Rounding the bend……….

Rounding the bend………. 25 January 2008

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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From ABC’s The Note:

Nuts and bolts of South Carolina Democratic Primary:

Polls open: 7:00 am ET

Polls close: 7:00 pm ET

Forty-five delegates are up for grabs.

Democratic delegates are apportioned according to the vote in each congressional district as well as the statewide results. Candidates must receive at least 15 percent (either within a congressional district or statewide) of the vote to be eligible to be apportioned delegates.

African-Americans make up 29 percent of the state’s population and make up 47 percent of the voters in the 2004 Democratic primary. Black voters went for John Edwards over John Kerry 37-34 percent. On Saturday, African-Americans are expected to make up at least half of the voters in the primary, and probably more.

South Carolina has an open primary: independents can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary but not both. The Republican primary was last Saturday so an independent who voted on Jan. 19 cannot vote again in Saturday’s primary.

There are 2,445,755 registered voters (There is no same-day registration).

Absentee ballots are due on primary day and can be returned by fax.

More than you wanted to know…

- If Obama is performing very well in counties like Williamsburg, Florence, Marion and Clarendon, it could indicate a big win for him. These are counties with large African-American population

- Clinton’s areas are Charleston, Greenville, and Columbia (Richland County). She can do well in these places among educated liberal women. Columbia is a college town (USC) and Clinton has a strong network of elected officials in Richland County.

- If Edwards is getting 25-35 percent in the Upstate counties (Greenville, Spartanburg, Cherokee, York, Chester) then this could really hurt Clinton. These counties are the places where Edwards’ economic message can play well — textile mills closing — and if he gets broad support, it will likely be at the expense of Clinton.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Can you imagine if the Monte Carto had caught fire the day of the NV Caucuses?

LOL

Real Clear Politics, POLLS: South Carolina / Democrats… (they have Intrade too)

oh just for good measure: MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR… HAPPY FITZMAS, Put the tooth under your pillow for the Tooth Fairy, Clap for Peter Pan! TInker Bell will not forget you!…

and never forget:

FIrst you fall in love, then you fall in line (Bill Clinton, Harkin Steak Fry, 2003)

Carry on…

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Comments»

1. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: just throw that weasel and that ferret into a burlap sack and let them tear each other apart.

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2. marisacat - 25 January 2008: Oh that made me laugh….

8)

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: He also slew Memnon, son of the first morning light

a little meditation/break from teh newz.

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: Ghost Of Rimming Past

I’ve seen online and heard on sports radio all kinds of “Brokeback Mountain” tie-ins to Ledger’s death, most of them incredibly one-dimensional, stupid, and not even approaching funny — that is, if you insist on some kind of intelligence in your humor. Frankly, I don’t know if there is an intelligent, humorous connection between Ledger dying and his stellar performance in Ang Lee’s film. But I do know the sound of hetero-fear, that nervous, adolescent chuckling that emerges when the closet door starts to open a little too wide. Were Ledger an actual gay ranch hand, it would be bad enough. But he was an actor who played a character in a fictional story — you know, pretend. Not real. Yet when “Brokeback Mountain” initially appeared, I couldn’t believe the amount queer-phobia thrown at the film, at Gyllenhaal and at Ledger. A lot of it was heard on sports radio, one of the last bastions of white male angst, where attacks on “political correctness” are encouraged, because, like, if black people can call each other niggers, then why can’t white people use the same word? It’s just not fair! And now we have movies that show American cowboys fucking each other on the prairie. Where will this PC madness end? And who can stop it?

I grew up with and around a lot of white guys like the ones I’ve been hearing lately, and I know the type all too well. They’re sad, pathetic specimens, hanging on to some fantasy image of male strength and virility (which is, to use their reasoning, kinda “gay” in and of itself). Politically isolated, socially atomized, they look to blame or mock those ostensibly beneath them — hell, anything but face the stark, political reality that shapes their every movement. Ultimately, the joke’s on them. Heath Ledger’s final film was not “Brokeback Mountain,” but will be “The Dark Knight,” in which he plays a heavily-armed, psychopathic mass murderer. Somehow, I don’t think American white boys are gonna mock Ledger for that portrayal. Hmmm, I wonder why . . .

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5. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Is this a Hillary diary? I can’t quite decide.

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6. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: (From end of last thread – oops!)

Oh noes…how long will this go on?

If Cool Hand Johnny can stick out the fight a while longer, things could get really baroque – as in baroquered convention. Delegates, superdelegates, and brokered conventions … oh my.

Palm fronds crossed!

Huckabee dorm massacre survivor enjoys rest and repast, hugs Popcorn Tree.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: A criminal idea

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8. Hair Club for Men - 25 January 2008: Is this a Hillary diary? I can’t quite decide

The Clintons make their appearances in the primaries.

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9. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Hmm..it looks like Avarosis deleted his stimulus check post from his blog. The link is a 404.

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10. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: 6. Yikes. Like I want to spend a Friday nite reading a “primer” on your crazy election process?

Huckabee dorm massacre survivor enjoys rest and repast, hugs Popcorn Tree.

Cute!

