Monday, February 28, 2011

I'll Walk the Picket Line With You

There are some mighty fine fighters in WI.

Daily Kos: Wisconsin - Awestruck, a photo diary

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Where are you, Mr. President?

Flashback from candidate Obama: ‘I’ll walk the picket line with you’�|�Raw Replay:
"During a 2007 campaign speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina, then-Senator Obama told supports he would fight for collective bargaining rights if he was elected president.

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States.”"

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Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. - NYTimes.com:
"Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence."
But, also, Egypt and not in the recent good way.

Legal Schnauzer: Is the United States Becoming More and More Like Egypt?

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There are no budget problems. The problem is lack of revenue. Now where would some revenue be... hmm.....

Exclusive: Non-partisan ‘US Uncut’ group demands corporations pay taxes | The Raw Story:
"WASHINGTON – Corporate tax evasion has evolved into a virtual art form. Two-thirds of US corporations didn't pay so much as a dime in taxes between 1998 and 2005, exploiting a multitude of loopholes, according to a Congressional report."
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Good ol' Ben. Keepin' it real.

Letters of Note: Older mistresses are so grateful!!:
"From the pen of Benjamin Franklin in 1745 comes a once-scandalous letter to an unnamed recipient (very possibly fictitious but rumoured to be Cadwallader Colden) in which he begins by suggesting marriage as the best remedy for the young man's sexual urges. In the event of marriage being out of the question for his friend however, Franklin then goes on to write an eight-strong list detailing the advantages of an older mistress which, due to its 'obscene' nature, resulted in its being omitted from published collections of his writings during the 19th Century."
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Friday, February 25, 2011

DBT Week in Review - 2/25/11

DBT!

Go-Go Boots Charting:

#35 on Top 200
#8 Rock Albums
#8 Indie Albums
#4 Tastemaker Albums

Go-Go Boots - Drive-By Truckers | Billboard.com

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Jambands.com - Need We Say More? - The Drive-By Truckers' "Country Soul": A Conversation with Patterson Hood

Jambands.com - Need We Say More?- The Drive-By Truckers Fine, New Go-Go Boots - Cooley Interview

The Daily Tar Heel :: Music Review: Drive-By Truckers

Charting the Music: Drive-By Truckers, 'Go-Go Boots' | KDHX.org

Song of the Day: Drive-By Truckers ‒ Everybody Needs Love

PopTop review: There’s a kick on Truckers’ ‘Go-Go Boots’ | The Salt Lake Tribune

XRT Giveaways – 93XRT - Chicago's Finest Rock - New Music, Free Downloads, Exclusive Concerts & Events - Music News And More

Drive-By Truckers - 'Go-Go Boots' (Play It Again Sam Records)

Attention Must Be Paid, Y’all: Drive-By Truckers weekend setlist analysis! | Swagger, Not Style

Drive-By Truckers/Hayes Carll

That’s What Section My Seats Are In: A Conversation with Drive-By Trucker Mike Cooley - Arts Desk - Washington City Paper

MELODY MAKER: Artist builds handmade, custom guitars | The Red and Black

Aquarium Drunkard � Drive-By Truckers :: Go-Go Boots

Thirty Great Athens Bands :: Blogs :: List of the Day :: Paste

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Tune into American Treasures to see one of the host sport DBT t-shirts.

American Treasures : Discovery Channel

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Captain Adama. Woot.



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Music I Like

Live from Paste: The Civil Wars Play the New Studio :: Live at Paste

Via Peter Grumbine:

Brian Wright - Striking Matches from Sugar Hill Records on Vimeo.



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Music

The REAL Death Of The Music Industry

Tom Morello plays at Madison, Wisconsin�|�Raw Replay

January 1970: John Lennon (1940 - 1980) with - Media (1 of 71) Rock & Roll Rewind: The '70s

Where To Buy Music To Get More Cents On The Dollar To The Musician : The Record : NPR

Johnny Nitro - S.F. blues guitarist - dies

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Prince


Saw Prince in concert for the first time on Wednesday. Best show I have ever seen. Amazing.

