Obamamania!!

This picture makes me uneasy.

BONG!!

After the Bump

Missed this wonderfully dignified photo of Dubya, just post "chest bump."

Kafkaesque

Why "they" hate US:

MIAMI -- A judge hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay who publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors' refusal to give evidence to the defense has been dismissed, tribunal officials confirmed Friday.

Army Col. Peter Brownback III was presiding over the case of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr. Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, in his role as chief judge at Guantanamo, ordered the dismissal without explanation and announced Brownback's replacement in an e-mail this week to lawyers in Khadr's case.

We have become the kind of people we most feared.

BO Brings the Pain

Something tells me Barack Obama is not going to let John McCain set the terms of this debate:

On the [campaign] trail today in South Dakota, Barack Obama will keep up the pressure on John McCain for wrongly saying that the troop numbers in Iraq are now at "pre-surge" levels, using McCain's refusal to admit error over the gaffe as yet another way to strap him to George W. Bush. From the prepared remarks sent over by the Obama campaign:

"We all misspeak sometimes. I've done it myself. So on such a basic, factual error, you'd think that Senator McCain would just admit that he made a mistake and move on. But he couldn't do that. Instead, he dug in. And the disturbing thing is that we've seen this movie before -- a leader who pursues the wrong course, who is unwilling to change course, who ignores the evidence. Now, just like George Bush, John McCain refused to admit that he made a mistake. And that's exactly the kind of leadership that we've had through more than five years of fighting a war that should've never been authorized, and should've never been waged.
"We don't need more leaders who can't admit they've made a mistake, even when it's about something as fundamental as how many young Americans are serving in harm's way."

Snap.

Bring the Hate

Okay Laker fans. I know it's been a while, but give me a minute here to remind you all of why we hate the Celtics SO MUCH!
Because they're goddamn cheating sack bastards, that's why!

The Misinformation Campaign Continues to This Day

In all the hand-wringing about Scott McLellan's book and his criticisms of the Bush administration, Congress and the media, it's easy to get sucked right back in by the specious argument that Democrats in the House and Senate overwhelmingly supported the godforsaken war in Iraq. I'll bet if you did a little survey you'd find that the vast majority of Americans believe the Dems were down with the drumbeat for war.

Uh...they'd be wrong:

• Of the 258 Democrats in Congress at the time, 147 voted against the resolution,while 110 voted for it. One Democrat did not vote.
• Of the 100 Senators, 23 voted against the resolution, while 77 voted for it. 27 Democratic senators supported the measure, while 21 of the 23 opposition votes were cast by Democrats, 1 by a Republican (Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island) and 1 by an Independent (Jim Jeffords of Vermont).

And then there was Ted Kennedy's speech, January 28, 2002:

Some key passages...:

--"[T]he Administration has not made a convincing case that we face such an imminent threat to our national security that a unilateral, pre-emptive American strike and an immediate war are necessary."
--"[T]he Administration has not explicitly acknowledged, let alone explained to the American people, the immense post-war commitment that will be required to create a stable Iraq."
--"A largely unilateral American war that is widely perceived in the Muslim world as untimely or unjust could worsen not lessen the threat of terrorism."
--"War with Iraq before a genuine attempt at inspection and disarmament, or without genuine international support -- could swell the ranks of Al Qaeda sympathizers and trigger an escalation in terrorist acts."
--"[I]nformation from the intelligence community over the past six months does not point to Iraq as an imminent threat to the United States or a major proliferator of weapons of mass destruction."
--"[T]here is no clear and convincing pattern of Iraqi relations with either Al Qaeda or the Taliban."

I guess somebody knew what the hell he was talking about.

The Color Hope

Alice Walker ("The Color Purple") on why she supports Barack Obama:

"I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me. When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves."

1987

The last time the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics met in the NBA Finals was in 1987. And what a series it was.

I remember we were watching Game 4 at Spinnaker's Galley in Isla Vista, California, when Magic Johnson hit the Junior Skyhook with two seconds left. I jumped up so high I put my hand through the ceiling fan that was whirling around up there and did the forearm bash with Big Jim so many times my whole arm swelled up like the Elephant Man. I still get chills thinking about that Laker-Celtic rivalry.

We can only hope Kobe's Lake Show and KG's Celtics can live up to their predecessors' example.

Weekend Plans?

When I get to Church on Sunday the first thing I'm going to do is ask my preacher to quit making me look bad in the media.

Utah Phillips

I had the pleasure of seeing Utah Phillips play live about 10 years ago at the Live Oak Music Festival just outside Santa Barbara, CA. He had just started teaming up with Ani diFranco and I heard one of their CDs and jumped at the chance to see him live. I thought his sense of humor, storytelling and musicianship were truly unique and just about the coolest thing I'd seen in a while. As an added bonus, the man was a genuine historian, and he sparked in me an interest in the beginnings of the labor movement, the romanticism of the hobo life and the draw of individualism and self-reliance.
I remember after his gig he sat and talked with fans and signed autographs for a long time on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the hills of California. During his show Utah had railed against the unfair labor practices of the folks at Borders Books, who were refusing to allow their workers to organize. It just so happened that the CDs they were selling at the concert were being sold at a Borders tent, so I bought one of his and jokingly asked him if he would sign the receipt, which clearly said Borders Books right across it. Well, old Utah thought that was the funniest request he heard in a while. He laughed and laughed that big deep melodious laugh of his at the irony of it all, and then I asked him again if he'd sign the receipt. He stopped abruptly, and said "No fuckin' way." And then he laughed some more.

Utah Phillips died this week at the age of 73.

Watch the clip; he's a folk music treasure.

Media Oversight is Coming, In About 7 Months

Digby wonders if all the criticism being heaped on the media in the wake of the McLellan blockbuster won't soon lead to greater investigative analysis and government oversight by our esteemed Washington reporters:

But with all these complaints coming in that they haven't been criticizing the president enough, you can bet your bippy that soon they will be extremely critical on government conduct, challenging any assertion, no matter how trivial, they make.

When there's a Democrat in the White House, that is.

Arguing with One's Self

When it comes to Scott McLellan, former Senator Bob Dole comes down squarely in the "He's a rat!" camp, er, no, make that "He's a coward!" "Rat!" Coward!" "Rat!!" "Coward!!"

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a personal e-mail [to McLellan]. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

"When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me,'" he wrote. "Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years."
Dole also made clear he has no plans to read the book.
"I have no intention of reading your 'exposé' because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job," he wrote. "That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively."
"You're a hot ticket now but don't you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"

Dude, it's not like the guy started a war for no reason. He just toed the party line.