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11. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: The Clintons make their appearances in the primaries.

lol

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: Obama on Israel

As Cuban Ambassador Isidoro Malmierca, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement noted in the recent U.N. debate, more than 150 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, have been killed during the last six weeks. Senator Obama (or even the readers of this blog) may not have read about the NAM denunciation of the seige of Gaza, though, since it wasn’t reported in a single Western newspaper. Someone speaking on behalf of 2/3 of the member states of the United Nations, and 55 percent of the world’s population is of little interest to the Western media, since those aren’t the “right” 2/3 of the world’s countries nor the “right” 55 percent of the world’s population.

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13. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Ezra Klein: what a wordsmith.

(About Clinton wanting to count Mich and Fla delegates):

This is a very, very, very big deal.

Ooooo….ahhhhh….

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14. marisacat - 25 January 2008: Gee Aravosis appears to have worried he was looking like a nasty reactionary whining asshole?

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15. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: I totally missed this last nite: MSNBC blames Romney whisper on microphone malfunction

Just before Romney answered a question about Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Social Security overhaul, a voice can be heard whispering, either “He raised taxes” or “not raise taxes.” The overheard musing was the result of an open microphone somewhere, but a spokesman said the whisperer has not been identified.

Ronnie, was that you??

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: George W. Bush’s favorite painting

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17. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: your crazy election process

Here’s the nougat in a nutshell, I think:

While the possibility that superdelegates would thwart the will of the electorate is brought up every four years, there is reason to think they might play a decisive role in this one. For instance, if Clinton and Obama each get 45 percent of the delegates from South Carolina and the Feb. 5 states, they would end up with about 820 delegates each. To reach a majority of the delegates (the amount required to win) using only pledged delegates, one of them would need to win about 85 percent of the remaining delegates. Of course, if one candidate emerges from Feb. 5 with a big lead the ultimate winner will be fairly clear. But since that very well may not happen we could be in for a fight for every last delegate that ends up being decided by superdelegates.

Carolina karma chameleon.

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18. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Madman at 15 – I saw something about that earlier today, via Cursor! How perfect is our world that only NOW someone outs his revered Methodist Missionary Ikon as an escaping thief?

I heard Jacob Weisberg (Slate editor and author of The Bush Tragedy) interviewed on Fresh Air the other day, and he was talking about Bush’s famous, life-changing beachside chat with Billy Graham. Apparently Weisberg (having researched that, too) believes that Bush conflated his memory of a truly life-changing chat with a literally cross-dragging itinerant “Jesus Freak” three years earlier, with a family visit from Graham.

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19. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Presidential fantasy with Billy Graham in the mod pod, I think. Sorry!

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20. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Thanks!

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: IB

Bush is a serial liar. Always was. The Billy Graham story is just another example (I heard that story too).

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22. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: “Give me a J!”

Dubya’s true savior: Arthur Blessit.

Website includes handy instructions for making your own cross.

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23. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: lc at 5 – After I overcame resistance to click your DK link, I finally got Hair Club’s “funny movie death” joke. New Hillary nickname: Megalodonna?

BTW, are you gonna participate in the Canadian feminist F Word Blog Awards?

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24. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Oh wait, I see liberal catnip’s already a nominee!

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25. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: Richard Belzer on Maher:

“When I hear the term ‘acceptable level of violence’ I want to puke.

… an ‘acceptable’ … there is no such thing … if there were car bombs and murders in the Bronx and in Chicago and in Florida from a foreign country would you think Americans, ‘It’s an acceptable level of violence …’”

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26. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2008: America – A Bankrupt Empire

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27. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: FWIW, from Letterman’s tonight – top ten titles for the George W. Bush movie (Oliver Stone biopic, I guess). Listed at No. 2: The Nightmare Before Hillary.

Ambivalence abounds.

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28. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Stone quoted in the Guardian:

“It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to Nixon [Stone's 1995 biopic of the former US president], to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his [Bush's] skin,” Stone told Variety. “People have turned my political ideas into a cliché, but that is superficial. I’m a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great.”

Stone says that the forthcoming movie, which could begin filming as soon as April and be released in time for Bush’s departure from the Oval Office, will focus on certain key events of the president’s life.

Anyone up for a chorus of We are so fucked?

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29. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Or, shall hope win the day?

Is Oliver Stone Finally Irrelevant? (Radar Online)

As Hollywood’s most excitable auteur, Oliver Stone’s trademarks include quick cuts, bombastic music, and out-of-place John McGinley cameos. But the chief quiver in his bow has been his uncanny ability to whip the conservative noise-machine into a proper frenzy. So far, though, despite our greatest efforts, Stone’s planned George Bush biopic has been met with deafening silence from America’s most excitable conservative bloviators.

In fact, even the faintest of right-wing murmurs regarding the film have already died out. The New York Post kept the story off the front page upon the announcement in favor of a gimpy Tom Brady; inside, the paper regurgitated a wire feed story and the distinctly unsnarky headline, “Oliver Doing Dubya Flick.” Both William Bennett and George Will were mum. None of the Fox News editorialists mustered much—not even Bill O’Reilly, who, despite showing admirable flair for taking on directors-of-a-certain-age during his recent feud with Brian de Palma, met the announcement Tuesday with a program to investigating an upswing in exorcisms.

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30. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Oh wait, I see liberal catnip’s already a nominee!

Yeah, somebody up here likes me.

Always a bridesmaid though – never a bride.

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31. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: More Radar – NYC v. LA: The We Are All Guilty Edition.

L.A.: Notable headline: “Cadaver Exhibit: Who Said Okay?”
NYC: Notable headline: “Evil Lesbian Mom Left Toddler to Die Slow Death ”
Advantage: L.A.

