back to the grind...

Had an interesting interim flight from Reno to San Francisco, before my red-eye back to Dulles on Saturday/Sunday. A very attractive woman sat down beside me in the lounge at United's Gate C-4 at Reno/Tahoe Int'l, apparently to wait for the same plane as I.

The impetus for starting a conversation, or chatting her up as it were, was a cell-phone conversation carried out by a blonde late-20s adolescent across the way, describing in no uncertain terms her sexual habits and her weekend's events, which, as it happens, conjoined. Needless to say, her half of the conversation was highly entertaining. And the woman next to me looked at me, grinning, particularly when the adolescent started cursing a blue-streak as if she was all alone in the universe. The woman whispered, "I think I know all I need to about her."

"And yet I still wonder if that isn't enough information," I said stoically, which prompted a charming giggle from, again, this very attractive woman.

Her name was Shari, and she was a TV news anchor and general assignment reporter out of California, and she was in every way the classic California girl: late 30s, slim, fair of face and hair, and most engaging. She was fresh off a job interview with a Reno affiliate, a stint she'd been pushed into by her agent, whom, she later confided, was going to get a "heart-to-heart." Suffice it to say she didn't like Reno, a rapidly aging smallish-to-midsized western city which lay bare in a dreary Sierra desert basin. Heck, I'd rather do California by the coast any day myself, and I did only a coupla days before.

As it happened, her seat aboard the plane was directly across from mine (as was the adolescent's beside her's - small world, etc.). In days gone by, I might've made a play, disregarding my limitations, in time and league, with the knowledge we'd never see each other again anyway, i.e., if it didn't work out (When I was younger, say... and prettier!). But today I hung back and busted out the book I'm still reading: Noam Chomsky's Imperial Ambitions - Conversations in a Post 9/11 World. She was reading a Joel Osteen self-help door-stop and wasn't enjoying the religious undertones with which, she concluded, it began. I offered to trade. She scanned at the cover of mine, and, handing it back, said no thanks.

It was only an hour flight to San Francisco Int'l, although she thought it was longer. She was kneeding her brow and looked agitated. I offered her some ibuprofin tabs I keep handy. The thought brightened her some. She kept them in hand until she could get some water inside the terminal, whereupon she invited me to join her for dinner at the food court. I suggested she twist my arm first.

She had chowder, I had chinese.

And we both have broadcast journalist backgrounds, which I thought meant I could get into current events during our conversation. It wasn't long before I found our politics didn't mesh -- at all! Of course, those of you who know me would be willing to bet that wouldn't stop me from going on about the world's problems, or my problems with the world. And you'd be right.

To summarize: she believes that pile of dog-droppings we call President can do no wrong. She's quite pleased with the phone-tapping and and the internet-monitoring and the warrentless searches; the decimation of habeus corpus, and the ends justifying the means. She thinks the press is too liberal, even as I found that ironic coming from her. I tried to have her entertain the notion our problems with terrorism may have to do with that which goes around is now coming around, but she would have none of it.

What disturbs me about this experience is, here is this certainly intelligent woman, who, while at the same time, could aptly be the poster child of the modern day American TV journalist: politically incurious and parochial as to what constitutes news, (or what might as well have been faxed over from corporate), as, i suppose, any local newsfolk would have it -- though perfectly satisfied in never having to report on the real news in these times: America's inevitable backslide into 1984.

But hey, why not? She's beautiful, lives an imagineably comfortable life-style, and, in the meantime, is most likely smart enough not to excrete where she eats. Which, by the way, is no mean feat.

Maybe mine is just envy. And maybe I'm being unfair. After all, what is the Washington Post or the New York Times or CNN reporting on these days?

Did Edward R. Murrow even exist?

We shook hands and smiled, wished each other well and went our separate ways. I guess I managed to contain myself from indulging in the really loose rhetoric. (What can I say, it's a gift.)

No hard feelings then? Cool!

Flew home, no hitches getting thru security - yay!

