The squirrel kisses the poodle... in the shadow of the lion tamer

    

ooo ugh.  Steny.  And gathering the “progressives” (including Waters and Lewis) to his bosom.  Honestly, I’d rather Murtha:

 Liberal House Democrats are not lining up behind Rep. Jack Murtha’s (D-Pa.) leadership candidacy in the numbers he had hoped despite his outspoken stance against the Iraq war.

Murtha’s failure to line up staunch opponents of the war could prove a blow to his hope of denying the majority leadership to Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) in the event of a Democratic takeover of the House in the 110th Congress.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a friend of Murtha who has been helping him with the race, said tepid support among some progressives was a worry to him. “It does concern you when people you think are going to be with you turn out not to be. Some of that’s cultural issues, guns and abortion,” he said. “But we still have the votes.” [snip]

Artur Davis, of whom Black Commentator is downright withering, is on board as well.  They are same wing of the party:  Biz Wing.  I don’t think all the wheezy prattles about abortion and guns is at issue.  At all.

I caught Murtha on C-span with some vets who are running for Congress.  What a different feel than the way Kos shoved them out and slobbered over them.  Very different. They were low key, salt of the earth men (and yes, all men, all white).  More than one, when asked by the press, dispensed harshly with how Kerry lost control of the SBVfT assault. Of course, Kos drifting over the line of what America is (was?) all about with his “only the military should criticise the military” and comments that those who serve are better than the rest of us was beyond offensive… Hello? fella?

So Hoyer it is to be I suppose (tho the article does leave it hanging).  Watch for Blahgs to trumpet and pummel naysayers.  With one or two acting as the foil.  It got old sometime ago.

But our bedrock matters less and less – so why do I care that Kos is very confused about civilian leadership of the military. 

Waste of my time to fuss as we hurtle onward:   Ivins on watching Habeas Corpus trail into the twilight of the arc of the nation.

[I]n another change, a clause said that evidence obtained outside the United States could be admitted in court even if it had been gathered without a search warrant. But the bill now drops the words “outside the United States,” which means prosecutors can ignore American legal standards on warrants.

The bill also expands the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant to cover anyone who has “has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.” Quick, define “purposefully and materially.” One person has already been charged with aiding terrorists because he sold a satellite TV package that includes the Hezbollah network.

The bill simply removes a suspect’s right to challenge his detention in court. This is a rule of law that goes back to the Magna Carta in 1215. That pretty much leaves the barn door open.

As Vladimir Bukovsky, the Soviet dissident, wrote, an intelligence service free to torture soon “degenerates into a playground for sadists.” But not unbridled sadism—you will be relieved that the compromise took out the words permitting interrogation involving “severe pain” and substituted “serious pain,” which is defined as “bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain.”  [snip]

A good time to pop in Nicholas von Hoffman’s Howl: Snapshot of a Plutocracy:

[T]here are only nineteen billionaire manufacturers on the list, but there are twenty-five from the finance category. And how many billionaires in agriculture? There are seven, six of whom inherited their money. Forbes also has a category for food billionaires. There are twenty-five of them making or inheriting money from fast food (Chick-fil-A), candy, soft drinks, chewing gum and Campbell’s soup. All of that tells you something about America. The fact that there are sixteen health business billionaires, including the Frist family, tells you something else about America and the high cost of health insurance.

Some states are too poor, too dull, too much on the decline to harbor a billionaire. You won’t find one in New Mexico or North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi. What about the states with one or two billionaires? Try Idaho, where the Simplot Family, with $3.2 billion in their sporran, rules. Do they practice droit du seigneur there? On the other hand, there are eighty-nine billionaires in California, enough perchance that they might have a falling out and, once divided, give the impecunious masses a chance to make their will known. However, even at the risk of sounding a trifle Marxist, there is such a thing as class solidarity, and if there ever were a class that had reason to band together and stick it to the rest of us, it is the billionaire class and its lesser millionaire allies.  [snip]

I do believe that v Hoffman is quietly saying they have taken over. Or taken the nation back from the brief (and wonderful) flutters of the Warren Court and some trails of populism, equality, real movement politics and efforts at small ”d” democracy…  And indeed they have.  With displays of largesse carried for days across all the network channels and cables.  Bow down. 

Thanks, my knees will take a pass.  As will my mind.

   
performing pastel-colored poodle,
in a clown and poodle show
[OCRegister]

A good time to slap Bill (it’s a metaphor!).  Well he is a bore.  But he is also Front and Center.  Still. 

SMBIVA snags some sloberation from the BBC:  Squirrel kisses Poodle

[A[t one point, speaking about the Clinton Foundation, created to tackle climate change, Aids and other global issues, he declared: "I found there was life after politics."

