Friday M-Vloggin' - - with Wild Cherry

First time I heard this song, it came out right at the onset of the "Disco Fever" era (thank God I survived that calamity - lol) and I could've swore it was a black rhythm and blues band that was playing and singing it. Imagine my shock to find out that they were a bunch of white dudes from central Ohio. To be fair, they did have a couple of the brothers playing sax and french horn, but the singer himself -- cracker all the way - lol. Anyhow, regardless of all that, this is a kick-ass song and it's still fun listening to it now and then. Enjoy.



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The view from the other side of the big pond . . .

U.K. Independent journalist kinda/sorta agrees with krazee that the modern GOP is no longer the sane party of Eisenhower and Goldwater but instead has morphed into a quasi political/religious cult.

Here's an excerpt:

These increasingly frenzied claims have become so detached from reality that they often seem like black comedy. The right-wing magazine US Investors' Daily claimed that if Stephen Hawking had been British, he would have been allowed to die at birth by its "socialist" healthcare system. Hawking responded with a polite cough that he is British, and "I wouldn't be here without the NHS".

This tendency to simply deny inconvenient facts and invent a fantasy world isn't new; it's only becoming more heightened. It ran through the Bush years like a dash of bourbon in water. When it became clear that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, the US right simply claimed they had been shipped to Syria. When the scientific evidence for man-made global warming became unanswerable, they claimed – as one Republican congressman put it – that it was "the greatest hoax in human history", and that all the world's climatologists were "liars". The American media then presents itself as an umpire between "the rival sides", as if they both had evidence behind them.

It's a shame, because there are some areas in which a conservative philosophy – reminding us of the limits of grand human schemes, and advising caution – could be a useful corrective. But that's not what these so-called "conservatives" are providing: instead, they are pumping up a hysterical fantasy that serves as a thin skin covering some raw economic interests and base prejudices.

This is what happens when a political party allows insane religious zealots an equal seat at the dining room table. At first they are polite and genial guests, but what the emcee and his dinner mates do not realize is that once the banquet ends, their new dinner companion is off to his room to continue plotting the coup and takeover of their chummy gathering behind closed doors.

I was going to say that only time will tell whether or not this observation has any basis in fact -- but then I caught myself as a quick memory review of the past 10 years hit me over the head like a load of bricks -- it's already occurred -- and the coup de grace proof? Sarah Palin as Vice President. I rest my case.


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Why - I oughta . . . . Oh nevermind . .

So - I'm perusing the internets today and lo and behold I come across a very interesting story.

The story claimed that in late October of 2004, just a few days away from the election between George W. Bush and John Kerry, the Bush administration tried to pressure the then US homeland security chief Tom Ridge to raise the nation's "terror alert" level in order to sway the US election in Bush's favor.

And I thought to myself: what lying, dirty fucking hippie, terrorist sympathizing, America hating, socialist, commie pinko, leftist liberal traitor web blogger is making such a bullshit claim?

OOPS! It seems former Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge himself is saying so.

by Olivier Knox Olivier Knox – Thu Aug 20, 2:17 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former US homeland security chief Tom Ridge charges in a new book that top aides to then-president George W. Bush pressured him to raise the "terror alert" level to sway the November 2004 US election.

Queue the catcalls and right-wing mobs to start calling the former Vietnam vet and head of Homeland Security a:

lying, dirty fucking hippie, terrorist sympathizing, America hating, socialist, commie pinko, leftist liberal traitor

Sigh . . .





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Pathological . . . .

Gee! More misinformation (read lies) from Fox News.

This time it's master prevaricator Sean Hannity taking Fox's zombie viewers on a trip down the zombie lie rabbit hole.





I suppose, in a sense, I should be thankful that Fox keeps us casual observers of their big lie machine amply supplied with material proof as to why their viewers are OVERWHELMINGLY the most misinformed on the issues of the day.

Thanks Rupert.


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No doubt they'll call him a "traitor" too now . . .

