Keep it up.

Yes we did.

"Keep it up."

That was the invocation of serial misinformer John Fund this election season. When Fund isn't trotting downstairs in a bathrobe smoking stogies with Grover Norquist (also robed) after being away with said muppet-named hater-of-taxes for several hours in a secret upstairs bedroom, he's engaging in devious ass-hattery. The latter was on display a couple months back on Real Time. This was an especially good episode, wherein Janeane Garofalo was having none of the shit-peddling. She called him on all his lies, which were copious and unrelenting, which caused the show to devolve into a constant calling-him-on-his-bullshit by Garofalo. Here's a piece of the episode showing Maher piling on.



Hear it at 0:15? Fund was smugly crying "Keep it up, Bill" all fucking episode long. His "point" was that accurately identifying Sarah Palin as a fucking idiot would turn off all the other fucking idiots in this country. The offended would then cast their lot in with candidate Fucking Idiot on November 4. How'd that turn out, John??? Not real good, or at least that's wut the teevee tole me on the 5th.

Cynical elitist asshole. "Keep it up" was what liberals and conservatives did whenever some Republican cynic like Fund tried to defend her dumbass answers to simple questions and her obvious lack of basic knowledge. This time, the truth worked. And cynical assholes not only lost the election, but lost any remnant of credibility they had. And Sarah Palin lost too.

Moral of the story...when Republicans tell you to "keep it up", do it. They project all the fucking time and attempt to play reverse psychology. All you need to know about the extreme right wing of the Republican party (also known as the Republican party) are two things.

1) They project their own fears and faults onto everyone else.

2) Nearly every position or opinion is based out of fear.

Everyone Hates What I Like

Either the above is true, or the merger of XM and Sirius was orchestrated by evil fucks.

Recently, the two music channels worth listening to are G O N E gone. Y day alwayz b fucking wit my shit, yo? Is it because he hate me? Or is it because I have shitty taste in music? No, it can't be that, so it must be a sinister conspiracy to rid satellite radio of kick-ass tune-age.

A couple years back, when I first acquired XM radio for my hooptie, I instantly fell in love with channel 51, XM Music Lab. The atonal squinks and noises spewed out by the Bartok-inspired instrumentalists were a much needed salve to the FM world of non-stop AC-DC, ZZ Top, and Bob Fucking Segar. But not one month into my subscription, the corporate fucks at XM takes it off air and replaces it with....nothing. Apparently, static noise is preferable to most folks than the shit I like.

But fine, I still had XM 72 Beyond Jazz and XM 76 Fine Tuning. The former played MoJa, acid jazz, killer improvisational bands, and live shit. Great stuff that expanded my musical tastes. The latter provided a forum to hear the occasional old Genesis song, Celtic music, and other eclectic crap. When they played Roxy Music and Brian Ferry started singing, my failure to turn the dial did not make me gay at all. I've been told that the Gipsy Kings could have that effect, so I was quick to change the channel should I hear flamenco music and cante jando.

So with the merger of Sirius and XM, I thought, surely, I would get MORE choices of odd music to soothe my paint-addled brain. I should have known better, because Teddy Roosevelt and his spirit are both dead. The Reagan Revolution made sure of that.

So what's the first thing they do? Get rid of both XM 72 and 76. Assholes!!!! Got an email about the changes and a link to the new line-up. Here's what they said:

"If you liked XM 72, you may like XM70 Real Jazz and XM 71 Watercolors!!"

Old timey jazz is fine if you like watching paint dry....I actually enjoy the standards, but only if I get to huff the paint while its still in its moist state. Since I can't huff and drive (got too many DUH's in my day), XM 70 is not an option. As for XM 71, I get enough lite-jazz while watching the Weather Channel. Seriously, every Wayman Tisdale tune makes me chant "Currently, its 52 degrees, under partly cloudy skies!!" in a neo-Stephen Hawking voice. I can get plenty of George Benson on V-100 while the churchies are busy each Sunday morning, so I don't need more of it on my XM.

As for the other channel I liked, here's what the XM/Sirius assholes had to say:

"If you liked XM 76, well....you're just fucked...besides, you're probably gay considering you listen to eclectic tripe and, by law, we can still discriminate against your kind."

Best thing they offer now is XM 56 Jam Bands. However, it will only take me one week to hear the entire discography of Phish and Government Mule. Grateful Dead encompass all of XM 57, so there's no one else to fill up the jam band line-up. Oh wait, there's Dave Matthews Band....can't get enough falsetto singers on the radio, we need more John Mayers and Coldplays. Which reminds me, XM gave a whole fucking station to Coldplay a few months back...XM 51, in fact. Way to rub it in, boys. And did I mention XM 53 is now AC/DC radio?!?!?!

ARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!

XM, how you mock me!!!!!!!

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

Landslide

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down


Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life


Well, I've been afraid of changing
cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too


Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down


If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

Couldn't wuss out on this one

Couldn't resist.....ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!

Ok, probably wouldn't be writing had the news not showed some promising numbers (aside from expected reports of voting problems)

Indiana is showing promise. Many more counties, especially in the center of the state, going blue compared to 00 and 04.

