First Photos of S-S-Señoritas SERVICING The Secret Service ...

Courtesy of the NY Daily News (Scooping Rupie!), with appropriate soundtrack and lyrics from Johnny Rivers:

So Long, Levon

The Band's great drummer/singer Levon Helm died today. He will be missed. Here he is performing his signature song,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down:

Now I don't mind chopping wood

And I don't care if my money's no good

You take what you need and you leave the rest

But they should never have taken

The very best.

RIP, Levon.

American Exceptionalism: Our Military Continue Being EXPENDABLE Human Guinea Pigs

Back in February, Lawrence O'Donnell hosted an MSNBC documentary on the tainted water supply at Camp Lejeune, NC, which poisoned Marines and their families causing death and disease to those exposed to the toxins. Today, there are alarming reports of the widespread contamination of our seafood around the BP Gulf oil spill, covered up by corporate LIES in slick advertisements of happy people eating scrumptious video-enhanced Louisiana seafood, as if nothing had happened. The depravity, the immorality of this culture of corporate-profits-at-any-cost which sweeps under the rug, behind slick surreal advertising LIES, the toxic effects of ingesting tainted seafood is nothing short of appalling.

What good is the mounting evidence of academic studies if the oil and gas behemoths have the power to suppress a proactive response by purchasing government to prevent action that protects the people's health and regulates the safety of our food supply? Why should it take a foreign news organization, Al Jazeera, to report in detail on Gulf seafood deformities? But this AP report takes the cake: "Despite sales dropping precipitously following the spill, the Gulf's seafood industry was given a boost after the government's Defense Commissary Agency began selling Gulf seafood products on 72 East Coast military bases in early 2011." How different is this from the criminal neglect for the health and safety of our military personnel through their direct exposure to radiation from atomic test blasts in the 1950s? It's not as if the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs weren't known by then.

Our government can no longer claim ignorance of the Camp Lejeune contaminated water or of the deliberate, profit-driven exposure of our troops to tainted seafood. This is what happens under criminal corporate-Republican government when they gut and defund the agencies responsible for regulating the safety of the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. It is SHAMEFUL and CRIMINAL. American exceptionalism. Indeed.

POLITICO'S PERVERSE PULITZER — BUT THE HUFF POST IS FOR REAL

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER to the Huffington Post for its pioneering Pulitzer Prize, a recognition of excellence in online journalism, come of age. The Huff Post's Pulitzer was won the old-fashioned way: for national reporting in a 10-part series on returning war veterans. As for the POLITICO Pulitzer, awarded for editorial cartooning, congratulations to the talented artist, Matt Wuerker. Is it just me, or is there a certain perverse, amusing logic in that the first Pulitzer awarded to the publication of record of the laugh-a-minute Beltway Media and its cable "news" frontispiece, the IDIOT PUNDITOCRACY, should go to its outstanding political cartoonist?

This is not to denigrate political, or editorial, cartooning. It is a venerable ingredient of journalism, often carrying the entire organization, like its star franchise player, or the "straw that stirs the drink" at your favorite DC watering hole, if you will. Somehow, I've got to believe that Matt Wuerker has found himself the dream creative environment for producing "his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington." If only he could lampoon his colleagues, too. Those cartoons must be stowed away in a secure vault for future publication once he is free of the John Harris gravitational pull. It's a small, insular, incestuous world, is the Beltway Media.

You can smile now, Maggie. It's okay. Really, it is. We know you're no idiot; a serious journalist through and through. If they ever award a Pulitzer for political punditry, you'll be at the top of my list for being earnestly funny in your unwavering quest for seriousness of purpose. Along with Jonathan Capehart, whose fussy sartorial elegance and honest "PostPartisan" blogging take the inside track for Zeitgeist irony, and chutzpah.

Alex Wags Lets Wingnut FRACK On Carole King's Moment

SOME NO-NAME PUDGY WINGNUT — COSTA, Portuguese surname, OTÁRIO da direita! — had the audacity to FRACK on the Alex show, in plain sight of the DIVINE Ms Carole King: "Republicans have the upper hand ... But on shale, on FRACKING, and on the Keystone pipeline, I think they have some real political points to score against the President, who has been boxed into a corner by environmentalists ..."

EARTH TO ALEX: your response was totally INADEQUATE. Wingnuts are incredibly devious in their use of language as propaganda. How could you let fatso pork chop get away with the "FRACKING" reference, and not immediately challenge it, Alex?! It's infuriating.

The Costa OTÁRIO sings the praises of FRACKING to a wide-eyed Carole King sitting in stunned silence while Alex replies with jaw-rattling *CRICKETS* ... Well, Alex rallied somewhat, a day late, fiercely defending Dick Lugar from the Teabagger infestation {eye-roll}, calling the GROTESQUE ROCK FASCIST Ted Nugent a silly name {etc.}, and this time correcting another wingnut who claimed Americans aren't concerned about income inequality ... WOW! Fortunately, there's Carole King to tell us in song what happens when FRACKING comes to town — for the romantic in Robert 'OTÁRIO' Costa:

THE THINKER TOWERS ABOVE HIS COMPETITION!

