Letters to the Editor Department

Mike Slizewski, managing editor
Siskiyou Daily News
PO Box 129, Yreka CA 96097
530.842.2963 x 105
editor@siskiyoudaily.com


Dear Editor:
Thank you for printing this lengthy diatribe. (...Nation is in Peril; guest opinion 6-9-09) Although it was lacking in facts and long on whining, it did provide lots of chuckles. Evidently, President Obama is the straw that this cabal thinks will break the back of the camel. Pulleeze, President Obama enjoys a 65% approval rating and where was your outrage when Bush- Cheney & co were gutting the constitution , torturing detainees,and handing out no bid contracts to their friends. When progressives and the left complained, we were called traitors, un-american and on side of the terrorists. Here's the deal: The right proved in the last eight years that they can't lead, in the last four months that they can't follow, so now it is time to get the heck out of the road and watch as we get this country back on track. Have your little meetings and whine about loosing the election, taxes, and having a president that does not look like you as you drive on the roads and expect the fire department to save you when you really are in peril.

Christopher Garrett

Hike, eat, hike, eat...

Went up to the Pt. Reyes Visitor Center Wednesday; took the Earthquake Trail and the Woodpecker Trail. By now C is fully aware that as a Birder I am a complete fraud. But she is too nice to say so. Lunch at Olema Farmhouse. Last week with the Kirby X!s took the short loop at Audubon Canyon Ranch and picnicked on the grounds (thank you Cindy!).

At Play in the Land of the Wingnuts

News Release: Summer Food Service
Source: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services


Rep. Cynthia Davis' latest outrage is Missouri’s Summer Food Service Program, which provides food during the summer for thousands of low-income Missouri children who rely on the school cafeteria for free or reduced-price meals during the regular school year. This week's newsletter from Davis contains a point-by-point response to a press release announcing the program, at the end of which she concludes the program is really "all about increasing government spending, which means an increase in taxes for us to buy more free lunches and breakfasts."
And to cap things off, she offers this very helpful tip:
Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can't they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals?
Tip: If you work for McDonald's, they will feed you for free during your break.

********************
“A Republican Indiana congressman has a new plan to protect members of Congress from a terrorist attack: enclose the Capitol gallery with a Plexiglas shield.
In a little-noticed proposed amendment to a bill last week, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) sought a study to examine the feasibility of enclosing the Capitol gallery chamber with a protective shield.
“What this bill does is it would authorize a study to look at enclosing the chamber, the gallery chamber, with Plexiglas so that somebody can’t throw a bomb down on the floor and kill a lot of us,” Burton told the Rules Committee Thursday.”


Why do I hope people like this lose their jobs, lose their health insurance, end up being carried on a cot to the local soup kitchen and have to sleep on the corner of Fifth and Mission. Or we could just encase them in Plexiglas and ship them to Disneyworld. One way only.

It was good of my bro Kelly to call me on Father's Day. As well he should, being a father and all. Now all I need are some pictures of mi sobrinos mas guapos.

"Take what you want, God said. And pay for it." -- Arab Saying

I am in awe of the brave young people of Iran....

"We should go under the rain.

We should wash our eyes,

And we should see the world in a different way."

-Sohrab Sepehri, Iranian poet

Give 'til it hurts...

The Associated Press: Pacific state Palau to take Uighur detainees: Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.


I have always admired the generous and hospitable people of Palau. Or would have, had I known it existed. Having been enlightened I am inspired to do my part for these unloved and unwashed Uighur people whose only crime was to move to Afghanistan for training in how to overthrow the Chinese Government. Okay, let's add stupid.

Nevertheless, at $12 million a pop, I'll take two.

Happy Birthday Mom

We miss that beautiful smile....

Settlement is to Theft what Enhanced Interrogation is to Torture

Is there anyone who really thinks that Israel will stop building and expanding on the West Bank? I don't believe that the Israeli government will stop stealing Palestinian land so long as there remains one square inch on which to plant its boots.

What I do believe is that there will be new negotiations between Israel and the US. Since AIPAC and their fellow travelers will never stand for cutting off funds as a deterrent (Obama will not stand up to this voter block), I suspect we will go for the carrot instead. You stop "settling" and we'll give you more money. And they will agree, the money will flow, and Israel will keep on building away. Oh wait! That's no prediction -- that's history!

"I [Orin Kerr] have accepted a position as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations for Senator John Cornyn for the duration of the Sotomayor nomination."

Why does Cornyn need a Special Counsel? What does he do? Who pays his salary? Just asking.

As if on cue, Jeremy Scahill reports on his (new!!) blog. He was on Thom Hartmann's radio show this morning.

http://rebelreports.com/

A clown sees life simply, without complications – George Bishop

It is amusing to watch the clowns in the right wing freak show juggling for positions in the New Republican Party. These Bozos and their predecessors were promoted by Reagan in order to increase his base and the hoax was refined by the malodorous Turd Blossom during the Bush Crime Family Dynasty (a period of time that includes the Clinton presidency).

What they refuse to see is that they were always doing the bidding of the RP and continue to do so now. Their comical ravings provide the cover of an actual debate in the country between two parties and two philosophies. But this dichotomy is an illusion --there is only the One, the Corporate America Dream Machine. What is the real difference between Pelosi and the rubes who were calling for her head (until the media got tired of the whole thing)? Torture of detainees in Guantanamo and its way stations was always pretty much accepted as fact, but -like the love that dare not speak its name - was not mentioned by patriots in polite company. (Well of course there was that spoil sport Seymour Hersh, but he never really got over My Lai so why listen to him.) Pelosi did nothing about it – nothing was done or said by any of the weenie Democrats or their Repub cohorts. Now that it cannot be denied by anyone other than, say, John Ashcroft, the debate is centered on who knew what and when (as if the elephant wasn’t in the room all the time) and more important, how it can be arranged so no one is held accountable or, god forbid, testifies.

My point is that while the clowns are running the circus, the country has not changed hands or stripes or direction. It is not just the wealthy Wall Street profiteers, it is the International Free Market Capitalists and their enablers, the war mongrerers (here a pipeline, there a pipeline), and the complacent media. And a public terrified of terrorists or recession or both needs its bread and circuses. There is no longer any need for political parties, except to create the illusion of choice and it matters not a damn whether it is Obama or Bush, Thomas or Sotomayor. So enjoy the show. Popcorn included in price of admission.