All eyes immediately swivelled across the platform to examine Tony Blair's expression for any sign of recognition or enthusiasm.

Perhaps this is what he has in mind when he finally closes the door of No 10. A Blair Foundation, perhaps even a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation.

The world, not just Great Britain, would be his project.

As Mr Clinton kept suggesting, some things are just too big for national governments alone. What is needed is international partnership and non-governmental organisations working together.  [snip]

All a congealing wuss ball.  And Tony met extensively with hard core Repubs (from Arnold to George Shultz) when he was out here in California.  Everybody knew he was interviewing for “life after”. 

What fictions the parties have been.  All along.  A breath here or there, a moment.  So many have truly died for freedom in this country.  I think almost every day of the assassinations, not just the best known, but the many, thru out the Sixties. Of Kent State and the killings a little later at Jackson.

Bronwen Maddox in the Independent takes a cool, longer look at the Clinton liquifaction:

BILL CLINTON drew huge cheers from the Labour Party yesterday. The day before, Tony Blair, lecturing on the dangers of recoiling from the US, did not mention President Bush.

It is a delusion to pretend that Bush is a one-off villain, an aberration, from the country that so recently produced Clinton. In two years, the dream goes, he will be gone and we shall all be free to love America again.

That is a misunderstanding of the forces that produced Bush — and Clinton. True, Bush’s excessive decisiveness has produced a chaotic presidency. But his rise still says something important about the direction of US politics. To disregard that would be a recipe for perpetual disillusionment with his successors, Republican or Democrat, and for disappointment in America, which would be unjustified and destructive.

And this is just so cheering <sarcasm dripping from her mouth>.  I don’t have the links at hand, but ran into some soft slobber at MyDD yesterday about K Street come courtin’ some Democrats. It was presented as soft happy slurp at the Blahg.   Except I had read the article in The Hill.  It was the reverse.  Dems looking for campaign funding and shoveling out the promises…. (will hunt up both pieces).

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UPDATE, 11:58 am

- Not on a Full Stomach -

I saw this roll up on the RSS feed from the Guardian‘s News Blog:  ”Big Dog’s Penis”.  I HAD to check.  Just a snip so if you do go read –there are photos as well… does not go well with lunch, tho maybe i am just queasy early in the day..  But it is representative of ‘cutting to the chase’ – and suits our militaristic future…

“Donkey,” says Nancy. “Good for the skin…”

She guides me round the penis platter.

“Snake. Very potent. They have two penises each.”

I did not know that.

I am rather glad I was not fully up on the fact that snakes have two.

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Also snagged from the News Blog at The Guardian (oh those British wags):

For those who want more US-UK political hook ups, Matthew Engel’s sketch from the Labour conference for the Financial Times ponders that Mr Clinton would make an excellent successor to Tony Blair if there were a loophole that could get him into parliament. He has one clear advantage, Engel suggests:

With prime minister Clinton, Labour could be quite certain he would restore the cool, arm’s length relationship with the White House that the party craves – especially if Hillary does become president.

Might as well laugh.

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UPDATE, 3:15 pm

Couple things from Laura Rozen’s War and Piece…

Bolton may not be goners.  Sigh.  I guess no one should be surprised.  Bush wants what Bush wants:

We critics of John Bolton’s recklessly ineffective diplomacy have always known that his defeat in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would likely be a symbolic victory. But now it appears that this administration could use its enlarged sense of presidential power to pay the salary of a man to represent the United States whom our Senate has failed to consent to twice.

And… she has some snips from a UK MoD document:

A British Ministry of Defense document obtained by the BBC reflects some of the grim analysis of recent US intelligence community reporting on Iraq and the global war on terror. Among the documents findings:

The Al Qaeda ideology has taken root within the Muslim world and Muslim populations within western countries. Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and Al Qaeda has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act.

British Armed Forces are effectively held hostage in Iraq – following the failure of the deal being attempted by COS (Chief of Staff) to extricate UK Armed Forces from Iraq on the basis of ‘doing Afghanistan’ – and we are now fighting (and arguably losing or potentially losing) on two fronts.

The West will not be able to find peaceful exit strategies from Iraq and Afghanistan – creating greater animosity…and a return to violence and radicalisation on their leaving. The enemy it has identified (terrorism) is the wrong target. As an idea it cannot be defeated.

Gah.  I just read some halting gibberish from one of the Dem hopefuls for 08 – think it ws Warner, over Iraq … hesitant slobber about “finding a way out of Iraq”.

Shit honey.  Assemble facing North, South and West to Jordan, at the roads that go in those directions – while they are still navigable – and beat for the border like bats outta hell.

We are drowning.  And politicians just shuffle their feet, shift their eyes and mumble.  Don’t go war if your best move, your most practised stance is a long, deadly stumble.

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