Bobzim

Sarah Palin Is Performing A One-Woman Play Based On The Film "Fargo"

2008-09-16T12:43:00.003-04:00

In one of the greatest performances highlighting the Duality Of (Wo)Man, we see, as the curtain opens, Palin's adaptation of Chief Marge Gunderson: from the pregnancy, Minnesota-Nice accent (Well, That's Just Super!) and justice-driven moral code

right down to the Arctic Tundra setting, Sorel boots, and stay-at-home husband.

But as the story unfolds, we see more and more of her as Jerry Lundegaard: awash in a sea of his own misdeeds, cover-ups, and stonewalling the authorities.

No...No You're Not. In fact...she's fleeing her own interview!!

Palin's version of Lundegaard is smudging the details of her record before "Shooting It Right Over To Us", but the public is telling her "We Have To Have Those E-Mails And Real Earmark Figures, Sarah-Jerry, Or We're Going To Have To Take Our White House Back".

So how does it end? Who ends up in the wood chipper? And who is the Funny-Looking One....in a general sort of way?

Can't wait to find out.

The Slate Explainer Tackles WV Incest

2008-06-04T06:34:00.002-04:00

Here.

Compendium Of Crap

2008-05-28T14:00:00.008-04:00

During a discussion of Scott "Snitch" McClellan's book I found this from American Prospect. Doug Feith was one of the architects of the Iraq War disaster and the post cited lays out some of his crimes.

It also links to an infamous Weekly Standard article that is a compendium of the bullshit that was bounced around the subservient MSM by the Bush administration propaganda machine like this

to sell the war. All of the story's facts were, of course, completely discredited.

A good way to refresh one's memory of what the book apparently discusses without detail.

Hulu Is The SHIT!!!!

2008-05-27T16:30:00.002-04:00

Here's the full episode of WKRP In Cincinnati where Jennifer is from WV and Hoyt Axton is her old boyfriend. Hoyt Axton's mom wrote the song Heartbreak Hotel. Did I mention that Hulu Is The SHIT!!! Yeah? Well kick back and enjoy! And keep the noise down.

Parity

2008-05-27T08:16:00.021-04:00

Republicans seem to be pinning great hope on Obama's connection to former Weatherman Bill Ayers. From Politico:

“I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,” said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. “[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor.”[..]

Neither Ayers nor the Obama campaign would describe the relationship between the two men. Dr. Young described Obama and Ayers as “friends,” but there’s no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation.

Knowing full well that the facts aren't enough to cause Obama harm, some are trying to make Bill Ayers look worse than he is/was:

Suppose he is discovered to be hanging out with an unrepentant terrorist who, on 9/11, was quoted as saying he should have killed more, more, more?

First of all, the Weatherman never intentionally killed anybody and the only ones injured or killed were their own members in an accident. Secondly, much has been made of Ayers' statement

"I don't regret setting bombs," Bill Ayers said. "I feel we didn't do enough."

being "quoted on 9/11". The quote came from an interview that was printed on 9/11 which means Ayers said it before 9/11. Whether or not Ayers regrets saying that in light of the attacks that day, I can't say. But I can say that spinning it to sound as if the quote was in response to 9/11 and trying to turn Ayers into a murderer will backfire. I mean, if one has to make someone out to be worse than they are, they must not be that bad, right?

Another reason I say the Ayers contrivance won't work is Oliver North. John
McCain endorsed Ollie in his failed senate campaign in '94 (Bob Dole and many other Republicans refused to endorse North) and now Ollie has endorsed McCain right back. We know that Ollie knew of, and turned a blind eye to, drug smuggling by his Iran-Contra partners, and it seems to me that cocaine trafficking in the defense of one's country is a vice. While Nancy Reagan was promoting Just Say No, North was helping the Contras fund their efforts with the sale of crack. And that's just the drug portion of North's crimes, for which he received immunity in exchange for his congressional testimony.

Looking at the long-term and net results of North's and Ayers' crimes, it's obvious that North's were far more egregious, and considering his lofty status among conservatives, he should be much more of a liability for them than an acquaintance is for Obama.