TODAY AT THE "BIG A." Even after blowing the turn THE THINKER proved to be the class of the field, winning for fun over his hapless opponents. So we only paid $2.80 to win. Sorry, no longshots in this stable. Nothing but class. Yes, of course I had a WIN bet on this horse!

THE THINKER Takes No Prisoners, Makes Mincemeat of Opposition.

Chris Ventures Way Down South of The Rio Grande ...

FINDS ENLIGHTENMENT AND POSSIBLE "STUNNED" REDEMPTION. Why quibble with our friend (I mean it!) Chris Matthews, who is always open and willing to learn. Okay, so maybe he mixed up his Americas ... "I just returned from Colombia, in the heart of Central America" ... Um Chris, FYI, here's a map of Central America:

See the gray area down at the bottom, bordering the southernmost country in Central America, Panama (in purple), Chris? That's Colombia, and it is located in South America. By the way, you should also know that "Americans" are referred to in South America as "North Americans" or "norte-americanos" as distinct from "South Americans." But, really, we are all one big, happy, united family of "Americans."

Central America (Spanish: América Central or Centroamérica) is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent. Central America consists of the seven states of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Central America is part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through central Panama. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, the North Pacific Ocean to the west, and Colombia to the south-east.

And here's how Chris's enlightened colleagues in the Beltway Media view a map of the world (kidding, maybe). In case anyone wonders why I should refer to these narcissistic IDIOTS (besides the obvious, whenever they open their mouths) as the IDIOT PUNDITOCRACY:

So here's Chris, back from his excellent adventure to South America. It was nice of Chris to mention to President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil that the Colossus of South America, with a population of 200 million, whose beauty prompts Brazilians to claim "God is Brazilian" has this year surpassed the UK as the world's sixth economy. Nice soccer reference, too, to archrivals Argentina, known good-naturedly in Brazil as "Los Hermanos." It is such an intense century-old sports rivalry that in the more than 100 international matches between the two countries, Brazil and Argentina are practically even-steven in number of victories, with only a slight edge going to Brazil.

It should be noted that while Chris was most impressed by the "centrist" president of Colombia (he can't help it, harkening back to when Chris was a Goldwater Republican), South America's booming democracies are driven by governments of the left — the few center-right outliers being Colombia, Peru, and, arguably Chile (following the leftist government of Michele Bachelet, who was tortured by Henry Kissinger's Frankenstein, the monster Gen. Augusto Pinochet). The others, Mexico and El Salvador, ahem ... are in North and Central America. While Chris might be "stunned" by the Latin American democracies' commitment to openness and free markets, to bringing people up from the bottom — the "base of the pyramid"— this is the very cornerstone of progressive politics.

 Surprise, surprise, Chris. Once the beacon of freedom and democracy, America is lurching backward toward turn-of-the-19th Century income inequality and genuine oligarchy, proposing a transfer of wealth from the bottom to the very stratified top, cloaked in a mythical ideology that has never worked and when applied in the real world has failed catastrophically. By contrast, the democracies of South America represent the results-oriented creed of liberal, progressive politics, which has always worked in the real world to promote the greater good and growing prosperity for all peoples. The principles of American democracy and the U.S. Constitution are under siege by the right wing and the Republican Party — the new oligarchy — but are alive and well in South America. Vibrantly so.

Yet, Chris wouldn't be Chris without stubborn adherence to old, reactionary notions, once again referring to tiny Cuba, with a population about the size of New York City, as the "BIG non-democracy down there." Typical U.S. bully lingo reflecting the calcified attitudes of old Cold Warriors in the Cuban-American community, the most privileged "immigrants" in America. By any measure of comparison among the wider Latino community and outside our borders, Cuban-Americans are inordinately influential beyond their actual numbers. They hold the key to Florida presidential politics. One might even say that Cuban-Americans are the closest thing to a special interest community with corporate privileges as "corporations are people" that have so distorted our politics following the Citizens United decision. Florida's Cuban-American community is a perfect example of the "tail wagging the dog"— in which provincial presidential politics trumps wider United States regional, geopolitical and Latin American policy interests.

Chris claims "Cuba has all the power in the world" to join the community of democracies in the hemisphere. But the United States has all the power in the world to normalize relations with Cuba and end its crippling, counterproductive economic embargo of the small island-nation. Every other nation in the Americas has normalized relations with Cuba, including Canada, which, despite siding with the U.S. in barring Cuba's participation in the Summit of the Americas, has normal relations with Cuba and trade totaling almost $1 billion.

If you ask South America's leaders, Chris, the consensus is that the embargo is irrational, short-sighted domestic politics at the expense of the benefit to all the Americas that an opening to Cuba, rapprochement and lifting of the embargo would bring. South American leaders regard the U.S. as a boorish, slow to change bully which must be led by the hand to do the right thing. Nothing would boost the prospects of democracy in Cuba more than lifting the embargo, thus removing the regime's singular pretext for resisting democratic reforms — the colossal "Yanqui" threat to its north, which is real in that it has tried to assassinate Fidel Castro and undermine his government on countless occasions. It's a stupid and unsightly remnant of the Cold War that must end.

Mittens Utters Losing Campaign KISS OF DEATH: "Start Packing" ...

