Smoke coming out of my ears . . .

Life hasn't been great in this dumpy apartment complex I've been living in for three years but it's been tolerable and even peaceful considering the drug deals going down, a crazy neighbor who used to walk out of his apartment and fall flat in a drunken stupor, another guy who liked to stand outside my window and watch me work, and a new neighbor who runs around squawking like a mother hen and who hates Blacks, Hispanics and Southerners.

My apartment manager has always been decent, friendly and fair and square. Then she hired Brunhilde who lives here and who began her weekend job as assistant with gusto. A real matron of the prison farm school. Even when she's not on duty she's on duty. "That's against the rules." "You're not allowed to do that." She's about as popular as a bucket of road apples.

The manager has always been tolerant of my 14-year-old 110 pound lab mix getting lose or simply lying out in front of my apartment and rolling in the grass. Unfortunately I live right across from the office. Nobody has ever complained about Lucky or me or any other dog who isn't on a leash. That is, until Brunhilde stormed in.

The Brun hates animals and is petrified of them. So why didn't she move into a pet-free apartment complex you ask? Who in hell knows.

For three weeks I've watched her eyes bulge every time Lucky went within 50 yards of her. "It's against the rules." "It's for safety." "Hasn't anyone complained?" No. But I knew the day would come when Brun would turn the screws in my back. Today the apartment manager told me to put him on a leash. There's a couple of Pit Bulls here and a Chiguagua that are bigger threats than my 110 pound wuss. I'd be delighted if they did me the favor of putting teeth marks in her ass.

Yes, yes I know there are major tragedies that are far more severe and devastating than the one I'm facing. The Gulf Oil Spill exceeds any man made disaster this country has ever experienced. The destruction of the marine life, the birds, the wetlands, the beaches, the fishing industry and other industries that are dependant on the Gulf for survival and the entire way of life of the region is being destroyed day by day, minute by minute for thousands of miles.

And polls are showing that people are blaming the government for not acting fast enough. Translated, that means our black president. You see, it's much easier to cast blame than to look a little deeper and to consider the realities of the problem. This is a tragedy that should bring the nation together, not rip it apart with dumb, petty, spiteful, ignorant as-hell politics.

The idiots at FoxNews aren't the only media outlets criticizing the government. But their irresponsibility is driven by ignorance and downright mean spiritedness. The Main Stream Media doesn't even have a decent excuse for their know-nothing, superficial coverage . Reporters have become lazy, cowardly, and slaves to the corporations and they can't be bothered with research or looking below the surface.

Then there's the Texas State Board of Education which passed textbook guidelines that practically annihilates American history.

To the West is Arizona which has passed a law making it a state crime for an illegal immigrant to apply for a job or to solicit work publicly. But it's a-okay if an employer hires illegals. This is followed up with Ethnic Studies being banned in public schools. And Arizona Governor Jan Brewer hysterically claiming the state is under "terrorist attack."  Arizona state treasurer Dean Martin  has called for tent cities to house illegal immigrants, no doubt copying the idea from Maricopa County's notorious sheriff Joe Arpaio - and maybe because he might earn a few more votes in his run for governor.

Let's don't forget Republican Representative from South Carolina, Joe "you lie" Wilson or S.C. state senator Jake "raghead" Knotts, or his twin over in Mississippi Gov. Haley "Oil? What oil?" Barbour.

And then there's that adorable Sarah Palin, whose lies are only superseded by her ignorance of American history, the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, who doesn't read, who's an international whiz-kid because she can see Russia out her back window. I'm sure she'd fit right in as a Texas School Board member.

I can't finish without mentioning SCOTUS and it's rape of Miranda, its personalization of corporations and its ruling blocking Arizona from subsidizing state candidates facing privately funded foes.

So, between Brunhilde, the Neanderthals who are elected to uphold the laws of the land but don't, and the MSM which doesn't investigate but should, I have smoke coming out of my ears, I'm steaming and I'm swearing up a storm. In more succinct terms, I'm p****d as hell.

GUILT IS NOT WRITTEN ALL OVER MY FACE

Every news show I've watched the last few weeks has some well meaning person saying we're all guilty of the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sorry. I'm not.


Strike that "I'm sorry" thing. I'm not sorry I'm not guilty. I didn't vote for Bush. I felt the proper liberal bewilderment when Sarah Palin kept on saying "drill baby, drill." I've asked that my taxes be raised so we can have a government that can afford to govern.



These people say anyone that uses oil is guilty. It sucks that electric cars like the Chevy Volt which hasn't even been for sale yet cost 40 grand. I don't have 40 grand and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay the finance charges on a 40 thousand dollar loan so my electric bill can skyrocket from having to plug the damn car in every night.
I have a Ford Fusion 4 cylinder non hybrid that gets 30 mpg on the highway and 23 in the city. That's the best I can do to fight BP.