Blueprint For Building Ignorance

2008-05-25T15:05:00.004-04:00

By way of TPM, I found "The Fall of Conservatism. Have the Republicans run out of ideas?" at The New Yorker, and besides being a great article overall, it has some insight into our recent primary and the accusations of racism.

Nixon was coldly mixing and pouring volatile passions. Although he was careful to renounce the extreme fringe of Birchites and racists, his means to power eventually became the end. Buchanan gave me a copy of a seven-page confidential memorandum—“A little raw for today,” he warned—that he had written for Nixon in 1971, under the heading “Dividing the Democrats.” Drawn up with an acute understanding of the fragilities and fault lines in “the Old Roosevelt Coalition,” it recommended that the White House “exacerbate the ideological division” between the Old and New Left by praising Democrats who supported any of Nixon’s policies; highlight “the elitism and quasi-anti-Americanism of the National Democratic Party”; nominate for the Supreme Court a Southern strict constructionist who would divide Democrats regionally; use abortion and parochial-school aid to deepen the split between Catholics and social liberals; elicit white working-class support with tax relief and denunciations of welfare. Finally, the memo recommended exploiting racial tensions among Democrats. “Bumper stickers calling for black Presidential and especially Vice-Presidential candidates should be spread out in the ghettoes of the country,” Buchanan wrote. “We should do what is within our power to have a black nominated for Number Two, at least at the Democratic National Convention.” Such gambits, he added, could “cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half.”

The Nixon White House didn’t enact all of these recommendations, but it would be hard to find a more succinct and unapologetic blueprint for Republican success in the conservative era. “Positive polarization” helped the Republicans win one election after another—and insured that American politics would be an ugly, unredeemed business for decades to come.

Then there's this from Leonard Pitts, Jr.:

It's just that, if the headline here is that Obama was rejected by whites on the basis of race, I submit that's not the whole truth. Pollsters say he was actually rejected on the basis of race by whites who lack college degrees and whose household income is less than $50,000 a year. In other words, he was rejected by the poor and the less educated.

Which is a description that fits many in Appalachia - and also a vast swath of black America. So for me, the story here isn't simply the old, familiar tale of the nation's stark racial divide, but also another tale, just as old, less often remarked, of how the white poor and the black poor have long been kept at one another's throats as a means of keeping them from looking too closely or clearly at the ways both are manipulated by the forces of money and power.

And here, let me tell you what I am not saying. I'm not saying all bigots are poor or all the poor are bigots. I'm not saying everyone in Appalachia is poor, or less educated, or atavistic about race.

But I am saying this: the white poor have been victims of a con job going back at least as far as the Civil War, when poor white men were used as cannon fodder for the right of rich white men - I repeat: "rich" white men - to keep slaves. They were told they fought for state's rights.

From then till now, the white poor have often been the front line of white supremacy. You think people with college degrees and six-figure salaries are out there marching around under pointy white hoods, burning crosses? Hardly.

My point is that race has often been used as a means of distracting and diverting the white poor. They had little in life, nor any realistic expectation of having more. But the one thing they did have - or so the con went - was whiteness itself. Which meant they had someone to be better than. Someone to look down upon.

The New Yorker article is kind of long, but it's well worth it. Both are.

I Don't Think She Meant It That Way, But.......

2008-05-24T09:28:00.005-04:00

Olbermann and others have gone way overboard with the criticism of Hillary, but she's got to understand that a helluva lot more people were hoping that the Fatal Gaffe would come from her rather than the one she was waiting for from Obama. She came through for us. John Cole has a recap of Hillary's stupidity in just the last week before the "Assasinine" comment.

So...a little Motorhead for Hillary.

Lemmy Entertains You.

Hot Pocket Thieves And Passive-Aggressive Notes

2008-05-22T18:09:00.004-04:00

I found this picture (click to see the big picture) here.

We're Not On The List

2008-05-16T11:25:00.005-04:00

Rueters (by way of Drudge):

U.N. Racism Investigator Will Visit U.S. This Month [..]

