Donuts in the Snow*

*Sounds like something you'd do on a motorcycle after telling the assembled throng "Watch This!"

Dave Barry from NH. Do not miss this one!

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- And so the eyeballs of the world turn to New Hampshire, a tiny, flinty, gritty, Dunkin' Donuts-intensive state located mostly inside the Arctic Circle. On Tuesday, the voters here will troop to the polls, where -- as they have done every four years since 1952 -- they will turn around and troop back home, because the polls, like virtually everything else here, are under 23 feet of snow.

But a few people, the truly flinty ones, will manage to actually vote, and they will determine the course of this presidential race -- and, yes, America's future -- for approximately two news cycles. Then the eyeballs of the world will turn to either North or South Carolina (nobody is sure which) and the people of New Hampshire will go back to their traditional flinty New England lifestyle of sitting around eating doughnuts and waiting for the August thaw.

I like Dave Barry, but what strikes me as particularly funny, besides his political acumen later in his piece, is that he lives in Florida and actually thinks there's a lot of snow in New Hampshire!

I've been watching all the talking heads standing out of doors while they broadcast from up there. I got more snow in my shoes and I'm in sunny California!

The DC Disconnect

Eugene Robindon

The word "change" had great resonance in the Iowa campaign. In part, the yearning for change arose because George W. Bush has led the nation down so many dead-end paths. But from the conversations I had with Iowans, it seemed clear to me that change is also shorthand for the disconnect between the Washington state of mind and the widespread expectation, hardly unreasonable, that this city ought to actually get something done every once in a while.

Whether it gets done after a bare-knuckle brawl or a chorus of "Kumbaya" really doesn't matter.

My singing has been ruled in violation of the Geneva Convention, so I must opt for the former. Hint: bare knuckles wrapped around a wrist pin works good. I used to use a roll of quarters but it took too much time to round up all the loose change afterwards.

Who knew ...

George McGovern was still alive? And he's pissed too:

...

After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.

Today I have made a different choice.

...

Indeed. Good reading from the former Presidential candidate.

...

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

...

Easy, George, just leave it in the hands of the Republicans.

Great thanks to Scout Prime for the link.

Quote of the Day

Our pal Creature:

... Hillary, we get it, 35 years of change. Jeez, let up. You will never be the agent of change ...

But this is the problem I have with Hil. Like Edwards said, she's beholden to the pharmaceuticals and other big business interests. She's 'business as usual'. As far as I'm concerned, Edwards - Obama (in any order) would be the best scenario, though the fact Obama is so close to god creeps me out.

Don'tcha just wish ...

O'Reilly would have grabbed someone (an ex-Marine for instance) who'da just turned and put him on his ass? Woulda loved to see Billo do a Britney Spears impression and have to be taken out on a stretcher. Both of 'em should share a padded room.

OK

The other way around is OK too.

Saturday whorage

Back on schedule, another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

If ya got anything, leave a link in comments.

GFY*, RIAA

A follow-up to my previous post:



*Go Fuck Yourselves. We're tired of you trying to fuck us.

Car runs on compressed air

Raw Story, with video.

BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.

This is the second time in two days that Tata Motors has come to my attention. The first is here. There's something goin' on with that outfit, and it may be good...at the very least, when you toodle off in this little jet, you can wave at your friends and say "Tata, Ducks".

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

I think we can get the price of a fill-up even lower than that if we can harness the waste of good air between the ears of wingnut pundits and politicians, just gotta filter out the poisonous contaminants. Might run the heater as well.

I see no reason this won't work. I've got a toolbox full of air-powered tools that work just fine. There's nothing electrical to burn out, no sparks or volatile fuel to catch fire, no carbon and other by-products of combustion to foul the air or contaminate the motor oil, and the exhaust is just air.

There's no single, all-purpose answer to oil dependence, climate change, and greenhouse gas emissions, but the air-powered car sounds like it could be a good part of the solution.

What really has to happen is awareness and a change of habit, mindset, and lifestyle for all of us. For instance, in my case, to offset the devastating whirring of an air-powered device I think I'll hook up a real-time fast-reaction digital loop of an open pipe 40-inch Triumph to the accelerator (air pedal?)...the neighbors'll love it!

And when folks ask "Whatcha drivin'?", you can say "Blow job. Tata..."

"I reached my personal vomit point ..."

David Sirota with today's 'must read' on the Iowa caucuses and beyond:

Putting aside my nausea, let me just say that no matter who wins, it is absolutely great that economic populism has taken center stage so far in the presidential contest. Thanks to candidates like John Edwards and Mike Huckabee ignoring the Punditburo's attacks and trumpeting the populist line, Wall Street-backed candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had to resort to posing as populists as well - and that's a good thing. The more candidates channeling the public's righteous anger at corporate greed and economic inequality, the better.

We are at a historic moment right now - and I say that not in the way the Monday Night Football-mimicking political media bills every single election as "the most important election in our lifetime." I say it because I believe America is, for the first time in many generations, starting to think in terms of economic class. Put another way, the battle between Democrats and Republicans is being superseded by the battle between The Money Party and The People Party. How this new class awareness manifests itself in one election cycle is far less important than the fact that awareness is rising at all.

This, beyond everything else, is the storyline that will never be written by the Beltway media - because class awareness among the masses is something that threatens the powers that be. The system in Washington is set up to crush class awareness and solidarity among the masses - to break us up along racial, ethnic, geographic and religious lines so that we do not unify in support of an economic agenda based on fairness and equality. This Washington system exists, ironically, to preserve a well-coordinated class war being waged by an economic class very aware of itself - a class war by the wealthy against the rest of us. This may sound like hyperbole, but polls show most Americans know this is the undeniable truth. And no matter whether your personal preference wins or loses tonight in Iowa, We The People have already won, because class awareness and class-based politics is on the rise.

Perhaps the first step in getting the politico-corporate foot off our necks.

Politician, actor, whatever - no good at any of 'em

Tony Peyser

Fred Thompson did better than expected in Iowa but may have a tough time resuming his acting career. It's rumored that he recently auditioned for a TV role and didn't even get a call-back as the guy who gets murdered before the opening "Law and Order" credits.

I hope Thompson doesn't become a waiter in between acting gigs. Folks would lose their appetites. All over the tablecloth.

"...this effete, cowardly warmonger..."

A post by Walter C. Uhler and his letter to The Gray Lady on its stupefying decision to hire the neocon Kristol:

The final straw for me, however, was the December 30, 2007 decision by the Times to hire William Kristol (editor of the Weekly Standard) as a columnist. Although the Times calls Kristol a conservative, he is, in fact, a notorious neoconservative - a member of a political cult that many traditional conservatives disavow. Readers who noticed this Orwellian elision by the Times might also recall that in January 1998, Kristol (and Robert Kagan) wrote an Op Ed titled, "Bombing Iraq isn't Enough," which the Times was reckless enough to publish.

Reckless? Yes, because, as Robert Parry has observed: "Under principles of international law applied from Nuremberg to Rwanda, propagandists who contribute to war crimes or encourage crimes against humanity can be put in the dock alongside the actual killers." [Consortium News, Posted August 21, 2006] Simply recall that, under international law, the unprovoked invasion of another sovereign state is considered the most egregious of war crimes.

Having cancelled my subscription, I then sent the following email to the Times' Executive Editor and the VP for Circulation:

"I canceled my subscription to the New York Times -- with prejudice -- a few minutes ago. I've terminated my decades-long subscription because somebody at the Times made the immoral decision to hire William Kristol -- as close to a war criminal as a so-called "journalist" can become. You see, I can have nothing further to do with such a morally tainted newspaper. It's a matter of principle.

You might use this moment to reflect on how the reporting by Judith Miller (AKA stenography for Perle and Chalabi) and your editorial decision to delay reporting on Bush's illegal wiretaps contributed to America's poor moral standing around the world. Now, with the hiring of effete coward and warmonger Kristol, who (possessing any morals at all) can consider the Times to be anything but a whore?