Former Secret Service agent Joseph Petro who spent 4 of his 23 years in the United States Secret Service guarding former President Ronald Reagan has a conversation with CNN's Rick Sanchez re: the right-wing gun goons showing up at Obama speaking events:

Joseph Petro: If the police have to go out and deal with these foolish gun nuts with exposed weapons in public crowds, they are being taken away from activity that is much more important and that is to keep our president safe and to keep the public safe.

Rick Sanchez: In all your years as a Secret Service agent have you ever seen anything like this? Ten to twelve people yesterday were walking around this venue where the president was, walking outside, and they were packing. Have you ever seen a situation like that?

Joseph Petro: No, I've never seen or heard of anything like that. And I think it's, you know, I think all of us should be concerned about this. What's the next step? Are they going to ride around in pick-up trucks with automatic weapons? it would be like Somalia.

"Are they going to ride around in pick-up trucks with automatic weapons? it would be like Somalia."

Ummm --- yeah ... that is exactly what the gun goons would love America to be like -- everyone gooned up and ridin' around in them thar' pick-em-up trucks loaded for bear (and civil war).

I read a story just the other day about a bunch of guys re-enacting the Vietnam conflict somewhere in the rice paddies of central Pennsylvania - you know - kind of like those guys who like to dress up and recreate civil war battles? Anyhow, I'm beginning to think it just might be a good idea that we should set aside some remote U.S. park land that is reserved exclusively for these gun nuts (the Secret Service guy's words) to go and play their war games and blow up shit. Only, I'm of the same opinion that the late great George Carlin once observed about these people, --- "let the assholes use live ammunition!"




AMEN to that!



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Limpballs the humanitarian . . .

El Rushbo tenderly lectures a caller who cannot afford a $6000 hospital bill to treat a broken wrist:

"Well, you shouldn't have broken your wrist!"

Not a surprising response coming from a multi-millionaire who's probably gulped down at least $6000 dollars worth of Oxycontin and Viagra in a single day on many an occasion.

You know -- just to officially go on the record -- I'm going to say what mainstream liberals are afraid to say about Rush Limbaugh: He is a worthless piece of human shit who's also the current defacto leader of the conservative movement and the Republican party and he uses up way too much oxygen on this planet.

Ka-ching.





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. . . through his teeth . . .

Several enterprising bloggers/journalists decided to research Bugkiller DeLay's outlandish claims and to no one's surprise no evidence of such an occurrence was found to exist.

Therefore, it's only appropriate then that this liar named Tom DeLay is rightfully deserving of having the term "pathological" applied to his particular liar status.





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Fox News - - They Retort, We Deride . . .

Jon Stewart drives and explosives laden 18-wheeler thru the hypocrisy tunnel that is the heart of Fox News. Masterful bitch slapping from a master bitch slapper.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fox News: The New Liberals
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

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They're beginning to piss me off . . .

The president continues to operate under the belief that liberals will warm to the bill when presented with a goodybag that includes an individual mandate, community rating, guaranteed issue, and a minimum required package. There's no chance, really, that a bill WON'T feature these reforms.

An "individual mandate?" What the fuck is that? Making it a law that someone is obligated to purchase health care? How is that going to work out for people that are barely scraping by on minimum wage jobs? Or those that have been fucked over by Bush's economic policies which have left folks paying 30% interest rates on their credit cards and owning homes that literally aren't worth the paper they are written on? What about the indigent? What happens if someone refuses to abide by the "mandate?" Fines? Wage garnishment? Jail?

Obama needs to pull his head out of his "bipartisan" ass and start looking at the real big picture here. Fuck the "we don't have enough votes in the Senate" bullshit! They know perfectly well that through the reconciliation process they can easily muster the bare minimum of 51 votes and pass a fairly robust plan that will accomplish a majority of the progressive reforms that stand the most chance of making a difference.

What's really happening here to gum up the works is a combination of that infamous Democratic spinelessness in the face of GOP bullying and too many Democratic politicians with campaign funding debts to the health insurance industry.

