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Tension… 29 April 2008

Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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hmmm as long as no one plugs us in and hits “PULSE”.. but, my, things feel tentative.

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1. melvin - 29 April 2008

Don’t want!

I don’t like that photo.

There has been a terrible accident and I once again am a Trusted User at kos’ home for the dull normal.

Would anyone like anything smuggled in before I self-destruct?

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008

Catnip: Some kossacks are actually positing the theory that Obama and Wright set this all up in some sort of good cop/bad cop move to save Obama.

Well, that was my theory up until today, that he was popping up to prop up Obama’s numbers in the AA community. Guess not.

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3. marisacat - 29 April 2008

IOZ… and if you are up for it, the post he links to is rather a special version of the usual blowback.

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4. lucid - 29 April 2008

hey melvin – keep us updated if there’s anything interesting… though somehow I doubt it. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing if there’s any interesting hidden threads that developed beneath hidden comments in the last two diaries I wrote… entertainment value and all. One comment I know definitely got hidden was when I told Moon to go taser some Palestinian children, as that seems to be his hobby & there was already a developing thread beneath that one before it was hidden.

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008
6. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008

Cynthia’s Statement on the Sean Bell Verdict

Lots of examples and struggles that I haven’t heard of.

Roger Wareham, and the December 12th Movement International Secretariat raise, inside the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, the details of the type of police abuse in which a 92-year old grandmother, Kathryn Johnston, is murdered by police in Atlanta, Georgia and her family still has not seen justice or been made whole. Or where a young black male, also in Atlanta, can be sitting in his mother’s car and is murdered because the police presume that the car is stolen.

The December 12th Movement has asked for United Nations Rapporteurs to come to the U.S. on fact-finding missions so that the U.S. can finally be listed as a major human rights abuser and a Rapporteur assigned to this country.

Already, the Special Rapporteur on Racism and Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance is coming to the U.S. from May 18 – June 6 and will be in New York City on May 21st and 22nd. The December 12th Movement is scheduled to have a hearing for him at the Schomberg Center where the issue of police killings will be raised. The Rapporteur is also scheduled to visit DC, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and San Juan.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Summary and Arbitrary Executions, Mr. Phillip Alston, is conducting a Mission to the U.S. in June. The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is also interested in reports of police abuse. If a consistent and systemic pattern of abuse exists (which it clearly does in the United States), the United Nations General Assembly can pass a resolution which helps creates international public opinion and perhaps the political will to stop it.

Certainly, doing the same thing–a cycle of protest without punishment–will net the same results. Something different must be done. That’s why I authored legislation to deny federal funds and the use of federal equipment to any law enforcement unit found to have violated the civil rights of the people it is organized to protect and serve. Imagine if we had the laws on the books and the apparatus of enforcement. Imagine if juries wouldn’t grant impunity to killer cops.

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7. lucid - 29 April 2008

Cynthia’s Statement on the Sean Bell Verdict

And a reason she was targeted twice in her Democratic primary… and one of the reasons why I will vote for her, proudly… But, then again, I’m just one of those ‘hate America firsters’, aren’t I.

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008

Olbermann is depressingly conventional wisdomy tonight, on pretty much everything.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008
10. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

Well, that was my theory up until today, that he was popping up to prop up Obama’s numbers in the AA community. Guess not.

I could see that theory working for his Moyers and NAACP appearances but these kossacks were referring to Wright’s performance at the press club – that he came out looking rather looney so it would be easier for Obama to write him off.

I also wonder how Wright’s true blue supporters in the AA and white (and “other”, as they’re referred to) communities see Obama after today’s denunciations. Obviously there must be thousands who continue to support Wright at the church – not to mention those beyond it.

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11. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 April 2008

Well, I already didn’t support him, but I think he’s a coward and an asshole. Quit apologizing everytime the Republicans and the media say that you’re supposed to.

I’m so sick of Dems.

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12. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

Life meets art again: on Boston Legal tonite, Shirley wants to sue her nephew because he’s a delegate who’s voting for Obama even though his district went for Hillary.

I think I’ll stop watching the cable “news” shows and just tune into Boston Legal every week from now on. It’s much more entertaining anyway.

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13. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

11. I have a post to write about this when I’m feeling better and I think the title will be: Obama v Wright – This Time it’s Personal.

I think it’s just a battle of egos and today was a “how dare he insult ME!” moment for Obama.

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14. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

Update: now Shirley and Alan Shore are suing the DNC. Popcorn! 🙂

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15. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

This is an interesting story: Liberians drop rice for spaghetti. I wonder how many other people will be changing their traditional eating habits due to the food crisis.

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16. cad - 29 April 2008

I hope America is bored by all of this.

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17. liberalcatnip - 29 April 2008

Not even a blip on the media’s radar screen anymore: Tuesday: 2 US Soldiers, 90 Iraqis Killed; 135 Iraqis Wounded

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18. marisacat - 29 April 2008

well I think as of yesterday the KIA for Iraq was 44… they said the highest since September…

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19. lucid - 29 April 2008

Another fwiw I wrote tonight. Def not great…

The dead man will not say he so deems it

We anoint the feet
Benevolent feet
Of captors
With sweet oils.

We anoint the dead
The heartfelt dead
Our ancestors
With sweet oils.

We grease the living
The bodies of hoi poloi
As slaves
Among us
With a boiled concoction
Of rancid oil and indifference.

But when one saves the sweet oils
For those greased slaves
To anoint their feet
In love,
Or death,
Or honor,
Or kinship,
Our captors remind us
Of the pledge we took anointing their feet.

A pledge
To remember the treaty of our capture,

And the penalty of death
For our chthonic rituals.

But the dead man will not say he so deems it.

To celebrate life in the face of death
Ends any pledge of slavery to the anointed.

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20. bayprairie - 29 April 2008

Ugly Americans
by Hair Club for Men

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21. cad - 30 April 2008

Melvin! Rush in here and throw this soul some support against the idiocy of Dumbini:

Here’s what’s really blowing me away right now (2+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
entlord1, geejay

I agree with the objectives of this community. I want to see more Democrats elected. I know that a McCain presidency would be fucking disastrous. And, I’ll reiterate in case you missed it, I know that Obama is better off cutting Wright off.

But now I have a front-pager, of all people, telling me that if I express any sort of trepidation about the realities, that I should get lost, as if progressives need less people signing on to their cause. It’s not the views that you asserted in the article I’m calling nasty, it’s your response to my original comment, and the insinuation that I’d prefer a McCain presidency to Obama’s repudiation of Wright. Really, man, are you off your rocker?

