are the bush twins scheduled for basic yet... ?

Kudos to you, Harry!

Commanders reportedly had reconsidered their decision to allow the prince to fight in Iraq for fear he would become a target of insurgents and his presence could endanger other soldiers. Harry's regiment, the Blues and Royals, is due to begin a six-month tour of duty in Iraq within weeks.

And suddenly Harry's looking a head taller than his brother. Having said that, of course, he might wanna keep it down in the sandbox.

ooo... ! harsh...

"Hya, Ralphie Boyyyyy!"

"Newsweek reports that a group of former CIA officials led by Larry Johnson is demanding that former CIA director George Tenet return his Medal of Freedom and donate half the profits from his book 'At the Center of the Storm' to charities for wounded Iraq vets. It's not exactly friendly advice: The group is calling Tenet 'the Alberto Gonzales of the intelligence community' for his belated admissions that he knew the administration's case for war with Iraq was shoddy, but chose not to tell the American people."

sweet jesus... !

Seems all I'm blogging about these days is Sex:

Just the same, Palfrey promised that her telephone records -- all 46 pounds of them -- would be revealed unless the charges against her were dropped.

Sports:

Price of winning goes up - Receiver Randy Moss, who the Patriots passed on in 1998 because of character issues, now makes the team an odds-on favorite for Super Bowl XLII.

Red Sox feel the power - Red Sox players (from left) David Ortiz, Julio Lugo, Wily Mo Pena and Alex Cora celebrate yesterday’s 7-4 win against the Yankees in New York.

& Impeachment:

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) revised the much publicized statements he made yesterday and told National Public Radio that impeaching President George W. Bush was 'on the table' late on Monday afternoon.

"I'm just saying that's one of the options that Congress has on the table, I'm getting more and more calls from people about the President on impeachment," the long-time Congressman, who is a veteran of the US Marines, told NPR's Melissa Block on the program 'All Things Considered' Monday afternoon.

Good times! Good times!

moreover...

How championships are made:

The fourth-round pick the Pats used to secure wide receiver Randy Moss was the one they acquired from the 49ers, along with San Francisco’s 2008 first-round pick, in exchange for the Pats second pick in the first round (No. 28) Saturday. Translation? The Pats landed Moss and the Niners first-round pick next year, for this year’s No. 28 (San Francisco picked OT Joe Staley). . . .

Reminiscent of how the Celtics built up their 80s championships: Red Auerbach drafted Larry Bird with the 8th pick in '78, at the end of Bird's junior year. Bird signed with the Celtics after Indiana State lost to Magic's Michigan State but before the '79 draft rolled around. A year later, Auerbach traded the #1 overall pick to Golden State for their #3 overall and a journeyman center GS thought to be essentially washed up at the time: Robert Parrish.

Golden State took Joe Barry Carroll. The Celtics took Kevin McHale.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

monday morning pick-me-up...

DC Sex Scandal ready to blossom:

More revelations are in the offing. Ross said the list includes the names of some "very prominent people," as well as a number of women with "important and serious jobs" who had worked as escorts for the firm.

Want some Condi, little boy?

----------
Update: And the thought just occured: All Congress has to do in this case is pass a bill to be signed by the President by Thursday night legalizing prostitution. Game over, Man!

----------
Update II: Uhm, no. That won't work. Brian Ross already has the list of names.

here's what...

I asked the question a couple of days ago. Short of Impeachment, which I still favor passionately, how does Congress enforce their supposed subpoena power against the "loyal Bushies," particularly when the usual enforcement is conducted by a U.S. Attorney, i.e., a "loyal Bushie"?

The answer: Inherent Contempt

Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned. The purpose of the imprisonment or other sanction may be either punitive or coercive. Thus, the witness can be imprisoned for a specified period of time as punishment, or for an indefinite period (but not, at least in the case of the House, beyond the adjournment of a session of the Congress) until he agrees to comply. The inherent contempt power has been recognized by the Supreme Court as inextricably related to Congress’s constitutionally-based power to investigate.

As the guy said on Robocop: "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

sox beat yankees again...

Heady days indeed for NE sportsfans: Moss this morning, Sox 7-4 over the Yankees this afternoon.

Sweeeeeet!!

Thought maybe Kei Igawa's performance yesterday might've snapped NY out of their trance. Speculation runs amuck as to whether Steinbrenner's set to fire Joe Torre for April's out.

Look for Billy Martin to succeed the Yankee skipper.

