Red State Pinko

Fellow recovering revolutionaries, prepare to fall off the wagon

2011-10-21T20:13:00.002-05:00

I haven't found anything here that I can disagree with. No interventions, please. http://leftymathprof.wordpress.com/join-now/

Love thine enemies..

2009-10-06T12:56:00.002-05:00

Here's something from Truthout that has an appropriate ring of Truth:

Martin Luther King Would Have Loved the Teabaggers, Not Called Them Racists

Friday 02 October 2009

by: Mike Elk, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

While we may not agree with the teabaggers, they are not all crazy.

A few weeks ago, I attended the teabagger protests in DC. The thing I noticed the most about the folks there was that, for the most part, they were friendly, nice, hardworking people. Sure, there were some crazies; sure, there were some racists. For the most part, though, they looked like the type of folks I grew up with in the labor movement, coming to DC to enjoy a protest and spend the rest of the weekend taking in some monuments and museums. These weren't rich suburbanites; the teabaggers I saw were mainly poor people, whose trip to DC were probably the only the vacation they would be able to afford this year.

[more at link above]

I'm not quite as lazy as I look

2008-11-10T10:45:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted here in a long time, obviously, but here's a recent comment from me on Openleft.com. You can search there for commenter redstatepinko if you have any reason to wonder what i've been thinking.

Three hopeful themes on on which to mastu--oops I mean meditate:

1) Many people who currently answer opinion polls in a "conservative" fashion are more persuadable now than they have been for long time, for reasons that are easy to imagine. And many of them just voted for a "socialist," who we hope will be persuading them on a regular basis from his bully pulpit. This will at least move some of them closer to the center.

2) Obama and his team are not merely good message-crafters, but good temperature-takers as well, and have proven their ability focus on obtainable goals, thus avoiding the possibility of a Gingrich-style midterm ambush. Pragmatism need not be identical to "center-rightism," because...

3) ...There is every reason to believe that Obama is sincere in his dare-to-dream hopeyness. This means that he will have to be receptive to well-crafted arguments for progressive policies that are clearly in the national interest.

Do as we say, not as we do

2008-05-23T22:26:00.000-05:00

Hey, I DO love that goddam america. It's high on the list of my six favorite countries. We ("they"?) have our hypocritical moments, however...

Ann Wright | From War to Peace - Japanese Style
http://www.truthout.org/article/from-war-peace-japanese-style
Writing for Truthout, Ann Wright discusses her experience with Japanese peace: "After World War II, Japanese men (and women) have been spared the obligation of serving in any wars. Because their Constitution (written by Americans) says war is not the Japanese national doctrine for resolving international disputes or for ensuring their national security, the Japanese people have been given 60 years of peace."

Won't get fooled again Part II

2007-09-10T22:35:00.000-05:00

As the Republicans defend poor General Betraeus [sic!] against the moveon.org swift boaters, I suggest we watch this space for a more informed view. It seems to me that the issue is not so much that the good General is cherry-picking the facts, but that he himself was cherry-picked by the Bush administration for reasons that have more to do with loyalty than objectivity.

Yes, I am once again master of the obvious!

UPDATE! Yep, Juan Cole has once again trumped my expectations with a sobering scenario. I wish it weren't too early to drink...

And this, from Juan's favorite news source, McClatchy...

Won't get fooled again

2007-09-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

You've seen it a million times, but no blog should be without it...

Medal of Freedom for Randy Newman...

2007-06-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

...if only I were President, that is. An excerpt:

I'd like to say a few words
In defense of our country
Whose people aren't bad nor are they mean
Now the leaders we have
While they're the worst that we've had
Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen...

...See the whole thing on "looka," Chuck Taggart's blog, which includes an embedded video).

Read Randy's Newsweek interview here.

Mark Rudd is still snarky

2006-12-19T09:38:00.000-06:00

Ah, nostalgia. May the lion lie down with the lamb. I really should google that Mother Jones article by Al Franken about his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan with Darryl Worley and post it here. These are some of the thoughts I have when I read this account from a former SDS "movement heavy." The older we get, the better he was.

