Comparison

Rhonda Vincent is a big star and one of my favorites. She's been playing Bluegrass music professionally for over thirty years. Another showbiz 'overnight sensation'. Here's her official video of this tune:

Rhonda Vincent ~ I've Forgotten You

Thanks to rvfcprez.

Pretty good, huh? Now, keeping in mind the vast difference between a professional video by an established star and an onstage performance by a very young band, listen to a live performance of the same tune by new generation up-and-comers The Lovell Sisters who don't have thirty years experience between the three of them:

The Lovell Sisters perform 'I've Forgotten You' live at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta - February 9, 2007.

The Lovell Sisters ~ I've Forgotten You

Pretty good, huh?

Thanks to thelovellsisters.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

In my never-ending quest to steal the very latest videos for you, this is from MerleFest 2009 just last week. More here.

Emmylou Harris - Jupiter Rising Why Don't You Call Me? Merlefest 2009

Thanks to tconnarn.

Friend Of The Devil

One of my favorite songs, the title of which is also what the Dead End Quarter calls the rest of us. Heh. Pretty good slide show of stuff we ain't seen in forty years. Puff up a fatty and enjoy.

Jerry Garcia ~ Friend Of The Devil

Thanks to gratefulvideo.

WWII female aviator still flying

Go see this photo gallery at the LATimes.

Violet Cowden flew 19 different types of "pursuit planes" during World War II, including the Mustang, as she helped deliver new aircraft from factories to military bases across the nation. She served in a branch of the Army Air Forces known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots,

I won't go into it in great detail here, but the WASPs performed an extremely valuable service and got royally screwed for it as payment from a government (ours) that didn't give a shit about them until very recently.

Read more about them here and here.

Cowden poses aboard a P-51C Mustang after flying into Long Beach Airport with members of Wings of Freedom, a group that showcases vintage airplanes. The Mustang will be on display along with a B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 bomber.

I think she's a cool ol' gal, but I still get a visual of her flyin' along at about 9 miles per hour and not being able to see over the steering wheel, all the while oblivious to the carnage in her wake...

A P-51 sure beats the shit out of a brand new shiny red superstock Dodge! Go, Granny, go!

Quote of the Day

Bob Herbert in an NYT op-ed. Worth a read.

"The incredibly clueless stewards of the incredibly shrinking Republican Party would do well to recall that it was supposedly Abe Lincoln, a Republican, who said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Not only has the G.O.P. spent years trying to fool everybody in sight with its phony-baloney, dime-store philosophies, it’s now trapped in the patently pathetic phase of fooling itself."

Life is good...

Shopping Day

It's over the mountaind and through the woods to Costco we will go today. Here's a pic of the torturous drive along the east shore of Lake Tahoe:

Click pix to embiggen.

It won't look like that today. Gray and drizzly here. Sigh. Got some new CDs to listen to though.

Here's the descent into the big city. Carson City, that is. Costco is in the center. Truck needed a wash.



Just another day in Paradise. See yas later.

The Right goes insane

Goes?! It done been fer a while. Mark Morford does a little catchin' up:

Evil overlords to flaccid clowns in the blink of Jesus' eye. Adorable!

There is much good news to be found in the ongoing GOP implosion; their obsession with 'wedge issues' like abortion and gay marriage, along with hilarious claims of socialism and fascism are proving to be the absolute best news for the nation as a whole. Because as the GOP wallows in juvenile spectacle, Obama and the Dems are leaping headlong into one of the most ambitious, invigorating, nation-altering agendas in American history.

Of course, it ain't all flowers and candy. This much unfettered movement for any party, left or right, can also be just insanely dangerous, could theoretically result in a blowback for the Dems exactly as destructive and apocalyptic as the horrendous Bush Era proved to be for the once-temperate Repubs.

Is it already heading that way? Will it happen? Not a chance.

But before we see why, let us enjoy a bit of the comedy. [...]

Please go enjoy a bit of the comedy. Make sure your printer has paper in it. You may wish to pass out copies to your friends.

Blood sugar alert: He's a little sweet on Obama. That's OK.

Flu outbreak diverts Mexico's cruises to S.F.

Just to illustrate and transcontinentally expand on Fixer's post a little, with accompanying article in the EssEffChron.

Moonbeam's meats gleeped

LATimes

His position as the state's top law enforcement authority did not protect Jerry Brown -- or his car -- when thieves made off with two of the attorney general's tires last week.