I will use my website to inform my thousands of readers about your immoral decision and I will exhort them to cancel their subscriptions as well.

Sincerely,
Walter C. Uhler

And we will similarly report it to our dozens of valued readers, Walt.

After all, simply consider that, ten years after the end of World War II, the editor of Das Schwarze Korps, Nazi SS leader Gunter d'Alquen, was fined 60,000 Deutsch Marks, "deprived of all civic rights for three years and debarred from drawing an allowance or pension from public funds. He was found guilty of having played an important role in the Third Reich, of war propaganda, inciting against the churches, the Jews and foreign countries, and incitement to murder." [Wikipedia, see also Saul Friedlander, Nazi German and the Jews, Volume I, pp. 311-313]

Think about it: If you do something similarly egregious in Bush's Amerika, you get your own column at the New York Times.

I think the "newspaper of record" is fast on it its way to becoming most useful as "newspaper of puppy training". No harm in that until the pup learns to read.

The flip side, of course, is Paul Krugman and "Pops" Rich, both of whom I admire, and MoDo, for whom 'admire' is not exactly the right word. Heh. I wonder if any of them will comment on Kristol's hire.

Why?oming caucuses

Yahoo!News

Don't forget Wyoming. It's been overlooked in the hoopla surrounding Thursday's Iowa caucuses and next week's New Hampshire primary, but Wyoming Republicans will caucus Saturday and choose delegates to the national convention in September.

Candidates have paid little attention to the state, though.

If the upswing of participants in the Iowa caucus is any indication, Wyoming may need to use a four-door pickup to accomodate them all!

All for a buck ...

Ol' Montag snagged this:

...

Six months ago, the Bush administration quietly eased some restrictions on the export of politically delicate technologies to China. The new approach was intended to help American companies increase sales of high-tech equipment to China despite tight curbs on sharing technology that might have military applications.

But today the administration is facing questions from weapons experts about whether some equipment — newly authorized for export to Chinese companies deemed trustworthy by Washington — could instead end up helping China modernize its military. Equally worrisome, the weapons experts say, is the possibility that China could share the technology with Iran or Syria.

...

Neither the Bush administration nor the Republican Party give a shit about your safety or 'American interests'. The only thing they think about is making money at our expense. It's time to cull the herd on K Street by about three quarters.

Time to do a lotta shit. Hopefully, one of these twits running will, but I think their hands are too far in the till already. I wish I could support one of them but I can only see the Dems as the lesser of two evils. So long as the big money is part of the system, the public's interest is the first to get sold out.

Iowa ...

Thank god it's over. Sorry to see Chris Dodd go, but he's being realistic. Glad to see Joe Biden go. Can't wait to see the Rethugs start dropping off. One good sign:

Hillary came in 3rd, but she still got almost twice as many votes as Huckabee

Let's hope that trend holds up in the general election. Regardless of who the Dem is, I hope they win it going away instead of winning with a 'Bush mandate'.

Huckabee: Typical Union-Busting Repug

Click to embiggen

From Ornery Bastard:

Before former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee appeared yesterday on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, officials from the Writers Guild of America contacted his staff to “clear up any ‘confusion’” by making “it crystal clear that he was indeed crossing a picket line.” The Machinists (IAM) union, which has endorsed Huckabee, also implored him not to cross the picket line, saying “he risks losing the support his jobs and economic policies have won for him among trade unionists.”
My bold.
Article from Think Progress

That does it for me.
Mr. Huckabee has crossed a line that can't be uncrossed.

I would like for everyone that reads this to spread this message;
Mike Huckabee is a Scab.
Scabs do not belong in the Whitehouse.

Why, Nucks, how can you say such a thing about a candidate who has been personally chosen by Gawd?

Did we expect anything else from a Repug? They would much rather outlaw unions. Then they wouldn't have to outsource the good jobs. They could pay third-world wages right here at home and really clean up without all the trouble.

Why the Blogosphere Went for Edwards

A pretty fair summation of Edwards' rise by BooMan:

I'm sitting here listening to a speech Barack Obama made yesterday in Coralville, Iowa. He's saying all the right things. Here's an example (paraphrased): 'If you have been steeped in the common wisdom of Washington DC that says it is a good idea to invade Iraq, you can't be the best person going forward to question and change our foreign policy.' And that is exactly right. That explains so clearly what it means to have been in the fight on the side of the blogosphere versus what it means to have been on the sidelines within the consultancies of the Capitol. But Obama hasn't really embraced us. He's gone his own way. And that explains why, in the end, the blogosphere broke heavily for John Edwards.

No, I don't mean people turned their back on Obama because he didn't pay the proper respect to the blogosphere. That isn't what happened. Obama didn't embrace our way of doing things. Worse, he began to use rhetoric we had spent energy to debunk. He went even further. He tossed aside one of our central insights...an insight won through hard experience: we cannot compromise with the Republican Party...we must smash them (my em).

Perhaps because his wife is such an avid reader of blogs, Edwards' campaign tapped right into our zeitgeist. He came out with our insight front and center. You want Edwards' message? Here it is: 'Fuck David Broder, fuck Joe Klein, fuck Chris Matthews, fuck FOX News, fuck Tim Russert, fuck Mitch McConnell, fuck Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Defense. We don't need them. They won't negotiate in good faith. They're stacking the deck against us. And we can beat them by telling the truth and getting organized.' That's Edwards' message, and that is the message we have internalized both through our successes and our failures.

What's funny is that Obama is saying many of the same things, in his own way. The policy differences between Edwards and Obama are minimal. But Obama's tone deaf to the blogosphere. And, as a result, the blogosphere didn't trust him.

In any case, this is the best I can do to express why the blogosphere went for Edwards. None of the candidates were going far enough on policy, but at least Edwards was representing our fighting natures. And that, in the end, was decisive.

Pretty close, I think.

Groaner of the day

Tony Peyser

A Pennsylvania Roman Catholic priest has been charged with lying about mob ties to a casino owner. It's a done deal that a mobster's testimony in the trial will at some point include this line: "Forgive me, father, for I have skimmed."

Grooooan...

Points ...

Edwards scored a few:

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — John Edwards says that if elected president he would withdraw the American troops who are training the Iraqi army and police as part of a broader plan to remove virtually all American forces within 10 months.

...

Be nice to hear some of the others say that. I know Richardson has said something similar but it'd be nice if we hear it from Hillary and Obama. Or at least something so unequivocal.

This is what chaps me about those two. I don't like wishy-washy. Have they ever been pinned down on anything? Take a position and stand on it. If facts change, causing you to rethink it, say so and move on. I'd respect them more. Being able to change one's mind in light of new information is a sign of wisdom, not weakness. It's what so pisses me off about the Dems.

The moron we have now never changed his mind about anything and look where that got us.

Quote of the Day

Our pal Lambert:

When I want Republicans involved in making policy...

I’ll vote Republican.

...

Consequences ...

Not only are the people who made bad financial choices being affected by the 'subprime' mess (it's much bigger than that and threatens to get bigger), their pets are paying the price too. From our pal ThePoliticalCat:

...

They stuck by you through thick and thin for as long as you let them. Don't just leave them to die, people. The least you can do is pass them on to people who care.

...

Good links at the page to organizations where you can get (and give) help in placing your pet if you can't afford them any longer. Just because you can't keep them doesn't mean you have to be inhuman to them too. You wouldn't abandon your kids, would ya?

Culling the herd ...

It's the only thing I hope for from Iowa today. Hopefully, some of the candidates will see the light and pack it up. With all these candidates, it's like Dancing with the Stars without the talent.

Quote of the Day

Keith Olbermann, just now:

"We'll take a look at the field of Republican candidates in Iowa next. Don't wear your good shoes."

Heh. No, er, sh..

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

Un-fucking-believable:

Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

Blow it out yer ass, RIAA. I buy my music. I have never, ever downloaded any music illegally, and I have made maybe three CDs to give to friends who wouldn't have bought those albums anyway. You charge me $13-18 dollars for a product that cost you maybe a buck to produce, and then you try to screw everybody, from me to the artists, and then you whine because you're not wringing every last cent out of everybody involved?

