Thursday, August 31, 2006

And Furthermore

this is from Olberman last night -

Keith had some very choice words about Rumsfeld’s "fascism" comments tonight. Watch it, save it and share it.
Video - WMV  Video - QT
Olbermann delivered this commentary with fire and passion while highlighting how Rumsfeld’s comments echoes other times in our world’s history when anyone who questioned the administration was coined as a traitor, unpatriotic, communist or any other colorful term. Luckily we pulled out of those times and we will pull out of these times.
Remember - Rumsfeld did not just call the Democrats out yesterday, he called out a majority of this country. This wasn’t only a partisan attack, but more so an attack against the majority of Americans.
The transcript of Keith’s comments tonight is available below the fold.
The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and
shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.
Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.
We end the countdown where we began, our #1 story.
with a special comment on
Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion
yesterday. It demands the deep analysis - and the sober contemplation - of every
American.
For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or
intelligence - indeed, the loyalty - of the majority of Americans who
oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land;
Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our
employees - with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither
common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad,
suggests they deserve.
Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of
human freedom; And not merely because it is the first roadblock against the
kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as "his" troops still
fight, this very evening, in Iraq.
It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile… it
is right - and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.
In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was
adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis.
For, in their time, there was another government faced with true
peril - with a growing evil - powerful and remorseless.
That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the
facts. It, too, had the secret information. It alone had the true
picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in
terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s - questioning their intellect and their
morality.
That government was England’s, in the 1930’s.
It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone to
England.
It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all
treaties and accords.
It knew that the hard evidence it had received, which
contradicted it’s own policies, it’s own conclusions - it’s own omniscience - needed to be
dismissed.
The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew
the truth.
Most relevant of all - it "knew" that its staunchest critics
needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost
of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile - at
best morally or intellectually confused.
That critic’s name… was Winston Churchill.
Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this
evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way
Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.
History - and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England
- had taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty - and his own
confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the
man, but that the office can also make the facts.
Thus did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy
excepting the fact that he has the battery plugged in backwards.
His government, absolute and exclusive in its knowledge, is not the
modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis. It is the modern
version of the government… of Neville Chamberlain.
But back to today’s Omniscient Ones.
That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this:
This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely. And as such,
all voices count - not just his. Had he or his president perhaps
proven any of their prior claims of omniscience - about Osama Bin
Laden’s plans five years ago - about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago
- about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago - we all might be able to
swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful
recipe, of fact, plus ego.
But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own
arrogance, and its own hubris.
Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or
intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to
Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to envelope this
nation - he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies, have - inadvertently
or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.
And yet he can stand up in public, and question the morality and
the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the
Emporer’s New Clothes.
In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised?
As a child, of whose heroism did he read?
On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day
to fight?
With what country has he confused… the United States of
America?

The confusion we - as its citizens - must now address, is
stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when
men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and
obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier
Americans always found their way to the light and we can too.
The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and
this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the
terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for
which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City,
so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country
faces a "new type of fascism."
As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew
everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he
said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.
This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble
tribute… I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist
Edward R. Murrow.
But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could
come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of
us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew
everything, and branded those who disagreed, "confused" or "immoral."
Thus forgive me for reading Murrow in full:
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," he said, in 1954.
"We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction
depends upon evidence and due process of law.
We will not walk in fear - one, of another. We will not be
driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history
and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men;
Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to
defend causes that were - for the moment - unpopular."
And so, good night, and good luck.

Beach Blogging

What would you call someone who fishes of a pier designed for swimming and boating while less hunter-gatherer types on the hot beach wait for the threat of flying fish hooks to disappear? What if these same rod-reelers are sitting in their own moored boat at the pier?

I think that thisbis why the term asshole was created. I am sure (especially since I am at this moment reading John Dean's 'Conservatives Without Conscience', that they are Republican Christian Fundamentalist Fascits.

Dean's book is quite a detailing of just what type of people are running our country and, worse, the self righteous deluded types that are voting for them. I'm not sure that even the havoc wrought so far by these fools is enough for the general population to be shamed into seeing what has become of the US.

Not So Fast - Cheese State Edition

Woke up to this on the morning's news shows -

Wisconsin election officials ordered gubernatorial candidate Mark Green (R) "to divest his campaign of any contributions from PACs that were not registered in Wisconsin when the donations were made. The order applies to an estimated $468,000 in contributions that Green converted from his federal campaign account to his state gubernatorial fund in January 2005," according to WisPolitics.com.

The board, on a 5-2 vote, gave Green 10 days to comply with its order...

But Green campaign manager Mark Graul insisted the PAC donations have already been spent and there was no money to return. He said the ruling will have no impact on the campaign's finances and accused Gov. Jim Doyle of engineering the vote."

How DoYou Tell A Republican Candidate In Wisconsin?

He's the one that doesn't mention his party in his TV ads.

The Heartland Hates W.

not So Fast!

From the NY Times -

With paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio scheduled to be destroyed next week, the secretary of state in Columbus, under pressure from critics, said yesterday that he would move to delay the destruction at least for several months.

