For Fear of Becoming Too Fixated

I didn't think it possible, but I've learned a little bit more about Joe Lieberman (thanks, Firedoglake), and I'm liking him less and less:

People often ask me what happened and what was the big deal. Lieberman knew exactly what he was doing-- far better than the batty wives' group that preceded him-- when he insisted on ratings on CDs and it had nothing to do with helping parents supervise their children. Few people understand-- the way Lieberman did -- that in the late 80s something like 70% of all recorded music was sold in stores in malls and that malls have very stringent lease arrangements about their tenants not selling "pornography." Over the course of this controversy two of the Senate's most uptight and close-minded prigs, Sam Brownback and Lieberman, pushed for the kinds of stickers that would make it impossible for the kind of music they objected to -- like anything talking about masturbation or homosexuality, for example -- to be stocked by 70% of American retailers. The effect inside the music business was chilling-- and instantaneous. Suddenly a whole new internal bureaucracy had to be created to police every record and suddenly artists were being pressured -- sometimes overtly and sometimes less overtly -- to cave in to demands by two really reactionary fundamentalists whose values are far from mainstream. In one fell swoop Lieberman destroyed an alliance between young voters and the Democratic Party that had started with John Kennedy's election as he ham-fistedly savaged their culture for his own political ambitions.

Rid us of him, Connecticut! Por favor!

LaMontBlog

For your up2theminute fix...

DC for Democracy

Just RSVPed the Meet-up for this Wednesday evening at 7:30 at the Chili Bowl in DC. That's Howard Dean at the left, whom I met at the last meet-up I attended on Capitol Hill last fall, and took the pic with my crummy cell-phone cam.

The crowd treated him like a rock star. Think Joe Biden ever got that kinda treatment? Never mind, it was rhetorical.

As for this'n: "Progressive Democrat Ned Lamont is giving Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman a primary election challenge. Progressives in the state (and from around the country) have Lamont standing up to the status quo. Special guest, Aldon Hynes, senior campaign advisor to Mr. Lamont, will be there to talk about why progressives are challenging Senator Lieberman and answer your questions about his campaign and the tactics of challenging an incumbent Democrat."

Jeez... ! How 'bout the Big Enchilada Lamont hisself??

Yale Doesn't [Heart] Joementum

Does a body good to see this:

It can't get much worse than that, can it? Oh, it can. Perhaps Lieberman's most galling characteristic is his willingness to appear in conservative media and to publicly and unreservedly bash Democratic policies and other Democrats. As a Democrat with a bullhorn, Lieberman can and does do more harm to the Democratic message machine than any Republican. It is no surprise then that his approval rating is 15 points higher among Republicans than among Democrats or that he has fundraising parties hosted by Republican lobbyists. He carries water for the GOP and reinforces GOP frames. Consider the case of Rep. John Murtha, a retired colonel. After many talks with commanders on the ground and other Pentagon experts, Murtha -- an elder statesman of the House Democratic Caucus and a respected voice on security issues -- called for a measured withdrawal of troops from Iraq. In response, Sen. Lieberman cried, "In matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril." Murtha retorted, "What credibility?" It's bad enough for someone like Karl Rove to routinely impugn the motives of Democrats; it is quite another for our own Democratic senator to do so.

Joementum = Momentum building to get rid of that twitch Lieberman. Hat tip to Kos for the link.

Monday Midday

Surreptitiously saying "Hello" to any of you who happen upon this. I say surreptitiously as I'm supposed to be rapt while online w/one of these tedious corporate gotomeeting.com & conference-call deals. Nothing I don't already know, or it doesn't apply to my paygrade, so I daydream: noting once again the president of the United States is little more than an idiot with a bicycle (and without); and news from spring training looks pretty good for Red Sox fans.

Nyahh!

Fenway at Night

courtesy of the Boston Globe

Cozy Perch, That

Bill Maher's back on, thank Christ. Here's a snippet:

New Rule: If churches don't have to pay taxes, they also can't call the fire department when they catch fire. Sorry, Reverend, that's one of those services that goes along with paying in. I'll use the fire department I pay for; you can pray for rain.

Oh, I'm going to get letters on that one.

The beauty is, of course, nobody high up in the food-chain as Maher -- nobody (Carlin doesn't have a weekly show) -- is brave enough to take swipes at the church, or does it as well as he.

I want my HBO!

Hey! PicsREasy!

A shot of Brooklyn I took from atop the World Trade Center, circa 1999.

from the Friday Nite After-work Blog-learning Center

Ted Koppel Gets A Clue

I was saying this 4 years ago (well, actually for the last 30; just more relevant than ever four years ago):

"Perhaps the day will come when the United States is no longer addicted to imported oil; but that day is still many years off. For now, the reason for America's rapt attention to the security of the Persian Gulf is what it has always been. It's about the oil."

Would that Mr. Squirrel-Hair had pushed this notion right after Tora Bora.

"Jurassic Beaver" Find Stuns Experts

Ever fixate on a headline?

I'm just sayin'...

----------
Less improper context here.

OK, A Little Sanity 4 U 2day

This goes right to the heart of the issue:

State Sen. Robert Hagan sent out e-mails to fellow lawmakers late Wednesday night, stating that he intends to "introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents."

Now ain't that the point!? But then again, your humble commentator's parents are both Republican: Mom a New England matriarch, Dad a good ol' boy; Mom hates George Bush, Dad loves 'im; but Dad's pro-choice (go figure!), Mom was raised traditional Catholic; Mom watches Jeopardy and Seinfeld reruns, Dad inflicts Fox News 24/7 on any innocent passer-by. I'm sooooo conflicted.

Of course, niether of whom will be adopting anytime soon. So we're good here.

Moving right along...

Inmates, Asylum, etc...

One of the benefits of getting along in years is the manifest realization that while our understanding of "truth and justice" has nothing to do with "the American way," we, the aging ones, will not be around to see civilization's final swirl about the porcelin bowl.

To wit, check out this particular inanity:

Yahoo! is banning the use of allah in email names - even if the letters are included within another name.

This was uncovered by Reg reader Ed Callahan whose mother Linda Callahan was trying to sign up for a Verizon email address. She could not get it to accept her surname.

Yahoo!, of course, is repeatedly going the cheap, cowardly corporate (alliteration purely coincidental) route in conducting its cost benefit analyses; the best most recent examples being its caving to Bush administration demands for its search-engine records, and to demands by China to censor websites deemed contrary to government sensibilities. Of course Microsoft and Google are equally complicit, save for Google's resistance, at least, to White House demands for its search engine data (if for reasons addressing its profit margin and not some heroic principle, but, hey, any ol' libertarian port in a storm), and one can only conclude that continued email usage is a sure ticket to identity theft if not government surveillance hell. But then, why not have it all??

Note to family & friends: will soon be changing my email address away from my Yayhoo!! And a month later, somewhere else again.

What Is Lieberman's Game?

Interesting slant on Lieberman carrying Bush's water:

One of the uglier attacks on Joe Lieberman is that he has "divided loyalties" because he's Jewish. Apparently, that means he puts Israel's interests above America's.

But today we have definitive proof that Lieberman's divided loyalties aren't to Israel, but to George W. Bush.