What? He is?

thinking outside the box...

Speaker Pelosi lands a little outside help for yesterday's radio rebuttal:

"Good morning, this is Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army, retired.

"To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games."

randy moss to the pats...

Holeeee... !

I saw one header on the ESPN website, requiring their "Insider" access (read: subscription - Feh!), describing the Patriots as looking to be "Scary Good." (And eatcher heart out, Chaatoes!)

Details of a re-worked contract are yet TBD, but I cannot imagine the Patriots, who already have Dante Stallworth, Wes Welker, Kelly Washington, Reche Caldwell, Jabbar Gaffney, Chad Jackson, and Troy Brown at wideout, and who can only want but not need Moss, will load him up with incentive clauses, making damn sure he doesn't quit on plays where he's not the designated receiver, as has been his motus operandi for too many years, essentially such that they can kick him to the curb at a moment's notice.

Of course, that Moss would rework his contract only for the Pats could be an indication he's ready to play up to his pay grade, which means the Pats look to be, uhm, Scary Good!!

And, wheeeeee... !!

----------
Update: So many weapons; it is imagined here the Pats will go frequently with a 4-wideout spread offense (Oh, I forgot to mention their TEs Ben Watson and Kyle Brady), such that Laurence Maroney will be busting thru holes made for 18-wheelers.

Prediction: 2,000 yards for the NE #1 tailback, and 4,000 passing yards for Tom Brady. Garrrrr... !! So many weapons!!

----------
Update II: Posted on ESPN bulletin board:

"war_eagle32 (4/29/2007 at 10:58 AM)
this is just unfair...we're going to have to put a league limit on how many times the patriots can win superbowls"

Bwahhhahahahahaha... !!

----------
Update III: Moss to take $6M paycut -- Woof!

"He agreed to restructure and/or extend his contract to consummate the deal. He was due base salaries of $9.25 million in 2007 and $11.25 million in 2008. The contract he agreed to with the Patriots reduced his pay for 2007 to $3 million."

----------
Update IV: Bill Simmons has the perfect answer for the Chaatoeses (with whom I chortled on the phone this afternoon) of the world:

I'm even getting, "Congratulations, you guys are the new Yankees" e-mails, which is funny because there's a salary cap in football.

today's casualty report...

From Antiwar.com, lest the American people forget again...

like sex is to republicans...

The D.C. Madam scandal claims it's first casualty:

Tobias is mounting what I guess we might call the Haggard defense: no sex, just massages.

I believe it. I do. I firmly and resolutely believe Republicans wouldn't know what to do with it, assuming, of course they had it in the first place.

A party of over-compensatory *Cough!* Camel-toes more like...

----------
Update: Haggard, yes, but this "defense" smells more like Chuck Robb. When the former Dem Senator of Virginia was asked about what went on between him and Tai Collins in a New York hotel room, he insisted it was "just a massage." When Collins later posed for Playboy, she was seen on CNN promoting and autographing her cover for a long line of men, one of whom being informed that the Senator "says he didn't sleep with her." The man's eyes lit up as he grinned, "Well he should've!"

so sayeth the shut-in...

At the office, surfing the blogs as I track the NFL draft online, while listening to it on ESPN radio, even as I observe the pitch-by-pitch of the Sox/Yankees. Oh! And playing some Yahoo chess too...

e.Multi-tasker, I.

Pats up after KC makes their pick. Meanwhile, Wakefield just punched out A-Rod, and Mirabelli, that bloody-sock denier, throws Derek Jetah out at third. Strike 'em out/Throw 'em out. Yeahhhh, baby!

A good Saturday already.

gets more appropriate every day...

Reposting for posterity the perfect allegory: The Decider making (or bouncing off of) decisions.

If he gets stuck on a decision, just click'n drag.

the o.j. simpsons...

Surfing the NYPost as nothing pleasures me more, save for 2 or 3 hot babes at a time, than watching New Yorkers pissing & moaning about the Yankees. Then I came across The O.J. Simpsons.

Is it possible, after -- what, 17 years? -- that The Simpsons can never Jump The Shark? The concept alone cracked me up.

rude pundit rocks on...

He's one of the good ones, The Rude One:

Then Ann Curry asked Laura Bush about suffering Americans in this time of war, and the First Lady decided it's all about her and her man: "[N]o one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this." She followed this up by saying that people need to know about her husband, "I hope they do know the burden, the worry that's on his shoulders every single day for our troops. And I think they do. I mean, I think if they don't, they're not seeing what the real responsibilities of our president are." And later, the same goddamn day, the President danced like a lemur with cerebral palsy to show how burdened he is.

shoulda got while the gettin' was good...

