Oct 19, 2014

Remembering

The first step is to convince you that you're remembering certain events in your life incorrectly.  If those events make for crappy memories - like having been in combat, or that you may have done things you know were wrong, or that you fell for a scam and got played for a sucker - well, then I can substitute an alternative version of history and you'll be more than a little happy just to go along with it.

From truthout:
With George W. Bush's wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and Barack Obama's drone wars in seven Muslim-majority countries and his escalating wars in Iraq and Syria, we have apparently moved beyond the Vietnam syndrome. By planting disinformation in the public realm, the government has built support for its recent wars, as it did with Vietnam.
Now the Pentagon is planning to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War by launching a $30 million program to rewrite and sanitize its history. Replete with a fancy interactive website, the effort is aimed at teaching schoolchildren a revisionist history of the war. The program is focused on honoring our service members who fought in Vietnam. But conspicuously absent from the website is a description of the antiwar movement, at the heart of which was the GI movement.
Thousands of GIs participated in the antiwar movement. Many felt betrayed by their government. They established coffee houses and underground newspapers where they shared information about resistance. During the course of the war, more than 500,000 soldiers deserted. The strength of the rebellion of ground troops caused the military to shift to an air war. Ultimately, the war claimed the lives of 58,000 Americans. Untold numbers were wounded and returned with post-traumatic stress disorder. In an astounding statistic, more Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than were killed in the war.
If we know the real story about what "our" government wants done, most of us are going to be pretty reluctant to do it.  And that's always a problem for governments.

So I have to ask - What's the story here?  Why now?  Are we getting this Happy-Talk-History because we need solace about another shitty chapter in USAmerica Inc's past, or are we being softened up for the next little adventure that we'll end up feeling shitty about all over again 40 years down the road?

Also too, Veterans' Day is coming up, and we're losing veterans of "the good war" at a very brisk pace.  So maybe we just need a little good ol' American PR know-how to take the Vietnam shit brick and polish it to a bright lustrous sheen blah blah blah - we need heroes, and heroes don't come from stupid little corporate sponsored wars.

Oct 17, 2014

Today's Stevie Ray



  1. The Things That I Used To Do
  2. Tin Pan Alley 04:57
  3. Leave My Girl Alone 14:10
  4. Riviera Paradise 18:29
  5. Ain't Gonna Give Up On Love 27:22
  6. Life Without You 33:32
  7. The Sky Is Crying 37:50
  8. Little Wing 42:31
  9. Texas Flood 49:24
  10. Dirty Pool 54:48
  11. Lenny 59:53

Elect Republicans

Expect amazingly great things, and end up getting Kansas.



We are so Kansas-ed.

Oct 16, 2014

2014 Mid-Terms



This is what the ballot looks like for Albemarle County Virginia:

OfficeJurisdictionBallot NamePartyWeb Site
United States SenateStatewideEd W. GillespieRepublicanhttp://www.edforsenate.com
United States SenateStatewideMark R. WarnerDemocrathttp://www.markwarnerva.com
United States SenateStatewideRobert C. SarvisLibertarianhttp://www.robertsarvis.com
Member House of Representatives - 0505Robert HurtRepublicanhttp://www.roberthurtforcongress.com
Member House of Representatives - 0505W. Lawrence GaughanDemocrathttp://www.gaughanforcongress.com
Member House of Representatives - 0505Paul F. JonesLibertarianhttp://www.pauljonesforcongress.com
Member House of Representatives - 0505Kenneth J. HildebrandtIndependent Greenhttp://www.electken.com

There's also a Proposed Amendment that exempts active-duty military survivors from a certain level of property tax.  I'm not crazy about the idea because first, it was proposed by a Repub, which makes me suspicious that they're trying to smuggle in some kinda of general anti-tax bullshit by hiding it behind a cynical and equally-bullshit "concern for our veterans", and second - well, actually I guess that's about it.  I don't trust 'em any farther than I could spit one of 'em.
I think you could probably find out what's on the ballot wherever you are by doing what I did - just google the sumbitch.

Get up off your ass for a change - go vote.

Today's Tweet

@TinaDupuy:  So far every case of Ebola in this country got it by helping people. So relax, Republicans, you're in the clear.

Privatizing Public Money

There's a good buncha rubes who're always prattling on about how "taxation is theft; da gubmint holds a gun to yer head and steals yer hard-earned money, and gives it away to welfare cheats yada yada yada".

You've got the process right, Dub - but as usual, you're lynchin' the wrong guys, because you're just too deliberately ignorant to know it.

When your head is that far up your ass, even if you manage to open your eyes, all you're gonna see is your own shit.

From TruthDig:
In late February, the North Carolina chapter of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation — a group co-founded by the libertarian billionaire Koch brothers — embarked on what it billed as a statewide tour of charter schools, a cornerstone of the group’s education agenda. The first — and it turns out, only — stop was Douglass Academy, a new charter school in downtown Wilmington.
Douglass Academy was an unusual choice. A few weeks before, the school had been warned by the state about low enrollment. It had just 35 students, roughly half the state’s minimum. And a month earlier, a local newspaper had reported that federal regulators were investigating the school’s operations.
But the school has other attributes that may have appealed to the Koch group.
The school’s founder, a politically active North Carolina businessman named Baker Mitchell, shares the Koch’s free-market ideals. His model for success embraces decreased government regulation, increased privatization and, if all goes well, healthy corporate profits.
In that regard, Mitchell, 74, appears to be thriving. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell’s chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.
The schools buy or lease nearly everything from companies owned by Mitchell. Their desks. Their computers. The training they provide to teachers. Most of the land and buildings. Unlike with traditional school districts, at Mitchell’s charter schools there’s no competitive bidding. No evidence of haggling over rent or contracts.

Oct 15, 2014

Dreamin' Of A Better Day Gone By

Lay My Burden Down --Alison Krause & Union Staion

Today's Self-Parody

Not that long ago, DumFux News was busy slagging Obama for his propensity for the PhotoOp - I seem to recall somebody using language along the lines of "Obama's addiction to the PhotoOp".  Here, of course, the Fluxxy Friends need to run in the opposite direction to slag the Prez for his dislike of the PhotoOp.

2nd - as everybody's been pointing out - these guys give us a good look at another example of just saying whatever the fuck they need to say to get the rubes to start flingin' shit - the fact that we don't have an Ebola Czar, even tho' their guys have blocked Obama's choice for Surgeon General; and if we wanna go back just a bit further - these are the guys who were voicing great disgruntlement over Obama's "appointment of all those darned czars"; plus something else that everybody's pointing out - the simple fact that their guys have done nothing but cut the funding to the bureaus and agencies that they now say are letting us down.

Wanna see how Gubmint works when it's run like a bidness?  Your wait is over.

Today's Colbert

Oct 14, 2014

A Ballsy Ad

I'm not asking anybody to try to match the Repubs crazy-for-crazy, but I really would like it if the Dems could finally getup on their hind legs.



And BTW, Dems - when you don't stand up and make a lotta noise about the Repub Stoopids wanting nothing but more cuts, you're helping people make the case about "both sides", which adds to the gridlock in Washington, which adds to the paralysis of the electorate, which makes it impossible for cooler heads to prevail once the shit really hits the fan.

Step up or step aside.