A Glimmer of Promise in Stale Hate

Very busy right now, but I wanted to offer you some Thomas Frank until such time as I get my act together long enough to post something substantive (or silly).

Apparently [John McCain] has seen a glimmer of promise in that stale hate and is ready to pick up where the machine left off. Some maverick. Then again, why shouldn't he? His party embodies the motto of Chicago politics – "Where's mine?"
– even better than the machine's patronage army did 50 years ago.

Speaking of silly, this is rather amusing. A little Oedipal drama by way of Staten Island courtesy of Vito Fossella, who is retiring to spend more time with his family....both of them.

Back soon ...

File under "Harmful Gaffes"

THIS, like "100 years, 1,000 years, a million" and "Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" is a bad gaffe. Look for McCain to get beat over the head with this one all day.

The troops coming home from Iraq, "not too important".

And notice his inability to avoid the error even when Matt Lauer is kissing his ass.



I'm sure this is happy news, not only to the troops there and their families, but the Iraqis will also be delighted that it doesn't matter.

via TPM.

And now a special reply to Anne Applebaum

Via Toles!



See here for title explanation.

What does it look like...

Moments before a President gets kneed in the junk?

You may remember this.

(AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski)

"Mah Legacy"

[Cross-Posted at Firedoglake]

Cue the Frank Sinatra:

President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq.

Gee, what could have given us that belief?

Minutes before President Bush's solemn announcement that the US military were in action against Iraq he vigorously pumped his fist and declared: "I feel good".

And furthermore:

[Bush] said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran.

Which is why we are hearing stories like this:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted after his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday that U.S. action against Iran is imminent. While he avoided saying anything clear and specific on the matter, Olmert did mention a “timetable” and said action would take place before Bush leaves the White House.

Seven months and 10 days left.

"Hey Angie!"

"Let's call down an airstrike and kick some Cookie-Makin' Elf ass!"

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Hilarious

OH MY!

Much mirth has been made over McCain's site selling "Golf Gear" on its home page. Well, it allows comments on the gear and they are frickin' sweet.

The original links to the comments are here...go see it while you can.

Just a sample:

I can't believe what John McCain is packing! June 11, 2008
Reviewer: Richard C. Mongler from Virginia Beach, VA United States

These balls are fantastic. I tell you, I've tried many balls, but these are by far the best. Entirely white, rolling John McCain's balls around in my hands is a pure pleasure. I can feel each individual dimple, and they're so adorable up close, the way I like to examine balls to ensure the highest quality.

The downside is that these golf balls almost feel like they've been painted over something that was once pasty white and older than one might think. If I press hard enough I think I can feel some scars, but then again it's never a good idea to press too hard on one's balls. Nevertheless, it might be why these balls tend to get stuck in quagmires or sand.

If you've got George W. Bush's golf pack, you'll probably like this one. Their balls look almost exactly alike when they're sitting right next to each other and they perform in the same fashion. I know I have my own personal balls that have always worked for me, but I think I could spend hours playing with John McCain's!

And:

Surgarific! Cheaper than a tank of gas! June 11, 2008
Reviewer: Ted Underhill from Straight Talk Express

John McCain's balls look great against any green fairway.
I always wanted John McCain's name tatooed onto my dimply white balls and now I have it on all 3 of my Balls. But watch out these balls are wound pretty tight!

Who's an elitist?

That's from today.

He's going to have to get that teleprompter stuff down.

(file this under harmless gaffery)

About Right

Colbert's Green Screen Challenge gets the essence of McCain:

Nuri meets the Winner

Cross-posted at Firedoglake:

Everything proceeding awesomely...please go shopping...or dumpster diving as the case may be thanks to the also awesome domestic economy we in the Bush Administration have given you. So please pay no attention to this:

The Bush administration is conceding for the first time that the United States may not finish a complex security agreement with Iraq before President Bush leaves office.

Faced with stiff Iraqi opposition, it is "very possible" the U.S. may have to extend an existing U.N. mandate, said a senior administration official close to the talks. That would mean major decisions about how U.S. forces operate in Iraq could be left to the next president, including how much authority the U.S. must give Iraqis over military operations and how quickly the handover takes place.

Meanwhile, as was noted last week, Iraqi parliamentarians visited our Congress and had this to say:

In the hearing, parliamentarians Nadeem Al-Jaberi and Khalaf Al-Ulayyan expressed their support for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. In an exchange with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Al-Jaberi said that U.S. presence in Iraq is highly unpopular with the public, as roughly 70 percent of Iraqis favor a withdrawal

Which means this is no surprise:

Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely.

Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would have effectively handed over to the United States the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran.

"The points that were put forth by the Americans were more abominable

"Mmmmmmm, that's good Jeebus"

Wow:

An Obama presidency would signal the final salvo by the Left in the culture wars. Obama’s advance troops have already taken over our college campuses, have bound and gagged our conservative professors, have ravished our virgins*, have pillaged our stores of wisdom, and have ensconced themselves in the thrones of power in deans’, presidents’ and department heads’ offices.

I guess the Yankees burned down Atlanta just last week.


*Apparently "Snorg T-shirts" are being advertised on Obama 2008.

The Senior Senator...

And, of course:

Gaffe-a-thon

Look, if we're going to just put up one YouTube gaffe after another from the candidates it's going to be a long campaign.

I admit it, I'm a liberal partisan...but over the last many months all three candidates have said goofy shit over minor errors because their tired.

Some are more profound than others..."bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iraq" is to me more troubling than mistaking what town you're in.

And, since I keep hearing the right-wing trying to bullshit with such minor gaffes...along with just plain ol' bullshit, I'll put this one up from January.

Apparently, Putin has been far more militarily agressive than I thought and somehow we lost the Cold War under the Chimperor Disgustus too:


Putin is President of Germany.

Fez tip Oliver Willis

Why Dan Rather Matters

By now many of us have read or are starting to read the McClellan book which gives us even more details about how the so-called Newsrooms and other outlets of the mainstream media were "complicit enablers" in the advance to the folly of the Iraq war.

And, no surprises here... these claims of enabling have been met with denials from past and present news anchors such as Tom Brokaw, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams (although we have to give one of the current "big three" anchors some support because Katie Couric has admitted some failures).