(Cadaver Exhibit link, for the curious. . . .)

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32. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: “Although plastination was intended to advance medicine and science, many entrepreneurs are using plastination to make outrageous profits by dissecting, mutilating and parading unwilled bodies around the world and in our state,” the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), said during Assembly debate. “Asking for consent and verification is not too much to ask.”

The two major anatomy exhibitors are divided on the legislation. Industry pioneer Body Worlds said it has no problem providing donor documentation. The other exhibitor, Premier Exhibitions Inc., which operates the Sacramento show, said it obtained all the remains legally from Chinese medical and scientific organizations but does not know the identities of the donors.

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33. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Prep Students Challenge Rove Speech

WALLINGFORD, Conn. (AP) — Some students at Choate Rosemary Hall, the prestigious prep school attended by John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson, are protesting the choice of former presidential adviser Karl Rove as this year’s commencement speaker.

Some plan to walk out, while others are trying to bring comedian Stephen Colbert to campus for an alternate speech. The campus newspaper has urged the school to reject Rove.

Colbert? Good move.

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34. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Always a bridesmaid though – never a bride.

On the bright side, the former is less binding.

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35. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: * Dresses and shoes not included.

Go Choate! Arise, ye privileged youth!

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36. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: On the bright side, the former is less binding.

Well yes, I was gong to add something about my views on marriage but decided not to. The bridesmaids have more fun.

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37. marisacat - 25 January 2008: 32

about a year ago one of the exhibitors of the human remains put on a show here in SF… What a ruckus! The minute it came out the bodies had been obtained in Mainland China, whammo, driven from town.

The show, I think fronted by a second org, is now down in San Jose…

I find it interestingly ghoulish in a sort of 19th c “human exhitibt”, circus, medical curiosity way.

Probably the most distasteful thing is that the exhibits, some of them, appear to drip the plastic. A red dye is used to sort of indicate sinew and sometimes that drips too, looking rather worryingly like BLOOOOOOD.

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38. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: German aphorism in translation (courtesy of a Berliner on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations cable food/travel show):

Once one’s reputation is destroyed, it is possible to live quite freely.

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39. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Karzai, the puppet

On his perceived image as an impotent leader in thrall to the U.S. administration, Karzai, said he was willing to shoulder insults in return for U.S. assistance.

“Me a puppet? My God.

“Anyway, Americans have helped Afghanistan tremendously. The American people have a feeling for Afghanistan a very, very great feeling. [hello? they're not even paying attention to you anymore. -catnip]

“The U.S administration has helped Afghanistan and if we are called puppets, or if I am called a puppet because we are grateful to America, then let that be my nickname.

It feels good to be validated, puppet.

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40. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: I remember the big controversy over the meat dress here in the 80s (which I did get to see at the U of C’s gallery). Not exactly a cadaver but it sure was controversial. I couldn’t figure out what the fuss was all about.

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41. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Probably the most distasteful thing is that the exhibits, some of them, appear to drip the plastic. A red dye is used to sort of indicate sinew and sometimes that drips too, looking rather worryingly like BLOOOOOOD.

Hey, quality public education is supposed to challenge stale cultural assumptions, as well as the tiny children, right?

As long as the donors are legit, I’m all for it. In fact, I’m making a note of Bodyworld – I’ve got a relative interested in a second career as a cadaver, and this looks like tons more fun than the average medical school gig.

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42. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: meat dress on a model.

Now that I think about it, I may have just seen an exhibit of pics and the controversy. I can barely remember what I did yesterday, so who knows?

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43. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: CADAVERS IN SPAM!

(No rush, Marisacat – just thought that would be fun to yell!)

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44. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: What the younger generation thinks of Hillary.

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45. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: The model with the meat dress looks a tad dismayed. (I’m picturing a trip to the toilet to heave, followed by a call to the agency that sent her.)

But it’s the flip side of leather and fur, n’est-ce pas?

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46. marisacat - 25 January 2008: welll I think when one looks close at the so called releases that relate to the bodies from China, it all gets rather dicey.

But lots of towns don’t have Fiona Ma… up in arms. I feel pretty sure the exhibitors made quite a bit from the tours… they certainly had cash for adverts – TV and radio – and got a lot of early pbulicity when the City of San Francisco and esp Chinatown rose up and drove them to land’s end… LOL

Yeah my guess is children just LOVED it. Which makes perfect sense…

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47. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: But it’s the flip side of leather and fur, n’est-ce pas?

Exactly.

They did have the dress hanging on a dress form as it rotted, much to the relief of that model, no doubt.

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48. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Sully, the feminist.

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49. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: 46 – NO doubt foreign releases get dicey, but someone in the USA should market this as a burial/cremation alternative and solve the problem organically. All the better, if the exhibitors make money!

Look at the green burial movement.

If people had some assurance that their remains would be handled creatively, as well as educationally, Artistic Cadaver Road Shows would soon have donors to spare. They should hook up with the organ donation advocates for mailing lists.

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50. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: From TPM: Exclusive: After Obama Complaints, CNN Bans James Carville And Paul Begala From Appearing As Analysts Until Dem Primary Is Settled

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51. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Think of it as a Second Life avatar . . . only a little more binding! Perfect for the tattoo and piercing enthusiasts.

PS: Heard a Marketplace piece on Second Life the other day . . . apparently the economy there is tanking, too.

