AAW's 6th and Final Anniversary

On August 22, 2005 AAW was born:

Alabama Ass Whuppin': First Post:

This will be all things political, ridiculous, Drive-by Truckerish, Crimson Tide footballable, and whatever the hell else I decide to do with it.

Over the next 6 years this blog produced 2,775 posts.

Today is the 2,776th and final post on AAW.

I'd written several detailed final posts but deleted them.

No more needs to be written other than 'Uncle'.

I am very grateful for the opportunities that have and continue to occur because of this blog.

Thank you all very, very much.

Goodbye.

J.

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Places to Visit

Eyes Above It - Facebook

Eyes Above It - Twitter

AAW Twitter

Drive-By Truckers

DBT - Facebook

DBT - Twitter

Wes Freed

Wes Freed Facebook

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DBT Week in Review - 8.19.11

DBT!

AAW's first DBT related post from 12/22/2005:

Alabama Ass Whuppin': DBT - Blessing and a Curse

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Here's the first DBT Week in Review posted March, 2006:

2006
Alabama Ass Whuppin': DBT Week in Review 3/12 - 3/18:

Hey All Y'all: This is something new I'll be posting on Friday's each week. Just a round up of all the DBT web related info I come across during the week. Hope you enjoy!

325 DBT posts in all. Today is the 213th DBT Week in Review post (and last).

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Cooley Bird Accoustic : http://yfrog.com/keiphbbj Shared by SHquadfather

Live Review: Drive-By Truckers and Centro-matic at Georgia Theatre, August 12 | Atlanta Music Guide

Southern Shelter � Drive-By Truckers @ Georgia Theatre 8/12/11

Southern Shelter � Centro-Matic @ Georgia Theatre 8/13/11

Southern Shelter � Centro-Matic @ Georgia Theatre 8/12/11

Features: The Drive-By Truckers' Two-Night Stand - Flagpole Magazine: Colorbearer of Athens, GA

A Sort of Homecoming: Let the Drive-By Truckers Proselytizing Commence

Ugly Buildings, Whores & Politicians – Greatest Hits 1998-2009 by Drive-By Truckers on Blurt Online

Grateful Web Interview w/ Drive-By Truckers artist Wes Freed - The Grateful Web | The Grateful Web

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Music

The Glands "I Can See My House From Here" 8/1/11 Georgia Theatre - YouTube

Vampire Weekend Contra Lawsuit: Ann Kirsten Kennis Dismisses Case Against Band

50 Greatest Guitar Riffs in Rock 'n' Roll - Spinner

Daily Kos: Want to Learn How to Organize? Start a Band!

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Improv

Ummmmm.....

AMERICAblog News: Is the Internet making us smarter?

OK, it makes up some-smarter.....

5 Ridiculous Secrets Only Two Living People Know: Part 2 | Cracked.com

OK, OK, it amazes us, too. Thank you internets.

Astronaut Photographs Perseid Meteor... From Space : Discovery News

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No, Alabama! Bad, Alabama. Stop it. STOP it.

Is There Anything Worse Than A Sorority Girl Rapping? | Tosh.0 Blog

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Want:

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Neoliberalism

Q: What's the difference between Reaganism, Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism?

A: Neoliberalism applies a drop of lube. Other than that the answer is 'Nothing'.

Obama is a Neoliberal

Daily Kos: UPDATED: What is Neoliberalism?:

"* Economy is a self-regulating entity that always balances out.
* Government is inefficient and costly.
* Private business is efficient and therefore the best way to solve our problems.
* Wealth trickles down from the wealthiest to the middle class and the poor because businesses create jobs that then puts more money into the economy leading, in turn, to more jobs."

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FDR's grandson:

Curtis Roosevelt: The Absent Commander-in-Chief: Who's in Charge Here?:

"President Obama seems to have forgotten that President Eisenhower warned us about 'the military/industrial complex' as long ago as 1960. Does the president not recognize the danger of appointing an Army general to head the CIA and appointing the former director of the CIA to become Secretary of Defense? Is Obama not tying himself ever more closely to the military-industrial complex? Is this naivete? Is it lack of experience? Neither is an appropriate excuse for a president who should be acting as commander-in-chief.

In essence, the president does not seem to be in charge. And that is a serious charge."

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Obviously.

Obama Not Obsessed With Keeping Job: Robert Gibbs (VIDEO)

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Eyes of All

Yup.