But, ach! It's Tuesday again.

Turn the screw on the crank.

partners in climb...

Today was about rock climbing, river swimming, cliffside dwelling, and, Man! -- did i get pictures:


Casey...


Nephew...



Partners in Climb...

There are considerably more shots from this adventure, but I'd like to see if Life magazine might want to buy the copyright.

Gonna be sad flying back to the east coast tomorrow...

roadtrip '06 - days 4 & 5

DAY FIVE:

Nephew woke me with the news it was 9:30. I was annoyed. We were supposed to get up no later than 7:30 and those two hours would make the difference between making it to Bug Sur, seeing one of the more unique beaches in the U.S., and spending the morning surfside in Santa Cruz. Which would have been fine, except we did that last night and thus the purpose of this roadtrip would've been defeated. We'd been there and done that, proverbially and literally, and we, the Nephew & I, swore to make every moment of his "weekend" a new adventure in a new place. All that would've been ruined had we overslept -- RUINED, I tell you!!

But when I looked at my watch, it read 7:30. Apparently we woke up on-time, irrespective, it would seem, to Nephew resetting the time and not setting the alarm last night. I said a prayer, thanking Poseidon for our internal clocks kicking in.

And so we made the Santa Cruz to Big Sur roll after all. It took an hour and a half, as we anticipated, but did not include the stop we made for breakfast at a quaint, rustic roadside inn. Afterward we alotted ourselves two hours to spend on the beach before having to make the 5-hour return trek back up into the mountains and in time for his 6 p.m. gig.

The world out here, I am told, often begins overcast and depressing, and this morning was no different. Nephew reassured me that Pacific coast mornings may start out like this, but the fog usually lifts before noon and the view of the sea will once again be there and will most certainly be stunning. He was right:

Getting started on the road...



and an hour later:



with a look behind us:



Finally got to Pfeiffer State Park and its beach:



Sunny as you can see, and yet the clouds insisted on revisiting, touching earth & sea again...



and again:



Like I said, we spent two hours at Pfeiffer Beach, although I had no intention of getting in the water. It was cold and windy and I knew it would be excruciating... and the sand was kinda warm, thank you very much.

As I pondered all this, Nephew went into one of his spells:



Finally I screwed up the courage (or was it insanity?) to take the dive. What, you think I'd come all this way to the western edge of America like some modern-day Balboa and not jump in? This Maine boy?? Gi'me a break!

I was right, of course. The water was exceptionally cold. I imagined I went into convulsions, but then I remembered I've done the waters Downeast, and don't be such a big baby!!

I might've taken a tip from the locals, who would have none of it. No one was in the water except a surfer, and he had a wet suit on.

But believe it! I stayed in and learned to love it, bobbing with the waves for about three-quarters of an hour. Nephew will confirm I didn't want to leave. He will also confirm he thought me half nuts. But after he snapped out of his trance, he took a dive too. He also got out again about 30 seconds later.

New Englanders rule, baby!!

But I'm moving to California anyway.

Some day!


DAY FOUR

Quick summary, no pics -- very sorry!

Woke up in a beautiful hillside Berkeley home (Nephew's friend Katrin and her mother's house) with a vista of Oakland and San Francisco. A guy could get very used to this level of comfort.

Drove to the Berkeley campus and strolled the hallowed pathways of the free speech movement of the 60s. School's back in session.

Co'eds... uhm, co'eds... co'eds... (sigh)... co'eds...

Stopped for a buffet lunch at an Indian sidewalk cafe -- the food was excellent!

Then we drove to Santa Cruz to meet up with Holly & Paulo for dinner at the Crow's Nest at Twin Lakes Beach. Quite striking that this beach is reminiscent of Craigville Beach in Hyannis on Cape Cod. Both face southerly to the sea, and in either case the setting sun is to the west and to the right. The light is eriely similar. Would have to give the nod to Santa Cruz, however, on the overall appeal.

On the other hand, the grilled salmon in New England is far superior.