I am loathe to admit I too have wondered, and still do, whether Lieberman isn't really an agent for Likud. What is certain is he's no Democrat. It's one thing to consistently vote for an agenda that is defining today's Republican party as morally bankrupt and corrupt, but also proactively undermining resistance to the systematic elimination of The New Deal and the Civil Rights Act (not to mention the Great Society, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, voter rights, etc., etc.), ultimately subverting the principle of "equal justice under law."

What, then, can one make of this self-styled moralist, this devout observor of his orthodox faith, getting into bed with the likes of a president, whose facistic tendenecies and abject wrong-headedness will almost certainly render him to history as a war criminal? It beggars one's sense of decency.

Zell Miller, for an example, came as no surprise. That dude was fried squirrel on toast from the get-go. But Lieberman? When did he jump the track? What switch went off in his ugly head, and triggered all-Bush-all-the-time? And don't feed me "9-11, 9-11!!" because New Yorkers themselves are back to despising Bush and all he represents, and quite properly so.

But Lieberman? What's his game? What's in it for 'im?

And why's he still a Democrat?

I just don't get it.

Ned Lamont For U.S. Senate

Joe's Gotta Go!

An email I just discovered:

Dear Friend,

Congratulations. Since we launched www.NedLamont.com more than 1,000 people from Connecticut have signed up to volunteer, giving us the beginnings of the ground army we need to launch our campaign. During the next few weeks a team of volunteers will be individually contacting each volunteer from Connecticut who signed up and get you involved in specific campaign activities.

Because of your enthusiasm I have established a candidate committee and am in the process putting together a great campaign team.

I will formally announce my candidacy in March -- but first we need to do some more work. Joe Lieberman has already raised over $5 million and not surprisingly Republican lobbyists in Washington DC, including George H.W. Bush's former Chief of Staff, are stepping up to raise money for the Senator that was voted the most popular Democrat amongst lobbyists and Republicans in the National Journal’s annual poll.

In addition to what I will contribute, it will cost $500,000 to launch this campaign and we need to begin right now. You can make a secure contribution directly to my campaign on my Act Blue page.

http://www.nedlamont.com/actblue.html

Republican lobbyists are falling all over themselves to support Joe Lieberman. It's not just his votes for awful legislation such as the transportation bill with over 6,000 pork ridden earmarks, his unquestioning support for the 'stay the course strategy' in Iraq, or his support of last year's sham of an energy bill with billions in tax giveways to the oil producers and few incentives for conservation. During the past six years Senator Lieberman has been more likely to support the President on the big issues and too quick to criticize the Democratic alternatives.

Joe will claim he is an independent voice for Connecticut but in reality his cozy support for the Bush polices undermines our progressive values and undermines the Democrats who are promoting these values. A blue state should have a blue Senator. Early financial support is essential if we are to build the campaign organization and show that this campaign is one to reckon with. Get our campaign started off right.

http://www.nedlamont.com/actblue.html

Winning this campaign will be a tremendous challenge. We are going to need a grassroots organization that combines the best of the old fashioned door to door politics with today's netroots.

We can only do this if we continue to grow. Please ask your friends, families, and neighbors to join us in challenging George Bush's favorite Democrat by signing up today.

http://www.NedLamont.com

Thank you,

Ned Lamont

Paid for by Ned Lamont for Senate,
John Hartwell, Treasurer
email: info@nedlamont.com
phone: (203) 622-7091
web: http://nedlamont.com

The Fix Is In

Only way... Only Way!!!... Republicans don't lose Congress this year is via Republican/Corporate-controlled touch-screen voting machines, complete with privatized vote-counting. Ahnold in California has appointed a Sec'y of State that has now recertified Diebold -- Diebold ferchrissakes!! -- and the fix is in:

So what does this all mean? It suggests that California, with its treasure trove of congressional seats and 2008 electoral votes, is the next battleground. Yes, Gov. Schwarzenegger is wildly unpopular now. But, as the GOP proved in the 2004 Presidential race, unpopularity need not be a barrier to re-election - especially when Diebold machines are counting the votes.

If Democrats don't make a sufficient enough stink about this, then they're in on it too.

What next, a Bush Threepeat in '08?

You laugh?

R.I.P. Curt Gowdy

I'm gettin' old. Curt Gowdy was the network sports announcer in the late 60s/early 70s, when I first started watching the game:

Gowdy made his broadcasting debut in 1944 and went on to call the first Super Bowl in 1967 as well as 13 World Series and 16 All-Star games. He also called the famous “Heidi” game in 1968.

In 1951 Gowdy became the main play-by-play voice on the Red Sox broadcast team. He left the Red Sox in 1966 for a 10-year stint as “Game of the Week” announcer for NBC. He also was the longtime host of the “American Sportsman” series.

“He’s certainly the greatest play-by-play person up to this point that NBC sports has ever had,” NBC Universal Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said from the Turin Olympics. “He literally carried the sports division at NBC for so many years on his back. ... He was a remarkable talent and he was an even more remarkable human being.”

Childhood memories you forget about until, well, somebody dies.

And a little piece of you does too.

Sunday Night

Discipline begins with keeping the television [off]. A long day at the office, and I came home to the realization that my apartment was becoming a sty. Watching TV, meanwhile, is a sure way to undermine productive tidying.

And so the picture tube is dark and I'm currently washing loads of laundry, after having vacuumed the apartment. Now sitting at the keyboard going through the 35th edition of Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide. Have keyed in all that I possess on a spreadsheet: Marvel, DC, and the indies. I did this once before, back in '90, while temp-gigging at Aetna in Middletown, CT (a great way to look busy, by the way). I had determined at the time the comics I bought since '78 thru '90 had cover prices totalling $900 and change, but had since appraised to $3,227.95, give or take mint conditions. That was 1990.

I remember a conversation with my mother, who worried for me, and my collection, apparently, was no less a source for concern. "Ma!" I protested, "Look! See? They're a great hedge against inflation."

She paused, clearly impressed by the numbers. Then the look, just as quickly, disappared: "Yes, but you read them!"

So, 16 years later, I haven't touched the sombitches, and presumably, the increase in value is only more considerable, given the numbers I'm thumbing through at the moment.

Afterwhich, I'll catalogue my baseball cards. Would that I had my comics from back in the 60s -- when cover prices were 10 cents a pop, and weren't called graphic novels then. I do, however, have some cards that date back to the 50s. No 1905 Honus Wagner, mind you, but there's a '57 Ted Williams and a '58 Willie Mays (w/the NY Giants), a Whitey Ford here or a Nolan Ryan rookie card there... should be interesting.

Think I could pay off that student loan then?

By the way, the Pinot Noir is superb. As is the Chopin & Brubeck.

Recommended: Kill yer television!

Mental Health Break

One can get fried trying to sustain these things, blogs. Is why the more successful ones -- Kos, Firedog, MyDD, etc. -- come at you in teams. Poor me, is only I here. And madness comes when you have something to say while you're driving, and have since forgotten once you've sat your butt before the keyboard. But oh well! Hope your weekend was a good one.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Josh Marshall is never more eloquent:

But as we go from the mastication of the shooting event itself to the meta story about Dick Cheney's dark and dangerous shadow presidency, let's not let one salient fact disappear down the memory hole.

Even if Dick Cheney is blameless in this matter in any deep moral sense, let's not forget that his immediate reaction was to send out his surrogates to publicly blame what happened on the victim.

Actually, that may afford him too much credit since it wasn't actually his 'immediate' reaction. It was his considered reaction after the 24 hour cooling off period he gave himself between the shooting and when he chose to make it public.