Once your CD, legally purchased, is my property, I can do whatever the hell I want with it. I use my computer as another record player and I put the albums in my media player because it's easier than going to my record rack. If I make a CD to give to a friend once in a while, particularly theme mixes that are unavailable anywhere else, just suck it.

Note to RIAA: Man up and fuck off. I bought your goddam records. If you ain't gettin' as rich as you think you oughta be, that's just tough shit.

I'd love to see a full-field pile-up in the clubhouse turn...

In the midst of a piece about how the way we do elections is going to be the death of democracy is this:

Is it really true that the health of our democracy can be measured by the wide range of candidate choices we've been offered? Take this 1-minute test, and then tell me if you still believe that: http://www.dehp.net/candidate

How closely did any of the candidates come to agreeing with you? Did those who came closest fall into the category of corporate-acceptable "viability"? Why can't you find anything about this situation or any substantive reporting on candidates' positions at all? Because for some politics is a sport, and the fascination lies in the techniques and maneuvers, not in what it might mean for the world. For others, politics is a soap opera, an excuse to obsess over whether in the next episode Obama will take his shirt off or Giuliani's ex-wife's ex-husband will claim to have Hillary's child. Think I'm exaggerating? Not much.

Read the article. Take the test and check the results. They will not surprise you.

And yes, I'm stone dead from the horse race coverage too.

Poor babies ...

...

For oil companies, this hasn’t been the bonanza one would expect. Oil companies buy the oil they refine into gasoline, diesel and heating oil, meaning they suffer if the price of those products doesn’t keep up with the price of oil. And while all three products rose sharply in price this year, those increases lagged oil’s spurt.

...

You'd think they took losses or something.

...

The nation’s three largest oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, had combined profits of $50.3 billion in the first nine months of the year, a decline of 8.5 percent from a year earlier.

...

You know, I'll worry over oil company profits when they lower their prices so people aren't so strapped and only make half the profit. I'm tired of hearing the plight of Big Oil. They spend little on infrastructure (they blame their refining capacity for the seasonal fluctuations in price) and give half-billion dollar retirement bonuses. Spare me. It's time someone put the screws to these assholes.

Thanks to Chris for the link.

Kill me ...

As I sit here watching the news, trying to talk myself into going to work, I notice I'm sick of the primary coverage. The most I glean is that nobody knows anything about how they'll turn out. The thing I am waiting for (though I'll probably never see) is for one of these talking head clowns to acknowledge the fact that all the Rethug candidates are batshit crazy. That or Alzheimer's patients. Am I the only one who has no idea what McCain's talking about?

And something else for you to consider. Athenae brings up a good point by SteveB:

...

When I read that, I wondered, "What are Republicans required to do to prove their seriousness?"

For some reason, it's only Democrats who are required to fuck over their constituents to prove their seriousness. No member of the pundit class demanded, in 2000, that George W. Bush demonstrate his seriousness by taking on the oil industry. And who would dare to suggest that Huckabee needs to prove his seriousness by taking on the Christian right and advocating the teaching of evolution in public schools?

And it's Democrats who always have to "prove" that they're willing - and even eager - to use military force. Because the voters need to be reassured that a Democratic President won't be a total pacifist. No reassurance required that the next Republican President won't get us into another stupid war.

...

But then, the media would have to think war is stupid. All of them have this Hemingway-esque need to go to a war zone, probably seeing it as the fast track to the big time. If it weren't for the media flag-waving and the need for Democrats to 'prove' they have a set, we probably wouldn't be in Iraq right now.

Now I know ...

What bugs me about Obama. Atrios put it into words for me today:

In his own subtle way, running against the party - at least to the extent that its part and parcel with the Village in general - has long been Obama's message. But he's also long been good at blurring just what that meant, wink wink nudge nudge suggesting he was running to its left even as he used rhetoric which suggested he was running as David Broder's love child.

Just sayin' ...

If you're trying to get me to buy something from you or hand over my life savings via email, you might want to send your email in a language I can read. Spanish, Turkish, French, and African nomad dialects, all the same to me, Greek. Cyrillic and Chinese (Japanese, Korean, or any other minor Asian language) pictographs ain't cuttin' it either. Sorry. If yer gonna clog up my inbox, increase your chances of me reading your drivel before I delete it by putting it in English. Better yet, don't send it at all. Thank you.

Smart people ...

The Krauts, like the rest of Europe understand that TV is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator:

MUNICH (Hollywood Reporter) - For the first time in recent memory, Germans spent less time in front of their TVs in 2007 than they did the year before, according to a new survey.

...

Online entertainment consumption in Germany has long lagged that in the U.S. and U.K. But the fact that the major broadcasters also lost ground to smaller channels might signal the beginnings of dissatisfaction with big-time television programming in general.

Just anecdotally, after staying with my family in Germany for a couple weeks, they get more from their computers than the TV set. Chris in Paris relates too:

... Even with TV being included with my internet/phone service (€30/month for everything including unlimited land line calls around the world), we just stopped watching. We know others who have done the same because they too became fed up with the rubbish on offer ...

There's just too much formulaic crap on TV. I lost interest when we got 'realty' for just about every profession under the sun. Thankfully, being early risers precludes us from seeing most of the prime time programming. When you're up at 4 in the morning, you ain't watching shit on after 8 all the way through and I don't love TV enough to spring for TiVo. Thank God for the Beeb.

Thank you ...

We've been nominated for other awards before, but this one I treasure because we were nominated by our fellow bloggers. We didn't win (congrats to those who were also nominated, a good number of them friends, and to the winner Driftglass, who most certainly deserves it), but it's nice to know our compatriots think so highly of us (it'd have been nice if they spelled our name correctly, but who's bitching? They got the URL right).

Thanks again and Happy New Year.

"No Fite - Just Rubs"

My precise wishes for the New Year:


From I Can Has Cheezburger

Peace above all and all the best in 2008.

JG.

Quote of the Year

Has to go to the poster boy for retroactive abortions. Jonah Goldberg himself in his new book, Liberal Fascisim: Though I wouldn't know a Fascist if he bit me on the ass:

"Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams write in The Pink Swastika that 'the National Socialist revolution and the Nazi party were animated and dominated by militaristic homosexuals, pederasts, pornographers, and sadomasochists.'

Have you looked at the Republican Party lately, you load?

So tell me ...

Now that 2007 is slithering out under the door, where was all this good shit the Democratic Congress we busted our butts to get elected was supposed to do for us? There are still a hundred thousand some odd troops in Iraq and the Chimp is getting everything he wants ... except recess appointments. Good job, guys.

Hope 2008 is better but I doubt it. I'll betcha Huckabee gets elected President.

The Mrs. and I are getting all hedonistic like we do every New Year. If I post some incoherency later, you'll know why.

All the best in the New Year to our readers, commenters, and staff. Be safe, be happy, and celebrate. Don't waste your time making resolutions. Don't do anything I'd do. Trust me ...

FYI

I just got this info from Mrs. G via e-mail.

If you go to Google and type in a phone number, it will identify the folks at that number, give you their address, and offer a map to the address.

It's a nationwide reverse telephone directory. Be careful who you and your children give your phone number to.

I now have maps to all your homes. What time's dinner?

899

Think Progress

The number of American soldiers who died in Iraq during 2007. Despite a dramatic drop in violence during the latter part of the year, 2007 was still “the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion.”

All for nothing. If there is a kind and benevolent God, I hope he takes a break from that shit and damns Bush and all his warmongering accomplices to an eternity of suffering for the evil they've done. Today would be fine.

Legal Fictions

Continuing with the year-end "Top ___ lists", Here's Dahlia Lithwick's:

The Bush administration's dumbest legal arguments of the year.

She's got guts! How d'ya pick only 10 from that list?

You know all of them, but go see her take.

The 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007

A lot of these lists go around this time of year. Most can be safely ignored, but here's one at Buffalo Beast that's entertaining. I think the guy's a little off base occasionally, but he's entitled to his opinion. Liquid alert.

