Trump

So here's the deal with the Donald.

He knows exactly what he is doing and the G.O.P. and the ambulance chasers in the news outlets are falling for it like they often do.

Trump is a sham and a ruse. He doesn't believe one word of the Birther stuff he's been shouting about. Mark my words, once his television program has sailed off for the remainder of the season, you'll hear very little else from Trump. But what he has done in the meantime is hobble many, if not all, of the Republican candidates for the 2012 nomination.

We on the Left should be applauding him instead of taking the bait and playing the morally outraged voter. He's a scam machine and everyone who falls for his schtick is a patsy.

Take the video above as proof. If he really thought he could be a legitimate option for voters in the 2012 presidential race, there's NO WAY he'd be saying these things in a public forum.

Barnum meet Bailey.

Friday Random Ten

We've had no electricity since Weds. morning hence the tardiness of the FRT. It just came back on this afternoon around 5:30.

I'll post some pictures of the GIANT tree that fell in the neighbor's yard that was the cause of the interuption in service. So, without further adieu, here's the ten just under the wire of Friday...

Message Of Love -- The Pretenders
Television Light -- Marshall Crenshaw
Staring At The Board -- Spoon
Karpet King -- Fountains Of Wayne
Noise Annoys -- The Buzzcocks
Low Down -- Tom Waits
King Penguin -- Home & Garden
Revolution Rock -- The Clash
Rex Kramer -- Gomez
Chump -- Green Day

Bonus Tribe Winning Streak Cut:

That's Amore -- Dean Martin

Bizzaro World

Oh, sweet fancy Moses, you've GOT to be kidding me.

According to TBogg, it's for real...sigh.

Max Keiser

Yes, he's entirely nutzoid, but I do love me some Max Keiser.

In this week's episode, Max and Stacy explain to us rubes how exatcly we're getting screwed by Goldman Sachs and little Timmy Geitner...again. Matt Taibbi stops by for some chat in the second half of this always lively 25 minutes. Try and watch it all. It's way over my head too, but Max is always worth the price of admission.

Poly Styrene

X Ray Spex was one of those seminal English punk bands straight from the pages of NME that Sam and I loved back in late 1977. Poly Styrene was a true original and while this stuff may sound like senseless caterwauling to some of you, Oh Bondage! Up Yours! was a classic of the genre to many of us at the time.

Poly died yesterday at the ripe young age of 53.

And if you're keen on it, give a listen to the tune and tell me if you don't rightly agree that X Ray Spex was a direct link from the rather slick and cool glam rock of Roxy Music to the hardcore smash punk that followed in their wake. That's what I thought at the time anyway.

R.I.P. Poly Styrene.

Mr. Fish

The one where the Easter Bunny finally gives up.

Friday Random Ten (Good Friday Edition)

Home In My Hand -- Dave Edmunds
Just Another Perfect Day -- X
Tin Tin Por Tin Tin -- Joao Gilberto
Always Late With Your Kisses -- Dwight Yoakum
Help Me To Help Myself -- John Lennon
Underneath It All -- No Doubt
This Time's The Dream's On Me -- Charlie Parker
Diplomat's Son -- Vampire Weekend
Moment's Notice -- John Coltrane
Doorman -- Stereophonics

Bonus (nailed to the cross) cut:

Lady Day -- Lou Reed

Happy Anniversary

I'm pleased and proud to announce that as of today, our marriage is of legal drinking age. We are celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary this evening, by, you guessed it, going out for cocktails.

Shocking, eh?

Here's a picture of the happy couple all duded up for your perusal and mirth making. And yes, I know...I'm one lucky fella.

Yee-haw

Umm, yeah, this sure sounds like a great idea. Maybe Ohio can get that rocking Glock-35 before fuckin' Michigan steals the naming rights.

Gee, I sure am glad the pols in 'Merka have the citizens best interests at heart like creating jobs and such instead of wasting their time frivolously on dumb and dangerous symbolism...

Green Day

Happy 4/20 everyone!

Here's some encouraging polling by which to enjoy that fine doobage.

Ted Rall

Ted Rall, yet again, chronicling the cheap-ass, knock-off nightmare that today's America represents. Sigh...

Roger Ailes

What a sad, sick fuck Roger Ailes is. Mr. Potter ain't got nothing on ol' Rog.

Mike Luckovich

When the chips are down, ummmm, the chips are down.

Dennis!

**
My favorite U.S. Rep. rips Darrel Issa and Gov. Walker (Dirtbag, WI) a new one over the legislation that breaks the backs of Union members.

Love that Kucinich!

**and yes, that IS a picture of Jello Biafra's t-shirt.

Friday Random Ten (Tax Day Edition)

I hope my pony knows the way back home...

Don't Be Afraid -- Colin Hay
In Dreams -- Roy Orbison
The Greatest Man That Ever Lived -- Weezer
Pony -- Tom Waits
Under The Bridge -- Jill Sobule and John Doe
27th Ave Shuffle -- Foxboro Hot Tubs
Nina's Dance -- Tony Scott
Rich Man's War -- Steve Earle
I Should Of -- The Pretenders
Unholy Trinity -- The Who

Bonus 1040 Form cut:

Daddy's a Postman -- Graham Parker

Britt Daniel

A quick musical timeout to wish my favorite songwriter of the current century a very happy and healthy 40th birthday.

Tiger Beat

Another great from the world of fine literature has left our midst.

Round Numbers

It's funny.

My car's odometer hit 104,000 miles this morning, and then, I just noticed a minute ago that the previous Juan Cole LMS entry was my 2,000 post to this austere window to the world. Round numbers.

So, here's to you, both of my loyal readers for sticking with me as I celebrate this anniversary of opining at the fantastic and moronic world around me.

I am the enemy of your happiness.

