This'll getcher toes O'Tappin

Sharon Shannon & Steve Earle perform Galway Girl Live at the Kennedy Center Gala for Irish Music

Thanks to daisylabel, Ireland.

Quote of the Day

The Ostroy Report

July Job Losses Down Significantly. Republicans Accuse Nation's Employers of Conspiring to Make Obama Look Good

"...validate Al Qaeda's twisted worldview."

Chicago Tribune

In his first public appearance as the White House counter-terrorism advisor, John O. Brennan said that President George W. Bush's policies had been an affront to American values, undermined the nation's security and fostered a "global war" mind-set that served only to "validate Al Qaeda's twisted worldview."

Gee, ya think?

The sharp language is likely to extend the war of words between the current administration and conservative critics such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has carried out an unusually high-profile campaign accusing Obama of abandoning methods that made the country safe.

Given the choice, I'd rather be safe from the likes of Cheney than from terrorists.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris & Some Jewish Kid From Minnesota ~ One More Cup Of Coffee

Thanks to SHAYMCN2, Ireland.

It's here ...

Stays on top today. You vill do vat Fixer says at the bottom. Iff you do not, ve haff vays of making you... - G

I've been warning about this for years that, under Bush, we were quickly approaching becoming a fascist state. From the stories my mother told me (she grew up in pre-WW2 Germany and was a nurse in the German Army during the war), the Chimp and Cheney's activities were easily recognizable. Sara Robinson sees the results of that regime's policies bringing us to a tipping point:

...

In the second stage, fascist movements take root, turn into real political parties, and seize their seat at the table of power. Interestingly, in every case Paxton cites, the political base came from the rural, less-educated parts of the country; and almost all of them came to power very specifically by offering themselves as informal goon squads organized to intimidate farmworkers on behalf of the large landowners. The KKK disenfranchised black sharecroppers and set itself up as the enforcement wing of Jim Crow. The Italian Squadristi and the German Brownshirts made their bones breaking up farmers' strikes. And these days, GOP-sanctioned anti-immigrant groups make life hell for Hispanic agricultural workers in the US. As violence against random Hispanics (citizens and otherwise) increases, the right-wing goon squads are getting basic training that, if the pattern holds, they may eventually use to intimidate the rest of us.

Paxton wrote that succeeding at the second stage "depends on certain relatively precise conditions: the weakness of a liberal state, whose inadequacies condemn the nation to disorder, decline, or humiliation; and political deadlock because the Right, the heir to power but unable to continue to wield it alone, refuses to accept a growing Left as a legitimate governing partner." He further noted that Hitler and Mussolini both took power under these same circumstances: "deadlock of constitutional government (produced in part by the polarization that the fascists abetted); conservative leaders who felt threatened by the loss of their capacity to keep the population under control at a moment of massive popular mobilization; an advancing Left; and conservative leaders who refused to work with that Left and who felt unable to continue to govern against the Left without further reinforcement."

And more ominously: "The most important variables...are the conservative elites' willingness to work with the fascists (along with a reciprocal flexibility on the part of the fascist leaders) and the depth of the crisis that induces them to cooperate."

That description sounds eerily like the dire straits our Congressional Republicans find themselves in right now. Though the GOP has been humiliated, rejected, and reduced to rump status by a series of epic national catastrophes mostly of its own making, its leadership can't even imagine governing cooperatively with the newly mobilized and ascendant Democrats. Lacking legitimate routes back to power, their last hope is to invest the hardcore remainder of their base with an undeserved legitimacy, recruit them as shock troops, and overthrow American democracy by force. If they can't win elections or policy fights, they're more than willing to take it to the streets, and seize power by bullying Americans into silence and complicity.

When that unholy alliance is made, the third stage -- the transition to full-fledged government fascism -- begins. [my em]

...

If you read anything today, read this in its entirety.

Waltzing ...

Mrs F conned, badgered, ordered asked me to go with her to her 30th high school reunion and, being the hell of a guy I am, I said yes (Wouldn't miss it for the world, being that my high school still holds a grudge* - if I am alive at my 60th, they might let me show up). While we're out, I leave you with Pyotr Ilyich's classic:

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake Waltz

*And no, I'm not sharing the story. Heh ...