You can follow a link back to his home page and from there to the SDS revival site (and given what I know of this blog's readership, by "you" I essentially mean "I").

Calling all conspiracy theorists

2006-10-03T23:53:00.000-05:00

I don't have time for this.

Woodward is too kind

2006-10-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

Juan Cole makes the argument, with lots of documentation, that the administration should be called deliberately deceptive rather than in "denial" here.

Confused about wages and immigration? Ask a Mexican!

2006-08-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

Gustavo Arellano: "Mexicans will continue to take the jobs Americans won't do until Big Business pays a living wage across the board or Americans are willing to pick strawberries at the minimum wage. Don't bet on the former; if Americans do the latter, they're either stupid or desperate. Or Mexican."

Power behind the throne

2006-07-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

This New Yorker article will blow my mind, I'm told.

The Rev. Will B. Dunn: Redneck Pinko

2005-12-03T18:03:00.000-06:00

You just gotta love this guy.

All hail the Hollywood liberal elite

2005-11-19T17:46:00.000-06:00

Don't hate me because I agree with Woody Harrelson.

We won!

2005-10-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

This from the 9/11/05 Riverbend post:

Four years later and the War on Terror (or is it the War of Terror?) has been won:

Score:
Al-Qaeda – 3,000
America – 100,000+

Congratulations.

Why do they PITY us?

2005-09-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

America hater? Not here. An excerpt:

"...this America that incarnates the absolute opposite of the Soviet Union is on the point of producing the same catastrophe by the opposite route. Communism, in its madness, supposed that society was everything and that the individual was nothing, an ideological basis that caused its own ruin. Today, the United States assures us, with a blind faith as intense as Stalin's, that the individual is everything, that the market is enough and that the state is hateful. The intensity of the ideological fixation is altogether comparable to the Communist delirium. This individualist and inequalitarian posture disorganizes American capacity for action....It's all of American society that seems to be launched into a scorpion policy, a sick system that ends up injecting itself with its own venom. Such behavior is not rational...."

Humor after tragedy

2005-09-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

What? Dave Barry, not Al Franken? What kind of Pinko am I? (Registration required).

Bad Katrina!

2005-09-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Two great rebuttals to Bush's Iraq speeech...

2005-07-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

...from Juan Cole and the Baghdad Burning girl (you'll have to scroll down a little to see hers).

Social Insecurity

2005-05-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

Get both sides of the Social Security debate here.

McDonald's no, Sonic si - UPDATE

2005-04-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

Pinkos: don't buy Reeses products.

Previous: If you can't stop shopping entirely...

Reality fantasy

2005-04-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

My favorite intermittent Iraqi blogger says:

"I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…

"I’d not only watch *that* reality show, I’d tape every episode."

Read more at Baghdad Burning

The Republican Dictionary

2005-03-13T15:32:00.000-06:00

ACTIVIST JUDGE, n. A judge who attempts to protect the rights of minorities against the tyranny of the majority.

ALARMIST, n. Any respected scientist who understands the threat of global warming.

ALLIES, n. Foreigners who do what Republicans tell them to do.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES, n. New locations to drill for oil and gas.

BALANCED, adj. 1. favoring corporations (a more balanced approach to the environment.); 2. favoring conservatives (fair and balanced reporting).

And there's more! Read all about it here.

Get in shape, you pinkos!

2005-03-09T13:10:00.000-06:00

Calculate your running pace here:

Music Industry Goliaths: will the real David please start slinging?

2005-02-01T16:33:00.000-06:00

Surprise: Wolfy's owner Bob Wolf paints himself as David fighting Goliath in his dispute with ASCAP over licensing fees (article in the Tennessean, 1/31/05). And, surprise surprise, ASCAP responds by claiming to represent the little songwriter (median annual royalty income: under $5000) against Big Bad deadbeats like Wolf.

The truth, obscured by all this huffing and puffing, is more complicated. While ASCAP and the other performing rights societies perform many valuable services for songwriters at all levels, their bread and butter is collecting for people and corporations at the upper end of the income spectrum. Tellingly, the music publishers filing the complaint against Wolf are owned by Vivendi Universal (most recent quarterly revenue: $6.94 billion) and Sony ($1.4 billion*), as Goliathan a pair as you're likely to meet anywhere.