Juan Cole

Juan Cole sums up things nicely as they relate to the draconian budget slashing going on in many of our States, most prominent in view in Wisconsin and Ohio.

Government is not bad. It builds your roads, funds your hospitals, pays your social security (the elderly were the poorest group in American in the 1920s, now they generally not so badly off, because of a government program), and could help solve global warming by building high speed rail and promoting green energy.

Corporations don’t do anything of that sort for you. Some of them are well-run and make things that improve lives. But many of them (as with industrial fishing) are destroying the species-wealth of the planet, or strip-mining it, or pumping enormous amounts of poisonous carbon into its atmosphere. Or they are ponzi schemes or modern-day slavers who get people deeply in debt and charge them usurious interest rates, turning them into serfs-for-the-lender.

If someone is charging you 22% interest, he should be in jail, not the recipient of the bulk of your paycheck. Government student loans allow young people potentially to avoid this sort of situation, which is one reason financiers want to destroy government and the whole idea of regulation. Ayn Rand is a recipe for turning the United States into one big Company Town, in which we are born indebted to the corporations and pass the debt on to our children. In contrast, government debt can goose the economy during downturns, is mostly owed to ourselves, and becomes smaller over time because of inflation; and if it weakens our currency slightly it would help exports.

Feel free to read the rest of his essay here.

The Buckeye State

According to the Huffington Post It's a double word score today in Ohio...

We got this guy

And then we got this guy.

These flyover States are starting to get crabby. It's been a really long winter, folks.

Renaissance Men

Ever since the Oscar telecast in February, so as to avoid any bad press to rub off on me, I've been keeping my middle aged man-crush for James Franco on the "down-low". Ahem.

Anyway, The Franco was given his due by Mr. Colbert this past week on The Report.

Here's the most excellent video of the first part of the episode in which JF is nearly the entire program.

James Franco was actually on hand to peddle his latest release, Your Highness, which, unlike these clips, is supposed to be really, really terrible.

Mr. Fish

More contemporary art from Mr. Fish...

Matt Taibbi

Brother Dave hipped me to this Matt Taibbi piece on right wing poster boy Paul Ryan.

Friday Random Ten

New Fang -- Them Crooked Vultures
Everyday People -- Sly & The Family Stone
Not For You -- Pearl Jam
Venus -- Bananarama
Take The "A" Train -- Duke Ellington
Saint Simon -- The Shins
Substitute -- The Who
Concerto In E Flat For 2 Pianos, K365 - W.A. Mozart
Blue Room -- Chet Baker
(Just Like) Starting Over -- John Lennon

Bonusey-bonus:

Is Love Forever -- Spoon

Mrs. James

...is taking her talents to the drunk tank.

Evidently, LeMom seems to have a bit of a problem in the booze department. Oh, the things we do at 5:00 a.m.

Too bad too. It would have been a triple word score in Bob-town today if LeBron's mom was blind dunk and slapping the valet help; the Tribe swept the most hated team in baseball and, lastly, well, (this one didn't quite pan out), Tiger shot a high score in the first round of the Masters.

Oh well, Schadenfreude rules anyway.

Glenn Beck

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Well, faithful readers of this screed had to know that I would commemorate the announcement of Glenn's departure from Faux News with a video, picto-graph or pithy bon mot.

I've searched long and hard and have decided to leave my homage up to the effervescent Lewis Black from a year or so ago and one of his funniest rants ever.

Ladies and Gents, I give you Nazi Tourettes...

Animal House Redux

To the chagrin of my big brother, I will now invoke the nom de tool, T-Paw.

T-paw can't be too happy about his staffers scaring the voters in Iowa. Try some flyers and doughnuts next time, sonny.

(Wow, that's two Kent Dorfman references in nearly as many days! I'm on fire, bitches)

Two of my fave dudes

Both brilliant and equally filled with truthiness, my friends Lance Mannion and the ever insightful darkblack have weighed in this morning on the latest saviour of Red State 'Merka, Rep. Paul Ryan.

Lance gives it to you straight, no chaser and darkblack, well, his entry, as evidenced above, is more of a graphical interpretive dance number. Either way, it's another day of busy chronicling the ever quickening decline of a place we once referred to as the United States of Awesome.

BTW, what the fuck is with Wisconsin that they churning out these right wing tools? Dave?...little help here.

Faraway Eyes

Great video from when The Stones still mattered.

(tip of the stetson to my pal, Sandy Underpants, over at The Aristocrats)

TBogg

The master of the innertubes snark does it again.

It's a legacy pledge thang.

Black like me

Janes Addiction - "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" by donbanania
Great article from The Nation. And a Jane's Addiction video, (from when Ice-T didn't suck), sure to offend everyone.

Workin' is for chumps

The latest edition of Lapham's Quarterly is out this week.

And you thought that your job sucked.

Pitchforks and Torches

I'm no smart guy, but I've essentially been saying for years that we need to band together as homeowners and collectively stand up to the banks and mortgage companies. We could then put our collective money into escrow until such time that these monolith financial corporations will be forced to negotiate with us. Level the playing field and all that rot, yes?

According to this most excellent post, it would appear that several folks with far more business acumen than I possess, are echoing the same sentiment.

Friday Random Ten (Opening Day Edition)

Let's Go Tribe!...

I Am Always Touched By Your Presence, Dear -- Tracy Ullman
Between The Sheets -- The Isley Brothers
Mexican Radio -- Gruppo Sportivo
Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl -- The Kinks
Disguises -- The Jam
The Coo Coo Bird -- The Be Good Tanyas
Motel Room In My Bed --X
A Legal Matter --The Who
Freaky Black Greetings -- Mos Def
I Wish You Love -- George Shearing

Extra Fausto Carmona cut...


O.P.P. -- Naughty By Nature