Sunday, October 31

And this is why we can't have nice things.


One cannot be "civil" to those who refute proven facts, like 'Obama is a US Citizen' or 'there are no death panels.' One can ignore them, but if they attempt to control our discourse and elections, calling them out, loudly and with a verbal punch, is the only alternative.

Friday, October 29

The Friday Podcast - and Happy Birthday Driftglass!

This week we also say a happy birthday to dear Driftglass. xoxo






FYI the Esquire Balanced Budget project report is here.

The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast.  Thanks for your listenership and support!  We really appreciate it:









Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget you can listen to our archives for free with no downloads at Professional Left.

Grab your backpack, Meg Whitman.

heartless meg and dora

Meg Whitman says her former maid of nine years should be deported.

I'm sorry to hint at depicting Meg Whitman as a cow, but Dora's Benny IS a cow, and you use whatcha got.  And really, Dora's "C" word for Meg made the monkey blush.

Wednesday, October 27

The Gerbil doth protest!


Yeah, I'd like to try bringing home summa that Kimberly-Clark tube-free toilet paper.

The word from our gerbil, Jessica Awesome, is that if I 'go green' and deny her the toilet paper rolls, she'll make those French strikers look like a Girl Scout parade.

Update:  our household breathes a sigh of relief that the tubeless product is being test-marketed at that megastore where mommy refuses to shop.  Always.

Tuesday, October 26

I love you, Vanity Fair, but "you suck at Photoshop"

I don't pretend to be great at Photoshop. But I can do better than this. Who is this "Hamish" photoshopper guy, anyway? Is he 20? Did he get paid for that? Not one filter or hue adjustment on the whole portfolio?

Here. Just in my spare time. Not my best work, but....



And it actually looks like it could be Al Franken's body, if he worked out.   Remember Hamish, panties, even man panties, are only really funny if no one is wearing them.  Filters are your friend.  And if all else fails, desaturate.

Finally about the crotch bulges you used with the McCain and Boehner photos: the ick factor laugh is one of embarrassment, not delight.

Monday, October 25

Sweetheart of the Week, Frank Caprio

Frank Caprio sweetheart

His farts smell like floating pink love clouds....

'Cause really, just how bad a candidate do you have to be if the President of the United States who is in your party decides not to endorse you when you run for Governor?

Also, the non-endorsement is basically a way of saying thanks to Lincoln Chafee, who crossed party lines to endorse Obama and is now running as an independent. Mind you, Obama did not endorse Chafee either, but...

Now that Caprio has told the media that the President can "take his endorsement and shove it" that should help Obama change his mind. Stay classy, Rhode Island!

I got yer Contract with America right here.

Dear Republican Party:

Thanks for renewing a pledge to have some kind of "Contract with America" thingy.   You guys are just the gift that keeps on giving.

But here's the deal:

We already have a contract with America.

It's called "Social Security."   Turning over that contract to Wall Street in the name of "privatization" would be breaking our contract.

We already have a contract with America.

It's called "banking regulations."

And when illegal, robo-signed foreclosures become an avenue for greedy institutions to hold on to profits in tough times, and your party advocates repeal of rules for Wall Street,  that breaks our contract with homeowners and the American Dream.

We already have a contract with America.

It's called "Veterans Benefits."

Privatizing VA hospitals would be breaking our contract with those who served our country more than any others.

We already have a contract with America.

It's called "minimum wage."

Eliminating the minimum wage and turning our country into a race to the bottom serfdom would be breaking our contract with every American worker.

We already have a contract with America.

It's called the Clean Air Act.   Putting corporate profits ahead of clean air and water is breaking our contract with our own health and well-being.  Oh, and privatizing the Centers for Disease Control is, too.

We already have a contract with America.

It's called national infrastructure.  And when corporations are allowed to disregard safety in the name of "deregulation" to the point where bridges collapse, natural gas lines explode, and the Gulf of Mexico is covered with oil, our contract is broken with Americans.  And your concentrated effort to mesmerize the public that "government's bad" has and will lead to disasters that have and will KILL people.

We already have a contract with America.  And your candidates propose breaking that contract in so many ways that you cannot be trusted to govern this nation.

Thank you.

Friday, October 22

The Friday Podcast








The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast.  Thanks for your listenership and support!  We really appreciate it:









Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget you can listen to our archives for free with no downloads at Professional Left.

I gotta admit, that is one cool sweater.

Yeah, somebody KNIT that.

Podcast will be up today, I promise! Honestly, you people and your podcast addiction! :D This one is good. xoxo

Wednesday, October 20

They live together in perfect harmony alright.

from a request by Susie Madrak http://susiemadrak.com/















Susie Madrak opines that maybe Scalia and Thomas were the entertainment at the Koch Brothers Conservative do thingie.  

