R U Freaking Kidding Me???? Bill-O Action Alert

I usually take the weekend off from posting, but this one really got my goat. Bill Orally, himself, is scheduled to give a speech on March 19th at the It Happened to Alexa Foundation.

The purpose of this foundation, in case you don't know:

...is to help support rape survivors through the trauma of the criminal trial, in the hopes that more survivors will go through with the prosecution in order to put these perpetrators behind bars.
Established in 2003, the foundation assists rape victims' families with travel expenses during the litigation process and is the only organization of its kind in the United States.

Sounds like a terrific idea, doesn't it? So why in the hell are they allowing Bill Orally to give a talk there? Especially given his total lack of sensitivity to women and women's issues, especially when he is on record as saying on his radio show in 2006, when speaking about another rape victim, 18-year-old Jennifer Moore, who was raped and murdered in New York:

Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk.

This is exactly the kind of classic "blame the victim" mentality that women -- and enlightened men -- have been fighting against for years, and for them to turn around and invite this thug, this chauvinist pig, to speak before a fundraiser for the families of rape victims is so appalling that it's almost beyond belief.

Please join me in telling the foundation that having Bill-O as their "guest" speaker sends exactly the wrong message to the very people that they are trying to help.

Contact Information:

It Happened to Alexa Foundation
125 South First Street
Lewiston, New York 14092
Phone: (716) 754-9105; 877-77-ALEXA (25392)
Fax: (716) 754-4676
Email: info@ithappenedtoalexa.org

Barack the Antichrist?

Okay, I'll admit this one has been going around for quite a while now, but last night's Daily Show did a Jason Jones segment with two preachers, an old black dude who said Barack was Hitler, and for balance an old white dude who said he was the Antichrist.

After doing the math, I think I agree with the old white dude.

Do the math yourself and see if you don't agree:

1. Barack Hussei Nobama: six letters each = 666!
2. He was elected for a 4 year term in 2008: 8 minus 4 is 2, and 2 times the 3 names he carries = 6; if he runs for two more terms, that will make a total of three terms, and those three terms strung together with his names? = 666!
3. There are five people in the Nobama family: the parents, the children and the mother-in-law, right? But wait, you didn't count the dog. That makes 6! Three terms in the white house = 666!
4. Nobama was born on 8-4-1961. 8+4+19+61=92, and 92 divided by how many names he has = 30.666666666666666666666666666667! There are no fewer than 9 sets of triple sixes in that number, which you can clearly see if you remove the first 3 characters and the last 3 characters: 666 666 666 666 666 666 666 666 666! And those characters you removed? They add up to 49; 49 divided by 666 = 0.0735735735735735735735735735735; add those up and they come to 150, and that divided by 666 = 0.2252252252252252252252252252252. And any ASCII programmer can tell you that it is a very simple matter to arrange a nearly-infinite number of those very digits visually (on a computer screen or a printout!) to show an illustration of the face of ... Barack Hussei Nobama!

Jeez, I just don't know how it could be any clearer.

* * * *

Update: Here's the link to the video of that Daily Show segment.

Bobby Who?

If it weren't for the fact that this fucker somehow got himself elected governor of one of the most regressive states in the union and -- most importantly -- he is not himself one of those WASPy caricatures of the typical Rethug party member, you would be asking yourself, as I might be, who the fuck is Bobby Jindal?

But here we are, with Bobby Jindal giving the Rethug commentary to Obama's address last night, and the only thing that the guy has going for him is, apparently, that he has a skin tone similar to that of our president.

Out of the many blatant Rethug lies, falsehoods and truth-stretching, so reminiscent of senility-ridden Ronny Raygun, was his complaint about the budget containing money for "volcano-watching".

Obviously Little Bobby has been out of the loop for the last twenty-nine years. I happen to live in "active volcano country" out here on the NW corner (see Mt. St. Helens -- I was less than fifty miles from it when in blew in 1980), and I just want to ask Little Bobby if he'd be so up in arms over budgetary money being spent for hurricane watch on the Gulf Coast.

Yeah, I didn't think so. God help us if this is the best that the Rethugs can do for their "shining stars in ascent" in the GOP.

Actually, now that I think of it, having Bobby Jindal (like having Governor Wolf Killer) in the ascendancy of the GOP can only be a good thing for the Dems, and for the rest of the country. Who on the left would not like to see a Palin-Jindal ticket in 2012? Alas, their pathos is our victory.

