R.I.P. Irony

CNN

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

I hope it causes G.H.W. Bush chest pains every time he realizes this whole thing could have been prevented if he'da not been so horny he didn't want to stop at the drugstore that day in '46...

Quote of the Day

Kos

From the Senate floor, Ted Kennedy just cut through all the crap:

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

A-freaking-men.

Our Town

A few pics from the old cemetery and church in our little town. We're heading into Alsace-Lorraine (the French border is 10 minutes from here) for, why else, so Mrs. F can shop. Soufflenheim, the town we're going to, is known for its handmade pottery and ceramics.

Edwards talks tough. I like it.

Chicago Tribune

"The few, the powerful, the well-financed, they now control the government," John Edwards told a tight crowd of about 350 last week. "They've taken over your democracy. And it affects everything that happens in this country."

"Everything," he emphasized.

At 54, Edwards has jettisoned the polite and unthreatening populism of his 2004 presidential campaign for a sharper edge. The beaming smile, the bluejeans and the open-collar shirt are still a constant. But the "Two Americas" message has been replaced by one America, and it's time, he says, to take that America back.

"I know some people suggest we'll be able to sit at the table with drug companies and oil companies and think they can get their power away. Right," Edwards said dismissively, indirectly referring to the approaches he says Obama and Clinton would take.

"I'll tell you when they'll [corporations] lose their power: when we take it away from them," he told a cheering crowd at the Grinnell Eagles Club.

Finally, someone's tellin' it like it is. Fuck bein' nice to the Repugs and corporate elite. They take, take, take from us and we have to TAKE our country back from them.

They're not going to give up all the money and power without a fight. There might be a few bloody noses along the way, but ya gotta bring some to get some.

I watched the Lord Of The Rings movie "Return Of The King" for the first time last night. Almost a perfect metaphor for what's goin' on in America, and for what needs to be done to correct it. It's no accident that about the meekest guy ever was tasked with destroying the evil ring of all power. Everybody else fought like the blazes to give Frodo the time and space to get 'er done and he came through like a champ in the end.

The Democrats lately have demonstrated that they're about as meek as they come, but I hope they can find as much balls as the Hobbits to do what needs to be done. Edwards ain't exactly Frodo, but perhaps he'll do.

AT&T engineer says Bush Administration sought to implement domestic spying within two weeks of taking office

Raw Story

Nearly 1,300 words into Sunday's New York Times article revealing new details of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleges that "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

"9/11 changed everything" my ass. It sure was a good excuse to let them do what they were doing anyway, though, wasn't it?

And everything else Bush wanted to do as well that he was already planning to do, from expanding presidential power to starting his criminal Oil War. Makes ya kinda wonder...

Quoteof the Day

Tony Peyser on the 'steroids in baseball' report:

Even President Bush weighed in: "My hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us." That's his administration and all Republicans in a nutshell. Whether it's a phony war, real torture, or spying on U.S. citizens, Jeez, don't put it in FRONT of anyone. Are you crazy?

Christmas Market

Went to a Christmas market yesterday evening by train in a beautiful little town called Deidesheim. It was really cold but we had a good time. Shit, anytime Mrs. F can shop is a good time.

Guten Morgen!

I took some pics this morning on my way to visit my mom at the family plot. More ot follow when I have time.

Signs of the times

Me 'n Mrs. G just wrapped up what little Christmas shopping that we do, and while we were out I saw some fun stuff I thought I'd share.

At Joby's Music, which also does a fair imitation of a head shop in this day and age, where we got a record and some peace sign earrings for Mrs. G:

"Marilize Legauana"

On some holiday napkins at the best one-stop shopping spot in our little town, distinguished by the smell of fryin' plastic, this ditty which sums up the spirit of the season quite well, I think:

"On Dasher
On Dancer
On Master and Visa"

And at the candy store where we got a white chocolate truffle each to celebrate being over and done with the commercial end of Xmas for another year:

"'Stressed' spelled backwards is 'Desserts'"

Later.

Fredo no longer 'Lawyer of the Year'

Raw Story

On Friday, Editor and Publisher of the American Bar Association Journal Edward Adams released a statement saying that fallen Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, previously named "Lawyer of the Year," will now be known as "Newsmaker of the Year."