Stop calling me, Mrs. Thomas!


Love Andy Borowitz:  Three things to do when Clarence Thomas's wife calls.    h/t After the Bridge.

Tuesday, October 19

Have we reached bottom on stupid candidates yet?


When Sharron Angle tells Hispanic young people that some of them look Asian to her....and O'Donnell doesn't realize separation of church and state is actually IN the Constitution...

...seriously, this is when liberals find our patriotism challenging.

Oh but that isn't CENTRIST, BIPARTISAN, is it?

Okay, let's broaden this to include everybody:  All I ask of ANY candidate in any party anywhere, is that if they are being a


colossal 
fucking 
idiot,

the two above examples setting the bar, will they please stop.  That is all.

Good enough for ya, Chuck Todd?  Okay fuckity bye.

I have a question.



I get it.

A tremendous outrage against an American citizen.

Ashcroft should have been fired, and should still be censured and tried for war crimes.

But I don't understand "suing" him. I don't get that. It's like the Al Capone conviction for tax evasion rather than murder, when no one is denying that Ashcroft actually treated an innocent American in an illegal, not to mention inhumane, manner.

Maybe I'm missing something. Are they arguing that this gentleman is going to sue the federal government for reparation? I don't understand the "suing Ashcroft" business. That sets a precedent for individual government employees who screw up to have their bank accounts raided for that mistake years later. That doesn't make sense, and when the tables are turned I can see teabaggers and Citzens United groups having a field day suing everyone from their congressman to a VA hospital nurse.

If we're talking about suing the government for reparations, and prosecuting Ashcroft for war crimes, I say affirmative. But if we're setting a precedent to go after Ashcroft's personal bank account, first of all that's too little too late, and secondly, I can smell campaigns by Karl Rove and NewsCorp to sue Barney Frank, just because, from here.

Sunday, October 17

The coolest movie you will see this week.





The moral of the story: Knitting can save your life. :)

h/t kicking-k on Ravelry.

Saturday, October 16

June, why not put a fractal on top of tonight's angel cake?


Click for larger.  Both died this weekend:

Barbara Billingsley

Benoit Mandelbrot (h/t Nicole)

And since these things happen in threes, I would be extra careful the next few if I were the inventor of psychedelic jello mold recipes.



Indebted again to my artist mom for this idea. She did a terrific oil painting of Black Panther Huey Newton and Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who died the same day (August 22, 1989), touring heaven's bathroom.

Bill Maher / Dana Loesch lolcat


(click image for larger) Heather at Crooks and Liars wonders why Bill Maher gives teabagger lady Dana Loesch a platform on his show. I think he enjoys watching crazy women as an odd revenge for every time he was rejected by a girl in high school.

Friday, October 15

Our Regular Weekly Podcast - Blue Collars and Red Nosed Reindeer







The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast.  Thanks for your listenership and support!  We really appreciate it:








Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget you can listen to our archives for free with no downloads at Professional Left.

Order me up another
flagon of brain bleach, will ya?


Christine O'Donnell warns GOP officials that 
"Sean Hannity is in my back pocket."  

Following the Tea Party Logic


Dear Tea Party Voter:  I hope that when your grandchild, God forbid, needs emergency surgery, that the hospital decides to put him in the operating theater with a conservative white doctor who votes no on every procedure, and won't sterilize his equipment because the government shouldn't tell him how to run his small business.  It's totally okay, because he bases his decisions on "common sense principles" and a repeal of "government run healthcare."

Yeah, that's much better than a well-educated Hawaiian doctor who wants your grandkid to get well as soon as possible, even if it means he has to follow government regulations regarding sanitary operating procedures.

Oh.  Your grandchild doesn't have insurance, does he?   And has a pre-existing condition?  Nevermind.

Thursday, October 14

Tuesday, October 12

No, really. It's okay if you're a Republican.

 Still in the US Senate; running for re-election.
Still in the United States Senate.

 Still in the Governor's Mansion

Featured speaker at 2010 Values Voters Summit

Monday, October 11

Pammy as the Soup Nazi (photoshop)


No soup for you!  All that publicity she bought to fight Park 51 is now being bought to boycott Campbell's for launching a line of Halal soup, because, you know, terror.

Sunday, October 10

Gained a little political insight at church today.



Luke 17:

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria Mexico and Galilee Arizona.

12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance

13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan Mexican.

17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (AHEM)

19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."


Samaria was border/foreigner/"illegals" country for the Judeans. Just sayin'.

Friday, October 8

Our Regular Weekly Podcast - Tea Party GOP said WHAT?







