Sunday Morning Comin’ Down – Part I

In which the Great Clinton Media Pincer Movement shows even more leg.

As we Watched and Waited for waves and waves of impartial and evenhanded outrage to be unleashed.

Because -- and I don’t know you were aware of this -- but over one fucking ad run on one fucking day by MoveOn, wingnuts have spent weeks running around in shrieking circles, pissing napalm, taking up taxpayer time and money to pass seething, condemnatory resolutions, and setting the MSM’s nuts on fire demanding that the issue be blobbed up into an agenda- and airtime-consuming story of treachery Worse!Than!Eleven!Hiters!Hitlers!

Demanding that every Dem within microphone range be forced to either denounce MoveOn as the devil’s own spawn, or be forever tarred as a terrr’ist-luvin’ bin Laden-symp.

And since the Jello-vertebraed MSM has spent 20 years gelding and domesticating themselves into teacup poodles who say “How High!” whenever Neocons or Christopaths say “Jump!” they went obligingly along.

Well now the smoke and “the horror, the horror” has cleared and three things have been revealed with perfect clarity:

First, somehow, miraculously, the Republic has survived the unprecedented atrocity of a political organization exercising its First Amendment rights.

Yay us!

But it was a near thing.

Two, there are still far too many bought-off pussy Democrats who need to be electorally roachbombed out of the Congress.

And three, with his usual, flawless timing, Wingnut Vole Man Number One stomped right into the middle of the GOP’s faux outré and right onto their collective dicks by publicly slandered as “Phony Soldiers” anyone in uniform who doesn’t toe the Neocon line on Iraq.

So of I course, as if t’were a Fair and Balanced Christmas morn, waited by the teevee machine for all of the obedient MSM MoveOn motherfloggers to speak out in identically outraged terms.

To ask Republicans if they would now denounce Rush Limbaugh.

To ask if they were, even now, preparing Angry Resolutions that would, perhaps, read something like this…

And I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

On “Face the Nation”

Bob Schieffer talked to Bill Richardson.

And I moved on down the road

On “Fox News Sunday”

SCHIP merriment with Chuck Schumer as the voice crying in the Fox wilderness, and Trent Lott trying to out slowdrawl Fred Thompson.

Schumer: We have a tempered, moderate bill to help poor children get health insurance.

Lott: Yee haw!

Schumer: Fuck you.

Lott: Y’know, the President, he’s gonna whatchacall “veto” it. Ah say, ah say, boy, tha’ means y’all gonna hafta roll ovah and give him what he wants.

Ah say, tha’s how the system wuhks; the Imperial Wizard President says what he wants done, and y’all do it.

Tha’s called duhmockracy.

Schumer: This is a bipartisan bill. And if the President wants to negotiate, then let him propose something. We haven’t heard a single fucking peep out of him. No ideas. No policy. Just booga-booga Here Comes Socialized Med’cine! and I’m going to veto it.

Lott: Y’know this all heah is typical Washington bait and switch.

Senator Foghorn Leghorn Lott and Chris Wallace then had this lively exchange

discussing their individual roles supporting the Bicycle Chief’s Excellent Iraqi Adventure during a commercial…


On “This Week”

George Stephanopoulos talks first to Noot!

George: How do you feel that 2008 is shaping up to be 1964?

Noot: More like 1976. Republicans have to get out from under Washington.

George: Have their been any breaks with Dubya?

Noot: One of the challenges the Republicans have is they must kiss Dubya’s ass while the also lightly kicking it. Everyone knows Katrina is a mess. Everyone knows that Iraq is not going well.

Noot: At a time when the country has less respect for Gummint than evah…

Says the man who, more than any other individual in government, made it his absolute mission to raze the Federal Government, shit on the rubble and use his office to stage daily strafing runs against his opponents by challenging their loyalty and personal integrity.

Noot: I don’t know how anyone take Clinton on without going Left.

George: So how do you stop Hillary?

Noot: It’s simple. The Left is fundamentally wrong on issue after issue. For example, Americans love capital gains tax cuts for Rich Peopleses! And then there’s English as our Official Language. And Pledges of Allegianceses, bitches! I think if the Republican Candidate slows the election down and pick 3-4 issues to talk about…

Noot: Everyone in America who hates Hillary already hates her. Everyone who doesn’t hate her, already has made up their mind? This election can’t be another Swiftboat thing.

In five paragraphs, Noot has gone from “Everyone knows Katrina is a mess” and Iraq is a clusterfuck, to Republicans should run on the Pledge and Obligatory English.

And that is GOP Leadership in a nutshell:

1. OK, we know the ship is on fire. Hell, we should; we spread the napalm and struck the match.

2. Which is why, as the hull of the Ship of State burns to the waterline, we should focus exclusively on why Dirty Fucking Hippies are serving Messican flan on the ship’s menu instead of Apple Fucking Pie!

The rebuttal is simplicity itself: “That is the stupidest, shallowest, most transparent attempt to change the subject I have ever heard. I will not answer a single, infantile question on the subject as long as the city Republican negligence destroyed still lays in ruins, and as long as American soldiers are still dying in the failed Republican War in Iraq.”


This was followed by Bill Clinton.

Apparently both Russert and Stephanopoulos were having a quick smoke in the alley, saw the Big Dog cadging contributions and annoying passers-by with his jeremiad on goodnesses of NAFTA, took pity on him, and each spontaneously invited him in out of the cold to talk about reading glasses and the 3rd world.

Oh, and Hillary too, since you brought it up.


Because…

On “Meet the Press”

It’s Bill Clinton and Reading Glasses, bitches!

And thus the the Great Clinton Media Pincer Movement rolled on.

Followed by a lot of fingernail size nuggets – Pat Buchanan (speaking for all Conservatives) seated next to Tavis Smiley for example.

It was a horserace show – who’s up, who’s got to move where to get what, who needs to take on which issue, who need more hunny.

Fists-full of gristle, sawdust and breadcrumbs to pad out a tiny dollop of ground beef into the illusion of a whole meal.

Meh.

This is not why I watch the Mouse Circus.

I watch to see trail balloons go up, and to see the wormy, squirmy id of the Establishmentarians who kill anything that threatens their nest occasionally and accidentally break out into the open.

One such item – very small and unlikely to be dwelt on by anyone else – was how thoroughly the fiction of what happened to Howard Dean has become MSM canon.

And how that legend-barnacled-lie has now become a touchstone to determine who can be taken as a Serious Candidate and who can be dismissed.

That Received Wisdom was both referenced and further gilded on MTP today.