"We appreciate the feedback we've received," says Adams, "and we're acting on it."

Heh. That's a nice way of saying "we got our ass handed to us over it".

A more apt award for Gonzales might be "Un-Indicted Co-Conspirator of the Year".

" 'Special Comments' became necessary..."

In case you missed it, Go check out Keith Olbermann on Bill Moyers' show last Friday night.

Moyers was interested in Olbermann’s “Special Comments,” which the MSNBC Countdown host says “became necessary” after former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld equated war opponents with Nazi appeasers.

“I [read] this ridiculous remark and I waited to see somebody respond to it,” he said. “And no one did. I’m thinking, well, you know, somebody with a platform ought to be talking about this. Somebody with a– with an avenue to respond should be– oh, yeah, I have a platform.”

As much as I enjoyed that show, i don't think these gentlemen should appear together very often. One well-placed round could wipe out the two most honest journalists in America, and we can't afford to take that chance.

Latter-Day Republicans vs. the Church of Oprah

Daddy Frank sounds off on Romney's cult, "The O Show", and the hugely undersung matter of race in the coming election. A 'recommended read'.

THIS campaign season has been in desperate need of its own reincarnation of Howard Beale from “Network”: a TV talking head who would get mad as hell and not take it anymore. Last weekend that prayer was answered when Lawrence O’Donnell, an excitable Democratic analyst, seized a YouTube moment (go see O'Donnell go off on the Mormon cult! - G) while appearing on one of the Beltway’s more repellent Sunday bloviathons, “The McLaughlin Group.”

I love 'The McLaughlin Group'! I call 'em 'The Shouters'. Usually it's Eleanor Clift (be still, my heart!) as the Voice of Sanity against the Forces of Darkness Buchanan and Blankley, moderated, if that's the right word, by curmudgeonly ex-priest McLaughlin. I've been missing it lately since both the PBS stations I get are kinda in a perma pledge drive and shine on this little show in favor of old rerun music from my youth. But I digress...

Pushed over the edge by his peers’ polite chatter about Mitt Romney’s sermon on “Faith in America,” Mr. O’Donnell branded the speech “the worst” of his lifetime. Then he went on a rampage about Mr. Romney’s Mormon religion, shouting (among other things) that until 1978 it was “an officially racist faith.”

That claim just happens to be true. [...]

The answer is simple. Mr. Romney didn’t fight his church’s institutionalized apartheid, whatever his private misgivings, because that’s his character. Though he is trying to sell himself as a leader, he is actually a follower and a panderer, as confirmed by his flip-flops on nearly every issue.

On to The big O:

But Washington is nothing if not consistent in misreading this election. Even as pundits overstated the significance of “Faith in America,” so they misunderstood and trivialized the other faith-based political show unfolding this holiday season, “Oprahpalooza.” And with the same faulty logic.

“Church free” is the key. This country has had its fill of often hypocritical family-values politicians dictating what is and is not acceptable religious and moral practice. Instead of handing down tablets of what constitutes faith in America, Romney-style, the Oprah-Obama movement practices an American form of ecumenicalism. It preaches a bit of heaven on earth in the form of a unified, live-and-let-live democracy that is greater than the sum of its countless disparate denominations. The pitch — or, to those who are not fans, the shtick — may be corny. “The audacity of hope” is corny too. But corn is preferable to holier-than-thou, and not just in Iowa.

No shit.

For those Americans looking for the most unambiguous way to repudiate politicians who are trying to divide the country by faith, ethnicity, sexuality and race, Mr. Obama is nothing if not the most direct shot. After hearing someone like Mitt Romney preach his narrow, exclusionist idea of “Faith in America,” some Americans may simply see a vote for Mr. Obama as a vote for faith in America itself.

My goodness! That was damn near an endorsement!

As much as I like Bill Richardson, it doesn't look like he's getting much traction. He might be better doing something else anyway. or veep.

I'm startin' to lean toward Edwards. Hillary wants business as usual with Big Corpora, Obama wants to chat pleasantly with them as if that'll work to change the role of Big Money in our country, but so far only Edwards wants to take them on for the evil they are and do by standing in the way of progress for Americans on a wide range of profit-generating issues.

