Friday YouTube Nugget

What a glorious Noel....The Humanist got everything he wanted and more and was able to bring some joy to family and friends with his choice of presents. He ate too much, (thankfully) didn't drink too much and made it safely back to work.....grumble.

Anyhoo, it's the Friday after Christmas, I got nothing.....so here's one of my favorite bits from Seinfeld. That's gold, Jerry......GOLD!

MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY

"It's Christmaaaaaaaaaaas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Friday YouTube Nugget

I realize I'm a couple weeks late with this, but it's been 7 years since we lost George Harrison. Here's a clip of my 2nd favorite Beatle being exceptionally silly on a BBC special from 1975:

Friday YouTube Nugget

And my nominee for Worst Lip Synch in a Video: Joe Jackson, I'm The Man:

Imagine

9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980

28 years ago and it seems like yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours

There are so many things to be thankful for this year:

• Family
• Friends
• Friends of Friends
• Strangers
• Strangers who are not yet Friends
• Strangers who will never be Friends
• Methodists
• Snake-handlers
• Dear gentle blog readers
• Someone special to love....and who loves back
• PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, MOTHERFUCKER!
• (ahem)....vice-president elect Joe Biden
• 56 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes to go for President Bunnypants
• Love
• Peace
• Harmony
• Comfortable Shoes
• Poutine
• No local pro athletes paralyzed or garroted on the playing field thus far this year
• The sun has not burned out just yet
• I am not yet selling pencils on the street or moving into "Hoovervilles"
• My sarcasm remains pointed
• I can still rock the mic like a vandal and, also, light up a chump like a candle
• I'm alive
• I'm well
• I'm happy
• My brother
• My mother

So, in the spirit of the season, I'm reposting my special Thanksgiving video...an appropriate clip from The Ice Storm (1997):

My warmest wishes to you and your families for a restful and happy Thanksgiving.

Now....onto the War on Christmas!

Friday YouTube Nugget

Today's installment comes from the soundtrack of Sean Penn's film, The Pledge (2001). The film was little seen in its release, but was a fascinating examination of a retired detective's obsession with finding a child killer. One of the standout songs on the soundtrack was by an artist from Mozambique. The lead singer of that country's top dance band, Orchestra Marrabenta Star, Wazimbo recorded this song in 1988 and re-released it in 2001 when it gained popularity due to its use in the film.

Here is Wazimbo with "Nwalhulwana"

Well, looks like I'm not getting any work done until January 2009

"You lookin' at me?"

I just found out that Google is placing the entire photo archive of LIFE magazine online...the photos date all the way back to the 1750's (I posted one of the earliest ones above) and are organized and searchable by decade.

They have 20% of the total archive posted....in the next few months, they'll have all 10 million photos up.

Click if you dare: http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Yeah....that's about right

UPDATE - As if today couldn't get worse, I just saw that Joe Lieberman will keep his chair on the Homeland Security Committee.

Reverend Jim - bring us the Kool-Aid!!!

Friday YouTube Nugget

Tune in, turn on, drop out

This week's installment is a little hippy-dippy, but is a pretty good song. The Moody Blues released "Legend of a Mind" in 1968, but the song is better known for its opening verse:

"Timothy Leary's dead.
No, no, no, no, He's outside looking in."

Timothy Leary was the notorious Harvard professor-turned-LSD advocate who graced the Sixties with his iconic slogan noted in the caption above. After crashing hard in the 70's (including a fugitive run through Algeria and Switzerland and a sentence at Folsom Prison), Leary reemerged in the 80's as a lecturer and personality. Kids like me who weren't around when Richard Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in America" saw Leary as a sort of relic of the Hippie Era. His last grab at publicity came around his death from prostate cancer in 1996. Leary arranged to have his head removed from his corpse for the purposes of cryonic preservation and his cremated remains to be loaded on a rocket so he could be buried in space. The rocket, which also carried the remains of Gene Roddenberry, was launched in April 1997 and was in orbit for six years before it burnt up.

Far out, man....

DRUM SOLO

In honor of the great Mitch Mitchell, the last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience who was found dead yesterday, here's a great moment from a concert in Sweden, 9 January 1969:

In honor of their service

No on Prop.8 - Redux

As happy as I am over Tuesday's election results, I was crushed that Proposition 8, the anti-civil rights initiative, narrowly passed in California. We have a lot of work to do to overcome.

I haven't heard a more eloquent or passionate commentary on this issue than Keith Olbermann in tonight's Special Comment:



This is neither political nor partisan. This is a matter of basic civil rights, the rights granted to us by our Constitution. None must rest until we are all free.

Friday YouTube Nugget

VICTORY!!!!

President-elect Barack Obama.

Damn, that feels great to say.

I know that the hard work is ahead and this president faces the greatest challenges of any incoming president....yeah, yeah, yeah.