The Bad Deal | Common Dreams:

"The President is not a progressive – he is not what Americans still call a “liberal.” He is a willful player in an epic drama of faux-politics, an operative for the money power, whose job is to neutralize the left with fear and distraction and then to pivot rightward and deliver a conservative result.

What Barack Obama got from the debt deal was exactly what his sponsors have wanted: a long-term lock-in of domestic spending cuts, and a path toward severe cuts in the core New Deal and Great Society insurance programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And, of course, no tax increases at all."

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"And the President too is a young man. Unlike say Lyndon B. Johnson or Jimmy Carter, when his term ends he won't be able simply to go home. He'll need a big house in a gated suburb, with high walls and rich friends. And a good income, too, from book deals and lecture fees. He may be thinking about that now.

The good news is: it won't save him. For if and when he ventures out, for the rest of his life, the eyes of all those, whose hopes he once raised will follow him. The old, the poor, the jobless, the homeless: their eyes will follow him wherever he goes."

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Eschaton: Baffling:

"The continued systematic pursuit of obviously bad public policy is baffling. It's not like it's good politics. Does the Obama campaign staff really think they are gonna hold PA or OH with trade concessions to Korea? Do they think they will turn out voters in New Mexico on a deportation platform?

This isn't hard. Hire people to build things with the free money the world is offering us."

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Seriously, all the OA supporters and their hand-wringing over real liberals who aren't clapping loud enough is fucking annoying. No better than Bush supporters and just as blind.

Daily Kos: -- To the neoliberals on this site --:

"Why all the subterfuge? You won. Do progressives really need 'roping in'? Obama 2012, your campaign, has already put out its strategy. Obama is better than the Republicans, and you should prefer a list of Boy Scout achievements to Republican tea party garbage. And, hey, even if the Republicans win next year, you can run against them while enjoying the fruits of their neoliberal policies. And if you are a Democrat, you can blame the progressives for your defeat, which was the whole point of the game in the first place. So where's the victory celebration?"

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Cool.

Astronaut Photographs Perseid Meteor... From Space : Discovery News

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Alabama Slammer

Methinks this:

BART admits halting cell service to stop protesters

Will not go over very well in the Bay Area.

Hacker group threatens cyberwar against BART

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That Russell Brand fella is kinda sharp.

UK riots: Big Brother isn't watching you | UK news | The Guardian:

"These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron's mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there's no such thing.

If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together."

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Agreed.

Michael Moore: “Matt Damon for President!” | La Figa

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Oh, Alabama. You so crazy.

Pastor tased, mother stabbed during Alabama church brawl�|�Raw Replay

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DBT Week in Review - 8/12/11

Lauderdale

Shoal band Lauderdale released their 2nd record this week titled 'Moving On'. It is a mighty fine one that you should add to your collection. The song 'Grant Hotel' is one of the most rocking whore-house songs you'll every encounter.

Lauderdale back, 'Moving On' | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL

Lauderdale - Home

Lauderdale - The band

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DBT!

Two sold out shows at the newly reopened GA Theatre begins tonight!

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No Expiration - a blog about timeless music: THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF NO EXPIRATION'S LIFETIME:

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Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

No Time for Rest: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit | The Corner News

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The Civil Wars

The Civil Wars: Daytrotter Session recorded Aug 9, 2011

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Original Muscle Shoals Sound

Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues' : A Blog Supreme : NPR

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San Francisco Sound

One of my favorite things in the world:

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 11 - Fri Sep 30, Sat Oct 1, & Sun Oct 2, 2011

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Music

Local Man Arrested for Merchandise Tampering at Area Walmart | Country California

Johnny Cash's sideman Marshall Grant dies in Ark.

Former Warrant lead singer Jani Lane dies at 47 - Yahoo! News

Atheism-themed Concert Approved by Fort Bragg - News from The Associated Press

BBC - Newsbeat - Independent music labels left 'devastated' by riot fire

Beck Covers John Martyn's 'Stormbringer'

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Shot Through The Heart

Did Snoop even watch the iconic television show she was on?!

Felica 'Snoop' Pearson, HBO 'Wire' Actress, Plans To Plead Guilty To Drug Charges In 'Operation Usual Suspects':

"BALTIMORE — An actress who played a Baltimore drug gang assassin in HBO's 'The Wire' pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to distribute heroin, caught by a wiretap in a joint federal-state drug probe of an alleged drug gang."

