Alternate Brain

I generally don't agree with Noot on anythng ...

2012-02-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

But, like Charlie Pierce, I think Humanity's future is among the stars. I think a Moon base would be a goal to shoot for, and then moving farther afield from there.

I have to confess: The fact that N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer Of Civliization's Rules and Leader (Perhaps) Of The Civlizing Forces, proposed building a base on the moon by 2020, only to have the idea turned into a punchline and general ridicule, actually bothered the hell out of me. When did we become so quick to mock this kind of thing? When did our national imagination wither this way? When did exploration become just another "big government" program for pipsqueaks like Willard Romney to ridicule?

...

Some of us still have an imagination, Charlie, but we write fiction.

What if ...

2012-02-14T05:45:00.000-05:00

A group of Muslim Imams took exception to some policy of the Preident's, as opposed to the Catholic bishops? Somehow, I don't think the results would be the same:

When did the 1st Amendment change from basically saying that you can practice whatever religion you want and you won’t be burned at the stake as a heretic and we’re not going to form or recognize a national religion like the Church of England? When did it change to “everyone everywhere has to do what a bunch of old catholics in funny hats wants, because otherwise it hurts their feelings?” And why does it only apply to certain religions?

I seriously wish other religions would get in on the act. I wish Keith Ellison would start sponsoring bills that allow insurers to cut people’s benefits if they don’t pray to Mecca a certain number of times a day. Or someone Jewish proposing a bill requiring circumcisions or you can’t get health insurance. Just flood the zone with bullshit so people can see how out of control our concept of religious liberty has become.

...

How many teabaggers would be screaming "Sharia Law"?

Great thanks to Jill for the link.

The Reactionary Mind

2012-02-13T15:40:00.004-05:00

Attempts to answer the question "What makes a Conservative tick?"

Hopefully, some kind of timer, as in tick, tick, KA-FUCKIN'-BLOOEY!

These take some time to watch. Worth it.

Thanks to TheBigPictureRT.

Shorter: They want THEIR hierarchy, not OURS, and thus have domination over all things, public and PRIVATE. That's what we're fighting against, folks.

“We don’t need someone to think”

2012-02-13T14:02:00.004-05:00

All morning I've been reading about the CPAC. Sickening. Salon comes the closest to a one-read solution. Here's a snippet from Gruber:

“We’re not auditioning for someone to tell us what to do,” he declared. “We know what to do. We just need a president who can sign the legislation that the Republican House and Senate pass. … We don’t need someone to think. … We need someone who knows how to hold a pen.”

I think he stopped short nominating George W. Bush who apparently was the Repug ideal.

Sickening.

Severe Conservative Syndrome

2012-02-13T13:03:00.003-05:00

Dr. Paul on The Conservative Disease.

Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.”

As Molly Ball of The Atlantic pointed out, Mr. Romney “described conservatism as if it were a disease.” Indeed. Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, provided a list of words that most commonly follow the adverb “severely”; the top five, in frequency of use, are disabled, depressed, ill, limited and injured.

How did American conservatism end up so detached from, indeed at odds with, facts and rationality? For it was not always thus. After all, that health reform Mr. Romney wants us to forget followed a blueprint originally laid out at the Heritage Foundation!

My short answer is that the long-running con game of economic conservatives and the wealthy supporters they serve finally went bad. For decades the G.O.P. has won elections by appealing to social and racial divisions, only to turn after each victory to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy — a process that reached its epitome when George W. Bush won re-election by posing as America’s defender against gay married terrorists, then announced that he had a mandate to privatize Social Security.

Over time, however, this strategy created a base that really believed in all the hokum — and now the party elite has lost control.

The point is that today’s dismal G.O.P. field — is there anyone who doesn’t consider it dismal? — is no accident. Economic conservatives played a cynical game, and now they’re facing the blowback, a party that suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure.

We need to quarantine them like lepers on Molokai before their disease rots all our peckers off. Send them all to the South. Then wall it off.

Can't fix it ...

2012-02-13T05:06:00.000-05:00

If you still don't believe the Republicans (and I'm talking rank and file here, not their "leaders") are a collection of racist bastids, you haven't been paying attention. It's rampant enough to give Charles Johnson of Little Green Snotballs pause.

There’s a real sickness running rampant in the right wing; the Fox News comment thread on Whitney Houston’s death is yet another disgusting deluge of outright racism: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48 | Fox News.

...

The link is to Digby where you can go see for yourself. I don't link to right wing blogs.

Just sayin' ...

2012-02-13T04:55:00.000-05:00

Stolen from the Being Liberal FB page.

Winning strategies ...

2012-02-13T04:53:00.001-05:00

Yer doing it wrong:

Not satisfied with President Obama’s new religious accommodation, Republicans will move forward with legislation by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) that permits any employer to deny birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday.

...

So, Mitch the Chin is gonna beat this mule for as far as it will take him. Good luck with that.

Oh, the irony...

2012-02-13T02:54:00.002-05:00

Ironic Times

High School Science Project Laser Cannon Accidently Destroys Nancy Reagan Chandelier
Obama: “It was awesome!”

20% of Republicans May Vote for Obama
They're the same 20% of Republicans who believe he was born here.

1 in 5. More than I thought.

Teen Pregnancy, Abortion Rates Lowest Since 1972
Clearly due to teens heeding abstinence programs, avoiding suggestive entertainment and showing great restraint when around the opposite sex, and not due to widespread use of contraceptives.

Pennsylvania: Vending Machine at College Dispenses Morning-After Pill
It's next to a condom machine and a sperm bank ATM.

Ewwwwww...

Another Falklands Conflict Brewing
Meryl Streep cancels promotional tour of Argentina.

Heh.

Latte-come-lately

2012-02-12T17:42:00.003-05:00

Go read about Starbucks invading India (hint: they're late to the party) here. I love the fake logo and wanted to share.

We have two Starbucks in my town of fifteen thousand, and they're about 50 feet apart. One's a regular store and one is in the Safeway next door. Hell, we've got a coffee bar, complete with barista, inside the entranceway to the hardware store across the street from 'em as well. Other places in town too. You're never far from a shot of overpriced coffee around here.

Halftime and Hyperbole

2012-02-12T17:27:00.002-05:00

Joke Line gets it right.

They almost lost everything," Clint Eastwood growled in the best ad of the Super Bowl, a celebration of Chrysler's resurrection. "But we all pulled together. Now Motor City is fighting again." Any normal person watching this ad had to be thrilled--Eastwood's voice, the rousing script, the fighting spirit: "This country can't be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again, and when we do, the world's going to hear the roar of our engines." But somehow, Karl Rove was "offended." The master Republican strategist saw the ad as a Chicago-style payback from Chrysler to Barack Obama for bailing out the company. Now, Rove is not a stupid man. He is a relentless partisan, but usually a clever one. And yet he managed to denigrate an American icon (Eastwood) known for his flinty integrity, expressing opinions most people would consider patriotic. How could he get it so wrong? The answer relates directly to the Republicans' muddled and inept campaign this year.

Rove lives in the hermetically sealed world of GOP fantasy. He's integral to the relentless pounding of wing-nut talk-show spin. In that world, Obama is the Antichrist--a combination of cynical Chicago pol, socialist, naf and teleprompter-reading tool of unseen forces (and maybe even, who knows, a secret Muslim immigrant). In that world, the notion that the auto bailout, or any Obama policy, actually worked is insidious. In that world, the notion that the government might organize us to "pull together" for the common good is a threat to individual liberty.
...

[...] But there is a paranoid edge to the Republican fantasy. [...]

Ya think? Much more.

Irony is KIA

2012-02-12T13:39:00.001-05:00

There are three of these at Raw Story.

A test ...

2012-02-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

Pic stolen from the Great Orange Satan.

In this country ...

2012-02-12T05:49:00.000-05:00

We got hog calling. In Germany they call the deer:

The hunt is on for Germany’s champion deer caller.

Enthusiasts grunted, bawled and bellowed their way through imitations of red deer in the breeding season in the 14th edition of the competition at the Hunter & Dog Trade Fair in the city of Dortmund.

...

Of course, being Germans, the have apparatus. Video at the link.

Heh ...

2012-02-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

You can buy it now.

A recipe for disaster ...

2012-02-11T11:20:00.000-05:00

Seems the Frothy Mixture doesn't like the idea of women in combat either.

...

I'm not sure what he meant by that but it sounds as though he thinks the soldiers will all be involved with each other and they will get "emotional" when their turtledove is in danger. Or maybe he just thinks the men will be all chivalrous and manly and won't let the little ladies do the fighting and everything will get all messed up.

...

But then again, according to him, the only thing women are good for is keeping house and making babies.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

2012-02-11T00:01:00.001-05:00

Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris ~ Till I Can Gain Control Again

Thanks to cweiandnd.

More dumb shit Jarheads, or, "One Shot, One Foot!"

2012-02-10T15:03:00.006-05:00

When I first saw this, my mind instantly went "uh-oh" followed by two scenarios, neither of them good.

Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, etc. have gotten past their NCOs and officers. Not likely in the Corps, but it has happened in the Army.

or

These are young, dumb, cockstrong scout-snipers who haven't a fucking clue.

I'll go with Door No. Two, Bob.

Raw Story

The commander of a group of U.S. Marines who were photographed in Afghanistan with what looks like a Nazi SS flag concluded they were acting out of ignorance rather than bigotry and decided not to punish them, a Marine Corps spokesman said on Thursday.
...

Master Gunnery Sergeant Mark Oliva, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton in California, said the commander of the elite sniper team involved had investigated the matter and decided no disciplinary action was warranted.

