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You've noticed, I'm sure, that the posting here has been very light-- The lovely and talented Mrs. B has been in hospital for the last few days for a just diagnosed heart condition.

That's where my mind has been lately.

And to establish her bonafides, while she doesn't loathe/hate/despise the right-wing assholes quite as much as I do (she is, after all, a lady), she's still a good "lefty" and deserving of best wishes.

A couple of quick thoughts:

Fire Bruce Arena. Please.

Somebody, please, bitch-slap that asshole Karl Rove.

And what fool thinks a group of poor-ass, broke-ass guys in Miami were a credible terrorist threat? Swede Jesus (that's that blonde, blue-eyed first-century Jewish carpenter, can you dig it?) is this an indicator that they're that desperate? Or that the American people are that fucking stupid???

Star Trek Cribs - The Director's Cut

Now, I've always been a fan of Classic ("Prime Directive? What the fuck is that?")Trek.

But who knew Spock had it goin' on like this?

Ever the oilman, Mr. Bush thinks in terms of dollars per barrel. And, while listening to Ed Schultz today, he had more than one conservobot caller talk about how the rebuilding of Iraq should be paid for by Iraqi oil; that the war itself will be paid for by Iraqi oil.

"You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market..."

Dumb bastards.

To even think about harnessing that rich vein of black gold, you have to secure the infrastructure. If you can't pump it, pipe it, load it and ship it, it's all but worthless.

That infrastructure is... a target. Every wellhead, every pumping station, every remote section of pipe, every tanker truck and every tanker ship has a big bullseye painted on it's side.

Systems Disruption "consists of simple attacks (using ad hoc weapons) on critical nodes of infrastructure -- oil, gas, electricity, water, etc. These attacks, if properly targeted, can cause cascades of failure that sweep entire systems."

Look, they've got to believe that anything the new Iraqi government knows, at least one faction of violent actors also knows. After all, they only let the Prime Minister know that George was coming 'til five minutes before the meeting.

"Mr. Allawi, you will be meeting with the President of the United States in five minutes." "WHAT? Beard of the prophet, I'm not ready! I have no notes! I don't have an agenda! What the... Mr. President, it is so good to see you...")

They didn't tell him because some faction or other would have known within hours. They didn't tell him because if the wrong faction had the right information, they would have whacked Our Boy George if they had to sacrifice themselves in droves to do it. And if our security people believe they're capable of that, despite the undoubtedly formidable defensive ring around him, they're surely capable of blowing up a few bits of infrastructure.

"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."

Such weaseldicks.

I just love how right wing assholes pretend evenhandedness. I mean, look-- Hillary's not my favorite candidate; I'm on record as being in favor of grabbing Al Gore by the neck and telling him in no uncertain terms that he is the goddamn candidate. But when shit-for-brains like John Hawkins, writing in a shit-smeared rag like Human Events tries to tell us what a bad candidate Hill would make:

Hillary is carrying around as much baggage as any of the other five candidates combined, starting with her philandering husband. In fact, there are so many controversies that have swirled around Bill and Hill than you can hardly list them all: Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broderick, Whitewater, selling the Lincoln bedroom, using the IRS against political enemies, selling pardons, taking the White House furniture, shady cattle futures deals, impeachment, firing the travel office staff to make room for cronies, it goes on and on and on. Discount these scandals as old news if you like, but the American people are going to think long and hard before they vote to turn the White House into the sort of sleazy circus sideshow that it was during Bill Clinton’s tenure as President.

Oh, that is just fucking rich.

Hey, dumbfuck-- have you noticed the thousands of dead bodies around George Bush's tenure?

Fucking lying sacks of shit. I really hate the fuckers.

(sigh)

Meanwhile-- how 'bout them Spaniards? Opened 'em up a can of Spanish Whoopass on Ukraine. Makes me feel a little better that someone lost more ignominiously than USA did last Monday.

While the Brazilians just coast along, secure in the knowledge that the road to the Cup goes through Brasil. What fun!

