Shameless Hometown Whoring

YubaNet

Truckee, Calif. November 19, 2012 - Truckee has found itself in good company sitting among the world's best ski destinations, earning a distinguished accolade from the editors of National Geographic Adventure as one of the world's top 25 ski towns.

The article, which was posted this month on the online home page of National Geographic Adventure, breaks down what constitutes a classic ski town. Truckee is celebrated as "an inviting mountain burg steeped in ski heritage, amenities, and culture."

Truckee is heralded as being a relaxed town where locals live. Squaw Valley, famed for its extreme terrain, is referred to as Truckee's "alpha mountain,"and calls out Northstar, Sugar Bowl, Tahoe Donner and Soda Springs reflecting the variety of terrain and opportunities nearby.

The article has some fun exploring what makes a place really tick by asking local luminaries for insider tips. Truckee's own Daron Rahlves, four-time Olympian, 15-year member of the U.S. Ski Team stepped up to answer the journalist's questions, recommending his picks of where to stay, play, and party.

To view the story online go to: http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/trips/best-ski-towns-photos/

"This article provides the reader with a sense of Truckee's colorful history and authentic charm, and also makes it clear that we sit right in the midst of many world-class ski resorts," said Lynn Saunders, president and CEO of the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce. "Truckee's mountain culture and fun-loving lifestyle are a draw for people who live here, visit here, and for those who decide that they want to be part of our remarkable community, by moving here."

The article fails to mention that one of the most fun things to do around here is watch the skiers (the "S-word") and boarders try to drive in the snow and stuff it into the snowbank. The corollary is you don't have to go out in the cold to see it. Just go to Safeway where it's nice and warm. They shop just like they drive. Which is to say they don't give a damn what anybody else is doing. The crashes are every bit as comical.

Also not mentioned is that the aprés ski activities are largely fueled with drugs and alcohol, which adds to the local charm and town coffers.

I love it here!

Hater Gasbag Tanks Stocks

Kos

The Rush Limbaugh Show is distributed to 600 radio stations via several radio industry networks. The show is syndicated by privately-held Premiere Networks, which contracts with Cumulus Media, Dial Gobal, and other networks to secure broad access in as many media markets as possible.

On Friday, November 16, Dial Global took a huge financial hit, resulting in the company voluntarily de-listing from NASDAQ. Dial Global's stock dropped by nearly 77 percent. The company identified three causes for its troubles, including "advertisers' response to controversial statements by a certain nationally syndicated talk radio personality in MARCH 2012."

Now, it is becoming apparent that Cumulus is also a troubled company. Dial Gobal appears to be on the ropes; Cumulus is, so far, failing to thrive. Both companies have publicly blamed Rush.

Ahhhhhhhhh...:-)

One hopes that millions of AM radios in F150s will fall forever silent when that pusillanimous puke racist gasbag is shown the door. Or at least replaced by some equally hateful local preacher sponsored by the feed store on stations that don't reach a mile from the transmitter.

Tea Party Leader: Romney Can Still Win

Joe My God

"Mitt Romney carried 24 states. We need to have conservative activists from all over the nation contact the electors, the Republican Party and the secretary of state in all of these states and tell them not to participate in the Electoral College when it meets on Dec. 17. If we can get 17 of those states (just over one-third) to refuse to participate, the Electoral College will have no quorum. Then, as the Constitution directs, the election goes to the House of Representatives. That is how we can still pull this election out and make Mitt Romney president in January. We need this concept shared with every tea party, liberty and patriotic group throughout the country. We have time to act, but we must pressure Republicans to do the right thing. It does not matter who gets credit for this. The credit is not important. Using our last chance to defeat Barack Obama is important." - Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips, telling World Net Daily how Romney can still win.

RELATED: This summer Phillips said that President Obama should prove he isn't a gay crackhead before making tax return demands on Romney.

Labels: batshittery, crackpots, electoral college, Mitt Romney, racism, Tea Party, teabaggers, World Net Daily

A real diehard. That's fine as long as he dies.

Thanksgiving Blessings 2012

Will Durst

To be perfectly honest, a four-day weekend devoted to food, family and football might be the perfect prescription distraction to help us through these rebuking times. So here's a couple rough examples of what a middle-aged, round-headed political comic counts as blessings over folded hands before performing a perfectly executed triple somersault into the gravy boat.
...

General David Petraeus: Who knew generals had groupies? Proves old high school adage: chicks dig stars. The larger the fruit salad, the more noxious the flies.
...

State of Florida: 12 years later, and they still can't count. Time to circumcise America. Cut Florida off and kick it into the Caribbean. Rename it North Cuba.
...

Michele Bachmann: Because every comedian needs a good right-wing nut job every now and then.

I think we have a right-wing nut job overload, but that's just me...

Many more.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

White House Inundated With Petitions From Various States To Secede
Feel they can do just fine without interstate highways, space program.

They want the checks from the rest of us to keep coming, however. As far as I'm concerned, they can fucking starve. Most of 'em need to lose weight anyway.

Romney Blames Loss on Obama Giving “Gifts” to Minorities, Young People
Bought them off with life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

Methamphetamine Found To Reduce Risk of Flu
Ask your dealer if methamphetamine is right for you.

Biggest problem I've seen with crank is running out after you take your car apart. Heh.

??? - News Quiz - ???
Mitt Romney lost the election because:
A ) he's cruel to dogs.
B ) he's out of touch with average Americans.
C ) he has no sympathy for people who need government help.
D ) he holds positions on social issues at odds with a majority of Americans.
E ) he never paid his fair share in taxes.
F ) he avoided military service but supports an expansionist American military.
G ) he thinks half of us are lazy moochers.
H ) he wants undocumented immigrants to be hounded out of the country.
I ) he changed his position on a range of issues numerous times.
J ) he made his living pleasing investors at the expense of American workers.
Hint: he had us at dogs.

This had to happen:

Cracker Jack Introduces Caffeine-Coated Version
Created in response to longer baseball games.

The "7th inning stretch" was replaced with the "7th inning snooze" some time ago.

"Ley de fuga" - Lynch Law in Arpaio's AZ

I guess "show me your papers" isn't enough for that asshole.

Raw Story

Newly re-elected Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday pledged to put an automatic weapon in the hands of every Maricopa Country deputy because “[m]ore and more illegal aliens are attempting to escape.”

In the United States, the cops generally aren't supposed to shoot you simply for running from them. Run from a cop in Mexico, however, and the next thing you will feel is a .45 round between your shoulder blades. This is because Mexico uses "Ley de Fuga". This is nothing new. Note the date at the link.

The lynch law of Latin American justice is the "ley de fuga" (law of flight). This is supposed to empower police to shoot fleeing prisoners, but in practice often means that a troublesome prisoner is set free, then drilled before he can scoot out of range. From León in Mexico's State of Guanajuato last week came a tale of ley de fuga perfect except in one particular.

With seven bullets in his back, Cattleman Tomas Manrique was found by passers-by and bundled off to a hospital. There he explained that after having been falsely arrested for stealing 50 head of cattle, he was set free in a deserted spot. Before Tomas Manrique had taken three steps toward liberty, a rattling volley cracked. He expected to make ley de juga history by recovering.

This comes at a bad time for "Loco Joe". From Think Progress:

The United States has hit net zero on illegal immigration, as fewer people are trying to cross the border illegally. In fact, a recent report found that more Mexicans appear to be leaving the United States for Mexico than are leaving Mexico for the U.S.A for the first time since the Great Depression.

Arpaio made his bones on being hard on undocumented immigrants. Less of them means his power is waning and he might have to use his deputies for arresting people for, you know, real crimes which won't get him near enough publicity.