Four arrested for planning New York terror attacks

This has all the bling of a good old USA sting op, wherein the FBI provides plot, plan, timetable and materiel to entrap a gang of swarthy goofballs with aka’s* like “Daoud” and “Hamza” and who couldn’t find their balls with their right hand.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid is peeing in his garment over Obama’s plan to release the Guantanamo-held terrorists into the USA, finding them jobs as baristas at a Starbucks near you. Better they should stay in Cuba eating Happy Meals with their free colonoscopies.


*James Cromitie, also known as Abdul Rahman; David Williams, also known as Daoud or simply DL; Onta Williams, also known as Hamza; and Laguerre Payen, also known as Amin and Almondo.

Ada Barker Kennedy

The wedding picture of Ada Barker and Deward Kennedy. These are the parents of Edward Richard Kennedy, AKA Dick Kennedy or, as we used to call him "Grandpa Rat."
Ada Barker was only sixteen at the time of their marraige and she died in 1898 when Grandpa Dick was three years old. Her father was a reporter who covered the Battle of Little Big Horn; he had five children: Ada, Edward, Jesse, Eugene & Charlie. My mother's notes say that Edward Richard got the name Richard from Richard Rudolph -- but I have no idea who that is. Deward Kennedy was a professor at the University of Wisconsin. I have been unable to find any more information on Ada and Deward.

Now that Obama has become Bush, what is Cheney complaining about?

As Obama morphs into Bush and the Democratic Party becomes the party of Arlen Specter….one asks

WTF?

Clearly the two party system is, in fact, a one-party system with two interior decorators but only one driving force – the big money machine of Pharma, Monsanto, Boeing etc. – and no matter who we vote for, they will surely continue to drive this boat up our asses and still come out smelling of money. That these greedy bastards end up co-opting just about everyone is obvious, but what is amazing is their ability to convince us plebes that we really do have choices – that there exists a Change We Can Believe In, a New Deal, a Thousand Points of Light – and that Yes We Can doesn’t mean Yes You Can (Suck It Up Again).

Ms. Pelosi is not caught in a net – she is part of the net and mistakenly thought being in the loop would protect her. Actually, it is apathy and a short news cycle that will protect her and all of the rest of those wide-eyed Who ME? sons of bitches.

We have ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia…

What a Boner!

John Boehner in re Nancy Pelosi’s (convoluted and self-serving) statements this morning: “It is hard to believe anyone in our intellegence area would try to deceive Congress.” John! – No one in this entire country could hear that statement without rolling their eyes.

Glenn Greenwald on Arlen Specter - Link Below

Exerpts:

Consider Specter’s most significant votes over the last eight years, ones cast in favor of such definitive right-wing measures as: the war on Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, Patriot Act renewal, confirmation of virtually every controversial Bush appointee, retroactive telecom immunity, warrantless eavesdropping expansions, and Bush tax cuts (several times). Time and again during the Bush era, Specter stood with Republicans on the most controversial and consequential issues.

--snip--


Reports today suggest that Democratic officials promised Specter that the party establishment would support him, rather than a real Democrat, in a primary. If true, few events more vividly illustrate the complete lack of core beliefs of Democratic leaders, as well as the rapidly diminishing differences between the parties. Why would Democrats want a full-blooded Republican representing them in the blue state of Pennsylvania? Specter is highly likely to reprise the Joe Lieberman role for Democrats: a “Democrat” who leads the way in criticizing and blocking Democratic initiatives, forcing the party still further towards Republican policies.

--snip--

Specter is also complaining incessently about the fact that Lieberman lost his primary and Specter only won his 2004 primary by 1%. This apparently demonstrates all sorts of bad things about our political process. They really do believe that they are divinely entitled to keep their seats forever, and anything which threatens that is intrinsically illegitimate and wrong.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/28/specter/index.html?

The world is in a truly sorry state when cranberry juice is considered a mixer and Arlen Specter is considered a moderate.

Stinson Beach Grill RIP

I've been too lazy to post, but here's a nice picture.

Happy Birthday Tom

3/18/1940-11/26/2006

Weak Sister

So Nancy Pelosi is unhappy about Obama's draw-down plans for Iraq. This is the same Pelosi who was upgraded to Speaker of the House in 2006 by voters unhappy with the continuation of a failed war and pushing for a way out. Instead Pelosi voted lock step with the Bush administration on the appropriation bills which kept the war (and the no-bid contracts) in full force. Now she and her equally ineffective partner in the Senate, Harry Reid, are opposing an effort by President Obama to revive the 1994 assault-weapons ban. For two years Reid and Pelosi have been weak and submissive. Now that they feel safe, they are using their new-found mettle to oppose and obstruct.

They should go away.

Mommy, What's a Republican?

I'm continually looking for some explanation of Republicans. Is it ideology or just plain nastiness? Do they believe all that crap they say? Are they really just a crime syndicate posing as a political party? I'm not the only one asking:

From Suburban Guerrilla

Republicanism Explained
Feb 9th, 2009 at 12:28 pm by Susie

From Jude at First Draft:

In the last few months, as the scavengers have picked at the carcass of the Republican party, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about what “conservatism” means. Most recently, the New York Times saw fit to address the issue in this waste of virtual space.

Well, I can’t definitively say what “conservatism” means. I possess no advanced degrees, am not a philosopher, and have almost no knowledge of political science. However.

I can tell you what Republicanism means, and that, I think, is a more germane issue. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we don’t have a “Conservative” party on our ballots. No. We have a “Republican” one. So figuring out what they stand for seems to be a much more useful endeavor than attempting to define “conservatism.”

Well, I’ve done a lot of observing and thinking, and it seems to me that the Republican party stands for two things.

1. Tax cuts are the cure for everything, including the common cold.
2. Fuck you.

And that’s pretty much it. All of the shit that the Republicans do flows from those two points.
Posted in The Shadow Knows

How do you explain Republicans??