But Dan Rather, who has often spoke his mind even while the CBS anchor gave a remarkable speech.  Remember that he was still the CBS anchor in 2003 during the high level advance to war. In this keynote speech before the National Conference for Media Reform, Rather has offered a strong and passionate critique of the collective journalists' performance at both the national and local levels.

We all need to review this speech!  Rather pulls no punches and admits the failure of so-called investigative reporting in an era of corporatist media. 

Rather began his talk by admitting that (and what can only be considered a reference to McClellan) "Whatever his motives for saying these things, he's right," but he also recalled that some reporters did ask some tough questions but were not given much assistance in the Newsrooms and certainly no support from the larger corporations.

Rather then explored the larger trend in the industry, starting with: "In the wake of 9/11 and in the run-up to Iraq, these news organizations made a decision -- consciously or unconsciously, but unquestionably in a climate of fear -- to accept the overall
narrative frame given them by the White House."

And he ought to know.  He was one of those who went along with that "narrative frame" (or as most of us would call it, lying).  The only difference is that Rather is telling us he went along and is now ashamed of his behavior during the run-up to war.  And that is why Dan Rather still matters to the reporting industry today - outside of someone like Bill Moyers and a handful of others, Rather is the closest thing the industry has to a conscience.

They should listen to it.

Is this Good or Bad?

Ok, I will admit it... I loved Brokeback Mountain.  Terrific story.  Wonderful direction.  Amazing cinematography. Great acting. What's not to love? 

But am I ready for Brokeback Mountain, the musical?

The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Brokeback Mountain, the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx that became the basis for a 2005 movie that won three Academy Awards.

The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera said Sunday.

Truly I do not know how to feel about this.  Could we not just leave an amazing film alone?

Reason #327

Reason why the Republicans cannot win the presidency that is... (please note that I typed 'win' - this does not include tricks, use of created "grassroots" groups for the purpose of attack politics, lies, and the popular right-wing thuggery of outright stealing of an election by any means available to them).

The reason:  Gas prices hit over $4 throughout the country.  And, could be around $5 (or maybe even higher) on election day!

Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average
Across the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, low incomes and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting an even tighter squeeze on family budgets.

I wonder how they will make this the fault of the Democrats, the rural folk, Democrats in Congress (expect that one) and of course Joseph Wilson... Or they could go with their big "trump" card, it is all the fault of Bill Clinton (always plays well with the nutwing faithful).  Although should Cheney pop out another "so" about the plight of the American people.  Such caustic comments will lead to huge electoral losses in November.  Because remember, the average voter has a tendency to blame the party in power in the White House.

"I paid so much for gas to get to work I couldn't pay my payments anymore." - CLEVELAND WHITESIDE, a farm worker whose car was repossessed because gasoline prices have broken his budget.

Yes, that high gas prices is someone else's fault is going to become a hard sell indeed with a failed oil man in the White House and his cronies running the executive branch like it is their own private company.

It's going to be a looooooooooooong five months

The right-wing goes apeshit pushing a pure-unadulterated-trumped up ratfucking.

This bullshit is going to be constant -- just like Larry Johnson's constantly shifting explanations about the never to be produced because it doesn't exist "whitey" tape.

Disgusting.

More fully and succinctly explained here:

The anti-semitic post and its hateful comments comments were ported directly over from the rightwing Real Jew News site; the names and time stamps weren’t even changed to protect the innocent. Only two comments were made on the actual Obama site - and they were both complaints about the post.

More from Upyernoz:

the barack obama campaign site is designed to be like an online community. anyone can come by, create an account and start a blog there. so a guy named brother nathanael kapner sets up an account at barackobama.com and writes an inflamatory post about the jewish lobby. a couple of hours later, the obama campaign notices and deletes the post. but not before the rightwing blogosphere latches onto the post and goes nuts about it...

...brother kapner is not affiliated with the campaign in any way. he's just a guy who used the open source nature of the obama site to write something there that the campaign publicly disavows. kapner is not even an obama supporter; check out this anti-obama rant that kapner wrote just a few days ago.

IT'S...GOING...TO...BE...A...LONG...FIVE...MONTHS

Wank more into the breech

Today Fred Hiatt writes yet another editorial exempting both Bush and himself from the Iraq War fiasco.

It's rather sad and hilarious that Hiatt continues to do this...and gets away with it. Especially since many of the journalist that write for the Post such as Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Thomas Ricks (whose book was even called "FIASCO" for chrissakes) have shown Fred to be shit-pusher No. 1.

But to write this kind of bullshit...

There's no question that the administration, and particularly Vice President Cheney, spoke with too much certainty at times and failed to anticipate or prepare the American people for the enormous undertaking in Iraq.

But dive into Rockefeller's report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.

Where upon Fred goes into a full-throated defense of the Bush Administration not lying -- for the obvious reason that Fred Hiatt doesn't want to be portrayed as the incredible chump he is.

With this kind of cult-like cognitive dissonance Fred might consider getting himself into his best sweat suit and sneakers and start eating those pudding cups.

The real secret to being Fred Hiatt is not reading your own paper.

For today on the "Walter Pincus Page" of the Post -- just after the Car Ads and just before the Adult Bookstore Ads -- he could read this:

There is an important line in last week's Senate intelligence committee report on the Bush administration's prewar exaggerations of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It says that the panel did not review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch."

More important, there was no effort to obtain White House records or interview President Bush, Vice President Cheney or other administration officials whose speeches were analyzed because, the report says, such steps were considered beyond the scope of the report.

One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants (many have since left or changed jobs) were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy aides led by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, as well as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his recently released book, "What Happened," the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public."

"The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary."

And then Freddy could read this:

Two days later, WHIG's product placement was on display. It began with a front-page story in the Times describing Iraq's clandestine purchase of aluminum tubes that, the story said, could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium. The story said that information came from "senior administration officials."

The story also spoke of "hardliners" in the Bush administration being "alarmed that American intelligence underestimated the pace and scale of Iraq's nuclear program before Baghdad's defeat in the gulf war." They "argue that Washington dare not wait until analysts have found hard evidence that Mr. Hussein has acquired a nuclear weapon. The first sign of a 'smoking gun,' they argue, may be a mushroom cloud," the Times story said.

That same morning, the message was carried on three network news shows. Cheney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and, referring to the Times story, said that intelligence showed that Hussein "has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon." The Iraqi leader was "trying, through his illicit procurement network, to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium to make the bombs," Cheney said.

