Underneath the surface

Not long ago Paris rioted, then recently Athens rioted, now London riots. The type of rioting is, of course, ridiculous and inexcusable a mob driven desire (mostly teens) for wanton destruction (and mass looting)...much like the inexorable effect of the policies that eventually caused them -- especially say you are a First World Country tossing "smart" bombs into a middle eastern country you don't like.

Once again, little attention is given to the reasons for the rioting, just the desire to crack heads.

Blather rinse repeat.

On Wisconsin

Today's the day when you get to vote (if that's still allowed in your area). Perhaps it is time to send a signal to folks like this:



Since they are so big on the fruits of human misery. Goodness knows the nation's most prominent Democrat will not do so.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

OREGON: Willamette Valley Wineries

Any recommendations?

(Umpqua Valley, too.)

The creepy underbelly of sports

I suppose in a way this could be a good thing for a poor family (if that is their situation)...but really?

Real Madrid has signed a seven-year-old football prospect from Argentina, who goes by the name Leo.

Leonel Angel Coira has signed with the Spanish club and will begin training Sept. 6, Madrid spokesman Juan Tapiador tells The Associated Press.

Argentine sports daily Ole reported last week that Coira had become the youngest player signed by Madrid but Tapiador said he is not.

That's getting dangerously close to Toddlers & Tiaras territory (creepiest and most awful show on television -- and I say this based upon never actually seeing it, I just rely on 'The Soup' to guide my opinion).

How shallow and malleable is Mitt Romney?

Pretty damned shallow and malleable.

In a 1994 Senate debate with Ted Kennedy, Mitt Romney revealed a startling chapter from his past: A close relative had died many years earlier in a botched illegal abortion, shaping Romney's stance in favor of safe and legal access to abortion for all women. But in the many years since that revelation, even as Romney flipped his position and became an ardent opponent of legal abortion, the details of his young relative's story, including even her name, have never been reported.

The relative he was referring to back in '94, Salon has learned, was a Detroit woman named Ann Keenan. She was the sister of Romney's brother-in-law and died at the age of 21 in 1963, a full decade before Roe v. Wade. While much of what happened remains murky, an investigation by Salon has uncovered never-reported details about her life and death, including: how she died (an infection); that her grief-stricken parents asked for memorial donations to be made to Planned Parenthood; and that the family apparently wanted to keep the death quiet because Romney's politically ambitious father, George, was then governor of Michigan.

But if they memory of a dead relative can be tossed into the ol' varmint patch or dog-cage, well Mitt's more than willing to pay the price.

"Congresswoman please strike a pose that does not make you look insane"

And that's the best she could do.

Seems familiar somehow.

Just to put things in perspective

About how so many on the Right probably still think.

Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.
-- Jesse Owens

Or as Republicans call them, the good ol' days.

Funny

The unemployment situation and stagnation has persisted for months and here comes austerity's nightmare. But the moment the stock market takes a hit, the Villagers and their 401Ks start to notice.

Who could possibly know more

About economics (this side of Rick Perry) than a man who spends all of his personal income at the casino?

NBC's Meet the Press: Debt ceiling - .... NBC's Meet the Press: Debt ceiling - John Kerry (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ).

Frankly, Kerry himself married to an incredibly rich person isn't much better.

But in the mind of David Gregory, they're both just awesome.

That about sums it up

Marcy Wheeler sums up the effect of the Teabaggers precious desire to go all "burn-baby-burn!" on the American economy:

Last week, when analysts were contemplating a debt downgrade, they put a price tag on it: $100 billion...

A better way of thinking of it is how much every American will have to pay. That $100 billion among 310 million Americans works out to be $322 for every man, woman, and child to pay for the TeaBagger’s little temper tantrum.

To put that in perspective, that’s more than the 2008 Bush tax rebate gave to taxpayers (rebate checks started at $300/person).

So the TeaBaggers are now taking away whatever benefit we got from Bush’s last tax cut.

What the fuck!?

Clearly this is another FINE investment over y'know our own people.

Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 37 people on board, a coalition military official said on Saturday. It was believed to be the deadliest helicopter crash in the nearly decade-long war, punctuating a surge of violence across the country even as American and NATO forces begin a modest drawdown of troops.