35. Tim Russert

Charges: Mountainously inert, he explained his failure to verify the Bush administration's prewar claims with other government officials by lamenting, "I wish my phone had rung." Smirks defiantly at his own humorlessness. Has held the most visible and secure seat in political media for over 15 years without once mustering the courage to call his guests liars. Impossible to watch him interview any woman on "Meet the Press" without fearing he'll suddenly waggle his sinewy tongue, Jabba-like, and beslobber her.

Exhibit A: Self-mythologizing non sequiturs such as "Look, I'm a blue-collar guy from Buffalo. I know who my sources are."

Sentence: Life as an actual blue-collar guy from Buffalo, i.e. a call center drone in North Carolina.

25. Mormon Jesus

Charges: Least plausible Jesus. We heard his brother is the devil -- OMG! Won't even let his flock have a cup of coffee in the morning -- what a jerk. As with any celebrity comeback, lacks the oomph of the glory years. Won't stop baptizing dead people from other religions, which they generally don't appreciate as much as he thinks.

Exhibit A: Loves Mitt Romney, Harry Reid, and Glenn Beck. And magic long johns.

Sentence: Interrupted during the game by Mormon missionaries.

16. Chris Matthews

Charges: Calling his show "Hardball" is like rechristening ping-pong "Thermonuclear Warfare." Displays the slurred, unmodulated speech and unfocused antagonism of an aggrieved middle-management drunk. Can read a scurrilous political attack into any paragraph at twenty paces. Continues honing his pointless questions as his guests attempt to answer, cutting them off with an affected imperial weariness when their responses are insufficiently inane. Apparently ignorant of the implications of satellite technology, Matthews shouts louder at geographically more distant guests. Has repeatedly called Ann Coulter "brilliant." Referred to Gerald Ford's yuletide demise as the former president's "Christmas card to the country." Unable to laugh like a normal human, Matthews compensates by simply shouting "ha!"

Exhibit A: "This country is based on generalizations!"

Sentence: Hillary's White House Press Secretary and personal toilet steward.

9. You (Well, I said he was a little off occasionally - G)

Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism -- it's nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears' children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you're going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase "enhanced interrogation techniques." You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can't spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don't want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy's doing well. You're an idiot.

Exhibit A: You couldn't get enough Anna Nicole Smith coverage.

Sentence: A gradual decline into abject poverty as you continue to vote against your own self-interest. Death by an easily treated disorder that your health insurance doesn't cover. You deserve it, chump.

5. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid

Charges: Graduates of the Neville Chamberlain school of appeasement, the Democratic leadership continues to ignore the constitution-and the American people-by keeping impeachment "off the table" and refusing to defund the war. True pushovers, they're too stupid, cowardly, weak and outmatched politically to accomplish anything substantive, their "strategy" essentially boiling down to whining a lot while handing Bush whatever the hell he wants. There is just no way that appearing this weak and ineffectual could be any better for them politically than impeachment. Everything that the White House gets away with, it gets away with because congress allows it.

Exhibit A: Failure to woo the two thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto is moot: They could defund the war with a 41-senator budgetary filibuster. But that would take guts and conviction.

Sentence: 2 cups anthrax bisque.

2. Dick Cheney

Charges: Worst president ever. So openly horrible, he now makes jokes about being Darth Vader. Unashamedly advocating for executive abuse of power and corporate theft. In and out of public office since his congressional internship during the Nixon Administration. Didn't care about the quagmire he foresaw in '94, because since then he'd deftly maneuvered to profit from it. Polling lower than HPV.

Exhibit A: His Halliburton stock options rose 3000% in value from 2004-2005. No joke.

Punishment: Raped by the sun.

There are some things even the Sun won't do...

And No. 1 Most Loathesome Person of 2007? Take a wild guess...

Here's a coupla snippets from some of the others:

Sentence: Sealed neck-high in the outhouse foundation of a popular Mexican Spring Break destination. Jaws propped open.

Starchier than a peep booth wastebasket...

Don't miss this one, folks!

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Bush Administration Finally Develops Immigration Policy That Works
It’s called “recession.”

Study: Brains of Liberals, Conservatives Work Differently
To put it nicely.

Heh. A well-maintained, smoothly running engine "works differently" than one that has been run out of oil and flang a rod out the side, too. To put it nicely.

Queen Debuts Own YouTube Page
Most popular videos: Prince Charles hit in groin with cricket bat; Prince Philip starts fire after lighting fart.

See ya. I'm off to YouTube...

Looking at America

NYTimes editorial

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.

The editorial then lists but a few abuses, and closes with:

These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.

Operative words are 'we can only hope'.

I like the 'vampire' reference - as long as this administration is sucking the life's blood out of our nation's ideals and the Constitution, there is no reflection in the mirror at all.

Wildwood Weed, Fast Cars, & Untaxed Whisky

I'm still in 'screw politics' mode. It'll pass, but in the meantime, ENJOY!

Performed by Jim Stafford.



As long as we're on the Good Ol' American subject of untaxed psychoactive substances:

No robots needed

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I think we need a counterpoint to Fixer's post. Work safe if you work in the back room of a motorcycle shop.



As far as 'doing what dogs do', I eat, shit, and howl at the moon. Three outta four ain't bad...

Primaries ...

By the time they get to New York, it'll be all wrapped up. I'll support whoever the Dems nominate. Let me just say, there's no one who I'd actively campaign for. The only one who rises up a little (in my book) is Chris Dodd, and that's because of his principled stands on some issues.

I don't believe any of them will bring the troops home from Iraq anytime soon. I don't believe any of them are really going to do something about the proliferation of lobbyists in Washington and I don't think we'll get an movement on a good national health care program. Something about Barack Obama worries me and I can't put my finger on it (no, it's not his blackness, or lack thereof). Something about Hillary bugs me too but I know what that is. It's the fact she's too cozy with the money people. Bill Richardson would be a good cabinet secretary or vice president. Edwards ain't bad but I don't think he's got what it takes to stand up to a strong Congress. Joe Biden, for the same reasons Hillary bugs me.

I don't really like any of 'em but Hillary is probably the most qualified. We'll see. Any of 'em are better than the Chimp and his band of criminals.

Fucking robots ...

You know what they say. "If I could do what my dog can do ..."

The future is now*.

*Link not safe for work and children.

You dumbass ...

Via Maru, the 5th Annual World Stupidity Awards have been presented. Of course, our President didn't fail to disappoint:

...

Bush, a perennial winner at the awards, was almost shut out this year, although the White House did take the category of Stupidity Award for Reckless Endangerment of the Planet for its opposition to the world on climate change.

...

A day late and a whore short ...

As our good (but impatient) friend Brother CAFKIA reminds me, I didn't post a chapter from Thirty Days at Zeta yesterday. It's at The Practical Press now. I also wanted to direct you to blogmeister Kenneth Quinnell's rewriting of T'was the Night Before Christmas which I forgot to do last week.

Whore your own in comments.

Unpacking ...

The 2nd worst part about vacation. That and saying goodbye to family, especially the older folks. We're finally home after an hour and a half delay getting out of Frankfurt. Shayna's home too and our little family is back together. We're beat so you'll see me tomorrow.

I just wanted to add that we like to fly Singapore Air whenever possible. Even though this was one of the worst times of the year to fly, the Singapore Girls (and boys, but I don't notice them. Heh ...) make it bearable. Their service and professionalism is, by far and we travel a lot, better than any we've experienced. Once again, they went above and beyond.

Thanks again for coming along.

Update:

And just a thought I had this morning (Sunday): Over all the trips we've taken, I never mentioned the people who allow us to leave in good conscience and have no worries upon our return. Those would be the good folks at the Glen Animal Hospital in Sea Cliff, NY.

Dr. Melinda Grove (who has been Shayna's vet since pupitude) and her vet staff, along with the kennel and office personnel, allow us to have a good time with peace of mind. With Shayna's little medical problems, we wouldn't be able to take more than day trips were it not for them. They are truly the best.