That same day, on CNN's "Late Edition," Rice said, "There will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

On CBS's "Face the Nation," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was asked about the Times story and whether Hussein had nuclear weapons. "Is there a smoking gun here?" host Bob Schieffer asked. " 'Smoking gun' is an interesting phrase," Rumsfeld said, and then he went to the same message his colleagues had given.

"The problem with that is the way one gains absolute certainty as to whether a dictator like Saddam Hussein has a nuclear weapon is if he uses it . . . and that's a little late." Bush picked up the slogan a month later in his nationally televised speech on the threat from Iraq.

McClellan wrote that WHIG was not used to "deliberately mislead the public" but that the "more fundamental problem was the way [Bush's] advisers decided to pursue a political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people.

It must be copious in that Hiatt-scented colon that Fred puts his head up.

The Comedy Writes Itself, Part II

Quality Message Discipine...in action:

Lime Jello McCain on Tuesday:

In a widely-ridiculed speech last Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) noted that “you will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy.” He added that he believes those comparisons are “false.”

Lindsey Graham today:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me bring Senator Graham back in on this because you brought up two. You said the tax policy and the health care policy were essentially, Senator Graham, John McCain is calling for an extension or maybe enhancement of the Bush policies.

GRAHAM: Yeah, absolutely.

The Comedy writes itself

Among the Clinton post-mortems in the NY Times today is a self-delusional column by Mark Penn. Stating not so implicity, I fucking kid you not, that Clinton's main problem is she couldn't raise enough money...to pay Mark Penn.

Here's another example of how classy (with three "Ks") Mark Penn is. Hillary Clinton actually developed into a fine candidate -- once Penn had helped blow it for her (of course she is still the one who voted for the Iraq use of force authorization). I hope Penn starts getting work with the GOP.

Awesome

One of Bill O'Reilly's small army of Pasty White Assault Assholes gets owned by Bill Moyers ... and then given a delicious taste of his own medicine.



Via Crooks & Liars.

Bounce

This is good to see - but these tracking polls have so much statistical noice they reflect little except the kinetic energy of the moment - but it will be interesting to follow:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows Barack Obama’s bounce growing to an eight-point lead over John McCain. Obama now attracts 48% of the vote while McCain earns 40%.

When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 50% to 43%. On Tuesday, just before Obama clinched the nomination, the candidates were tied at 46% (see recent daily results). Data from Rasmussen Markets gives Obama a 94.9 % chance of winning.

Obama’s bounce is the result of growing unity among the Democratic Party. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats say they will vote for Obama over McCain. That’s the highest level of party support ever enjoyed by Obama. Still, three-out-of-ten voters are either uncommitted or could change their mind before Election Day. Fifty-six percent (56%) of those swayable voters are women and most earn less than $60,000 a year. There are more conservatives than liberals among these potential swing voters.

These are definitely a group of female voters that were Clinton's base and whom McCain will try to reach out to.

It'll be interesting which campaign picks a Vice-Presidential nominee first. If Obama picks a man, it is a virtual lock I would think, that McCain will pick a woman -- though who that would be is a mystery to me. There are not a lot of female candidates that would appeal to the hard right, yet still appeal to that base.

Meanwhile, it is definitely are argument for Obama picking a woman, and there are many candidates on the Democratic side -- BUT, there's no doubt which female would most appeal to those voters. Clinton's speech yesterday was the speech she needed to give to reenter the Veep sweepstakes. Do not rule her out (and don't have a conniption about it either, this is about winning an election, not about drawing up conspiracies -- take away Lanny Davis, Mark Penn, and Howard Wolfson and that baggage and there's nothing all that wrong to me with choosing Clinton).

Better stock up on propane

McCain needs to fire up the grill and give the press corp a lovely "dry rub":

In April, UBS withdrew Gramm's lobbying registration, but one of his former congressional aides, John Savercool, is still registered to lobby legislators for UBS on numerous issues, including a bill cosponsored by Sen. Barack Obama that would crack down on foreign tax havens. "UBS is treating these investigations with the utmost seriousness and has committed substantial resources to cooperate," a UBS spokesman told NEWSWEEK, adding that Gramm was deregistered as a lobbyist because he spends less than 20 percent of his time on such activity. Hazelbaker said the McCain campaign "will not comment on the details … of ongoing investigations and legal charges not yet proved in court."

Gee, wonder which side Savercool is lobbying for?

McCain's campaign is already distancing itself from some of Gramm's other work for UBS: his involvement in attempts to sell financial products known as "death bonds," which BusinessWeek described last summer as one of "the most macabre investment scheme[s] ever devised by Wall Street." Not long after joining UBS, the Houston Chronicle reported, Gramm helped lobby Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, to sign on to a UBS proposal in which revenue would be generated for a state teachers' retirement fund by selling bonds, whose proceeds would in turn be used to buy annuities and life-insurance policies on retired teachers. UBS would advance money to the retirement fund, then repay itself, compensate bondholders and pocket profits when insurance companies paid off on retirees who died. According to a banking-industry source, who asked for anonymity when discussing a sensitive matter, Gramm was involved in efforts to pitch similar UBS products to other financial institutions.

Digby Johnson is right!

Digby noticed this at the Cunning Realist -- and yes, it does indeed sound like something John McCain should be asked about:

John McCain's flip-flops, corrections, and red-faced clarifications are getting an increasing amount of attention. But let's not forget the mother of all memory hole shuntings. From McCain's foreword to Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest (I'm still waiting for the candidate to be asked about this):

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

Ooooooh....maybe someone will ask Jeremiah Wright instead?

Shut Up the Shutting Up

Today Senator Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign for president and announced her support for Senator Obama.  Many of us -- Clinton or Obama supporters -- have been concerned for some time about the obvious to anyone-who-has-a-brain need to change so much about political culture in this country.  This is especially true given the NeoCon veil of secrecy, downright illegality actions (oh yes its a BIG plural) of the George W. Bush era, and the mighty powerful need to focus on the concerns of the many and not the wealthy few.

But now, the pundits who think they know better than the rest of us (let alone the candidates themselves or those who study politics), will tell us all the mistakes and embarrassments that Hillary Clinton made in her effort to receive the Democratic party nomination to become president.  There will be much criticism from folks who have never been personally involved in grass roots politics.  Oh yes, some of these people have ADVISED their fave candidates and party bosses (to whom so many of them do not even begin to hide their allegiances, do the Republican commentators even try to hide those connections anymore?).

