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Why observe memorial day now… 25 May 2008

Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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Jordanian demonstration against the Lebanon war, casualty at Cana 2006

I never have in the past.

But, there’s a thread.

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

Comments»

1. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

Sorry for the numerous typos in my last post. [blush]

Coffee now. 😀

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008
3. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008
4. marisacat - 25 May 2008

Well according to what I read in The Independent, aside from somewhat admitting to a child from some liaison, Vidal is for Obama.

With a very dated phrase about how nice it is that “the black race is advancing”.

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

in this interview he says he actually leaned toward Clinton.

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6. marisacat - 25 May 2008

Apparently he says whatever suits him :

This was more than evident when he spoke at the Hay literary festival in Wales yesterday. He said that Barack Obama, considered most likely to win the Democratic nomination for November’s presidential election, should beware of “dark corners”. “I would say to him don’t stand in a dark corner when you hear a gun is going off. It’s dangerous there.”

Despite his long-standing relationship with the Clintons, he backed Mr Obama for the nomination. “I hope it’s Obama,” he said. “He’s been pretty well vetted in the electoral process. I’m thrilled that the black race is able to move ahead.”

Well, he can pray for Obama to mitigate the invocation of assassination. Of send a donation.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

Apparently he says whatever suits him :

Oh, that’s what I think. I think he gets a laugh pushing back against whatever the individual interviewing him expects.

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008
9. marisacat - 25 May 2008

From Sivacracy:

I remember my comments section several months ago, when black men and women alike asked me ‘What’s the big deal?’ when I went apoplectic about O’Reilly’s lynching statement referring to Michelle Obama — and when people thought I was too harsh when I condemned Barack Obama for his silence concerning it.

Bingo. Obama over and over kneels to white men. One reason I wanted Hillary out of this race months ago.

let the two male shits go at it. And the male punditocracy.

May they congeal after they shred each other.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008
11. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

8 – Succinct.

The sexist comments and the racist slurs are bad, because they are being washed, re-clad in Armani, presented back in high society, made to look innocent, and after all this they will be cropping up much more frequently everywhere, aimed at everyone who qualifies to be their victim. THAT’s what is bad about them.

How can I make that any stronger and clearer? It can be any of us women or any person of color or both that will suffer from the new domestication of sexist and racists taunts. Any Of Us.

The Danica Patrick diary at DK even has Eight Belles jokes in it now, along with the usual pie fillings. Just a tad ironic, this weekend.

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12. marisacat - 25 May 2008

well I pointed out some weeks ago when Tiger Woods neatly whitewashed a lynching comment made in reference to him on one of the psorts channels. He said he knew his friend, woman announcer, had not meant anything by it.

Go Tiger. Go somewhere.

Seems not to matter if you feel you are well inside white society and the lynching has to do with others.

I am sure Obama thinks he knows what is coming. ON the other hand, from my tracing forward from the streaming of the Argus interview, roughly 1:30 – 2:30 ET to quick blow up all the way to Drudge, NYPost and then to Huffpo by 3:41 pm, to Obama’s own owrds (not Burton and not Clyburn and not blogs and not pundits and not Obama supporting media from Huff To NYPost to NYT) to his own words late the following day, this was orchestrated.

Good luck Barack. I will be surprised if the party really shows it wants H, S and WH.

I doubt they do.

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13. marisacat - 25 May 2008

via Instapundit who gets the trasncript emails.. (I have not checked CNN for the Reliable Sources transcript):

THE CNN FOLKS emailed this tidbit from Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources:

KURTZ: But Marie Cocco, are the media being tarred with a pretty broad brush here because of the out-of-bounds comments of a certain number of loudmouths?

COCCO: Well, this is amplified on the Internet, which, you know, may not be the broadcast media, but it is part of the media of this campaign. And if you went to the Internet — you know, we all know about the false Muslim e-mails that go around about Barack Obama. But if you ever saw the language, the vulgarity, the vitriol that is hauled at Hillary Clinton by liberal Democrats, by the liberal blogs, largely by, frankly, Obama supporters, you’d be appalled. I mean, you’d punish your children for this.

Glad somebody’s noticing.

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14. liberalcatnip - 25 May 2008

I agree with whoever (I think it was ms x) said in the last thread that (paraphrasing) when sexism directed towards Hillary is excused just because she’s Hillary, it simply gives the green light to people to use it against any woman they despise. I’ve seen that excuse used repeatedly at dkos. Would they ever say racism was alright if it was directed against an AA they didn’t like? Of course not. That’s the issue here. Like I’ve written before, this race has brought out the absolute worse in some of these so-called progressives – from irrational mass hysteria that they decry in the wingnuts but refuse to acknowledge in themselves to some of the most vile comments I’ve ever seen directed at other human beings. The behaviour is so diametrically opposed to the message their so-called saviour is pushing (although that’s just a cover for old-style politics repackaged) that it’s akin to a virtual Crusade. Convert or be trampled. They’ve absorbed the message that selling fear trumps all.

More tea…

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15. liberalcatnip - 25 May 2008

13. Good timing. And it’s about time someone is noticing outside of the blogs.

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16. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

No, catnip, it was hrh who said that. All apologies. But I was never, fwiw, trying to excuse the people who say that kind of shit about Hillary. I just get irritated at feeling like it ought to be a full-time job for me to protect somebody who has never lifted a finger to protect me, and never will.

And, yeah, I’ll be the poutiest, sulkiest “sister” on the planet, but I still find it annoying that it’s all about the supremacy of womanhood in most of the (U.S.) feminist blogs until you remind them that there IS another woman in the race. [cough] Then suddenly everyone has to be somewhere else immediately.