It goes something like this:

“In 2003, Howard Dean came out of nowhere. Raising crazy money and fierce support in a way no one had every seen before. But – so sad -- he just wasn’t ready for Prime Time, made a lot of mistakes, self-destructed, and voters rejected him.”

Yeah. Ok. In the studiously neutral environment the MSM maintains, somehow the voters just up and decided to walk away from Dr. Dean.

Dishonesty squared.

Cubed.

The fulcrum on which this Received Wisdom pivots -- the so-called "Dean Scream" -- was a wholly-invented media creation. Constructed by and for Broderites in the press and Establishment Republican-Lite Democrats terrified of losing their consulting/candidate jobs-for-life.

No, the stage was set. The roles written and assigned. The hall rented. The performances bankrolled.

All as ritualized as kabuki and as offensive to real Progressives and Liberals as a fucking minstrel show.

And so ends Part I.

Part II is all about this one topic, so if that doesn’t engorge your pudenda, then skip it.

Also the ”The Chris Matthews Experience” was locally pre-empted by the digestive juices of professional sports.

Just a wild guess, but I’m assuming he spent 22 minutes wanking to Hillary’s yearbook pictures or somesuch while his hirelings with a kind of revolted, “Marian the Librarian accidentally stumbles into a peepshow” look frozen on their faces.

Sunday Morning Comin’ Down – Part II

In which your humble servant goes on for too long about a throwaway comment on MTP which I found to be infuriatingly revealing.

Because as we all know, according to the Kafkaesque rules of American politics, years ago, behind a formidable and anonymous pair of large oak doors somewhere in Washington, some invisible compact was entered into on our behalf by people we have never met and without out knowledge or consent.

And according to the terms of this compact, Dems are required to play Charlie Brown to the GOP's Lucy-and-the-football

until the end of time.

Supposed to be play well-intentioned but hapless, boneless losers, who never fight back, never raise their voices, and who slowly triangulate away workers rights, civil rights, human rights and Constitutional rights to the rapacious, unstoppable GOP machine.

Supposed to sell the last of the New Deal at remaindered prices to a gang of wannabe fascists and fake Christians, in exchange for which they get to keep their jobs for a few more cycles.

We are supposed to mope hopelessly, and whine nasally, and behave like a species going extinct in the face of the inexorable rise of the Grand Old Perverts.

And then die quietly off. And then Jebus can finally come back. smite the Swarthy Hordes and make Conservative White Christian Imbeciles all as rich as pirates!

Or something.

And in 2003-2004, Dr. Howard Dean was queering the fuck out of that deal, even as Edwards and Obama (And, ok, Kucinich. And Dodd. And Richardson. And Biden. And, sure, WTFm why not Gravel too.) are collectively threatening to queer the deal now.

Which is why the Mouse Circus was handed over to the Hillary half of the Clinton Machine last week, and all but turned over to her husband this week.

It was the Establishmentarians saying, loud and clear: “We Have Chosen! So Let It Be Broadcast! So Let It Be Done!”

And thus another page is slipped into the Broderite Book of Common Prayer.

Here’s the quote from MTP:

RUSSERT: Tavis Smiley, it was interesting in 2004, Howard Dean was ahead in Iowa, and the voters chose John Kerry. Many of them admitted that it was a strategic vote, that they were passionate about Dean, but they thought Kerry could perhaps be a better general election candidate.
…

Someone needs to tell Punkin Haid that a lie of omission is still a lie. Because while this little, innocuous drop in is factually correct – history shows voters obviously did vote that way – in no way did voters reach that conclusion without a major cattle prod to the ass giddily and incessantly delivered via the media driving them in that direction.

Because from the way he was cast as unstable and reckless early on, to the “Dean Scream”, what was done to Dr. Dean was a hit job from start to finish.

His shout out to his people after Iowa was a case where literally one microphone at one rally where the Doctor was trying to raise the flagging spirits of his troops (and where all contextualizing crowd noise was suppressed) was magically, unbelievably, transmuted into a sword.

And with that lie in hand, the Media went collectively monkeyshit, gleefully replaying that one clip literally hundreds of times in the following week.

And why?

Well let’s run a dredge down the Media Memory Hole and see if we can’t try realsuperhard to catch a little tenor of the times back then…

All what follows was excerpted from Great Dreams.com which compiled an excellent cross-section of media and DLC-type opinion regarding Dr. Dean during that period (emphasis added almost randomly.)


Baltimore Sun's Paul West:

"He has not become the darling of the national media corps, which regards him as thin-skinned and prone to complain about tough reporting, sometimes even before an article has appeared in print."

The New York Post’s Deborah Orin:

"Democrats are starting to realize upstart antiwar candidate Howard Dean could actually wind up as their 2004 nominee -- thanks to the power of the Internet. That scares some of them silly.
…

New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets let all the superlatives out of the barn to describe Dean’s mediocre performance on Meet The Press as…

"… perhaps the worst performance by a presidential candidate in the history of television."

Andrew Sullivan, always up for a pile-on, opined…

"I didn't see what many are calling a disastrous performance by Howard Dean on 'Meet The Press,' but I know from observing him and debating him once that he's an intemperate, arrogant bully. . . . It's a trait bad doctors have. They are used to being in such controlling positions vis-a-vis their patients that it goes to their heads. Good doctors resist such an obvious temptation.

Slate's William Saletan thought Dean had a problem with foreign policy, even though he could not be troubled to mention exactly what it might be:

"For months, I've been scratching my head over the Howard Dean problem. On domestic issues, Dean beats the rest of the presidential field hands down. He knows the nooks and crannies of all the policy debates. He's been an executive. He's principled where he ought to be principled and pragmatic where he ought to be pragmatic. He hurls fire and brimstone with the best of them. He isn't one of those wishy-washy liberals who inspire contempt on both the left and the right. And he states his views in a way that everyone can understand and most people can support.

"The problem is national security. It isn't just Dean's opposition to the war in Iraq, which is eminently defensible. It's subtler and broader. Every time Dean talks about foreign affairs, he gives off a whiff of hostility or indifference to American military power."

Got that? A "whiff". No citation. No critique. Just…Smells Like Dean Spirit.


The New Republic (siding, the site notes, “with a Weekly Standard piece on Democrats we excerpted earlier this week -- to a point”) beefs up the Seriousness Firewall by allying with David Fucking Brooks to warn the Dems against letting Howard Dean get to third base wit them.

Or something.