Better to keep the populace in fear of The Little Brown Other by arming his deputies to the teeth to protect themselves from the backs of running Mexicans. I hope the deputies are smart enough to realize that an autopsy report that shows CoD to be multiple bullet holes in the back of an otherwise innocent person will be cause for Arpaio to throw them under the bus for their bad judgment, never his.

Someone's inevitably going to die because of this. Sorry 'bout that, chief, but I hope it unseats Arpaio so it will not have been in vain.

Please proceed, Governor*

*Obama's way of saying "Yer about to trip over yer own dick, dipshit. Far be it from me to stop you!" at their 3rd debate.

Even in Defeat, Romney's Gift of Gaffe Keeps on Giving

Willard's big mouth cost the Repugs the election and he appears to be working on losing them the next one. I hope he keeps it up.

Travel Destination

Quick! Call your travel agent before this joint gets too booked up!

No crap: 'Restroom Cultural Park' opens in S. Korea

The Boxer

Very pretty version.

Thanks to desiderii, Germany.

Do Re Mi Redux ¡O Si!

To everybody with a brain who flees the newly seceded Deluded States Of Dumbfuckistan who might head our way - Bienvenidos, amigos, and take the hint about what you're headed into from this highly unusual version of Woody Guthrie's cautionary song to refugees from the Dust Bowl by SoCal homeboy Ry Cooder. A song whose time has come again, perhaps.

Ry Cooder and the Chicken Skin Band play 'Do Re Mi' (written by Woody Guthrie) live at Shepherd's Bush Television Theatre, London in 1977.

Band Lineup: Guitar, Vocals - Ry Cooder, Alto Saxophone - Pat Rizzo, Drums - Isaac Garcia, Bass - Henry 'Big Red' Ojeda, Bajo Sexto - Jesse Poncé, Accordion - Flaco Jimenez, Vocals - Eldridge King, Terry Evans, Bobby King

Thanks to Honeyboy Walter, UK.

Hell On The Highway

Edgar Allen “Tow” Stratton chains up his ‘03 379 Peterbilt during a March 28 snow event while Jonathan Berman catches every move. Stratton's company Dependable Tow will be featured in National Geographic's documentary “Hell on the Highway,” airing Wednesday nights.

I just threw the photo in because I've known Edgar for 30 years.

"Hell On The Highway" is the somewhat overblown title of a new TV show on NatGeo TV on Wednesday nights. Story in our local fishwrapper, the Sierra Sun from yesterday.

TRUCKEE, Calif. — Winter rages across Donner Summit, 100 mph wind gusts blow Pacific storms of blinding snow that ravage the 7,240-foot pass on Interstate 80 above Donner Lake. The brutal storm systems dump an average snow accumulation of 415 inches yearly — the 2010-11 winter a massive 700-plus inches, with 250 inches still piled high on May 23, 2011.

Who better to capture the trials and triumphs of keeping the pass open for travel and commerce than National Geographic, airing the 10-part documentary “Hell on the Highway” Wednesdays at 10 p.m.?

“We are telling the story of the men and women in tow trucks, Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol who fight the snow every winter to keep Donner Pass and I-80 open,” said Conal O'Herlihy, line producer with America's Star Media, an outfit that creates award-winning documentaries, such as “Deadliest Warrior.”

“An element to the story is how vital I-80 is, not just to California, but to the nation. WalMart sends 250 trucks over the pass each day,” O'Herlihy added.

Swell. Not to mention the rest of the nation's commerce, the Chinese gambling tour buses, anybody and everybody who has business or pleasure east of Northern California, most of whom can't drive a lick on snowy roads. That includes a lot of truckers. One big rig on its side up there can stop the whole fucking nation! Heh.

Caltrans Superintendent Bryan Carlson, who worked in South Lake Tahoe for 29 years and now manages the Kingvale station, gave the camera crews a taste of local snow removal life. “I put them in the seats with operators — snow blowers, graders, sanders — to give them an overview of what we do,” said Carlson. He joked about the public perception that Caltrans doesn't “do anything.” If you got a look at the substation, you would be impressed with what goes on October through May. A 90-room dorm accommodates a 24/7 staff, with kitchens for crews pulling 12-hour shifts and a staggering 200-plus employee payroll. It's a nerve center of operations evaluating and staying ahead of winter storms.

Episode descriptions here. Check your local listings.

We live here and have better sense than to go over Donner Summit under bad storm conditions, so this is an interesting show for us.

By the way, there's a difference between Donner Summit and Donner Pass. Donner Summit is a geographical area of several square miles. I-80 passes through it. Donner Pass is just that, a pass through the mountains. It lies along old U.S. 40 and also passes through Donner Summit. The terms are often used interchangeably. You can get stuck in the snow there whatever you call it.

Cpl. Aaron Mankin: "Our Story"

I was a Marine Corporal too, but this young man has me outranked and outclassed by a mile. He speaks with passion and good humor. This made me mist up.

Cpl. Aaron Mankin spoke at IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala on Tuesday, November 13th in New York City. Aaron, IAVA's 2011 Veteran Leadership Honoree, is an Iraq Veteran and spokesman for UCLA's Operation Mend. Visit IAVA.org to learn more about how you can support vets like Aaron: http://iava.org

Thanks to IAVAVids.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

An old favorite.

Thanks to JasonKT.

Fantasyland

Things to do this morning. I'll be back later. In the meantime go read Daddy Frank's latest feature article. Teaser:

[...] Such is the conservative version of history that when the website Right Wing News surveyed 43 popular conservative bloggers to determine the “worst figures in American history” two years ago, Jimmy Carter, Obama, and FDR led the tally, all well ahead of Benedict Arnold, Timothy McVeigh, and John Wilkes Booth.

Headline of the Day

Liquid alert!

White House scrubs petition to ‘punch Grover Norquist in the dick’

Heh.

Quote of the Day

From a Rude post entitled "Republicans Are Some Sour Grape-Sucking Sons of Bitches" which you should go read for some more of the fun we've earned by having to listen to that twit and legions of other Repug dickheads:

We didn't just dodge a bullet by denying the presidency to this preening ass, this mock Thurston Howell, we dodged a fucking missile.

Word.

Update:

TPM

The Republican critics of Mitt Romney have had enough of their party’s failed presidential nominee.

My God, after 30+ years of disagreeing with those bastards on everything, something we agree on! Mind boggling...

Their reasons are different from ours so I doubt if we'll be giving each other wet kisses and sharing warm showers with them anytime soon.

Headline of the Day

Barbour: We’ve got to give Republicans ‘a very serious proctology exam’

Heh. With a telephone pole. Mind your head or pull it out first, GOP!

Shopping Day

See yas later.

The Confederacy of Takers

Dana Milbank brings up the best reason to let the whiny-ass Red states form the world's newest third-world nation.

President Obama’s opponents have unwittingly come up with a brilliant plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” They want to secede from the union.

If Obama were serious about being a good steward of the nation’s finances, he’d let them.
...

Red states receive, on average, far more from the federal government in expenditures than they pay in taxes. The balance is the opposite in blue states. The secession petitions, therefore, give the opportunity to create what would be, in a fiscal sense, a far more perfect union.
...

Yet would-be rebels from the red states should keep in mind during the coming budget battle that those who are most ardent about cutting government spending tend to come from parts of the country that most rely on it.

Unfortunately, we'll be here when you come crawling back, bitches.

Twilight of the old white guys

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on 21st Century America.

Is it not the most astonishing thing? The country is not getting any whiter, older white bigoted people are helpfully dying off, and we now have a messy and nearly incomprehensible Catherine wheel of assorted nonwhite minorities (and women) all spinning, dancing and surging into the limelight – not to mention the cross-breeds, the already mixed, the racially unidentifiable who are, say, a quarter black, a quarter Chinese, a quarter Indian, a third polyamorous and a tenth Cuban kinky hipster lesbian schoolteacher, with a no-religious-affiliation kicker. Sweet.

