Recon patrol

Here's some extremely rare footage of me 'n Fixer on a recon patrol. He's drivin'. Sorta. Heh.

If Krugman's happy ...

So am I:

Because it’s such good news. Elizabeth Warren, expert on personal bankruptcy, crusader against credit card industry lobbyists, and founder of the extremely useful blog Credit Slips, to be a member of the bailout oversight board.

Elections have consequences.

Oversight? Real oversight? There's something we haven't seen in a long time.

Dear Ted Stevens ...

Looks like you won't be a senator when they cart your crooked old ass to jail:

Democratic challenger Mark Begich's lead over Republican incumbent/felon Ted Stevens was 814 on Thursday. It's now 1,022, with "about 24,000 ballots left to be counted, coming from Anchorage, Southeast Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula," according to the Anchorage Daily News. "The state will tally them all Tuesday."

...

Enjoy your stay in prison, tube-boy.

It's not just Hawaiian Haute Cuisine anymore!

NYT

AUSTIN, Minn. — The economy is in tatters and, for millions of people, the future is uncertain. But for some employees at the Hormel Foods Corporation plant here, times have never been better. They are working at a furious pace and piling up all the overtime they want.

The workers make Spam, perhaps the emblematic hard-times food in the American pantry.

Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign of the times, it is happening again, and Hormel is cranking out as much Spam as its workers can produce.

Spam, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by food elites and skewered by comedians who have offered smart-alecky theories on its name (one G-rated example: Something Posing As Meat).

Boy, I hope the Safeway doesn't run low. I love the stuff.

El Coyote Revisited

Protests and demonstrations against the passage of California's Proposition 8 have been going on non-stop since election day. A coupla days ago I posted about the involvement of one of the higher-ups at an old favorite restaurant of mine in the Yes on 8 campaign.



LATimes

Employees of the Los Angeles restaurant that came under fire this week after a manager gave $100 to the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California said they had made a $500 contribution to the advocacy group that is raising money to challenge Proposition 8.

The Thursday online donation to Equality California, an advocacy group for the gay and lesbian community, came at precisely 7:22:03 p.m., about 22 minutes into a planned demonstration outside the restaurant's doors for the second night in a row.

Over the last week, online social networking sites and blogs have urged people to boycott El Coyote Mexican Cafe on Beverly Boulevard because of the $100 donation by Marjorie Christoffersen, a manager at the restaurant and a daughter of El Coyote's owner, who is Mormon,

Diners at one table had to be compensated for their $50 tab because their night had been ruined, and patrons celebrating a birthday at an outdoor table had to endure protesters late into the evening, he said.

They sure got more than they bargained for with their Margaritas and Combination Plates!

Crenshaw said Christoffersen remains out of town and is "very upset" by what has happened.

Tough shit. The chickens have come home to roost, so to speak. Who knew you could get in so much trouble or wreck a going concern for only $100 given in support of your hateful cult's beliefs? Heh.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris - Juanita

Fuck Bush ...

We want the brotha! Via Erin @ TLC:

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama tapped a pair of high-profile delegates to represent him at this weekend's international economic summit, but world leaders wish the President-elect himself was coming.

The dignitaries visiting Washington will be respectful of lame-duck President Bush, but their interest in Obama prompted the President-elect Wednesday to name former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) to satisfy the demand.

...

It would nice if we could back the paddy wagon up to the White House, take all the Chimp's folks out in cuffs, and let Barry take over early. The nation, and the world, would be better off.

Saturday Morning Johnson Blogging

I was watching Gunny Ermey giving a history of infantry rifles last night on 'Lock N' Load' and this oddball weapon came up.

Johnson M1941 semiautomatic rifle (USA)

See a close-up of the magazine and loading arrangement here.

So why do I bring this up? The thing was a piece of crap. As the lady who runs the historical armory at MCB Quantico said on the show:

"You'll never find a Marine who says he likes a Johnson."

I just couldn't let a line like that go to waste!

In the best interests of us all, you're on Russia watch...

Think Progress

In the wake of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this week in Miami, many GOP governors were reluctant to embrace Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the party’s leader or presidential candidate for 2012. Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions:

Da guvs is plenny smart.

The Repuglican't party is composed of tops and bottoms and yes, that's the context I mean. The tops use the bottoms in exactly the same fashion: they sweet talk 'em and fuck 'em and use 'em and then ignore 'em. Palin appeals to the whackjob base. The very last thing the Repugs want is for the bottoms to get on top.