On the other hand, we songwriters on the lower end of the spectrum have no choice but to ally ourselves with giants if we are to have any hope of getting paid at all. And that is why Wolf should have a little more sympathy for fellow small-business-folks like Danny Flowers, writer of the song "Tulsa Time," which was mentioned in ASCAP's lawsuit, and which probably increased Wolfy's nightly beer sales by more than ASCAP's $3.25 fee all by itself. It's a safe bet that a reduction in that song's revenue stream is more likely to hurt Danny than the CEO of Vivendi.

Far be it from me to discourage anyone who wants to take aim at Goliath. But Wolf's slingshot is off-target.

[UPDATE: this was published as a "3-star" letter to the editor on 2/4/05--supplanting this one ("Opposing the war while supporting the warriors") from fellow pinko musician Jimmy Maddox as my current all-time favorite]

*Oops! That's profit. Fourth Quarter operating revenue for Sony was closer to $21 billion.

Archived mottos

2005-01-20T14:02:00.000-06:00

Vote for yer faves:
"Gentlemen (and women), start your serach engines." - Red State Pinko
"We are lucky to be in...the freest country in the world. That means we have more information about what our government does, thinks and plans, than any other country in the world. On the other hand, we are unlucky to be in a highly indoctrinated society. That means to find out the facts...you have to...virtually carry out an individual research project." - Noam Chomsky
"A fool and his money are soon elected." - Kinky Friedmman
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government." - Thomas Paine...…OK, I know some right wing wingnuts are pretty fond of this quote too. But the concept of government (and society) of the people, by the people and for the people is the very foundation of all things pinko.
"I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell." - Harry S Truman
"I love America--but I think we should see other people"--Anonymous bumper sticker
"This machine kills fascists" - Woody Guthrie's Guitar
"Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing. There is always a new tyrant waiting to take over from the old — generally not quite so bad, but still a tyrant. Consequently two viewpoints are always tenable. The one, how can you improve human nature until you have changed the system? The other, what is the use of changing the system before you have improved human nature? They appeal to different individuals, and they probably show a tendency to alternate in point of time. The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite beneath the moralist position, and we are still living in the echo of that tremendous crash. But already, somewhere or other, the sappers are at work and fresh dynamite is being tamped in place to blow Marx at the moon. Then Marx, or somebody like him, will come back with yet more dynamite, and so the process continues, to an end we cannot yet foresee. The central problem — how to prevent power from being abused — remains unsolved." - George Orwell
"Wanting to be popular, working to be popular is the only way to be serious politically." - Lina Wertmuller

Recommended new blog

2005-01-03T11:03:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed that, as a lazy, world-owes-me-a-living type pinko, I do not post all that regularly. But I bet Will Pitt, the Truthout guy, will--he must have a better coffee supplier.

Radio free Nashville

2004-12-09T22:41:00.000-06:00

There is hope in (and soon to be on) the air!

Stop it right now, you naughty government

2004-12-09T22:07:00.000-06:00

(From Molly Ivins):

Here's a dandy: Our government now arranges "torture flights." We are outsourcing torture. A Gulfstream 5 jet has been leased by the Department of Defense and the CIA. We use this plane to transport suspected terrorists from other countries or U.S. military bases to countries that practice torture.

A Swedish television program tracked two Egyptians arrested there and supposedly "extradited" by Egypt. They were flown out on the leased American plane, and both suspects were then tortured in Egypt. According to Britain's Sunday Times, the plane's logbooks show it has been to 49 destinations outside the United States in the past two years, including Guantánamo and other U.S. bases, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.

Open government si, Tricky Dick Cheney no

2004-12-09T21:33:00.000-06:00

"Open government" sites on the World Wide Web provide a wide variety of information.