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17. liberalcatnip - 25 May 2008

Politico posts a “hey don’t blame us for wanting hype and links and advertizing money…why should we fact-check before we actually print something when the MSM doesn’t?” article about their rush to push the Hillary/RFK story. Harris fails to mention that this isn’t the first time they fucked up, causing mass hysteria.

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18. marisacat - 25 May 2008

well there si a tragic reality. McKinney had more exposure as an elected representative in congress than as running for … is she the Green candidate yet?

As far as I can see, I would doubt the rise in the current even more rigged system of an Anderson or a Perot. And it was the Democratic party that insisted, I jsut read again, that Perot be included in the debates. Where he took his numbers from can be endlessly argued, but if I were a Demcrat I would nto feel that it could be won without Perot.

And the stories are all aorund again that Kennedy/loyalists used Anderson as a device to defeat Carter.

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19. liberalcatnip - 25 May 2008

16. Props to hrh then.

I just get irritated at feeling like it ought to be a full-time job for me to protect somebody who has never lifted a finger to protect me, and never will.

It shouldn’t be and it’s not your job. All I’m saying is that there are a lot of ways to attack Hillary Clinton, based on her record. Throwing out sexist remarks against her isn’t the way to do that because if that’s excused just because it’s about her, that makes it that much easier to go after any woman in the same way because it’s seen as an acceptable form of criticism. The message is very clear and it’s the wrong message to be sending.

I’ve never seen her candidacy as the be all and end all of feminist hopes – that a woman has finally arrived. But I sure knew that when you had a biracial man pitted against a woman, a lot of ugliness was bound to ensue. That’s why I wondered aloud a while ago about the media question: ‘is America ready for a black or female president?’ when I thought it should be ‘are Democrats ready for either’ and I didn’t think they were. If the party that sells itself as the most tolerant can’t deal with these issues, then what?

And I hear what you’re saying about McKinney’s candidacy being ignored by so-called online feminists. Dog forbid they should acknowledge a “radical” – someone who actually would advance their cause.

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20. moiv - 25 May 2008

Well, he can pray for Obama to mitigate the invocation of assassination. Of send a donation.

Prayer circle already in progress …

I have been thinking a lot about a certain “elephant in the room” recently voiced by Hillary Clinton – that everyone is concerned some basket case is going to try to hurt Senator Obama, especially now that his nomination is more certain.

I would like to suggest that we consider a feasible approach to protecting him effectively. This idea may require a leap of faith for those who think New Age philosophy is too new and untried but I believe in order to change our world, we need new tools. This is one.

I’m talking about psychic protection through our positive thought projections. If enough people send spiritual protection every day, he will lead us into the future and grow to be a revered senior statesman honored around the world for his progressive humanity and leadership.

They’re probably taking donations, too.

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21. marisacat - 25 May 2008

yes we have had prayer circles out here for months. They are spoken of with pride.

Whatever floats the boat. Wild crazed fairy in the sky.

I heard again today that Hillary, prior to this race, ahd received the highest number of death threats for a First Lady or former FL.

AFAIAC, and I doubt the SS would permit it, she and Obama can compare inches. In threats. And what threats invoke what words spoken by whom.

In an anthology edited by Toni Morrison following the Anita Hill hearings, Race-ing Justice and En-gender-ing Power it was reported that black churches, some – enough, preached against her from their pulpits: How dare a black woman stand in the way of a Good Black Man. Well that was more than 16 years ago. And churches are far more politicised, and this go round I have even read public acknowledgement that the campaigns send money directly to the churches. To the pastors.

Plenty of threat around. In all directions. Plenty of inducement for incitement and inflammatory language. Not all of it on tape. Not all of it politically correct to speak of.

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22. moiv - 25 May 2008

Thanks to whoever linked tunesmith’s comment in the Danica diary (I’m too lazy to go back and look). I popped over to rec it up as it deserved, and came across another shabby little sub-thread that led off with this.

Let me say it (4+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
RabidNation, Glinda, dsteele2, fortuna

Bullcrap.

It’s satire, and means absolutely nothing about Danica.

God, I get so angry at people who make everything about women into something sexist or bad.

Grow up, or go hide in the kitchen.

All aboard the O train!

by xyz on Sun May 25, 2008 at 12:40:41 PM CDT

And that is coming from the same female contingent that curls its lip at women in the religious conservative movement who negate their own identity for approval from men of gawd.

But hey — “All aboard the O train!” Cause everybody wants to go to heaven.

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23. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

catnip, #19:

…If the party that sells itself as the most tolerant can’t deal with these issues, then what ?…

Well, it wasn’t a big surprise to me that it’s come to this, either. I saw and heard enough bullshit when I first broke the tether in 2000. In the absence of a really prominent scapegoat, they have nobody to vent their frustrations against but one another. Since there’s so little imagination at the heart of either campaign or its fans, naturally most people are going to use the most obvious, least imaginative forms of mud-flinging that they can.

(I hope the PFFters are taking note of that. I don’t know what’ll be uglier: A big win for their crowned champion or a big loss at convention time. Not like it means fuck-all either way. To me.)

Also, say this for this most deameaning, gut-bucket approach to identity politics: It helps both detractors and fans sidestep the truth– that neither candidate’s record is really that different from that of the other.

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24. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

Oh, yes, and I recall HC’s most cherished set of cheerleader’s pom-poms: Obama didn’t vote to start the war. He’s better than Hillary. He IIIIIIIIS !!!

No, of course not. He just helps keep the war going, and throws coals on the fire that will start other wars, elsewhere.

Please.

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25. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

Madman in the last thread, #123:

I wouldn’t put it past McCain to choose Rice for his running mate. Nor would I put it past her to accept. In a process where appearance is everything, but better way for the GOP to punch a hole in the already flimsy pretense of “diversity” peddled by the DP spokespeople and the bleaters all over Blogland ?

