Headline of the Day With Video!

Listening to Republican Talking Points Is Like Being Dropped Into an Alternative Universe

Like the one inside the walls of an old house!

Thanks to scaryforkids.

To Fixer's Friends

Welcome! Enjoy your visit! You have come to the United States at the time of year when we celebrate our independence and if you hear lots of explosions and ambulance sirens, don't take it personally. Heh.

Also, when you take pride in Fixer humming the first few bars of "God Save The Queen", it's really "My Country 'Tis Of Thee". We only steal the best!

The Green and Pleasant Land ...

For my dear friends sharing my home for the next few days:

Apollo Symphony Orchestra - Jerusalem

Tour guiding ...

Showing off my beautiful Island to our friends from Wales. If yesterday was any indication, I'll be scarce around here for a couple days. I have to have them back aboard Queen Mary 2 on Wednesday morning. Their first experience with NYC traffic yesterday, trying to get from Pier 88 on the West Side (Hudson River) to the Queens Midtown Tunnel (East River), took us an hour and a half to go less than 5 miles. Heh ...


View My Saved Places in a larger map

They also got to experience one of our world-class beaches.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmy sings about her long lost Gram. How she can do this song without crying, I don't know.

Emmylou Harris - "The Road" - live @ ROMP 6.25.11 Owensboro, KY

Thanks to ionriff.

Village Virgins

Digby via Crooks and Liars on Halperin's little 'dick'.

This really is nonsense. It's not the word "dick" that's the problem, fergawdsake. It's not pictures of dicks either. It's that these people have contrived this absurd set of shallow manners in which saying dick or taking a picture of a dick is wrong while lying, manipulating and cavalierly risking the country's future (which is what Obama was allegedly being a dick about!) is considered perfectly acceptable.

It's the perfect manifestation of the Village. A bunch of decadent aristocrats pretending to be virgins and nuns, moralizing over trivia as a "lesson" for the rubes, all the while indulging in a debauched orgy of power and privilege.

"You can go to hell - I'm going to Texas!"

Hell? Texas? Mox nix.

EssEffChron

Frontiersman Davy Crockett once said "You can go to hell - I'm going to Texas!"

The New York Daily News is reporting that former Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck is relocating to the Lone Star State in the wake of his departure from the cable news world.

The perfect place for him. Now let's get started on building a wall around it. Or give that place back to Mexico and let them deal with it.

Au revoir...

Strauss-Kahn released without bail

Thanks to slims86.

To the limit

Paul krugman on the Repug extortion over the debt ceiling.

Bear in mind that G.O.P. leaders don’t actually care about the level of debt. Instead, they’re using the threat of a debt crisis to impose an ideological agenda. If you had any doubt about that, last week’s tantrum should have convinced you. Democrats engaged in debt negotiations argued that since we’re supposedly in dire fiscal straits, we should talk about limiting tax breaks for corporate jets and hedge-fund managers as well as slashing aid to the poor and unlucky. And Republicans, in response, walked out of the talks.

So what’s really going on is extortion pure and simple. As Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute puts it, the G.O.P. has, in effect, come around with baseball bats and declared, “Nice economy you have here. A real shame if something happened to it.”

And the reason Republicans are doing this is because they must believe that it will work: Mr. Obama caved in over tax cuts, and they expect him to cave again. They believe that they have the upper hand, because the public will blame the president for the economic crisis they’re threatening to create. In fact, it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly.

Republicans believe, in short, that they’ve got Mr. Obama’s number, that he may still live in the White House but that for practical purposes his presidency is already over. It’s time — indeed, long past time — for him to prove them wrong.

No shit.

Clean elections

Thanks to YubaNet.

Health Care Bill for Camp Lejeune Vets, Families Moves Forward

Mostly of interest to me since I was stationed there during the time frame, I'm glad this is moving forward.

YubaNet

WASHINGTON, D.C. June 29, 2011 - Today's Senate committee vote to provide medical care for veterans and families made ill by contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune marks an important advance in the effort to address health problems of an estimated 750,000 Americans.

