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

My Apologies In Advance

I'm gonna stop just short of asking, "Are we sure Seal Team 6 got the right guy?"

C'mon, now.  Seriously.  The guy's just a complete jag-off in some random videos telling us we're all evil and how we need to live our lives according to the fairy-tale bullshit that he thinks is the embodiment of the wisdom of his imaginary friends.  And the other one's dead - it is kinda hard to tell 'em apart sometimes tho'.

No - really - seriously serious.  Don't throw shit at anybody's head or anything.

hat tip = The Rude Pundit

Today's Random Clutter

Today's Podcast

Via Sarah Gray at Salon:

About CPAC

There is some common cause to be made - it's just ridiculously difficult to get anybody to drop their guard long enough to hear what "our side" is saying.

Jib Jab on YouTube

Today's Eternal Sadness

Houston TX:

A 3-year-old boy died yesterday after having shot himself in the head in what police are deeming an accidental shooting, The Houston Chronicle reports.

Harris County Sheriff Deputies said that the shooting happened at approximately 12:30 p.m. on Friday. According to KHOU, the gun was in the boy’s mother purse, which had been placed on a shelf.

The boy’s mother was in another part of the house, but when she heard the gun go off, she rushed in and found her son with a gunshot wound to the neck and jaw.

In the two months of 2015 so far, almost 80 kids under the age of 12 have died from gunshot wounds here in USAmerica Inc.  (Gun Violence Archive)

Today's Turnabout

Today's Tweet

Always looking for some good comebacks &/or useful vocabulary:

 

Elizabeth WarrenVerified account‏@elizabethforma

If Scott Walker sees 100,000 teachers & firefighters as his enemies, maybe it's time we take a closer look at his friends.

• RETWEETS 6,140
• FAVORITES 4,925
• 

8:59 AM - 28 Feb 2015

Today's Pix

We're Gettin' There

Try not to get too nutso, but using GMO Viruses against different types of cancer seems to be a pretty amazing thing.  

What is this virus treatment?

The researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US, led by Dr Stephen Russell, are using an approach called ‘oncolytic virus therapy’, which is generating a lot of excitement in the cancer research community around the world. In fact, we’ve written about some of our work in this area a couple of times already.

Briefly, it involves treating patients with viruses that have been genetically engineered to specifically infect cancer cells, rather than causing the particular illness that they usually bring. When injected into the body, the viruses seek out and destroy the tumour cells, multiplying inside them to create even more cancer-killing viruses. At least, that’s the theory.

To date, researchers have created oncolytic viruses from a number of different types of modified virus, including the herpes virus (which causes cold sores), pox viruses and adenovirus (common cold). But while tests in cancer cells grown in the lab and animals have been remarkably successful, this promise unfortunately hasn’t yet translated into success in clinical trials with actual cancer patients.

Now if we could just get a certain bunch of politicians to turn loose on the purse strings and get some of these docs the bucks they need to finish the thing, we might just have a chance.  (translated: Stop voting for assholes who stand in the way of research and development.)

Reversals

So, lemme see - we've got Peter King saying there's a buncha nuts in the GOP.  

Remember, this is the guy who wanted to put all Muslims under surveillance; and he said mosques are incubators for terrorism.  Now he's saying the GOP has a radical wing made up of people who're 'self-righteous and delusional'.  Peter King is not exactly the voice of rhetorical moderation, and he said a buncha his guys on his end of the spectrum are delusional - things gotta be pretty fucked up if you're so far to Peter King's right that he calls you delusional.

We've also seen a pretty constant barrage of wingnuttery coming down on John Boehner's head (eg) - and we've seen him (imo) struggling mightily not to say something like, "these idiots don't care if everybody dies as long as they get their version of conservative purity in place by lunch tomorrow."

There are others in the GOP who have to be well past jumpy about some of the weird Monsters-Of-The-Id running around scaring the fuck outa people.  Must be more than a few, and I'm guessing the numbers are more than a few dozen just in Congress.

So here's the thing:  When will we see the first defection(s)?  Which Repub(s) will finally step up and tell these bugbrains to fuck off, and declare that they'll be finishing out their terms as Independents (prob'ly) or even as Democrats (fat fucking chance, but wouldn't that be nice?)

I wonder if Howard Dean or Steny Hoyer or any of the Blue Dogs have been dispatched to wheedle away at some of these guys.  It happened the other way around in the 50s and 60s, and again in the 80s and 90s, so there's obviously a precedent for it.  I just don't know how it works.

It's a wonderment.

DumFux Lies

Jon Stewart ran a bit on last nite's show that everybody's been reposting - so why should I be any different:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Here's the Vine Video:

(click to pause)

Surprise Surprise

Turns out, Racial Bias actually is a thing.  Which makes Race-based Privilege into a thing as well.