- It should be noted that the Official in charge of Ohio's 2004 election is now running for governor of OH and is down 20 points in the polls.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

My Country, 'Tis Of Cheese

Well. Here we are. Wisconsin - Cheese Central. We have driven by the Birthplace of the Republican Party, a place as tattered as the president's reputation.

Here in Green Lake we find lots of quiet, minimal kid activity and a great big lake. There is a store in town which sells both guns and liquor...we find this a bit disconcerting.

Currently we are relaxing on our large screened-in porch while Miles Davis gives birth to 'Cool' on the speaker-accessorized discman (how eighties is that?

And is anyone surprised that Karr didn't do it?
Later

Keef Free!

 
Scots say Keith Richards free to smoke (AP)
(3 hrs, 2 mins ago)

LONDON - Keith Richards won't be fined for reportedly lighting up during a Rolling Stones concert in Scotland.
The stage at Hampden Park, where the band performed Friday night on their "A Bigger Bang" tour, is exempt from a new law that bans smoking in enclosed public places, the Glasgow City Council said Monday.
Violators of the new law, which took effect in March, can be fined up to $95. The ban includes theaters and sports venues.
Richards' publicists at LD Communications in London did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The City Council said it had heard from journalists that the 62-year-old guitarist was smoking during the performance, but it wasn't known whether the journalists had been at the concert.

Monday, August 28, 2006

The Outlaw Life



Keef, once again at odds with the law (from NY Times):

Scots Eye Keith Richards Smoking Onstage

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) -- Keith Richards may have violated Scotland's smoking ban by lighting up during a Rolling Stones concert.


The Glasgow City Council said Sunday it heard from journalists that the 62-year-old guitarist was smoking during a Friday night performance.


''It's been brought to our attention that he was smoking, and we'll be looking into it,'' a council spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in keeping with city policy. ''We do take our responsibilities for enforcement very seriously.''
Scotland's ban on smoking in enclosed public places, including theaters and sports venues, took effect in March. Violators can be fined up to $95.


In the Scottish capital, officials warned during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival earlier this month that they would close down a theater if actor Mel Smith lit a cigar during his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the play ''Allegiance.'' Smith eventually agreed to keep the cigar unlit.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Deep Macaca

From Raw Story a sure GOP seat is in trouble ... Yes it's the seat held by (Confederate) Presidential Hopeful George Allen:

Democratic challenger James Webb, former Navy secretary under President Reagan, has pulled ahead of Virginia's Republican Senator Allen by one percentage point in the latest Zogby poll, RAW STORY has learned.

The poll also puts Democrats in front for 14 out of the open 19 gubernatorial races. But the Democratic Party only leads 12 of the 18 Senate races, which wouldn't be enough to regain the majority even accounting for Vermont's independent Senator Jim Jeffords and Connecticut's Joe Lieberman who Zogby shows leading primary winner Ned Lamont by ten points.

"The race in Virginia saw a significant turnaround: Democratic challenger James Webb inched to a one percentage point lead over incumbent Senator George Allen, who was ahead eleven percentage points in the July Zogby poll," reports the Wall
Street Journal website.

"Mr. Allen was swept up in controversy earlier this month over comments he made about a Democratic campaign worker.

GT12 Back On The Road

We are closing GT12 Central and taking our endeavors north to Wisconsin for the rest of this week. We will continue to post via Palm Treo so be prepared for no pictures and minimal punctuation but more commentary on life in the dairy land.

We will be very near this picture. How could we say no? Posted by Picasa

More from That Woman

Surprisingly weak clarification from everybody's favorite Florida Drag-Queen Christianist Representative (and you know, there is a lot of competition in that category):

Harris' campaign released a statement Saturday saying she had been "speaking to a Christian audience, addressing a common misperception that people of faith should not be actively involved in government."


The comments reflected "her deep grounding in Judeo-Christian values," the statement said, adding that Harris had previously supported pro-Israel legislation and legislation recognizing the Holocaust.


Harris' opponents in the GOP primary also gave interviews to the Florida Baptist Witness but made more general statements on their faith.
Harris, 49, faced widespread criticism for her role overseeing the 2000 presidential recount as Florida's secretary of state.

State GOP leaders — including Gov. Jeb Bush — don't think she can win against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) in November. Fundraising has lagged, frustrated campaign workers have defected in droves and the issues have been overshadowed by news of her dealings with a corrupt defense contractor who gave her $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

From The Independent. This is so not cool:

The strange case of the Boss, his women and an obsession with 9/11
Bruce Springsteen is reported to have split from his wife to spend time with a World Trade Center widow

...The singer was yesterday reported to have split from his wife of 15 years, the songwriter and backing singer Patti Scialfa, after developing a friendship with a widow of one of the 9/11 victims he met at a TV benefit show.


"The Boss" - one of the world's best known musicians and a hero of liberal America for many years - and Scialfa are said to be this weekend leading separate lives.
Springsteen is reported to have met the, as yet unnamed, woman in 2001 when he organised the charity telethon event America: A Tribute to Heroes. Rumours about problems within the singer's marriage started after Springsteen was spotted in the company of the widow on a number of occasions.


Yesterday, all members of Springsteen's entourage were under strict orders to say nothing about the reports, which surfaced in the New York Post.