Kos and the rest would indeed cover themselves in glory when discussing Rice, just as they did when discussing McKinney.

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26. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008
27. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Go hide in the kitchen, ms_x! The Dems will handle the selection and grooming of all “progressive” female candidates for higher office and will support presidential contenders when and only when political and cultural circumstances allow.

ATLANTA – The first grandchild of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is a girl.

A family spokeswoman says Arndrea Waters King, wife of Martin Luther King III, gave birth to Yolanda Renee King on Sunday at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. Spokeswoman Sandra Tarver says the mother and baby are healthy.

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28. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

moiv – a couple of other commenters got to the point, too.

What a stupid attack (4+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
TooLittleSleep, indybend, MA Liberal, joanneleon

Anti-Danica.

Anti-female accomplishment.

And a big boo to those who recommended the diary too. What were you thinking? Attacking accomplishment??? How Bushian of you.

If you want to complain about Hillary, don’t do it by sneering at other women’s achievements.

by 22state on Sun May 25, 2008 at 11:32:43 AM PDT

Yeah… (2+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
indybend, MA Liberal

I have to agree with you. Unless I’ve missed some statements from Danica Patrick, I don’t see what the connection is from Hillary Clinton to Danica Patrick other than the fact that they are both female…

Unless of course this was a mirror of Bill Clinton’s “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice” argument, which set people going crazy here but somehow hasn’t had the same effect this time…

by TooLittleSleep on Sun May 25, 2008 at 11:44:14 AM PDT

(BTW, FWIW, etc. . . Patrick raced well, apparently, but had to quit after another driver clipped her car at a pit stop. Scott Dixon was the winner.)

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29. Arcturus - 25 May 2008

Bordertown

(excuse the typographical mess:

Subject: FNS News: Mexican Women’s Activists Threatened
>
>May 22, 2008
>Women?s/Human Rights News
>
>Death Threats against Women?s Activists
>
>Prominent women?s rights activists in the northern Mexican state of
>Chihuahua have reported receiving a new round of threats. Members of
>Ciudad Juarez?s Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May our Daughters Return
>Home), a group of relatives of murdered women, canceled their
>participation in a screening of the Hollywood movie Bordertown scheduled
>for their hometown because of death threats received by e-mail and on cell
>phones. ?Now the threat is more real,? said Marisela Ortiz, Nuestras Hijas
>spokeswoman.
>
>Titled Verdades que Matan in Spanish, the film stars Jennifer Lopez as a
>US reporter who probes the Ciudad Juarez femicides. The movie also
>features Antonio Banderas, Martin Sheen, Kate de Castillo, and Maya
>Zapata. Directed by Gregory Nava, the film has not been released on the
>big screen in the US and is only available on DVD. After years of
>production and delays in its release, Bordertown finally achieved a
>limited showing in some Mexican theaters last week. In Ciudad Juarez,
>unidentified journalists have also reportedly received threats warning
>them against promoting the film.
>
>In a Mexico City press conference on May 12, Nava said the movie was
>possibly not released in the US because of its critical portrayals of the
>North American Free Trade Agreement and the maquiladora industry. Nava
>also revealed that when Bordertown?s producers were in Ciudad Juarez a
>crew member was kidnapped and tortured into telling his tormentors the
>hotel where film material was stored. Local policemen then lifted the
>material, according to Nava. Many scenes in the movie were filmed in
>Nogales, Sonora, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, among other locations.
>
>Nava was recently interviewed by a reporter for Ciudad Juarez?s El Diario
>newspaper. The journalist pressed Nava about exaggerating the murders,
>propagating presumed ?myths,? surrounding the killings and profiting from
>the suffering of victims and their families. Defending the film, Nava
>blamed Mexican authorities, free trade and US companies for creating an
>environment in Ciudad Juarez in which women?s lives have no worth.
>
>?Women in Juarez live in terror, their life has no value, and this is what
>we have to change,? Nava said. In an earlier interview with the Mexican
>press, Nava charged that governments on both sides of the border were
>doing nothing to address the femicides. ?It is horrible, but it is easier
>for the authorities from Juarez, from Chihuahua and from the United States
>to cover up the situation. It is a grand injustice??
>
>The Diario interview mentioned incidents of harassment against Bordertown
>staff, but it did not report the alleged kidnapping of the crew member.
>
>Prior to Ortiz?s denunciation of death threats against members of Nuestras
>Hijas, Chihuahua City lawyer Lucha Castro, director of the Women?s Human
>Rights Center, reported receiving a similar threat. Castro has long
>represented the mothers and family members of young women from Chihuahua
>City slain in a manner very similar to the more-publicized Ciudad Juarez
>rape-murders. According to Castro, an unidentified male caller threatened
>her on May 14. Castro then filed a criminal complaint with the Chihuahua
>State Office of the Attorney General, and two officers were assigned to
>protect the human rights attorney. Activists also demand that the
>Chihuahua state government protect Marisela Oritz and the other members of
>Nuestras Hijas.
>
>The death threats against women?s rights activists come amid an
>unprecedented wave of narco-violence in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state.
>More than 400 slayings attributed to organized crime have been reported
>this year alone, and fear of further carnage is gripping society. In
>recent days, e-mails and messages to cell phones in Ciudad Juarez have
>warned people to stay home during the coming weekend or at least exercise
>extreme caution because of an alleged plan to carry out spectacular
>executions on public thoroughfares.
>
>The threats against women?s movement leaders likewise occur in a broader
>context of violent attacks and legal pressure against social activists of
>all stripes. Since March, Chihuahua farm movement leader Armando Villareal
>has been murdered, and labor and women?s rights activist Cipriana Jurado,
>has been arrested on federal charges stemming from a demonstration nearly
>three years ago. Arrest warrants are reportedly pending against dozens of
>other farmers involved in a payment strike against the Federal Electricity
>Commission.
>
>Mexican and foreign activists contend that a deteriorating human rights
>environment characterizes the country. Juan Ignacio Garcia, Spanish member
>of the International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights,
>cited Ciudad Juarez as among human rights cases crying for redress from
>the authorities. The international community is seriously concerned about
>the femicides, murders of journalists and other human rights violations,
>Garcia said.
>
>?We know that public opinion is aware of all this, and it would be good
>for the Mexican government to show a measure of stronger will and attend
>to these cases,? Garcia added.
>
>Sources: Frontenet, May 22, 2008. El Paso Times, May 22, 2008. Article by
>Marisela Ortega Lozano. Cimacnoticias, May 19 and 22, 2008. Articles by
>Lourdes Godinez Leal. Apro/Cimacnoticias, May 21, 2008. El Diario de
>Juarez, May 16, 2008. Article by Gabriela Minjares. Pagina 24/Agencia
>Reforma, April 21, 2008. Article by Dalila Carreno.
>
>
>Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
>Center for Latin American and Border Studies
>New Mexico State University
>Las Cruces, New Mexico
> >
>For a free electronic subscription email
>fnsnews@nmsu.edu