Race has become a central issue in the U.S. election cycle because Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the battle for the Democratic nomination battle, stands to become the country's first African American president.

His campaign has increased turnout among black voters but has also turned off some white voters in a country with a history of slavery and racial segregation.

Heresy

2008-05-16T07:57:00.006-04:00

I'm officially sick of Take Me Home, Country Roads. 10 years ago my job forced me to listen to a Mike Ness-like punk version of it nearly every day and that lowered my tolerance of it to the point of Kumbaya-ness. The primary this week, irritating on many levels, only exacerbated what was in remission with Hillary and her wide-eyed insincerity clapping along to this piece of 70's audio-pastel crap.

THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS AREN'T EVEN IN WEST VIRGINIA, DUMBASS!!

But last night's season finale of My Name Is Earl was the final straw. I give them credit for the brief and subtle homage to one of my all-time favorite movies, Night Of The Hunter, with Alyssa Mylano singing Take Me Home... instead of Leaning On The Everlasting Arms, but really, this has got to stop.

The song sucks no matter how you play it, why you play it, or when you play it. So don't. Ever.

Go Forth And Sin[g] No More.

"Obama's Such A Bright Politician...It's A Shame He's African-American"

2008-05-11T20:09:00.009-04:00

Every once in a while I pass a book in the Kanawha County Library called "Johnny's Such A Bright Boy, What A Shame He's Retarded" and it seems to almost paraphrase the attitude of a fair amount of WV voters. There is no doubt that Obama's ethnicity is partially responsible for his rapid rise, but for a man of mixed race with a name of both Arabic and Kiswahili origins to have gotten as far as he has is pretty amazing. But a lot of WVians are unimpressed.

So why bother bringing it up since Hillary will win WV on Tuesday? Well, because Obama will almost certainly win the nomination and we're going to have to do this again this summer and fall. This article in the LA Times is what I'm talking about. ( This, too). The LA Times article quotes the president of the WV Coon Hunters Association:

...Hardy opposes any Democrat "who wants to go after my guns." Obama "takes the cake," he said, "because of, you know, who he is." He suspects Obama for his "Muslim name...

We'll get to hear a lot more of that this year. The sad part about it is that there really is a large contingent of racists living in WV. Because WV is over 95% white, I don't think it's too big a leap to say that the ratio of racists to people of color is higher here than any other state except Idaho.
(And let me say here that I've traveled to 40 0f the 50 states and have lived and worked in Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, and Louisiana. No, that doesn't make me an expert, but it does give me some insight into how people in different parts of the country function.)

I've often heard Nicholas County referred to as Niggerless County, mostly with pride. That's why Mel Gibson's father relocated there for awhile a few years back. What fucking radar is that place on that a hardcore racist who can literally live anywhere in the world deems it the person-of-color-free place to be? How does the father of an international superstar, a man who was a 5-time Jeopardy champion (Art Fleming version) even hear about a county in WV that only has about 41 people per square mile, 27,000 total? That shows me that there is a more than just a casual xenophobia or a mild distrust of somebody "Not Like Me".

A few years ago, I overheard a semi-retired co-worker, an avowed racist, tell a younger co-worker that "we don't put Confederate flags on our cars and we don't talk about it in public". He knew that his beliefs are unacceptable to the public at large, and I say we give the less aware among them the biggest bullhorn we can. Let them be the catalyst for the refutation of internet rumors. Let them expose themselves to the ridicule of the majority of WVians.

John Kennedy won here in '60 for three reasons:

1) The economy in WV was complete crap. So much so, that on April 26, 1961, Edward Levy, a disabled coal miner from McDowell County, became the first person in the United States to receive food stamps and over 10,000 families in McDowell alone were expected to qualify.

2) Kennedy bought it. There is no doubt that the "walking around money" given to county party bosses, stealing them from Humphrey, was the deciding factor in a state that was solidly behind Humphrey.