“They didn’t realize that they were associating themselves with something that was racist, fascist,” Oliva said. “This was a chance to educate our young Marines about” the history of the Nazis and “the power of symbols.”
...

“They saw ‘SS’ and associated it with ‘scout sniper’ rather than the Nazis,” Oliva said.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. Of course, I'm a little biased but I'm glad it went this way and I accept it.

It's hard to come up with a logo/flag etc. for anything with the initials "SS". Maybe they should change 'scout sniper' to something like 'Scouts and Marksmen'.

"S & M" oughtn't to be too hard...

Queen of Angels' Condoms

2012-02-10T14:23:00.004-05:00

Greg Palast

Last night, I heard Senator Rick Santorum tell us that President Obama has attacked Catholics and freedom of religion by barring church-controlled businesses from excluding contraception care in their employees' health plans.

Joining the shriek-fest against the president's decision, the sanctimonious little ex-senator prattled on about big bad government crushing religious freedom.

That's just arse-backwards.

Obama's decision is a defense of religious freedom.

Religious freedom is a right of people, not their bosses.
...

No damn employer should be allowed to tell an employee what medicine may be prescribed by their doctor based on the business owner's beliefs.

Good point.

Update:

El Rude-o

Now, unlike so many others who are going around screaming, "Freedom of religion" or "First Amendment rights violation" or some such overdramatic shit that they didn't shout when, you know, the Bush administration enforced a similar rule, the Rude Pundit's not gonna pretend to be a constitutional scholar. But he's pretty fucking sure that if you impose your religious beliefs on your employees, and the government allows you to do so, that's more or less establishing religion. You have the right to practice your faith. You don't have the right to infringe on someone's right not to, especially if your ass receives money from the federal government, like, say Catholic University.
...

Of course, none of this current anger really has much to do with upholding the moral code of the Catholic Church. Otherwise, we'd be seeing John Boehner and Mitch McConnell out there demanding the end of capital punishment and the beginning of a fuck of a lot more programs to assist the poor.

No, as usual, this is about how the right-wing outrage machine can be cranked up to 11, especially in the wake of the Planned Parenthood triumph in the Susan G. Komen Foundation funding affair, and how poll numbers and money can be raised on the bodies of women. It's about who controls those bodies: the women, who can choose whether or not they use contraception, or their employers, who can make the expensive drugs impossible for their female employees to afford. Or right-wing religious leaders, who have been trying so hard to wrangle the unruly female body back into the maternity ward and the house. Or the GOP, who must just no longer give a damn about women voting for them.

To quote Coultergeist (heh): "...and then we lose."

Quote of the Day

2012-02-10T13:45:00.001-05:00

A Tweet:

Bet if altar boys could get pregnant, the Catholic Church would be all for contraception.

Contraception would be a sacrament!

When Clint Eastwood Mocks You, You're Officially Screwed

2012-02-10T12:36:00.005-05:00

William Rivers Pitt

You know the wheels have come off the GOP wagon when the Republicans feel compelled to accuse Clint Eastwood of being a shill for the president, but that is precisely what has transpired. [...]
...

Reaction from the Republican Right was both swift and hilarious. Apparently, and according to the GOP, Dirty Harry is a dirty liberal hippy socialist communist who hates America and is in the pocket of our birthplace-questionable president...but the GOP found itself struggling to be coherent in its critique.

Take, as the prime example, the words of Karl Rove,...
...

You crack me up, Karl. Some of us remember.

P.S., the Detroit bailout worked, which is what pisses you off...that, and the fact that you and your ilk can't admit it when you're wrong. Detroit lives, you hate it, and all your tantrum will accomplish is to paint Michigan a bright, vivid Blue in November of 2012. Congratulations, genius.

In other words, fuck you, Turdblossom, you whiny bitch. Better, to quote Gunny Highway, who makes Dirty Harry look like a pussy: "Be advised. I'm mean, nasty and tired. I eat concertina wire and piss napalm and I can put a round in a flea's ass at 200 meters. So why don't you go hump somebody else's leg, mutt face, before I push yours in."

A neat segue into a few hundred words on the contraception non-issue follow.

In other words: Shut the F-k up.

This is, to be sure, a thick and knotted forest of gibberish and nonsense we must hack through in order to find our way to daylight. The daylight is there, however, without a shred of doubt. The Right would love, love, love to careen our national discussion away from a conversation on the economy they have plundered and the jobs they have destroyed, and steer it instead toward a discussion of snowflake babies, unrequited semen, and the importance of being earnest. The events of the last week have given them a wide window to do so, save for the fact that the American people have no interest in their opinions regarding the matters at hand.

Jobs? Fail. Choice? Fail. Contraception? Fail.

For the first time in living memory, the Culture War battlefield is tilting hard against the Right. This we call "evolution."

I suppose it was inevitable. In "Unforgiven," it was Clint Eastwood who said, "We all got it coming, kid."

Gunny Highway: "Why don't I bend you over the table there... send you home with the "I just pumped the neighbor's cat" look on your face."

Works for me.

Update:

Crooks and Liars

Stuart Varney Thinks Pro-Obama Ad Directors Tricked Clint Eastwood Into Chrysler Ad

Desperate people say desperate things. Heh.

Fox News just cannot leave this alone. First of all, they loathe American car companies, especially American car companies who were part of the auto industry rescue. Those companies would be General Motors and Chrysler. Never mind that the first piece of the bailout was in December 2008 before Barack Obama took office. It was nevertheless a grievous socialist sin visited upon us by That Guy in the White House.
...

Enter Chrysler, with a commercial made by a staunch Republican with a simple message: It's halftime in America, and we've clawed our way back from the brink of collapse. It is not a partisan message. It is a celebration of success and overcoming, something that everyone should celebrate. Unless, of course, your political fortunes might turn on America's decline. There is that.

See, Clint Eastwood isn't a fool. He knows that recovery in this country is good for all of us. The only people who stand to lose are those who stand to sabotage that recovery for political gain. Not surprisingly, those same people tend to inhabit, comment on, and view Fox News.

They can't stop spinning or they'll fall over. I'm waiting for 'em to spin so fast they explode from centrifugal force. Heh.

Heh ...

2012-02-10T05:29:00.002-05:00

Pic stolen from our pal Montag.

The Whole Truth - and Nothing but

2012-02-09T15:43:00.003-05:00

Scariest thing in the world to Repugs. Dr. Paul on Politifact.

The criterion, according to Politifact, seems to be that a fact isn’t a fact if it helps a Democratic narrative. In his State of the Union address on Jan. 24, President Obama said: “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.”

Which is just true. Period. But Politifact initially rated it as only “half true” because he was “essentially taking credit for job growth.” He didn’t actually take credit — and even if he had, a fact is still a fact. I do not think that word means what Politifact thinks it means.
...

Unfortunately, Politifact has lost sight of what it is supposed to be doing. Instead of simply saying whether a claim is true, it’s trying to act as some kind of referee of what it imagines to be fair play: even if a politician says something completely true, it gets ruled only partly true if Politifact feels that the fact is being used to gain an unfair political advantage.

That would make Repugs "Pants On Fire" 100% of the time, maybe more.

Aside from undermining the mission, this makes the whole thing subjective — notice that Politifact wasn’t even analyzing what Mr. Obama said; they were analyzing their impression about what he might have been trying to imply. Leave that for the talking heads!

They're wrong almost all the time anyway. Heh.

Yet Politifact wants to be seen as nonpartisan. If it just stuck to the facts, it could say look, we’re just reporting the facts. But having defined its role as something that goes beyond checking facts to saying whether the facts are being used in some “proper” way, it then finds itself under pressure to be “evenhanded,” which ends up meaning making excuses for Republican falsehoods and finding ways to criticize Democrats’ true statements.

It’s all very sad.

I think we should follow the money to Politifact. Might be something interesting there.

Google's hangin' with the wrong crowd

2012-02-09T15:08:00.004-05:00

Right Wing Watch. Lotsa links.

Does Google Know It’s Sponsoring a Right-Wing, Anti-Gay Conference?

Bloomberg reported on Monday that Google, joining with the likes of the NRA and Heritage Foundation, will be a primary sponsor of CPAC, the right-wing conference kicking off tomorrow in DC. Google portrayed its sponsorship as just another way for the company to reach campaign professionals, candidates, and tech-savvy young adults:
...

That would make sense if CPAC was just another GOP event. It’s not.

CPAC 2012 is as notable for who is coming as who isn’t. Peter Brimelow is a prominent white nationalist and founder of the racist and anti-Semitic website VDARE. He’ll be at CPAC 2012.

“Birther” leader Joseph Farah will be there. He has boycotted CPAC since 2009 when he was blocked from hosting a panel questioning the President’s citizenship. This year he’s being welcomed back with open arms.

Youth for Western Civilization’s founder was arrested in 2007 for karate chopping an African-American woman on the street while calling her “n****r.” They, like Google, are sponsoring this year’s CPAC.

Romney, Gingrich and Santorum will be there too, along with major Religious Right groups like the Family Research Council.

FRC boycotted last year’s CPAC to protest the participation of a conservative gay rights organization, GOProud. CPAC 2012 will be different. The gay group got the boot, and CPAC and the Family Research Council kissed and made up.

Google told Bloomberg that the company is “planning hangouts with top Republicans and well respected conservative journalists at CPAC.” That’s not all they’ll find at CPAC if they go through with their sponsorship.

Note to Google: Find the fucking idiot who came up with the idea that CPAC has to do with anything other than the worst of the worst in our society and can his ass. Then move up the the chain to those who OKed it and do the same, I don't care if it's Herr Google hisself.