At least 70 men who lived or were conceived at Camp Lejeune have been diagnosed with male breast cancer, a rare disease with an incidence rate of approximately one per 100,000. High incidences of birth defects and childhood illnesses have also been attributed to evidence of in utero exposure to chemicals found in the water.

I think my man boobs are more the result of All-U-Can-Eat Burrito Nite than Camp Swampy's water. With a drinking age of 18, I didn't drink much water except for the bug juice in the chow hall and that shit'd kill anything.

Pollution at Camp Lejeune is the largest incident of environmental contamination at any U.S. military facility on record. It is the subject of the award-winning documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful.

"Semper Fidelis" is the motto of the Marine Corps and means "Always Faithful". "Semper Fi" means more like "I got mine, you're on your own" or "Pull up the ladder, I'm on board".

Did Glenn Beck Lie about "Attack" in NYC to Drum Up Publicity for New Show?

Why not? He lies about everything else. Following up on Fixer's post:

AlterNet

With his Fox News show down to its last few days, and about to embark on a risky and probably unsuccessful attempt to replicate his cable success on pay-to-view Internet broadcasting, a desperate Glenn Beck cooked up a transparently phony publicity stunt that began to fall apart within hours.

Beck claimed on his radio show this morning, and then later (at great length) on his TV show, that he and his family were victims of an evil liberal mob in a New York park:

Liberal mob. Yeah, they probly blinded him with rainbows and did unspeakable things to his anus with unicorn horns. Go read.

GOP is like little girls...

...except little girls are cute and have actual value. Politico, links at site:

One of President Barack Obama’s 2012 themes will likely revolve around what his aides call “the contrast” — a portrayal of Obama as a responsible, moderate adult harassed by infantile Republicans who favor the wealthy.

And your point is...?

During his East Room press conference Wednesday — his first since the kickoff of the 2012 Republican campaign — Obama drew that comparison in the starkest terms to date, likening veteran politicians in their 40s, 50s and 60s to his young daughters, Sasha and Malia.

The difference between Repug pols and Sasha and Malia is, of course, that the young ladies will eventually grow up and be productive members of society.

The mindless hysteria of right-wing sheep

Gene Lyons in Salon:

Politics makes people stupid even in good times. Fear provokes irrationality. Given the parlous state of the U.S. economy, it's no surprise that the national conversation has grown shrill. Even so, the level of vituperation and unreason comes as a continuing revelation.

Not that I'm complaining. As a native of New Jersey, the Insult State (official motto: "Oh yeah, who says?"), there's no level of invective to which I can't sink. Anybody who writes provocatively shouldn't complain when readers are provoked. Besides, it's less the anger than the sheer, boneheaded illogic that amazes me.

No shit. How can people be so stupid?

That is, I favor raising marginal income-tax rates on millionaires from 35 to 39.6 percent. Therefore, I must be a communist who advocates the abolition of private enterprise, the confiscation of private property, and the redistribution of wealth to lazy people who won't work.

"Do you get paid under the table by the Democrat Party to spew your hatred of capitalism," asks one fellow, "or is it that you have some deep-seated psychopathic (sic) scars based on the choices you made that limit your economic achievements?"
...

"Good work, comrade," I responded. "Your regurgitation of party dogma is letter-perfect. In the USSR, they actually got to the point of declaring people who failed to conform 100 percent mentally ill."

The irony was most likely lost on him.

Then there's the argumentum ad populum, another favorite of talk-radio fans: somebody with a big audience must be correct. Furthermore -- motive again -- I must be jealous of their success.

That's pretty much like saying Rush Limbaugh's jealous of President Obama. You buy that?

Look, these guys are playing you for suckers. They're reading scripts written to trick you into believing that the bigger Scrooge McDuck's bullion pile is, the better it is for you. Take away the call screeners and the mute buttons, and most of them wouldn't last two weeks. Talk radio is the political equivalent of wrestling.

