Governor Goodhair still looks like a FAIL

See this here hair? That is all I need.

Despite this month’s adulation, I continue to believe Rick Perry will implode. There’s a  video at The Daily Caller from the Joe Scarborough show. I generally find Scarborough to be a jerk and a lightweight – unless (as in this case)  his commentary fits my own narrative. Then of course, I find him to be most enlightening.

I’m not having any luck embedding the video (linkee here if you want to watch) but from his rant:

On his Wednesday “Morning Joe” program, Scarborough launched into a near  15-minute rant, complete with faux southern accent, ripping Perry  . .  . “Rick Perry, by the way — you know I called him a ‘dime store conservative’ several weeks ago,” Scarborough said. “We have these in the South. People that were Democrats . . .  and then when Republicans became in charge . . . They all  went from being liberal to conservative.

“Here is a guy that ran Al Gore’s campaign in 1988. Now I was a registered  Democrat like most people in the South, but I was always conservative. This guy  runs Al Gore’s campaign . . .

Ah Barry, that is just rude.

And stupid too.

The next Republican candidates’ debate has long been scheduled for September 7 in California. Today Obama’s office announced his big jobs’ speech will be the same night just before the debate – and it will be delivered to a joint session of Congress. (This is assuming John Boehner permits it – it’s his decision.)

I hope I’m reading this wrong, but I think my prez just effectively shifted the focus from the jobs issue to the politics of the freaky scheduling. And precluded any serious discussion following his speech. It’s all spectator sport now for the political class.

Let’s leave rude to the lower life forms.

UPDATE: Looks like Obama took another bullet from a gun he aimed at himself. Boehner said ‘pretty please come another time” and Barry said ‘sure, whatever works’. Makes me wonder again, what the hell kind of advice is he getting.

War news is great this week!

Yeah for us!! We’re getting those numbers up in Afghanistan; that must mean we’re trying harder, yes?  August is now the month with the very mostest US troop fatalities in The Forever War*.

But that’s not all – this new report from the Wartime Contracting Commission chronicles the $60 billion we’ve wasted over the last ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A staggering $12 million squandered every day for the last 10 years — that was among the findings the Wartime Contracting Commission uncovered in more than two years of investigating war-related spending since 2001.

Good news all around and there’s even more! Today is the 329th day of the tenth year of the war in Afghanistan.  Think that’s all? Wait for it . . . . only 6 more days till the eleventh year!

Records falling everywhere in WarWorld. USA! USA! USA!

Another media failure: everyone should know this stuff, but there isn’t really time. Ya’ know?

You know the endless and annoying hysterical script that goes like this:

• OMG Social Security is a Ponzi scheme!
• OMG it’s going broke!
• OMG people live longer!
• OMG fewer workers per retiree!
• Et-freacking-cetera.

A little reality:

• Social Security has run a surplus since it began
• has a trust fund in the trillions
• is completely sound for at least 25 more years
• cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit, and
• life expectancy is a false issue; people today who reach 65 live about the same number of years as earlier generations. (Our stunning achievement in nearly defeating infant mortality is what changed  life expectancy figures.)

Try to memorize this – makes for great dinner table conversation.

via links at Bartcop which mostly go here

Irene was real. CNN still stupid.

Thanks to Don for this:

Like it could be worse. I’ll take anything that isn’t nuts.

Your 2012 candidate, conveniently running on both tickets

It could be that it’s too late for real electoral reform in this country but a few things suggest that Americans are still looking to find ways to express their dissatisfaction with the parties. One is Ron Paul – his  appeal is in large part because he doesn’t spout a party line. Another is Chris Christie – not for his ideas, but for his candor which has been so lacking in our politics for so long. Even the Tea Party (which may have started as a legitimate independent movement but was quickly co-opted by Americans for Prosperity ) arose out of dissatisfaction with the parties. That movement quickly  attracted an ugly element, which will ultimately delegitimize them (even if they’re everyone’s favorite prom date this week).

Grass-roots movements pop up in every election cycle (anyone remember the Natural Law Party?), who tend to make a small splash and then slide back below the waves.

Here’s one that looks promising. It is at least unique and reflects some original thinking. It’s not a protest movement,; these guys want to get right in there and mix it up. I like their idea. We’ve changed the way we nominate and elect national candidates many times over the years and there’s no reason we can’t do it again.

Americans Elect has a plan to host the first ever, nonpartisan, online convention and put the resulting ticket on the ballot in all 50 states, bypassing the two parties. They’re collecting the necessary signatures to get on those ballots and have almost two million already.

This is from the PBS News Hour last week:

Go sign their petition.

Long Island didn’t protect my home state

Just a few blocks from where we lived.

I grew up in Fairfield CT on the state’s south shore. Seven miles of Long Island Sound and Long Island itself often buffered us from vagaries and storms coming from the Atlantic Ocean. And who knows, maybe this time it did too, but as with judging the US economic policies of 2009, it’s almost impossible to grab hold of the line between ‘ it would have been worse’ and ‘it hit us anyway’. This is some of what a tropical storm – not a hurricane – did in Connecticut both on the shore and well inland.

