Dems Grow Testicles

Even if it is the womenfolk...

Nancy Pelosi after Dubya's Same Shit Different Day Speech:

"I'm endorsing what Mr. Murtha is saying, which is that the status quo is not working and that we need to have a plan that makes us safer and our military stronger and makes Iraq more stable," she said. "I believe that what he has said has great wisdom."

Contrary to what the Repos would have you believe, Murtha's call is for a draw-down/redeployment of troops and not a unilateral withdrawl. And with the House Minority Leader now on-board, Democrats appear to be realizing that playing the middle against both ends isn't such a winning strategy. Please, someone, tell it to Hillary, who evidently fancies herself a Chess Mistress, zealously guarding the middle of the board:

"Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have been asked to give the president authority to use force against Iraq," she said. Clinton stopped short of saying her vote was a mistake, the political path chosen by two other potential Democratic candidates former vice presidential candidate John Edwards and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

Well'a hold on theah, Choppah!! Biden has not admitted making a "mistake" in his vote:

"The only regret I had voting for the war is that I never anticipated how incompetent the administration would be in using the authority we gave them to avoid war.

And this is where I get off. Democrats DID know that Dubya is, and always has been, dumber than a sack of hair. They knew Rumsfeld was an arrogant prick who undercut his military's assessment in that any occupation of Iraq would require at least double, and probably triple, the number of troops he deemed adequate. They knew Saadam had been contained since Desert Storm, how he despised Osama and his kind, and wanted no part of what the U.S. did to Afghanistan after 9/11. And they knew Dubya had every intent of invading Iraq regardless of UN inspections, which, incidentally, were proving to be more comprehensive as they'd ever been, precisely because American troops were once again at his doorstep, once again proving they didn't have to go in.

They didn't care!! - the enabling Dems. They did, however, lack the spine to say, "Hey! We're on board for getting after Osama. But Iraq? Are you, like, stupid?? No fucking way!"

But it's mighty convenient now to hang their hats on Dubya's mendacity, even if they have to lie about having been duped. Well fine! Any ol' port in a storm. And certainly Dubya deserves more than getting taken off at the knees.

And yet... Annoying as this dead armadillo strategy is, I think Hillary may at last be taking some iron supplements:

I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the President and his Administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war.

Refreshing, that: "I take responsibility." D'be good if the Democratic Party might build a campaign on precisely those words.

And, uhm, maybe sometime in the near future?

Aww Jeez, Lieberman Again?

So is Paul Newman gonna run against this prick next year or what?

Courtesy of Atrios:
Time magazine Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware on Morning Sedition this morning:

I and some other journalists had lunch with Senator Joe Lieberman the other day and we listened to him talking about Iraq. Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he's completely lost the plot or he knows he's spinning a line. Because one of my colleagues turned to me in the middle of this lunch and said he's not talking about any country I've ever been to and yet he was talking about Iraq, the very country where we were sitting.

I'm already on the record regarding the weasal from Connecticut.

Is Bush Psychotic?

Seymour Hersh telling it to Wolf Blitzer (excerpted via DailyKos):

He's a utopian, you could say, in a world where maybe he doesn't have all the facts and all the information he needs and isn't able to change.

I'll tell you, the people that talk to me now are essentially frightened because they're not sure how you get to this guy.

We have generals that do not like -- anymore -- they're worried about speaking truth to power. You know that. I mean that's -- Murtha in fact, John Murtha, the congressman from Pennsylvania, which most people don't know, has tremendous contacts with the senior generals of the armies. He's a ranking old war horse in Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. The generals know him and like him. His message to the White House was much more worrisome than maybe to the average person in the public. They know that generals are privately telling him things that they're not saying to them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this how the Germans lost the war on D-Day, because Hitler overrode General Rommel when the latter suggested Omaha Beach as the likelier landing point for the allied invasion? And right up to zero-hour, Rommel's telling the command staff in Berlin (or at the Bunker), "It's Omaha Beach, I'm telling you! Redeploy the forces!" or something like that. And the senior staff couldn't -- or wouldn't -- because none of them was brave enough to be the messenger?

And we have, what, another 3 years of this?

For The Record...

The Sterling Vintner's Collection Cabernet '03 is excellent... !

Herbie Mann's Memphis Underground goes well with it...

as does Billy Joel's New York State of Mind...

Tyson's Corner Mall, particularly during the Christmas (ya' happy, Jerry Falwell, you supercilious fuck!?) shopping season, is rife with gorgeous young women...

And that's all there is...

What Hath Home-Schooling Wrought?

Lynx and Lamb, those well-home-schooled chicklets, are still in the news, via Salon:

White pride denied
Remember Lynx and Lamb Gaede, the 13-year-old white-supremacist crooners who made the news a few weeks back?

"Teen People" has reportedly killed a feature on the twins, after it became known that someone at the magazine had promised that the words "hate," "supremacist," and "Nazi" would not be used in the piece.

According to the New York Daily News, an Internet teaser for the February story referred to the sisters -- whose songs include "Aryan Man Awake" and "Weiss! Weiss! Weiss!" -- as "aspiring musicians" and compared them to the Olsen twins.

If the Olsen twins had been taught to hate minorities, played a video game called "Ethnic Cleansing" and written songs glorifying Hitler henchman Rudolf Hess, maybe. But the Teen People blurb didn't get into that angle, referring to the Gaede twins' message as a matter of simple "white pride."

People furious about the upcoming, and apparently compromised, coverage of the sister act rallied in protest outside of Time Warner, which owns Teen People.

In response, Teen People nixed the piece, and a Time Warner spokeswoman blamed the whole mess on "a junior employee" who "made unauthorized assurances to the mother of the Gaede twins regarding the prohibition of certain words in the story."

The Daily News ran their story under the headline "Mag tells 'Nazi' singers: Heil, no!"

I can't top that.

Cute names, though, don'tcha think?

And You Thought Texas Republicans Were Nasty?

Jesus Christ! Check out Kentucky!

The charge of violating the state's Whistleblower Act, pending in Franklin District Court, could bring one year in jail. The grand jury indicted [newly appointed Sec'y of Transportation Bill Nighbert] Sept. 20, weeks after [Gov. Ernie] Fletcher pardoned Nighbert and eight other aides who were charged for their roles in an alleged hiring scheme intended to pack the state payroll with politically connected Republicans.

The American Republican Party in the 21st Century: Openly corrupt and incestuous.

And if you'll pardon the baseball analogy here, where Kentucky and Texas are triple-A, Washington is the majors, and you can bet Governor Fletcher's rubbing his constituents' noses repeatedly in his sleaze, and whether he gets away with it, is being closely monitored just outside the oval office.

Jose Padilla

This is arguably the worst aspect of the Bush legacy, an administration swamped in corruption and war criminality yet arrogating themselves the privilege of deciding who is and who is not guilty of being a terrorist:

"Much thought goes into how and why various tools are used in these often complicated cases," Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said on Friday. "The important thing is for someone not to come away thinking this whole process is arbitrary, which it is not."