In the here and now, I want to celebrate. To kick off this weekend jamboreee with the Ramones....do you remember rock n' roll radio?

Almost forgot something.....

The last laugh....or last scream, if you will

Democrats around the nation owe a huge debt of gratitude and respect towards the DNC chairman, Gov. Howard Dean. His 50-state strategy, which was ridiculed when he assumed office three years ago, has paid off beautifully. Today, the Democratic Presidential nominee is competitive in all but a handful of states and is polling very well in states previously written off to anyone with a (D) next to their name.

Thank you Gov. Dean.

Today is Election Day - Make Your Voice Heard

21 months to get to this place in history.

Millions of words spoken.

Dozens of debates.

Story after campaign story, smear after smear, policy position after another...

The 2008 campaign has been the most invigorating, frustrating, uplifiting, demoralizing, inspirational campaign of my lifetime. I am glad to have lived through it and I hope for one more day of good news.

I'm headed to bed shortly with the promise of a new day, a new way and real change in our country's leadership by Tuesday evening.

I'll leave you with some music. Get to your polling station tomorrow and let your voice be heard.

For now and for all times....ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!

One Day To Go: Madelyn Payne Dunham

This embrace should have happened tomorrow

CNN is reporting that Madelyn Payne Dunham, Barack Obama's grandmother and the most prominent influence on him in his formative years, has passed away.

She was so close....so close. But I'm sure she saw all her dreams fulfilled in her grandson. May she rest in peace and may we all do our part to fulfill her last dream.

All power to the people

Five Days to Go: Alice Paul

Today, we pay tribute to Alice Paul and the courageous activists who led the women's suffrage movement of the early 20th century that secured the right to vote for women. Paul (who held doctorates in political science and civil law) formed a succession of suffrage organizations to rally support for women's rights and convince the federal government to pass a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage.

In the course of this struggle, Paul and her fellow activists endured physicial assaults, imprisonment, torture and continuous harassment. Undaunted, these "iron-jawed angels" persisted until Woodrow Wilson announced, in 1918, the urgent need for women's suffrage as a "war measure". Two years later, by the margin of one vote in Tennessee, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed and women were finally able to participate in the electoral process.

All power to the people

Six Days To Go: Harvey Milk

In a little under a month, we will commemorate the 30th anniversary of Harvey Milk's assassination. Milk changed our political landscape forever when, in 1977, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay non-incumbent man in the U.S. to win an election for public office.

Sadly, Milk served just under a year before a ex-colleague from the Board entered City Hall with a pistol and assassinated both Milk and San Francisco's mayor, George Moscone, on November 27, 1978.

The plaque in front of what was Milk's camera store in the Castro District in San Francisco reads:

Harvey Milk's camera store and campaign headquarters at 575 Castro Street and his apartment upstairs were centers of community activism for a wide range of human rights, environmental, labor, and neighborhood issues. Harvey Milk's hard work and accomplishments on behalf of all San Franciscans earned him widespread respect and support. His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry.

Milk's most famous quote was inspired by the legion of death threats he received during his life in public. He said - "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door". Harvey Milk devoted his last decade on earth to shattering myths, fighting bigotry and providing hope and inspiration at a time when gays and lesbians were still assumed to be mentally ill.

All power to the people.....and if you live in California, vote no on Prop. 8

One Week To Go: Charles Alexander

The view from a man who's seen quite a lot in his 86 years:





I am humbled by Americans like Charles who were treated as second-class citzens for the better part of a century by their own country, yet always persevered and never lost their belief in the promise of a better day - for them and for the nation.

I hope Charles lives many more years to see that promise delivered.

All power to the people

"Memories....pressed between the pages of my mind..."

"Memories...sweetened through the ages just like wine..."


Harriet Christian, Hillary supporter and batshit insane nutjob, May 31, 2008 at the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting:



The "inadequate black male", as of Sunday October 26, is leading Harriet's guy 51-40 nationally and leads McCain by double digits among voters on the economy, health care, taxes and the housing crisis.

"Quiet thoughts come floating down
And settle softly to the ground
Like golden autumn leaves around my feet
I touched them and they burst apart with sweet memories
Sweet memories"

It wasn't me...

My own personal nightmare

Friday YouTube Nugget

It's New Wave Friday! I heard this timeless classic on the drive up to Ellicottville this past weekend and the GF and I were rockin' out. I cannot believe this tune is 26 years old....ugh.

The Cars - "Since You're Gone"



P.S. Get well, Mrs. Dunham

A special place in Hell...

is reserved for this douchebag Republican apologist. When pressed on Gov. Palin's $150,000 shopping spree in under a month, he decides to mock a man going home to spend what little time is left with his seriously ill grandmother who raised him:



Anytime I feel like reaching across the aisle and feeling all bipartisan-sy, fuckheads like this remind me why I'm a Democrat.