Catch Me if You Can

Coercing Democracy

I think over the weekend I'll head over to Kern County and impose a little democracy. Suck. On. This. Bako.

Insanity

Dick Cheney is still at it....

At a Midtown hotel ballroom on Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney declared that the United States was “succeeding brilliantly” in Iraq and assailed Democrats on taxes, gas prices, and national security.

Reprising language from a speech he gave at the Coast Guard Academy this month, Mr. Cheney said of the war in Iraq that the “only way to lose this fight is to quit — but that would be an act of betrayal and dishonor, and that is not going to happen on our watch.”

Meanwhile.... 4084 American soldiers have given their lives for Bush's Folly. Yeah, Team America Kicks Ass! CHEST BUMP!!

Happy Anniversary!

Atrios reminds us what day it is...

"Five years, or 10 F.U.s, ago today, America's leading foreign affairs public intellectual explained the Iraq war to us":

I think it [the invasion of Iraq] was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie.
...
We needed to go over there, basically, um, and um, uh, take out a very big stick right in the heart of that world and burst that bubble, and there was only one way to do it.
...
What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, "Which part of this sentence don't you understand?"

You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just gonna let it grow?

Well Suck. On. This.

Okay.

That Charlie was what this war was about. We could've hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth.

Click the link to see the vid.

Shorter Scott McLellan

"Mr. Chairman, There's a cancer on this presidency."

Wondering....

What Hillary Clinton wouldn't give for a little sniper fire right about now.

Basketball Jones

UPDATE: Congratulations to Los Lakers. Back in the NBA Finals again. Now, if only Boston can make it we'll be treated to hours of highlights of the Larry versus Magic Showtime years.

Scottie Mac: Rock and a Hard Place

Scott McClellan has put himself in a unique position. He's equally loathed by both the Left and the Right, and the only real debate is whether he's a coward or a rat.

Our National Embarrassment Continues

(P)resident Bush shares a "chest bump" after addressing the commencement of the 50th graduating class at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Only 235 days of this idiocy left .

Why You Don't Make a Scene at the Airport

Six months in jail, that's why.

An Atascadero man faces six months in jail after going on a drunken rampage at an airport in San Francisco, authorities said.

Joel Elliott Decou, 25, pleaded no contest in San Mateo Superior Court on Tuesday to felony assault on a police officer in connection with a Sept. 8 incident last year, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Wagstaffe offered the following account: Decou missed a flight out of San Francisco International Airport when an airline employee who was rebooking him on a later flight noticed he was inebriated. The employee noted Decou’s condition in an airport computer.

Small Town Hilarity

The preverts, the druggies and other assorted losers have been giving the headline writers at our town’s little fishwrap plenty of material to work with over the past few days.

Here are a few stories that made it onto the front page just this week:

• Men face judge for ‘joke’ that scorched friend’s crotch
• Nude maid accused of really cleaning up
• Naked man jumps on cars in Avila Beach
• Someone uses cow's blood to write 'die' on San Simeon hotel manager's door

Sometimes the comedy writes itself.....

The Future is Now

Best Bitch Slap EVAR!

Titling their blogpost "Best Bitch Slap EVAR," the folks at Sadly No! take up the story of Barack Obama's uncle, a man who served in the 89th Infantry in WWII and was part of the crew that liberated Buchenwald. It seems some of the wingnuts out there don't want to believe it, and took to doing some digging. One amateur sleuth even found time to write to the 89th Infantry's historical society, asking the site's owners if they "have any record of this gentleman?"
In short order, back came the following pithy response:

Please crawl back under the rock you came out from.

Good day,

Raymond Kitchell, veteran 89th Inf Div

OH, SNAP!

That's America

Why Does John McCain Hate the Troops?

I hadn't mentioned it here before, but John McCain skipped out on last week's vote to enhance the education benefits offered to American GIs after they leave the service. Besides the fact that missing the vote is a cynical maneuver that allows him the leeway to say he didn't vote against the measure (or for it for that matter), he's been making the rounds this week belittling Barack Obama for not having served in the military and offering the following outrageous justification for opposing the so-called Webb amendment -- which aims to extend education benefits to all American soldiers regardless of their service time:

Saying he takes "a back seat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans," McCain said Webb's bill would be a disincentive for service members to become noncommissioned officers, which he called "the backbone of all the services."

"In my life, I have learned more from noncommissioned officers I have known and served with than anyone else outside my family," McCain said at a Memorial Day event in Albuquerque.

"They are very hard to replace. Encouraging people to choose to not become noncommissioned officers would hurt the military and our country very badly."

By my way of thinking, this former prisoner of war's logic is little better than hostage taking.
And he made that statement on Memorial Day, no less.

More Stupid

As this story shows, some people in the federal government have a bit too much time on their hands:

WEED, Calif. -- This town is in a tempest over a bottle top.

The federal government is telling the owner of a small brewery here that the pun he's placed on caps of his Weed Ales crosses a line.

"Try Legal Weed," the caps joke.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau says those three little words allude to marijuana use.

The bureau's bureaucrats have told [Vuane] Dillmann he needs to stop using the "Try Legal Weed" bottle caps. If he doesn't, he could risk fines or sanctions. His worst fear: being forced out of business.

A balding former cop turned saloon owner and then master brewer, Dillmann isn't one to back down.

"This is ludicrous, bizarre, like meeting Big Brother face-to-face," he grumbled recently. "Forget freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment. They are the regulatory gods, a judge and jury all rolled into one. This is a life-or-death issue for my business."
[...]
What irks him most, he says -- even more than the Feds' lack of a funny bone -- is what he considers a double standard.

While stomping on him, Dillmann says, the government treats Budweiser with kid gloves, despite the fact that "This Bud's for you" also could be mistaken for marijuana slang.

"They sell Bud. We sell Weed," he said. "What's the difference?"

Point for the defendant!

Puerto Rico: The 23rd State?

Lost in all the debate about "pledged delegates" and "super-delegates," "open caucuses" and "closed primaries," is a little known tidbit that kinda sorta blew my mind: The US-held Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, which has the right to vote in presidential primaries and and elections, and does so next Tuesday on Sunday, has 55 Democratic delegates at stake.

That number, incredible as it may seem, gives the "commonwealth of Puerto Rico" more clout in the nominating process than 27 states, the District of Columbia, the collected votes of "Americans abroad," Guam or the Virgin Islands.

Puerto Rico, population +/- 4 million, has no vote in Congress, but the same number of delegates as Colorado (55), and more than Oregon (52), Connecticutt (48), Iowa (45), South Carolina (45), Oklahoma (38), Maine (24), Nevada (25), Hawaii (20), the DC (15) and 17 other states.