3) Kennedy had Camelot moved to Appalachia. Catholicism being the sticking point for a lot of WVians, the fact remains that he was white and had an Anglo-Saxon name and having a large contingent of his family spending a great deal of time here gave WVians the impression that Kennedy was just like them philosophically.

Coal prices are through the roof and unemployment is at near historic lows. Never in the history of coal mining in WV has it been more profitable to be employed in the coal industry. There are shuttle car drivers and motormen making over $100,000 a year, right now. Think about that: an average coal miner making more than twice the national average income. Add to that the fact that coal mining isn't even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the country anymore. People here can afford to vote their prejudices instead of their pocketbooks and that's why Republicans have been able to turn WV into a red state for presidential politics recently. The problem is that Republicans have been able to successfully and erroneously take credit for our economy. Here's a story that explains the high price of coal, right now.

I very much doubt that Obama can win WV in Nov - and given the southern states that will be won by him, I don't think it's as big a problem as some are making it out to be - but the Clintons could go a long way towards showing WV and the rest of the country that the more superficial reasons for not voting for Obama for president are not valid or acceptable by campaigning as hard this summer and fall for Obama as they have for themselves this spring.

There's little that Obama can do to emulate Kennedy in WV in '60, but that doesn't mean he can't win in Nov. Gobama.

Ado-Lessons: Form Follows Function.

2008-05-10T10:03:00.005-04:00

The story is here. The whole How-To is here.

Having been a 17 year old male at one time, I can say with a great deal of authority that this bone-head plot happened. The only question is what did they do with it once they realized it wouldn't work?

Inbred Children From The "Holler" Casting Call

2008-02-26T14:53:00.004-05:00

Drudge has this in Shocking Red:

Hollywood Casting Call: 'Inbred' look, deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people; 'Regular-looking' children need not apply'...

The casting call and filming are taking place in Pittsburgh, but it seems the least they could do if they're going to make fun of us is film it in our own state and let us benefit from the money spent.

About 5 years ago I was working a job that required traveling the state and going into people's homes. Having an appointment on Leatherwood Creek just south of Clay, I made my way up the mountain to a raggedy trailer about 7 miles off of Rt. 16. Said squalor being on the other side of the creek and no bridge, I was glad that my F-250 sat as high as it did since I was forced to, well, ford the creek.

The man met me on the porch and I immediately told him that I couldn't help them - I was a satellite system installer and the mountains were too close to get a line of sight. I wouldn't have put it in regardless because there was no way I was going to crawl around that place and there were obvious basic living standards that needed far greater financial attention than entertainment.

Like say... an exterminator for the roaches trying to crawl up my leg causing me to do a Bob Wise clogging imitation to shake them off my boots, or maybe do something about the 9 inch long rat I saw running along the kitchen wall. Or how about some roofing material to cover up that daylight hole in the living room ceiling?

There were two kids, a boy about 12 years old and a girl about 7, in the living room watching video tapes in their winter coats and that's when I got pissed. I suppose dad thought he was doing something nice for the kids, but Jesus... And then mom limped out of the bedroom on the other side of the kitchen with an 18 month old in her good, non-deformed arm, the look in her stereotypical inbred looking eyes showed a mix of shame and weariness of the shame.

They had a phone and I had to call in a "No Line Of Sight". I wanted to get the fuck out of there NOW! but I'm waiting on the phone watching all of this unfold, trying not to let my revulsion show.

I've been in some fucked up houses containing fucked up families, but visiting one that embodies an offensive casting call notice for a horror movie is a whole 'nother kettle of worms. I'll never forget that face. And while it's true that there can't be a stereotype without some truth, it's just not that pervasive and running into it unexpected like that is almost life alteringly shocking. Here's hoping you never have to see it.

Two That May Have Slipped Under The Radar

2008-02-24T17:08:00.007-05:00

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner has an essay in this weeks Parade (of all places) titled "How To Save Our Courts". Here's a piece:

Sue Bell Cobb remembers speaking to a reporter the day after she won the election for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2006. Chief Justice Cobb expected to be asked how it felt to be the first woman in that job. Instead, the reporter asked: “How does it feel to be the victor of the second most expensive judicial race in U.S. history? How will you convince the people of Alabama that the campaign contributions you sought will not impact how you rule? How can we convince people their courts are not for sale?”