So, I was listening to Big Eddie Schultz on my drive home yesterday. When I tuned to Radio Free Ohio (there's a free plug, fellas, use it with care) Big Ed was launching into some deep ramble about the "middle class" and how the middle class would still be there after the Rove story was over.

Ed's phrasing wasn't memorable, but one thing stuck with me-- the middle class is working harder and paid less. And that resonated with me, because I'm just another workin' stiff (yeah, I work in front of a computer screen most of the day and move symbols around, but I still gotta get paid so's my mortgage banker can get his cut, y'dig?)

In my work I do get around. And I talk to a lot of people in a lot of plants and companies and towns and cities and it seems like every goddamn one of us is bustin' his ass.

Every time there's another announcement of layoffs from somewhere, believe me, some hard workin' bitches and sonsabitches are all gonna be feelin' a little nervous. And once there's the blood has been let, those who remain don't have a lot of time to celebrate their survival. The work still has to be done, and if you don't want to follow your late and lamented former colleagues out the door, you damn well better pick it up.

If, on the other hand, you're one of those who either through luck, inheritance, or marriage (the reward for hard work isn't riches-- it's always more hard work), the changes wrought over the last few decades have been really helpful.

The American economy has been given over more and more to capital, and it's close enough to equate that with money. Wealth. Moolah. Cash. Paper (who thought up that fucked up nickname? It's worse than the 60's "bread," fer Ghod's sake).

Dem what has gets, dem what don't, don't.

Taxes on capital have been shrunk, shrunk, and shrunk again. The Republicans have made taxes on capital Enemy Number One. Inheritance taxes? Uh, no, those are "death taxes" and to be abhorred as though they were the cause of death themselves.

So-- if your income comes from your ownership of "capital," you've seen your tax rates go down faster than a transgender hooker in the back of Hugh Grant's car.

If your income comes from "the sweat of your brow," on the other hand, you're gonna get taxed at the fullest possible rate.

Higher tax rates for the working person; far lower job security for the working person-- while the trustafarians talk about strangling government in the bathtub.

Lately I've been hearing the old Communist rallying cry in my head- "Workers of world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"

And speaking of wanting women to die for having sex-- the AngryBlackBitch calls this shit exactly what it is-- War:

A long while ago some asshole decided to comment rather dismissively on one of my posts because a bitch had the audacity to term the current abstinence only non-sexual sex education push as a deliberate war on women.

This bitch is on record…if it walks like it and talks like it call it what it is.

Loves me a bitch.

"We want women to die for having sex."

At least, that's what the Family Research Council would say if they were being honest with themselves and the rest of us.

Watched USA vs. the Czech Republic today; ran out on work and down to the local wing joint to sit with a bunch of guys who generally didn't know shit about soccer (like me) but still wanted to root for the Our Side.

And Our Side played like shit. I'm no expert. Hell, I'm utterly incompetent, having never really even played the game-- but even I could see that the American side's passing was poor, that they showed no spark, that there was no aggressiveness, bloody little willingness to attack the goal... well, it was depressing.

Thank God for beer.

How passionate is the world for soccer?

Let's put it this way... to keep people from watching the matches, you'll have to cut all their power and kill a few.

I had the great good fortune to have todays Trinidad & Tobago vs. Sweden match as my introduction to World Cup futbol.

I say futbol, because "soccer" will, in my mind, forever be associated with "soccer moms."

Those who follow footie are well aware that Sweden was heavily favored in this match. Before the tournament began (and of course, everything changes once the ball hits the turf) the odds were 44 to 1 against for the Swedes to win it all, it was 2001 to 1. I'm not gonna go into how the tournament is played, y'all can do y'own damn Googlin' an' shit.

Nonetheless, watching the last thirty minutes of that match was thrilling, even heart-stopping. And it was a zero-zero freakin' tie!

And what pressure it was, as the Swedes dominated play, taking 18 shots to six for Trinidad and Tobago, and taking eight corner kicks to only one for the Trinidad and Tobago.