HERE'S MITT RAWMONEY being interviewed by the equally insufferable Diane Sawyer, who asked him what message he had for President Obama. This is what Mittens said: "Start packing" ... [HAR-HAR-HAR.]

Although the Beltway Media reports it in advance of the interview as if this is a new and original Mittens crie de guerre, with adjectives like "aggressive" and "feisty," the phrase is neither original nor predictive. In fact, considering this attractive 1964 offering in a lenticular flasher from the Goldwater campaign, superstitious Romney operatives might have reason for concern and lost sleep:

ROMNEY/GOLDWATER WHIMSY: "START PACKING" ... REALLY?!

Hmm ... The premature pixie dust crowing didn't work out so well for the Goldwaters. Barry "Mr. Conservative" Goldwater lost to LBJ by 61% to 38%.

CATNIP: Jon Stewart Trots Out Hoodie Kitty To Mock NBC Critics

JUDITH MILLER?! GET THE-F-OUTTA HERE! Nicely done, Jon:

The Daily Show
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Predictably, our favorite right wing rag, The Daily Caller, has been posting innocuous teenage tweets from the slain teen, a typical DC smear to further violate his grieving family with attempted character assassination of the dead kid. Jim Treacher, their c&p minimalist spitblogger has continued the strained false equivalence analogies, some downright offensive, per the whitebread wingnut frat boys' MO.

Consider this Treach posting, without comment other than the usual warning of “disturbing” video to get one to watch the beating of a white tourist, a young dude, in Baltimore by a group of black guys who robbed him of his belongings. Thankfully, the mugging victim was not seriously injured. Significantly, the people on the streets interviews were with decent African American citizens, who decried the event. Treach’s outrageous header reads:

Presumably, it’s an outrageous allusion to the President’s statement that the slain teen, Trayvon Martin, could be his son. So what’s your point, Treach? If it’s that it would have been better had Trayvon been only beaten and robbed by a mugger rather than shot to death by a racist, I CONCUR. Somehow, I think that’s not what you meant to say. And, by the way, the fact the Baltimore mugging victim was literally stripped and robbed of his belongings makes it highly unlikely a racial hate crime charge can be brought against the muggers. I doubt it will. Based on available facts, the same cannot be said of the Trayvon shooting. Nice try, bud but you FAIL.

Next, Treach accuses NBC of putting “George Zimmerman and everyone around him on trial — even people who have nothing to do with it, like the McClain family” but now is “protecting the identity of whoever faked evidence against Zimmerman.” Jesus, man, your wingnut brain works in really, REALLY bizarre ways. Let’s parse this statement, shall we?

First of all, Treach, any NEWS organization worth its salt, such as NBC, is expected to put the principals in a case with such explosive implications “on trial” in the court of public opinion. They have a responsibility to shine the spotlight on the killer’s conduct and motivation, as well as how police and local authorities handled the case to date — given that local authorities had done nothing until the media stepped in. That’s what the media are supposed to do — be the people’s watchdog.

Second, NBC wasn't responsible for Spike Lee’s outrageous retweet of an elderly couple’s info as George Zimmerman’s. Last I checked, Spike Lee isn’t an NBC employee. He filmed some commercials for MSNBC hosts, and that’s about it. His action (and that of the original tweeter) are totally reprehensible and unacceptable. Those who willy-nilly divulge personal information of private citizens — the Daily Caller comes to mind — are despicable. Projecting again, Treach?

Third, regarding its fired producer, the story here isn’t that someone at NBC violated its standards of journalistic practice, but that NBC promptly fired the individual after an internal investigation. It’s unfortunate, but their choice not to disclose the individual’s name is correct and in keeping with generally accepted practice in these matters. The real story is that right wing media, which harbors no responsibility for reporting the truth whatsoever, have never fired their personnel for violating standards of journalism practice, because they have none — unless firing women employees alleging sexual harassment against sacred wingnut cows counts.

Fourth, Treach whines MSNBC “went to battle stations when James O’Keefe committed a misdemeanor. They called it ‘Watergate Jr.’ But when one of their own manufactures evidence in a racially charged shooting that’s become a nationwide scandal? Crickets. Guess they don’t want to step on Al Sharpton’s toes.” Why are wingnuts such whiners?! Not even worth a reply. To compare a criminal prankster wingnut and sexual harasser, whose legal problems are only just beginning, to civil rights protesters is beyond stupid and offensive. And Treach, to understand David Schuster’s point you need to understand “irony.” Look it up, pal. Man, are wingnuts so pathetically dense.

In the meantime, Henri the French existential cat, who finds it all so tedious ...

... Might just be in love!

Ann Rawmoney Is No Ordinary Woman

SHE'S FILTHY RICH. Ann Rawmoney hasn't ever worked a regular job outside the home, not just because it's "a choice" women make, which we should "respect." Of course. That goes without saying. But for Camp Rawmoney to suggest Ann is just like every woman out there who makes these "choices" is absurd. The vast majority of women in America do not have the "choice" (translation = means) to hire housekeepers, nannies, cooks, groundskeepers, chauffeurs, catering services, home nursing, and all the little "helpers" without which the filthy rich would be adrift in a sea of money.

