What the fuck, Ron?

I'm normally quite supportive of Oregon's Senators, but this is just fucking ridiculous.

Brilliant plan there Ron, jump into bed with the biggest Ayn Rand freakizoid in the Republican party to "help fix" a popular social safety net program. You know, the safety net program that Randians hate with a burning passion and would do anything to destroy. I'm sure that'll turn out just fine. Gah!

I really, really hope there's some unseen cunning plan of Wyden's that I'm just not seeing, but I don't think there is.

Fuck.

What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, the Obama administration is really pro-regulation. Sure:

under a new two-year pilot program at the USDA, regulators are training the world's biggest biotech firms, including Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta, to conduct environmental reviews of their own transgenic seed products as part of the government's deregulation process.

I'm sure that will work out just fine, just like every instance of an industry regulating itself. And I have this really nice bridge for sale, with some prime swampland too!

Less war? Moar War?

I know I'm pretty harsh on the Obama administration's continuation of shrub's "all war, all the time" plan, but I gotta give them props for actually, hopefully, getting out of Iraq like we promised we would. I must also give a hearty "whew, glad that worked out OK" to the efforts in Libya -- looks like things there surprised me as well. I'm very happy to be wrong on that one. Well done on both those.

Now, can we please stop bombing the crap out of Pakistan? We've already been poking the hornet's nest that is "our ally" for a while, with mixed results. Can we finish up our other ongoing wars before we start one with a nuclear-armed country? Pretty please?

I'll just leave these here

That was posted by somebody 5 years ago. Some of the photos at the end make sense in that context, but not so much now.



That song was recorded by Steve Earle in... 2004

Rick Perry Really Likes Syrup

Here's the animated version.

Where's Neil Young?

It's not Kent State, but this is getting close. How long 'til some overzealous trigger-happy cop actually kills somebody at one of these protests? These peaceful protests. Well, peaceful except for the thug cops.

And where are all the right-wing wankers that scream "BLU BLUGH BLARGH MUH FURST 'MENDMENT!!eleven!" when a citizen criticizes the stupid shit they say (not an infringement of their speech), now that, the state is actively infringing "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" -- an actual infringement of protester's first amendment rights.

Fuckers.

Not Different Enough

I don't like Ezra, so no surprise I don't like his latest.

The cool kid mostly glosses over TARP and "too big to fail" whereas I think it was kind of notable that Bush and congress wrote a basically blank check to bail out the banks, with no oversight and nearly no discussion. TARP/TBTF was then pinned entirely on the Kenyan Usurper (who admittedly was for it), and: OMG soshumalism! We now know it didn't end up costing what the stimulus did, but we thought it was going to be $700 billion at the time. He also doesn't discuss how easy that was to do, where the blame has been placed for it, and the backlash it caused. After that, try to get any sort of real stimulus passed. Good luck. I'm fairly amazed they got what they did.

He doesn't discuss what might have been if use of "too big to fail" funds would have been spent or controlled differently, perhaps they could've been tied to some real reform or items that might actually stimulate the economy rather than just being sure that some 1%ers could afford a third yacht. A discussion of how some of those items could've changed the initial debate of the stimulus, or even if anybody in DC had thought about any of that stuff would've been nice. You know, some stuff a beltway insider might've been able to get access to.

Teh coolest kid in DC also seems rather obsessed about OMG BIGGEST $TImULOUS EVAR!!one! like that means anything. Not mentioned: the 1.3 trillion we've spent in Afghanistan and Iraq so far, and the money we'll spend on everlasting war and "defense" this year, and next year, and next year... And no, sssh, we can't talk about that.

The stimulus should have been a lot bigger, but at least we got what we did at the time, as meager and misdirected (yay moar tax cuts!) as that was.

Could it have been different? Could you ask a dumber or more open ended question next time, Ezra?

Ah, freedom

From Harper's Weekly:

As Libyan forces converged on Muammar Qaddafi's last redoubts countrywide, documents recovered in Tripoli showed that the CIA and MI6 had helped Qaddafi persecute dissidents, including Abdul Hakim Belhaj, military commander of Libya's national transitional government, whom the CIA rendered back to the country from Asia in 2004. "I wasn't allowed a bath for three years and I didn't see the sun for one year," said Belhaj. "They hung me from the wall and kept me in an isolation
cell. I was regularly tortured."

"It can't come as a surprise," said CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood, "that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats."

...

WikiLeaks released a diplomatic cable backing claims that U.S. troops shot at least ten handcuffed Iraqi civilians, including five children, in the town of Ishaqi in 2006, then called in an airstrike to cover up the act.

Brought to you by good ol' U S of A brand Freedom Torture™, Freedom Murder™ and Freedom Bombs™. Be sure to stock up next time you stop at Walmart!

Stinkfoot

I dedicate this video:



To my new Merrell Trail Glove shoes.