I don't usually link to the right-winger sites, because, uhm, I don't like them. But I tripped over one written by some poor slob not named Vinny -- Surprise! Surprise! -- but A.J. Strata, who inexplicably wrote this:

If only Democrats still had the John Kennedy-Joe Lieberman mentality on world affairs, they would probably still be in the majority.

I found it on the blog-watch site at Salon. When I read it, I paused and wondered if I'd been transported in & out of time again, and somehow it was October, circa 2006. I checked my watch and then double-checked Strata's posting. He actually posted it today!!

I'd suggest somebody give 'im a clue but I figure the longer that kind sleeps, the better off the world be.

P.S. For those who may've ingested poison, Strata also has a sure way to induce vomiting. Caveat: Read only when standing near a porcelin-like basin:

Joe Lieberman is a breath of fresh air from the heated, emotional, vitriolic statements that come out of the current Democrat leaders.

Harrrrrroooowlp!

call it a week...

A little good news for you this fine, albeit rainy, friday afternoon (Beantown Time), i.e., if you catch this before you head home:

[I]t's just interesting to note that new confidence and newly partisan behavior has firmly penetrated the Senate. And Democrats now know that being strong on Iraq is a winning strategy. For thirty years, Democrats have been taught not to fight, and activists have been taught to not respect party structures and work outside them. Both of those trends are in full reverse, and while we won't see the full effects of this trend for twenty years, this is a very promising development.

----------
Update: Not that I believe in the nonsense, but this is my 666th posting since I started Barking Up Trees in August '05.

Put that in yer pipe'n smoke it!

so, like, dad's a dope (rising intonation)... ?!

Library sued after teen boys see 'lesbian sex book'[.]

The Bentonville, AR man is seeking $20,000 in damages and the firing of the town's top librarian, claiming his two sons were disturbed after stumbling upon The Whole Lesbian Sex Book in the town's public library.

My question is this: Is the book illustrated?

begala calls the kettle black...

... even though I agree with his ironic assertion that David Broder is a "gasbag." I especially like this line:

Perhaps Broder's bed-wetting tantrum against Reid was spurred by the certain knowledge that while Harry Reid has been telling hard truths, Mr. Broder has been falling hard for transparent lies.

I used to ride the Orange Line into D.C. every day. From time-to-time I'd recognize Broder sitting quietly, immersed in his paper, all the while resisting the urge to walk over and give him a noogie.

Chris Bliss amazing juggling routine.

Elder Brother forwarded this vid in an email.

Stunning performance, this, and Bonus! if you dig the musical choice, "Carry That Weight," from the Beatles' Abbey Road.

what recourse to a successful impeachment ignored: revolution... ?

I'd been wondering what would happen once this Kabuki dance began. Congress subpoenas Condi Rice, she says "executive privilege" and "go pound sand." What happens then? Kagro X at DailyKos summarizes:

• Subpoenas don't enforce themselves. People either comply with subpoenas because they're afraid not to, or they suffer the consequences of non-compliance.
• The consequences of non-compliance don't enforce themselves, either. People don't put themselves in jail, you've got to put them there.
• The people upon whom we usually rely to put law-breakers in jail are law enforcement officers. They work for the "unitary executive," not the courts.
• A question: If there was nobody to put you in jail for defying a subpoena, would you be bound to honor it? Not would you feel bound? Would you be bound?
• Finally, if you're not bound to honor a subpoena, is there such a thing as "subpoena power?"

Of course, if Pelosi and Reid finally snap out of it and realize the only way to bust a cap in this prick is to Impeach & Remove, what if he says, "No! Not leaving!"

What happens then?

yahoo chess update...

Rating: 1413
Games Completed: 2965
Games Abandoned: 155
Wins: 1854
Losses: 1003
Draws: 108
Streak: -2

Seems I'll never get to the magic .667 win percentage. I have, however, gotten my rating over 1500 a couple of times, but I'm always met up with some serious yabbo (in yahoo) with an ungodly 1600-1700 rating seeking another notch on his (never a her, curiously) pelt. I've actually beaten one or two of them, but I'm definitely of the masses and thus more comfortable with my own crowd of 1350s-1450s.