"Bruce and Patti are separated but everyone has been sworn to secrecy," said a "friend" of the couple, who have three children - teenagers Evan and Jessica Rae, and their youngest, Sam.


Springsteen and the woman - who, like his wife and bandmate, is a redhead - are said to have been seen out together at an upmarket beach in Monmouth, New Jersey, and at the Stone Pony, a nearby watering hole where Springsteen has played impromptu gigs. There are also reports that he has been spending less time at the family home and more time at a guest house on the couple's nearby farm.


But other friends say the singer might still rescue his relationship with his wife. Springsteen took a holiday with Scialfa and their children in New York State last month, but recently he has been spotted alone with his children at a local beach.

................

Friday, August 25, 2006

 Posted by Picasa

Tonight's The Night

...with director Spike Lee about post-Katrina New Orleans, music legend Elvis Costello and blogger Marcos Moulitsas—Plus, panel guests fmr. Sen. Max Cleland, author/scholar Vali Nasr and columnist Christopher Hitchens.

When last we left Bill,\ he gave us these New Rules:

May 12, 2006

New Rule: You can't chant "America, you lose," at your trial, and then ask for another chance. Zacarias Moussaioui says he has more faith in juries now, and he wants to change his plea to "not guilty." Sorry, Zac, that's not how we roll here. If we wanted to give second chances to loons who scream death threats, we'd remarry Charlie Sheen.

New Rule: If turning on my cell phone can bring down your commercial airliner, build a better plane. Right? I mean, the number of people who carry hand-held electrical devices these days equals the number of people who have hands. To give them all veto power over whether the other passengers live or die seems like a flaw in the system.

New Rule: Airplane black boxes must now be made out of Keith Richards. The man, who has taken more drugs than Whitney Houston, Rush Limbaugh and Robert Downey, Jr., combined, recently fell out of a tree, and then crashed a jet ski. And yet, somehow, that cigarette never fell out of his mouth. What is this guy still running on? I've got to know. Because I'm beginning to think the future of medicine isn't injecting stem cells, it's injecting heroin.

And finally,

New Rule: George Bush has to stop laughing at himself. When you're incompetence literally costs lives, giggling at it isn't cute or funny. You know, there's a guy who's been running around the country pretending he's the president, and I believe his name is George Bush. And he wants everyone to know that he doesn't take himself too seriously. Which is working out great, because now nobody else in the world does either.

You know, if the Republicans really want to joke around, I've got one for you.

Knock, knock.

AUDIENCE: Who's there?

MAHER: Hillary.

Now, this is our last show of the season, and I'm rather proud that we've gone all 13 weeks without once making George Bush the subject of our show-ending editorial. Because I didn't want to start sounding like a broken record. Or, to you kids, a degraded MP3 file. Oh, there may have been a stray George Bush punchline here and there. But, come on. I am a comedian and he is a retard.

But, fuck it, this is our, this is our last show. This is our last show for a while and I just want to say that when we come back on August 25th, the week of Bill Clinton's 60th birthday, and a great time for him to do the show. Wouldn't you love to see him do the show, folks? Bill Clinton, everywhere I go. So, your move, Mr. President. But when we come back, I hope we're only months away from the beginning of impeachment proceedings.

But, wait. But not for what you think. Now, of course there is a laundry list of valid reasons for impeaching this president. But George Bush and his nest of vipers don't deserve to be impeached with dignity for transgressions involving lofty affairs of state. They deserve the far worse state that Clinton got: being impeached for absolutely nothing at all!

And that's why I want to impeach Bush over the fact that he lied about that fish! He said he caught a perch twice as large as any perch that's ever been caught! And that's a lie about a fish! In a time of war! And if he will lie about a fish, then...something, something, something, what do we tell the children? What do we tell Mrs. Paul?! That perch was as American as a McDonald's fish sandwich. Assuming for the sake of argument that a McDonald's fish sandwich contained fish.

So, Mr. President, don't laugh at yourself, because breaking the law is not cute. Having Americans torture people isn't adorable. Leaving poor people to drown wasn't enchanting. And WMD's wasn't a shaggy dog story. So, I'll make a deal with you. We won't impeach you if you just stay on your estate — I mean "ranch" — and fish on your man-made lake. For perch. Maybe you'll beat your own record.

But, for the next three years, just don't touch anything. I was wrong when I criticized you for taking too much vacation time. It couldn't be more the reverse. Take all the "me" days you want. But if you get any big ideas and try to do something, you know, like go to Mars or put the Ten Commandments on the flag, or turn the ports over to the Amish, then we're going to have to put you in the only place we can be sure we can be safe from you. And it looks like this. [photo shown of David Blaine's water-filled Plexiglas globe]

All right, folks. See you back in August. [he picks up flag and kisses it] I love the flag! Any flag. That's our show.

It IS All Good Posted by Picasa

And Then There Is This Woman


I have avoided Florida's Katherine Harris' comical Senate campaign for any number of reasons -not the least of which being that she is down by, like, 30 points (actually, it's 35) in a state I choose to imagine being 'cut loose' from our union when I take over. And the every two weeks turnover of all major staff positions. And...oh, well, the list goes on.

