the defeatists!

South Carolina -- come for the humidity, stay to watch the braindead!!!

You know, when Dick Cheney urges compassion, things are really not good. So, this move shows that, while the Democrats are going to be fucked up in their own lovable, hobbit way, for sheer troll-like viciousness and vileness, nothing but nothing beats a free market, right wing White Southern elected official. Contrary to opinion, not all of them are like that...of course, a lot of the old redneck assholes were populists who forgot the economic part of that when they decided to make their careers based solely on racism. That said, you have got to be fucking kidding me...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Just hours before the unemployment benefits fund was to run out in South Carolina, the state with the nation’s third-highest jobless rate, Gov. Mark Sanford relented Wednesday and agreed to apply for $146 million in federal funds to top it up, after weeks of refusing to do so.

This dipshit was singing the Republican's favorite song about fraud, waste and abuse. Sheeeitfuck, as they say in Dixie, South Carolina is pretty warm and they can always kill a squirrel or a possum...in downtown Charleston. Seriously, I kinda like South Carolina -- every time I've been there the people have been friendly, helpful and polite (except for FT Jackson, but basic training is intended to be traumatic) and they have a Crackerbarrel restaurant every 8 feet or so. But, they elected these clowns, and this is what they get for it.

Now, if the UAW  and the rest of the labor movement has it's shit together and some money in the organizing fund, I'd attack the BMW and other manufacturers right now, running around with placards of this asshole. The reason the fund is out of money a year into the recession is that the unemployment fund taxes are too low. The legislature et al share responsibility, but the governor is supposed to be the executive and the guy with vision to see over the next bump in the road. Of course, I'd say that a crash course in poverty may be what this asshole and his buddies in the white's only golf club ( I mean, it goes without saying...)wanted to happen. A "temporary adjustment" that leaves the labor market permanently depressed.

Ah, well, enough venom. Happy New Years...and, some gratutious music for no particular reason except I'm in the mood to post music...

Not that I care but...but you can create a helluva a blog by just looking at a magazine online...

Is this dude related to Kelso or what?  And, wouldn't this be a bitchin -- no pun intended--name for a Defeatist Rock Band? Crusader AXE and...cool. I'd have to have Natalie Merchant and KD Lang doing backup vocals but sheeeit, that would be incredbily cool, the Defeatists in our 'rasslin' stuff and two exceptionally talented androgenic geniusettes wailing!

In the USA HBO series of 4006, will this gal be our Giaia? And this one, will she be our Servilla or our Octavia? Mary Cheney probably has the Atia role all locked down...

Is this dickhead the biggest waste of oxygen since...oxygen? On a scale of irritation from one to ten, with The Sound of Music as a five,  and listening to thisasshole discuss the business cycle as a seven, where would you put the sensation seeking monster...

Imagine this one, in a wonder woman wonder bustier with peacock feathers billowing around her from her pimply white trash ass, singing a medley of patriotic songs in that incredible instrument she calls a kazoo...err, voice. Can you ever get her out of your mind?

Where's Anne Coulter? Is this a sign that she's over, oh so over?

As a guy who likes girls, isn't  this a good thing?  And, I  thought this guy was dead. Not a bad song tho... for a retro-Emo-roots sorority girl self-love IPOD tape. As a musician, I guess there are worse places to be...Maybe doing the background music for this conglomeration of brilliance...tears and sneers ...
 

And AXE's nominee for most defeatist country in the world...

Short answer, no.  There are a lot of other possibilities - Pakistan has potential, there's always Myanmar, most of the -stahns are always there, Bosnia and Kosovo are always contenders; China could go utterly south, Bangladesh is certainly a hedge bet on the craps table of countries with minimal luck...hell, Africa south of the Sahara is totally upgefucked, and the only reason we don't know how bad Latin America south of Mexico is remains that we really can't tell the difference between a Mexican and a Chilean...Now, Zimbabwe is definitely an up and coming total clusterfuck, but for totally irrelevance and misery, Somalia is this year's winner. Hell, didn't I read something about the main reason the pirates are so eager is because it helps them get chicks...

Who is Anne Hathaway and why do 27% of the readers of this blog look to find naked pictures of her here?