People don’t wanna see the news-it’s boring. People wanna see animals. Close up. With a wide angle lens.

by PLCOT on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 01:57:35 PM PDT

[ Parent ]

*
Yes, I Said “Get Lost” (0+ / 0-)

Thank you for the adept reading.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/29/152747/672/647/505821

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22. moiv - 30 April 2008

Thank you for your poem, lucid. After my foray tonight into the morass of cheerleading and fundraising for the latest pro-war, anti-immigrant, anti-woman Dem hero … well, it was perfect.

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23. lucid - 30 April 2008

btw – that’s a poem based on the line from ‘Anitgone’ that I went off on the other night… just for context.

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24. lucid - 30 April 2008

Thank you moiv… I was concerned it was a bit too contrived… then again, what do I ever write that is not contrived. 😉

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25. wu ming - 30 April 2008

to write is necessarily to contrive, the same as any other creation. nothing wrong with it.

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26. NYCO - 30 April 2008

A great quote I read here…

“The trouble is that when you’re young you don’t know enough; you are constantly being lied to, in a hundred ways, so your ideas of what the world is like are jumbled; when you imagine the life you want for yourself, you imagine things that don’t exist. If I could have gone back and explained to my younger self what the real options were, what the real consequences for certain decisions were going to be, my younger self would have known what to choose. But at the time I didn’t know; and now, when I knew, my mind was too filled up with useless auxiliary information, and beholden to special interests, and I was confused.”

Something that a lot of the “netroots” will be saying to themselves in years to come, I predict.

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27. marisacat - 30 April 2008

n an interesting tussle, a virtually unnoticed clause was added almost at the least moment to a US energy bill that bars the government, in particular the Department of Defense, from using Alberta crude because it is deemed unconventional and too dirty.

A provision in the US Carbon Neutral Government Act incorporated into the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 act effectively bars the US government from buying fuels that have greater life-cycle emissions than fuels produced from conventional petroleum sources.

The United States has defined Alberta oilsands as unconventional because the bitumen mined from the ground requires upgrading and refining as opposed to the traditional crude pumped from oil wells.

California Democrat Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Republican Tom Davis added the clause.

Arab News

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28. marisacat - 30 April 2008

btw, the Obamas will be on The Today Show tomorrow. I assume the first half hour. Which is all I can ever stand of that show anyway………..

fwiw ntim

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29. aemd - 30 April 2008

Ioz does some repudiatin’.

The longer this goes on, the weaker Obama looks. Is there any person/position this guy won’t back away from/water down if there is enough manufactured outcry? Hmmm, not good for the Midwest team to look so insubstantial so early.

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30. NYCO - 30 April 2008

Here’s the essential problem with the Wright thing:

For months we’ve not only been told to appreciate, but to BELIEVE IN, Obama as both (a) a transcendent, healing conciliator and (b) a whip-smart legislator ready able and willing to take over the reins of a nation.

But now, we’re apparently supposed to accept him as (a) someone who can mercilessly bring the hammer down on “the enemy within” – but that’s macho! and/or (b) someone who was deceived by a trusted associate and guide that it turns out he really didn’t know all that well – but that’s human!

If you put forward either one of these new premises, though, you erode (if not actually destroy) the Obama brand. Because his denunciation of Wright isn’t exactly “healing and conciliatory,” and him being blindsided by Wright just hints that he’s a naif.

So now Obama has to undergo something of a re-branding… and after it took so long to establish the first one. But if he’s not a transcendent healing conciliator or a whip-smart leader… who the heck is he, then?

Clinton has control of her brand (as odious as it may be to many). I’m not sure if McCain has control of his, but I sure as heck hope Obama figures it out soon if he’s bound for the nomination. I have a feeling we’re just going to end up with “I’m not a Clinton or a Bush…”

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31. wu ming - 30 April 2008

longshoremen to march alongside immigrant rights protesters on today’s mayday rallies, bay area and sacramento info here. not a word of it on the blogs or media, should be interesting to see if it makes a ripple, (or if the LA march gets attacked by the cops again).

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32. marisacat - 30 April 2008

he’s weak. The flag pin, for one, is a dumb issue… but he keeps moving on it. Instead of putting it the fuck away. Today or late yesterday it has now morphed to, “I don’t always remember to wear one”. Who cares. But he seems to.

There is a trickle of super dels coming out for him today, McCaskill says the majority in congress are “silently” for him and the suspense continues but is privately over. Again, to me it is a centrist battle. For control.

No dog in this heap of mauled and bloody gamers.

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33. marisacat - 30 April 2008

The 350 truckers got very little coverage two days ago… slight mention, no photos.

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34. marisacat - 30 April 2008

Sounds like Fr Pfleger of Catholic St Sabina’s in Chicago has been the go between. He ”counseled” Obama Tuesday am. Talks to Wright, who “loves Barack”.

Separation of church and state, long gone.

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35. NYCO - 30 April 2008

Here’s the question nobody seems to want to ask:

Is the next president of the United States likely to be successful?

I mean, whoever it is.

Instead of pondering the candidates we should be pondering the state of the presidency and the state of the nation. And I see nothing but failure ahead. We’re electing the next Hoover and I don’t see any way out of that. It doesn’t matter who’s wearing the president costume. So the question should be turning to, what fallback position do people have.

As for Obama, he’s already “fading into the light of common day,” as Wordsworth put it. Get ready for Obama II: Electric Boogaloo.

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36. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

27. I didn’t know about that. Thanks, mcat.

As for the dirty oilsands, this news was revealed yesterday: 500 birds trapped in oil

On the same day the Alberta government ventured to bolster the oilsands’ environmental image in Washington, the province was tallying a massive wildlife death toll after roughly 500 birds became trapped in a toxic tailings pond north of Fort McMurray.

Most of the oil-coated birds, believed to be mainly ducks migrating north after a long winter, were dead or dying Tuesday at Syncrude’s Aurora mine site.

The province expects few will survive. Until now, about 20 birds a year have perished in these northern Alberta ponds made to hold and recycle industrial waste, making it the largest loss of wildlife involving a tailings pond in Alberta.
[…]
The Syncrude pond lacked gunshot-sounding noise-makers to deter wildlife required under provincial rules between spring and fall.

The expected punishment for Syncrude? Some measly fine.

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37. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

30. But if he’s not a transcendent healing conciliator or a whip-smart leader… who the heck is he, then?

Just another politician. Like I noted before, when his campaign began his advisors thought he appeared too “wonkish” so he was rebranded then as Mr Inspiration and, despite his flaws now being more widely seen, (they were there all along – the weakness, the vulnerabilities – but the devotion to him in the media and on the blahgs provided ample cover) there are those who are still hanging on to the idea that he’s the changeyhopeiness guy. But, when it comes down to the practicalities of actually putting that into action as prez, there are serious obstacles that I don’t think he’ll be able to overcome unless he seizes the king of executive power Bush has.

