3080 Days since the last Fluffhead

Today marks the 3,080 day since the last performance of Fluffhead. I can't imagine the meltdown that will occur within The Mothership if they play it this weekend.

Anyway thanks to youtube and some intrepid stealth video tapers here's footage (in 2 parts) of the last Fluffhead from 9-29-2000 in Las Vegas

Almost time for lift off

In 48 hours I'll be at the arena pictured above in Hampton, Virginia getting ready for the return of Phish. Friday night's show will be 55th installment of an adventure that I began at the age of 16. On Sunday I will ring in my 30th birthday at my 57th show alongside friends I haven't seen since June of 2004. I still can't quite believe that this reunion is actually happening, that I'm going to be there and that I'm turning 30.

My twitter feed will be dominated by observations from the shows Thursday through Sunday so if you don't quite understand what the hell I'm talking about that's probably why.

Phish from Germany February 16, 1997 doing a classic Stones tune...

Recovery.gov logo

The Obama administration has unveiled a logo for all projects that are being funded by the Economic Recovery Act. It's smart to brand these projects in order to increase their visibility and in turn keep public approval high. Roosevelt did the same with the WPA during the Depression.

Also, the logo is pretty cool.

A cartoon kind of day

Get Fuzzy hits all the high points today - turntables, labor and politics.

Thanks Phil

John and Jane Galt are fucking morons

It's no shocking relevation that people who scream "Socialism!" when Obama talks about allowing the top marginal tax rate return to 39% from it's current 36% are not particularly bright. I had no idea though that many of these people are complete morons who apparently don't have the foggiest idea as to how our income tax system actually works.

Owwww, teh STupid it BUUUURRRNNNSSSS!11!!

Don't eat in El Paso County

The home of TABOR is finding that there are, in fact, consequences for gutting the budget of your government to the point that it cannot provide basic public services. The Denver Post reports,

As property-tax rates tumble and sales-tax revenue evaporates, residents in the backyard of Douglas Bruce — the state's leading evangelist of small government and small taxes — are learning just how small government can get. So far, voters have shown no inclination to part with any more tax dollars.

Now, local leaders are warning that with no fat left to cut, basic services such as law enforcement, courts, public health and child-abuse investigations are all in jeopardy...

• For years, the health department has lacked the staff to inspect restaurants and other food providers twice a year, as required by state law. Department director Kandi Buckland said it's no coincidence that "in 2008, preliminary data showed El Paso County had the largest number of food-borne illness" in the state.

• The health department has stopped inspecting day-care centers and won't inspect swimming pools this summer. That might make swimmers queasy, considering that last year, the department closed 80 pools — including six contaminated with E. coli.

• The Sheriff's Office has the same number of patrol deputies it had in 1998, when there were 70,000 fewer residents. In some parts of the county, it takes deputies 22 minutes — more than double the ideal time — to arrive when someone calls 911.

I occasionally find myself in Colorado Springs for business and when I do I simply do not eat a meal in a restaurant there. A month or so ago I was at a business lunch and was the only one at the table who declined to eat. I thought it would be impolite to tell folks why I wasn't eating but the fact of the matter is I'm not eating in a restaurant that hasn't been inspected.

I would be horrified if I had small children in daycare and found out that EPC health inspectors are no longer inspecting those facilities.

The Doug Bruce, Jon Caldera anti0tax jihadists who are the intellectual leaders of the state GOP see no legitimate function for government. Not public safety, not basic public health. Nothing.

It should be a wake up call to any moderates and independents who think that the far-right can be reasoned with. Left to their own devices they would turn all of Colorado into El Paso County. They simply must be stopped.

HT Square State

Polis on board with EFCA

Earlier today I asked where new CD-2 Congressman Jared Polis was on EFCA and he responded over at Square State,

I strongly support the right to organize and plan on supporting the Employee Free Choice Act both in my Committee (Education and Labor) and on the House floor.

We have to make sure that our recovery lifts all boats, and the ability to organize is, now more than ever, critical for working families.