One little bastard had the gumption to wonder aloud, with my win percentage what it is, why my rating isn't in the 1600s, evidently impugning my sportsmanship (or my skill level) by suggesting I predate on the lower rated players. Truth be told, I open up a board and play whomever sits down. End of story. The record is what it is.

And as Bugs Bunny said once while chomping a carrot: Nexxxxxt!

idiot geniuses...

C&L brings the latest brilliance from The Daily Show.

after *american idol*, you mean... ?

Must Watch 2night!!

Barry Yourgrau wonders why (not) this was all the NYTimes had to say about it:

9 P.M. (PBS) BUYING THE WAR The season premiere of "Bill Moyers Journal" examines the proposition that the news media were complicit in pushing the United States into the war in Iraq. Dan Rather, Tim Russert and Bob Simon appear in interviews.

running out the clock...

Getting at the truth in Slo-Mo; an example:

It is likely to be weeks before the committee actually gets to interview Goodling. That's because the law requires that the Justice Department be allowed an opportunity to provide its views on immunity -- i.e. whether it might interfere with an existing or possible investigation. If the DoJ objects to giving Goodling immunity, then the committee would be forced to consider whether to defer or delay conferring immunity. And regardless of what the DoJ says, the local federal court has to approve giving Goodling immunity. All this is likely to take several weeks.

This with the Office of Special Counsel, whose director is also a likely Hatch-Act violater, announcing they too are investigating Karl Rove (fox, hen-house, etc.), which ought to delightfully throw many more spanners in Congress' investigative works.

So why not cut to the chase and Impeach the Bastard NOW!?

my money's on vinny...

Brain Williams said this a few weeks ago:

"You're going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe," said Williams. "All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I'm up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn't left the efficiency apartment in two years."

Who The F(lip) is Brian Williams? I find myself asking that every other day, and I suspect I'd ask it every day if I watched the NBC Nightly News anymore; imagining Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and John Chancellor in synchronized grave-turning. Which reminds me: add David Halberstam, who was killed in a California auto accident a couple of days ago, to the swim team:

Somewhere in there, gradually, but systematically, there has been an abdication of responsibility within the profession, most particularly in the networks.

This means you, Brian Williams!

By the way, I ain't Vinny and I do step outside once in a while.

You wanna step outside too, Brian Williams?

an impeachy idea...

Kucinich pulls the trigger:

After a series of delays, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a candidate for president in 2008, announced a series of charges against Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington, DC, late in the day. Kucinich alleged that the Vice President had committed a series of impeachable offenses, and he was therefore introducing Articles of Impeachment against Cheney in the Congress today.

And Naahm's up at the crack of dawn (what I pay him for):

And here we go. The articles of impeachment revealed.

A clue you will need, Naahm: No "loser of an issue" it! Cheney, on his best day, has 4 out of 5 people hating his guts. And winning "the middle" is so pre-9/11. People want out of the quagmire, by any means necessary!

the lost weekend...

I had planned on posting sooner on this, but got slammed at work today. Meanwhile, I'm bolstered by Naahm's encouragement. Ergo...

When I heard the Sox hadn't swept the Yankees at Fenway since 1990, I didn't believe it. But then I was recalling the more recent and most significant sweep in the history of the Carmine Hose: the ALCS circa 2004! Okay, it was a 7-game series and the Yankees took the first three. But can't we call it a sweep of four games subsequent?

What? Okay, two were at Fenway and then we bearded the Yanquis in their den -- The House that Ruth Built. Ruth, the cat our forefathers couldn't help but have had sold out from under them, literally for a song, by a Broadway producer, who coincidentally owned the Red Sox. And I'm proud to say I have not yet gone to see No No, Nanette!

What I did see last night, however, and I'm still buzzing internally about it, was Back2Back2Back2Back Jack!!!

I was sitting in Uno's at Harvard Square getting properly lubed on T&Ts (easy on the Tonic, thank you!), with a yammering oldster on my right and a retrospective Asian sort, whom I didn't presume was Japanese just because Dice-K was pitching, on my left. Every homer prompted an even louder "OHHHHH!" in unison. Hi-5s and fist-bumps (don't ask if you don't know) everywhere. The place was rockin'. The bartender had a small ship's bell above the barwell, which he clanged happily on each Jack by Messrs. Ramirez, Drew, Lowell and Varitek. ESPN, also appropriately, replayed the close-up of Sox GM Theo mouthing what could only be "Oh! My! God!" in between the replays of the homers. We all laughed each time too. Good times.

Today the Sox, with the superior pitching, are four games up on New York, they with the touted superior line-up, last nights events notwithstanding.