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38. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

*king = kind

Freudian slip.

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39. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

Is it 2009 yet?

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40. marisacat - 30 April 2008

hmmm back and forth between Melissa Harris Lacewell and Adolph Reed on the election. she attended TUCC in the past and supports Obama… I ahve heard her in the past. Reed supports neither/none and anticipates a scenario in which McCain wins.

Democracy NOW! with Juan Gonzales

Snip from the Reed side (he sounds like an agnostic or atheist or just don’t care, as well):

I think it’s also the case that—well, I mean, the connection of race and religion, I think, also very much disturbs me. I mean, there’s no intrinsic black American religious experience. I think there are a lot of us who don’t have any religion whatsoever and don’t really care about it and don’t especially want to see it in public life. And I think that’s a—you know, that’s a stance and a mood and a disposition that’s as culturally authentic among black people as anything else, if there were such a thing as cultural authenticity, which I don’t believe.

Finally, you know, the premise that our politics is—at the national level somehow has been characterized by partisan division just flies in the face of everything that we’ve seen over the last twenty-five years. I mean, what have progressives been complaining about, right? That we have basically two wings of a single party, right? It was the Clinton administration and the Democrats who have led—who have polished off the destruction of the federal government’s sixty-year commitment to direct provision of income support for the poor, to direct provision of low-income housing, that led to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, that opened up the dotcom boom, and so—and so on, that’s been as committed to a regime of public advocation and service provision as Republicans have.

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41. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008
42. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

This is so totally fucked up: Ruling clears Khadr for trial:

OTTAWA – A Guantanamo judge has dismissed an argument that Omar Khadr was a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan and so in need of protection, not prosecution. The ruling clears the way for the Toronto detainee’s trial.

U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback’s ruling today, which upholds the Pentagon’s position that there is no minimum age for prosecution for war crimes, comes on the heels of an appearance by Khadr’s U.S. military lawyer before Canadian legislators.

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43. NYCO - 30 April 2008

Great decision for the U.S.! Should make killing those two-year-old Iraqi toddlers a lot easier now…

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44. Arcturus - 30 April 2008

why not/

According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there are now about a dozen people outside the United States and Somalia who were sentenced to permanent imprisonment as children: South Africa has four, Tanzania has one, and Israel has seven. In contrast, the United States has 2,270 children serving such a sentence, including 227 in California.

. . .

According to the Human Rights Watch study, 26 percent of the children in the United States condemned to permanent imprisonment were sentenced under the felony murder law. The felony murder law mandates that even when someone is only marginally involved in a homicide, they are held to the same level of responsibility as the primary perpetrator, even if they had no intention to harm anyone and possessed no weapon.

European countries and many states have abandoned the felony murder law as unjust, but it continues to be practiced in California.

Justice in the United States is a function of individual state laws and discretionary charging practices by prosecutors. As it is now, 42 states allow children to be sentenced to prison without the possibility of ever being released. Of these 42 states, six – California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri – account for more than 1,500 of the 2,270 total.

Many of these children committed their crimes when they were 14 or younger, but the laws make no exception and show no mercy. Judges have no discretion, and they must impose the mandatory sentence of life in prison without hope of release. link

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45. melvin - 30 April 2008

42 I really need to vomit after reading that.

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46. lucid - 30 April 2008

Should make killing those two-year-old Iraqi toddlers a lot easier now…

Well hey, at least we no longer need to tote out the line that the ‘terrorists use civilians as shields’, because apparently toddlers are now terrorists…

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47. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

43. Should make killing those two-year-old Iraqi toddlers a lot easier now…

No doubt.

I decided to write a post about the situation. If a Dem wins and doesn’t immediately change what’s going on in Gitmo, then we’ll see their true colours. I expect a lot of “but the Supreme court said” blah blah blah though.

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48. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

Baghdad clashes ‘leave 400 dead’

More than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month between Shia militias and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in Baghdad say.

The fighting has been concentrated in the capital’s eastern district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of the cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

Five US soldiers have been killed in fighting in Baghdad since Tuesday.

April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 49 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died.

“Surge” on.

Doctors said more than 50 civilians were injured in the fighting on Tuesday.

The two main hospitals in Sadr City are struggling to cope with the recent influx of casualties, officials at the Imam Ali and the Sadr General hospitals have said.

More than 400 people have died and almost 2,500 others have been injured since the end of March, they added.

Staff at the hospitals are worried they are running out of clean water and do not have enough severe trauma specialists to treat all those who need help.

Complete clusterfuck.

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49. marisacat - 30 April 2008

Arcturus out of moderation….

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50. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

As it is now, 42 states allow children to be sentenced to prison without the possibility of ever being released.

Unconscionable.

Whoever takes on the task of “restoring America’s image in the world’ will have a helluva lot of work to do and none of these big party shills have the credibility to do it. I think the US could use more Cynthia McKinneys.

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51. marisacat - 30 April 2008

I think it is clear that the US has totally abandoned any idea of rehabilitation… in terms of crime.You are the crime you did forevermore…. AND tacitly admits that there is no cohesive society that people should be returned to after serving appropriate time (and time appropriate to the crime is just gone in the US, completely). And all of this extends to children. I forget how long the argument has gone on from the wingers, who want to execute children. Not just incarcerate them forever.

I think it is frightening.

That POV that PBS put on last year, a little family trying to get to NV I think to a job ran out of money and food for their children in Susanville. Where a new prison went up a few years ago. For shop lifting 16.00 worth of food, they were charged iwth commercial burglary. Initially both were held, the children taken away. The mother was relieased did get her children back, but the father served 16 months. The mother put on co and state welfare, and stuck there waiting for the prison time to be over. She survived due to a church ministry, older white ladies who covered for diapers and when she was short on the rent. When he finally got out, then they were still stuck there for a period of parole.

It was horrifying.

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52. NYCO - 30 April 2008

In other news, apparently Roger Waters’ much worshiped “Obama pig” had floated away in error from the very same show and was later found in someone’s driveway miles away, shredded, and resembling “pulled pork.”

“It must be a SIGN!”

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53. brinn - 30 April 2008

Hey all! Long time no read, but I am happy to see that all continues on as per usual!

lucid — beautiful poem!
wu ming, right you are re: contrivance and creativity (how’s that small girl of your, btw?)
catnip — look forward to your next post
madman….what can I say? always a pleasure
and marisacat, thanks for being the hostess with the mostess as always.

Won’t waste pixels catching you up on me and mine, ‘cept to quote Cracker:

I see the light at the end of the tunnel now [I see the light], someone please tell me, it’s not a train….

