The Jukebox in my mind ...

Since we're on a summer theme:

The Cars - Magic

It's criminal ...

Taibbi via Montag:

Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia. Of course, you won't hear the recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, called anything like that. If you heard about it at all, you're probably either in the municipal bond business or married to an antitrust lawyer. Even then, all you probably heard was that a threesome of bit players on Wall Street got convicted of obscure antitrust violations in one of the most inscrutable, jargon-packed legal snoozefests since the government's massive case against Microsoft in the Nineties – not exactly the thrilling courtroom drama offered by the famed trials of old-school mobsters like Al Capone or Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo.

...

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a trend.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

I like Canadian country music. I think it's still called "Country & Western" up there. This is a Western. A little commentary from Emmylou as well.

Folks have been posting 'summer' songs. This is mine.

Ian & Sylvia Tyson with Emmylou Harris ~ Summer Wages

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Issa Staffer Offered To Stop Holder Contempt Vote

TPM

Rep. Darrell Issa’s chief investigative counsel offered to stop the contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder in exchange for the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Newsweek’s Dan Klaidman is reporting.
...

Breuer, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, apologized in October for not telling other Justice Department officials that guns were allowed to “walk” during the Bush administration when Congress first raised questions about Operation Fast And Furious in early 2011.
...

DOJ officials think the offer to drop the contempt vote in exchange for Breuer’s scalp was further evidence that Issa’s investigation was more about making headlines than determining facts.

“The reason that this contempt motion happened is that Issa didn’t come up with any evidence and didn’t get a scalp,” Matthew Miller, DOJ’s former communications director, told Klaidman. “When you set expectations that high and you don’t deliver, you have to explain why.”

Sounds like Issa's way of saying, "I fucked up. Throw us a bone and we'll forget all about it".

I'll throw ya a bone, Darrell. Drop 'em and bend over.

Return to Sender

CAIRO (The Borowitz Report) June 21, 2012 – Just days after they savored their chance to vote in their first-ever democratic election, Egyptians awoke today to the brutal realization that their long-awaited democracy had been imported from Florida.

"When the United States started exporting democracy to the Middle East, we were naturally very excited," said University of Cairo political science professor Amgad Nasrallah. "I guess we should have checked to see exactly which part of the United States our democracy was exported from."

Dr. Nasrallah said that when the voting in Egypt was over and no clear winner was declared, "I began to fear the worst: that our democracy had come from Florida."

"Both sides started claiming victory, and then the government said it wasn't ready to announce a final result," he said. "If we find out that this thing is going to the Supreme Court, to borrow an American phrase, we're fucked."

In Cairo today, protesters filled Tahrir Square, demanding that Egypt's new democracy be returned to sender.

But in Florida, Governor Rick Scott requested that the Coast Guard create a naval blockade around the state to prevent the Egyptians from returning its democracy to its place of origin.

"We exported democracy to Egypt because we wanted less of it in Florida, not more," Gov. Scott. "I'll be damned if we're going to take democracy back. Not on my watch. Not on my watch."

CLEARLY LABELLED SATIRE.

Headline of the Day

Politico suspends black reporter for saying Romney more comfortable around white people

Of course Willard's more comfortable around white people. Anybody else is either the help or a thug to him because he knows them only in that context, not ever spending time with The Other like if he'd been in (gasp!) the military or lived in any kind of "mixed" neighborhood. The point is that Politico, which I don't much care for, fired a black man for simply stating the obvious. I wonder if they'da done that if he'd been white. Assholes.

Quote of the Day

From "BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WON’T EVEN GIVE SUPERFAN CHRIS CHRISTIE A HANDSIE":

C’mon Springsteen, just pinch one of his tits and get it over with.

Oh, the visual! Heh.

"You Want To Talk About Contempt?"

Same comment I left at YouTube and my Facebook page: FUCKIN' A, Old Fart! Get some!

Thanks to oldfartrants.

Same shit, different hats ...

Doesn't matter which god they worship or which book they read. Jon Turley via Pam Spaulding:

We previously discussed the decision of prosecutors to grant ultra-Orthodox Jewish defendants anonymity — denied to other defendants — in facing sex-crime charges. It is, in my view, a highly problematic form of favoritism shown to a powerful community in Brooklyn. Moreover, as discussed earlier, it is highly unlikely in this tight-knit community that the identification of both the accused and victims would not be known. Now, four Hasidic men have been arrested for alleged harassment and obstruction of witnesses, including the offer of a $500,000 bribe to refuse to testify against a Hasidic leader. The prominent accused man in the Satmar Hasidic community, Nechemya Weberman, has been accused of 88 counts of sexual misconduct, including oral sex with a child younger than 13 years old. In addition to the money, the men are accused of threatening to withdraw the kosher certification from the restaurant of the boyfriend, Hershy Deutsch, unless the woman dropped her claims.

