Speaking of il papa catolica…

Speaking of il papa catolica… 14 June 2008

Posted by marisacat in Abortion Rights, Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Italy, Sex / Reproductive Health.
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L’Ultimo Principe di Dio … Looks like Ultimo Ratzy to me!

And this site that I landed on while searching for images of il papa… which gave me many a chuckle tonight… don’t miss Pius XII having his skirts held for him…not too far down on the left. Then on to obedience lower down… and a nun venerating (I guess) Christ on the Cross.

Yes…….. many a chuckle… 😉

Comments»

1. marisacat - 14 June 2008: hmm people should buckle up… listening to an overnight segment on KGO radio (it’s local here in SF, with mostly CA callers) on the SC ruling on Gitmo… for just under two hours, only TWO callers siding with the ruling.

Caller after caller, some even with Scalia and or Roberts dissent in their hands to read parts… just opposed, het up, unable to see WHY this ruling matters. Unable to see how it conforms to the Constitution.

And as I said, the host, who is a old fashioned independent conservative, is using the ruling to exhort “vote Democratic”.

Swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar…

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2. marisacat - 14 June 2008: LOL I think Schumer sounds like a babbling idiot… (which is not to say they will nto rack up wins and greater majorities) From Roll Call via the BlahgerBoyz

“I love Harry Reid. We are like brothers,” Schumer said. “We’ve been in a foxhole together. In a Democratic caucus that runs the gamut, he brings us a unity — and not just any unity. … He’s extremely popular within our caucus. He’s a great listener. He has the right blend of trying to accommodate the individual needs of Members, but at the same time understanding that sometimes you have to do things for the greater good.

“I think he’s going to run in 2010. I think he loves his job. And I hope he does” run again, Schumer said, as he pivoted to his own future. “I’m very happy with my role in the Senate. … I wake up Monday morning, and I love going to work. As long as that stays, I’m staying where I am.” ::snipsnaparooo::

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3. liberalcatnip - 14 June 2008: George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

A source close to the Vatican said that Mr Bush was the most “Catholic-minded” president since John F Kennedy, who famously played down his Catholicism.

One word: crusades

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: I’ve been wondering for a while if he was going to be another of those winger Catholic converts that populate DC.

Just found this via Crooks and Liars:

VA Denies Vet’s Disability Claim; Cites VoteVets Membership

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: Mr. Fish

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: From the latest Harpers, High noon for the Republican Party: Why the G.O.P. must die

PHILLIPS: Well, the public showed that it can produce a significant swing in 2006, in electoral terms. But the issues on which they supposedly voted are
not being addressed. How do you vote to get everybody out of Iraq, for example? Vote for the Democrats? That hasn’t worked so far.

MCCONNELL: And it cuts both ways. The people who have been voting Republican for the past thirty years on cultural rather than class issues i.
e., culturally conservative Reagan Democrats have gotten nothing for their votes either. But there is no evidence whatsoever that they are going to stop voting Republican.

BAKER: It’s like you have this weird inversion of Tammany. They don’t get you out of jail, they don’t give you a turkey at Christmas, they don’t do anything for you, and yet somehow they keep winning.

I think the cultural conservatives have gotten plenty for their votes, mostly taken away from women and poor, minority voters, but other than that their description is pretty spot on.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: LOL

Only one week after opposing a permit requested by an adult boutique in West Chester (PA), a Catholic church withdrew its appeal. Did they decide it was time to stop pushing their sexually repressive view of morality on others? Not quite. It appears that the church learned that their opposition was benefiting the shop, bringing more traffic and sales.

According to Jill McDevitt, owner of Feminique Boutique, her business doubled since the church filed their complaint.

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8. CSTAR - 14 June 2008: 3

Adds credence to the thesis that the natural home of the church is no longer the Iberian world (too much nudity there, after all) but the good old US of A. Lots of weaponry to follow the cross.

Believe or you will be stunned.

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9. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: Too bad they don’t give those cardinals crests instead of beanies.

Note to self and other yorking Empire Staters – save most virulent constituent correspondence for Monday morning delivery to Chuckie “The Cheese” Schumer.

lc – When I heard Ratzy gave the Great Brush-Cutter a private garden tour, I worried about the Vatican roses. Queen Lizzy’s are probably still recovering.

BTW – the American bishops made news yesterday too.

The formal statement on embryonic stem cell research is planned as the first of two related documents to be brought forward from the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, according to Archbishop John Myers of Newark.

Myers said a forthcoming longer, more pastoral statement directed especially toward married Catholics and those dealing with infertility will tackle the issues of in vitro fertilization and the adoption of embryos by couples.

The spare embryos eyed by scientists for research are a byproduct of in vitro fertilization. Myers said the Holy See is studying the issue of embryo adoption.

Wonder if they’ll offer home energy assistance for the fridges.

Ooh that’s a good Mr. Fish, Madman.

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10. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: American bishops (and fridges) in spam?

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11. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: I did not know this (from catnip’s link):

Catholics have noted that during the contested election in 2000, Jeb Bush travelled to Mexico and prayed to the icon of Our Lady of Guadelupe. His victory was announced by the Supreme Court on December 12, the feast day of the Lady of Guadelupe.

Spooooooky!