By my count, he continued to have his public surrogates blame Whittington for fully three days. He only relented and took responsibility himself when the public and no doubt
private political clamor became too much to sustain.

That's Dick Cheney.

Fersherr... !!

Hoops

Caught the UMass/George Washington game last night at the Smith Center in D.C. Highly entertaining, given UMass is floundering around .500 while GW is now 21-1 and is at least a 3-seed come March Madness.

The final: GW 69-66. The Minutemen had several chances to take it from the Colonials, but poor ball-control and negligent refereeing (incorrect ruling after confusion over whose possession on a late 2nd-half jump ball and a terrible call involving the senior ref overruling a correct call by a subordinate, all w/three seconds left) made it insurmountable. Overall, it is noted that GW clearly has the bigger, stronger, and faster team, although the Minutemen appeared to be the feistier, underscoring the adage of it being "the size of the fight in the dog." Turned out, however, to be the greater number of horses prevailing.

Supplementally, I know not who in the NCAA is talented enough to make it to the NBA, I nonetheless couldn't help but be mightily impressed w/the play of one James Life, UMass' playmaking 2-guard/small forward.

Also enjoyed the style 0f the UMass head-coach Travis Ford, who can be seen from the nose-bleed seats, or, more specifically, the veins bulging out the side of his head could be seen, that in accompaniment with his protruding eyeballs, indicating what is hoped not to be a thyroid condition.

Best not get him pissed.

Thought For The Day

Why, oh why, couldn't've been Antonin Scalia?

This Is What I Don't Know

Old man Whittington has taken a turn for the worse...

Dick Cheney is effectively neutralized...

This is the beginning of the end for Dubya and his >cough< legacy...

Upon Which, Let It Not Go Unremarked

Dick Cheney shoots a man:

Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

Whittington apparently wouldn't go fuck himself, this while the Vice President was having his flashback.

The alternative sidebar: Dick Cheney... before he dicks you!

The Weatherman Gets It Right

10 inches is my estimate. No no, not the usual self-evaluation and corresponding gratification. No, not this time. More like the once-every-4-years snow-dump, par for the course in New England, as I recollect and rarely miss, but much rarer in these parts.

The car is buried and the street remains unplowed, so I walk for my breakfast, something I ought to do every day I reckon, would that I the time, particularly so when my usual 30-minutes of treadmill is converted into 75 minutes of traversing snowy terrain.

Now back from Tysons Mall; just cleaned the bathroom, Eartha Kitt, with Allison Krauss to follow, on the CD Player, the remainder of the merlot in my glass, and I'm cool.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Spreading Frrrrrtilizer...

And this tidbit from the interview, linked-to in the previous post, essentially sums up in a nutshell Dubya's excretia:

That was only the beginning of the Busheviks’ subversion of democracy. They’ve been at it whole hog ever since, from the spread of Diebold and ES&S machines throughout the nation, to the gratuitous gerrymandering of Texas, and the recall of Gray Davis (a venture masterminded by the White House). Repeatedly they’ve tried to quash democracy not just in the United States but all over the world, as in Haiti, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Iraq.

It cannot be oversaid, as it has been said here before: Whenever Dubya says, "We're spreading freedom," I'm thinking he's spreading manure.

No Honor Among Thieves

It's been said on this page, on more than a couple of occasions, that the Busheviks stole the elections of 2000 and 2004. And with it came madness.

Mark Crispin Miller is the pre-eminent go-to theorist of this conspiracy, except his theory is well documented in his book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them). Miller is also the guy whom John Kerry approached saying he agreed with Miller about the '04 election being stolen, denied later by Kerry's people, though the plausible deniability for Kerry pales.

An utterly fascinating interview in Buzzflash captured my attention today. Nice opening question:

Let’s talk about a major problem that the press refuses to discuss: the privatization of the voting process. That’s really what the spread of computerized voting machines is all about. Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia—the three largest manufacturers of such machines—are private vendors. They keep their programming codes secret as “proprietary information,” and, worse, all three are extremely close to the Republican Party. There is no way to determine whether these machines are accurate. Using them is tantamount to having secret vote counts.

Diebold in particular has been in the news. Some months before Election Day, 2004, Wally O’Dell, Diebold’s CEO, sent a Bush/Cheney fundraising letter out to other rich Ohio Republicans, promising to do everything he could to “deliver Ohio’s electoral vote to the President.” In December, he suddenly resigned. What’s going on?

Read the rest here.

James Webb For Senate

I got to interview George Allen on my TV show back in '92 (and remind me to finally get on the stick and create that website I've been sitting on lo these many years), when he first ran for governor of Virginia. Simply put, he's a dope. Son of a coaching legend, former QB for the UVA Cavaliers, and while his first 18 years came growing up in southern California (when his old man coached the Rams), he was, by the time of our interview, a cowboy boot-wearin', southern-drawlin', and, when the cameras weren't hot, tobacco spittin' good ol' boy, who later liked to hang the Stars & Bars in his executive office in Richmond. There's yer clue right there.

In short, he's a three-dollar bill -- the phony kind, not the queer kind (unless, uhm, you heard something?).

And so here's to a former Reaganaut, now Dem in the race for Allen's seat: James Webb:

Webb, who was secretary of the Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan, resigned in protest of cutbacks in the Navy fleet. He has been a strong critic of the war in Iraq, saying that the Bush administration has never developed an exit strategy.

Webb is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Marines in the Vietnam War. He is the author of the nonfiction book "Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America," as well as six novels.

Allen, as some of you might know is now the front-runner for the GOP nomination in the '08 Presidentials, i.e., if you can believe the screwballs. Just what America needs: another goddamned right-wing dope.

An upset by Webb, then, would be extra-sweet. Stay tuned.

The Rocketman Returneth?

The Herald says don't count on it:

The Texas Rangers, Yankees and Sox all have shown interest in Clemens, but his allegiance is clearly with the Astros. Clemens has a 10-year personal-services contract with the club and owner Drayton McLane that kicks in when he officially retires, and he said that he looks forward to working with minor leaguers.

But the Globe is a little more upbeat:

If they determine Boston is the best place to return, Hendricks and Clemens know it would be a great story. Boston is where Clemens amassed 192 of his 341 wins. He won three of his seven Cy Youngs here, and his only MVP. Why not end his career in Boston?

Make it so, #21!

Da' Bowl

2nd quarter, Seattle up 3-zip. Gotta root for the Steelers. Been to Pittsburgh, ain't to Seattle.

Me & Chontos did a drive 3 or 4 years ago to the Steel city, many thanks to TTown, who provided game tics to the Pirates and the Texas Rangers at PNC Park, or, as Chontos & I like to chortle, "Pink Park!!"

But seriously, gorgeous stadium, very user-friendly. Rate it a notch above Camden Yahds, though my heart will always belong to Fenway.

Pittsburgh's a kinda gray, dreary looking town, but the convergence of three rivers -- the Ohio, the Allegheny, and, uhm... jeez, I'd have to Google it -- gives it at least a little charm. And we had a good time, ending up in a Chinese restaurant on karaouke night after the game. Oh, and lest I forget: Before the game, we checked out the Andy Warhol Museum (complete with its 15 minutes of fame) and the dreariest bar in the universe, resembling a rural VFW stoop, dispensing the dreariest brau in the universe: "Iron City Beer"... urp!

Fun time. Love the ballpark. Like the city. Makes me miss Boston all the more.
----------
Update: Roethlesberger in for the score. Steelers up 7-3.