...

They all protect each other, whether they are Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, or any other crowd of god's mouthpieces who believe they are more moral than the rest of us. I've said it a million times before; it's time for all these 'institutions' to pay taxes. At least they'll be doing something useful for society while they molest our kids instead of only grubbing for money and stealing our children's souls.

I can't believe, in the 21st Century, we are still dumb enough to give any of these fuckers the benefit of the doubt on anything.

The Jukebox in my mind ...

I have no idea why this is in my head, but some good pics of every flavor of Chevelle in this vid.

Blackfoot - Highway Song

May your wishes come true ...

Via our dear friend opti, from the Organization for Educating Misinformed Tea Party Patriots, something to give every Jesus freak a stroke:

Another ...

"Charlie-Lima"

Stolen from the Being Liberal FB page.

Too Fast, Too Furious

Darrell Issa’s Lawless Marauding

That fucker's an embarrassment to my state.

Stirring extreme partisanship together with rightist paranoia, Rep. Darrell Issa and his Republican colleagues on the House Government Operations Committee have transformed a legitimate investigation into a breach of Constitutional authority and a danger to law enforcement. With Wednesday’s vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt – for refusing to turn over every document demanded in the committee’s probe of the Justice Department’s “Operation Fast and Furious” gunrunning sting – the reckless Issa invited attention to his own aims and tactics, which cannot withstand much scrutiny.

There was little expectation of scrupulous conduct from Issa, who upon assuming the committee chair announced plans to hold “seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks” to “measure [the] failure” of the Obama administration. While he hasn’t achieved that supersized goal, his blustering tone was telling. He has turned a sober and important committee into a parody of Fox Nation. And now with his most ambitious probe unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing by Holder, he is abusing Congressional power to distract from his own failure.

Please read the rest.

Issa, a criminal himself, worse now than then, made his money in car alarms. Take off your muffler and set off every last one you can.

This whole deal is hilarious in an unfunny way really. Guess who makes the decision to prosecute AG Holder if Congress finds him in contempt. Heh.

Note to AG Holder: If Issa's political game plays out and you are
made out to be in contempt of Congress, here's your line for them:

"Who gives a flyin' fuck what you clowns say? Everyone else in the country is in contempt of you teabagger fucktards too."

Update:

TPM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that an effort by House Republicans to pass a resolution finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress is really about his efforts in opposition to GOP-backed voting laws that Democrats consider forms of voter suppression.
...

“These very same people holding in contempt are part of a nationwide scheme to suppress a vote. They are closely aligned with those who are suffocating the system, special interests, secret money, and they are poisoning the debate. They are poisoning the debate with that money. And so what does the average citizen say? They throw up their hands and they say, a pox on both your houses, and that is a victory for the special interest,” Pelosi continued.

If they can make people look the other way and quit giving a shit, they win. That's much easier and more in line with their agenda than democracy.

To quote my late dad-in-law ...

"That's a big Charlie-Lima*, son."

...

“Obama looked nervous and Vladimir drank only water,” Stewart simpered, “Is this couple on the outs or are they expecting a baby?”

Stewart conceded that this “a fun game,” reading big meanings into small things, but, as he pointed out, have you ever seen Vladimir Putin not look icy?

“That’s your lamestream, liberal media for you, though” said the host, “Wall-to-wall coverage of something, but they’re not sure what it is, or if it really matters.”

...

*C-L = Care Less

Seriously ...

If you were a space alien with the intelligence and wherewithal to make it to Earth, why would you even bother making contact? I mean, with all the crap floating around this planet, you'd think we were nothing but a buncha slobs.

Houston is all too aware of this problem: The area of space just outside of Earth is growing dangerously crowded with space junk, debris leftover from 50 years-worth of humanity’s spacefaring activities and from tiny meteorites.

...

Alien travel brochures probably call the Solar System the "Ghetto of the Milky Way".

Quote of the Day

Our pal Montag:

...

Remember kids, if your name is not Ron Paul you don't deserve any government services.

That'll happen ...

Being I'm married to the biggest feminist since Gloria Steinem, I know all this is true.

Thanks to Americans Against The Tea Party for the pic.

Yes, after 22 years of marriage, she's moving out.

The dogs are on their last leg.

There's a pig scrotum filled with foul-smelling herbs hanging outside our front door to ward off the eeeevil.

We have big posters of Marx, Lenin, and Che on the front of the house.

And she won't let me watch (Heh ...).

Not.

***

Dear Pat,

Die already.

Regards,

F

Scott Brown Is Kind of a Pussy

The Rude One. links at site.

So noted naked man and recent moderate Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown had agreed to debate professional ass-kicker and totally not-much Cherokee Democrat Elizabeth Warren at the Edward Kennedy Institute of the United States Senate. The candidates had been invited by Vicki Kennedy, widow of the man himself.

