, citing "unsafe working conditions."
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The pirate said that the recent fire that crippled the cruise ship Azamara Quest "has sent a shiver through the pirate community."
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When asked if the Somali pirates might attempt to board cruise ships in the future, he responded, "I am telling me hearties that if they were thinking of pillaging a cruise ship of its booty over Easter Break, they should make alternative plans."

Carol Foyler, a spokesperson for cruise industry, said that the cruise ship companies "would be working overtime to win back the pirates' trust."

More buffets oughta help...

According to my unimpeachable sources (ahem), Somali pirates have an agreement with the Cunard Line to not board their vessels, citing the dress codes.

No shit ...

Stolen from the Americans Against the Tea Party FB page.

Speaking of ...

American Taliban, Sheriff Joe is whining because the Feds want to look over his shoulder. It'd be nice if the Feds went one step further and indicted him for turning a county of an American state into his own private gulag.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — who previously claimed he was cooperating with the Justice Department in an attempt to settle allegations that he violated the civil rights of Latinos in his jurisdiction — told Fox News on Wednesday that he’ll “be glad to meet them in court.”

DOJ cut off negotiations with Arpaio Tuesday saying he had refused to let an independent monitor be a part of any settlement agreement.

...

Wah-wah-wah. Why is it the Republicans think they should be allowed to exercise their authority with impunity? Big tough "law and order" guys as long as they don't have to follow any laws themselves. Those are for everybody else but them. Did you ever notice that when someone points out they've run roughshod over the legal system and Americans' rights, they whine like a bunch of crybabies? The Republicans are not tough. They are a bunch of cowardly bastids who want everything their way and to be exempt from the responsibilities we all have to our society.

Exactly!

Digby on the idiot who tried to blow up a Planned Parenthood clinic the other day:

...

I wonder what this paragon of virtue would say about a theoretical Pakistani terrorist who planted a bomb in front of the Pentagon, using the same rationale to complain about children killed by drone strikes. He would doubtless argue that it's totally different, except for the part where it totally isn't. Terrorism is terrorism.

...

It'd be nice if we stopped making the distinction between Islamic terrorism and the shit the right wing nutjobs here do. There is no difference between the Taliban and Sharia Law and the Christian Fundamentalists who want to make the United States more "moral". If most of the American Taliban weren't ignorant, lazy, generally intoxicated cowards, shit would be blowing up here with the same regularity it does in Iraq and Afghanistan. Notice you don't see the American Taliban strapping on a vest and blowing themselves up. They're far away from the bomb when it goes off. Thinking about it, what little respect I have for Islamic terrorists is far more than I have for the American ones.

Former ‘sheriff of the year’ pleads guilty to trading meth for sex

What, that's illegal now?! Raw Story.

A former Colorado police sheriff, who was once named national “Sheriff of the Year,” pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of trading methamphetamine for sex with a male prostitute.
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The former sheriff, who already spent eight days in prison, will serve the remainder of his 38-day sentence in a jail named after him in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

Now THAT'S funny! Heh.

Note to former Sheriff Sullivan: You sent hundreds of people to your eponymous lockup, so man up and show 'em how to do it. County time's easy. You can do 30 days standing on your head with your balls on fire. Oh, and play nice when they strip search you. Be inventive. Heh.

Headline of the Day

Arizona Legislators Trying to Declare Pregnancy Two Weeks Prior to Conception

Some days it definitely is worth chewing through the restraints to see things like this. Yeesh.

Under the gun ...

Well, the deck footings came this morning and the lumber is coming Friday. In that time, I have to move a ton of Hostas and knock down a cement wall. Pics to follow ...

And, of course, I forgot to bring the shit sample for the vet when I brought Da Chooch in for shots this morning. Thankfully, I don't have to make a special run back because her little sister has to go for her shots tomorrow.

Update:

A pallet and a half of footings. I'm gonna look like the Incredible Hulk by the time I'm done. They weigh 50 lbs. each.

My dad built this wall when he built the patio 45 years ago. The deck will extend 14 feet past it so it's gotta go. The Hostas in front of the wall have been relocated elsewhere in the yard.

The reason I'm doing this in the first place. When dad built the patio, he left a hole in the middle where mom could plant flowers. I don't know which one got the bright idea to plant a Sycamore tree in the middle of it (it was the diameter of a baseball bat when they planted it) but 45 years later, it heaved the patio out of the ground. At this point, it's essentially useless and when we entertain, I set up tables out in the grass.