I call this the lost weekend because I spent wayyy too much money enjoying the festivities in Southie and Harvard Square and back again respectively. Way I figure it, though, it could be worse. I could've spent all that money rooting for the Yankees.

----------
Photo courtesy of IMDB.com -- Ray Milland, from "The Lost Weekend" (1945), must've been a Yankee fan.

soiled and blood-soaked undies...

Seriously funny stuff from Stephen Colbert's show...

g.

yer sunday squirrel-on-toast appetizer...

If you didn't despise Karl Rove before, how 'bout now?

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

Goes to credibility of time-tested proverb: Money is to Democrats what Sex is to Republicans.

catching abuzz...

Mouths agape as the crowd goes Cuckoo for Coco Crisp in his failed attempt to shag A-Rod's 2nd homer of the game -- Photo courtesy of Boston Globe
--------------------

As in: This town is ABuzz over the utterly improbable comeback last night against Mariano & the dreaded Yanquis.

I paid my tab in the 6th after the middle of the order -- Big Papi, Manny the Pan'y, et al. -- dribbled weak grounders, and Boston looked headed to certain defeat against a fairly strong-looking Andy Pettite. I was that certain it was post-toasties for the Carmine Hose in Green.

Here's where Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle" kicks in -- the principle that merely observing something changes that which is observed: If I stayed and had another drink, there would've been no comeback. That I left, however, the Sox pulled off another Miracle. So I missed the big series of events in the 8th. It wasn't until Christy text-messaged me with nothing more than "Woo-Hoo!"

I call her. I'm like, Whaaa... ? "They came back!" she says.

I run to the bar downstairs to catch Okijima closing it out in the 9th. WTF?? Where's Pap? On the shelf for fear of overworking him, another patron tells me. Aww Jeez!

So it's nail-biting time watching Oki pitch to A-Rod, he, already with 2 homers and a double, has a another opportunity with a runner on base and only one out. The bar is throbbing with fear & expectation.

Soft-liner to 2nd, A-Rod FAILS to deliver!! LOVE that Samurai spirit, babeeee!!

And when Oki punched out Thompson to end it, the bar, the whole town -- nay, The Red Sox Nation -- commenced to Rockin' with a capital Rock-a-billy Boogie!!

Beats hell out of watching the Nat'ls at RFK!!

game 1 at 7:05 p.m...

Sold out at Fenway. Gotta watch it in a bah... !!

Ol' Bloody Sock to Start for the Hose...

and now for something completely different...

'Ghost yacht' found floating off Great Barrier Reef

Rescuers in Australia are trying to solve the mystery of a yacht found drifting in calm waters off the Great Barrier Reef with food on the table, computers and engine running, but no sign of the three-man crew.

My question is this: Can I have the boat?

major story in the making...

And as per usual, Raw Story plants the seed:

Kucinich to launch Cheney impeachment push on April 25

I realize Kucinich is an utterly dismissable garden-gnome. He's as far left to the wing of the party as there can be such a place, and who simultaneously if inexplicably doubles as a Faux-News apologist. Moreover, the buzz on Capitol Hill is that nothing can be made of this. I read that to mean nobody has the stones to do the right thing and actually remove the vice president, snarling gargoyle he, from his spider hole under the Naval Observatory. But mark these words: This Will Become Major News. Vermont and other states have been pushing for both Bush's, as well as Cheney's, impeachment. Right now, the focus is on Fredo testifying before the Senate Judiciary committee. Maybe the impeachment push will include him, as Dubya seems impervious to sound advice and is thus unlikely to fire his pet squirrel over at Justice.

Meanwhile, and as per usual, the major dailies don't make anything of it: The Times, The Post, not even The Boston Globe. Sleepy goddamn M$M seems never to break news anymore, leaving it to the Blogosphere to rake the muck and then foment the unrelenting buzz over it until the overpayed slobs wake from their slumber muttering, "Oh here's a story!"

George Orwell? Meet Aldous Huxley!

----------
Late Friday Update: Vermont pushes bid to impeach Bush

The senate in the northeastern US state of Vermont passed a resolution Friday calling on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush, senate officials said.

somebody explain this to mike huckabee...

The difference between Don Imus and Bill Maher, governor, is Maher's funny!! E.g.:

New Rule: Iran and Tom Cruise must swap hostages. Those 15 British sailors for Katie Holmes and her space baby. It's a Shiite-Scientologist match made in heaven. The Iranians get something they've always wanted, the chick from "Dawson's Creek," and Tom gets something he's always wanted: 15 British sailors.

