Opera Glasses and Popcorn
A red cardinal chases a sparrow away from a feeder near Maysville, Kentucky, US [Terry Prather/AP]
Looks like the cardinal is operating with the energy of divine light… sparrow beware!
An Opera Glasses and Popcorn view of Politics and the Assembled Multitude...
Marisacat -
- Real independent observations on current events with a particular fondness for the follies of the Big Box Blahgers.
Deflates bloated egos like a champion fencer in a balloon warehouse.
- Alan Smithee
Marisacat -
"...polish on a mud wallow"
- Meteor Blades [May 24 at Mcat]
Marisacat -
"... doyenne of donkle deconstruction"
- Who is IOZ [January 2 2007]
Marisacat -
"... hardened professionals and their primary strength lies in their being completely unconflicted."
"... the primary difference is that on the level of criticizing other blogs and bloggers, they can actually do some damage."
"... Not what I look for in a liberal blog product."
- peeder - MLW, Daily Rant [3.24.07]
Democracy NOW! / Amy Goodman Electronic Intifada / General Content Press TV / Middle East News Press TV McClatchy Headlines The Real News Reuters / Politics
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on one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.
If you click on La Louche the picture or the words, it leads to the Amazon PayPage, a way to ... oh let's say help with the cat can deliveries.
Thanks to all who made the very kind suggestion.
Heckuva job Hillary:
Karzai to negotiate with Taliban
Karzai wants to bring the Taliban into the Afghan government as a group. Washington, of course, prefers to bribe individual Taliban leaders. Because nothing ends a civil war faster than bribing a general or two to temporarily switch sides. Also, since all the Taliban are “linked to Al Qaeda” (is anyone who shoots at us or our stooges NOT linked to Al Qaeda somehow) and this fact “brings back painful memories of 9/11″, we couldn’t possibly support Karzai on this one.
the UK papers are reporting that a 5 year time line is under consideration/negotiation…. and all the ministerial cuties for war mongering are there in London for the Big Afghan Conf. Few Aghans at it I would imagine. The odd old boy ambassador, I would think.
Another example…
Speaking of tenuous links to the Taliban, I read the whole article, as the lede is that he’s Al Qaeda…
1) His sole link is that he watched a video by Osama bin Laden and stated in an interview that he agrees with Al Qaeda and OBL. He did not train with them, nor does he appear to have any direct contact with any of them.
2) He’s in Somalia, fighting with a Salafi group, one of the many protesting our installation of a puppet government in the country.
3) He went there because he viewed the US as indiscriminately attacking muslims and went to Somalia because his wife is Somali.
4) He’s been fighting since before the latest Ethiopian/US invation on the side of the Islamic Civil Union. He was only declared an enemy when he continued to fight back after the Ethiopian intervention.
5) While there’s no evidence that he’s committed any atrocities, he’s a member of a group that the US military alleges has cut peoples hands and heads off for breaking Sharia, and thus he’s guilty of all their crimes by association.
aq/terra-ist is anybody we don’t like………………
I just heard on the news that Roeder who killed Dr Tiller in Wichita… the judge restricted the deliberations to First Deg Murder. No consideraton of voluntary manslaughter.
Sounds like it goes to the jury Friday…………..
Obamas’ carefully crafted image of ordinariness may be working
good thing, I guess, because nothing else is.
The problem with ‘perfect’ is that, eventually, the cracks start to show.
omigod.. that was a terrible article. I felt like a loaf of Wonder Bread was shoved down my throat.
And frankly time for some destruction.
Wht tired fiction.
what I found interesting is that it took what is a fundamentally dishonest and arguably dangerous thing and spun it as though it was good and admirable.
I agree… and it was spiritless I wondered if it was an assignement.
lol…Send Money Now!!
Why do they fall in love. Such a big fuckign mistake.