Lovely!

Sarcasm, that. Wolcott turns me onto AntiWar.com and a look by William Lind at what Americans have yet to focus on, fat and sleepy culture that we are:

Osama bin Laden's latest message. Most observers, including the White House, seem to have missed its significance. In it, bin Laden offered us a truce (an offer we should have accepted, if only to attempt to seize the moral high ground). The Koran requires Muslims to offer such a truce before they attack. The fact that bin Laden himself made the offer, after a long silence, suggests al-Qaeda attaches high importance to it.

Why? My guess is because they plan a major new attack in the U.S. soon. I would be surprised if the plan were for something smaller than 9/11, because that could send the message that al-Qaeda's capabilities had diminished. Could this be "the big one," the suitcase nuke that most counterterrorism experts expect somewhere, sometime? That would certainly justify, perhaps require, a truce offer from Osama himself. Of course, al-Qaeda's plan may fail, and it may be for an action less powerful than setting off a nuke on American soil. But the fact that Osama made a truce offer should have set off alarm bells in Washington. So far, from what I can see, it hasn't.

Time to buy the gun?

Dogs In The Manger

I've been convinced for a couple of years now that Republicans are so well-organized as to even have their bots run as Democrats, getting themselves elected, thus providing them with unfettered access to Democratic offices, conferences and strategy sessions, and then report back to the Red Meanies. Joe Lieberman, a.k.a., Mr. Mashed-Potato Face, of course, is just the alpha dog in the manger, i.e., now that Zell Miller is retired to challenging strangers on the street to duels.

But Henry Cueller, D-TX, 28th District (w/the "D" to be accepted advisedly), in case you hadn't heard, is a real piece of hard cheese:

In Washington, Democrats say they will monitor Cuellar's votes before deciding how warmly to embrace a man who calls himself pro-gun, pro-free trade, anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. Several House Democrats, hearing rumors that Cuellar might switch parties, took the unusual step of asking him to confirm his party loyalty.

With Democrats like these, who needs enemies? Is why I'm now joining the tidal wave of endorsements for his opponent Ciro Rodriguez.

Kos & Firedoglake (<-- dig the pic!) both blog on this foul bit of business, where it evidently has forged significant inroads, much akin to paying members of the media to parrot the GOP line (oddly enough, something they'd be doing without the payola).
----------
Update 2/3/06: More On Ciro Rodriguez, courtesy of Daily Kos.

Lepidoptera

You always knew Bill O'Reilly was a bug, right? Well nobody disects this bug better than Olbermann:

But most of what Mr. O'Reilly was saying was his typical obtuse shorthand of bullying and another word starting with "bull." . . . The bottom line is, as the oldest cliche goes, he can dish it out but, clearly, he cannot take it.

See the video, courtesy of C&L.

End Of Times

All in a day: Dubya speechifies, Greenspan retires, Coretta Scott King dies.

Maybe we could reshuffle the deck here... ?

Firedoglake

Really love the work Jane is doing. That she can piss off Deborah Howell and scare supposedly liberal Senators into doing the right thing, all in a week... well, she's just gotta have my baby.

Unless:

Okay, so it's obvious there is cloture today. It sucks. But it happens in the big leagues that sometimes you lose an inning. That doesn't mean you stop playing, it just means you take a deep breath and go back to the dugout for some fresh plays.

Agh! Where to begin.

My dear Jane, your attempt here at a sports analogy, apparently using baseball as your primary reference, is, uhm, distracting. See, even in basketball or football, "plays" are almost never -- ok, never -- described as "fresh," like they're fish or fruit cocktail. As for "plays" in baseball, a manager might signal the third base coach to signal the batter to put on the squeeze play, or he may, from the dugout, waive an outfielder over toward the line or the infield in, depending upon the situation, but a team doesn't retire to the dugout to huddle up for plays that are as "fresh" as Honus Wagner. Well maybe in T-ball.

And I don't think I've ever contemplated "innings lost" before. Innings aren't counted toward the final outcome. We can lose a "game" definitely, or even a "round" (as I believe you meant to say there), but then that's the sweet science of it.

Your energy and analytical talent, as it addresses your passion, politics, is clearly evident from the reading of your blog, and which is why this dissonant note wrankled. No biggie, but it just, like, totally weirded out the junkie in me. Such is the beauty of sport, I suppose.

Of course, I would bet you'd be able to find similarly lame analogies, which I may've imparted on this site; or perhaps a grammatical or syntactical error, or a spelling mishap or thirteen.

All I can say to that is... touche!

Alito Filibuster Defeated

Interesting that every Dem believed to have an interest in running for the '08 Presidency voted "Nay," including DLC mopes Bayh, Biden, and Hillary. Maybe they've woken up to the fact that the base is not to be trifled with.

Conversely, Joementum continues to exhibit his facist sympathies, giving new meaning, perhaps, to that shop-worn political wail "Better Dead Than Red" -- as in Roe v. Wade be Daid! (Which, by the way, is no small favor to the Democrats. When the fanatics, state by state, start to impose their insane restrictions on suburbia -- and you know they will! -- it could be, as Tom Davis suggests, a political reversal of fortune for both parties. Praise Jesus!)

But isn't it curious that given the cloture vote's wide margin, that both Lieberman and Linc Chafee, the Republican from the most Democratic state in the Union, both voted to end debate when their "Nay"s could have provided them legitimate cover for their reelections respectively. My curiosity is of what might've happend had they did so, like whether a domino effect might have ensued: "Heyyy, now I gotta vote Nay, you bastard!"

And now both of them will vote against Alito tomorrow, an anticlimactic exercise in stupidity, and more so if they actually think that'll cover their wrinkly butts on election night. Like we're, what, imbeciles?

If there is a God... !!

So say goodbye to Roe v. Wade, which, by intellectual standards, was an abomination in judicial reasoning, not to mention the Exhibit-A example of the Court legislating from the bench, even if it had the best of intentions: giving a woman another option in a particularly lonely moment. But now that Roe's demise is certain -- and I do mean certain! -- it will be the progressive populi who must get up off their respective keisters and fight the fuck back!

My more immediate fears envision the impending further destruction of our environment, the government institutionalization of Christianity (or the kind envisioned by some serious assholes), and the continued lowering of standards as they pertain to, say, consumer awareness and protection; employee wages, safety and health coverage; or particularly, whether an individual has any recourse in the court when he or she is utterly screwed over by some corporate stooge.

For starters...

And speaking of worker safety, can you imagine what that old fossil Robert Byrd could possibly have been thinking? Here is a man whose state is still reeling from two recent mine disasters, which, I would argue, were made inevitable by Republicans' obsessive deregulation of industry. And what does Byrd do?? He announces his support for a man who is the ultimate corporate rubber stamp. And he did it precipitously, days in advance, almost guaranteeing the filibuster would never take off. Oh! And then there's Scalito's love for executive power: You know how Byrd loves to waive his tiny copy of the Constitution on the Senate floor whenever he expounds upon its rich Corinthean leather? I think it'd be mighty entertaining, the next time, were he to set it afire.

Ach! This is depressing. As depressing as when the "fab five" came down with their decisions in Bush v. Gore. You think maybe Sandy-Baby'd like her vote back on that one?

Four -- count 'em -- FOUR rubber stamps now for the most fanatical element in this country: Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and now Alito. Take a drink whenever they don't vote unanimously on a decision, you'll stay cold sober.