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30. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

I think there’s a pit stop clipping in the mod pod.

Supposedly NASA will start covering the Mars landing shortly.

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31. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

I have to complement Miles O’Brien when he covers things like the Mars landing. He does a pretty decent job of describing what’s going on, translating any tech jargon that pops up, and he really seems to enjoy and care about this kind of event. In a country where science gets almost NO coverage on any of the major news channels and shows (other than when there is some hyped up medical story) it’s nice to watch.

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32. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Couldn’t get the NASA TV thingy to work, but MSNBC has a live feed and they’re interviewing happy rocket scientists now.

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33. marisacat - 25 May 2008

Intermittent Bystander and Arcturus out of Moderation…

comments 28 and 29

Sorry for the delay!

… 8)

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34. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Thanks!

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35. moiv - 25 May 2008

Arcturus, thanks for posting that. I’d wondered what had happened to Bordertown — read about it during production, and then nothing.

It’s pretty unrealistic to hope for police action when the police commanders are being murdered along with everyone else. Recently I read that three Mexican police chiefs have crossed into the US and requested political asylum.

In one of the latest killings, Juan Antonio Roman Garcia, second in command of the Ciudad Juárez police department, was shot more than 50 times Saturday as he parked his car outside his home.

Mr. Roman’s name was first on a hit list left in January by drug traffickers who warned that the targets would face death unless they resigned their posts. Many heeded the message. Others kept working and were hunted down over the past weeks.

“Everyone who works at the Juárez police department is in mourning,” Juárez police spokesman Jaime Torres said in a written statement Saturday. “But we reiterate our will and firm commitment to continue working toward maintaining order and social tranquility in our city.”

However, granting the chiefs refugee status could pose an implicit insult to the Mexican government, she said, because persecution by groups other than the government is usually only grounds for asylum if the government can’t or won’t intervene to prevent it.

“We’d be saying we’re giving asylum to your police chiefs because you’re unable to control the drug cartels,” she said.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

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36. ms_xeno - 25 May 2008

Great Solomon’s Seal, live and uncensored.

Well, we can’t all be Chris Clarke, y’know… :p

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37. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

Wow, “Recount” is painful, and it’s only just started. Warren Christopher … ugh. I think I have to turn this off.

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38. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Lovely photo, ms_x.

First Mars pictures coming in now.

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39. marisacat - 25 May 2008

yes thanks for posting the link ms xeno…

you know, for a few weeks before he abandoned his blog, and sadly erased, Scruggs was posting info and photos of urban … well not always gardens, urban land use, that would be more accurate. And I found them so wonderful. And the great practical information that went along with…

Miss that. More photos of energetic little flowering plants please.

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40. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

Aaarghh…. I skimmed through the Danica Patrick “satire”. Both it and most of the commentary were hideous.

On the bright side, I think it’s good that this kind of stuff is coming out into the open – both Patrick and HC are hitting the guys where it hurts. They both “invaded” a male bastion and are clearly focused on slashing their way to the top. I LOVED today’s story of Patrick ripping off her helmet and advancing on the guy’s pit:

Patrick collided with driver Ryan Briscoe while trying to leave pit lane late in Sunday’s race, and her car came to a halt.

A furious Patrick then got out of her car and purposefully strided toward Briscoe’s pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew, but track security personnel directed her back to her own pit area.

The pic of her is priceless. That is one tough woman who is not going to take any shit from anybody.

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41. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

Oops, sorry, here’s the link to the story.

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42. marisacat - 25 May 2008

i saw film of Danica marching toward the other pit… and security cathcing up to her.

LOL

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43. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Glad you guys caught the pitwalk, too. 🙂

(But how come the Miami Herald is implying that she collided with him, and not vice versa?)

From MSNBC’s immediate post-race story (which may be different now, dunno), I clipped this:

Any hopes of challenging at the end were ruined by Briscoe’s mistake in the pits. The Australian spun his tires trying to get out and slid sideways into Patrick’s blue-and-black car, which rolled helplessly to a stop, its day done with a broken suspension.

A frustrated Patrick slammed her steering wheel as she sat motionless along the lane leading back to the track. Then, after being pushed back to the pits, she climbed out of the car, ripped off her gloves and stomped angrily toward Briscoe’s Team Penske pits. A track security official cut her off before she could get there.

“Probably best I didn’t get down there anyway,” Patrick said.

