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.