Sunday funnies? Eh.

Well, apart from hearing David Gregory refer to Irene as “this monstrous storm” (while showing video of people actually outside in the rain) 24 hours after it was downgraded, I did find this:

Plus Bobblespeak will be up shortly (I hope). Meanwhile, want to weep? Sorry, I know it’s not funny, but neither is anything much right now. (same source as above)

Just another eight inches . . .

Shut off your dirty minds! That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m looking at this pix from lower Manhattan this morning, and wishing officialdom would do a little more thinking ‘outside the box’. Imagine if Bloomberg said on Friday that cars ‘below Water Street’ – or whatever marker he chose – that have no option but street parking, are encouraged to park on the sidewalks. Eight inches. Bet thousands of cars would have been spared the salt water damage.

Irene going up the Hudson?

Just heard from a friend in the mountains a few hours up the Hudson River from New York City. She said outer bands are already showing up and she’s got the kerosene lamps lined up in the kitchen!

We got number two! We got number two!

It's me! No, it's me!

Again. How many times is that now?

They hit the ‘publish’ key and then have a good laugh

FOX News is having fun again, alerting us to the fact that Obama is just  never satisfied. It’s always something with him..

President  Obama has declared Aug. 26 – which marks the 91st anniversary of the  constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote – to be “Women’s  Equality Day.”

In a proclamation published by the White  House Thursday, Obama said, “I call upon the people of the United States to  celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender  equality in this country,” according to Reuters.

(Congress decided that August 26th is Women’s Equality Day. In 1971.)

via Balloon Juice

It’s Friday, so before I forget . . .

Those epic promises, oh, the promises!

Not liking this at all

Aiming at NYC, Long Island and New England coast?

Pop the popcorn!

The next GOP candidates’ debate is Sept. 7, mere days away. I can’t wait. Honest.

All of 'em and Gov. Goodhair too

The silly never stops: how to define revenge

See, he talks to me in one of these here ears.

Remember when Pat Robertson warned that a hurricane was bearing down on Orlando because his god was angry about all that “Gay Days’ stuff? And it turned out Orlando was spared; the hurricane hit Robertson’s backyard? Truly the silliness never stops.

Denial has its place too; turn away from bad stuff and it won’t happen. Jonathan Turley reminds us:

Earthquake Hits Cantor’s District After He Led Fight To Slash Funding

The epicenter was Mineral Virginia in the district of Republican Congressman Eric Cantor.  You may recall Cantor’s effort to slash the budget of the United States Geological Service (USGS). . . .

. . . . My greatest concern is that Cantor also defended cuts in the National Weather Service and NOAA — and there is a hurricane approaching Washington.

Bombs are threats and that is all. Also Mooslims. And teh gays.

UPDATE: Cantor got more specific today. Via TPM:  “We aren’t going to speculate on damage before it happens, period,” his spokesperson Laena Fallon emails. “But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.”.

 

I think Atrios is reading me

First I saw lottsa oldies (my kind, not his) sprinkling his site and I thought, well okay, it’s a retro thing. But! But! Cometh this post, with one of my all time favoritest videos, which I first ran (and will again and again) after Governor Nojobsisbetterthanaunionjob of Wisconsin undertook union bashing – well, that is a step too far. I don’t care how famous is the Atrios, this video is  mine, mine, mine!

Corporations are people and must be protected; people people are on their own

We need to have our national health care conversation, but it’s become lost in the F-r-e-e-d-o-m agenda and contemplations of what the Founding Fathers would think. We have become very stupid people.

There are – or should be – only two goals:

1. Cover everyone
2. Do it affordably

Everything else is just noise.

Irene could hit my old home

Hurricane Irene’s winds are building up to 150mph right now and it could be a threat to New England once it passes Hatteras. That’s a familiar route for anyone (like me) who grew up in CT, MA or RI in the 50’s and 60’s.

We were hit over and over again; the worst in that period was probably Hurricane Carol which flooded most of the Connecticut Valley. A friend who grew up in Torrington CT remembers fleeing with her family and neighbors to higher ground and watching the water rush in right up to church steeples.

East River Drive in NYC – 50 miles southwest of the storm

And now comes Irene, which – if it hits – is projected to be the worst storm “since 1938”. Everyone in my parents’ generation had a story about the ’38 storm. It cut Long Island right in half. It wiped out an entire beach town in Westerly Rhode Island, Misquamicut  Beach, which today is part of the national seashore – no buildings since the old ones were washed completely away, many of them full of people.  My mother spoke of ships in downtown New Haven.

In 1938 they didn’t know it was coming and the loss of life was enormous. That won’t happen again, but the property damage is up to Irene.

Fingers crossed.