But, this tidbit works into my continuing effort to keep my readers informed on just how wacked out these authoritarian (mostly) southern Christians are. she gave an interview to The Florida Baptist Witness and this is a highlight:
"But the real issue is why should Baptists care, why should people care? If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin. They can legislate sin. They can say that abortion is all right. They can vote to sustain gay marriage. And that will take Western civilization, indeed other nations because people look to our country as one nation as under God, and whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong."

Thursday, August 24, 2006

We Have Missed Her


Anna Marie Cox, the original Wonkette, is sitting in for Andrew Sullivan this week and next. Her take on Sen. Allen's destruction of his Presidential Dreams is priceless:

When George Allen loses his Senate race, will bloggers have the graciousness to let Allen take credit for it? While much has been made of the role that the web and YouTube have played in publicizing the "macaca" incident, one cannot discount the role played by the sheer stupidity of Allen and his campaign. This is not a victory for the net roots, it's a loss for idiocy.


Someday political scientists will study the Allen campaign as an example of how not to do damage control. First, do NOT "dismiss...the issue with an expletive and insist...the senator has 'nothing to apologize for.'" Second, do NOT try to "explain" the offensive remark (He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut.). Third, do NOT offer a SECOND, possibly more offensive, explanation after the first one proves inadequate. Fourth do NOT leak a campaign memo that blames the media for the offensive remark. Lastly, do NOT wait a week to actually apologize. Oh, and do NOT be an idiot.

 Posted by Picasa

Santayana'd?


Froomkin in WaPo writes:

Once again, powerful neoconservative politicians who just know in their hearts that there is a terrible threat posed by a Middle Eastern country they have identified as part of the axis of evil are frustrated by the lack of conclusive evidence that would support a bellicose approach. So they are pressuring the nation's intelligence community to find facts that will support their argument.


This time, that scenario is being played out right in front of our eyes. Maybe that will make a difference?


Mark Mazzetti writes in the New York Times: "Some senior Bush administration officials and top Republican lawmakers are voicing anger that American spy agencies have not issued more ominous warnings about the threats that they say Iran presents to the United States. . . .


"The complaints, expressed privately in recent weeks, surfaced in a Congressional report about Iran released Wednesday. They echo the tensions that divided the administration and the Central Intelligence Agency during the prelude to the war in Iraq.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

50 out of 51

***Updated / Corrected***

50 = The number of Vets who are running for Congress as Democrats this year.

10 of 11 campaigning Vets of this administration's adventures in the Middle East are running as Dems..

120,690

This is the number of Iraqis killed since we liberated
them. Is it any wonder they arent
showing more appreciation? Would you?

1 2 0 6 9 0

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Monday, August 21, 2006

It's All About Him

Bush: 'We're not leaving so long as I'm president'

From RAW STORY :

"Either you say, 'Yes it’s important we stay there and get it done,' or we leave," Bush argued. "We’re not leaving so long as I’m the president. That would be a huge mistake
Mary Lambert : Satan-loving, Man-teaching, Not-knowing-her-place Sunday School teacher. Posted by Picasa

Blinded By Paul

A co-worker of mine complained that Christians get bad press. Actually, only bad Christians get any kind of press. And since X-ians make up 85% of this country's populationI have no sympathy nor interest in their complaints.

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

WATERTOWN, N.Y. (Aug. 21) - The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job - outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.


The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."


The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman.

"I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to" outside of the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.


Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.


"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."


Lambert has publicly criticized the decision, but the church did not publicly address the matter until Saturday, a day after its board met.


In a statement, the board said other issues were behind Lambert's dismissal, but it did not say what they were.
08/21/06 08:32 EDT

Dead. Rued.


Last night, in preparation for the 8PM and 11Pm running of Deadwood (GT12 has like a 100 HBO channels) we revisited the last days of Russell ‘Stringer’ Bell. A man with an American Dream, Stringer was done in by his own ambitions (and passions) in a way we doubt our beloved Al Swearengen will experience (of course, the historical Al, penniless at the time of his death, was shot and killed hundreds of miles away from Deadwood in Colorado by somebody that he probably pissed off). As Deadwood winds down to it’s abortive ending, we take comfort that ‘The Wire’ will return. We are happy also that ‘Deadwood’s complex characters have helped us prepare for ‘The Wire’s complex characters, plot and morality. Stringer is dead, Long live Stringer.

Macaca Moment

From the film "Gods and Generals". Not a 'look-alike', that is Sen. Allen. Posted by Picasa

The Thing Speaks For Itself

This is why there will always be psychotherapists (and jails).

UPDATE: BUY 'EM HERE!Posted by Picasa
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One Small Step For Faux News

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A Clearheaded Monday Morning To All


'Atheists in foxholes' demand respect, recognition and honor
Ron BrynaertPublished: Sunday August 20, 2006

"'There are no atheists in foxholes,' the old saw goes," begins the Beliefwatch column in the latest issue of Newsweek. "The line, attributed to a WWII chaplain, has since been uttered countless times by grunts, chaplains and news anchors."


"But an increasingly vocal group of activists and soldiers—atheist soldiers—disagrees," the column continues.


"It's a denial of our contributions," Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson tells Newsweek. "A lot of people manage to serve without having to call on a higher power."



From Raw Story , the rest is here.