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54. brinn - 30 April 2008

oh, and NYCO — that Obama Pig thing had me laughing my ass right the fuck off on my way to work….

Obama and Roger Waters: EGOS ARE US

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55. brinn - 30 April 2008

One last thing for the moment:

Can anyone tell me why my family has received only $1321.67 out of the $1800 I was expecting to “stimulate” me??

Not that I was gonna run right out and purchase a big screen TV or anything, but damn, $478 bucks could feed us and get us to work/school for a couple of weeks……..

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56. marisacat - 30 April 2008

lol government assumed you wished to tithe……………………….

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57. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

44 – I wish I was surprised, but this is the land that left any form of compassion or decency far, far behind as bad for the bottom line.

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58. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

But at least Waters’ ego is consistent and not utterly contrived.

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59. brinn - 30 April 2008

re#56 — maybe so Marsia, I’d’ve rather given the $480 to my friend Lefty (he’s on the street, and only has one arm, but he’s always smiling and he has the greatestblue eyes that you have ever seen), or any of the other vets that I see on the street every single fucking day.

I am about to enter really scary mode — I’m graduating in 2 1/2 weeks, I have a job lined up for fall and have all summer to raise hell, er, I mean my voice. I’m going to be starting with the damned Texas lege (as Molly Ivins always called it: the national incubator for (very) bad ideas”)….

Dangerously over-educated, and more free time on my hand than I’ve had in over 10 years…look out!

8)

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60. brinn - 30 April 2008

re: #58 Nah, Roger didn’t have any choice but to have such a huge ego (aka the Wall) — I don’t begrudge Waters his — at least I have a raft of excellent music to listen to as a result of his!

Mr. Obama on the other hand? meh.

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61. Arcturus - 30 April 2008

oft described as ‘the Pavorotti of Classical Persian music’ (highly rec’d!):

MOHAMMAD REZA SHAJARIAN

Great Maestro ‘Shajarian’ & Ava Ensemble Concert Schedule
Posted on April 23, 2008 by Sahand Soltandoost

• Vancouver Orpheum Theater
Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 778 ) 886 8908
Website: http://www.caravanbc.com

• Bay Area Flint Center Cupertino
Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 510 ) 885 8200

• Los Angeles Gibson Amphitheater
Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 510 ) 885 8200 or ( 818 ) 50 50 100

• Sacramento University Theater, SHASTA HALL 113
Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 916 ) 705 8798

• Seattle University of Washington, Kane Hall
Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 425 ) 361 2929

• Orlando Olympia high school Auditorium
Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 407 ) 468 9555

• Chicago North Eastern University Auditorium
Satuday, May 24th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: 1 800 550 4562

• Washington DC Center for the Arts / George Mason University
Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 703 ) 517 4343

• Atlanta The Post Theater
Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 678 ) 357 3572

• New York Town Hall
Thursday, June 05, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 212 ) 545 7536
Website: http://www.worldmusicinstitute.org

• Toronto Roy Thomson Hall
Friday, June 06, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Telephone: ( 416 ) 536 4769
Website: http://www.SmallWorldMusic.com

(don’t see Carnegie Hall on the itinerary

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62. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

My sister’s winger bf was giving me crap about Roger after I saw him here last summer (one of the local talk radio idiots was bitching about the pig and all the anti-war stuff … the video playing during “Fletcher’s Memorial Home” with Bush’s portrait next to Stalin seriously set them off). I said, “anybody who had listened to “The Wall”, “Animals” & “The Final Cut” (which is pretty much nobody, but still …) and was SURPRISED by Waters’ politics was a fucking idiot.”

Then I paused, and said … “oh, wait, we’re talking about wingers here. Never mind. ”

Roger Waters, “Leaving Beiruit”

It’s good to “see” you Brinn, and congrats on the deluxe sheepskin!

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63. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

My LSF writeup on the Waters show last summer. Reading it now, it’s very depressing how much my mood has darkened even more about this country’s course since then.

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64. marisacat - 30 April 2008

58

omigod. a nearly Ph.D visits the mud wallow. I must infuse the site with finer softer mud….

LOL

does the Tx lege meet in full bore summer heat? I doubt the doors of the Austin City Hall and whatever else it is are kept open as they were way back when I used ot visit on Rio Grande in Austin… Lovely and cool to walk thru at night…

Molly had the best lines. Bar none.

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65. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

LOL @/w IOZ

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66. wu ming - 30 April 2008

hey brinn! she’s just amazing, walking and talking and being mischievous and stubborn, a joy to play with. speaking of which, she wants to eat, i’ll write more later. congrats on the (almost) degree! i’m still deep in that tunnel, although people tell me there is eventually light.

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67. marisacat - 30 April 2008

Not sure anyone can stand it. A 3 pager from Wolcott on the deep Democratic divide. Gah. They should have split 4 decades ago, when it might have mattered.

Centrist crow pie. Battle of the reddish butter knives.

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68. lucid - 30 April 2008

Hi Brinn. Thanks. Congrats on having the fortitude to survive a grad program – I washed out while planning my dissertation.

omigod. a nearly Ph.D visits the mud wallow. I must infuse the site with finer softer mud….

What? I’m just chopped liver because I quite a few credits shy of one? 😉

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69. marisacat - 30 April 2008

ugh. page 2 of the Wolcott is almost all about Dkos, kos and various battle zones there over the race.

skimmiing very very very fast.

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70. marisacat - 30 April 2008

68

nearly nearly a Ph.D requires not only softer finer mud but the finest volcanic water infused mud.

Working on it…

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71. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008
72. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

My idea/plan for the perfect retirement is to figure out a way to go back for a PhD in Philosophy later in life.

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73. marisacat - 30 April 2008

65

I see reading the thread at IOZ that James Watson (that James Watson of Cold Harbor) has maxed out to ObamaRama.

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74. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

All Out For May Day!

My digital penpal John V. Burke has been sending info about how the dockworkers are going to shut down all West Coast ports on Thursday to protest the war. Postal workers in New York and San Francisco have expressed support for them, and port truck drivers are calling for a day of protest against fuel prices.

This counts for a lot more than the reclaiming of the original Labor Day. (A holiday that began as commemoration of an event in American labor history, no less.)

That is followed by some interesting thoughts on why labor may be more free now to join w/ the antiwar movement now.

The Cold War is over, the steady-growth postwar economy is over, union density as a percentage of the workforce is down from 35% to 13% (and less in the once-powerful industrial sector), anti-labor policies have been entrenched at the NLRB for many years, and neither the Carter nor Clinton administrations achieved labor’s goal of legislative reform. (How hard did they try? Good question.)