I didn't tell BP to keep operating after problems with the leaking pipes started. I didn't kill the Kennedys or Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln. Hell. I have people that still won't speak to me in my hometown because I thought renaming a street in honor of Dr. King was a good idea. Okay. I plead guilty for feeling guilty that racism is still alive in our Country and I wanted to do what I could to stick it to some racists by renaming a street after a great American they hate.



It's too easy and for some reason people think it's profound or fair or some other nonsense to blame us all for bad things. Well I don't accept blame for things that aren't my fault. I can think of damn few problems that arose from liberal policies. Most of the problems we face now are from republican ideas like deregulation. Supply side, deficit building economics. Incoherent immigration policies. And I'm not sure if immigration is even a problem or just another bogeyman created by tea bagging types to get people to not pay attention to their really stupid ideas. Occupations of countries that are no threat, one of them never was a threat, that drain our treasury and worse, continue to rack up casualties among our brave Troops.



The signs and bumper stickers say "Don't blame me. I voted for Bush." And the republicans call themselves the party of personal responsibility.

SC's Slur-Slinging Crapfest

[With a respectful nod to HuffPost's Jason Linkins for the title inspiration.  Now, everybody knows what SC stands for.]

Apologizing for South Carolina has become a full-time job.

Jake Knotts

Given the infamy our leaders have slapped us upside the head with and the effect it will have on the state's economy, I feel lucky to be employed at all; since I began blogging in August, 2009, I've earned $7.20 and I have my stellar state of residence to thank for at least two bucks of that.  I call it my state of residence, rather than my home, because obviously I wasn't born in South Carolina.  I was born in North Carolina, where we look down on our sister state to the south for being a bunch of inbred, redneck, backwoods ignunts.  I, of course, just live there...the only little petunia in the onion patch.

Top Kill, Bottom Kill

As Jeff Foxworthy might say, "you might be a liberal if you've ever taken extra trash bags on a two-day canoe trip just so you could pack out other people's trash." I have just arrived home sun-burnt, exhausted, and mentally recharged from a nice float down the Buffalo River. I needed it after completing this video of a bipartisan discussion on the BP oil spill. Enjoy!

IF ALL THE ANIMALS CEASED TO EXIST, HUMAN BEINGS WOULD DIE OF A GREAT LONELINESS OF SPIRIT

If Chief Seattle were alive today to witness what we have done to our world, he would be shocked, heartbroken, and demoralized. When words fails, all we can do now is look upon our mighty works and despair:

Want some gay fries with that?

It's never been clear to me why people like Bill O'Reilly think about gay people so often. Perhaps he really doesn't care but he knows that those grunting knuckle dragging Budweiser drinkers and super-size fries addicts who keep him in the money do care, but be that as it may or may not be, Bill's at it again, focusing his dull perceptions and limp wit on a French McDonald's commercial. With a passionate pose he hopes will remind you of Churchill's famous "we will fight them on the beaches" speech, he assures us that such a thing will never run here. Yes, the ad features a lad whose father doesn't know he's gay. It's a bit wittier than you'll see in the US market, so perhaps he right. I just wonder why he cares so much.

"We wanted to show society the way it is today, without judging. There’s obviously no problem with homosexuality in France today”

said the brand director for McDonald's France, but there sure as hell is in the Fox Nation.

"Do they have an Al Qaeda ad?"

asked O'Reilly. Do you think he dreams about bearded gay men with AK-47's?

A Dinonalysis of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster and Response

Here out west, the whole affair seems almost surreal. The images of birds coated in oil, suffering, fill me with despair. I can only imagine how those who live along the Gulf feel, and how anxious Eastern Seaborders must be since the oil could eventually end up there, too. After the jump, I’ll offer some brief thoughts about how the disaster has been covered and how the Obama Administration could respond more effectively.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MATT OSBORNE

By Tree Octopus

Fellow Swash Zoner and honorary cephalopod, Matt Osborne, has been named one of sixteen winners of a scholarship to attend the 2010 Netroots Nation Convention in Las Vegas (announcement here). The competition and scholarship is sponsored by the Daily Kos.

Leftovering

by Nance

 So fast that my head is still spinning, I discover that we've switched longitudes and are back on the Left Coast for a couple of months. The world usually looks different from here, and I'm sure I'll find that to be the case this time...as soon as my ears stop that zoned out, plane trip hum and my brain catches up with the rest of my space suit. I'll be trying to open the refrigerator door with the wrong hand and pawing the walls fruitlessly for light switches for a week.

Whatever this post contains, I plead Jet Lag Compounded by Old Age. Which reminds me of the obituary my friend, Susan, sent me recently from a small town newspaper: the beloved deceased was known for her collections of Precious Moments and Mickey Mouse figurines and she died of "complications of old age."   I not only want that in my obituary, but I intend to make liberal use of that diagnosis as an excuse to ramble aimlessly on one of my favorite Twenty-First Century subjects.