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44. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

hey ms x, thanks for the lovely pic.

I have a couple of cacti/succulents who are coming forth with unexpected blossoms right now. I’ll take pics.

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45. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

More on the pitwalk in spam.

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46. marisacat - 25 May 2008

(But how come the Miami Herald is implying that she collided with him, and not vice versa?)

Yes I wondered, as I first read that he clipped her car. Vehicle.

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47. moiv - 25 May 2008

Yeah, well, you know how those women drivers are. >:-/

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48. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

wowow … she looks PISSED.

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49. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

ms x., re: McKinney: I have nothing against her but I don’t know much about her. I heard some stuff about her contretemps with the cops at the Capitol and from what I heard, I was on her side. I think I posted at DKos about it.

As Jesse V. said in one of his recent interviews, it’s all about name recognition – that’s why the candidates spend so much money on campaigning.

It’s also why people who are famous perfomers in some other profession (e.g, Ventura, Schwarzenegger, Sonny Bono, Steve Largent, Jim Bunning et al.) have a huge advantage in getting elected.

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50. IB - 25 May 2008

I know I’ve plugged them both around here before, but Paradise Express (Fr.) and The Human Flower Project are both pretty nifty botanical/art blogs with cool pix.

HRH, you might enjoy this, at the latter: Warm the Cacti, Cool the Computers.

The University of Notre Dame’s computer experts have teamed up with botanists of South Bend, Indiana, to save energy. They’re moving several of the university’s 400-pound computer processors into the city’s Arizona Desert Dome.

The computers shed heat, which is just dandy with the cacti and other Southwestern plants, and air circulating through the 26,000-square-foot greenhouse will help cool the machines. Big computers like these are very expensive to keep cool. “According to The South Bend Tribune, the plan will save the university about $100,000 in utility costs, even after the university pays for the electricity to power the processors.” Nobody knows yet how much the computers’ warmth will save the city, but last year South Bend’s parks department spent $70,000 to heat the desert dome and other conservatories.

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51. moiv - 25 May 2008

Doesn’t she?

“ALERT SECURITY!!!!”

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52. Intermittent Bystander - 25 May 2008

Shit, some cacti gone to spam now too.

Sorry Marisacat!

Yeah, he hit her. From the current version of the AP article at MSNBC (which, by the way, still describes Patrick’s mid-race, pre-pit-stop communications with her crew as “tirades”):

Still savoring her landmark victory in Japan, Patrick failed to finish for the first time in four trips to Indy, though it wasn’t her fault. She was banged on pit road by Ryan Briscoe with 29 laps to go, breaking the left rear suspension on a car that had run in the top 10 most of the race but never challenged for the lead.

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53. marisacat - 25 May 2008

sorry IB

both are out now. Despite all the errors that WP makes [sigh]… I have it set to block first time comments. I think it read “IB” as a new commenter.

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54. wu ming - 25 May 2008

the green is so beautiful, ms_x. i’ve got a bunch of xeriscape doing pretty well, but it’s a lot more greyish green, not that deep northwest lushness.

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55. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

48 – Of course she’s fucking PISSED. She’s a fierce competitor in a dangerous, life-threatening sport. She’s tougher and more aggressive than most men in the world.

People have to learn to deal with that.

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56. IB - 25 May 2008

Yeah, I started to post a simple experiment using IB (to see if WordPress liked that better) and then I got all distracted by the cacti and hit “say it!” before remembering I’d changed the name window.

If I really wanted to annoy everybody I would try another, now that IB’s virgin comment is out of the way. . . .

For the inconvenience, some ferns.

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57. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

oh, I didn’t mean it as a criticism. I just wouldn’t want to see someone that made coming after me.

Hell, I remember reading stories of fights breaking out between drivers after incidents like that. Off course her first impulse is to go after him.

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58. marisacat - 25 May 2008

IB

yeah owen paine of Stop Me Before I Vote Again used to use new names all the time. owen p, op, st paine, scarlet paine…

and so on. Fine with me… not a problem…

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59. Ignorant Bitch - 25 May 2008

Merci encore!

😉

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60. Ignorant Bitch - 25 May 2008

Taps foot impatiently . . . prepares to commence tirade . . . .

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61. IB - 25 May 2008

Hee hee.

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62. IB - 25 May 2008

Madman – it’s a made maid world!

:Ducks:

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63. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 May 2008

🙂

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64. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

I’m not a racing fan, but back in high school I picked up a book on AJ Foyt. It told the stories of all his crashes and injuries and fistfights. There were a few photos of him wrestllng with a lion. His friends thought it would be a funny gag.

I liked him.

But I like Helio Castroneves better.

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65. IB - 25 May 2008

Quickstep!

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66. Heather-Rose Ryan - 25 May 2008

Hey, for pro athletes dancing, it doesn’t get much better than this. And this. Emmitt is the coolest.

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67. NYCO - 26 May 2008

I think Helio is the one responsible for the new tradition of pouring the milk over your head at Indy. (Spraying the milk on one’s teammates, I think, is an older tradition.) He did it when he first won Indy and it was so incredibly goofy. I don’t think he knew what to do with the milk.

As for Danica, I think the only people who are shocked by her radio comments and pit behavior are peanut gallery folks; I’m sure her crew knows her personality well. People are going to have to understand that women express themselves differently. What matters is their performance on the track (i.e., in a constant life or death situation) and clearly she has the trust and respect of her competitors.

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68. NYCO - 26 May 2008

Oh, and for better or worse, that pitwalk is going to be legend. The good thing is, she’s in a sport where larger-than-life personalities are a big attraction.

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69. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008

So, when are the Mars primaries?

