Economy: Imagine

if we'd actually listened to that wealthy and stupid failure, Gee Dumbya, and put Social Security into stocks, like he wanted us to do.

It would have gone the way of the Pension Guaranty Benefit Corporation funds that ex-Lehman Bros. weasel Charles Millard shifted into the market right before it collapsed.

The Bush government — failure, incompetence, greed, corruption, and Teh Stupid in buckets. Can we jail this moron? And force him to cough up everything he owns?

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Politics: You Owe It To Yourselves

to read what my good friend Chuck Butcher has to say about Senator Jim Webb and the criminal justice system.

I'm really thrilled to see that Senator Webb is living up to the high hopes I had for him. I was convinced there was gold in there in that complex, shy, stubborn, and solid man, and he's proving that he's more interested in the wellbeing of this nation than his own political future. McCain could learn a lot about "country first" by watching Senator Webb.

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Annual Book List

ICHC For Teh Win!

Yeah, finally.

I posted reviews of what I read last year. I put up the new list for this year.

What I'd like to ask of you, friends and fellow readers, is that you run a critical eye over the list and suggest any books that ought to be pruned off the list. While it's true I managed to read some 100+ books off the list last year, I think 180+ is a mite high. So help a fella out.

Gracias!

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Politics: From The Department of

fat, babbling, semi-sentient blowhards:



Flush Rimbowl wants New York to drop dead. Tsk, tsk.

It appears that New York wants to return the favour. Just read the comments for a very good laugh-yer-ass-off experience.

Where's the patriotism, lardass? Don't you love your country? Isn't it worth a few bucks to ya? Apparently, Flush's patriotism ends where his wallet begins. Whatevah.

For those out there who might be offended at my use of the word "fat" to describe Flush: consider his nasty remarks about women who might have a little poundage. It's the hypocrisy, not the avoirdupois, people.

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Politics: There's Dawgs

and then there's dawgs.

This here dawg:

IHAH

despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, is a GOOD dawg.

These dawgs, OTOH, are some BAD, bad dawgs.

Remember all those years of Democratic Party congresscritters making backwards bridges of hands and feet to kiss Gee Dumbya's ass? Remember all those years when we cursed and swore at the idiots we had put into Congress who ran as Democrats, then ran FROM Democrats on every issue?

That would be your Blue Dog Democrats, better known as Republicrats or Democraps or Demicans. They keep talking about some mythical "center" to which they owe allegiance while selling all our hopes and dreams down the river, along with their, and our, grandmothers, for a nickel the lot. Fuck me blind, I've had enough of this shit, and if you're sick and tired of so-called Democrats who'd rather have public buttsex with lobbyists and coporathieves than forward the agenda of those who elected them, that is, us - put on your buttkicking boots and get in line. Time for some activism!!

At a time when conservatives of every stripe are thoroughly sick of the betrayal of the conservative movement, at a time when progressives are joining hands with conservatives to protest the wholesale theft and looting of our nation, at a time when Republicans themselves can't run away fast enough from the Party of NoBrains, people like Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Kirstin Gillibrand of New York threaten to hold the Democratic Party hostage to their slimy, weaselly ways. These turncoats run as supposed Democrats, hoping to ride our very popular President's coattails to victory, then turn around and do their best to obstruct his agenda at every step.

Thanks to them, we had endless years of frustration, of "do-nothing" congresscritters, of Bush butt-buddies. Enough, we say. People, y'all better find better candidates than your blue dogs to put in power, because they're determined to fuck us all over, and they're gonna start with you.

If you love those ambulatory poops as much as we do, please be sure to let them know. We can't afford to have these weasels in power, mealy-mouthing us into another decade of lobbyists sucking the last drops out of the Taxpayer Trough. Get on them, people.

Here they are, in all their craven glory. Let them hear from you!