Saturday is Funday

Screw politics! Let's have some fun!

Pam Tillis



Kathy Mattea



Why did I pick these? Who knows - they're fun. Selecting music videos takes hours I tell you. It's hell, but somebody's gotta do it...

It’s not about you

Krugman, about Pakistan, to our tub o' candidates:

To all the presidential campaigns trying to claim that the atrocity in Pakistan somehow proves that they have the right candidate — please stop.

This isn’t about you; in fact, as far as I can tell, it isn’t about America. It’s about the fact that Pakistan is a very messed-up place. This has very bad consequences for us, but it’s hard to see what, if anything, it says about US policy.

If you’re a tough guy (or gal) who believes in exerting US power — never mind, there are just too many heavily armed people in Pakistan for anyone but Norman Podhoretz to believe that we could throw our weight around. If you believe you can bring new understanding to the world through your enlightened outlook — sorry, there are too many people in Pakistan who don’t want to be enlightened. If you believe that we’d have more influence in the world if we hadn’t squandered our resources and good will in Iraq (which I do) — well, sorry, that influence wouldn’t extend to being able to bring peace and light to Pakistan.

This isn’t about us, and it’s out of our control.

Update: Josh simultaneously had the same reaction

Also see Main and Central.

With Bhutto gone, does Bush have a Plan B?

Juan Cole knows about this shit.

Bush's failed policies in Pakistan, a nuclear power that al-Qaida still uses to plot against the West, threatens U.S. security more than Iraq ever did.

In order to get through this crisis, Bush must insist that the Pakistani Supreme Court, summarily dismissed and placed under house arrest by Musharraf, be reinstated. The PPP must be allowed to elect a successor to Ms. Bhutto without the interference of the military. Early elections must be held, and the country must return to civilian rule. Pakistan's population is, contrary to the impression of many pundits in the United States, mostly moderate and uninterested in the Taliban form of Islam. But if the United States and "democracy" become associated in their minds with military dictatorship, arbitrary dismissal of judges, and political instability, they may turn to other kinds of politics, far less favorable to the United States. Musharraf may hope that the Pakistani military will stand with him even if the vast majority of people turn against him. It is a forlorn hope, and a dangerous one, as the shah of Iran discovered in 1978-79.

Please read the rest.

We have exactly the wrong people in power to deal with everything they're trying to deal with. They are steering our country onto the rocks and blaming the rocks for not moving out of the way like they told them to.

You're damn right I'm angry

Just a good rant at The Regressive Antidote:

I’m furious because the Bush administration and its ideological allies have shredded the Constitution at every turn, destroying the institutional gift of those they pretend to revere (but only when it’s convenient to upholding their own depredations). This president, who has gotten virtually everything he has ever wanted throughout his life and his presidency, once privately exclaimed in frustration at not getting something he wanted when he wanted it, “It’s just a goddam piece of paper!”, and that is precisely how he has treated America’s founding document. His signing statements – probably over a thousand in count now – completely obliterate the checks and balances principle of the Constitution, its most central idea. His admitted spying on Americans without warrant smashes the Fourth Amendment. His fiasco in Guantánamo and beyond mocks due process and habeas corpus guarantees. His invasion of Iraq against the international law codified in the UN Charter, to which the United States is a signatory, violates the Constitutional requirement to hold such treaties as the highest law of the land. Altogether, Americans have never seen a presidency with such imperial ambitions, and anyone who cares about the Constitution should be furious. A year from now, it is quite possible that Hillary Clinton will be president of the United States (ugh). Would our conservative friends silently countenance, let alone viciously support, such a monarchy in the White House if it belonged to Queen Hillary rather than King George? I think not.

We could go on and on from here. This administration and the movement it fronts at least gets high marks for consistency. Everything they touch turns to stone. There’s Pat Tillman and Terri Schiavo. There’s the politicization of the US Attorneys and the corruption of DeLay and Abramoff. There’s North Korea, Pakistan and the Middle East. There’s the shame of torture and rendition. There’s the wrecking of the American military and of the country’s reputation abroad. There’s Afghanistan and the failure to capture bin Laden. And much, much more. But above all, and driving all, there’s the kleptocracy – the doing of everything in every way to facilitate the looting of the national fisc.

What an unbelievable record of deceit, destruction, hypocrisy, incompetence, treason and greed. What a tragic tale of debt, lost wars, stolen elections, environmental crises, Constitution shredding, national shame and diminished security.

All done by the very most pious amongst us, of course. Merry Christmas, eh? I guess those are our presents, all carefully wrapped in spin, contempt, and preemptive attacks on any of us impertinent enough to say “No thanks, Santa”.

So, yeah, you’re goddam right I’m angry about what’s been done to my country, and what’s been done by my country in my name.

How could anyone who claims to care about America not be?

Sometimes a guy just has to howl at the Moon to keep from goin' nuckin' futs. Plenty more.

Good and Evil at the Center of the Earth

Under no circumstances should you miss this piece by Greg Palast. It will make you feel good, I think.

Correa is one of the first dark-skinned men to win election to this Quechua and mixed-race nation. Certainly, one of the first from the streets. He'd won a surprise victory over the richest man in Ecuador, the owner of the biggest banana plantation.

Doctor Correa, I should say, with a Ph.D in economics earned in Europe. Professor Correa as he is officially called - who, until not long ago, taught at the University of Illinois.

And Professor Doctor Correa is one tough character. He told George Bush to take the US military base and stick it where the equatorial sun don't shine. He told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which held Ecuador's finances by the throat, to go to hell. He ripped up the "agreements" which his predecessors had signed at financial gun point. He told the Miami bond vultures that were charging Ecuador usurious interest, to eat their bonds. He said ‘We are not going to pay off this debt with the hunger of our people. " Food first, interest later. Much later. And he meant it.

Correa's not unique. He's the latest of a new breed in Latin America. Lula, President of Brazil, Evo Morales, the first Indian ever elected President of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. All "Leftists," as the press tells us. But all have something else in common: they are dark-skinned working-class or poor kids who found themselves leaders of nations of dark-skinned people who had forever been ruled by an elite of bouffant blonds.

When I was in Venezuela, the leaders of the old order liked to refer to Chavez as, "the monkey." Chavez told me proudly, "I am negro e indio" - Black and Indian, like most Venezuelans. Chavez, as a kid rising in the ranks of the blond-controlled armed forces, undoubtedly had to endure many jeers of "monkey." Now, all over Latin America, the "monkeys" are in charge.

And they are unlocking the economic cages.

It does my heart good to see folks standing up to bullies. It makes me sad that the bullies is us.

Packing ...

What I hate most about going on vacation. I'll see you folks tomorrow afternoon when I get back Stateside. Thanks for coming along!

Only in L.A....

AP

Some gifts from Kris Kringle are better kept wrapped.

A man in a Santa hat was arrested Sunday night for investigation of drunken driving after he was spotted outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string, police said.

"We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus," Deputy Chief Ken Garner said.

Ya can't make this shit up. Sure woulda liked a photo...

Iraq threatens Korea over oil exploration deal with Kurds

JoongAng Daily

Concerns about high oil prices have met Middle Eastern politics as Iraq warned Korea that it will suspend crude oil exports next month if Korean companies continue an exploration project under an agreement with the Kurdish regional government in the fractious country. Iraq accounts for about 5 percent of Korea’s crude imports.

The Iraqi government is warning Korea? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Note to the Iraqi government: If you don't like the U.S. occupying your country and only 'tolerate' it because a) they're proppin' your flimsy ass up, and b) you can't do anything about it anyway, you REALLY aren't gonna like a Korean occupation! They're not nice like we are. Best not to get in a pissin' contest with 'em.

I watched three Korean Marines clean about twenty American Marines out of a barracks once. The Koreans were small, wiry men, didn't speak very good English, and kept to themselves. The Americans had been teasing them and they got tired of it. Those were the hardest cats I ever saw. They didn't change expression or break a sweat. I think I saw them smile at one another a little whilst viewing the pile of Marines they had built. They didn't really hurt 'em, but they damn sure taught a bunch of arrogant kids a lesson about courtesy. Also about what 'tough' is. Hint: it ain't in the talkin'.