I imagine she answered much like Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier did after he won the most expensive judicial election in American history in 2004. That race cost the candidates $9.3 million, a sum greater than what was spent in more than half of the U.S. Senate races that year. Karmeier said of the money: “That’s obscene for a judicial race. What does it gain people? How can anyone have faith in the system?”

Note that in 2004, one man spent nearly a third of the total spent in the whole of the most expensive state Supreme Court race in American history to get Brent Benjamin elected. Here's a link to a Stateline story on the issue and what some states are doing about it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, we have a story by Ken Ward in today's Gazette on how "Budget Cuts, Politics Hurt Mine Safety, Reports Say". And here's a piece of that one:

The OMB Watch study says that coal enforcement has especially suffered from budget cuts, when compared to MSHA's metal and nonmetal division.

Since 1985, metal and nonmetal's budget has increased by nearly 25 percent.

"As a result, the program has increased the number of metal and nonmetal mine operations inspected each year as the number of those mines has increased," the study said. "Meanwhile, the fatality rate for workers in metal and nonmetal mine operations has dropped significantly."

But since 1985, the fatality rate for coal miners has improved "little more than half as much as the rate for metal and non-metal miners," the study found.

Decreases in the coal enforcement budget have had real effects, the study said.

In 1985, MSHA conducted 17 inspections per coal mine. By 2007, that figure had been cut by more than half, to seven inspections per coal mine, the OMB Watch study said.

Not exactly Late-Breaking News, but both sources he cites have very useful info. The links to both are broken at Ward's story, so try these: OMB Watch and Center For Study Of Responsive Law (half way down, pdf). The OMB story has some snazzy graphs that shows how little even Democrats do for MSHA.

In related news, I appreciate the fine work Nadar has done on this and many other important aspects of our society but I surely wish he'd sit down and shut the fuck up when it comes to running for president.

Why Pick On Massey?

2008-02-21T15:21:00.009-05:00

The question was raised by BuzzardBilly as to why commenter "Fairness" would plaster each of the three previous posts with a cut-and-paste (instead of link) of a Daily Mail story on Massey's new "generosity". Fairness was supposed to get back to me with an example of someone aggrieved by WV's "Judicial Hellhole". Hint: there aren't any examples. Here's the Daily Mail story.

What "Fairness" doesn't know is that I spent a year and a half on several Massey MTR's working for a contractor and when I saw that story (before Fairness's No Tech efforts) I had to laugh - I know why they've had to up the ante. It's the same reason we referred to them as Massholes - the previously mentioned "Management By Fear" and their arrogance. Massey managers absolutely love banning people from Massey property - a fate I did not suffer, amazingly. In short, it's a shitty place to work.

Here's a sample of their stockholders report:

Massey's operating cash margin per ton of $9.90 during the quarter was driven by recovering productivity and strong revenue growth. The Company reported that the labor shortages and high turnover rates experienced in 2005 and 2006 have moderated in 2007. "With a more stable workforce, we are building on the skill and experience levels of our members,"said Don L. Blankenship, Massey's Chairman and CEO. "Our focus in 2007 remains on increasing productivity that will allow us to
further lower our production costs and widen our cost advantage in Central Appalachia."

In 2005 Arch Coal sold some of it's subsidiaries to Magnum Coal making Magnum an attractive alternative to Massey and exacerbating an existing problem for Massey. Therefore, Massey has to bribe workers into putting up with their bullshit.

This One Goes Out To Beth And Don (see previous post)

2008-02-20T14:49:00.003-05:00

Tainted Love

2008-02-20T12:38:00.017-05:00

So, Values Vic Sprouse is giving Beth Walker the advice to embrace "major donor" Don Blankenship. Good. I hope she takes it.

The advice in question stems from a Sheperdstown Observer blurb that characterized her campaign's relationship with Blankenship as "in talks", apparently implying active participation by "major donor" Don.