"We more or less agree with David Brooks--that many Democrats' visceral hatred of George W. Bush and the Republican majorities in Congress risks becoming self-defeating, since it could easily result in a nominee who is too liberal to win the presidential election in 2004, and a party that alienates moderates and gets slaughtered on the congressional level as well. But one thing we have to take issue with is Brooks's dismissiveness toward Democrats' explanations of their own powerlessness.

And the reaction by this thin-skinned, petulant bully to losing to John Kerry?

From this at MSNBC...

DR. DEAN: It was a tough campaign, one that I did not win. Evidently more Democrats did not agree with me than agreed with me, and I accept that. The great thing about a democracy is that you have a vote. And, you know, people say, "Oh, aren't you angry?" I'm not the least bit angry about the way the campaign turned out. John Kerry won fair and square. And now the question is: Are we all going to pull together as a team or not?
...

And from PBS...

HOWARD DEAN: Look, we wanted to change this country, and we wanted to change the way the Democratic Party works. I think we did change the way the Democratic Party works. I think our supporters essentially wrote the Democratic Party platform, but you can't always make all the changes you want immediately.

My argument to my supporters, most of them are going to support John and they already have. I was online with his supporters and many of my folks came on, they gave him money. You know, we're in the business and well along in the business of trying to support John Kerry, but for those who are thinking about voting a -- voting for a third party the choice is very simple.

Either John Kerry or George Bush is going to be the next president of the United States. If it's George Bush, this country is in deep, deep trouble. If it's John Kerry, we've taken the first step by sending this president back to Texas permanently towards a better America, a new America, a more optimistic and hopeful America, an America that listens to the truth.

There's no question in my mind, and this is why I don't feel the least bit troubled or ambivalent about endorsing John, because there's no question in my mind he'd be a better president than George Bush, and, therefore, I have no question, no hesitation in recommends him to the people who supported me during the campaign.

Later, after scary Howard Dean had been methodically gaffed and gutted by the Media and by his own Party, Novacula gleefully stepped up to perform his own post-mortem duties.

Beginning the job of cementing in place the Received Wisdom which Russert will so blithely regurgitate almost three years later.

Howard Dean's return

Thursday, December 16, 2004 Posted: 5:26 PM EST (2226 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Practical Democratic politicians, intent on reversing a decade of decline, feel trapped in a bad dream with Howard Dean as the most prominent prospect to be the party's national chairman.

The mere thought of picking the 2004 presidential candidate who campaigned furthest to the left and was soundly repudiated by Democratic voters suggests inability to cope with political reality.

Dean has toned himself down, no longer resembling the screamer in Des Moines or the radical populist on the campaign trail.

His Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" was so polite that it instantly was labeled the "unscream." Nevertheless, Dean as national chairman would identify Democrats as the party of the Left, more interested in purity than victory.
…

So what really happened?

Broadcasting & Cable news here summed it up nicely.

Howard Dean: Scream 'Never Happened'

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/14/2004 3:25:00 PM

Howard Dean said the scream speech "never happened," and that its repetition more than 900 times in the following week showed cable "at its worst" and revealed cable news as a "Murdochized" entertainment medium, not journalism.

The former Vermont governor and presidential candidate calls it part of the "Murdochization," of cable, referring to the growing success of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel. "Not because Murdoch is a right winger, which he is," says Dean, "but because [Fox News Channel head] Roger Ailes is so incredibly good at what he does that the other stations [sic] are starting to copy what Fox does."

Dean told a crowd of broadcasters in Washington Monday morning that all the cable networks showed of the speech following his loss in Iowa was "me at a microphone carrying on. No crowd noise or crowd shot," that would have shown that the crowd was screaming and Dean was trying to make himself heard. None of the pool reporters reported the scream initially, he said. It was only the next day, when their editors saw it, with the noise-canceling mike making Dean stand out, that it became a story. "The speech as it was portrayed in cable television shows 937 times in one week "never happened," he said.

Of course, loads of broadcasters carried the speech too, but Dean suggested they were being driven by the cable news cycle. He told his audience they had better news instincts about what to cover than their national counterparts and should not let the 24-hour news cycle set their agendas for them.

Jim Farley, VP, news and programming, for WTOP (AM) Washington seconded Dean's assessment of the "Scream," saying reporters covering the speech had felt it was proportionate to the crowd and the occasion. "The news media done him wrong," said Farley.

Dean did not lay all the blame for his precipitous fall from front-runner to Monday-morning quarterback on cable news, however, pointing out that he had already lost Iowa and that he did not use the platform of the speech to address a national audience.

Still, Dean had little good to say about the national media, warning local broadcasters that to aspire to a national post was "the path to ruin," saying the national media "doesn't understand its role," and is too into "gotcha" journalism. He says he avoided Tim Russert and Meet the Press for months not because Russert isn't good but because of the "gotcha" fear, which turned out to be prophetic, he said, since Russert's one "bad" question, about troop strengths, came back to bite the candidate when he finally did appear.
…

The shorter version?

Whom the Media Gods would coronate they would first dub Serious, Inevitable, Presidential and Chock Full ‘O Gravitas.

Whom the Media Gods would destroy they would first aggressively frame as Frivolous, Weak, Liberal or Mad.

And so ends Part II.

Resolved

A Sunday Morning addenda

(Or is it "pre-denda" since I haven't posted the main bit yet? Because I know it's not "pudenda". Ah well...)

The wording is originally from our very own government.

Paid for by our taxes

I have taken some tiny, Liberal liberties, all clearly marked...

SRES 325 IS

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. RES. 325

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus , Commanding General, Multi-National Force--Iraq, soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq deserve the full support of the Senate and strongly condemns personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General David H. Petraeus soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq and all the members of the United States Armed Forces.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September 29, 2007

RESOLUTION

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus , Commanding General, Multi-National Force—Iraq soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemns personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General David H. Petraeus soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq and all the members of the United States Armed Forces.

[Insert individual Service Records here]
…

Whereas a recent attack through a full-page advertisement in the New York Times by the liberal activist group, Moveon.org the full-throated slander over hundreds of radio stations using the public airwaves by noted Republican Liar and Drug Addict, Rush Limbaugh, impugns the honor and integrity of General David H. Petraeus soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq and all the members of the United States Armed Forces: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate--

(1) to reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, including General David H. Petraeus , Commanding General, Multi-National Force—Iraq soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq;

(2) to strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General David H. Petraeus soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq and all the members of the United States Armed Forces; and

(3) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus soldiers serving honorably in the failed Republican War in Iraq by the liberal activist group Moveon.org. scurrilous Conservative Liar and Drug Addict, Rush Limbaugh,

So say we all.

Rudolini

Sings Songs of Love



To accompany this post, scenes from my Saturday night

Intercut with Falco.