To be fair about it, the KMCs (Korean Marine Corps) were old salts and practical masters of various martial arts. They were all Gunnies or the equivalent with fifteen or twenty years in, including service in the Korean War, and as a reward for outstanding service were granted the great privilege of attending U.S. Marine boot camp. Our guys never stood a chance.

They never kidded the KMCs again, either. Kinda looked at 'em with awe after that.

They had lived all their adult lives under a terrible threat, once acted upon, from North Korea, and were professional soldiers who gave no quarter and asked none. I think the KMC and the ROK Army are like that yet.

So if you Iraqis get in a dust-up with the Koreans, let us know how it goes..if there's enough of you left to tell the tale.

Senate blocks recess appointment of torture advocate.

AP via Think Progress

A nine-second session gaveled in and out by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., prevented Bush from appointing as an assistant attorney general a nominee roundly rejected by majority Democrats. Without the pro forma session, the Senate would be technically adjourned, allowing the president to install officials without Senate confirmation. […]

Democrats wanted to block one such recess appointment in particular: Steven Bradbury, acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Counsel. Bush nominated Bradbury for the job and asked the Senate to remove the “acting” in his title.

Democrats would have none of it, complaining Bradbury had signed two secret memos in 2005 saying it was OK for the CIA to use harsh interrogation techniques — some call it torture — on terrorism detainees.

More on Bradbury’s nomination HERE.

I'll give Reid props as far as this: He understands Senate process and has used it to good effect, but it's not nearly enough.

More from All Spin Zone:

Bushie Whiney Excuses for Breaking the Law

Bush wants an appointment, and Harry Reid is preventing that appointment of Steven Bradbury. Bradbury is the architect of the legal justifications for many of the scandalous Bush Administration policies, including denying habeas corpus and justifying waterboarding. Bush loves his torture guy Bradbury, and wants to put him into a recess appointment job Bradbury is already holding illegally.

The Bush Administration has been breaking the law for a while now. According to the 1998 Vacancies Reform Act, they cannot keep a non-Senate-confirmed in an “Acting” role for longer than 210 days without being confirmed. [...]

Bush appointed Bradbury as 'acting' whatever in 2005. Just another Bushie whiney got caught in another crime deal. Ho-hum. Nothing will happen, accountability- or prosecution-wise, of course. It is good to be King.

We need politicians as brave as Bhutto

Headline at BuzzFlash:

"Osama Bin Laden is safe in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was not. Osama Bin Laden is alive and free in Pakistan. Daniel Pearl is not. Neither Iran nor Iraq have nuclear weapons. But Pakistan does." This is the bitter harvest of the bungling, Bush/Cheney backing of a dictatorship that harbors the same Islamic fundamentalists who pulled off 9/11.

Links to Words Of Power:

When she returned to Pakistan a few weeks ago, I kept asking myself, "Why?"

She certainly knew she would most likely be killed.

I knew she would most likely be killed.

This morning, as I heard the news of her assassination, the answer struck me, and it came with a bitter twist of irony.

Every time you ask yourself why US political leaders will not stand up to the Bush-Cheney regime, why impeachment is off the table, why the betrayal of US secret agent Valerie Plame's covert identity goes unavenged, why those who looked the other way while 9/11 went down, then lied us into war with Iraq and attempted to lie us into war with Iran, continue to occupy positions of power and privilege, why violations of FISA, FOIA, the Geneva Accords, the Bill of Rights, etc. have gone on unchecked, why no one is under criminal investigation for obstruction of justice in the firing of the US attorneys or the theft of elections in 2000, 2002 and 2004; remember the beautiful face, passionate heart and eloquent tongue of Benazir Bhutto, remember too Yitzhak Rabin, and Jack and Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Omar Torrijos, and Anwar Sadat, and the answer will come to you.

They do not stand up because they are afraid.

She was not afraid.

It certainly came as no surprise that Ms. Bhutto was assassinated.

It also came as no surprise that the assassin was able to sneak past Pakistani 'security' metal detectors wearing a bomb and carrying a pistol.

The fix was in on her murder, of that we can be certain. Her brand of politics could not be allowed to catch on in Pakistan at this time. The outcome was simply a matter of time, and time was up.

But she was not afraid, or perhaps she was and overcame it. She went headfirst against vastly overwhelming power arrayed against her.

I hope someone picks up where she left off.

It's too bad we don't have anybody like her in this country. If we did, I'm sure this administration wouldn't be above a little murder. Bush doesn't have the balls, but Cheney sure does.

To Hell With Bipartisanship

Paul Krugman was on Charlie Rose last night (watch it), and today I find it pretty much word-for-word in Slate, although on Rose he went more into racism as a Repug get-out-the-vote tactic. As usual, I think Mr. Krugman's right on the money.

Here's a thought for progressives: Bush isn't the problem. And the next president should not try to be the anti-Bush.

No, I haven't lost my mind. I'm not saying that we should look kindly on the Worst President Ever; we'll all breathe a sigh of relief when he leaves office 405 days, 2 hours, and 46 minutes from now. (Yes, a friend gave me one of those Bush countdown clocks.) Nor am I suggesting that we should forgive and forget; I very much hope that the next president will open the records and let the full story of the Bush era's outrages be told.

Note to prison administrators and judges: One door closes, another one opens. Even with fairer crack cocaine sentencing guidelines, we can still fill all those prisons, this time with white Repug politicians and Bush cronies. Win-win!

But Bush will soon be gone. What progressives should be focused on now is taking on the political movement that brought Bush to power. In short, what we need right now isn't Bush bashing - what we need is partisanship.

OK, before I get there, a word about terms - specifically, liberal vs. progressive. Everyone seems to have their own definitions; mine involves the distinction between values and action. If you think every American should be guaranteed health insurance, you're a liberal; if you're trying to make universal health care happen, you're a progressive.

And here's the thing: Progressives have an opportunity, because American public opinion has become a lot more liberal.

He goes on to 'splain this. Go read.

The question, however, is whether Democrats will take advantage of America's new liberalism. To do that, they have to be ready to forcefully make the case that progressive goals are right and conservatives are wrong. They also need to be ready to fight some very nasty political battles.

And that's where the continuing focus of many people on Bush, rather than the movement he represents, has become a problem.

Well, you have to cut off the snake's head before you can safely make dinner and a hatband out of the rest of him, but I get his point.

But any attempt to change America's direction, to implement a real progressive agenda, will necessarily be highly polarizing. Proposals for universal health care, in particular, are sure to face a firestorm of partisan opposition. And fundamental change can't be accomplished by a politician who shuns partisanship.

I like to remind people who long for bipartisanship that FDR's drive to create Social Security was as divisive as Bush's attempt to dismantle it. And we got Social Security because FDR wasn't afraid of division. In his great Madison Square Garden speech, he declared of the forces of "organized money": "Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."

So, here's my worry: Democrats, with the encouragement of people in the news media who seek bipartisanship for its own sake, may fall into the trap of trying to be anti-Bushes — of trying to transcend partisanship, seeking some middle ground between the parties.

That middle ground doesn't exist—and if Democrats try to find it, they'll squander a huge opportunity. Right now, the stars are aligned for a major change in America's direction. If the Democrats play nice, that opportunity may soon be gone.

I'll be for bipartisanship as soon as we get politicians from 'our' side who are willing to stomp the Repugs into the ground. And I mean that literally if need be. Once they are beaten, broken, exposed, jailed, crushed, cowed, and powerless, let the bipartisanship begin!

Quite frankly, I doubt if the present Democrats are capable of that. There are some outstanding individual ones of course, but as a group, a well-motivated Girl Scout troop trying to sell cookies in a seedy neighborhood is ten times braver.

There's two things you have to understand if you are going to get into a fight:

1) There is going to be blood shed. Yours and theirs. Ya gotta bring some to get some.

2) You must not think of what your opponent might do to you, only what you are going to do to him.

