Things I learned recently

My Mamaw's favorite song to dance to was "Johnny Be Good."

My Mom is a life-long rockabilly fan, and I never knew till this weekend.

I inherited my inability to distinguish my left from my right from my mother.

Clothes dryer technology has come a long way since 1962.

That is all. :)

The Danger Zone

To all you vapid ignorant fucks - All you mindless stupid fucking sheeple who trampled a man to death to get into a fucking WAL-MART. FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU. I hope you fucking choke to death on someone else's fucking vomit. I wish to God you'd all go to prison for murder to be raped brutally in the showers until further notice. I hope your fucking DVD player was worth it, you waste of fucking carbon.

Fuck you. Shove your holiday up your ass.

Because I haven't blogged in a while

Yes We Can! Yes We Can!

Vote for Obama: Let's Rebuild America Together

A dear friend asked today for 10 reasons why she should vote for Obama. I put a great deal of work into the document, so I decided to share the fruits of my labor with everyone. I feel very strongly about this chance we have to make America better. It will be, by far, the most important vote I have ever cast.

It was very hard to narrow it down, but here are some things that are extremely important to me. Obama’s plans for tackling each issue strike me as thorough and well laid out. The man has vision, and I think America has a lot to gain from leadership we aren’t embarrassed by.

1. Barack Obama has the intellect, natural talent and charisma to communicate effectively to the entire world, bring people together, change the status quo and move our country forward. It’s time for us to stop being the laughingstock of the industrialized world. We are not a nation of Yosemite Sams. Obama and Biden will renew American diplomacy to meet the challenges of the 21st century. They will rebuild our alliances. And they would be willing to meet with all nations, friend and foe, to advance American interests.

2. Barack Obama is committed to universal health care by the end of his first term. Obama and Biden will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and will increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The Obama plan will lower health care costs by $2,500 for a typical family by investing in health information technology, prevention and care coordination. Obama and Biden will allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices for the Medicare program. They also support allowing seniors to import safe prescription drugs from overseas. They will reduce waste in the Medicare system and will tackle fundamental healthcare reform.

3. Joe Biden is a competent and experienced running mate. Sarah Palin flat out is NOT. Biden is a leader who has worked for decades in Washington, but takes the train home everyday to take care of his family. An expert on foreign policy, whose heart and values are firmly rooted in the middle class; one who has stared down dictators, and spoken for America's cops and firefighters. He is uniquely suited to serve as Barack Obama’s partner in the urgent mission to bring about the change America needs to put our country back on track.

4. Obama has sponsored, co-sponsored and advocated for significant and realistic legislation to end global warming by capturing and safely disposing carbon dioxide, raising vehicle fuel economy standards and replacing petroleum with home-grown biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.

5. Obama has the broadest base of supporters, has not accepted PAC money and is the least compromised by big money special interests, unlike McCain. No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration. Obama and Biden will fight for an independent watchdog agency to oversee the investigation of congressional ethics violations.

6. Barack Obama will provide a tax cut for working families. Obama and Biden will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 95 percent of working Americans the tax relief they need. They will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family.

7. Obama will reward companies that support American workers. Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 with Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to reward companies that create good jobs with good benefits for American workers. The legislation would provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America if it has ever been in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

8. Obama will invest in a clean energy economy and create 5 million new green jobs. Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world.

9. Obama will make college affordable to all Americans. Obama and Biden will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service. It will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.

10. Obama will rebuild the military for 21st century tasks instead of leaving our troops hanging out to dry underequipped and with no real strategic direction. Obama and Biden will complete the effort to increase our ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines. They will also invest in 21st century missions like counterinsurgency by building up our special operations forces, civil affairs, information operations, foreign language training and other units and capabilities that remain in chronic short supply. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require the Pentagon and State Department to develop a strategy for determining when contracting makes sense, rather than continually handing off governmental jobs to well-connected companies. An Obama-Biden administration will create the transparency and accountability needed for good governance. Finally, it will establish the legal status of contractor personnel, making possible prosecution of any abuses committed by private military contractors. Obama and Biden will restore the government's ability to manage contracts by rebuilding our contract officer corps. They will order the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions that will punish and deter fraud, waste and abuse.

This is utterly unforgivably insane

It is so deeply saddening to know that hatred like this not only exists, but that it's organized and funded, too. Fucking sickening.

Assassination plot targeting Obama disrupted
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Law enforcement agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 88 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's Nashville field office, said the two men planned to kill 88 people, including 14 African-Americans by beheading. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

"They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

The two men were arrested Oct. 22 by the Crockett County, Tenn., Sheriff's Office. "Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities," said Crockett County Sheriff Troy Klyce.

Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday. Messages left on two phone numbers listed under Cowart's name were not immediately returned.

No telephone number for Schlesselman in Helena-West Helena could be found immediately.

Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.

The investigation is continuing, and more charges are possible, Cavanaugh said.

The court records say Cowart and Schlesselman also bought nylon rope and ski masks to use in a robbery or home invasion to fund their spree, during which they allegedly planned to go from state to state and kill people.

For the Obama plot, the legal documents show, Cowart and Schlesselman "planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows."

"Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."

Cavanaugh said there's no evidence — so far — that others were willing to assist Cowart and Schlesselman with the plot.

He said authorities took the threats very seriously.

"They seemed determined to do it," Cavanaugh said. "Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South."

The court documents say the two men met about a month ago on the Internet and found common ground in their shared "white power" and "skinhead" philosophy.

The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two "8"s or "H"s stand for "Heil Hitler."

Helena-West Helena, on the Mississippi River in east Arkansas' Delta, is in one of the nation's poorest regions, trailing even parts of Appalachia in its standard of living. Police Chief Fred Fielder said he had never heard of Schlesselman.

However, the reported threat of attacking a school filled with black students worried Fielder. Helena-West Helena, with a population of 12,200, is 66 percent black. "Predominantly black school, take your pick," he said.

Associated Press writers Erik Schelzig in Nashville, Tenn., and Jon Gambrell in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

Friday Night Adventure

Here is a pictorial of my field trip Friday night to the Southgate House in Newport, KY to see Jonathon Richman in honor of the Crippler's bday.
The show was lovely and the company was delightfully silly.

On the road, eating blue food:



And the resulting malcolored tongue:



Eating at the Hofbrauhaus is yummy:



Especially when the beers start making out (thanks Crippler!):



At the liquor store we learned that the long awaited Attic Boyz album is about to drop. Yay for Back to the Future: The Mix Tape!



On to the show!



Inexplicable scribbling on the potty wall:



A stop at White Castle on the way back was not pictorially documented, but will persist in memory thanks to the way the cashier so robustly yelled "fish nibbler!!!"

Added bonus: Me getting my hairs did on Saturday morning...

Yes We Can!