Hiram Bullock

When I lived in the city, I knew some people who knew some people who were tight with Hiram Bullock. Everyone always said that he was a great guitar player and a really sweet guy.

I'd agree. He will be missed.

(h/t to the Redman)

He's a terrorist!

Keepin' it real with LeBron.

The one thing I always disliked about Michael Jordon was his aversion to controversy on things political when he was the most influential sports star/human on the planet. Tiger Woods has certainly picked up the mantle from Mike of passive non-confrontation that his Nike overlords require from their wage slaves.

When you think back of some of the great athletes of the very near past, Ali, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, Rosey Greer, Kareem; they were all very actively involved in the politics of their era and, if memory serves, they all stood proudly with the left.

So, good on Bron. He's taking a real risk here with the powers that be in Beaverton and probably with the NBA and the White House as well right before the Olympics. As for the fans, I doubt that there are many rabid McCain hoopsters out there.

Old man got no hops. Obama got game.

Swoosh that, muthafuckas.

Paul Newman

How cool is Paul Newman?

This cool.

Unitarians

Driftglass has a good post about the murders in Knoxville over the weekend.

And while we're on the topic of religious hatred and intolerance, Digby, has some insights too.

They say she rides on a pale horse...

It's common knowledge that death seems to come in threes for the famous. The ultra right has lost some important beacons of their twisted belief system of late in the forms of Jesse Helms and Tony Snow.

Now comes the news that Bob Novak has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now I know that I shouldn't celebrate the speedy demise of someone regardless of my utter distaste for them as a human but I'm in the clear on this one....Novakula ain't human. He's already undead so there's no point in not being irreverent.

Brain tumors are particularly fatal and the shelf life for the living is blissfully short. So, go back to where thee came from, Bob. And I'll keep wearing that garlic necklace just in case...

Fuck.

Things have been really quiet lately and seemed to be cautiously stable. Then this happens.

Like I said. Fuck.

Friday Random Ten

Anytime--My Morning Jacket
As Is Now--Paul Weller
World Wide Suicide--Pearl Jam
To Be Someone--The Jam
Song 2--Blur
Senses Working Overtime--XTC
Words So Leisured--Franz Ferdinand
Girl--Stereophonics
Lines In The Suit--Spoon
Spitting Games--Snow Patrol

Say it ain't so...

I suppose that I can take Ogelbay Norton, Office Max, TRW, BP, C.C. Sabathia and many others over the years all fleeing from the Cleve. However, I for one, refuse to accept the loss of these particular cultural icons. The dude does not abide.

Fucking Canada.

1-2-3...let's all have a pity party

Awwwwww....now isn't this just a cryin' fuckin' shame. Poor twee bastards. Just wait until November...they won't know what hit 'em.

Mayberry Liberry

This just in from Mike R...

The George W Bush Presidential Library.
The Library will include:

• The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
• The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.
• The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.
• The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.
• The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.
• The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.
• The National Debt room which is huge and has no ceiling.
• The "Tax Cut" Room with entry only to the wealthy.
• The "Economy Room" which is in the toilet.
• The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.
• The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.
• The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.
• The Supreme Court Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.
• The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet a Republican Senator from Idaho.
• The 'Decider Room' complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.
• The speech preparation room which has a WW II word scrambler.
• The museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate the President's accomplishments.
• Admission: Republicans: free; Democrats: $1,000 or 3 Euros.

Goofy Blog look

Could any of you gentle readers out there confirm that the whole layout of this blog looks effed up? I started posting from a new computer (MacBook Pro!) yesterday and it seems to have scrambled all of my formatting when I view the page.

I await your sage replies.

(Update. It was most assuredly scrambled so I went to a whole new template)...deal with it.

Al Franken

Frank Rich

Frank weighs in on Mayor McCottage Cheese's veep picks and on his luddite knowledge of technology.

So...Is this a Flip or Flop?

I report you decide.

Wait a titch...I thought that there was never ever to be a "timetable" Oh, right...this is a "horizon".

Golly, I hadn't even thought of that!

Pollsters using horse and buggy techniques to establish wrong output data is fast becoming the theme of this year's election cycle but I hadn't considered the impact of this demographic being entirely passed over.

Yikes. If Sen. McCottage Cheese and his wife, Cruella, read this, they'll have to lay in a big supply of Depends for those embarrassing involuntary scatological moments in case McCain drops a deuce in his drawers during one of his infamous fits of pique.

Edgar Bergen McCarthyite?

**
Nah, it's more like Wayland Flowers and Madam.

**Click to Enlarge

Tony Snow

Rather than say something oafish that may offend the sensibilities of some of my more delicate readers, I think I'll just let The Rude Pundit make my statement about the demise of Tony Snow for me.

Smiting time indeed...

Oh, and since I did it last weekend with Jesse Helms, I'll honor Tony Snow similarly with some of his greatest hits quotes. These were mostly culled from his tenure as Faux News' chief propaganda stoolie prior to his reign as Press Secretary for BuchCo Inc.

Summertime Blues...

...and reds and yellows and purples and greens.

Took this pic today of the missus' garden in front. Girlfriend has a mighty green thumb. I'm gonna re-post this snapshot sometime in February to remind what this part of the yard looked like in all its July glory.