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12. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: CSTAR (from last thread):

What a laughable practice to try to ingratiate oneself with a corpse.

LOL. That would make a good tombstone epitaph, in the spirit of “Here lies John Yeast. Pardon me for not rising.”

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13. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: 7 – Holy publicity, Madman!

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14. ms_xeno - 14 June 2008: Jesse Ventura on wages and unions.

…When bidding out government contracts, the prevailing wage supports unions and what unions stand for. It makes sense for the government to set a fair wage for government work. It’s good business.

A living wage, on the other hand, does nothing but make government grow and the economy suffer. With a mandated living wage, the government dictates to businesses what they have to pay their employees. If the government tells your employer to pay you more, guess who’s going to get [more tax revenue out of the additional pay]? The government! And what happens when government gets more money? It grows! We have to avoid policies that blindly make government grow.

Moreover, there’s evidence to show that a rise in the living wage costs jobs. I think this issue should be left up to the employee. If you don’t think a job pays enough, don’t take it! it’s called individual choice. No one makes you take that job or accept a wage you don’t think is suitable…

Jess Ventura on welfare and poverty.

…The government is not a charity institution. Constitutionally, there’s nothing supporting the idea that people have the right to expect charity from the government. I believe in charity. But I also believe that government programs funded by tax money are about the worst possible way to help out people in need. Private charities are much better, because people can get involved in the ones that are most meaningful to them….

Color me not real impressed with the thought of this man as President. OTOH, it would be great if he ran and got widespread public exposure– Because frankly I’m guessing that this is close to how Obama’s handlers feel about the people they claim to care for;Once you strip away all the flowery inspirational language.

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15. ms_xeno - 14 June 2008: More trouble in paradise, via The Womanist Musings blog. McKinney as the “fallback” for White Feminists who otherwise would have voted Clinton II.

…There are more examples but I got sick of the unacknowledged racism and sexism. These commentaries reflect a point of view that I have repeatedly stated, WOC only matter when it is convenient. Suddenly McKinney is acknowledged as a woman too? Imagine that. According to Julia, this a good time to use her for a figure head, so that feminism can have its very own marionette. That is exactly what McKinney aspires too, I am sure. Now that Hilary is officially bust, Cynthia can join the vagina club. I wonder if this makes her feel like Susan Lucci did when she finally got her award…Since there is no one better, let’s vote black female.

Comments like these are why I refuse to identify as a feminist. As I have repeatedly stated feminism has no room for WOC unless we are serving in a support staff position. We are not conceived of as leaders, or innovators. We are simply fillers until something better comes along. If they truly view McKinney as a woman, where was the outrage when these images appeared?… -6/12/08

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: Old Dogs and Hard Time

In any case, I am pretty dammed convinced parole is a racket, just like incarceration has become a racket, just as everything in this whole goddamned country is a racket in disguise, from home mortgages to health care. If it is vital to ordinary citizens, it’s a racket. But fear is the biggest racket of all. Even our rightful fear of sex offenders gets harnessed to the objectives of the corporate and political elites, woven into the weft and warp of the national delusion we call “the fabric of our society.” The freedom loving one that currently has 2.2 million of its own citizens locked up and another 2 million walking around under strict post-incarceration supervision and monitoring.

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17. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: Time’s right for rail

The impossible happened this week — the U.S. Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to fully fund Amtrak for the next five years. There’s even some matching money to help states set up or expand rail service.

It’s amazing what four-buck-a-gallon gas will do.

Amtrak’s funding package even got the votes of some of its biggest critics, like Florida Republican Rep. John Mica, who admitted for the first time that Americans need some transportation choices.

“Nothing could be more fitting to bring before Congress today, on a day when gasoline has reached $4.05 a gallon across the United States on average,” he announced on the floor.

The two houses need to patch over some minor differences in the bills they passed, but Amtrak backers are confident that won’t be any trouble.

The biggest trouble, though, may still come from the White House. President Bush, who has attempted to dismantle the national rail system throughout his presidency, has pledged to veto the bill. Fortunately, both the House and Senate passed the funding by veto-proof margins. Unless Republicans switch because they don’t want to “embarrass” their president, Bush’s veto will be moot.

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18. marisacat - 14 June 2008: IB

sorry,.. American Bishops out of spam and upthread at comment 9

…. 8)

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: Rigorous Intuition

The Internet is often thought an egalitarian blessing by those who would hold high criminals accountable, yet the only accounting rendered is online. I don’t think the guilty regard this as an unfortunate development. I think we’ve been corralled into cyberspace, taken as freedom its “free speech zones,” and adopted its virtual and vulnerable bantustans as our “domains.” (Appropriately so called, since its mastery entered mass culture as a euphemism for masturbaton.) We can win the blog wars, but we may as well have been playing World of Warcraft for all the difference it will make when the power goes out and we lose our connection. The connection for which we may have forsaken many others of much higher worth.

So this is my dilemma, and my paralysis. It’s not every day you get to spectate the real-time collapse of a planetary civilization and biosphere. (Or, I suppose I should say, I remember a time when it wasn’t.) But watching this unfold with fascination feels complicit and worse than if I were blithely ignorant, and analyzing it at this seeming late stage futile and ridiculous. What’s important now, what’s more important than ever, are the close-to-home matters: being a good father and husband, and learning how to best cushion the crash of our coddled urban lives.

