Cygnet Committee

David Bowie, 1969

"We had a friend, a talking man
Who spoke of many powers that he had
Not of the best of men, but Ours

We used him
We let him use his powers
We let him fill Our needs
Now We are strong

And the road is coming to its end
Now the damned have no time to make amends
No purse of token fortune stands in Our way
The silent guns of love
will blast the sky
We broke the ruptured structure built of age
Our weapons were the tongues of crying rage

Where money stood
We planted seeds of rebirth
And stabbed the backs of fathers
Sons of dirt

Infiltrated business cesspools
Hating through Our sleeves
Yea, and We slit the Catholic throat
Stoned the poor
on slogans such as

'Wish You Could Hear'
'Love Is All We Need'
'Kick Out The Jams'
'Kick Out Your Mother'
'Cut Up Your Friend'
'Screw Up Your Brother or He'll Get You In the End'

And We Know the Flag of Love is from Above
And We Can Force You to Be Free
And We Can Force You to Believe"

I believe you've got a typo there, Thom.

Thom Hartmann:

The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s

CNBC Correspondent Rick Santelli called for a “Chicago Tea Party” on Feb 19th in protesting President Obama’s plan to help homeowners in trouble. Santelli’s call was answered by the right-wing group Freedomworks, which funds campaigns promoting big business interests, and is the opposite of what the real Boston Tea Party was. FreedomWorks was funded in 2004 by Dick Army (former Republican House Majority leader & lobbyist) . . .

Actually, the Dick Army is the group of people who showed up at the various Tea Party events across the country. Thom probably means Dick Armey.

The Joys of Torture

An open letter to wingnuts everywhere:

You just do not get it, do you? You're not going to be able to BS your way out of this one. Every time you trot out some scumbag to make excuses for this,* it makes decent people (which you guys definitely are not) look at you just a little bit more skeptically and trust you just a little bit less. Before long, no self-respecting human being will want anything to do with you.

* A strong stomach is recommended for reading the comments at the Fox News link.

Jeez, has it been that long?

Navies ask: What do you do with a captured pirate?

Wal-i-Musi could have been sent to Kenya, but the U.S. decision to prosecute him in New York could be a sign of Washington's determination to bring pirates to justice.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized that determination Wednesday when she unveiled an anti-piracy strategy that includes trying to seize their assets.

Assets? What assets? Their peglegs, eyepatches, and parrots? I mean, seriously - if they had assets, they wouldn't fucking be pirates, now would they?

I guess it has been a while, but I believe the solution used to involve a rope and a yardarm. Perhaps someone could pass that along to the Navy.

Patriotism, GOP-style

Wonkette has a great pic from yesterday's Tea Party protests showing a patriotic protester using the American flag as a raincoat.

I'll spare you the traditional "Can you imagine if a Democrat had done this?" because we all pretty know what would have happened if it had been a Democrat.

Now THAT'S a spanking you can believe in

When your ass is still burning almost five years later, you know you've been spanked but good:

A truly tough call

On one hand, you have lying scumbag and lowlife piece of shit Karl Rove. On the other, lying scumbag and lowlife piece of shit Joe Biden. Who to believe?

I'll probably go with my instincts and assume they're both lying.

There's some question in my mind as to just whose ass would get kicked here

I got some deal from Amazon on a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone for a dollar - a price approaching its actual worth.

This month's issue had a pretty good profile on Kris Kristofferson by Ethan Hawke. The opening is a real hoot: about an "nameless" country star being put in his place by former Army officer (and Ranger trainee) Kristofferson. It's hilarious:

Up from the basement came one of country music's brightest stars (who shall remain nameless). At that moment in time, the Star had a monster radio hit about bombing America's enemies back into the Stone Age.

"Happy birthday," the Star said to Willie, breezing by us. As he passed Kristofferson in one long, confident stride, out of the corner of his mouth came "None of that lefty shit out there tonight, Kris."

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" Kris growled, stepping forward.

"Oh, no," groaned Willie under his breath. "Don't get Kris all riled up."

"You heard me," the Star said, walking away in the darkness.

"Don't turn your back to me, boy," Kristofferson shouted, not giving a shit that basically the entire music industry seemed to be flanking him.

The Star turned around: "I don't want any problems, Kris — I just want you to tone it down."

"You ever worn your country's uniform?" Kris asked rhetorically.

"What?"

"Don't 'What?' me, boy! You heard the question. You just don't like the answer." He paused just long enough to get a full chest of air. "I asked, 'Have you ever served your country?' The answer is, no, you have not. Have you ever killed another man? Huh? Have you ever taken another man's life and then cashed the check your country gave you for doing it? No, you have not. So shut the fuck up!"

It was pretty much obvious to anyone paying attention that the anonymous star was none other than Toby Keith, who promptly took exception:

But a furious Keith, speaking backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards, said it wasn't true, and added that Hawke did not name him in the story because he did not want to face him later.

"I don't know Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke wanted to do some kind of superficial Rolling Stone article. And he did everything he could to make his story the greatest story ever in Rolling Stone," Keith said. "And it was a fictitious (expletive) lie. O.K?

"He didn't even call me by my name. ... He called Norah Jones, Ray Charles, everybody else by name. Willie (Nelson), Kris (Kristofferson). Why didn't he call my name? Why didn't he say Toby Keith walked through and said this (expletive)? Right? You know why. You know why. You know as good as anybody why. He didn't want to (expletive) deal with the aftermath."

All I can tell you is if it comes down to a physical confrontation between this guy:


and this guy:


My money's on the latter.

So I'm reading tbogg on the RSS feed

since I just can't stomach firedoglake, and I'm thinking, "What the fuck is a #TCOT?" Since I'm not, you know, up on all the latest shit the kids are up to these days.

But I wanted to dedicate this one to my comrades on the right - right on, brothers!



Ah, to be 17 again . . . no thanks.