Hogan Gidley, Psycho Ricky's Better Half, Being Weird Next To Alex.

That's no knock on Ann as a person. By all accounts, she's a very nice woman, very gracious, "Mitt's better half," said Alex Wagner's adoptive wingnut boyfriend, the inimitable Hogan Gidley, looking smitten as he sat shoulder to comely shoulder with Alex. But Ann's not everywoman. Nor can she speak with any real-life authority to the struggles of 99 percent of America's women juggling careers, children, housekeeping, bills, and HEALTH CARE. (The women's health care "choices" provided by Planned Parenthood — cancer screenings, mammograms, checkups, contraceptives — Mitt Rawmoney has promised to eviscerate. Typically meanspirited, considering Saint Ann suffers from a debilitating disease for which she can get the best care money can buy.)

That said, Hillary Rosen is a self-important, clueless, BELTWAY IDIOT. A CARDINAL RULE OF POLITICS IS, NEVER EVER CRITICIZE THE CANDIDATE'S WIFE! (That is, unless the wife is a non-Caucasian Democrat.)

No Wonder Republicans HATE Science: Wingnuts Are Dumb, Lazy Alcoholics ...

HERE'S MORE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE of  Teh Wingnut Stoopid:

1. A study published in the journal "Psychological Science" shows that children who score low on intelligence tests become wingnuts as adults.

2. A new study links "conservative ideology" to "low-effort thinking." (SEE the Daily Bawler's Jim Treacher on anything Trayvon Martin/NBC.)

And for the coup de gras:

3. "Bar patrons were asked about social issues before blowing into a Breathalyzer. As it turned out, the political viewpoints of patrons with high blood alcohol levels were more likely to be conservative than were those of patrons whose blood alcohol level was low."

Dumb, lazy w(h)iners: Or, as Chris might say, "tell me something I don't know."

Ozzie Postcript: Chris Matthews Goes Slightly INSANE

ODDLY, I WAS UNABLE to locate the Ozzie segment whose expression of "love" for Fidel Castro transmogrified Chris Matthews into a Red-Scare/Menace anti-Communist crusader expressing undying fealty to the fossilized anti-Castro (Raul now) Cold Warriors of Chris's generation. Despite the radio-generated outcry over Ozzie Guillen's comments about Fidel (see below), my sense of this is, there's a generational divide in the Cuban-American community regarding attitudes toward Castro's Cuba. Younger Cuban-Americans are just not as hard-line as their parents and grandparents. And they're certainly not monolithic:

"It is no exaggeration to suggest that U.S. policy towards Cuba since the revolution has largely been formulated in accordance with the wishes of the Cuban-American voting bloc. This has led to fifty years of confrontational policy vis-à-vis Cuba, ranging from an unsuccessful military invasion to over five decades of rigid economic embargo. These policies reflect the hard-line, anti-Castro sentiment that has been at the heart Cuban-American political culture. [...]

In recent years, however, as the community has evolved politically, traditional generalizations are no longer applicable. Demographic and generational shifts have diluted the hard-line voice in Miami, creating a community that is possibly more open to a change in policy direction towards Cuba than at any time in the past. On the streets of the Cuban-American neighborhood of Little Havana in Miami, debate now rages as to the value of the embargo and the future direction of U.S. policy. An acceptance of differences of opinion now exists, in contrast to the hard-line hegemony of earlier decades that left little room for alternative views to be aired. Today, “attitudes among the Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade County have become increasingly complex,” and while hard-line views still exist, they do so alongside other political standpoints."

So it came as a surprise to hear Chris Matthews, author of the latest JFK biography, Jack Kennedy — An Elusive Hero, focusing on the Cuban Missile Crisis, utter this stunningly hyperbolic statement about Castro: "If the communists had won, that guy (Castro) would've been standing in Central Park watching the executions of anybody with any political talent in this country." With all due respect, Chris, I can't think of a Tom Clancy plot that could realistically accommodate your virulent Cold War fantasy. Maybe Red Dawn. But that's beneath Clancy's penchant for verisimilitude. In fact, it got me wondering whether your JFK book was ghost-written and conceived by someone else. Just saying.

For starters, Chris, if the "communists had won" as you put it, there would most likely not be a Central Park for Castro to carry out his executions. You and Mr. Castro — most of humanity — would be irradiated carbon dust that might, perhaps today, become fertilizer for incipient plant life. If any humans survived the nuclear holocaust, they would try organizing for survival as self-sustaining communities. Nation-states would have disappeared — the USSR, USA, Europe, others, and of course, the tiny island-state with a big, fat TARGET on its back named Havana. If he was lucky, Fidel might have escaped with family, friends and Che, of course, aboard his yatch Granma to parts unknown. Destination: USA — not likely.

But seriously, Chris, in the course of your research for the book, surely you must have come across intriguing documents suggesting Kennedy sought a dialogue with Cuba, an initiative which was aborted by the assassination, according to declassified documents. A National Security archive audio tape between Kennedy and his national security advisor McGeorge Bundy, "discussing the possibility of a secret meeting in Havana with Castro," was dated only seventeen days before the assassination. The history of this secret rapprochement is well documented in the link (above) to the respected George Washington University "National Security Archive" project.