Taibbi:
Taibbi seems to miss that greedy bastrds and thieving mongrels exist at all levels. The awful thing is that the rich and richly resourced use those protections, which most of society abets, to escape detection and accusation.
And it’s all legal thanks to the law makers. And constitutional law profs.
well I see he gets there:
It’s that their “excesses” exist in a nexus of political and economic connections that makes them very difficult to police.
unfortunately ,
as are the too readily accepted cultural prohibitions for not just shooting them……that and the body disposal…Ever try and set a banker out, the way garbage haulers are these days? Everything in a special can or a special day…I mean Jersey is going totally down the shitter, now.
Regular Household items on Monday. recyclables on Wednesday..Larger Items like Bankers, Lawyers and Crooked Pols in the Refrigerator, only twice a year, and then it’s doors removed and all….
lordy. I struggle just to get rid fo the boxes things come in. I have TWO cardboard boxes that computers came in, this one and the last one too. AND the box the TV came in. And the boxes the little stuff comes in. It HAS to be cut up and stacked.
gah.
Forget throwing a banker out on the trash.
Gotta bring back the old Mojo Nixon standard:
I hate banks, just can’t stand em
Gimme a shovel and man I’ll plant em
Six feet under is where they belong
I hate banks is the name of this song
Think I’ll rob myself one or two
I hate banks man how bout you?
The Basement. Good Choice. I like how you think.
Speaking of the Class Divide…
Extrapolate this out,
and their will be no sport.
Just rich assholes suing each other on television in the not so distant future SPONSORED BY other rich assholes selling advertising to other rich assholes selling something so the poor assholes like you and me might watch it on T.V. distracting us from thoughts of running down to the courthouse studios and ball peen hammering the Rich Asshole Occupants to death.. Over rich asshole objections and exceptions taken – splat – I’m sure.
Blair set to mount spirited defence at Iraq inquiry
Go for it, Tony. This should be interesting.
Pathetic.
geesh that basically melts down to SH reeeely reely wanted a bomb… a big ol’ bomb. Intell told us so. US manufactured intell told me so.
And we reeeely reely wanted to invade. Bush reeeely needed me to sign on.
And I did.
gah. So did the WH not bother to tie down the NY delegation and the mayor of the god damned city OR did they bother and Bloomie faked them out. I read earlier that Gillibrand and Velasquez were joining Bloomberg in the opposition.
Via Politico “44″
hmm this was 8 hours ago… also in Politico
Bloomie so wants to run in 2012..He’d definitely be too old and out of the limelite after that, money or no money. Albeit from the cheap seats here, I agree with observers who think he secured his 3rd term as Mayor as the platform to maintain national visibility to the next go round in his metamorphosis.. But Without some type of positively regular shlub
tissueissue differentiation that he could claim as his own of New York…, a closer look at his dealings from the stratosphere will be a problem for him…So he goes for the USA USA thing of all whipped up USA things : 9/11. No news, I know, Ob specifically and shamelessly whored the ole USA! USA! line last night in some utterly contrived vignettes about the cry that went up ( sure) when Our American Heroes™ performed “rescues” in Haiti…( link, please? with video? Anyone?) Like that would be the first thing people would be yelling instead of calling for stretchers as some solitary pulverized souls emerge from concrete rubble. GMAFB.But I digress.
I can’t imagine Bloomberg’s reversal on the KSM trial in NY is to provide Ob cover for WH backpedalling.. could be part of it, but he has to be the guy best positioned to run the now in vogue Independent con on the voters in 012. If Ob’s DOJ, political fingers licked and held to the wind, reverses course and either seeks or agrees to a change of venue now, it still wouldn’t let Bloomie off for his initial positions… Now he can position it as “NY would have done it’s duty….Buuut…911 911 911 etc…”
I think he’ll run in 012 , some sweatery Grandpa Reagan redux thing combined with NY righteous slobber over 911, combined with the Smart Bidneffssman shtick…..that and 15 Billion dollars at his disposal from insider trading machines.