Friday, August 18, 2006

What We'll Be Listening To This Weekend


Ya know when you put on a record and immediately the heaviness, the beauty and the accomplishment is palpable?

This is one of those.

A Reading For The Weekend

Many of GT12's friends and fellow-travellers have debated what Calamity Jane's monologue from last Sunday's Deadwood might have been about....

It's beautiful writing and is worth reading and thinking about. So, have fun this weekend:
Jane (to Joanie):
"Can I tell you something? I had some stupid fucking thing, stupid fucking dream I had. I dreamed last night that I was clambering up a fucking creek bed, which is often required of a drunk. It was dark, and I couldn't tell where I was until I cleared the bank and come face to face with Charlie Utter's ugly mug. Now Charlie's, as usual, on the lookout for Bill, that's, as usual, to losing at poker inside the joint we're outside. 'Where are we, Charlie?' Aright, this could be any fucking place in the last number of years, and he said, 'Jane, don't you know, this is the Number 10 Saloon here in the camp where Bill's going to fuckin get killed soon?', Jesus Chri--'how do ya know Charlie,' I asked him, he said 'Don't you know, he says, at some point we know these fucking things, don't you know the world says its fucking name to us? What the fuck, what the fuck do I have to dream about this for,' I say to Charlie, 'wasn't I miserable enough?' 'Jane,' fucking Charlie says to me, 'don't you know this is the night when you couldn't look out for that little girl, when you was at Cochran's and Swearengen come in and scared you, and you went down to the creek to weep, that's where the fuck you're coming from and, and don't you know' he says, 'this is the night you spirit that child from Cochrans into where our stock was outside and we watched down on that little girl and sung to her and you, with the presence of mind to continue the round when I was too fucking stupid, and you said "row row row your boat" and I said "row row row your boat" and we had this. Now, Charlie says to me, don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you. Any evenings in your life you've made mistakes, remember were even evenings you was as most ashamed as you ever thought you could ever be or able to wind up, and don't fucking only remember only the middle of the fucking dream! If I wonder why I dreamed that dream, yesterday you sent Mose to find me and I was nearly dead drowned drunk, and Mose made me get up, and you and me walked them kids to school, and before I went to sleep, you kissed me." Posted by Picasa
Andrew Young: As much a jerk as the next man. Posted by Picasa

We Shall Overcome ... Updated?

Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta, former Representative to the U.N. and, thankfully, now former spokesman for Wal-Mart on why his most recent benefactor is good for the African American community:
“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”


Here's the rest.

A Civics Primer For The President


The Rust Belt Slaps The Beltway:

From the decision of District Judge Hon. Anna Diggs Taylor:


The Presidential Oath of Office is set forth in the Constitution and requires him to swear or affirm that he "will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."


The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent powers" must derive from that Constitution.


We have seen in Hamdi that the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution is fully applicable to the Executive branch's actions and therefore it can only follow that the First and Fourth Amendments must be applicable as well.


More analysis at rollingstone.com/politics

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Follow The Money

From WaPo:

Washington lobbying firms, trade associations and corporate offices are moving to hire more well-connected Democrats in response to rising prospects that the opposition party will wrest control of at least one chamber of Congress from Republicans in the November elections.


In what lobbyists are calling a harbinger of possible upheaval on Capitol Hill, many who make a living influencing government have gone from mostly shunning Democrats to aggressively recruiting them as lobbyists over the past six months or so.



The rest of the growing (Bank) Account here.

Does This Mean We're Back To 'Fighting Them Over There'

And quietly, quietly, the Neocon Raison d'War fades away....

From The NY Times today:

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.


“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”

GT12 Meets Goes To Twelve

We ventured out from GT12 central with correspondent, crony and drummer par excellence' Mr. G. Baker yesterday to attend a Reading/performance by GT12 Honoree Jon Langford. The Reading was held at The Book Cellar Cafe (4736 N. Lincoln) in a truly great part of our town, Lincoln Square. JL was everything we have always said he is, witty, expressive, charismatic and wise. You all must buy everything he has comitted to, uh, CD, and buy his book, Nashville Radio. Do all that at your fave independent bookstore (we are endorsing The Book Cellar if you're in Chicago - you can get a drink there too!). Do This Now. Your Life Depends On It. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, August 16, 2006


Find Out What Macaca Means here. Who Knew? Posted by Picasa

Dutch Treat

Gay stork couples at a Netherlands zoo are living up to the mythical nurturing qualities of the wading birds.

Storks belong to the Ciconiidae family of wading birds.

They are known for their faithfulness to their mates, an attachment that extends to their nests, which tend to be large and used repeatedly over a number of years.

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports.
SOUNDBITE: Bram Stiel, Manager, Zoo Park Overloon saying, (English):
''We recently found out that the storks have formed gay couples. We have two homosexual couples and one lesbian couple.''
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Will To Think


George Will points out that John Kerry was right. Goddang they catch on quick...:

Cooperation between Pakistani and British law enforcement (the British draw upon useful experience combating IRA terrorism) has validated John Kerry's belief (as paraphrased by the New York Times Magazine of Oct. 10, 2004) that "many of the interdiction tactics that cripple drug lords, including governments working jointly to share intelligence, patrol borders and force banks to identify suspicious customers, can also be some of the most useful tools in the war on terror." In a candidates' debate in South Carolina (Jan. 29, 2004), Kerry said that although the war on terror will be "occasionally military," it is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world."