My fearless prediction is that we will see the last of her on the national stage in any serious role in the near future. She may continue as far right comedy relief for years.

The case against Lieberman

My Favorite Pundit sums up the case against Joe the Turncoat in as good a segment as you will see. She tamps his crap into a very neat brick. And who else uses phrases like 'vituperative antipathy' as if we are actually adults who can understand it?



Note to Ms. Maddow: I know you're too busy, so I'll go get the restraining order against me myself.

Team Lioness

I watched a documentary last night on PBS called 'Lioness' about female combat soldiers in Iraq.

Despite a Department of Defense policy banning women from direct ground combat, U.S. military commanders have been using women as an essential part of their ground operations in Iraq since 2003. The female soldiers who accompany male troops on patrols and house-to-house searches are known as Team Lioness, and have proved to be invaluable. Their presence not only helps calm women and children, but Lioness troops are also able to conduct searches of the women, without violating cultural strictures. Against official policy and without the training given to their male counterparts, and with a firm commitment to serve as needed, these dedicated young women have been drawn into the fighting in some of the most violent counterinsurgency battles in Iraq. Yet they are rarely—if ever—mentioned in news accounts of those battles.

I'm sure they are not mentioned because what they are ordered to do is illegal.

LIONESS profiles five women who saw action in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle during 2003 and 2004. As members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Engineer Battalion, Shannon Morgan, Rebecca Nava, Kate Pendry Guttormsen, Anastasia Breslow and Ranie Ruthig were sent to Iraq to provide supplies and logistical support to their male colleagues. Not trained for combat duty, the women unexpectedly became involved with fighting in the streets of Ramadi.

Told through interviews, journal excerpts and archival footage, LIONESS offers a portrait of five soldiers who are also wives, mothers and daughters, and who have long coped with the demands of military life, especially the sacrifices involved in leaving behind spouses and young children. These combat-tested women exemplify what it means to be a good soldier, and illustrate the complicated role that women play in direct war combat. Reflecting on their recent deployment, the Lionesses display strength and candor, bridging the gap between the perception and the reality of the essential role women are playing in Iraq.

There's some humor as well. I paraphrase:

"The Marines do things a lot different than the Army. Those guys go lookin' for fights!"

Out of contact with her fire team for a minute in the middle of a firefight and thinking she had been abandoned, upon reuniting with them:

"I kicked the squad leader right in the nuts!"

Who amongst us has not wanted to do that? Get 'im, girl!

I'm a tough ol' bird in some respects, but this film kinda broke my heart. Whatever you think of women in combat, it's happening as a result of cultural necessity. The women face the same risk of death, injury, PTSD, etc. that the men do. At least the Army is training them for it now. I highly recommend you see it somehow. Start with the quite extensive link. Please.

Quote of the Day

Hoffmania via Jill:

...

Shut. Up. You're a crazy person. Seek the help you need, go home and keep an eye on Russia with that dysfunctional family of yours.

Late for work. KTHXBAI!

The new threat ...

Scout Prime haz it:

...

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: "Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?" Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah — you have scored a point there."

...

Like my mom used to say to me when I'd fuck up: "You're not useless, there's always that career as a bad example."

How about ...

A career Foreign Service Officer at State instead of a marquee name? We got a lot of fences to mend. While Barry owes Hil a spot in the cabinet if she wants it, I'd like someone at State, finally, who knows what they're doing. Richard Holbrooke, fer instance ...

And, as I did 4 years ago, I'll repeat the offer. If Barry wants someobody really good at Commerce or Treasury, Mrs. F is your girl. She's more than qualified; the only problem is she's married to me and in the politcal world, I'm considered 'baggage'. Heh ...

El Coyote? No mas.

The Campaign Silo

About 70 people gathered at the legendary El Coyote Cafe in Los Angeles' Fairfax District Wednesday morning for a community sit down/brunch to hear Marjorie Christoffersen speak about why she gave $100 to Yes on 8 via the Mormon Church. Marjorie, a lifelong Mormon, is the niece of El Coyote's founder and daughter of the current owner. She receives a salary as a floor manager. El Coyote has 89 employees, many of whom are gay.

But the crowd was deeply touched when one of the waitress, Rocio who is working on her citizenship papers, explained that she didn't know gay people before she came to work at El Coyote, but after a few weeks working there, her younger brother came to her and told her he was gay, and that because of El Coyote's clientele she was able to understand him. She was pleading with customers, who clearly care for her as she does for them, to not leave El Coyote, and said that if she had had her citizenship she would have voted no on 8.