A good site to graphically compare against what the news programs are showing.

Some numbers from 538.

Just looking at some of the places where we have results in so far. Obama is substantially outperforming Kerry -- which is what he needs to do to win the state, of course, but the differences are pretty substantial.

Steuben: Kerry 34%, Obama 42%
DeKalb: Kerry 31%, Obama 38%
Knox: Kerry 36%, Obama 54%
Marshall: Kerry 31%, Obama 50%

UPDATE

Didn't look as promising in KY. Not that Obama didn't win. But he lost a lot of counties in the eastern side (the side closest to WV) compared to what Kerry got in 04. Ick, sounds like the racists have spoken.

Florida, however, is rocking Obama, with more red counties turning blue around the St. Pete and south-central counties. Plus, the blue counties in 04 are staying that way. Sweeeet.

UPDATE

Virginia....losing counties in SW Va, bordering KY...gaining counties in the NOVA area. The counties Obama is getting are much higher in population than the others. Truly, a shift in the electoral map, even beyond macroscopic levels shown in the state by state results.

UPDATE

WV....Kanawha and Randolph flipped to Obama. Mingo flipped to red...sorry SamC, guess the "Mingoloids" are on your side this time...hehe. Also got Raleigh (Beckley) and Monongahalia (Morgantown). These counties have colleges (Mtn State, WVU), as do Kanawha (UC, WVState) and Randolph (Davis Elkins). Maybe had an impact.

Ooops, Raleigh flipped back to red, but Boone stayed blue. One chink in the college hypothesis.

UPDATE

Montgomery Co in Virginia flipped to Obama...home of VT...maybe this college hypothesis is moving up to theory territory. But WV counties I mentioned earlier are changing....hmmm, I should just fucking wait a bit. All these maps and colors have gotten me to nerd out too much.

UPDATE!!

Obama closing in on VA....more in, O at 49, Mc at 50.....more movement and this whole fucking thing is ovah!!!!!!!!!

As for Florida, it has tightened w/ O at 51 and Mc at 49. One blue county in the panhandle has not yet gone online, two red counties near AL also not yet in. Could flip....as long as VA goes Obama, I'm fine w/ that...although I would love to have a lot of breathing room...talking landslide.

In WV, saw that Wyoming County flipped to blue from 4 years ago. I wonder if some huffing patriot went down there and called 20 people about a month ago to help win that county :) .....Not so fast :(

Ooooh, Ohio and New Mexico FO-Bama!!! Fuck yeah!!!!

UPDATE

Crap, McConnell held on.....so much for 60. Hope Chambliss doesn't reach 50% or Martin somehow pulls it off....would go to a runoff in Dec if the former happened. Also, lets go Franken, the only New York jew in that Senate race who's actually from Minnesota.

The Senate is looking like the moderate Repubs are getting destroyed. Just leaves the Republican party more extreme, which isn't good for anybody.

On the House side, things are a bit more hopeful in ridding away the nutjobs. On the chopping block are Hayes in NC, Bachman in MN, and Musgrave in CO. If those 3 plus Mean Jean Schmidt in OH loses, I will not huff a single can of Krylon for the next fortnight.

UPDATE

Close close close to results in VA, NC, and IN...and I think Obama has got them. Well, maybe not IN, but that state is fucking close. NC down to Wilson and Franklin counties, which went red in 04. But they were more pink than red, so even if there's a Republican win there, it may not be big enough to break the margin Obama has right now.

538 and HDNet calling it for Obama...the whole shebang.

Might call it in and go to sleep with these nice feelings. And resist the urge to wake up at 1 a.m., because if there's a repeat of 2000 with states flipping after being called, I would at least like to get in a nice night of sleep.

A Friendly Reminder

In case you've forgotten, for about 3 more months, George W. Bush is still our president.

And he's still a cocksucker.

Bush launches last-minute deregulation push

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

More shit and crap that Bush is attempting to shove down our throats.

Yes, because that's EXACTLY what the public has been clamoring for....more tainted products from China, more MTBE in our drinking water, more airborne particulates from our power plants, and more fucking global warming. Boy, when Bush says he doesn't look at the polls, I almost believe him. Until I remember that he's an evil sadist that does look at polls and does the opposite because he is 1) evil and 2) a sadist.

And to all those Bush apologists who would say "he's a lame duck, Obama will reverse course with a stroke of a pen", here's to you dipshits.....

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.

So, in addition to ending the war in Iraq, implementing new strategies in Afganistan, providing health care for all, re-regulating Wall Street, fixing the financial mess, restoring our standing in the world, closing Gitmo, combating global warming, repairing our infrastructure, creating a green economy, funding technologies that will allow us to lead in alternative energy, he'll also have to undo all the dictatorial shit that Bush has employed for eight fucking years. And Bush is just adding to the pile that is already overloaded with his scrapping of the 4th amendment, precedence-creating signing statements, administrative rules, executive fiats, etc.

THIS is why everyone hates Bush. Not just because he's a lying asshole. Its because he's a fascist, so sayeth my homey FDR.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.