Gimmicks Don't Work

Come to think of it....Tina Fey would have been a better choice

We stand less than two weeks away from the election and the latest poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal shows Obama opening up a 10-point lead over McCain. What has stalled McCain's traction in the polls? What has been the top reason his campaign has been stymied? What is the main concern voters have about a potential McCain presidency?

• continuing the disastrous Bush economic policies to benefit the upper 1%?
• not doing enough to protect American jobs?
• slashing Medicare and taxing health care benefits (for the first time ever)?
• providing tax breaks to Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc?
• not simply staying in, but escalating the siege in Iraq?
• continuing the obliviousness of the Bush administration towards the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Al Queda network in Pakistan?

Well, all these are notable factors....but the main reason voters are peeling away from McCain is - his own gambit in selecting a "mavericky", yet thoroughly unqualified vice-presidential candidate:

Now, Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy - ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.

Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous poll. In addition, for the first time, more voters have a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent view her negatively, versus 38 percent who see her in a positive light.

That, to me, is a stunning development. The one decision McCain thought would transform his campaign has turned out to be a bigger liability to him than George W. Bush.

(Belated) Friday YouTube Nugget

Sorry for missing Friday, but a weekend mini-vacation at a chalet in beautiful Ellicottville beckoned. To honor a great soul singer and one of the most distinctive voices of Motown, I'm posting the Four Tops' signature tune, "Reach Out (I'll Be There)". RIP, Levi Stubbs

A couple thousand words

I think Senator McCain just saw CNN's instant polling that Independents went for Obama 57-31.

Hip Hip Hooray

Ladies and gentlemen.....your 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Economics is Princeton professor and esteemed New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel economic prize Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.

Krugman has been a harsh critic of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in The New York Times, where he writes a regular column and has a blog called "Conscience of a Liberal."

He has come out forcefully against John McCain during the economic meltdown, saying the Republican candidate is "more frightening now than he was a few weeks ago" and earlier that the GOP has become "the party of stupid."

I'm sure the "party of stupid" will issue a statement criticizing the Nobel panel for their liberal bias and boasting that Sarah Palin was just cited as "Pistol-Packin' Mama Of The Year" by the National Rifle Association.

"On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia"

As predicted....great job McCain campaign. Not even the classless move of putting Gov. Palin's young daughters and Flyer great Brian Propp out there as human shields was going to deny the Philly faithful what they came to the game to do....boo the shit out of a nutjob VP candidate:



The message here seems to be "keep your shitty, losing campaign outta my hockey game"

Friday YouTube Nugget

Happy Friday!

As much as I wanted to post M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" (because The Wannabe Outdoorsman loves it so much), I must pay my respeck to old-school hip-hop with this week's Nugget.

De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising was a phenomenon when it debuted in 1989. It was a complete departure from the hardcore, gangsta rap that dominated the genre in the year. The uniquely positive style, sly humor and the coolest samples yet heard made this album a must have. Transitioning from senior year in high school to freshman in college, I listened to this album a thousand times. Although it wasn't the first rap album to make an impression on me (that honor is shared by Run D.M.C.'s Raising Hell and Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back), 3 Feet High and Rising made me appreciate hip-hop and the diversity in contemporary music I was about to explore (after spending my high school years immersed in the Allman Brothers and Santana).

Here's my favorite track from the album - a glorious mash-up of Steely Dan, Otis Redding and Sly & The Family Stone.....straight from the D.A.I.S.Y. Age, y'all, this is "Eye Know"

No on Prop. 8

Proposition 8 is one more in a series of insidious, hateful ballot propositions in the great state of California - coming in direct response to the recent state Supreme Court decision affirming the right of same-sex couples to marry, this proposition would take that right away and write discrimination back into the state constitution.

While my dear readers are from all over this great land, I urge you to do whatever you can to join the fight to defeat this noxious ballot initiative. The recent polling indicates that the "Yes" vote has overtaken the "No" vote and, less than a month until California voters go to the polls, an influx of Mormon money to blanket the state with misleading ads has turned the tide from what it was a scant five months ago.

I gave $100 yesterday....please give whatever you can (or volunteer....or write some e-mails....or put a "No on Prop. 8" sign on yer blog). I have too many friends in California who've waited too long to be recognized equally under the law to be slapped in the face once more.

Thanks.

Link to the No on Prop.8 website: http://www.noonprop8.com/home

This Will End Well...

Gov. Palin - meet the Broad Street Bullies

In the infinite wisdom of the McCain campaign, which has deemed the mainstream media too hostile and sexist to allow their vice-presidential candidate to hold a single press conference as of yet, it appears Governor Palin is headed to the friendliest place on earth. No, not Disneyland - a Flyers home game:

The GOP vice presidential nominee will drop the ceremonial first puck when the Philadelphia Flyers open the regular season against the New York Rangers on Saturday. Palin, the Alaska governor and self-described "hockey mom,” will join the winner of a team promotion for the “Ultimate Hockey Mom” to drop the puck.