Christ! This means Anthony Kennedy is now the swing. And he has a rusty hinge.

Brrrr...

Alphabetical by Senator Name
Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Nay
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Nay
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Bunning (R-KY), Yea
Burns (R-MT), Yea
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Chafee (R-RI), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Nay
Coburn (R-OK), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Dayton (D-MN), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Yea
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Dodd (D-CT), Nay
Dole (R-NC), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Durbin (D-IL), Nay
Ensign (R-NV), Not Voting
Enzi (R-WY), Yea
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
Frist (R-TN), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Not Voting
Harkin (D-IA), Not Voting
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Jeffords (I-VT), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Nay
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay
Leahy (D-VT), Nay
Levin (D-MI), Nay
Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Martinez (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Nay
Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Nay
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Nay
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Nay
Reid (D-NV), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Santorum (R-PA), Yea
Sarbanes (D-MD), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Nay
Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Yea
Talent (R-MO), Yea
Thomas (R-WY), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Yea
Vitter (R-LA), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Wyden (D-OR), Nay

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Pressroom - #8

You've been photographed at least 3 different times, and my suspician is more, flipping the bird at whomever. My question is this: Do you think that's what Jesus would do?

Sunday Drift

Winding it down. I'd like another day off as one seems insufficient. Feeling self-centric at the moment as the business of the world at hand depresses the living shit outta me. Dems bending over and grabbing their ankles is no way to run an opposition party...

No, no... ! Run away run away... !

So anyway, you know how when you rent a movie you pick one you thought you wanted to see but when you get home you get caught up in the reruns of Law'n Order and before you know it, it's beddy bye? Do that for a coupla nights straight and your rental is due back. Well thank the gah'ds Blockbuster liberalized their return policy (Hear that, Republicans? They went liberal!!), and so my rental of March of the Penguins sat on my table for three weeks; half-way thru I was allowed to rent others, like Crash (excellent!), Saving Face (charming), and Serenity (fuckin' awesome!). The cash-out fellah noted I still had Penguins, which he suggested I could opt to purchase for $9.95 or return at a $1.50 late charge, which I didn't have to pay then -- like, hey cool!

It didn't go unnoted by me he didn't mention Network, which I had rented at the same time as March of the Penguins. Maybe because it was in their older movie section, i.e., not 2-day or 1-week return mandated, or maybe it was a computer, or brain, glitch. Whatever the case, maybe I could just assume there's no penalty for a verrrry late return, heh! Yeaaahh, that's it!

So I finally watched March of the Penguins last night. Simply put, it was astounding, which, of course is one of the word-blurbs right on the cover. No hype that "astounding," as it was indeed astounding!! Incredibly spartan existences these birds live, and yet they hold a profound sense of duty and family. It touches the soul.

Haven't seen it? Do.

That is all.

Say It Ain't So, Joementum

The man's name is Ned Lamont:

Ned is considering running because, like most Connecticut Democrats, he is tired of being represented by a senator who is not willing to stand up to the President on the war — and on the rest of his extreme right wing agenda which is so harmful to our country.

Tell Ned to run!

Ralph Nader: All Is Forgiven

Is good to be UNreasonable:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Given the road now travelled by Al Gore, the man Nader most torments, or did, the prognosis for the Democratic party is upbeat, i.e., looking well past the ugly capitulation by Senate Democrats involving Scalito (Please! Gi'me a car crash, somebody!)...

Uhm, that's upbeat assuming Al runs for the presidency again.

Yew Shorr Got Purdy Lips, Boy!

Must see!!

dd d d d d d d d...

Metaphysician, Heal Thyself

Aaron Brown, late of CNN, makes an interesting point:

Journalists have fallen short in presenting important news in ways that allow viewers to see how it matters in their lives. But viewers must take up the battle as well, he said. "It's not enough to say you want serious news. You have to watch it. It isn't enough to say you want serious debate. You have to engage in it."

I confess I don't watch NewsHour as much as I'd ought, although I am religious about watching Olbermann while convinced the show's plug'll be pulled before the November elections, a la Phil Donahue.

1,000 Words

If ever Andre Agassi's assertion "Image is everything!" ever applied more than it does at the White House, recollection fails:

In his press conference today, President Bush suggested that the existence of photographs of himself and Jack Abramoff are no big deal and generally pooh-poohed the press's focus on the story. But our reporting suggests that the White House is actively involved in covering up and possibly destroying photographic evidence of the two men together.

Oh, now I remember: the next generation of video footage and photographs of atrocities committed by American soldiers and civilians at Abu Ghraib... all in the name of America -- of course, not yet made public.

I forget who said it recently, but America is a land with a great big, luminous bubble covering it, where the world can see in but we can see only our reflections.

This administration is a freakin' nightmare.

Welcome Home NYTimes

Today's editorial: Senators in Need of a Spine

"A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court."

Please note also, the Washington Post actually endorses Alito.

And what does that tell you about the Post, Heavynews, wherever u r?

#2 Reason Not To Go To The Theatah

The #1 reason is getting capped by a Confederate spy...

Looks like Tom Cruise is doing everything he can to queer his fiance's movie career:

The Sundance Film Festival is all about discovery, but what filmmaker Jason Reitman found out during a screening of "Thank You for Smoking" was unusual even by Sundance standards: The Katie Holmes sex scene in his movie had vanished.

What producer, with options to cast any number of hollywood hotties, is gonna wanna deal with Miss Quasi-Cruise now?

Oh, heyyyy! Ya' think maybe that's how Katie got preggers?

I love this stuff!

Wakey Wakey, Hillary!

Nice piece by Arianna:

But does the Democratic base really love Hillary? The latest straw poll taken by MyDD would seem to indicate otherwise. Hillary came in seventh. That's right, seventh, placing behind -- in order -- Feingold, Clark, Warner, Edwards, Richardson, and Undecided." Sure, MyDD is just one blog, but it's an influential one -- and, increasingly grassroots and netroots are becoming one and the same.

Got another email from Hillary, meanwhile, and am now convinced I can't be nasty enough in my replies to make her go away.

Gearin' up for the Left-of-center Civil War -- Yeahhhhoooo!!

The United States of Islam

Apparently nobody ever told Dubya to be careful what he wished for:

''If neighboring Islamic countries, including Iran, become the target of attacks, we will support them,'' al-Sadr was quoted as saying. ''The Mahdi Army is beyond the Iraqi army. It was established to defend Islam.''

"Freedom and liberty" is a tricky concept, especially for an autocrat who spouts its virtue solely to obscure his thumb as he struggles mightily to plant it on the masses. Nevermind the fact whenever George Bush says "We're spreading freedom!" it sounds like he's spreading manure, particularly when "freedom" and "liberty" are being systematically undermined here, I've held before the notion that a long-term salution may be just what Dubya has implemented (although not in the way he intended), i.e., blow up the region and let it reform as a genuine democracy, that is according to the wishes of its people and not those of the western corporate/military industrial complex, something the Arab world has never had before... and for that matter, us too!

Of course, that'd likely mean a radical Islamic state; and for the first 25-50 years after finally establishing self-determination, hostitlity toward the Great Satan would be little dissipated, and, as such, would likely involve a concurrent period of domestic oil prices bordering on the obscene -- unacceptable to our dear leader for life, even if the American driver will long have evolved unto alternative-energy locomotion.