Sal si puedes. Withdraw your sponsorship and publicly admit it was a mistake, an affront to everyone except the Dead End Quarter.

At this point, the "oo" in Google look remarkably like self-inflicted bullet holes. We like you, Google, we really do, but less today.

Obama, Explained

2012-02-09T14:23:00.003-05:00

A truly excellent read in The Atlantic. Quite long, and worth the time it takes to read.

As Barack Obama contends for a second term in office, two conflicting narratives of his presidency have emerged. Is he a skillful political player and policy visionary—a chess master who always sees several moves ahead of his opponents (and of the punditocracy)? Or is he politically clumsy and out of his depth—a pawn overwhelmed by events, at the mercy of a second-rate staff and of the Republicans? Here, a longtime analyst of the presidency takes the measure of our 44th president, with a view to history.

[...] The earnestly devotional HOPE poster by Shepard Fairey was the official icon of the Obama campaign. But its edgier, unofficial counterpart, a Photoshopped Internet image that appeared as an antidote to the panic over polls and Palin, perfectly captured the candidate’s air of icy assurance. It showed a no-nonsense Obama looking straight at the camera, with the caption EVERYONE CHILL THE FUCK OUT, I GOT THIS!

[...] The reality, though, is that our judgment about “really good” and “mediocre” presidents is colored by how long they serve. A failure to win reelection places a “one-term loser” asterisk on even genuine accomplishments. Ask George H. W. Bush, victor in the Gulf War; ask Jimmy Carter, architect of the Camp David agreement.

Geez, dude, ya left out "near fatal totally fucking disastrous", AKA "The Bush Years".

In the realm of foreign policy, Barack Obama has learned what every modern president eventually does: despite the dangers, the emergencies, the intractable disagreements, and the life-and-death risks, international affairs naturally claim an ever-growing share of a president’s attention and enthusiasm. On the world stage, he represents an entire mighty country, not one perhaps-embattled party. International figures may be frustrating to deal with—Karzai, Ahmadinejad, Netanyahu in their different ways — but usually they can’t totally thwart or undermine him the way a Mitch McConnell or a Roger Ailes can. He can think big thoughts and announce big plans without seeing them immediately picked apart or ridiculed. And he can dare to devise a long-term strategy, like Obama’s with China, knowing that the tools for carrying it out—in the military, the diplomatic corps, the intelligence agencies, and the rest of the national-security apparatus—are within his line of command.

Shorter: it's easier to deal with the rest of the world than it is to deal with Repugs.

If Barack Obama loses this fall, he will forever seem a disappointment: a symbolically important but accidental figure who raised hopes he could not fulfill and met difficulties he did not know how to surmount. He meant to show the unity of America but only underscored its division. As a candidate, he symbolized transformation; in office, he applied incrementalism and demonstrated the limits of change. His most important achievement, helping forestall a second Great Depression, will be taken for granted or discounted in the dismay about the economic problems he did not solve. His main legislative accomplishment, the health-care bill, may well be overturned; his effect on America’s international standing will pass; his talk about bridging the partisan divide will seem one more sign of his fatal naïveté. If he is reelected, he will have a chance to solidify what he has accomplished and, more important, build on what he has learned. All of this is additional motivation, as if he needed any, for him to drive for reelection; none of it makes him any more palatable to those who oppose him and his goals.

And for those who supported him the first time, as I did? To me, the evidence suggests that given a second term, he would have a better chance of becoming the figure so many people imagined.

He'll get his second term, perhaps not on the basis of what he has actually done or his learning curve and what he may yet do, but through sheer blind fuckin' luck on the basis of the Repugs' internal disintegration and takeover by the regressives, not to mention the clown car of Repug candidates. Even Repugs don't like 'em.

Again, please read this. Agree, disagree, whatever.

Headline of the Day

2012-02-09T13:03:00.001-05:00

New Hampshire Republicans Propose Bill To Eliminate Workers’ Lunch Breaks

Rumor has it, and I know because I started it, that the Repugs are going after bathroom breaks next. After that? Depends.

Heh ...

2012-02-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

The Hoekstra "me so horny, love you long time" ad redone.

Dancing with ourselves ...

2012-02-09T06:45:00.000-05:00

Seems reality is starting to sink in on Wall St.:

...

Sounds like the party's over. And it rings true to me that the great howls of outrage at the alleged injustice of the nation treating these banksters with disdain were the screams of a dying breed. It never made sense to me. These were smart guys. Hugely successful, vastly wealthy. If they thought their scam had any life left in it they would have done a few mea culpas and laid low.

...

Doesn't matter how smart you are, if you're blinded by greed, you refuse to see the reality of things until it imposes itself on you. Works the same with drugs and alcohol, all depends on what your own personal monkey is.

Quote of the Day

2012-02-09T05:55:00.001-05:00

Ellen DeGeneres:

...

"I usually don't talk about stuff like this on my show," she confessed. "But I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me, and if you don't know me very well, if you're just watching for the first time or maybe you are just getting to know me, I want to be clear. Here are the values that I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That's what I stand for."

...

For all those fundie wingnuts, Ellen's values are closer to Jesus' than yours are.

The Odd Couple + a Couple

2012-02-08T15:04:00.003-05:00

This is just a passage I like from page four of a Rolling Stone piece by Matt Taibbi, the subhead of which makes me reach for the laughin' bleach:

How the GOP race became a showdown between a walking OCD diagnosis and a flatulent serial adulterer

But I digress...

[...] The grown-ups in the party establishment and their lackeys in the press simply refuse to take Paul seriously, which is part of the reason Paul is so extraordinarily attractive to young people (in both Iowa and New Hampshire, he scored almost half of the under-30 vote).

But the Republican Party is not dominated by 22-year-old college students reading The Fountainhead for the first time and finally understanding what it is they've always hated about their ex-hippie parents. No, the party is dominated by middle-aged white suburbanites who hate Mexico, John King and the Golden Rule and are willing to flock to anyone who'll serve up the Fox News culture war in big portions and without shame or hesitation. Romney might have memorized a few I-hate-Obama sound bites, but voters simply don't believe him. Gingrich alone offers GOP voters the emotional payoff they want out of an election – an impassioned fight against the conspiracy, played out in thrillingly contrary three-hour debates on health care with the liberal Satan. Gingrich lives for confrontation: He was born for this sort of insurgent primary politics.

The only problem is, he's a bloviating, egomaniacal hog clinging to a third marriage who suffers from incurable diarrhea of the mouth and, according to polls, is one of the most intensely disliked politicians in America, making him an utterly absurd choice for the general election. If Gingrich ends up winning the nomination, Obama will essentially be running against the political version of Gilbert Gottfried or raw garlic – strong tastes that some like quite a lot, but many more can't stand to even be near. If that happens, every Democratic flack from Leon Panetta to Obama himself will have to wear restraints to keep from publicly crying out in joy.

I've given up. I'm at the stage where I point and laugh hysterically at wingnut bumperstickers even if the people are right there putting their groceries in the trunk. Lotsa booze these days. Ah, blessed oblivion is better than their presidential field. Or their chances. Heh.

'The Market' Has Chosen the Winner of the Culture Wars

2012-02-08T14:38:00.002-05:00

It's all about the bucks as usual. Tina Dupuy.

The argument could be made (mainly by those who want to take us back to a mythical innocent time of the supposedly recent past) that it's advertisers who've corrupted our culture and changed what's socially acceptable through their manipulations. Or, if you have sold your proverbial soul to the gods of unfettered commerce — like the rightwing self-described Culture Warriors, or the (formerly) Moral (former) Majority — advertisements are the market speaking for the greater culture at large. And the greater culture, funny enough, largely disagrees with the rightwing.

You can think of the market as a leading indicator of our social mores and the Republican primary as a lagging one.
...

The GOP-worshipped market has chosen the winner of the culture wars, and it hasn't looked favorably on its most devout.

Of course, the market for Republicans is just like the Bible or the Constitution. They worship it piously as long as they believe it agrees with them.

If their deified market is all-knowing and all-powerful — it clearly favors a progressive social agenda...and not the GOP's.

Go read. The gory details are in between my quotes.

Gay Marriage, Susan Komen Debacle, and Dirty Harry

2012-02-08T14:12:00.002-05:00

The Rude Pundit on those topics.

Man, it's just Tuesday, and it's already been a shit week for conservatives:

And our best wishes for many more!

1. Proposition 8, the Mormon-licious California law that banned gay marriage, was declared unconstitutional by a 3-judge panel (or a "justice-a'-trois") from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Right now, that sound you're hearing is several million evangelical heads exploding and the clicks of computer keyboards as assloads of money pour into homophobic candidates and organizations and the dropping of pants, licking of lips, and moans, moans, moans of joy all over California.

2. Karen Handel [...] Seriously, it would have been easier just to say, "Yeah, fine, we did it because we're big damn conservatives and we hate Planned Parenthood because conservatives are fucking crazy now."

3. Speaking of conservatives being fucking crazy, the outrage on the right over the Clint Eastwood-narrated Chrysler ad is beyond bizarre. [...]

At some point, someone needs to say to Republicans that it's okay to have been wrong about the auto bailout. Now let's move on.

But they can't. They just can't. Karl Rove pranced onto Fox "news" to announce his displeasure, saying that the ad was "a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising." The man who helped demonize a legless Vietnam vet said he was "offended."