Later, Nephew and I rented "The Graduate" to watch back at the inn, if for no other reason than to see if we would recognize the terrain of our walking earlier in the day.

We didn't! But we did agree on Katherine Ross.

----------

DAY FIVE UPDATE: It is approaching midnight and we're back at the billets, what Yosemite employees call home; part ramshackle army base barricks, part trailer park community. Nephew got to work with five minutes to spare, and is now meditating again. I think he's turning pro. So I'm taking the time to edit and rewrite this post. Later we'll pop Seinfeld's most recent performance into the DVD player, catch some laughs, and crash.

Tomorrow we sleep in.

roadtrip '06 - days 2 & 3

Before I get so totally behind by actually living a life on vacation, I'll ignore the Yankee 5-game sweep over the Pink Sox and throw out the days' events:

Day Two:

Had breakfast at the Loft...

Took a swim in the Merced River (f'ing cold mountain water)...

Reconnoitered back at the billets, rested before the afternoon activity...


Afternoon activity: drove to "El Capitan" (see above), walked to a shady area of the meadow across the way, sat and meditated for 1/2 hour before the most daunting of facades in Yosemite Valley; J. using a variant of Buddism, and me reprising my 70s daliance with TM... Beats the 12-8 shift any day...

Drove the nephew to the Ahwanee Hotel for his 6-10 gig in the main lounge; went back to the billet to get cleaned up before heading back to the Ahwanee in time for the previous posting...

Day Three:


Drove to San Francisco...


Hung out at Fisherman's Wharf...


Apparently these guys like to hang out at Fisherman's Wharf as well.....


Drove atop Knob Hill and looked back...


Drove to Haight/Ashbury, had a microbrew in a pub a block away at the corner of Haight & Masonic...

Climbed the freakin' hill (which J. says was steeper than "Half Dome" back in Yosemite) and back to the car... sucked wind...

Drove to Berkeley to stay with Nephew J.'s lady friend...

Went out to dinner at the Cha-Ya, had the Vege-Tofu Curry w/Buckwheat Noodles -- w/Sake, of course...

Home again home again, jiggity jig...

Tomorrow: Berkely College campus, and then off to Santa Cruz for dinner w/an old college friend...

The day after: the beaches of Big Sur, and then back to Yosemite...

It's been a day...

It's being a week...

----------

UPDATE: Two more pics of SF, viewed from Fisherman's Wharf:


Alcatraz...


and, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance...

roadtrip '06 - hitting the road (day 1)...

So I'm driving south on 395, a two-lane highway from the get-go and starts from the end of Virginia Street and takes me through what seems to be every rinky-dink town, including Carson City and Gardenerville. As a kid growing up in and around Reno, I thought I knew the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I was wrong. For example, here's Peavine Mountain, just outside of Stead:


[click on pictures to enlarge]

Not bad, not a hill, not Everest, but a mountain. But check out the view from the road, that is 395 South, and see how it looks the further you go:



This one was just south of Carson City, I'm just getting started. I noticed the sky was getting a bit dark as I drove:



and here...



and here...



What's more, the mountains started moving closer to the road:



And then the weather relented:



and the mountains started getting bigger:



I understood later that it was about this time I crossed over into California, although I didn't see any welcoming sign, and I began to see what the big t'do about the Sierra Nevadas was; you drive around any curve or for a mile and a half, and you'd meet up with spectacle:



after spectacle:



Of course, this was before I turned on the Tioga Pass Road, the road that would take me to Yosemite National Park. And as you can see, the view from this road wasn't too shabby either:



and here...



and here:



You see by the last one that I was high up into the mountains. Nephew J. says Yosemite Valley is at about 4,000 feet above sea level, but during the drive I was as high up as 9,000 feet.

From DC to Yosemite in 24 hours, a long and glorious day.

roadtrip '06 - day 2

8:37 p.m., Pacific time...