Don't ask me what any of this means, I'm just giving you the facts on what is clearly one crazy system of electing a president.

The Stupid, It Burns!

Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

More on this tale of the stupid here. And here:

Now, what's important to grasp here is that the scarf in question (see link) is rather clearly just a scarf. It is admittedly black and white, which apparently would be symbolic in the Palestinian world, except I'm not sure if something frilly and paisley can ever really count as being as menacing as we are supposed to believe. And there's clearly no pro-terrorist vibe being intended by Dunkin Freaking Donuts -- Ray is holding a latte, which I'm pretty sure is like kryptonite to jihadists. I don't know, I'm not up on all the comic-book-style interpretations of what we should and shouldn't be afraid of these days.

No, the issue was that there was a scarf that looked sortof like something Islamic. That's it. That was enough to dampen pants and blister typing fingers across the great and paranoid conservative nation. Maybe it was a scandalous example of unintended cultural tolerance? Maybe it was a secret message to terrorists that they could count on Dunkin' Donuts to cater their next meeting? Or, maybe, it was just a goddamn scarf.

California Ballot Propositions

For those of you in California, we've got just a couple of statewide ballot initiatives to consider in next week's election. Both concern "eminent domain," the concept that the government can take your property (for "just compensation") if such action is found to be "in the public good." Naturally, the two propositions come at the issue from diametrically opposed positions.
Here's what Cali's premiere political Website has to say on the issues:

Proposition 98 claims to be about eminent domain and protecting the little people. But here at Calitics, we have reason to question the motives of Jon Coupal and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers' Association. And once again, they are trying to hoodwink California voters.

Proposition 98 eliminates rent control and other renter protections, making living in California's cities out of reach for a greater percentage of our population. Prop 98 would also make protecting California's environment even harder than it is presently. The effects on governance, the environment, and tenants are simply disastrous. NO on 98.

Prop 99 is not ideal, but it is tolerable. It simply blocks the use of eminent domain to transfer owner-occupied homes to private developers. Nothing fancy, but it does have a nice provision that overrules Prop 98 if it gets one more vote. It also has the potential to do the state a great favor by removing the issue of eminent domain from the ballot. YES on 99.

Man Speak with Forked Tongue

One day very soon John McCain will contradict himself within the space of one sentence. YouTube will be there.

Scotty Mac Writes a Book

He should have called it, "You DFHs Were Right, We Lied."

On accepting Scott McClellan's resignation as his press secretary two years ago, President Bush predicted that he and the outgoing aide some day would be "rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days."

But maybe their days in the White House together weren't so happy after all.

Tidbits:

[McClellan says] Bush "veered terribly off course," was guilty of a "failure to be open and forthright on Iraq" and relied on "propaganda" to sell the war.

McClellan pointed to a confidential meeting Rove and Libby held "at a moment when I was being battered by the press for publicly vouching for the two by claiming they were not involved in leaking Plame's identity."

Only later, McClellan said, did he realize he had been "deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood" about their involvement.

While McClellan writes that "I still like and and admire President Bush," he doesn't do his old boss many favors in the book. On the war in Iraq, he is particularly stinging. McClellan calls the decision to invade Iraq "a serious strategic blunder.

"No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

Here's another take:

Bottom line: he confirms everything that we dirty hippie bloggers were screaming about at the top of our lungs, but which the traditional media ignored because...well, because Scott McClellan stood at his little White House podium and denied it all, lying out of his fat little elitist face as the stenographers printed his crap without scrutiny.

Once again, we come face to face with a White House official who could've done the right thing...but instead decided that the lives of American troops, Iraqi civilians, Katrina victims, and a network of covert CIA operatives were worth less than the luster of his master's lapel pin. When our country needed him to tell it straight, he hid behind propaganda and spin and bogus talking points and outright bamboozlement.

All I Want is Some Truth

Here you go America, six minutes and nine seconds of the brutal, honest truth.

"On my first day in Basra my family's house lost electricity; on the second day we lost water; on the third day we lost telephone service; one cousin said, 'I think tomorrow we won't have air.' "

Demands like these are not only unacceptable but are in a sense meant to punish Iraqis for the destruction and devastation U.S.-waged invasion and occupation of their country has caused.

Does it mean that the U.S. Congress wants us to pay billions of dollars for the reconstruction of bridges, hospitals, schools as well as cities, towns and villages U.S. warplanes and military might have destroyed? (snip)

Iraqis have been made to pay with their blood which has been flowing like rivers since the U.S. invasion. And shockingly the U.S. would like them to pay for the destruction it has inflicted on their country as if their blood is not enough.

The U.S. is morally responsible for the construction of Iraq but it is doubtful whether its political leaders have any more morality left. The whole Iraq war is morally wrong. It is too much indeed to ask the U.S. to get it morally right?

Expert Commentary

Ahem, did that woman just make a wistful call for the assassination of Barack Obama?

Who Knew?

I was only gone for a couple days and it turns out there's [still] a war going on?

Who knew?

Rock On!

Hillary We Hardly Knew Ye

For whatever reason, Hillary Clinton seems bound and determined to destroy any vestige of a positive legacy for she and her husband's once formidable political empire. She's alienated black Americans, college educated "elitists," white men, the young.... and now, just about everbody else with this comment today:

Earlier today Hillary Clinton made what can only be described as a bizarre rationalization for staying in a primary race that she’s already lost:
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."

What with Ted Kennedy's recent health problems still residing on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Hillary is getting lit up for what most are calling a truly tasteless remark. She has since apologized, but the damage is done, and from the looks of things in the blogosphere, she's burnt toast: Oliver, liza, Brad, Josh, and Paddy.

Armageddeon Time

If $4-per-gallon gas prices have you choking on your 89-octane cocktail, you do not want to hear this:

It may be the mother of all doom and gloom gas price predictions: $12 for a gallon of gas is “inevitable.”

Robert Hirsch, Management Information Services Senior Energy Advisor, gave a dire warning about the potential future of gas prices on CNBC’s May 20 “Squawk Box”. He told host Becky Quick there was no single thing that would solve the problem, due to the enormity of the problem.

“[T]he prices that we’re paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be ‘the good old days,’ because others who watch this very closely forecast that we’re going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon,” Hirsch said. “And then, after that, when oil – world oil production goes into decline, we’re going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we’re not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.”

I'd say that fuel prices in the "$12 and $15 per gallon" range will put us into post-apocalyptic Bladerunner territory.

T.M.I. Friday's

Do presidential candidates really need to release all their medical records?

From the LA Times' Top of the Ticket blog:

First, we have to start with this reasoned medical opinion buried deep in John McCain's medical files, released for review earlier today. From his oncologist, Dr. Suzanne Connolly of the Mayo Clinic: "Buttocks unremarkable except for some very light tan freckling."