What this reaction says is something deeper. See, Clint Eastwood, who voted for John McCain and opposed the bank and car bailouts, thinks the whole controversy is bullshit. He rewrote the script, and he's donating his pay to charity. What Rove and the rest of the right's negative reaction really means is that they are divorced from the nation as a whole. In the ad, Eastwood says that, during tough times, "we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one." We acted, in essence, like Americans.

Conservatives are saying that it's offensive to expect them to do so. And if Dirty Harry wants to wallow around with the dirty hippies, then fuck him, too.

Try it, Turdblossom. Make my day...

Headline of the Day

2012-02-08T13:44:00.000-05:00

Orly Taitz Orders Prosecution of Everyone Who Disagrees With Her

Funny. This woman is so far past being ready for the rubber room...

How to be outraged in America

2012-02-08T12:55:00.002-05:00

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford going off on the reaction of some to MIA flipping the bird at a football game and the backlash over the Komen hard right turn.

What was it this time? Right. Rapper M.I.A.'s 1.5 seconds of a middle finger, raised pseudo-defiantly during Madonna's completely ridiculous, lip-synced Super Bowl halftime show. A middle finger! Heads will roll! Punishment must be doled! Who, pray who, will save the children from this frightening woman's vile extremity, given how everyone knows hysterical middle fingers lead straight to unchecked lesbianism, Obamacare and dancing for seven straight days at Burning Man? What's next, Starbucks teaming up with Satan? Oh wait.
...

One final question, PTC: Did you happen to notice the hordes of giant, sweaty gladiators furiously bashing each others' skulls in for three straight hours and calling it a sport? Did you notice the adorable homoerotics of it all, or perhaps the millions of very drunk fans, or the mountains of garbage food, or the onslaught of $4 million TV ads hawking beer and trucks and sex and beer, all pummeling the hell out of your kids' small, impressionable minds? Do you have any idea what real, healthy outrage even looks like?

Let's call the kind of outrage Komen's decision ignited the healthy kind of outrage, in diametric opposition of PTC's childish pseudo-indignation, an informed and electrifying kind of reaction that had the wonderful consequence of alerting tens of thousands, even millions of people to the fact that not only is one of the nation's leading charities violently lopsided, fundamentally misguided and not so deserving of your dollars, but that Planned Parenthood is, well, just the opposite.

Are you furious, for example, that Microsoft -- and hell, all of Washington State -- now officially endorse gay marriage? Are you outraged that yet another appeals court deemed hateful ol' Prop 8 unconstitutional? Are you an outraged religious group, furious that Obama might make you step into the 20th century? Or are you upset, like the clearly brilliant GOP Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, that Planned Parenthood is opening an $8 billion "abortionplex" in Kansas, replete with a climbing wall, noiseless incinerator and gift shop? I'm so sorry for you. The crushing roar of imminent doom (and rampant idiocy) must be deafening.

I used to be outraged all the time at the things Repugs did, but it has subsided somewhat to mere spikes of outrage which subside to mostly mild amusement at their ridiculous antics to turn the clock back to a time that never was where life was beautiful all the time and everybody was a rich white Christian. I love the part where they shoot themselves or each other in the feet, which is happening more and more as people catch on (finally!) to their shit..

11 Dimensional Chess ...

2012-02-08T09:34:00.002-05:00

Remember the debt ceiling talks, where the Orange Boner had a gun to the head of the US economy? Remember the failed Super Committee and the Draconian cuts to everything they were supposed to prevent? Well the chickens are coming home to roost and the GOP is squirming like they have ass mites:

...

Last year, the GOP held the routine debt ceiling limit increase hostage for $1.2 trillion in cuts. At the time the GOP was attempting to brand itself as the party of fiscal prudence. Much to the annoyance of many on the left, President Obama responded by embracing the cause of deficit reduction.

At the time, Obama's move looked ridiculous as the country is in a recession caused by a lack of demand. The last thing the country needs to worry about right now is the risk of inflation.

...

Now, I ain't gonna buy that Barry had this planned all along. It's better to be lucky than good:

...

This is how the GOP negotiating strategy collapses when they can't hold the country hostage with a gun to its head. The McCain/Kyl proposals all offer something that the President probably doesn't want in return for something he wants to avoid. Heads I win, tails you lose. [em in orig]

...

The GOP is so short sighted that they'll reflexively oppose everything Obama proposes, even when it's everything they want, without thinking out how it's gonna play out in the long term, like how their obstruction would come around to the bite them in the ass.

There went the drone program...

2012-02-08T02:37:00.001-05:00

President Barack Obama may have just had his favorite day as leader of the free world. Video.

Congratulates young science geek for single-handedly coming up with Anti-Drone Cannon (ADC) and putting foreign and domestic surveillance at risk.

I mighta made part of that up...

That look on his face is priceless! That's either "Wow!" if everything went well, or "Oops!" if it didn't. "Watch this!" may have been involved.

Mrs. G says the young engineer/gunner looks like a mini Jay Carney. Heh.

Scrap the wingnuts, Clyde...

2012-02-07T12:01:00.003-05:00

Shopping day today. I'll leave yas with this, links and video:

Dirty Harry has turned against the GOP.

That’s basically the message in last night’s episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, during which guest host Chris Hayes examined the popular Chrysler Super Bowl ad featuring Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood.

His conclusion: Eastwood’s sideways endorsement of the auto bailouts punches conservatives where it hurts — right in the Reagan.
...

But now that Eastwood is singing a different tune, and praising one of President Barack Obama’s policies on an issue where his likely Republican challenger goes in the exact opposite direction, conservatives have been sent reeling.

Yep, ol' Clint committed an unpardonable sin - he told the truth about something Obama did.

How long ...

2012-02-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

Are they gonna keep up the charade?

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground. [my em]

...

Vietnam much?

Two shitbag fucking wars that accomplished nothing but make defense contractors rich and kill a buncha young Americans. We're out of Iraq and now it's time to leave this shithole too. The troops know it, most Americans know it, it's time for our leaders to get with the program and bring our people home.

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Sailor Beware!

2012-02-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

I stole this from deuddersun's FB page and he stole it somewhere else.

I fell outta my chair when I saw this. Given the lengths (and lies) the right-wingers go to in trying (and failing, except with the Dead End Quarter) to demonize us, this made perfect sense.

In actual fact, of course, the lovely, virginal liberal girl would have gotten a dose from the evil Repug squid who forced himself upon her. And so it goes...

Hey sailor - ya wanta get laid, every legal prostitute in Nevada is a registered Repuglicant (with video!). You'll find that out when you ask "How much?". Heh.

Who knew ...

2012-02-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

Clint Eastwood was a Commie?

The Great Man’s Wife

2012-02-06T14:25:00.004-05:00

Say what you will about MFBTIR but when she sharpens her claws and goes after other women she can't be beat!

IF you want to figure out why Newt Gingrich is still out there grasping for lost power, howling at the moon like King Lear, look to Callista.

While a trophy wife is admired by her man, the admiring eyes of a Transformational Wife are there to propel her man to the next level. And when a woman who wants to be a Transformational Wife merges with a man who calls himself a Transformational Figure, you can expect a narcissistic blastoff.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was thinking it's more of a "blastocystic knockoff".

“Now he is unleashed. The best and worst of him have been fed and watered.”

I don't wanta know how Callista waters Neut...must bleach now...

Quote of the Day

2012-02-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

Our pal Comrade Misfit:

Going in with two lawyers can be taken as kind of a tacit admission that Walker knows that he has a large target pinned to his chest.

Let's hope they hit the 10 ring.

Oh, the irony...

2012-02-06T12:25:00.002-05:00

Ironic Times

Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses
He did well with wealthy whites, Gingrich won a majority of poor illiterate whites, Santorum took the fanatically religious whites and Paul polled best with isolationist survivalist white supremacist whites.

Former Rep. Duke Cunningham Reports He, 80% of Other Inmates Support Newt
Wrapping up convicted felon vote.

Vocabulary Builders

unintended consequence n., unanticipated effect of an action which may result in the opposite of what was originally intended, e.g., the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court had the unintended consequence of giving Newt Gingrich a chance to spoil Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

What?

2012-02-06T11:12:00.001-05:00

No "fucky sucky, GI, ten dollah, love you long time"?

...

Featuring a young Asian woman who thanks Stabenow for borrowing so much money from Asia and sending jobs overseas, Hoekstra's ad jams an incredible number of stereotypes into just 30 seconds -- from the bicycle to the rice paddies to the accent.

...

Heh ...

2012-02-06T10:57:00.002-05:00

Tom Tomorrow visits the Rightwingoverse:

"Hi, honey ...

2012-02-06T09:22:00.001-05:00

I'm going to pick you up at your house, take you to dinner and a movie, go for drinks after, and then, when I'm good and horned up, we're going back to your house and you're going to fulfill whatever sexual desire my twisted little mind can think up, whether you want to or not."

Is that what Ron Paul calls "honest rape"?

Thanks to Scott Lemieux for the link.

For Gordon ...

2012-02-06T08:48:00.002-05:00

I had my Eye-Q lowered yesterday too.

All pics stolen off the intarwebs.

Yay Jints!

Rooty Nooty ...

2012-02-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

I'm rooting for Noot too:

...

Meanwhile, the other big reason I'm rooting for Newt is colonizing the moon. He's not backing down on that proposal and says it can be done without "massive government spending." I don't care how they pay for it. I want to be a pioneer in the final frontier and live on the moon. I mean who wouldn't want to wake up and see the Earth rise?

Say what you will about the big load of shit, he does have a way with the English language and when is ire is directed against his fellow GOP candidates, it's entertaining as hell. I hope that twit Adelson finances him all the way to the convention.

Thanks to MBRU for the link.