Of course, the appropriate supervisory personnel will be in attendance. Heh ...

Update Zwei:

Done for the day and tired. Chelsea is playing Benfica in the Champions League and I'm relaxing. See:

I carried that back from Amsterdam in my hand luggage, btw. Heh ...

The day they killed the Easter Bunny

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford. Given the title of his column, I thought he was going to go on about the upcoming 2000-and-somethingth anniversary of Easter, The P.R. Stunt That Stuck, but noooooo....

Do you know how to defile innocence? Do you know the best way to permanently stain a relatively clean soul, corrupt a vibrant imagination, molest a heart full of wonder and raw, unchecked power? I bet you do.

Let's see: You could drag said innocence to a GOP convention, or maybe Las Vegas, or let it watch five minutes of "Real Housewives" or "Brooklyn 11223" or "Doomsday Bunkers." You could hand it a rifle and tell it to blast a wild animal to death, have it attend an anti-gay rally at a Colorado Springs megachurch or Mormon temple, or plop it down at a One Direction concert. That would certainly do it.

But let's say you really want to mess it up, forever and true, tattoo it down deep with adulthood's most vile energy, a poison that's hugely common in the culture but is just shy of being actually physically abusive or illegal. Can you name it?

I can now.

Tucson's Mexican-American Studies Ban

Notable quote, paraphrased:

"If there weren't any more white people, they could do what they want."

I guess the flip side is "As long as whites are in charge, the Messkins will do it the white man's way".

Did I mention that the interviewee is a racist idiot? And a professional educator? Oy.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Time to Elect the Worst Idea

Gail Collins on "Americans Elect" which is the dumbest idea I've heard of to elect a POTUS. Maybe it would work in a world full of peace, love, dope, rainbows, and unicorns, but in that world we wouldn't need politicians anyway.

Our topic today is picking the worst new trend of the political season.

Not including putting the dog on the car roof.
...

But since I still have some space here, let me throw in a plug for the terribleness of the idea of Americans Elect.

And throw in a plug she does. Cut to the chase:

The thing that makes our current politics particularly awful isn’t procedural. It’s that the Republican Party has become over-the-top extreme. You can try to fix that by working from within to groom a more sensible pack of future candidates, or from without by voting against the Republicans’ nominees until they agree to shape up.

Door No. 2, Bob. Fire for effect, repeat, repeat, repeat!

Blow the nice officer a kiss...

The Rude Pundit on the latest SCOTUS intrusion into our lives:

You know what? It doesn't matter what the case was about. Here's the outcome of Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders (in New Jersey's Essex County): if you are stopped by police and you have a few too many parking tickets, even if it's a mistake, you can be arrested and, if going to be placed in the jail, strip-searched by the police. Don't worry, though, the Supreme Court says, because the cops can't touch you, but they may ask you to lift your nutsack so they can see if you have drugs under there.

Playing the fucking fool, Justice Anthony "Swings Both Ways, But Hangs to the Right" Kennedy says that the lawyers of the plaintiff, a poor bastard who got chewed up by our incarceration nation mentality, didn't even really define "strip search," despite there being, you know, a definition offered in police manuals.

That last part wasn't really germane but I just had to get "Swings Both Ways, But Hangs to the Right" in there. Heh.

Mr. Florence got the shaft on this deal and spent six days in two different county jails because of a clerical fuckup over a traffic fine he paid that didn't show up as paid and there was a warrant out on him. He had proof he'd paid it but the cops didn't give a shit. Every time he changed police and correctional officer hands, he got strip searched. Did I mention he's Afro-American? White cops just know every black man they stop has a machine gun up his ass. Or they just want to humiliate him because they can.

Cops probably won't strip search you by the side of the road, or even usually when you get to jail. If you're white.

I've been strip searched. I've been in jail a coupla times, and the rules permitted me to be a trusty and thus eligible for working parties out in the community. If you have to be in jail, that's what makes it bearable. The civilians you work for treat you very well with food and smokes. They appreciate your help.

You change clothes from the skin out when you return to jail after the work day. Our county jail is in a small town and the inmates know people and there's a slight chance that the youngbloods will score a little dope and try to bring it in but I don't think it happens very often. Most guys aren't that stupid and don't want to get busted back to the regular lockup. Usually if dope appears they snort or smoke it on the spot. The C.O.s check yer junk but they don't give you a blood or urine test.