    For example, on the Internet pages of George Washington University's National Security Archive you can read Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) manuals from the 1960s and the 1980s specifying approved methods of prisoner abuse as well as one of the last major pieces of the puzzle explaining U.S. and UK roles in the August 1953 coup against Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadeq. The [Federation of American Scientists] government secrecy project recently provided a sampling of other Internet sources. A few examples:

* GlobalSecurity.org which says it provides "bottomless resources on all aspects of national security policy, and then some;"

* The Resource Shelf offers news on all aspects of government information policy and links to valuable source documents;

* The Memory Hole collects and publishes elusive records and documents that have been withdrawn from the public domain;

* Cryptome promises a rich collection of new official and unofficial documents on security policy;

* Project on Government Oversight performs independent investigations to promote openness and government accountability;

* Electronic Privacy Information Center offers declassified documents and insights on cryptography policy and privacy; and

* Nautilus Institute's Global Disclosure Project specializes in nuclear weapons policy and strategy.

    Some "open government" websites are maintained by individuals, usually associated with universities. For example, the Guide to Declassified Documents and Archival Materials for U.S. Foreign Policy and World Politics, a road map to declassified foreign policy records, is the work of David N Gibbs of the University of Arizona.

    FOI.net provides resources on national and foreign freedom of information law from Alasdair Roberts of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University...

(If you value this kind of info, bite the bullet and make a contribution).

Acronym o' the day: SCLM

2004-12-09T21:10:00.000-06:00

Yep, that Liberal Media sure covers up "all the good we're doing" in that country over there...let's see, what was it called...

"...On September 12,...a group of American soldiers patrolling Haifa Street, a dangerous avenue in central Baghdad, came under fire. Another group of soldiers in two Bradley fighting vehicles came to rescue them. They did, but one of the vehicles had to be abandoned, and a jubilant crowd quickly gathered around it. A banner from a group associated with Zarqawi was produced and placed on the vehicle. Arab TV crews arrived to record the event. At one point, two US helicopters showed up and made several passes over the vehicle. With the crowd fully visible, one of the helicopters launched a barrage of rockets and machine-gun rounds. The vehicle was destroyed, and thirteen people were killed. Among them was Mazen al-Tumeizi, a Palestinian producer for the al-Arabiya network who was doing a TV report in front of the Bradley. Hit while on camera, his blood spattering the lens, Tumeizi doubled over and screamed that he was dying.

"The video of Tumeizi's death was shown repeatedly on al-Arabiya and other Arabic-language networks. On American TV, it aired very briefly on NBC and CNN, then disappeared. On most other networks, it appeared not at all. Here was a dramatic piece of footage depicting in raw fashion the human toll of the fighting in Iraq, yet American TV producers apparently feared that if they gave it too much time, they would, in Urban Hamid's phrase, get burned. (I still have not heard of a single instance in which the killing of an American in Iraq has been shown on American TV.)"

Heartwarming, isn't it? (Read more, from Michael Massing in The New York Review of Books by way of truthout.org, whom I guess we could call the RLM.

Shock and awe

2004-12-05T21:09:00.000-06:00

Even if one tenth of this is true, it's pretty shocking.

I now have a music blog

2004-12-05T14:16:00.000-06:00

In case you ever wonder what kinds of songs a pinko could write, go to my music site.

"Don't blame me..."

2004-12-04T13:00:00.000-06:00

"...I voted for Kerry." These folks are the first I've found selling T-shirts with that motto, perfect wear for your next Canadian border crossing.

New hope for the easily amused

2004-12-03T18:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, there is a website devoted purely to men who look like Kenny Rogers.

Got spam?

2004-12-03T11:32:00.000-06:00

This article is filled with useful links.

Country music review of the day

2004-12-03T11:06:00.000-06:00

From the inimitable Robert Oermann:

CHELY WRIGHT/The Bumper Of My S.U.V.
Writer: Chely Wright; Producer: Chely Wright; Publisher: Painted Red, BMI; Painted Red (www.chely.com)
—She’s got a Marines sticker on her car, and a lady driver gives her the finger in traffic. Hey, maybe it’s because you’re driving a gas-guzzling, air-polluting, space-hogging vehicle. Or maybe it’s because you cut her off.

If you don't wanna just sit around during the inaugural

2004-12-03T10:48:00.000-06:00

Maybe you need to be here [pdf file].