In German.

Proving yet again that in pop rock, and politics, understanding the words doesn't matter one little bit.

Only the hooks matter.

The beats.

The reprise.


So come on and

Rock me 9/11


Ooo rock me 9/11
Rock me 9/11...
Rock rock rock rock me 9/11
Rock me all the time to the top

He was a Mayor
And he lived in the big city
It was N’Yawk, was N’Yawk,
Where he pissed on everything
Race trouble, labor, mobsters,
But all the Soccer Mommies loved him
And wifey shouted:
Come on and rock me 9/11

9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, oh oh oh 9/11

He was Super Fucking Hero
He was popular
If knew nothing of him
Because he had flair
He was a virtuoso
With no more comb-over
And everyone shouted:
Come on and rock me 9/11

9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, oh oh oh 9/11

Come on and rock me 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, oh oh oh 9/11

It was around 2007
And it was in Primaries
Mob Fun to be hushed up
Amadou Diallo to be whited-out
All common knowledge in N’Yawk
But GOP was full of pinheads
And their women loved this punk

9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, oh oh oh 9/11

Come and rock me 9/11...

Baby baby do it to me rock me
Baby baby do it to me rock me
Baby baby do it to me rock me
Yes yes yes
Baby baby do it to me rock me
Baby baby do it to me rock me
Baby baby do it to me rock me

9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, 9/11
9/11 9/11, oh oh oh 9/11...

The GOP strategy is simplicity itself.

No subtly. No bullshitting around with the frontal lobes.

It's a full frontal assault.

Keep your whole sell under 10 syllables.

And. Just. Pound. It. Home.

It’s Elemental, and Musical, and effective, but sadly but not in a happy, fun,

Tom Lehrer kind of way

Rudolini

Invades and conquers a 7th Grade Earth Science test.


1 This rock is buried under a mountain or deep in the earth's crust.

___ igneous rock
___ metamorphic rock
___ sedimentary rock
___ 9/11

2 Small pieces of rock exposed to weather wear away and collect in layers. Sometimes these layers joined back together to make _____ rock.

___ mineral
___ metamorphic rock
___ igneous rock
___ 9/11

3 The layer of earth found between the crust and the core.

___ mineral
___ 9/11
___ igneous rock
___ magma

4 Liquid rock is called ______.

___ crust
___ metamorphic
___ weathering
___ Islamofascism

5 When magma cools down it forms ________.

___ minerals
___ metamorphic rock
___ September 11, 2001
___ Bernie Kerik

6 This is the term geologist use to explain the natural process for when rocks break down.

___ earthquake
___ The War on Terrorism
___ seismic
___ hammering

7 The innermost part of the earth is called the ____. It is made up of mostly iron and some nickel.

___ mantle
___ wife on the phone.

Calling me

while I’m in front of a roomful of gun nuts
to say she wuuuuvs me.
Because of 9/11.

___ mineral
___ magma

8 Shock waves pass through the layers of the earth after an earthquake. The waves vary as they pass through different materials in the earth. Shock waves are also called _____ waves.

___ lithosphere
___ Gee-Hody
___ core
___ weathering

9 The uppermost portion of the earth is called the crust or ______. The crust is brittle and has an average thickness of 20 miles.

___ lithosphere
___ Eleventh of September...2001.
___ sedimentary
___ minerals

10 _____ have different shapes, sizes, and colors. They are identified by how much they sparkle, or by how hard they are.

___ lithosphere
___ Fundraiser based on contributions to my campaign

in the amount of "$9.11"

___ rocks
___ crust

Legacy

The George W. Bush Rows Garden

(click for larger)

Blue Gal

Has this fascinating post up.

Covers (among other things) body-image, arm candy, “homoerotic dating” and titty-fucking.

(If you have ever wondered what combination of topics will immediately get my attention...)

Actually it gave me a lot to think about, and is exactly the sort of exchange into the middle of which only a fool would lightly wander (and Mom driftglass didn’t either nature or nurture any idiots.)

However there was this one, paragraph --

“There are men who think they need arm candy in order to impress other men. They are actually engaging in homoerotic dating, pleasing other men rather than themselves.”

-- which I think cries out for an, um, let's call it an "amplifying rebuttal".

Because while that may be the case sometimes, I would argue there is a different male dynamic at play the rest of the time. And when I thought about the best way to explain it, a fascinating story by and about a man named Griffin Hansbury (via "This American Life") came immediately to mind.

Hansbury -- who used to be a woman – goes on at length about his experience with seeing the world with male eyes for the first time.

(I can’t trace the quotes, so this is from memory. However here’s a link to a somewhat similar interview with Hansbury in case you are interested in background .)

One of the things that surprised him was that people weren't nice to him anymore.

No one extended the little courtesies. Other men shoved him off the sidewalk. Where once there had been an edgycool lesbian for whom crowds parted, now there was another pale, little guy.

And this world is not kind to pale, little guys.

Yes, absolutely there are real, tangible advantages still deeply wired into gender and race, but when he reformatted his gender, Griffin discovered one of the terrible secrets of being male: that almost from the beginning you are thrust into competition with every other male, every minute of every day, until they plant you.

Its waaaay down there in the circuitry, and it colors the whole world.

To see this conduct on full, frantic display look no further than the overtly reptilian behavior of our own American Authoritarian Party: a Party specifically constructed to cater to the psychodramas of Panicky White Men.

Built on the bones on the Confederacy -- which was premised entirely on making an ideology of unearned, God-given superiority so central to the sense of identity of hateful, pig-ignorant white men that they’d willingly (Eagerly!) commit mass-murder to defend it -- the modern GOP is made for men who feel lost and frightened unless they can reach out and touch their place in the Great Caucasian Jebus Hierarchy with both hands.

It is a Party of men who shit themselves in terror unless they have a Big White Daddy in uniform to salute and obey, and an ample supply of Scary Others to hate and blame for their miseries.

To be clear, the existence and prevalence of such creature in the world does not mean that men don’t have deep friendships among themselves, or that we are somehow incapable of overcoming our instinctive doggishness. Quite the opposite; good upbringing – being raised a gentleman – good friends, good examples, and having your universe rocked and re-written by strong, smart women have powerful, civilizing and lasting effects.

But for men, the domains of school, work, and dating (Ah! A theme emerges.) are always churning with rivals (with whom we struggle not to feel almost obligated to contend) and Evil Alphas, who can disappear our livelihoods and status on a whim.