And therein lies the problem: Here is a restaurant, seeped in Los Angeles history with a huge gay clientele, that employs 89 staff many of whom are gay, all of whom (except Marjorie) are gay friendly--and that has a manager who is part of the owner's family, who tithes to an anti-gay church and donated, at her church's behest, to eliminate a civil right from the very people who she says she loves--people who help provide her with an income.

If Marjorie loves El Coyote as much as she says, she needs bid farewell to her job. And maybe the condescending idea of how you can "love" someone and be their "friend" yet feel they are not worthy of equal rights needs be tossed off the back of the bus.

At the end of the meeting, no one felt like eating, despite the offer of a free meal--Marjorie's views had left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I got a bad taste in my mouth right now too. El Coyote is possibly the first Mexican restaurant I ever ate in, maybe sixty years ago. I have eaten there many, many times since. The food is excellent. I'm 500 miles from there now, so it's hollow for me to say 'never again', but, never again.

God damn those fuckin' Mormons. Now they're shittin' on good places. Keep it in Salt Lake City, you assholes.

Note to the Elder Saints: What you racist, homophobic motherfuckers should do in aid of the country you live in and despise is a cult-wide Latter Day Jonestown.

Mrs. G's father deserted her Mom and left her with two small children back in the late '40s. He later converted to Mormonism. I met him once right after I told one of his state-paid foster delinquent brats who had just cracked a whip a little too close to me that I was going to break his fuckin' arm if he did it again. I woulda done it then and there, but that was the day Mrs. G took her fiance, me, to meet her father and I was on my best behavior. He didn't like me and I didn't like him. A few years after that he blew his own head off. At no loss to the human race. Take the hint, the rest of you Mormon bastards.

This is why it's called 'Idahole'

Raw Story

Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children allegedly started chanting "assassinate Obama" on the school bus.

According to an article which appeared in Salon in 2006, "You've heard of Jesusland, but Rexburg, Idaho, is something more. It's not just a small town in rural Eastern Idaho. It's a small town in rural Eastern Idaho completely dominated by a fast-growing Mormon college, Brigham Young University-Idaho."

That fucking racist cult again.

The population of Madison County is not only heavily Republican but also 97.7% white. One of Rexburg's lone Democrats, a professor at the university, told Salon that "she remembers the time when a group of classmates followed her third-grader home, shouting out 'baby-killer' all along the way. She took it up with the teacher, who didn't seem to mind."

Idaho is a beautiful state with a high percentage of truly ugly people. I'm sure glad it's out in the middle of nowhere.

Obama Plot Skinhead Wants Dismissal

HuffPo

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A white supremacist charged with plotting to kill President-elect Barack Obama and other black people wants his indictment dismissed, arguing that the federal grand jury that charged him had too many black members.

It argues that the 23-member grand jury that returned the indictment had just two white members and could not have been fair and impartial.

A little behind the times ain'tcha, dickwad? The days when a white man could count on an all-white jury to let him off for crimes against blacks is long gone. Maybe you'll get to be in an all-white cellblock. It'll be more fun to watch if you don't.

What Doesn't Kill The Far-Right Only Makes Them Crazier

Bob Cesca

Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration. If the last seven days have been any indication, the far-right is shaping up to make the 1990s seem quaint -- even erudite by comparison. That which used to be your basic, off-the-shelf intellectual dishonesty has grown into, as Digby pointed out recently, full-on intellectual violence.

The "Impeach Obama" Facebook groups, for example. No, I'm not making that up. They're real and there's a constant variety of disgruntled far-right Republicans joining up every day. And, to our total lack of surprise, they're not ashamed in the slightest to post comments like this one:

"Damn dems stole the election like they always do. GOD wanted McCain and Palin in the White House. That's why it's called THE WHITE HOUSE."

Shortly after discovering this, I was talking with a colleague and found myself instinctively trying to form a rational argument about why the Facebook members were wrong. It began with the obvious: "He's not even the president yet!" And then, after I segued into Article II and the constitutional grounds for impeachment, I stopped myself. What in name of Randall P. MacMurphy am I doing? Arguing against this crap is like explaining to a meth tweaker that the shadow people aren't real (my em). That's when I decided that it'd be more fun to just infiltrate one of the groups and post comments like, "The moon landing was staged!" and, "Obama is a bionic -- just like his half-aunt! I have proof!"

It won't faze 'em a bit, Bob. Just run-of-the-mill delusionry from the batshit base.

Whoops. There I go again, talking about facts and treating the crazy like it's real.