Some Christians Ain't Christian

2004-12-01T13:27:00.000-06:00

(Extra points if you can identify the John Prine allusion in the above title...) My pinko friend Rusty Miller has assembled a Gospel-based critique of the current Republican Taliban here. The way things are goin', they're gonna crucify folks like him (no extra points for identifying that John Lennon reference).

Help make sure the NEXT election is fair

2004-11-27T14:31:00.001-06:00

I personally don't believe we're as bad as the Ukraine yet. But I agree with Rep. Conyers, quoted in this Bostone Globe piece ("Federal office to probe vote procedures"):

'What is far more important than the ultimate result is the public's confidence in it," said Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who led efforts to get the Government Accountability Office involved. ''The purpose of this investigation is to figure out what systemwide deficiencies exist in voting machines and voting procedures so that those flaws can be fixed by legislation prior to the next election."

Contact YOUR legislators. Or book that flight to Ukraine.

No wonder W stayed away this Thanksgiving

2004-11-27T14:22:00.000-06:00

More disturbing news from Iraq (sorry about the redundant phrase).

And (from Juan Cole ):

Daily Outrage, at The Nation's website, lists some statistics that were not in the New York Times op-ed piece on Friday. For instance, 90 of 540 voter registration stations in Iraq are closed owing to poor security. And here is the coup de grace:
Iraqi Public Opinion
** Only 33 percent of Iraqis think they're better off now than before the war, as a Gallup poll discovered.
** Just 36 percent believe the interim government shares their values.
** 94 percent say Baghdad is more dangerous than it was before the war.
** 66.6 believe the US occupation could start a civil war.
** 80 percent want the US to leave directly after the January elections.

Good music

2004-11-23T20:45:00.002-06:00

More Red State Pinko Faves, outside commercial music "mainstream," but worth checking out:
Dale Allen and The Cantrells.

Don't it make those red malls blue

2004-11-23T14:41:00.000-06:00

Ron Brownstein and Richard Rainey (Los Angeles Times) cause Bull Moose to suggest that "the donkey spend more time in mega-malls."

"The donkey must appeal again to voters who are seeking upward mobility. As Brownstein and Rainey point out,

"'These are places defined more by aspiration than accumulation, filled more with families starting out than with those that have already reached their earnings peak.'

"The exurbs are not filled with 30-something Tom Joads or Joe Hills who are itching for a fight with the foreman. If they are fighting something, they are fighting for a parking place at the mega-shopping mall.

"'The People vs. the Powerful' will not resonate in these edge communities. Democrats must be seen as the party of growth, responsibility and prosperity again if they are going to compete in the places where America is moving."

Yes, there is a DLC connection here. But let me repeat my mantra: now is the time for all good pinkos to kiss up to moderates.

Kevin Sites speaks

2004-11-23T13:52:00.000-06:00

Not surprisingly, the last guy to voice an opinion on the shooting of a wounded Iraqi guerrilla in a mosque by a marine is the embbedded reporter who actually shot the footage. The point(s) of view in his riveting account may surprise you.

Embedded in the fog

2004-11-22T10:43:00.000-06:00

Fog of war, that is. If anyone should doubt that the first casualty of war is truth, or that there is a scary, dumb, reptilian element out there you should watch out for if you dare to question authority, ponder this (courtesy Juan Cole).

Frist the partisan hack

2004-11-22T10:24:00.000-06:00

In case you needed it, here's the stinking gun (courtesy Joe Conason) that should remove all reasonable doubt about how low the esteemed majority leader was willing to go to discredit Dick Clarke's appearance on American Bandstand II (aka the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States). How long will the public's (and media's) short memories allow the scoundrels to keep getting away with this stuff? Don't answer that.

Apologies for making you jump through Salon.com's hoops to view the full article.

Repent!

2004-11-20T19:47:00.000-06:00

Nothin' like a hell-raising Reverend to put the fear of God into them Corporate Pharoahs. Come on by Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping. Sinners welcome.

But I'd be a little nervous about sending him money

2004-11-19T18:17:00.000-06:00

Add this guy to Riverbend (mentioned below) and Juan Cole as you compile your list of good sources for non-rah-rah info coming out of Iraq.