SHAKAAAAAA!!! SHAKA SHAKA SHAKA SHAKAAAAAAAAAA! T&T's goalkeeper, played with the 1988 Howard University side that made the NCAA finals. Last minute substitution when the starter suffered a last minute injury. Was. A. WALL:

T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was the man of the hour, making several fantastic saves to help his side earn a point in its first-ever World Cup match. Hislop wasn't even supposed to be on the field, but a last-minute injury in the warm-up to Kelvin Jack opened the door for the former Howard University star.

And then there were the things outside the play itself-- sportsmanship exhibited when a T&T player patted the head of a Swede after a hard fought duel in front of the goal; a Swede's concern when his tackle injured a T&T player... the fans in the stands, folk of every color (a Swedish fan with a blue and gold face; the group of T&T fans clearly delirious with joy)--

They call it "the beautiful game."

Today's match, today's 0-0 tie-- a score guaranteed to make most Americans yawn-- this match was just simply beautiful.

I watched that skanky ho's performance on the Today show and was dumbfounded. Nothing that came to mind would have been printable on a family oriented website (which this ain't, so fuck you, buddy).

Luckily for me, Taylor Marsh over on Firedoglake explains quite lucidly just why the Thick Skulled Thirty Percenters love Her Imperial Wretchedness soshe is their Queen:

Some doubted why I put so much focus on Ann Coulter yesterday. I mean, really, she’s such a wingnut wacko, right? Well, the Republicans don’t like to claim her, but she is their base, baby. The anti immigrant, anti gay, anti women, anti everything contingent of the voting Republican Party. The crowd that listens to hack radio day in and day out.

I know those guys. I've had to work with a lot of those guys. And they love the skinnyskank. Of course, they've listened to Rush and Hannity and the rest of the raving madmen for the last fifteen years gettin' their victimhood on, losing their jobs to less qualified blacks and having a "lifestyle I don't agree with shoved in our faces" and recognized the brown horde pouring over the border...

But the real beauty of Taylor's post are the assorted references from the right side of the blogosphere:

Truth Missile: when Conservatives tell the truth the MSM (including Google) cries "hate-speech!", when Liberals tell the truth… I mean if they ever told the truth… well, if and when a Liberal ever tells the truth we’ll figure out what the MSM lapdogs call it.

The conservative movement can't repudiate the quivering sac of pus; because she is Them.

Although this is from America's Finest News Source, it still sounds like something the sonsabitches would try to pull, doesn't it?

[Gonzalez] added that, thanks to several key additions, the Bill of Rights now offers protections that were previously lacking, including the right to be protected by soldiers quartered in one's home (Amendment III), the guarantee that activities not specifically delegated to the states and people will be carried out by the federal government (Amendment VI), and freedom of Judeo-Christianity and non-combative speech (Amendment I).

gyot DAMN, but what a flaming, gaping bitch.

Happy Devil Day! Today, 06-06-06 (or, if you're European, 06-06-06) is officially Devil Day! A fine, even epochal moment for that special practical joke.

Play one on your evangelical friends today!!

And we Americans just get uglier and uglier.

Now the Pentagon has decided that it will no longer obey the Geneva Convention rules against "humiliating and degrading treatment."

We, the former shining beacon to the world, have turned into the monsters our grandfathers vanquished.

Damn, this is depressing.

Well I will be all go to hell.

Robert Kennedy makes a very detailed, serious case that the 2004 Presidential election was just simply stolen.

The piece is thorougly veined with details-- footnoted and linked details, thank you very much.

Take the reference to the precinct in Ohio where

According to the exit poll, Kerry should have received sixty-seven percent of the vote in this precinct. Yet the certified tally gave him only thirty-eight percent. The statistical odds against such a variance are just shy of one in 3 billion.

Imagine that. 3 billion to one. Nice round number, eh? Somewhat less than we've spent in Iraq this month, but hey, who's counting?