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20. marisacat - 14 June 2008: 4

that was a horrible story… and the thread was sad.

I read a few weeks ago that for ordinary, non combat, non VA related disability claims, for SSDI Social Security Disability, there are over 750,000 languishing in the process or denied. In the 90s under Clinton one of the worst of the private disability insurers (Provident/Unum) was contracted to come into the system and “advise”.

I would imagine soemthing similar has been done with VA benefits. They knew a set of wars would be costly and I doubt any of them wanted to be paying out more than needed.

but, you know, not to worry, Obama ran in 04 on wanting to serve on the VA committe, so I am sure everything will be fine soon after January 09.

And McCain certainly knows how to get full benefits AND work.

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21. marisacat - 14 June 2008: 19

agree… (and off to read the full post).

A few years ago, before 04 election, Frances Fox Piven said that they allow us the internets, left leaning political books and exposes in books, because it does not matter. Too few read any of it to really matter.

I figure it is like drugs in jail… no one wants to run the jail without drugs to take the pressure off.

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22. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: Found this linked at Talk to Action:

John McCain Meets With Catholic Leaders in Philadelphia

Sen. John McCain reached out to Catholic voters yesterday in Philadelphia at a gathering of Catholic lay leaders and clergy. The meeting, held at the venerable Union League on South Broad St., is one in an ongoing series being held nationwide by McCain and his Catholic surrogates — Sen. Sam Brownback, Gov. Frank Keating, and former Vatican ambassador Jim Nicholson.

Before his remarks, McCain met privately with Rev. Frank Pavone, president of Priests for Life. Father Pavone’s organization promotes voter education and registration throughout the nation, and his pro-life advocacy has been crucial in bringing the non-negotiable life issues to the attention of Catholic voters.

In his prayer before McCain spoke, Father Pavone prayed that the “Lord would let all Christians know they are still His sons and daughters when they are in the voting booth.”

The first issue addressed by McCain was abortion. He said that the “noblest words ever written” were “the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” McCain believes that those words “apply to the unborn.” He reminded the Philadelphia Catholics of his pro-life voting record, adding that he would “maintain that commitment” if elected president.

McCain talked about the “stark contrast” between himself and Sen. Barack Obama on the life issue — the evidence being Obama’s vote against the ban on partial-birth abortion and his opposition, as a state senator, to legal protection for babies born during an abortion procedure.

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23. marisacat - 14 June 2008: hmm I am sure we are winning…

Four Marines Die in Afghanistan; 870 Inmates Escape

AP via Truth Out

Noor Khan And Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press, report: “About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a US military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against US troops in the country this year, officials said.”

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24. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: Grazie, MCat.

ms_x – Interesting. Maybe all those so-called cracks in the glass ceiling really will start to radiate through the walls and shuttered windows of the party edifices (edifi?) as well.

I haven’t met a single one of those much-vaunted Hillary-or-Bust Dems (of any gender) here in NY, though.

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25. marisacat - 14 June 2008: I haven’t met a single one of those much-vaunted Hillary-or-Bust Dems (of any gender) here in NY, though.

Think SF and environs has a hard core sub set of them (even as the region rang up the votes for ObamaRama)… not sure abut the “or bust” extension and how long it will endure…but they are here, hard core Clintonites and big donors.

I heard that Jim Johnson was on the phone about minute one after she delivered her speech, pressuring big money Clinton donors to come over. LOL… and he is remaining as a bundler.

My guess VPessa is chosen, time and wannabes are dangling … and so it goes.

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26. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: Think SF and environs has a hard core sub set of them

I’m sure they exist here, too (and probably more so further downstate), but I’m not seeing them stop traffic much, switching their T-shirts from blue to green.

I heard that Jim Johnson was on the phone about minute one after she delivered her speech, pressuring big money Clinton donors to come over.

Way to woo ’em, Jimmy.

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27. Arcturus - 14 June 2008: John Nichols has a piece up at The Nation, “Supreme Court Judges Obama Right on Constitution |.” I just wanted to regurgitate a little reminder:

I’ve heard, for example, the argument that it should be military courts, and not federal judges, who should make decisions on these detainees. I actually agree with that. The problem is that the structure of the military proceedings has been poorly thought through. Indeed, the regulations that are supposed to be governing administrative hearings for these detainees, which should have been issued months ago, still haven’t been issued. Instead, we have rushed through a bill that stands a good chance of being challenged once again in the Supreme Court.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama

Iow, the problem isn’t that the federal judiciary was locked out of hearing habeas petitions; it’s that the bill won’t (& didn’t) stand up to judicial scrutiny. It wasn’t written properly in order to block the Judicial branch from having any say in making “decisions on these detainees.”

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28. marisacat - 14 June 2008: hmm I am so suspicious of our savior sent by god and the Democrats… will click thru to read. Plus Nichols has been with the ‘older white male pre orgasmics for obama’. Sigh.

None of these people mean us any good.

They may ”tidy up” Gitmo (and the legal process) but that will nto stop what they are doing in the war zones.

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29. Arcturus - 14 June 2008: o, I was NOT praising the Nichols’ article . . .

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30. marisacat - 14 June 2008: yeah i got that… 😉 I was just typing what went thru my brain.