OK....so the McCain campaign is telling us that Katie Couric was too tough, but a drunken, obnoxious Philadelphia Flyers crowd will be suitable? These are the same people who booed Santa Claus....who booed Michael Irvin when he lay motionless at Veterans Stadium, fearful of a spinal injury....who mercilessly booed local heroes like Mike Schmidt, Charles Barkley, Richie Ashburn...this is the event for which they choose to let her loose into the wild?

I realize that Pennsylvania is a swing state and the crowds at sporting events tend to skewer more conservative...but this can't have been thought out too clearly by the geniuses in the McCain campaign. I hope the Philly faithful show Gov. Palin all due respect and courtesy...but let's be honest - when they have a prison set up in the bowels of Veterans' Stadium for all the criminals attending Eagles games, I'm not optimistic she'll get a polite welcome.

Victory in the GWOTD (Global War On Talking Dirty)

Dial 1-900-TALK-TO-MY-BUSH

In a development that absolutely no one could have anticipated (sigh), it seems that the seemingly foolproof plan of giving Bush administration toadies access to your phone calls might not have worked out as planned:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003. Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

Jeepers! Guess that's the "constant check to make sure that our civil liberties of our citizens are treated with respect" bullshit that Our Dear Glorious Leader was babbling about for the past five years.

Shame on all you Democratic House and Senate members that voted to give this buffoon and his criminal lackeys free rein to listen in on private conversations.....rubbing their thighs all the way, I imagine.

One more thing

Sarah Palin talks....




her supporters listen...

info on the bottom photo here

"Sit down, boy"

VP FAIL

With their campaign sinking amid the worst economic crists since the Great Depression that, despite their furious spinning, voters seem to be blaming the Republicans for and no more traction from the Palin selection to be had, the McCain-Palin ticket's strategy for the last month in the campaign seems to be "How Low Can We Go"? No bottom is too low for these two, apparently:

"McCain calls Obama a liar, faults his Chicago ties"

"Palin criticizes Obama's ties to Wright, Ayers"

"Character attacks emerge in McCain-Obama race"

As can be expected, when John "Maverick" McCain and Sarah "No Press Interviews Please" Palin start feeding the dog-whistle racism and ugly rhetoric to their base, who could ever imagine the ignorant racist oafs in their audiences would show their true faces?

"...Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

"Sit down, boy"

There, in a nutshell, is the McCain-Palin strategy from here until Nov. 4.

Let's ease back into this....

A little A.A. Milne, as interpreted by Kermit's nephew Robin, to ease us back into the routine before I go America all over everybody's ass:

Housecleaning.....

My dear loyal readers (all seven of you):

My deepest apologies for my lack of blogging....between travel and the girlfriend, I've been woefully neglectful of my poor abandoned blog. I've missed the big news of the past two weeks (economic meltdown, the campaign hijinks, Bills starting 4-0, Paul Newman's death, season premiere of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, etc.), so I will spend the next few days trying to catch up.

One bit of housecleaning....I wanted to post a tribute to Rick Wright, who passed away in September, because I think this poor guy got one of the all-time shafts in the biz from one of the truly misanthropic characters in rock and roll - Roger Waters. Here's what you must understand about Rick Wright - he was a founding member of Pink Floyd. He and Syd Barrett were the driving forces behind Pink Floyd's early sound...he not only sang lead on many of Syd's compositions, he also wrote a lot of memorable tunes from their first two albums ("Remember A Day" is my favorite from this period). He sang lead on the epic "Echoes" and went on to write "Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" from Dark Side of the Moon.

Which makes what Roger Waters did to him during the making of The Wall (1979) all the more vile:

"...Battling both personal problems and an increasingly rocky relationship with Roger Waters, he was forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions by Waters, who threatened to pull the plug on the album's tapes if Wright did not leave the band. However, he was retained as a salaried session musician during the subsequent live concerts to promote that album in 1980 and 1981. Ironically, Wright became the only member of Pink Floyd to profit from those hugely spectacular shows, since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining "full-time" members. He was the only member of the band not to attend the 1982 premiere of the film version of The Wall. In 1983, Pink Floyd released the only album on which Wright does not appear with The Final Cut..."

Rumor has long held that Waters had a financial incentive from the record company to finish the Wall early in 1979, which was stymied by Rick Wright's vacation. The man who excoriated the industry so skillfully four years before in "Have A Cigar" decided to fire his friend and bandmate for more than fifteen years so he could collect some more filthy lucre from the record company and then, to add insult, blamed it on Wright's "cocaine problem".

So, Rick Wright turns out to be the only Floyd member to make some scratch on The Wall tour and manages to avoid completely the trainwreck that was The Final Cut. Cheers to him.