In short, the deal that undergirded labor’s qualified support for the Vietnam War has fallen apart. The postwar social compact was a tradeoff; the other side went back on the bargain. It’s time for labor to begin reclaiming its full range of tactical options in support of a robust participation in political life, on an agenda of labor’s choosing without the artificial constraints imposed by Taft-Hartley. This will be, inevitably, a gradual process, and it may get ugly; I don’t think there are any US Attorneys dumb enough to try to indict the ILWU leadership, but I may be being too generous.

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75. brinn - 30 April 2008

WHOA, ya’ll!! I need nothing but the roughest toughest mud (though volcanic infused sounds cool — lots of fire and molten lava!), as I finally PUNTED on the “deluxe” sheepskin (and it ain’t anymore, just paper — though my undergrad, from Va Tech?
Sheepskin. That’s how old I am — LOL!)

1997- present at THE university of texas at austin (speaking of egos…)

After all the coursework, (insert single motherhood about here) plus some, successfully defending the proposal, (insert marriage and a second incubation of life here-ish), conducting the research and writing about 180 pages….I went into an 18 month stall as I contemplated how many jobs I would be “pricing myself out of” with the pile it higher and deeper acronym behind my name…. I called it quits last August, er, called it a decade!

Felt great about it too, like a 5000 pound gorilla was removed from my back, the next day, I thought:

Hey, these fuckers have me in debt until I’m dead with my student loans, I’m going to make them give a masters degree…and that’s what I’m getting on 5/17, which also happens to be son the elder’s 9th birthday….much fun will be had by all.

It is a nice bookmark to my first masters that I earned in 2 years without any student loans at all in 1989….

Life is pretty damed grand — an wu, as I have told all of my gorilla-laden friends, now that I have punted mine, I am all about being a cheerleader for those of you who actually want to finish — send me your editing, I will give you my eyes, I will pretend to be your worst nightmare committee member and ask you asinine questions only tangentially related to your research….and anything else you may need from a 10-year veteran without the degree! 🙂

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76. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

Stiff Upper Libs

Their squirming and hand-wringing over Jeremiah Wright’s recent performances (running from softly-stated analysis to celebrity impressions and regional accents) has been quite a sight to see, and quite predictable as well, since white liberals find it hard to damn the nation state they believe is, under the countless mass graves, morally driven, if imperfect. Touring the various liblogs yesterday and this morning, I found much of this baby talk in evidence, proving yet again that if the Dems capture the White House, nothing will really change, save for the soaring rhetoric.

Of the various manias on display, Digby’s fantasy musings took the rancid cake. The beloved liblogger slipped on her space goggles and typed “Reverend Wright called into question the entire premise of Obama’s campaign, a campaign built on changing the very nature of politics, when he said, ‘he did what politicians do.'” How dare Wright point to plain reality while the most important election ever since the last most important election ever hangs in the balance! Obama caters to mainstream political mythology in order to win votes? That’s lunacy! Any sane person knows that Obama’s “changing the very nature of politics,” right before our eyes. If you doubt this, move to Gaza and await the new dawn. It should arrive no later than, say, August of next year.

Digs wasn’t the only lib throwing spitballs at Wright; nor was she alone in denouncing Wright’s “egomania” and “self-aggrandizement” (some added that Wright “envies” Obama’s success, and thus wants to tear him down, because, you know how certain brothers get when another begins to rise). These epithets are swiftly employed when liberals sense that their worldview is being challenged. Ralph Nader was and remains a selfish egomaniac, while Al Gore just wanted to serve his country. Jeremiah Wright borders on the sociopathic, while Obama and Hillary are merely exploring ways to save this great nation.

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77. brinn - 30 April 2008

Hee — madman, a doctor of philosophy in philosophy? Perfect for you! When you’re ready to retire (and don’t say now), give me a ring and I’ll be your sponsor! ‘Course it won’t be any kind ofmonetary sponsorship, because I’ll still be paying off my loans from my 10 year NON-PhD!

LOL!

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78. brinn - 30 April 2008

re: #22 MOIV!!! How did I miss you!?

We have a standing date for lunch or drinks or both the next time you’re in Austin — don’t forget!

I need to pick your brain re: making politicians know that they are NOT the experts….

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79. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

brinn!

Congrats. 🙂 Get those shitkickers on and get out there and have a great time (y’all).

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80. brinn - 30 April 2008

Thanks catnip — remember that request for research into Canadian land purchases I made a while back? I am still serious about having an escape hatch….Mexico is also a possibility, of course, and a bit closer….I may need to establish multiple hatches…especially after I get going with the shitkickers! 🙂

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81. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

FACING SOUTH EXCLUSIVE: D.C. nonprofit aimed at women voters behind deceptive N.C. robo-calls

Who’s behind the mysterious “robo-calls” that have spread misleading voter information and sown confusion and frustration among North Carolina residents over the last week?

Facing South has confirmed the source of the calls, and the mastermind is Women’s Voices Women Vote, a D.C.-based nonprofit which aims to boost voting among “unmarried women voters.”

What’s more, Facing South has learned that the firestorm Women’s Voices has ignited in North Carolina isn’t the group’s first brush with controversy. Women’s Voices’ questionable tactics have spawned thousands of voter complaints in at least 11 states and brought harsh condemnation from some election officials for their secrecy, misleading nature and likely violations of election law.

First, a quick recap: As we covered yesterday, N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be “Lamont Williams.” The caller says that a “voter registration packet” is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote. No other information is provided.

The call is deceptive because the deadline has already passed for mail-in registrations for North Carolina’s May 6 primary. Also, many who have received the calls — like Kevin Farmer in Durham, who made a tape of the call that is available here — are already registered. The call’s suggestion that they’re not registered has caused widespread confusion and drawn hundreds of complaints, including many from African-American voters who received the calls.

The calls are also probably illegal. Farmer and others have told Facing South the calls use a blocked phone number and provided no contact information — a violation of North Carolina rules regulating “robo-calls” (N.C. General Statute 163-104(b)(1)c). N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper further stated in a recent memo that the identifying information must be clear enough to allow the recipient to “complain or seek redress” — something not included in the calls.

It is also a Class I felony in North Carolina “to misrepresent the law to the public through mass mailing or any other means of communication where the intent and the effect is to intimidate or discourage potential voters from exercising their lawful right to vote.”

Hmmmm, I wonder what could be behind this?

There are other questions about Women’s Voices’ outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting “unmarried women,” their calls and mailings don’t fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious “Lamont Williams.”

And as Farmer asks, “Why are they using a guy for the calls if the target audience is single women?”

Some have also questioned the ties between Women’s Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton’s HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women’s Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton’s election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group’s website says he was intimately involved in “development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns” for Clinton.