This is your new American majority, each and every one of whom terrifies the old guard, the rich white guys, Ted Nugent, Bill O’Reilly, and the way it used to be. And this is why the Republican party threw every repulsive weapon it had at Obama to try and avert the inevitable; deep down, they sensed their own imminent obsolescence, even if they didn’t quite believe it was possible.

And oh, they tried everything. Racism. Birtherism. Sexism. Abortion, birth control, “legitimate rape” and irresponsible “sluts.” Religious intolerance, homophobia, xenophobia, Socialism, Communism, Nazis, Kenya, monkeys, Big Bird, gun rights, tax laws, welfare, elitism, oil shortages, health care reform that would secretly herd up and kill the elderly. Just for starters.

Nothing worked. Check that: It all worked. Just not as well as it used to. As one distraught fundamentalist Christian activist said, “It wasn’t that our message didn’t get out. We got the message out. But our message was rejected.”

Only because your message sucks wet monkey ass and folks finally got sick and tired of it.

Read the rest of this. Good one, young Mark.

And by the way, not all of us old white men are scared of The Other. They're here, they're black and brown and queer. We're all children of whatever gods there are or aren't. Enjoy it or live in misery and rightly so. Your call.

Clowns laugh neo-Nazis outta the joint

Kos. Go see this. My take on one part of it:

Hate was on the agenda the day the Neo-Nazis came to town. They came to Charlotte, NC from Detroit & joined with the National Socialist Movement to drum up support for the creation of an alternative third party based on its platform of white supremacy.

I think that's a great idea! When they have their convention we can get 'em all with one round.

They've Lost Their Fucking Minds Again (Limbaugh Edition)

The Rude One. Will no one put this wounded walrus out of its misery? That would help my happiness quotient too.

Think of radio host Rush Limbaugh at this point as an old, wounded walrus, lying half on the rocks of an Alaskan island, half in the water, bellowing sadly into the Arctic night, waiting to be finished off by either a polar bear or a killer whale, its blubber being enough to keep other beasts warm for the entire approaching winter
...

"When Democrats lose elections, do they ever say, 'You know what? We may have to give up this gay marriage position of ours and sort of abandon that. We may need to stand up for traditional marriage.' Do the Democrats ever say that when they lose elections? No. After the Democrats lose elections, do they ever say, 'You know, I think we've got to abandon this effort to shut down Second Amendment. We're gonna have to understand it. We're really out of touch. We're alienating our voters who love guns. We're gonna have to become big advocates of the Second Amendment'? Do Democrats ever say that when they lose elections? Do the Democrats, after they lose elections, all run to the media and start agonizing over where they're going wrong?"

Limbaugh went on like that yesterday, asking if Democrats ever think they need to cut taxes when they lose, or if Democrats ever think about toning down their "rhetoric," or, horror of horrors, "Do Democrats, when they are losing elections, ever blame their media?"
...

This is going to be one strain of Republican reaction: don't abandon the program - it is good and right - just sell it better. That's like saying that you didn't get syphilis because you like to bang whores without a condom, but because you chose the wrong whorehouse. Oh, hey, let's try fucking across the street and see how that works out. Not only does it not occur to you to use protection, but you can't see that perhaps you shouldn't be banging whores at all.

Here is the message you need again and again: it is what you believe. And it is how you relate to the world. Democrats went right in the 1980s and 1990s. Republicans went further right to differentiate themselves, so far that they went out the door.

And now a few conservatives are saying, "Perhaps we've gone too far." And a fat, decrepit bastard whose ability to pay alimony depends on whipping up more and more hatred is demanding that the reflection end before it begins.

Enjoy the war, GOP. You've earned it.

Fuckin' A they have. I don't know if they're going to enjoy it, but I sure as shit will.

No comment...

...other than snicker, snort, and chuckle. Heh. With video.

Raw Story

Oh, the irony...

Better late than never. Ironic Times.

Some in Congress Not Worried About Fiscal Cliff
Jan. 1, 2013 “eleven days after Mayan apocalypse,” says one.

Washington, Colorado Legalize Marijuana
Sara Lee stock soars, Coors calls it quits.

Post Mortem: Republicans Blame Loss on Vicious Name-Calling, Demonizing
“I can't believe Americans chose a foreign-born Muslim with a Communist agenda over a real American who tells the truth,” says one.

Romney Victory Website Accidentally Goes Online After Election
Some supporters book flights to attend inaugural.

Heh. They're gonna wonder who the colored kid in the warm-up act is.

This is so much fun to watch!

Right wingers careen into craziness to explain Obama's victory

President Obama’s reelection has caused right-wingers to become completely unhinged. They are purple-faced and apoplectic, convinced that an ignorant horde of government-dependent social leeches has destroyed traditional America and banished God from the country.

Not a huge step. Their hinges were kinda squeaky and loose to begin with. Heh.

All the usual suspects. Enjoy yourself. Go read.

This is a necessary self-deception. Otherwise, conservative crazies would have to face an inconvenient truth: On election day, a majority of real Americans rejected them.

The crux of the biscuit. I hope they choke on their fuckin' snake oil.

Headline of the Day

Texas Republican Wants State To Leave U.S. Over Obama Win

¡Adios, pendejos! Don't hitcherself in the culo with the puerta on the way out.

Fat fuckin' chance. More wackadoodle sour grapes. Heh.

The Blame Game

I suppose I'll get over it but right now I'm purely enjoying the shit outta all this! Remember, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.

Thanks to YubaNet.

They haven't quite figured out yet that they lost because:

A) Their whole fucking message sucked wet monkey ass and not enough voters over the Dead End Quarter, who'll fall for anything that satisfies their prejudices, were stupid enough to fall for it .

B) An extremely poor candidate. Better than the rest of their primary lops, who were enough to keep a few Repugs out who could have won.

C) Demographic arrogance. Grumpy old white men ain't enough anymore.

I doubt if they'll figure it out. They're not very good at looking in the mirror. Too much reality in reflection. I kinda hope they double down until none of them are left.

Rove's Last Ride

From my Facebook page via Teabonics.

From "comments":

"It's not the frog march I was hoping for, but it'll do."

Yes, yes it will. Heh.

The "inside baseball" war is getting underway. Excellent! From Politico:

Richard Viguerie, a pioneering direct-mail consultant, called for Republicans to purge from their ranks Rove and Ed Gillespie — who helped found Crossroads and later moved over to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign — as well as Romney advisers Stuart Stevens and Neil Newhouse. “In any logical universe,” he argued, “no one would give a dime to their ineffective super PACs, such as American Crossroads.”

I love the smell of sour grapes in the morning!

Is the conservative media killing conservatives?

Hopefully. Salon. Barf alert!

Liberals like me have spent a lot of time in recent years mocking conservatives for the silliness of their media, wherein Steve Doocy is a star, Sean Hannity is an insightful analyst, and Rush Limbaugh is a brave crusader for truth. Beyond the jokes, we’ve talked a lot about the pathologies produced by the self-reinforcing worldviews propagated in the conservative media ether. One of the key features of those media, and what differentiates them from partisan left media, is the way they talk about the rest of the media. Liberals may like to watch MSNBC, but if you watch MSNBC you won’t be reminded ten times an hour that everything you see in your newspaper or on another television station is a vicious lie concocted by conservatives to deceive you as part of their plan to destroy the country you love.

But that is what you’ll get if you watch Fox, listen to Rush Limbaugh, or consume many other kinds of conservative media. It’s not just a diet of information congenial to your beliefs; it’s also a message of distrust of any other source of information that isn’t explicitly conservative. Which is why it’s not in the least bit surprising that many conservatives were so shocked by the results of Tuesday’s election; if you’re soaking in that rhetoric, the idea that a majority of American voters could voluntarily choose to give Barack Obama—the socialist, the foreigner, the apologist, the black nationalist—another term in office makes no sense whatsoever. It cannot be.