Well, here is a clip of the aforementioned "Echoes" from Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. Shine on, you crazy diamond...

The Selling of the Presidency, Vol. 11

Buy my product (i.e. vote for my ticket) and maybe I'll bang ya. Fer shure.....

Friday YouTube Nugget

Sorry y'all for the spare blogging...I've been traveling for work and it's screwed up my posting schedule. Normal blogging to return next week...

I will post a tribute to Rick Wright (see This Week's Rock Death to the right) over the weekend....today, however, is a good day for the Pixies.

The Bushonomics Chickens Come Home To Roost, Part IX

I'll have more to comment on this tomorrow, mostly in response to AR's last post, but Monday will herald yet another historic collapse in three parts - Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are looking to go belly up while American International Group (AIG) is having a fire sale of its assets.

This ruinous, absentee-owner stewardship of the economy that fiddles while our market burns can be summed up as follows:

I GOT MINE, FUCK YOU

Don't forget....these are the same clowns that the GOP wanted to entrust our Social Security funds to manage. You can thank the Democrats for saving Social Security.

Friday YouTube Nugget

A very happy 56th birthday to Neil Peart from Rush:

Why Intellectual Dishonesty Is Never A Good Idea

Now that we're in the home stretch of this campaign season (56 days and counting), you are undoubtedly being inundated by e-mails, as have I, tearing down one candidate or the other. In my experience, the majority of these mass e-mails are dubiously sourced, at best, or, at worst, a compendium of outright lies designed to smear the candidate and scare voters off from supporting him. The recipients of these e-mails would do well to find out the facts on their own and debunk these false missives wherever possible. It is one thing to forward them to friends and family; it is quite another to post them to one's blog as if they were the author's work, without attribution or explanation.

Such was the case with a recent post on Automatic Rebalancing. You all will remember AR from this charming post in April of this year, which depicted a group of black people running away from Obama after he pledged "to make sure everyone who can work will have a job." How witty...if you're at the local Christian Identity meeting.

Such was the case on Monday when AR posted a lengthy comparison of the tax policies of Obama and McCain. The purpose of the exercise, given the partisan slant of the blog, was to highlight how disastrous Obama's policies would be for the average taxpayer and how beneficent McCain's policies would be. The author introduced this post by stating his bonafides as a "professional in the financial services industry" and claiming that the "following information has been researched and verified..." Seems legit, no? The post goes on to list comparisons in different tax categories (capital gains, dividends, income tax, etc) with comments by the author supporting the "facts" as presented.

Well, I smelled a rat. So, off to teh Yahoo intertubes search engine I ran and, lo and behold, found that most of the content of the post came directly from a rancid piece of anti-Obama astroturf making its way through e-mail inboxes across the land. Both of the popular online urban legend debunking sites, Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, called the information contained in this sleaze false and definitely misleading.

Knowing that AR has the cowardly policy of reviewing comments for moderation (or editing) before they're posted, I sent the following comment:

You're such an "expert" that you cut and pasted a false spam e-mail that's already been debunked by snopes.com? (http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp)

Just of kicks, let's take the income tax claim of this nonsense...as snopes noted, Obama does not favor extending the tax cuts for households with incomes of $250,000 or more per year. None of the brackets you listed apply to that level, so their inclusion is not only irrelevant, it's a flat out lie about Obama's tax policy. In fact, the taxpayers in the brackets you listed would see a greater reduction under Obama's plan than they would under McCain's "let's make the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent"plan.

So much for the information having been "researched and verified". It's full of shit!

I would hope that you don't reproduce this same shoddy, lazy effort for your clients.

P.S. You can either publish this comment as is or it's going up verbatim on my blog

Well, I didn't have to worry about making good on my threat, as AR published a fierce rebuttal to my comment yesterday. Under the heading "Ah, self-righteous indignation...Wonderfully droll, isn't it?"

Well, I do tend to get self-righteous when I'm actually right.

In his defense, AR claims that he omitted the claims he thought were "absurd" and kept the ones he thought were "worthy of query". Well, thank goodness for that. Instead of cut-and-pasting all of the bullshit, AR just gave us a little taste.

The main problem with AR's original post is that it doesn't provide any links to any of Obama's actual proposals, nor does it cite any sources for the claims it makes (and AR expounds upon). AR claims he used other sources (a neo-conservative rag out of NYC and Dick Morris, for Christ's sake), but strangely does not cite them directly.

The post is predicated on a bushel of wild, exaggerated assumptions on Obama's policies...it invents whole claims out of thin air when they are not supported by the facts in evidence (i.e. Obama's own website). Any blather following cannot be taken seriously because the original assertion is either misleading or blatantly false.

Notwithstanding AR's mention of conservative nutjob media to support his case, he states the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute) "didn't have all the hard facts of either plan and had to make assumptions on key elements"....well, no shit, numbnuts. The difference is that the Tax Policy Center discloses this right up front and doesn't pass off wild speculation as fact, as you did.