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52. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Knut is a psychopath and will never mate, say experts. Free Knut!

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53. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Speaking of models, critters, and gigs
here are some wild World Wildlife Fund ads via Paradis Express.

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54. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Knut is a problem bear who has become addicted to human beings,” he said.

Knut’s epiphany foretold.

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55. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Someone should do a Knut T-shirt – I’d rather be a sparrow than Mom’s lunch.

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56. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Oops – I’d rather be a junkie than Mom’s lunch.

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57. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: here are some wild World Wildlife Fund ads via Paradis Express.

Very creative.

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58. marisacat - 25 January 2008: I understand the point that was madea bout Knute, early on… not about killing him tho!

BUT I have never understood in the strange world where we entrap animals anyway, for exhibition, fun (of a sort) and CASH income… why can Knut not be just an eccentric human oriented polar bear? As in, one more?

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59. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: Oops again – Knut’s epiphany retry.

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60. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: Interesting article. I wasn’t aware of Women on Waves.

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61. Intermittent Bystander - 25 January 2008: 58 – Yah, that’s what I’m trying to say at 56.

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62. liberalcatnip - 25 January 2008: 58. I really dislike zoos. Haven’t been to one on decades. I’d rather see Knut in the wild but since he’s so used to zoo life, I suppose that’s impossible. As for his being obsessed with humans, when that’s about all you have to look at all day, it’s no wonder.

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63. marisacat - 25 January 2008: Women of the Waves are great! I did a little skit in some post a while ago, fantasising that they dock off MS and AL… and the US decides they are a threat of war… LOL… with the MS and AL Air National Guard and some hurry up cavalry setting off to “pacify” and board the Abortion Boat. This being AL and MS they forget the cavalry will have to board boats to get to the abortion ship…

The MS and AL Cavalry wearing white shirts with red neckerchiefs and red crosses emblazoned on the backs of the white shirts.

Headress in white cotton with eye holes is optional

it went something like that… LOL

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64. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: 63. I can just imagine! lol

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65. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: Apologies to Lyle Lovett:

If I had a boat
I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I’d ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

If I were Roy Rogers
I’d sure enough be single
I couldn’t bring myself to marrying old Dale
It’d just be me and trigger
We’d go riding through them movies
Then we’d buy a boat and on the sea we’d sail

And if I had a boat
I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I’d ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
‘Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I’m going out to sea

And if I had a boat
I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I’d ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

And if I were like lightning
I wouldn’t need no sneakers
I’d come and go wherever I would please
And I’d scare ‘em by the shade tree
And I’d scare ‘em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea

And if I had a boat
I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I’d ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

Bedtime for Blabbermouth – ‘night all..

Palmetto destinies await on the morrow!

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66. marisacat - 26 January 2008: Borosage on the “stimulus” package:

[B]ut $40 billion isn’t the largest cost. The real price is the continued misdirection of the economy and miseducation of the country. We need what the stimulus package excludes. We need long term investment in rebuilding America — spending money on mass transit, on basic sewers and water disposal, on the electric grid, on renewable energy, on a green rebuilding of our urban areas, on schools and teachers, pre-K and affordable college. We need to stop squandering money abroad in misbegotten wars — now approaching $1 trillion spent on Iraq. We need to revive progressive taxation so at the very least hedge fund billionaires stop enjoying a lower rate than their secretaries. We need to develop a national strategy for the global economy, ending our addiction to oil, curbing the casino speculation that will eventually bring down the house, and balancing our trade with the mercantilist nations while capturing the new green industries of the future.

[think the Democrats, with the WH and larger majorities will be doing any of that?? -Mcat]

None of this, needless to say, is in the stimulus package. Instead we’re taught the wrong lessons: tax cuts are good, particularly business tax breaks; lower interest rates are a free lunch, the “fundamentals” as the president constantly says, “are good.”

In fact, the foundation in crumbling. A fundamental change of economic strategy and priorities is vital. And the economic titillation of this bipartisan “stimulus” package will benefit the politicians with their press far more than the economy with its perils.

[It's an election year! -- Mcat]

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67. Hair Club for Men - 26 January 2008: Dennis Perrin is right.

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2008/01/suffocation-with-kiss.html

If you need additional evidence of American disdain for those we help to murder and starve, recent events in Gaza should suffice. Other than the standard news reports of the current chaos and misery, coupled with the typical furrowed-brow “analysis,” there has been little to no real outrage about what the U.S. is financing and politically supporting….A search scan of the leading liblogger sites — Kos, Atrios, Greenwald, Firedoglake, Digby, Ezra Klein, Yglesias — produced zero on the Gaza crisis, which, again, is no real surprise, and again, probably just as well. They are too busy trying to choose a Dem Savior, because it’s Their Turn, Their Time, a spectacle that at least produces a few laughs, however fleeting and empty. Besides, Mount Hillary and Saint Obama, whatever their actual differences, are united when it comes to crushing Palestinians.

But where we American democracy be if Atrios didn’t make his 69488478374873378 post on the horror that is “Unity08″?

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2008_01_20_archive.html#5482287861477424381

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68. marisacat - 26 January 2008: James at Pffters:

[U]nfortunately, I guess Aravosis became both unhappy with the negative feedback that he received in mass quantities, so he killed off the original post (thus decoupling it from the 500+ comments it had received), reposted, got yet another set of negative feedback (which he subsequently censored heavily), and then deleted the post altogether. Like Sir Robin, he “bravely ran away.” So, for a second day in a row, Aravosis has earns the top honors for wankery – this time for cowardice.