Tell a Friend

Barack Obama is still not a Muslim.

Veepstakes

If Hillary Clinton had bowed out of the race gracefully a couple of months ago, she'd probably be getting her wish for the #2 spot on the Democratic ticket. Instead, she sits at the bottom of a deep list of potential Obama running mates:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee.
Others mentioned include Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Ted Strickland of Ohio; and Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware (who also ran for president), Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia. Former Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sam Nunn of Georgia have also been mentioned, as has retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark.

Not mentioned above but another intriguing choice would be Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, an irascible Republican who has been one of the nation's harshest critics of the war in Iraq.

The Elephant in the Room

Watch Ellen Degeneres expose the utter bankruptcy of John McCain's position on gay marriage. Watch the man squirm as he disrespects a fellow human being directly to her face. [Is the winning Christian vote really worth your soul, Senator McCain?]

Bill Veeck Would Be Proud....

...of this promotion, if it wasn't so gay.

Just Say No...

...if I ever invite you to a "vegan potluck." 'Cause you can bet I sure in the hell won't be there.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

The stoopidity runs deep.

"Somebody told me you people are crazy..."

In one of the more bizarre yet insanely brilliant bookings in rock and roll history, minimalist blues punks The Cramps were brought in 1978 to perform at the Napa State Mental Hospital in Napa, California.
Needless to say, it was inspired madness....(in two parts)



[n.b., the clip sez 1984 but the show took place June 13, 1978.]

The Ultimate November Nightmare

While polls like this one from Zogby (which has Obama leading McCain 48% to 40% in a national matchup) can surely be a source for optimism, as can the outpouring of 75,000 Obama supporters last weekend in Oregon, we are still left with the dicey mechanics -- and mathematics -- of the Electoral College.

Given the winner-take-all nature of that arcane system, the potential for a disaster like the one in 2000 still looms large. Think about it. Hypothetically, Obama could win every single vote in every Blue state (say 100% for Obama to 0% for McCain) yet lose by one vote in every Red state (let's say 49.9% for Obama to 50.1% for McCain) and end up losing the presidency. It's winner take all, one state at a time.

While the vote margins obviously won't play out quite so absolutely, it's an object lesson in how screwed up our system is.

UPDATE: BooMan offers Obama some fall campaign strategery....

Yeah Right Dept.

Some right-wing nutters are making the argument that those huge crowds in Portland on Sunday weren't actually there to see the future president of the United States but rather an up-and-coming local band called The Decemberists.

From CNN to the New York Times, the media hyped Barack Obama's Portland, Oregon rally on Sunday, some comparing him to a rock star.

Unmentioned in national reporting was the fact that Obama was preceded by a rare, 45-minute free concert by actual rock stars The Decemberists. The Portland-based band has drawn rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine, which gave their 2005 album Picaresque four and a half stars (out of five), and another four and a half stars for 2007's The Crane Wife.

How many of the people showed up to hear Obama, and how many to hear the band?

Take a listen:

Thank God that's over. Now tell me, How many people showed up to hear Obama, and how many to hear the band?

God I hate American singers who pretend like they have an English accent. This is pretentious bullshit. If you like the Decemberists then I highly advise you to get yourself some Stone Roses. Stat.

Everybody Still Hates Dubya [More than Ever]

A new low for George W. Bush. And why not? He's fucked up the entire world after all. As somebody recently called him, he's the Merde President. Or the Anti-Midas.

Concerns about the direction of the country and personal finances rose sharply, and dissatisfaction with Bush, Congress and the administration's economic and foreign policy all climbed.

Bush's approval rating fell 4 percentage points to 23 percent, a record low for pollster John Zogby, and positive marks for the U.S. Congress fell 5 points to tie an all-time low at 11 percent.

The number of Americans who believe the country is on the right track fell from 23 percent to an abysmal 16 percent, another record for pessimism, as uncertainty about the economy and rising gas prices fuelled growing doubts about the future.

"Bad economic news is settling in and Americans are getting anxiety ridden," Zogby said.

"By any objective standard, when you look at economic indicators, there is no good news for people to read about or hear," he said. "Most economic indicators are pointing downward and Americans are absorbed by that."

Consumer confidence fell to a 28-year low this month as rising prices strained household finances, the economy shed jobs, the housing market struggled and the cost of gasoline rose to $4 a gallon.

We're (still) Right, They're (still) Wrong

The DFHs will never be respected or believed because the major Iraq war proponents -- who still control the discourse and pontificate in my newspaper and on my teevee -- continue to say things like this:

In an op-ed in the National Interest today, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon responded to Salon’s Glenn Greenwald’s criticisms of his and the media’s often wrong portrayals of the Iraq war. O’Hanlon said that his work has “generally” been “proven right.”

O’Hanlon provided a “brief evaluation” of his “track record.” Continuing his penchant for inflating the grades of war supporters, he remarked: “Grading my own homework, I give myself a score of 7 out of 10. Whether that is a good or bad grade is in the mind of the beholder.” This self-praise, however, overlooks much of what O’Hanlon has written and said about Iraq over the years.

Meanwhile, Robert Scheer is still fired from the LA Times and the war is still over for 4079 American troops.

Death Valley, CA: Where You Wallet Goes to Die

You do not want your vehicle getting thirsty in Death Valley, CA....

A good reason...

....to root for Jason Taylor to win "Dancing with the Stars."

Mr. Momentum

While Ralph Nadir was busy trying to get that one guy to join him in banning clusterf*cks, Barack Obama was speaking to 75,000 Dirty Fucking Hippies in Portland, Oregon.

One is the Loneliest Number

Talk about tarnishing your legacy. Ralph Nader is running for president again.

--from Canukledragger in the Wonkette comments:

Can we force Ralph to legally change the spelling of his surname to "Nadir?"

And now a word from our sponsor...

Feelin' Superior

No wonder America kicks ass. We've got better DNA.

In today’s ruthlessly competitive international economy, the United States may benefit from a potent but unheralded advantage: the aggressive edge sustained by the inherited power of American DNA.

The radical notion that our national character stems from genetics as well as culture has always inspired angry controversy; many observers scoff at the whole idea of a unifying hereditary component in our multi-racial, multi-cultural society. Aside from the varied immigrants who now make up nearly 15% of the population, the forebears of today’s Americans journeyed to this continent from Asia, Africa, Latin America and every nation of Europe.

Thank God the War is Still Over

As the Kenosha Kid sez, we're "0-for-2 on Poster Boys."