AR is correct in one area....I am certainly no expert in economic issues. I didn't get my MBA by dazzling professors with my views on relevant economic theory or my vast knowledge of our current tax codes. I can use a fucking search engine, though, and when I spot bullshit, I call it bullshit.

FactCheck.org does a much better job than I possibly could in debunking this nonsense...here's the link again if you want to go through the gory details. I doubt one could call FactCheck.org an illegitmate source, being that it's funded by the Annenberg Foundation, which was founded by the noted leftist commie pinko Walter Annenberg.

Pay special attention to the last line of FactCheck's expose:

The short answer to our reader’s question is, no, this message isn’t real. It’s a pack of lies.

Liberalism......What A Concept!

What Bob Herbert said...

It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of
American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by
people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that
deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.

This is precisely the response to knuckle-dragging opportunists like Mitt Romney who said, with a straight face, at the Republican National Convention - "“We need change, all right...change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington.” Where the hell has he been for the last eight years?

In A Time Where Egregious Ignorance is a Virtue...

"It was my understanding that there would be no math in this debate..."

GOP VP hopeful Sarah Palin presented herself to the delegates at the Republican Convention (and the nation) as a tough, straight-talking gal, straight out of a saloon in the Alaskan wildnerness, ready to take down those varmint liberals in Washington with their high taxes and elitist ways....dadgumit! Nevermind that it was the conservative GOP majorities in Congress along with their president that steered this country into disaster over the better part of the last eight years - Sarah's got libruls to hunt! Yee-hah!

It's a shame, then, that tough talk can't cover for a mind-numbing display of ignorance on the most important topic of the day - the housing crisis and the impending federal bailout of the nation's two largest mortgage finance firms, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:

McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking in Colorado Springs,
Colo., said Fannie and Freddie had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, however, aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during
reorganization...

It is clear how atrocious McCain's pick is when one considers how likely it is that this beauty pageant also-ran will more than likely occupy the Oval Office if McCain is elected. That the 2nd spot on the national ticket doesn't even know the two biggest players in the housing crisis and institutions critical to this nation's mortgage debt is beyond laughable....it's bloody depressing.

It's no wonder that the McCain campaign is keeping Tough-Talkin Sarah in a virtual bubble for the remainder of the campaign. The "hockey mom" can't keep her yap shut about what pussies Obama and Biden are in her canned campaign speeches, but Gawd forbid she submit herself to take questions from the press. I saw today that the McCain campaign consented to release Gov. Palin into the wild for a series of multiple interviews this week with ABC's Charlie Gibson. While I hope that Gibson is not intimidated by the GOP's whining, I won't hold my breath.

I don't mean this as a criticism of the McCain campaign's strategy to keep this neophyte, fundamentalist nutjob away from the general public....it's their campaign and they can run it however they like. They are not obligated to make Gov. Palin available for press interviews and such. I'd probably do the same thing, if I were in their shoes.

That doesn't mean that the voters deserve to be insulted by a candidate of such pitful qualifications and total lack of preparation on the issues that matter.

The Magic Position

I Hate Men

All My Friends Are Dead

Joyce

Can I Borrow A Feelin?

Let Me Touch Him

left to right: Waldo, Delbert, Homer and Jack

Ken - by request only

"You Said 'Walter Reed', Right? Well I Got Your 'Walter Reed'!"

"My friends, when I'm in house #5, which you can see behind me, I often think about putting country first..."

Just a quick note before I begin because this is too funny....some idiot at the RNC was charged with the responsibility of putting a picture up of Walter Reed Army Medical Center behind McCain during his speech...because, as you know, no Republican address is complete without draping themselves in the flag, putting on 9/11 footage as background scenery and using our troops as political props. Because, we all know, the military is Republican - well, except for those soldiers on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world that are giving to Obama by a 6-1 margin over McCain.

It turns out Captain Video went a'Googling and came up with.....a picture of Walter Reed Middle School. In North Hollywood, CA. Not even remotely related to an Army Medical Center or a place of convalescence for wounded troops.

This is incomptence we can believe in, my friends.

More to come on McCain's speech and the campaign ahead.

Friday YouTube Nugget

This week's installment is dedicated to country music legend and comic actor who passed away this week. Jerry Reed was a Grammy-winning country music star who dabbled in movies and had memorable performances in Smokey and the Bandit and The Waterboy. Here's my favorite Jerry Reed tune, "Amos Moses":

The right campaign image

Let's see....is it this one:

or maybe this blast from the past:

here's a recent one.....and classy, too!

hmmm.....

naw....I'll go with this:

"BLUE"/CALAMITY JANE '08

Qualified

You know what’s laughable? When I hear someone say that Gov. Palin is more qualified than Obama.