Women’s Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

“The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state’s primary,” Democracy North Carolina’s Bob Hall tells Facing South. “These are highly skilled political operatives — something doesn’t add up. Maybe it’s all well-intended and explainable. At this moment, our first priority is to stop the robo-calls and prevent the chaos and potential disenfranchisement caused by this group sending 276,000 packets of registration forms into North Carolina a few days before a heated primary election. We need their immediate cooperation.”

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82. wu ming - 30 April 2008

susanville is a fucking pit. it would be worth trying to flee to nevada just to get out of that town.

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83. wu ming - 30 April 2008

thanks for the offer, brinn. hopefully i’ll actually start writing chapters and stuff, instead of being stuck interminably in the samsara of TAing to avoid paying tuition, but never getting anything done because i’m spending my time TAing. well, that and because i’m a terrible procrastinator.

extra congrats on having both a job lined up AND free time. i don’t think i’ve had guilt-free free time since i started 8 years ago, save from the “i’m doing something productive” free time of distracting the kidlet while my wife gets her research/grant writing done.

i hear you about the escape hatch as well. one of the reasons why i’m itching to do research in asia soon is to distance myself from this madhouse, if just temporarily.

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84. marisacat - 30 April 2008

82

yes I forget where the little family had started out, they were just passing thru Susanville. What a nightmare, all around…

**************

81

been reading around today about the WVWV mess… it appears to go thru several states. They sound like an astroturf org….LOL With field operatives…

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85. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

‘Blood Diamonds’ ‘Blood Oil’ and ‘Blood Food’

True commitment to stopping the war in Iraq requires a global human rights strike, in which the working population of the world stops producing, until the governments and the corporations realize that the voice of the people does indeed matter.

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86. wu ming - 30 April 2008

simpler just to say “blood capitalism,” no? same basic principle at work, every time some new horror pops up.

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87. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

80. Land prices around Calgary have skyrocketed the last few years, right along with housing costs, thanks to the never-ending oil boom. If you’re willing to live a bit further away from the city, there might be something affordable – but then you’ll get soaked with the gas prices if you have to commute.

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88. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008
89. marisacat - 30 April 2008

LOL tell the WI delegate to do a vote trade with Kerry.

What a joke the whole superdel thing has been.

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90. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

Pretty funny/sad, the whole party mess.

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91. lucid - 30 April 2008

You got me beat Brinn. I only had a 6 year non – PhD that turned into an MA [in, of course, philosophy]. I was nine credits shy and writing my dissertation outline at the time ‘Political Ontology’ [with the possible subtitle ‘How Plato Fucked Up the World’]. Alas, I quit for several reasons: 1. I didn’t want to be a roaming academic, 2. They shitcanned my mentor over politics leaving me with no one to write my dissertation with, and 3. I got to a point where every paper turned into a book manuscript making it impossible for me to actually finish my coursework [I think I finally gave up the ghost while on page 100 of a paper that was ostensibly supposed to be on Hegel’s regeneration of the category of substance as ‘the political’ in ‘Philosophy of Right’ when I realized I was never going to finish grad school]…

Ah, bathing in the volcanic water infused mud… good for the skin! 😉

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92. marisacat - 30 April 2008

Ah, bathing in the volcanic water infused mud… good for the skin! 😉

really really good for the skin… 8)

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93. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 April 2008

‘How Plato Fucked Up the World’

Well, ain’t THAT the fuckin’ truth.

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94. moiv - 30 April 2008

evening, all, and glad to see you, brinn

I need to pick your brain re: making politicians know that they are NOT the experts….

Hell, they don’t claim to be experts — that’s why Gawd created lobbyists. And they’re shameless about it, too. A couple of years ago, Warren Chisum admitted it in an interview: “that’s where we get out ideas” That’s where they get the actual text of their legislation, too. A lot of it springs fully grown from the maggot-infested brain of Allan Parker, just like Athena from the head of Zeus.

In other news, the Brits are still providing us with role models for our own sex scandals, though they handle them ever so much smoothly, with the ease of long practice.

Lord Laidlaw, the multimillionaire Tory donor, has pledged a £1m donation to an addiction charity after a Sunday newspaper published lurid claims about his addiction to sex.

The Monaco-based peer admitted his lifelong problem after the News of the World claimed he had held sex parties with prostitutes. In a letter to the newspaper, Lord Laidlaw, who has given more than £3m to the Conservatives and paid £25,000 to Boris Johnson’s mayoral campaign, said he had been “fighting sexual addiction for my whole adult life”. He said he was seeking “expert help” and plans to give £1m to a British addiction charity.

Lord Laidlaw said: “Sexual addiction is comparable to other, better-known addictions such as drug, alcohol and gambling. There is no cure for it and self-help is rarely successful.”

But self-help does help keep it out of the tabloids. 😉

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95. marisacat - 30 April 2008

I do believe the English lord is invoking CASH CURE.

LOL that gave me a laugh. Thanks for that.

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96. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

This week’s feminisismisms: Overcoming Privilege with a link to Jessica Valenti’s deep thoughts. Spare me.

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97. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

94. Off to rehab with him!

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98. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

‘Provocative’ Clinton angers Iran

Tehran has complained to the UN about remarks made last week by Hillary Clinton on the circumstances under which the US might attack Iran.

The Democratic presidential hopeful said last week the US could “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel.

Tehran, which insists its nuclear programme is solely for power generation, denounced her words as “provocative and irresponsible”.

It said the remarks were “a flagrant violation” of the UN Charter.

No kidding.

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99. marisacat - 30 April 2008

LOL somebody in a thread at TL (they are dissecting the Wolcott piece linked above) calls Dkos

Okos.

LOL pretty good.

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100. James - 30 April 2008

Hey Brinn,

Congrats on earning that PhD!

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101. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

99. The Jets and the Sharks? No. It’s been more like Jesus v Beelzebub.

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102. liberalcatnip - 30 April 2008

Obama hurt by furor over ex pastor: polls

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s loss in the Pennsylvania primary and the political firestorm over his former pastor have cut into his lead over rival Hillary Clinton among Democratic voters, according to polls released on Wednesday.

According to a New York Times/CBS News poll, 51 percent of Democratic voters now say they expect Obama to win their party’s nomination. That’s an 18 point-slide from a month ago when 69 percent said they expected Obama to take on Republican John McCain in the November presidential election.

That’s a huge drop.

The latest survey found that 48 percent of Democrats believe Obama, an Illinois senator, has a better chance of beating McCain than Clinton, a New York senator, versus 56 percent a month ago.

The poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday, before Obama strongly denounced his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for making racially charged comments that roiled the Illinois senator’s presidential campaign.