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70. rif - 26 May 2008

drive by linkage
just for fun

SKYplay

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71. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008

An interesting discussion/podcast: Haycast 02: The state of America; Gore Vidal chats to Claire Armitstead, while Christopher Hitchens, Naomi Klein and George Monbiot dissect religion and politics in the House of Hay

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72. Heather-Rose Ryan - 26 May 2008

67, NYCO: People are going to have to understand that women express themselves differently.

Well that’s just it – she doesn’t. That’s why I brought up AJ Foyt, who also had a hair-trigger temper and was famous for engaging in physical confrontations.

The one who “expresses herself differently” in a “female” way is Sarah Fisher, who was in tears and apologizing after yesterday’s crash.

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73. NYCee - 26 May 2008

I think the Germans are particularly adept at inventing hybrid words they feel a need for, for which there are none in their lexicon, that hone in on a particular nuance or phenomenon – perhaps new, perhaps not – that needs to be expressed. Thinking of zeitgeist. And schadenfreude. Taking a page from them, it occurs to me that there should be a word for the combined wow-yawn sensation I feel in response to much that occurs in our political sphere, no, box.

Like what I read a couple of posts back that Obama said. Wow and yawn, concurrent.

“Wow”, as in, Obama really said all that about our ‘enmeeze’ (!!!) (Chavez, Los Hermanos Cubanos… lol, gawd) and, simultaneously, “yawn” (Zzzzz… ). “Wow” because it is breathtakingly boneheaded, but “yawn” because it is so expected, the grinding on Groundhog Day quality of our political sphere – only it’s more a box than a sphere.

He’s doing the squared dance, the boxed in dance, the boxed prefab of road to the white house. He’s in the process of cubing himself, snipping off any raggedy corners and loose threads (that could, blessedly, unravel and free us from the bad weave, free us to move to real change) in order to pass inspection by the mind thugs in charge.

I expect little else anymore.

Any German wordsmiths in the house?

(They sure are busily buffing all the potential ‘Carter’ off him, on Israel, arent they!)

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74. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008
75. NYCO - 26 May 2008

I was talking more about Patrick’s “tirade” on her radio when she was getting exasperated with her crew — after exhaustively describing the precise technicalities of her car’s performance — and saying “I… am… SLOW!” (meaning her car was not performing correctly) You wouldn’t hear a male driver express himself in quite that way.

I remember when Fisher was supposed to be the first woman to win an Indycar race, and now she’s struggling to find sponsors, which to me shows how brutal it still is to be a woman driver in a sport where it seems there is only enough “room” for one “lady driver.” However, what’s great about Indy this year was that there were three female drivers (Milka Duno was the other) who were not rookies.

Patrick’s win in Japan was not really a breakthrough; given her talent and her firm backing by a top team, it was only a matter of time before she scored a victory. Same as with any male driver.

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76. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

Memories of Iraq haunted soldier until suicide

Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.

The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.

He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell’s 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.

Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.

According to family members and police reports, on Feb. 20, 2007, just a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rand smoked half of a cigarette as he wrote a suicide note, grabbed a gun and went to the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tenn. As the predawn dark pressed in, he breathed in the wintry air and stared out at the park where he and his wife, Dena, had married.

Then he placed the gun to his head and silenced his inner ghosts.

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77. NYCee - 26 May 2008

Hey Germans:

I need another word, one for both fascinated and disgusted by… as in Peter Hart’s focus groups on Cspan. Ever checked in on any of them? Hoo boy. He’s on Washington Journal today, reporting on his recent findings.

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78. ms_xeno - 26 May 2008

#49, hrh:

Here’s some good clips of McKinney on the road

On Israel/Palestine/AIPAC at the Green Party Debates.

McKinney with Cindy Sheehan, denouncing Pelosi.

McKinney on joining the Green Party (The longest clip.)

I also recommend seeing American Blackout;Not just for McKinney herself, but for the extras involving the Good Ol’ Boy culture on Capital Hill. A couple of long-time Black employees speak about it as one of the film’s extra segments, under condition of anonymity.

Let’s face it: The media despises McKinney, unlike Ventura. Who whatever his faults and strengths is still what the media loves to peddle: A wealthy tough White guy talking tough. If you want to know about her, they’re not going to help you much with the legwork.

http://www.runcynthiarun.org/

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79. marisacat - 26 May 2008

NYCO and NYCee out of moderation…

sorry for the delay!

…. 8)

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80. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008
81. ms_xeno - 26 May 2008

Hey, I’m glad so many folks liked the yard pictures. I hope to have more next weekend. hrh, I can’t wait to see the cacti. wu ming, just think of all the sun-loving stuff you can grow that I can only admire and worship from afar. 😉

Was it melvin (does he still post here ?) or IB or both that mentioned thyme as a tough little xeriscape plant ? Mine is thriving and flowering in the corner strip. I just shaped it in the corners with trimmers like it was a tiny little hedge. The only sad part is that there’s no way I could consume all the sweet-smelling clipping that I removed, and there’s not a square inch in this dinky house to set the stuff out to dry.

Tiny house + huge lot. Bah. I hope that style of architecture has long since gone out of style. :/

Mcat, I can email Scruggs about those old links on raised beds and food gardens, if you like. I have yet to graduate to food gardening, except for a few herbs and strawberries, when I have time to tend them well.

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82. NYCee - 26 May 2008

The Gore interview was fun (MM link, upthread)

Interviewer: Is it a curse or a gift to reach your age?

Gore: Oh, its a great gift… because I’m ready to kill!

Lol. Nice ending.

I’d say, having heard him here and there the past few years, as in this video, he’s lost a certain mental elasticity that is commonly lost to the aging. He still can and does deliver zingers but he cant weave them into a cohesive piece, incongruities and all. Single strands stand out, but it seems he cant really go back and forth and put the pieces together.

