more stuff

Mary Ann Akers at WaPo joins the echo chamber, notable for its low entry requirements. This post at firedoglake was the catalyst for the fact-free nature of Akers' stenography.

Greg Palast was on Randi Rhodes the other day. He should seriously have his own show. He's got a great manic energy, and he talks exactly how he writes, at least on the air. I don't know if he talks that way in daily life, but I'd like to think that he does. That would rock. Here's a couple grafs on the "voter fraud" the GOP tried (is still trying) to push:

There was a multi-state con in operation. But what was it? Each of these bogus claims of voter fraud was attached to a sales pitch for a state law to tighten voter ID requirements — to prevent these ne’er-do-wells from voting twice. In Arizona, one crack-pot Republican legislator, the Hon. Russell Pearce, claimed he had evidence that five million Mexicans had illegally crossed the border to vote.

The point: Rove knew that a “challenge” operation by the Republican Party, run from his office, knocked out 300,000 voters — mainly poor ones, voters of color. His crew wanted to hike that higher.

The notable thing about this crime of voter identity theft is that it doesn’t happen. You are more likely to encounter ballot boxes that spontaneously combust. I found cases of voters struck by lightening — but out of 120 million votes cast, I couldn’t find a dozen criminal cases of a bandit stealing someone’s identity to vote.

Here's a hint: if the GOP is talking about something, anything, assume the opposite is true. Like, if a GOP politician says "I am completely opposed to eating little children in salsa" start checking his garbage can for tiny fingerbones with the remnants of jabaneros on them. Bush is the master of this, "Mission Accomplished" "Healthy Forests" "No Child Left Behind" are just a few, and just big block-letter ones. I'm sure that's how things are in his head anyways. Go read Greg's bit, he's awesome.

Wednesday lyric

I think this was used in a VW commercial or something. There's a car commercial out there that has Galaxie 500 in it as well, so that wouldn't surprise me.

Iron and Wine
"Such Great Heights"
Such Great Heights Single

(Note: I know this is a Postal Service song, but Iron and Wine's version is so freakin good I couldn't stay away from it. If you love the PS's version, give this one a listen.)

I am thinking it's a sign
that the freckles in our eyes
are mirror images
and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned.

And I have to speculate
that God Himself did make
us into corresponding shapes
like puzzle pieces from the clay.

And true it may seem like a stretch
but it's thoughts like this that catch
my troubled head when you're away
and when I am missing you to death.

And when you are out there on the road
for several weeks of shows
and when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home.

they will see us waving from such great heights
'come down now' they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
'come down now' but we'll stay

I tried my best to leave
this all on your machine
but the persistent beat
it sounded thin upon the sending.

and that frankly will not fly
you'll hear the shrillest highs
and lowest lows with the windows down
and this is guiding you home.

they will see us waving from such great heights
'come down now' they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
'come down now' but we'll stay

they will see us waving from such great heights
'come down now' they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
'come down now' but we'll stay

they will see us waving from such great heights
'come down now' they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
'come down now' but we'll stay

Youtube fanvid. Not totally terrible.

so...sad

listening to the anger in pat tillman's brother's voice yesterday, and his mom, and jessica lynch's sadness, as they testified to congress about the complete lies the US Army and other government arms had made up about them and their family memebers, was hard. i felt sadness about the garbage being done in our name, and fear at the depth of corruption that seems to be pervading every aspect of our shared experience called government, and anger at the people who would do this kind of contemptible thing. the anger is getting stronger, but dragging the sadness along behind it. the fear has wandered off.
see for yourself...
i've said it before and i'll say it again: GOP corruption, cronyism, and incompetence led us here. and i'm not saying that as hyperbole, it's simple fact. if anyone wants leave me a comment and i'll get you posts explaining all of it. or just look for yourselves. i don't have time this morning to do a long blag post, but it's not like it's been hidden. as greenwald said, they tillmans have been complaining vocally, and to the (complicit) media for years. so has jessica lynch. all the other GOP scum have been flaunting their garbage in the broad daylight (with some Dem scum). so it's not hidden. if you're still thinking "the GOP can be saved", you're a self-delusional idiot.

wednesday lyric from charles

INDK
All 41
Kill Whitey

Ready to
Fight for you
Got your back
Pickin up the slack
Ready to go into the line of fire
Ready to set myself on fire
Ready to do anything
Possession of friends is a precious thing
If you're slippin, fallin down
We'll be the ground
We're not going on without you
There's no way
We'll pay your way
We're going the long haul to the end
We're all for friends
We're crossing the finish line in victory
This one's from me
Now you know
You don't stand alone
I'm for you
I'm always true
I wouldn't trade our friendship for another chance
I wouldn't trade our friendship for a chill romance
I wouldn't change a thing in all the times gone by
Wouldn't hesitate to take a bullet and die

He did send an MP3 tho.

fucking pricks

westboro baptist church, which claims to speak for god, plans to protest the funerals of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. They claim to speak for God. Can you support this god?

WBC to Preach at Funerals of Virginia Tech Dead
WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror — yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is ‘horrified’ by it all. You know nothing of horror — yet. Your true horror is coming. “They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads” (Eze. 7:18).

Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.