What Ozzie Guillen said was insensitive to Fidel Castro's victims, yes, but still it holds special resonance for the other Latinos, who are not spoken for. They are the tens of thousands of tortured, disappeared, and assassinated victims of the U.S.-sanctioned fascist military dictatorships in Latin and South America. Those who recall the film Missing by the great director Costa-Gravas, with Jack Lemmon as an American businessman frantically searching for his disappeared son in the days following Henry Kissinger's Chilean coup, glimpsed the outlines of those days of horror. CIA horror. The CIA that, as you well know Chris, hatched countless plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. The survivors of Kissinger's atrocities, like Michele Bachelet, former president of Chile, and President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, who was an urban guerrilla fighter in her previous life, only grew stronger through their ordeal.

Some have argued that Fidel may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination. Which is ridiculous. Love him or hate him, one thing's for sure: Fidel is a survivor; the only retired communist dictator. And he's no fool. He knew full well that were he to be blamed for killing Kennedy, the psychotic Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff who clashed with President Kennedy over military action during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was just itching for a pretext to bomb Cuba "back to the Stone Age." Fidel's defiant stand against American plots to assassinate him, and 50 years of crippling economic sanctions, have earned him the well deserved admiration of Latinos from one end of America to the other. But unless one grasped how intimately the CIA was known to those who called the agency La Cia (pronounced see-ya), their admiration for Castro might be hard to understand.

Among those who believe that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy, Fidel Castro is much lower on the list of prime suspects than the rabid right wing anti-Castro groups that were operating in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana at the time. Lee Harvey Oswald was well known in those circles. Only a true ingenue like Chris could actually believe that Oswald's "Fair Play For Cuba Committee" was a pro-Castro group, as splashily advertised, rather than a Guy Bannister front for attracting pro-Castro sympathizers from whom Oswald was tasked with gathering information and spying on them at Bannister's behest. Bannister and the so-called 'Committee' shared offices in the same building and everything. A right wing fanatic with violent tendencies and a lefty pamphleteering group. Right.

But that's a whole different story. Back in my college days, the local Cuban-American student group sponsored a talk by a member of a rabid right wing anti-Castro group. I covered it for the college paper. The dude's basic premise was that we, the United States, should take unilateral, unprovoked military action against Cuba, a sovereign state, depose Castro, and "free" Cuba for the Cuban exiles in the U.S. A rerun of the Bay of Pigs, this time with direct U.S. military involvement. I went back and wrote that if they wanted their country back, they should follow Castro's example. Gather their forces, land in Cuba surreptitiously, and head for the Sierra Maestra mountains to start their counter-revolution. But don't expect America to carry any water for them or to risk American lives in their "war of liberation." Needless to say, I got some nasty mail from the same bullying types who today demand Ozzie's head for expressing a favorable view of Castro.

Fidel Castro didn't "steal" their country away, Chris. From whom? Colonel Fulgencio Batista — one in a long, unbroken string of utterly corrupt U.S. puppets soaking the taxpayers dry in a black hole of lavish palaces, weapons, and overseas accounts? Today's Batista is our mental case/crutch in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. Batista just happened to be our sonofabitch in 1959 — and the mob's — turning Havana into a playground for rich playboys, mobsters, drug runners, and prostitution. The country was ripe for revolution.

And to get Chris riled up: The old dictator visiting with Pope Benedict, once Hitler Youth. Perfect together. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are reviled for conducting executions. Yet when our robotic drones shred innocent men, women, and children thousands of miles away, it's just so much "collateral damage." What's worse: Looking the executed in the eye, or killing by drone? Out of sight, out of mind. American exceptionalism.

Count me among Che Guevara's admirers. (And Fidel Castro's, too.) Bobby Kennedy tried to kill Castro, but he also admired Che — the iconic revolutionary of the 20th Century. The best ever film treatment of Che was Brazilian director Walter Salles' Epic The Motorcycle Diaries. It depicts the travels of a young Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, the asthmatic medical student, and his loyal friend up along the western flank of South America.

These scenes of Che's birthday at a clinic for lepers on the banks of one of the Amazon's tributaries are my favorites. Especially the scene in which Che impulsively decides to swim across the river, to celebrate his birthday in the leper colony on the island the lepers are kept in isolation. It was a metaphor of his life: personal struggle, determination, and selfless communion with the least among us — society's lepers. A beautiful film. Highly recommended.

Sports McCarthyism, 2012 America

POP QUIZ: For which statement was current Florida Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen suspended by his team, with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's support:

1. Calling Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a “fag.” Ozzie later apologized to the gay community, but not to Mariotti who, he said, “is not a man.”
2. “I respect Fidel Castro,” Time reported Guillen as saying. “You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that mother f----r is still here.”

Of course, everyone knows by now that Ozzie was suspended for five games by the Marlins for the Castro statement. Anti-gay slur ... meh, happens every day, right? Whatever happened to free POLITICAL speech?! In the past, Ozzie has expressed support for his presidente, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro, I'm guessing as much because Fidel had major league baseball skills, as anything else. Isn't it ironic that hardline anti-Castro Cubans bitch about the absence of free speech in Cuba, but when it comes to silencing Ozzie, perhaps even ending his career for a backhanded compliment to Fidel, they're OK with it. Right wing hypocrites.

