Get Down, Brown Clown

Seriously, dude...'Signs point to no'.

;>)

Remember, Only You Can Prevent Theocracy

...and this is a good place to go when you start.

;>)

Sunday Overnight

Anita O'Day, with Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge, The Walls Keep Talking, 1941.



Weather Report and the Manhattan Transfer, Birdland, 1983.




Django Reinhardt and Freddy Taylor, Nagasaki, 1936.



Cass Elliot, I'll Be Seeing You, 1973.



Jaco Pastorius and Don Alias, Donna Lee, 1976.

Oha-ha

President Obama Announces Recess Appointments to Key Administration Positions

;>)

They all come to darkblack's... eventually.

Well, look who was in town yesterday...One of my favorite toxic-shock scum barrel-scraping comedians on her latest 'buy my latest bird-cage liner, rubes' tour.
And so soon after the deliberately contrived bit of backscratching outrage to spike the ol' lookit-me meter up by some Eastern fratboys floating tits-up in the political minority shallow end who've spanked themselves clean out of Kleenex over her greatest hits, too.

What ho! Right on the hairy heels of that, cue FOX News to hagiographise this poor, poor victim whose essential human rights to be a propaganda spearpoint on foreign soil and get paid for same were almost - gasp! - interfered with by an unwashed (and possibly swarthy) lefty horde...well, not the 'get paid' part, which is all that matters when you're only in it for the easy money anyway.

Thing is, mes amis Americains, a quick little pull quote from the first news link might give you a shy-footed clue as to the mores of my current adopted home, and why the leading lights of the U.S. Right find such cozy comity hereabouts:

The audience gave a huge cheer when Coulter proposed making Calgary and west her country's 51st state.

Y'see, I live in a place that, at least for some of its denizens would be ever so much more scrumpdillyicious if the Stars and Bars were flying over it and some Right-wing strongman with Jeebus in his bituminous anthracite heart was catapulting the propaganda. Praise glory, we's halfway thar!

For myself I'd prefer the 'Real Thing' of course, but circumstances dictate otherwise at the moment.
Still, it's such a comfort to me knowing that I live in a place like this so that I can have first-fucking-hand experience with the sort of wingnut Andromeda strain that my pals below the 49th parallel have had an 'entertaining' few decades with.

Solidarity!

;>)

"I love you, Blumpkin."

"...I love you too, Funnymoney."

;>)

So Sophisticated And Above It All

Raw Story:

...former White House senior adviser Karl Rove appears to harbor a certain condescension of his own towards "unsophisticated" Tea Partiers.

"To the extent that the Tea Party is equated with the Republican Party, is that (unfortunate language used this weekend at some of the rallies) a concern for you?" (MSBC's Savannah Guthrie) asked.

"This Tea Party movement is largely novices, relatively politically unsophisticated people, and as a result sometimes their rhetoric is raw and angry," Rove replied. "That's the downside."
...
Rove went on to excuse the violent rhetoric of the Tea Partiers by suggesting that "if you look back at the beginning of other similar movements, whether it's the anti-war movement or the civil rights movement or the pro-life movement, there are angry things said that I suspect in retrospect a lot of people realize are unfortunate and unnecessary."

'...relatively politically unsophisticated people' - Gosh, that sounds kind of like a coded phrase, doesn't it? I wonder what could be meant by that...?

I find it somewhat ludicrous that a sneeringly cynical political operative who thought nothing of exploiting people's fears and pandering to their prejudices throughout his dark career would now sniff daintily and declaim against the ruffian horde without whom his former employer would be just another ex-governor with an unblemished record of private-sector business failure and a fat trust fund from three generations of treason.

This self-serving chatter is especially egregious coming from one who so adeptly and quickly played a race card against an opponent's family member in a primary election.

Unfortunately, such comments might be well taken as a harbinger...A disavowal of responsibility for creation and prior manipulation of the monster, as it were. And such a convenient monster it is , too - always ready to wreak havoc and strike fear into the populace with the merest gentle breeze of a push from its caregiver.