Best argument yet why Imus shouldn't've been fired: Idiots like Huckabee crawl out of the woodwork and call for more capable people to be made to fall on their swords. And -- Surprise! Surprise! -- that goes for Al Franken on CNN calling for Glenn Beck's dismissal. Beck should be kicked in the ass (and not watched), but not kicked to the curb.

Meanwhile, Maher's "New Rules" is the funniest thing on TV -- bar none!

turning red litmus paper blue...

Via MyDD: "The Hackett Litmus Test" for Democrats. I, like, dig it...

I suggest that we DID have a litmus test, and that Paul Hackett met every important point. It's just not any of the litmus tests that we usually hear about. While I am sure that all of us would have our favorite elements, they would have to include some or all of the following:

1. Does he 'distance himself' from the party or its leaders, or is he proud to be a Democrat?

2. Does he talk like a bureaucrat or like a regular person?

3. Does he make it clear that he opposes Bush and the Republicans?

4. Does he back down when the corporate press/media or Republican pundits attack him, or does he stand by his words?

5. Does he respond to the nationwide reaction of the left blogosphere, or does he assign it to a junior staff member?

6. Does he sleepwalk through the campaign, or does he act like he wants to win?

I don't know all of Paul Hackett's positions and, since I am an old school lefty I am sure I don't agree with all of them. But he passed the litmus test I have set out for Democratic candidate I will support with time and donations.

in dreams there be...

Man, oh man! I am having some wild dreams these days -- er, nights.

Last week I'm dreaming, starting a new job. I'm introduced to a young woman in the office, who could be Scarlett Johannson, and who, alas, takes an instant dislike to me. It happens. They either love me or hate me. Not many are indifferent. I've accepted that a long time ago. So I keep my distance. Odd thing though -- when you dream, desire or intent seem ancillary, even though Freud would probably say they're all about wish-fulfillment. But here I felt like an automaton and despite my best efforts, Scarlett, or whatever her name is, keeps appearing in some doorway -- always a doorway! -- in different places, scowling at me for apparent misdeeds perpetrated by me via ommission or co-.

And then one day I'm at the window in some ocean front cottage, very similar to the one I lived in for a couple of years in Maine back in the 70s, looking out at the surf. And then there's Scarlett. This time she sidles up beside me on the back of the chaise and looks out the window too. She smiles but says nothing and doesn't look at me. My utter bewilderment manifests itself with my turning and plopping down on the cushions. Immediately she does the same, but then takes the extra step of writhing her lovely bottom into me, and we spoon. Very touching. Verrrrry arousing.

They hate me. They love me. It's a very fine line.

Okay, that was Dream 1. Here's Dream 2:

I'm outside a large triple-decker colonial home, akin to a classic New England multi-unit and Terra from Gone With The Wind. Pillars out front declare its elegance and stateliness. The land is immediately buttressed with thick woods all around the small, circular, bit of land. I find myself beginning a steeple-chase: around the house, into the woods, down to a stream, around rocks, back up the hill, into the house. Crazy shit!

I'm racing my older brother. My younger brother is the judge. Again, crazy shit!

Well I'm miles ahead of older bro, or whatever the unit-of-measure is in Dreamworld. The end of the race comes when the front-runner races up the winding staircase, into the bathroom, and unscrews the lightbulb over the sink. Or so I had thought.

I hoist the bulb aloft and declare victory to nobody. I'm alone. Then I hear tromping at the bottom of the staircase. Ah, the also-ran, but dear, older brother.

No!! It's Jennifer Aniston. What the... ?

Did I mention I was dreaming?

Jennifer Aniston stops at the top of the staircase and lifts a shroud draped over the banister post; a shroud that wasn't there when I went by. She unveils a gold cup and hoists it aloft and yells "I Win!"

My reaction is alarm. And, channelling Cartman, I rage: No! No! I won! I won, goddamit!

Li'l Brother comes tromping up the steps to rule. He declares: "You did not abide by the rules. Jennifer wins!"

The frustration wakes me up. I'd since forgotten what the hell happened to Older Bro.

Oh, one more Dream. This arrived this morning:

George Bush is giving a press conference when suddenly some dark suit comes in and declares a snap election. It's done electronically and is tabulated right then and there via internet and television. Bush Loses!! He is removed from the podium. Dick Cheney is dragged past the cameras snarling. There is a mad rush among the press in the background, and then the suit steps up to declare the new president: John Kerry.