Not arbitrary? Well let's see: they've suspended habeus corpus, the right to counsel, the right to face one's accuser, the right to speedy trial, etc., etc. OK! I get it! The entire Bill of Rights is toast, but it's not arbitrary.

As my Ex- likes to say: "Yah! My ass is on fire!"

That DoJ felt the need to move Jose Padilla from military to federal custody is telling in that they know they haven't the goods to charge him with anything remotely criminal, let alone terroristic, and that it's only a matter of time, which this maneuver bought them, before the courts catch up to these slight-of-hand prosecutorial crumb-bums... that is unless Scalito is confirmed by an expectedly obsequious Senate before the clock runs out. This will be when the Bill of Rights won't be worth the faux-parchment it's copied on, and America's status as a police state will be a fait accompli.

And then maybe even white people will get busted for no reason a'tall.

Shot Bear Bites Back

"Man kills for sport but the animal dies in earnest." Unknown...

Beauchamp, of nearby Newville, had just shot the bear with a .444-caliber rifle and was within 15 feet of it. He turned to run, but the bear put a claw around his hip and bit him twice, once in each thigh, before dying.

The story both saddens & gladdens. I root for any bear, not caught rummaging on somebody's back porch, to give as good as he gets, but alas this bastard gets to tell his side of it.

Kansas Morons

It ain't me, babe!

(Or, it ain't only me, babe!)

Past My Bedtime

Am now linking to Craigslist because:

Saying U.S. newspapers "are afraid to talk truth to power," Craigslist founder Craig Newmark hinted that he's about to launch a major online journalism project within the next few months that will copy the successful "wisdom of the masses" approach to classified advertising and apply it to journalism.

Actually, I'd been planning on checking out Craigslist for a while and have done so only now. Oft times behind the curve I.

And please note Newmark's point is the reason this blog does not link to The New York Times or The Washington Post.

Hear! Hear!

Jeremy Scahill for The Nation:

The Bush Administration clearly blamed Al Jazeera for undermining the first siege on Falluja and fueling Iraqi public opinion and resistance against the US occupation. Given Washington's record of attacking Al Jazeera both militarily and verbally, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the Bush Administration could have simply decided that it was time to take the network out. What is needed now is for a British newspaper or magazine to publish the memo for all the world to see--and if they face legal action, they should be backed up by every major media organization in the world. If true, Bush's threat is a bold confirmation of what many journalists already believe: that the Bush Administration views us all as enemy combatants.

Yo, Heavynews, Mr. Newspaper Editor! You payin' attention?

Back From The Holiday

Thankful that my father has made a remarkable rebound from ill health, through modern medication and the attention and care of a fabulous woman - his wife. Enjoyed the trip down to Richmond and back with my brother (appreciating the state troopers hard at work and in force this post-holiday, and picking on other motorists than ourselves), and, after having only now gotten used to his mug, am very sorry to see him off to Massachusetts tomorrow and for good.

And I'm thankful for having had the agreeable break from the daily routine, including hours in front of the computer (instead of, say, reclining on the chaise reading an honest-to-gahd newspaper); just long enough to google Akeem Olajuwon as having been drafted #1 in '84, just before Sam Bowie and then Michael Jordan at Nos. 2 & 3 respectively. I had mistakenly contended Bowie went first and Jordan 2nd, while the man now called Hakeem was taken in another draft altogether. I dunno, maybe I was thinking Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning.

Like, glad I didn't wager.

Anyway, came back this morning in time to go on duty at noon. Just finished my shift and am now browsing the links. (P.S. My work reminds me of something I am most unrepentantly not thankful for: idiots who lard their voice-mail reception with ever longer cuts of ear-splitting music, as though we reeeeeeeally want to hear a minute-&-1/2 of Dr. Dre thru an ear phone not designed for music and by way of a sporadic satellite signal. Look, I don't even wanna hear Ella that way, okay? And too many people do it. Whatever happened to "Please leave a message... [beeep]"?

Anyway, back to the back to the...

Here's Sidney Blumenthal hitting another home run:

The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.

Richard Nixon is the model, but with modifications. In the Nixon administration, the president was the prime mover, present at the creation of his own options, attentive to detail, and conscious of their consequences. In the Cheney administration, the president is volatile but passive, firm but malleable, presiding but absent. Once his complicity has been arranged, a closely held "cabal" -- as Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calls it -- wields control.

Let's not overstate it: Dick Cheney is a fiend, a most vile and foul example of its species. Or if you prefer the reality-based terminology: a fucking war criminal! In a poetically just world, his arrest, trial in a world court, conviction and punishment would be meted out summarily and with extreme prejudice.

During the process of which, the world court would give Dubya, for turning state's evidence (the lousy snitch!), the lesser of the two sentences: Life with no chance of parole, and with an unhygenic cellmate nicknamed "The Pecker," a former Ultimate Fighter who'd find himself disqualified from the '07 finals and banned from the circuit for repeatedly applying unnatural and imperically distasteful holds on his opponents.

The Enemy of My Enemy - Part Deux...

Is it me or does George Bush behave like a man who imagines creatures crawling up his backside? A visual treat to be sure, especially when one of these creatures is named Hugo Chavez. In the less metaphorical universe, of course, Hugo Chavez is the very shrewd El Presidente of Venezuela, who, over the last several weeks, has been getting the better of our George, be it in Argentina or right here at home:

The Venezuelan-owned and U.S.-based fuel refiner and distributor Citgo will begin distributing discounted heating oil to poor U.S. communities next week. Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, made the announcement yesterday, saying that the measure is meant to show Venezuela’s commitment to disadvantaged sectors in the United States.

Here we have George Bush's best friends in the whole world, those lying lovers of cock, commonly known as "Oil Execs," at a considerable disadvantage in the matter of public relations, and now most particularly in the eyes of my New England brethren.

I, of course, delight in all this as it plays to my pride and to my funnybone. First, it's Beantown - home of my prime and its fonder memories - participating in the exquisite undercutting of Exxon and Mobil and British Petroleum, sidekicks to the uber war-profiteer Haliburton, and for my money the real Axis of Evil; and second, Chavez is providing genuine assistance to Americans in need, and while doing so, illustrating wonderfully by deed our president's incapacity for same - no small revenge for Dubya's coup attempt on Chavez three years ago.

Questions on Next Week's Civics Exam:
1) Which president was actually elected and then reelected by the people?
2) Which president is better serving the needs of the American people?
3) Which country is not a democracy?

Go Citgo!

Now if only Venezuela can import generic prescription medication...

----------
P.S. By the way, did you notice the Citgo sign over the left-field wall... in Houston?? And isn't Houston, uhm, Bush country?

Everybody loves Beantown.

Quack! Quack!

Now if only we can get him to talk in punchy 9-second soundbites, we'll get to see him on Hardball every other night too:

[Rabbi Eric] Yoffie said liberals and conservatives share some concerns, such as the potential damage to children from violent or highly sexual TV shows and other popular media. But he said, overall, conservatives too narrowly define family values, making a "frozen embryo in a fertility clinic" more important than a child, and ignoring poverty and other social ills.