No shit, my forearm muscles are still sore from hands in the air. 4 hours of OMG.

Game. Blouses.



Feb. 23, 2011 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Setlist/Concert/Aftershow reviews etc

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From the Monday night show:



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Thursday, February 24, 2011

It's the Inequality

Keep in mind these things never end well for the rich.

It's the Inequality, Stupid | Mother Jones

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Their remedy for everything is 2nd Amendment.

‘Use live ammunition’ against Wisconsin protesters, Indiana official says | The Raw Story

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Yep.

E.J. Dionne Jr. - The Tea Party is winning:
"Take five steps back and consider the nature of the political conversation in our nation's capital. You would never know that it's taking place at a moment when unemployment is still at 9 percent, when wages for so many people are stagnating at best and when the United States faces unprecedented challenges to its economic dominance.

No, Washington is acting as if the only real problem the United States confronts is the budget deficit; the only test of leadership is whether the president is willing to make big cuts in programs that protect the elderly; and the largest threat to our prosperity comes from public employees.

Take five more steps back and you realize how successful the Tea Party has been. No matter how much liberals may poke fun at them, Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue."
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A fucking shame on the White House.

Infant dolphin deaths spiking in Gulf after oil spill | McClatchy

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Perfect Union

Indeed. What would it be like to have a Democratic Party that fought... That played to win... by any means necessary.

I think the world would be a much, much better place.

Alas, I can only wonder.

AMERICAblog News: GOP billionaire activists Koch Brothers allegedly own nearly every Republican in or from Wisconsin (or, How to play to win):
"In this post I asked, 'What if we played to win?' Now I'd like to ask, What would playing to win look like?

The meta answer is, it would look like it looks on a championship college football team (college teams, like political movements, are staffed with volunteers). Or, as new coach Brian Kelly of the up-and-seriously-coming Fighting Irish calls it, 'the physical and mental toughness' to play the whole game hard.

What would that mean for Progressives? For starters, it would mean not apologizing when someone says we're not 'nice'. That's like apologizing for winning.

But let's get specific. What would it mean to play the whole game hard?"
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The Dems are in the game in the 1st quarter as are WI Dems. It is sad that I don't expect them to be playing in the 2nd quarter. Hope to be proved wrong, but...

Indiana Democrats leave state, deny quorum to block anti-union bill

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"To form a more perfect UNION". Union people died for rights we are loosing today. You don't have to go to war to be a true Patriot.

Daily Kos: Union is the measure:
"There's a word in the very first line of the Constitution of the United States that describes the instrument through which freedom is held. It's a term for people acting in concert to secure their liberty and hold those rights against any opponent. That word is union.

From its founding, the story of this nation has been the story of union. It is the story of two centuries spent in building up the ability of ordinary citizens to treat with wealthy, powerful, politically connected entities. That story contains instances of tragedy. Thousands died in the struggle, many thousands more suffered poverty or were outcast from communities. But the story of union also contains far-reaching triumphs. Every paid vacation, every weekend, every overtime dollar, every protection from arbitrary dismissal and unfair treatment, everything that makes your working life tolerable, came because people stood together in union at risk to their own livelihoods and often their own lives. Some of those laws exist only because workers stood in union when not only corporations but their own government attacked them not just with guns, but with bombers. They paid the price. You reap the benefits."
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CHHHHAAAAANGE! Yeearg.

Daley, Chief Of Staff, Earned $8.7 Million From JPMorgan Last Year:
"Last year, the new White House chief of staff earned more than 180 times the pay of a typical American worker.
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Jesus. Reign the damn military-industrial complex in.

Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’ | The Raw Story:
"A fake virtual army of people could be used to help create the impression of consensus opinion in online comment threads, or manipulate social media to the point where valuable stories are suppressed."
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The dude who messed with Peanut will have to move out of the Shoals.

Don't frack with Peanut.

Community expresses love, anger after attack | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL:
"Stiff said Michael’s attacker might be safer in jail than on the streets.

“I wish I could find him and have me a ball bat,” she said.

“I don’t like to hurt anybody, but I would sure take a swing at him."
Indeed. Safer in jail.