This is one reason I appreciate Mamet. Quite apart from the sheer quality of the writing, Mamet drills right through the nerve-sheathing and shows us – up-close and sweaty-desperate – a distillation of the male soul ensnared in the brutal, never-ending 14th round of a heavyweight title-match where the stakes are the food on your table and the woman in your bed.

It works as drama

because it gets at something ugly and terribly real incessantly chewing away in the male heart.

Deep in the boiling mud of evolution’s fever swamp, the pressure to slug your way up the hierarchy is always present, and it comes down to the character of each man as to whether he recognizes this primal urge as a chronic, vestigial irritant to be gallantly managed, or a bellowing compulsion to be blindly obeyed regardless of the devastation it wreaks.

The men you have known, BG, might well have been “engaging in homoerotic dating”.

But the status seekers and hierarchy free-climbers I have known fought a hundred invisible (and often entirely imaginary) battles every day to establish and maintain dominance and position, whether it was a question of who steps aside on the sidewalk, who sinks the eight ball, who sucks up better, who gets the office, or who leaves with the cute brunette.

And whether it is showing Gaia who's the fucking boss with your monster SUV, barnacling yourself in bling, pluming yourself in $1,000 silk neckware, or cutting yourself a big slice of arm-candy, it comes to the same thing.

These are all tools of that trade.

These are the swords and shields and signifiers of these miserable fuckers' forever war with every other male on the planet.

From the people that brought you

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

Comes

Glen & Gary

& Glen & Ross

I laughed.

I cried.

I lost my shit.

Thank You

Sweet Baby Jebus!


After perhaps seeking solace in the meaty bosom of

Karen Hughes


And strategerizing about his Triumphant Return with

Senate Buddy 4 Life Arlen Spector.


“Jimmy Leg” Craig has apparently decided to continue tea-bagging his Party’s sloping brows and dick-slapping their prognathous jaws awhile longer.


From FauxNews

Sen. Larry Craig Will Stay in Office 'For Now'

Thursday , September 27, 2007

AP
ADVERTISEMENT

MINNEAPOLIS —
Idaho Republican Larry Craig has decided he wants to be a U.S. senator a little longer.

Craig's lawyers asked a Minnesota judge Wednesday to let the three-term senator withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting at a Minneapolis airport restroom. Afterward, Craig issued a statement saying he will stay in office "for now."

People close to Craig said that means until the judge rules.

Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter said that will be at the end of next week at the earliest.

Craig said earlier he planned to resign Sept. 30, then left the door open to stay if he could successfully withdraw his plea.

Craig, serving his third term as senator, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a June 11 sting operation in a men's room at the Minneapolis airport.

That he will stay in the Senate past Sunday was an unwelcome development for Senate Republican leaders who have made clear they wish Craig would step down and let Idaho's GOP governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter name a replacement.

Otter canceled an extended tour of the state's overcrowded prisons this week to interview some of the nearly 30 people — including Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden — who have publicly expressed interest in Craig's job.

"He wanted to be ready to act if we received a letter of resignation," said Jon Hanian, Otter's spokesman in Boise. "Obviously, we had not. ... Until he receives a letter of resignation, we have no vacancy, therefore, there is no replacement."

…

For the record, the statement was not issued either verbally or in writing.

In bizarrely Craigian gesture, the Senator from

“GOP/OCCUPIED”


instead elected to convey his meaning via some peculiar form of tap-based


Interpretative dance.

* UPDATE: (Welcome Crooks & Liars visitors.
Sorry I forgot to shop for a party.
There are a few fishes and a coupla loaves in the fridge.
What you can make of them is up to you :-)

Let the Blue Light Special...

...shite its Everyday Low Prices on me

File under: The Little Engine that Killed

Guess what?

Yet another massive fatal toy recall from our friends over you-know-where.

Surprise!

From the AP

China-made kid's jewelry, toys recalled

By CHRISTINE SIMMONS, Associated Press Writer

Toys and children's necklaces made in China were recalled Wednesday, including five more items from the popular Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line, because they contain dangerous levels of lead.

RC2 Corp.'s "Knights of the Sword" series toys and some of its Thomas and Friends items, along with floor puppet theaters and gardening tools and chairs for children, were among the more than 601,000 toys and children's jewelry announced in the recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The recalled toys contain high levels of lead in their surface paint, and the necklaces and jewelry sets contain excessive lead in some of their metal parts.

Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall. The government warned parents to make sure children are not playing or using any of the recalled products.

This is the second recall from the Thomas & Friends product line after RC2 Corp. announced June 13 a recall of 1.5 million wooden railway toys. The company is recalling five items, totaling about 200,000 toys in all, of Thomas & Friends toys not included in the first recall.

"I don't think consumers have seen the end to lead paint recalls," said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
…

The recalls include:

• About 23,500 more necklaces, bracelets and pendants imported by TOBY N.Y.C. of New York. This expands the company's recall of jewelry sets announced on Aug. 22.
…

• About 850 children's Spinning Wheel Necklace necklaces, produced by Rhode Island Novelty of Cumberland, R.I.
…

• Happy Giddy Gardening Tools and Children's Sunny Patch Chairs, imported by Target Corp. of Minneapolis, Minn. The recall involves 350,000 of the toys.
…

• About 200,000 Thomas and Friends Wood Railway Toys and 800 Britain's "Knights of the Sword" series toys, distributed by RC2 Corp., of Oak Brook, Ill. The five recalled Thomas and Friends items, sold nationwide from March 2003 through September 2007, include the all-black cargo car, toad vehicle, olive green sodor cargo box and all-green maple tree top and signal base accessories.
…

• About 16,000 children's toy rakes imported by Jo-Ann Stores Inc., of Hudson, Ohio.
…

• An estimated 10,000 Floor Puppet Theaters produced by Guidecraft Inc., of Englewood, N.J.
…

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“Americans will buy from us the poison with which we will kill them."

-- WalMart Happy Face

And in case you have no idea what the title of this little piece refers to…

CCR

Midnight Special

“Sergeant Iraq”

(With apologies to Robert Kanigher)

From the fictional New York Times of April 9, 2008.

"Back in December of 2007, when George Bush originally announced the impending release of the so-called “Sergeant Iraq Report”, he assured Americans that it would “vindicate every fucking thing I ever said including calling ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ commie bullshit in college!”

"But ever since he was brought on as a Presidential military advisor “Sargent Iraq” has been a figure of controversy.

"Dick Cheney pointed to his record of long and loyal service in cartoon wars dating back to WWII, and his time with “Easy Company”, as iron-clad proof that his word was unimpeachable.

"Dirty Fucking Hippies pointed out that his rosy assessment of the Great Iraq Turnaround To Come was the result of the Bush Administration putting words in his mouth.