I am sitting in The Grand Lounge of The Ahwnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. This is a lovely, large room with hardwood floors, high ceilings and walk-in fireplaces. The walls are adorned with portrait etchings of civil war and native individuals, along with native designed wall rugs -- or those throw-rugs you hang on the wall. A mix of stone and mahogany wood, and multiple chandeliers harken the old west and the classic cigar smoking lounge meant for the bigwigs and nobody else. Now this is a vacation.

Nephew J. is playing piano in the bar down the hall, and I'd be there to cheer him on except my internet connectivity doesn't work in the lounge -- ergo... He understands for I have heard him perform often and he is very, but very good. The tourists agree, they're too caught up in their conversations to applaud each number, but, as the song goes, they throw bread in his jar.

I monitor the Red Sox/Yankess game 4 as I write this -- Big Papi at the plate with Mark Loretta at 1st. What, you think I'd totally forget that which drives my passion: the Yankees at Fenway? C'monnn...

Like I said, this is most definitely a vacation. Today was a day for recovery, from jet lag and hours of driving. I was up 24 hours from Saturday & Sunday early a.m. You got the bit about my flying from Dulles to Denver. I got to Reno at 10:44 local time, but I was still three hours ahead of myself, and it felt like it was coming up on 2 p.m., close to twelve hours after waking, because, well, it was!

I rented a car from Hertz (10% discount w/my AAA, yay!). And so I got to see The Biggest Little City in the World for the first time in 37 years:



Approaching the city, and driving through it before heading south.



It took me about 3-1/2 hours to get a read on all the childhood houses, neighborhoods and schools (which I'll spare you of here), how they may have changed or remained the same, to see if I would remember something I'd long forgotten while driving to and around Stead, the erstwhile suburban air force base, the place of my earliest memories, and back to the city, all before I set off on my 4-1/2 hour trek to Yosemite, America's greatest known national park not named Yellowstone.

roadtrip '06 - day 1

Day 2, 9:06 a.m.: I will have more later, but the nephew came out of his meditative state and we're to breakfast. Suffice it to say I made it safely to Yosemite via Denver (see below) and Reno (see above). And by the way, this place, Yosemite, is everything it's cracked up to be.

Day 1 (unedited from airport terminal):

Greetings from Denver… my watch reads 10:30 a.m., my flight to reno is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., so I calculate I’ve got about an hour before boarding… confused.. ? I was for a second, -- eastern time, that is…

I Left dulles around 6:30, requiring my rousing myself at 3:30, and driving to the economy parking many furlongs from the terminal… what the hell, it’’s $9 a day to keep it there and I am on a budget…

Denver’s airport is decidedly newer and more vast than dulles – emphasis on the “dull”, not unlike a shiny, art deco style mall with lots of natural light… it’s overcast here, and the fog, I now understand are actually clouds – we’re in the freakin’ mountains here, not that I can see them with all the cumulosity about… pity, I well remember the sierra nevadas and not so much the rockies…

I dig the flat moving treads that run the length of the terminals, people either pretend, or not, to be george jetson walking astro, or whatever they call their rolling travel bags (jane – stop this crazy thing!!)… I avail myself of the treads, I don’t know my way around here and expediting to my gate first thing is deemed wise, and then, if I have any time to kill, I can either mosey about and goof on the girls or sit here and say hello to all you fine people…

I discovered dulles doesn’t have interenet wireless, although Denver does, but it costs through the nose, and again I’m on a budget.... so I’m keying this on a word file and will transfer when I get my next connection…

But back to those girls…

As I traveled from concoursea B to A, I watched in passing several grown men in what I can only describe as cowboy hats… I dunno maybe you could call ‘em Stetsons or some other brand, but they -- the cowboys, not the hats (and don’t get me started on the etymology of “cowpoke”) -- looked fresh off the rodeo or out of some oil co. boardroom,… at first I was amused, but grew to appreciate the look.; and after all, I am in Denver – they wear those things a lot around here, or so I see when watching the broncos on a given Sunday…