The Non-Story That Won't Die

Jesus, I thought this whole Obama birth certificate flap would be over and done with by now. How many times is the wingnuttery going to beat this dead horse?

Not enough yet, apparently. Now no lesser an august personage than Alabama's Senator Richard Shelby (a Rethug, of course, do I have to say it?) scooping up some local headlines by trying to resurrect the belief that Obama is not a US citizen and therefore not entitled to be president.

Never mind that this has been settled long before, that Obama posted a copy of his birth certificate on his campaign website, that even if some long-term and tremendously complicated conspiracy was at work to try to make it appear that he was born in the US when he wasn't, it's still a moot point since his mother was, undeniably, an American citizen, and therefore US law deems that he is also an American citizen, regardless of where he was born.

Note that there aren't any major news organizations on that list. Well, obviously, that's because all the major news guys are northing more than a bunch of atheistic commie-symp crypto-socialists bent on the destruction of this country at the hands of our non-citizen non-christian sucking-up-to-islamo-fascists president.

Seven Aphorisms Out - Ten Commandments Next?

In a surprisingly unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court agreed with a small Utah community that the quirky quasi-religious group Summum cannot place one their granite "Seven Aphorisms" markers next to a similar display of the Ten Commandments.

Which is fine with me, in the big-picture view of things. We need to get all religious symbols off of OUR property, and that's the long-term goal. To allow Summum to put up their own monument next to the Ten Commandments would just mean one more thing to remove from the lawn when we finally wake up and realize that we do not need the government sponsoring a religion -- any religion -- in this country.

The Mojave Cross

In a case that is sure to set precedent for the lawsuit brewing over that huge ugly cross at the National Cemetery in San Diego, the Supremes have agreed to hear a case stemming from the erection of a smaller cross in the Mojave Desert east of LA.

Because it's on public land, it's an issue, and this will give us our first look at where a Roberts Court is going to come down when it comes to church-state issues.

And frankly, I'm not at all optimistic, given the current makeup of the court. Recall that it was Sandra Day O'Connor just four years ago who cast the deciding fifth vote in the 5-4 Kentucky Ten Commandments decision (McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky).

Since then O'Connor made her precipitous -- and in my opinion nearly-fatal-for-civil-liberties -- departure from the court, to be replaced by our old buddy, "Stripsearch Sammy" Scalito. And I think it's pretty clear how he'll stand on church-state issues.

This will bear watching. Arguments will be heard in October of this year, so here's hoping that we have some changes on the court before then. While I'm not wishing for anything bad to happen to any of the Fatal Five (Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Kennedy) so that Obama can appoint a liberal to the court in their place...

Oh, bullshit, of course I'm wishing for that. It's a long time to October, and anything can happen.

Attack on the Second Amendment

For years, whenever the whole "Democrats want to confiscate all of our guns" topic came up, I would ask the (usually) right-wing Limbaugh-listening Hannity-channeling blowhards making the claim if they could picture a situation in which the Democrats could confiscate every firearm in the country.

The answer was always no, and that's how I was able to shift the conversation back to things that were truly important.

Now I'm not so sure. After enduring eight years of Constitution-shredding rights-revoking road-warrior decimation by the Rethugs, now there's an attack from the left. It's something called the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, and it has some troubling provisions: It defines all gun dealings as interstate commerce, which automatically makes them subject to federal restrictions and it requires that all persons who even possess a "qualifying" firearm be licensed by the feds as a "gun dealer". There's more. Take a look at the article.

As usual, the intent behind this bill is a noble one: Reduce gun violence. Fair enough, I guess, but, as the NRA has argued all these years (and Jesus, do I ever hate being in line with those fascists on this), guns don't kill people, people kill people. And those who don't think that this registration can be the first step to confiscation...well, all you need to do is take a look at Great Britain and Australia to see that this is exactly what took place there.

Making it illegal to possess a firearm without all this rigamarole will not stop "gun violence". Even if they were somehow successful in rounding up every single handgun and semi-automatic rifle in the country (a physical impossibility), the criminals and crazies would just switch to sawed-off double-barrel shotguns -- easy to conceal, easy to reload, and deadly effective within their working range. And also, because of the spread pattern, more likely to injure or kill "innocent bystanders", i.e. those who are not the intended victim of the attack.