I've never had issues with smelly feet before, but dear FSM these shoes make my feet stink. It's fucking awful.

Great shoes other than that though, if you're into this whole minimalist shoe thing that's all the rage.

Morose Monday

I've decided that today is a downer and needs some downer tunes to carry it further into the deep dark depths. Maybe then the day will have nowhere to go but up.

Here are some morose songs:

Great tune, good groove, but the lyrics are dark:


This used to make me cry when I was a little kid:


Can't leave out one of those scary Muslims:


You're welcome.

Yay, more war!1!!eleven

I'm happy* to see that our glorious leaders are boldly continuing with their quest to be at war with everyone, all the time. This delightful new conflict against the militants rising up against their authoritarian ruler will, no doubt, encourage the militants in other countries we're supporting against their authoritarian rulers. It all makes perfect sense if you don't think about it too hard.

*Not really.

I know this shit is complicated -- the "rebels" in Yemen are supposedly backed/infiltrated by Al Qaeda, so we don't want them to just take over the country. That makes sense. But seriously, can we please stop pretending that "all war, all the time" is completely free of consequences, both fiscal and social/political? There are lots and lots of bad people on the planet. We simply can't bomb all of them, as much as that would give John McCain a stiffy. I think our country is already pretty well doomed to a slow decline, but our current policy of "Oh look, a problem! Let's throw bombs at it!" and "No, sorry, we can't talk about the defense budget, let's cut taxes and get rid of Medicare!" are just going to accelerate that.

Related or maybe not

I stumbled across this version of this song recently. Kinda dig it.

But I think there should be some alternate lyrics for Weiner gate:

I'll tweet my dick to you, and more, and that's for sure.
I'll cry on TV for you, and bring the creeps right to your door.
To thrill wingnuts with delight, I'll bring them LOLs all night.
Many things that will excite, make them dream of me at night.
For your love, for your love...

The Truth Behind The Rapture

Looks like it was a pretty close call, but thankfully the folks at Overcompensating saved the day:



To prevent further stupidity of this sort in the future, please spay and neuter any xtians you see, or as a less violent option, please support one of the few secular or atheist organizations that exist.

Musical Rapture

Seems that Friday is a popular day for posting links to various videos and/or musical hijinx and etc. and such as. WTF, why not?

This is the album I just listened to from one of my favorite Portland acts. You need to crank it right the fuck UP for the proper feel of this song:



Now that I think about it, the title actually works for all the rapture idiots -- it'll be Bad Days Ahead for the dumbasses that fell for it, again.

May your Friday rock as much as this song.

Seriously?

So, the Navy might name a new cargo ship after Cesar Chavez. Cue the right-wing freakout.

Chavez was a U.S. citizen, born in the country. And not in some exotic Muslimy place like Hawaii, in the vast liberal mecca that is... Arizona.

He was actually in the Navy, so unlike most wingers, actually served in the military.

Oh, and he fought against illegal immigration. The wingnuts just hate that shit.

But he was a labor organizer, and y'know, his name sounds all furrin' like. So let's flip right the fuck out!

Fucking idiots.

Good riddance

After hearing the big news last night, I truly hoped that there would not be the (unfortunately) completely predictable right-wing freak out that Obama managed to "get" OBL, after Teh Shrub dropped the ball. As they say, "sadly, no."

You'd think the rabid war-porn aficionados would be happy, but I guess the only way this could've been done to their satisfaction would have been some sort of hideous medieval public torture spectacle. Only if it occurred under a Republican administration, of course.

Reminder

Reminder: the Teabaggers aren't racist, they're just strict conservatives that really hate big government and socialism.

Related

While the whole "meme" thing is beyond me, I must admit this struck a chord with me for some unknown reason.

Forgotten

With all the fake uproar over the deficit and birthers and all that, it's easy to forget that there are a few wars on.

As everybody (except our feckless press) knew would happen, our latest adventure in killing brown peopleliberation is ramping up toward the seemingly inevitable long-term ground war.

Iraq continues to be a complete cluster fuck that nobody wants to talk about.

And the original forgotten war, rages on.

You'll note all those links go to The Guardian in the UK. That's obviously because the US press is moronic, inane, and vacuous.

Thankfully, there are exceptions. Believe it or not, McSweeney's has been running a great series on Afghanistan written by a US service member serving there. It paints a mostly bleak picture, but is an amazing read. Check it out: In These Deserts.

Objectively Terrible

Since Randian supermen are everywhere these days, "producing" all sorts of great things, like this piece of shit, and this bag of vomit, I figured it'd be a good time to put up some of my favorite Ayn Rand take downs.

They start way back in 1957. Note: that's the National Fucking Review, where the current front page features this idiot and this doughy pantload. Today's conservatives sure have come a long way.

Then there's this delightfully uncivil one.

And two of my favorites, an older one and a great fresh new one, both reminding us just what total and utter hucksters Alan Greenspan and his favorite fascist were.