Oh hell, you rightists, it could've been anyone, but there he was, Kerry! Big Kerry grin!

Now I slip back into the ethereal darkness of dreaming, where I see nothing but still remember, and I could've come up with anything to analyze what just happened. And yet my first thought was: "Scooter Libby is sooo fucked!"

I actually believed it happened and thrilled at the prospect, for a split second anyway... just before my alarm went off.

Sigh!

pats do a haywood sullivan with sauerbrun...

Who'd'a thunk it?

Punter Todd Sauerbrun was declared an unrestricted free agent yesterday after a special master ruled that the Patriots' rights of first refusal were void.

Admittedly this posting is a bit "inside baseball" for football, and there's a hint for ya' right there, kiddiez! I figure Naahm'll get the Sully reference. Chaatoes? Doubtful. Not even sure my brothers'd get it without Googling.

Boyz?

reality check...

Dose of cold water, call it what you want. Don't like my need to be detached from the carnage in Blacksburg? Precisely my point! And I don't know where I read it through the browsing, but somebody made a very interesting point: What happened at Virginia Tech yesterday? Iraquis deal with that Every! Single! Day! And whose fault is that?

My God, the Japanese were right to ask the question after Columbine: "How sick is the gun society?"

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Update: It was Larry Johnson at No Quarter.

Let's total the score: at least 65 Iraqis dead in four attacks vs. 22 Americans shot at Virginia Tech. Whoops, forgot the 20 kidnapped policemen. Can you imagine?

The next time you hear Dick Cheney or George Bush blame the public attitude regarding Iraq on the media's failure to report "good news", examine carefully our reaction to the shooting at Viginia Tech. Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.

heresy according to baker...

I know the world is crumbling around us, what with the Virginia Tech psychosis, the bees disappearing because we gotta have our cell phones (and how much you wanna bet Verizon & AT&T'll go all Exxon on us, buying off junque-scientists to disavow any such evidence), and the prospect Karl Rove will be pardoned, but here's what's bothering me this morning: Jimmy Buffett sounds like Liberace, especially in his duet w/Sinatra singing Mack The Knife.

I'm serious, this is a catastrophe!

quietude at the bpl...

Greetings from Back Bay. The Boston Public Library has few hot-spots with electrical outlets -- counterintuitive in this day & age that -- but the front reading room in the old section provides for laptop mavens everywhere. The ambience is pleasant and similar to the scene in Breakfast At Tiffany's where Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard repair to the reading room at the New York Public Library in Manhattan, just for a little quiet after a day on the town.

[Sidebar: I've been to that library as well, while visiting a friend a few years ago. It is gigantic. But what struck me most were the many original drawings of Charles Addams, he the creator of The Addams Family, adorning the walls -- hundreds of them, presumably already published in The New Yorker magazine years before.]

It's a large room here, with high cathedral ceilings -- very colonial/gothic; busts of lettered men, presumably, stand on pedestals at the exits, reminding one that there were indeed men who had achieved in past lives. I sit at a large oak table, one of 40 or 50 in two long columns. Elegant table lamps festoon two to a table. Now I am plugged in, and now I can blather to my pop-cultural heart's content.

But I shant as I have much to ruminate elsewhere, and many papers thru which to sift. The tax man cometh, you see, and Beware ye' Commoners!

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Update: I couldn't find the library scene from Breakfast... via Google, but settled on the two-shot of Peppard & Hepburn above. Photo courtesy of MPTV.net

bledsoe retires...

Upside: Bill Parcells picked him and not Rick Mirer; led Pats to '96 Superbowl v. Green Bay (and fuck Desmond Howard already!)...

Downside: This doof could hold on to the ball longer than my brother's first golden retriever, and that fool pooch just would never let it go! And the dog could at least run. Bledsoe couldn't. Lotta freakin' sacks!!

another one bites the dust...

Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

Loved "Slaughter House Five" and "Breakfast of Champions"...

meanwhile, back at some department called, uhh, "justice"...

About the only good thing one can say about Al-Ghraib Gonzalez is he's bad at lying:

At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.'s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers—including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan—about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added.

h/t to Kurtz at TPM...

and remember kiddies: even *republican* pols from massachusetts are still from -- ugh! -- "massachusetts"...

Huckabee knows a front-runner by default when he sees one:

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was wrong to suggest he was a lifelong hunter even though he never took out a license, campaign rival Mike Huckabee said Sunday.