While I have strongly criticized the Clinton campaign, I believe that the record of Hillary Clinton speaks for itself in her support of numerous causes and efforts to improve this country.  Yup, I believe that is what she has always wanted to do.  And While I have criticized the campaign from time to time, I have great respect for the person and her ideals.  While she may have been a bit too centrist for me, I never once questioned her sincere ideas about using government to better the lives of average Americans.

All too often since the Reagan realignment of politics (sigh, when was that pendulum supposed to swing to the center, let alone toward progressive politics?), it has become acceptable to criticize the person instead of considering the aspects, implication issues, and long-term consequences of the ideas and policies that they espouse.  It is far easier to attack a bad idea for a photo op then to attack their complicated health care proposal.  And I noticed that happened waaaay too often with Senator Clinton.

So, although her campaign was not successful, I do not want to hear attacks on her, her family, her husband, her looks, her few embarrassments (100 years McCain?  Really?) and more.  She ran a tough campaign and now it is time for unity, collegiality, and a focus on the national election.

Besides, I LOOOOOOVVVE! the idea of Hillary Clinton as a supreme court justice.  Oh yeah, can't you just imagine the wackidoodles of the Right-Wing freaking out.  And imagine someone with her concerns on the supreme court for the next 30 years.  Oh yes it could and should happen!  The Democrats retake the White House and get big majorities in both houses of Congress.  If Senator Obama truly has courage, that would be fair compensation for Senator Clinton's  monumental effort.  And it would be a nice improving action for the country too.

There's nothing harder than a concession speech

Or more revealing.

And this was an excellent and well-crafted one from Hillary Clinton. A credit to her.

The Obama Campaign has to be delighted and grateful.

Meanwhile, McCain's campaign is considering a fuschia background for the next teleprompter mumbling.

Dear Fred Hiatt

You know who wants the United States out of Iraq?

Iraqis.

Apparently they do not matter.

EPIC FAIL...for Larry Johnson. (With apologies to REO Speedwagon)

Heard it from a friend

who

Heard it from a friend

who

Heard it from another your flowbee's been messin' around.


(pic from TocqueDeville)

Well, he should know

Lord, McCain just steps right into this one:

"I believe that people are interested very much in substance," McCain said. "If it was simply style, William Jennings Bryan would have been president." (Bryan, a noted orator, lost three presidential elections as the Democratic nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908.)

He should know, McCain was on the stump back then arguing for the Gold Standard!

Next up - McCain talks about his deep affection for James G. Blaine.

This is rich

McCain, TPM reports, has a new ad buy with this signature line:

"Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," McCain tells the camera. "I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a POW. Some of the friends I served with never came home. I hate war. And I know how terrible its costs are."

Yep...not romantically, just lightheartedly and longingly:



Or this...



How about a Fool and a Fraud?

I guess he's also calling Bush a fellow fool and a fraud.

To quote Obi Wan Kenobi, "who's the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

[Yes, I've finally sunk to Star Wars wisdom]

More Evidence Against the RIAA

For some time on this blog, we have been railing against the Draconian too-far-behind-the-times efforts of the RIAA collectively and several Record companies individually to attack downloaders and file sharers.  This attack-the-fans approach should have been replaced a long time ago with a new paradigm. The industry needs to ask how it can work with fans to bring them music in a way that makes sense to them, rather than sue them.

The software and techniques used by the  industry to search and catch these alleged pirates of the Internet seas on services such as BitTorrent have a little problem, they implicate computers and users who are not file sharing.  According to a report released today by University of Washington researchers, the tools used by the music industry actually give many false positives which implicate users who have not engaged in what is defined at the moment as illegal downloading.

So what will be the industry response?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Oh, oops.  Our bad.  Sorry.
2. Here's the new New Kids on the Block CD, now is all forgiven? Do you want tickets to a reunion show too?
3. We are the music industry, we do not make mistakes!
4. We do not understand music downloading therefore we must fear it.  Burn the evil sorcery, burn it!  BURN IT!
5. We have now announced plans to sue the authors of the study saying our methods target innocent computers and users. 
6. <Say Nothing> ...and keep doing what they are doing...

I wonder which one they will choose?

Two Monstrous Asses trying to save their own

When stupid & failure meet, this is what you get:

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday.

"If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defence minister.

Ehud Olmert btw is the Israeli Bush. The only difference being that he can manage NOT to fall off a segway (notice how scared Bush looks of that damn thing).

But as Bush looks at the GOP going down in flames unless he bombs the one country he has always wanted to bomb, but has yet to do so - Ohlmert is looking to throw his own hail mary.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's foreign minister deepened the uncertainty over Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ability to survive a corruption scandal by saying on Thursday their party had to prepare for a possible early election.

Olmert has responded with a business-as-usual approach to a demand by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that he step aside.

And nothing changes the national conversation faster than getting good video of shit done blowin' up. Especially in that classy overhead black and white. Just keep those cameras off the ground where the missing limbs are visible.

Two alternatives

It's plain -- though denied and wrapped in the flag to prevent it being proclaimed -- that the victor in Bush's invasion is not Iraq, it's not America, it's Iran.

The question is how could this not have been foreseen by anyone with the slightest bit of wisdom.

Only a complete dupe dominated by the most craven and shallow of idealogues

OR

a traitor

could bring this about.

So, which ones are they? The Bush Administration certainly loves to throw charges of terrorist sympathizer or appeaser around -- and not a few of their acolytes accused those opposed to the war as treason -- more projection?

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday...

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign, has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups now run much of the government and the security forces.

The aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials' contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA had labeled a "fabricator" in 1984. Those contacts were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading Iraq and overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime.

According to the Senate report, the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity unit concluded in 2003 that Ledeen "was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with Mr. Ghorbanifar."

The counterintelligence unit said, however, that Ledeen's association with Ghorbanifar "was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of Iran, would know."

Unwitting will be on Ledeen's tombstone, as it is his mantra.

And yet, the man continues to lie, be fooled, and collect ample right-wing money. A useful tool, but a tool first.

Ghorbinifar has been a known fraud for more than 20 years, dating all the way back to the original Iran-Contra scandal. Yet many of the assholes involved in that stupid stunt are present in this tale; Ghorbanifar, Ledeen, Elliot Abrams. If the media had one wit of curiosity rather than just inhaling Bush-Pole in 2002/2003 they could have easily revealed this stupidity.