But it was only a few moments later when a gaggle of young, pretty co-eds – had t’be – flocked past, each of them quite charming, and each of them wearing cowboy hats… think debra winger in urban cowboy… definitely works for me…

Oop.. ! we’re boarding… gotta fly… !

deja vu all over again...

marshall's quiet, thoughtful, and very thorough analyses always gets me thinking:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009461.php

"Anyway, the Joe cult aside, I'm more and more getting the sense that Ned Lamont just didn't get, coming off last Tuesday's win, that he was still very much the underdog and had maybe a week to thoroughly dispatch Joe from the race. But he didn't. From what I can tell he went on vacation to Maine right after the primary. And he was scarce for like a week after the primary.

"Lieberman, on the hand, went basically beserk right after the vote, which of course he had to do, to make absolutely sure that everyone realized that, as far as he was concerned, his primary loss meant nothing more than a difference in the way he'd be identified on the ballot in November. He was still the senator, still running for reelection. News of his demise had been greatly exaggerated, and so forth."

for a local radio reporter who covered the dukakis campaign in '88 from a vantage of the UMass-amherst campus, this rings serious alarm bells... the massachusetts governor had a 16% lead immediately following the democratic convention and then went on a little vaycay...

and lee atwater went to work to "strip the bark off the bastard!"...

does anybody remember george senior uttering the phrase: "what is it about the pledge of allegiance that bothers him so?"

how 'bout the allusions that dukakis had issues with depression and had seen a therapist about it... ?

of course the american people wouldn't be taken in with so shallow a hook, i thought -- and wrongly... ! when the duke came out of his summer hibernation, his response (to his signing a law that prohibited mandating the pledge in public schools) was lame and utterly forgettable, and i refuse to google it, i'm still so disgusted... more famous, of course, was dukakis' robotic response to bernard gibson of CNN at the last debate about what he'd do if kitty dukakis was raped and murdered -- would he *then* favor the death penalty... ? nope... but if you like the feeling of your eyes glazing over, he said *something*...

in hindsight, dukakis had it coming, but lamont should know better than to take a break right after the primary... especially with the republican machine, headed by atwater's acolyte karl rove, is running lieberman's campaign now and they're geting especially scummy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/detective-story-has-rov_b_26908.html

if lamont doesn't get on the offensive, *and* get some help from the party leadership (my eyes well up with tears)... aww, what the hell can i be thinking... ?

lieberman is vichy and a weasal (which my dictionary describes as "a deceitful and treacherous person", so i'd say that's spot-on); he needs to get kicked to the curb and then kicked repeatedly...

not very "progressive" of me, i grant you, but these are desperate times...

grrrrr...

scarborough gets a clue...

joe scarborough is par for the MSNBC course, the unctuous, self-satisfied repo-bot with the slanted, fact-challenged talking points always at the ready... but in his case, i curiously find i'm willing to cut him more slack, whereas i cannot abide the likes of, say, chris matthews, who sold out his mentor tip o'neill a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... scarborough, at least, came by his scaliwag worldview more honestly, i.e., he was bred into the dark side...

but when he analyzed john kerry's '04 debate performances vs. dubya as superior, which, of course, was the correct conclusion (who knew?), and he was effusive in his praise of kerry, i sat up, thinking i must've dropped acid and had somehow forgotten...

and now he comes up with this:

Friends and foes alike agree that George W. Bush is one political figure who gets worse with age. Look back at his performance as Texas governor and you will see a funny, self-assured public figure who inspires confidence. But these days, the mere opening of Mr. Bush’s mouth makes many GOP loyalists shake in their tasseled loafers.

So does it matter in the end whether our president is articulate and intelligent?

You bet your life, it does. I’m not saying we need to elect a dork like Michael Dukakis, who famously spent vacations at the beach reading books on Swedish land use or was so overwhelmed with the details of the old SALT treaties that he would sulk off to bed
depressed.