Immediately after the London plot was disrupted, a "senior administration official," insisting on anonymity for his or her splenetic words, denied the obvious, that Kerry had a point. The official told The Weekly Standard:

"The idea that the jihadists would all be peaceful, warm, lovable, God fearing people if it weren't for U.S. policies strikes me as not a valid idea.
[Democrats] do not have the understanding or the commitment to takeon these forces. It's like John Kerry. The law enforcement approach doesn't work."

This farrago of caricature and non sequitur makes the administration seem eager to repel all but the delusional. But perhaps such rhetoric reflects the intellectual contortions required to sustain the illusion that the war in Iraq is central to the war on terrorism, and that the war, unlike "the law enforcement approach," does "work."

Some Quotes

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

Monday, August 14, 2006

Jesus Is Coming...

.. so why not me?

Poll: Christians 'addicted to pornography'
RAW STORYPublished: Monday August 14, 2006

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


"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries.


The group defines "addicted" as applied to pornography as use on an ongoing basis.
"We are seeing an escalation to the problem in both men and women who regularly attend church," said Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet.com.

The poll, conducted at ChristiaNet.com, used a self-selected sample, and is therefore not a scientific study. Over 1,000 users responded to the survey.

Additionally, 60% of the women who answered the survey confessed having "significant struggles with lust." 40% admitted to being "involved in sexual sin" in the past year.

"No one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors," reads a release issued by the site. "The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy."

"There have been dynamic paradigm shifts in the behavior of Christians over the last four years," explained Jones. "Technology has allowed pornography to flood the market place beyond a controllable level." Jones' ministry provides intervention programs for churches and individuals

Are You Ready To Rapture?


Words sort of fail me w/ this stuff, but I always remember something I learned in graduate school: All the MMPI's Religious Questions are on the schizophrenia scale.

This is forum post from Rapture Ready, a site getting some news coverage. Of course, this post was from November. It appears that the Rapture continues to be just around the corner and has been ever since the 1890's when some poorly educated bible studier invented the concept.

Sometimes, one does wonder if our Pres feels just like this (it would explain a lot):
Everyday and every night my heart pleads, moans, anticipates to go home to be with Jesus. I am ready to go right now...the events around the world are heart breaking...I know we all must hold on, endure...wait...another day...Do you feel that way? I mean, I don't feel like setting goals any longer,,..like I don't need to make future plans...that time is short...many people on this board have said they have cleaned house and made packages for those who are left behind..that's how I feel...I find myself wanting to do something for those who are left behind. My heart tells me,,just hold on, just hold on...and the peace I have...awesome! Do you feel it?

Saturday, August 12, 2006

August Sondheim Blogging

Gypsy at Ravinia with Patty Lupone (last seen by GT12
in Sweeney Todd this May). We are soooo happy.

And Happy Birthday to GT12S MAIN MAN, Dan.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Eight Years Between Two Attacks On WTC

'We haven't been attacked since 9/11' is such a lame comment.

From ThinkProgress:

9/11 Commissioner: Terror Plot Shows Danger of Putting ‘All Our Intelligence and Military Resources in Iraq’


This morning on CNN, former 9/11 commissioner Tim Roemer argued that the recent terror plot in Britain illustrated why we need to direct resources from Iraq to the global terrorist threat. Roemer said, “It’s very important that we don’t put all our intelligence and military resources in Iraq and take our eye off the ball in other places in the world.”


He also emphasized that “it’s very important that we capture Osama Bin Laden” because Bin Laden is producing “CNN quality tapes” and “communicating with hundreds of millions of potential jihadist and trying to get them to sign up.”

 Posted by Picasa

It's the Butt-Boy, Stupid.

My friend Mr. G. Baker points me to a Slate article which stops the easy analysis on Lieberman. Lieberman and 7 other Dem Senators who voted for the war are up for re-election this year. Only Joe has experienced a viable challenger....

Many commentators, including Slate's Jacob Weisberg, have looked at Ned Lamont's victory over Lieberman and concluded much too hastily that the Democratic Party is galloping recklessly leftward. But if that were truly the case, wouldn't, oh, five of these seven be facing serious primary challenges? Even three? (They teach us in journalism school that three makes a trend.) But there aren't even two Democratic senators facing more than nominal primary opposition. Four of the seven (Clinton, Feinstein, Carper, and Kohl) represent blue states where anti-war fever is running high. Why aren't they fighting for their political lives?


Because the Connecticut primary was about one man and one state. It was about Lieberman's excessive fawning over the president. It was about Lieberman's voting not only against the showboating withdrawal resolution introduced by Sen. John Kerry, but also against the moderate and reasonable resolution introduced by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, which merely urged the president to "expedite the transition of United States forces in Iraq to a limited presence and mission." (Lieberman was the only blue-state Democrat, except inexplicable retiring weirdo Mark Dayton, to vote against Levin.) It was about anger—fully justified anger, and from a far larger constituency than Z Magazine readers—at the notion, widespread among the commentariat, that national-security "toughness" demands support for the mendacious and ruinous policies of the Bush administration in Iraq and elsewhere. And, of course, it was about other things besides Iraq, too.