But they didn't care.

And given the coverage the Phase II report received yesterday and today -- many of them still don't.

Well, this is a problem

If Bush wants to ram a treaty allowing American troops to stay in Eye-Rack forever, this seems a problem:



From a document presented to Congress yesterday that is the purported view of the majority of Iraq's parliament.

But, in the name of maintaining his reputation for loving freedom...through threatening others, Bush is trying blackmail.

Which is one of many reasons why the United States this November will choose to be led by a Black Male.

Put It In A Song

Strap On!

Hilarious...and almost too close to being true:

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

Walk Off

Saw the Yankees win in a walk off last night with my friend R., who attempted a little Tri-State political humor:

So Eliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, and John Rowland walk into a brothel and the madam says, "You can have anything you want. What would you like?"

"I'd like a lucious young lady to offer me her bodacious body," says Spitzer, who is presented with just that and walks off with her.

"I'd like a hot young stud to present me with his sculpted six-pack," says McGreevey, who is presented with just that and walks off with him.

"And you, sir," says the madam, to the former governor of Connecticut?

"I'd like someone to paint my house."

Last night may be my last visit to the House that Ruth Built as New York taxpayers are building George Steinbrenner a new Yankee Stadium. (Don't even get me started on that $70MM.). There are things I love about Yankee Stadium: the moment when you enter the stands from the stadium perimeter and see the lush bright green grass under the lights and the famous facade for the first time; the sight of the No. 4 train snaking through the space between the deck and the facade; the Bleacher Creatures' famous first inning Roll Call; and the fact that there's still organ music played.

I've seen a couple of notable games at Yankee Stadium:

Game 6 of the 1977 World Series (with my dad and mom)
Game 6 of the 1996 World Series (with my cousin and his kids)
1996 opening day snow-out (with my then-beau)
Dwight Gooden's 1996 no-hitter vs. the Seattle Mariners (with the same then-beau)

R. and I watched the game, snacked, and talked politics, specifically veeps. He likes Ted Strickland or Kathleen Sebelius. I like Jim Webb.

Who do you like?

I'm walking off to the Lone Star State for a VLWC meeting this weekend. Haven't been there since 1990. I hope a charming local gent (or two) calls me "Darlin'."

*R: Sorry, had to clean up the language. This is a family blog. :-)

Photo: Barton Silverman/The New York Times

L-I-A-R-S

War criminals, assholes, and McCain's biggest supporters:

A long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report made public Thursday concludes that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made public statements to promote an invasion of Iraq that they knew at the time were not supported by available intelligence.

A companion report found that a special office set up by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld undertook "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department."

“Before taking the country to war, this administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” said committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D- W. Va.

It's long been known that the administration's claims in the runup to the Iraq war, from Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al Qaida to whether Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program, were incorrect. But the Senate report is the first official examination of whether the president and vice president knew that their claims were incorrect at the time they made them.

That the President and Vice-President of the United States falsely led a nation to war is the kind of thing one would think would get some media attention. Good ol' McClatchy comes through at least.

Ah, but the enabling act of the subsequent lies, the 9/11 attack has some of its accused protagonists going to court today. What a coincidence.

Wonder what they can prove that wasn't tortured out of them...again on Bush's orders.

Oh, not imperial in the least

From the jaws of hollow ever-existing claims of non-existent victory:

Today, the House held a hearing featuring two members of the Iraqi Parliament in order “to hear their assessment of the proposed U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement,” ...

In the hearing, parliamentarians Nadeem Al-Jaberi and Khalaf Al-Ulayyan expressed their support for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. In an exchange with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Al-Jaberi said that U.S. presence in Iraq is highly unpopular with the public, as roughly 70 percent of Iraqis favor a withdrawal

Meanwhile...

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

But the accord also threatens to provoke a political crisis in the US. President Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a military victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated. But by perpetuating the US presence in Iraq, the long-term settlement would undercut pledges by the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, to withdraw US troops if he is elected president in November.

The timing of the agreement would also boost the Republican candidate, John McCain, who has claimed the United States is on the verge of victory in Iraq – a victory that he says Mr Obama would throw away by a premature military withdrawal.

Personally, I have no doubt this is accurate and what Bush HOPES will happen domestically. I'm sure they'll try to sell it that way, but I think the time is finally past on such transparent bullshit.

And the reaction in Iraq is not going to be pretty.

Aw, Dammit

This blog did not make the "Non-Misogyny List" at "Hillary's Voice".

But No Quarter did.

Because, Michelle Obama horseshit slander over non-existent events doesn't count because she's not a woman - she's black (did you know this?) - and anybody who hangs out at Stormfront can tell you black people [they seem reluctant to use that word] don't have the lady-parts. Perhaps they're charitable and are willing to express their idiocy in song?

you're a fifth,
two-fifths,
three-fifths of a laaaaadaaaayyyyy,
how I loooooooaaaaathe youuuuuuuu...

I'm sure the Commodores would be proud.

Seriously, for some that's what is has come down to apparently.

As for this blog, I blame myself and all the K-Lo jokes.

He's no longer "Mr. 28%"

No, he's "Mr. Two-Bits"

President Bush's approval rating is at its lowest level to date. Just 25 percent of Americans approve of the overall job Mr. Bush is doing as President, an all-time low for him and among the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a President.

Sixty-seven percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing - the highest such figure in CBS News polls since he assumed office.

Only Presidents Nixon (24 percent) and Truman (22 percent) have seen polls showing job approval ratings lower than 25 percent during their presidencies, according to Gallup Polls. President Carter’s all-time low was 26 percent.

George Bush, less popular [and consistently so] than 'History's Greatest Monster'.

Furthermore, just before he clinched the nomination -- at arguably the nadir for both he or Clinton this cannot make "Mr. Green Screen" (or, of course, David Broder) feel any better:

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama holds a six point lead over his Republican counterpart John McCain, a new CBS News poll finds. Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters, with 6 percent of respondents undecided.

All this before Clinton's endorsement -- and before John McCain sneered and mumbled through a speech that had the same visual appearance as looking at a Box Turtle's Junk for a half-hour [someone alert John Cornyn].