I decided to have fun with the strip search. Believe you me, fun is hard to come by in the hoosegow and stuff that wouldn't be fun anywhere else is uproarious!

Let's say there's six guys on the work party. They line you up and go down the line like a short-arm inspection (without the "milk 'er down" feature) in the Corps. Apparently a lotta dope (weapons?) gets smuggled in under foreskins because you peel that back for 'em. They tell you to lift up yer nutsack - in my case, "just past yer knees is fine, gramps" - and then you turn around, bend over, and spread yer cheeks. Yeah, like this old man scored a pound of crank and keestered it into jail fer chrissakes. (I do know a fellow who could keester a claw hammer, but that's another story). I think the cops find more cell phones these days than dope. The jail pay phone is damn expensive.

But I digress. Point is, I tried to have fun with it. I looked back at the cop and grinned and grabbed both cheeks and yanked them apart. I did my best to flex my asshole and make it wink. Shit, if I coulda got it to whistle "Dixie" I would have. It made the cop laugh which is always good. One caution: shooting sparks at the officer is probably not a good idea. Heh.

That cop was there every day. I don't envy him having to do that, but reason prevailed. I guess he decided that either I wasn't a danger and wouldn't try to smuggle in the explosives and/or anthrax I'd scored whilst trimming the hedges at the Elks Club, or else looking up my butt was just too horrible to contemplate, because he never asked me to do that again. I like to think it was the latter option.

Jail is a unique situation. I would never do that at Walmart although I've been tempted to...

It'll be over ...

If the Frothy Mixture can't win it all today (which the polls say he cant).

Another batch of Republican National Convention delegates will be allocated on Tuesday as voters in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. make their picks for the GOP nominee.

...

It's just a matter of whether he's self-aware enough to drop out gracefully. It's obvious Noot is no longer a factor and if he could bring himself to admit he's out, he would. I will say that this 2012 Clown Car has been one of the most entertaining in my memory. I'm gonna miss that collection of idiots.

Glutton for punishment ...

I'm beginning to think I'm a closet masochist (probably a determining factor in being a progressive blogger for almost 8 years) because in addition to everything else I'm in the middle of, I decided it's a good time to build a deck in the backyard. I'll elaborate later on but since I'm effectively out of the dad-in-law house sale (aside from lifting heavy shit), I figured I'd take the week the Mrs. is in Charlotte, NC (next week) on business and do the deck project I've been meaning to do for the last couple years. I'm using this system and I ordered up 120 of them this morning from Lowe's. After I take the dogs for shots tomorrow morning, I'm going to Home Depot and put in my lumber order. I should order some extra and build a box so when I drop dead out there, the Mrs. can make the dogs dig a hole and they can drag my carcass in it. Heh ...

Unleash ...

The Mittster!

GREEN BAY, Wis.—Mitt Romney has long been criticized for being awkward on the stump, but his wife, Ann, defended her husband in a radio interview today, rejecting a host's statement that Romney is "too stiff" on the campaign trail.

Per ABC News' Emily Friedman, Ann Romney told Baltimore WBAL radio that she's working to show another side of her husband. Asked about criticism that Romney is "too stiff," Ann Romney laughed and replied, "I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out because he is not!"

...

Honey, I coulda told you he was a limp dick years ago.

Charlie Pierce is racist!

Or at least, that's what the town drunk Ann Althouse says (Who knew she was still alive?). The Duchess of the Wine Box thinks that calling Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia "Tony" is racist because that's not his nickname*. I still don't know why Thers amuses himself with her but hey, we all have our little entertainments (mine is sitting in a public place seeing how many women wear the wrong bra).

...

You may be inclined to consider this ridiculous. However, Shocking Footage has emerged of an enraged Pierce hurling barrels at an innocent Italian plumber, probably because Pierce suspected the little fellow is Catholic:

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Oh the Humanity! You'd think Pierce shot Tony on a February night as he was heading home from the store with Skittles and iced tea.

*My first name is Richard and I don't go by "Dick" (unless it's a woman prefacing it with "Give me some of that big") but that sure as hell doesn't stop people from using that moniker (sometimes justified, heh ...).

Why ...

Is this not terrorism?