Yeah, oh the horror! Heh. Suck it, bitchez.

[...] But perhaps it’s time to look at the conservative media as a weakness, even the right’s Achilles’ Heel.
...

The next four years will be boom times for conservative media; it’s always good for business when your enemies are in power. They will continue to infuriate liberals. But the next time you see Fox propagating some absurd fantasy of Barack Obama’s perfidy, or see Limbaugh and Carlson ramping up another episode of race-baiting, remind yourself that they’re probably doing the most harm to their own side.

And that, folks, is a good thing.

The Weight

I saw this on ACL last night. It was a tribute to Levon Helm. Terrific. Article here.

Saving the best for last, the episode ends with an emotional “supergroup” performance of “The Weight.” The song may be familiar, but the lineup is pretty rare, featuring Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar, Larry Campbell on acoustic, Booker T. on keys, and a handful of powerhouse singers — including Emmylou Harris, Amy Helm, Brittany Howard, Teresa Williams, and the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard — on vocals. It’s a moving tribute to the late Levon Helm, and you can watch it here, two days before it hits TV.

Well, not here you can't. Heh.

"America Wins!"

This is the best plainly spoken explanation of the election that I've seen yet. Progressives/liberals/Democrats will enjoy it. Conservatives/teabaggers/Republicans will not, but I highly recommend that they hold a gun to their own heads and force themselves to watch it.

Thanks to oldfartrants.

"For Honor, For Country"

The Commandant and SgtMaj of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos and Sgt. Maj. Micheal P. Barrett, present the 2012 Marine Corps Birthday Message celebrating the 237th Anniversary of the USMC. Footage includes historical b-roll and images from Guadalcanal as well as interviews with WWII veterans, subject matter experts, active duty Marines and Marine spouses. Happy Birthday Marines! Semper Fi. The Marine Corps Birthday is November 10, 1775.

This video is from the Department of Defense and as such is in the public domain. Any copying, editing or reproduction is authorized and encouraged.

Notable quote: "We have the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor tattooed on our soul."

Yes, yes we do.

This is nice high-sounding stuff, but mostly we just like to kick ass.

Happy Birthday, Mom!


Update:

Here's the bullshit we really want you to believe. Heh. From some Marine-related Facebook page or other:

“Ten November 1775. I was born in a bomb crater. My mother was an M16 and my father was the devil. Each moment that I live is an additional threat upon your life. I eat concertina, piss napalm and I can shoot a round through a flea’s ass at three hundred meters. I travel the globe festering on anti-Americans everywhere I go for the love of mom, Chevrolet, baseball, and apple pie. I’m a grunt. I’m the dirty, nasty, stinky, sweaty, filthy, beautiful little son of a bitch that’s kept the wolf away from the door for over two-hundred and twenty-five years. I’m a United States Marine. We look like soldiers, talk like sailors, slap the shit out of both of ‘em. We stole the Eagle from the Air Force, the Rope from the Army, and the Anchor from the Navy. Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice, Marine by God. Semper Fidelis.”
-Anonymous Marine

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

This is a really good video! Thanks, Laurie!

Promo video for Emmylou's recording of this Lucinda Williams song for her Cowgirls Prayer CD Marc Savoy on accordian

Emmylou Harris ~ Crescent City

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Republicans are ripping Rush a new one

Kos, with video.

Republicans are kicking Rush Limbaugh in his privates over racial insensitivity, apocalyptic pronouncements, and feeding the right wing mis-information bubble.
...

A few weeks ago, Limbaugh mentioned "the Daily Kos, that bedwetting bunch of website Democrat base people." Yesterday no less than the senior editor of The American Conservative accused Limbaugh of pants-wetting:

"I went to bed last night thinking we've lost the country," said Limbaugh, on the day after [the election]. "I don't know how else you look at this."

So a plain-vanilla Republican like Mitt Romney losing a close election to Barack Obama amounts to the Conservative Apocalypse? Good grief. Where does this pants-wetting hysteria end?

—Rod Dreher, Senior editor, The American Conservative

I think Rushbo's bladder would burst before he had enough piss to put out his pants on fire. That'd be OK. I guess the Repugs are pissin' on him to help.

Makes ya wonder how come the Repugs are coming down on their intellectual leader all of a sudden. Did something bad happen to them recently that he mighta had something to do with?

Or are they just mad that there weren't enough Shittoheads to win the election?

Me? I just wanta see Rushbo's heart explode right out of his chest while he's on air.

Karl Rove's Former Leather Slave Comments on His Ex-Master

You know who.

He leaned in. "I masturbated while Karl was losing his mind over Ohio," he said and then smiled. "I saw him on fire there, burning, burning, writhing and yelping, rolling on the ground, until he collapsed into ashes, and I just jacked it. It felt so good." He paused and got wistful, staring into the amber liquor. "You don't wanna know what he would have done to me Tuesday if he still had me. I don't know if I could have survived it. The razors..."

"You don't--"

"It's okay." He slugged back what was left and ordered another. We drank on, the Rude Pundit and the thin man, shooting whiskey and sharing glee over Rove's desperate attempts to justify his existence and his failures, over his absurd, pathetic spin that Obama "suppressed the vote" by saying mean things about Romney and his supporters, coming up with ways that Rove would have to pay back the hundreds of millions of donated dollars - the phrase "Sheldon Adelson's dick lamprey" was used by one of us, and laughing at how degraded Rove must have felt over being called out by Megyn Kelly on the air, repeatedly. "And Bill Hemmer!" the thin man said. "That guy's so dumb, you could put a dunce cap on him and he'd thank you for making his head bigger."

I've been angry with Turdblossom kinda constantly over the years. I've had visions of yanking his skull out through his asshole. Or pulling the lever that dropped him on a long fall on a short rope to his fiery reward.

This is the first time I've gotten to laugh at him and it feels GOOD.

I'm not complacent. Unless his donors sue him until he's living under a bridge like the putrescent troll he is, he'll be back.

Toke and Change

Enjoy. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em...

Former Washington, Colorado cops explain: What’s really going to change now that marijuana is legal? (via Raw Story )

Following wins for marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado on Tuesday night, a former Seattle police chief and a former Denver police officer sat down with Raw Story to discuss what the laws will actually do and how they think things will change. “Today is a great day for America!” exclaimed…

Man Behind Anti-Islam Video Gets Prison Term

NYT

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the man behind “Innocence of Muslims,” the anti-Islam YouTube video that ignited bloody protests in the Muslim world, to one year in prison for violating parole.
...

In accordance with the sentencing request by Robert Dugdale, the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted the case, Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled that Mr. Nakoula would serve one year in prison followed by four years of probation. She rejected a request for home confinement in lieu of prison from Mr. Nakoula’s lawyer, Steve Seiden, telling Mr. Nakoula that he had already “struck a deal far more favorable than he might have otherwise suffered.”
...

“His deception actually caused real harm to people,” he said.
...

Mr. Nakoula was arrested in September and was ordered held without bail. Out of concern for his safety, he has been kept in protective custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center here. A string of Muslim religious leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan have offered bounties for the killing of the film’s maker.

I sincerely hope he enjoys some reflective moments of prayer with some rather large Muslim gentlemen over the next year.

Headline of the Day

Fox News Audience Abandons Ship After Obama Wins

The sharp drop-off in viewership that occurred only on Fox reveals the sensitivity that the Fox viewer has to actual, truthful information.

Yes, when FauxNews couldn't get out of it and finally had to tell the truth its viewers didn't want to hear, they scurried down the anchor chain and swam for it.