Trouble in Obamaland…

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103. lucid - 30 April 2008

Trouble in Obamaland…

Guess I should stock up on cognac…

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104. marisacat - 1 May 2008

Walters who is at Univ of MD, and was a political strategist for Jesse… in I think ’88, has flatly said, the denunciation was to try to halt the slide.

But all glory to god and country in the pay off:

Representative Baron P. Hill, an Indiana Democrat and a superdelegate, was one of the new supporters for Mr. Obama announced on Wednesday. He said Mr. Obama’s denunciation of Mr. Wright had impressed him as “a strength of character and commitment to our nation that transcends the personal.”

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105. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

…that transcends the personal

Sheesh. What kind of drugs is he on? It was all about “the personal”.

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106. ms_xeno - 1 May 2008

Exhausted. Our outdated accounting system at work set off about fifty explosions of varying size throughout Tues. and today. The muckety-mucks really should dig into their toy fund and buy us something that’s not a fucking antique– but I’m not exactly holding my breath. Tomorrow I’ll attend to the May Day thing downtown if I wake up before 3 PM. :p

Hats off to brinn, though. And SMBIVA’s recent take(s) on Wright were pretty cogent, too.

Sleep now.

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107. marisacat - 1 May 2008

ms xeno…

thanks for the tip off… popped over to SMBIVA… and a fine line up it is… http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/

from the second one down:

Castores a castrando dicti sunt. Nam testiculi eorum apti sunt medicaminibus, propter quos cum praesenserint venatorem, ipsi se castrant et morsibus vires suas amputant.

[Castor is so called from castration. Because their testicles are useful for medicine, and so when they realize that the hunter is after them on that account, they castrate themselves and bite off their powers.]

— Isidore of Seville

This is pretty much what Barack “Leave it to Beaver” Obama has done in repudiating Jeremiah Wright: sacrificed his testicles to the hunters.

Seems the forever Dem epidemic. I got a good laugh – for days actually off and on – from a comment at Dkos after the Kerry swan dive:

he’s handed them back to Teresa who put them in her beside drawer

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108. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008
109. lucid - 1 May 2008

The muckety-mucks really should dig into their toy fund and buy us something that’s not a fucking antique– but I’m not exactly holding my breath.

Hey… I resemble that remark.

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110. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

That Wolcott piece was enjoyable.

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111. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

Guess I should stock up on cognac…

Elitist alert!

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112. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 May 2008

But self-help does help keep it out of the tabloids.

But isn’t the problem that he WASN’T “self helping”?

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113. Intermittent Bystander - 1 May 2008

Anyone need a blood pressure boost this morning?

Harry Reid shills his new fucking book on NPR.

If you listen to the audio, mind your vessels, vassals.

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114. NYCO - 1 May 2008

Another one for the scrapbook…

I know I called this- with two diary postings saying Barack had to get as from away from Wright as possible- but it’s no fun being Cassandra. This has become like Lost, going on way too long with no good end in sight… Even Maureen Dowd and Bob Herbert aren’t being nice anymore. What’s up with that? On some comments to Maureen Dowd’s piece I saw this: Obama flew too close to the sun, and now like Icarus, his campaign is done. I had to goggle who Icarus is, some guy who glued feathers togethers so he and his father could escape a prison. His father warns him not to fly too close to the sun, but he does and the feathers melts and he falls to earth.

Best comment:

Lets just chant . . . (2+ / 0-)

Joe Andrew!
Joe Andrew!
Joe Andrew!

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115. marisacat - 1 May 2008

oh god. All I can say is who in the name of hell would buy crap from a crapper.

Reid is such a hack. And the greatest single exposure – and the one least mentioned – of Dkos and the craptacular netnutroots was their YEARS LONG slobber for such a willful piece of hack merchandise.

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116. marisacat - 1 May 2008

114

henninger (will provide link, i just crashed and had to reboot) in the WSJ points out that Obama friends (FOO ?) seem to have abandoned him. I had not noticed frankly… but Henninger points out the glaring absence of opinion pieces from his most prominent supporters in the wake of Wright for weeks and esp the last splat.

Maybe they are writing locally in their home press, as in Sibelius has done a support piece in MO… etc.

I noticed Caroline going semi high profile with Michelle (and what blither it was, from both, Ivies seem unable to produce fluent speakers of their native language)… but frankly had not been looking for big name defense pieces.

Who knows. If what Henninger says is true… the race is in greater peril than I had thought.

I know one thing, you decide to run nationally and your rather too comfy base is a mixed race, liberal to left to whatever from a major US city…AND when you ran state wide the field was cleared for you… you better figure out the equations. Early on. I don’t care about Obama OR Wright. May they congeal, But geesh.

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117. marisacat - 1 May 2008
118. cad - 1 May 2008

Here’s a sad and obviously inaccurate summation of Kos from the otherwise sharp James Wolcott. Methinks he doesn’t actually read the site:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/06/wolcott200806

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119. bayprairie - 1 May 2008

reed has a book titled “the good fight”? what a spectacular laugh that is. that bastard hasn’t fought for a goddamn thing other than earmarks.

and hey brinn, congrats! my five bucks says they’re gonna light the tower orange just for you this year!

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120. NYCO - 1 May 2008

116. I can’t say if what Henniger says is true either… I don’t watch cable news so I don’t know which talking heads were saying what, if anything.

However, Henniger’s column makes me wonder again if Obama has got the temperament to be president. Is it possible that he just didn’t reach out to his new allies – to the Oprahs, the Ted Kennedys, the black religious figures – and ask for help? (By “he” I mean, by extension, his campaign.) I recall reading comments from someone who knew him in his organizer days and the impression they got of him was someone who seemed pleasant, but somewhat aloof in the day to day schmoozing department. I sympathize greatly with that kind of temperament because it’s somewhat like my own… but that’s why I would be a poor candidate for president.

Maybe someone with a temperament like mine could serve as a cabinet member, a trusted advisor, or even a VP. But while one can put new ideologies and new management styles into the White House, I’m not sure one can put a big range of different temperaments in there successfully. You don’t have to be a Big Dog, but you can’t just be someone who sits there waiting for others to come to you, and that has been Obama’s act – standing there and gleaming magnetically. In a time of crisis, that isn’t going to necessarily work.

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121. marisacat - 1 May 2008

well that is the problem, Obama has evidenced, all along, a noticeably passive take on the race. IMO.

Unfortunately Wright was a high profile example. I did not care what Obama did with Wright, but one or the other, support or cut, had to be done early.

But long ago I said Obama ‘showed his neck’ in the disinvite. But did nto deal with what would come from it.

Geezloueez.

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122. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

May Day news from around the world.

