(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

So I just looked out in my mailbox, and saw a letter.

You’ve got mail!

Opened it up, and was pleased to read:

Happy Birthday!

Here’s your FREE dinner valued up to $18.99!

With Absolutely No Strings Attached!

Neato! Tuesday IS, in fact, my birthday. And so I read on. Some quotes from past customers appeared in the letter:

(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

As if we needed more bad news about messages, message control, and the effects of corporatocracy.

Air America’s website is now, simply, a wall of black text on a white background.

It reads in part:

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business…..We will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition. Starting at 6 pm EST today, we will provide our affiliates, listeners and users a selection of encore programming until 9 pm EST on Monday, January 25, at which time Air America programming will end.

Yet another piece of bad news in what has been a pretty bad week, in my opinion.

More on the jump.

(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

As if we needed more bad news about messages, message control, and the effects of corporatocracy.

Air America’s website is now, simply, a wall of black text on a white background.

It reads in part:

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business…..We will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition. Starting at 6 pm EST today, we will provide our affiliates, listeners and users a selection of encore programming until 9 pm EST on Monday, January 25, at which time Air America programming will end.

Yet another piece of bad news in what has been a pretty bad week, in my opinion.

More on the jump.

(crossposted from CobaltVA)

With the Virginia Democratic primary one week from this Tuesday, I want first to serve notice that, regardless of its outcome, folks shouldn’t look for apologies from me for my conduct, ‘cuz there ain’t gonna be none.

Huffington Post:

One person who typifies all that was wrong with the Democratic Party over the previous decade was former DNC Chairman — and big money fundraiser — Terry McAuliffe. Under his leadership, the DNC atrophied after the 2000 elections and suffered through one of its most disastrous runs in a generation (2001-2005) when it gave President Bush a majority in both houses of Congress (handing back the Senate to the GOP in 2002), lost ground in the state houses, and wholly failed to push back on the Bush-Cheney war machine.

More below the fold…including bribery. Was it justifiable in that instance?

Or, might some say:

Whoa. McAuliffe was “concerned” that Nader would “cost John Kerry the election as he did Al Gore.” So that justifies election tampering and attempted bribery?

I’ll leave that up to you.

Jump.

(brought to you by CobaltVA)

Ladies and gentlemen. The pride of Canton, Ohio, formerly the Triumphs of McKinley High School, Walter Williams, Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, William Powell, and Eddie Levert….members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2005….

Put your hands together! Give it up, y’all…for the O’JAYS!!!!!!

Special Guest Star: Terry “Moneybags and Carpetbags” McAuliffe.

(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia (1782)

A core principle for many if not all of us.

As one blogger writes:

I love this quote. All at once Jefferson is asserting both the vital importance of separation of church and state, as well as the need for religious tolerance. People can believe whatever they want to and worship whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t harm others.

And there’s the rub – twice, stated in two different ways.

“As long as it doesn’t harm others.”

Which another blogger sems to be either missing, or deliberately obfuscating, in her post titled “Bigotry Abounds” that contains this nothing less than staggering statement:

…Vermont is one step closer to silencing Bible-believing Christians and forcing them to violate their religious beliefs – and they are giddy about it.

We’ll look at the classic religious conservative tactic of crying that their religious freedoms are being violated when they are stopped by the legislative process from violating the rights of those who do not share their beliefs, below the fold.

Maybe it was the fact that he saw odum’s web poll and retreated in fear of the inevitable costumed protestors a la the monkey and banana that dogged George Allen. Or, maybe, Richard Dawkins had more to do with it.

At any rate, Ben Stein’s gonna be a no-show at the UVM commencement.

Pharyngula:

Here’s the letter from President Fogel. They asked Stein to speak as an authority on economics?

 

Dear Professor Dawkins,

   As one who has been deeply instructed by your work and who applauds your scientific leadership, I was honored to find a personal email from you in my inbox, but very sorry indeed that the occasion was the decision to invite Ben Stein to be a Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient. Although we have recently learned that Mr. Stein will be unable to receive the honorary degree here or to serve as Commencement speaker, please know that it was our expectation that his remarks would address the global economic crisis and that he would speak from his widely acknowledged area of expertise on the economy. We regret that he will be unable to do so.