It sounds like Ob and Holder are going to reverse. Paterson was against ti months (or weeks, time is congealing) ago, when it was first announced… and iirc he let loose with some commetnary about not being advised much less consulted.
And the NY delegation is lining up against it.
Again, this all just seems STUPID (making a decision that gets bulldozed and in public)… and lacking in political finesse.
I went to NYDN to see what is up…………. and was stunned to see this. Really, does this group think out anything? At all?
Read more: LINK
LOL You are right…
Jeezis it didn’t take long.
Up on Politico now…
So much for fool’s errand boy Bill Burton.
Their communications flacks are really a fuckin mess.
As the saying goes, lol,
The fish rots….all over. That’s it.
The whole fish just rots.
I thought Bill Burton should have been quietly dumped back in the election. IMO he mishandled the first Ob camp comments on the entrance of Palin into the race. IIRC it was pretty misogynistic… and then quick as a wink, Clyburn reinforced it.
But why stop the boys from being boys.
From the Mike Allen Playbook…
It’s unanimous!
I am also remembering the interview that Holder sat for right after the announce of this decision, to do it in NYC. He came off as a massive example of Peter Principle… as I recall. One of the very few people he consulted was his brother, or brother-in-law who is (again iirc) a retired West Side Terminal security cop. Also claimed this was his decision alone, Ob was not a part of it.
Yeah really!
This was designed to fail.
Oh FFS. It’s a Dork Off.
Armchair quants on Fridays with the paper and plastics?
I get an image of a version of ”If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium!”
If it’s Monday I must be JFK, if it is Tuesday I must be FDR, if it is Wednesday …. why then I am Clinton.
Or not.
You forgot Hoover! (But that’s reserved for Saturday between 1-3 am ET.)
And Lincoln! And Martin Mendella- Bobby- TuTu!
Holy Jeeeesus Ghandi! We’re going to a 10 day week!
Besides! Think of what it will do for average weekly earnings!
On Sundays he is JESUS. And don’t forget it.
Jesus with teleprompters.
gawd people are stupid:
Australian censor board demands large-breasted porn-stars
Doesn’t it sound like someone has a preference or perhaps even fetish for large breasts and wants to make sure that is what is on the screen???
Really, there is no hope………………
that was my thought, coupled with a deeply pathological fear of female sexuality.
and my limited experience with specialty marketing, I am sure pron carefully categorises their merch. Just ask for the big breast movies.
And specify movies that don’t indulge in female effluvia.
{Crickets, here from the Mayor of Manboob, New Jersey.}
it’s just nutty to have a whole censorship board to rule over this……….. reminds me of how into porn Ken Starr had to be to drag out the hunting down of Clinton and Monica… Transcripts up the wazooooooo
it was nothing but odd, aside from the political warfare of it all, of course.
It all was thought to be an easy hook, the invite for a voyeuristic public who would then oblige with feigned outrage. Unfortunately for Starr, and fortunately for Clinton, more than half the country was busy shopping, lol , plenty in those plentiful times making the trip to the healthy vegetable aisle for award winning cucumbers before stopping at the video store on the way home…So I’m told….Not that I know about such things. LOL.
Anyways, The OOJ was lost in the jerkey.
Clinton flat out obstructed justice.
While the WH staff – with no small emphasis from the Admin women – went out of their way to trample Jones as a “slut”…
Nasty people. They’re still around, too.
oh I agree with all of that. I never defended Clinton… LOL Not my job – he stupidly gave the right just what they needed when he knew they were wild for what he delivered…… Not that I ever cared where he put the plumbing – some women pundits (Totenburg and Cokie in particular) acted as tho he stepped out on THEM…
if you remember when he broke a bone in his foot? It happened late in the evening when he was visiting Greg Norman… who had a great set up, out at the end of a promontory, down in FL. Heavy tree coverage, big tall mature trees, a main house and several guest cottages. Large property… Old Bill broke his foot walking late at night on the property.