Frankly I am surprised to see Chemerinsky sign that letter. And what an emotional open armed letter. Fools.

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31. ms_xeno - 14 June 2008: IB, #24:

Well, I said in my own space that what holds my attention in this race is not either/any of the front-runners. What’s at play amongst the masses rooting for one or the other is a lot more interesting.

I don’t fault the author at Womanist Musings at all for being pissed off at White feminists. But I’m still going to stick with the path I’ve chosen, and that path doesn’t include Obama or any other Democrat.

If Clinton II had been able to hammer out a win for herself, how many POC would honestly have stood for that ? Male or female ? Particularly in this highly charged atmosphere of dirty trick after dirty trick, and accusations thereof ? I guess we’ll never know for sure.

And the fractures, breaks, cracks, fissures, splits just keep on coming. (via SMBIVA)

Somebody tell me all this shit won’t just magically smooth itself out come, oh, 9/15/08 or so. Bad as stress is for me personally, this is the kind of airing we need to see in public. No way out but through, blah blah blah blah.

“Falling in line on Election Day” in 2004 sure as hell did nothing for us as a country. It’s long past time that more people fell out, even if it’s not always for the reasons I’d personally like.

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32. Arcturus - 14 June 2008: I ran across an item the other day by a Gitmo lawyer who dod NOT sign the letter – no time to look it up now tho, my wife really wants to get out & get some food

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33. ms_xeno - 14 June 2008: Spam A Lama Ding Dong.

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34. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2008: I missed this: Kucinich Vows New Round of Impeachment Articles Against Bush If Measure Dies

Congress voted 251-166 Wednesday to send the articles of impeachment to a House Judiciary Committee for review where it’s expected to die.

But Kucinich said if that happens he will just introduce another resolution until lawmakers vote on the measure.

“Leadership wants to bury it, but this is one resolution that will be coming back from the dead,” Kucinich told the Washington Post Wednesday. “Thirty days from now, if there is no action, I will be bringing the resolution up again, and I won’t be the only one reading it. We’ll come back and many of us will be reading this [on the House floor], and we’ll come back with 60 articles, not 35.”

In a statement Wednesday, Kucinich urged the House Judiciary Committee to “begin a review of the 35 articles” and said he “will be providing supporting documentation to the committee so that it can proceed in an orderly manner.”

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35. christian - 14 June 2008: Doesn’t this make him a sockpuppet? Gosh the hypocrisy.

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/6/14/0952/31661/488/535481

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36. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: ive been enjoying the banal white nationalist demoKKK-rats© over at pff hurling racism charges (as if they were olypmic disciim can you say donkasstail?) at everysingleone who takes issue with their blessed© politician.

but it appears as if they’ve been bitten by the very same bug they point out so gleefully in others. of course with them being 99.5% easter-lily-white and all, this comes as no huge surprise.

Why this Black Man Lives Unapologetically in Brazil
by francislholland

guess flh wasn’t anointed by the corp plutocracy like their main manna has been. so they minimize his excellent points asap. hey, think flh is a larouchite? i mean he must be yes? i bet he mentioned larouche once in his lifetime.

i swear i knew we were in for a show in 2005. but i had no friggin idea is was going to be like this. i wanna seat belt and an air bag with my orchestra seat please.

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37. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: and an airsick back as well. and it won’t be the pinot noir making me ill either.

🙂

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38. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: now everyone text hope to 62262

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39. ms_xeno - 14 June 2008: We’re all LaRouchies now, bayprairie.

Naderites being passe’ until Hairless Weasel takes a break from his 64-volume Law & Order collection and returns with the sacred tablets, of course.

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40. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: i want hairless trigger to magically render 10 million english anti-war marchers irrelevant simply by using “the voice”. 1 million wasn’t enough. i suppose i’m greedy and want it all.

and im right too. just ask the brit troops in basra.

oh wait. you can’t. they left not long after the protests.

did i say left? oh my.

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41. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: oh by the way. today i got my share at the coop and in it, for the first time are

locally grown tomatoes!!!!!!

to fucking die for. now everyone should text tomatoes to your mouth.

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42. marisacat - 14 June 2008: bay

LOL

“main manna”, that’s good!

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43. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: well he’s fallen from heaven. food for the israelites in teh wilderness! just text hope to 62262 it’ll fall on you teaux!

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44. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: obama is moses.

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45. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: one savior. two tablets. do the math.

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46. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: obama is heston.

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47. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: and in spite of chemically inspired cótes du rhóne silliness i still experience that dead-short-to-ground sensation when i am confronted with the reality of our binary america, glimsed dimly through the looking glass of someone elses eyes…

Great Diary Francis! (5.00 / 4)
Great Diary of Course Francis!

Filled with INFORMATION…the kinds of things that “liberals” hate….FACTS!

Of course I live in high crime area here in Uptown Chicago…recently heard 6 shots and two people were killed a block away, literally fending off burglars who enter the house when I’m here and picking up what’s left when I’m not on two different occassion, picking up needles and rubbers in the alley, pushing coke heads off the gate so I can get in or out of the house…and this is a neighborhood that’s “changing”. It’s always interesting to walk past somebody getting a blow job or actually fucking in the alley…that’s not happening too much any more. Then there used to be screaming at all hours of the night and day. There is a halfway house for schziophrenics across the street and a home for abused women next to that…lots of fire engines and ambulances coming and going to pick up the people who are trying to committ suicide…

It wasn’t my idea to move here….i had enough of that growing up. That’s another mundane story though.