“Literally. Why don’t you understand this? He’s a fucking cartoon. He isn’t real. Someone draws him, inks him, and them Dick Cheney writes in what he wants him to say.”

Tempers continued to flare all winter long as America-Hating terrorist lovers kept insisting that the opinion of a cartoon, well, you must be fucking kidding me, while Bush Regime Dead Enders kept perfectly straight faces and their Faux Outrage factories went on third shift.

“Cartoon or not,” Bill O’Reilly screamed at a caller during one such exchange in late March . “If you can’t respect the uniform, you got no business calling yourself a Real American.”

Anger reached the breaking point this week during “Sergeant Iraq”’s testimony

before congress.

According to congressional archives, it was the first testimony submitted in flipbook form, and the first testimony ever to receive nominations for an Outstanding Animated Program Emmy (Programming Less Than One Hour), and an Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for Karen Hughes for playing the weepy “Delilah Iraq” who stoically sat behind her husband until animated Liberal Congressman Hitler O’Stalin (D-Faggyville) threw a burning flag onto the table and then peed on it.

“Delilah" then broke down and had to be helped from the cartoon hearing room.

That, of course, let to this advertisement

from MoveOn.Org.

Since that date…

…seven critical budget appropriations bills have been held up in committee by Republicans.

…Republican Senators have put “holds” on every piece of legislation that does not renew their Dear Leader’s blank check in Iraq.

…Republicans have filibustered every effort to raise any questions about the direction of the war in Iraq.

…having been subpoenaed to testify before various House committees, the animators of the “Sergeant Iraq” footage were first instructed by the White House to ignore the subpoenas on the grounds of national security, and have subsequently been granted full Presidential pardons, and awarded 17 Presidential Medals of Freedom.

…and the Senate and House have passed 13,253 resolutions condemning MoveOn.Org’s “Sergeant Iraq” ad in language not heard since Lucifer was cast out of Heaven.

Sunday Morning Comin’ Down

Somewhere Chris Matthews is jerking off like a gibbon on a three-day poppers-and-Viagra tweak, because...

Today was Supah!Hillary!Day!

Yay!

On every single fucking Mouse Circus outlet, there she sat, in front of the same bookcase, wearing the same pearls (Or hematite. God curse the dodgy color control on the Official Castle Driftglass teevee machine.) pushing the same talking points, using the same 37 syllables.

Over and over again.

Somebody has been working on her message discipline.

“Fox News Sunday” was typically vile.

Wallace: Here’s video of your husband bitch-slapping me a year ago. Why are you Clintons so hateful and partisan?

Clinton: We need to move back to the Center.

Wallace: It is all the drugs you do, or the fumes from all the flags-swaddled fetuses you burn that makes you so evil and partisan?

Wallace: Why do you associate with Communists, cannibals and MoveOn?

And then on came Newt Gingrich – Newt Fucking Master Character Assassin Gingrich – and Wallace asks him:

So I asked Hillary about, y’know, what a partisan hag she has always been and she said, like, "Let’s get back to the Center, bitches!" So do you, Oh Kindly Unca Newt, think this is some kinda “New Hillary” deal? Or what?

Noot made some noises like a tree sloth trying to digest six cans of beans and a bag of plastic spoons and then wandered off to discuss such Matters of Vital National Importance as...

...School Prayer!

And English as the Official Language of Jebusland!

Not to worry, wingnuts; I’m sure if you pray over it hard enough in Math class, your superheroes

large


small


and blonde

will be grandfathered into the whole "Speak Murrican you fucking furriners!" mandate.


So having heard her grind out her abridged stump speech once, there was really no reason the hear it again. So I was reasching for the Official Castle Driftglass teevee machine Off Button when the most singular and amazing thing happened.

Turned out whoever was operating the camera on the Chappaqua-end was as bored as I was, napped out and let it run on between her plug-and-play interviews.

So, for example, after the Fox ritual rabid hamster dance was over...

Hillary knocked back a coupla stiff ones and let fly.


And after the “Face the Nation” interview, she relaxed for a few minutes with a few friends and cross examined an aide

over some missing letters.



On “Meet the Press” , she went right after Russert's manhood and his sad stewardship of MTP, knives-out

during the commercial.



After which, Alan Greenspan rose briefly from the grave to explain why

Dubya is an asshat, and why he – Alan!Greenspan! – couldn’t quite manage to stand up and fight for his own allegedly cherished principles and against all the catastrophically stupid, evil things the Bush Regime did while he was in public life and commanded actual power…

…and why, only now, in retirement and with a book to hawk, has he been able to conjure up the nads to say a single fucking discouraging word.


Later, following her turn on “This Week” , she reminded George Stephanopoulos of his long and unusual relationship between himself

his former Liege Lady.


On ”The Chris Matthews Show” -- where there was no actual Hillary -- Tweety had to make do by inviting Noron, John Heilemann, Kathleen Parker and Andrew Sullivan up to his tree fort to tell fart jokes and to ruminate on how stud awesome cool “Rudy v. Hillary” would be

I would imagine it'd look something

like this.

That was the reality. (Well, ok, that was my reality.)

This, on the other hand, is what I suspect was going on

in Tweety’s giant melon (somewhat not work safe.)

Funny, I remember this ad

as if it were yesterday

What I don’t remember is this…

SENATE. RES. 315

To express the sense of the Senate that the AARP deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemns personal attacks on the honor and integrity of the AARP and United States senior citizens.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

February 22, 2005

Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. ROBERTS, and Mr. MARTINEZ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging

RESOLUTION

To express the sense of the Senate that the AARP – America’s leading advocacy group for the rights of Senior Citizens -- deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemns personal attacks on their honor and integrity, and that of all United States senior citizens.

Whereas we think seniors r teh awesome;

Whereas American seniors kicked Nazi ass over half the planet and built the Middle Class;

Whereas they also survived the Great Depression, which took some doing, let me tell you;

Whereas they've got Bogart and Bacall. Hemingway. Jimmy Stewart. Sinatra. Muddy Waters. Albert Einstein. Orson Welles. John Steinbeck. George Marshall. Fred Astair. Jesse Owens. Lots of others;

Whereas for more information you should get up off your lazy ass and consult your local library, but let's just say they're not called the Greatest Generation for no reason;

Whereas they go to church way more than you do, never forget your birthday, and'll make you a sammich no matter how late you come home or how drunk you are;

Whereas a recent attack through a advertisement in the American Prospect by the Conservative activist group, USANext, impugns the honor and integrity of the AARP and by extension all United States senior citizens: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate--

(1) to reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the Greatest Generation, including the 11.5 million members of that Generation who were drafted into the military, the 6.3 million who volunteered, the over 291,000 who perished, and Supreme Allied Commander and President Dwight David Eisenhower, who is a member of that Generation and would probably be an AARP member if he were still alive;

(2) to strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Eisenhower and all the members of the Greatest Generation who served in the military and who are also card-carrying AARP members; and

(3) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower by the Conservative activist group, USANext.

