Today's Pix

The Vaxxer Thing

There's no "other side" of the vaccination thing.  

It's kinda like: "eating pancakes doesn't make you gay".  Nobody is on the other side of that one either.  Cuz there's no other side to be on.

Today's Tune

I Blow It Off --Punch Brothers

The sun hits the back of my neck
Through a crack in the window shade
I blow it off
I blow it off

‘cause I keep outside
In the eyes and ears
Of friends I’ve never met
I blow it off
I blow it off

There’s nothin’ to say
That couldn’t just as well be sent
I’ve got an American share
Of 21st century stress

Your trouble vibrates the table
Interrupts my reverie
I blow it off
I blow it off

‘cause if it’s that bad
It ain’t gettin’ better
Face to face with me
So I blow it off
I blow it off

There’s nothin’ to say
That couldn’t just as well be sent
I’ve got an American share
Of 21st century stress

Go ahead and bloody up your knuckles
Knockin’ at my door
I’ll blow ‘em off
I’ll blow em off

‘Cause there’s nothin’ to say
That couldn’t just as well be sent
We’ve all got an American share
Of 21st century stress

See the oceans rise and leave the nations
Cryin’ at heaven’s door
I blew it off
I blew it off

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Handsome Joe

The Veep hits one out - and for a nice change, nobody in the White House is threatening to staple his tongue to his forehead (so far).

Then there's Dan Savage.  This guy is a fucking hero as far as I'm concerned.  I'm not gay - as far as I know - but if I were, I'd be seriously tempted to move to Seattle and see about becoming his number one groupie.

Gay rights activist Dan Savage called Ben Carson out in his syndicated column this week, challenging the prospective GOP presidential candidate to put his money where his mouth was — so to speak — regarding his views on homosexuality.

“If being gay is a choice, prove it,” Savage wrote. “Choose it. Choose to be gay yourself. Show America how that’s done, Ben, show us how a man can choose to be gay. Suck my dick. Name the time and the place and I’ll bring my dick and a camera crew and you can suck me off and win the argument.”

And it's not because of the sexuality thing anyway - he's a hero because he's fierce and competitive and he insists on public people having the balls to be intellectually honest.

I hear it's nice in Seattle tho' - sometimes anyway(?)

A Bridge Not Far Enough

First - "conservatives" have been trying hard to pretend GW Bush never even existed.  Wonder what they're gonna say about this:

The rhetorical gymnastics I think we can anticipate coming from Jeb's Bunch oughta be a pretty thing to watch too.

But, y'know - maybe we could stop fuckin' with each other just long enough to remember some of the really good things that happen once in a while, even if they have to grow out of something really shitty.

Tell ya what tho', love him or hate him or somewhere in between, that Obama guy knows how to make a fuckin' speech.

For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction — because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.

Look at our history. We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit. That’s who we are.

We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some. And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That is our character.

We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be. (Applause.)

We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. (Applause.) We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.

We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent. And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.

We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge. (Applause.)

We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.
We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway. (Applause.)

We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of who “build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how.” We are the people Emerson wrote of, “who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long;” who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”

That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing. We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes. We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit. That’s why someone like John Lewis at the ripe old age of 25 could lead a mighty march.

And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day. You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, because you’re ready to seize what ought to be.

For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there’s new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.

A Horse Race Of A Different Color

Conventional wisdom has it that Hillary's all set to waltz thru the primaries, and then stomp the fuck outa whatever poor slob the Repubs decide to throw into the jaws of Vagina Dentata dela Clintonia.

And this must not happen - "this" being a race that's not particularly exciting or close or competitive (ie: not conducive to lots of fat and juicy Ad Revenues for the Press Poodles to wallow in), so Scabrous Joe and Mika the Attack Bunny go to work to make sure we get that reassuring Both Sides pacifier shoved back into our maws before we get too mewly about it, and start asking the questions they can't afford to let us ask.

So let's allow my ridiculous imagination to run a little wild, and play it out to its logical extreme - what if electing the first woman POTUS is the latest in a string of The Mother of All Amber Alert Stories?  And while we're busy playing grab-ass games over the prospect of President Hillary Clinton, the rest of what passes for freedom is neatly disposed of by a "government" being run by the dictates of corporate board members, not accountable to anyone for anything.  Just wondering, and worth pondering.

Sweet dreams, children.

Today's Podcast

Blue Gal

d r i f t g l a s s

Send 'em the price of a latte, ya cheap bastids

The Professional Left Podcast

PO Box 9133

Springfield, IL 62791

Friday Jam

From The Beginning --Emerson Lake and Palmer

Mark-Almond --The City

Fool Yourself --Little Feat

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You --Bob Dylan

A Song For You (cover) --Ryan Adams

I Want To Love You --Delbert McClinton

Today's Tweet

In the month of February the economy created 295,000 jobs. Tune in to Fox... @JohnFugelsang @SXMInsight #UniteBlue pic.twitter.com/gyjyzzsS0v

— Syd's Soapbox (@heysyd) March 6, 2015

Hoo'da Thunk It?

This is Dred-Scott-level fuck-uppery.

"This Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."  

-- Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Citizens United v. FEC, 2010.

Another one from The Greatest Hits of SCOTUS:

Buck v. Bell