20/20 Hindsight

Wes Clark's been trying for a while to get us to step up and understand what's happening.  Not that he knows everything, but he's a smart cookie and he's been around the block more than once, and he seems at least to have maintained his sense of the need for those checks and balances to prevent too much power from being concentrated in too few hands.

What really strikes me is that even when "the Neo-Cons" - guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld - aren't "in power", they still somehow have the stroke to get us to take on these disgustingly imperial (ie: mercantile) projects.

One other thing:  Eventually, we gotta get hip to ourselves and start to understand that if we lose the need for the oil, the Middle East loses its strategic primacy, and we can stop letting the Saudi Royals (eg) use our Oil Jones to make us dance to whatever tune tickles their fancy at any given time.

Today's PFU

Our Culture of Gun Violence costs us a lot in a lot of ways we're generally not even aware of.

7 Big Ones

Today's Toon

They're All The Same

Yeah, but not really.

hat tip = The Richmonder

Todays' Gun Nut

Out of Florida (natch) a few days ago, Florida Today reports a brand new Stand Your Ground incident:

Officials say Woodward snuck up on a Labor Day barbecue and opened fire at about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2012. Police arrived and found Gary Lee Hembree, Roger Picior and Bruce Timothy Blake all had been shot. Hembree and Picior died of their injuries. Blake, who was hit 11 times, survived.

Woodward, 44, is accused of two counts of first-degree felony murder and attempted first-degree felony murder.

Before the incident, police had responded numerous times to the ongoing dispute, according to a release. Woodward and Hembree went to court to discuss the dispute before Judge John D. Moxley. Moxley did not issue an injunction.

The motion filed by Woodward’s attorneys says in the hours prior to the shooting, all three men were yelling at Woodward and that this type of behavior had been ongoing for over a month.

Be sure not to miss the part where Woodward's lawyer invokes The Bush Doctrine to justify his client's murderous intent.

hat tip = Addicting Info

Today's PFU

It's Called Engineering

All Syria All The Time

I'm not gonna say none of this crap about Syria matters - it does.  But when I look at what passes for debate in congress and all over TV and Radio and Newspapers and the Blogosphere, I'll say none of that matters any more than pissin' in your wetsuit.

Nothing anybody says has anything to do with what's really going on because Obama's not gonna tell us everything he knows - or thinks he knows.

Kerry got himself all worked up - to the point where the expression on his face almost changed (I know, right?).  Anyway, the guy's runnin' around all crazy, yelling stating calmly in his best clear-but-stern-Brahmin-esque voice, "I'm not Colin Powell; I am not Colin Powell, dammit".

Meanwhile, Huckleberry Closet-Case and his best old buddy Grampy McDumfuck wanna make sure everybody knows they're on top of things, and that no matter what happens, America is still large and in charge; and 1986 is gonna be a great year for us - amiright!?!!  USA! USA! USA!

I'd call this a circus inside a circle jerk wrapped in a cluster fuck, but that'd be an insult to all 3.

So here's the deal - this is my considered opinion and what I think I should get paid top dollar for suggesting the Prez should do:

Everybody knows 2 basic things.  One is that Assad's gotta go. The other one is that Assad knows he either "wins" this thing or he dies.  Winning is pretty unlikely no matter what happens, but he can't win even in the short-term if he doesn't have big powerful friends - which he thinks he has in China and Russia.

So here's the play:  Obama has to figure out how to get Putin to dispose of Assad.  And actually, he has to get Putin to believe that by taking Assad out, Russia makes strategic gains in the middle east.  That's what Vlad wants after all.  So Putin jacks Assad, and the ensuing mess is Putin's problem.  But Putin knows all that, so...

...long story short - that's the setup, and here's the sting:  We knock off Assad and make sure Putin's fingerprints are all over the caper - a bit of Polonium-210 residue oughta do it.

Better yet - we get Bejing to do it, and they make sure Putin gets the blame.

Or maybe we could get the Israelis to get the Ugandans to get the North Koreans to get the Chinese to get the Russians...

Where's Curtis Lemay when you really need him?

C'Mon Man

It seems there are people looking to the elections here in Virginia as some kind of bellwether.  Our 4-year election cycle (for Gov, LGov & AG) runs in off-years.  So as the midterm campaigns start to heat up for next year, the prognosticators and the bookies and the junkies are trying to get a read on what's to come.

