"...I am eggs of all persuasions..."

Frank Zappa's introduction (with German subtitles) of this performance of Sofa #2 in 1978 is brilliant, as is the performance of this short bilingual song from One Size Fits All.

 Enjoy!
 

I am the heaven
I am the water
Ich bin der Dreck unter deinen Walzen
Ich bin dein geheimer Schmutz
Und verlorenes Metallgeld
Ich bin deine Ritze
Ich bin deine Ritze und Schlitze

I am the clouds 
I am embroidered 
Ich bin der Autor aller Felgen 
Und Damast Paspeln 
Ich bin der Chrome Dinette 
Ich bin der Chrome Dinette 
Ich bin Eier aller Arten 

Ich bin alle Tage und Nächte 
Ich bin alle Tage und Nächte

Ich bin hier 
Und du bist mein Sofa!!  

The Fine White Whine of the Day (about events under the Tuscan sun)

I couldn't help reproducing the text of this email from the Independence Hall Tea Party Association here in all its glory. I didn't do anything to the original press release but crop the white areas surrounding it and add the highlighting to the various spellings of Tuscan/Tuscon/Tucson (they finally got it right - temporarily - the third time).




This post isn't simply about the need for geography education among those who believe in home schooling. It's about the sense of victimization and entitlement among those who condemn victimization and entitlement in anyone other than themselves. It's about presenting another example of the constant Fine White Whine emanating from the political Right.

Finally, while they ask for Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down to atone for her criticism of the Tea Party, they are not above stating that "the perpetrator of the Tuscon [sic] shooting was an unstable individual with left wing sympathies, someone whose world views were more like Occupy than Tea Party."

"Whine and then blame someone else" could be the motto of these groups, but they should watch their spelling -- and study an atlas containing Italy and Arizona -- if they want to gain any credibility beyond their true believers.

Language Matters: What adjective do you put before "Capitalism"?

If you answered that question with anything other than the word "Crony" you haven't been paying attention to the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary (a.k.a., Clown Circus).

Newt Gingrich today is quoted as saying that "Crony Capitalism is not Free Enterprise" when talking about Willard "Mitt" Romney's brand of vulture capitalism.  (LA Times)

Michele Bachmann (how we miss you!!) invoked crony capitalism as a charge against Rick Perry in late December when talking about his campaign contributors and favor seekers in Texas (National Journal)

Mitt Romney jumped on the CroCap bandwagon a few days ago when talking about President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB, stating: "This president is a crony capitalist. He's a job killer." I'm not sure how the "socialist" President or the socialist Unions he was serving could also be capitalists, but you'll have to go to Mitt for clarification. (CBS News)

Jon Huntsman worries about how "we have crony capitalism in Congress" because of the lack of term limits and the revolving door between K Street and Capitol Hill. (Investors.com)

Herman Cain jumped on the anti-crony capitalism express back in September when leaping onto the pile of conservatives gleefully swarming over the corpse of Solyndra. (ThinkProgress)

Ron Paul calls lots of people crony capitalists and he made it clear what CroCap isn't in early November: "Crony capitalism isn't when somebody makes money and they produce a product." I don't think anyone's accusing either Mitt Romney or Rick Perry of producing a product. (Politico)

It all seems to have started back in early September when their intellectual leader, Sarah Palin, first starting trotting out the Crony Capitalism label in association with Rick Perry. (firedoglake)

I personally can't think of a better adjective to be inextricably linked with  the word "Capitalism", but why is the GOP doing our work for us?  Did they check with Frank Luntz first before making "Crony Capitalism" (which always reminds me of Bushie and Brownie and Katrina) the unforgettable alliterative enunciation of the year?

Rick Perry, the original target of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann's "crony capitalism" jibes, went one step further in an interview with Fox today, accusing Mitt Romney of being a "vulture capitalist: "There’s a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism. I don’t believe that capitalism is making a buck under any circumstances." (FoxNewsInsider)

If they keep this up, "Capitalist" will be a worse insult than "Socialist" in their political lexicon (just as it always has been in mine).

I'm sorry, but somehow I seem to have forgotten Rick Santorum.

This was the dream candidate the GOP was looking for? Make him an honorary member of the GOP Clown Circus.

Watch Chris Christie at a Romney event in New Hampshire tell a heckler in the audience chanting "Christie kills jobs" that "Something may go down tonight, but it ain't gonna be jobs sweetheart." The "sweetheart" is condescending enough from this fat chauvinist pig, but is there any other way to understand his "going down" remark than in the obvious sexual way, especially from someone who likes to picture himself as a Joisey tough guy?

I'm so glad that he's no longer my Governor. What a fucking embarassment.
And look at Mitt in the background of this video wondering, "Do they make Magic Underwear in a size that would fit that ass?"

Look, it's the original cast of American Psycho!

Can't you just imagine these young go-getters going to expensive restaurants and getting expensive suits and custom business cards when they aren't busy with murders and executions?

Santorum

http://spreadingsantorum.com/

Now that Rick Santorum is in the news with his co-win in the Iowa caucuses*, it's possible that Google searches on "Santorum" may have stories about him occasionally appearing above the word that was created in his honor by Dan Savage because of this remark by Rick Santorum in April 2003:

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything… It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution... You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong healthy families... In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing."

So we need to link Santorum, Santorum, Santorum, Santorum, Santorum, Santorum, Santorum to SpreadingSantorum.com and keep the definition alive and at the very top of all Google and Bing searches for Rick Santorum.

________
* On the morning after the voting in the cornfields, I thought of poor Emily Litella every time one of the announcers on NPR said "Voting in the Caucasus".  It made me miss Gilda Radner.

Who Knew Newt Was Into Sharing the Wealth With the Poor

Daily Negations by
Lagowski & Mumma

I picked up this old book from 1996 this morning to look for the Daily Negation for January 5th (maybe because I was simply in too good a mood today). It seems that Newt Gingrich was a good tool for bringing a person down even 15 years ago. Here's the negation for January 5, "Entitlements", starting with a quote from Newt delivered before the House Ways and Means Committee on January 5, 1995.

And in 2012 he just wants to give them jobs as janitors.

The new World Trade Center's cool and tall and all, but it doesn't hold a candle to this seagull.

I'm just saying.

"... the earth will see you on through this time ..."

It's a beautiful cold January day where I am and I want to continue this day of forgetting about Republicans and war and capitalism and ... as much as that's possible for me anyway.
I'm currently finishing the last few pages of Into the Silence:The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis, and "Mountains of the Moon" is the song stuck in my head this morning.

I hope everyone finds time to take a walk today, maybe start a great new book, or at least get a song stuck in your head.

This Week in the GOP Clown Circus

The "GOP Clown Circus" has officially folded its tent and left town.  Calling the remaining travesty a clown circus after Paul Romtorum won Iowa is an insult to its star buffoons, Perry, Bachmann, and Cain.

• Michele Bachmann has just admitted that god made a mistake in telling her to run. (New York Times)

• Rick Perry seemed to be gone, but with Crazy Eyes out of it, he may not be dropping out. (Huffington Post)

• Herman Cain and his wife are doing fine in political retirement, and he promises, when he does endorse someone, to make it "unconventional."  (Politico)

Here's hoping that Herman's unconventional endorsement will be awarded to Sarah Palin or Donald Trump.  Then the Presidential race would be a full-blown clown circus again, something worthy of a painting by John Wayne Gacy, (Iowa's favorite Hollywood cowboy star).