Blue Dog Leadership Team

• Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
  
• Rep. Baron Hill, Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
  
• Rep. Charlie Melancon, Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
  
• Rep. Joseph "Heath" Shuler, Blue Dog Whip

Foot Soldiers

• Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
  
• Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
  
• Baca, Joe (CA-43)
  
• Barrow, John (GA-12)
  
• Berry, Robert Marion (AR-01)
  
• Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
  
• Boren, Dan (OK-02)
  
• Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
  
• Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
  
• Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
  
• Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
  
• Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
  
• Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
  
• Childers, Travis (MS-01)
  
• Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
  
• Costa, Jim (CA-20)
  
• Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
  
• Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
  
• Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
  
• Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
  
• Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
  
• Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
  
• Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
  
• Harman, Jane (CA-36)
  
• Hill, Baron (IN-09)
  
• Holden, Tim (PA-17)
  
• Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
  
• McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
  
• Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
  
• Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
  
• Melancon, Charles (LA-03)
  
• Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
  
• Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
  
• Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
  
• Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
  
• Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
  
• Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
  
• Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
  
• Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
  
• Ross, Mike (AR-04)
  
• Salazar, John (CO-03)
  
• Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
  
• Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
  
• Scott, David (GA-13)
  
• Space, Zack (OH-18)
  
• Tanner, John (TN-08)
  
• Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
  
• Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
  
• Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

List compiled by commenter unite4change at HuffPo.

Righteous commenter tsmith1440000 adds:

These "Blue Dogs" (& other Dems) are having a meeting with 44 tonight. This is a critical point in the new administration. They need to be reminded of how they reached these positions. This is a bad time for self-interest. Remind them that it'll be a WORSE time for it come election time. Copy & paste your (ahem) "opinion" to every single one of them. Feel free to use this:
"44 GETS HIS BUDGET OR I VOTE YOU OUT!!"

Stumble It!

Caturday!

ICHC Cattitude Center

Wish I could get into that position, but I'm at 90+ degrees flexion? extension? on the old knee, which isn't too shabby. That's OK, I can still kick ass, and intend to.

Dear nonblogger friend McBlogget, who often lurks to comment, points out that a one-legged ass-kicking would leave me without a leg to stand on, so to speak. Pfft! We can kick ass leg or no leg. Besides, given the number of potential victims who are just begging to get on my butt-booting list, how can I possibly rest now? There'll be riots, I tell you, RIIIIOOTS!!

For example, take the U.S. Army. No, really. The Republicans spent over a decade staining their pants with piss about how no one in the whole Yooniverse was more patriotic than they because they Supported Ahr Troops. What means this, "I support our troops" crap? Does this mean "I support the USAF, no matter what it does"? That if tomorrow our brave soljahs were told to rape your wife and kill your kid and knife your octogenarian nonna in her bed, you would wipe away a tear and press a hand to your heart in support of their actions?

Of course not. What it means is, "We're not those dirty fucking smelly hippies our parents (or their friends) were, and to prove it, we're going to parrot this slogan." That's all. Because you can't support the USAF when that benighted bunch of moneygrubbers in the Pentagon does this to one of their own employees. Sending a sergeant to get his ass shot off and then billing him for the honor is beyond scummy. While the generals and bigass hotshots suck corporate dick by the bucketful, they walk free when the grunts whom they left to mind the store fuck up. Those poor schmoes, already at the bottom of the ladder, are getting shat upon, spat upon, spooged upon, and screwed. All without the benefit of protection or lube. They're promised bonuses which are never handed out; they're promised health care which ends up with the tragic sight of wounded men and women lying in pools of their own piss under moldy walls and leaky roofs; the only thing different between Vietnam and Iraq is, we're not spitting on these sods for doing their jobs.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't question why those motherfuckers at the Pentagon keep sucking up taxpayer money and spitting back the broken bodies of our children. Like John McCain, who turned his back on POWs, attacked, verbally and physically, relatives of MIA servicepeople, and refused to support basic health care and benefits for veterans, everyone on the Hill needs to qualify what exactly they mean by "support the troops," because charging this guy $3 GRAND to fix a leg that got broken because you ballgargling yambags sent him out there to get shot at does not cut it in my book. So bend over and grab your ankles, you pathetic chum-swizzlers, because the ass-kicking's about to begin.

And while we're at it, the Republican schmuck who has the gall to say stuff like this needs to get stuffed. Preferably with a hedgehog (not a live one; we're thinking metal, with tiny sharp needle spikes). For those unwilling to click teh link, teh speaker is one Nasser Kazeminy, Iranian-born douche and beneficiary of our previous meddling in middle-eastern politics. Here he is flapping his gums:

According to the transcript, Thomas was asked, "In that conversation that you had with Mr. Kazeminy, did he tell you, quote, United States senators don't make shit, close quote? Or words to that effect?"