Heh...

2012-02-05T12:39:00.003-05:00

In honor of National I.Q. Lowering Day.

Thanks to YubaNet.

The Jukebox in my mind ...

2012-02-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

A first! I actually figured how a song got in my head (aside from the subliminal shit Gordon does to me once in a while). So I woke up with this going around in my head:

Loch Lomond - Elephants and Little Girls

And I realized it was from this commercial that's been playing lately:

Heh ...

2012-02-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the Americans Against The Tea Party FB page.

'Splains a lot ...

2012-02-04T08:07:00.000-05:00

You know, when Ari Flyshit is involved, it's always political and it's always gonna fail:

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, was secretly involved in the Komen Foundation’s strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

...

Nuff said ...

Thanks to our pal Grandpa Eddie for the link.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

2012-02-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

Beautiful.

Emmylou Harris, The Pearl, Lexington Opera House 1-29-12

Thanks to kyjukeboxgraduate. Go see Emmylou's dogs.

Eddie Haskell* for President!

2012-02-03T15:26:00.003-05:00

Dear Tea Party: Why so mad?

A quick read. Last ¶:

I could go on here; however, I am not sure it would do any good. See I think I finally get it...I now understand your anger. You are not in power. You are not calling the shots, and it pisses you off. Here is the deal. This is the United States of America and while we have our problems we have always persevered—not because we stayed in the past like you seem to want to do. No, we have moved forward by looking towards the future and doing bold things. In your world we would have never settled the west, we would have never gone to the moon. Yet, you say you want your county back...what exactly do you want back? The United States you seem to want only existed in Leave it to Beaver re-runs.

I disagree with the writer about settling the west. After all, that was pure freedom, lawlessness, greed, guns, and genocide, and the teabaggers loves them that shit.

*Eddie Haskell

...has become a cultural reference, recognized as an archetype for insincere sycophants.

Where's Porky?

2012-02-03T14:54:00.005-05:00

From disinformation™

Inmate Secretly Adds Pig To State Decal On Vermont Police Cruisers

State officials Thursday pointed to the failure of the quality assurance office within the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop in St. Albans to detect a prisoner-artist’s addition made four years ago to the traditional state police logo. A spot on the shoulder of the cow in the state emblem was modified into a pig…

Heh. Reminds me of the time there were several CHP officers eating dinner in a local restaurant that was having a big Jägermeister promo going on in the bar at the same time. All three Chippie cruisers left with a brand new Jägermeister bumpersticker.

Putting a pig inside the official door graphic is subtle fuckin' GENIUS! Took 'em four years to catch on. Kudos to that gent and I hope to God he'd done his time and got out before this got discovered.

Never saw him before. Another draft, please...

2012-02-03T14:25:00.004-05:00

Panetta believes Israel may strike Iran this spring

Israel reminds me of the dinky loudmouth, there's one in every motorcycle club it seems, who likes to start fights in bars. Usually he does OK, but he's overconfident in knowing the bigger club members will come to his aid if he doesn't. The other clubbers don't exactly enjoy this but, hey, one on all, all on one. The little jerk abuses that sometimes.

It's very easy to get him over it. Just sit there and drink your beer and enjoy watching him get his ass kicked. Repeat as necessary.

An inexact metaphor that could never happen, I know, but it's the way I feel.

Who lost China Iraq?

2012-02-03T14:16:00.002-05:00

Good article in Salon. Shorter: Bush and the neocons for starting that unwinnable, unnecessary imperial clusterfuck of a war crime in the first place.

As for the claims that Iran would benefit from the U.S. withdrawal, the fact of the matter is that Iraq became “exposed” to Iranian influence the moment the Bush administration removed Saddam Hussein. For years Saddam had served as the biggest check on Iranian power in the region. It was the Bush administration, supported by the likes of Krauthammer and Ajami, that created an Iraqi government largely run by Iran’s partners and clients. Paradoxically, removing the U.S. presence from Iraq could actually serve to diminish Iranian influence there, by removing one of the drivers of resentment that Iran has exploited in recent years to its advantage.

Whatever the merits of the conservative attacks on Obama’s pullout, it is worth noting how little traction they have gotten in the media and in the presidential campaign. The anti-pullout talking points have been delivered and repeated with frequency and discipline that conservatives regularly exhibit, but Americans just aren’t interested in hearing it, at least not right now. Polls continue to show about three-quarters of Americans support Obama’s decision to withdraw troops, with around two-thirds believing that the war was not worth the costs and consequences.
...

The continuing violence in Iraq (which is itself driven by enduring political tensions that call into question the “success of the surge” narrative) will be offered as evidence of Obama’s alleged bungling of a war that was won for him. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies (which were very much apparent when President Bush was still in office) will be presented as proof of Obama’s alleged failure to commit the necessary resources to the building of Iraqi democracy.

In reality, these things should be taken as evidence of the limits of U.S. military power to create the outcomes we would like. While Americans currently aren’t buying what the Iraq war’s remaining advocates are selling, it’s important to keep reminding everybody what’s in the snake oil.

Military power is for DEFENSE, not to "create outcomes". We're slowly learning that about like several other now-defunct empires did.

Their fair share ...

2012-02-03T09:40:00.001-05:00

Is a lot smaller than mine.

Pic from United NY on the FB.

Keep yer gummint hands ...

2012-02-03T07:01:00.000-05:00

Off my Medicare! Seems it works better now. I wonder why that is?

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that the Medicare Advantage program, which allows seniors to receive health coverage through a private insurer, is enjoying lower costs and more customers as a result of the health care reform law.

Medicare Advantage enrollment has risen 10 percent over the last year while average premiums have fallen by 7 percent, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She also pointed out that similar improvements were seen the previous year.

The figures bolster President Obama’s defense of his signature achievement, and for Democrats it has the added bonus of refuting earlier Republican warnings that “Obamacare” would gravely undermine the choice provisions in Medicare.

...

Dear Average Conservative Joe,

It's time for you to learn the difference between people telling you what you want to hear and who to blame, and people who are actually looking out for your best interests.

What's $1mil ...

2012-02-03T05:58:00.000-05:00

Between friends? Nothing if you're the Frothy Mixture telling a mother she should be glad to pay a million dollars a year for prescription drugs to keep her kid alive.

...

The mother replied that she could not afford her son's medication, Abilify, which can cost as much as $1 million a year without health insurance.

"Look, I want your son and everybody to have the opportunity to stay alive on much-needed drugs," Santorum insisted. "But the bottom line is, we have to give companies the incentive to make those drugs. And if they don't have the incentive to make those drugs, your son won't be alive and lots of other people in this country won't be alive."

"He’s alive today because drug companies provide care," the candidate continued. "And if they didn’t think they could make money providing that drug, that drug wouldn’t be here. I sympathize with these compassionate cases. … I want your son to stay alive on much-needed drugs. Fact is, we need companies to have incentives to make drugs. If they don’t have incentives, they won’t make those drugs. We either believe in markets or we don’t."

Fucking heartless scumbag. Sometimes I wish there was a Heaven and Hell so these sanctimonious, self-righteous hypocrites would end up where they belong. Look up the definition of 'motherfucker' in the dictionary and you'll find this shitbag's picture.

Shakin' it up in Wells

2012-02-02T14:39:00.004-05:00

University of Nevada, Reno Seismological Lab reports 3.5 quake in Wells, Nev.

I think the earth moving in Wells is no big deal. It's the locale of the closest legal brothels to Salt Lake City, a few minutes from the closest casinos.

It's unusual for it to register on the Richter equipment 300 miles away, though. Musta been a busload of chubby Saints,er, unloading at the ol' Hacienda. Or maybe they were doin' a little ranching. More action in the bunkhouse than in the ol' corral, I betcha. Heh.

Just as an aside, the "ranch's" other location in Battle Mountain, formerly known as The Calico Club, is the only Nevada brothel I've ever actually been in. I had to go there years ago to collect a local gal who skipped out on her court date after I loaned her some money for bail and put me on the hook for the bond amount. Nicest people you could imagine. Gave me ice water and souvenirs. Here's an actual bumpersticker. As you can see, it was too long for my scanner.

Just what I'd want on my bumper in the tabernacle parking lot. Heh.

Our Unending Abortion War

2012-02-02T14:25:00.002-05:00

RuPun on the Komen hard-right turn.

Even if you are viscerally anti-choice, wanting to defund Planned Parenthood for performing abortions is like wanting to defund the entire military because of waterboarding. And it's ultimately, obviously self-defeating: if your goal is to reduce the number of abortions, then you want Planned Parenthood operational and fully-funded because, see, Planned Parenthood has prevented more abortions than every anti-choice group ever.

But that hasn't stopped the yawping chimps of the right from doing a chest-thump of victory over the Susan G. Komen Foundation cutting off its funding for Planned Parenthood. Komen had seemingly overcome its origins as an organization of wealthy, Republican women and became a force in research, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer, and it had been giving grants on the national level to Planned Parenthood directly for the last five years. By its own June 2011 document, "During the past five years, Komen Affiliate grants to Planned Parenthood have paid for the following: Breast cancer and breast health education for nearly 160,000 women, 139,000 clinical breast exams, 4,866 mammograms, detection of 177 breast cancers."

But because that occurred through an organization that also provides abortion services, it is evil breast cancer detection.

That's what passes for logic on the right. I guess breast cancer is OK for the godless commie women who use Planned Parenthood.

Time to go...

2012-02-02T13:22:00.004-05:00

Beeb Asia reports on what we all knew anyway but has actually come to light not that any of the principals wanted it to. Good read.

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.

