...
While ordinary Americans responded to the [September 11th] attack by helping complete strangers find their friends and loved ones, standing in line for hours to give blood, and bringing food and water to rescue workers, our leaders met in the citadels of power, assessed the situation, and made the cool, calculated decision to panic.
...
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Quote of the Day
Scott:
Fugue state ...
Vanessa Mae and the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra play Bach's Toccata & Fugue:
Vanessa Mae - Toccata & Fugue
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday Italian Celtic Fingerpicking Blogging
I never heard of this guy before today. I watched several of his videos and now I'm a fan.
Also, there's probably about twelve songs that came over with early Scots/Irish settlers that have come up through history to have had a major influence on the Old Time String Band, Folk, and Bluegrass music genres. I think this is one of them.
Also, there's probably about twelve songs that came over with early Scots/Irish settlers that have come up through history to have had a major influence on the Old Time String Band, Folk, and Bluegrass music genres. I think this is one of them.
Franco Morone - Flowers Of Edinburgh
Thanks to progressivo2, Portugal.
Posse comitatus ...
Don't even get me started.
Update:
Heh ... Nucks:
Update Zwei:
Res Ipsa:
Links aplenty over there.
Update:
Heh ... Nucks:
... John Yoo must have been busy polishing [Cheney's] knob that day ...
Update Zwei:
Res Ipsa:
...
Dear Boalt Hall:
When are you going to revoke John Yoo's tenure? Aren't you ashamed to have him on your faculty? Surely there are some deserving wine law professors out there to whom you can award his coveted slot? Maybe they could discuss the finer points of the limits of presidential power over pinot grigio on your sunny deck? Finally, why isn't today's NYT story isn't on your Faculty in the News page?
...
Links aplenty over there.
Bush Weighed Using Military in Arrests
Fresh from the Friday Document Dump, this gem from The NYTimes. Links at site:
Add that to the short list of things he did right. I still have enough fingers left on that hand to pick my nose, and a whole 'nother hand to scratch my ass.
The Mayberry Mafia's consiglieri. The usual suspects.
That's a little surprising.
Yeah, the risk of getting caught putting the Constitution in the shredder again. Bastards.
Please read the rest. Grrrr...
Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials.
Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force.
Add that to the short list of things he did right. I still have enough fingers left on that hand to pick my nose, and a whole 'nother hand to scratch my ass.
“The president has ample constitutional and statutory authority to deploy the military against international or foreign terrorists operating within the United States,” the memorandum said.
The memorandum — written by the lawyers John C. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty — was directed to Alberto R. Gonzales, then the White House counsel, who had asked the department about a president’s authority to use the military to combat terrorist activities in the United States.
Still, at least one high-level meeting was convened to debate the issue, at which several top Bush aides argued firmly against the proposal to use the military, advanced by Mr. Cheney, his legal adviser David S. Addington and some senior Defense Department officials.
The Mayberry Mafia's consiglieri. The usual suspects.
Among those in opposition were Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser; John B. Bellinger III, the top lawyer at the National Security Council; Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Michael Chertoff, then the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.
That's a little surprising.
“Frankly, it was a bit of a turf war,” said one former senior administration official. “For a number of people, crossing the line of having intelligence or military activities inside the United States was not worth the risk.”
Yeah, the risk of getting caught putting the Constitution in the shredder again. Bastards.
Please read the rest. Grrrr...
Quote of the Day
From a comment on yesterday's post on the Gates incident:
I couldn'ta said it better myself. Thanks, Shaun.
"It's not that I hate the police, exactly. It's that all the big bellied bastards that I do hate love the police." - Brendan Behan
I couldn'ta said it better myself. Thanks, Shaun.
Saturday Emmylou Blogging
Don't forget the Gulf Coast.
Emmylou Harris & Dave Matthews ~ Gulf Coast Highway
Thanks to NZpakeha, UK.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Subliminal Fixer Music Blogging
Fixer says I make some of the stranger bells in his head clang from time to time. Well, turnabout is fair play and he does it to me too. The upside is that the music drowns out the little voices. For a while.
The really disturbing part is that there's about 9660 of these on YouTube.
The really disturbing part is that there's about 9660 of these on YouTube.
Thanks to KakashiHatake55, Okie City(!).