(4) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext President and CEO Charles Jarvis, who served as deputy under secretary at the Department of Interior during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Jarvis was also the executive vice president of Focus on the Family.

(5) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext Board Member Craig Shirley, longtime Republican Party public relations powerhouse.

(6) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext Board Member, convicted criminal, liar and Tom DeLay BFF, Jack Abramoff,

(7) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext Board Member James Wootton, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform where he advocates for tort "reform," a high priority of the drug industry which is increasingly being sued for manufacturing unsafe drugs.

(8) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext Board Member David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

(9) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext Board Member Beau Boulter, a USANext lobbyist, a former GOP congressman from Texas who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 1989.

(10) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext corporate counsel Curtis Herge, a member of Reagan's Presidential Transition Team. He later held positions as the assistant to the secretary and chief of staff at the Department of the Interior.

(11) and although it breaks our fucking hearts to do it, to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Eisenhower and the Greatest Generation by USANext group national chair and spokesman, Art Linkletter.

(USANext member citations via wiki)

Stay Classy, Sparta!

Killing us softly

With everyday low prices.

From the LA Times.

1 million cribs being recalled after deaths
The Simplicity and Graco models -- made in China -- feature faulty parts that can lead to infant suffocation.
By Andrea Chang
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 22, 2007

The maker of Simplicity and Graco cribs on Friday recalled about 1 million of the beds after the deaths of at least two infants, including one in California.

"Don't take a chance at all," said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the voluntary recall by Reading, Pa.-based Simplicity Inc., one of the nation's largest crib manufacturers.

"If you are a parent or caregiver that has one of these cribs impacted by these recalls, your baby should not sleep in that crib tonight."

The recalled cribs, which were manufactured in China and sold at major retailers nationwide, feature a "drop-side" railing that can pull away from the mattress. Infants can become trapped in the resulting gap and suffocate.

The recall is the latest in a summer of worry for parents, who have seen name-brand toys, bibs and other childhood necessities removed from retail shelves because of safety concerns.

It's also yet another smudge on the reputation of Chinese-made goods.

The drop-side failures result from the hardware and crib design, which make it possible to install the drop-side incorrectly, the commission said. Installing the drop-side railing upside down greatly increases the risk of failure, although the commission said it was aware of two incidents that occurred when the drop-side was correctly installed.

The commission announced the recall after inquiries by the Chicago Tribune as part of a crib-safety investigation.

A 9-month-old and a 6-month-old died in cases where the drop-side railing was installed upside down, the commission said. The older infant was Liam Johns, who died in Citrus Heights, Calif., in April 2005, according to the boy's father, Chad Johns.

"The fact that the recall finally came through has lifted a lot of weight from our shoulders and given us closure," said Johns, who now lives in Roseville, Calif., with his wife, Nicola. "We wanted to make sure no other families suffer through the same situation that we did."

The family's attorney, Charles Kelly of San Francisco-based law firm Hersh & Hersh, said he alerted the commission about the problem more than two years ago and that the agency took too long to act.

"The crib is supposed to be the safe sanctuary for your baby and instead it turns into a deathtrap," Kelly said. The Johnses sued Simplicity and settled in June for an undisclosed amount, he said.

A 1-year-old died in a newer crib model that has not been recalled but is being investigated by the commission. That infant also died after the drop-side was installed upside down.

...

This is what happens when a national lets Conservativism rot into its blood.

We stop caring about good anymore, only cheap.

We stop giving a shit that cheap will cost a neighbor her job.

Or her child.

As long as we, personally, are never inconvenienced by ugly, mutilating underbelly of unfettered globalization, well then just fuck it.

Still, perhaps with enough wallops upside the national head one right after another we'll start to wake up to the fact that we're all on the Neocon slaughter line; we all just drew different "Next Served" numbers.

And perhaps after this umpteenth example of a certain industrialized nation recklessly dumping its lethal crap on our shores to make a buck off of crippling and killing our children, we can also slowly begin to collectively comprehend why we ourselves not exactly beloved anymore in certain parts of the developing world.

It's time to pick a fight.

Dems, here’s your Million Dollar Idea

Demand a debate.

Don’t ask. Don’t plead. Don;t negotiate.

Demand.

The Iraq to-and-fro has become trench warfare, with each side dug into their respective rhetorical positions like ticks, and nobody moving substantively in the direction of ending this catastrophic foreign adventure.

Meanwhile, Iraqis are dying, our kids are dying, and time is in the Bad Guy’s side.

Every day this Administration successfully delays and obfuscates is another day closer they are to retirement, gang-pardons, dumping their toxic disaster into the laps of the next Administration, and ramping up the Next Great Lie: that Democrats Lost Iraq.

Plus the cadence of the Long Campaign is becoming a monotonous and predictable patter. Democrats, smelling victory, are playing not to lose. And the Republicans are desperately trying to carve their scant records or various until-recently-diametrically-anti-Conservative positions up into Reagan-O-Lanterns to dupe the imbecile Base.

This would cut through all the lockstep, predictable campaign clutter and changing the tempo of battle. Throw the Bush Regime off-stride and off message.

Pick two fierce, candid, articulate Democrats who have no skin in the 2008 Presidential Elections and demand – every day, on the floor of the Senate, in every newspaper, in front of every camera – that the Bicycle Chief and his Zombie Regent quit cowering behind the troops and the lapdog media and come out and debate leading opponents of the war man-to-man.

How much draw would there be for a live, two-hour, prime-time Iraq War Town meeting featuring Bush/Cheney vs. Webb/Feingold?

or Feingold/Dean?

or Dean/Gore?

or Gore/Clark?

or Clark/Webb?


If you are so confident in the rightness of your cause, why are you hiding behind your underlings?

If you support democracy everywhere, why won’t you come out into public square and fight for your ideas like a man?

Or are you really just lying pussies?

America awaits your answer Mr. President.

Howard

Says “Hey”.

Dean Sends Greetings on Yom Kippur

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean, issued the following statement commemorating Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement:

"Coinciding with the Sabbath, sundown on Friday marks the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews around the world.