Setting aside unreconstructed right wing Cuban-Americans, it should also be noted that Fidel is hugely popular in Latin and South America precisely for what Ozzie said — and didn't say: For 60 years Fidel Castro has thumbed his nose at the United States, despite multiple CIA plots to kill and depose him, and a really stupid U.S. economic embargo imposed on the “Survivor” island-state.

Here ya go, Selig, more forbidden speech from Ozzie Guillen: “Viva Chavez!”

Quotable, Chuckles Toddy: “I'm surprised it's just a 5-game suspension, because the financial ramifications of angering the Cuban-American community is like no other.” OH MY. Um, not only is this a very arguable 'ramifications' statement, but now we know where Chuckles gets his progressive chops.

Nice Try, Turtle-Twerp, But Don't EVER Try To Scrabble Us

THE WORD, AS BIG EDDIE NOTED LAST NIGHT, IS "MANUFACTURED."

Except that we used it before McTurtle here appropriated it. BAD MOVE. Here's what I said back on the 4th, slapping down Thomas Roberts' wingnuttery: "Fixing the GRAND DEBT problem" as you put it, is a MANUFACTURED (emphasis/WORD mine) Republican talking point, considering the political document known as the 'Ryan budget' EXPLODES THE DEBT." Ah, but the KARMA Gods are merciless, and they got Turtle-Twerp McConnell good, through Rachel, the instrument of their vengeance. Mitch McConnell's punishment — Rachel's manufactured recipe for Tortuga cocktails ... OH MY:

BEWARE!!! There's A Turtle In The GOP Women's Salad Bar!

Oh Chris, Paul Krugman Has Something To Tell You ... Or Maybe Not

PROPS TO ALEX WAGNER for picking up on this and citing Krugman's column of Paul Ryan as an extremist Ayn Rand devotée — I'll bet the latest Beltway Republican tool to unfortunately sit in on Alex's show, Luke 'The Force Is Not With Me' Russert, probably has his free copy of Atlas Shrugged handed out by Ryan to office visitors autographed by Eddie Munster himself. Russert is already parroting Moron Joe (outburst about Romney being 'unfairly' attacked by Santorum — inside wingnut joke, I guess) and internalizing the Chuckes lingo. Don't be fooled by his supposedly progressive tweet on budget cutbacks to job training programs, Alex; it's in keeping with Catholic social policy, which is progressive. Luke refers to Catholics and contraception as a "gray issue," which it is not. Has Luke seen the polls? Joan Walsh, a progressive Catholic, was trying hard not to roll her eyes every time Luke opened his mouth. In his wingnut world, climate change is a "movement" not science.

As for Paul Ryan, no doubt one of Luke's heroes, his Ayn Rand extremism has long been known to anyone with an interest in books (which disqualifies a wide swath of Luke's right wing Beltway world) and politics. But no matter how often we say it, it falls on deaf ears. Literally. People of Luke's generation have a sense of mean-spirited entitlement and cynicism about "government" having grown up in the shadow of Reagan. Ayn Rand's "Social Darwinism" fits nicely with this brand of toxic conservatism in which the "game" is an end in itself and what happens outside the Beltway, or Catholic schools, is an abstraction. Therefore, contraception becomes a question of "religious freedom" rather than women's health. Or a "gray issue" — as distinct from the gray matter missing from Luke's brain.

Here's why Paul Krugman is mysteriously absent from the talking head shows on MSNBC: Does this description sound familiar? “[T]he “centrists” who weigh in on policy debates are playing a different game. Their self-image, and to a large extent their professional selling point, depends on posing as high-minded types standing between the partisan extremes, bringing together reasonable people from both parties — even if these reasonable people don’t actually exist. And this leaves them unable either to admit how moderate Mr. Obama is or to acknowledge the more or less universal extremism of his opponents on the right.

Enter Mr. Ryan, an ordinary G.O.P. extremist, but a mild-mannered one. The “centrists” needed to pretend that there are reasonable Republicans, so they nominated him for the role, crediting him with virtues he has never shown any sign of possessing. Indeed, back in 2010 Mr. Ryan, who has never once produced a credible deficit-reduction plan, received an award for fiscal responsibility from a committee representing several prominent centrist organizations.” (Emphasis mine.)

The Gullible Center

By PAUL KRUGMAN

So, can we talk about the Paul Ryan phenomenon?

And yes, I mean the phenomenon, not the man. Mr. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the principal author of the last two Congressional Republican budget proposals, isn’t especially interesting. He’s a garden-variety modern G.O.P. extremist, an Ayn Rand devotee who believes that the answer to all problems is to cut taxes on the rich and slash benefits for the poor and middle class.

No, what’s interesting is the cult that has grown up around Mr. Ryan — and in particular the way self-proclaimed centrists elevated him into an icon of fiscal responsibility, and even now can’t seem to let go of their fantasy.

The Ryan cult was very much on display last week, after President Obama said the obvious: the latest Republican budget proposal, a proposal that Mitt Romney has avidly embraced, is a “Trojan horse” — that is, it is essentially a fraud. “Disguised as deficit reduction plans, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country.”