Oh, and how many non-appearances is Larry Johnson's magical mystery non-existent [as it never occurred]video allowed to get links at Memeorandum again? Idiots.

The ratings

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	ElectionHQ:	Hume:	Shep.:	ElectionHQ:	ElectionHQ:	ElectionHQ:	H&C:
	1100	1443	1398	2006	2745	2415	1341
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Elec.Cent.:	Elec.Cent.:	Elec./Coop:	Cooper:
	1058	1114	1502	2242	3788	4523	2323
MSNBC	Hardball:	Spec.Cov.:	Spec.Cov.:	Spec.Cov.:	Spec.Cov.:	Spec.Cov.:	Spec.Cov.:
	770	965	1266	1719	2713	3450	1346

Let's see -- McSame pissed & moaned and yelled at clouds at 8:30 est

Clinton spoke at 9:00 est

Obama spoke at about 10:00 est.

Notice the ratings growth (except the dip at FoxNoise)

And this nugget from TV Newser:

CNN topped all the cable news networks in every category yesterday, but when it came to Sen. Barack Obama's speech just after 10pmET, the network did one better.

The only broadcast network to carry the speech live was ABC, and the New York Times' Brian Stelter reports CNN beat the broadcast network during the speech (4.73 million viewers to under 4 million).

The Simpson's are Renewed for 20th Season

While not as consistent as the past couple of years, the show certainly deserves another season.  This ties with the long running western, Gunsmoke (anyone else remember this show?), as the longest running show on night time television.  Daytime is a completely different world.

Why, yes I'll do another season for this donut!"

Am I alone in thinking that the show became excellent when the writer's realized that Homer was the central figure and not Bart? And of course, we all see that Bush's entire political framework is premised on his Homer Simpson view of the world... (with apologies to Homer).

Still blissfully walking into rakes

The jokes, they done wrote themselves:

The Big O [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

is not my hero. And I didn't need him or Hillary Clinton to make me proud to be American or hopeful about opportunities here.

ALERTING Michelle Malkin!!!

Commenter ThingsComeUndone at Firedoglake noticed something that following Little Lulu's logic would cause cranial explosions:

The lime green background behind McCain at his speech reminds me of the Saudi Flag Wonder if Malkin and the Wingers will hold McCain to the same standard as Duncan donuts and Rachael Ray’s scarf?

UPDATE:

From the comments, the Sadly No folks have taken advantage of the "Green Screen" effect.

Toles

Original here.

Tri-Ciceros

If we have to give out medals, then McCain I guess has to get a bronze. Wow, that was some powerfully bad strategizing -- as I said at Eschaton last night:

"Oh, Go with the Green Background"

"It'll make you look like the cottage cheese in a lime jello salad" Always a good look for an older gentlemen.

The aesthetics of McCain's speech, just mercifully completed before a slightly energized crowd of literally dozens, was awesome in how dreadful it was. No matter what Harold Ford thinks, who was somehow thoroughly moved by lime-jello McCain.

As for Clinton, good speech, combative - too much so, could have added a couple more complimentary lines. But the hyperventilation some people had is over-the-top. It can be critiqued, but let's get a grip.

Obama is simply a masterful public speaker and the comparison between him and McCain is striking -- although let's face it by the time he spoke nobody remembered the old man yelling at the cloud before one of those CGI walls he borrowed from LucasFilms.

...OH MY GOD...McCain is pretty much an old Jar Jar Binks.

Speaking of CGI McCain, Jesus General, "at long last have you no sense of decency?"

Well, at least she accomplished something

Elvis & Nixon, meet the latest bizarre photo:


(AP)

The worst part was dealing with Gene Simmons videographer.

Which reminds me:

Bush I hear you calling
But my friend I'm quite busy now
Besides my friends are aging
And we can't hear high-pitched sounds

Just a few more hours
And I'll be snugglin' up to you
The voices they're a' calling
Oh Bush what can I do
Bush what can I do

My friend you feel so empty
And your heads an empty dome
I'm always somewhere else
And polls show you're all alone

Just a few more hours
And I'll be cuddlin' next to you
Blue pills will be a poppin'
Oh Bush what can I do
Bush what can I do

Bush I know you're horney
And you're sphincter oh quite tight
'Cause me and my friends will be playing all night

This is the Campaign...

Sing it with me dear readers:

"This is the campaign that never ends

Yes it goes on and on my friend

Some people started campaigning, not knowing what it was

And they'll continue campaigning forever just because

This is the campaign that never ends..."

Image Makeover Mania?

"I am trusty -- just check out the way I rock this hat!" (pic from Politico.com)

For all people... image makeover for Drudge?  Man, I gotta get out more.  Or just start ignoring the media.  You know, I really like the sound of that one.

Too Optimistic?

I don't know about all of you but I am always a little thrown by some of the predictions of the futurists.  Take for example, the futurist with the best track record, Ray Kurzweil.  In the NYT today, he is quoted from the World Sciences Festival talking about what he considers the inevitable rise of cybernetic self-improving cyborg humanity.

Throw a problem at Kurzweil and he is eternally optimistic.  I have always been comforted by the fact that it is far more likely that our future will look like Blade Runner than Star Trek.  Assuming we do not create the super-bug-virus or a more firey way to annihilate ourselves.  And do not get me started on the religious crazies and what they might do with future tech.

Pessimistic?  Sure.  But consider how often (and invariably) we have created greater means of destruction with tech than improvement.  Yes, we have incredible medicine and technology -- just look at what is being provided Ted Kennedy.  But how many of us can actually afford these marvels?

I am not going to hold my breath and wait for the singularity.

Fox News...awesome as ever

And so are the Democrats it employs.

From Dick Morris, to Bob Beckel -- surely FoxNews Democrats.

Meanwhile, this morning, first class, long-time asshole Bob Beckel decided to push the wackjob slander that No Quarter has been pushing in their mental meth lab.

On the website of some goof on Fox & Freunde, thanks to the always slander compliant Memeorandum:

Beckel's Obama Bombshell — Were you watching at 6:25 when Democratic strategist Bob Beckel dropped a bomb on us? He said he'd heard through his political pipeline that a big shoe was about to drop on the Obama campaign. It has something to do with Michelle Obama.

And that blurb is still there.

Problem is, click on the link and you get this:

Error 404 - Not Found

Apparently, even occasionally at FoxNews, they decide that third person to third person smearjobs are bad journalism.