Gee, Gene, thanks for the visual of Rushbo in speedos and skin all oiled to a glistening sheen. Runnin' low on bleach again...

Mark Halperin calls Obama a ‘dick’ on live TV

Raw Replay, with video.

Washington Monthly‘s Steve Benen noted that the Morning Joe crew was probably upset that Obama didn’t appear “docile and conciliatory” towards Republicans in Congress.

Yes, not being "docile and conciliatory" to those poor dear sweet Repugs who would never say anything bad about the President. My ass.

“Halperin’s credibility as an objective observer of political events has long been dubious, at best, but this morning’s little stunt should remove all doubt,” Benen wrote.

No shit. Halperin's been a Repugsymp for a long time. Who's the dick?

Assholery ...

Secaucus Fats has it down to an art form:

One would think that now that New York has legalized gay marriage and the world hasn't ended, New Jersey would be the next likely place for equality to take place. Unfortunately, we have a governor who thinks that just because HE is a Roman Catholic (and frankly, a church hierarchy that has harbored and protected child molesters for decades ought to have no moral authority over anything), he, not the voters, gets to decide whether everyone in the state should have this right.

...

Addendum: And if, as Fats has been saying all along, he "wants to lure businesses across the Hudson", he should very much get behind gay marriage. NYC and Long Island wedding halls, bars, hotels, and a whole lotta other businesses are gearing up for a flood of same-sex marriages come next month. A big hall out here on the Island is having a mass wedding (several hundred couples) on 24 July, the day the law goes into effect. The gays might be icky to you, big boy, but us NYers know their money is as green as the straight couples'.

Like our treasure Yogi Berra says: "They give you cash, which is just as good as money."

And you wonder ...

Why the deficit is so high? None of these fucking wars were on the books until Obama took office:

US spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has already cost at least $3.2 trillion, and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, far higher than previous estimates, according to a new study released by Brown University.

The study tries to account not just for the direct costs of the war, but for indirect expenses such as ongoing medical care for wounded veterans. It was carried out by Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies.

The findings contrast with the much lower estimate of war spending offered by US President Barack Obama during his address on Afghanistan last week.

...

So, as we take away grandma and grandpa's health care, tell me again why Bush and Cheney shouldn't be swinging at the end of a rope?

Great thanks to They Gave Us A Republic for the link.

"Welcome to the Big Apple ...

Ya fuckin' fuck." Heh ...

So tell me ...

Why we have to jack up an old lady in a wheelchair :

Destin - Transportation Security Administration workers made a 95-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, with terminal cancer, remove her adult diaper during a search.

...

When a guy from Africa can fly cross-country on a stolen boarding pass and have the opportunity to do it a second time?

(LOS ANGELES) -- The Transportation Security Administration is facing many questions Thursday after a Nigerian man was arrested for getting past security and onto a flight at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport with false documentation.

...

Transportation Security is a fucking joke and just another form of corporate welfare. We're as safe today as we were on 10 September 2001.

Arrest Made in Cattle Drive Hit-&- Run

Following up on last week's post:

On Friday June 24th at about 11:30 pm, two Sierra County deputy sheriff’s located and made an arrest on the suspect who struck five cows, ran over a cattle dog and threatened to run over several riders on horseback during a cattle drive last week in Pike City.

The suspect remains in custody in the Sierra County Jail in Downieville. Bail is set at $100,000. The suspect is 19 year-old Justin Philip Lombardobarton of Camptonville. His current charges are: P.C. 245 (a)(1) Assault with a Deadly Weapon, P.C. 597(a)(1) Animal Cruelty and P.C. 594(b)(1) Vandalism of Property. Additional charges may follow.

Additional charges may include Being An Asshole, with priors.

Maggie the cattle dog is on the mend (conehead photo), and I was wrong about Sierra County not having its own jail, but apparently it doesn't amount to much although this is heartwarming:

Click to embiggen

I'm sure Maggie will be glad to clean up after her attacker drops through the trap door.

You can read the plaque here.