Don't hate me just 'cause my President is a bloodthirsty chimp

2004-11-19T17:38:00.000-06:00

I find these perhaps overly self-critical folks oddly comforting.

Red State Woman

2004-11-18T13:03:00.000-06:00

Another song parody. Here's an excerpt:

I'm a red - state - woman
I ain't no left - nut - job
When I think 'bout folks named Clinton
I say I DECLARE JIHAD
And I vote for moral values like intrusiveness and war
And damned if lesbo couples will be MOVING IN NEXT DOOR
So listen all you pinko commie godless gunless Blues
Let me tell you what you'll see on your lib'ral biii-assed news
(MY BUSH!)...

I like it. Here's the link.

Of course, I can't even think about promoting a Gretchen Wilson parody without giving equal time to my friend and collaborator Sue Fabisch's brilliant "White Trash Husband" (go to her site and click on "listen").

Bye bye, Idle Hour

2004-11-18T11:26:00.000-06:00

"...Idle Hour closes its doors, Nashville [loses] another one-of-a-kind landmark..."

Waaaaahhhh ::::(((((.
Maybe they'll find a new space. Maybe New Daddy Chuck will keep maintaining the blog.

Postelection "must do" list

2004-11-18T11:12:00.000-06:00

This, my favorite postelection cartoon (from Mother Jones) was published BEFORE election day.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be...

2004-11-18T10:12:00.000-06:00

...undecided voters (or Republicans for that matter). This hair-raising account from the psycho middle should chasten mamas everywhere (from The New Republic via E.J. Kessler's blog):

...Members of the political class may disparage undecided voters, but we at least tend to impute to them a basic rationality. We're giving them too much credit. I met voters who told me they were voting for Bush, but who named their most important issue as the environment. One man told me he voted for Bush in 2000 because he thought that with Cheney, an oilman, on the ticket, the administration would finally be able to make us independent from foreign oil. A colleague spoke to a voter who had been a big Howard Dean fan, but had switched to supporting Bush after Dean lost the nomination. After half an hour in the man's house, she still couldn't make sense of his decision. Then there was the woman who called our office a few weeks before the election to tell us that though she had signed up to volunteer for Kerry she had now decided to back Bush. Why? Because the president supported stem cell research. The office became quiet as we all stopped what we were doing to listen to one of our fellow organizers try, nobly, to disabuse her of this notion. Despite having the facts on her side, the organizer didn't have much luck....
Read the rest here, if you dare.

This all reinforces my resolve, in the unlikely event that I'm ever asked to run for public office, to use this slogan: What the $%^& is wrong with you people? (Oh, like "Help is on the way" was SO much better). At least my slogan could double as EITHER an acceptance or a concession speech.

Fire up that moderate (aka "Centrist") base

2004-11-16T11:34:00.002-06:00

OK fellow pinkos, it's time to try to understand our last hope in the war against the creeping Santorum-ization (or Fristing?) of America. I'm talking about - gasp! - moderates. America is a moderate country, and the Right has made most of its gains simply by letting us speak and then scaring the Middle by exaggerating how loony we are. We now need to swallow our ideals for a couple of years and start doing some serious kissing up to folks like these (at the Centrist Coalition).

Or else move. (See "Canada to the rescue" below.)

RED STATE BLUES (2)

2004-11-13T13:38:00.000-06:00

My friend T-nek Backward (if you can guess his real name, keep it to yourself) had already completed the following cathartic rant when I told him about my RSB idea.

I guess you snooze you lose, so here's the...

RED STATE BLUES
Written by: T-Nek Backward

VERSE:
HELPING THE POOR IS TOO TAXING FOR FOLKS HERE YOU SEE
THEY NEED TO HOARD EVERY PENNY, GAS UP THEM S.U.V.'S
CIVILIANS DYING IN IRAQ, BUT THAT’S OK WITH THE FOLKS IN THE PEWS
I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M LIVING HERE, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS:
THE RED STATE BLUES, THE RED STATE BLUES
GOD GET ME OUTTA HERE, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