But of course not everyone will give up their guns willingly, and I believe that millions of people will just ignore the law, not get the license, and take their chances rather than give in.

Haven't our previous forays into banning things (alcohol and drugs are the two signal examples) been lesson enough for us? When you ban something, all it does is drive the trade underground and make it more profitable for the "bad guys".

It's ironic: All this time the NRA was squawking that when "they" take away our rights under the Second Amendment, then they will be able to take away all of our other rights. They were wrong about that -- the got it backwards. Who knew that "they" would successfully take away all of our other rights first?

Please, we have enough problems in this country already to deal with. We don't need the "smoke and mirrors" magic tricks in this bill to divert our attention from those problems.

But then I think you all ought to know that my friends tend to call me a "gun-totin' meat-eatin' redneck liberal" so I may be a little biased here. But believe me, it really does pain me to be on the same side of the table with the NRA.

Scaring the Shit Out of You and Me

I'm talking about the documentary film Jesus Camp. It's definitely a must-see movie, even though it will be upsetting to those of you with half a brain who dwell over here in the Reality-Based Community.

It's absolutely frightening to see the brainwashing that goes on, convincing children that they will become "Soldiers for Christ", at a pentecostal summer camp located in, believe it or not, Devil's Lake, Minnesota.

Also, believe it or not, this camp is called the "Kids on Fire School of Ministry". Brainwashing? Yep, in full measure. Anywhere else, in any other context, and this would be called what it really is, child abuse.

Of special note is a conversation that takes place between 12-year-old wannabe preacher Levi and now-disgraced religious-right-homophobe/secret-sodomite Ted Haggard. It makes you wonder what was really going on in old Ted's head (heads?) during the course of that interaction...

Anyway, these children represent the next generation of Soldiers for Christ, and we ignore them at our peril. Remember the admonition from Voltaire that now graces the left column of this blog: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

In just a few years, these little zombies will be taking up their weapons in their "war" against us infidels. While they may claim that their weapons are "Jesus" and "The Truth", blah blah blah, how long will it be before one of the little soldiers takes the whole weapon thing a little too literally?

You Go, Greta!

And I mean that literally. Faux News's famous Face-Made-For-Radio Greta Van Sufferin Susteren is going all frothy at the mouth over the wasteful travel spending of Barack Obama:

If you read the prior two blog entries, you know that I am stunned that the President and VP have such a tin ear — that in this time of great economic terror they flew to Denver to sign a bill that former Presidents signed outside the Oval Office in the Rose Garden. And, making it all the more stunning, they did not “jet pool” — they flew separately at great cost to taxpayers for a trip that simply did not have to be….so what is the White House explanation for the $$$$$$$$ EXTRAVAGANZA? (yes, YOUR $$$)

I'm not providing a link to that quote (I don't want to add to her Google rating), but it's on Greta's blog, which you can look up for yourself.

The most important part of that is her suggestion that Obama and Biden "jet pool". Greta, you poor moronic mouthpiece of the Far Right, the reason that the President and Vice President never travel on the same plane is obvious to the most dull-witted third grader: If the plane crashes, we lose both of them!

So, girlfriend, where was that concern during the last eight years, when your two fantasy beloveds, Baby Doc and Darth Cheney, never flew on the same plane? No where, that's where.

And while we're on the topic of tone-deaf wastrels squandering public dollars in unnecessary travel, where's your concern for your newest BFF, Governor Wolf Killer, and the many thousands of dollars in public money she scarfed up so her daughters could go with her to various "official" (i.e., not official) events?

If you weren't so enthralled in your pathetic schoolgirl crush on Sarah Palin, you might be asking those kinds of questions yourself.

To get back to the title of this post: You go, Greta! And, yes I do mean that literally. Get the fuck outta here. Maybe you and your new BFF can snuggle up in an igloo on the North Slope after you've poached some tasty caribou and baby polar bear for dinner.

New NBC Program: "Catch a Cheney"

No, it's not the truth, although I'd love it if it were.