Did I miss the part where Palin won 18 million votes in 57 state and territory primaries and caucuses in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history? Was I sleeping when Palin participated in 25 debates in which she was queried intensely on the issues of the day?

I think Gov. Palin is more than qualified to run Alaska...I'd simply like to know what experience she has on the national (or international, for that matter) stage that makes her the best choice for the Vice-President (and a 72-year old cancer-stricken, Ambien-gulping heartbeat away from being Leader of the Free World).

V-B Day (Victory in Blog War III)

(we interrupt our GOP bashing to bring you this important news bulletin)

IT'S OVER

Where do I sign up for the Blog GI Bill?

Let history record that on Wednesday, September 3rd in the Year of our Lawd Two-Thousand And Eight at approximately 10:36 am EST, Gabs O'Steel formally surrendered in the Great Blog War III, thus ending...well, it ended. Let the free people of the Blogosphere celebrate this triumph in the Last Great Blog War and let us commit ourselves to preserving the peace for generations of bloggers to come. As the conquering blog, let me state that I have nothing but the highest respect and admiration for the blog I defeated and pledge that, as an occupying power, I will neither disrupt nor inhibit the great and noble task of rebuilding your vanquished nation, this time as a strong beacon of democracy, truth and the American Way. (H/T to the Wannabe Outdoorsman for the statesmanship)

Just wait until she sees my version of the Marshall Plan. Imagine a steady influx of YouTube videos and in-depth discussions on neutral zone traps.

Meet the Focker

(St. Paul) - Senator John McCain greets the kid who knocked up his running mate's daughter. No, not awkward in the slightest.

The video of "When John Met Levi" is here.

A few nice words on behalf of Senator Biden

My friend Ken in California is complaining that my posts as of late are disturbingly negative against the GOP ticket and that I should say some nice things in defense of the Democratic ticket.

Ken is an ex-Republican who finally saw the light after voting for Bush in 2000 (I know that you did Ken...just admit it). He wants to be convinced to vote Obama-Biden in November. Apparently, four more years of the previous eight isn't enough to send him screaming towards that voting booth.

That said, Ken is right....I should offer at least one post to promote the positive in this campaign....specifically, why I believe Joe Biden was the best choice for the 2nd slot on the Democratic ticket and why it affirms my trust that Obama is ready for the Presidency.

Here's a list of reasons why Biden is an excellent 2nd in command for Obama:

• 35 years continuous service in the U.S. Senate - arguably, the candidate on either ticket with the most experience in public service on the federal level since Bob Dole in 1996
• Has chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee
• Was elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 30 due to an odd election in Delaware....the popular GOP incumbent was considering retirement but was convinced by Richard Nixon to run to avoid a messy primary fight. The incumbent did win the primary but was upset by the young Biden.
• Almost single-handedly kept Robert Bork off the Supreme Court. And very nearly did the same with Clarence Thomas. He did bring in Anita Hill and other victims of now-Justice Thomas to testify to the vile and crude advances this predator subjected them to.
• Authored many landmark pieces of legislation, including the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994), Violence Against Women Act (1994), Kids 2000 (provides computer resources and technical training to low-income and at-risk youths),
• Has made diplomatic trips around the globe. In his service on the Foreign Relations Committee in the 90's, brought the world's attention to the genocide in the Balkans. In fact, during one meeting with Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, Biden called him a war criminal to his face
• Voted for the AUMF that gave President Bush the authority to invade Iraq only after tirelessly working with Senator Lugar on a resolution that authorized military action only after the exhaustion of diplomatic efforts. The Biden-Lugar resolution was torpedoed by the Bush administration in concert with Congressional Republicans. Biden subsequently expressed regret over his AUMF vote and has been one of the Bush Administration's strongest critic in their prosecution of the war. Unlike a certain junior Senator from New York who never thought it important to issue a mea culpa for her AUMF vote.
• When the craven asshole Bush got up in front of the Israeli Knesset and compared contemporary Democrats who opposed his Iraq policy to appeasers of Adolf Hitler prior to World War II, Biden replied "This is bullshit"
• Is one of the least-wealthy Senators in office - his current net worth is between $60,000 and $360,000
• Humble roots - Biden was born into a working poor family in Scranton PA and and earned his way to the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law.
• He is a politician that is unafraid to speak his mind (sometimes to his detriment - see below) and, most importantly, he is not shy about disagreeing with Obama. I thought they both defused the potential tension of former competitors, now running mates pretty well when they introduced themselves in Springfield a few weeks ago
• He will reach out to the working-class white voters that Obama has not yet gotten traction with
• He was going to dominate the VP debate in any case....against Sarah Palin, it will be a mismatch of historic proportions
• If needed, he is more than capable to step into the top slot
  

There are a couple more aspects to the Joe Biden story that lead me not just to admire him, but respect him:

• Biden married his first wife, Neilia, in law school in 1966. Six years later, he was elected as the fifth-youngest Senator in U.S. history. Six weeks after the election, Neilia and their infant daughter were killed in a car crash; his two young sons were badly injured. Biden took the Senate oath of office by their bedside.
• In the aftermath of the accident, Biden took his seat in the Senate, but never moved to D.C. He made the long commute from D.C. to his home in Delaware to be with his boys every night. He continued this commute even after he remarried and had more children. Now that his children are grown (with his eldest son, Beau, due to be deployed to Iraq in a few months), he still rides the Amtrak to be home with his aged mother.
• Biden was out of the Senate for seven months in the late 1980's after suffering two brain aneurysms. The only lasting affect on Biden has been a noticeable loss of hair, thus resulting in his unique coiff.
• Biden is well familiar with the rigors of the campaign trail, having mounted Presidential bids in 1988 and 2008.

Now, I'm not all flowery and gushy about Biden....I worry about his penchant to issue bold statements that sometimes come off as awkward and offensive. I am slightly worried that the plagarism issue that sunk his '88 campaign will be revived. I'm not enamored of his fealty to the credit card industry and his vote for the bankruptcy bill in 2005 that led progressives to dub him "Senator MBNA".

That said, I'm very happy with the choice, as it was the best option Obama had. I would have preferred Wesley Clark, but I understand why Clark wasn't in the final pool. I'm relived that Obama did not give into pressure to put Hillary Clinton on the ticket, which would have been a disaster. Biden brings to the ticket experience, passion and a record of public service that is unmatched. Obama-Biden is a formidable ticket and I cannot wait for the debates.

Your 30 pieces of silver can be picked up backstage, Sen. Lieberman

Judas Iscariot calls you a piece of shit, Joe

Well, the circle is complete and ex-Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is addressing the Republican Convention. I don't know which is the more craven and disappointing act....a lifelong liberal pandering to a staunch conservative audience or said audience applauding a man who espouses ideals they have rejected for four decades. It's the former for me, because Joe Lieberman was a champion for liberal values for much of his adult life. The Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate eight years ago has been reduced to groveling for attention to people who would otherwise throw him in the street. To wit:

• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported reproductive rights for women


• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported LGBT rights


• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported civil rights for blacks - going so far as being a Freedom Rider in the mid-60's and being beaten by Southern racists with baseball bats for his beliefs


• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported strong environmental protections


• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported strong gun control


• 
  
  Joe Lieberman supported strengthening and defending Social Security from Congressional Republicans' attempts to privatize the program


• 
  
  Joe Lierberman voted against amending the Constitution to criminalize flag desecration

All of this....all these years of serving his constituents and the American people honorably disappears tonight. Tonight, Joe Lieberman casts his lot with a candidate and a party that would roll back each and every advancement he has worked his life to achieve. It's a sad and pathetic spectacle.

If you need futher evidence of what a craven asshole Joe Lieberman is, witness his "stirring" endorsement of Democratic values 4 years ago when this traitor asshole was running for president:

Motherfucker, Say What?

You 63% can go fuck yo'selves

I just heard the President of the United States compare the "angry left" to the Viet Cong. Yes...our Commander-In-Chief just equated American citizens to Communists we went to war with 40+ years ago:

"Fellow citizens: If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.

I said it before and I'll say it again:

Will someone please give this asshole a blowjob so we can impeach him already?

Tell me again how much Michelle Obama hates America...

The very definition of IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican), Presidential Candidate Spouse Patriotism Edition:

Michelle Obama:

Bio - Harvard Law graduate, associate at Sidney Austin (world's 9th largest law firm), VP at University of Chicago Hospital Systems

Offense - In a campaign appearance in Milwaukee on 2/18/08, was quoted as saying "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback"

Consequences - excoriated for weeks in the mainstream press, tagged as an "angry black woman" and unpatriotic by right wing pundits, forced to soften her tone for the remainder of the campaign, actually had to say she was proud of her country during her address at the 2008 Democratic Convention.

Todd Palin -

Bio - Never finished college, DWI arrest at the age of 20, 18 years as a production supervisor at BP Oil and is also a commercial salmon fisherman

Offense - Alaska's Division of Elections confirms that Todd Palin, husband of the presumptive Republican nominee for Vice-President, was a registered member (1995-2002) of the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group who actively advocates for Alaska's secession from the United States.

Again.....a registered member of a party whose sole purpose of being is to secede from the United States. Kinda like the Confederate States of America. Funnily enough, 2002 was the first year Sarah Palin ran for statewide office in Alaska.

Consequences - None, so far. In fact, the McCain campaign issued a statement calling questions on the Palins' past party affiliations "smears"

....but at least Todd Palin never said he wasn't proud of his country as an adult until his wife ran for Vice-President.