Edwards is a lot nicer about it than I am. When I'm Benign Emperor Of All That's Good, I'd start with an air strike on K Street, followed by an infantry assault and a roundup of lobbyists, CEOs, etc., who would be treated to an unusual (for them) and well-deserved expenditure of taxpayers' money - plane rides to exotic places followed by motivational chats of my own devising which would be fully legal under present administration guidelines.

And God would be on my side, of course...

Election 08: An Unwelcome Endorsement

Got this via e-mail from our pal Lurch:

Finally ...

Here and unpacked. Going to bed now and I'm not waking up until morning to try and sleep off this jetlag. More from me tomorrow. My outstanding nephew set up a wireless connection in the house so blogging will be regular. Yay!!!

DO IT!

Join Congressman Wexler's call for Cheney impeachment hearings

Comic books have come a long way since $crooge McDuck...

Shooting War: The New Graphic Novel (trailer) from SMITHmag on Vimeo.

"...nut cases , religious fanatics, and other extremists..."

The Existentialist Cowboy

None of the GOP presidential hopefuls are supported above a level of about 23 percent according to polls released by New York Times and CBS News. Mitt Romney's dilemma typifies the party's dilemma. Romney, a Mormon, must get the religious extremist vote to get the nomination. If he gets it, he risks losing the White House. The GOP is now paying for having made a Faustian pact with religious right and other extremists.

Having accused the GOP of mass insanity on numerous occasions, I would venture that the GOP is down to its base of some 23 percent: nut cases, religious fanatics, and other right wing extremists, a GOP base that is 180 degrees out of phase with the rest of the populuation, the principles of our founding, common sense, decency. The fanatics represent the party's hard core which finds in George Bush's failures, his only successes. I am increasingly confident that sane folk will call them what they truly are. Abysmal, miserable failures.

The GOP will lose against any Democratic candidate because it is unprepared to condemn what Bush has done to the nation. No GOP candidate is prepared to tell the truth: George W. Bush is a traitor to the US and its Constitution. Nevertheless, this miserable excuse for a party should pay the price for having supported the overthrow of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our every international obligation since George Washington.

There ought to be a price to be paid for having been criminal, stupid, and arrogant! Fuck the GOP!

You can say that again!

OK.

Fuck the GOP.

"Waiter, I'd like to change my order!"

Leah Garchik is a columnist for the EssEffChron. She usually has a little 'Public Eavesdropping' blurb like this in her column.

"No, Kevin. ... It's Tandoori game hen, not Tandoori gay men."

Gent overheard at Ajanta Indian restaurant in Berkeley by Drew Kemp

I just thought that was cute.

Substantially Inconveniencing the U.S. Government?

Happening over in Portland (Oregon) . . . while protesting some time ago at a military recruiter office, this unlikely small group of protesters left their hand prints, red hand prints on the outside window (tempera paint). The case was tried in Multnomah County court.

Four grandmothers and a grandfather handcuffed by police and jailed for leaving red hand prints on the window of a military recruiting center have been acquitted of criminal mischief charges. A Multnomah County jury deliberated for just 30 minutes Thursday after a two-day trial before acquitting the four grandmothers and one grandfather of criminal mischief with the intent to substantially inconvenience the U.S. government.

The defendants, all in their 60s and 70s, are part of a local protest movement called the Seriously Pissed Off Grannies.

A couple of observations:

1 .) What a fucking idiot of a a prosecutor this ' Deputy District Attorney Seth Steward' is for attempting to paint these 'Seriously Pissed Off Grannies' as analogous with suicide bombers.

2.) Which may very be why some of the jurors reportedly thought the trial and all was "waste of time & public resources" taking 30 minutes to come up with the verdict - 28 of those 30 minutes spent discussing the asinineness of the prosecutor.

Early whorage ...

Since I'll be on an autobahn somewhere between Frankfurt and the French border tomorrow morning, I figured I'd post my weekly chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta at The Practical Press today.

And I just wanted to add this I saw while cruising Blogtopia (y!sctp!) earlier. For all you folks who think Huckabee has the market cornered on 'moral values'.

"If not for Mike Huckabee, Wayne Dumond would've been in prison, and Carol Sue would've been with us this year for Christmas."

There is not one moral bone in Huckabee's body.