The Henry Gates Incident
Dave Lindorff comes about as close to what really happened there as I've seen:
Mr. Lindorff goes on to say that we have devolved into a 'police state' where the cops have unfettered power to do with you what they will. I don't go quite that far, although it's true to some extent.
The police are the average citizen's 'point of contact' with government. The cops are at the sharp end of the establishment, ostensibly to protect society from criminals. Prevent crime? Hardly. React to crimes already committed is about the best they can do, given that this is not really a police state where they can pre-emptively bust you before you can commit a crime, although Bush tried to change that.
One definition of government is 'those who have a monopoly on violence'. That's how governments stay in power in the final analysis. The cops have the power of life and death over you, a power that is said to be granted by 'the people', but really granted by 'the state'. If you as 'the people' wish to rescind that power from them on your own out on the street, you had better be prepared with a lot of armed people ready to do serious violence. Most people won't and the cops know this. The cops have one basic motto: "Win or Die", and they are trained and armed and usually have reinforcements on call, particularly in large urban areas, and they will come down on any kind of uprising with all the force they can muster, and it's a lot.
After all, their basic job is to protect the political status quo, basically powerful rich white people, from the great unwashed, which is everybody else, and they have a lot of leeway in how they can do it, although, all things considered and thanks to the Constitution, they're pretty restrained in what they can do in most cases.
If a cop decides you need a little fuckin' with, they're more than happy to oblige. That's what I think happened with Mr. Gates. He was tired and cranky from his flight from China, frustrated by not being able to get into his house, and then the cops showed up on a tip from his neighbors, for God's sake, to put the fucking icing on the cake. That his neighbors didn't recognize him says more about that neighborhood than I want to go into here. I'm glad I don't live there. I recognize my neighbors for a block around even if I don't know them personally.
Gates lipped off to the cop, and from accounts went too far and brought the cop's mother into the conversation. He's lucky he didn't get his lights punched out, but the cop knew better than to do that. The cop decided to teach him a lesson and arrested him for 'disorderly conduct', but the real offense, which isn't in the penal code, was POPO - Pissin' Off a Police Officer. This happens all the time.
This wasn't about race. It was about Gates being a temporary asshole to the wrong cop. It cost him forty bucks in bail and the spurious charges were dropped. If he wasn't a prominent figure, the media wouldn't have turned it into yet another circus and the whole deal would be over with no harm done other than to Gates' pride.
Here's a little personal story about how the cops can fuck with you and be entirely within their rights to do so.
In my drinking days I used to get arrested all the time. Sober up in jail, walk a mile home, go to court, pay a fine. One time, I lipped off to the booking cop waaaay too much and she just said, "That's it! I've had enough abuse. You just earned a trip to the county jail.", and off to county I did go. She probably wouldn't have done that, but it was just my bad luck that there was a jail transport Suburban there at the time to haul some burglar or meth dealer away, so she could and did.
Our county jail, aka "Wayne's World", is 65 miles away, 25 miles on a rural Interstate, up and over and down from Donner Summit, and 40 miles down a state highway with nothing on it, no towns, no people. They just put me in a holding cell, let me sober up, and let me out at about 11PM. All they said was, "Turn left. See ya."
There's not much traffic on that state highway late at night. I waited a while for a car to come and stuck out my thumb and the guy, a local who knew what lay ahead, gave me a ride. Nice guy. His rig was an old Jap Jeep and when he wanted to see how fast he was going, he turned on his flashlight to check the speedo. Heh.
He took me halfway up the forty mile stretch to the Interstate, to the turnoff to the town he lived in. He said he felt bad about leaving me out there with the bears in the middle of nowhere in the dark. I thanked him for getting me that far.
So there I was, exactly halfway between nothing and nowhere on a road with no traffic. None. Zip-point-zilch. Did I mention it was dark? Did I mention it was starting to snow and all I was wearing was a flannel shirt? (Yes, I had on pants and shoes.)
I waited like what seemed forever for another car to stick my thumb out at. I could see the glow of its headlights for miles! It was a CalTrans pickup. The guy wasn't supposed to pick up hitchhikers, of course, but he wasn't about to leave another human being stuck out there, and gave me a ride to I-80. Thank you, sir.
Two cars total, two rides. So far, so good.