Anti-Science Friday*


Bernard Lewis discussed the Muslim world's rejection of knowledge from non-Islamic scholars as a source of the Muslim world's fall from a center of learning to it's current medieval status. Why did they reject such scholarship? Because cultures' that do not follow the prophet Muhammad are generating 'knowledge' without the enlightenment of Islam. Such culture's (ours ) are therefore simply backward and thinking wrong.

We are ready to join them now:

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

"American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close," said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

Put down your Left Behind book now, put on your thinking cap back on and read the rest here

*apologies to NPR and Talk Of The Nation

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Ozzie Thinks .... For Now. Posted by Picasa

Sports News

In Chicago we've already banned smoking, foi gras and soon... Trans Fat. This latest Nanny State incident from The Onion:

Ozzie Guillen Fined $10,000 For What He Just Thought
August 10, 2006 Onion Sports


CHICAGO—MLB disciplinary officials announced that Ozzie Guillen would be fined $10,000 and ordered to undergo sensitivity psychoanalysis for the "irresponsible, offensive, and completely unacceptable" thoughts that passed through the White Sox manager's mind during Wednesday night's game.

"During the fourth inning of yesterday's White Sox-Yankees contest, Mr. Guillen's mind conjured a series of insensitive, wildly inappropriate—I would even go so far as to say depraved—thoughts and images," said Bob Watson, MLB vice president of on-field discipline. "Baseball is a social institution with a responsibility to espouse proper values, and there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to entertain thoughts which portray people in a negative or demeaning light, regardless of their race, color, creed, culture, sexual orientation, gender, weight, or personal beliefs."


"Major League Baseball would like to offer its most profound, heartfelt apologies to those portrayed inappropriately in Mr. Guillen's mind, including African-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Caucasian-Americans, Dominican-Americans, 'immigrants,' the sportswriting community, the gay community, the White Sox fan community, the communities of Schaumburg, IL and New York City, the umpiring crew, Yankee right-fielder Bobby Abreu and his female relatives, members of the Peace Corps, and women—particularly the female fan seated in Section 32, Row B, Seat 7," Watson added.

Watson's report alleges that Guillen carelessly composed his thoughts without considering the fact that millions of fans would know exactly what he was thinking in the event that television cameras inevitably cut to a shot of his sour expression. And according to commissioner Bud Selig, the idea of remorse never crossed Guillen's mind.

"Ozzie's thoughts were in poor taste, and the sheer volume and scope of them—all of which occurred over a 17-second span of time—seem to indicate that they were premeditated," Selig said. "I also must strongly emphasize that our organization neither shares nor condones Mr. Guillen's views on statutory rape, regardless of whether or not they are ever vocalized."

Guillen's thoughts upon learning of his punishment earned him an additional $5,000 fine and a three-game suspension.

"I'm not going to change the way I think," Guillen said during an apology late Wednesday. "Anyone who knows me will tell you I can't control my thoughts."

"I acknowledge that the things that entered my mind today might have offended certain groups of people, but you have to realize I didn't mean anything by it," Guillen continued. "After all, my mother is dead, too, and I would never want anyone digging up her corpse and paying drunken, uh, Arabs to do those things to her. And as for people of Middle Eastern origin, I was only imagining those terms being used to refer to just one specific 'filthy raghead,' not a whole region of them."

"Also, I would never, ever do that kind of thing to a person in real life, even if I had a worn-down radial-saw blade and 100 milligrams of hydrogen cyanide at my disposal," Guillen added.

A recent poll indicates that 97 percent of baseball fans were offended by Guillen's thoughts, with an astounding 12 percent of those polled actually having been personally attacked, insulted, or killed within Guillen's inner tirade.

"Ozzie needs to remember that people have families… My 9-year-old daughter was watching at home, and even though she isn't old enough to understand what a 'tire-iron abortion' is, I'm sure she understood that what he was thinking was not nice," said Chicago resident and White Sox fan Brian McVeigh. "And this isn't the last time he'll be on TV. What will I have to explain to my daughter next time she sees Ozzie thinking? Bestiality? Knife rape? Auschwitz?"

Guillen, however, claims that if he truly meant what he thought, he would have just come out and said it.

"Am I going to have to explain everything I think from now on?" Guillen asked reporters. "Do I really need to tell you people that I don't actually want fuel truck after fuel truck to plow into an orphanage? That I don't really want to feed baby rats to [White Sox pitcher] Jon Garland so they chew their way through his intestinal system and expel themselves out his rectum in unison? That I actually love and respect my wife? Can't you people figure this out on your own? I'm not that bad a guy."

"Fucking faggot assholes," Guillen added.

Words Fail Me

Nightmare Scenario In Marble Posted by Picasa

What It's Like, Every Day

Meanwhile, back at the 'Centerpiece of the War On Terror'. It's kinda Orwellian, no, psychotically delusional, that the Administration and such want to label any Dem endorsement of ending this thing as 'a disasterous move'. I mean what has Cokie Roberts been drinking lately?