Yoffie makes the now very unPC comparison to Hitler when desribing the zealotry of the Paleo-Christians, or, as he puts it more generically, "the Religious Right." Of course the Dobsons, Robertsons and Falwells will still hyperventilate at being pushed back, no matter how inconsequential the messenger or his barb, but the analogy is well-taken over here.

Hey! Facism is facism. And if it's unrecognizeable to Peter, Paul or Mary because it isn't wearing a swastika armband, then I say it still waddles like a duck with a little black mustache. What's more, it isn't reciprocal. It doesn't work when one of the Pope's alter boys -- say, Jerkyboy Santorum -- uses it while referencing the left, and unapologetically at that. And ya' know why? Because we're Commie symps, ya' dope, ya'!! Compare us to Trotsky ferchri-yeye, then we can say, "Oh! Well!"

Right, tovaritch?

Do svidanja!

Hot Stove On a Cold Winter Morning

Okay it's still Autumn, but who's counting? It's stories like this why I start my day with the Boston sports pages:

Nearly two years after acquiring Curt Schilling from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Red Sox are on the verge of getting another overpowering right-hander to bolster their starting rotation.

And this one is just 25 years old.

Morning again in Beantown.

Why I Carry an ACLU Card

Because they don't let shit like this go:

ACLU attorney Chris Hansen said the suit is being filed because "the government should not be in the business of silencing Americans who are perceived to be critical of certain policy decisions."

I have no idea what they can get from those joyless Young Repo bastards, but I'd settle for a coupla pounds of flesh.

A Neat Trick That

Bush Tones Down Attack on Iraq War Critics...

Yes but can he walk and chew gum with his tail tucked between his cloven hooves?

Capote

Got a call last night from Bolivian babe Ingrid for a late dinner in Arlington, afterwhich we adjourned to Shirlington to catch Capote on the semi-big screen.

I'm not one to dispense superlatives willy nilly (or I'd be a movie critic as a rule), but all the buzz you might be hearing about Philip Seymour Hoffman is true; his performance is transcendant -- uhm, not to sound too gay about it.

The favorite scene is the one of the post-"reading" party. The ribaldry seemed genuinely spontaneous even as it was hysterical, or it was improvised and fueled by real alcohol in those glasses (& not the pair on his face). Second favorite is the last interaction between Capote and Perry Smith, played by Clifton Collins, Jr., who shows remarkable range himself.

By all means, do go and see.

M$M Today

Here's a tidy summary, complete with bullet points, of how the Bush administration has been waging a secret war on the side, and one far better planned at that; only it's on the media:

In his famous opinion in the 1945 Associated Press v. US case, Justice Hugo Black said that "the First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society." In other words, a free press is the sine qua non of the entire American Constitution and republican experiment.

Good for a quick reference. Print out a copy, and the next time some wanker bawls about "the liberal media," you can roll it up and smack 'im upside his stupid head.

He said with a smile.

Rats, Sinking Ship, etc...

Charles Krauthammer, a.k.a. "Chucky," is only the latest:

Let's be clear. Intelligent design may be interesting as theology, but as science it is a fraud.

I'd have'ta' look it up, but wasn't Chucky previously on board for shovelling this drivel, a la Jerkyboy Santorum? Lord knows he pushes all the other neo-con caca.

Am now taking the over/under on when the Kansas Board of Diseducation capitulates on their redefining the word "Science."

Strange Bedfellows

Oh, man! When the Catholic church backs your play, you gotta a) rethink your play, or b) take the money and run:

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

Old pal Chontos and I, both good Catholic boys who've since given it up for Lent, are in agreement with respect to American religious dogma and how it is dispensed, i.e., shoved down the throats of the young and the simple-minded. Moreover, we reinforce the other's belief that modern Catholic schooling, or at least that to which we were exposed, was never anti-intellectual. (Messrs. Copernicus and Galilleo, please call your offices!) Evangelicals, however, have clearly miscalculated in applying a higher value on a subjective worldview rather than on known imperical data, essentially the physical universe as based in objective reality.

This bit of news from the Vatican, then, is most welcome. The Paleo-Christians are now in retreat on the subject of Intelligent Design, especially considering the vote in Pennsylvania, and are just a little bit more isolated today on the issue of what is and what is not "Science."

Meanwhile, the betting here is Kansas will eventually see the error of its ways, and perhaps as soon as next summer -- just as its high school juniors start receiving rejection letters from the major universities.

Bob Wayward

Very nice piece on Bob Woodward by Tim Dickenson at Rolling Stone:

Woodward's lack of candor -- failing to tell his boss of the leak for 2 years -- raises many troubling questions: Does his loyalty lie to his paper? Or to the administration that granted him an all-access pass? It's also troubling that Walter Pincus -- arguably the best investigative reporter in Washington -- made a tacit agreement with Woodward not to pursue the latter's involvement in the case. Whatever happened to "without fear or favor"?

This is a major disillusioning for me. After being told:

1. the Tooth Fairy was really Mom...
2. the Easter Bunny was the one served up in Fatal Attraction...
3. Santa Claus was... Dad... ??
4. That Jesus really isn't...

Well, I had'ta' punt on that last one my own self...

So all I had left for idol worship was Bob Woodward. I grew up a news junkie, with grand plans on becoming a journalist - and he was a bonifide hero. I read All The President's Men twice, and The Final Days, Wired, The Brethren (betting now Scott Armstrong did the heavy lifting in that one) -- all of 'em, great reads!!

I also possess but didn't read a couple of his recent tomes; one involving [yawn!] the 5 remaining living presidents (or when Reagan was still shivering and Dubya was just another dickhead in Texas) and the one on the Clinton/Dole race. I cannot now be bothered to Google the titles. And I will never go near that purported cum-swallow he wrote about the post-911 Bush administration, such [choke] Heros they are and all.

I mean, I always knew he was a Republican, but WTF? So was I! I got over it!

But his approach to his more recent writings and marked by his TV appeareances, one could only get the sense he'd become co-opted: with his calling Fitzgerald's investigation "a disgrace" or his prediction that Cheney would run in '08 (like, are you fucking kidding me?) . He had really begun to disturb, y'know?

And now this? Jesus! What a slide!

And to look at him, over & over in the 24-hr news loop, he looks like some large-mouthed bass with glasses.

Some kinda come-down from Robert Redford, eh?

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Pressroom - #6

At long last, sir, have you no sense of irony?

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Pressroom - #5

Yeah, Scott, thanks for taking my question.

Regarding your response to Congressman Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq, you are quoted as saying, and I quote:

"The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists."

This comes right on the heels of the Vice President's dig at those who're calling for the administration to account, where he says -- and, again, I quote:

"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone — but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history."

My question, Scott, is where do chickenhawks get the balls to question anybody's patriotism?