Now I was at about 6500' elevation and it was snowing. I-80 had lights, so I went and stood under one of them. Lotsa traffic. Trouble was, it was all big rigs gaining speed on a downhill run for an uphill run ahead, and they weren't about to stop.
Finally a car stopped for me and gave me a ride to town and I walked the rest of the way home and got home to a pretty icy reception from Mrs. G, as might be expected. Took me about 3 hours from the jailhouse door to mine, not too bad, considering.
Lesson learned: Don't mouth off to cops.
But whatever the real story is regarding the showing of identification information by Gates and the officer, police misconduct in this incident went further. Gates reportedly got understandably angry and frustrated at the officer for refusing to provide him with this identifying information and/or for refusing to accept his own identification documents, and at that point, the officer abused his power by arresting Gates and charging him with disorderly conduct.
There's nothing unusual about this, sadly. It is common practice for police in America to abuse their authority and to arrest people on a charge of "disorderly conduct" when those people simply exercise their free speech rights and object strenuously to how they are being treated by an officer. Try it out sometime. If you are given a ticket for going five miles an hour over the posted speed limit, tell the traffic officer he or she is a stupid moron, and see if you are left alone. My bet is that you will find yourself either ticketed on another more serious charge, or even arrested for "disorderly conduct." If you happen to be black or some other race than white, I'll even put money on that bet. (If you're stupid enough to go out and test this hypothesis, please don't expect me to post your bail!)
Mr. Lindorff goes on to say that we have devolved into a 'police state' where the cops have unfettered power to do with you what they will. I don't go quite that far, although it's true to some extent.
The police are the average citizen's 'point of contact' with government. The cops are at the sharp end of the establishment, ostensibly to protect society from criminals. Prevent crime? Hardly. React to crimes already committed is about the best they can do, given that this is not really a police state where they can pre-emptively bust you before you can commit a crime, although Bush tried to change that.
One definition of government is 'those who have a monopoly on violence'. That's how governments stay in power in the final analysis. The cops have the power of life and death over you, a power that is said to be granted by 'the people', but really granted by 'the state'. If you as 'the people' wish to rescind that power from them on your own out on the street, you had better be prepared with a lot of armed people ready to do serious violence. Most people won't and the cops know this. The cops have one basic motto: "Win or Die", and they are trained and armed and usually have reinforcements on call, particularly in large urban areas, and they will come down on any kind of uprising with all the force they can muster, and it's a lot.
After all, their basic job is to protect the political status quo, basically powerful rich white people, from the great unwashed, which is everybody else, and they have a lot of leeway in how they can do it, although, all things considered and thanks to the Constitution, they're pretty restrained in what they can do in most cases.
If a cop decides you need a little fuckin' with, they're more than happy to oblige. That's what I think happened with Mr. Gates. He was tired and cranky from his flight from China, frustrated by not being able to get into his house, and then the cops showed up on a tip from his neighbors, for God's sake, to put the fucking icing on the cake. That his neighbors didn't recognize him says more about that neighborhood than I want to go into here. I'm glad I don't live there. I recognize my neighbors for a block around even if I don't know them personally.
Gates lipped off to the cop, and from accounts went too far and brought the cop's mother into the conversation. He's lucky he didn't get his lights punched out, but the cop knew better than to do that. The cop decided to teach him a lesson and arrested him for 'disorderly conduct', but the real offense, which isn't in the penal code, was POPO - Pissin' Off a Police Officer. This happens all the time.
This wasn't about race. It was about Gates being a temporary asshole to the wrong cop. It cost him forty bucks in bail and the spurious charges were dropped. If he wasn't a prominent figure, the media wouldn't have turned it into yet another circus and the whole deal would be over with no harm done other than to Gates' pride.
Here's a little personal story about how the cops can fuck with you and be entirely within their rights to do so.
In my drinking days I used to get arrested all the time. Sober up in jail, walk a mile home, go to court, pay a fine. One time, I lipped off to the booking cop waaaay too much and she just said, "That's it! I've had enough abuse. You just earned a trip to the county jail.", and off to county I did go. She probably wouldn't have done that, but it was just my bad luck that there was a jail transport Suburban there at the time to haul some burglar or meth dealer away, so she could and did.