For example, he couldnt go back to what he had earlier said about the extreme ignorance of Americans (a sucker born every minute is our national motto, or something like that, he said), when he was challenged later on to answer as to why Bush ‘won’ twice. He could only say it was stolen in 2000 and 2004. He failed to put forth, in tandem, the weird prongs of Republican platform elitism and hordes of non elites who vote for them. But these less fortunate GOPpers count (and their votes count… how could Bush even get in striking distance by 04 without them!) in the vast swath of ignorant suckers he had earlier referenced so pointedly. A little theft (GOP-operatives, black robes, et al) certainly helps to advance the ball just over the finish line, but the proBush little people moved it close enough to work. Not that that mitigates the wrongness of the theft… but it is part of the discussion.

As to why Gore said he preferred Clinton, it’s odd. He is so fervently vocal in opposition to things she’s voted for or given the nod to… the torture that got sanctified, the shredding of magna carta/constitution principles; aye vote for the war in Iraq, permanent bases, etc. She wanted to criminalize flag burning. You’d think he would dismiss them both equally or single her out for greater disgust.

I also see here where he voiced a preference for Obama earlier on. Well, the synapses are less nimble, as I said, and also, he seems not to care all that much… just to say something is enough, in old age. He almost seems to just indulge his whims at times, but maybe he just does the best he can.

I noticed less nimbleness in Chomsky, too, the last few times I saw him debate or talk.

Doesnt take away from my respect and gratitude for them. Deeply deserved. Rich, rare, unique minds that have delivered gems over time, each in his own way.

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83. marisacat - 26 May 2008

HA!

I remember the last Hart focus group in 2004 before voting… The Kos crowd were sure all twelve would vote for Kerry. I saw at least 7 would vote for Bush.

Funny how it works that way… LOL

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84. marisacat - 26 May 2008

80

oh thanks for the offer to email Scruggs… but I just enjoyed them as they rolled out… I am not that energetic… I just cut slips of what I have and set them in water in an old cup on the porch til I maybe pot it… But I enjoyed his posts as he put them up… Like reading cookbooks when I barely cook… 😉

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85. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

I don’t know if Lucid is around, but I thought he’d get a chuckle from this nerd/science/philosophy comic.

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86. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008

It snowed here again last nite. Where’s that global warming, dammit?! 😉

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87. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

Cynthia McKinney Goes Green: controversial congresswoman brings campaign for Green presidential nomination to Sacramento

McKinney hopes to reach Americans not typically involved with the Green Party. She may find its message has become more palatable now than ever. The party’s key values, ratified eight years ago, are not out of sync with the current beliefs of many Americans: promoting peace, improving the environment and health care, reducing poverty and inequality across color and gender lines.

An AP-Yahoo news survey of more than 1,800 people done last year found that 54 percent support national single-payer health-care insurance. A survey of more than 2,000 doctors in the Annals of Internal Medicine this April found that 59 percent back the same plan. Yet no presidential candidate from either major political party support single-payer health care.

McKinney supports a nonprofit single-payer system like Medicare, the federal program which serves about 50 million elderly Americans, that would insure every American. That would swiftly improve the lives of the 47 million people without insurance, 70 percent of whom have jobs, but no employer-provided health plan. Expanding Medicare would also help the 17 million people under age 65 who are under-insured, meaning the cost of their health-care coverage, the co-pays and deductibles, forces them to forgo filling prescriptions, seeing a physician, and getting medical tests or treatment.

What we need to bring such popularly supported programs to fruition, McKinney stressed, is a social uprising akin to the civil rights and women’s rights movements.

“Politics is like a chess game. We move some pieces and we gain advantages,” she said. In particular, she’d like to see the party make inroads to minority communities. “We have to run more candidates on the Green Party ticket to spread awareness of its values in relation to issues which communities of color are dealing with, like racial profiling and police brutality.”

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88. CSTAR - 26 May 2008

85

I got a chuckle out of it. Thanks.

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89. marisacat - 26 May 2008

et no presidential candidate from either major political party support single-payer health care.

Because ti is on the floor with impeachment. And the republic.

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90. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

yvw cstar.

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91. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

My neighborhood got an 89 for walkability.

Walk Score

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92. ms_xeno - 26 May 2008

Former WA Green candidate Aaron Dixon was on Goodman’s show last month.

…AMY GOODMAN: You ran for the Senate.

AARON DIXON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Green Party ticket.

AARON DIXON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting here from KOMO, which is one of the commercial stations in Seattle. You weren’t able to get into another TV station. In fact, you were arrested outside of, what, KING TV?

AARON DIXON: KING 5, yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened?

AARON DIXON: Well, they had a debate between the Republican and the Democratic candidates, and I was not allowed to be a part of that debate, because I didn’t have $1 million. You had to have $1 million in your campaign bank account, and I didn’t have that. And I was really angry about that, you know, and I just felt that this was a moment that there was a situation that had to be addressed, that people had to understand and understand that our political arena is an arena for the very wealthy, and so, therefore, the voice of the people is not really being heard and being listened to. So I felt that I had to challenge that at that time.

AMY GOODMAN: Will you be running for another political office?

AARON DIXON: No, I don’t think so. I did what I had to do. I wanted to bring to the attention that other candidates should have an opportunity to be represented in the political arena…

But remember. If the candidates can’t reach anyone but us Caucazoid brie-munchin’ fancy sweater wearin’ NPR types, IT’S ALL THEIR FAULT !! By the way, I totally missed NPR’s continued coverage of all the 2006 Green campaigns. Since I am obviously physically/psychically attached to NPR at all times, I wonder how this was possible ?