A small, homemade bomb exploded outside a Planned Parenthood office in Wisconsin on Sunday night, prompting a federal investigation and the swift condemnation of violence by a Republican presidential candidate ahead of the state’s primary on Tuesday.

...

The Frothy Mixture denounced it (good for him) but I'm certain he doesn't realize (or care) that he and his fellow Jesus-freaks are the ones who get these fundamentalist idiots riled up. When a fundie like Santorum rails against Planned Parenthood as if it's some kind of abortionplex, when they say abortion is tantamount to murder, and when they say using birth control is a sin, it is inevitable that some on the fringe will take it as license to go after the "murderers". It would be nice if Homeland Security would classify these right wing nutjobs as terrorists, but that classification is only for brown Muslim folks who they want to send to Gitmo. If you're a Christian and you blow up a public building, you're a "misguided patriot". Maybe we should round them all up and send them on a "Cuban vacation" for a while.

Heh ...

Stolen from God's FB page.

Mitt-mentum

Willard is the perfect Repug candidate for this election cycle. The still-not-any-good-but-better-than-him candidates laid chilly on this one because they knew the teabagger radicals were going to lose this race to the O-Man for them. Why waste a good candidate?

April Fool!

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) April 1, 2012 – In an April Fool's Day announcement that took the political world by storm, the Republican Party revealed today that its entire presidential race had been an elaborate prank.
...

Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain agreed that the prank had gone well, but added, "I'm just amazed that the American people never figured out we were kidding."

"I mean, I kept saying ‘9-9-9' every four seconds, which was total and utter bullshit," he said. "And everything out of Michele's mouth made her sound like a mental patient."

"True that," Rep. Bachmann agreed.

Texas Governor Rick Perry said he worried that "every time I screwed up at a debate people would figure out I was pulling their legs," but added, "The American people seemed to accept the idea that a Governor of Texas could be a blithering idiot."

When one reporter mentioned that Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was not at the press conference, a sudden silence fell over the gathering.

"Did anyone ever tell Ron this was supposed to be a prank?" Mr. Romney asked. "Holy cow, maybe he's really serious."

Ha. Fucking. Ha. Next time do something funny instead of mean-spirited and pathetic.

Nevada County Selected for Agenda 21 Project by UN

My county! Subhead:

Tea Party/CABPRO Activists Have a Conniption

Heh. Fuck 'em.

YubaNet

GENEVA/NEVADA CITY, Calif. April 1, 2012 - Nevada County's sluggish economic recovery will receive a substantial boost, thanks to an application submitted several years ago by a group of non-profits focused on sustainable living and development. The UN's Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio +20) just released the list of counties chosen to receive advanced planning and investment help. Nevada County was selected as the only rural county in California. Other counties selected throughout the US include Maricopa, Arizona - Madison, Wisconsin - Collin County, Texas - Utah County, Utah and Broward, Florida.

The reaction from the wingtards comes as no surprise:

Sue McGuire, also running for District 1, didn't want to comment on the record at first. But, after hearing that the UN was involved, she didn't hold back: "This is socialism, pure and simple. Agenda 21 is a danger to the American way of life and I will fight this. Our community doesn't need UN troops and black helicopters. Thankfully, our strong opposition will send this communist plot back to where it belongs, to the trash heap that is the UN headquarters." She pointed to the local Republican party's resolution Exposing United Nations Agenda 21, saying she fully supported the resolution.

She probably thinks all the helicopters flying around in the woods doing logging* operations are the UN's advance force. The Repugs that are for Agenda 21 think it's a real estate company. Heh.

*

Ask someone in heli-logging how business is going and they will inevitably answer, “Up and down.”

I love living in Nevada County. Note to the "blue helmets": Coffee's always on, boys. Stop on by. English is not a requirement.

Headline of the Day

Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all

There need to be a few hundred more deaths over this. In the USA. By hanging.

Why Overturning ‘Obamacare’ Could Lead To Single-Payer

First, in a spate of shameless blogwhoring, go read my earlier take on single-payer. Roostin' dirt and tubs o' beer will likely not play a major role in "Medicare For All" but my heart's in the right place.

TPM

“Conservatives may find that they weren’t careful about what they wished for in opposing ‘Obamacare,’” Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA School of Law, told TPM. “The economic, social and political pressure for health care reform aren’t going to just disappear. There’s a reason every major industrialized country has national health care. If the Supreme Court invalidates the Affordable Care Act, we are likely to see a government takeover of health care in the next decade.”