Jared Polis
polis.house.gov

As I said over there - I really appreciate the prompt answer Congressman and thank you for supporting EFCA. We need strong leadership from Democrats like yourself who are in safe blue districts, I'm heartened by your stance.

More right-wing nutters, Meta-Conspiracy edition

Apparently there's a growing divide amongst wingers. The growing chasm is between the "Birther" movement (similar to the 9/11 Truther movement except they're convinced Obama is not really a U.S. Citizen) and those on the right who are utterly embarrassed by the Birthers. It's all pretty amusing. Here's where it gets really fun, the anti-Birthers are concerned that the Birthers are actually a left-wing conspiracy to discredit the right. No, really -

Meanwhile, the Birthers’ persistence has prompted another, competing conspiracy theory on the right.

“I’m not a conspiracist, but this could be a very big conspiracy to make conservatives disgrace themselves,” Medved said.

A commenter at Balloon-Juice aptly notes,

When you can’t tell your ideological buddies from the spoofs, the spoofs have won.

Indeed.

EFCA and the Colorado delegation

According to Square State we can confirm that DeGette, Salazar and Markey are co-sponsoring EFCA? That is an established fact? If true this is very good news and reflects a significant change from their positions just a few weeks ago. I'm glad to hear that.

As to the Senators, the last I heard Udall was explicitly ducking labor's reps on the issue while meeting with business interests.

Bennet will be interesting, if he has the cover of Reps like Salazar and Markey then I see no reason why he shouldn't sign on. From a purely political perspective he needs the ground troops in 2010.

What about Jared Polis? Is he going to step up on this critical piece of legislation or not? A lot of progressives worked very hard to get him elected, is he going to fold at the first test? Joan Fitz-gerald would most certainly have signed on as a co-sponsor.

Right-wing nutters: Sharia law is already here

I've been pecking around at a post this morning about the invocations of socialism and communism by the right, how ineffectual it is and how we Democrats should encourage the fringe right meltdown for electoral purposes. In that post I've been trying to be more high-minded in my tone and rhetoric. That becomes increasingly challenging as I read nonsense like this from Roy Edroso's coverage of the NYC Tea Party,

A woman with a flag and a copy of the Declaration who identified herself as "Chaplain Desiree Bernstein" (also an anti-gay-marriage and anti-Khalil-Gibran-Academy protester) said, "I have been in this fight for a long time. I welcome your beautfiul faces and we can do it, But I'm gonna tell you now without any offense: if you think we're gonna do it without invoking the Almighty, you can forget it!" She invoked the 19th Century prayer campaign of Jeremiah Lanphier in which, Bernstein said, "10,000 Americans, much like us here today, gathered and cried out, 'Almighty God, we were not created for Socialism, we were not created for Marxism, we were not created for sharia law, which is already here!'" receiving huge cheers.

Forgive me for not being more artful but the reaction of regular Americans to displays like this is quite simply to conclude that these people are bat-shit crazy. Bat. Shit. And that of course is because, they are! These displays are sheer lunacy and they put on display for everyone in the country just how fringe are the mainstream views of the Republican Party. These are the ideals embraced by the political and movement leaders of the current GOP. This is where they are at as an intellectual movement.

Democrats should stoke, provoke and encourage these kinds of outbursts while reacting to them with the appropriate amount of scorn and derision. The base of the GOP (and that's about all that remains) is so far out of touch with reality and the mood of the country that it's laughable. Let them continue to carry on like this, it will only solidify the Democratic Party's hold on power. At the same time we need to point out at every opportunity just how ridiculous they are and how out of touch they are. We saw some of that from Rahm Emmanuel this morning regarding Rush Limbaugh and we should see more of it. Force this party and its leadership own the fringe.

It is March...

Go Tigers, Rock-Choke-Jayhawk

It's an interesting aside that the long standing and heated rivalry between the Universities of Kansas and Missouri is rooted in the mid-19th border war between Missouri and the Kansas territory over slavery. My home state was ignobly on the pro-slavery side.