I honestly don't think they have their fingers on the right pulse of the right voters on this issue. People voted for change last November -- or at very least the hope to see someone actually make an honest and aggressive effort at change. If Obama allows this opportunity to reform this country's broken healthcare system to wither on the vine or be completely trampled on by the Republicans, he and the Democrats, I guarantee you, can look forward to big losses in the mid-term elections next year. I know one thing, if Obama and the Democrats fuck this opportunity up, they can absolutely count on this progressive staying home on November 2, 2010.


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Classic IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican)

Philandering GOP Senator John Ensign is "sorry." But, but, but, but CLINTON!

IMAO!


[Play video while reading article in link above]



Hypocrisy and arrogance on steroids.



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W T F ?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The lead Republican senator in bipartisan health care negotiations said Tuesday that he urged President Obama this month to make clear he would accept a bill without a government-funded public insurance option.

"I told the president then that he needed to make public whether or not he could sign a bill that didn't have a public option in it," Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said on Radio Iowa. "He didn't have to take a position against a public option, but would he sign a bill that wouldn't have a public option in it, and I thought a statement from him would be very helpful."

Unless I was living in some wholly fucked up parallel universe last November, I don't seem to have any recollection of this asshole Charles Grassley being elected President. Can someone enlighten me as to why and how this arrogant Republican fuckwad is of the belief that he is in any position to be ordering Obama to sign a bill that has the GOP stamp of approval on it?

There's something horribly wrong with this picture if the guy who was elected President by a landslide 8 million vote margin, carrying his own party on his coattails to majority rule of both the House and Senate, is taking orders from a dead-ender Senator from cornfield county Iowa. Something terribly wrong.

Obama needs to get over this cockamamie "bipartisanship" fantasy of his and start behaving just like Bush and the Republicans did when they controlled all three branches of government from 2001 to 2006. Having said that -- I don't believe there is anything wrong with asking nicely once if folks want to work together, but when you keep getting that "bipartisan" door slammed in your face over and over and over again --- to hell with that shit.

Tell these bastards to help lead, follow or get the fuck out of the way.



----k

Will I'll be a suck-egg Mule! I never would have imagined!

Poll shows "Fox News viewers OVERWHELMINGLY misinformed about health care reform proposals."

I highlighted the word 'overwhelmingly' because it validates a couple of unvarnished realities.

One) -- Fox News viewers don't watch Fox to be accurately informed on subjects -- they watch Fox to be told what to think and how to think because it is much easier for them to have someone else do their thinking for them than it is to seek out and analyze information for their selves.

Two) -- Fox News knows their demographics very well and they also know who it is that they serve (corporate and GOP interests). Fox is also quite cognizant of the fact that their viewers by and large are slack-jawed sheep who still believe Saddam Hussein attacked America on 9/11 and had WMD's.

Therefore, in the health care reform debate, they parade an incessant stream of right-wing tools and health care industry hacks across the teevee screen and the end result is a herd of misinformed sheep that they have egged on into storming health care reform town hall meetings, shouting down opposing viewpoints, intimidating and bullying people, and spouting thoroughly debunked nonsense that they heard straight from the lying mouths of Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, Fox & Friends and the rest of that ilk.

Oh and btw -- this is not the first reputable study to come to the conclusion that Fox viewers have a "retarded" level of knowledge when it comes to national and international events and news.

As I've stated on many an occasion about Fox --- if they would just man up and admit that they are a willful house organ network whose primary goal is advancing and supporting the conservative, Republican and corporate agendas I'll stop bashing them. But they insist on deceitfully propagating that ridiculous "Fair and Balanced" charade of theirs so I will continue to do what I do which is to point out what frauds and con artists they are. And that's all there is to that.


----k

How to bitch slap a wing-nut -- 101

I'm not a fan of Barney Frank, but in this instance I'm willing to set aside my dislike of the individual and acknowledge something good that was done. And the good in this case is responding to a hateful, vile right-wing nut they way they deserve to be responded to. Nice smackdown Barney -- and hopefully others will see this and start fighting back with the same level of aggressiveness.