Our county jail, aka "Wayne's World", is 65 miles away, 25 miles on a rural Interstate, up and over and down from Donner Summit, and 40 miles down a state highway with nothing on it, no towns, no people. They just put me in a holding cell, let me sober up, and let me out at about 11PM. All they said was, "Turn left. See ya."
There's not much traffic on that state highway late at night. I waited a while for a car to come and stuck out my thumb and the guy, a local who knew what lay ahead, gave me a ride. Nice guy. His rig was an old Jap Jeep and when he wanted to see how fast he was going, he turned on his flashlight to check the speedo. Heh.
He took me halfway up the forty mile stretch to the Interstate, to the turnoff to the town he lived in. He said he felt bad about leaving me out there with the bears in the middle of nowhere in the dark. I thanked him for getting me that far.
So there I was, exactly halfway between nothing and nowhere on a road with no traffic. None. Zip-point-zilch. Did I mention it was dark? Did I mention it was starting to snow and all I was wearing was a flannel shirt? (Yes, I had on pants and shoes.)
I waited like what seemed forever for another car to stick my thumb out at. I could see the glow of its headlights for miles! It was a CalTrans pickup. The guy wasn't supposed to pick up hitchhikers, of course, but he wasn't about to leave another human being stuck out there, and gave me a ride to I-80. Thank you, sir.
Two cars total, two rides. So far, so good.
Now I was at about 6500' elevation and it was snowing. I-80 had lights, so I went and stood under one of them. Lotsa traffic. Trouble was, it was all big rigs gaining speed on a downhill run for an uphill run ahead, and they weren't about to stop.
Finally a car stopped for me and gave me a ride to town and I walked the rest of the way home and got home to a pretty icy reception from Mrs. G, as might be expected. Took me about 3 hours from the jailhouse door to mine, not too bad, considering.
Lesson learned: Don't mouth off to cops.
Hot Mama
Click to embiggen
That's our pal Lisa of Ranger Against War. She hit the big time. Click the link. Trust me.
Remember, don't sweat the petty stuff. Pet the sweaty stuff.
Trusted ...
Offered without comment:
...
Jon Stewart - 44%
Brian Williams - 29%
Charles Gibson - 19%
Katie Couric - 7%
...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Quote of the Day
Oliver Willis:
Harry Reid is a joke. A laughable, sick joke that is allowing Americans to have a substandard way of life.
...
We knew that...
...but it's good that one of 'em slipped up and said it out loud. Raw Story, with video:
It's probably more like 99 and 44/100ths%. Fuck health care for Americans that doesn't make the health 'insurance' industry richer, more money for less value, and don't forget to re-elect us, you fucking morons, for wanting this President and this country to fail.
Half the Republicans' opposition to a public health care option comes not from policy differences with the Democrats, or fundamental philosophical differences about the role of government, but purely from a desire to score political points against President Barack Obama, a senior Republican senator has admitted.
George Voinovich (R-OH) said on CNBC Wednesday that a desire to prevent the Democratic president from scoring a historical victory with a public health plan accounts for at least 50 percent of the GOP opposition to the plan.
It's probably more like 99 and 44/100ths%. Fuck health care for Americans that doesn't make the health 'insurance' industry richer, more money for less value, and don't forget to re-elect us, you fucking morons, for wanting this President and this country to fail.
What is a Proud Liberal?
Sometimes I need to remind myself. From A Proud Liberal.
The post starts off with this verse from a song about 'the troubles' in Ulster and people teaching their children to hate:
I'll go 'em one better. Here's the whole deal:
The post talks about how we've been labelled by the never-right and quotes John Kennedy:
Fuckin' A!
I still BELIEVE.
The post starts off with this verse from a song about 'the troubles' in Ulster and people teaching their children to hate:
I was a child in the sixties
When dreams could be held through TV
We had Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin Luther
And, I believed, I believed . . . I BELIEVED
...
It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go
Words & Music by Nanci Griffith
I'll go 'em one better. Here's the whole deal:
Recorded at Celtic Connections 2009 - Glasgow, Scotlland
Nanci Griffith ~ It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go
Thanks to tomtscotland, Glasgow.
The post talks about how we've been labelled by the never-right and quotes John Kennedy:
What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label, “Liberal”? If by “Liberal” they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of “Liberal.” But, if by a “Liberal,” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I'm proud to say that I'm a “Liberal.”
Fuckin' A!
I still BELIEVE.
I'm so surprised ...