It could be as much as a half-century after American troops are withdrawn from the region before the masses could be in position to overthrow their most recent oppressive rulers, the clerics, and as Iran was about to do before Dubya became King. Maybe then we could all have a drink and sing songs together.

Unless, of course, the reigning superpower of that day -- China!-- manipulates the Arab leadership, much in the same punitive manner as America had dispensed. A delicious irony, to be sure, but it would also consign the world to riding the energy-addictive dreary-go-round until the year 2525... If man is still alive...

But as it stands today, Iran is well on the road to obtaining the bomb, a development I don't find so alarming inasmuch as it would only protect them from an American or Israeli attack much in the way North Korea is now protected. And contrary to today's anti-Iranian fear-mongering (a now overly familiar soundtrack), I would contend that a nuclear-protected Islamic state would be far less inclined to lash out at its enemies due to having considerably more leverage, and would consequently desire to conduct actual business with, say, an oil-addicted clientele. To quote the Church Lady: Whooooo could it beeeee?

And now an Iranian pact with Muqtada Al-Sadr, who clearly would represent an unfettered majority population in Iraq, while adding Syria to the equation, would appear to shoot the Neocons' hegemonic view for the region to shit, the healthiest of developments, I would argue.

It'll take a long time to bear fruit, I grant you, and likely not in our lifetimes. But how long a time will it require before a rapproachment can be reached if American troops stay in the region for decades?

Sold!

Looks like the Sox will be replacing Centerfield Jesus with a breakfast cereal. Underheralded here, as Sox fans are used to shortstops who can mash, is the impending signing of Alex Gonzalez:

“He’s one of the best in the business,” McKeon said. “The guy’s a vacuum cleaner. He’s a magician. He can make that (double play) coming across the bag like no one you’ve ever seen. I’ve had a lot of great shortstops play for me but this guy was right up there with the best. He should have won a Gold Glove every year but he doesn’t have the charisma that others have and he doesn’t sell himself. But Boston will love him.”

Sold!

WaPo Finally Gets A Clue

This should've been printed over a year-and-a-half ago, yet another example of the Post trying to out-avoid the Times in covering the death of a republic:

Four times over the past year Sancho told computer specialists to break in to his voting system. And on all four occasions they did, changing results with what the specialists described as relatively unsophisticated hacking techniques. To Sancho, the results showed the vulnerability of voting equipment manufactured by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, which is used by Leon County and many other jurisdictions around the country.

Oh wait! Isn't "all the news that's fit to print" sitting on this story still?

We Are All Terrorists - Reprise

Those of you thinking Americans, who think Bush is doing good for America... you're next!

"Neither you nor anybody in that (Quaker) church had anything to do with terrorism," said Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. "The fact is, the Truth Project may have a philosophy that is adverse to the political philosophy and goals of the president of the United States. And as a result of that different philosophy, the president and the secretary of defense ordered that your group be spied upon.

"There should not be a single American who today remains confident that it couldn't happen to them."

Impeach the Bastard!

The Other Bubble Boy

The New Republic's Michael Crowley writes a fascinating year-after analysis on John Kerry and where he is in his own mind (Jesus! Did I just use the words "fascinating" and "John Kerry" in the same sentence??):

Perhaps it was an insignificant moment. Or maybe it symbolized something important: a general sense among Democrats that no one is particularly interested in hearing from John Kerry anymore.

One could argue the same holds true for Hillary Clinton... Joe Biden... Joe Lieberman... Diane Feinstein... Ted Kennedy... Evan Bayh...

Tom Cruise Stays In The Closet

Because it's so easy to win slander & libel cases in England:

Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's time for you to come out of the closet. You're not fooling anyone.

Speculatively, I hedge (although Tom couldn't win a whole helluva lot from my estate), if it weren't true, I don't suppose he'd fight it so hard. Eh?

And you'd think he'd change his last name...

Making Google

I know, avoiding Google's the trick. But anyway...

Click on Advanced Search; With The Exact Phrase: "barking up trees"; With At Least One of The Words: "blog", and you get this in first position (out of 147 results):

Barking Up Trees
Barking Up Trees. Coming To You From The Occupied Capital of America ...
Rawstory & Brad Blog are working together to bring to light, or at least a brighter ...barkinguptrees.blogspot.com/ - 158k - Cached - Similar pages

Not exactly sure why that particular post stands out, but okay.

Now if Google can continue to hold out against the White House grab on it's search database.

Fuckin' Yahoo!

Endorsement #1

Paul Hackett for U.S. Senate. Faithful readers know my reasons.

Newcomers, welcome! Here's why.

Molly Ivins Rocks... !

I have long loved Molly Ivins, after reading two of her books -- Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? and You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You -- but time and internet media saturation divereted me to other loves for a while. But I thought I'd check out her latest column as she hits on a favorite note:

I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

I've said it before, Hillary's mis-timing her pro-forma run to the middle. The progressive base has to nominate her first, and her DLC-lovin' ways just ain't gonna cut it this day & age. This is why taking Joe Lieberman down this election cycle in the Dem primary is paramount. We want... no, need Dems who are spoiling for a fight with the corrupt facists running America today. If Lieberman tanks in Connecticut, d'be best you dump all your DLC stock.

Meanwhile, bringin' you back, Molly!

Emphasis His

It bears repeating here, thanks to R.J. Eskow:

1. Did Jack Abramoff directly give money to Democrats? 2. Did Abramoff direct clients to give money to Democrats?3. Were Democrats aware of any wrongdoing or impliedquid-pro-quo in those donations?

We know the answer to #1 is "no." I still don't know the answer to #2 - I know that Abramoff clients gave money to Democrats, but haven't seen documentation that it was done at his direction. I certainly haven't seen evidence to support #3. If the answer to #3 is no, than the Post has misled its readers, at the very least by implication - and the paper's ombudsman repeated the mis-statements instead of investigating them.

There y'go, Naahm! (At the risk of sounding like Cliff Claven... )

"Liberal" Rags - Not!

It seems the Washington Post likes trying to 1-up the New York Times in hideous antidisestablishmentarianism, and, to quote Les Nessman, "I use that word correctly" -- or at least I think I do.

Right after the Times shat the bed with the gross mismanaging of their out-of-control Lois Lane the Post exhibited their post-Katie Graham stripes when the its editors blew like windsocks in the hot air of right wing windbags complaining about Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing column, and which led Post ombudsperson Deborah Howell to conclude it as being too liberal and consequently should be renamed.

But then the Times did 'em one better again, telling the world the Bush administration had been wiretapping hundreds -- later concluded to be tens of thousands and perhaps millions -- of Americans without obtaining warrants from any court. The pathetic wretchedness of it all is the Times apparently knew about it as far back as before the 2004 presidential election, useful information as it might've been to any who would seek the removal from power a neo-facist administration.

And now the Post again, once again involving this ombudsperson Howell, a Texan (Aw, gee! Really?) with an evident rightward bent (Uh, yah!). In this case she apparently insists on passing along, without any supporting evidence, the assertion that Democrats have also been receiving monies from Jack Abramoff. So far no evidence to-date implicates a one. The backlash in cyperspace has spilled out and into the traditional media.

Admittedly, the degree to which the Post has lowered its standards of journalistic integrity cannot compare to the Times' egregious trashing of the public's right to know, but it's pretty damned disappointing nonetheless.