Of Birthers, Senators and Morons

Shopping day today, so here's a quickie from Kos:

In the news: John Cornyn thinks fact checking is pretext for domestic espionage. Which he's suddenly against. Chuck Grassley uses Ted Kennedy's medical condition as propaganda for his own false and nonsensical claims about "socialized medicine" killing old people -- and this is who Max Baucus is "negotiating" with to bring us his version of health care. Rush Limbaugh thinks Obama is like Hitler. Glenn Beck muses about poisoning Nancy Pelosi.

The birthers are going strong, and the teabaggers are trying to shut down healthcare reform by making town halls on the subject impossible. Dick Morris and John Bolton agree: we should have left those two journalists to rot in North Korea, because Clinton going there to secure their release made the U.S. look weak, and now other countries will steal our lunch money at recess. And Lou Dobbs never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like, as long as it was about brown or black people, but after people got angry that he peddled false nonsense he says he's now reflexively going to oppose Obama on everything.

It almost makes you want to cry. Between Cornyn, Grassley, Limbaugh and Beck, between Dobbs and Morris and Bolton, between birthers and "socialized" medicine but keep-your-hands-off-my-Medicare, the stupid is overwhelming. It's become a tidal wave of stupid. It's a giant Noah's Ark of stupid, in which two examples of every kind of dumbassery known to man have been loaded up to be set adrift on a sea of their own drool. It's the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" gameshow of stupid -- loud, with big flashing lights, and on every goddamn day of the week. It's the result of drinking conservative bong water and eating the paint chips flaking off Bill Buckley's lead-encrusted casket.

I'd be afraid for the future of our country, but I know that if these people ever actually armed themselves and tried to take over they'd all have accidentally shot themselves in the groin within the first ten minutes. Then they'd all limp to D.C. to hold a rally demanding free government healthcare for crotch-related injuries.

If they need any help to shoot themselves in the crotch, I volunteer.

See yas later.

Recess

Gleefully gleeped from YubaNet.

Note to the House and Senate: Beat on that bully sonofabitch with that case in your hand until he cries 'Uncle!'. Then beat him until he shuts the fuck up. Then just beat him. Yeah, like you got the balls to do that.

Khmer Bush

YubaNet

As leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime testify in a human rights tribunal, in harrowing detail, for the killing of more than a million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 a central medical question remains unanswered: will the trials help a society heal or exacerbate the lingering affects of widespread trauma?

Tribunals to assess crimes of war and crimes against humanity are becoming more common. In June, Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, answered questions in an international courtroom in Paris about his alleged role in genocide in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a UN-sponsored trial, has been underway since 1993 and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 1995. The Nuremberg Trials is perhaps the most well known.

The Khmer Rouge trials offer the opportunity to better gauge the efficacy of these trials, and those lessons hold relevance across a spectrum of injustice.

“The larger question raised by our study is whether attempts to promote justice for survivors of violence – whether en masse or inflicted by one individual to another – can help lessen its psychological toll,” Sonis says. “We simply don’t know the answers yet.”

Let's have some Khmer Bush trials and find out.

William Jefferson Airplane

The title must refer to the fact that The Big Dawg's got Grace and he's Slick...

First 5 minutes is about Clinton and the return of the hostages. Then it goes into the wingtards' response. Scumbags.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Jefferson Airplane
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Clinton says she regrets U.S. is not a member of ICC

Ol' Hil was firin' on all her cylinders over in Kenya! I hereby volunteer a fresh oversize piston should she ever need one...

Reuters via Think Progress:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday it was a "great regret" the United States was not yet a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The United States signed the ICC treaty when Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton, was president, but it was never ratified by Congress. Clinton's successor George W. Bush later rejected the idea of joining the court.

If I did what he did, I'da rejected it too. When ya let the war criminals be the shot callers, no good will come of it and none has.

With the recent addition of the Czech Republic, 110 countries have ratified the Rome statute. Absent from the list are the United States, Russia, China and Israel.

The "Big Four" in Non-Accountability World for war crimes, imperialism, genocide, and general all-around human rights abuses.

The court only has jurisdiction over crimes committed after July 1, 2002, in countries that have ratified its treaty.

It's almost like they knew what Bush & Cheney were going to be up to when they formed that outfit. Maybe someone there was on Yoo and Bybee's e-mail list.

It doesn't look at present like Obama is going to change US policy re the ICC. If he does, listen for the sound of printing presses in The Hague burning out from printing arrest warrants for the neoNaziscons and their Bush administration.

Republicans Oppose 'Cash For Clunkers' Program

Tony Peyser

Whatever their complaints may be
The subtext that's always lurking
Is rage at anything Obama's done
That happens to be. . . working.