Not:
Dudes, if yer gonna preach to everyone else ... Ah, never mind. Were it not for hypocrisy, the Conservatives would have absolutely nothing at all.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An alleged extortion attempt has exposed a possible sexual relationship between a prominent state senator and a young legislative intern.
That senator is Republican Paul Stanley from Memphis, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
...
Dudes, if yer gonna preach to everyone else ... Ah, never mind. Were it not for hypocrisy, the Conservatives would have absolutely nothing at all.
Great thanks to our pal Maru for the link.
Representative voice ...
POP speaks for 3/4 of the American people:
Now, if you can only convince the "Dead End Quarter"*, darlin'.
I really do care about the healthcare reform bill that is floating around in Congress, and here comes the but, but I am so very tired of hearing Republicans and especially blue dog Democrats telling us how harmful and dangerous it’s going to be. Ninety nine percent of what they are saying is lie after lie and we know they know it. To take something this important and put political motives ahead of common sense is disgraceful.
...
Now, if you can only convince the "Dead End Quarter"*, darlin'.
*The 20% - 30% of Americans who blindly follow the Republican/Conservative line until it either breaks them or kills them.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
More Subliminal Gordon Music Blogging ...
As I've said in the past, Gord gets my mind working, albeit quite unintentionally when it comes to music. As we've both said, our musical interests are very divergent, only overlapping when it comes to Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt. The old man's last post got me thinkin' about old Cadillacs (coincidence, since I had an old Caddy in the shop with an electrical casualty today), and this song came to mind.
Yes, the 'cause' and 'effect' are quite divergent, but I make no excuses for the way my mind works. Enjoy.
Steely Dan - Daddy Don't Live In NYC No More
Yes, the 'cause' and 'effect' are quite divergent, but I make no excuses for the way my mind works. Enjoy.
Geronimo's Cadillac
One of my favorite songs of social conscience.
Mary McCaslin and Dave Stamey
Stacked Stone Winery July 19, 2009
Paso Robles, CA
Mary McCaslin w/ Dave Stamey - Geronimo's Cadillac
Thanks to garrufat.
The evolution of hate mail
Morford starts off talking about Burma Shave signs of yore ("Frank lit a match/ to check his tank/ and now/ they call him/ Skinless Frank/ Burma Shave"):
Geez, and I thought it was exciting making braided keychains and ashtrays at camp...
Then he goes on to a reaction from a group protesting one series of signs that they felt disrespected porcupines (I kid you not!):
Hmmmm. A slight librul bias perhaps? Well, of course! Liberal hate-mail writers use complete sentences, aka 'thoughts', and punctuate well.
Please read the rest.
(The closest modern equivalent? Burning Man, with similar sequential signs along the entrance road as you drive in -- though of course BM's signs tend to be far less about male grooming and far more about, you know, god and drugs and sex and love and enlightenment and sex and Rumi and Shiva, and no one ever really shaves at Burning Man, unless you're visiting Genital Grooming Camp. But never mind that now).
Geez, and I thought it was exciting making braided keychains and ashtrays at camp...
Then he goes on to a reaction from a group protesting one series of signs that they felt disrespected porcupines (I kid you not!):
Oh were they upset, absolutely incensed that the company dared to disparage their fine totem animal and demanding the company take down the signs immediately, and the slogan writers should be ashamed of themselves and banned and then also shot and beaten with the butts of Beretta handguns and kicked in the face because they are what's wrong with this country and they will surely burn in Sodom-sucking hell forevermore you commie homo lefty pervert pinko jackass fa--ot.
In a way, it was heartening and fascinating to be reminded that hate mail is not exactly new, to ponder just how far back it goes (Cro-Magnon caves, I imagine, to the first disparaging grunt in response to a nice wall sketch of a bison), how deep into the archives of media history you can dig and find some sample of someone somewhere writing a letter to someone else telling them they loathe and disrespect everything they say and represent on this planet, and if said person ceased to exist or was somehow run over by a large tractor-like apparatus, the semi-articulate letter writer in question would positively cream in his Wranglers and shoot a shotgun into a pod of dolphins with joy, and call it America.
Hmmmm. A slight librul bias perhaps? Well, of course! Liberal hate-mail writers use complete sentences, aka 'thoughts', and punctuate well.
Please read the rest.
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