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123. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

120. I’m bothered by the “I was a community organizer” talk which hardly comes with any specifics or campaign appearances from people who could seemingly boost Obama’s appeal by stepping forward with anecdotes from those days. It just seems like a vague void in his life. Just like the Wright situation, the lack of specifics is problematic for Obama. You’d think his campaign would have figured that out long ago. He rides his image far too much.

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124. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008
125. marisacat - 1 May 2008

well the Port of Oakland appears to be shut… only one line mentions on TV news…

Dock workers stayed home and a coordinating protest group, ‘Direct Action to the end the War in Iraq’ is at the entrance. They say a couple dozen.

Will look around for reports…

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126. ms_xeno - 1 May 2008

lucid, #109.

Wait ! If lucid’s an antique, I don’t even want to know what that would make me. Gotta’ go. I think that my grilled cheese is burning. :/

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127. marisacat - 1 May 2008

omigod… Palfrey was found dead at her mother’s home in FL. She left hand written notes.

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128. marisacat - 1 May 2008

Palfrey = DC Madam

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129. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

Suicide? Hmmm… The WaPo has a story up.

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130. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

We never did hear more from Larry Flynt who claimed that there were other big names in her little black book.

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131. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

Her site is “off line until further notice”. I wonder when that happened.

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132. marisacat - 1 May 2008

wellI think the trial (which was vicious to the women on the stand – whathisname who writes the Washington Sketch in the Wapo posted some of the text of x exam) AND the verdict hit hard.

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133. NYCO - 1 May 2008

apropos of nothing… I had a co-worker during the Clinton years who always said that Stone Cold Vince Foster would make a splendid brand name for a beer.

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134. wu ming - 1 May 2008

i hope flynt or whoever has the book publishes all the clients. this stinks to high heaven, it was right before the sentencing would have taken place, where people often offer useful info for reduced sentences.

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135. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

Blowback. You’re happy that Obama denounced him? So many “can we not talk about this anymore?” comments. Wishing it away won’t make it so.

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136. liberalcatnip - 1 May 2008

Dirt, for a distraction:

NEW YORK – After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as “exciting” and “brilliant.”

Appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press.

A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says.

At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC’s “Today” show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. Her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978.

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137. cad - 1 May 2008

Key word above: Republican.

Wolcott is really impressed by Kos. It’s clear he doesn’t often read the site. Or he enjoys the purity purges under the Chevron banner.

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138. melvin - 1 May 2008

What in the hell happened to this guy? Ben Stein has even managed to get himself denounced by the ADL for endorsing the insane “Darwinism” = Nazism idea. On the April 21 installment of a TBN show called Behind the Scenes he trots out this and every other idiocy imaginable.

It is flogging a dead horse at this point, but I actually listened to the damned thing – so you don’t have to – and noticed something that hasn’t been much remarked on. Early on in his diatribe against the imaginary censorship of ideas, Stein says

you can’t even ask how the planets stay in their orbits . . . .

Apparently it isn’t just Darwin that has led us so astray, but Isaac Newton as well.

There is a lot of crying from Stein about how people that object to evolution don’t get anywhere in their scientific careers.

How surprising. I don’t imagine med students who continue disbelieving in William Harvey’s theory of blood circulation get very far either. Nor would I care to have on operate on me.

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139. cad - 1 May 2008

I’ve actually seen raw footage from the film and the science folk all come across as calm, reasonable, some of whom are slightly amused by Stein’s clear bias. He sounds about as smart as a former Nixon speechwriter turned game show host would be debating scientists.

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140. marisacat - 1 May 2008

God’s in His Heaven…. all’s right with the world…

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

DOW CLOSES ABOVE 13,000 FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE JAN. 3

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141. bayprairie - 1 May 2008

Obama’s ‘Race Neutral’ Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The world views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Sen. Barack Obama were incompatible from the start, just as the mythical American Manifest Destiny world view is directly at odds with the facts as perceived by Blacks in the United States. Wright finally forced Obama to choose sides in the conflict of racial/historical visions, and in doing so, performed a service on behalf of clarity. Obama lashed out in a startlingly personal manner, calling Wright a “caricature” of himself and linking the minister to forces that give “comfort to those who prey on hate.” Rev. Wright exposed the flimsy tissues of so-called “race neutrality” in a nation founded on racial oppression.

“Obama positioned himself at the political/historical fault line alongside the defenders of the Alamo and American Manifest Destiny.”

Things fall apart; some things, like an ill-tied shoelace, sooner than others. Barack Obama’s strategy to win the White House was to run a “race-neutral” campaign in a society that is anything but neutral on race. The very premise – that race neutrality is possible in a nation built on white supremacy – demanded the systematic practice of the most profound race-factual denial, which is ultimately indistinguishable from rank dishonesty. From the moment Obama told the 2004 Democratic National Convention that “there is no white America, there is no Black America,” it was inevitable that the candidate would one day declare the vast body of Black opinion illegitimate.

devastating

…Obama had belabored the same theme in his Philadelphia speech on race, a few weeks earlier – a widely applauded piece of oratory that was at root an exercise in moral equivalence that equated white and Black grievances in the U.S., as if history and gross power discrepancies did not exist. Obama is as quick as any smug corporate commentator to dismiss as the ravings of extremists and those who “prey on hate” the very idea that U.S. imperialism is an historical and current fact. Chickens cannot possibly come home to roost in terroristic revenge as a response to American crimes against humanity, since “good” nations by definition are incapable of such crimes. It is beyond the pale to contemplate that the United States has Dr. Deaths on its covert payrolls dealing in ghastly biological warfare – the AIDS genesis theory.

In order for his race-neutral strategy to appear sane, Obama must constantly paint a picture of an America that does not exist. This cannot be accomplished without mangling the truth, assaulting the truth-tellers, and misrepresenting America’s past and present.

Since Obama’s candidacy is predicated on minimizing the pervasiveness of racism in American life, it is necessary that he cast doubt on the legitimacy of those with race-based grievances. Otherwise, he would be morally compelled to abandon his neutrality and side with the oppressed minority. Thus, he announces in Selma, Alabama that Blacks “have already come 90 percent of the way” to equality – a non-truth by virtually any measurement. He says the “incompetence was color-blind” in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, thereby deracializing all that occurred in New Orleans from the moment the winds died down to this very second. He claims that 1980s Ronald Reagan voters had understandable grievances due to “the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s,” in the process cleansing the Reagan victory of any racist content.

Race neutrality requires that Barack Obama become a cleanup boy for racists, historically and in the present day. At the same time, Obama is driven to loath most those people and facts that might lead to divisiveness. America’s worst enemies are not the racists, but those who point out the facts of racism…

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142. marisacat - 1 May 2008

nu thred………………………..

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and bay I saw your snips from Glen Ford post on ObamaRama… and moved it forward to the new post…

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