Very sad news. Army Staff Sgt. Ronald Blystone, who was on the cover of the National Review in 2005 [yet another "We're Winning" story], was killed by small arms fire while patrolling in Baghdad. He was on his third tour.

McCain's Postmodern Ad Scheme

Here's an interesting idea from the folks at the John W. McCain campaign:

Run a television commercial touting all the achievements you have fulfilled in the future.

Who You Gonna Call?

My red phone rang at 3am this morning. I answered it myself and went back to sleep.

Goose and Gander

Despite the fact that I love Cindy McCain because she's the heiress to a beer fortune, I'm guessing the this whole debate about her finances is not something that John W. McCain is going to be able to dodge for too much longer. See, she's got her money parked in some curious places for a guy runnin' fer president.

McCain, whose wife has come under fire for refusing to disclose her tax return documents, fielded tough questions about her investment in a mutual fund that deals in Sudan, as well as about the resignation of two McCain aides over their involvement in lobbying deals with the Myanmar junta.

The Arizona senator said that he was not aware of his wife's investment in two mutual funds that include holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., which in turn does business in the genocide-ridden African nation.

"I didn't know anything about it, until I saw the story, obviously, because I don't have anything to do with her finances*," McCain said.

According to the Associated Press, Cindy McCain sold more than $2 million of investment in the two firms today after the connection to Sudan was disclosed. "We found out about it," McCain said today. "They found out about it and fixed the problem."

* Ahem. Pardon my French... But that's bullshit.

Democracy in Action

Next chance I get to go out and actually vote for someone I like.... I'm gonna do it. You should too, unless it's John W. McCain.

New Dynamic

One of the things we should keep in mind as we go forward here in the summer/fall of 2008 is that the real story about Barack Obama is the story of how he has energized a whole new generation of voters. It's a done deal. Kids these days love him, black, white or indifferent. Now that I'm an f-ing 40-something-year-old, what I don't want to do is ignore what the young generation has to say. Because.......

The kids are alright.

Troglodyte Homunculus

Pity Bill O'Reilly's producer. Here's a behind the scenes look at BillO's now infamous Inside Edition meltdown.
BILLO: "There's no words there! 'To play us out.' What does that mean? 'To play us out.' "
PRODUCER: "Have you ever read Flowers for Algernon? You remind me of the guy in that story before he got smarter. You remind me of Lenny from Of Mice and Men, because I think I should take you outside and shoot you before someone else has to kill you for being so stupid. ...You're like a baboon only less clever."

Pointless Act of Defiance

Today would be a great day to play golf, but I quit about five years ago because I was so disugsted with our president.

[h/t to the Ghost for the find....]

Chris Matthews Grills Him Some Chickenhawk

Kevin James won't be going back on Hardball again any time soon...

That's the way it starts, with an earthquake...

Olympic-sized shaker.

"Lenny Bruce and Leonard Bernstein...."

M*A*S*H 4077th

You know the drill...


4077.

How to Draw a Dictator

Ciao, Baby!

New York Times -- He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university. She was “a totally Virginia girl,” as she puts it, raised across the road from George Washington’s home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

But on April 29, when Mr. Salerno, 35, presented his passport at Washington Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection agent refused to let him into the United States. And after hours of questioning, agents would not let him travel back to Rome, either; over his protests in fractured English, he said, they insisted that he had expressed a fear of returning to Italy and had asked for asylum.

Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit — meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon — eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out.
[...]
Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Another agent eventually told her to go home because Mr. Salerno was being detained as an asylum-seeker.

“The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” she recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought.

“Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”

Too Rich, Chickenhawks...

Politics is an ugly thing....

By a vote of 149-141, the Democrat-controlled House rejected a measure that would have given the Pentagon $162.5 billion to keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan running through next summer, slightly below President George W. Bush's request.

A large group of anti-war House Democrats voted against the funds. That, coupled with 132 Republicans voting "present," meaning neither "yes" nor "no," killed the measure for now.

Why would the Republicans vote against such a measure, you ask? Because the have no balls:

You may recall that at about this time last year, Chickenhawk Republicans were demanding that Democrats who wanted to bring the war in Iraq to a close had to have "the courage of their convictions" and vote their conscience on the funding. But today, those same Republicans chose to abandon their posts -- and they're some cushy posts, at that -- and vote "present" instead of having the courage to vote "no" on a bill they disapproved of.

California Leads

I always hated Prop. 22....

SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court decided today that same-sex couples should be permitted to wed, ruling that gay unions must be given the "respect and dignity" of marriage.

In a 4-3 vote, the court became the first in the country to apply the constitutional protections reserved for race and gender to sexual orientation. The Massachusetts high court struck down bans on same-sex marriage in 2003, but under a different legal theory.

The court held that people have a fundamental right to marry the person of their choice and struck down marriage laws limiting matrimony to opposite-sex couples as a violation of the state constitution's equal protection guarantees.

"One of the core elements embodied in the state constitutional right to marry is the right of an individual and a couple to have their own official family relationship accorded respect and dignity equal to that accorded the family relationships of other couples," wrote Chief Justice Ronald M. George, joined by Justices Joyce L. Kennard, Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Carlos Moreno.

And I love left-handed people...

Black Coffee

How much airtime would the media consume analyzing his motivations if Barack Obama stopped asking for orange juice at backwater red-state diners and ordered "black coffee" instead?

Straight to Hell, Part Two

Here's the video of Bush's "I quit playing golf to be in solidarity with our dead soldiers" moment.

[And what a bootlicker that interviewer is, no? In case you're wondering, his name is Mike Allen and you can see him regularly on the Sunday morning talk shows questioning Barack Obama's bowling skills or his elitist way of ordering orange juice at breakfast instead of coffee.]

Teh stoopid. It burns.

Done in Your Name

I think it could reasonably be argued that we have become the most evil nation on Earth.

WaPo-- The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

In a Chicago holding cell early one evening in February 2006, five guards piled on top of a 49-year-old man who was angry he was going back to Ecuador, according to a nurse's account in his deportation file. As they pinned him down so the nurse could punch a needle through his coveralls into his right buttock, one officer stood over him menacingly and taunted, "Nighty-night."

Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes. The practice is banned by several countries where, confidential documents make clear, U.S. escorts have been unable to inject deportees with extra doses of drugs during layovers en route to faraway places.

Don't you get the feeling these days that the United States is somewhat like the Roman Empire, circa 476AD?

People hate us for our freedom, that's for sure.

And George Bush quit playing golf.