Look, if somehow Michelle Obama & Louis Farrakhan were up a a dais at Trinity Church decrying "whitey" together, you think we might be able to verify that through some means aside just from video? You think the Chicago Sun-Times or the Chicago Tribune, typically quite hard on Obama might have caught the fact of that meeting or statement?

You think the Clinton's wouldn't have cranked that out some time ago?

There's bullshit and then there's slimy, horseshit that is beneath the term bullshit and that's what this almost certainly is.

Cheney's Cheney

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Liz Cheney, she's more than just the daughter of the Vice-President. She's the magical child that provided her father with that greatest of gifts, an iron-clad guarantee ol' Dick didn't have to serve in 'Nam.

Just think, but for Dick and Lynne bumpin' uglies in the mid-1960s, Cheney could be presently leading the Canadian Conservative Party to record setting defeats. But sadly, Cheney stayed here to start other wars other people, the little people, the "West Virginia" types to go fight his wars for him.

In a sign of their ever-lasting commitment to merit-based hiring, the George W. Bush Administration, kept hiring Liz Cheney to a variety of jobs in the State Department, most notably and finally Principal Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, a position she held until the Spring of 2006.

Yesterday, while her Daddy was calling West Virginians a bunch of inbreds, Liz was speaking at AIPAC, and despite her former role in the Bush Administration dropped this bon mot:

Liz Cheney — daughter of V.P. Dick Cheney — fired off a few shots during her appearance today at the AIPAC conference, essentially aimed at her former boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and her former boss’ boss, President Bush. Cheney didn’t call either of them out by name, but, among other things, did criticize two major initiatives backed by Bush and Rice: the Palestinian legislative elections that ended up bringing Hamas to power and the current effort to advance the peace process

The Palestinians, Cheney said, are not “ready” to reach an agreement. Making matters worse, she added, this futile pursuit of peace will ultimately draw resources away from confronting Iran.

Oh, "confronting Iran"? She certainly is her father's spawn isn't she?

But, wait, Liz Cheney goes after Bush and Rice for what happened with Hamas...when did that happen again?

Oh, yes, January 2006, while Liz Cheney had that area as her concern within the State Department.

Funny that.

The Merde Touch, it doesn't skip a generation.

And we're all shocked

Nobody could have anticipated, etc.:

An investigation by the NASA inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years, the inspector general's office said yesterday.

The probe came at the request of 14 senators after The Washington Post and other news outlets reported in 2006 that Bush administration officials had monitored and impeded communications between NASA climate scientists and reporters.

Ho-hum.

Let's see which McCain campaign operative went after James Hansen and the pointy-heads inside NASA.

From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA's public affairs office "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public." It noted elsewhere that "news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution."

Officials of the Office of Public Affairs told investigators that they regulated communication by NASA scientists for technical rather than political reasons, but the report found "by a preponderance of the evidence, that the claims of inappropriate political interference made by the climate change scientists and career public affairs officers were more persuasive than the arguments of the senior public affairs officials that their actions were due to the volume and poor quality of the draft news releases."

They could not suck any more than they already do.

America's Concern Troll

Dicky Cohen, Beard for Beard, America's worst columnist, let's condense his latest imbecility to its essence.

1. I detest that people think of Obama as a racist, now let me tell you about the racists he hangs out with (or at least I say he does, far be it from me to look at the matter with any depth), oh and since I'm just throwing out bullshit without any evidence, he's uber-liberal and we all know that's bad;

2. I detest the portrayal of Hillary Clinton as a "witch", interested in nothing but her own ambition, too bad she's so craven and ambitious.

Yes, he's just that amazingly bad

Mission Accomplished

A summary:

CASUALTIES:

_Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of May 2008: at least 4,085.

_Confirmed U.S. military wounded (hostile) as of May 30, 2008: 30,143.

_Confirmed U.S. military wounded (non-hostile, using medical air transport) as of May 3, 2008: 32,248...

Assassinated Iraqi academics: 371.

_Journalists killed on assignment as of June 2, 2008: 127.

COST:

_Nearly $525 billion so far, according to the National Priorities Project.

OIL PRODUCTION:

_Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day.

_May 25, 2008: 2.52 million barrels per day.

ELECTRICITY:

_Prewar nationwide: 3,958 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): 4-8.

_May 26, 2008 nationwide: 4,110 megawatts. Hours per day: 9.9.

_Prewar Baghdad: 2,500 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): 16-24.

_May 26, 2008 Baghdad: Megawatts not available. Hours per day: 7.3...

INTERNAL REFUGEES:

_June 1, 2008: At least 2.7 million people are currently displaced inside Iraq.

EMIGRANTS:

_Prewar: 500,000 Iraqis living abroad.

_April 29, 2008: Some 2 million, mainly Syria and Jordan.

Awesome.

Hey, remember VH-1 fans

I discovered while setting up my "Windows Media" to record The Daily Show & Colbert (and by the way thanks for the generally worthless program Microsoft...what a surprise) that tonight between 7 and 11 eastern VH-1 will be showing a marathon of "Ryan & Trista's Wedding"

Surely, until the pinnacle of American Civilization, well at least until this.

The Needle (and the Coat Hanger and the Soda Bottle) and the Damage Done

I tend not to pay much attention to Clinton supporters who say they will either stay home or vote McCain on November 4th. Emotions are (and have been) running high. I used to make all sorts of vows when I was all riled up and 99.9% of them came to nothing (which is why I got out of the making vows when I'm riled up business). So I'm confident that after the federally mandated cooling off period, people -- especially women -- will get their heads together and do the right thing.

Why?

Two words: Supreme Court.

Suppose I Accidentally Got My S#$t Together?

I'd post more, for one thing. Sorry, I've been scarce. Very busy with both the personal and the professional at the moment.

A few tidbits:

I want this guy to go away. Gave turkee to his primary challenger. Just like D.C., Albany needs new blood.

Driftglass wrote a nice tribute to Steve Gilliard, who died a year ago today.

Okay, so it's gossip, but I feel lousy about this. She's my peer. And she's had a hell of a time: crappy parents, addiction, lost her kids. I loved "Paper Moon". And she was in one of my favorite "Sex and the City" episodes: "A Woman's Right to Shoes."

Eschaton commenter JeffCO turned me onto this, which I keep listening to over and over again.

In between everything, I'm reading this, which Culture of Truth recommended. Oh, you should be reading his Bobblespeaks. You really should.