Beau Garrett Heller

It has been four years now since my nephew Beau Garrett Heller disappeared -- riding off on his bicycle from his parents home in Duarte, California

We are hoping no one has forgotten about him or given up the hope that he will be found. If he is out there, he should know that there are a ton of people who miss and care about him. If you have any information - names of people Beau associated with, or anything that you may think could help in his return - please visit this website:
http://findbeauheller.com/

Beau Garrett Heller

Sex: Male
Race: White
Hair: Blonde
Eye Color: Hazel
Height: 5 ft. 06 in.
Weight: 165 lbs.
Date of Birth: 3/8/1976
Last Seen: 1/29/2005 in Duarte, CA

The Republicans, a crime organization masquerading as a political party, put on their Jack boots yesterday and voted as a block against the Stimulus Bill they were unable to strangle at birth.

Who votes for these morons? Ostensibly, their constituents are the fully employed, fully insured, whose lives would be perfect if not for –gasp—taxes! Unable to recognize the principle of cause and effect, these wingers are opposed to government-funded construction of anything not dedicated to Ronald Reagan and never saw a tax cut they didn’t like -- with the exception of those benefiting – well…no one is using the code phrase “welfare queens driving Cadillacs” but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.

Personally, I recommend four years of shunning the bastards. But if Obama insists on inviting them for cocktails, making sure Cornyn got the first helping of blowfish testicle hors de oeuvres would be a nice alternative.

Snow in Saudi Arabia. Global Warming? Nuclear Freeze? Next there will be rain on Arrakis.

Department of Frivolous Deflection

from Sunday New York Times Magazine
Interview with Arthur Levitt

Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON
Published: January 22, 2009

Q: As the former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is supposed to protect the American people from investment fraud, how do you feel when you look at the current economic landscape and see 401(k)’s going up in smoke?

A: I feel saddened. I feel saddened that so many people have been hurt; that, on reflection, we’ve all acted foolishly. We’ve spent too much money on too many frivolous things.

Yes, it's true -- I have been guilty of frivolous spending. Example: for many years I frittered away large sums on hardback, lavishly illustrated cookbooks, mostly purchased on-line, by big name chefs (Batali, Bittman, Pepin) --knowing full well that most (or equivalent) recipes could be accessed via websites, no charge, no shipping fee. This indulgence was dispensed with several years ago, but I'm still guilty of other frivolities (2 ply bath tissue, fresh mozzarella) and am therefore, I suppose, as guilty as Madoff for the current economic State of the Union.

Certainly I share more responsibility than Mr. Levitt, who points out later in the interview that he "canceled a vacation to the Far East that [he] had planned for the spring" because he didn't "feel right about spending large sums of money in this environment." But in my defense I would like to point out that were I able to make such a sacrifice I would not hesitate a minute.

Taibbi on Friedman

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/19908

My bro's letter to the editor of the Siskiyou Daily News

Jan 21, 2009

Dear Editor:

There you go again. Four more columns of guest opinion for Virgil Morton to chime in his support for John Roberts' guest opinion of 1-9-09 argument that we atheists are an intolerant bunch.

Virgil, by tinkering with the phrase-- "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."--by italicizing the latter part does not negate the opening clause. How much more profound and clear does this need to be? Government grants you freedom of religion and me freedom from religion.

I am somewhat heartened that you are not now condemning all atheists as intolerant but rather saying that some of us are. As you cite no specifics other than they live in Washington State, I must ask. Have they killed anyone? Enslaved millions? Burnt thousands at the stake? Condemned minority groups for their lifestyle?

As I stated in my letter to John Roberts: We don't care what you believe, we just want your religion (whatever it may be) out of our government, public schools, State sponsored events, and off our money. We have a small victory as the new 1$ coins make no mention of any god. Would you be so emboldened if "in Allah we trust" was stamped on them?

In closing, thank you Virgil for tacitly approving my right to my beliefs or non-beliefs. Hey, I'm not intolerant. You do indeed have a constitutional right to your religion. If you feel the need to pray to burning bushes or communicate with ghosts, feel free.

Christopher Garrett

Good On You Sammy!

CSI Stinson Beach reports the busting of the TPer, caught white handed by one Chef Mika. My initial suspect was the notorious Temer Gang. (Auggie gave me a wounded glare when I accused him at the outset of the crime wave; C gave me that look, usually reserved for my wilder conspiracy theories.) So I felt quite vindicated (translate I Told You So) when Sam Temer was finally collared.

Shame

Once again the Bush administration brings shame upon our country with their veto of the U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers. A similar resolution was blocked by the U.S. at the beginning of Israeli air attacks in December. President-elect Obama has remained silent, cowering under the “only one President at a time” banner, or, worse, agreeing with the Israeli position of massive retaliation.

Meanwhile Israel continues their litany of “right to self protection,” which it seeks to accomplish by creating Hamas martyrs rather than fostering an environment which would render Hamas unnecessary.

Juan Cole on Good Stuff

From Juan Cole (Informed Comment), my go-to guy on the Middle East when I need context as opposed to just events -- which is always.


Thursday, January 01, 2009

Top Ten Good News Stories in the Muslim World, 2008 (That Nobody Noticed)
We all too often focus only on negative developments, and while it is understandable for people to keep their eyes on impending calamities, obsessing about the bad sometimes causes us to miss good news. We see a lot of that even with regard to the US. For instance, there has been a 23% decline in violent crime over the past twenty years in the US, but people who watch a lot of television (especially, I presume, police procedurals) tell pollsters they think crime has gotten worse. I see significant positive stories in the Muslim world in 2008 that don't get a lot of press in the US, but which will be important for the incoming Obama administration.

For full article:

http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/top-ten-good-news-stories-in-muslim.html

The Stinson Beach Toilet Paper Terrorist has struck again. Previous attacks were confined to cars but this time the target is the Village Green Christmas Tree and Stage. Were previous assaults just warm-ups to the final act of a War on Christmas?

Just an Old Fashioned Girl

If we need a Car Czar for the auto loan, don't we need a Bank Dick for the financial bailout?

OJ, Bush, Cheney -- one down, two to go.

Dirty Dancing

There might be a reason for packing heat in a nightclub, but none immediately comes to mind. If you gotta -- carrying it in your sweatpants doesn't seem to be real smart (and why are you wearing sweatpants to a nightclub?). This guy is lucky he shot himself in the leg; Darwinically speaking the more proximal target would have been appropriate.