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Possible worst job ever: The Collector.

Pa. zoo on brink of finishing elephant sperm bank

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Way cool. I'm so ready for technology to leap our inability to govern. Let's 'Snow Crash' this bitch.

Quantum super-computing sees microwave breakthrough | The Raw Story

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Yes, everyone should own a gun and be able to carry it with them.

Also, crack journalism including the 911 operator's instructions. I probably would have continued to shoot at my penis in order to staunch the blood flow. A dry towel or t-shirt makes SO much more sense.

Arizona man hospitalized after shooting penis:

"The Arizona Republic reports a 911 operator told Christopher to apply direct pressure to the wound with a dry towel or T-shirt."

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More Money...

'More money, more problems'? More like 'More money, Fuck You'!

Upper-class people less empathetic than lower-class people: study | The Raw Story:

“One clear policy implication is, the idea of nobless oblige or trickle-down economics, certain versions of it, is bull,' Keltner added. 'Our data say you cannot rely on the wealthy to give back. The ‘thousand points of light’—this rise of compassion in the wealthy to fix all the problems of society—is improbable, psychologically.'"

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How the Democratic establishment shunned the left, spawned the Tea Party and moved America right : Peter Daou

Green with Tea Party envy - The Washington Post:

I suffer from Tea Party envy. There is little about the actual party I like and there are some members I abhor, but I am jealous of its sense of purpose, its determination and its bracing conviction that it is absolutely right. In its own way, it waves a crimson battle flag while President Obama’s is a sickly taupe — the limp banner of an ideological muddle.

Obama would be a good White House chief of staff, but as a president he lacks political savvy. He never knew how to get ahead of the Tea Party wave. He never knew how to marshal — or create — his own constituency. Republican invective notwithstanding, he lacks demagogic tools. He tries to solve problems instead of, for the Republicans, creating them. Barack Obama does not do pain."

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Obama's favorite President. Though, as Michael Moore points out Unions and we the people aided and abetted this destruction.

The Day the Middle Class Died:

"Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:"

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Small glimmers of a resurgence:

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‘You’ve got to get mad!’

No longer the beacon...

Opinion: Once Upon a Time in the West - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:

"The word 'West' used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism. Now it seems to be a thing of the past. There is no longer a West, and those who would like to use the word -- along with Europe and the United States in the same sentence -- should just hold their breath. By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation."

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Entirely reposting , Fair Use be damned. Needs to be read.

AMERICAblog News: Hope takes a holiday

I'm starting to align myself more and more with Woody Allen (and Hillary Clinton) on this whole "hope" thing. People don't just turn out, and vocally turn on, their members of Congress because you give a blind quote to the Wall Street Journal. And it takes more than hope to make it happen. Not to mention, a lot of us aren't feeling much other than despair at the moment. If past is prologue, why should the effort on jobs be any different than the stimulus, health care reform, or the deficit? Big promises, small effort, and a so-so, or in the case of the deficit, a horrific finish.

The White House thinks it can dispirit millions of people who voted for the President, who believed in him, who truly thought he was different, who believed that he would actually, finally, bring change to this city, to our dysfunctional government, only to find out that he was as bad, if not worse, than the rest of them. The White House thinks we can go through all of that, time and time again, and then they can just pivot and say "never mind about that man behind the curtain, now go sic em," and we're all, like happy little lemmings, going to start terrorizing members of Congress on their behalf?

Uh uh.

I just heard from a young gay Obama supporter, who works in DC politics, who told me he's not even voting for the President next time. Not that he wants him to lose. He just isn't very interested in him winning. And he doesn't think his vote will make the difference anyway, so it's a matter of principle for him. The problem for the President is that if you add up enough dispirited principled voters, suddenly you find yourself losing a close state. (You also lose a lot of volunteers, and donations, along with the lost enthusiasm - I've had more than one person tell me they're not going to volunteer, or donate, or raise money this time around like they did last time.)

It's a larger problem for the President, and one his team has never fully acknowledged going back to the days of the campaign, when it first reared its head. The Obama people - and let's face it, the President himself - have/has a way of alienating people who really want to like them/him. You don't just do that to people, get their hopes up, then dash them repeatedly, and then think you're going to flick some switch and everything's going to be all back to normal.