The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.

A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report - on the state of the Taliban - fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the ISI and the Taliban.

The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
...

"Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad," it said.

It quotes a senior al-Qaeda detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."

"The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad."

Time to go. Also time to quit sending Pakistan protection money because they've got nukes. We're pretty much funding the Taliban by doing so, have been for years.

I think we need to find their nukes, if we don't already know where they are, and gently drop a nice funeral wreath on them. Just so they know we're watching.

Update:

NYTimes

One former Obama administration official speculated that the American military might have been behind the leak. “The mood in Kabul is that the U.S. military are very critical of Pakistan,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of military rules about discussing classified material. “They think the problem is not the Taliban, but the ISI,” the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan’s spy agency.
...

But it was the accounts of cooperation between the insurgents and local government officials or security forces that seemed to most upset NATO officials. “Captured photographs of Taliban personnel riding openly in the green Ford Ranger pickup trucks of the Afghan army are commonplace throughout Afghanistan,” the report said, adding that the vehicles were “sold or donated” to the Taliban. Elsewhere it cited a document related to a plot between Afghan intelligence agents and the Taliban to ambush American soldiers.

Gee, I wonder if FoMoCo will work that into ads...oh, they don't have to - we already paid for those pickups.

New slogan ...

2012-02-02T10:27:00.002-05:00

For the GOP.

... Your 21st century GOP: "We can botch 'Fuck You!'" ...

What'd I say ...

2012-02-02T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday? Are you warmed up enough yet?

The US plans to wind down its war in Afghanistan a year or more earlier than scheduled by ending its combat role in the second half of 2013.

Defence secretary Leon Panetta said no decision has been made on how quickly to draw down American and other Nato forces, but that the shift away from fighting is being brought forward. At the same time, Nato is considering reducing the planned size of the Afghan army because of the cost involved.

...

There ya go.

Quote of the Day

2012-02-02T08:39:00.000-05:00

BJ Bjornson:

Probably a little late as his always slim chance for the Republican nomination slips ever further away, but this clip of Gingrich rather perfectly sums up what the religious right means when they talk about “religious freedom”. It isn’t actually freedom of (and from) all religions, its a free pass for their religion and their religion alone. No one else need apply.

...

How you do it ...

2012-02-02T07:25:00.000-05:00

Our pal Comrade Misfit explains how to give a big "Fuck You" to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The Tea Party Doesn't Matter In Nevada Anymore

2012-02-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

I know none of you give a shit about what goes on in Nevada but it's right next door to me so I keep an eye on what's going on there. The Repug caucus there is this coming Saturday.

There are two Nevadas - Las Vegas and everywhere else. About 90% of Everywhere Else is owned by the federal government and conservatives hate that. Lost Wages has by far more residents than the rest of the state, literally twice as many, and nobody, or very few anyway, actually were born there. To my way of thinking, most of the population falls in two groups, those who were heading for California and whose cars broke down in the desert or mountains, or folks from California who moved to dodge arrest warrants.

Nobody is ever going to say "As Nevada goes, so goes the nation!" but we can hope.

BuzzFeed. Good quick read about bumbling wingnuts and why we should egg 'em on. Heh.

Mitt, Newt, Rick, and Ron will battle for a state that was once the core of Tea Party politics, and is now a microcosm of its fall. Now the Right is divided and distracted: “Conservatives in this state just can't figure out how to row in the same direction,” says Muth.

That's because each group thinks they're in charge and everybody else should do things their way and we're By God Amurrikkkans who can never compromise. My way or the highway and there's a lotta lonely highways in Nevada. Damn fine program if you ask me!

In what has become a microcosm of the movement nationwide, the unifying populism of the midterms has given way here to a host of bickering factions with no common cause, no money to fund a resurgence, and no clear leaders.

"We constantly have people who come into town and announce, 'I'm the head of the such-and-such coalition,'" said Vicki Dooling, who runs communications for the Las Vegas Valley Tea Party. "And it's just like, well says who? Who are you?"

Dooling insists that the tea party is more active than ever in Nevada--and that may be true. But with the activists committed to so many different special-interest conservative causes, it's tough these days to distinguish between the tea party movement and, well, the Republican establishment. What's more, without a unifying cause drawing public attention, the money from well-funded national organizations has dried up.

"They don't even make an effort to coordinate with us anymore," said one local tea partier.

You should take the hint...

Not long after that day, Palin would endorse Angle. Her campaign — from her populist-propelled nomination to a series of bungles and misstatements that produced a spectacular collapse — turned Nevada into a case study in how much damage the grassroots could do to the party’s shot at national power.

Thank you, Teabaggers.

"Why am I thinking 'rotting snail'?"

2012-02-01T13:10:00.002-05:00

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford. He seems particularly horrified that Taco Bell is now offering remarkably bad-food-like substances to eat in the morning that roughly parallel the concept of "breakfast".

Can you not tell at a moment's glance that consumption of this ghastly item will make you fat and sick and walk around all day feeling like you have glue in your blood and thick, gummy cobwebs all over your bones and you can't get them off?

We have a new Taco Bell here in town that replaced a now defunct Taco Bell Express. We also have a plethora of nice Mexican restaurants. The closest Taco Bell comes to Mexican food is what's in the lunch sacks of all the Mexican kids who work there.

Warming up ...

2012-02-01T08:56:00.000-05:00

The American people for the fact that as soon as we leave Afghanistan, the place will return to the 12th Century forthwith.

...

However, our correspondent says the report - on the state of the Taliban - fully exposes for the first time the relationship between Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and the Taliban.

...

It notes: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly."

It says Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

"Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad," it said.

...

Mark my words, we will cut a deal with the Taliban and leave. The Taliban will re-take over Afghanistan and we will forget about it until the next goat fucker hiding out over there blows something of ours up. I said it when we went in there and it holds true today. You cannot win in Afghanistan, you can only kill enough of them to calm them down for a while. We went in there with a foolish view, that everyone had an urge for democracy just yearning to break free, and we've been played for fools.

The Paks and the Afghans have shaken us down for all they can get and they will wait until we leave. They will then go back to business as usual. If we would have wanted to win, we would have formed an alliance with India and taken Afghanistan and Pakistan at once (and settle the Kashmir issue once and for all too) instead of paying the Paks to be our friends. As long as the Taliban have a relatively safe haven across the border, there is no way we can win. I think the powers-that-be in NATO realize that now too.

By this time next year they will be announcing the details of a deal with the Taliban. A few minutes after that, Karzai will leave the country. Either that or 50,000 Blackwater-types will stay behind to keep Kabul pacified and Karzai will be nothing more than a mayor. The Taliban will go on to control the rest of the country.

Nothing ever changes in Afghanistan.

Quote of the Day

2012-02-01T07:29:00.000-05:00

Mr. Ken Grenda:

"Take care of your staff and they will take care of you."

Background: Mr Grenda gave cash bonuses totalling A$15m ($16m, £10m) from proceeds of the sale to employees of his 66-year-old Melbourne-based company.

Just get out ...

2012-02-01T07:15:00.000-05:00

Charlie Pierce takes exception to Willard's quoting* Tom Paine:

...

At this point, I can take almost anything out of Willard Romney's perfect mouth, out of the perfect teeth through which he so perfectly lies. He won the Inevitability Primary in Florida out-and-out on Tuesday night, and only had to outspend Newt Gingrich five-to-one to do it. So he gets to crow a little. Over the next couple of days, he's going to be bathed in loving analysis from the smart kidz about how he "turned it around" after being outcrackered in South Carolina. But I'm not going to sit there and listen to the cosseted plutocrat son of a millionnaire auto dealer — one who is running on a platform that will make himself and everyone like him richer while warning the rest of us, as he did in his victory speech in Tampa, that "If you're looking for cradle-to-grave help from the government, I'm not your candidate" — go and dragoon into that effort Tom Paine, who would have spat in Willard Romney's face if he'd ever met him. Mitt Romney is someone whose children have a trust fund totaling $100 million. His great-great-grandchildren are not ever going to have to worry about money from their cradles to their graves. Thomas Paine? I'm sorry, but there are levels of bullshit to which I will not agree to descend.

...

Romney is a privileged asshole who wouldn't recognize reality if it bit him in the ass.

*I'm sure you've heard his "lead, follow, or get out of the way" bullshit over the last few days.

Ya think?

2012-02-01T06:57:00.001-05:00

Jonathan Martin at Politc-ho:

...

From establishment pillars to tea party leaders, the emerging consensus is that the vituperative attacks in Florida went beyond the traditional back-and-forth, cresting with Gingrich’s robo-call asserting that Romney had vetoed legislation denying Holocaust victims kosher food.

...

But the part I liked was this:

...

“The idea that we would attack each other like this is frustrating and painful,” said Lenny Curry, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, referencing Gingrich’s assault on Bain and Romney’s attack on Freddie Mac. “My face was red with anger when I watched one of these discussions on television because this is not what Republicans are about.”

...

Yes it is, Lenny. The thing that makes you angry is that the American people, thanks to this monkey house shit fight, will see what the Republicans are really all about. Just a buncha whiny teenagers with a mean streak a mile wide.

The Jukebox in my mind ...

2012-02-01T05:48:00.000-05:00

Woke up with this in my head this morning:

"Well, at least we know how Callista keeps her hair so stiff."

2012-01-31T13:42:00.002-05:00

El Rude-o on Neut. Mostly work-safe unless you enlarge the print or try to emulate him.