Thomas Paine

Am browsing the newly linked AlterNet and have enjoyed this piece on Thomas Paine, a man, I'm ashamed to admit, I know too little about, and here a kindred spirit:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

And this:

"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."

With this extension of appreciation to AlterNet, I think I should now like to read Paine's The Age of Reason.

Very Cool Illusion (he repeated w/out regard to consequence)...

The HAMster sent this over. Check it out. But don't stay too long, I think it's a mind-control thingy.

... and now I can shrink my inbox a little bit more.

"Christians," Says You?

"Rat bastards," says I:

But these days, Rolla and the 185 other students who are part of the station are learning a tough lesson about the ways of the Federal Communications Commission. That's because a move by WAVM to increase its power signal backfired. The FCC ruled that, when the power increase was proposed, other broadcasters would be allowed to bid on the frequency. This month, the agency tentatively awarded the frequency to Living Proof Inc., a religious broadcaster based in Bishop, Calif., that plans to broadcast out of Lunenburg.

This is a dated story somewhat, but I had the link sitting in my email inbox for too long and I had to comment on it before I could finally delete the thing.

So: Being a Massachusetts boy with an extensive background in radio, including a stint at WAVA.FM, the Paleo-Christian station in Washington (I know, but I was desperate for the gig. If it's any consolation, Mark, the gay board-op, and I attempted an insurgency dubbed "Anti-social Darwinists"; good for a few yucks, but short-lived alas!), which allows me, or so I like to think anyway, a well-earned antipathy for "Christian" broadcasting, this story cuts a little too close to the bone.

I cannot overstate my contempt for the FCC and the way it operates, serving no other purpose today than to take direction from uber criminal Karl Rove in foregoing regulation but instead greasing the skids for corporate media's voracious anti-trust consolidation -- in essence, ripping off the public from what was supposed to be their airwaves.

The darkest aspect of it all? To keep us all from knowing what is really going on. And the internet is next on their list of acquisitions, folks!

I mean, this kinda crap just steams my giblets.

But -- God bless 'em! -- Maynard High ain't givin' up without a battle.

So lend a letter, hey?

Kerry Betrays Kerry

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Lt. John Kerry Testifying Before The Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- April 22, 1971

Where is that man today?

A scant few hours after that, Kerry left tens of thousands of volunteers and millions of voters hanging. With Bush apparently leading by some 130,000 votes in Ohio, but with a quarter-million votes still uncounted here, Kerry abruptly conceded. He was then heard from primarily through attorneys from Republican law firms attacking grassroots election protection activists who dared question the Ohio outcome.

and...

But those committed to democracy and horrified by the on-going carnage of the Bush catastrophe still have no credible explanation as to why Kerry abandoned ship so abruptly. He had raised many millions specifically dedicated to "counting every vote," which clearly never happened in Ohio. More than a year after the election, more than 100,000 votes are STILL uncounted in the Buckeye state.

Kerry thinks he's keeping his powder dry for another run in '08. He can forget it. The progressive base of the Democratic party cannot abide mealy-mouthedness or fence-straddling, two of John Kerry's specialities, and, for that matter, of Hillary's and Joe Biden's. Having said this, you can expect them all to admit having made The Mistake, a la John Edwards, in voting for the war in Iraq. But it says here they're the type to do this only because the poll numbers sway heavily in that direction.

Regardless, most people look back on their misspent youth. John Kerry's youth, in some string-theoried alternative universe, would only cringe were he able to see himself and of what he's become.

Drip Drip Drip

James Fallows says it better than I could:

On available evidence, the President himself has not grasped the essential criticism of moving against Iraq when he did: that a war in Iraq undercut the broader and longer term war against Islamic terrorism. Not in one speech, not in one interview or off-hand remark, not in one insider account of White House deliberation has there been the slightest indication that President Bush recognizes this concept sufficiently to offer a rebuttal to it.

How Sweet Is This?

Jerkyboy Santorum shows he knows a good wave when he surfs one:

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Saturday that he doesn't believe that intelligent design belongs in the science classroom.

Santorum's comments to The Times are a shift from his position of several years ago, when he wrote in a Washington Times editorial that intelligent design is a "legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in the classroom."

But on Saturday, the Republican said that, "Science leads you where it leads you."

And if the good folks in the rest of Pennsylvania can take a page from the book written by their neighbors in Dover, they'll lead Jerkyboy right out of the Senate.

Not On a School Night

And me without my HBO. I had become very used to seeing "Rome" on Sunday nights, but now, having moved, I am reduced to basic cable and its lesser fare while thinking that 30 years ago I'd've been agog. I mean I used to fixate on the electronic Reuters news crawl with its Muzac accompaniment on Channel 1 while holding what would now be considered a most obsolete control box, with its rows of buttons and switches, tethered to the receiver atop the television by a long pre-fiber optic cord. We had entered the fascinating post-VHF/UHF realm and we could bid adieu to the rabbit ears and the horizontal holds, to the wire-hangers tricked up to the receiver in the back, and to the ancient black & white picture itself.

So very long ago...

Pats win today but I remain unfulfilled. I admit to being spoiled by the extended period of excellence to which they had treated me, and it is rather difficult now to endure their current struggle. To say it is highly unlikely they'll threepeat is to understate the matter, what with the likes of Gus Frerotte or Kelly Holcumb being able to launch for 360+ passing yards against a Lawless secondary that's barely out of elementary. We are instead left with the peasant's resignation in that we cannot win them all.

And so I find myself having thoughts of the hot stove...

Still unpacking while thinning out my material possession. Throwing out much that could just as easily be attributed to a Magpie's obsession for hoarding and saving, in this case of papers and trinketry, representative to my mind that I did indeed exist on this mortal coil. It is why I have taken to cataloguing my life, as having been spent, on a spreadsheet: my personal library of books, a comic book collection, baseball cards, notes from my daily planners dating back to 1980, the episodes of Know It All, my Public Access television show in the 90s -- the like -- and will post it as it presents itself.

Then I will sell everything I own and walk the Earth (an idea from watching Pulp Fiction -- "Oh, you mean you wanna be a bum!"). Could be I'm gravitating to the conclusion I have little to no other purpose in life than to observe that which is... and just take notes.

A Sunday night...

In Passing (not to be confused with On Passing)

Heard at the Best Buns in Shirlington this morning:

"I'll have a loaf of Rosemary."

Prompting this thought at the Best Buns in Shirlington:

"That's better than having Rosemary's loaf."

A pre-coffee moment, to be sure.

More on unIntelligent Design

One tidy tidbit of logic, that had escaped me, is brought to you by the folks at Americablog:

Now, call me crazy, but if intelligent design doesn't necessarily have anything to do with God, then why will God's wrath come down on a town that voted that ridiculous theory down?

When logic is impeccable, it's impregnable!

Darwin Bless Us Everyone!