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From the Gee! Who woulda thunk it? Files . . .

Hmmm ... looks like the ass-klown who organized/staged the dozen or so goons to strut around openly carrying loaded arms at the Presidential health care town hall event in Phoenix, AZ over the weekend has ties to these people:

Agents Seize Arsenal of Rifles and Bomb-Making Material in ArizonaMilitia Inquiry

By JAMES BROOKE
Published: Wednesday, July 3, 1996

With residential streets cordoned off for fear of an accidental explosion, Federal agents today seized about 90 high-powered rifles and hundreds of pounds of a bomb-making compound from the shabby bungalow of a man whom officials identified as the ordnance specialist of a local paramilitary group.

The seizures followed the arrest on Monday of that suspect, Gary C. Bauer, and 11 other people on charges of conspiring to blow up Government buildings in Phoenix.

Apparently murdering 168 innocent Americans (including 19 babies in a daycare center) wasn't a thrilling enough adventure for the right-wing militia nuts.

A lot of these gun buffoons have been showing up at health care reform town hall meetings carrying signs with their perverted interpretation of the Jeffersonian quote:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Which got me to thinking.
I wonder if the patriots and tyrants these guys wet-dream about slaughtering wear diapers and booties?





Why anyone would want to side with, encourage and defend people who are capable of this is completely incomprehensible to me.



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Oy vey ! !

Ahhh - - a perfectly lovely example of that mystical concept known as "compassionate conservatism" in action at a Las Vegas town hall meeting on health care reform.

Frankly, I have got to give major kudos to the Israeli guy for restraining himself from burying his balled up fist into that hideous bitch's face. While it's true that I'm generally a believer that physical violence is not a means to an end, I cannot say with a reassuring degree of certainty that I could've upheld that standard with this repulsive and ignorant hag.






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The end result of falling out of the stoopid tree and hitting every stoopid branch on the way down . . .

"ALL taxation is theft." Brilliant! Why didn't anyone think of that before?

Hey Einstein, if you truly and sincerely believe that ALL taxation is theft then I have a proposition for you.

1. No more driving for you on public roads built and maintained with taxpayer money.

2. Forget about flying out of airports funded and maintained by taxpayer dollars too.

3. What's that? Somebody robbed your home? Don't you dare call the taxpayer funded 911 or local police to investigate.

4. House on fire? Don't even think about calling the tax-payer funded fire department to save your sorry ass home - - that's what your garden hose is for.

5. Sewer outlet in front of your home overflowing? Don't call the city department of water and sanitation to fix it -- they exist because of tax dollars too.

6. Say what? Can't afford to send your kid to an expensive private school? Don't even think about enrolling him in a taxpayer funded public school system. You can home-school his ass yourself.

7. Thinking of taking your family to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or even a state park for vacation? Fuck you. Taxpayer funded. You choose not to contribute to those public services so just stay the fuck home and camp out in your back yard!

8. Your frail elderly mom is on Medicare? You don't say! Bullshit! Yank her access, send her to live with you and your wife and you can be her primary care giver until the day she dies!

Should I keep going? I'm only about a fifth of the way through my list... I'm so sick of these fucking people. Really.

At some point the last, small faction of actual sane Republicans is going to come to the sad realization that their political party is no longer the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater. And I've been saying this for years now -- the GOP is now the party of religious nuts, paranoid gun-goons, birthers, death panelers, flat tax, flat earth, sun revolves around the earth, humans rode dinosaurs like horses, fucking loons and Sarah Palin supporters.

If you sane Repubs have any shred of self respect and intellectual integrity left, you'd be doing yourselves and America a truly patriotic service by detaching your affiliation and support from the death spiral that is the current GOP and joining us sensible folk in getting on with the serious and necessary business of putting America back on the path to peace and prosperity. I dare you. I triple-dog dare you.