Suspect arrested in assault on Colbert man | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Rise Up

Rise up and fight, Americans. Rise up and fight.



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Republicans wish to fundamentally alter our very existence. They detest the constitution (but for the 2nd Amendment) and they give only lip-service to the teachings of Jesus H. Christ.

Republicans and their Democratic enablers-supporters are a cancer on this country.

Wisconsin Power Play - NYTimes.com:
"For what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side."
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No fault of the Unions is any of this. None.

Ezra Klein: Unions not to blame for Wisconsin woes:
"WASHINGTON — Let’s be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they’re not caused by labor unions. That’s also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in public workers’ wages in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country’s labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country.

Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don’t blame the unions. Not for this recession."
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Amazing.

ThinkProgress � Leader Of Egyptian Unions To Wisconsin Protesters: ‘We Stand With You As You Stood With Us’

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God forbid Obama, Inc. bring Reich on board. Little Timmeh is doing OI's bidding just the way they like it.

Robert Reich (Why We Should Raise Taxes on the Super-Rich and Lower Them on the Middle Class)

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The Grand Shaft. Heading towards a butt very near you.

Obama and the Republicans by Elizabeth Drew | The New York Review of Books:
"But despite all the confrontational rhetoric between the two parties about budget priorities, the White House and Republican congressional leaders, in private talks, have agreed on the need to try to reach a bipartisan “grand bargain” over the budget—a sweeping deal that could include entitlements and tax reforms as well as budget reduction. A Senate Republican leadership aide confirmed this, saying, “In fact, for anything to happen, it will require such a White House/congressional leadership bargain.” The preferred idea is that, just as they did late last year on the tax bill, they would reach an agreement and then unveil it to the public."
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Shocking.

Alabama among laziest states; CDC says most not active in free time | al.com:

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No one could have ever predicted...

Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead - Yahoo! News

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Friday, February 18, 2011

DBT Week in Review - 2/18/11

DBT!

Word Cloud for all of the lyrics (minus Hinton Tunes) on Go-Go Boots:

Wordle: Guess

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Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - Video - NBC.com

Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots

BBC - Music - Review of Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots

Go-Go Boots by Drive-By Truckers | Rolling Stone Music | Music Reviews

Listen Up: Trucking along in dark 'Go-Go Boots' - USATODAY.com

A Quickie With Drive-By Truckers Patterson Hood | NBC New York

Mike Cooley steers through thoughts on Drive-By Trucker's new album, tour - The York Daily Record

Jambands.com - Need We Say More? > Reviews > DVDs > Drive-By Truckers - The Secret To A Happy Ending

Swampland:Drive By Truckers: Go-Go Boots

Drive-By Truckers Sing of Stalker Cops, Murdering Priests on 'Go-Go Boots' - Spinner

Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots | Music | Music Review | The A.V. Club

Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots - The Milk Carton - Forums

Album Review: Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots � Consequence of Sound

Drive-By Truckers: Interview

Life's Sweet Breath: Review: Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots

CD Review: Drive-By Truckers, "Go-Go Boots" | Popdose

Drive-By Truckers Keep the Southern Gothic Rock Opera Alive with ‘Go-Go Boots’ | Parcbench

Review: Drive-By Truckers – Go Go Boots | Kentuckyseven

Drive-By Truckers: Go Go Boots (ATO/Red) | Option Magazine | Music Culture | @optionmagazine

The Psychic Cocoon: New Music Tuesday: 2/15/2011

Listening Room: Drive-By Truckers - "Hell No, I Ain't Happy"

Drive-By Truckers Celebrate 'Go-Go Boots,' Slag Ronald Reagan in New York - Spinner

Drive-By Truckers 'Go-Go Boots' - Soundvenue � Music & Style

The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown: The 11 Best Songs By The Drive-By Truckers

The Drive-By Truckers- Go Go Boots - Twangville

Drive-By Truckers’ Go-Go Boots – Wide Eye - Art and Music for the Collective Culture

Truckers' latest captures Shoals sound | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL

Turn It Up: Album review: Drive-By Truckers, 'Go-Go Boots'