Afghan military officials put the death toll at 38, including 31 Americans and 7 Afghan commandos.

Obviously this means we're winning.

Yeah, he's a strong Republican contender alright

In addition to obtaining a "gentlemen's C" in American History and failing or barely passing any course dealing in science, Rick Perry proves once again, no Republican Governor from Texas can be too dumb to be strong candidate for the Party's Presidential Nomination.

"I got 98% of what I wanted" continued

Felix Salmon:

America’s ability to pay is neither here nor there: the problem is its willingness to pay. And there’s a serious constituency of powerful people in Congress who are perfectly willing and even eager to drive the US into default. The Tea Party is fully cognizant that it has been given a bazooka, and it’s just itching to pull the trigger. There’s no good reason to believe that won’t happen at some point.

And on the cable networks the effort to spin this as both parties fault was well underway.

If there is a way to pin this upon Democrats it is ONLY to the extent they are willing to be economic Neville Chamberlains and waive about the Debt-Ceiling deal as "Peace in our Time".

But in the end, that is like blaming the abused spouse for not walking away, there's only one real villain here (although as Res said S&P have volunteered for the role of Quisling).

NOW Can We Put The Ratings Agencies Out of Business?

No, because now it would look like sour grapes, wouldn't it? Vindictiveness? Partisan? Downright Putin-esque, actually. But shouldn't the S&P's grade of U.S. long-term debt have about as much credibility as Henry Blodget's grade of U.S. stocks? The administration should have prosecuted S&P and the the other criminally negligent ratings agencies when it had the chance. Too late now.

Morons. We have morons on our team.*

*Kewpie doll to whomever gets that reference.

Good governin'

It never fucking ends...please enjoy your diminished medicare and terminated unemployment benefits:

Before Congress voted to cut $2.4 trillion from government expenses over the next decade, lawmakers budgeted a 1.2 percent increase, to $8.6 billion, for all missile defense programs in fiscal 2012. That would raise total costs to about $150 billion, or roughly the inflation-adjusted amount poured into the Apollo program sending men to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

Of course one was an edifying moment in human history, the other the prattle-brained natterings of an old idiot and has been a demonstrably colossal failure. Other than that they are the same.

And he seemed like such a sympathetic defendant too

Hard to believe he got his kid rapin' ass convicted:

As a prophet of his polygamist sect, Warren Jeffs documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young woman he wed, and even recording his intimate moments.

It was those meticulous records – including an audiotape of what prosecutors said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he'd taken as a bride – that helped authorities secure two child sex assault convictions against the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Can't say you weren't warned

Huzzah! Only seven months in too:

The debate over raising the debt ceiling, which brought the nation to the brink of default, has sent disapproval of Congress to its highest level on record and left most Americans saying that creating jobs should now take priority over cutting spending, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

A-U-S-T-E-R-I-T-Y for thee

But not for them:

How much is $22.5 billion? Our government could buy over 150 shiny new F-35s. Or it could fund the entire public school system for a quarter of the year. Instead, it spent it repairing rusting-away boats, planes, and tanks. Ugh.

Why that's almost as much as we spend on air conditioning in countries we currently occupy.

Meanwhile,

Canada's entire military budget in 2009 was $21,800,000,000.

Yeah, but they have to spend all that money (still far less than we do btw) on providing all of their citizens with medical care.

Wow, just like Bin Laden would have done

Holy crap!

The News Corp’s The Daily has a drone that it’s sent out a few times, as noted by The Observer. After The Daily broadcast some incredible footage of Alabama after it was devastated by storms, UAS Vision reported that The Daily owns a MicroDrone MD4-1000. The Daily sent it out again in June to bring back video from Minot, North Dakota after intense flooding there. (Total non-sequitur: Drones can hack cell phones now, you know.)

I thought the only drones Rupert owned were the hosts of Fox & Friends.

Hmmm, better bomb 'em anyway

You know for peace:

Iran has no intention of making an atomic bomb and its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a television interview on Wednesday.

C'mon it won't cost much, Joe Lieberman will find somebody in this country to deprive.