Over at Consortium News, media critic Jeff Cohen suggests that NBC could raise its flagging ratings by doing to big-name politicos like Cheney what they have capitalized with on with their "Catch a Predator" type shows:

Here’s my idea: A series of NBC News primetime specials featuring spectacular ambushes of big-time criminals lured into what they expect to be pleasurable surroundings.
But, with hidden cameras whirring, the startled villain is dramatically confronted with the evidence of his massive crimes as millions of viewers look on in scorn and righteous amusement.
If it sounds familiar, it’s because NBC News has scored huge ratings with its “To Catch a Predator” sleaze-fest – in which potential sex offenders by the bushel were lured via the Internet to what they thought would be sex with kids and instead got caught by NBC cameras and cops in hiding.
But my proposal doesn’t involve sex abusers. I’m talking about men who’ve launched illegal war, mass murder, torture, dictatorship. And they’re household names.

Like Cheney, Kissinger, Rumsfeld, Libby, Wolfowitz, and -- the biggest fish of all -- Baby Doc Bush. Hell, not only would I watch this show, I'd pay good money to see it.

Xe? WTF?

The infamous Blackwater Security firm is changing its name, apparently in a move to distance itself from all the bad press (goddam liberal media) it's gotten from slaughtering unarmed Iraqis and generally acting like a swarm of lawless desert bikers from Road Warrior.

So I can see why a little plastic surgery might be needed, but "Xe"? What the fuck is that, and who even knows how to pronounce it? Or, if you heard it pronounced, how to spell it? That question will always come up, and the answer obviously will be something along the lines of "we used to be Blackwater".

If you want to refurbish your image, especially one that is as tarnished as Blackwater's, you ought to consider going another way. Something like "We Love Puppies (and Will Provide Security)" would be a better name.

Just a suggestion. Of course since the Prince family, the fascist founding fathers of Blackwater, are deeply fundo-religious, they could have gone with "Jesus Security" or something like that. Corporate motto: If Jesus had chosen us for his security, he'd still be here"...

More From Our "Who Knew?" Department

Jeez, is this a terrific day for oddball news or what?

Little Bristol Palin throws her mother -- and abstinence-only sex education -- under the bus.

After two campaigns -- one for governor of Alaska and one for the Rethug VP job -- during which she flogged so-called abstinence only sex education as the only way to approach the problem of teenage sexuality and teenage pregnancy, Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol appeared on Faux News to say that abstinence is "not realistic at all":

Bristol scheduled an interview with mom's pandering BFF Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. But she didn't tell mom until 24 hours before, probably because she was planning to personally insult Jesus, and the former Republican vice presidential nominee would not like it.
After describing the difficulty of being a teen mom, Britsol told Van Susteren abstinence is the best policy, but is not realistic because it's not the 19th Century any more, not even in Alaska.
She said she didn't "want to get into detail about" other reasons abstinence is unrealistic, though we're guessing it might be because Bristol failed to control her teenaged hormones and, being without ready access to condoms, got pregnant at 17 to an ill-tempered failed hockey player who has yet to finish high school or, judging from what Bristol told Fox, secure employment of any sort, other than doing odd jobs for his father.

Like I always say, you can't make this shit up. But I'm of two minds about this little display: One, I'm glad that one of the more prominent victims of abstinence-only sex-ed is speaking out and maybe this will carry a little weight in Rethug circles (yeah, okay, I'm a dreamer--give me a break), but Two, I'm a little apprehensive that this might keep Lady Wolf Killer from running for president next time, and those of us over here in snarky Left Blogistan need a ready-made comic relief candidate.

I Was Surprised, Too, Dick

Also in the news today is a report that Darth Cheney was furious when Baby Doc refused to fully pardon his boy, Scooter Libby.

Apparently the Veep launched an all-out two-week assault on his boss to try to get him to pardon Libby. I guess it wasn't enough that he didn't have to do any fucking jail time at all for his crimes, eh Dickster? So when Baby Doc got so stingy with the pardons there at the end, it apparently caused a rift between him and his puppet master.

The unsuccessful full-court press left Cheney bitter. "He's furious with Bush," a Cheney source told The News. "He's really angry about it and decided he's going to say what he believes."
He did just that the day after becoming a private citizen. In an interview with The Weekly Standard, Cheney heaped praise on Libby and denounced his conviction. "He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon," Cheney said. "Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision."
The vehemence of Cheney's last-minute onslaught has struck some Bush loyalists as excessive. "At some point you have to accept the decision of the guy who appointed you," one of them said after learning the details. "I think Cheney was over the top."

Wow, it surprised me as well. I figured all this time that Shooter would pardon Scooter, with the sock-puppet pResident in between, who always did what he was told. Who knew?