Not to mention, it takes a lot of organizing to get people to swarm their members of Congress. And it's something that's likely far beyond the capabilities of the demoralized masses, and the emasculated sorry excuse for non-profit advocacy groups, that we now have in the wake of three years of hope takes a holiday.

As negative as this presidency has made me, I'm someone who almost always thinks you can win in politics so long as you have the right people and the right plan. But like that young gay kid I mentioned earlier, and like so many other people I work with every day, I'm just not sure how much I care anymore. Or rather, I still care a lot - but I know this President, I know this Congress, I know these pitiful progressive non-profits who do little more than genuflect in the White House's shadow, and I know that regardless of what any of us do, the powers that be are going to sell us out and make a mess of things. And the Republicans know it too, as evidenced by their spectacular victory over the President and the Democrats in Congress on the deficit deal.

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Olbermann on debt deal: ‘You’ve got to get mad!’�|�Raw Replay:

"“We have superceded Congress to facilitate 750 billion dollars in domestic cuts including Medicare in order to end an artificially-induced political hostage crisis over debt, originating from the bills run up by a Republican president who funneled billions of taxpayer dollars to the military-industrial complex by unfunded, unnecessary, and unproductive wars, enabled in doing so by the very same Republican leaders who now cry for balanced budgets – and we have called it compromise.”"

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Still not mad?

Obama Sides With Panetta On Need To Cut Medicare Over Defense | TPMDC

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HiStory

Let's do this, Wisconsin. Make it happen.

Wisconsin recall votes may impact 2012 election | Reuters

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Daily Kos: The debt ceiling, the White House and the damage of 'compromise':

"The more we hear reaction from both parties, the more convinced I am that my original take on the debt ceiling deal was correct, and that this 'compromise' is in fact an unambiguous and abominable failure by the administration. There's simply not enough lipstick for this pig: it is a failure, pure and simple, and one which is going to have serious long-term negative repercussions for the economy, the markets, and the political environment in general."

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What Happened to Obama’s Passion? - NYTimes.com

But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise. It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically. It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation. And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks.

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Jeff Madrick: Obama: The President Who Wouldn't Make the Louisiana Purchase:

"He might even have pulled the Constitution card and said Congress had no right to set a debt ceiling in the first place, according to the 14th amendment. He said his lawyers told him that was a weak argument. But Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territories in 1803 knowing full well that it was probably unconstitutional for him to do so. There were also concerns back then about whether America could afford it. But that's what great presidents do in the big moments. They do what's right rather than abiding by minor niceties. Jefferson's is but one example.

Consider Obama the president who would not have made the Louisiana Purchase."

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The history lesson Obama has ignored - History - Salon.com

Just under three quarters of a century ago, a group of conservative economic advisers close to Franklin Roosevelt informed the President that they were worried about the rapid rate of growth in the US economy. Since 1933, when FDR took over at the height of the Great Depression, the economy had been expanding steadily, at an average rate of 14 percent per year. Schooled as most of these advisors were in the tenets of economic orthodoxy (which called for cuts in spending during an economic downturn), and unsure of the effects of the Keynesian-style deficit spending that the administration had been engaged in under the terms of the early New Deal, the President was advised to cut the budget, reduce deficit spending and tighten the money supply as a means to stave off inflation. Heeding their word (and no economist himself), FDR did just that.

The results were an unmitigated disaster.

Thanks to the Administration’s decision to move away from the increasingly Keynesian policies it had been following — policies that saw the unemployment rate fall from a high of 25 percent in 1933 to 14 percent by 1937 -- FDR launched one of the sharpest economic downturns in American history-the so-called "Roosevelt Recession" of 1937-38. In just a few short months, the GDP declined by 13 percent; industrial production by 33 percent; wages by 35 percent and an estimated four million people lost their jobs. No fool, FDR quickly reversed himself and went back to Congress to seek a massive stimulus bill to put people back to work and repair the damage to the Depression-era economy. Within three months growth had returned and the economy was back on track.

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Kinda feels like this.

Mar 11, 2011: Japanese tsunami from the point of view of a car. [VIDEO]

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DBT Week in Review - 8/5/11

DBT!

Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits by Drive-By Truckers | Rolling Stone Music | Music Reviews

Drive By Truckers - 7/8/11

Drive-By Truckers Live at Norton Auditorium on 2011-07-30 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Patterson Hood & Jay Gonzalez of The Drive-By Truckers | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

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Full show from Norton Auditorium in Florence, AL:

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Everybody Needs Love cover by Stumble Brothers (UK)

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Gravity's Gone cover

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Muscle Shoals Sound

Swampland:The Secret To a Happy Ending: The Decoys, DBT, and a Sunday Jam at Dick Cooper's:

"When he concluded with a solo rendition of 'When I Let Jesus Take My Hand,' the audience went wild. As Donnie Fritts walked on the stage, he quipped, 'It's hard enough to follow Spooner Oldham, but when you have to follow Spooner AND Jesus.....well....,' and he proceeded to bring down the house with 'Something Funky,' 'Short End of the Stick,' and 'Memphis Women and Fried Chicken.'"

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Here's the audio of Peter Guralnick's lecture on Sam Phillips at the AFA event on Muscle Shoals music.

20110730guralnick.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

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Here's the audio from the panel with David and Patterson Hood, Jay Johnson, and Scott Boyer, Jr. and Scott Boyer III, moderated by Terry Pace and Robert Palmer

20110730panel.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

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Generations of musicians return to the Shoals | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL

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Scott Baxendale

American Craft Magazine | Wild Ride Home

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Music I Like

The Shakes

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Don Chambers + Goat.

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Smithereens

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Backyard Tire Fire - 'Brady'

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a Good Country Mile by Kevn Kinney and the Golden Palominos - Download a Good Country Mile on iTunes

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Music

Alabama Ass Whuppin': DBT WIR - 3/30/07:

"I end the post today with the songtress who has been dominating my ears for the past week. I've been listening to Amy Winehouse non-stop. She's a massive talent and I look for her most recent album, Back in Black to be on the charts in the U.S. very soon. It is #1 on the British charts.

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ACDC "MONOPOLY�: AC/DC� Collector’s Edition" @ ACDC Global Store

Slim's Announces Pop-Up Dinner Series (PHOTOS)

U2: They Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, by Paul Shirley

Dan Peek Dead: Founding Member Of Band America Dies At 60

Jeff Pollack: 10 Albums To Bring With You To A Desert Island

Bob Dylan's grandson is aspiring rapper : Daily Dish

5 places for fans of rock 'n' roll music

Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D.: Do Musicians Have a "27 Curse"?

Top 6 Ways To Piss Off A Musician At A Gig - Houston Music - Rocks Off

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Art

Bob Masse Interview

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Ass as Art

'Culo': Ass Photography Book By Raphael Mazzucco And Jimmy Iovine

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Speaking of Ass (and those who get much of it)

Hugh Hefner Planking - The Superficial - Because You're Ugly

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Constitutional Labor

Ridiculous Thursday.

10 minutes till meltdown...

Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home:

"The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove."

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Things that a Followill could not accomplish.

Ill. woman finishes bar exam while in labor

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Dude.

Sex on Croatian Yacht Leads to Severed Hand, Missing British Tourist - AOL Travel News

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And, because the headline is hilarious and oh-so true.

BREAKING: Mila Kunis Makes Internet Ejaculate With Her Russia Talk - The Superficial - Because You're Ugly

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10 Percent of My Butt

Matt Damon eviscerates know-nothing know-it-alls from douche Drew Carey's libertarian "reason".tv

He Galts their ass good-like. (Not proper usage of the term 'Galt', but it just flows so well)

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Read his speech from the same day to a group of teachers. Damon takes the lead for my write-in candidate for President in 2012.

NOT Waiting for Superman : Articles/20110730-Matt Damon At SOS Rally:

"So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “over-paid”; the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything…

Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you, and we will always have your back."

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Fuck it. That's all I've got today. Is it 8/22 yet?

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Mission Accomplished

No reason that I should stay....

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Robert Reich: Ransom Paid:

"Anyone who characterizes the deal between the president, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics."

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Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy:

"We probably need to start wondering why this keeps happening. Also, this: if the Democrats suck so bad at political combat, then how come they continue to be rewarded with such massive quantities of campaign contributions? When the final tally comes in for the 2012 presidential race, who among us wouldn't bet that Barack Obama is going to beat his Republican opponent in the fundraising column very handily? At the very least, he won't be out-funded, I can almost guarantee that.

And what does that mean? Who spends hundreds of millions of dollars for what looks, on the outside, like rank incompetence?

