Another political prediction made hideously accurate

I wrote this on September 29th about a US House bill intended to provide financial and medical aid to 9/11 first responders. Predictably, I was right. This piece from The Daily Show responds far, far better than I can at this moment, and there's also a ThinkProgess link to a transcribed version with (probably) better video quality.

DADT repeal update

While cloture of the GOP filibuster means that repeal of DADT is pretty much a done deal, more than a few people in the Senate and House soiled themselves in public over the issue. This is a link to a MSNBC piece that lists who voted and why in the Senate (St. John McCain was predictably irritating in his response concerning "elites"; do Arizona teabaggers scare him that much?), and I have to give credit to Mark Kirk for making a principled stand on the issue.

OTOH, there are morons afoot, of course. Including some House goober from Texas named Louie Gohmert, who seems particularly logic-challenged on this issue. He pops up on the Daily Show video listings frequently, which probably tells you all you need to know.

Captain Beefheart, 1941-2010

Dealing with the passing of personal musical heroes is never easy, but this news is an especially huge pile of Suck, IMHO.

RIP, Don. You'll be missed. Music accompaniment here.

Speaking of musical heroes

I've been meaning to post this interview with former Pere Ubu synthesizer/sax wizard Allen Ravenstine at Perfect Sound Forever for ages but wasn't able to get around to it. Now I have. And there's appropriate musical accompaniment, of course.