I need a coupla more rolls of duct tape. My sides hurt...

How christian of them...

Gee, he doesn't look Sephardic...

From Raw Story:

Churchgoers are more likely to back torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey by Pew. Per CNN:

Jesus weeps.

Headline of the Day

The paper it's in makes me wanta toss my cookies a lot too. With video.

Boehner says Obama's bills makes him 'want to throw up'

Puke away, dipstick. When ya feel somethin' furry come up, keep that. It's yer asshole.

No chances ...

While most of this "Swine Flu" hubbub is overblown, there's one place where you can't take chances. On a cruise ship, sickness can spread like wildfire among such a closed population. As avid cruisers, Mrs. F and I are amazed by all the precautions taken to ensure a bug doesn't get started among the passengers. In light of that, the ships ain't going to Mexico:

...

The itinerary changes came a day after five of the world's largest cruise lines announced plans to suspend all stops to Mexico, based on recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avoid nonessential travel to the country.

Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest cruise line, released an itinerary update for eight ships that were previously scheduled to stop in Mexican ports between Wednesday and Friday. The ships that were scheduled to stop in Progresso, Cozumel and Ensenada either will stop at Key West, Fla., or Nassau, Bahamas, or will spend a "fun day at sea," according to the itinerary, posted on the company Web site (www.carnival.com). Ships scheduled to stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas will instead stop in San Francisco or stay out at sea.

...

Figure 2000 to 3500 passengers per ship and the money it puts into the local economy at each port call. Now, start multiplying ...

...

Princess Cruises, which is owned by Carnival Corp. (www.princess.com), released an itinerary for two ships, the Star Princess and the Sapphire Princess, scheduled to make stops in Mexico through May 7. Instead, those ships will stop in Santa Barbara, Calif.; San Diego; Catalina Island, off the Southern California coast; San Francisco; or will spend the day at sea.

For Holland America lines (www.hollandamerica.com), the ms Veendam, which is scheduled to launch Friday, cruising from Florida, through the Panama Canal to British Columbia, will pass up stops at Huatulco, Acapulco, and Cabo San Lucas. Instead the ship will cruise Golfo Dulce, an inlet in Costa Rica, making stops at Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica; Cortino, Nicaragua; and Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

...

Mexico is taking a big hit thanks to this virus, not to mention the loss of international travel thanks to the drug violence in its border towns and eastern provinces. As I've said many times, there are better places to spend your travel dollars. Mrs. F and I used to go regularly when we were first married, but once we found the Dutch Islands (Netherlands Antilles), we've had no desire. When they clean up their act, we'd like to redo our honeymoon cruise (Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas), but I ain't setting foot in Mexico until they do.

Thank god Bush is gone - Part Eleventy-billion ...

WASHINGTON — Justice David H. Souter plans to retire at the end of the term in June, giving President Obama his first appointment to the Supreme Court, four people informed about the decision said Thursday night.

...

Could you imagine if the Chimp got to appoint another Kool-Aid drinking, fetus-loving conservative to SCOTUS? They would have made American women get cameras implanted in their uteri.

I'm sure Souter held on until after the inauguration to keep the balance on the Court. I'm also glad Ruthie was determined to stay as well.

...

During a campaign debate last fall, Mr. Obama said the selection of a new justice would be "one of the most consequential decisions of the next president." He said he would look for judges who had a strong judicial record and "who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through."

...

Let's hope so.

Great thanks to Scout Prime for the link.

The Party of Fail ...

Political Wire via Watertiger:

The AP obtained partial results from a GOP poll that showed Republicans "are widely viewed by the public as less competent than Democrats to handle issue[s] ranging from health care to education and energy."

"Democrats were favored by a margin of 61% to 29% on education; 59% to 30% on health care and 59% to 31% on energy. Congress is expected to consider major legislation later this year in all three areas."

...

And it's always the 20 - 30% who believe (the Dead End Quarter), regardless of the facts or what the last 8 years have proven about conservatism (at least, in the American political sense).

Fixer Rule of Thumb: If it comes out of a Republican, you can assume it's bullshit and you're gonna get screwed somehow.

Two ... two ...

Two links in one day, by the same blog! One of the greatest blogs in the world, WTF Is It Now?!?, has seen fit, thanks to the Blogmeister Maru and her partner in crime, UL, to link to one of my posts and one of Gordon's in the same day. I consider it a singular (or doubular, as it were) honor! Thanks, guys!