And so does MSNBC

I am (or rather, I was) listening to Ron Reagan and an ‘expert’ talk about the observed behavior of the animals at the Washington Zoo yesterday. They are talking about how the animals ‘react’ and are ‘reacting’ and about their ‘reactions’. (Poor cable nets – they’re reaching because they were disappointed the earthquake wasn’t severe enough to warrant a week’s coverage.)

The news is not that the animals reacted to the earthquake. The news they were trying so hard to cover (and failing) was that the animals ‘anticipated’, with ‘anticipation’. Animals, vertebrate and other, can sense impending events like earthquakes and tsunamis. Most of us already know that.

Teh stupid, it still hurts!! I guess the quiet place is still there if I need it.

ABC needs to git them one ‘a those dictionaries

Oxymoronic ABC headline:

Obama Hobnobs With Friends on Vineyard Family Vacation

• OXFORD DICTIONARY: (hobnob) mix socially, especially with those of higher social status
• DICTIONARY.COM: (hobnob) to spend time being friendly with someone who is important or famous

 

Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose: 1939 edition

In 1939, John Ford (more below), the iconic director of the Hollywood western, made Stagecoach. It was a big hit and is still considered a classic. It also made John Wayne a star.

The plot was stereotypical: a good guy/bad guy story with cowboys, Indians, a few pretty ladies and a banker. In the film, Henry Gatewood, the banker, sayeth [whilst clutching the bag containing money he’s embezzled]:

I don’t know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they’re even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books.

I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

More about the film here and more about John Ford:

Ford was well-known as a lifelong Republican and political conservative. But he was the kind of libertarian conservative who places great value on individualism and has the populist’s faith in the ability of ordinary people to detect corruption and power-mongering in their leaders. That his favorite presidents reportedly were Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy shows perhaps that he was more impressed with strength of character and the ability to respond forcefully to crisis than with adherence to political dogma. So it’s not surprising that in Stagecoach the great humanist movie maker who was able to find both noble and not-so-noble personal qualities in his characters reserves his most negative feelings for the banker, a thorough hypocrite willing to cheat and rob while condemning the morality of others.

Was this character the first Tea Party Republican?

Hello? Anybody there?

It’s my own belief that Governor Goodhair’s campaign will self-immolate and it will happen sooner rather than later. Even if he holds on until a primary and, further, even if he manages to place, he’ll have to drop out before the primary season runs its course.

Here’s something for your entertainment. Don’t you think it deserve to be viewed far and wide? Yeah, me too.

All your laffs are belong to Maru

Pay attention now and Maru will show you how to survive August.

Just stopping by: Bobblespeak link

Moe’s vacation continues and perhaps a bit longer than anticipated.  I’ve just  suffered the horror of The Rise of the Planet of the Comcast for two plus days. Increasingly this is a regular event – but they’re the only game in town which leads to a somewhat cavalier definition of  ‘customer service’. Verizon FIOS is on the way, but hasn’t reached me yet. Is it any better in your neighborhood?

I am now back online but still on vacation. Before I return to my quiet place, let me remind us all to visit here because moonshinepatriot has again stepped up and watched the Sunday gabfests, so we don’t have to. The raw material for ridicule thins out when Davide Gregory isn’t on air but here’s a Meet the Press tidbit with Samantha Guthrie in for Gregory anbd Robert Gibbs in for the whoever.

Even I didn’t know I was on vacaction

I really didn’t, at least not until I noticed I actually was on vacation. But it is August after all.

So I’ll throw up an oldie and not worry about this place for a few more days. Friend Shep sent this last week. The voices, the music, the lyrics – as good as America ever produced.

Sum sum sum sum summertime . . .

Off to see it! Friends are often appalled at my cinematic choices. So be it; I love sci-fi, action and anything remotely apocalyptic. Also superheros.

How is this newsworthy?

A Tea Partier at an Obama ‘town hall’ gathering, asked a question – out of turn! He may have had a confrontational tone but in fact was at most just being rude. So here’s the story in a national newspaper. (Video at the link is of the follow-up conversation between Obama and the Tea Party guy.) The headline read:

Obama clashes with Tea Party member

Come on guys; there is actual news out there.

Am I in the right place?

Been in my quiet place, trying to soothe my aching heart. How foolish it is of me, surrounded with a world full of wonders, to compulsively focus on the machinatios and utter nonsense of those we’ve elected to manage the affairs of a great nation. (Or is that a once-great nation?)  But I can’t help myself; it’s in the DNA. I think the last conversation I had with my 98-year old father was political. He, smartly, had observed that Obama was making a terrible mistake in letting the Congress take the lead. “They’ll disappoint him” said my old Dad. Smart man.

In my rush to hide from all the ugly, I failed to post a Friday oldie, and for that there is no excuse. This song was a Mills Brothers classic but it caught the attention of the new ‘teenage’ generation with this version by The Classics.

Blog blog gone away; come back another day

Unbloggiasmic. Later.