Aravosis, another brave, oh so brave, little Dem party operative and thug.

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69. Hair Club for Men - 26 January 2008: Aravosis has a long history of banning critics, even of the Digby/Atrios variety.

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70. marisacat - 26 January 2008: LOL Little Lord Fauntleroy.

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71. BooHooHooMan - 26 January 2008: Can you imagine if the Monte Carto had caught fire the day of the NV Caucuses?-mcat

Oh you are too funny. That made me howl with laughter here, first thing Sat. Morn ,checkin in… LOL.

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72. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: Speaking of BushCo and wall art – Atty Gen Mukasey keeps a portrait of Orwell in his office.

Asked what Mukasey saw in Orwell, Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said it was his clarity. “When he was a judge, he assigned new law clerks George Orwell’s 1946 essay ‘Politics and the English Language.’It’s one of the first things our speechwriter received as well,” Carr said.

Orwell wrote in his essay, “Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Keith Olbermann topped the orange reclist with a diary about it:

But I’m thinking, certainly somebody came into his office and said “Judge, this could look bad if it gets out. You know, Room 101, Rats, Torture.” I’m assuming he mumbled something about not being sure a cage full of rats welded to one’s face was necessarily torture, and how we’ve always been at war with East St. Louis, and the responsible citizen backed slowly out of the office and made his plans to move to Zanzibar.

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73. supervixen - 26 January 2008: 48: Funny about Sully, I don’t recall him being all atwitter about nepotism with regard to the Bushes.

plastination of cadavers: I saw the book of photos of the Bodyworld exhibits and something about it felt “off” to me. it went beyond scientific curiosity and into the realm of voyeurism. This guy von Hagens creeps me out. He’s trying to make “art” out of these bodies. As for the Chinese being involved – yikes.

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74. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: this country is run by lunatics.

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75. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: More lunatics!

Sly Stallone endorsed McCain on a Fox News morning show the other day. . .

“I like McCain a lot, a lot. Things may change along the way, but there’s something about matching the character with the script and right now, the script is being written and the reality is pretty brutal and pretty hard edged, a rough action film, and you need somebody who’s been in that to deal with it.”

Today an AP story cites Stallone’s comments on body-building drugs.

“HGH (human growth hormone) is nothing,” the 61-year-old actor tells Time magazine in its Feb. 4 issue. “Anyone who calls it a steroid is grossly misinformed.”

::snip::

“Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older,” he says. “Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life. Mark my words. In 10 years it will be over the counter.”

Rocky Rambo’s endorsement – net benefit or not?

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76. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: Six Questions for Mark Crispin Miller, Author of ‘Fooled Again’

On the one hand, Bush & Co.’s vast inversions of the truth–distortions infinitely larger than mere lying–are the product of a conscious and deliberate “technique,” as you put it. And yet, they’re also, at the same time, a ferociously sincere expression of the way these mad authoritarians perceive reality. In other words, when Bush and Cheney and their cohorts say that up is down and black is white, they are not just dispassionately following a certain set of rules for doing propaganda. Such fierce untruthfulness comes to them naturally, because their world-view is completely paranoid.

I think Adorno understood this; and so did both Orwell and Klemperer. “Doublethink” is Orwell’s deft conception of this sort of simultaneous dissimulation and fanatical conviction: deliberate deception based on (partial) self-deception. And Klemperer was acutely conscious of the Nazis’ quasi-religious zealotry. In his diary he repeatedly makes note of Hitler’s wild medieval frame of mind (at one point he refers to Hitler’s oratory as “the mad bawling of a priest”), yet also notes the element of mammoth orchestration in the Nazi propaganda–a genius for spectacular manipulation that reminds him of the works of Hollywood. Klemperer understood, in short, that what made Hitler and the Nazi movement so profoundly and unusually dangerous was this combination of crusading zest and up-to-date technique.

As I point out in Fooled Again, that sort of ferocious cunning has, throughout the centuries, marked paranoid crusades of every kind. Certainly we see it in Bush/Cheney’s movement, which includes radical theocrats, neocon extremists, dedicated neo-Confederates, and other types who tend to see themselves as victims and their struggle, therefore, as defensive. In their eyes, the very people whom they’re trying to destroy are ruthless and relentless, full of hate and fury, while they themselves are innocent, outnumbered, “fighting back.” In short, Bush/Cheney’s movement is projective, lividly imputing their own darkest impulses to everybody else.

Such projectivity, I argue, drove the Crusaders of the Middle Ages, and the Western efforts to annihilate the “savages” on the American frontiers. Nazism also was essentially projective, as Hitler and his men consistently imputed their own wrath and vengefulness and lust for power to “world Jewry”–against which they were fighting, they believed, in self-defense. We see the same mentality in the Islamist, Christianist and ultra-Zionist movements; and, overwhelmingly, among the Bush Republicans, whose program, I believe, is ultimately pathological. The Bushevik is fatally obsessed with wiping out the “terrorist” within himself–and, no less, the homosexual within. How many of those ranting homophobes have turned out to be cruisers in the dark? Bush/Cheney’s G.O.P. is, above all, the Party of the Closet; and therefore suicidally engaged in trying to straighten out, or murder, all those other “perverts” the world over.