This is the face of god-worship taken to a logical extreme. this is the face of the crusades, and the inquisition, and every holy fuckwit who thought that he could HURT someone into being what HE thought was right. this is religion. so look on it. when the fallen students who did nothing other than attend their classes are laid to rest, a few dozen assholes under the banner of god will heckle and scream at their parents and loved ones gathered to grieve. Is this what you think of when you ponder religion? it should be, because it is the face of it. so don't shrink away. if you're really religious, or spiritual, or whatever halfwit fucking bullshit you invent to justify your prostrating to some made-up invisible shithead, then this is your spokesperson, in the form of the westboro baptist church.
i recommend that anyone in the area of any of these protests (while 33 funerals of individuals who attended a large university might be hard to completely canvas) come out and let WBC know what they think, of their protests, of their bullshit, of their bile-filled hate. let them know loudly and assertively. because there's one thing over the top of their god-fellating, and that's HUMANITY. and the fucking shit-eating asshole Fred Phelps of the WBC has today forsaken his membership card in the club called HUMANITY, in favor of his jesus-fucking. he should be treated as such.

VT...awful

man, what a shitty thing to happen.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574

poor people...

so long

Kurt Vonnegut died.

So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

so it goes

Wednesday Lyric by Desiree

Komeda
It's Alright, Baby
What Makes It Go?


From patience and from pain
The one who never ends will gain.
The lovely notes from score to score
Become the sound of the general score?

I'm tired of being wasted
I'm so sick of being tired.
Yeah, but sure that love existed
Long before the first word was pronounced.

From patience and from pain
The one who never ends will gain.
The lovely notes from score to score
Become the sound of the general score?

I'm tired of being wasted
I'm so sick of being tired.
Yeah, but sure that love existed
Long before the first word was pronounced.

Chorus
Woo Hoo It's alright, baby
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, sugar
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, honey
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, it's OK
It- is- so- crazy

To put it all in place
Requires a special grace
A single gesture of sweet emotion
A single notion of bitter potion

A strawberry-flavored composition
Is all that it takes
When the lyrics stand on end
And the head is full of conclusions of a simple mind

Chorus
Woo Hoo It's alright, baby
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, sugar
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, honey
It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd
Woo Hoo It's alright, it's OK
It- is- so- crazy

Ed. Note- Thanks for the pinch hit baby. -g

chucklegate

A while back Senator John McCain, the Straight Talk Express (with a bare amount of military support, and maybe a helicopter) strolled happily through what seemed to be a block of Baghdad. At a later press conference, McCain said some stupid things, including insisting that the streets were safe. afterwards, someone claimed that a reporter heckled him (warning, drudge report). Funny line in Drudge thing:

Michael Ware has also publicly expressed his views on the war last year in an interview with Bill Maher, saying, “I've been given a front-row ticket to watch this slow-motion train wreck … I try to stay as drunk for as long as possible while I'm here … In fact, I'm drinking now.”

heh heh
Anyways, here's my take: A) we have no proof it even happened. Even McCain isn't sure. He says some other guys there at the conference told him it happened. 2) Who fucking cares? This guy McCain walked around the streets in a kevlar vest through a pre-scoured area with a hundred soldiers, several helicopters, and who-knows-how-many other security precautions. And we're supposed to not laugh in his face when he says something patently stupid? I mean, sure, maybe the reporter said something. If he did, we have to ask: Was it justified? If so, tough nookie.
Anyone else think the "maverick" is looking a wee bit senile? He'll be old as fuck by the time he assumes office (if he has, which I don't think he does, even a tiny chance of winning the nom or the general), and likely near death. Is it a repeat of the bob dole campaign promise? "One term guaranteed? Should we elect a thousand year old as president? Is his longevity in any way combined with the state-paid health care he's benefited from his whole professional life, while millions of Americans rely on emergency rooms for health care?
I dunno. what do you think?

funny picher

Dude, I am so very, very tired of hearing how this guy's going to solve everything in the world. look up the algerian war. ask me what character Petreus would be playing there? So, wev. It's always going to be just around the corner, and you'll never get the sweet satisfaction of dropping millions of proto-Americans off in the pool. That's just how it is, and that's what most people with any sanity have been saying for 4 years now.

(cross-posted at dailykos)

mc

i managed to take a pass on mc playing at house of blues. he has a wee myspace bulletin about it with a funny title, "from small adult to large child"

yet another blog

in addition to the UKK (which is sadly neglected) i'v started Flyig Guard Pass, a blag dedicated to my latest obsession, Mixed Martial Arts fighting. check it out. bookmark it. watch me descend into yet another addiction.

While I was trying to figure out a WL I realized this song had been bumping around my head all day.

The Buzzcocks
"What Do I Get?"
Singles Going Steady (1979)

I just want a lover like any other
What do I get
I only want a friend who will stay to the end
What do I get

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

I'm in distress I need a caress
What do I get
I'm not on the make I just need a break
What do I get

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

I only get sleepless nights
Alone here in my half-empty bed
For you things seem to turn out right
I wish they'd only happen to me instead

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

[Solo]

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

I only get sleepless nights
Alone here in my half-empty bed
For you things seem to turn out right
I wish they'd only happen to me instead

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

I just want a lover like any other
What do I get
I only want a friend who will love to the end
What do I get

What do I get
Oh oh what do I get
What do I get
Oh oh what do I get

Well let me tell you now
I get no love
I get no sleep at nights
I get nothing that's nice
I get nothing at all
At all,at all,at all
At all,at all,at all
Cos I don't get you

yeah

what kos says