"All you have to do to stay on that gravy train is vote"

El Rude-o on the blame game from wingnut gasbags accusing us of reelecting Obama because we want "things". Yeah, "things" like the right to vote.

Scared, scared white men all, blaming those demographically-different (or, you know, black and Hispanic) people who want stuff, the half of America that pours gravy from the train, gravy like Medicare and the GI Bill and Pell Grants, acting as if the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren't the indulgent luxuries of a fading empire that chose frivolity and fantasy over the mundane work of actually taking care of the country and its citizens. But that would require self-reflection, and it's always easier just to blame the spics for stealing your hubcaps rather than realizing they're gone because you hit the curb a while ago because you're a shitty driver.

We kept the keys from them for another four years.

Bwahahahaha!

Credit Cards Linked to the Romney Campaign Canceled Immediately Following Concession Speech

Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.

All those $million$ and a cheapskate too! Priceless!

"A fool and his money are soon parted"

Well, my theme yesterday was "America Won!". Today it seems to be about recrimination and backlash on the right, top and bottom alike, which is every bit as cheerful!

Romney Donors Complain They Were Ripped Off And Lied To

Shorter: Waaaaaaaaaaah!

No, you're co-conspirators in the fraud that was attempted to be pulled on the American people. A campaign about nothing and with no values, true positions or consistency.
...

In the end, these tools are still about money and themselves. Are they upset at their lost chance to serve the nation? To make history? To achieve great things? To serve their citizens for a higher purpose? To do good and serve benevolently? No, they're pissed they lost some cash. Pathetic.
...

You know what guys? You hang out with trash long enough, pretty soon you start smelling like it. The Romney crew was trash. They didn't care about anything other than power. They're not in it to tell truth to power. To serve the people. They're there to tilt things back to the folks they approve of and themselves. Period. Fuck them. Fuck their whole ilk. I hope the whole lot of them is declaring bankruptcy in a year. They suck. They are despicable. They deserved to lose even worse than they did and they have zero respect for America, democracy, honesty, higher callings and most of the American people.

That last paragraph summed up eight+ years of the Brain.

Headline of the Day

For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear

There, there, babies. Everything will be OK, righties. Stay under the porch. We'll protect you from everything except your own imaginations. I believe Obamacare covers those.

Go read this. These people are fucking nuts.

The Real Real America

Paul Krugman

So, for a while there during the campaign it seemed very iffy. But in the end, discipline and being on the right side of the issues prevailed. Yes, Elizabeth Warren won!

Oh, and that guy Obama too.

Tomorrow — or I guess today — comes the cleanup; when thousands, perhaps millions, of right-wing heads explode, it makes quite a mess.

Gimme a squeegee...

For a long time, right-wingers — and some pundits — have peddled the notion that the “real America”, all that really counted, was the land of non-urban white people, to which both parties must abase themselves. Meanwhile, the actual electorate was getting racially and ethnically diverse, and increasingly tolerant too. The 2008 Obama coalition wasn’t a fluke; it was the country we are becoming.

And sure enough that more diverse and, if you ask me, better nation just won big.

Word.

Kick Rocks, Turdblossom

Good read by Plaid Adder.

Mr. Rove, I have been keeping your political eulogy on ice for years now, waiting for the moment when I coudl finally and definitively say: you are done. And glory hallelujiah, the moment has arrived.
...

"He used his own data." That tells the sad, enraging, corrupt and gut-wrenching story of 2004 in a nutshell. It's painful looking back on that.

But you know what? I LOVE knowing that in 2012, he sat there on FOX News and tried to pull the same stunt...and nobody listened to him. Not even the delusional bastards at FOX News. Instead, they basically laughed at him...or thought, as one of their newscasters said as they cut back to McCormick Place, "AWKWARD!"

I guess Rove never made it back into the reality-based community after 2004. He was evidently unable to accept the idea that citing his secret Ohio data would not be enough to swing this one. And do you know why, Karl? Because after eight years of Bush and four years of Obama there were just not enough people left in America who were dumb enough to sign up for four years of Romney. No, not even in Ohio. No, not even after voter suppression and whatever other shenanigans your pals organized out there. ...

Because, after four years of a president who has something to offer besides humiliation, greed, and contempt, Karl, the American people no longer love the way you lie.

Because the number of bigoted white men willing to believe any bullshit as long as it makes them feel like they're king of the world is no longer a large enough percentage of the population to swing an election. Or even to swing Ohio.

I'd still like to have five minutes alone with that roly-poly piece o' shit sonofabitch before the billionaires have him killed. I hope he's found in a shallow grave with his arm sticking straight up with a fanned-out deck of cards in his hand. Now there's a cheery thought.

Steel Cage Death Match On Bullshit Mountain*!

Tom Friedman. Yes, that Tom Friedman.

The G.O.P. has lost two presidential elections in a row because it forced its candidate to run so far to the loony right to get through the primaries, dominated by its ultraconservative base, that he could not get close enough back to the center to carry the national election. It is not enough for Republicans to tell their Democratic colleagues in private — as some do — “I wish I could help you, but our base is crazy.” They need to have their own reformation. The center-right has got to have it out with the far-right, or it is going to be a minority party for a long time.

A long time would be fine. I was gonna say "leave the Speedos at home, boys" but that would be even worse...

*Reference here.

Headline of the Day

Koch Brothers Invoice Romney 500 Million For ‘Services Not Rendered’

Bwahahahaha!

Note to Willard: Don't worry about Adelson. Just put a little on his commissary account at Marion every month. :-)

A Thrashing

Michael Tomasky

This was a thrashing. I don’t yet know the full electoral college total, but it’s looking like at least a 100-vote margin. That’s a thrashing. Over at 11:13? And the truth is, it wasn’t even that dramatic. It was over around 9:00. The next two hours were just waiting around for it to be official.
...

Was it the ground game? Was it the 47 percent? Was it Sandy? Was it Chris Christie? It was a little bit of all those things. But mostly it was two big things, and this election was about big things.

The first big thing is that a very clear majority of Americans saw the truth about the past four years. Exit polls showed that voters still blamed the economic problems on George Bush’s administration. They thought Obama tried hard and did a pretty good job (no, he hasn’t done a great job yet), and they notice the change and improvement recently. I didn’t write all these things down, but in state after state exit poll as they went through them on CNN, more people thought—finally!—that the economy was headed in the right direction.

The people know who created the problem, and they know who’s fixing it. That’s number one.

And number two? The second big thing here is that the Republican Party is just too far to the right. Not just to win a national election. It’s too far to the right even to compete really seriously in one. The thing some Republicans are saying now is absolutely true: They should have been able to win this year. No incumbent president has ever been reelected with this kind of unemployment rate, and there’s no good reason it should have happened now. They could have won.

But it’s a fringe party that has become too extreme to win the White House. I’d imagine they’re going to blame Romney. I don’t like Mitt Romney. I’m indescribably relieved that after tonight, I never have to hear that man’s wretched voice again (my em). He ran the lyingest campaign in modern history—just outright and blatant lies. [...]
...

[...] But tonight, America told the guy who’s been trying that they appreciate it. And they told the crazy party: you’re crazy.

The crazy people are always the last to know they're crazy, and then they'll deny it and still say everybody is crazy but them and double down on it. We'll be living with batcrap crazy for a long time yet.

Obama's Anger Translator - Victory

Liquid alert!

Thanks to comedycentral.

A Few Brief Notes to Republicans on the Day After Their Defeat by Barack Obama

What would a post-victory day be without a weigh-in from The Rude One? Incomplete, that's what. He does not disappoint.

In four of the last five presidential elections, you lost the popular vote (we won't get into the fact that you really lost four of the last five elections completely). Is that telling you something? No, it's not. Because you're Republicans. And you don't care what reality is. You prefer to attempt to bend reality like a contortionist porn actor trying and failing to lick his own taint from behind.