Dumb White Voters Give Hillary Wes' V'ginny

Hilly's "get out the ignorant white racist vote" calculus worked, and so she defeated Obama 66%-27% in West Virginia, thanks to people like these:

"...when I read depressingly accurate stories like this one in the Financial Times, where a buncha slack-jawed yokels from Cow’s Ass, West Virginia, all lifelong registered Democrats, adamantly tell a British journalist that under no circumstances could they vote for Obama for president, and if it came to it, would vote for McCain because, well, nobody is dumb enough to come out and say it but THEY WOULD VOTE FOR MCCAIN JUST BECAUSE HE IS WHITE. Just like their daddy did, and his daddy did before him, and so on.

"And what do they have to show for it: inter-generational poverty, pervasive ignorance, and a disproportionately high number of people living in mobile homes — in short, analog minds ill-equipped to thrive in the digital future. Broke, dumb and emphysemic is no way to go through life, son. As of this year, West Virginia has the lowest college graduation rate in the US, the second lowest median household income. And when they get one tiny sliver of a chance to change this situation, i.e. an election, what is their game plan? Voting for the white guy. Why? Because, to paraphrase Ed Rendell, some people in this state just aren’t ready to vote for a black man. That’s just childish, like saying ‘I don’t like broccoli.’ Grow the fuck up. And get a clue: the day poor, under-educated white and black people finally figure out that what truly divides us isn’t race but in fact class is the day the Republican party goes out of business.

"Seriously, West Virginny coal-crackers voting for a Republican is like the turkeys voting for Thanksgiving. Letting these people vote is like putting a loaded shotgun in the baby’s crib and hoping for the best. I don’t know about you, but I am against putting a loaded gun in the baby’s crib and hoping for the best. Having said all that, The Trailer Park Effect is only part of the problem with letting white people vote." -- Phawker.com

[thanks to JW for the get.]

Straight to Hell

I don't know that Dante ever actually wrote about it in The Inferno, but there's a special place reserved in hell for this guy:

US President George W. Bush said in an interview out Tuesday that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, now in its sixth year.

"I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said in an interview for Yahoo! News and Politico magazine.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them."

QUIT PLAYING GOLF?!?!? What more can one say?

4076 soldiers have died in Iraq.

Oh Crap.

Former Undersecretary of Defense for the Clusterfuck in Iraq Douglas Feith, the man so famously nicknamed the "fucking stupidest guy on the face of the Earth" by former Iraq War General Tommy Franks, appeared on The Daily Show last night.

If you ever needed evidence as to the true absurdity of every Sunday morning political talk show, just take a look at interview Jon Stewart conducts with this fucking stupid guy. As you watch, bear in mind that Feith has appeared on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week and all the rest, pumping the hell out of his stupid fucking book -- which is the stupidest ever written, I'm told -- and not once did he face any of the enlightening questions he faces on this "fake news show."

Tim Russert wishes he was dead, so that he could spin in his grave.

The worst moment for me comes right at the beginning, when Stewart, trying to find some common ground from which to begin his inquisition, asks Feith, "What's your favorite baseball team?" "The Philadelphia Phillies," the stupid fucker replies.

Why am I not surpised?

What Obama is Up Against

MARIETTA, GA -- Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he's peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with "Obama in '08" scrolled underneath, are "cute."
[...]
Just down the street from Marietta's famous Big Chicken, Mulligan's has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner's ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it's impossible not to know what's on Norman's mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan's.

Among his recent musings: "I wish Hillary had married OJ," "No habla espanol -- and never will" and the standard "I.N.S. Agents eat free."

"I'm saying out loud what everyone in this town whispers," Norman said in an interview before Tuesday's protest.
[...]
Norman said those offended are "hunting for a reason to be mad" and insisted he is "not a racist."

Norman said he sees nothing wrong with depicting Obama as Curious George. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George," Norman said.

Obama's campaign volunteers face similar outrages all over the country, every day.

The Mad Monk

Hillary Clinton is the Rasputin of American politics. Poisoned, shot, beaten, drowned; somehow, she lives. [Much to the continued detriment of the Democratic Party, I might add.]

Obama Expected to Lose Big in West Virginia

WEST VIRGINIA -- Although Barack Obama is now widely expected to be the Democratic nominee, the campaign is in for a bit of embarrassment tonight in what is likely to be a very bad showing in the West Virginia primary -- indeed, if the polls are accurate, he'll be lucky to get more than 30%...

By using Hillary Clinton's poltical calculus, we can surmise that West Virginia is home to more uneducated white people than any other state in the nation.

War of Terror

You can never be too careful in the War of Terror...

WASHINGTON — Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA.

Bill O'Reilly is a Raving Lunatic

This clip seems to have made it everywhere on the Series of Tubes already. I guess it's my duty to share it here as well.
But be forewarned, the audio contains adult language and so is mos' def' Not Safe For Work....

Dude is played out.

Deep Thought

It's interesting to note that many of the people alleging that Barack Obama lacks the necessary experience to serve in the Oval Office are the same people who rail at the notion of "career politicians" and work to impose term limits on those who wish to serve.
Meanwhile, John McCain comes from a family of military men and thus has been living off the public teat forever, and he's been serving in Washington continuously since 1982.

Waitin' Around to Die

Townes van Zandt.

Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was a country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet. Throughout his career he was widely admired by fellow songwriters, particularly in the folk and country genres, but greater fame eluded him, in part because of his unconventional vocal style and in part because of his erratic personal behavior. Many of his songs, including "Pancho and Lefty," "If I Needed You," and "To Live Is to Fly," have been recorded by other notable performers and are considered standards of their genre.
[...]
Van Zandt is remembered as a great songwriter who left a legacy of great songs and inspired musicians. Influential in the sub-genre referred to as outlaw country, his Texas-grounded impact stretched farther than country. He has been cited as a source of inspiration by such artists as Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Marah, Nanci Griffith, Cowboy Junkies, John Francis and Meat Puppets. Steve Earle paid his own homage to Van Zandt, describing him as the greatest songwriter who ever lived, and writing "Fort Worth Blues" as a memorial to the night of his death.

Standard Operating Procedure

Not coming soon to a theater near you...

Lean and Mean

KFC tries out a new slogan...

Travelin' Man

Not from The Onion:

Yesterday The Ticket broke the stunning news of America's acquisition of seven, maybe eight, new states, according to future president Barack Obama.

He was speaking at the start of a two-day swoop through Oregon, which is already a state.

In Beaverton, which is not a state yet, the Democrat let it slip that during this marathon 16-month party presidential nomination struggle against a bunch of dropouts and this female political zombie from New York who won't surrender short of a silver stake, he had already visited 57 states with one more to go.

That's not counting the existing states of Alaska and Hawaii, he said, which his staff decided aren't important enough to visit.

Well, he can finally put that lapel pin controversy to rest, by wearing one of these.