In that scenario, progressives could turn to two alternatives that have proven successful at lowering costs in other countries: A single-payer plan a la Medicare but for everyone, or a two-tier system in which private and public insurers compete. Both concepts are anathema to Republicans, but their constitutionality is not in doubt — and the GOP has been unable to devise a replacement plan, which could give liberals ammunition for their cause.

There’s little doubt that the idea behind the individual mandate — in which Americans either buy insurance or pay more in taxes — would be constitutional if rewritten explicitly as a “tax” as opposed to a “penalty” for not buying a product. But the political fallout of a Supreme Court decision to strike it down may well scare lawmakers away from the concept altogether.

“The defenders of federalism will be rewarded with an even bigger federal government,” Winkler said. “Wouldn’t that be ironic?”

The time for "healthcare for profit, available to those who can pay through the nose" is starting to be seen for the scam it is and the time for "healthcare as public utility, available to all" is nearly upon us. As it should be. It will still be a long time coming.

Update:

GOP Attorney General Suing Over Obamacare Supports Single-Payer: ‘I Trust The Government More’

“I trust the government more than insurance companies.” Caldwell went on to endorse the idea of a single-payer health care system, saying it’d “be a whole lot better” than Obamacare:

KEYES: You don’t think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful?

CALDWELL: No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one that’s going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you won’t have to go through an insurance policy, that’d be a whole lot better.

One realistic Repug. Not nearly enough but it's a start.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Santorum Open to VP Position
Says he'd be proud to serve under liberal flip-flopping no-better-than-Obama Romney.

When pigs fly...

Apple CEO Tours Foxconn Plant, Asks for Changes
Calls for shorter hours, higher pay, then flies to Philippines to shop for cheaper factory.

Chocolate Good For You
According to studies that always appear right before Easter, Halloween and Valentine's Day.

Supreme Court to Release Health Care Decision in Late June
You might want to get your annual checkup by then.

64 years ...

Worth of stuff. That's how long my in-laws were together and it seems like they never threw anything out. The Mrs. and I started the task of going through dad-in-law's place this weekend in preparation to put it up for sale. I can't believe how much stuff they'd accumulated in that time and the things they thought were worth saving. I understand it; they were children of the Great Depression (just as my parents were) and had the "you never know when it might come in handy" mentality. It's close to being overwhelming. Gonna have to get a really big dumpster.

Let's see ...

You treat women like chattel. You would deny women access to vital health care. You would deny women eminance over their own bodies and decisions. Is there any wonder why the GOP is losing the female vote?

...

Pew research and other polling organizations have shown that there has been a growing gender gap on the presidential level, with President Obama doing better with women against his likely rival in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney than the President did against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at the same point in 2008. But other recent numbers show the presidential race isn’t the only one being affected.

It’s one point both Democrats and Republicans agree on: social issues at the top of the ticket are poisoning the well and creating a gender gap across the board — mostly to the benefit of Democrats.

...

I guess the cracker bastids who run the show over there that the women of America will accept a return to the 1950s without complaint or disagreement. I got news for you, they've "come a long way, baby" and they ain't gonna give it up without a fight. Good luck with that.

More slime ...

Why doesn't this surprise me?

...

The founder of Beef Products, known for its production of "pink slime," is a major donor to Mitt Romney.

...

It seems we have a word that can describe the GOP succinctly.

Slime is slime ...

No matter how you dress it up. Perfesser Krugman on Paul Ryan's "almost inconceivably cruel" budget plan:

...

And when I say fraudulent, I mean just that. The trouble with the budget devised by Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, isn’t just its almost inconceivably cruel priorities, the way it slashes taxes for corporations and the rich while drastically cutting food and medical aid to the needy. Even aside from all that, the Ryan budget purports to reduce the deficit — but the alleged deficit reduction depends on the completely unsupported assertion that trillions of dollars in revenue can be found by closing tax loopholes.

...

I can't believe average Americans are still buying this guy's bullshit but, like we say in the car business, "there's an ass for every seat".

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Headline of the Day

George W. Bush Breaks from Partisan Politics, Endorses Barack Obama for 2012

Republican Presidential Candidate Target Practice

Via email from my old school pal Barb. .45 hole. Heh.