Holy crap. I thought it impossible, but Rude just outdid himself in the unlikely and possibly physically impossible sexual positions department. I will savor the visual until the bleach tanker arrives...

You lost. It wasn't close. It wasn't a squeaker. It wasn't a nailbiter. All of your internal magical mathematicians were wrong. It was over the second the polls closed on the West Coast because it was over before the election even started. It was over because you nominated a fraud, a Tin Man who spent the entire campaign looking for a heart not because he really wanted one but because his advisors told him that he needed one. It was over because whatever else he tried to be, Mitt Romney was as close to a caricature of a rich dick as you could get without looking like he was merely plagiarizing The Simpsons or Dickens. It was over because, despite every effort to smear and lie about the President, Americans saw that Barack Obama was not your crude Bolshevik monster, but a cool, rational man who kept trying to get things done despite monumental opposition, despite monumental debt, despite a monumental storm. You won't see these things, though, because you're Republicans, and self-reflection is to you what a hot needle is to a cyst on your ass.

He ends his post on a darker and realistic note. Go see for yourself.

"Karl Rove’s head just exploded"

Bwahahahaha! Ah, sweet schadenfreude...

Watch this!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Via Raw Story.

The Great Obamagasm of 2012

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford creamin' his jeans. Heh.

This just in: The pro-choice, pro-women, pro-environment, pro gay-marriage, pro-education, pro-health care-reform black guy who seems to genuinely care about the state of the world and helping as many people as possible even though he’s imperfect and can’t get it right every time, he beat out the hollow, wildly dishonest, anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-everything rich guy no one really liked and everyone knew would slam us back a couple generations and a Mormon half.

And lo, it is a good day indeed.

Much more. Enjoy.

4 More Years

America won tonight.

The fun will begin tomorrow when the Repugs go to war with themselves over who is to blame. It will be fun to watch so lay in extra popcorn. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, not to mention whining, moaning, snivelling, bitching, kvetching, complaining, and much fingerpainting, oops, sorry, fingerPOINTING (although there may be some of the other as well). Note to the GOP: look inward, my brothers. I know exactly why they lost and I'm interested to see if they can figure it out by their next chance in 2024. 

We the People, and the New American Civil War

A 'recommended read' by Robert Reich.

In other words, white working-class men have been on the losing end of a huge demographic and economic shift. That’s made them a tinder-box of frustration and anger – eagerly ignited by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other pedlars of petulance, including an increasing number of Republicans who have gained political power by fanning the flames.

That hate-mongering and attendant scapegoating – of immigrants, blacks, gays, women seeking abortions, our government itself – has legitimized some vitriol and scapegoating on the left as well. I detest what the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Rupert Murdoch, and Paul Ryan are doing, and I hate their politics. But in this heated environment I sometimes have to remind myself I don’t hate them personally.

Bobby's very smart, but he's too nice. I hate everybody he mentioned and it's personal.

The Republicans' last hurrah

USA Today

The Republican Party's last hurrah is fast approaching. The GOP's coming demise may not be obvious from the outcome of this election, but I think it's all but certain.

I'm not talking about the Republican Party that was created in the 1850s by opponents of slavery. That GOP drew its last breath a long time ago. It was trampled to death by the herds of anti-civil rights Democrats,social conservatives and money-grubbers that started swelling the Republican Party's ranks in the 1960s.

Since then, the core of the Grand Old Party has consisted mainly of the rearguard of those who oppose the social and cultural changes the civil rights movement ushered in, and a small band of greedy plutocrats who seek to profit from such intolerance. In recent years, this eclectic group of Republicans has been joined by the Tea Partiers, a collection of small-government, anti-tax, no-compromising political activists. The common strand that laces through all these groups is race: Their membership is nearly all white.

It is this lack of diversity that is plunging the party toward extinction. [...]

Faster! Faster!

Sure, Republicans have had a lot of success racking up election victories with little help from black and Hispanic voters, but that's not going to continue very far into the future.

Like a dying sun, the GOP's impending doom is masked by a final burst of energy that might keep it competitive through a couple more election cycles. But as the nation's demographics change, the Republican Party is destined for the political scrap heap in the not-too-distant future.

Best news I've had all day.

We need more than one party - three would be good - but the current Repugs ain't one of them.

Voting: A Love Story

El Rude-o

He had had some doubt that his polling place would even be available since there are still areas here in Sandyland that are without power. But it was up and running on a generator, with no heat. And everyone, from the black guy who told the Rude Pundit where his district's table was to the Hispanic woman who found his name in the Big Book o' Registered Voters to the elderly Indian dude who monitored the booth to make sure the vote went through, was kind and friendly; they were even patient with others who did not show up in the Big Book. It went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone, an idealized version of what participation in democracy should be, not the ludicrous, racist, oppressive, and childish version of things in states that went for Barack Obama that are run by Republicans. The Rude Pundit lives and votes in a working class neighborhood that is overwhelmingly non-white, and there are no problems at all because no officials from the state or county are causing them.

More.

In the End, Vote for Obama Because Fuck Romney

Today's 'must read' from The Rude Pundit. In toto Below The Fold.

Finally, at the end of four brutal years of the 2012 presidential campaign, the Rude Pundit is exhausted. He's exhausted and disgusted, and there's so many factors as to why, some of them Sandy-related bullshit, some of them political bullshit, that he'll just bring it down to one: that we as a nation put ourselves through a four year-long campaign because, truly, once Jeb Bush and Chris Christie decided they weren't going to run for president, the election was over. Why did they take the 2016 off ramp? Because they knew the inevitable outcome and they didn't want to dim whatever gleams they have reflecting off them. They knew, as the Rude Pundit knew (demonstrably), that Barack Obama was going to win reelection. If they thought he could lose, they would have run. So the smart narcissists got out of the game, leaving only the dumb narcissists.

And the dumbest, richest narcissist of them all bought the nomination for himself because that's the only fucking way such an illegitimate, empty vessel of a religious fanatic, this charlatan, this con man could have gotten this far in our nonsensical system of choosing a leader.
...

Romney needs to have election results shoved up his ass and down his throat because he has approached the presidency as something that is his by some kind of rich white man's birth right.
...

No, Barack Obama ain't poor and he ain't perfect. And this blog has pissed off more than a few readers by pointing that out, especially on civil liberties, and even more especially on drone attacks. He could have been even more aggressive with those who opposed him. He could have developed a way to communicate what the health care reform law does, what the stimulus has done, and more. We could list a shitload of his accomplishments, and that would be enough.

But it's also enough to say this: Fuck Mitt Romney. Fuck him and everything he represents. Vote to make him pay in a way he never has had to in his entire awful life.

(Note to fellow liberals: If you don't wanna vote for Obama or want to vote for Jill Stein, well, it's your vote, motherfuckers. Do with it what you will. Some people spend all their money on meth. It might fuck up their lives permanently, but they sure feel good while they're doing it.)

Headline of the Day

Liquid alert!

Texas marching band features Big Bird decking Romney as Obama does backflips

In TEXASS?!

With video!

Question of the Day

Why Was Uncertified 'Experimental' Software Installed on ES&S Tabulation Systems in 39 OH Counties Just Days Before Presidential Election?

We know why.

The Republicans’ Closing Argument

Borowitz

In its entirety, the argument read as follows: “We’re strongly opposed to FEMA and health care, but basically O.K. with rape.”
...

Mr. Priebus also had this message for the American voter: “Your vote is important. We’ve spent billions trying to buy it.”

Not included was his statement, "We tried to be nice and buy it, but if that doesn't work we'll steal it."

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

CANDIDATES MAKE LAST PUSH IN FINAL DAYS OF CAMPAIGN
Obama urges his supporters to get out and vote; Romney urges his supporters to get out and stop them.

