Molly, I'll tip a 40 to your memory

Damn, Molly Ivins was a very funny woman. Upon hearing of her passing, I said, something to the effect of "oh, shit." It was widely known that she had been battling breast cancer for the third time, but I had no idea that it was as serious as it clearly was. She was a light into the darkness, a woman who howled with the appropriate kind of rage. I can't think of a better way to mourn her passing than to a) keep on fighting the good fight and b) leave you with the following:

“There are two kinds of humor,” she told People magazine. One was the kind “that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity,” she said. “The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That’s what I do.”

Molly, there will never be another one like you.

Proud he's my senator.

Barack Obama (D-future president), about to lay the smack down on this war escalation nonsense:



So there, fools.

Compare and contrast

I guess that the Pentagon has continued to illegally monitor opponents of the war. Which is not news to readers of this site. But thousands upon thousands of brave souls have converged on the Capitol anyway, begging the leaders of the country to put a stop to this insane war. Which is good for them, and for all of us.

So I guess some people were commemorating Martin Luther King Day

A couple of weeks ago I asked folks to please remember King's legacy and work for social justice. Well, a fraternity at Tarleton State (never heard of it either), and students at the University of Connecticut Law School held parties on MLK Day where attendees wore gangsta gear, and Tarleton's party had an Aunt Jemima theme, and party-goes dined on fried chicken (what, no watermelon?).

Remind me never to hire a graduate of the UConn Law school, or a graduate of whatever the fuck it is that Tarleton State produces (besides a bunch of numbnuts).

Consultants of the world, unite!

The NYT has a cool article on the effort to bring freelancers into one organization to get healthcare. Reminds me of a similar effort by United Professionals. The more of these kinds of organizations, the better.

It was only a matter of time.

Myspace for white supremacists.

Thanks Jesus' General, thanks.

Sorry for the laze.

I've been running all over for the past couple of weeks, and I hope that excuses my lack of writing. There are some things I would like to say now.

For one, Senate Republicans are assholes for not passing a straight up and down increase in the minimum wage. Probably none of these pricks have ever worked for the minimum wage, and few of them have ever probably lived paycheck to paycheck. A lot of Americans will be going without because they couldn't give a little, very little, something to working people without holding out for tax breaks for business.

Secondly, I may be in love with Jim Webb. I think Dr. Mrsinallmyyears is too, so that makes it okay. For one thing he actually said the words 'corporate control' in reference to our economy. Be still my heart! The way he closed his response to the president's speech was exactly the measure of strength of opinion that people need to hear. Mr. President, if you work with us, we'll get along fine. If you choose not to, we will make the world see you for the fool you are.

This should make every American terrified for their lives. Apparently when the Bush administration asked Congress to approve the war in Iraq, they originally sent over a bill that would allow them to invade anywhere in the Middle East! I mean, they probably did it because the President could never tell any of the countries apart from each other. Iraq, Iran, Yemen, are you kidding me? Another question: why are we only hearing about this now? Because it's safe for powerless republicans to stand up to the President? Assholes.

And this is just not classy. If you promise your mistress $500K to keep her mouth shut about the time you tried to strangle her, give her the money. Be a man, man.

Joe Lieberman, this line about us giving aid and comfort to the enemy is so...2003. I mean, people have been calling bullshit on this war for years now. And before you accuse people of treason, you might want to check that polls don't show two-freaking-thirds of Americans agreeing with the treasonists. Asshole.

Man, I'm a jerk.

I missed number #16 on the loathsome list. It's me. And you:

16. You

Charges: Your whole life has been a pitiful exercise in rote mimicry, a meek subjugation of individuality in exchange for herd approval. Your delusions of "common sense" wisdom stem from an unwillingness to seek information and an inability to critically analyze it. You never hesitate to offer strong opinions on subjects you don’t know a damn thing about. You’re willing to believe anything a guy in a suit says on TV, as long as it doesn’t hint at your culpability in the negligent homicide of your country and planet or otherwise cloud your streak-free conscience. You’re more worried about friction on the "Desperate Housewives" set than the lack of health coverage at your tedious, soul-destroying job. You have no idea what is going on in the world, and you’re fine with that. You are why democracy doesn’t work.

Exhibit A: You’re Time magazine’s person of the year. So was Hitler.

Sentence: More of the same.

Now, that's just not true. I don't beleive anything I see on TV.

It's that time again...

The Beast of Buffalo has released the names of the 50 most loathsome people of 2006. Not for the faint of heart, I promise you:

42. Joe Lieberman

Charges: For a brief, shining moment in ‘06, it looked like the nation might finally be rid of this sniveling sitzpinkler, but Joe Lieberman just keeps coming back, like herpes. Now Lieberman is an unknown quantity and subsequently the most powerful vote in the Senate. Routinely scolds Democrats for "undermining" the president, whose balls have resided in Lieberman’s mouth since 9/11.
Exhibit A: "Our troops believe they can win, and that’s important."

Sentence: Malfunctioning Connecticut-manufactured artillery shells coat Lieberman with white phosphorus at next Iraq photo op.

Yeesh. Harsh. Or how about this gem about failed Senate Candidate and all-out racist George Allen:

32. George Allen

Charges: We don’t know what was worse; the recently unearthed details of this Cro-Magnon halfwit’s lifetime of bigotry or his transparent "some of my best friends are macacas" denials. But worse than either is the sad fact that, after being exposed as a Dixie dunce who said "nigger" like it was going out of style (which it was), hung confederate flags on the walls of his home and a noose in his office, and stuffed a severed deer’s head in the mailbox of an arbitrarily selected black family, George Allen still came within a hair’s breadth of reelection. Maybe he should campaign in a white hood next time—you know, to rally the base. Insisted he’d never heard the obscure racial epithet "macaca" before, despite the fact that his mother just happens to hail from the only place in the world where it was ever commonplace.