The police here are monsters, and as I’ve said so many times they are not police…they are corrupt FARMERS for the prison industry…picking crops in the form ..usually of people with darker skins than “white” people have and putting them in jail for the butt of a joint. I have been assaulted 3 times in the last few years by cops…Even filed a complaint…haven’t heard back in a year….

America is violent inside and out.

I would love to live in Brazil….or Ecuador or maybe Granada Nicauraga which I hear good things about.

People who post here are generally purely suburbanites….in the suburban of the Planet Earth America….so far removed…so far

Stu Piddy…a free range human

by Stupiddy @ Sat Jun 14, 2008 at 11:51:13 AM PDT

and then life is no longer funny

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48. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: ms_x at 31 – I’m also fascinated by the current dynamics of the various alliances, and interested to see signs of traditional faultlines giving way to crosswise, sensitive new fissures. (Tartan alert!)

The shifts occurring all over the so-called electoral map (like those “living dunes” Donald Trump wants to tromp) have already proven fluid enough to permit some unexpected pile-ups. What happens next is way beyond my pore, pitiful powers as a (cough) political prophet, but I bet the I Ching would have something to say. Betcha Rules for Radicals or Das Kapital or Da Bible or some other venerated, grad-school-approved text could be cited to support the notion that human beings might, just might, be pressed to evolve.

Also agree there’s no way out but through. And it helps a lot when people actually listen to each other. (Not to mention themselves.)

Quite the sticky mess so far, on view. Very rough on the wall-to-wall tarpitting. With eggheads like some we’ve seen, I’m not exactly holding out for omelettes.

BTW – the upside-down spam really was hurlworthy.

So until the cabin aisles are all aswirl with whirling peas, let’s all secure our folding trays in the functional position, if that’s ok, and please pass those fresh tomatoes, Texan Tease.

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49. marisacat - 14 June 2008: hmm i think the 3,600 “volunteer fellows” fanning out across the country for Obama have been told they embody Alinsky methods.

Will wonders never cease.

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50. marisacat - 14 June 2008: Not sure what it all means, but the drums in the jungle constantly relay that ”reach out and touch someone” from the campaign is lacking.

LOL: The thread says “get over it and accept Jesus, he is a busy fellow!”

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51. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: bonaroo 2008, TONIGHT. Solomon Burke

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52. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: None of Us Are Free

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53. wu ming - 14 June 2008: ate the first cherry tomato off the vine today. i figure i’m about 2 or 3 weeks away from a garden-fresh caprese. spekaing of which, i probably need to start planting more basil plants pretty soon.

summer veggies, the payback for the summer heat.

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54. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: my basil has leaf spot! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

paybacks are a bitch though. eh?

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55. wu ming - 14 June 2008: on the topic of alinsky, al giordano’s post on rules for radicals got censored over at the field because it “mentioned alinsky.”

al relocated the field to narconews site here.

dancing larry got me into alinsky with that series he did at LSF ages ago. by the time i really digested it, he had vanished into the aether of offline organizing, with post-katrina NOLA last i heard. pity, he was one of the more interesting voices out there.

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56. wu ming - 14 June 2008: i just got lazy didn’t water my basil enough, so it’s all lame, yellow and stunted. time for a new crop.

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57. marisacat - 14 June 2008: Dancing Larry completely vanished, at least under that name…. he returned to Dkos to post, posted a couple of times about a parish outside New Orleans, forget which one. His last exchange on Dkos (that I was aware of) was with Armando, who was asking for some one who had had a government security clearance in the past to contact him. It had to be verifiable and thus name and other info had to be divulged.

Very odd.

Like the nets.

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58. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: its humid, and way hot here. i think i watered mine too much. leaf spot is a humid disease.

Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris – Goodbye

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59. Intermittent Bystander - 14 June 2008: G(eneral )E(lection) Hospitality Set, c. 1940. Don’t worry! We will bring good things to light! Enjoy this message!

For “Whitey” Xeno and Dancing Larry – an Alinsky apparatus? Direct action without reliance on the D.C. power grid!

And with these toasts I bid good night.

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60. bayprairie - 14 June 2008: nite!

but i recall…

all of those nights down in mexico

one place i may never go

in my life

again.

cause i

just off somewhere

just too high,

but i

cant remember

if we

said

goodbye

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61. wu ming - 14 June 2008: no humidity problems here, it hasn’t rained since february. humidity was at 11% yesterday, it felt like AZ.

57 – that does sound really weird.

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62. marisacat - 15 June 2008: 61

hmm last person on earth I’d contact with my personal information would be anyone connected to the Blahgs. I was very surprised when DL replied to Armando and indicated he would email him.

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63. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: no az here. humidity 95%. rain every day. temps high 99, low 83, at 3 a.m.

can you say HOT!

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64. wu ming - 15 June 2008: i visited a friend at rice once and was astonished to see the cloud of vapor just hang in their apartment for hours after a shower. some idiot had painted the bathroom window shut, so there was nowhere for it to go.

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65. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: rice is such a good university, though. pity its so goddamned hot, eh?