In Pitch for Bipartisanship, Romney Pledges Regular Meetings with Democrats
Once a year, in the servants' quarters.

At Christmastime, to get their bonus lump of coal.

Fact-Checkers Chastise Both Sides in Final Days
Romney claim Chrysler, GM sending jobs to China deemed false; Obama claim oldest daughter now 5' 9" deemed off by 1/4".

That's called "equivalence".

More Than Two-Thirds of Republican Voters Believe in Demonic Possession
Explains why they vote against their own best interest.

That esplains a lot...

"You can't hide your lyin' eyes"

This one goes out to W. Mittens Rmoney.

Thanks to mrtamberineman123, UK.

SNL

In case you missed it. This is funnier'n shit!

A Message from The Greatest Generation

This one's a twofer - Liquid Alert! AND NSFW!

Thanks to karinmoveon.

The oldsters' point is well taken - Obama has to win by enough votes the Repugs can't possibly steal the election without being so blatant someone's liable to notice, and they are trying to by every crook, hook, lie, shenanigan, and crime they can think up. Just like 2008, only way worse. I always kinda wondered how many votes Obama really got.

More shit than light

Yeah, Repugs spend a lot of time staring up the GOP's asshole. They should know that ain't milk and honey coming out but they love it anyway.

Thanks to YubaNet.

Message for white voters

Just ... heh.

Thanks to JimmyKimmelLive.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Excellent live version of my favorite Townes Van Zandt tune from 1992.

Thanks to perthamboycafe.

Light blogging today

Busy, busy. Places to go, people to do. See yas.

This is a new "embed whole story" feature from Raw Story. Might be a little unwieldy but I thought I'd try it.

Re:"...it does calculate the estimated aggregated effects on marijuana smuggled in from Mexico, finding that American weed would become cheaper and more available than ever before."

Now yer talkin'!

No word on the effect on the Canadian cartels, but I suspect they will deliver the BC Bud as politely as before. :-)

Study says voters in three states could approve billion-dollar ‘shock’ to Mexican cartels (via Raw Story )

If Washington, Colorado or Oregon legalize marijuana in next week’s statewide elections, the result won’t just be felt in those states: according to a study published this week, American voters appear set to back a massive “structural shock” to the Mexican drug cartels that could sap literally…

FEMA Inc.

Update:

Paul Krugman: Mitt Romney's Proposal To Privatize FEMA Is 'Pathological'

Word.

“Yeah, I guess he found that fucking light switch, huh?”

In case you missed it. The young lady doing the signing for Bloomberg is fabulous and the breakout star of Sandy IMNSHO. Notice she remains 'silent' while Bloomy butchers the Español. Heh.

Via TPM.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

DON'T EAT THE CANDY!

L.A. Times

That would be the lesser of the ill effects of a Romney win, though. Much worse is that the right wing’s broader onslaught of derision and lies against the president that began even before he took office would have achieved its goal. Barack Obama may, or may not, deserve reelection. But no man with as much decency as Obama exhibits in both his private and public life deserves the contempt that has been dumped on him by arch-conservative ideologues, talk show ranters and Internet goons.

From Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Donald Trump to all the anonymous creators of the wild fabrications that churn out of websites and go viral in emails, the relentless vilification of Obama has been unprecedented. Sure, every president suffers unfair criticism. Many of our most effective presidents, from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, have been slandered and hounded by critics. But Obama’s detractors have plumbed new and revolting depths of mendacity.

The right wing’s eagerness to engage in deceit has distorted credible conservatism and corrupted political discourse. It has turned the Grand Old Party into a rigid and narrow ideological club that tries to purge any Republican who displays even a hint of moderation or willingness to compromise.

The ever-waffling Romney is not their perfect candidate, but, for now, that does not matter. He offers their one and only chance to drive the usurper, Obama, from the White House. That has been the right wing’s objective every minute of every day for four years, and vindication of their dishonest, un-American crusade would be the worst result of Mitt Romney’s election.

Maybe.

A Filthy End to the Filthy Campaign of a Filthy Liar

Rude, you should try to come outta yer shell and say what you really mean.

This election has lasted roughly four years, from the moment it became clear that Barack Obama was going to use John McCain as a dildo to roughly fuck Sarah Palin and take the presidency for the briefly empowered forces of sanity.

That deserves repeating: the briefly empowered forces of sanity.

The Rude Pundit winces, in a Pavlovian way, whenever he sees news about Mitt Romney's fake concern for storm sufferers. He twitches at the commentators wondering when Obama will head back onto the trail. We have no time for it anymore. We have no time to entertain whether or not the Republican charlatan's long con will work. We have no patience for a press that's unwilling to call a lie a "lie" unless it's done in quotation marks or with fact-checkers' long-nosed Pinocchios with their pants on fire.

On some level, it seems as if the campaign of Mitt Romney is a mad sociologist's experiment in seeing how many lies people are willing to either believe or let pass and still vote for a candidate.

Way too many. It sickens me.

The Rude Pundit had intended to write this on Monday. He had intended to make this a series of questions posed to some mythical rational Romney voter, as in, "How would you feel about a Democrat who ran an ad saying something was factually wrong after being told it was factually wrong?" But if that kind of logic was going to work, it would have by this point. So fuck 'em. Write those assholes off. Their faith in lies is what wrecked us in the first eight years of this terrible century. And this storm is the final nail in Romney's coffin, the sealing of which was a long time coming. President Obama didn't fuck up the response to Sandy, as Romney might have hoped. He made Romney seem like the tiny, insignificant rich dick he is. And even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided he's sick of the effete poseur and tossed Romney under the number 2016 bus.

Right now, the Rude Pundit's power might not be back until the end of the day, Monday, November 5. If that happens, that means that he'll be spending Election Day cleaning out the refrigerator. Oh, he'll vote, even if he has to scrawl an X on a ballot, even if he's in a state that is deep in Obama's tank. Because liars shouldn't be rewarded.

Romney has spent his whole life being rewarded for his lies. It's his way of life. The bigger the reward, and being POTUS is the biggest reward there is in his world, the bigger the lies. The people who will vote for him don't give a shit if it puts a white man - any white man, it seems - back in the White House.

If Willard gets elected, the morons who elected him will get exactly what they deserve from him.

Trouble is, so will the rest of us.

Update:

Romney Camp: Pay No Attention To The Auto Companies Calling Us Liars

I rest my case. Like there was ever any fucking doubt.

All our splendid monuments

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on weather and humanity.

Let’s just say it outright – there is no better reminder – not death, not illness, not orgasm, not birth or marriage or divorce, not surgery or getting fired or going slightly mad on a cocktail of laudanum and cocaine and savage karmic dread – there is no better reminder that we know nothing, own nothing, and are powerless to do anything about it anyway, than the weather.
...

Behold, the charming folly of men. All our dazzling metropolises, gleaming inventions, churning power grids, information superhighways and devious plans to thwart the gods, all flattened in an hour by nothing more than some fantastically livid wind and rain....

We know, but we don’t want to know. There is no way we can sustain our gluttonous empires at current rates, no way to fully protect from our (at least partially self-wrought) destruction – not to mention how many enduring, unsinkable empires just like ours have been annihilated time and again throughout the ages, every time God and the Devil meet for a poker game.

What a gift! What a joke! We are wired to forget. We shall, very shortly, in a manner of days, go about our lives not in constant, trembling fear of the next hurricane, the imminent big quake here in SF, the next lightning bolt that could at any conceivable moment launch from the hand of Zeus and reduce your bones to smoldering ash. And thank goodness for that.
...

Look over there! Sunshine! Whew.

Romney collects supplies in Ohio for storm victims

NBC News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney collected relief supplies in Ohio on Tuesday in an attempt to strike the right tone after superstorm Sandy.
...