New logo for the Dead End Quarter

Actually, it's less than a quarter and falling fast. Its demise cannot come soon enough.

Gopasaurus

Stolen from Kos hisself. Who knows where he stole it.

Unbelievably stupid self-serving statement of the day

Think Progress

Speaking with a group of Stanford students Monday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that al Qaeda is a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany was because Germany "never attacked the homeland of the United States." [...]

Lemme see if I got this right - a buncha goat humpers who got in a lucky punch on a blind complacent giant are a bigger danger than a madman who took control of Europe and murdered millions as a matter of policy?

A few thousand people, tops, who want to fuck things up and return the world to the dark ages are a bigger threat than an industrial giant with millions of soldiers who wanted to shape the world to their own thousand-year dark ages?

Does she think the Nazis would not have "attacked the homeland (awful term)" if we had not thrown our own industrial might and millions of soldiers at them and stopped them before they could do it? Believe me, they had plans in the works.

I don't think so, Condi.

Update:

"Condi pulls a Nixon."

Ms. Rice, it's over. Sanity has returned to most of this country. The neocons' Thousand Year Reich has been thwarted, and all that remains is to clean up your mess and exact justice on the perpetrators, of whom you are one. Say what you will to try and stay out of jail, but I suggest you go home and get your affairs in order.

Live Whiskey-Blogging President Obama's News Conference

The Rude Pundit loves him some whiskey! Frees him up to say what he wants. Heh.

Frankly, the Rude Pundit doesn't give a happy monkeyfuck about what day this is in the President's presidency. Of course, of course, there's significance to round numbers and such shit. But, you know, it ain't like there's jackshit we can do if we don't like what's happening. Barack Obama ain't a bottle of wine that you sip and send back. But, hey, like a sickeningly in-love couple giving gifts on their one-month dating anniversary, we're gonna celebrate.

8:02 - He calls it "H1N1," not "swine flu," thus proving how he's actually Muslim. If this was Bush, he'd be telling us to shoot on sight anyone who was coughing.

8:08 - Sweet Jennifer Loven asks about quarantining and closing borders. Expect AP article on how Obama was too cool about the coming pandemic and how he needs to bug the fuck out, shit himself, and tell everyone we're fucked.

Good point. This administration hasn't used near enough fearmongering yet to panic folks into giving them what they want like the Bush cabal did.

8:17 - "We could have gotten this information in other ways," he says. Sean Hannity's forehead explodes.

8:26 - Some bald dude from Reuters asks about withdrawal from Iraq. Obama is so comfortingly boring. That sounds idiotic, but after eight years of a scowling drunk glaring at us and yelling, "Eeevil" like a senile gypsy in a 1930s film, it's just nice to hear that the President is more concerned about the minutiae of policy. We're just getting used to it still.

8:32 - He bitch slaps the Republican idea of bipartisanship.

8:41 - Tequila makes the Rude Pundit an angry drunk. It's like a bar fight in a shot glass. Good, deep whiskey works a different nerve. It's more of a massage than a slap.

"Bar fight in a shot glass" is an excellent description of cactus juice. Heh.

8:57 - Gives a list of the shit that he's gotta deal with as a way of saying, "Jesus, are you fuckin' kidding me," and he's out.

And it's over. Once again, he was the President, man, the guy who knows his shit, keeps his cool, and will not be fucked with. There was some bob and weave, sure, on accusing the previous administration of crimes on torture, but there's very little the man's gonna give away until he's ready. The Rude Pundit's said it before and he'll say it again: Obama plays rope-a-dope. That's his game. Sit back and watch who's the dopes next time.

Much, much more. Enjoy.

Ridiculous ...

[A big Brain welcome to Maru's readers - F.]

That CNN has the balls to give Obama a "grade" for his first hundred days. It'd be nice if we could give CNN a grade on how well they "kept them honest" during the Bush administration:

...

This whole 100 Days ritual navel gazing has always been stupid, but they've reached unprecedented heights this time. They've turned it into a Major TV Event, in which the only thing that actually happens is that the usual fatuous gasbags blather on for hours about nothing in advance of a mundane press conference. Talk about riveting television.

...

Late ... See yas later.

Not that it means shit ...

But after 100 days, I give Barry a B-minus. Woulda got a B-plus or A had he not tried to keep Bush's "unitary executive" bullshit going.