I summarize here as I thought of my cousin. Unlike old buddy Heavynews, Cuz was never a progressive. In fact, he's the gold standard of a "good ol' boy"; confederate as the day is long. I like the guy very much, because as most fun-loving good ol' boys, he's not without charm. But he always pushes the now-very ignorant assertion that the Washington Post and the New York Times are "liberal" rags. And they decidely are not. What they are are establishment entities with corporate souls. And that, Ladies & Gentleman, is the essence of 21st Century American conservativism.
----------
Update (1/21): R.J. Eskow spells out in detail the nasty turn the Post has taken since Katherine Graham got her titty caught in the big ringer in the sky.

eMailing Keith Olbermann

yo keith:

am wondering why NBC is sitting on the Andrea Mitchell/Christiane Amanpour story:

http://barkinguptrees.blogspot.com/2006/01/christiane-amanpour.html

i watch Countdown nearly every night for i see it as an oasis in a desert of corporate-controlled pap dispensed as "news," but which contains little of anything "new"... if that isn't too awkward, i acknowledge i might've run out of the room right at the time you acknowledged NBC news president Steve Capus as the "worst person in the world," so i'm prepared to be stood corrected...

so how 'bout it, big guy... ? how does andrea mitchell know whether or not christiane amanpour has been wiretapped, and why isn't NBC persuing it with daily developments transparent to we(us?) who give a damn... ?

and what about you, sir... ? i very much enjoy your wit & iconoclasm and expect to see that which no other network program covers, particularly those courageous moments when the muckraker might bite the hand that feeds...

what -- is it they won't let andrea appear to explain herself... ?

or maybe "NBC News" has changed it's name to "NBC News Blackout"... ?

i want to know... i deserve to know... i buy the pharmaceuticals advertised...

i eagerly await your reply...

g.

Dump Lieberman Campaign Picking Up Steam

The consensus within the Democratic wing of the Democratic party is to get him in the primary:

Myrna Watanabe, chair of the Harwinton, Conn., Democrats, is planning to propose a similar resolution to the committee in her northwest Connecticut town. She has been publicly critical of Lieberman recently and is hoping the other committee members will agree to admonish him in a letter. "They are disgusted with Joe," she says, "and pretty disgusted with the war."

And you knoooooow I'll be tracking this one.
----------
Update (1/18): Kos says Lieberman has no easy ride.

Be Careful What You Say You Wish For

In case you missed it, democracy broke out in South America again:

Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician and former health and defense minister, soundly defeated her opponent; billionaire tycoon Sebastian Pinera in Chile's presidential run-off Sunday. Bachelet's 53.5 percent to Pinera's 46.5 percent marked a trend throughout Latin America of leftist electoral victories. Leftists now run Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela, with the inclusion of Chile, the political sentiment of the region is unmistakable.

Not quite the kind of democracy Dubya and his handlers had in mind, I'll warrant; the kind where the damned people decide on who runs the show, novel concept that.

Dr. Kissinger, a Sal Allende on line one for you.

Al Gore For President

A former vice president of the United States delivers what should be deemed a major speech in which he essentially calls the sitting president a criminal, and declares the foundation of our government, the Constitution, in crisis -- and the major networks are... where??

Listen to the WMP/QT, courtesy of Crooks & Liars, of Gore orating like he never did in 2000, juxtapose that with the abject capitulation this past week by our minority representation on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and one can only conclude there's no where else to turn.

Personally, I'm convinced Congress will never again change over to Democratic control if it doesn't happen this year. And if it doesn't I'd lay odds that with respect to the 2008 presidential race, either it will be suspended or the 22nd Amendment will be repealed -- and with the latter, the guarantee of another term for Dubya.

And to all you police state apologists and/or insufferably complacent oblivions, don't get too cozy; facism is relentless and it needs feeding.
----------
Update (1/17): Olbermann led off last night's Countdown with the Gore speech, hurrah! Now if we can get back to what NBC discovered about Dubya wiretapping Christiane Amanpour?

Count Me In

My brother the lawyer, thinking of his family's best interests, has forwarded this bit of paperwork:

New Living Will Form

I, ___________________, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if THEIR lives depended on it. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for (please initial all that apply):

____ a Bloody Mary,
____ a Margarita,
____ a beer,
____ a steak,
____ lobster or crab legs,
____ the remote control,
____ a bowl of ice cream,
____ a vodka tonic,
____ chocolate,
____ sex, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better.

When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of any Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery.

It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own business and instead, pay attention to the future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma.

Signature: ________________________

Date: ________________________

Witness: ________________________

Giving Bulemia A Good Name

If you missed the Ann Coulter sex poster advertised in my little window above, it's because I filtered the thing. I mean, oh my Christ, what rutting hog, or young Republican who'd never get laid otherwise, could even tolerate touching her with somebody else's 10-ft pole? She's not even decent enough to consider having as "face down/go t'town" -- >GAH!<

However, one might go with the proverb "In case of poisoning, induce vomiting."

Crashed & Burned

Okay, that didn't play as expected. Two-time champs Patriots looked, from my perch, extremely mortal last night. Kevin Faulk carries a football like a pocketbook; Adam Vinatieri blew out his "clutch"; Tom Brady was no magic man on that intercept in the endzone, but didn't Ben Watson show what future superstars are made of, coming 150 yards diagonally to knock Champ Bailey out at the one -- and Daniel Graham's wondering why his playing time's gone down.

More than a quarter of the Murphy's Pub patrons, and slightly less than half, wore "official NFL" Patriots jerseys. 65 percent wore either Brady-12 or Bruschi-54; four or five wore Vinatieri-4 (all chicks [including companion Katie], as no straight guy'll wear a kicker's number -- especially one as pretty as Adam V.); there was one Seymour-93, a Bledsoe-11 -- no, two Bledsoes; although one was a strange looking, wirey dude wearing the throwback red w/#11 on it but no name (Hell, it could've been an homage to Tony Eason. In that case the guy's a froot!), a Tatutpu-30 (although Mosi never wore the blue in his day), and a Williams-99. My guess on the latter is the guy wearing it was named Williams.

Over-capacity crowd with some pushing & shoving, and a cop giving a stern lecture to me as one who, uhm, >ahem< pushed back a little too hard. Stouts, what can I say.

Spared the rest of the playoffs tieing up my daylight hours, I look forward to blowing off the Superbowl.

Gayme!

Pats/Broncos 8 p.m. 2nite...

The Scene: Murphy's Pub, Old Town...

Total Pats crowd upstairs...

Hoooahh!

Surfin' USA

Al Gore's Call To Arms Against the Tyrant Bush: In Defense of the Bill of Rights
Let's see if the M$M gives it any play...

Dems Mull Outright Ban on Lobbying Gifts
Gee, ya' think... ? Could these two stories be a preview of an actual, honest-to-Gahd multi-pronged plan for winning back control of Congress... ? Nahhh... !

Dems To Cave On Filibuster
1 step forward, 1-&-a-half steps backward, a step or 2 sideways... And there ya' have the hokey-pokey... !

Awww just blow up the Congress ferchrissakes... !

On The Other Hand: PM Carpenter Says Blow Up The Supreme Court

The Court has no enforcement powers, the Bush regime is quite aware of that, and the powers-that-be on Capitol Hill are no more interested in reining in this out-of-control administration than the Reichstag was in telling Hitler to cool it. Hence by abolishing the Supreme Court we would properly and cleanly kill the pretense that we, as a nation, are still committed to “no-man-above-the-law” platitudes.