Of course, we are dealing with a malignant narcissist here, who never met a death penalty that he didn't want to carry out when he was governator of Texas, so I guess that the whole "quality of mercy" thing in back of the law is just a quaint and outmoded reminder of how things used to be. You know, like the US Constitution.

Maybe It's Just Me...

... but I really don't think this is the best way to get your point across.

From the news today, it appears that one Muzzammil Hassan, 44, of upstate New York, a man who founded his own television station to counter the "negative stereotypes" of his fellow Muslims in the media, beheaded his own wife after she filed for divorce!

Like I say, if you're trying to change peoples' minds about Muslims, going with the whole "off with her head" thing is not the way to do that.

Brainwashed: The Movie

Here's an absolutely horrifying (and not in a good way) clip from a documentary movie that is apparently making the rounds on its own "road show":

This woman was interviewed about the apparently then-upcoming 2004 election, and just listen to her justification as to why she is voting for Bush. As one YouTube reviewer of this clip said, "I threw up in my mouth a bit".

I don't know what the current status of this film is or where it can be seen -- a Google search doesn't come back with much. But from what I see from this small clip, this is definitely a film worth watching.

Will Petraeus Betray Us (Again)?

Way back a year and a half ago I used the headline "Will Petraeus Betray Us?" Less than three months later Moveon.com used almost the same phraseology: General Petraeus or General Betray Us?.

Back then it was a fun and games, of course, but now comes the alarming news that Petraeus is something more than a silly political rhyme.

Gareth Porter over at IPS News has the story US-IRAQ: Generals Seek to Reverse Obama Withdrawal Decision.

If you don't want to read the whole story, Consortium News has a capsule summary, The Petraeus Plot Against Obama:

President Barack Obama already appears to be the target of a well-organized strategy directed by senior military officials -- and aided by their allies in the Washington press corps -- to force Obama to renege on his campaign pledge to bring U.S. combat troops home from Iraq in 16 months.

I don't want to go all Seven Days in May here. At least not yet, but it is troubling when a general is apparently trying to subvert the will -- the orders -- of his Commander-in-Chief.

I Think I'll Live...

...but those "toxic grandchildren" who gave me this goddam cold are out of the will!

At least the worst is over now, thanks to regular cocktails of Airborne fizzies, Full Sail Ales, hot buttered rums, nostril blasts of 4-Way, periodic boosters of acetominophen w/codeine and a nightly dose of Lorazepam. While I can't recommend this particular regimen to everyone, it worked for me -- at least what I can remember of it...

Anyway, I'm back now and ready to go, more or less.

And the first order of business is to refer everyone over to Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy, for his spot-on summary of what we're up against with the church-state crowd, Religion Under a 'False Flag':

During the Bush regime, a GOP constituency of religious fanatics, fundamentalists, and deniers of science mounted a full-court press against the principles of Democracy and the enlightenment. They put forward a dark age agenda: 'Intelligent Design', a stealth religious ideology cooked up by right wing focus groups --not scientists. It is religion under a false flag.

There's a lot more. This should be required reading for high school students, teachers, school board members, taxpayers -- everyone.

And be sure to watch the videos. I don't know how he finds the time.

Tomorrow is "Darwin Day"...

...but today I seem to be coming down with a killer cold that I picked up from my "toxic grandchildren" on Sunday, so I may not be in any shape to post anything on what should be a national holiday.

So, given that, here's a YouTube video from PBS's Nova entitled "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial", about the now-famous landmark Dover School Board trial:

It's an hour long and normally, with my short attention span, I'm not capable of watching anything on the computer longer than the average 1930s/40s-vintage Warner Bros cartoon, but this is well worth the time spent.

Hypocrisy? That's Too Mild a Term

Who knew that the Rethugs would be THIS hypocritical? It wasn't that long ago when they were in the majority in congress and demonized the Dems for being "obstructionist" and threatening the use of the filibuster in order to prevent the Rethugs from getting their own way.

Remember when the shrill call by the majority party in the senate was for a "straight up and down vote" for every fucking piece of fascist legislation or Supreme Court "justice" that Bushco Inc. tried to ram through?

Remember that????

Okay, I know that you do and I do, but apparently the CPM* has such a short attention span that they can't recall a single thing about it. Now it's all of those nasty Dems who are trying to push their radical liberal agenda off on the American people, and it's only the time-honored and sacred power of the filibuster that is saving this nation from a descent into the maelstrom.