Such is the animus that motivates the Busheviks’ “techniques” of lying and manipulation.

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77. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: Rocky Rambo’s endorsement – net benefit or not?

You’re talking about a party where CHUCK NORRIS is considered a good endorsement. Faux masculinity uber alles.

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78. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: Chuck Norris has a little PR problem on the AP wires too!

Chuck Norris Charity Cheat: I’m Guilty.

HOUSTON (AP) — The former chief executive of Chuck Norris’ martial arts program for inner-city children has pleaded guilty to stealing from the charity, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

James D. Brasher, 47, pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of uttering a forged security, the office said in a statement.

Brasher confessed to opening bank accounts in names similar to that of Norris’ Kick Drugs Out of America Foundation. He then fraudulently endorsed checks sent to the foundation and deposited them into his own accounts, using the money to pay his debts and living expenses.

He admitted taking at least $130,000, DeGabrielle said.

Brasher is set to be sentenced in April. He faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a three-year-term of supervised release.

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79. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: Note to Obama: Stop whining and fight back

Bill Clinton and Lee Atwater are both dirty players, it’s true, but it’s worth keeping something in mind here: They both came out on top. The former is the only Democrat to win the presidency since Jimmy Carter, who 32-years ago eked out a narrow victory against Nixon-pardoner Gerald Ford. Atwater helped George Bush Sr. win the 1988 campaign with vicious ads that painted Michael Dukakis as soft on crime. (Of course, Dukakis helped by being the perfect punching bag. Recall that during one debate he restated his opposition to the death penalty, even, he said, in the event that his own wife had been raped and murdered. Dignified, yes. Smart, no.)

If Obama wants to be president he and his handlers should stop moaning about the Clinton campaign and fight fire with fire. Because if he thinks Hillary is mean just wait (in the event he were to win the nomination) until he gets a load of the Republican attack machine in a general election.

Voters, the media, and even politicians complain about negative campaigning, but it works, as seen in the cases of Atwater, Karl Rove, and the Swift Boat Vets. “It’s very frustrating to watch our guys stand up there and act like pacifists,” Jason Stanford, a Texas-based Democratic opposition researcher, told me. “We thought we had nominated a war hero last time and then Kerry couldn’t even defend himself.”

Stanford said Obama appears to have fallen victim to his own cult of personality, surrounded by too many adoring fans. “Politics is not supposed to be nice, it’s not a process where everyone feels good at the end,” he said. “He’s got pros on his team, they should have been ready for this stuff. There is a whole generation of black politicians who could tell Obama about how tough it was to run office. The question now is: will this galvanize him or immolate him? He’s going to have to fight for the nomination, it’s not going to be handed to him.” (Incidentally, Stanford’s preferred candidate in the race is Edwards, followed by Obama, and then Clinton.)

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80. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: Chuck Norris charity cheater in the mod pod . . . rehearsing for future decade up the river.

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81. marisacat - 26 January 2008: SV and IB out of moderation… sorry for the delay!

8)

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82. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: SV – Von Hagens does sound like quite a strange character (what a bio!) but I still think he’s on to something interesting, at least in theory. And according to the LA Times link at #33, Body Worlds “does not use bodies from China.”

I guess I’d have to see one of their shows before critiquing the artistic angle. Current exhibitions include Milwaukee, San Jose (today is last day), and St. Louis.

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83. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: Rasmussen daily tracking poll analysis – national race:

As South Carolina voters go to the poll, the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination has gotten much tighter. It’s now Hillary Clinton 36%, Barack Obama 33% and John Edwards 18% (see recent daily numbers).

(Kosworld rejoicing.)

In general election match-ups, Clinton and Obama both lead Romney, McCain, and Huckabee.

Looking ahead on the Primary calendar, Obama leading in neighboring Georgia. However, Clinton leads in Florida, Missouri, Alabama, California, New York, and New Jersey.

Among Republicans, the race is close in Florida between McCain and Romney. Huckabee leads in Georgia, Huckabee and McCain are essentially tied in both Missouri and lead in Alabama. McCain leads in New York, McCain and Giuliani are close in New Jersey, while McCain and Romney are close in California.

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84. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: James at Pffters:

Good to see he managed to save the Avarosis post.

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85. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: Whiny Avarosis. It wasn’t about what he wrote, you see. It’s just that the intertubes are full of haters.

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86. raincat100 - 26 January 2008: Hmm, found this while skimming my peak oil blogs:

Open Letter to Amy Goodman (Sean Madden)

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87. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: The SC polls are all over the place. Looks like they’re pretty dam useless again.

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88. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: We are sheeple who are so deluded that we actually think whichever nominee is chosen will fight for what we want.

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89. liberalcatnip - 26 January 2008: The tech nightmare: Microchips everywhere: A future vision

Here’s a vision of the not-so-distant future:

_Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items — and, by extension, consumers — wherever they go, from a distance.

_A seamless, global network of electronic “sniffers” will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, “live spam,” may be beamed at them.

_In “Smart Homes,” sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets — all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants’ private lives.
[...]
Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They’re also in library books and “contactless” payment cards (such as American Express’ “Blue” and ExxonMobil’s “Speedpass.”)
[...]
With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department.