But when America is fighting a global war on terror where the battle is for hearts and minds instead of beachheads and landing strips, we need a leader who can explain to friend and foe alike why America is in Iraq, why we keep sending arms to Israel and why liberal democracy really is preferable to Islamic fascism.

Right now, George W. Bush is not that leader.

of course, the point not addressed here is what took the republicans referenced so long in figuring this out... ?

rampin' up on the eve of the eve of the big fly...

long day at work, relaxing w/a yeungling (lite, my brothers) and groovin' on the eagles farewell tour (roman numeral I, as apparently they plan on saying farewell more'n once) on the bravo network... great production, and glenn frey can still hit the high notes...

what strikes me most as i write this is when the cameras pan the crowd, close-ups of the women... these aren't girls, most of 'em are at least in their 30s -- for you young'uns, the eagles were BIG in the 70s -- and most of 'em are babes...

i KNEW i shoulda been a rock star...

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

fans of this site (all 3 of you) will be glad to know naahm deplume shot me an email this aft, recalling my attention to the big buzz of the day (i.e., for those of you who thought jon benet ramsey was dead):

"In enacting FISA, Congress made numerous concessions to stated executive needs. They include delaying the applications for warrants . . . for several types of exigencies, reducing the probable cause requirement . . . and extension of . . . approved wiretaps from thirty days to a ninety day term. All of the above Congressional concessions to Executive need and to the exigencies of our present situation . . . have been futile. The wiretapping program here in litigation has undisputably been continued for at least five years, it has undisputably been implemented without regard to FISA . . . and obviously in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

"The President of the United States is himself created by that Constitution."

so say da' judge...

i've brought this up previously, but it applies again: the president, upon taking the oath of office, so swears that he (or she) will protect and defend the constitution against all enemies...

so who's the enemy now... ?

golden bear with me...

prepping to go on vacation... flying to nevada, driving to california, this wknd...

rather am enjoying the contretemps in the comments and will do my level best to egg you on, i.e., prompt whatever vitriols needing venting...

but in the meantime, i must i must...

no really, it's not funny...

so why does this give me a giggle... ?

A poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" indicates a surprising number of Christians are addicted to pornography[.]

fresh air...

when asked if lieberlips should get the hell out, russ feingold said:

Well, you know, I think that’s his own decision. It would be better for the Democratic Party, I think it would be better for the people of Connecticut, it would be better for the country if he did it. Not because he hasn’t been a good Senator, not because he isn’t a good man, but this is a critical time. And we have to change course. We have to focus on those that attacked us on 9/11 and get away from this very mistaken policy in Iraq. So it would be helpful if he would do it, but obviously Joe will have to make that decision for himself.

meanwhile, i am left to wonder, henry higgins-like, and ask, "why, oh why, can't chuck schumer (or bill clinton for that matter) be more like... a man... ?"

details...

takin' a vacation...
soon...
walkin' away...
excited...
flyin' to reno...
drivin' to yosemite...
& SF...
down the pacific coast...
gettin' outta dodge...
forgettin' about it all...
not comin' back...
vaya con dios...

there, i said it... !

so the guy asks me, "what's the difference between michelle malkin and ann coulter?"

i thought about it for a moment...

"well," i began, "michelle malkin's at least boneable"...

pause...

"... and ann coulter's just bone"...

if u believe, clap yer hands...

talk about bipartisanship, i think i could root for the repos this far:

If the state GOP can shove Schlesinger aside and get Orchulli in -- which of course is easier said than done -- it would be an extraordinary development that could hand the race to Lamont. That's because Orchulli would be a credible enough candidate who'd likely pull enough GOP votes to ensure Lieberman's loss. More on this later.

couple this with the prediction by the credible lawrence o'donnell that lieberlips won't last beyond september, and i think i shall take particular delight in watching him fade to ignominy, not with a bang but certainly a whimper... i'd throw out words like unctuous and smarmy too, but i'm beginning to feel like that'd be piling on... that and the fact my brother, the one w/the MBA (and who keeps calling out for smaller gov't to anybody who'll listen), emailed me the other day telling me i'm smarmy...