Oh, is that right, Mr. Kazeminy? Guess what? Most Americans don't make shit. Whereas most senators make over $100K p.a. If you think that kinda money is "shit," you need to be stripped of all your assets and most of your clothes and given a little "free" government housing in the East LA projects, or someplace, where you can experience life on a rich diet of Doritos and soda pop.

Feckin eejit.

Enough with the mad already. I'ma gonna sit outside in the sun for a bit and think of what we all can DO to put paid to this sort of crap and move the country, and ourselves, back towards recovery.

It's Caturday! Enjoy your day! Hell, enjoy the whole damn weekend.

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Oakland Weariness: Grief and Loss

Oakland: such potential with all of its good and creative citizens. Yet, we fall so often. Five more deaths.

As a fifty-nine year old woman who is often alone at night, I am grateful and respectful of the officers who came to help me twice in the past years because I heard gunshots in my neighborhood or heard someone breaking into a window at night. They were comforting and respectful.

And I am pinky white. I do not forget this. I'm often (not always) treated respectfully. But what I said above has been my most recent experience.

The sadness I feel is for those officers, their families, and co-workers. Co-workers often share things that families don't -- the stresses of work.

I also feel sadness for those who feel so desperate they would kill.

Sadness too, for the community I share. We need strong, true and honest leadership and I feel we do not have it. We need resolve to turn all this violence around and I feel we do not have it.

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How To Avoid Hairy Jello

And other nuggets of wisdom, culinary and otherwise.

ICHC

Didja know that hospital food is, like, the worst shit in the world? Srsly. I have no idea what they put in that stuff, but I'm thinkin' something along the lines of recycled intestinal tissue from recent surgery. It even smells bad. Like, from a mile away.

So, if you're scheduled to get schlepped into the old Bone Pit for any reason, for mercy's sake, prepare.

Put these on your list of Things To Do Before Surgery.

1. Laundry.
   
   There's nothing worse than coming home to the funky aroma of unwashed clothes, and if yo' mama didn't tell you yet, when that shit sits around in the house waiting for you to return from the Bone Pit, it miasmates (yeah, I made that word up, so what?) more richly as the days go by to produce a brew like Hell's own armpit.
   
   Yes, I did my fuckin' laundry. I'm speaking from past experience and a wild and wicked yoof.
   
   
2. Tidy up.
   
   You're going to be fuckin' frail when you get home. Srsly. They drain out your body juices and put staples and stitches and god knows what other shite in your hoomin bits. So pick up all the books and papers and what-all lying around on the floor because if it's there to trip on you WILL by gum trip on it or step on it or fall over it and hurt yourself something sucky.
   
   If you can sort the crap out and put it away, yay. If not, feck it. Put it in a large brown paper bag or a box somewhere and hide it where you won't step on it. You'll have plenty of time to take care of it as you S-L-O-W-L-Y recover from your erstwhile damage.
   
   
3. Cook plenty of nutritious, freezable meals and stick them in 1-gallon containers and freeze them.
   
   I'm not kidding about this one. Hospital food is SO the shits you'll sell your liver and your entire family for decent food by the time you come back. Your tastebuds are totally off because of the drugs (you'll know you're on the road to recovery when the hospital food actually starts tasting edible). I don't know what kind of eejits hospitals employ as nutritionists and dietitians, but most of them seem to belong to the school of "more is better." Salt, fat, calories, human hair, whatever. Stay away from everything except water, juice, fruit, salad, and clear broth if they'll let you have it.
   
   Over the next few weeks, I'm going to post recipes of nutritious, easy, freezable food. High protein content, low work ratio. Nothing like a hearty beef steak soup with tender chunks of browned meat, celery, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, and rice to keep you happy after much slicing and dicing of the old bod.
   
   
4. Clean out the fridge.
   
   Srsly. Anything that can't get et before you go to teh Bone Pit ain't gonna get et till you've been home a while. If it can stay in the freezer, fine, but really, you're better off giving it to friends and family and saving the freezer for your Real People Food for recuperation. In the meantime, give the rest away and clean out the fridge. That's how you avoid hairy jello.

For the nonce, please stay away from bubbling-hot liquids of any variety, whether it be tea, coffee, or soup, eh? Everything's bad for you, except for what kills you, yaknow.