Not my cup of chai

Some years ago my mother, who had taken to drinking tea in the afternoon, offered me a cup of chai . I had never heard of chai but I took to drinking it on occasion during the 90’s as espresso shops and carts became prevalent (even in Stinson Beach). The machine-made chai was much better than my mom’s which, as I recall, was a sort of teabag variety. Neither preparation matches the chai described by Eric Margolis in his “War at the Top of the World”:

"Known as chai, this form of tea is unique to the Asian subcontinent. To make it properly, you must take a battered, blackened, greasy aluminum pan; add contaminated water, two or three tablespoons of insect-infested sugar, raw, unpasteurized milk, and black, perfumed tea; then boil it all up into a sweet white drink that will either cure whatever ails travelers to these parts or, more likely, leave you with Q fever, cholera, and assorted parasites. In these parts, tea cannot be refused when offered, which it always is. I discreetly gulped down an antibiotic capsule I had learned to always keep secreted in my pocket for just such social occasions."

Make mine a double

“According to reports, President Bush may be drinking again,” David Letterman said in a late-night monologue. “And I thought, "Well, why not? He's got everybody else drinking.”

Some Questions:

Since over 300 billion dollars has been given to--excuse me, infused into--our banks with the intention of freeing up credit, why don't the banks lend the Top Three the 25 billion they want?

Why is Hilary dithering over the nomination for Secretary of State and when will
Obama cut her off?? If she can't negotiate this, what good is she?

If it walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then I call it a duck. Why does this not apply to Joe Lieberman?

Veterans

Washington Post via Daily Kos

• 
  Obama Positions Himself to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions on Environmental, Social Issues
  By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, November 9, 2008

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse the president on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

Compare and Contrast:

Chicago 1968
Chicago 2008

Ok -- the '60s were a lot sexier. But now that I'm in my sixties I like last night just fine.

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

Make it happen...

To the Wire...

OK. Obama's vote on FISA was cowardly and dishonest; ditto on the $700 Billion Giveaway to Goldman Sachs et al; and his remarks regarding Israel are cookie cutter bullshit.

Barack Obama is not a Liberal. Liberal has been camping out in the Tribal Area Closet, soon to be joined by Maverick, and will probably not come out in my lifetime. As Mike Malloy says, Obama is a Corporate Democrat. And not only is that the best we can do right now, it is a lot given the rapacious appetite of the Republican Party for power and money. (How did the Rebubs let this happen?? Why weren't they grooming someone, anyone? But that is another story.)

I like Obama less than I want to-- but more than I should.

Conventional wisdom has the candidates running for the center after the primaries, but here we have McCain running to a McCarthy evoking right (Obama conflated with terrorists and socialists, the tax-and-spend refrain which no longer terrifies anyone after 8 years of Bush, a whack job religious zealot as his VP pick) whereas Obama isn't running anywhere. Mr. Obama is Mr. Cool, sitting in the shade sipping a cold one and watching the train wreck, projecting not-mean, not-threatening and not-ready-to-explode to a nervous white population sick of the fear infused twittering of the Republican right.

And he surprises me.

Example, this during a (air quotes) debate (end air quotes):

"The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions."
--Barack Obama, Hofstra presidential debate, October 15, 2008.

I thought out loud -- 'It's about time!"

His FDR-esque vision of the jobs and infrastructure equation in the face of a Republican opposition that views as socialism any non-war non-bail-out-Wall-Street spending makes perfect sense now (as it did back then). And though his health plans are, well, imperfect I think (if I squint and hope real hard) I can see the possibility of an end run around the insurance companies in there.

So. I am not over-wrought ( over-hyphenated, yes) but -- I am apprehensive.
First of all, WE (may I?) HAVE TO WIN THIS ELECTION BY MORE VOTES THAN THE REPUBLICAN MACHINE CAN STEAL. Remember 2000? 2004? Well apparently the Democrats haven't -- or just don't want to address it. So the same vote rigging and count manipulation procedures are still in force -- on steroids. (See Bradblog and keep the valium close.)

Then,we have to get rid of the Republican Fellow Travelers who have spent the last two years oiling the neocon agenda through Congress while stifling any Democratic dissent. Yes, this would be Pelosi and Reid. Pelosi is a joke -- recall her assertion that she would not oppose impeachment if anyone could show her that Bush did anything illegal. This woman is the worst kind of politician and has to go. As for Reid, he only seems to wake up long enough to kiss ass (Lieberman’s will do).

But most of all – So long as there is money to be made, Rove, Cheney et al are not about to fade quietly. And it isn't going to be land deals and a blue dress this time. Keep your eyes open -- if it is far out enough to be called a conspiracy theory, you are probably on the right track. Obama is not going to lay out his game plan on this one. But I hope it is a good one.

Scary Halloween Costumes

Joe the Senator from Israel


John the Zombie

Sarah the Whack Job

I'm not a big fan, but this picture is real cool...

And this...

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-the-peculiar-tragedy-of-this-flawed-hero-john-mccain-956553.html

Independent.co.uk
Matthew Norman: The peculiar tragedy of this flawed hero, John McCain
This bulbous oblong of coiled rage came across as an appalling old waxwork