he also suggested i should call my blog "peeing on trees"...

i'll deal w/him later...

and again...

loving this a lot:

TPM Reader PB on Joe: "I imagine Joe wishes Ken, Tony, Dick, Karl and all the other Republicans heaping praise on him right now would just shut up. They are not going to help him with the Independent voters he needs to keep on his side in order to prevail in a three-way race. I'm sure that Karl Rove and company recognize this fact as well as anyone; they know they are not doing Lieberman any favors with their effusive praise. The fact is Joe has outlived his usefulness for them, and they're happy to throw him overboard in the hope that having a "weak-on-defense-extremist" boogeyman to kick around will minimize the electoral onslaught they are facing in November. That kiss Bush gave Lieberman is looking more and more like a Michael Corleone moment."

with friends like these...

drop anchor... !

marshall at tpm again:

Minnesota Republican senate candidate Mark Kennedy, a dozen points behind Democrat Amy Klobuchar in latest poll (Rasmussen, 8/1), endorses Lieberman.

So does McGavick in Washington state. He's down 11 points (Rasmussen, 7/17). It's an avalanche. All the GOP senate contenders who are sinking in the polls are endorsing Joe.

drowning repos, clamoring for a life-preservor, get a chunk of iron dropped on their heads...

wheeeeee... !!

"extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice"...

sampling the republican rhetoric on the heels of lieberlips getting the gate harkens chicken little's shriek about the sky...

to wit, josh marshall cites mike allen citing the usual and very suspect repo talking points:

The piece runs down each of the key GOP players -- Mehlman, Cheney, Snow -- each bellowing out RNC talking points claiming that Lieberman's defeat means the Democratic party is beholden to the hard-left and ostrich-like isolationists.

Lieberman, as Mike explains, is now slated to become the martyr to isolationism whom Republicans will laud at every turn. "On television and in speeches in coming days," writes Allen, "party officials and strategists plan to talk about their respect for Lieberman as a distinguished public servant and argue that Lamont's victory represents the end of the long tradition of strong-on-national-defense Democratic leaders in the mold of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy."

speaking of harry truman, ronald reagan said back in '88 that, were he alive today, truman would be a republican... funny how that was what finally set mike dukakis off, and only about two days before the election... dukakis, pathetically anemic throughout his campaign, reacted strongly to reagan's tweak and shouted during a speech, "i AM a liberal!", which, of course, roused his base from its slumber, enough to shrink his polling-deficit to g.h.w.bush from roughly 7-8 pts to 3-4, too little too late of course...

and if i recall correctly, the nytimes did an election post-mortum showing that had dukakis campaigned just a little bit harder in 10 of the swing states that eventually went bush, a switch of as few as 10,000 votes total, across those same states, could've turned america blue in '88 (and, in hindsight, one might say, "indeed, blue!")...

but back to my point about truman: i remember reagan's comment and thinking as a counter, "well, if abraham lincoln were alive today, he'd be a democrat!" -- which, i contend, holds today, and perhaps more so...

i would now argue you could bring barry goldwater into the big D camp, again were he still kickin', for it grows plainer for even the modest reactionary to see: the extremism that exists in america this day is on the right, and it's not in liberty's defense but rather in its assault...

the good news, however, is that in its defense, it is ours to be made... and connecticut has shown us the way...

and if i can give reagan a little tweak: lieberman's defeat represents morning in america again...

and that is definitely no vice...

"sociopath"...

"a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience... "

whoooooo coulditbeeeee... ?

sports surrealism...

papelbon blows 2 in as many appearences...

bruschi out until game 2(?)...

lieberlips did lose, didn't he... ?

>pant< >pant<...

i, ramble

check it out in the "coffee" section of my links...

quite possibly the most erotic blogger on the sphere...

we are experiencing technical difficulties... please stand by...

blogger.com annoys blogger...

miss the days of the vertical & horizontal hold adjustments... or was that The Outer Limits?

please stand by...