Except he had a couple of conditions because Scott Brown is a pussy with a pick-up. First, Ms. Kennedy could not endorse any candidate in the race because the institute is supposed to be nonpartisan and if a Kennedy does the unexpected and endorses a Democrat, it's totally not fair.
...

Kennedy responded with a well-mannered version of "Suck on my freedom of speech, asshole," saying that she wouldn't remain neutral, and Brown told the institute that he's out. In bitch speak, his campaign said, "[W]e regret that we cannot accept a debate invitation from someone who plans to endorse Scott Brown’s opponent."

Or, truly, Scott Brown is just a pussy who was looking for an excuse to not have his face used as a mop by Elizabeth Warren.

I'm down wid da latter!

Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment

Common Dreams, links at site.

We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world. We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts.

Much of what has made the modern world in general, and the United States in particular, a free and prosperous society comes directly from insights that arose during the Enlightenment.

Too bad we’re chucking it all out and returning to the Dark Ages.

Literally.
...

Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality. Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians.

For example, North Carolina law-makers recently passed legislation against sea level rise. [...]
...

As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it: if your science gives you results you don't like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved.
...

We are, indeed, at an epochal threshold. We can continue to discard the Enlightenment values which enabled both an untold increase in material wealth and a system of government which turned serfs into citizens. A system which – for all its flaws – often managed to protect the rights of the many, against the predatory power of the few.

Or we can continue our abject surrender to myths, magical thinking, and self-delusion and the Medieval nation-state those forces are resurrecting.

Much more.

Backward, ever backward, heads stuck firmly in the sand, great white ass pointed at the world! Reality is creepin' up on us with a hard-on. Imagine the look of surprise when...

Jesus weeps. The rest of the world laughs.

Summer Reading

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford's summer reading list.

Do you have a summer reading list? I have a summer reading list. Mine is, I admit, sort of wayward and delicious and not a little bit weird.

My list is also, strangely, almost identical to the reading list I had last summer. Which is similar to the one from the year before, and the year before, and so on, all the way back to something like, oh, 2002.

The only difference? Every year my must-read pile gets higher and the sense of shame over its neglect grows more pronounced, all stemming from the knowledge that, if I'm honest, the pile will remain largely unread this summer, too. I know! Pathetic, is what it is.

Shall I blame the Internet? I shall blame the Internet.

Blame the 24-hour news cycle and the Kardashians. Heh.

Go see his reading list and you'll see why it isn't getting read. Looks like the list a college freshman is issued which also never gets read.

Heh ...

From the World's Finest News Source:

NEW YORK—Real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump reportedly stood before his bedroom's full-length mirror Wednesday morning and stared forlornly at his aged, shriveled penis before getting dressed and leaving his residence in Manhattan's Trump Tower to start the day.

According to reports, the 66-year-old had laid his suit out on his bed and was preparing to step into a pair of silk boxer shorts when he glimpsed his deteriorating body in the mirror. Trump then spent approximately 15 to 20 minutes morosely reflecting on his appearance, dedicating most of that time to gazing at his desiccated sexual anatomy and contemplating its all-but-total lack of function.

...

Even if ...

You're really shallow, you should still vote for Barry, if for this reason alone:

Pic stolen from the Americans Against The Tea Party FB page.

Or, as my lovely Mrs. says, "no matter what Romney does or wears, he always looks like he has a pole stuck up his ass". Amen, sister.

Just STFU ...

With the sob stories:

...

Yeah, what a bunch of whiners worrying about food when they should be worried about bondholders and their potential profits. It's Un-American, I tells you. Why it's downright class war!

...

Bootstraps and all that ...

Vision of a Rmoney Economy

Bakersfield Bound by Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen - from their 1996 album by the same name

One of my all-time favorite albums.

Thanks to 46807nipster.

"Right Wing Speak"

The Old Fart sums up precisely why I haven't been too prolific lately. I'm just dead from it.

Thanks to oldfartrants.

No wonder ...

I don't have to turn on the bathroom light when I go to pee in the middle of the night.

...

But Wednesday’s flare, an M1, produced a coronal mass ejection traveling at 372 miles per second (1.34 million miles per hour). While that seems incomprehensibly fast to us Earthbound travelers, the particle blast is actually “not extremely high,” according to Evans, “and so its effect is expected to be small.”

Another M-class flare erupted on Thursday along with another coronal mass ejection, and “this one appears to be stronger,” Evans told TPM, which could “result in a moderate geomagnetic storm.”

...

Yes, it glows in the dark now. Heh ...

Really?

I guess, if you're white, you're not really one of those foreigners, even though you're here on a green card:

The latest wingnut crazy to heckle Obama must think that he's a special kind of immigrant (read: he's really, really white) since he's from Europe. You can't even make these stories up.