Friday, 10 October 2008

For one whose single rhetorical flourish is the gratingly incessant appellation "My friends", John McCain has very few left. The roll call shrinks by the day as his bamboozled campaign grows nastier, and if the decline maintains its trajectory this year's Friends of McCain Thanksgiving Dinner in Arizona will be held, in homage to his naval career, in a solo canoe. By then, even the Clintons will have baled out because, barring a malevolent miracle, Barack Obama will be President-Elect, and Senator McCain's value to them as Oval Office seat-warmer until 2012 will have gone the way of Lehman Brothers. Even his wife, Cindy, can barely tolerate his presence, judging by the body language at the end of Tuesday's debate in St Louis. As they gingerly embraced, you sensed her wondering whether seven houses will provide a sufficient cordon sanitaire from each other's company come 5 November.
This debate was a riot of paradox, being at once both turgid and captivating, meaningless and hugely significant. As an aural event, it was tedious. Obama was much the more lucid, especially on healthcare and foreign policy regarding Pakistan, but McCain held his own on the economy (or about as well as any candidate advocating $300bn in tax breaks for large corporations and their CEOs could expect to do at this point in US fiscal history).
It was visually that this debate really mattered and, while it is too soon to divine public reaction from the polls, one suspects it went a fair way to securing Obama the White House in the absence of monstrous scandal: Barack and Britney caught in flagrante delicto at an Osama bin Laden fundraiser perhaps; Michelle giving OJ Simpson the Black Power salute on visiting day at the penitentiary; Russia unilaterally reviving the Warsaw Pact; or the detonation of a radioactive device on Pennsylvania Avenue.
McCain looked simply dreadful. Sallow, fatigued, hunched, tentative and miserable, this bulbous oblong of coiled rage came across as what the Prince of Wales knows as an appalling old waxwork. The clinching image, I think, was the rear overhead shot, as he made staccato movements across the stage that highlighted the large circle of hairlessness on his head. No bald man has won a general election in Britain or the US in the television age (Dwight Eisenhower was the last Anglo-American alopecian victor back in 1956) and this one is now a very long shot to buck the trend.
So much for this one, and on to "that one"... the most memorable moment of the debate season thus far. Flailing about idiotically in the quest to portray Obama as the Bush-Cheney cheerleader in contrast to his maverick self, Senator McCain mentioned an energy bill that emerged from the White House. "You know who voted for it? You might never know," he said, and then, without turning to face Obama, he flipped an arm in the younger man's direction. "That one," he added, lest any doubt remain.
We could argue until Doomsday whether "that one" was a rung or two down the offensiveness ladder from "uppity". My feeling is that it falls into that vast category of Things White People Don't Think Are Remotely Racist But Wouldn't Say In A Million Years About Other White People. Certainly, you can't imagine McCain using it of Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.
But racism, while still a small, nagging threat to Obama's chances, is a red herring here. What was so revealing about "that one" was that it crystallised the uncontainable disdain that is annihilating McCain's reputation. It isn't undermining his candidacy, because the economic mayhem and his volatile reaction to it has already done that. Yet his inability to show Obama common courtesy is unveiling him to a previously admiring electorate as a mean-spirited, cantankerous old git. If the repeated use of "old" appears ageist, so be it. Everything about McCain's dismissive attitude to Obama is geriatric. In fact he is only 72, which these days is anything but old. My father is McCain's senior by a year or two, and could pass for his son. I have friends in their mid-80s whom I think of as contemporaries because there is nothing remotely retrograde about their perspective on life.
For all his energy, on the other hand, McCain could pass for 92 because he radiates the sourness of the crotchety Meldrovian grump, slumped in a high-backed, plastic chair snarling "dunno they're born" whenever a middle-aged politician appears on the telly. Everything about his debate demeanour bespeaks a man struggling mightily to subjugate his rage that, after all he gave up in the Hanoi Hilton – his freedom, health and, as seems increasingly evident, a portion of his sanity – this smartarse liberal from Chicago swans along, not yet out of his congressional diapers, to steal the prize to which he believes his sacrifice entitles him.
So while Obama vaguely but empathetically seeks to assuage the terrors of Americans about their financial future, McCain seeks sanctuary in the distant past. He unleashes the increasingly gruesome Sarah Palin, Alaska's very own Cretina D'Evil, to raise Obama's extremely tenuous links to William Ayers, a Weatherman four decades ago, and the only people listening are the rednecks at her rallies whose shouts of "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" she is content to let pass without rebuke. McCain's flirtation with revisiting Tony Rezko, the bent Chicago property developer from whom Obama bought a chunk of land in a deal he long ago called "boneheaded", seems set to become a full-blown affair, meanwhile, and it can't be long before his surrogates dredge up the Rev Jeremiah Wright.
Like many failing generals, McCain is waging not the present war but the last one in which Field-Marshal Rove defeated John Kerry. He wants to shrink a truly Goliathan election into another Lilliputian one, a tactic as misconceived as making the race about mature and dependable character when it is so obvious that the only grown-up in the room is Obama.
What made McCain look so weak and hopeless on Tuesday wasn't just the combination of pallor, jerkiness, the tonsure and the contrast between how, when not speaking, Obama sat with commanding tranquillity, whereas McCain paced anxiously in the background like someone in a hurry who cannot remember where he parked the car. It was the image he projected of a man weighed down and constricted by the sense that the campaign he is fighting is unworthy of him, but unable to change his tune because there's nothing left to sing except "For God's sake don't trust this terrorist-consorting, America-hating naif."
It is the tragic hero's traditional fate to be brought down by a central flaw he cannot see in himself. The peculiar tragedy of McCain, a hero himself as his pandering to veterans ever reminds us, is that he well knows he is squandering his long-husbanded capital of personal decency with the sort of wild profligacy that created the economic catastrophe that should cost him the election. His entire sense of purpose and self-worth is founded on a romantic notion, bred in the bone of this son and grandson of admirals, of noble service to his country. This loss of his honour may prove more excruciating than losing the White House to a man that a year ago John McCain would never have dreamt of dismissing, with such vinegary condescension, as "That One".

Read this...

Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
By TIM DICKINSONPosted Oct 16, 2008 7:00 PM

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

Wine Train

On our way up to Happy Camp, Chris and I stopped in Napa for lunch on the Wine Train (thanks Geoff!).

No Bail Out for him...

September 23, 2008

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers
Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.

Palin Place

Sarah & Todd. Brad in rear?

Chelsea and Shane Happy Camp 2008

My niece Chelsea’s wedding at Happy Camp, August 23, 2008. Not wanting to be late, I arrived at Happy Camp on the 29th (of July) and the food was so good I stayed until the 7th (of September).

I think this is a joke, but who knows these days..

The First-Ever Vagina Spa

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/07/the-firstever-vagina-spa.php

Jean Ellen Kennedy June 9, 1919 - July 4, 2003

Up and died. Well Fuck You George!