Oily Taint ...

And the rest of them. Our pal Maru:

...

Remember when the news used to give you something called… let’s see now, what was it… uh, facts? All we get now is variations on shit like Senator, your republican opponent says your bill calls for the mercy killings of thousands. Why do you hate freedom, you murderer? Even formerly-dignified wonk shows are featuring loonytoon haters such as Michelle Malkin and that Orly Taintz Borat character. I’m so fucking disgusted I could puke.

Surprised the fuck outta me ...

But they actually did the right thing:

Washington -- The Senate will vote today on rescuing the "cash for clunkers" program, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said late Wednesday, announcing a deal he expects to pave the way for an extra $2 billion to keep the initiative alive at least through Labor Day.

The agreement by Senate Democrats and Republicans "accomplishes what we need to accomplish," said Reid, who earlier declared he has the votes to pass the popular program.

The House has already passed the bill, and President Barack Obama has said he would sign it.

...

Hypocrisy much?

The headline of Greenwald's latest:

Hillary Clinton demands accountability for war crimes

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

I love ya, I really do. I like you a lot more than I like your husband. That said, my dear, I think it might be wise to refrain from calling for war crimes trials in other countries until we decide to prosecute our own criminals. As long as those who criminally lied us into two wars, detained innocents without cause, tortured others, and killed thousands, American and Iraqi alike, remain free, we are in no position to point fingers at, or lecture, anyone else.

...

We need to teach those Kenyans that if they don't prosecute their criminals in high office, then they'll perpetuate their "culture of impunity," and that would be awful. Those Kenyans apparently fail to understand that if you immunize high political officials when they commit crimes, that creates a "culture of impunity" -- I love that phrase -- which ensures future rampant criminality in the political class. How can those Kenyans not realize this?

Clinton's sentiments echoed what Obama told Africans when he spoke in Ghana last month, when he demanded that they apply "the rule of law, which ensures the equal administration of justice" and vowed that "we will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable" -- meaning African war criminals. As we send murderous, crusading civilian units around the world to accompany our invading armies -- while ushering a regime of torture wherever we go -- and then announce we will only Look to the Future, Not the Past, when their crimes are exposed (despite our best efforts to keep them concealed), do we actually expect anyone to take these sermons seriously? [em in orig]

...

Other than that, I hope all is well with you and the family. Remember to kick Bill in the nuts once or twice a month, just to remind him who's boss.

Regards,

Fixer

Who's that Black Man in my White House?

Most of the news is about the Repug shit that's going on. I'm sick of it. I want to kick all their asses up around their ears. Hell yeah, that would be wrong, but it'd sure as shit shut 'em the fuck up and that'd be good enough. I can't do it, of course. I mean, I could but it'd get all the wrong kind of press ("Rampaging Socialist Disrupts Disruptors At Town Hall Meeting!"). Gotta find other ways, and people are working on it.

This is by Spadecaller. Some comments as well.

Spadecaller's poem characterizes a new and frightening voice of the Republican Party. Since the election of our first black President, Barack Hussein Obama, the Republican party has gravitated to the fringes of the partys extreme. A shocking 58 percent of Republicans polled doubt Barack Obama is an American born citizen. Since Obama's entry into the White House there has been a rise of hate crimes, hate speech from mainstream politicians, threats of secession by state officials, open threats of revolution, and numerous threats against the Presidents life. The young presidency has encountered reactionary forces far beyond anything yet experience in American history. In contrast to the astounding fact that a black man succeeded in garnering the support of Americas voting majority, racial tensions have risen to a critical mass and the opposition party is willingly supporting the ideologies traditionally associated with the KKK and White Supremacists.

This is why ...

I don't give a damn if mercenaries live or die.

Vid shamelessly stolen from Larisa.

They should hang the lot of them from a bridge in Fallujah.

Quote of the Day

Digby:

...

To extend this a bit, 15 million people protested the Iraq war and the coverage was virtually nil. Lobbyists bus 100 people into a Congressional town hall and the media hypes the "Tehran-like" atmosphere of them ...

Seems like the teabaggers and birthers are the new Joe the Plumber ...

A government program that actually works?!! It must be stopped!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

North Korea: 2 US journalists pardoned

Yahoo!News

All good, but no big surprise.

And who would you have sent to negotiate when it comes to young women? Go Big Dawg!

Anxiously awaiting the video of them thanking him...