Corollary a) If the stakes are high enough and the matter important enough, there is absolutely nothing wrong with an unannounced ax handle to the back of your opponent's head, AKA 'ambush'. This comes in particularly handy if you are outnumbered or outgunned. Cuts the odds down.

I'll add a third: You can be as afraid as you want. Just don't let your opponent know. That's the rub - the Dems are very afraid, for what reason I do not know, and everybody knows it.

Fabian's story ...

The one I love most.

Update:

Being we're leaving very early Saturday morning (Friday night to you guys in the western hemisphere), I figured I'd throw up some more random pics now. I doubt I'll have enough time once I start packing later on. Just looking at what I have to bring home, it seems daunting.

Quote of the Day

bluegal:

A friend told me yesterday he stopped reading The Onion when he found he couldn’t tell if they were kidding or not.

How many times have I said it? The Republicans, the Chimp in particular, have ruined irony and satire.

White Christmas

A day late, but it snowed here this morning.

And speaking of Germany and history, I found this via the lovely Avedon:

Click to embiggen.

Take note, even monsters celebrate Christmas.

Christmas in Germany

Well, Christmas is over with and we had a great time. Good food, good people, and a good time all around.

My cousin Birgit and her husband Peter bought me a book called Hauenstein against Hitler that I didn't know existed, but I'm happy to have. It's the story of how the people in our little town resisted Hitler during the war. Good god, after listening to me for 4 years, do you still think all Germans of the time were Nazis?

Pics from our Christmas Eve celebration here, here, here, and here.

Even though it's so fucking cold (I told my family this is the last time I'm coming in the winter unless one of them drops dead), I'm glad we came.

In Search of A Season

A Christmas message from Bill Curry at HuffPo:

Christmas too is subject to extremes. Remember the war on Christmas? While there's no formal truce -- to save face, Bill O' Reilly still fires off a round or two at night -- it's essentially over. On its behalf, let it be said it was the shortest of the Bush wars and the one with the fewest casualties.

Christmas enfolds many traditions, not all Christian, or even civilized. As Christianity conquered the Roman Empire it absorbed its religions, adapting their deities and festivals. The first recorded observance of Christmas wasn't until 354 A.D., about the time the Roman God Janus took early retirement.

Christmas co-opted the solstice rituals it displaced, including their music, greenery, lights, drinking and carousing. (The office Christmas party is a lineal descendant.) Christians who wax proprietary about the day should tread carefully; one day the pagans may want their wreaths back and who knows what else.

Oliver Cromwell thought Christmas so debauched he banned it. So did Massachusetts Puritans; from 1659 to 1681 you couldn't cook a Christmas goose in Boston. It wasn't till the 19th century that Christmas took on the trappings we know, owing much to the publication in 1823 of Clement Moore's "A Visit from Saint Nicolas" and in 1843 of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

Some leaders of religions and even some politicians think the task of separating out the sheep from the goats falls to them. I'm no theologian but I remember the endless parables of love and inclusion, wherein prostitutes, lepers, Samaritans and tax collectors were all let in and loved without condition. He never once said judge thy neighbor.

Can there be any greater folly than a war fought over religion? Is it so much easier to fight for our principles than to live by them? According to a wise priest I know, "Jesus didn't ask to be worshipped; He asked to be followed, which is harder." We search for signs of winter and Christmas, and settle for what we find until at last we look within.

By all means, look within, but keep one eye peeled for the religious and right wing forces of darkness who will not be happy until you are forced to live by their whacko beliefs.

I came up with the idea that the Human Genome Project may be the key to Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men. As soon as they find the "greed" and "lust for power" and "everybody who's different from me is bad and needs to be fixed or killed" genes and eliminate them.

If you get a lump of coal in your stocking, enjoy it. Energy prices are up.

The Perfect Christmas Story?

"14-year-old Laura Montero of Albion, Ill., who was in excruciating pain after her appendix burst last week while she and her mother were on a cruise ship to Mexico. The captain of the Dawn Princess had put out a distress call while the ship was about 250 miles from the Mexican port of Cabo San Lucas. Luckily, the USS Ronald Reagan happened to be in the nautical neighborhood . . ."

more at Mercury News

Definitely brought a smile to this sourpuss' lips.

JG.

Merry Christmas

I was wonderin' what kind of inspirational Christmas message I could put here. I was trying to think one up that covered all the bases, from the Prince Of Peace and Goodwill Toward Men to spirituality over commercialism, which I don't think is going very well anyway, to the winter solstice meaning the Sun's coming back, without sounding trite.

Couldn't do it, but I found one with a slightly different approach at Hoffmania, in toto:

Music is a powerful touchstone, so while you’re reading this, put on “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”. Let it play in the background.

So this is Christmas once again, the air filled with tinsel and anticipation. Houses all aglow in glittering lights and frosted windowpanes, whether from the can or Mother Nature. It is the one time everyone enjoys feeling cold or pretending it is cold and the one time a year when the inner child in all of us runs free.

In the great American living room stands the Douglas Fir or maybe a Blue Spruce. The odor of pine needles circles the walls and crawls across the carpet with cheery dreams. Huddled around the bottom of the Christmas tree like a small herd of happy wishes, are the presents dressed in their finest gift-wrap and holiday splendor.

They are the gifts a President gives his country; his legacy and promise for the future, his servitude to “We the People” and his vision of America.

So here under the tree, dazzling and glossy in sateen bows and velvet ribbons are the gifts of this President:

Sparkle laden paper wrapped around a box of Fear. The plastic paranoia sealed package contains all the colors of Fear from brown to yellow to pink and purple. A small booklet of instructions is included on how to apply Fear to every situation and person that is not “one of us,” and how to brush on racism, homophobia and bigotry with the mascara of mendacity.

A flag covered box of brightly painted brittle toy soldiers and game board, plus interchangeable body parts for when they get broken from too much rough play. Each toy soldier is hand-painted, un-numbered and anatomically neutered to withstand everything but real war. Families not included.

There is the whirring and buzzing latest techno must have self-injectable Micro-Thought Chip. A gift from your government to monitor your thoughts and ideas and provide auto electro-pulse correction should you waver from acceptable mind processes. A gift certificate is included for all your left-thinking friends. Let them embrace the light.

A small gossamer covered box with one of those glass globes you shake to create a snow flurry – only this one encases “Democracy” and when you shake it, a crystal storm of red, white and blue flakes spin madly about until “Democracy” disappears.

And the last gift is a huge box with a thousand ribbons and bows and soft crinkle tissue paper taped and mangled together as though made by a child but when you get it all unwrapped – it’s empty. Or so you think. It is a box of sadness. A place for broken dreams of what has been lost. A place to store the faded Polaroid postcards of the America that once was. An empty box big enough to hold a heart full of holes from nearly 4000 troops killed by the lies that cradle the deceit and treachery that sold a war for the benefit of the few who line their pockets with the lives of our loved ones. It’s a big empty box that can hold the despair of 126 veterans who commit suicide every week in this country. Room enough for the 20-30% of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. But not big enough for a mother or father to crawl inside and rummage around for the touch and smell of their child killed or maimed in this war.

And then you spot it. The small package under the back branches of the tree, strings of tinsel dripping down and nearly covering the box. So tiny and forlorn. Not the same as the others. It looks so fragile, so precious. And you open it carefully, not ripping or tearing the paper while gingerly pulling the ribbon bows and lift the top off and then wide-eyed you smile. It’s stunning. It makes you giggle and tremble at the same time. You search for the card, but there is none.

And while no one is paying attention you scoot behind the tree, into the corner of the room and lift it out of the box and feel its warmth while your stomach shivers with that excited chill as you carefully set it down in front of you and watch.

The song Happy Christmas (War Is Over) ends. But you can’t help but think how nice it would be to sing Celebrate Me Home as the troops run across the tarmac and scoop up their loved ones. Or how good it would be to celebrate America once again.

And you watch your tiny gift pulsate and radiate:

PEACE and HOPE.