Huhh huhhuh huhh... You said "Hitler."

Swift-boating Murtha
Swine haveth no shame...

Can't Drill In Alaska? Who Says?
Bush flips Congress the bird yet again...

Another Repo Rep Bites The Greasy Skids
But not before doing his part in delivering Ohio to Bush in '04 (against the will of the people)...

Another Screwball Runs For Governor in Minnesota
A vampire with a moral code; who knew...

And Now For Something Completely Different
The Maryland Senate shows what Democrats in power can do...

New England Patriots In Denver 2MorrowNite!!
Prediction: Pats 24 Broncos 13...

For starters...

Friday Night's Alright For Fightin' Too...

... unless you're a Democrat. And contrary to the beliefs of chums and chum alike, I haven't been a Democrat since I left Massachusetts in '91. I was too much a ruffian and cannot abide people with milquetoast manners, whereas the current crop in the Senate look to wallow in the fetid wetness of it all.

Not only is it sad to see the nation's oldest party led by unprincipled and limp members (of Congress), it's fucking alarming. It means a de facto if unceremonious end of the two-party system in America, and all we have left are corrupt swine and assorted looters. Biden and Schumer and Feinstein, et. al, will >yawn< vote against Alito, but it appears there's no fight in them to filibuster, and consequently no evident fight in standing up for what they say they believe.

So blow up the Congress already, wouldja please?

Towel Snaps Lieberman's Tookus

Let's hear it for the grassroots:

Fearful that grassroots groups like MoveOn and DKos are organizing to oppose him in the upcoming election, Joe Lieberman has been feeling the heat. He's been meeting with the DFA hoping to keep them out of it, and Bill Scher now says that according to DFA reps he is claiming that "filibuster is definitely on the table."

F'in' A, I say!

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Pressroom - #7

If you're not the stupidest president in American history, who is?

Mirror Mirror...

Welcome Finland and France and Britain and Brazil; Singapore, Australia and Spain, you too. We be blogging 'round the clock, or we would if we could. Lord knows the mind toils and it doth spin. And more is the pity.

I imagine your sadness all of you who look at us, America. You had hope and even envy. How you must view us now. This vile bastard we call der president has diluted that which we pretended we were. But then again he's served a useful purpose, lifting the veil of our public relations, our Madison Avenue marketing front that is "America," representative of all that is good: baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. The land of the free, the home of the brave, human rights and justice for all.

Fraud!

The corporations and conglomerates want you to believe it, feed it to you as pablum, because it profits them so. These souless mechanisms of civilization.

But don'tcha know? Dubya didn't invent torture here. Before he stopped sniffing his blow (or assuming he stopped), we had this place called School of the Americas, located in Fort Benning, Georgia. Do ye' not recall nuns being tortured in Central America during the reign of Ronald Wilson Reagan (666)?

And what of the fall of Saigon? The March on Birmingham? Of Jim Crow? Of breadlines and Plessy v. Ferguson? Of 40 acres & a mule? Of civil war? Of Manifest Destiny (and how's that for a fancy name given to ethnic cleansing)?

We are a most unclean lot; ashamed, or at least we should be.

We are doomed. You are doomed. The whole trial is out of order!

We will repeat the past. We have not learned from history.

We are Americans.

[crickets chirping]

Waiting for the Dems to cut the shit and filibuster the prick already.

And Speaking of Annoying...

Seems I'm not only a terrorist, but I'm also a criminal:

Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

And yet we can't find out who attended the Energy meetings chaired by the very vile Vice President.

... was feeling alliterative. Uhm, sorry... didn't mean to annoy.

Suffering The Arbitrary Advertisement

Rush Limbaugh, that smarmy, self-indulgent fuck, has taken to advertising on my blog. I filtered the thing, but apparently there's no rush on Adsense's part to accommodate. All of which reminds me of a disagreement I had once with a true-believer, who fancied himself one of Rush's dittoheads.

"You know what 'ditto' means, dittohead?" I asked, barely containing my loathing sarcasm. His look was of disinterest but also resignation at being told "Me too!" I said it, perhaps, a little mawkishly.

"Me too! Oh, me toooo! You go, Rush!"

Okay, I was dripping contempt. And it worked, he was instantly annoyed.

"20 million Americans listen to Rush everyday," he intoned dustilly, it having travelled long down his nose.

"Uh huh!" I replied, "20 million 18-24 year-old pimply white knuckle-dragging Americans who'll never get laid! And meanwhile there are the other 275 million Americans who don't listen to Rush everyday."

"Heyyy, I gotta use that!" Another guy walked up. He was grinning as he looked at me.

I grinned back then turned to the dittohead. "You see? 2 to 1 right here."

The dittohead said nothing and walked away.

2 Things

1) The '02 Wente Vinyards cabernet, evidently bottled somewhere between the Livermore Valley and San Francisco Bay, or so the label would have us believe, is only superb...

and 2) Network is the greatest movie ever made. Period.

Rerented the DVD...

I could watch it again.

Christiane Amanpour

Was disappointed but not surprised by Olbermann skipping over the yet-to-be BIG story of Christiane Amanpour getting bugged by Dubya and the demi-demons of his administration, or so NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell let slip (& here). It's precisely because NBC wants to put the genie back in the bottle, the genie being the revelation that Dubya listens in on political opponents (or how the network & Mitchell knew about it), and not just terrorists, while lying through his teeth about the limits of his admitted criminality, that likely kept Olbermann at bay. That or NBC won't let Mitchell be available for this news story.

I expect Olbermann to eventually come through. He's a committed contrarian, which is why I gravitate to his news program and to few others. But I am a little concerned. After his lead story last night, not being Jack Abramoff as it should have been, was the group-jerk involving Bush and all the remaining living Sec'ys of State (Hoo hah!), he teased one of his subordinate stories as one his producers made him do.

Uhh, Keith isn't that why you quit NBC the first time?

But how 'bout this mutt Mitchell (or as Dan Hedaya as Nick Tortelli would refer to her as, an Uggo)? It was only a month ago when Imus showed us what she's all about. And she apparently knows something, and now won't talk about it, that Amanpour doesn't know herself.

Sidebar to NBC suits: You seriously have a credibility problem when one of your senior reporters keeps becoming the story. Ya' think maybe when hubby retires, she should go with him?

Is it any wonder why I can't stomach Network news anymore?

----------

Update: CNN, as well, seems terribly underinterested in its reporters getting surveilled:

A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN on Thursday that the National Security Agency did not target CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance.

Another steno job by one of Washington's elite journalists David Ensor, who, like so many of the Washington media elite, should be named "End Sore."

Update II: Nothing from Olbermann on the subject tonight either.

Jesus, will somebody please grab Andrea Mitchell, tie her to a waterboard, and just before giving her a dunk, quietly and gently whisper what the fuck!!?

Rose Bowl: Halftime

For what it's worth, I can't possibly care who wins. USC is a haven for young Republicans, more famously of whom was Donald Segretti. He's the gent who introduced the phrase "rat-fucking" while henching for Tricky Dick, via that other young republican Bob Woodward when he still had a sense of duty as an honest-t'gahd muckraker.

Ah! Thems were the days.

Texas, meanwhile, is... well, it's fucking Texas! Every defeat they taste can only be a victory for the civilized universe. And the lesser of two evils here has to be California Repos over Texas Repos. But then the SC running back's name is >cough< Bush!

Hmm, wonder what's on Law'n Order.