The reaction from many commentators was a howl of outrage. The president was being rude; he was being partisan; he was being a big meanie. Yet what he said about the Ryan proposal was completely accurate.

Actually, there are many problems with that proposal. But you can get the gist if you understand two numbers: $4.6 trillion and 14 million.

Of these, $4.6 trillion is the revenue cost over the next decade of the tax cuts embodied in the plan, as estimated by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. These cuts — which are, by the way, cuts over and above those involved in making the Bush tax cuts permanent — would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, with the average member of the top 1 percent receiving a tax break of $238,000 a year.

Mr. Ryan insists that despite these tax cuts his proposal is “revenue neutral,” that he would make up for the lost revenue by closing loopholes. But he has refused to specify a single loophole he would close. And if we assess the proposal without his secret (and probably nonexistent) plan to raise revenue, it turns out to involve running bigger deficits than we would run under the Obama administration’s proposals.

Meanwhile, 14 million is a minimum estimate of the number of Americans who would lose health insurance under Mr. Ryan’s proposed cuts in Medicaid; estimates by the Urban Institute actually put the number at between 14 million and 27 million.

So the proposal is exactly as President Obama described it: a proposal to deny health care (and many other essentials) to millions of Americans, while lavishing tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy — all while failing to reduce the budget deficit, unless you believe in Mr. Ryan’s secret revenue sauce. So why are centrists rising to Mr. Ryan’s defense?

Well, ask yourself the following: What does it mean to be a centrist, anyway?

It could mean supporting politicians who actually are relatively nonideological, who are willing, for example, to seek Democratic support for health reforms originally devised by Republicans, to support deficit-reduction plans that rely on both spending cuts and revenue increases. And by that standard, centrists should be lavishing praise on the leading politician who best fits that description — a fellow named Barack Obama.

But the “centrists” who weigh in on policy debates are playing a different game. Their self-image, and to a large extent their professional selling point, depends on posing as high-minded types standing between the partisan extremes, bringing together reasonable people from both parties — even if these reasonable people don’t actually exist. And this leaves them unable either to admit how moderate Mr. Obama is or to acknowledge the more or less universal extremism of his opponents on the right.

Enter Mr. Ryan, an ordinary G.O.P. extremist, but a mild-mannered one. The “centrists” needed to pretend that there are reasonable Republicans, so they nominated him for the role, crediting him with virtues he has never shown any sign of possessing. Indeed, back in 2010 Mr. Ryan, who has never once produced a credible deficit-reduction plan, received an award for fiscal responsibility from a committee representing several prominent centrist organizations.

So you can see the problem these commentators face. To admit that the president’s critique is right would be to admit that they were snookered by Mr. Ryan, who is the same as he ever was. More than that, it would call into question their whole centrist shtick — for the moral of my story is that Mr. Ryan isn’t the only emperor who turns out, on closer examination, to be naked.

Hence the howls of outrage, and the attacks on the president for being “partisan.” For that is what people in Washington say when they want to shout down someone who is telling the truth.

Best Kissin' Thing In The World: Invite Simmons On TRMS To Lick Rachel's Boots

HOW COULD RACHEL HAVE KNOWN before shamelessly plugging the band for advertising to hire ONE veteran as a roadie, that the KISS frontman with the roving lizard tongue would make an appearance on Fox & Friends to endorse Mitt Romney? Must have been an especially EE-VIL day because that ad qualified on TRMS as "best thing in the world" material. Hey, it's the thought that counts, and since their best earning years are behind them, it's probably all these aging painted rockers can afford to do (they got a free promo from Rachel!). Or as Gene Simmons the spendthrift convert said: “America is a business. If you can’t afford to do something, no matter how much bellyaching everybody does — I’m so sorry, if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t do it.” Funny. I never heard this asshole complain about Bush and the Republicans running two trillion dollar wars off-budget, let alone giving Simmons and his one percent buddies a tax cut none of the rest of us can afford.

Reince Priebus, Traumatized At Childhood By Scary Caterpillar Story ...

HAS BEEN AFRAID of women (the giant caterpillar) in his scary all-male childhood nightmare (below) ever since, equating the GOP War on Women to a huge caterpillar infestation. Reince's scary childhood trauma begins here:

Giant Caterpillar by nalts

Manual For Reading Daily Bawler, Big Gubmint, Commie Red States, S. E. Cupp Etc.

FROM THE ALEX WAGS show, interview with Reality Horror writer Chris Mooney, author of The Republican Brain — "infuriating" the adorable S. E. Cupp. See typical Republican brain being recharged below:

Incidentally, so-called "Homeopathy" is basically a subset of "Eastern medicine," aka Chinese (nontraditional) medicine — acupuncture, yin-yang, herbal therapies, etc. For example, the Wall Street Journal reports that "Scientists studying a four-herb combination discovered some 1,800 years ago by Chinese herbalists have found that the substance enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with colon cancer." To date, however, no remedy has been found to cure the diseased "conservative brain" whose somewhat milder (but worsening, with drinking of tainted tea) symptoms manifest within the "Republican" brain.