Associated Press:
A suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday among pilgrims outside Iraq's holiest Shiite shrine, killing 35 people and wounding 122. A radical Sunni group claimed it carried out the attack in the southern city of Najaf, warning Shiites they are not safe even "deep in your regions."At least 37 other people were killed or found dead Thursday elsewhere in Iraq, police said. They included five civilians who died when a mortar shell struck a cafe in a Shiite Muslim area of north Baghdad.

Washington Post:
Figures compiled by the city morgue indicated Wednesday that the number of killings in the Iraqi capital reached a new high last month, and the U.S. military said a new effort to bring security to Baghdad will succeed only if Iraqis "want it to work."The Baghdad morgue took in 1,815 bodies during July, news services quoted the facility's assistant manager, Abdul Razzaq al-Obeidi, as saying. The previous month's tally was 1,595. Obeidi estimated that as many as 90 percent of the total died violent deaths.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Scarborough Country?

"The conventional wisdom for tonight's Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994.

"...Because of that logic, I spent most of 1994 fighting Republican bureaucrats on the local, state and federal level who did everything in their power to elect my very moderate opponent in the GOP primary. A week before the primary, the Republican Congressional Committee campaign director let me know that I might as well give up. 1994 would be the year of the Moderate.


"Yeah, right.


"Within a few months of that conversation, scores of right-wing, knuckle-dragging, spear-carrying conservative barbarians like myself ran through our moderate Democratic opponents like Barry Bonds through a bottle of roids. It was ugly. Darting to the base was the ticket to victory for the Party of Reagan.

"....Ned Lamont may be a pencil-necked geek, as Imus claims, but he is the type of candidate that will bring out the Democratic base in an off-year election. That is especially true this year because George W. Bush is even more unpopular than Clinton was when the GOP swept into power.


"My advice to Democratic voters this year is "Go left, young man!"


"There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.



From HuffPo

Well, My Congressman and I See Eye-To-eye



"This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means."-- Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), quoted by the New York Times, on Sen. Joe Lieberman's primary defeat last night.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The Key To Successful Blogging

As someone who has a street in Paris named after him (thanks to some famous ancesters) I think the zeitgiest is just slightly behind me (though reports challenging this are being prepared). I am sure that Rouseau's theories of social interaction will support this assertion. And so will others ASAP and PDQ if they kinow what's fucking good for them.

I read that if Andy Warhol were alive today, his famous epigram would have to be changed to

"Everyone will be famous to fifteen people"

Stephen colbert shows us how:


Be an Expert on Anything
By Stephen Colbert

PICK A FIELD THAT CAN'T BE VERIFIED. Try something like string theory or God’s will: “I speak to God. I’m sorry that you can’t also.” Security experts are in this category: They have security clearances, we don’t. We can’t question the expertise of the NSA because we are not in the NSA.
CHOOSE A SUBJECT THAT'S ACTUALLY SECRET. Dan Brown invented a secret subject for The Da Vinci Code, so now he is forever an expert on this secret subject that no one can challenge. Anybody who attacks the secret subject is, by definition, part of the cabal.
GET YOUR OWN ENTRY IN AN ENCYCLOPEDIA. In the media age, everybody was famous for 15 minutes. In the Wikipedia age, everybody can be an expert in five minutes. Special bonus: You can edit your own entry to make yourself seem even smarter.
USE THE WORD ZEITGEIST AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Ideally, you want to find words that sound familiar but people don’t really know their definitions: zeitgeist, bildungsroman, doppelgänger – better yet, anything Latin. But avoid paradigm. It’s so 1994. If you say the word paradigm, everybody knows you’re a poser.
BE SURE TO USE LOTS OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS. Someone who says the words operations security may be educated, but the person who uses the military abbreviation Opsec is clearly an expert. If I use the term Gitmo, that means I’ve actually been there. If you say, “We’re going to Defcon 1,” it means you probably have the launch codes. Real experts don’t have time for extra syllables.
SPEAK FROM THE BALLS, NOT FROM THE DIAPHRAGM. In the expert game, you’ve got to have sack. That means speaking with confidence. In America, you’ve got to steer clear of nuance and ambivalence – and don’t even contemplate doubt.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE THINGS UP. Never fear being exposed as a fraud. Experts make things up all the time. They’re qualified to.
DON'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO CURRENT KNOWLEDGE. If you worry too much about being up-to-date, you miss out on vast territories of obsolete knowledge just waiting to be reclaimed. Think of leech-craft and all the lonely experts in the use of the little creatures, which are now experiencing a renaissance in health care.
GET AN HONORARY PHD. They work wonders. I have a doctorate in fine arts from Knox College in Illinois. All I did was give a speech, and now everybody has to call me Dr. Colbert.
MAKE A HABIT OF NAME-DROPPING. Say things like “I was talking to John Hockenberry yesterday for my story in Wired. Have you seen my cover?” I plan to use this issue of Wired to assert that I now know everything about wires.
BE FAMOUS. IT HELPS.

Like I Said



"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear ... To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes. Every one will be sensible of this, who considers how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases of danger, and how much the notions of ghosts and goblins, of which none can form clear ideas, affect minds which give credit to the popular tales concerning such sorts of beings. Those despotic governments, which are founded on the passions of men, and principally upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye." —Edmund Burke, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful."


Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the quote.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Oh.


[Iraq] is better now…it, it, it’s better and worse if you’ll allow me to put it that way.