So we're in for many more years of insanity from the far-right. They're not dead. They're not as irrelevant as they deserve to be. And they certainly don't suffer from writer's block when it comes to outlandish and illogical attacks and smears.

Put it this way, if President-elect Obama so much as takes a long weekend off this August, you can bet that the far-right will crap their cages about Obama being lazy and shiftless.

There are several schools of thought(?) amongst the Repugs as to exactly why they lost the election, depending on how far to right of the reality line the "thinker" stands. The one that applies here is that they lost because they weren't far enough to the right! Gee, I guess if the needle on the gas gauge is far enough to the right that it's wrapped around the pin about three times, then you've got even more gas than the tank will hold! Ooh, way better!

These assholes are starting to redouble² their smear efforts. We're in for it all right. Ya think we've seen some ugly shit from these assclowns up to now? We ain't seen nothin' yet.

Update:

To quote our pal Nucks (go see '6 fun facts' about the guy your mother warned you about. Heh.) in 'comments:

Bring it, assholes.

Fuckin' A.

Fear of A Gay Planet

Violet Blue knows exactly why Prop. 8 passed, and it's distasteful

I don't necessarily agree with Ms. Blue, but I'm sure what she has to say figured in at least in part. Also, this is about as close to Rude Pundit as you can get in a newspaper! Links you won't believe! Heh.

Yes, the family-packed Proposition 8 protest last Friday night, with estimates of between 15,000 and 25,000 marchers, was quite peaceful. Unless you saw the look on 8-foot-tall Miss Trannyshack 2007 Pollo Del Mar's face. She looked like she was about to slam a size 15 open-toed high heel into the back of some Mormon's head. No one - and I mean NO ONE - is taking her bridal registry away.

The Mormon (LDS) church, as we all know, was the biggest supporter of this actual threat to true family values. Well, and Mel Gibson helped Prop. 8 a little, too. (Or Mel Gibstein, as I like to call him.) But if you take the KPIX estimate of 25,000 San Francisco protesters - that's the exact same number of Mormon volunteers who were going door-to-door in our fair state warning voters about the homosexual menace. What the hell were they saying? I'm pretty sure the script went like this:

"Save the family … blah blah blah … two penises together … blah blah blah … you're either for traditional marriage or against it … blah blah blah … dirty man on man anal sex … blah blah blah … your marriage will be meaningless if gays can do it … blah blah blah … sweaty hairy naked manly women with giant dildos … blah blah blah … protect the sanctity of a man and a woman making babies … blah blah blah … this will make your children gay and expose them to gay sex … blah blah blah … vote yes on 8 … filthy poophole sex … have a nice day!"

We all know what it means when someone goes way, way out of their way about gayness. It's because they can't stop thinking about all that hot gay sex. [...]

Just go...

Tagged ...

I normally don't do these but ...

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I have this funny (insane?) quirk about doing things left-to-right. Example: Getting dressed; left, sock, left shoe, right sock, right shoe - gloves; left one first, on and off. (Fly is always zip-then-button.)

2. I'm about beer the way some snobs are with wine. I will drink water (There's a whole thing about my drinking water too. If I ask for a glass of water, check me for fever.) before I drink Budweiser. It's one of the reasons I love being in Europe so much. The Belgians have my eternal affection.

3. I own more neckties than most of the people I know combined.

4. I generally like more of the animals I meet than the people I meet in the course of a day. I have a very low tolerance for dumbasses, especially the ones who think they're smarter than I am. Pretense also annoys the shit out of me, as do fake breasts. I look for authenticity in my close friends - be who you are.

5. Being a mechanic and hating cars. Not cars per se, but the whole experience of the customers who go with them. The old men who have too much free time and think every little vibration is a major calamity and bother me 3 times a day; the women who "can give you 20 minutes" to perform a brake job (4 wheel), replace two axles, and change the oil; or the people without lives who think I should entertain them while I work on their car; or the Wall St. asshole who thinks his BMW is the most precious thing since they discovered the Hope Diamond ...

My dream job would be building a couple of nice hotrods a year, maybe have a couple guys working with me, and taking our time building some good, fast, beautiful cars.

6. I hate sitcoms. I hate most TV, but sitcoms are the worst ('reality' shows running neck and neck). If you don't look at the screen while they're on, the scripts sound the same as they did in the 60s. The subjects might be a bit more risque nowadays but the plots are the same. They are recycled, mind-numbing drivel.

I'm not gonna tag anyone, but my thanks to our friend PC for giving me the tag. Don't make it a habit. Heh ...

Off to work ...