...

Do you think the cops in Arizona would ask for this guy's papers if he was walking down the street in Tucson? Me neither.

Quote of the Day

I'm down wid it:

...

Crazy has become the new sanity and what was once a world of marvelous technology and admirable repository of the humanities has become a writhing nest of hatred, ignorance, prejudice and seemingly insoluble division that an intelligent person has to conclude we've have reached peak evolution and have begun an irreversible slide back into the primordial ooze.

...

I blame 24 hour cable news and the Kardashians. Heh ...

Not Legal Not Leaving

A few excerpts from Time magazine's cover story this week on the plight of undocumented immigrants who came here as children and aren't leaving and for all practical purposes are Americans.

'Why haven't you gotten deported?'

That's usually the first thing people ask me when they learn I'm an undocumented immigrant or, put more rudely, an "illegal." Some ask it with anger or frustration, others with genuine bafflement. At a restaurant in Birmingham, not far from the University of Alabama, an inebriated young white man challenged me: "You got your papers?" I told him I didn't. "Well, you should get your ass home, then." In California, a middle-aged white woman threw up her arms and wanted to know: "Why hasn't Obama dealt with you?" At least once a day, I get that question, or a variation of it, via e-mail, tweet or Facebook message. Why, indeed, am I still here?

The contradictions of our immigration debate are inescapable.
...

The probusiness GOP waves a KEEP OUT flag at the Mexican border and a HELP WANTED sign 100 yards in, since so many industries depend on cheap labor.

'Why don't you become legal?'
...

"I haven't become legal," I told William, "because there's no way for me to become legal, sir."

Sharon jumped in. "You can't get a green card?"

"No, ma'am," I said. "There's no process for me." Of all the questions I've been asked in the past year, "Why don't you become legal?" is probably the most exasperating. But it speaks to how unfamiliar most Americans are with how the immigration process works.

Obtaining a green card means navigating one of the two principal ways of getting permanent legal status in the U.S.: family or specialized work. To apply for a green card on the basis of family, you need to be a spouse, parent, child or sibling of a citizen. (Green-card holders can petition only for their spouses or unmarried children.) Then it's time to get in line. For green-card seekers, the U.S. has a quota of about 25,000 green cards per country each year. That means Moldova (population: 3.5 million) gets the same number of green cards as Mexico (population: 112 million). The wait time depends on demand. If you're in Mexico, India, the Philippines or another nation with many applicants, expect a wait of years or even decades. (Right now, for example, the U.S. is considering Filipino siblings who applied in January 1989.)

Much, much more. An interesting and frustrating dilemma that is only now coming to be addressed.

Related:

Mitt Romney Still Has No Position On Obama’s Immigration Bombshell

That's understandable - it takes time to come up with a lie that balances the need for cheap labor by his big donors and the scaredy-cat xenophobia of the mouth-breathers whom he is trying to convince to vote for him. It would be so much simpler if the Fat Cats could just BUY the Presidency for him outright. He'll fix that on Day One.

From a rich guy ...

I've seen Hanauer on Ed recently and he's absolutely correct.

...

But sometimes the ideas that we know to be true are dead wrong. For thousands of years people were sure that earth was at the center of the universe. It’s not, and an astronomer who still believed that it was, would do some lousy astronomy.

In the same way, a policy maker who believed that the rich and businesses are “job creators” and therefore should not be taxed, would make equally bad policy.

I have started or helped start, dozens of businesses and initially hired lots of people. But if no one could have afforded to buy what we had to sell, my businesses would all have failed and all those jobs would have evaporated.

...

Transcript from his entire speech is at the link along with a video.

Personally ...

I hate it when people use sports as metaphors for some kind of way of living (except for football [soccer] which, when played well [not MLS], is like lovemaking).

...

It's rarely pretty when our young conservatives try to "hip" themselves to popular culture in general, but their attempts at wedging sports into the ongoing shouting match between the voices in their heads are usually the most hilarious. (A while back, The Weekly Standard essayed an all-sports issue that actual sportswriters laugh at to this day. I mean, honestly, Fred Barnes on the NBA? That would have been like sending young Bill Kristol to CBGB back in the day.) This is an attempt to enlist Bryce Harper, the authentic phenom of the Washington Nationals — and I'm not kidding, he came into Fenway and lit the joint on fire a week or so ago, and you you should see him if you have the chance — into the author's personal quest for a guest slot on Hannity.

...

It always amazes me the way the conservatives are constantly looking for a "hero", a Great White Hope that will inspire and lead all of us to that great right-wing nirvana. They're as bad as young Japanese boys and their worship of AV Idols.

A handy guide ...

To surviving* the Right's austerity policies:



They didn't add "bend over and kiss your ass goodbye" but that's what it all boils down to.

*Good luck with that.

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the pic.