Artcetera | StarTribune.com

The Drive-By Truckers- Go-Go Boots | Music | Lonely Friday

Go-Go Boots - Drive-By Truckers | AllMusic

Honest Tune Online - Drive-By Truckers : Go-Go Boots

Movie review: The Secret to a Happy Ending - A Documentary about the Drive-By Truckers | www.pegasusnews.com | Dallas/Fort Worth:

Stomping Grounds: Drive By Truckers (Athens, Georgia) | Ghettoblaster Magazine

Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots – review � Michael @ Burachura

Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots Review from Music Emissions

Drive-By Truckers at Rough Trade East on Spoonfed - Things to do in London

American Routes ~ From Backroads to Backatown: Drive-By Truckers and Trombone Shorty

THE LISTENING ROOM: Drive-By Truckers craft diverse soul album - theoaklandpress.com

WorkPlay screening proves that Drive-By Truckers documentary is worth the trip | al.com

Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots Review from Music Emissions

Skip to 32.43
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Loose Ends, 12/02/2011

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Music

How Do You Support The Music You Love? : The Record : NPR

Yglesias � Why Do Rock Shows Sell Out?

Yglesias � Alternatives to Inefficient Ticket Pricing

Circa 1960: Liverpudlian skiffle beat band - Media (1 of 91) Rock & Roll Rewind: The '60s

Georgia House and Senate to pass jam band-related legislation | Atlanta Music Blog | Atlanta Concerts & Shows | Crib Notes | Creative Loafing Atlanta

Charlie Gilmour, Son Of Pink Floyd Guitarist, In Court Over Protest

First Love Soundtrack, eMusic

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Remains the Same

A word on this horrible act of vandalism by an insane person...

Harvey Updyke arrested in Toomer's Corner tree poisoning, say reports | al.com

When things like this happen in Alabama it makes me infinitely happy that I no longer live in the state.

Never underestimate how deep stupid runs in AL.

First, we have the jackass tree-murderer who wiped out over a century of tradition because he prefers one football team over another. Look, I'm a HUGE Alabama Crimson Tide fan, but to 'hate' another team and its supporters is fucking booger-eating dumb. Alabamians clinging to their football, god and guns. Enough already. Evolve you knuckle-draggers.

Next, you'll have some Bama fans that smirk and approve of this asshole's actions. Grow up, already.

Then, you'll have Auburn fans and non-fans paste the blame on all Alabama fans. With this logic, these same people can be held responsible for the racists sins of past and present which infect the state like a cancer.

Speaking of which....

Finally, all of these folks could give a rats ass that big corporations, agri-farms and individual residents have been poisoning Alabama's dirt and water for decades.

Alabama: "Come for the golf, stay for the cancer".

Sheesh. Priorities, people. Priorities.

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One might punch the back of your head while the other might stroke your hair. Either way, what's happening to your back-side remains the same.

The New Obama Budget - NYTimes.com:
"There was an old Washingtoon, probably from the mid-1980s, in which Democrats meet to plan their new centrist strategy — which consists of tax cuts for the rich, reduced spending on the needy, and big defense budgets. “But how is this different from the Republicans?” asks one member of the group. “Compassion,” replies the leader. “We care about the victims of our policies.”

That’s pretty much my initial reaction to what we know so far about the Obama budget. It’s much less awful than the Republican proposal, but it moves in the same direction: listening to the administration, you’d think that discretionary spending, not health care, is at the heart of our long-run deficit problems — and you’d also think that the job of rescuing the economy was done, with unemployment still at 9 percent."
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CCCCCCHHHHHAAAAAANGE! Shared sacrifice and all.

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics:
"Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

'Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,' he said. 'That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.'

I put down my notebook. 'Just that?'"
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Huzzah for Anon and Wikileaks. Two of very few entities fighting the good fight.

AMERICAblog News: How Anonymous stole 75,000 emails from a corporate 'security' firm and exposed a plot to destroy WikiLeaks allies

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I never thought I'd post anything Bieberish and I never thought I'd write "I agree" when posting something Bieberish.