Check out his interview last night on Fox "news" with Sean "My Dwindling Audience of Shut-Ins and Crazy People Think I'm Awesome" Hannity. Here's Gingrich on the Keystone XL pipeline and his first day in office: "I would issue an executive order to build the Keystone pipeline as of that day. And I'm trying to communicate publicly so the people of Canada understand, you don't have to cut a deal with the Chinese. You don't have to go to pipeline across the Rockies. Give us until November, when we beat Obama, you'll have a chance to build that pipeline in January of 2013." You got that? Gingrich is presenting himself as believing that the Canadian government is listening to him and thinking, "Oh, well, of course Newt Gingrich is going to be elected. Fuck all the other plans. We'll just wait, eh?" Whether or not Gingrich actually thinks the Canadians give a happy monkey fuck what he has to say is beside the point. The point was to reach under his barrel-sized belly, grab his AAA battery prick, and yank away. Hannity loved it as Newt jizzed in his face, but that's Hannity, a right-wing cumgobbler of epic appetites.
...

Meanwhile, the media, like teenagers with cell phone cameras filming a hobo with his pants around his ankles, jacking off on the subway, wants to keep the show going, all the way to the convention, as Gingrich has threatened. And it doesn't matter if he takes down the entire Republican party with him. Newt demands that you watch him as he gets keeps on masturbating. The eyes and the cheers keep him hard, keep him going until he comes again.

I'm enjoying watching Neutie but I hope this election cycle is the end of him.

Headline of the Day

2012-01-31T13:06:00.002-05:00

Sarah Palin Finally Fulfills Her Godly Purpose Of Destroying The GOP

Good for her. I knew she had to have a redeeming quality somewhere!

I think ol' Moosebreath deserves ONE good mercy fuck for helping fuck up the Repugs. Now if we can find one good man who's willing to take one for the team and hazmat-wrap his junk and wade in. She likes to talk, so to avoid a mid-task de-wood, don't forget the ear plugs.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidouchebag

2012-01-31T12:57:00.001-05:00

Just go see this video at Political Carnival. Heh.

Music to my ears...

2012-01-31T12:39:00.002-05:00

The Daily Beast

Romney and Gingrich Set the GOP on a Path Toward Self-Destruction

The solution to the puzzle may be to admit that the GOP has forfeited 2012 before the general election even starts. How did this happen so suddenly?

“That’s the great mystery of 2012,” a senior Republican journalist told me while watching the brouhaha in Florida. “We have the weakest incumbent president in 32 years, running on the weakest record in 32 years… and who’s taking the stage in South Carolina and Florida? It has to be the weakest field I can remember. Each of these candidates has in his character, in his history, in his idea set—never mind disqualifying—a guarantee for self-destruction. If Newt is the candidate, he’ll lose badly. If Mitt is the candidate, he’ll lose slightly less badly … So what you have is an almost complete guarantee that if these are the candidates, Barack Obama will be reelected.”

No mystery. First, Obama's not near as weak as these clowns have to say he is to satisfy the Dead End Quarter and they know it. I think they made the right choice to run the weakest candidates they could find this time to clear out the deadwood before '16. And boy was there some deadwood! Heh.

Bill O'Reilly takes on ...

2012-01-31T11:58:00.002-05:00

The Muppets! Really, Bill?

Heh ...

2012-01-31T08:26:00.000-05:00

The Virginia Senate, for years a firewall against efforts to restrict abortion, today is poised to pass a bill to require that pregnant women undergo an ultrasound and get a chance to see the image before having an abortion.

...

Not that I expect any state below the Mason-Dixon Line to be pro-woman, but this is good:

...

Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County, was dismayed enough by the bill's progress that she tried to amend it so men seeking prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medication such as Viagra would be required to undergo a rectal exam and cardiac stress test.

She said that's "only fair, that if we're going to subject women to unnecessary procedures, and we're going to subject doctors to having to do things that they don't think is medically advisory." [my em]

...

The amendment didn't pass, but I'm glad she put all the men in fear of getting reamed .060" over, even for a little while.

Thanks to DU for the link

Neutie's Moon Mission

2012-01-30T15:03:00.001-05:00

And he dare not say "Abort!". Heh.

Thanks to YubaNet.

A good reason to keep Gitmo open

2012-01-30T14:37:00.002-05:00

Think Progress

Norquist: Republicans Will Impeach Obama If He Doesn’t Extend Bush Tax Cuts

But when asked what Republicans should do if faced with a Democratic majority that won’t keep the tax cuts, Norquist had a simple answer: “impeach” Obama.

NJ: What if the Democrats still have control? What’s your scenario then?

NORQUIST: Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach. The last year, he’s gone into this huddle where he does everything by executive order. He’s made no effort to work with Congress.

Norquist certainly revels in his power, but suggesting Republicans impeach the president over tax cuts is wildly outlandish. According to the constitution, the president, vice president, or public officials can only be impeached for “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Preserving a tax cut that gives more to the top 1 percent than the average income of the 99 percent hardly qualifies. But if Norquist’s only goal is to “crush the other team,” it seems he’ll stop at nothing to do so.

When I'm Emperor (EOTUS), Gruber will stop at the wire mesh a few feet from him in every direction. Yo, dude, there's a leftover Koran over there for you to read, and there's some more nice mutton stew coming along later. Rest up, big day tomorrow - pillowcase exchange!

Flash! The Repugs have TWO Dead End Quarters!

2012-01-30T14:04:00.004-05:00

I'm glad Daddy Frank has a good gig, but monthly sucks compared to weekly. It's worth the wait, though. A "recommended read" about "Who's Willard?".

[...] The morning after Newt shut Mitt down in South Carolina, Rich Lowry, the editor of the pro-Mitt, anti-Newt National Review, channeled the horror of GOP grandees everywhere. “If Romney can’t right himself,” he wrote, then “every major elected Republican in the country will panic” and “every unlikely scenario to get another candidate in the race will be explored.” The names once again being floated — Mitch Daniels! Jeb Bush! Paul Ryan! Bobby Jindal! — have not been known to raise the pulse rate of anyone beyond the 25 percent of the GOP embodied by elite conservative pundits in Washington and New York (my em).

What’s more likely is that the party’s panicked Establishment, and its Wall Street empire, will succeed in their push to crush Gingrich and prop up Romney in any way they can. They still see Mitt as the best available front man for the radical party the Republicans have become — the dutiful Eagle Scout who can hold down the fort as the right’s self-styled revolutionary rabble threaten to overwhelm today’s GOP elites the way the Goldwater insurgents once did Nelson Rockefeller and Romney’s father, George. Some of the same Beltway types who have reinforced Mitt’s presumed victory march since last summer believe he can be rebooted for the fall merely with some stern course correction.

Good luck. Willard self-reboots with every change in the wind. To complete the seagoing analogy, he's tacked so far to the right he's sailing up his own ass. The bowsprit's no problem but I do wonder about the mainmast...

There are simply too many good quotes in Pop's piece to post here. Go discover them for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

The GOP Deserves to Lose

2012-01-30T12:44:00.002-05:00

I don't post very much from the WSJ Opinion page for obvious reasons, but this piece by an Obamaphobe who can see through the mist is the rare exception.

Let's just say right now what voters will be saying in November, once Barack Obama has been re-elected: Republicans deserve to lose.

That's my theory for why South Carolina gave Newt Gingrich his big primary win on Saturday: Voters instinctively prefer the idea of an entertaining Newt-Obama contest—the aspiring Caesar versus the failed Redeemer—over a dreary Mitt-Obama one. The problem is that voters also know that Gaius Gingrich is liable to deliver his prime-time speeches in purple toga while holding tight to darling Messalina's* — sorry, Callista's — bejeweled fingers. A primary ballot for Mr. Gingrich is a vote for an entertaining election, not a Republican in the White House.

*Excellent reference. There are two - Valeria, wife of Claudius and known to some as the "Empress Whore", and Statilia, Nero's third wife. In the case of Callista "Can-Opener Hair", take your pick. Or both. Heh. But I digress...

Then there is Mitt Romney, even now the presumptive nominee. If Mr. Gingrich demonstrated his unfitness to be a serious Republican nominee with his destructive attacks on private equity (a prime legacy of the Reagan years), Mr. Romney has demonstrated his unfitness by — where to start?

[...] But Messrs. Santorum and Paul are two tedious men, deep in conversation with some country that's not quite America...

Finally, there are the men not in the field: Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Haley Barbour. This was the GOP A-Team, the guys who should have showed up to the first debate but didn't ... If Mr. Obama wins in November — or, rather, when he does — the failure will lie as heavily on their shoulders as it will with the nominee.

Blaming the guys who saw the handwriting on the wall, which was, quite simply, "The rest of these clowns have lost already and rightly so. '16.". Amazing.

What should readers who despair of a second Obama term make of all this? Hope ObamaCare is repealed by the High Court, the Iranian bomb is repealed by the Israeli Air Force, and the Senate switches hands, giving America a healthy spell of Hippocratic government.

Dude, turn yer spellcheck on, and we've already got a Hypocritic government and your scenario would only make it worse.

All perfectly plausible. And the U.S. will surely survive four more years. Who knows? By then maybe Republicans will have figured out that if they don't want to lose, they shouldn't run with losers.

A mirror image of the way I felt about surviving the Bush years, which we did barely. The Repugs started to lose when they couldn't steal enough votes to steal the '08 election. They're working on that. Hey, if they rig it so Democrats can't vote, no matter what disenfranchising and illegal bullshit it takes, then they win, right?

The GOP deserves more than just to lose the upcoming election, which they will and hopefully for the House and Senate as well, although I'm not holding my breath for that one.

They need to be ground to dust and scattered to the winds where they can't hurt this country for a while. The beauty of it is that they're doing it from within.