I laughed pretty hard at the first news report… and hoped for his sake it happened leaving her cottage.
BUT Starr definitely was imo a bizarre sick little whatever. shades of Salem.
Think I have mentioned ti before but the whole thing was just a mess… Bill C’s actual GF, the sort of official one, at the time was whatshername… she was head of his Board of Economic Advisors… d’Andrea Tyson… older, married … it would have been very hard to crack that, for public consumption, the way Starr and his minions served up Monica… there would be no Linda Tripp right at Tyson’s shoulder, etc. No blue dress… . She was hardly as vulnerable as Monica… no delivering pizza to the Oval for d’AT. Poor Monica was pathetically glad to do that sort of thing.
I think Bill wanted to get “caught”… I heard it from his own lips at some point, forget in what setting, that as Monica was young he “knew she would talk about the affair”.
very weird.
I esp remember the morning driveway mini conflabs that Starr would have, as he left his house, coffee mug in hand. That strange sick smooth boy scout’s face. Irrepressible joy at his daily work of pouring over the details.
hmm doesn’t seem like Paul K had a come to Jesus The Obama moment last night.
Obama’s a peacock?
That’s racist…or something!
But, of course, he won’t go all the way…
Such BS. This is ALL on Obama. Even he said that the buck stops with him and, in this case, that’s literal.
hmm This very public spat, fight, lovers’ quarrel, sibling rivalry…what ever it is … that the Dems and the Potus have picked with the Scotus… well it tells me the Dems and Ob have some frightening numbers in polling the base.
Big base rally.
Because the Dems are keepign it going. Clearly. Lots of fresh quotes in the article from senior and Leadership Dems.
May they all bite each other to death.
hmmm Good news… esp as the market looks shakey in Jan.
Of course the “4th q” is the PAST
Increased inventories were responsible for about 3.6% and the rest of the economy grew 2.1%.
Household consumption growth is extremely weak, considering that the final bit of cash-for-clunkers goosed the data and we’ve had a huge fiscal and monetary stimulus. Investment outside of inventories was barely in positive territory.
As long as unemployment remains high and consumer credit is shrinking, we’re not going to see consumer spending. Without that, we’re not going to have a need for new investment. Without both, we can’t have a strong recovery.
I read a good piece today, forget where, about how very dependent this particular recovery is on NEW jobs. Not just an upswing or whatever is the usual waning of a recession…
ain’t gonna happen.
I think no matter what some very very bleak years coming. Here already… actually.
considering that the final bit of cash-for-clunkers goosed the data and we’ve had a huge fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Europen news reports I caught today, DW, Euronews, RT … and France 24 (I just did nto catch BBC) all mentioned the stumble bill money as gooising the numbers.. absolutely.
One thing that is relentlessly sold out here is the modest bit of money available for things liek weatherizing and new windows.. 1500.00 but I am sure anything “off” helps people decide to do something like that.
What is not getting mentioned, much, is that there is no interest with the banks out here in loaning money on houses (gee no shock) for green modifications that are costly…
nd so on
OK !! Scraping bottom.. Ivanka Trump on ABC giving political commentary.
She and Mort Zukerman are covering the waterfront on “come backs” from Ob to Leno to Ford… (so far, stay tuned!)
Bin Laden goes green.
From the comments:
lol
Isn’t this a hoot! A green eco smart hoot of course.
We canucks are such undisciplined barbarians…
And try not to throw up on anybody’s shoes.
Brrreaking: Tiller’s killer guilty of first degree murder.
The jury was out for 37 minutes.
oh good news! I worried that somehow something might go wrong…
Obamalama’s in Baltimore speaking to his base – the Repubs.
I just heard on TV that when the meeting was ready to move to a closed session, Ob said, NO, let’s keep the doors open!!
His numbers must have REALLY tanked.
gnu…
LINK