From Wonkette

http://wonkette.com/

FRUITCAKE AMENDMENTS
Marriage Amendment Has Utterly Predictable Cosponsors

Hey guess who’s cosponsoring yet another one of these “protecting marriage from being forever defiled by hot gay action” Constitutional amendments? Two terrible hypocrites: an adulterous bathroom goblin and an adulterous diaper fetishist. Larry Craig and David Vitter should have gay diapered bathroom sex and then filibuster the crap out of each other, because that is what Jesus wanted when he wrote the Fruitcake Constitution. [GovTrack.us]

Thanks to #1 Sis for turning me on to Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, a study of Mormon Fundamentalism and, by extension, the fundamental religious psyche in the United States. From the Prologue:

"The zealot may be outwardly motivated by the anticipation of a great reward at the other end – wealth, fame, eternal salvation –but the real recompense is probably the obsession itself. [snip]. As a result of his (or her) infatuation, existence overflows with purpose. Ambiguity vanishes from the fanatic’s worldview; a narcissistic sense of self-assurance displaces all doubt. A delicious rage quickens his pulse, fueled by the sins and shortcomings of lesser mortals, who are soiling the world wherever he looks. His perspective narrows until the last remnants of proportion are shed from his life. Through immoderation, he experiences something akin to rapture."


Remind you of someone??

(Subtle Hint)

De Obitz

Ashes of Pringles can designer buried in his work

CINCINNATI — The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.
Fredric J. Baur, of Cincinnati, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice in Cincinnati, his family said. He was 89.

Michelle Malkin Fingers Rachel Ray

I'll have a black coffee, two jelly donuts and one death to America....

From boston.com:

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad

May 27, 2008
Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.
more stories like this
Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.
‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.
‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’
The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.
Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.’’
(In case you’re wondering, the stylist who selected the offending scarf was not Gretta Enterprises boss Gretchen Monahan, who appears on Ray’s TV show as a style consultant.)
For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.’’
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Prediction update

5/23/08:

--U.S. will conduct pinpoint strikes against Iran June 3, July 3, August 1st or 30th.

--If a Obama/Clinton ticket is elected, Obama will not survive a full term. As I typed this – or shortly thereafter – Hillary Clinton cited the murder of RFK in a June preceding the convention as a reason why she should stay in the race. Pretty creepy.

5/27/08:
Asia Times: Bush to attack Iran by August. 5/27/08
Asia Times is reporting that “a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community” are alleging that the Bush administration “plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months” :
The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

IMHO, targeting the actual guard headquarters is worse, even, than targeting alleged nuclear sites, in terms of Iranian response. This would be a strike against actual people – not against facilities with human casualties being considered “collateral” (which is bad enough).

Predictions and Oysters

Shortly before leaving for lunch* at noon today, I started a document entitled "Predictions."

Predictions

5/23/08:

U.S. will conduct pinpoint strikes against Iran June 3, July 3, August 1st or 30th.

If a Obama/Clinton ticket is elected, Obama will not survive a full term. As I typed this – or shortly thereafter – Hillary Clinton cited the murder of RFK in a June preceding the convention as a reason why she should stay in the race. Pretty creepy.

*Coast Cafe. I had Oysters Scampi, C had Fish Tacos with marinated Yellowfish. Both dishes were really really good -- fair to say we were two happy customers. Pam was the waitress and brought us a creme brulee on the house which was also excellent.

Read These

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18rich.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=frank+rich&st=nyt&oref=slogin

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/14446/

There will be a surprise 3 a.m. quiz.

Great Guacamole!

The video you all have been waiting for:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=nbK-rTSRntw

Sometimes the Review is Better than the Book...

From Leon Wieselter's review of Martin Amis' "The Second Plane", NYT Book Review 4/27/08

-He [Amis] writes as if he, with his wrinkled copies of Bernard Lewis and Philip Larkin, is what stands between us and the restoration of the caliphate. He is not only outraged by Sept. 11, he is also excited by it. "If Sept. 11 had to happen, then I am not at all sorry that it happened in my lifetime." Don't you see? It no longer matters that we missed the Spanish Civil War.

-In Amis's account, the Islamist terrorists are guilty not only of slaughtering people. They are guilty also of proliferating "cliches" and "inherited and unexamined formulations" -- and in this respect they are "like all religions," which were exposed as "fossilizations of dead prose and dead thought," were they not, by "one of the greatest novels ever written, 'Ulysses.'" Why can't they just read "Ulysses"?

-Pity the writer who wants to be Bellow but is only Mailer

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/review/Wieseltier-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the+catastrophist&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Today's good stuff stolen from dailykos.com because I never have any original material so I have to steal everything...

Looking for "Tough, fair, relevant, and appropriate" questions
by BarbinMD
Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 04:18:56 PM PDT
Appearing Sunday on This Week With George Stephanopoulos is Senator Straight Talk McCain, and now that Stephanopoulos has set the bar for what constitutes tough and relevant questions for a candidate for the presidency:

If you look at the fall campaign, there are some clear signals from Senator Obama's opponents that all of these issues are going to be put together in a general argument.
...we can of course assume that McCain will be held to that same journalistic standard. After all, according to Stephanopoulas, we're not looking for "who will be the best president, but who has the best chance of winning." And in that spirit, here are a just a few questions that might help the American people judge McCain's "credibility and honesty."

Senator McCain, some have suggested that you take on Mike Huckabee as your running mate to offset the mistrust many Christian voters have of you given your support of stem cell research, which as you know, they consider to be murder. So my question to you is, will you ask Mr. Huckabee to join your ticket and can you explain why destroying unborn children isn't murder? After all, this viewpoint can be found on the internet.

It has been widely reported that you told Senator John Cornyn to "fuck off." Given your famous and self-admitted temper, should the American people be concerned that you may use the same sort of language to world leaders?

Let's move on to religion. You have "proudly" accepted the endorsements of Reverend John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Do believe and accept their belief that the Catholic Church conspired with Hitler to exterminate Jews, that Hurricane Katrina was a righteous punishment from God for the sins of New Orleans, and that a part of our American destiny is to destroy the false religion of Islam? If not, why haven't you publicly disassociated yourself from these remarks?
Keeping on religion for another moment; 20 years ago you began attending a Baptist Church, yet you refused to be baptized into that church. Why?

Do you believe that commiting adultery should disqualify someone to be the President of the United States? Why or why not?

It's been noted that you don't wear an American flag on your lapel. Do you believe that wearing one proves ones patriotism and conversely, does not wearing one mean that you don't love your country? In other words, is this an issue that the American people should be concerned about?

Now of course these questions may seen petty and trivial, and there are many real issues that McCain could be asked about, but hey, Stephanopoulos will only have about 44 minutes to uncover who will be the best candidate in November so there won't be time for pesky issues like health care, the economy, gasoline prices, and so on. But if he can squeeze in 30 seconds to talk about Iraq, maybe George can ask exactly how long McCain is willing to let Americans be attacked and killed in Iraq. Right now we only know that it's less than 100 years. Inquiring minds want to know.