My favorite story of Election '05 (other'n Dubya being seen as a toxin for the GOP -- Heeyuck!):

Tuesday's school board election in Dover, Pennsylvania, a quiet rural community near the Maryland border where churches seem to outnumber streetlights, was a fitting climax to a year of bitter division there. In a contest with national implications, Dover voters tossed an entire slate of Intelligent Design supporters, replacing them with backers of evolution.

But in the jerkwater world of Kansas, as in "What's the matter with," the Children of the Wheat are proceeding according to plan, involving the youth of middle America and the screwing of minds therewith. As for their brethren in PA, implementation of the plan apparently requires this river in Egypt:

The defeat in Dover doesn’t mean the new board can ignore Intelligent Design but it does get it off the front page for a while. Tom Shaheen of the Pennsylvania Family Institute thinks the rationale behind the vote was simply to make the controversy disappear.

“But I think the board itself is going to have to somehow reconcile the fact that parents and the public did want the freedom for Intelligent Design to be taught.”

Get a clue, yokels! That is those of you who don't really enjoy being seen as yokels -- American schools of higher learning are already casting a jaundiced eye at thee:

A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints . . . The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution.

All I can say is, "Thank God!"

Kaine For Governor

Did my civic duty this morning, voting for not the Republican. Added a little zest to the festivity too, I protested the touch-screen e.voting system in place here and throughout Fairfax county. Four poll-workers were sitting behind the table, and four behind them in hi-chairs, a reception committee with a look not unlike a SCOTUS group-photo, with an otherwise empty gym (proud of our democracy am I) as the locale, all sitting amused or bemused by my somewhat self-indulgent projection. Heck! I could've been dreaming, it was that weird.

"Those things," I quietly but vociferously ranted as I pointed at the machines, "are why we have war criminals running our country!" I sensed a couple of them twitch at that; must've been Republicans but who cares, right?! 'Course if I get a knock on my door at 9 p.m. tonight by a coupla dark suits & sunglasses, I'm out the trap door in the back.

The woman on the end helpfully handed me a scratchpad, indicated w/precinct information at the top, for allowing me to submit my complaint on paper. I did the same thing last year during the Presidential reselection, and received a pro forma 'why we do the things we do' letter with an assurance 'the system is safe & secure' from the rubber stamp on the county board.

Had I those board pant-loads on my public access show in the 90s , why I'd like to have oughta... !!

Buggered Senseless

Oh hi there... !

Just to let my loyal readers (and assorted passers-by) know that I'm still posting, but that this is Hell Week: BrotherMan the Younger has just moved to town, and we're both in Hi-Transition Mode.

We found him a place to live, as I myself am moving to my new digs on Saturday. Meanwhile, I've been pounding the office work until 8 p.m. every night this week, which leaves the evenings pretty much reduced to lite beer & chicken wings, a short walk around the block and then sawing some serious Zs.

Not much time for blogging before the big move, with the help of Chontos & Sundloff thank you very much. So after Saturday, I'll sleep in and then see what's what.

There y'go!

Fitz This... !

The palpable giddiness in the progressive universe over the last few weeks reached a crescendo yesterday, an event that will almost certainly go down in history, at least for the moment, as a time when the prefix Fitz had supplanted the suffix gate (as in Water). This, in honor of and directly attributable to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has, as no one else since Nixon's resignation had, brought to heel the Republican dogs of war & personal destruction.

I arrive upon "Fitzmas" and its etymology a bit late, having absorbed it only subliminally the last week or so while perusing the blogosphere, and just as suddenly it would dawn on me to google it. Here is the Wikopedian definition:

Fitzmas is the name given by some liberal American bloggers to the atmosphere of excitement and anticipation among Democrats and others preceding the announcement of results of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame affair. On October 28, 2005 Fitzgerald announced that the grand jury had indicted George W. Bush administration aide Lewis Libby. The word "Fitzmas" is a portmanteau of Fitzgerald's name and "Christmas".

Speaking of Googling, there are (as I write this) 474,000 entries for "Fitzmas," including Fitzmas Carols, Fitzmas Bingo, Fitzmas T-shirts, etc., etc. -- Go Nutz!! And now Al Franken has a piece in today's HuffPo entitled "Happy Fitznukkah, Everybody!"

Extending the hilarity in my own little way, I am reminded by all of this of my Ex-, whose more loveable moments included her laughing hysterically at her own jokes, one of which was this, uhm, gem:

"Did you hear about the two gay Irishmen?

"Yah! Patrick Fitzmichael and Michael Fitzpatrick!! HEEEEGHEEGHEEGHEEGHEE... !!"

Ahh, memories! But of course it was her laugh that always cracked me up.

And Here I Thought "Scooter" Was Gay...

... but Mr. Sulu? Mr. Sulu... ??

Help me, Spock... !!

Mr. Tomato Head

Adding the Jesus' General blog to the links over yonder for precisely this kind of coverage:

One of these days, while [Bill O'Reilly]'s in the middle of a particularly harsh diatribe, his head is going to explode. It'll be Fox's greatest moment, one that will be replayed more often than even Howard Dean's scream. Hannity will call it a Hillary plot, Hume will cite it as a reason to drill for oil in Yosemite, and Greta will declare a portion of O'Reilly's skull to be white, female and missing.

Paddy Chayevsky, call yer office!

Windsocks

Are these not the stupidest bastards alive?

The toll on Bush: The Plame case surely isn't the only cause for buyer's remorse, but a new Fox News poll out today says that 6 percent of Americans who voted to reelect the president in November would vote for John Kerry if they had the chance to do it all over again today. Six percent may not sound like much, but it would have been enough to turn Bush's 51-48 popular vote win into a 51-48 defeat 11 months ago.

No patience. Zero tolerance!

Faustian Bargains & The Bush Family

Sidney Blumenthal, brilliant as ever, explains how its pretty much over for the Bush presidency:

A sharp reversal of policy and turnover in personnel are the only actions that may enable Bush to salvage the shipwreck of his presidency, as they did for Reagan. But bringing in the elders, even if they could be summoned, would be psychologically devastating to Bush, a humiliating admission that his long history of recklessness and failure, from the Texas Air National Guard to Harken Energy, with rescue only through the intervention of his father and his father's friends, has reached its culmination.

Recounting their rise to power, i.e., Bush Sr. as well as Jr. (not to forget Prescott Bush and his affiliation with the Nazis), Blumenthal cites the proverbial Faustian Bargain, defined by Bartleby thusly:

(FOW-stee-uhn) Faust, in the legend, traded his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. To “strike a Faustian bargain” is to be willing to sacrifice anything to satisfy a limitless desire for knowledge or power.

In Dubya's case, 1 outta 2 ain't bad: Never having achieved "knowledge," he's finding the "power" he did obtain ebbing by the day. Meanwhile the irony of his shovelling Jesus 24/7, while personifying the devil's work in the form of his and his family's obvious misanthropy, I find fascinating as well as repugnant and very very scary.

And a Happy Halloween to you2... !!

Mmmm...