Not that anybody who needs to hear this will actually hear it - much less put any stock in it because of course it's just more academic mumbo jumbo from people who've spent the better part of their lives studying such things, and who gives a fuck about Australia anyway!?! - but anyhoo.

From Univ of Queensland via NYT: 

With more than 1,500 observations, the study uncovered substantial, statistically significant race discrimination. Bus drivers were twice as willing to let white testers ride free as black testers (72 percent versus 36 percent of the time). Bus drivers showed some relative favoritism toward testers who shared their own race, but even black drivers still favored white testers over black testers (allowing free rides 83 percent versus 68 percent of the time).

The study also found that racial disparities persisted when the testers wore business attire or dressed in army uniforms. For example, testers wearing army uniforms were allowed to ride free 97 percent of the time if they were white, but only 77 percent of the time if they were black.

This elegant experiment follows in a tradition of audit testing, in which social scientists have sent testers of different races to, for example, bargain over the price of new cars or old baseball cards. But the Australian study is the first, to my knowledge, to focus on discretionary accommodations. It’s less likely these days to find people in positions of authority, even at lower levels of decision making, consciously denying minorities rights. But it is easier to imagine decision makers, like the bus drivers, granting extra privileges and accommodations to nonminorities. Discriminatory gifts are more likely than discriminatory denials.

A police officer is an out-and-out bigot if she targets innocent blacks for speeding tickets. But an officer who is more likely to give a pass to white motorists who exceed the speed limit than to black ones is also discriminating, even if with little or no conscious awareness. This is one reason the Twitter hashtag #crimingwhilewhite is so powerful: It draws attention to the racially biased exercise of discretion by police officers, prosecutors and judges, which results in whites getting a pass for the kinds of offenses for which minorities are punished.

So the discrimination is there; the biogtry is there; it's just behind a slightly less thoroughly disgusting mask.  It's about the "positive" of granting a little favor for the White Folk so it looks and sounds a little better, but it's still the same old "negative" of denying that favor (ie: privilege) to Black Folk.  I'm willing to call it as having made some progress, but we're still pretty well stuck with a problem of unequal treatment, and having that inequality based on the color of somebody's skin.

It's just not enough.  We gotta do better.

Rudy Rudy Rudy

Rick Ungar at Forbes on Giuliani's fail which turned into a fourple fail when Rudy doubled down twice - most recently by getting space in the OpEd section of Rupert's Vanity Street Journal.

“My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart. My intended focus really was the effect his words and his actions have on the morale of the country, and how that effect may damage his performance.”

Really?

When you boldly and directly state that a President doesn’t love his country, while suggesting that this lack of affection is the result of not being like "us", you have to be something of a fool to imagine that you can return to the fray pretending that what you meant to say was you don’t like how the President speaks on the subject of American exceptionalism.

The Hate Parade

Wanna know what Repubs really really REALLY hate?  

Well, it would seem there's enough GOP Hatred to spread a rich and creamy slathering over a pretty good sampling of just about everything.

A user called Scuba at Democratic Underground put together this handy (and partial) list:

Immigrants
Unions
ACLU
Muslims
Gays
Liberals
Medicare
Harry Reid
NOAA
Professors
Thinking people
Public & Indian Housing
Canadians
Sewer systems
Journalists
Jesus' teachings
Europe
Whistleblowers
Social Security
Progress
Scientists
President Obama
Peace Corps
Lesbians
Social justice
Mosques
Laws
Media
Truth
Creative people
14 year old rapist victims
Housing & Urban Development Dept
Government healthcare
Illegal aliens
United Nations
Diplomacy
Smart people
NEA
Bureaucrats
Postal Service
Empathy
Government
1st Amendment
Any Arabic person
Economic justice
Consumer protections
Artists
Democrats
Social programs
All democratic leaders
14 year old incest victims
Sanity
Public education
14th Amendment
Actors
Wildlife
Federal government
Food stamps
Worker's rights
Change
Student aid programs
Environment
Hate crime laws
The Poor
Department of Education
The vulnerable
Nancy Pelosi
Environmental Protection Agency
Logic
The weak
State government
Unemployed
Food banks
4th Amendment
Progressives
Thinking
Tree huggers
Abortion
Hollywood
Teachers
Census workers
Federal Trade Commission
Endangered species
Reason
Homeless people
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Women's rights
City government
Food & Drug Administration
Intelligence
Environmentalists
Any liberal leader
Movies
College professors
5th Amendment
Regulations
Blacks
Soccer
Compassion
Facts

I could add: Public Lands and Clean Water and Breathable Air and Redress Through The Courts and a Livable Wage and and and.  

Dear GOP,
It's more than a little nutty trying to think you 'love America' when you hate so much of what  America actually is.

God Love Wonkette

This week's installment of Weekend Stock Photo Report

Today's TED Talk