10:36 p.m.

Raw calls Lamont victor in Connecticut primary

With Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) trailing by 4 percent with more than 80 percent of the votes counted in Tuesday's Democratic primary in Connecticut, RAW STORY has declared anti-war challenger Ned Lamont victor.

Lieberman has said he may run as an independent in the November's general election. Democratic insiders say the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will back the winner of tonight's primary, potentially handing Lamont a hefty campaign war chest.

and here, less than a week before my birthday -- thank you, connecticut...

can one hate america...

and love maine... ?

Verizon customers in Maine have asked the state's Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether the telecom giant violated privacy laws by cooperating with a domestic surveillance program. The PUC is expected to decide Monday whether to open such a probe.

In a July 28 letter to the PUC, the U.S. Department of Justice cites national security as a key reason for its opposition to a state investigation. The seven-page letter suggests a lawsuit is likely if Maine regulators decide to investigate.

how about this... ? maybe maine should prohibit verizon from conducting any business in the state until it cleans up it's patently unconstitutional, civil rights-violative practices...

and isn't maine the state that's aggressively minimizing the impact for consumers the pharmaceutical industry's penchant for price gouging... ?

and while we're in the neighborhood, isn't massachusetts the first state to establish universal health coverage... ?

and -- oh! -- isn't connecticut about to kick the swine lieberman to the curb... ?

damn, but i'm proud to be from new england... !

meanwhile, isn't it TEXAS that keeps getting us into these damned wars... ?

life immitates art

gary hart has an interesting take on what he believes'll be dubya's attempt at the cliched "october surprise," esentially by redeploying the troops in iraq and calling it a withdrawal... not so much a surprise over here, but hart's tagline nonetheless amused:

It was all forecast years ago in the final scene of the movie Three Days of the Condor when the CIA official Higgins explains to the naive CIA research character portrayed by Robert Redford: "Of course it's about the oil. Do you think the American people care how we get it? They just want us to get it."

now i know i used three days of the condor as an analogy in a previous post, but i'll be damned if i can find it... awesome movie, by the by (cliff robertson plays the CIA official higgins, fyi)...

but there's another movie, a made-for-tv one, back in the 80s, starring rock hudson as the president, who has to go nuclear in response to a soviet invasion of alaska, which occurs because the russians are running low on oil... i remember thinking at the time what an outrage it'd be if we were invaded for reasons pertaining to oil...

oh wait, i googled it, the movie made in 1982... get this, it's called world war iii...

dunno how i'd've forgotten that...

say anything...

i am taking particular delight in the expectation of joe lieberman getting kicked to the curb in less than a week... and it says here his prospect for continuing beyond next tuesday as a quasi-dem/independant will be next to nil after ned lamont scores at least 55% and bounces joementum's wrinkly butt from his soon-to-be erstwhile democrat's seat...

reading the new york observer, you can smell the desperation:

“What’s most unfortunate about [the New York Times endorsement editorial] is, most of the criticism of Lieberman in it is premised on a myth,” [former aid Dan] Gerstein said. “They were willing to cast aside a national leader with 18 years of experience and all his qualifications, and endorsed a cipher who’s not qualified to be a U.S. Senator, on the assumption that Joe Lieberman has not stood up to the Bush administration on a number of key issues. And it’s just not the case.”

first of all, calling joe lieberman "a leader" is like calling tony blair a leader, i.e., they're not... both have sold their reason for being in government to become dubya's sidekicks, and for little more than a nibble at some illusory apple called power... and what, it not being the case then, has joe lieberman ever done to inflict even a modicum of discomfort on george bush... ?

goddamned right we're willing to cast that aside... !

and "a cipher," dan... ? "not qualified"... ? are you, like, stupid... ?? the guy's worth $300 million, reportedly self-made... you call that a cipher not qualified... ?

desperation, i say unto you, is like napalm in the morning...

it smells like... victory... !!