And watertiger is blogging live from the SEIU Quadrennial Convention in Puerto Rico for FireDogLake. Check it out.

More soon (I hope).

Rock and Roll Pioneer Bo Diddley Passes

For those of us who care about the history of Rock and Roll, Rock, Pop, R&B, Rhythm, Juke Joint Music, and all of the intersections of guitar driven music -- we have lost a giant of music today. 

Say what you want but in this era of computer generated artists and so-called "singers", Bo Diddley was one of the original players of blues-rock-guitar stomp.  He may not have been as pure as other founding figures but he could grab an audience and make them shake their groove-thing with just a guitar, driving beat, and a voice as rough as sandpaper.

Harvey Korman, Bo Diddley

And the anniversary of Steve Gillard's death.

What a sucky week.

Well, we still have Larry Johnson and Roger Stone to laugh at. Too bad they aren't funny.

Battle of the Sexes?

Hello everyone, I  am back from vacation  -- more on that in a later post. 

But far more importantly than my new tan, my spouse and I have been having a disagreement.  We both have been to two recent films: Sex and the City and Iron Man.  And we have been talking about them both.  However our interpretations have been quite different on how these films have been doing.

I, as one might imagine, really liked Iron Man.  In fact, I liked both films for different reasons.  But my spouse commented that Sex and the City is a far more successful and interesting film.  I responded that Sex and the City will struggle to make 100 million domestically and because of that, will not be as successful as Iron Man which domestically has made twice what it cost. 

As I understand from reading the trade papers, the makers of Sex and the City are happy with the opening gross and are already talking sequel.  Personally, while I enjoyed the film I thought that the take was disappointing.  Imagine any other 60-70 million dollar production with as much press, not making its cost back in the opening weekend.  Wouldn't we be talking about a bomb? Or at least a film that did not live up to expectations?

And sure, the film will undoubtedly turn a profit but not a large one from the perspective of the studios.  And yes, I realize that success can not always be a simple measure of how many dollars a film generates from tickets.

Of course, this focus on the grosses does not work for independent films and I believe should not be applied to film as a work of artistic license.  What intrigues me though is whether this difference of opinion reflects a gendered disagreement on success -- interpretations that differ between women and men? 

If so, I think there is something instructive here.  On one hand, there are Senator Clinton's supporters who seem invested in a reinterpreting the entirety of the Clinton campaign and crafting a singular interpretation of what is a successful campaign. Something which strikes me (and please feel free to disagree) as an almost close seems to count mentality.   What about party unity?

On the other hand, we have Senator Obama's supporters who are focused on the actual numbers of the specific math -- a sort of  'we have the numbers and only by arguing over how the math was done can the Clinton campaign win the nomination. '  Again, what about party unity?

Do these different interpretations reflect a similar gender divide?  Or are they outside of gender?  Is it about what success means? Or is it some other kind of interpretation over what a film or -- far more importantly -- what a campaign means when it calls itself a success?

"I won't talk to that guy, and I won't talk to this guy, and I won't talk to this guy"

That's Obama's description of McCain (and Bush's) foreign policy. And we've seen more than a few talking heads tut-tut about whether Obama should mix it up with those two wankers incredible string of foreign policy successes.

As usual, the beltway knows little:

Large majorities of Democrats and independents, and even half of Republicans, believe the president of the United States should meet with the leaders of countries that are considered enemies of the United States. Overall, 67% of Americans say this kind of diplomacy is a good idea...

Although separate Gallup polling shows that few Americans view Iran favorably, and that Iran leads Americans' list of top U.S. enemies in the world, the new Gallup survey also finds high public support for presidential-level meetings between the United States and Iran, specifically.

About 6 in 10 Americans (59%) think it would be a good idea for the president of the United States to meet with the president of Iran. This includes about half of Republicans, a majority of independents, and most Democrats.

Ultimately, people - even a people as shallow and craven as many Americans born in the age of imperial deluded "we're always right morally and these bombs prove it" America prefer jaw jaw to war war.

United States of Awesome!

It's all fine because we're doing it:

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees...

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

Who could have anticipated Bush lying?

The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo."

Meanwhile, this from a "Conservative" MP in England (Bush & Blair have made 'Bizarro World' come to life):

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, called for the US and UK governments to come clean over the holding of detainees.

"Little by little, the truth is coming out on extraordinary rendition. The rest will come, in time. Better for governments to be candid now, rather than later. Greater transparency will provide increased confidence that President Bush's departure from justice and the rule of law in the aftermath of September 11 is being reversed, and can help to win back the confidence of moderate Muslim communities, whose support is crucial in tackling dangerous extremism."

And good luck with all that because McCain & Fred Hiatt are on their own new jihad demanding we agree with their latest declaration of undefined victory in the land of perpetual war.

Atta J. Turk observes Popular Cul-cha

Via what I want to claim was the result of a lost bet, I went with a friend to see "Sex in the City" on Friday. I pretty much knew what I was in for, I'd flicked the remote past the show on occasion, waiting for someone (almost always Kim Cattrall) to be nekked. And from what I saw it's simply five episodes of the show in one movie, with resolutions for most of the story lines.

The worst part was the person I went with, a woman naturally, popped into the restroom while I got a seat in the front section of the theater -- as my friend took about 10 minutes in the "lady-can". In other words, I was a middle-aged man sitting all alone as the theater filled up with 200 other attendees (pretty good turn out for a middle of the afternoon show). Of the 200, 197 were women, 160 were middle aged. The three men, like me, had pathetic palpable faces of repaying the debt for getting their female friend/partner to go to 'The Departed' last year.

If Sex in the City had come out a few months ago, it would have been the perfect place to recruit Hillary Clinton campaign workers. Not that there's anything wrong with a female-buddy picture.

But as the minutes went by I was a man, sitting at the furthest seats up front that were occupied, and without a woman on my right-or-left.

I know it is completely my problem, but still, feeling your balls retreat into your body and push on your kidneys is a weird feeling.

Anyhoo, my favorite part was near the end when they were all run over by a taxi and died. Only their shoes survived.

Fred Hiatt Declares victory

For the 14th time.

I wonder how long Hiatt has known McCain's butt cheeks were lightly freckled?

I want everyone to know

I've resigned from the Kiwanis Club. Their YouTube videos were embarrassingly boring.