VERSE:
MORAL VALUES IS A TAX BREAK FOR GOOD OL' ENRON
AND OBSCENE DRUG PRICES FOR ALL THE SOCCER MOMS
JUST WAVE THAT FLAG AND WE GET SO DUMB AND CONFUSED
IF THESE ARE FAMILY VALUES, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS (Repeat)

VERSE:
THEY'RE PROUD AND PRO-LIFE AND THEY'RE PRO-DEATH PENALTY (that makes sense)
LOVE NORMAN ROCKWELL WARS SANITIZED ON FOX T.V.
AND EXPORTING FREEDOM WITH THE JACK-BOOTED HEELS OF THEIR SHOES
EVEN THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD HAVE THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS (Repeat)

The Limitations Newsletter

2004-11-13T13:11:00.002-06:00

Exclusive! View this newsletter from my favorite Nashville band, The Limitations, ONLY at Red State Pinko...

Official Newsletter (Vol. 1, Number 1)
November 2004

List of shows:
Saturday Nov 6: Springwater Working Stiff Jamboree Saturday
(you can check this one off 'cause it was last week)

Friday Nov 12: Worlds Famous Brown's Diner 8:30 PM (whoops this one's over too)

Saturday Nov 20: Family Wash split night with Tom House/Tommy Goldsmith

Following this hectic tour schedule the band plans to jet off to the 'getaway house' in southern Italy for some well deserved r & r during the Thanksgiving Holidays;
returning to the 'states' (Idaho) in time to play the Christmas Working Stiff's Show December 18th.

More on this exciting news in next month's Special Holiday Issue of the Official Newsletter.

Another wacky site

2004-11-12T17:48:00.000-06:00

My friend JD is a contributor to this den of anarchy. Enjoy.

Oh, what a lovely war

2004-11-11T17:38:00.000-06:00

"The bombs being dropped on Fallujah don't contain explosives, depleted uranium or anything harmful - they contain laughing gas - that would, of course, explain [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld's misplaced optimism about not killing civilians in Fallujah. Also, being a 'civilian' is a relative thing in a country occupied by Americans. You're only a civilian if you're on their side. If you translate for them, or serve them food in the Green Zone, or wipe their floors - you're an innocent civilian. Just about everyone else is an insurgent, unless they can get a job as a 'civilian'."
- Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl, author of the blog Baghdad Burning

Blues seeing red, Reds feeling blue

2004-11-09T15:35:00.001-06:00

My friend Andy from New York tried to post this here. It's the thing that's been going around that begins "I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of the country".

For geographical balance try this.

Exit poll post mortem...

2004-11-09T15:03:00.000-06:00

...if you must.

Calling all conspiracy theorists

2004-11-09T13:48:00.000-06:00

Who knows. But if you really wanna get all riled up, here ya go.

This guy had it right on Sunday

2004-11-09T10:33:00.000-06:00

If I'd read this I could have started getting depressed SO much earlier. Read it and weep (again).

BTW, that link came from Sam Wang, who makes a good case - if you scroll down to his 11/8/04 comment - that the Christian Taliban really did NOT make much difference. It was "terror, terror, terror."

Canada to the rescue

2004-11-08T21:55:00.000-06:00

Now, I'm not one of those who would rather leave the US than endure four more years of this Bu-- sh--, nor would I encourage any other pink-leaning 'merikins to do so. We need your votes in '06 and '08. It's not hopeless yet. Still, it's nice to know there are some friendly neighbors to the north who feel our pain enough to marry an American.

Draft Bush

2004-11-08T19:11:00.000-06:00

Here's a thought: if this dude (courtesy the daily kos) who has fulfilled his Nat'l Guard Contract can be called up, what about a certain leader of the free world who did NOT fulfill his military obligation? I suggest we flood the 1600 PA Ave mailbox with creatively-worded recall notices from the Army's Human Resources Command.

Orwell's War

2004-11-08T18:15:00.000-06:00

Here's a little 1984 to ponder.

Red State Blues

2004-11-08T13:32:00.000-06:00

This is an attempt to write online, interactively, a traditional 12-bar blues song whose first verse culminates in the phrase "you got the red states, I got the blues." Biting satire and hopeful left-leaning sentiment is welcomed. Right-wing gloating is discouraged.