By placing sniffers in strategic areas, companies can invisibly “rifle through people’s pockets, purses, suitcases, briefcases, luggage — and possibly their kitchens and bedrooms — anytime of the day or night,” says Rasch, now managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc., a Baltimore-based company.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

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90. marisacat - 26 January 2008: From MSNBC’s First Read:

NYPD groups endorse McCain

Posted: Saturday, January 26, 2008 1:37 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, Giuliani
From NBC’s Bethany Thomas

FT MYERS, Fla. — At the home of the largest collection of common and rare seashells in the world, McCain received two New York City Police Department endorsements. The New York City Captains Endowment Association and the New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association — made up of approximately 11,000 active and retired NYPD sergeants — gave their nod to the Arizona senator this morning before a crowd of mostly tanned retirees.

“Some of the qualities that we’re known for is our leadership, integrity, courage, problem solving, conviction,” said Roy Richter, president of the New York City Captains Endowment Association. “Those were the qualities that we were looking for to endorse a candidate for president of the United States and we’re happy to offer our endorsement to a true American hero, a person of conviction and leadership, John McCain.”
::dnip::

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91. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: 88 – We are not divided sez Delaware Damned, and even if some here are not registered Democrats, most assuredly they are independent liberals and/or progressives who share the common policies priorities, goals and interests of the Democratic Party, and tend to, more often than not, vote for Democratic candidates.

Until this shows up: McKinney/Kucinich ticket?, suggesting Let’s explore the next best viable options towards getting the Kucinich platform on the forefront of every citizen’s, and politician’s agenda.

First comment to diary:

I will not. (3+ / 0-)

I am a member of the Democratic Party, not the Green Party.

And Daily Kos is a place to advance Democratic party issues and candidates, not Green Party issues and candidates.

This diary should be deleted.

We must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.

by Delaware Dem on Sat Jan 26, 2008 at 12:08:22 PM PST

To everything, twirl, twirl, twirl . . . .

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92. marisacat - 26 January 2008: ugh… reading the thread that catnip posts to at #85… yikes. John Aravosis goes on. And on. And then on some more. Editing comments and answering comments directly inside a posters comment.

Why is that a political blog. It is a ‘jOhn bitches’ blog. Love how in one comment he says he HAS to live in awful expensive unsafe DC in order to “affect policy”. Geesh

Whiney little operative on the trickle down game.

Anyway, if there is no expansion of Food Stamps nor extension of Unemployment Benefits then the Dems absolutely gave up on helping the poorest/most vulnerable.

Geesh, even Obama, clearly as a campaign hook, but he did say there should be a rebate of some sort to SS recipients.

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93. Hair Club for Men - 26 January 2008: Open Letter to Amy Goodman (Sean Madden)

There’s a whole crowd of people in the 9/11 Truth Movement who think Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky are CIA operatives who have been set up as an ultra left sham front in order to guide people away from learning about the “truth” of the controlled demolition of the WTC and the Nafta Superhighway.

We need to get Francis Holland on the case right away.

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94. Hair Club for Men - 26 January 2008: Until this shows up: McKinney/Kucinich ticket?,

Jesus H. Christ. Those people need to be sent to a cult deprogrammer.

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95. marisacat - 26 January 2008: The Blockade of Gaza

Worse Than a Crime

By URI AVNERY

It looked like the fall of the Berlin wall. And not only did it look like it. For a moment, the Rafah crossing was the Brandenburg Gate.

It is impossible not to feel exhilaration when masses of oppressed and hungry people break down the wall that is shutting them in, their eyes radiant, embracing everybody they meet – to feel so even when it is your own government that erected the wall in the first place.

The Gaza Strip is the largest prison on earth. The breaking of the Rafah wall was an act of liberation. It proves that an inhuman policy is always a stupid policy: no power can stand up against a mass of people that has crossed the border of despair.

That is the lesson of Gaza, January, 2008.

::snip::

http://counterpunch.org/avnery01272008.html

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96. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: For Edwards, a Role as Possible Kingmaker

But Edwards’s campaign operatives say the math could still break their way. If Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton continue running close and neither succeeds in capturing at least 50%, or 2,025, of the delegates, Mr. Edwards has a chance to play kingmaker at this summer’s Democratic convention in Denver. To be sure, a brokered convention almost never happens. But 2008 is turning out to be an unusual political year and few prognosticators are rejecting the idea out of hand.

It is the sort of math that Joe Trippi, senior adviser to Mr. Edwards, said the campaign is banking on. “I think 200 delegates on Feb. 6 is our over-under,” Mr. Trippi said. Although he continues to insist that Mr. Edwards has a chance at securing the nomination, Mr. Trippi concedes it is a long shot. More probable: arriving at the convention with enough delegates to tip the scales in favor of either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama. “Edwards is the primary force keeping Clinton under 50%,” Mr. Trippi said. “Worst case? We go to the convention as the peacemaker, kingmaker, whatever you want to call it.”

As Mr. Trippi figures it, if Mr. Edwards gets more than 200 delegates through the Feb. 5 contests — just more than 10% of the total 1,700 delegates at stake that day — he has a long-shot chance of playing kingmaker. If he gets 350, Mr. Trippi said Mr. Edwards is almost assured of playing that role.

Reaching 300 delegates isn’t inconceivable for Mr. Edwards, who has managed to snatch around 20% of the delegate total so far. A poll released yesterday by Reuters/C-Span/Zogby shows him with 19% support in South Carolina. Recent polls in delegate-rich states such as California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey give him about 10% of the vote. Nationally, a poll of likely voters conducted this week by The Wall Street Journal shows Mr. Edwards getting 12% support among Democrats.