Like I say, you can never go broke underestimating the ability of the GOOPers to raise hypocrisy to new heights. They will always exceed even the most lavish expectations. I think we need a new word, since the old meaning of hypocrisy is way too mild, too neutral, too wussy to describe what these assholes are showing us.

And you Dems: Stop with the goddam enabling already, and let's all join together in relegating the Rethug Party to its well deserved final destination, that well-known and well-deserved "dustbin of history".

[* CPM = Capitalist Pig Media]

Heretical Quotes, Part One

Just to kind of counterbalance the previous post, here are some heretical quotations that I've managed to pick up along the way:

1. The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. - Anatole France
2. The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. - Noam Chomsky
3. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger
4. Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought. - Graham Greene

I'll be posting some more of them as time goes by.

Wonderful World

We might lose sight of its meaning at times, especially with all that's happened over the last eight years, but the old Louis Armstrong song Wonderful World still speaks to us. And here's a little video, set to the song, that will surely warm the cockles of your heart (whatever "cockles" are...):

Warning: The "Awwwwwwwwwww Factor" is way off the scale... And if your cockles get too warm, try rubbing them with a little dry ice.

Bipartisanship -- Still a No Starter

On the one hand President Obama deserves at least some credit, I guess, for his attempt to reach out to the Rethugs and at least try to be bipartisan, on the theory, I guess, that it's better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.

The only problem with that is that those Rethugs in Congress are not housebroken. You can let them inside, but they end up shitting on your floor, pissing in your beer and trying to monopolize your remote control.

You know, kind of like your IBIL* did last Xmas at the family get-together.

Okay, now that he's made the effort, it's time to let the American people know that the hand of friendship that was extended to the Rethugs came back with some bite marks on it, and the next time that hand is extended, it might draw back a bloody stump or two where there used to be fingers.

Give it up and shove those fuckers to the curb. And what the fuck is up with appointing a Rethug to the cabinet? Okay, I know that I argued for Rethug cabinet appointments a while back, but that was with the idea that Obama would take Rethug senators from states with Democratic governors, who would in turn appoint Democrats to the empty slots, thereby guaranteeing that all-important 60-vote filibuster-proof majority.

Memo to Barack Obama: So WTF were you thinking when you cut that deal with New Hampshire to get their Rethug senator -- who BTW doesn't even like you and doesn't believe in the kinds of things you believe in -- by forcing the Democratic governor to appoint another Rethug in his place? What would the Rethugs do if the shoe were on the other foot and their president were to appoint a Democrat to the cabinet (okay, I know I'm stretching a bit here), but only if the Rethug governor of that state were to appoint another Dem?

Okay, trick question: That scenario would never happen.

It's beyond me why the Dems want to play that bipartisan game anyway. Didn't they get enough over the last how-many-years that the Rethugs were on top, and crushed the Dems under the hobnailed heels of their jackboots? What is this, some kind of weird political Stockholm Syndrome?

President Obama, in the words of the late and not lamented Baby Doc, you've got political capital and you need to spend it.

And memo to Harry Reid and the Dems in the senate: If the Rethugs threaten a filibuster, call their bluff, make them actually filibuster, and show the American people who is being obstructionist and who isn't. The average member of the Moron-American Voting Bloc needs to see -- really see -- who wants to get this country moving again and who is stopping that progress.

[* IBIL = Idiot Brother-in-Law]

I'm Back ... Again

When you get to "a certain age" it seems that your inner clock seems to slow down, and consequently external time -- "reality time" -- speeds up accordingly.

I had fully intended to finish up the projects I had been working on so I could get back to the important stuff full time, so to speak. But of course that didn't happen.

But I'm back anyway. Thanks for reading, and thanks also for missing me.

I'll Be Back...

...on Monday. It's taken me a little longer to do what I had to do on my other projects, including cleaning up the yard after the winter storms. I was surprised at how much damage there was after our lengthy blizzard and freezing temperatures.

Plus I still haven't finished with the photo slideshows and stories about my Vietnam trip, and that was so long ago that I'm having trouble remembering that I went there.

Not really, but I am getting to that age where every little memory lapse starts to present itself as incipient Alzheimers...

Anyway, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I are going to spend the weekend in Portland (Oregon -- Maine is too far to drive) and I'll be back in Left Blogistan come Monday.

In the meantime, thanks again to all of you in the "teeming millions", and everyone have a safe but happy weekend.