I've always thought Sheryl Swoopes was kinda hot, but now I'm, like, totally diggin' 'er...

End O'Times?

Not a good month for that which name is Bush:

• ChiSox sweep the Houston Astros - taking the wind out of Poppy's sails, or what was left of his wind after the public suck-face with [cough] Barbara...
• Jeb's looking like Fred Flintstone after Wilma had her way...
• Dubya has to bail on one of his surrogate mommies...
• Dubya has a mess involving his entire Oval office staff...
• And Dubya's just a dumb dick in general...

Schadenfreude! Wheee... !!

Al Gore For President

Full throttle, babe!!

I kinda knew his Jacksonian-less declarative was the usual poli-jibber jabber. Ostroy reports:

Forget that half-hearted declaration Al Gore gave at an economic forum in Stockholm, Sweden two weeks ago about having "absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again." According to friends, family and political advocates, Gore's playing it coy and has every intention of entering the race.

P.S. Sign the Draft Gore Petition.

Lest We Forget

Just about three weeks to Veterans Day. But it is today that marks the 2,000th American soldier to die unnecessarily for having been sent to Iraq by a fool telling lies.

And lest any one of us forgets the cost of a fool's duplicity...

With thanks to DailyKos for the link...

Word Up - #11

scha-den-freu-de (shad'n-froi-de) n. [G. : schaden, damage + freude, joy.] Enjoyment derived from the misfortunes of others.

Used in a sentence:

"Everytime Bush steps on his johnson, I get a tingle of schadenfreude."

Cogito Ergo Sum

George Carlin has what I consider a healthy contempt for what he calls a "child fetish" endemic in American culture. Everything we do is for the children! He summarizes with an amusing snear to the American Parent: "I've got news for you folks: You've got a few winners -- a whoooole lotta losers!"

The good news, he offers, are kids who swallow marbles don't grow up to have kids of their own.

Not having raised a child, of course, allows me the luxury of empathy for the sentiment, particularly when I view the extremists in our culture as justifying every affront to our collective intelligence on behalf of how they would want their children to be protected, i.e., from truth and concurrent information that would undermine their perception thereof.

Best example I can think of was while riding home on the subway last spring. Sitting down next to me was a girl, approximately 14 years of age. She was a tourist with her family, who were sitting on the opposite side of the car, her slightly younger brother standing between us.

The conversation was congenial and as one might expect from one seeing the nation's capital for the first time in her life. She was sweet, excited and upbeat. I asked where they were from, Oklahoma; what grade she was in, a freshman in high school - or the equivalent thereof; what she was studying... She was "home-schooled," she said.

It was a long ride to our respective destinations; in their case, at the end of the line. The conversation faded in periods, then picked up again. We spoke about playing softball, and then it diverged into verboten territory: Evolution. I don't remember the thread.

"I don't believe in Evolution," she volunteered.

I wasn't surprised, given her being home-schooled -- in Oklahoma, but was nonetheless astonished. To see and hear, right in front of me, that which I absorbed only peripherially from television and the internet, that which goes on only in distant lands called Red States: the resultant and very malignant dumbing-down of our youth. And I am realizing, my territory is being overrun by ignoramouses.

I looked at her, this otherwise intelligent-looking waif, and wondered aloud if she was being taught any of the sciences. Her look was that of lacking recognition. "Biology? Physical Science? Anthropology? Not even Astronomy?" She shook her head each time.

Well of course not. Anybody made to suffer through schoolbook-learning, classroom lectures, quizzes, tests, paper-writings and presentations, for even a semester, are, by definition, made to think. And if you think about Evolution, and the inevitable conclusions brought to bear by, yes, natural selection, then belief doesn't enter into the equation. You reach a point in imperical study where you say, "Here's what I know" and "Here's what I have yet to learn". . . "What I believe," in this context, is immaterial.

I thought about this for some time after. And it made me angry. I mean who are these people to interfere with the growth of a human mind? Yes, they have rights as parents to influence the form and shape of their child's learning -- yadda -- but only to a point; say, turning off the T.V. and making 'em go upstairs and crack a textbook. But this girl was entering high school (or, again, the equivalency thereof), and she hadn't touched a science book in her life?? To call it an outrage is to grossly understate it.

So I am made to wonder: Is this not de facto child-abuse? I would say that it is, but far too many of those with far too much power in this country only encourage it. This, the moronification of America. And taken to the Nth degree, you have this:

Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."

April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs — specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.

Back on the subway, I looked over at her parents. On the surface, they looked to be rather decent. Very nice, clean-cut, attractive and smiling middle-American. They had to be stopped. And my time was short.

I turned back to the girl. "Evolution is not something to be believed. It is to be studied and either understood or plausibly refuted." She furrowed her brow.

"For example," I continued, "when you were born, were you this big or did you enter the world as a baby." The latter, she acknowledged, of course. "And you grew for over 14 years, until you became this big, right?" Right again, she nodded. "And you'll continue to grow in size until you become an adult, and then you'll continue to grow older, right?" More nodding.

"That's an evolutionary process. That's evolution!" She looked up at me as though experiencing a revelation.

It was then her brother sat down behind us. He leaned forward, elbows along the roll-bar atop our seats. His grin was mischievous and inches from my face. At first I thought he was sent by Mom & Dad to disrupt my heresy. No, it turned out he was just grooving on the conversation. I looked over at the parents. They were still smiling but with far less enthusiasm.

The subway came to my stop. I got up, turned to the kids, and stated in my most authoritative but reassuring voice: "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know."

I didn't look back, feeling like Johnny Appleseed as subversive.

It felt gooood.

"Barking Up Trees" Worth $564.54

And here I thought I was offering only my two cents. Will have to find the time to examine this further, not being a Jonah who can process this kind of data over a sandwich, but anyway... !!

How much is your Blog worth?

We're Not Worthy!!

David Copperfield is my God!

What? No touching??

All Judy All The Time

Josh Marshall at TPM gets to what's been the underlying current of this whole Judy Miller/Plamegate/NYT dick-stomp, and it's precisely that: an underlying current. Marshall likens it to a black hole in that we know it's there because the gravitational constant of the quantum singularity -- in this case, the kid gloves treatment of Miller -- indicates such, even if we cannot see it because no light can escape:

When you read the Times Sunday article plus Miller's apologia, there's too much there that is simply inexplicable in terms of what we already know. Going into this mess Miller's reputation was already severely checkered and her journalistic judgment very much in question. And yet Sulzberger and Keller (the first in the van, the second following with an odd passivity) staked the reputation of the Times itself on her and went along for this whole ride without even getting the most basic information from her about what had happened?

Simple poor judgment doesn't explain that for me. Something else is up.

I'll tell you what it is, Josh: Judy Miller is the greatest lay since the Virgin Mary. That's it! It's gotta be!! Why else would grown, professional men fall all over themselves only to be impaled on the swords of integrity and professionalism?

You think I'm kidding? Ask any man: What's the only thing in the world worth taking the risk of screwing up your career over? Answer: A righteous piece of ass!! It's only the history of mankind.

