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.