It’s a good thing a certain newly-minted Obama acolyte didn’t have to spend 1.45 minutes looking up this interview the other day and reading about 3rd Party candidates with roots in minority communities, or his hands would probably have fallen off and what would he have to wring now ?

:p

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93. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008

The Libertarians had a debate. Who knew? Here’s the clip about the so-called war on drugs.

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94. marisacat - 26 May 2008

fwiw

walk score

97

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95. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

Oh, you just have to love cops:

While riding home, C and I were briefly separated. Upon reuniting, my tire slipped on the cobblestones of West 14th St., and I remember lying in the street, looking at oncoming headlights and rolling towards the curb so they wouldn’t run me over. Two cops approached and looked down at me. “Have you been drinking?” they asked. Probably a typical question in that neighborhood at that time of night. “Yes, I’ve had a few drinks,” I replied. “But I’m hurt.” I managed to get up by myself and retrieve my bike (no help from the NYPD, though one of them asked if I was David Byrne) and it wasn’t until later, when I was in bed, that the pain made itself truly known.

community policing at its finest.

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96. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

NYPD Launches Stealth Surveillance Copter

On a cloudless spring day, the NYPD helicopter soars over the city, its sights set on the Statue of Liberty.

A dramatic close-up of Lady Liberty’s frozen gaze fills one of three flat-screen computer monitors mounted on a console. Hundreds of sightseers below are oblivious to the fact that a helicopter is peering down on them from a mile and a half away.

“They don’t even know we’re here,” said crew chief John Diaz, speaking into a headset over the din of the aircraft’s engine.

The helicopter’s unmarked paint job belies what’s inside: an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates — or scan pedestrians’ faces — from high above the nation’s largest metropolis.

Police say the chopper’s sweeps of landmarks and other potential targets are invaluable in helping guard against another terrorist attack, providing a see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage against bad guys.

“It looks like just another helicopter in the sky,” said Assistant Police Chief Charles Kammerdener, who oversees the department’s aviation unit.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that no other U.S. law enforcement agency “has anything that comes close” to the surveillance chopper, which was designed by engineers at Bell Helicopter and computer technicians based on NYPD specifications.

The chopper is named simply “23” — for the number of police officers killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Is it just me, or is that last sentence creepy as fucking hell?

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97. marisacat - 26 May 2008

9/11 simply became an excuse. Aimless revenge, scatter shot hatred. Whatever. Everybody and the fire hydrant a hero.

Brave nation.

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98. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

A little Mars lander humor for Catnip

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99. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 May 2008

A Kunstlerian take on Memorial Day:

I had a discussion with one guy at a Sunday night party about the prospects for hydrogen-powered cars. We rehearsed the usual reasons why such a system was unlikely to get up-and-running — and then he said, “…but what if we took all the money from the war and put it into something like the space program and… they came up with some way to make it happen…!”

This is certainly the golden heart of the great wish out there, as the empire of Happy Motoring begins to run down on $4 gasoline. It seems inconceivable that a society so bold as to put men on the moon (fer crissake) can’t overcome such a prosaic problem as finding something other than oil byproducts to run our cars on.

From this holy font all cognitive dissonance flows.

It seems inconceivable, but it begins to look like that’s the way it really is, and we just can’t accept it.

Of course, one of the reasons that Americans are so anxious to get away on a holiday weekend from the places where they live is because we did such a perfect job the past fifty years turning our home-places into utterly unrewarding, graceless nowheres, where the private realm of the beige houses is saturated in monotony, and the public realm has been reduced to the berm between the WalMart and the strip mall. Now, we barely have the gasoline to run all this stuff, let alone escape from it for a weekend.

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100. liberalcatnip - 26 May 2008

98. A little Mars lander humor for Catnip

lol…I think that’s where the moon “landing” happened too.

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101. IB - 26 May 2008

86 – Watch out for falling objects tomorrow morning, too.

Le Grand Saut. (Alternative stunt name: Jackass: The Jetsons Edition)

92 – What’s the online equivalent of Hang up and drive?

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102. marisacat - 26 May 2008

nu thread….

LINK

……………… 8)

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103. marisacat - 26 May 2008

99

I say a drinking betting game. How soon til we get to 5 dollar a gallon gas? Three months? 6? 9?

For regular, I mean…. For unleaded or premium we are well over 4.10 around here. Regular hit 4.07 some days ago.

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104. IB - 26 May 2008

Showdown in Dallas: ExxonMobil faces shareholder revolt

A showdown looms at the company’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday in Dallas, Texas, with a series of proposals aimed at changing ExxonMobil’s corporate structure and pushing the company toward more environmentally friendly energy sources.

While activist shareholder resolutions are not uncommon, the move at ExxonMobil is unusual in that it has support from major institutional investors as well as the storied Rockefeller family, whose ancestor John D. Rockefeller created Standard Oil, the main forerunner of the current company.

Fred and Wilma get a little dabba do time in Brussels:

Six Greenpeace activists dressed as cavemen and travelling in a Flintstones-style vehicle were detained along with three others for public order offences, police said.

A stone tablet accusing car lobbyists of driving climate change was confiscated before it could be delivered to lawmakers, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said.

Photos of zero-emission vehicle and cave posse here.

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105. IB - 26 May 2008

Sigh. (So much for acronyms.)

Rockefellers and Flintstones in the mod pod.

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106. IB - 26 May 2008

Tanks. 😉

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107. marisacat - 26 May 2008

IB

I added your Exxon and Wilma and Fred to the new post, along iwth madman’s Kunstler comment…

link to the new thread at 102

8)

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108. IB - 26 May 2008

The Greenpeace photos are pretty cute.

(FYI – I forgot to close the blockquote after “spokeswoman said.”)

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