Now Judy Miller is no Eva Longoria, granted, but she's not bad -- that is, if you can get past the rictus-grinning megalomania and a penchant for ball-cutting the likes of which'd make a man beg for the rusty hedge-clippers as a pleasureable alternative. And we're talking about upper-middle-aged men (Pinch the Publisher notwithstanding; although, dollars2donuts, he's getting some too). Ahmad Chalabi, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Rummy, Bill Keller, Lou Dobbs, Thomas Friedman -- she's done 'em all, and better than they've had in too Goddamned long (the history of middle-aged mankind).

And there it is! End of mystery. The fall of the greatest newspaper in the world, or at least its credibility, and of the Bush administration, which never had any:

Nooky!

Monday Monday

Late night at the office again, an apparent manifestation of having a cool space and a new desktop. Consequently I spend considerably more time here after hours than I would've anticipated after starting a month and some days ago. Conversely, on the homefront, I'm not particularly enjoying the removed existence that is suburban living, or the feng shui, or lack thereof, in my corner of the universe.

So I'm in search of new digs by November 1, and I'm fairly distracted from having fun with the latest nonsense of DubyaWorld. Am also dealing with other more personal issues, which I won't get into here just now.

At any rate, my postings are likely to be sporadic -- more than usual -- over the next couple of weeks.

But please do keep checkin' back. It's kinda lonely at the middle.

Word Up - #10

ex-pli-ca-ble (ek'spli-ke-bel) adj. Capable of being explained. -ex'pli-ca-bly adv.

Nobel Laureates and Illiterates

I'm beginning to truly dig Hunter at the DailyKos. With respect to the Nobel Prize:

See, I just don't understand this. Rightwingers make it a point to be both anti-science and anti-intellectual, so it hardly takes an, er, rocket scientist to figure out why righties don't typically win the awards. What, did they really think the Discovery Institute was in the running this year, for their condemnation of every major scientific advancement of the last four hundred years in favor of the theory that Adam and Eve milked dinosaurs and sold the resulting DinoCheese in Cain's chain of God*Mart retail outlets?

On the other hand, I don't much like Harold Pinter neither.

Teddy Roosevelt Knows George Bush

T.R. via the DailyKos:

"The president is merely the most important among a large number of public servants, Roosevelt explained in 1918. "He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able and disinterested service to the nation as a whole.

"Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

This harkens the other, perhaps overused reference to Will Rogers, who famously said, "I never met a man I didn't like." And of course, "Will Rogers never met George Bush!"

And In Other News...

A little too much cream in the coffee?

Now I Can Sleep

Just heard on the Olbermann repeat this evening that NASA has concluded, through close-up fly-by studies, that comets are icy dirt-balls, not dirty snowballs.

And rounding out the syllogism, all Republicans are comets.

Gore Speaketh

For the record, the seat behind the desk in the Oval Office belongs to Al Gore, as the American people clearly intended that Bucknernian night in November 2000. And how would the world be different?

"We would not have invaded a country that didn't attack us," [Gore] said, referring to Iraq. "We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families."We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media. We would not be routinely torturing people. We would be a different country."

By the way, Markos gets a little loose in the scoop here, stopping short in ackowledging this:

"I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," Gore said.

Which is, of course, no Jacksonian declaritive: "If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve."

America needs to reverse course badly.

America needs the likes of Al Gore! Funny as that sounds.

Wesley Clark as VP.

Hillary can go kiss Bill.

Impeach Bush!

[D] All of the above.

Update: Gore For President

Huff-Baby's on the case again...

She made Ah-nold fight for his seat in California.

She continues to cause great consternation in Times Square at the Gray Lady. (That was no lady, that was Judy Miller!!)

And now she's calling attention to Hillary's playing both ends against the middle:

Even though they backed both of Bill Clinton's White House runs and Hillary's Senate campaign, they've had enough of Hillary's attempt to rebrand herself as a fence-straddling DLC Dem. They're tired of the relentless strategic triangulating, the all-too-predictable attacks on video games (Sistah Soljah, meet Grand Theft Auto), the willingness to go along with President Bush's missile defense fantasies (one of only six Dems to do so), and the endless photo-op-ready partnerships with the likes of Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.

But most of all, they are put off by her bellicose support for the war in Iraq -- which has, at times, left her sounding more like a White House shill than a viable opposition candidate.

And just as succinctly, she illustrates why Gore's the better candidate:

"He's been strongly against the war since the beginning," a big Dem donor who is hoping to convince Gore to run told me, "and with gas prices going through the roof and killer hurricanes wreaking havoc, he's the gold standard on global warming, alternative energy, and the environment. What's not to like?"

And Lawrence Bender, who after producing "Kill Bill" is now producing what I hear is a killer documentary featuring Gore and his fight to get our country to take action on global warming, told me that the former VP "would be a hell of a candidate. Unlike 2000, he's now clearly very comfortable in his own shoes. Bold, passionate, committed, and very funny. It's been amazing working with him."

No kidding: Al Gore For President!!

Which State Is That Again?

Ol' Mitt Romney sittin' in a tree...

Ee-aye ee-aye ohhhh...

So we're talkin' the Massachusetts governor here, who's really from Michigan by way of Utah. He's running for president, primarily by running down his "home" state (because Mass. jokes play big w/the Red State yay-hoos, don'tcha y'know!), and now he's peddling this shit:

''We're under attack, as you know, militarily," Romney told about 150 people gathered at an exclusive Raleigh country club. ''They're not just intent on blowing up a little bomb here and there at a shopping mall, awful as that would be. They want to bring down our government, bring down our entire economy. They want to put in place a huge theocracy."

The obvious irony, of course, is the governor's audience was likely lousy with those who really do want to make America a theocracy. But consider also Ol' Mitt "happens to be" (thank you, George Carlin) Mormon, which is relevant because he presumably wants the GOP nomination rather than run as an independant [by the way, somebody really oughta give John McCain the heads-up on how well he's received by the Jumbo Shrimp party bouncers, or will be], and for that he will have to literally scare up "the faithful" about how the Islamic terrorists have all these plans of turning our churches into mosques, that is after they finally extricate themselves out from under the oppressive thumb of Yankee imperialism.

Meanwhile, the betting is heavy you'll not hear anytime soon a plan to break bread with the other 99% of the Muslim peoples, who comprise one quarter of the world's population. Presumably any "win" against terror would require their cooperation and not their resentment. Please note those are mutually exclusive conditions.

As any presumptive candidate for '08 ought to consider, winning the hearts & minds of the Muslim street is the only way to win the War On Terror. Instead, Romney's the usual suspect baiting on faith and race, playing to the lowest common denominator and to the paleolithic evangelitans (redundant, I know). They will, of course, lap it up, leaving a growing and very wearying general electorate to seek nutrition elsewhere.

''Thank heavens we have a president of the United States who recognizes this for what it is and has declared war on it."

Nope! That ain't it!