Corporatist State of Confusion

I gotta get Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine back to the library after the weekend and I'm almost done with it so I got that going for me...

Reading this book has been a real eye opener for me. I knew that I've been opposed to free market deregulation Reaganomics here in the US for a long time but I had idea how insidious and influential these Milton Freidman stooges and their fucked up economic philosophies have been globally until I read her book.

Wow. Anyway, E.J. Dionne weighs in on these concepts over at Truthdig. Read it. And then go get a copy of Naomi's book. You'll either thank me or curse me for it. Either way you'll be better informed than you were before you read it.

Friday Random Ten

This Fffire--Franz Ferdinand
Claudette--Roy Orbison
Killer Queen--Queen
D Is For Dangerous--Arctic Monkeys
The Start Of Forever--Paul Weller
Someday, Someway--Robert Gordon
Syracuse--Pink Martini
Who'll Stop The Rain--Creedence Clearwater Revival
Slow Down--The Beatles
Street Waves--Pere Ubu

C'est fini!

Well, the Tribe season has now officially ended.

What a shame that for but a few mistakes last Fall, the would be World Series champs have now dealt away one of the best pitchers in the game and last year's Cy Young winner.

What. A. Shame.

My prediction?...C.C. will feast on the National League hitters and help the Brewers to win the NL championship.

And what's that click you just heard?...oh that's just sports fans all over NE Ohio turning off their teevees for the rest of the summer.

Nervous man

I think that I may have thrown up in my mouth a bit when I watched this.

I've got a Masters degree in Management, I'm nearly a certified Project Manager and I've had some fairly complicated jobs with a couple of big technology companies for the past 18 years.

However, I'm now entering my six month of being thoroughly unable to find a job locally or elsewhere that approximates my recent salary and level of responsibility.

Seeing the Asst. Treasury Secretary economic policy the other day acting like he just shat himself at a sparsely attended press conference with snarky voice-over commentary from Dana Milbank DID NOT HELP...

darkblack

My main man darkblack comes through like a champ on the demise of ol' Jesse. My hat is off to you db and your cheeky Canadian brand of humour.

End of America

I couldn't quite put my finger on my feelings about the 4th this year until I read this column. It captures my mood quite well.

It also seems to have created quite the kerfuffle among the ditto headed proles who adhere to the Limbaugh human rights doctrine of "24" to torture first and demand answers later.

Regardless, it's the last Independence Day with G. W. Bush as President. Freedom from his reign of incompetence and terror peddling will make my 2009 celebration a might bit better.

Things are looking up

I think we all might agree that 2008 has pretty much blown chunks so far this year.

The sour economy, endless war and lies, rampant unemployment, protracted ridiculous campaign season, George Carlin dying, the Tribe in last place, etc...

Today, however, we've been thrown a bone. Jesse Helms is dead at 86.

Here's some choice quotes from the man hisself.

Stimulass package

Ah, the joy of the double entendre.*

It seems that there has been a recent and significant rise in the growth of the on-line porn paid member industry which they're attributing somewhat to millions of fellers wadding up their hard earned stimulus booty from Preznit Bush to finance the fun.

Go on, see for yourselves. Just mop up the wet spots when you're through, will ya...


(all right, I know, that last once wasn't so double entendery wuz it?)


*picture from the hilarious failblog.

Chimpy

I posted this video last October. Same as it ever was...

X

For what it's worth, I think that John Doe continues to one of the better representatives of contemporary American music that we have going. However, I can't figger out how to post a video of this particular tuneage; so here's a link to VH1 Classics site and what I feel is the best song ever written about the Fourth Of July.

And yes, I know that this is a Dave Alvin song, but JD does it best.

Lastly, I am pretty sure that it is Tony Gilkyson on guitar on this cut.

Rock on.

Talking Points

Go here in case you choose to engage some knuckle draggin', mouth breathin', wingnuts over the holiday weekend and require some back-up data to make your point.

Toxic Curiosities

That's what Arianna Huffington called right wing radio hosts and specifically, Rush Limbaugh.

Many of you are well aware of my unending disdain for this man and his polemic of hate, racism and misogyny. Regardless, here's the link to the upcoming NYT's Sunday Magazine cover story on Big Pharma.

Go ahead and read it. I did. He's a fascinating study.

Rush, like many of his ilk, see the US as a corporatist state and not a functional democracy. They see our current form of government as socialism and unless you're partaking in the great in the obscene wealth creation of Milton Freidman's free market, laissez-faire capitalism, you're a liberal candy-ass loser.

Fuck that. Rush is a huckster and modern day plantation boss. I hope he has a massive coronary thrombosis this 4th of July.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

Patriots

Whether it's true or not, this is a trend that I can live with.

For too long, the military vote has automatically gone to the right just because they're renown for funding the armed forces over everything else making the left appear indifferent to national defense. Don't kid yourself. We liberals also understand the need for a strong army.

You'd think that the military personnel in this country would want a CIC who was keen on preserving their interests and putting them in harm's way only when necessary. Perhaps that time is come...

Steve Bell

Fuel me once shame on you...fuel me again...errr...you won't get fueled again.

Oh, and the answer to this question is, yes.

Redundant

Um, not to be too stale in my usage, but, tick, tick, tick, again today.

However, this is a time bomb of an entirely different sort.