Cruizin'

Sorry for the light posting. I've been down in the basement playing with my new toy...

Message for Hillary Clinton

"Why can'choo just get it through your head....?"

Crazy Like FOX

Who's elitist now, you Fox News tools?

Serpenthead

I used to like James Carville. He wrote a great book back in the day called "We're Right, They're Wrong." But these days, he seems bent somehow on breaking Democratic unity with ugly intra-party vitriol. Check out this comment from last week:

James Carville helpfully told Eleanor Clift of Newsweek that if Hillary gave Obama one of her vehicles of testicular fortitude, “they’d both have two.”

Schlub.

Obama gave back, with a comment that actually could be applied to pretty much every journalist on the campaign beat:

"Well, you know, James Carville is well-known for spouting off his mouth without always knowing what he's talking about. And I intend to stay focused on fighting for the American people because what they don't need is 20 more years of performance art on television. And that's what James Carville and a lot of those folks are expert at ... a lot of talk and not getting things done for the American people."

Thank you and good night.

Champagne and Reefer

The "Gas Tax Holiday"....

...could more accurately be described as a "paid vacation for the oil companies."

Why Do Elderly Nuns Hate Democracy?

Good thing the US Supreme Court upheld Indiana's "voter identification" law or this gang of democracy haters might have played havoc with the state's primary election:



Indiana nuns lacking ID denied at poll by fellow sister

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.



Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.



The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.



"One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.



They weren't given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. "You have to remember that some of these ladies don't walk well. They're in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts."

Hillary Clinton: Party Animal

I'm pretty sure this is the kind of "reputation" most Wellesley girls would prefer didn't end up on the evening news:

Looks like Hillary top adviser Terry McAuliffe is really upping the ante when it comes to Hillary's ability to throw back shots with the best of 'em.



Hillary, of course, famously downed a shot of whiskey in the run-up to the voting in Pennsylvania, and today, with Hillary's efforts to court blue collar voters at full throttle, McAuliffe expanded a bit on Hillary's affection for tossing 'em back...



McAuliffe, asked whether her shot-tossing is phony, replied that "she loves to sit, throw 'em back," adding that "she actually beat John McCain in a shot contest. She's a girl from Illinois who likes to throw 'em down with the rest of us."

Video here.

Unintended Consequences

How the Housing Bust Is Boosting Newspapers

As the newspaper industry — and print media in general — struggle to survive in the age of digital news, the business has found an unlikely ally: the nation's gravest housing crisis in recent memory.


While newspaper executives have for years complained that online resources—like Craigslist—are cutting deep into their classified advertisement revenue, the foreclosure crisis has created a much-needed revenue stream for at least one struggling newspaper.



From the Washington City Paper:


Foreclosure notices are filling in where condo sales and auto deals once held sway. "There are definitely more than we've ever seen," says Ginger Stanley, executive director of the Virginia Press Association. "I've been in the business 30 years." Here's what Stanley's talking about: On March 13, the Washington Post's classifieds section totaled 22 pages, approximately 14 of which were devoted to what are technically known as "trustee's sales."



It turns out that local governments require foreclosure sale notices to be placed in "local newspapers with broad distribution."

Enhanced Interrogative

Have you been economically stimulated today?

Vote Pandering Primer

Why the "Gas Tax Holiday" is simple vote pandering:


Let's suppose your vehicle has a 15 gallon tank.

The federal gas tax is 18.5 cents per gallon.

A suspension of the tax would save you $2.78 per tank of gas.



Let's say your vehicle gets 22-miles-per-gallon.

That's 330 miles per tank.

If you drove 3300 miles, you would fill your tank 10 times to save $27.80.

If you drove 6600 miles, you would fill your tank 20 times to save $55.60.



Indeed, you would need to fill your tank 36 times -- consuming 540 gallons of gas and covering 11880 miles -- to save $100.08.



And remember, it's all predicated on the assumption that the gas companies would extend the "Gas Tax Holiday" savings on to the consumer, rather than pocket the profits themselves. What reason have they ever given us to trust them before?



Atrios has a bit more:

I'm not even sure if I've weighed in on this one, but yes it's a dumb idea to have a gas tax holiday. Tax incidence on the gas tax in more normal times is roughly split between buyers and sellers, but if gas prices are going up because we've hit capacity then sellers are basically paying the tax, and if you remove the tax you're just giving oil companies a windfall as gas prices will just increase to what they were when the tax was in place.

I also think it's dumb politically as it's something you promise and then when it happens people realize that you didn't give them anything. The only decent argument against raising the gas tax (nonpolitical argument anyway) is that it's regressive, but that can be offset by, say, giving everyone a couple hundred dollar tax credit on their income taxes.



...to put it another way, if you think people should get an extra $40 this summer (an extremely optimistic view of what a gas tax holiday might save them), then give them an extra $40.

Sad Genius Art

Icaro Doria is a 25 year old Brazilian who has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. He is the creator of the flags campaign "Meet the World," in which he explains the hidden meaning behind the color scheme of each nation's flag.
....click on images for larger image....

Shine the Light

There's an ongoing debate between my brother Pat and I -- and many others we've dragged in over the years -- that boils down as follows:

Beatles or Rolling Stones?

Oft is the time, after several beers, a few shots and a couple rounds on the jukebox of "Sympathy," "Shattered," and "Live with Me," that I come down squarely in the Stones' camp.
They are, quite simply, The Greatest Rock and Roll Band Ever.

But then Pat will bust out his trump card, which sez:

If there were no Beatles, there would be no Rolling Stones.

Well, that may or may not be true, and John Lennon clearly felt the Stones were ripping the Beatles off much of the time, but there's one thing the Stones have that the Beatles don't, and it's this:



(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

100 Years Ago

19th Nervous Breakdown

2000 Light Years from Home

2000 Man

2120 South Michigan Avenue

A Quick One While He's Away

Across The Bridge

Ain't That A Lot of Love

Ain't Too Proud to Beg

All About You

All Down the Line

All Sold Out

All the Way Down

Almost Hear You Sigh

Already over Me

Always Suffering

Angie

Angie

Anybody Seen My Baby?