Word Up #9

sub-vert (seb-vurt') vt. -vert-ed, -vert-ing, -verta. [ME subverten < OFr. subvertir <>subvertere : sub-, from below + vertere, to turn.] 1. To destroy completely : RUIN. 2. To undermine the character, morals, or allegiance of. 3. To overthrow completely <"economic assistance . . . must subvert the existing . . . feudal or tribal order" -Henry A. Kissinger> -sub-vert'er n.

Word Up #8

sub-ver-sive (seb-vur-siv, -ziv) adj. Intended or serving to subvert <subversive political activity> -n. One who advocates or is regarded as advocating subversive means or policies. -sub-versive-ly adv. -sub-ver'sive-ness n.

60s Sit-Coms2Life

You live long enough, certain pop-culture references to the follies of Bush make sense. You post-Boomers, meanwhile, will just have to watch TVLand to keep up.

Bill Maher, for example, recently likened former FEMA director Michael Brown and SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers to "Goober and Aunt Bea," harkening the more distant but still appreciated reference by John DiIulio, the former head of Bush's effort to aid religious charities, to senior White House staff as "Mayberry Machiavellis."

James Wolcott's getting a similar drift, but he has another 60s sit-com in mind:

Harriet Miers is George Bush's Miss Jane Hathaway. Miss Hathaway, archeologists will recall, was Mr. Drysdale's prim, devoted secretary on the Beverly Hillbillies. When not bailing her boss out of jams, Miss Hathaway's hobby was birdwatching, which in those unenlightened days was considered the solitary pastime of harmless eccentrics. But infused with the infectious stylized foolery of Nancy Culp, Miss Hathaway was more than a spinsterish stick figure; a subversive imp amid all those load-bearing hillbillies and lacquered Beverly Hills matrons, Miss Hathaway was sitcom's first lesbian heroine.

Leaving aside Miss Jane's goofy if less subliminal crush on Jethro, Wolcott is more correct when he trots out what I also had surmised to be the underlying theory behind the Jumbo Shrimp's current high-dudgeon:

After listening to their rending of garments and gnawing of bark over the last week, it is clear that they were hoping Bush would pick a Federalist Society stalwart that they could use like a club with which to beat Democrats and feminist organizations into whimpering mush. They longed for a climactic showdown, the desire to overturn Roe v. Wade beats harder in their blood and means more to them than winning in Iraq, and instead Bush trots out one of his surrogate mommies, a loyalist of insignicant stature.

Again, it is as I had thought but was late in presenting: It isn't enough that Miers likely will give them everything they want in an evangelical rubber stamp, they also had to rub our noses in it -- all the way up to confirmation. Dubya deprived them that pleasure, and that is what triggers their sense of having been betrayed. And watching them recoil, as though they were tasting their bile for the first time, is a moment of unmitigated and primitive delight -- if however shortlived.

Gargling Oligarchies & Oligopolies

Sidney Blumenthal succinctly summarizes the Republicans and their economic Final Solution:

Under Ronald Reagan, the unanticipated consequences of supply-side economics - instead of tax cuts fostering increased government revenues, they blew a black hole in the budget - has under Bush been a conscious policy following the Reagan lesson. The reason is to apply fiscal pressure on government, making its regulations more pliable for manipulation in the interest of oligopoly and therefore the Republican political class. Just as macroeconomic policy is the plaything of politics, so is microeconomic policy. Environmental degradation, lowered public health and urban neglect are indifferent byproducts.

The Republican system is fundamentally unstable. Bush has no economic policy other than Republicanism. As the economic currents run toward an indefinable reckoning, the ship of state drifts downstream.

Or to put it another way: the body America has cancer and the prognosis is grim. Any successful treatment would necessitate radically alternative remedies, and soon...

... or we could cut the fuckin' thing out!

Eat Any Good Books Lately?

Rainy Saturday. We've been needing a good wet lately. Conversely, the humor around here has been anything but dry. Be all that as it may, my doing very little, other'n buying books at the local Borders and putting in an hour at the gym, makes for a productive day I should think.

I bought three books, two from the New Paperbacks section and a third when I came out of the men's room in the back and just in passing, effectively judging it by its cover. The Mother Tongue -- English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson. An excerpt:

But there are other factors at work, such as history and geography. The colonists along the eastern seaboard naturally had closer relationships with England than those colonists who moved inland. That explains at least partly why the English of the eastern seaboard tends to have so much in common with British English -- the tendency to put a "yew" sound into words like stew and Tuesday, the tendency to have broader and rounder "a" and "o" sounds, the tendency...

Hmm. Maybe I'll just return this one. Kidding. I'm convinced I need something a little highbrow to plug into my information corticals -- beyond, say, Desperate Housewives (although that'll do). Not unlike having a salad between every fourth Mickey McCheese, and one without the pasta because I like to think I'm a good boy.

I suspect, however, that I'll read the other two first. Par example, Noam Chomsky's Imperial Ambitions - Conversations on the Post-9/11 World:

In a new documentary The Fog of War, Robert McNamara makes a rather interesting admission. He quotes General Curtis LeMay, with whom he served in the period of the firebombings of Japanese cities in World War II, as saying, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." Then McNamara says, "I think he's right . . . . But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

Indeed, but then McNamara would wonder given he's the cat who lost Vietnam. A lesson unlearned by today's sociopaths at the Pentagon.

I did say highbrow, yes? But I've been wanting to read something by Chomsky for a while, especially since he gets the chickenhawks so exorcised. Makes him must reading in my book.

Then there's The Know-It-All -- One Man's Humble Quest to Become The Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. What grabbed me was the backcover summation by Joel Stein of Time Magazine:

A.J. Jacobs turns the act of reading the entire Britannica into a hilarious memoir . . . . It's a stunt of the book itself that allows the funny, touching memoir to be so stuffed with nutritious bits of trivia that you feel smart for reading it.

An example of Jacobs' endeavor:

ooze

Ooze, I learn, is sediment that contains at least 30 percent skeletal remains of microscopic floating organisms. You've got to marvel at the specificity of that. Thirty percent; 29 percent and you're out of luck, buddy. You may be sediment, but you're no ooze.

And:

orgasm

They can be experienced from infancy. What? Did I have orgasms when I was an infant? Did I smoke a tiny cigarette afterward.

And one more:

Casanova

The famous 18th-century lothario ended his life as a librarian. Librarians could use that to sex up their image.

Those are just some of the shorter bits. Not in the mood for keying in pages of the stuff. And that's the other thing, there's no cutting & pasting from paperback to hardrive. Thank the Godlings I can type.

Of course reading books is something I've gotten away from since in my day, what with the advent of newspapers and television. The internet's been a boon inasmuch as fewer and fewer people are buying newspapers, which presumably means fewer trees need to be cut down, i.e., beyond the heinous ruination of our old-growth forests merely to add to industry's jollies. But I'd like very much to get away from the computer too as I just know it's boiling my eyeballs.

And with that in mind...