(Ed Note:  They're doing the same in New Jersey, but nobody here in God's Country really cares what a buncha Yankees are foolin' with up north)

We have the usual Big-Government Moralistas on the Repub side (Ken Cuccinelli, EW Jackson, and Mark Obenshain), running against some Neo-Liberal Clintonians put up by the Dems (Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam, and Mark Herring).

Today's OP-Ed piece in RTD by local guru Ken Shapiro laments the possibility of a Democratic sweep, saying Cuccinelli and Jackson are poison, and only Obenshain stands a chance; and then gives us this little gem:

Among the questions: Obenshain’s election-year legislation — now law — making it harder for Virginians to vote and easier to keep secret that they carry a concealed gun. Obenshain also is harangued for a 2009 measure — later withdrawn — that would have required women report miscarriages to authorities within 24 hours.

Obenshain has made his bones in the last several years by pushing a very regressive agenda, and indulging in the kind of uber-pandering to the basest of "the base" that makes most of us more than a little nauseous, and he's the GOP's best chance to forestall this impending disaster?

BTW - if we drive some of the wackier wackos out of electoral politics, and we manage to put a bit more democracy back into the democratic process, and we make it a little easier for actual flesh-and-blood people to live a little freer - please tell me again how that qualifies as some kinda disaster(?)

BTW also too - Mark Obenshain is another political legacy puke.  See Dick Obenshain at Wikipedia

Today's PFU

Mother's Little Helper(s)

James Lee Stanley (on the right) and John Batdorf.




And a short bit from Bryant Gumbel on drug use in USAmerica:

Gumbel Commentary: America's Drug Problem

We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's pain meds (including 99% of the world's Vicodin).

Ritalin = 4 million kids (mostly)

Anti-Depressants = 22 million women

Sleeping pills = 30 million adults

Statins (to lower cholesterol) = 32 million of any age or gender

We spent over $325,800,000,000 on prescription drugs last year - that's close to $1000 for every American.

Americans who took at least one prescription medication last month = 150 million

Americans who took 3 or more prescription medications last month = 67 million

Americans who took 5 or more prescription medications last month = 31 million 

Ain't Nobody But Me

Let me tell you a story that'll make a change,
Let me tell you when I'm way out of range;
It's about a man who's crueler than me,
So promise not to cause a scene,
Heaven help the one's you love,
There's no big need for stars above

Well, you can run, you know he'll find you,
It don't matter now, just look behind you,
You had your warn, and you knew the score,
You got it wrong, and that means war;
So, why'd you have to treat me rough,
Your explanation's not enough.

Ain't nobody but me,
Gonna lie for you, gonna die for you;
Ain't no fish in the sea,
Gonna sigh for you, gonna try for you,
Gonna lie for you, gonna die for you,
Wooh-

You see, I got a mental disposition,
Sometimes, I'm mean, sometimes I'm vicious;
I'm Dr. Jekyll, I'm Mr. Hyde,
So if you wanna stay alive,
Just give me all you've got to give,
And, then perhaps I'll let you live.

Ain't nobody but me,
Gonna lie for you, gonna die for you,
Ain't no fish in the sea,
Gonna sigh for you, gonna try for you,
Gonna lie for you, gonna die for you;
Gonna sigh for you, gonna try for you,
Gonna lie for you, gonna die for you.-

(HUSH) Now baby, stop your crying,
(OH YES) I know that I've been lying,
(HUSH) Now baby, stop your crying
(OH YES) I know that I've been lying
(HUSH) Now baby, stop your crying
(OH YES) I know that I've been lying
(HUSH) Now baby, stop your crying
(OH YES) I know that I've been lying
AAAaaa

Man Eater

She'll only come out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothing is new, I've seen her here before
Watching and waiting
She's sitting with you but her eyes are on the door

So many have paid to see
What you think you're getting for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar
Money's the matter
If you're in it for love you ain't gonna get too far

Oh here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh here she comes
She's a maneater
Oh here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh here she comes
She's a maneater

I wouldn't if I were you
I know what she can do
She's deadly man, and she could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
The beauty is there but a beast is in the heart

Oh here she comes
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
Oh here she comes
She's a maneater

I Brake For Art

Zooming around the intertubes, screeching to a dead stop at this:

Miles Morgan

hat tip = Democratic Underground