OK, so I looked her up on Wiki... I probably wrote something about her Italian-swindler boyfriend, but I don't really remember. And, the question still remains--and, looking at her, she's attractive enough but not someone I'd waste precious time seeking dirty pictures of...

Abstinence pledges lead to abortions...venereal disease...virgin births?

Tiffany, please make it STOPPPPP!!!!!! Seriously, wanna bet that Bristol Palin and Levi didn't have abstinence pledges at their drive-in, drive-by- Wasilla (and the typepad hobbits aren't sure how to spell it either, but I don't care!) creationist, fundamentalist, abstinence is the best sex-education church...

Pass the Irony...

Well, the Journal headlined this "As if things weren't bad enough..."

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. ( AXE emphasis and snark: I hate to agree with the Russian government about anything, but I gotta say they have a point.  I'm not sure I would say the US caused any of this stuff; but, we sure the fuck didn't help all that much In recent years...au contraire, as they say in Port Arasnsas, we supercharged the downward spiral...)  Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire."There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

This guy is talking about the disintegration of the US, not Iraq. The problem with disparity of wealth, ethnic tensions, religious conflict, government corruption, et al. are just too great and we're headed toward the compost heap of history. OK, I'm not sure I'd rate the chance at the even money level, but I really think the guy might be on to something. Certainly, getting kicked out of Afghanistan and being treated sooooo welllll by the Iraqis and the prospect of oil zipping back to the stratosphere over the Iraeli, oh, "adjustment" to Gaza would make things ugly. 

I've been particularly impressed with the Israeli attack on Gaza. I'm really convinced that the state of Israel is based on a cocktail of European Guilt and racism. They kind of forgot about the people who were already there. The great diaspora of the Jewish people went on for thousands of years -- the new Jewish state could have been as readily carved out of Russia based on occupation and roots. Anyway, that problem is just a festering away, becoming a new third rail of American politics. OK, the US government never caved into the IRA despite the Irish affection for the boyos; why in the hell do we tolerate this madness?

Israel has the right to exist; Hamas is a conglomeration of dreamers, thugs and fools financed by the Iranians. But, the Israeli war on Gaza, and that's what this is -- talk about Shock and Awe -- is unjust. Yes, there have been provocations. However, the number of casualties that the Israel has sustain and the amount of damage and the resilience of the society, it's ability to respond to attack compared to the Palestinians is totally disproportionate. It's like us nuking Kabul after 9/11...or, given the makeup of the bombers, Mecca.

Oh, the whole just war thing is on my mind this evening for a variety of reasons. Going to war is something that should occur only for reasons that make sense; going to war for ideology doesn't make sense.  I say this thinking about Afghanistan versus Iraq versus, oh, I don't know, the British Opium wars. Afghanistan had something to do with Osama bin Laden and as such you could make the argument that an invasion made sense, although it's not a slam dunk... Iraq was based on a doctrine of pre-emptive attack that is illegitamate in any philosophical sense. Finally, the British Opium wars were utterly unjustified, and no one made any attempt to pretend that they were about anything except wealth. I find it interesting to reflect that the only fully successful conflict was the one motivated by greed, the one that is totally undefensible.

There are times I miss the Shire of Ectopian-Process-Correctness

And then again, not so much...

Peace on earth, good will to...oh, yeah

"My son is gone, my son is gone," wailed Said Masri, a 57-year-old shopkeeper, as he sat in the middle of a Gaza City street, slapping his face and covering his head with dust from a bombed-out security compound nearby.

He said he had sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. "May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn," Masri moaned.

Well, what the hell. 70 rockets and eight casualties for Isreal; waves of airstrikes --given a choice between "rockets" and airstrikes, take airstrikes -- equals 200 dead and 400 wounded. Mainly Hamas security forces, but some "civilians." Like a 9 year old kid running an errand for his dad. See, if they prevented the Palestinians from selling cigarettes to minors, this wouldn't have happened. 

Hey, AXE, at least things are going well in Iraq. Yeah, about that ...

The U.S. military and Iraqi officials said the blast occurred at al-Zahra square, in the northern Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. Associated Press Television News footage of the scene showed scorched vehicles peppered with shrapnel and an engine block that was all that remained of the car bomb...The office of Iraqi army spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the blast killed at least 22 people, while a U.S. military spokesman, Capt. Charles Calio, said 20 were killed and 25 wounded. Conflicting casualty tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings in Iraq.