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97. marisacat - 26 January 2008: First Read/MSNBC:

Turnout seems to be heavy in SC

Posted: Saturday, January 26, 2008 4:29 PM

An update from South Carolina’s Elections Commission:

Turnout is heavier than last Saturday’s GOP primary.

Reports from various counties:

Marlboro County — heavy
Dorchester County — slightly heavier than last weekend
Charleston County — much heavier in some precincts
Williamsburg County — average
Edgefield County — very busy
Cherokee County — greater turnout than last week
Hampton County — turnout is much higher than last week
Darlington County — fairly good

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98. marisacat - 26 January 2008: ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS

Fox News Sunday: Huckabee

This Week: Obama

Meet the Press: McCain

Face the Nation: Giuliani, Clinton

Late Edition: Huckabee

The Page, 12:20 PM

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99. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: The Trail blog at WaPo has a story on Edwards campaign’s response to Hillary’s election-day robocalls, and reports that Obama, smiling broadly, took a break to shoot some hoops.

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100. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: NYT:

Party officials were predicting a record-setting turnout. Throughout the state, party officials said they had early reports of high turnout, in predominantly white and black precincts. Several precincts in York County, on the state’s northern edge, had surpassed their complete voting totals from four years ago by early afternoon. Officials said similar turnout patterns were coming in from Aiken County, on the Georgia border.

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101. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: Darker Days Ahead? – By Robert Reich

Can we expect another rate cut at the Fed meeting next week?

Yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fed cut another quarter point. If it doesn’t announce something at its meeting, it may cut .25 or even .50 within the next month or so. They are clearly worried. [And while lowering rates may cause] inflation, it is far less threatening now than a recession or perhaps-and I cringe at using the word-a depression.

You cringe, but you still used the D word. How far along are we on that particularly slippery slope?

Hopefully, not far. But several managing directors on the Street, whose opinions I trust, have said to me that the chances for a depression are 20 percent. That matches my sense. In other words, it’s still low, but 20 percent is nonetheless far higher a probability than anyone should be comfortable with. Even absent a depression, it seems likely that the coming recession will be deeper than the last several.

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102. marisacat - 26 January 2008: LOL Stoller is just observing. Really.

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103. marisacat - 26 January 2008: Even absent a depression, it seems likely that the coming recession will be deeper than the last several.

well there is a truism.

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104. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: “Hispanic Panic” as Arizona Immigration Crackdown Bites

Phoenix, Arizona – One month after Arizona introduced a law cracking down on businesses which employ illegal immigrants, Latino workers are fleeing the state and companies are laying off employees in droves, officials and activists say.

Arizona has become one of the frontlines of the US immigration debate and broke new ground on January 1 with a law that threatens to put out of business companies which knowingly hire undocumented workers.

The effects of the law have been immediate, according to businessmen, workers and rights activists who spoke to AFP, with companies driving up wages to attract labor while being forced to part company with prized employees.

Even though a federal judge ruled last week that there will be no prosecutions under the law until March, it has done little to prevent a phenomenon being dubbed “Hispanic Panic.”

“There’s a lot of fear and some people are leaving,” said Salvador Reza, an immigrant-rights activist who runs a day labor center in Phoenix.

“The fear is not only at the worker level, it’s at the employer level. I’ve never seen that before in my life.”

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105. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: there was a story in the last day or two that many poor who were hurt in the last recession NEVER recovered from that one, and are REALLY in trouble now that a worse one looms.

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106. marisacat - 26 January 2008: These crackdowns, of which I have read several reports similar, but not the phrase “Hispanic Panic” leave me wondering.

How do they expect the nation to operate? Becasue I don’t see it working without, whatever you call it, migrant workers, guest workers, illegal undocumented day workers, regular, legal, seasonal workers who return ot the same sites thru the years. And so on.

Much of the country will jsut not function.

Plus with sweeps and ICE and so on, anyone with a Latino surname feels vulnerable, illegal, legal, resident.. even citizen. That awful town in PA that wanted people to register at City Hall LOST US citizens, second and third generation Latino, often still with accents who were moving out into the country from the NY area. But felt unwanted, intimidated.

The ONLY answer is that social reengineering is taking place, a desire to instill fear, repression in the work place, forcing people at or near the bottom to become even more vulnerable.

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107. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 January 2008: Much of the country will jsut not function.

Yup, but this doesn’t occur to the racist/nativists, because they so sincerely believe their stereoptypes about how lazy immigrants are, suckling at the public teat and feeding their children on welfare. These morons actually think that there is some terrible brown hoard that is stealing the jobs of “real” Americans.

Timing all of this with the other things undermining the economy … well, it’s gonna be ugly.

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108. marisacat - 26 January 2008: noooooooooo thread….

LINK

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109. Intermittent Bystander - 26 January 2008: The ONLY answer is that social reengineering is taking place, a desire to instill fear, repression in the work place, forcing people at or near the bottom to become even more vulnerable.

Throw in absurdly widespread pre-employment piss-testing, vastly integrated (though not necessarily accurate) instant credit reporting, and workplace (as well as public) surveillance, and everybody’s a keystroke away from investigation and suspicion. And we’re only getting started with the chips and biometrics.

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110. marisacat - 26 January 2008: IB

agree, it is deep and wide.

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Marisacat