Anyway You Look at It

Around and Around

As Tears Go By

Baby Break It Down

Back Of My Hand

Back to Zero

Backstreet Girl

Beast of Burden

Before They Make Me Run

Biggest Mistake

Bitch

Black Limousine

Blinded by Love

Blinded by Rainbows

Blue Turns to Grey

Bob Wills Is Still The King

Brand New Car

Break the Spell

Brown Sugar

Bye Bye Johnny

Can I Get A Witness

Can You Hear the Music

Can't Be Seen

Can't You Hear Me Knocking

Carol

Casino Boogie

Champagne and Reefer (with Buddy Guy)

Cherry Oh Baby

Child of the Moon

Citadel

Come On

Coming Down Again

Complicated

Confessin' The Blues

Congratulations

Connection

Continental Drift

Cool, Calm and Collected

Corrina

Country Honk

Crackin' Up

Crazy Mama

Cry to Me

Dance (Pt. 1)

Dance Little Sister

Dancing With Mr. D

Dandelion

Dangerous Beauty

Dead Flowers

Dear Doctor

Dirty Work

Don't Stop

Doncha Bother Me

Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)

Down Home Girl

Down in the Hole

Down the Road a Piece

Driving Too Fast

Emotional Rescue

Empty Heart

Eulogy for Brian Jones

Everybody Needs Somebody to Love

Everything Is Turning to Gold

Factory Girl

Fancy Man Blues

Far Away Eyes

Feel On Baby

Fight

Fingerprint File

Flight 505

Flip the Switch

Fool to Cry

Fortune Teller

Get Off of My Cloud

Get Up, Stand Up

Gimme Shelter

Going Home

Going to a Go-Go

Gomper

Good Times

Good Times, Bad Times

Gotta Get Away

Grown Up Wrong

Gunface

Had It With You

Hand of Fate

Hang Fire

Happy

Harlem Shuffle

Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby Standing...

Heart of Stone

Heartbreaker

Hearts for Sale

Heaven

Hey, Negrita

Hide Your Love

High and Dry

High Wire

Hitch Hike

Hold Back

Hold on to Your Hat

Honest I Do

Honky Tonk Women

Hot Stuff

How Can I Stop

I Am Waiting

I Can't Be Satisfied

I Go Wild

I Got the Blues

I Just Want To Make Love To You

I Just Want to See His Face

I Wanna Hold You

I'm A King Bee

I'm Alright

I'm Free

I'm Moving On

I'm Yours She's Mine

I've Been Loving You Too Long

If I Was a Dancer (Dance, Pt. 2)

If You Can't Rock Me

If You Need Me

If You Really Want to Be My Friend

In Another Land

Indian Girl

Infamy

It Must Be Hell

It Won't Take Long

It's All Over Now

It's Not Easy

It's Only Rock & Roll (But I Like It)

Jigsaw Puzzle

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

Keys To Your Love

Lady Jane

Laugh, I Nearly Died

Learning The Game

Let It Bleed

Let It Loose

Let it Rock

Let Me Down Slow

Let Me Go

Let's Spend the Night Together

Licks Around the World

Lies

Like A Rolling Stone

Little Baby

Little By Little

Little Queenie

Little Red Rooster

Little T & A

Live With Me

Long Long While

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Look What You've Done

Losing My Touch

Love in Vain

Love Is Strong

Love Train

Loving Cup

Low Down

Luxury

Mannish Box

Mean Disposition

Melody

Memory Motel

Mercy Mercy

Midnight Rambler

Might as Well Get Juiced

Miss Amanda Jones

Miss You

Mixed Emotions

Mona (I Need You Baby)

Money

Monkey Man

Moon Is Up

Moonlight Mile

Mother's Little Helper

Mr. Pitiful

My Girl

My Obsession

Neighbours

New Faces

Night Time Is The Right Time

No Expectations

No Use In Crying

Not Fade Away

Now I've Got A Witness

Off the Hook

Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin')

Oh No, Not You Again

On With the Show

One Hit (To the Body)

One More Try

Out of Control

Out Of Tears

Out of Time

Pain in My Heart

Paint It, Black

Parachute Woman

Parade

Play With Fire

Please Go Home

Poison Ivy

Pretty Beat Up

Prodigal Son

Rain Fall Down

Respectable

Ride on Baby

Rip This Joint

Rock and a Hard Place

Rock Me Baby

Rocks Off

Rough Justice

Route 66

Ruby Tuesday

Sad Sad Sad

Saint of Me

Salt of the Earth

Select-a-Stone

Send It to Me

Sex Drive

Shake Your Hips

Shattered

She Said Yeah

She Saw Me Coming

She Smiled Sweetly

She Was Hot

She's a Rainbow

She's So Cold

Shine a Light

Short and Curlies

Silver Train

Sing This All Together (See What Happens)

Sister Morphine

Sittin' on a Fence

Six Days on the Road

Slave

Sleep Tonight

Slipping Away

Some Girls

Something Better

Something Happened to Me Yesterday

Song for Jeffrey

Soul Survivor

Sparks Will Fly

Star, Star

Start Me Up

Stealing My Heart

Stop Breaking Down

Stray Cat Blues

Street Fighting Man

Streets Of Love

Stupid Girl

Suck on the Jugular

Summer Romance

Surprise, Surprise

Susie Q

Sway

Sweet Black Angel

Sweet Neo Con

Sweet Virginia

Sweethearts Together

Sympathy for the Devil

Take It or Leave It

Take the "A" Train

Talkin' About You

Tell Me

Terrifying

That's How Strong My Love Is

The Lantern

The Last Time

The Nearness of You

The Other Side of This Life

The Singer Not the Song

The Spider And The Fly

The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

The Worst

Thief in the Night

Think

This Place Is Empty

Through the Lonely Nights

Thru and Thru

Tie You up (The Pain of Love)

Till the Next Goodbye

Time Is On My Side

Time Waits for No One

Tip of the Tongue

Too much blood

Too Rude

Too Tight

Too Tough

Tops

Torn and Frayed

Tumbling Dice

Turd on the Run

Twenty Flight Rock

Under My Thumb

Under the Boardwalk

Undercover Of The Night

Ventilator Blues

Waiting on a Friend

Walking The Dog

Wanna Hold You

We Love You

What a Shame

What to Do

When the Whip Comes Down

Where the Boys Go

Who's Been Sleeping Here

Whole Lotta Yoko

Wild Horses

Winning Ugly

Winter

Wish I'd Never Met You

Worried About You

Yer Blues

Yesterday's Papers

You Better Move On

You Can Make It If You Try

You Can't Always Get What You Want

You Can't Catch Me

You Don't Have to Mean It

You Got Me Rocking

You Got the Silver

You Gotta Move


I just got back from the new Martin Scorcese film "Shine a Light," his Rolling Stones concert film, and I can only say that it was awesome.

Having seen the Stones get blown off the stage by the J.Geils Band in 1981, I was really worried about the geriatric effect. But everyone is in top form, Bobby Keyes is on stage playing sax like it's still 1974 and the film benefits from guest appearances by Jack White, Buddy Guy and the stunning Christina Aguilera (that girl's got some, ummm... "pipes"). I highly advise any an all to go check this film out -- on the big screen.