Leave your suggestions for other "tough, fair, relevant, and appropriate" questions for George to ask McCain in the comments.

Update on THAT Restaurant

I'm occasionally asked what is going on with the Stinson Beach Grill. My knowledge of same is restricted to hearsay and rumours (good stuff!), but what I really have enjoyed are the online reviews:

Tony S.
Chicago, IL
3 star rating
04/07/2008
This place was OK for Lunch but I don't know why we had two courses, I must speak to my other half about this. I mean its lunch one course is sufficient and our starter was awful.I had a calamari but it was one of those calamaris that aren’t really fully battered. There were bits of batter or covering on most of the calamari and it was very greasy, tepid and bland. I am not quyite sure why I ate it.I completely forget what I had for an entree.It was nice to sit outside but the outside is pretty ropey. They need to spend some money putting in a decent deck and clean the chairs please. They had loads of these white plastic chairs which is fine but most of them had ground in dirt from many years I think. Someone really needs to smarten the outside up as it really is in need of some TLC.It looks nice enough on the outside, and the inside looked nice enough too. Service was OK although my partner’s bacon and avocado salad arrived with no avocado. We eventually got the servers attention she said oh then vanished never to be seen again until the end of the meal. She took $2 off for no avocado.underwhelming, I wouldn't go back but I have been to far worse places.

Michael W.
Pleasant Hill, CA
1 star rating
04/13/2008
If I could give negative stars, I would...We went there last Saturday, one of the first amazingly wonderful summer / spring days at Stinson beach left us very happy, mellow and to some degree hungry, looking for some food. Stinson Beach Grill seemed like a good choice since it was right there, they had heat lamps on the patio, and a small live jazz trio that was truly wonderful. Unfortunately the staff was not up to the task. It started with us being in line for being seated for 20 minutes - not because there were no open tables, but just because they did not make it a priority. Once we were seated got a waiters attention to order, we thought everything was on track. We were enjoying the music, and after a while noticed that the family next to us had bread+butter. We asked how they got it and they said they had to go and beg for it at the kitchen door. So my wife did the same and after a while came back with bread and butter. It was getting colder and no food was coming. We tried to get a waiters attention to maybe turn on the heatlamps but at that point the waiters where avoiding people’s eyes. Some guests got up and tried to put on the heatlamps themselves. My wife was joking that this must be a do-it-yourself-kind-of-place. It got worse from there. Some more outspoken (to put it nice) people at the next table where starting to demand their food, having waited more than half an hour, using strong language, and the waiter told them to get the f*** out of his restaurant but pay up for what they got so far first. So they started yelling and cussing at each other, pulling whatever stereotype they could, calling the waiter a nazi simply because of his bald top head - never mind the beard that gave him more of a cowboy/harley look, but I guess it gave them a simpler aim to look at him that way. The family next to us decided to leave because the kitchen apparently forgot about the food for the children and had only prepared the adults food, and seemed to get increasingly uncomfortable with the tension. We finally also told them that we are going to leave (waiting almost two hours by then) and the waiter seriously wanted to charge us the $2.11 for the milk he brought in the beginning. My wife had already gotten the go ahead from the manager to leave without paying and so we did. When we left a fireman showed up and asked about the shouting, and we told them it was the waiters yelling at rightfully unhappy customers - which he did not seem to be too surprised about.I agree with Angie R.'s review of the staff, I have the very same impression. What a miserable place.

Angie R.
San Francisco, CA
2 star rating
03/03/2008
I think that the Stinson Beach Grill pulled their floor staff out of a halfway house. Either that or life in Stinson Beach is incredibly rough on the locals. I haven't seen such a collection of sunken cheekbones, broken blood vessels and abnormally slow reaction time in one place since I worked down at 6th and Mission. I suppose you can surmise by now that the service we received was not good. We must have waited 15 minutes to get water, and probably close to 30 before we actually placed our order. There were several servers, busboys and assorted staff shuffling around the patio where we were sitting, and there were only a few other tables, yet we sat there, invisible. At one point a server looked at us and said "You haven't placed your order yet, have you?" then proceeded to ignore us and an entirely different server took our order a good 10 minutes later. I guess I should have suspected something when we were put on a wait list at 2:30 p.m. when there were about 10 empty tables on the patio. Honestly though, the floor staff looked so rough that I really believe this was the best they could do. I ordered the veggie sandwich which was not memorable at all, even after a strenuous 5 mile hike, when hunger generally would have made anything taste good. The fries were excellent, though, and they have Lagunitas IPA on tap. The atmosphere is great- you can't really go wrong with an outdoor patio in the sun on a gorgeous spring afternoon, surrounded by the Marin Headlands and breathing the fresh ocean air. If you can be Zen about the zombies who are serving you, it's a decent place to grab a beer and a bite after a hike or an afternoon at the beach. Stinson really doesn't have a lot to choose from in the way of eateries. Normally I would ask myself where the locals go, but in this case I think I am scared to know.
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Iraq's "Hidden" Conflict
Raed Jarrar March 18, 2008
Editor: Erik Leaver


From: Foreign Policy In Focus

"While the majority of Iraqis know that the current Sunni-Shiites tension did not exist before 2003, no one can deny that after five years of U.S. occupation, sectarian tension is now a reality. Sectarianism is another disaster that was brought to Iraq by the war and occupation of Iraq. "

If you only have time for one source of information on the Middle East, this should be it:

http://www.juancole.com/

Spring is here

Spring has sprung with a beach full of sand dollars and a park full of mating chickadees I kid you not. About a dozen baby house finches there too, little miniatures and busy busy busy.
Since I won’t be having any spring sex, spring cleaning will have to do. Followed by an attempt at tomatillo pork.

Kristen

$1500 an hour? Does she bring animals or something? I don't get it....