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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Go Packers

Why the Packers are now my favorite pro team:

Present, former Packers say they back AFL-CIO - JSOnline:
"Present and former members of the Green Bay Packers, all members of the National Football League Players Association, have signed a letter in support of the AFL-CIO's efforts to derail Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut some union bargaining rights."
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Meee toooo.

Daily Kos: I want a Goddamned DEMOCRATIC Party:
"A party that TAXES the richest among us who can most easily afford it.

A party that OPPOSES wars we can NOT win.

A party that PROTECTS consumers and workers over corporate profit.

A party with BALLS, that stands for social and economic justice.

FUCK the bullshit. Let's not mince words, either the Democratic party stands FOR workers and consumers and their interests as citizens or they do not, and then they are just as bought and owned as the Republican Evil Empire is. At that point, Democracy ends, and corporate feudalism is complete. If both parties are pro war, pro tax cuts for the rich, pro austerity level Hoovernomics, pro torture, pro corporate and mostly or wholly owned by the banks, then there is not much choice, let alone an opportunity for true 'change'. If both parties are trying to trash FDR's 'New Deal' then there is no point."
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Uhh, how about we do this in the U.S. before we try to export something that we don't currently do in our own country (See Patriot Act).

State Department to Announce Internet Freedom Policy - NYTimes.com:
"The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police."
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Difference between a Democratic President and a Republican President?

A Democrat feigns compassion for the people they willingly screw over.

Obama Budget Proposal: Cuts To Target Working Poor, Middle Class & Students (LIVE UPDATES)

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Robert Reich: The Obama Budget: And Why the Coming Debate Over Spending Cuts Has Nothing to Do With Reviving the Economy:
"President Obama has chosen to fight fire with gasoline.

Republicans want America to believe the economy is still lousy because government is too big, and the way to revive the economy is to cut federal spending. Today (Sunday) Republican Speaker John Boehner even refused to rule out a government shut-down if Republicans don't get the spending cuts they want.

Today (Monday) Obama pours gas on the Republican flame by proposing a 2012 federal budget that cuts the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years."
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The 'shared- sacrifice' bullshit emanating from the White House... How do they keep a straight face after giving away billions of dollars in tax cuts to the Oligarchy running this country.

'We' my ass.

Hullabaloo:
"Uhm, what do you mean 'we' dude? The government is not like a family figuring out how to cut back on expenses. (If it is Dad is a real deadbeat because he decided to give up half his income last December to some rich frat boys.) And this isn't really about programs President Obama 'cares about' or about how 'tough' it is for him. President Obama will not have to personally worry about these things and neither will his children, so the idea that he 'cares' is just a tiny bit abstract in this context. This is about actual human beings and their ability to survive now and build a decent future.

The main problem with all this, of course, is that he willingly signed a tax cut extension for the wealthiest people on the planet just two months ago even as they are making money hand over fist as it is, so any talk about 'shared sacrifice' rings just a little bit hollow now. If he wants to be honest about this and admit that he's catering to spoiled plutocrats and Wall Street Demi-Gods because he truly believes that he needs to sacrifice ordinary Americans on the alter of their egos, that's one thing. But blowing smoke about how this hurts him just as much as the college kid who has to drop out in a terrible labor market --- but he's willing to make the sacrifice and so should we --- well, it is too cynically cheap for words."
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Go-Go Boots!

Today is the official release day for Drive-By Truckers 'Go-Go Boots'!

Today at 1:00 pm ET - Live Radio Stream:

Home | WFUV Radio:
"Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers perform songs from the band's new album Go-Go Boots, today at 1pm."
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Tonight, DBT on Jimmy Fallon:

DBT on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - 2/15/11

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Final GGB Episode:



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3 release day screenings of The Secret to a Happy Ending in Dallas, TX; Jacksonville, FL; and Phoenix, AZ:

The Secret to a Happy Ending



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Wes Freed's Photos - Drive-By Trucker Artwork:
"Go-Go Boots - NYC - Bowery Ballroom - 2/15/2010. Poster model Katelan Foisy. On sale at the show!"
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Congrats, DBT.
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