He spoke while standing in front of a bank of tables where campaign volunteers had neatly lined up toothpaste, diapers, canned food and fleece blankets, among other goods. A spokesman later confirmed that Romney's campaign had purchased some of the supplies. Though it was billed as a "storm relief event," the candidate's trademark campaign video was broadcast on large screens set up for the supporters who gathered inside the arena before Romney arrived.

"I will devote every waking hour of my energy to getting America strong again. That's what an American president has to do," Romney says in the video.

Don't worry about what a President has to do, Willard. It's never going to be a problem for you. Let Obama worry about that. Secaucus Fats says he's doing fine. (And so begins the '16 presidential campaign. But I digress...heh.)

After he spoke, he stood behind a table full of relief supplies and shook hands with attendees one at a time, taking bags full of relief supplies from many of them. Romney later loaded more relief supplies into a waiting truck as a handful of reporters watched. He loaded bottled water, boxes of diapers and pallets of canned food into the truck, and was joined by Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

Jesus fucking Christ, Willard. Relief supplies? What, you think New Jersey, Delaware, etc. are fucking Ethiopia?! They've got everything they need right there just like anywhere in the United States. They've got bottled water, plenty of food and things to cook it on, blankets, shelters, etc. They've got WalMarts with the doors blown off that will be empty by nightfall. Americans are resourceful people.

They've also got downed trees and power poles, litter and wreckage all over the place, first, second, and third responders trying to get to places to help folks, all kinds of repair trucks, fire trucks, po-leece cars, National Guard and FEMA vehicles etc. 'til hell won't have 'em, and you're gonna further clog the roads with trucks and your goddam campaign bus to deliver unnecessary cans of pork and beans to make a show of compassion?

Willard, just send money. It transfers easily via modern devices (No pallets of cash needed. This isn't Iraq.) and the Red Cross and other outfits can make better use of it via local sources than you can, and they're not even running for office.

Perhaps you should send a big flock of Mormon missionaries to these devastated areas. The storm-affected folks need shoes and will have their sturdy Mormon missionary shoes off them in a New Jersey minute and wave a thankful good-bye to the barefoot young Mormons. Heh.

No problems voting here

We voted yesterday. My county has two early voting places, one 50 miles away in the county seat and one a mile away at our Town Hall which is in the same building Mrs. G retired from. These goons were not evident at our Town Clerk's office. Mighta been a coupla dead ones in the parking lot. Or maybe they were run-over skunks. Hard to tell.

Thanks to YubaNet.

There's no way to get away from Godwin's Law when Repugs and Teatards are involved in the voting process. Sigh.

Canada Speaks

This is such a good comment on yesterday's post about idiot teatards fleeing northward that I just had to make sure you saw it:

Brian said...

Actually, during the Bush II years a few Democrats did move up here, at least in my area (I'm posting from the Left Coast of Canada). They brought a lot of money with them, contributing to the continuing gentrification of the area.

You can keep your Tea Party toads; along with everything else they aren't particularly wealthy themselves and, given their average age and chronic health problems, will end up as value-minus economic immigrants.

The article is right though, in pointing out that our current Prime Minister is our version of Dubya. We may have no army to speak of, but his government is doing its best to cleave even closer to Israel than yours. It's a curious time, indeed.

Curiouser and curiouser. Thank you, Brian. Personally, I think they should go somewhere where their fever dreams of ineffectual government and lotsa guns can be fulfilled.

Somalia would work.

In the meantime, Canada, keep the goodies flowing southward - BC Bud and "Corner Gas". Heh.

Mysterious Docs Found in Meth House Reveal Inner Workings of Dark Money Group

Probably one more reason the Repugs want to defund PBS. Very interesting.

Frontline

The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011.

Found in a meth house in Colorado, they were somewhat of a mystery, holding files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana. They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled “Montana $ Bomb.”

The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates’ strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.

Trevor Potter, a former federal election commissioner who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group that advocates for more restrictions on money in politics, reviewed the documents found in the boxes.

“This is the sort of information that is, in fact, campaign strategy, campaign plans that candidates cannot share with an outside group without making it coordinated,” Potter said.

“You need to know more, but certainly if I were back in my FEC days as a commissioner, I would say we had grounds to proceed with an investigation and put people under oath and show them these documents, and ask where they came from and where they were.”

I would say any podunk District Attorney worth his salt would do the same, but alas, many of them are Repugs.

Go read this. The crux of the biscuit is one of the "comments":

Even with all that money they still have to resort to cheating the process.

That's because they want to rule with ideas that stink like the inside of a meth house and are many times as dangerous.

Right will rage if Obama wins

Gee, ya think? A 'recommended read' by Daddy Frank in Salon.

If Obama wins, Frank Rich says the GOP's fury will intensify, and the party will only get more extreme

So what happens if Obama beats Mitt Romney and the Republicans again, this time after the likes of McConnell made denying him a second term their main legislative mission over the last four years? The earnest-minded might hope that Republicans view Obama’s re-election as a message to cooperate and a sign that their obstruction failed. The sober-minded might look at the number of ridiculous white men determined to make rape victims carry their attacker’s baby and a primary campaign filled with evolution opponents and assume common sense and basic decency, or at least post-Renaissance thinking, might return on social and cultural issues.

But Frank Rich says none of that will happen. The only lesson that will be learned, the New York magazine columnist says, is to head further right. And Rich argues that’s because there simply aren’t any other voices left. The moderate Northeast wing of the party was purged long ago. The primary defeats of conservatives like Bob Bennett in Utah and Richard Lugar in Indiana taught establishment figures that any compromise has its costs. Even a moderate-conservative wing, Rich suggests, would have no leaders, let alone followers, in the national party.

They could have won with Jon Huntsman, but he wasn't batcrap crazy enough the way the Repugs are going. Secaucus Fats could have won, but he and the other relatively sane possible Repug candidates saw which way the wind was blowing early on and wisely sat this one out.

Willard is simply the Wall St. candidate. The Repugs knew - and I mean knew - he was going to be their nominee from the gate and also that he was going to lose. At least he'll be out of politics after this.

Fuck 'em all. I'm going to enjoy watching their heads explode. And if it means the end of an electable Repug party for a few years, I'm down wid dat too.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Arizonans to Vote on Taking Grand Canyon From Federal Government
State needs a cost-effective landfill.

GOP Senate Candidate: Pregnancy from Rape “Gift from God”
Pregnancy from gang rape “gift from a whole bunch of Gods.”

Harley-Davidson Profit Falls
As aging Hells Angels trade in their Harleys for golf carts.

No more cash out refis, less new Hawgs. Actually, they go through a "trike" stage first, or as us guys still up on two wheels refer to them, "motorized walkers".

Nielsen: 88% of People Watch TV While Using Smartphone
Other 12% trying to keep their eyes on the road.

REMINDER
Ask not what your country can do for you, especially if Romney wins.

Will that mean no more cat food stamps for us seniors?

Sunday Funnies

10 Big Surprises in Store For Tea Partiers Fleeing to Canada if Obama Wins

At least their Prime Minister will be white.

If there's one thing that screams 'patriotism' and love of country, it's fleeing the United States when a Democrat wins an election.

Here are but a few examples of the hundreds, if not thousands of Tea Party types who totally swear they're moving to Canada if the Kenyan usurper and his Zombie ACORN thugs win this thing.

A lot of lefties threatened to leave the U.S. if Dim Son got a second term but I don't think many did. At least lefties are a good fit up there in The Great White Socialist North. Musta been the "White" part that got the Teatards thinking about it. Heh.

I have no trouble at all believing that the Teatards are ignorant enough about Canuckistan to actually consider moving there.

As well, I have no trouble thinking they'll enjoy the civilized advantages of Canadian socialism without ever realizing what's going on.

Note: Beware the poutine!