Josie

Allow me to introduce Josie Stolp Kennedy, my mother Jean’s mother. Josie was born 9/2/1891 in Cowley County, Kansas, the daughter of Ellen May Stolp and, well – don’t ask. Later Ellen married Oliver Crum (which is why she is referred to as Grandma Crum, though she is actually our great grandmother), a farmer, who was willing to install both and her b*** daughter as virtual slaves on his farm. Making this story even more pitiful - little Josie contracted an eye infection and became quite blind.
Eventually, Ellen took her daughter and left Kansas and the evil Mr. Crum, settling in Seattle, Washington, where Josie was trained as a seamstress (a popular profession among the blind).
Eventually Josie regained her eyesight and in July of 1918 married Richard Edward Kennedy, a musician and all around swell guy, though his eyesight wasn’t too good.

Happy VD To All My Sweet Babboos

Last Tango in New York

HEATH LEDGER - LEDGER APARTMENT BACK UP FOR RENT

The apartment HEATH LEDGER died in has been put back on New York's rental market. Three weeks after the actor was found dead in his bed after accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs, the Broome Street, Soho pad he had rented since September (07) is being offered to New Yorkers with deep pockets. The vast apartment is 10 times the size of many Manhattan homes, with 4,400 square feet of floor space; three bedrooms; two and a half bathrooms; an office; laundry room; kitchen and balcony. Ledger was paying a reported $24,000 (GBP12,000) a month in rent - so prospective new renters will need to be high earners. But real estate agents are confident it will be snapped up soon. One broker tells the New York Post, "You don't wait around in a hot rental market like this. As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat, especially when the vacancy rate is below one per cent."
07/02/2008 16:22 -- Contactmusic.com

Which raises the following questions: Couldn't they wait until he was in his grave? How much is a one-bedroom apartment in New York? Do the leftover drugs come with it????

Notes on Herd Thinning

Bye Bye to Mittens, who has dropped out of the race in order to keep the terrorists from killing us. Actually, since Edwards dropped out of the race Mittens no longer takes any joy in having his hair done, and going to the mirror for donations evokes a sadness past bearing. His children also wished to spare him the pain of spending more of their inheritance.
This leaves McCain assuming the position and preparing to brownnose Dobson, DeLay, Coulter et al. Having spent 8 years bending over for Cheney and Bush, he is well schooled in the task. Nevertheless, he can count on a certain amount of swiftboating from his own. The big issue is – who will he choose to be his VP (and the next President when he drops dead)?
The search for a reason to vote at all without becoming physically sick continues. My current rationalization goes like this: I would rather vote for a Republican pretending to be a Democrat than vote for a whack job posing as a Republican.

But take heart! There’s always Goldwater/Miller!

Super Tuesday, or so they say...

So there I was – ready to fill in my absentee ballot. My first love, Kucinich, had dropped out of the race, but I always thought Richardson was pretty hot, so that wasn’t a problem. Then Richardson dropped out so he could spend more time growing a beard, and I had to settle for Edwards, which was fine; I could do this and still look at myself in the mirror in the morning. Then Edwards took a powder, leaving me to fall back on sheer principle and vote for the person I actually really agreed with on the issues. And that is how I ended up dancing with the ugly guy, Mike Gravel. But I don’t know that I want to look at him in the mirror in the morning…

Thanks to #1 Sis for suggesting Isabelle Allende’s Ines of My Soul and My Invented Country. Then I had to go back and re-read House of Spirits which lead to Daughter of Fortune. It’s a good thing the California EDD is paying me to stay home and read, which was always my major career goal.

At my age one cannot waste too much time nurturing a broken heart, so after Richardson left me I looked for and immediately found my transition crush –Javier Bardem. Ok, that sounds kind of depraved (No Country for Old Men). For a less sicko (but arguably still a trifle disturbed) character, see him in The Sea Within. However, reviews of Love in the Time of Cholera are not encouraging.

Happy New Years -- 2008

What a beautiful New Years Morning. Woke up to the sound of a solo-playing Auld Lang Syne on a midnight otherwise soundless, still and -- dark! The power had gone out, seemingly simultaneously, which made the music omnipresent and pure. Pretty cool.

This AM the sun was not only shining -- it was actually putting out the heat. The park had bluebirds and the vultures were sitting in the tree tops, wings out to capture the solar energy. I picked out about 10 perfect sanddollars, stuck a feather in my hat and felt like Crazy Jane. No one offered me food or money, but no one confiscated the perfect size firewood I collected on the beach.

A Little Light Reading

According to NPR, the 99% Moslem country of Turkey really goes for Christmas, or at least the trappings thereof– the Santas and singing and decorations. I thought C would get a kick out of this, but she gave me one of those looks. I don’t think I’ll tell her about Beijing.
Karen Fowler – The Jane Austen Book Club. Nice little read with a nice little conceit: relating each book discussed to the life of a member of the club. Usually this involves more than a bit of a stretch (read artifice, read cliché, read lack of nuance). Ok, not exactly “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” but a nice break…
Saw Waitress on DVD; pleasant enough in a head full of cotton candy genre kind of way. Sort of like plowing through the entire Kathy Reich mystery series with the rationale that everyone else reads this crap, why can’t I? - but was relieved when I reached the last Reich. (I rest my case.)

Ol' Kel in Ol' Mexico

The Cast: #4 (Kelly) #4a (Kevin) #4b (Robin) #2 (MissKG). Cameraman: #3 (Chris)

The Place: El Sabado

The Time: October, 2007

The Menu: Jugo, coffee, hot chocolate, beer, tequila, Mole, Pozole, Menudo, Bacon, Sausage, eggs, empanadas, fruit, queso, tequila, beer, tequila.

The Review: 5 Stars

The Girls' Xmas Card to The Chairman.

Merry Christmas to General Ed Leslie of the Budgie Liberation Army of God, even though you’ve done a crappy job of liberating anything, feathered or otherwise.





A donation has been made in your name to the Drew Peterson Defense Fund.

— Mazie & Stella

Are these birds a couple of sick fucks or what?

Entertainment

If you're planning on seeing Lions for Lambs, bring a pillow. Very boring; C and I walked out maybe halfway through.

At the tender age of whatever, I have finally read War & Peace. This was accomplished by skipping all of the boring parts and only reading the soap opera. Short on sex, high on epiphinies. Cheat notes say that Tolstoy's characters are always becoming. A lot of them are busy becoming dead.

Good Morning

Paul Krugman on "Islamofacism":
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29krugman.html?hp


My Birds on Drugs:

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Farewell to Dennis Hastert, resigning his House seat so he can spend more time with his refrigerator.