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Meta: Grief and Loss

ICHC

If you've been hanging out at this blog as long as I have, you know my good friend Chuck Butcher.

He's been an excellent blogfriend, a good human being with levels of kindness I have hardly expected. Online community. Chuck defines it for me. A gentleman through and through.

Chuck lost his son Nick recently, to the demons that prey on our souls. Drop by, won't you, and read what he has to say on his grief and loss. I guess that's what community is. When your friends hurt, you hurt. And everybody knows there is no greater hurt than for a parent to lose a child.

No parent should ever have to bury their child. Regards, Chuck and family. Words don't make it better, but they're all I have right now.

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Meta! I'm Back, Dammit!

From ICHC, of course

Yeah, they don't tell you till afterwards that knee replacement surgery is the most painful kind of surgery you can have. Although, if they'd told me beforehand, as they did afterwards, I probly would still be running, bum leg or no bum leg. Other things they don't tell you: Knee injury hastens the deterioration of hyaline cartilage around the bum joint, and that stuff don't grow back. People who seriously injure their knees during their wild and wicked yoof will pay and pay and pay for the rest of their lives with decreasing mobility and pain. All those young football stars who get sent to the chopping block? They're demanding million-dollar salaries because when they go in for the first replacement, that's pretty much the end of it. Of course, we're trained to bay at the obscene amounts they make and roll over for teh belly rub when a banker takes home $10 mil in bonus plus whatever obscene amount they make each year every year for fifty years or more in the workforce, but hey.

You goddamned losers gotta stop envying the rich for being rich, says the WSJ, wiping a tear from its greedy eye with teh Hanky of Opportunism. Gads, a one-legged ass-kicking's on the menu for the lot of those sodding bastids, don't you think?

Today's heart-lightening theft from YouTube shows that President Obama has two working legs and is not afraid to use them to kick a little deserving butt. And when has any behind seemed more deserving?



Blogging light but determined. Heavy drugs in the mornings, scattered wiseass remarks throughout the day. Storms of rabid language predicted, also Banker Pinatas as a way of stimulating teh economy.

Yeah, I'm glad to be back. Nothing like telling the fecking sods what it is while your leg is stretched by an inquisitorial torture device of sorts (what the FECK is this, anyway?).

The Terrible Saga will grace these pages forthwith. And terrible it was, in the stinky sort of way that week-old corpses and hospital tales tend to be.

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Caturday! Why don't cats ...

Why don't cats play poker in the jungle?

Too many cheetahs.

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Empathy

I said to PolCat the other day:

"Now that you've gotten your total knee replacement surgery, do you feel more empathy towards Cylons?"

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Pope Speaks About H.I.V.

"Pope, in Africa, Says Condoms Aren’t the Way to Fight H.I.V."
-- headline in the NYTimes

Ms. Manitoba has a suggestion: jail your pedophile priests and bishops ... that will help fight H.I.V.

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NEWSFLASH: PolCat Enters Rehab!

Like so many celebrities, our dear PolCat has faced her problems and has entered rehab. She wanted to go the Amy Winehouse route ... but she's a braver soul.

Okay, folks, I'm just messin' around. True, PolCat is in rehab ... but a post-op orthopedic rehab. I saw her today and she is doing so well!! After my last post, she had a few rough days but now she's doing well ... getting out of bed by herself to go for a wee ... all kinds of good things.

Love to PolCat. And to her faithful caretaker too.

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Cheney's Executive Assassination Ring

OK, Seymour Hersh is not done with his investigations on this yet but I'd keep my eyes and ears open on this one. I won't be at all surprised to find out how far this goes and just where Cheney had them operating. As if what they were doing internationally isn't bad enough, it sounds like they were doing it here in the good old USA too. Forget about your Constitutional rights, they've been rescinded. Definitely. Dick Cheney, judge, jury and executioner. Jesus.

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Fake News My Ass!

For a fake news program, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show sure ripped Jim Cramer a new one! Have you been following the back and forth battle this week? Did you see the interview Jon did with Jim Cramer this evening. Jon used the whole show to rip into Jim Cramer in person, CNBC, and the whole financial infotainment crap news media that have hyped horrible investments and played craps with peoples' 401k's while failing to do the real investigations they should have been doing. Jon did not give an inch and he made it uncomfortably clear to Jim Cramer how he and the whole financial "news" media have hurt people. Oh man! I just had to clap and cheer. I gather Comedy Central will put up the whole interview on the website but I don't see it yet. Watch out for it. Its GREAT!