So, if you have any glibertarian douchebags in your families, like I do, be sure to pass these links along. They're sure to liven up your next family gathering!

Where's the birth certificate?

The birthers are back! While I'm not a real fan of our "compromise at any cost" weak-ass president, he's marginally better than the other options, and the birther thing is just fucking stupid!

So, as an answer to all those birther fuckwits (yes, I'm talking about you, Trump) especially those with the "Where's the birth certificate" bumper stickers, I created some convenient business cards you can print and do with as you see fit.

There are civil and uncivil versions, and also letter-sized sheets of each for convenient printing.

Will it do any good? Of course not, but WTF.

I Love Oregon, take 2

While I don't think a perfectly-evenly-divided legislature is overall a good thing, it is undeniably better than a Republican-led one, and this is pretty goddamn funny.

Retro

For no discernible reason, I really want one of these (the top one). Ah, memories.

I love Oregon

Just got this e-mail from one of our Senators (Jeff Merkley):

For months now, the House Republicans - led by Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) - have been promising a bold, new plan to cut the deficit.

After much anticipation, Rep. Ryan released his plan today. But it's hardly a bold, new plan. Instead, Ryan's plan is a rehash of the same old failed ideas they've been touting for years.

What's the Republican solution to our budget crisis? More tax cuts for the wealthy and big multinational corporations; attacks on our teachers, firefighters, and other public servants; and announced today, a plan to end Medicare and give our seniors coupons for private health insurance.

Unbelievable.

Make no mistake: No one is going to kill Medicare on my watch. We're not going to go back to the days when many of America's seniors were living in destitute poverty without access to health care. We've made a solemn commitment to our seniors, and we're not going to break that promise.

So, how do we bring down the deficit?

* End the exclusive tax breaks available only to millionaires and billionaires.

* End the subsidies for the highly-profitable oil and gas industries.

* Bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a responsible end.

* Get our economy back on track - by investing in education and clean energy technology, boosting manufacturing, and keeping families in their homes by fixing the broken housing market.

Of course, I'd prefer he was a bit more harsh and direct in his language (e.g. "Fuck You Paul Ryan, why don't you leave us alone and get back to fucking Ayn Rand's corpse."), but in the meek Senate, this is pretty good. Keep it up Jeff.

The Mustache of Misunderstanding

The cab driver in Thomas Friedman's gut is talking again. From an interview with Matt Lauer on this morning's Today show:

"my gut tells me any kind of decent outcome there [Libya] will be requiring boots on the ground, either as military help for the rebels to oust Gadhafi as we want or as post Gadhafi peacekeepers and referees between tribes. Those boots cannot be ours. We cannot afford it whether in terms of money, manpower, energy or attention. I am dubious that our allies can or will handle it without us."

And

"The thing to keep in mind is there are two different states in the world -- real countries with long histories and big majorities, Egypt, Tunisia. They went smoothly because it was everybody against dad. Now the revolutions are moving out to tribes with flags. States with big sectarian tribal communities. When you take the lid off those states, you can unleash a civil war. What we saw in Iraq is if you don't have somebody in place on the ground to referee that, you could end up with a Somalia."

Then they tie that in to Iran, for no apparent reason, and then continue to spend the last 45 seconds talking about Afghanistan:

(Lauer): We are seeing violence there that seems to be related to the pastor in Florida and his small congregation and their burning of the Koran. I want to leave that part out of it, but it shows us Afghanistan is still an unsettled country, isn't it?

(Mustache of Misunderstanding): What the whole incident shows us, Matt, is basically what kind of deep anti-foreign influences still exist in Afghanistan. They were triggered in this case by the Koran burning. Next week they could be triggered by a traffic accident. What's troubling is after all the time and money we spent there you still have huge anti-foreign and to some degree anti-American sentiment that doesn't bode well for the morning after the morning after.

So, to try to digest this great insight:

1) Libya won't be settled without "boots on the ground" but those boots can't be ours but our allies can't or won't handle it without us. Nothing offered as to what should be done in this conundrum. Evidently it's just enough to talk about it, perhaps he should go for another cab ride and see if he comes up with a brilliant solution.

2) I'm really glad that Egypt and Tunisia are now perfectly functioning secular democracies, I hadn't heard of that development. I am a bit surprised though that just telling people to "Suck. On. This." doesn't lead to magic sparkleponies for everyone. I seem to remember that's how it used to work. I wonder what changed? Anyway, now that Iraq is Somalia(WTF?) what next? Also, which of the two kinds of states is Florida? I'm leaning toward "big sectarian tribal communities" that like to burn Korans, but I don't get paid to write crap for the NYT.

3) Those crazy Afghanis, taking little things like Koran burning by a bunch of frothing-at-the-mouth racist Floridians as serious as a traffic accident. They should really be more appreciative of our freedom bombs.

It's a good thing we have these folks to shape the discourse of our foreign policy. We're in good hands.

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