If you decide to re-visit The Battle for Algiers, the Legion and the Paras got things calmed way down and then everything went to shit again, only worse. It's the little random things that add up -- a bombing here, a bombing there, a jailbreak here, US Forces reluctant to commit to action because of concerns about the new SOFA agreements with the Iraqi despots, I mean, democratically elected patriots. By the by, I'm really familiar with Status of Forces agreements having lived under several. However, I never heard of a status of forces agreement in a war. Remember when the right-wingnuts were worried about Clinton putting US forces under the control of "furrinerrs?" Irony abounds. Next, we'll find out that Cheney travels in a black helicopter. 

Oh, anecdotal evidence from folks on the ground in Iraq leads me to believe that things are going to shit. Soldiers don't do sustained weird combined with uncertainty as to what the rules are well. One story I just got involves a Major who wanders around daring people to kick his ass in disagreements. Another hot rumor has senior NCOs being magically made into Majors. Shit, I'd sign up for two more years at that...totally different skill set required, unless Majors are doing what Captains used to do, because the Captains are doing what lieutenants used to do. Stupid idea, but other armies have tried it -- the Russians are well-known for having Captains do what privates used to do in our services.

Well, at least things are going well in Afghanistan...no, don't get me started. We're planning on using local militia or Muhajadeen-types to fight the Taliban...who ARE THE MUHAJADEEN! Sounds like a really great proposition to me. Of course,  we're also playing love doctor... Umm, did anyone see Charlie Wilson's War? "We changed the world...and then we fucked up the end game." In this case, we're just fucking up. 

Ok, well things are going well,aren't they, between India and Pakistan? Yeah so long as you define well down the concept of well to not an inferno yet.  Yeah, right. An unstable "democracy" where the elected types may or may not really be in control, a security establishment with documented links to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban versus a very aggrieved and angry megastate with a history of internal and external religious conflict and atrocity going back prior to Clive. Both with nuclear weapons. And a broiling continuing flashpoint  Now, the Pakistanis are trying to reduce tensions following moving troops to the border. The fucking way to reduce tensions caused by moving troops to the border is to never have moved the poor bastards in the first place. Jesus, you can just feel the love, washing over you like the glow from a neutron-bomb....

Many analysts have speculated that the assailants who carried out the Mumbai attacks sought to distract Pakistan by redirecting its focus toward India and away from the military campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban militants on the Afghan border.(AXE emphasis and snark, do you think? Of course, religious fanatics always act with defined strategic goals in mind...of course, here's an alternative -- "Let's provoke Indian into an invasion while the infidel loving dogs of the government are distracted pissing at the infidel dogs they love about incursions and attacks into Waziristan. Then, we can have a Jihad against the Indian-Hindu-Dogs...)Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Saturday it was unfortunate that a "sort of war hysteria" has been created in Pakistan."I appeal to Pakistan and Pakistani leaders, do not unnecessarily try to create tension," he said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. "Do not try to deflect the issue. A problem has to be tackled face to face." Pakistan's latest moves, including the troop redeployment, were seen as an indication that it will retaliate if India launches air or missile strikes against militant targets on Pakistani soil rather than as a signal that a fourth war between the two countries was imminent.( AXE emphasis and snark: The fourth war will come next...)

So, we've got a global economic meltdown, the Chinese Navy chasing Muslim pirates off the coast of Africa with some success (wasn't that how the US became an emerging global maritime power, fucking over Muslim African pirates...something about shores of Tripoli?), nobody bought anything for Christmas, soon nobody will be able to buy anything from anybody except Walmart and Piggly Wiggley because  all the other retailers will be bankrupt , the SNOW!!!!! is going to be immediately followed by FLOOOOOODDDDSSSS , and the Alaskan state patrol announces that it kind of delayed the investigation into Sarah Palin's daughter's soon to be mother-in-law a bit because of the Secret Service coverage of the mom? 

Peace. Out. (Of luck...)

The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay...

Wouldn't be Christmas without Shane and Kristy...I sat in the dark last night, thinking of the years and faces gone by, and played this...

Dear Tiffany, I'd rather have a pony...

They have another one for Jewish girlfriends and the festival of lights. Haven't seen the Kwanza one yet, and don't recall one for Ramadan...