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Women in America

Women in America are more likely to be poor than men. Over half of the 37 million Americans living in poverty today are women. And women in America are further behind than women in other countries—the gap in poverty rates between men and women is wider in America than anywhere else in the Western world.

Want to know more? Great website: Center for American Progress

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Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs

We congratulate Van Jones ... Local guy makes good ... this is from the White House blog ...


Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Van Jones to CEQ

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley announced yesterday that Van Jones – an early green jobs visionary -- will start Monday as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at CEQ:

Van Jones has been a strong voice for green jobs and we look forward to having him work with departments and agencies to advance the President’s agenda of creating 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources. Jones will also help to shape and advance the Administration’s energy and climate initiatives with a specific interest in improvements and opportunities for vulnerable communities

Jones is the founder of Green For All, an organization focused on creating green jobs in impoverished areas. He is also the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, and was the author of the 2008 New York Times best-seller, The Green Collar Economy.

Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker profiled Jones in January:"Your goal has to be to get the greenest solutions to the poorest people," Jones told me. "That’s the only goal that’s morally compelling enough to generate enough energy to pull this transition off. The challenge is making this an everybody movement, so your main icons are Joe Six-Pack—Joe the Plumber—becoming Joe the Solar Guy, or that kid on the street corner putting down his handgun, picking up a caulk gun."

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PolCat Is Doing Well After Operation!

We are happy to report that our dear friend, PolCat, is doing nicely. I told her (having had the same operation meself in December) that she will get the best night's sleep ... and she hasn't had a good night's sleep in many a moon. Plus, she'll be on the *other* side of this operation.

Now, on with the healing ... and working out with those sadist physical therapists. And I use the word "sadist" in the most loving way -- I've always loved all of my physical therapists!

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Meta: Announcement

Well, it's off to the chop house, people, and I'm happy to report there's a reason doctors like mine are called "sawbones," cos that's what the fella will be doing, cuz, sawing off me bones.

I thought about asking to take it home wrapped in a napkin or what, to see what kind of stock human bone makes, but I'm assured that they'll just pickle it in formaldehyde, which is a known human carcinogen.

On the cat front, Bandicoot has a cold and the runny nose and eyes have created a bacterial eye infection which necessitates a visit to his doctor that I will not be privileged to effect, being, as it were, otherwise engaged. Madu, with his impeccable timing, has discovered wild onions, which he eats right off the hillside, and, much as I hate to admit to anything so coarse, he's killing us with his farts. Fortunately the skunks appear to be mating in the gardens of La Casa de Los Gatos, so the greater, as it were, evil, drowns out the lesser.

As further evidence of Madu's impeccable timing, let me note for his fans here that Idiot Boy (also known as Mr. Single Brain Cell, or Resident Narcolept) appears to have sustained a deep bite on his face — one puncture right above an eye and the other close to the carotid artery. Look for a big-mouthed cat. It definitely looks like a cat bite rather than some other animal. His doctor's told him often enough NOT to get in fights since he has a tendency to lead with his losing side. (We refrain from mentioning that whichever side he leads with is the one that ends up with holes in it.) I am greatly annoyed about this as, instead of passing out peacefully from opiates of high quality after several weeks of precious little sleep, I will be worrying about that worthless bag of fur even as they saw my joints off.

It took ten balls of cotton wool and two towels to clean up all the blood, but the wounds look closed and he has orders to permit himself to be schlepped to the doctor together with his dear Uncle Bandicoot. About Zingiber we say nothing except to mention once again that he is the prime example of "stink outside the box." Gojira is well and feisty. Gustav is elderly but not above using unprintable language upon his fellow felines.

We give thanks to the deities of the feline persuasion that the little bastid has finally stopped chewing on his den-mates as if they were choice steaks.

I'll be back in 10-14 days (the knee has to be rehabbed before it can climb the House of A Million Stairs, aka La Casa de Los Gatos). Meanwhile, Ms. Manitoba, FoTPC, Sirenita Lake, have at it, y'all.

Thanks for your good wishes, one and all.

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