The upshot is that Obama's biggest problem is getting the shit-eatin' grin off his face before he goes out in public and then keeping a straight face during important matters of state. Heh.

Oh, the irony...

2012-01-30T12:09:00.002-05:00

Ironic Times

Castro: GOP Race “Greatest Competition of Idiocy and Ignorance” World Has Ever Seen
Guinness confirms it.

Republicans Looking for Candidate Who's Most Reaganesque
Someone who is both inattentive to affairs of state and a good storyteller.

U.S. in Upper Ranks of Latest Press Freedom Index
Only Finland, Norway, Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Cape Verde, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Ireland, Cyprus, Jamaica, Germany, Costa Rica, Belgium, Namibia, Japan, Surinam, Poland, Mali, OECS, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Niger, Australia, Lithuania, Uruguay, Portugal, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Slovenia, El Salvador, France, Spain, Hungary, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, South Korea, Comoros and Taiwan rank higher.

Just sayin' ...

2012-01-30T09:48:00.000-05:00

So, after this idiot hit the pole in front of the neighbor's house at 5:30 yesterday morning, the Long Island Power Authority had to come and replace said pole.

Now, our power wasn't affected when the guy hit the pole. LIPA on the other hand had different ideas. By 5:00 yesterday afternoon, I would have sworn my house was possessed.

Let me just say here that last year, some genius in a stolen car sheared the pole directly in front of my house in half and the power stayed on, even during the pole replacement process.

So, yesterday, the power goes on and off all day. Fine, I can live with that, they're fixing shit. Then, in the afternoon (as I'm watching the last 15 minutes of the Olympique de Marseilles v. Stade Rennais match of course) as the Mrs. is making dinner (Chicken Cordon Bleu I was waiting for all day) the power goes out again (we have an electric oven and electric range) for a second and comes back on. Fine.

Thing is, only half the house came back on (not the oven where my Chicken Cordon Bleu was cooking). Not my TV in the bar or the lights, but the lights in the next room. Not the refrigerator or the microwave, but the TV in the kitchen. Not the Mrs. freezer in the garage but the lights in the garage. Not the TV in my office but the computer on the desk. See where I'm going here?

So of course, I open the electric box and start resetting breakers (though none of them were blown) just for my own peace of mind. I checked the GFCIs in the bathrooms and reset them too, just for shits and giggles. Nothing. By this point, I'm figuring it's a low voltage thing created by the guys working on the pole. I've seen modern cars get screwy with voltage quality problems so I chalked it up to that. Fine.

I go back upstairs and the Mrs. is cursing up a storm (nobody screws with her while she's cooking). I tell her I'm gonna walk the dogs (she has sharp knives and I figured we'd be better off outside) and she says she's gonna make us sandwiches.

So me and the girls head out to take a leak (them, not me) and I hear yelling coming from the street. What is it? 4 LIPA guys on the ground yelling at each other about how they fucked something up. Then they start yelling at the guy hanging up in the bucket on the pole. They all shut up when they saw me and the girls watching them in disbelief. Really?

With what we pay for electric around here, I expect:

A) Repair crews who know what they are doing.

B) Repair crews who are professional and don't fight in the streets.

About 10 years ago, I lost a lot of electronics in this house because of some idiot hitting a pole and sending a power surge through my shit. I don't need the guys who are fixing the problem doing more damage to my shit than the original accident. LIPA doesn't like paying, regardless of the cause.

So me and the girls head back in and the Mrs. had some great sandwiches put together (she was a little calmer too) and I tell her what goes on outside. We sit down and have a nice, albeit off-the-cuff, dinner.

Wouldn't you know it though, just as we're finishing up with dinner, everything comes back on and the house is functioning normally. At least I'm getting Chicken Cordon Bleu tonight ...

Didja hear?

2012-01-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

Newt's the new Jesus:

...

As if Newt Gingrich couldn’t get a bigger ego, Sarah Palin is apparently crowning Newt Gingrich as the new Lord and savior. During an interview on Fox Business, Palin complained about the way people have been treating Newt Gingrich. You know, because they’ve been attacking him with facts about his record and views. So, Palin compared the treatment of Gingrich to how the Roman Empire treated Jesus.

...

So, hopefully, they're gonna nail him to something soon?

Heh ...

2012-01-30T08:04:00.000-05:00

Stolen from the Being Liberal FB page.

Believe me ...

2012-01-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

If the Republicans win majorities this November, I will:

Alan West, a tea party-backed congressman from Florida raised questions about his mental stability with comments he made on Saturday arguing that President Obama and other top Democrats should “get the hell out of the United States of America.”

...

There are some nice little towns in southern France where me, the wife, and the girls could live quite well and let the world pass us by. Makes no difference to me if I do it now or in 5 years when we planned. If the Republicans win this fall, this country will cease to be America anyway.

Why do people call you names?

2012-01-30T07:49:00.000-05:00

Because you're a lying asshole:

Back in 2010 as she defended her state’s harsh immigration law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told a newspaper reporter that she was deeply hurt by the terrible names people were calling her. The worst, she said, were the comparisons to the Nazis.

“They are awful,” she said. “Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that…and then to have them call me Hitler’s daughter. It hurts. It’s ugliness beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.”

...

Of course, her old man died 10 years after the war ended. Under Brewer and the other wingnuts out there, Alabama is another state on our southern frontier that has turned into a national embarrassment.

"Google Santorum"

2012-01-28T14:43:00.001-05:00

Get some, Old Fart!

A little light entertainment...

2012-01-28T14:05:00.001-05:00

Thanks to ve2claude.

Low IQ behind some conservative beliefs

2012-01-28T13:05:00.003-05:00

Following up on Fixer's post "Conservative = Stupid". EssEffChron:

“As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias,” LifeScience wrote.

Lead researcher Gordon Hodson, of Brock University in Ontario, concluded that people with low IQs are attracted to the hierarchy and structure in socially conservative institutions.

Two things that were conspicuous to me by their absence although they may not be in the direct scope of the study:

1. Stupid parents teach their stupid children stupid things, mainly hate, and

2. Stupid people are easily led by those who then use them against their own best interests and who clamor for more no matter how badly they're getting screwed. Seems to me that "us v them" works a lot better than "we" on the room-temperature IQ crowd.

There are a lot of very intelligent people who are way stupid too. Has more to do with outlook than with brains. Needs a separate study.

“They’ve pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics,” said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. “When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it’s bound to upset somebody.”

Fuck 'em. Doesn't upset me a bit. Heh.

A Gingrich presidency

2012-01-28T12:50:00.002-05:00

Doyle McManus

It would be just like its chief: Noisy, combative and prone to self-generated crises.

Last 2 ¶:

A President Gingrich couldn't rewrite the nation's healthcare law or tax law on his own; he would need Congress for those. Nor could he universally abolish child labor laws or, sadly, build lunar colonies. But he can issue executive orders, and he can do it on Day 1.

With most presidential candidates, voters worry that campaign promises are empty words that will never be carried out. But in the case of Newt Gingrich, the worry will be that he means exactly what he says.

Shorter: Neutie'd fuck the joint up but good.

If we weren't still in the hole the Chimp dug us into, I'd say elect the sonofabitch. Painful, yes, but it would mean the end of the Repuglican't party for all time.

Which is exactly why Wall St. and establishment Repugs will never permit him to be their nominee.

Headline of the Day

2012-01-28T12:32:00.002-05:00

Scientists: 'Look, One-Third Of The Human Race Has To Die For Civilization To Be Sustainable, So How Do We Want To Do This?'

Something with plausible deniability.

Quote of the Day

2012-01-28T07:27:00.000-05:00

Driftglass:

...
More than enough years of Conservative treachery and treason clearly visible as far as the eye can see for anyone with a functional cerebral cortex and a conscience to figure that the GOP is an irredeemable shitpile of bigots, Christopaths and plutocrats, who will never stop hag-riding this country from one disaster to another until they are driven to political extinction.
...

Heh ...

2012-01-28T06:24:00.000-05:00

Stolen from God.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

2012-01-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

If there's anything Emmylou has done more than sing solo, it's duets and backups.

Thanks to electricchris1, Oz.

Heh ...

2012-01-27T15:47:00.000-05:00

Stolen from the Being Liberal FB page.

Why No Responsible Democrat Should Want Newt Gingrich to Get the GOP Nomination

2012-01-27T13:17:00.002-05:00

Robert "Bobby Buzzkill" Reich. He's usually got plenty of sack. Not this time.

Republicans are worried sick about Newt Gingrich's ascendance, while Democrats are tickled pink.

Yet no responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency.

"Weird" is the word I hear most from Republicans who have worked with him. Scott Klug, a former Republican House member from Wisconsin, who hasn't endorsed anyone yet, says "Newt has ten ideas a day – two of them are good, six are weird and two are very weird."

Newt's latest idea, for example – to colonize the moon – is typically whacky.

Are you kidding me? That's the best of all his whacky ideas!

Even if the odds that Gingrich as GOP presidential candidate would win the general election are 10 percent, that's too much of a risk to the nation. No responsible American should accept a 10 percent risk of a President Gingrich.

Look, Bobby, that asshole's got exactly Zero percent chance of being President, and it's a risk we're willing to take. He will go down at, my guess, 65% to 35% as opposed to Willard at about 53% to 47%. We're lovin' this. Quit harshin' our mellow, dude.

If I was so pessimistic as to think the majority of American voters are as batcrap crazy as the Dead End Quarter, I'd be blogging from Nepal or Botswana or someplace else that is smarter than here.