"This High Holiday is a time to seek forgiveness and ask for divine guidance for self-improvement through repentance, prayer and fasting.

"On Yom Kippur, Jews will honor and remember loved ones who have passed, work to rekindle and rebuild relationships, and seek means and opportunities to improve their communities.

"My family and I ask all to join with the Jewish people to use this time to mark the hopeful beginning of a new era of peace and security."

…

In the long and often bloody history of faith, the idea of day reserved for reflection and atonement that is held sacred above all others is one of history's truly great spiritual innovations.

G'mar Chatimah Tovah to you all.

And for you political historians out there, here is some rare, recently released archival footage of Dr. Dean

dispatching challengers to his 50 State Strategy in 2006.

A little roundup

To ease you on into the weekend, pards.

Because sometimes I need a posse.

And sometimes all I need is my rifle, my pony and...

Minstrel Boy sharing a moving and eloquent story of finding wisdom where we usually find it: in the most unusual places, standing next to the most unexpected people.

Riverbend brought to us via Brilliant at Breakfast finding that through our Dear Leader’s worship of Ares, we have conjured another ancient plague and visited it on the nation of Iraq.
File under: Cholera in the Time of Rove.


Spocko continuing to show what one Alert Citizen with a laser pointer can do to focus public attention on what truly evil filth pukes up out of wingnut radio every single day under the fedora of “entertainment: and “opinion” programming.

Gives me an idea. We have this local station called WIND. Hmmm. Watch this space.

DC Media Girl returning from wherever it was that she went. One assumes secret hero stuff and that various shadow villains have been discreetly dispatched to the Phantom Zone. If you know otherwise and it comes in the form of a more pedestrian alternative explanation, cork it.

Or do you want Big Al Pushkin coming around and kicking your ass?

“The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us then ten-thousand truths.”

-- Alexander Pushkin

Dating

explained. (from this larger post)


I am biased. I know it.

But with LowerManhattanite, Sara Robinson, "Doc" Wendel and Hubris Sonic firing on all cylinders and raining funny and wise and brilliant and hell-ayshus doom from above, one cannot help but note that the Group News Blog has well and truly arrived.

Of course now the trick is to keep dancing.

‘Cause baby, sometimes it feels

just like this (footage secretly taken at the Blogger's Breakfast at YearlyKos.)


And other times

more like so.


Yowza, yowza :-)

Schhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwing!

(h/t Emmett of Brass Goggles here.)

Want!

“Do not lay up for yourselves

treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “

Matthew 6

I always though this was pretty good advice: Not to go poor and starkers here on Earth if you can avoid it, but that the best of things are those that go beyond heaps of gold and sheaves of bearer bonds.

Turns out there is an exception to Matthew’s rule; an Earthly treasure that can and should be stored up here and now.

From Reuters.

Arctic vault takes shape for world food crops
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:35am EDT

By John Acher

LONGYEARBYEN, Svalbard (Reuters) - In a cavern under a remote Arctic mountain, Norway will soon begin squirreling away the world's crop seeds in case of disaster.

Dynamited out of a mountainside on Spitsbergen island around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the store has been called a doomsday vault or a Noah's Ark of the plant kingdom.

It is the brainchild of a soft-spoken academic from Tennessee who is passionate about securing food for the masses, and will back up seed stores around the world that are vulnerable to loss through war or disaster.

A 20-metre (66-foot) long concrete entrance, still under scaffolding, juts out of the snow-dusted mountain above the coal-mining town of Longyearbyen.

It is reached by a switchback road rising to 120 meters above sea level, offering spectacular views of the fjord below and snow-capped Arctic mountains beyond.

Visitors descend through the mouth of a gently sloping 40-metre steel tube into the frosty cavern which smells of new cement and is dotted with portable lamps as work progresses for February's opening.

"There aren't going to be any better storage conditions than what we will provide here," founder Cary Fowler told reporters during a recent visit to the site in the Svalbard archipelago off northern Norway. "This is a safety deposit box, like in a bank, where you put your valuables."

Although this is one of the world's most northerly settlements, an electric freezer will be used to keep the seeds in the three-chambered concrete-lined vault at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit).

If the power fails, permafrost will still keep them frozen, but not as deeply.

The project is at the heart of an effort by Fowler's foundation, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, to safeguard strains of 21 essential crops, such as wheat, barley and rice.

Rice alone exists in about 120,000 different varieties.

…

The aim is to preserve genetic diversity, needed by plant breeders in the future to produce varieties able to adapt to challenges like climate change.

Crops consist of numerous species, some as different from each other as a "Dachshund from a Great Dane", Fowler said.

If such a store had existed 10 years ago, he said, the seeds would have been needed about once a year as seed collections have been wiped out -- for instance by a typhoon in the Philippines and war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I'm sorry to say we will be using it a lot," Fowler said.

Eventually, the vault will have capacity for around 4.5 million bar-coded seed samples and it hopes in its first year to collect half a million.

…

What Fowler is protecting is nothing less than the future itself.

Or, rather, the idea that the future is a real place where our children and grandchildren will have to live, work, eat and dance.

A place that deserves our treasure, our labor and our hearts.

Because as Richard Feynman said:

“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.”

As for me, I don’t need to believe in a Great Bennigan's in the Sky to be happy, or a Hell to frighten me into doing the right thing.

I will settle for knowing that in 10,000 years our descendents will still be here, fucking around, savoring fine writing over a dram of the Irish (made from the umpteenth generation progeny of one of Fowler’s barleys perhaps), and still be striving to figure out the lyrics to "Bennie and the Jets"

("She's got electric boobs"? "Her mom has two"? WTF?)

That a hundred centuries from now the human heart will still be grappling with the Big Questions, that human hands will still be healing, knitting and building amazing things. And that human eyes will be watching sunrises on Mars, the rings of Saturn from Titan, or interstellar whatnots zinging past as we move out among the stars.

That is a treasure worth fighting for.

That is Heaven enough for me.

The color for today is

Black



In support of good causes, people ask for things all the time. Money. Endorsements. Time. Organs. Various fluids. More money.

To support the Jena 6, a friend of mine asked me to wear black today.

That's it.

Details here.

And so I had to ask myself (as I usually do when confronted with questions that cross ethical/sartorial boundaries): "What would Johnny do?'

Turns out the answer is

pretty unambiguous.

To try and "carry off a little darkness on my back" today.

Doesn't seem too much to ask.

So I'll drag out the space bag labeled "angsty writer" and pull something together.

And to the Libidinous Liberal Lasses out there, please note that black can include all

kinds


of



interesting


alternatives.