Alex Wags's Wingnut BFF, Hogan Gidley, Invokes Incisive "Dimples" Witticism

FOR ME, THIS STRANGE but very simpatico dude is the most compelling reason to keep Rick Santorum buoyed in this race. I mean, Hogan looks like someone rubbed a raw egg on his head, or maybe it was Crisco, and those hand-me-down retro clothes (maybe they just don't match), man, you know they're enough to make the Steelenator cringe ... Hogan would be a perfect character to cast in Depression Era movies, just as he is, back when hair styling for men was Brylcreem, all the way to Civil War movies, were authentic "period look" at a premium. Hogan is an original. And when her adoptive boy friend forever is on with Alex, the sparks fly. Watch them flirt. "Dimples, don't fool me, Alex, I'm waitin' for the attack"... ?! My Lord, Hogan:

Thomas Roberts, Mesmerized By S.E. Cupp, Turns Into An IDIOT Wingnut!

THE ONCE RELIABLY OBJECTIVE PROGRESSIVE Thomas Roberts, seemingly spellbound by wingnut enchantress S. E. Cupp, became, alarmingly, a blabbering wingnut for a day! After playing this segment of the President's speech making the point that today's Republican Party is to the right of Ronald Reagan, Thomas made the jawdropping remark, below:

Here's Thomas Roberts under S. E. Cupp's spell:

"He could not get through a Republican primary today. Alicia, is this really a hollow argument? This is completely a different time, we all get that, the president closing the door on the new talks for a grand bargain where revenues, they were on the table, so can he make the case to Americans that he really can deliver on fixing the GRAND DEBT problem?"

WOW. First of all, Thomas, despite this lapse you're a good reporter, a good professional (at least as of yesterday), so what gives? Did y'all receive another Steve Capus memo to cut Willard some slack, to be 'fair and balanced' to the Republican ratbastards and LIARS? Now that Capus's pal, according to the Beltway narrative, has wrapped up the GOP nomination, you must report his LIES and DISTORTIONS as if they're just another version of the truth. After all, that's a longstanding corporate MSM tradition.

But here's the thing, Thomas. There are only two ways to look at the President's specific assertions of fact. Either they're true or they're not. The President invited you, the media, to check it out for yourselves. Whether you accept his political rhetoric (I do) that the Ryan budget is "thinly veiled (one of my favorite lines, you're welcome Mr. President) Social Darwinism" (it is) either you accept the "math" or you don't. There's no middle weasel room. As for the destructive, draconian effect on people's lives, what's your term for it? S. E. mocked it as "apocalyptic." She said it was government "paternalism" — I thought we were supposed to be the "mommy party." But then S. E. can't fantasize about being Patricia Neal to the 'paternalistic' Gary Cooper (how Ayn Rand lived and wrote male-female relationships, as a battle of wills):

This PSA message for objectivists, S. E., is that as you reach retirement age, you're going to need Social Security and Medicare, just as freeloader Ayn Rand did, whether you like it or not. In fact, the only "tweak" to these programs I would support is an opt-out provision that might be called the "objectivist clause." But I kind of doubt there would be takers, beyond non-Randian billionaires with a conscience such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Okay, that's S. E., who will be spouting her endearingly stupid Randian bromides mañana on the Alex Wags show, which should be fun on some level. Snap out of your stupor, Thomas, and listen up. Shakespeare's famous phrase from The Tempest (Act 2, Scene I) comes to mind — "... what's past is prologue" — in light of your mindlessly stupefying assertion: "[I]s (the President's) really a hollow argument? This is completely a different time, we all get that ..." Thomas, you may be a good reporter, but you're a lousy historian. Seriously. And this isn't only a disappointment, coming from you, but truly alarming, too. Seriously.

"What's past is prologue" means, essentially that what happened during a time in the past, not a "different time" in any significant way (politically and economically), sets the historical context for the present. We are at a historical crossroads. This is the crucible of the Age of Reagan, which, without the luminosity of its leading light, has become a dark, pessimistic, and dangerous manifestation of the extremist right. The decline of America, the death of the middle class, skyrocketing deficits, the "greed-is-good" venality of Wall Street, the rise of the Religious Right, yawning income inequality, the gutting of our manufacturing base, and the politics of personal destruction, ALL trace their beginnings to the election of Ronald Reagan.

So please, Thomas, don't insult our intelligence (the few of us who know the history) with the mindblowing ignorance of your statement that "this is completely a different time, we all get that ..." No, Thomas. It.is.not. And we should not "all get that." President Obama is right. The survival of the middle class is at stake. What kind of nation we will become is at stake. We have arrived at the very crucible of Reaganism as a governing philosophy. So Thomas, here's my advice for you:

Get your head out of your ass, and stop ogling S. E. Cupp. 'Kay?

PS — Your history is WRONG, Thomas, in other significant ways: (1) The President is not "closing the door" on new talks; he's asking Republicans to be reasonable, and you know it. (2) It's about jobs and growth, NOT the debt. "Fixing the GRAND DEBT problem" as you put it, is a manufactured Republican talking point, considering the political document known as the 'Ryan budget' EXPLODES THE DEBT. Shame on you, Thomas, for repeating GOP talking points.