And lastly -- as far as showing up at a health care town hall meeting and strutting around with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle and pistol - any attempt to portray that buffoonish, immature behavior as anything other than small penis syndrome and thuggish intimidation needs to be responded to with the sarcastic derision it richly deserves (not to mention some Secret Service investigating of your background). Assholes.






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HMO stocks up on signs public health plan fading

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dwindling prospect of a government-run health insurance plan lifted the shares of managed care companies on Monday and relieved investors who feared the companies could not compete with such a plan.

There's a valid reason private health insurance company investors fear competition from a government sponsored health care plan --- cost and efficiency.

It's like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders observed at the beginning of the health care reform debate -- if a government run health care plan is such a godawful idea, why are the private companies shitting in their pants at the prospect of it?

I'll tell you why. It is because private health insurers know that Medicare, a socialized, government run program has been so successful and wildly popular with the American people, that an equivalent program for the rest of us would very likely force private insurers to offer better services at more affordable rates to consumers along with restrictions on their ability to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions and expensive illnesses. In other words, no more obscene profits, no more multi-million dollar payouts to CEO's and executives. Better control of spiraling costs and finally - more accountability to plan purchasers.

But horror of horrors -- we cannot allow something that good to happen to the American people now can we! Ohhh the humanity!!



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More right-wingers showing up armed at Obama events ... all in successful attempt to prove their embarrasing lack of penis girth and length

Let's take a ride in the wayback machine to the spring/summer of 2005 when George Bush and his Wall Street friends tried to convince America's elderly that Social Security (SS) was in "dire" need of salvation and that in order to reap that salvation it was necessary to make benefits cuts and allow seniors the Las Vegas option of investing a portion of their money into the stock market (anyone else blanching at the thought of how close this country's elderly safety net came to ruination by rejecting the 'private accounts' SS scam?).

Anyhow I recall there was quite a bit of spirited debate surrounding Bush's SS plans and in the end, an undeniable majority of America's seniors got their message across clear as day to Washington -- "keep your grubby, thieving hands off of our SS!" All fine and dandy.

For the life of me though, in the midst of that spirited debate and all of Bush's tightly controlled Town Hall meetings and "free speech zones" I cannot seem to recall any mouth-frothing, unruly liberal mobs storming those Bush Social Security forums, shouting down speakers and bullying and physically intimidating those with opposing viewpoints.

Nor can I remember any reported instances of progressive goons showing up outside those Bush town halls openly and menacingly strutting around showing off their loaded firearms. I wonder why that is?

Of course we all know the answer -- if any liberals/progressives had shown up at a Bush event packing heat, their fucking asses would still be sitting and rotting in Gitmo to this very day. The old adage IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican) comes screamingly to mind.

And as far as our worthless, inept mainstream media goes ... basically it just validates what most of us progressives have been saying for some time -- that there definitely is a double standard when it comes to the MSM's reporting on political dissent in this country -- liberal/progressive dissent = unpatriotic and America hating. Conservative dissent = the exact opposite.

Just saying . . .



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Seeing the light through the dark, dank wingnut tunnel . . .

Former Reagan adviser, Bush I treasury official, and conservative economist Bruce Bartlett sets the record straight as to who, in his informed view, is primarily responsible for the current economic crisis in America.

Not that truthfulness matters to wingnuts, but it sure is nice to see an authentic conservative examine an issue in the light of fairness and honesty and come to a wholly different conclusion than those spewed forth by the corporate hand puppets that populate Fox News and AM hate radio. In other words -- a conclusion that is firmly grounded in a concept that seems to be foreign to most right wingers these days -- reality.

As a result of speaking the truth in this article, Bruce Bartlett can look forward, I'm certain, to many e-mails questioning his loyalty and patriotism, calling him a traitor and a communist and accusing him of selling out to that terrorist loving, Muslim appeasing, socialist flag waving illegal alien - President Obama. Sad, but true.


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U.S. regresses to status of third world country . . .

The people of this country ought to be ashamed this is happening here. And there's a specific group (mindset) of people who deservedly should be burdened with a disproportionate share of that shame. They know who they are.

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