   With thanks again for writing, with admiration, and with every good wish–Daniel Mark Fogel, President, The University of Vermont

Darn. And here I was gonna show up with my family dressed up as troglodytes. and my dog done up as a dinosaur.

It would have been so easy, even a caveman could do it.

Backstory here.

(dying a horrible death on Daily Kos)

NOTE: After reading yesterday’s C&J, I decided to embargo this until today. Obviously, I originally intended to post this at 11 ET yesterday morning…but I couldn’t make myself do it. I just COULDN’T be a buzzkill on that Day of Days.

One hour from now, Barack Hussein (and f you if you don’t like it) Obama will drop the “elect” from his title, and become the 44th President of the United States.

We’ve worked like hell to get to this point, kids. We’ve tangled with Republicans in general as well as “birthers”, PUMAs, racists, Paultards, Fox News, Larry Johnson, (oh wait. I already said PUMAs. But he’s special. He’s a FloBee PUMA.) and on and on and on.

But more importantly, and more to the point, to reach the point at which we arrive in One. Fricking. HOUR……we’ve gone through eight years of hell.

And THAT, my friends, is the point of this dairy.

And I’m here to remind you

Of the mess you left when you went away

It’s not fair to deny me

Of the cross I bear that you gave to me

You, you, you oughta know

Sub folda.

^{This is a combination of two posts from my Shenandoah Valley blog, cobalt6.net.}

SWAC Girl never disappoints:

In this case, the President made us a safer people … holding off terrorist attacks … but warning terrorism is still looming and we must never let down our guard.

Never mind the fact that he permitted the attacks of 9/11 through inaction in the face of multiple warnings. That’s not relevant, right?

Do not permit historical revisionism on the part of the Republicans.

There is nothing – NOTHING – to thank George W. Bush for. To merely call him the “Worst. President. Ever.”  does not go nearly far enough.

He and his are criminals, and their sycophants and enablers should be ashamed of themselves.

Go AWAY, Bush. But please, be where we can find you when we come to take you away in handcuffs.

And I’m here to remind you

Of the mess you left when you went away

It’s not fair to deny me

Of the cross I bear that you gave to me

You, you, you oughta know

I should give you a bit of the back story as to why this particular SWAC Girl excursion into….well, blatant dishonesty…..bothers me so much.

This is an excerpt from a piece that originally appeared in my hometown newspaper end of last month, written, naturally, by a GOP hack: a past chairwoman of our local Republican party.

When you see the title of her piece, you will, I am sure, realize that it directly inspired the title of my previous post.

The title,in all its emetic glory, is:

“A Panegyric To The President.”

Here, then, is a small excerpt:

History should judge President George W. Bush as one of America’s great Presidents. His record of accomplishment in foreign policy, his grace in the face of unrivaled malevolence, his courage in the face of dreadful pressure, and his vision of a world made free are the stuff of greatness. Here is an abbreviated catalogue of his accomplishments and virtues:

Rather than putting you through the rest of the rectal osculations and historical revision the author offers up, I’ll let someone else pick up at that point.

Here, Ms. Bucknam, is your “catalogue of his accomplishments and virtues”.

You should watch this too, Lynn.

The only kick with this that I have is the use of the word, “legacy.” I’m uncomfortable with applying that term to the Bush presidency. It’s not a “legacy”.

Criminals have RECORDS.

From AllAccess.com:

It’s a huge loss for the radio industry, as ALL ACCESS reported on SATURDAY (NET NEWS 11/29) that radio legend BILL DRAKE died from lung cancer at age 71 in LOS ANGELES. DRAKE passed away SATURDAY at WEST HILLS HOSPITAL in the SAN FERNANDO VALLEY.

DRAKE streamlined the Top 40 format, using modern methods, such as market research and ratings demographics, to maximize the number of listeners. He believed in forward momentum, limiting the amount of disc jockey chatter, the number of advertisements and playing only the top hits, as opposed to less-organized programming methods of the past. DRAKE created concepts such as 20/20 News and counter-programming by playing music sweeps, while his competitors aired news.

I frickin worked at KYNO briefly in the 80s.

And here I am. Still spinnin’ the hits.

RIP Bill Drake.

Without you, I’d be a different me.

(crossposted from Cobalt6)

I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, a member of the National Rifle Association.

That said, many of you who read this blog know that I am extremely pro-Second Amendment.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

–Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment (1764).