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Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help.

Meanie-shop of the Day

Thursday, October 7

'Cuz if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao....


(click image for larger)  As John Lennon said, "You say you want a revolution?"  Wow, commies throughout the internet webs are digging out their old Chinese propaganda posters to make fun of the GOP/US Chamber of Commerce sell-out to...the communists.  It's an awesome day when Democrats.com can send an email with the subject line:

Stop the Foreign Takeover of America.

We win!  And they thought they could keep us all skeered of Mexicans!

Wednesday, October 6

So what if the Tennessee Fire Guy had been a single black mom?



We're all outraged that firefighters sat by idly while a house burned down, and definitely, this is a terrible embarrassment to those "Taxed Enough Already" bullshit artists who can't admit that Socialist Fire Departments that do their jobs without regard for the person's ability to pay, are a sound idea. 

Not many of us have had a house fire.  But part of what gives this story such legs is that nearly all of us have had a smoke detector go off by accident and lived through those quick few seconds of "what if the house is on fire"?  The fact that from every angle, Gene Cranick would fit in at any Tea Party because he is white, male, working class, border state, and an uneducated hick, makes the lesson more acute.    Dear Tea Party:  this is what KARMA will look like when it's YOUR house; and Mr. Cranick's reply to Keith Olbermann about his detractors last night:  let them wait until the shoe is on the other foot, is just right.

And if it were a black single mom who lost her home because she 'forgot' to pay her fire assessment?  The vitriol about loafers and cheats and take care of your own would be louder and also more coded.   

And I doubt any Tea Party candidate would suggest paying the fireman with chickens.  

But part of what makes Gene Cranick an easy victim of Glenn Beck and Ayn Randites is not his gender or race or even lack of education.  It's that he lives next to a cornfield in rural Tennessee.  The news media has almost completely fled, or been driven, to the coasts.   Those "covering" this story live in New York or Washington or Los Angeles, period.  And the spin they bring to it is a decidedly urban one.   They are aghast that there are zones in America where people don't have immediate access to services.   They forget that Cradick's land probably didn't have electricity until just after World War II.  Is it possible that the daddies of those who turned off the fire hoses were beneficiaries of the pesky socialism of FDR and Tennessee Valley rural electrification?   Ya think?

The median value of owner-occupied houses in Cranick's county is under 70 grand.    You can't get a parking space in Manhattan for that.

And those legislating around this story work in Washington, DC.  I don't begrudge professional politicians their jobs like many do, but there's something about the hallowed halls of Congress that certainly does drive heads up asses.    I love the comment I read earlier today, that Cradick should put a sign in front of his burned out hovel:  "YOUR TAX CUTS AT WORK".

Most of those working in mainstream media and government policy institutions simply live in a world where access to everything, even for a single black mom like Halle Berry, is taken for granted.   I'd like to see any fire department anywhere sit idly by while a celebrity's house or even a Tennessee congressman's farm burned down.  Gene Cranick didn't have access to Keith Olbermann (who is doing the Lord's work covering this story make no mistake) until after the fire.  

We live in many different Americas.  They are rich and poor, coastal corridors and fly-over country, educated and not, moneyed and never will be.  Being a "have" can mean lots of things.  As my children teach me daily, attention is a tangible object.  

The conservative who begrudges Gene Cranick his hose full of water because he didn't pay for it in advance is a heartless denier of Christ and all Christ taught. 

Burned up, rural, unincorporated, Tennessee backwater, teabag land?  There but for the grace of God go us.    

Tuesday, October 5

Gosh Mister Bojangles! Slavery was great before the big federal gubment got its hands on it!



Actually, Keith, I think Glenn Beck gets all his history from Shirley Temple movies:

I'm holding a fundraiser, asking my readers to give five bucks, either to the podcast or to me. I'm so grateful for your (please keep it modest in these tough times) support of my work. You, folks, are the Medicis of our times -- true patrons of the artist.

Thank you.





Monday, October 4

It's a Snake Pit out here, I tell ya!




I'm holding a fundraiser, asking my readers to give five bucks, either to the podcast or to me. I'm so grateful for your (please keep it modest in these tough times) support of my writing and broadcasting.

A special thanks to the fellow single mom who wrote on her five-dollar contribution, "pay your bills."

Thank you.






Saturday, October 2

Christine O'Donnell, Hare Krishna Mamma Mia


Bill Maher via Heather. Christine O'Donnell: I would have become Hare Krishna but I'm Italian and I love meatballs.  [click image for larger]

Friday, October 1

Our Weekly Podcast - Creepy Sexy Story Time with James O'Keefe?






The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast. Thanks for your listenership and support! We really appreciate it:





Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help.