More meaningful miscellany...

John Cole...

Claiming the tea party is taking over the Republican party is like claiming Xe took over Blackwater or that KFC took over Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Brad DeLong...

America has no chance of being great again until this current Republican Party is gone, and its memory has vanished from the earth. Just saying.

Kaili Joy Gray...

Maybe Romney's problem isn't that he's a perpetual flip-flopper. Maybe his real problem is that he's completely amoral.

Darryl...

The Republican agenda includes elimination of Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, the insurance and security components of social security, public education, student loan and financial aid programs, abortion, environmental protections, food protections, safety standards, and, of course, unions.

Oh yeah…and the middle class.

From the "Not exactly news" file.

Herman Cain is kind of nuts...

…and not all that, at all.

Republican plan? Too little, too late, thus falling short of their goal of none, never.

Petroleum turns out to be an ineffective medium for shrimp production.

Apparently Value Voters don't value Mitt.

Does this list…

...make me look old?

George Harrison - Isn't It A Pity
John Sebastian - I Had A Dream
Leyla Fences - This Close
The Andrews Sisters - Gimme Some Skin, My Friend
Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
Rosco Gordon - Let's Get High
The Turtles - Happy Together
The Trade Winds - New York's A Lonely Town
Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately
The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee

OK, so I am old. Still some good tunes there...even the kinda new one.

From the "Me too" file.

Oliver Willis...

The team that brought you the Iraq War, the Financial Crisis and the Lost Decade is not to be trusted.

If they’re against Occupy Wall Street, I’m for it.

Me too.

And kudos to Oliver for coming around.

Percentage of the day.

From the fine folks at Occupy DC, via Joan McCarter...

On the other hand…

…Harry Reid offers some hope with a welcome blow for liberty. Via Joan McCarter…

Sen. Harry Reid is blocking the National Defense Authorization Act over provisions it contains that seek to direct how the government deals with Al Qaeda prisoners captured by the military. He explained his objections to the provisions in a letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and ranking member John McCain.

Reid's letter specifically objects to three sections of the 2011 Senate bill: one making explicit the president's authority to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely; another directing that terror suspects affiliated with Al Qaeda or supporting forces be placed in military custody unless a national security waiver is invoked, and a third making permanent certain limits on transferring prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay.

The ACLU applauds…

“There is no reason why, particularly ten years after 9/11 and with bin Laden dead, anyone in the Senate should want to give the president the martial law authority to have the military capture and imprison civilians around the world — including American citizens on American soil — based on suspicion alone," the ACLU's Chris Anders said. "Sen. Reid is saying that kind of proposal does not fit in the Senate’s defense authorization bill.”

Me too.

I support President Obama…

…because of some things and in spite of some others. Among the latter is the continued exploitation of American insecurity for a distressing assault on civil liberties and basic standards of Constitutional justice. While there are no death panels in the health care act, there apparently are death panels within the folds of the National Security Council.

We're a long way down a path that's been traveled before. Jason Kuznicki finds uncomfortable analogies to the present in the history of tyranny, but offers a glimmer of hope...

We already have our Bastille and our Inquisition. This is our Star Chamber. So they’re all quite small, you say? Almost inconsequential? Great. All the easier to get rid of them. Perhaps in our case it won’t take a revolution.

Perhaps.

It won't be easy though. The fact, I'm afraid, is that most people will trade most of their liberty, and all of yours, for a mere pittance of (mostly false) security, which means that a genuine commitment to liberty and justice for all is an almost certain electoral loser at this moment in American history. Neither party gives a damn about liberty. Hell, the Libertarians don't really give a damn about liberty.

They won't, either, until we recognize that the price of fear is too high.

Quote of the day.

Russ Feingold, on what's quick becoming Occupy Everywhere…

“By the time this is over, it will make the Tea Party look like ... a tea party.”

Good question...

…or should I say good question? From Roy Edroso...

If a celebrity can't act like a buffoon in this country, then why the hell did Beaver Cleaver fight and die in Vietnam?

Actually, what Hank Jr. said ain't so bad if you set your secret decoder ring to stun. I mean, he's not the only one who thought the Obama-Boehner golf date was a pointless excercise in symbolism while real people were hurting in ways that they weren't going to get together and do anything about, even with Biden along for the ride.

Using the particular terminology he used? Pretty dumb.

Asking Hank Williams, Jr. about national politics in the first place? Probably dumber.

Oh well, as Roy said elsewhere, our circuses really suck...

Damn...

Via Apple.com...


The only Apple product I've ever owned was an Ipod Shuffle, but the company's impact on our culture is incalcuable and, near as I can tell, to a remarkable degree the result of Jobs' singular vision.

R.I.P.

Not just a good ol' boy….

…a damn good ol' boy. Toby Keith…

One way or another, before it’s over they’re gonna have to come and take big money from the earners and big corporations to save the country. I’m sure that everybody that has a patriotic cell in their system will say, ‘If it’s gotta be done, it’s gotta be done.’ I’d rather live here and not have as much money than live anywhere else and have twice as much.

Maybe Toby oughta get with Hank Jr. down for a little sit down...

"Think about it…"

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka...

"...Bank of America, which makes about $1 billion a month, announces it’s going to charge customers $5 a month to use their own money to shop with their debit cards. Mind you this is the financial giant that paid its global banking and markets president nearly $30 million dollars last year—and this year turned around and announced it’s going to fire 30,000 workers!"

Almost makes me wish I had some money in Bank of (their) America so I could close the account and send 'em a cut up card.

If you've got some money in Bank of (their) America, why don't y'all do that for me? I bet you're eligible for membership in some credit union or another.

We write letters…

Dear Chris Christie,

I notice that you've decided that now is not your time. Good call.

A friendly tip - then isn't your time either.

Love,

Upper Left

What digby said…

…here.

"Playing the race card" has a very specific meaning. It means mentioning Republican racism.

Dear Herman Cain…

OK, you're crazy.

Love, Upper Left

You may have heard…

…that Jews, black folk, liberals, Wall Street and small donors have abandoned the President, and yet...

"Campaign manager Jim Messina told a meeting of Democratic donors in Chicago earlier this month that Obama was aiming for the $55 million benchmark. But even Obama's critics think it will be more. After all, campaign officials were predicting $60 million in the days before Obama's team announced a combined $85 million second-quarter take in July."

I should have such trouble.

Sunday funny.

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, via Truthdig...




'Bout equal parts 'ha' and 'hmm' there...