But now the monster may be off the leash, as monsters tend toward doing when their creators pay more attention to deployment than control.
Or perhaps it's an attempt by newly disenfranchised conservatives at fomenting a home-grown 'Werwolf effect', creating the sort of civil unrest that leads to on-the-fence 'relatively politically unsophisticated people' voting for 'strong daddy' candidates to make the boogie men go away.
Just like before.

And would you put it past them? Really?

The last 4 decades of conservative politics have been about maximum exploitation at any cost.
Lie, cheat, steal, cover up, bribe, smear, slander, kill...rinse, repeat.
There are no boundaries of human decency among humanoids for whom winning is everything and losers 'pull the train' for the boys in cellblock 6.
It appears that we have come full bloody circle back to where Lee Atwater placed the beginning so succinctly, and no more caring about the niceties or the unpleasant optics:

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with Legal Services, by cutting down on food stamps ..."

Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "N*gger, n*gger, n*gger." By 1968 you can't say "n*gger" -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff.
You're getting so abstract now you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me -- because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N*gger, n*gger."

Good luck washing your hands of responsibility, Karl. Monsters don't discriminate between keepers and onlookers when the cage bars finally break wide.

;>)

What's The Deal, America?

Actually, THIS is 'bunk'...

...and all the shouty TV softball lobs in the world won't change that type of 'blanket coverage'.

Enjoy your new healthcare reform, Karl. I hear aspirin might be going on sale.

;>)

Sunday Overnight

Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Lester Young, Flip Phillips, and Bill Harris, Blues For Greasy, 1950.



The Bill Evans trio (Eddie Gomez & Marty Morell), Very Early, 1970.



King Pleasure & Blossom Dearie, Moody's Mood For Love, 1956.



Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden & Paul Motian, Piece For Ornette, 1972.



Sarah Vaughan, with Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Billy Higgins, 'Round Midnight, 1987.

As Bright As It May Be

Ivana Santilli, Sun + Moon = Tomorrow, 1999.

Lots Of Balls, Plenty Of Errors

Apparently, Jim Bunning hasn't thrown enough spitters this season.

According to HuffPo, "The Kentucky Republican battled Democrats on the Senate floor Tuesday to block two nominations to relatively backbench positions -- because he is opposed to a tobacco-related law passed by the Canadian Parliament".

Yeah, that's right. Objecting to the laws of another sovereign nation is now grounds for holding up nominations for trade negotiators who, you know, might actually be able to try rectifying the problem for your state that lobbyists pay you so much money to 'help' with, in spite of the concomitant controversies that follow by association with some.

President Obama, I've got two words for you if you really want your agendas enacted in this 'modern climate of bipartisanship' - recess appointment.

I would love to hear the howls of dismay from right-wing corporate obstructionists should that come to pass. Golly gee, it's not like their boys didn't do it with extra relish on top whenever the urge to get their way got interfered with by inconvenient bits of democracy.

Who knows? You might actually get America tottering up to bat again before the dugout clears for good.

;>)

Sunday Overnight

Quincy Jones, Killer Joe, 1969.



Rosemary Clooney with Les Brown and his Band Of Renown, You'll Never Know, 1983.



The Newport All Stars featuring Ruby Braff, I Got It Bad, 1969.



Nat "King" Cole, Autumn Leaves, 1957.

Get well soon, Utah.

There's No Place Like Rome

Call Him The Breeze

Sunday Overnight

Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, with Eric Dolphy and orchestra, The Stolen Moment, 1960.



Bill Evans and Jim Hall, Dream Gypsy / Skating in Central Park, 1962.



Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, Fleurette Africaine, 1962.



The Gary Burton quartet with Eberhard Weber, Midwestern Night's Dream, 1977.



Chet Baker, We'll Be Together Again, 1986.

Calgary welcomes Sarah Palin

They all come to 'darkblack country' eventually, don't they? Must be the waters.

...Enjoy your stay, grifter. You betcha.

;>)

Don't Half-Avow The Plan

Do you love me when I play your game?

Toto, White Sister, 1979.

Gasp!

(cough cough) ...Outrageous!

Say it ain't so, America.

(cough)

;>)

Senators Only, Take The Stairs

The Forces Stringing Us Along

R.I.P., Thomas 'T-Bone' Wolk. Condolences to his family and friends.