Airport Econ and Culture Studies

We spend a ridiculous amount of time in Charlotte-Douglas International, the southern hub we prefer to the more crowded Hartsfield Jackson in Atlanta.  Charlotte is still crowded, but you see fewer people running on the moving sidewalk and you can actually walk from one end of the airport to the other in fifteen minutes.

 We also love the USO in Charlotte.  It's big and comfortable and it lets us visit with active duty service members headed for or returning from the Middle East.  There, they can kick back in big recliners, pick up a used book or two, plug into wi-fi, catch the news or sports on a big screen TV, and grab a hot dog.  The volunteer staffers are cheerful retirees who embody a sense of home. I can't understand why, when the news is on at the USO, it's always FOX; do those kindly volunteers assume that, once some mother's child dons the uniform, they automatically become conservatives?  Seems to me, if the POTUS we elected was a Democrat....well, it's just one more of the fascinating puzzles in the field of Airport Anthropology.

Despite the fact that the room is peopled largely by 18 to 25 year-olds and the television is on, it's noticeably, disarmingly quiet there. I always imagine that USO as a way-station for uniformed time travelers in shocked transition between utterly dissimilar universes. We like to say hello softly and  make a donation, because, naturally, we support our troops even when we don't agree with the wars being waged.  You can click on the logo if you'd like to do the same.

In the spring of 2008, we discovered a little-known economic indicator at the airport: the shoe-shine kiosk was empty.  We'd never seen that before, never really paid it much attention; it had always been busy and we'd taken it for granted, but on this trip we were shocked to find that both shiners and shinees had disappeared.  Business travel was in the tank.  That struck us more forcibly at the time than a headline in the Wall Street Journal. Then, in the fall of '09, we noticed that a couple of workers and customers had returned. Yesterday, all five stadium seats were full of garrulous men in crisp, pale blue oxford cloth shirts, red or maroon ties, and creased suit pants, happily exchanging business cards while the workers slapped the toes of ten black wingtips into mirror shine...living testimonials to economic recovery for now.

The people-watching in airports is justifiably famous.  There's always a couple of strange souls at each gate who trigger stories in my head about a Parallel Universe America (apparently, jet lag causes me to channel Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Kurt Vonnegut ).  There were the, now accustomed, piercing competitors who vie for the category of Strangest Self-Mutilation and who look like they fell down the basement stairs with a tackle box.  And the tattoo artists who wear their art from neck to wrist to ankle; they have to wear clothes over their art and it must be hard for them to get their t-shirt logos to compliment their body-art themes, as busy as they've been lately.  It's jarring to see a delicately tinted Pegasus emerging from the short sleeve of a Brotha Lynch Hung t-shirt.

Yesterday's Anomalous Airport Entity was a woman about my age sporting an unusually large nose with heavy black pince nez, bright red-red hair with white roots and a polyester dress printed all over with Chairman Mao images.  She stood up for most of the flight and knitted something bright blue. I was dazzled by her. In the struggle we elders experience between hiding our complications of aging or flaunting them, she opted for the latter.

Premeditated violence

So whether you agree with me or not that Israel's attempt to enforce the blockade of Gaza by boarding a ship which refused normal inspection procedures and the attempt at self defense of the IDF Navy when attacked, was not the outrage it was meant to look like, do you agree that it's all Obama's fault? Sure it was says John Bomb-Bomb McCain. If Obama hadn't insisted that Israel freeze it's West Bank settlement construction, this wouldn't have happened. (insert WTF here!)

Michael Savage tells us that Obama "pressured" Israel into it without offering any of the evidence one would desire to back it up.

"As far as I know, it was Obama's administration that told them how to do this attack. It was probably one of America's peace-loving generals, who knows which one of them did it."

The use of probably by a Fox News member of course is as good as proof to the willfully Foxed, as is "as far as I know." Probably means 'definitively' to the Savage audience. Only a Liberal would question it. Only a Liberal would wonder why "peace loving" should be the equivalent of stupid, duplicitous and incompetent -- if not treasonous.

Of course knees are jerking in the Liberal camp as well, as Dennis Kucinich has written to President Obama suggesting that the country needs to "redefine its relationship with Israel" in the wake of the Gaza flotilla "raid." I'd ask him his opinion on redefining the US Coast Guard's daily practice of stopping and boarding ships with armed gunboats and armed inspectors as "raids." I'd ask him if an attack on the Coast Guard by a vessel refusing to stop and be inspected in wartime or peacetime, would be supported by him or excused by him because we're certainly doing it now in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Caribbean. I'd ask him whether our entire drug interdiction and human smuggling interdiction policies are " reckless, pre-meditated violence waged against innocent people." I'd try to do it without calling him an idiot and a hypocrite, but I doubt I could manage.

So if you still feel this was "premeditated violence" even when the violence occurred only after the "peaceful passengers" tried to kill the inspectors and threw one overboard, ask yourself what the US should do if a flotilla from Iran attempted to enter Iraq with an unspecified, un-inspected cargo, refused to be inspected and brutally attacked our Navy when our Navy attempted to examine that cargo and passenger list.