Dear USPS and Deutsche Bundespost,

You can both go fuck yourselves. When you say it will take 7 - 10 days to ship a package here and guarantee it will be here before Christmas, make sure it happens. I shipped two packages here the week before I left and was assured (I paid $150 for the privilege) they'd be here by now. They're not. Now, tonight, I have to explain to the children why I don't have presents for them.

Merry Fucking Christmas.

Fixer

PS: I can't do anything about the Germans, but god help the postmaster where I mailed the stuff when I get home.

The Power and the Glory

Food for thought for this holiday season. Phil Ochs was one of, if not the, best, one of the most perceptive and one of the most vibrant of the 60s protest singers. Virtually all of his lyrics still ring true today. He committed suicide in 1976 in part because he was "no longer relevant." What a tragic misconception. Phil Ochs is probably more relevant today than ever. To wit:



Phil Ochs - The Power And The Glory

Come and take a walk with me thru this green and growing land

Walk thru the meadows and the mountains and the sand

Walk thru the valleys and the rivers and the plains

Walk thru the sun and walk thru the rain

Here is a land full of power and glory

Beauty that words cannot recall

Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom

Her glory shall rest on us all (on us all)

From Colorado, Kansas, and the Carolinas too

Virginia and Alaska, from the old to the new

Texas and Ohio and the California shore

Tell me, who could ask for more?

Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of her poor

Only as free as the padlocked prison door

Only as strong as our love for this land

Only as tall as we stand

Happy Holidays everyone!

JG.

Frohe Weihnachten*

As most of the Brain's regular readers know, I'm a godless, heathen, atheist, infidel bastid, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the magic of Christmas, especially here, in the land that gave us the fairy tale. There's nothing like seeing the look of surprise in a child's eyes when they open their presents, or just the joy of being with people that you love dearly.

Last night, I got to watch a Jewish girl from Levittown experience that magic for the first time as she helped my cousin decorate their Christbaum. It's the little things that make the season wonderful.

And I also celebrate Jesus Christ, not the myth but the man, who lived humbly and preached respect for others. If today's religious leaders would be more like the man himself, the world would be a lot better place. Jesus would puke and then crucify himself if he could see what has been done in his name over the centuries.

And at this time, those who aren't as fortunate as I am are on my mind as well. When I sit back and think about how blessed I am, to have such a great family, to be married to a wonderful woman, to be pretty well off, and to live in a land that hasn't known war and unrest as many have, I feel for those whose lives are spent in poverty and oppression.

Yes, ladies and germs, whatever your religion and circumstances, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and please take it in the spirit it is intended. And all I want for Christmas is true "peace on Earth and goodwill to all". I leave you with Sir Bob and the gang because what they sang in 1985 is just as relevant today, maybe more so.



Merry Christmas, everybody. Or, as they say here:

Frohe Weihnachten und ein herzliches, gluckliches, Neues Jahr!

From my family to yours.

*Spelling corrected thanks to JerseyGuy.

Curses ...

Tagged again. This time by Brother Lurch:

Da Rulez

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends."

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Wrapping.

2. Real or artificial tree?
Normally no tree, this year, real.

3. When do you put up the tree?
This year, last night (see link in post above)

4. When do you take the tree down?
Normally, since I don't put one up (re:godless, atheist, heathen, infidel bastid in the post above), I don't have to take it down. Here it's done on 6 Jan.

5. Do you like egg nog?
Ick. I will take a shot of Jack Daniels' if it's offered though. Heh ...

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My Flexible Flyer sled, which I still have, from 1966.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Not hardly.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Orders to SAC in 1984.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?
None, they're all too sappy for me.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
We shop all year round. When we see something someone will like we get it and put it away for Christmas.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Anything that doesn't bite me first.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear.

14. Favorite Christmas song(s)?
None, and you can thank the fact they start playing them in the stores just after Halloween. By the time Christmas rolls around I'm sick of 'em all.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Stay home except for this year.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
You gotta be shittin' me.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
Christmas Eve.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The commercialism and the crowds.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
No.

21. What do you leave for Santa?
Fuck Santa, he's got more money than I do.

22. Least favorite holiday song?
All of 'em. (See #14)

23. Favorite ornament?
Don't do a tree, don't got no ornaments.

24. Family tradition?
Mrs F and I usually spend the day eating and drinking. Normally we're at my sister-in-law's for an Italian fish-a-thon.

25. Ever been to Midnight Mass or late-night Christmas Eve services?
More times than I'd like to admit but one of my aunts sings in the church choir back home and I go to hear her.

Hmmm ... Who to tag?

The Old White Lady

Creature

UL

The PolitcalCat

'Nucks

POP (when she gets the chance)

42

"Bush fascisti are now buying each others dirty linen"

Get a good laugh at Pensito Review:

Rove’s Book Sold for Half of What He Expected - And Buyer Was Mary Matalin

From 'comments':

Now, this would actually be funny,if it wasn’t so pathetic. It’s bizarre how none of the “real” publishing houses want to touch this with a 100-foot pole. Maybe they think they’ll be somehow complicit in the lies and high crimes and felonies if they publish it. Matalan is such a stupid dope that she’s probably thinking she’s doing the world a favor. Blechhhhh, may they all rot in hell.

Maybe Mary Matalin is a shrew(d) businesswoman who expects book sales to soar when Rove hits death row.

Say, under some sort of community property rules, doesn’t that mean that half of the advance came out of the wallet of that staunch Liberal, James Carville?

Isn't there a 'Son of Sam' law that prevents criminals from cashin' in on their crimes? Doesn't look like there's gonna be much profit on this one in any case.

Note to Turdblossom: I'd like to see your life story of lies published posthumously by the Charmin folks so I could wipe my ass with it. Next week would be OK, but I'll wait until ya get the Texas needle as a reward for everything you've done to this country.

The torture tape fingering Bush as a war criminal

Andrew Sullivan in the Times (UK) on the CIA/Bush torture tape cover-up in the particular case of Zubaydah:

And that is where the story becomes interesting. The Bush administration denies any illegality at all, insists it does not “torture” but refuses to say whether it believes waterboarding is torture or not. But hundreds of hours of videotape were recorded of Zubaydah’s incarceration and torture. That evidence would settle the dispute over the extremely serious question of whether the president of the United States authorised war crimes.

And now we have found out that all the tapes have been destroyed.

But this case is more ominous for the administration because it presents a core example of what seems to be a cover-up, obstruction of justice and a direct connection between torture and the president, the vice-president and their closest aides.

What are the odds that a legal effective interrogation of a key Al-Qaeda operative would have led many highly respected professionals in the US intelligence community to risk their careers by leaking top-secret details to the press?

What are the odds that the CIA would have sought to destroy tapes that could prove it had legally prevented serious and dangerous attacks against innocent civilians? What are the odds that a president who had never authorised waterboarding would be unable to say whether such waterboarding was torture?

What are the odds that, under congressional grilling, the new attorney-general would also refuse to say whether he believed waterboarding was illegal, if there was any doubt that the president had authorised it? The odds are beyond minimal.

Any reasonable person examining all the evidence we have - without any bias - would conclude that the overwhelming likelihood is that the president of the United States authorised illegal torture of a prisoner and that the evidence of the crime was subsequently illegally destroyed.

Congresswoman Jane Harman, the respected top Democrat on the House intelligence committee in 2003-06, put it as simply as she could: “I am worried. It smells like the cover-up of the cover-up.”

It’s a potential Watergate. But this time the crime is not a two-bit domestic burglary. It’s a war crime that reaches into the very heart of the Oval Office.

Knowing Bush is a war criminal is one thing. I know it. Proving it is another thing entirely. I pray, yes, pray, to whatever gods may be listening that something surfaces that can prove it forever and ever, for once and for all, clearly and unequivocally so that he can't parse and weasel out of it any longer, and send that son of a bitch to prison where he belongs. And the horse he rode in on AKA Cheney.

While you were sleeping ...

At least, those of you in the western hemisphere, I was out having my morning cigarette and I couldn't help taking a pic of the beautiful winter scene.

Click to embiggen