It strains the imagination to think that the country's smartest businessmen keep paying top dollar for such lousy performance. Is it possible that by 'surrendering' at the 11th hour and signing off on a deal that presages deep cuts in spending for the middle class, but avoids tax increases for the rich, Obama is doing exactly what was expected of him?"

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Daily Kos: White House: Republicans will 'recoil' from any future attempts at�gamesmanship:

"I want to know what planet this White House Official has been on where the Republicans would 'recoil at gamesmanship' or be 'unlikely' to stack a committee with ideologues.

I don't even have a decent response to this—it's just too silly. Once again, administration negotiators have given far-right Republicans nearly everything they demanded under the absolutely bizarre impression that next time around, they'll be more reasonable, or that next time around, the Republicans won't be able to take hostages that the Democrats find unpalatable.

It's a game of chess in which one player cannot look forward to more than one move at a time, steadfastly refusing to even contemplate what moves the other player might make in response."

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AMERICAblog News: Just stop already

The President is a lousy negotiator and doesn't have the stomach for any fight, to be sure, but he's also getting what he wants. It's the President who kept trying to one up the Republicans by adding more cuts to the deal (remember, he's the one who put Social Security and Medicare on the table), so spare us the "I would have preferred something better." No he wouldn't. The President is interested in one thing: not making waves. And whatever he can do to ensure that he makes now waves, he'll do it.

And now there's a second thing motivating the President. No, not the national interest. His own political self-interest. Somehow he's got it in his head that the only way he can win re-election is to massive cut spending in the middle of an anemic quasi-recovery on life support. He's not doing it because he thinks it's the right thing. He's doing it because he thinks it will get him re-elected. And even there, he's wrong.

Joe and I predicted this day. We saw it coming on how the President handled gay issues, how he handled the stimulus, and how he handled health care reform. Joe and I begged all the apologists to wake up and realize that the way the President handled HCR - not fighting for anything - was exactly what he'd done before, and would do in the future. But we were told by the smarty pants lobby that this was incremental politics at its best, and we were just silly idealists. Yeah, not so silly now.

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Daily Kos: Trojan Horse: The Obama Deception:

"If Obama were merely incompetent we could say that he's a disappointment. But he's not incompetent and he's not merely a disappointment – he's a willing traitor to the American people. He has betrayed the movement that brought him into office. It's as simple and awful as that.

Hope? Change? We were fools to ever believe it.

So don't call Obama a moderate. Don't call him a centrist. Don't call him a blue dog. Call him what he is...a Republican."

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Quoteth Dick Cheney

In the immortal words of Dick Cheney, Obama and the Democrats can go fuck themselves. At this point, President Romney would be an improvement.

Eschaton: SUPERCONGRESS:

"Some details aren't clear to me yet, but seems like they've hit on the perfect combination of stupid and evil for the debt ceiling 'deal.'"

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AMERICAblog News:

"Suffice it to say, the GOPers won. Big. Expect to hear some crowing from Dems. about minor little victories. We'll hear lots of spin and boasting. Overall, we're seeing a GOP package. Have to hand it to them, they know how to use their power. Too bad Democrats only control the White House and the Senate."

Krugman: Proposed debt deal will cost jobs and revenue�|�Raw Replay

The Halt and the Lame - NYTimes.com

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Whole lotta this:

Responses to debt deal range from angry to angrier - Yahoo! News:

"But Kiran Mahto of Portland, Ore., who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008, would have preferred no deal at all to the concessions he felt the president made to congressional Republicans.

Mahto, a 35-year-old managing editor who works in health care information technology, said the agreement is the latest in a long string of times Obama has disappointed him, and vowed it would be the last.

'I'm actively opposed to this president now. That also goes for his party since they've been silent through the whole ordeal,' said Mahto, who thinks the debt deal will lead to an Obama defeat in 2012. 'Cutting the deficit will do nothing to get people jobs. Without jobs and without a liberal base, he will lose.'"

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Daily Kos: You Can’t Demoralize Me with Your Highly Accurate “Obama Is a Colossal Failure” Narrative:

"Obama is my guy to the end.

(Do you remember the rallies of 2008? They were awesome.)

Sure you can point out that Middleman Obama has failed to address the country’s priorities - jobs and economic recovery - while firmly embracing the creeping Orwellism of the Bush national security state.

So maybe he has pre-emptively surrendered on all the most important elements of his professed agenda.

What was he supposed to do?

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