As I pointed out in my previous post, Walker is a member of the Walker Machinery family who derives "70 to 80% 0f their business from the coal industry" and I don't think it's much of a leap to conclude that considering Don's disastrous influence on the 2006 elections, the coal industry would change tactics this time around. That would necessitate a much lower public profile by Blankenship, but anyone thinking he won't be a major influence isn't paying attention.

With Starcher announcing he will not seek re-election, that leaves two seats in play - Starcher's and Maynard's. If Maynard wins and Walker gets Starcher's seat, that will give Friends of Coal the majority on the bench, making this the most important race in WV this year.

As I also pointed out in my last post, the Friends Of Coal, Walker Machinery, and the WV Coal Association are taking this election very serious.

Here's hoping that the next work written, after John Grisham's novel, is a Requiem on Don Blankenship's political influence.

Timeliness Is Next To Blogliness

2008-02-18T10:34:00.000-05:00

You might wonder why I would use my inaugural post to bring up the infamous and relatively old news Walker Machinery Bug Commercials.

(h/t Wabi Sabi for Buggin' Photoshop idea)

Both Mr. and Ms. Bug commercials can be seen here, BTW.

So why revisit it? Well, several reasons. First of all, Walker's Child Indoctrination Program is getting help from the WV Coal Association's Cedar Program:

CEDAR (Coal Education Development and Resource of Southern West Virginia, Inc.) is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit corporation which began as a partnership between the coal industry, business community and educators. This partnership was formed through the joint efforts of the Eastern Kentucky CEDAR program, the Pocahontas Coal Association and the West Virginia Coal Association.

CEDAR's mission is to facilitate the increase of knowledge and understanding of the many benefits the coal industry provides in daily lives by providing financial resources and coal education materials to implement its study in the school curriculum.

CEDAR's target group is grades K-12 in Mingo, Logan, Boone, McDowell and Wyoming counties in southern West Virginia.

Next we have the Friends Of Coal kicking their recruitment drive into high gear:

"This is really to update our database and to raise awareness and get the public more aware of where coal is, which is a bridge to the future," [Steve] Walker said. "We love clean coal, and most of these people are complete conservationists."

"The people against us (Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition) don't want one ounce of coal mined, and they're really against West Virginia. They'll move on and find something else." .

This is obviously more than just reaction to last year's court decisions against the Corps Of Engineers, (which can be seen here, pdf; very easy reading) this also an effort to get Beth Walker elected to the WV Supreme Court. Mrs. Walker is married to Mike Walker, brother of Steve Walker who drops nutty turds like the above. He also

... says he doesn't dig coal for a living, but the coal industry represents 70 to 80 percent of his company's workload.

Friends Of Coal field representative Mel Hancock said

"We have strength in numbers. We can make a noise." He asked every employee to sign up for Friends of Coal, and for married workers to sign up their spouse.

He asked that employees and spouses each sign up 10 additional members."The company will check to see that each employee does his or her part", Hancock said.

That's a pretty ominous statement and anyone familiar with the coal industry knows that they use "Management By Fear" as effectively as the Bush Administration. The fear of reprisal not only leads to disasters like Sago and Aracoma, it will also help them create a large voting bloc that will vote Republican this fall. The top three names on their slate will be John McCain, Shelley Moore Capito, and Beth Walker and the election of Walker would give them three Friends Of Coal and the majority on the WV Supreme Court.

Now, it seems to me that if a vacation would cause a judge to recuse himself from a case involving the coal industry, being a family member of the leading coal industry propagandists might cause some problems. The argument is that it's next to impossible to find qualified candidates with no ties to the coal industry, but I'm pretty sure that we can find someone who's ties are not that close and their argument says more about the state of our state than any bleating about taxes or "judicial hellholes" - profitable corporations do not settle in states where the Supreme Court is controlled by one industry.

Digging around on the Friends Of Coal, Walker Machinery, and WV Coal Association websites shows a more aggressive tone and they are putting together a sludgeroots campaign for the November elections that could have a significant negative impact.