Let's see now: Giuliani favors publicly-funded abortions; McCain can't escape the image of felating Dubya; and now Marvelous Mitt apes John Kerry.

Those poooooor evangelitans. Whot is they gonna dooo... ??

pap smears texas...

Papelbon, Sox overpower the Rangers

So with runners on the corners, in came Papelbon. And on came the sigh of relief[.]

What, don't like my header... ?

oh, damn... !

CEO saves Bush from self-immolation

[Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan] Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of Ford's hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid at the White House last week.

Insert glib rejoinder here ___________________________.

moving day - minus 1

Packing it up yet again for a move into The City as I found some space in Southie in a fairly cool neighborhood. Don't know when I'll be posting again.

No bat-time. No bat-channel.

Yet.

tragic...

Former NFL Player Stingley Dies at 55

The Pats' equivalent to Tony Conigliaro...

oof... ! just so many jokes here, my head imploded...

Keith Richards: "I Snorted My [Cremated] Father"

Now excuse me whilst I go blow my nose.

Dad?

there in spirit...

Students Pelt Karl Rove In Protest

Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said.

Sis Boom Bah... !!

Update: HuffPo has the YouTube vid...

florida 84 - ohio state 75

There's yer "Pats Blow!! Pats Blow!! Pats Blow!!!," Chaaty ol' chap!

I only goof on ye as I had Florida in the Madness auction.

if you tell anybody i said this, i'll deny it...

A Democrat with testicles is a beautiful thing.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), long one of the gutsy leaders on the Democratic side of the Senate aisle, has announced that he will propose legislation immediately on return from this week's break that will cut off all funding for the Iraq war in less than a year.

Upping the ante on another major showdown immediately following the expected Bush veto of the war-funding (and withdrawal) bill, is the fact that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) supports the Feingold measure and has signed on as the bill's first cosponsor.

nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american people...

H.L. Mencken, a Mr. P.T. Barnum on Line 1:

These poll results come just a few months after an international study was conducted to measure which countries were the most accepting on evolutionary biology. Of the 34 countries involved, the United States ranked 33rd. Only Turkey ranked lower.

oh, snap... !!

I'd been waiting for this other shoe to drop:

Aspell reports that McCain's "stroll" today through a Baghdad market was guarded by 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships.

My gahd! what a sniveling wretch John McCain's become.

the four horsemen of the apocalypse...

Here's what I want to see a lot more of...

Justices: EPA Can Control Car Emissions

The court's four conservative justices -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- dissented.

I would bet anytime those four assholes are "in dissent" together, We The People can chalk it up as a Win.

Update: Wiki defines well my header:

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are mentioned in the Bible in chapter six of the Book of Revelation. The four horsemen are traditionally named Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. However, this is slightly at odds with the conventional interpretation of the Bible, which actually only directly names the fourth: "Death".

Sounds about right.

opening day...

Baseball being the sport of traditionalist-Americans everywhere, my self included, I am obliged to loathe what transpired last night. Yes, "night". Baseball now opens its season at night; that and the World Series is played all at night now, an abomination that started back in '71 between the O's and Pirates. Even so, some of those games were played under the afternoon sun or overcast skies. But no more.

I realize it isn't as though I spent years enjoying the Series in daylight, which I started following only the year before between the O's & Reds -- and speaking of the latter, up until a couple of years ago they were The Opening Day Team; again, no more -- but it's the principle: baseball is The Summer Game, and summer is spent outdoors in the freakin' sunshine. Okay?

Growing up, all my games were in the afternoon: Little League, Babe Ruth. No night games. No stadium lights. (Yes, yes, I know: First night game w/lights was 1933, not including that 19th Century-period produced GE Commercial touting stadium lights and handle-bar mustaches.)

Anyway, I gotta get back to work here, the Sox are in K.C. this afternoon.

Be it ever so...

f d ny x's...

For those of you who don't want to pay the $50 firewall price to read Frank Rich (via Pottersville):

That’s one reason it will be good for the country if Mr. Edwards can stay in this race for the duration, whether you believe he merits being president or not. (For me, the jury on that question is out.) The more Elizabeth Edwards is in the spotlight, the more everyone else in the arena will have to be judged against her. Next to her stark humanity, the slick playacting that passes for being “human” and “folksy” in a campaign is tinny. Though much has been said about how she is a model to others battling cancer, she is also a model (or should be) of personal transparency to everyone else in the presidential race.