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66. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: Stevie Ray Vaughan Little Wing

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67. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: Stevie Ray Vaughan- Texas Flood

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68. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: that’s for madman rat there.

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69. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: love the blues.

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood (Long version!)

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70. bayprairie - 15 June 2008: Steve Earle : Fort Worth Blues

In Ft. Worth all the neon’s burnin’ bright
Pretty lights red and blue
But they’d shut down all the honky tonks tonight
And say a prayer or two
If they only knew

You used to say the highway was your home
But we both know that ain’t true
It’s just the only place a man can go
When he don’t know where he’s travelin’ to

But Colorado’s always clean and healin’
And Tennessee in Spring is green and cool
It never really was your kind of town
But you went around with the Ft. Worth Blues

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71. wu ming - 15 June 2008: angry arab on tim russert

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72. marisacat - 15 June 2008: Angry Arab is right………………

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73. NYCO - 15 June 2008: I’m so happy that I live in electorally irrelevant part of the country, so I don’t have to waste any time caring about this crap at all.

No presidential candidate is ever going to come here, ever ever. Heck, we don’t even see actual sitting presidents ever. Our green and pleasant land has not been touched by Obama’s holy foot, nor ever shall be.

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74. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Tim Russert…

Just went hunting for this tidbit I never forgot, which I found in a 2004 New York Observer article. I’m referring to Russert’s Bush love, circa 2000 election. I also recall Tweets saying on air several times that he voted for Bush in 2000. Guess it never hurts to please The Man.

[… ]And according to an inflammatory new book called True Lies , written by a lefty Web company called the Guerrilla News Network, or GNN, Mr. Gore has since told anyone who will listen that General Electric’s then-chief executive Jack Welch [The Man! – NYCee], a Republican, had pressured NBC News to call Florida for Mr. Bush-a clear case of bias, in Mr. Gore’s mind.

“We know that Welch was in the control room at NBC on election night,” Mr. Gore told the authors. “We just couldn’t get our hands on the tapes to prove it.”
According to the book, Mr. Gore was referring to purported videotapes demanded by a congressional investigation lead by Congressman Henry Waxman.
Apparently, the videos showed Mr. Welch “cheering” and “hissing” as Mr. Bush’s fortunes waxed and waned with incoming exit polls. According to the book, NBC News invoked First Amendment protections and never coughed up the tapes.

Of course, Mr. Gore also told GNN that at a fund-raiser in New York in 2000 he witnessed NBC’s Meet the Press host Tim Russert flash a Bush campaign button hidden on the inside of his jacket lapel when greeting Mr. Bush. A footnote reads: “An NBC News spokeswoman flatly denied it ever happened, telling us it was an ‘urban myth.'”

Actually, it was Al Gore’s first-person account. The GNN authors-Anthony Lappé, Stephen Marshall and Ian Inaba-heard Mr. Gore tell these stories when they met him at the Sundance Film Festival to talk about his new television news channel for young people.[…]

Angry Arab did sum it up well, concisely and accurately re our Russert/America/Media problem.

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75. Heather-Rose Ryan - 15 June 2008: Re: the image for this post – he makes a lovely bride! Who’s the lucky groom?

71. from Angry Arab: “Russert started his career by working for one of the worst (and most politically racialist) Senators: Daniel Patrick Moynihan.”

I remember, way back when, hearing that Moynihan would take his sons to baseball games, but not his daughter. When asked about it, he said something like “Baseball is for boys, not girls.”

That echoes the story told to me by Jim Lehrer’s son-in-law about George Will: in front of a crowd of people, Will once told Lehrer’s young daughter, who was going off to soccer practice, “Soccer isn’t for girls!”

Stupid sexist jerks.

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76. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Incidentally, it’s funny how the Matthews’ ‘outing’, which Angry Arab references, about Russert’s support of the war, which I caught as it aired, is one in which Matthews managed to make Russert seem like the quintessential American Sucker and Hero in one… probably intentional. Bet he’s always been just a bit green about the power of and plaudits for Tim.

His impromptu eulogy for Russert on Friday seemed an attempt to laud him and at the same time belittle him. He seemed to marvel at how Tim Russert represented the REAL America, describing a behind-the-scenes moment before the war in which Tweets (astutely!) questioned Russert over the wisdom of making war on Iraq, in which Tim said we have to do it because of the NUKES, the notion Saddam just might have nukes. Matthews twittered that Tim’s reasoning perfectly reflected AMERICA, the (glorified everyman) American Mind, ie, Ya cant blame us for getting suckered into preventive war over sumpin as scary as Bush/Cheney/et al talking Saddam and Nukes, ie, Tim is the quintessential American (roses litter the stage and thunderous applause, now!)

I notice Tweety revising his past quite often, acting like he was much more obviously against the war than he showed before opposition was in vogue… not that I think he really did support it, but he played along a lot back then. Or, to put it another way, as we all know, those days of heady support for (get your) war on for Iraq were definitely NOT a Daniel Ellsberg moment for his resume.

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77. Heather-Rose Ryan - 15 June 2008: 14, ms x: Ventura is a libertarian, but not an insane Randian one.

We have to avoid policies that blindly make government grow.

I agree with him there. Just throwing money at the problem and hoping the government knows what it’s doing isn’t a very smart idea.