Exhibit A: Seriously, how stupid do you have to be to call a dark-skinned kid who works for your political opponent "monkey" while he’s pointing a video camera at you?

Sentence: Point guard for the Washington Generals.

Who says government can't be efficient?

The Democrats got the following things done in 42 hours of work that the Republicans didn't do in more than six years of total control of government:

• raised the minimum wage;
• implemented all the recommendations of the 9/11 report for improving security;
• gave the government the right to negotiate with drug companies to lower drug prices for medicare recipieints;
• cut student loan interests;
• made oil companies pay royalties to the government for oil and gas they get out of public lands;
• Increased funding for medical stem cell research.

Not bad. Of course President Bush has promised to veto each of these common-sense bills, but hey, that's what you get with a complete dumbass for your President.

Now what, I wonder?

Today

Today is the day that we honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of us get the day off. Many us spend this time doing no actual remembering of Dr. King's lifelong commitment to social justice and racial equality. So let's try it, for just a few minutes, shall we?

AFSCME has a great timeline up of the Memphis strike that King was visiting at the time of his death.

The United Food and Commercial Workers are right now fighting to get this day off for those workers in Tarheel, North Carolina. Now what do you think Dr. King's stance on the company would have been? Would have he have been on the company's side, or the workers? How would he have felt about the company's history of pitting racial groups at the plant against each other?

What do you think?

Well, damn.

The McClatchy News Service is basically saying that the President is lying about how his escalation is going to work. He's leaving out things that are obviously true, he's making incomplete assertions about why things are the way they are, and he basically can't be trusted.

Wow! What's news is that they're treating this like news. I mean, some of us have been saying this shit for years now.

And some very smart people are pointing out that the more power Bush loses, the more irrationally he acts.

Certainly the raids on the Iranian consulates this past Friday fall into this category. I mean, if you're trying to provoke Iran into a war, I couldn't think of a better way to do it. Well, I suppose you could also move another aircraft carrier right off the Iranian border at sea. Are we supposed to be comforted by the fact that this man is now, still, making more decisions about war and peace?

All you people who voted for Bush, congratulations. This is your mess. You enabled this asshole because John Kerry sounded too French, or his wife looked like a real bitch, man. Or something.

It's not even 7 am and I'm already bored

But I did get a $15 dollar gift card to iTunes for Christmas (thank you, Santa!), so I'm bumming around iTunes this morning, going through the celebrity playlists--I read them for the content thank you, not the music, when I stumbled on one Toby Keith's playlist.

Now, there's lots of reasons to hate Toby Keith. Frankly he seems kind of like an asshole for lots of reasons, but then I found his iTunes 'celebrity' playlist.

Expecting to be surprised by his wide-ranging taste in music, I instead found the following quotes from Mr. Keith:

On Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter"-- Very thoughtful lyric. Vintage Henley.



On the Gin Blossom's "Till I Hear it from you"--90's pop was never better.



On the Spin Doctor's "Little Miss can't be wrong"--Great jam. Turn it up.



On The Wallflowers "One Headlight"--So different. So good.

So there you have it. The inner workings of the musical mind of a towering country music giant. He holds the reprehensible "Little Miss can't be wrong" as a great jam, and the thorougly mediocre "One Headlight" as so different. As for 90's pop, you can indeed 'go wrong' with "Till I hear it from you." You can, because you see, the song sucks ass. Like the band does.

I beenz lazy.

Dr. Mrs Inallmyyears pointed out last night that I've remiss in my blogging duties. Which is true, and it's not like there's been a lack of things to talk about. As the title says, I just beenz lazy.

So I read this crazy article today in the New York Times where they apparently raised the minimum wage, and the sky didn't fall! Not only that, but they keep raising it--every year, in fact--and the world hasn't stopped turning on its axis!

In fact, the state, which we'll call "Goshington State" is on the border with another state, which we'll call "Guydaho". "Guydaho" has the federal minimum wage, a paltry $5.15 an hour, while "Goshington State" has a minimum of $7.93 (adjusted for inflation every year, you nerds!). And wouldn't ya know it, "Goshington State" is experiencing lots of job growth, and instead of businesses fleeing to cross the border into "Guydaho", the opposite is happening--people are flocking to "Goshington State" and its business is booming. Its business groups aren't even upset about the minimum--they like it.

It's a weird world. And in other weird news, lots of Wal-Mart workers don't use the company's generous health insurance plan. And I know it's generous because I saw a Wal-Mart ad the other day telling me how generous it is! Why they said it's just like getting a pay-raise when Wal-Mart comes to town! I shit you not. And I don't know what these people would be all upset about--why Wal-Mart has taken away the retail worker doldrums!

How'd they do that, you might well be asking? Well, by taking away regular shifts for workers! Now workers have the joy of expectantly waiting for their boss to call them in on a moment's notice, whenever there's a throng of customers! And when business slacks off, instead of waiting around for the end of your shift, you just get to go home early! All the time! With a corresponding reduction in your regular pay! Isn't that exiciting?

Can you stand the awesomeness?

Happy new year

I hope the new year is a more peaceful and prosperous one for more people.