I would rather Ventura were President than Nader, who pooh-poohed the notion that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, and basically said “well it wouldn’t be the end of the world, it would just revert back to the states.”

No thanks.

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78. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Nice state to be in… if you happen to get pregnant at 14 and choose to abort… in the wrong state. (Just one of many scenarios that make reverting choice to the states untenable)

If Ralph did indeed say that, all I can say is, Good going, Ralph! (with much sarcasm)

As for government funding, there are programs that are beneficial and those that are not. It’s that simple – that it’s not that simple. Libertarians tend to hawk the notion that privatizing everything, voluntary help for everything is the answer. HIstory does not bear that out.

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79. Heather-Rose Ryan - 15 June 2008: 73, Nyco: wow, you’re fortunate. I live in NH so all the candidates came out here at some point, and roamed around. I pretty much opted out of the whole circus, but early in the process I did attend a “house party” where Elizabeth Edwards spoke with Kate Michelman. That was good. EE is very impressive. It’s too bad that women with her qualities somehow get shunted into supporting their husbands’ political careers rather than starting their own.

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80. Heather-Rose Ryan - 15 June 2008: Something I like about Jesse Ventura:

I vetoed a bill that would force women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion. I made an offer to the right wing: ”I’ll sign this bill if you make all optional surgical procedures have a 24-hour waiting period, which would include liposuction.” They were appalled.

Right on, Jesse!!

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81. Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2008: thanks for the tunes bay.

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82. Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2008: Remembering Tim Russert

. . . as one who at a crucial time in ’02 lobbed softballs to Dick Cheney.

It’s tragic that Tim Russert unexpectedly died, leaving behind family and friends who loved him.

That said, let’s try to keep this in perspective — and not the perspective offered up this afternoon by the Washington Post, which called him “the Democratic operative turned NBC commentator who revolutionized Sunday morning television and infused journalism with his passion for politics.”

He did not revolutionize anything. He was a news reader, a media celebrity, not a soldier dying in a futile war.

As our body count in Iraq keeps right on climbing, I’ll recall Russert’s classic ’02 interview of Dick Cheney on Meet the Press as a true exemplar of recent American journalism.

I don’t mean that in a nice way.

The exact date was September 8, 2002, as Cheney and his frontman, George W. Bush, were lobbying Americans and members of Congress on the urgent necessity of invading Iraq. This was before the key Senate vote.

We now know they were lying, but many of us were thinking that back in ’02. Drowning out the dissenters were most of the U.S. media outlets — not all, but most.

And media celebs such as Russert were playing their roles as wing men for schnooks such as Cheney.

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83. marisacat - 15 June 2008: That said, let’s try to keep this in perspective

LOL I managed to sleep thru this morning’s slobber fest (from listening to Iran sabre rattling all night on KGO) BUT I did catch the Matthews show… and Mrs Greenspun… (as well as Broder and Al Hunt) she said that Russert ”held the NBC family together after 9/11” (homilies from Big Russ I would assume) after the anthrax attacks (nice to hear it mentioned) and… one other thing… not sure what it was in the Great Bleed for Russert.

She wonders who will hold them together now.

I jsut wonder: who gets the job.

And Carville and Matalin must be out of the country, have not managed to catch them.

Really too bad when the whole line up in DC is America and Israel Firsters. No perspective at all.

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84. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Not only did Russert’s questioning beg better questioning, but he had on a flood of admin mouthpieces (lots of medals) and mealy mouthed go alongs or say-nothings, as did all the rest of the shows, including the PBS Newshour and, apparently, NPR, which Ive heard about secondhand. When you wont grill the evil hawks, at least have on some doves to somewhat even the playing field, so the public will hear the other side.

Oh, whoops, that was Donahue’s show… which MSN whacked for not falling in line. It was said recently, on some show Donahue was on, that his bosses insisted he have on 2 pro war guests to every anti war one and when Michael Moore was on, they upped the opposition to 3.

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85. marisacat - 15 June 2008: Bill PRess has a show on one of the local “liberal” radio talk shows here… and i heard him months ago mention that the show he had on MSNBC (think it was) with Buchanan was whacked as well, as both of them opposed the war. For a whole slew of reasons.

The only anti Iraq War voice that I reguarly found, at least on CNN on Cross fire, was Tim Andrews who had been a congressional representative, from which state I forget and his org, Win Without War. His org is one of the peace groups that took a share of the 7+ million the Dems handed out in spring of ’07 to peace groups, who then reliably shut up.

What a game it all is.

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86. NYCee - 15 June 2008: I watched MTP this am, Carville and Matlin were on it.

Doris Kearns jumped out of a cake for Tim, wearing a pink feather boa, playing Marilyn, in footage from happier times (the occasion of his 50th birthday). Definitely the weirdest part of the show.

Tim’s Tagline: Only in America!

Wow, you can declare preventive war with a straight face, ask the world for a coalition, and get away with invasion and occupation based on nothing but your own warped leadership’s warped ambitions, with the help of a totally embedded press corps… Only in America!

Wow, you can be the son of a garbage man and make millions bullshitting (as father garbage man said) … only in America!

Wow, look at this hotdog Im eating… only in America!

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87. Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2008: There is a funny bit ‘o Timmeh in the New Yorker’s Olbermann profile

Such reporters bring to the cable side a grounding in traditional network-news standards and proprieties, a set of norms rooted in the very beginnings of broadcast news. Network-news departments adopted the structures, the language, and the guiding principles of serious print journalism—a central tenet of which was the conceit of objective neutrality.

As Russert put it to me shortly before his death, “Keith and I have each carved out our roles in this vast information spectrum.” He continued, “What cable emphasizes, more and more, is opinion, or even advocacy. Whether it’s Bill O’Reilly or Keith Olbermann or Lou Dobbs, that’s what that particular platform or venue does. It’s not what I do. What I do is different. I try very, very hard not to come up and say to people, ‘This is what I believe,’ or ‘This is good,’ or ‘This is bad.’ But, rather, ‘This is what I’m learning in my reporting,’ or ‘This is what my analysis shows based on my reporting.’ And as long as I can do that I’m very, very comfortable. And nobody has asked me to do anything but that.”

I can’t decide if he was just a blinkered moron or if he was lying about “what I do”. Information gathered is filtered by one’s beliefs. Hell, you can only recognize something as important if it is defined as such in your worldview. Russert’s center-right suburban mentality was woven through every question he asked, every panel he set up on his show, every younger “journalist” he mentored. It’s the mentality that has given us 50+ years of belligerant aggressive warmongering, 50+ years of sprawl and resistance to change.

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88. marisacat - 15 June 2008: well the current Iraq fiction, pushed by both parties and pushed quite hard by election cycle Dems, is that the Iraqi people and most certainly their government are ungrateful. For all we have done for them. Unable to manage adult business, weak and hateful children fighting sectarian and civil wars that have nothing to do with what we did. And all we did was mismanage. Being a nation of mediocre managers, it is a saleable “truth”.

I am also laughing very hard at the ‘disclosure’ of McCain’s ’74 War College thesis… when the Dems twist the Vietnam war to suit, what else, election cycles. And promoted Webb with the exact same idealogy.

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89. marisacat - 15 June 2008: Russert lied. All the time.

And worked to benefit himself. I mean the NATION got his father and that bizarre glorifcation shoved down it throat, same as the “Greatest Generation” stuff. it sold to the masses.

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90. marisacat - 15 June 2008: Another from Angry Arab:

When I was involved with NBC-News in the 1980s, I dealt with Larry Grossman, the then president of NBC-News (he later became president of PBS). Larry was the one who tried hard to fend off corporate pressures on the network–regardless whether he was successful or not. Tim Russert was seen as the corporate pick to respond to corporate pressures in budgeting and in coverage. He became the favorite boy of Jack Welch–one of the most notorious (and ruthless) figures in corporate America.

Posted by As’ad at 9:21 AM

yeah no shock. America and Israel Firsters for GE which is MIC to the core.

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91. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Mc – “Bizarre glorification…” Lol. Aptly said.

Re #85 – Yeah, you got little squeezy antiwar blips from someone once in a while, but that was it. Totally underwhelming. I think Andrews is from Washington state. I recall that twinning of Buchanan and Press, too.

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92. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Over the past year or so I have become not more enamored but more forgiving of narrow, stupid, and boxed in reportage and commentary, given how it liberally wallpapers the nationscape. I cant help it. I cant puke anew every day.

All negatives duly noted re Russert and his show, I did watch Meet the Press irregularly on a regular running basis (sometimes I am just bored to death and get off the hook), and it was rather shocking that he was taken so prematurely… that Cabbage Patch doll head was a part of my life, not really a noteworthy part, but noted now that he’s passed on…

Have to say… RIP

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93. Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2008: Death Squads in Oaxaca

SAN JUAN COPALA, Mexico — Driving through the back roads of western Oaxaca state in southwestern Mexico, one could often hear 94.9 FM, Radio Copala, “The Voice that Breaks the Silence.” In one of the station’s tag-lines played several times a day, a slow, piercing violin gave way to the languid voice of a woman singing in Spanish: “I am a rebel because the world has made me that way, because no one ever treated me with love, because no one ever wanted to listen to me.”

But amid such overwrought sadness, a strong — and perhaps hurried — young woman’s voice would interrupt: “Some people think that we are too young to know.” And then a second young female voice interjects: “They should know that we are too young to die.”

Those voices belonged to Teresa Bautista Merino, 24, and Fel’citas Mart’nez Sánchez, 21, two of six young producers and hosts at Radio Copala — a project of the recently autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, and the first radio station to broadcast in both Spanish and the Triqui indigenous language.

The broadcast launched in January. By April, Teresa and Fel’citas were dead.

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94. marisacat - 15 June 2008: new thread……………

LINK

… 8)

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95. NYCee - 15 June 2008: Jack Welch is a ruthless prick. Ever seen Charlie Rose slobber over him?

On the other hand, Charlie was very cool to Noam Chomsky when he finally had him on (he said his viewers kept after him to book him). He quoted Thomas Friedman — another one he slobbers over — to chide Chomsky. Friedman the Great said something like: Chomsky is very bright but the awful thing about him is how he takes American achievement and positions it belly up… ie, shows the worms.

Welch yes, Friedman yes, Chomsky no. Thus our Only in America! America.

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96. moiv - 15 June 2008: Mmm, mmm, good. Keith Olbermann Gummi Penises.

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