corrente

I like it when Digby gets mad. Look here now. What Digby is trying to tell y'all is that democracy, especially the campaign political exercise of the democratic process is a roller-coaster ride. It's a rollicking yee-haw zoo-plane kick out the jams get naked full tilt boogie shit slingin' orgy. And thats how it should be. Thats the way it works.

And what Digby is also reminding us of, should you be lost in the lu-lu land of some instant breakfast victory, is thus: most of the hard-core internet only political fan base, at least on the left, is a small minority of of the electorate. Weez blog travelers have a long ways to go to convince a whole shitload of peoples that they should vote for our guy, be it Howard Dean or Wes Clark or Dennis K. or John K.....or any other candidate.

Recall here that only 51% of the people in this country voted for anyone in the 2000 Presidential election. How many of that 51% do you think read blogs and keep track of the roil-n-rock of day to day politics on a day to day basis? Eh? Not many would be my guess. That leaves a pretty big artic zone out there that demands discovery. At the least, more than half the Voter Age Persons reflected in that 51%. Those VAPs are going to become important at some point, because they are going to vote, and no-one should forget it. Not to mention the mining opportunities available in the other 49% of the non voting wasteland.

And furthermore, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. And that goes for primary politics as well as the race to the final curtain. And I'm not interested in seeing a fire alarm pulled half way through the primary rehearsal because I like the fat ladies and I like to hear all the fat ladies singing. Ok?

So. May all the fat ladies sing on behalf of the same show. But may all the best fat ladies sing their own best songs and may the best fat lady get the part. Thats the way it works. Hopefully. Then we gotta sell the tickets to the opening night and fill all those seats month after month until we bump the Bush Follies from the big marquee.

Its a sobering thought. So go sober up with Digby for a spell.

Digby: Friends In High Places

Digby: Virtual Democracy

Then maybe I'll tell ya about what it was like to be a bellringer for George McGovern's 1972 campaign. We thought we were invincible too.

Bush is a post turtle: Thanks to Pansypoo

While suturing a laceration on the hand of a 70-year-old Texas rancher (whose hand had caught in a gate while working cattle), a doctor and the old man were talking about George W. Bush being in the White House.

The old Texan said, "Well, ya know, Bush is a 'post turtle'."

Not knowing what the old man meant, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old man said, "When you're driving down a country road, and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.

The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain, "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he can't get anything done while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor dumb thing get down."

Posted by GloriaSmith on Fri Dec-12-03 12:26 AM
Forum Name The DU Lounge
Topic subject Joke: Bush is a post turtle
Topic URL

Ha! Well, ok, so he's actually gotten a whole lotta really horrible dumb things done while he's up there. Maybe some Party, needs to tend to their fence posts a little more often.

While I'm at it: Art.

so far no calls from the FBI

58 more Bush weeks to go
58 Bush weeks to go
Gore for Dean
shut up Joe
58 more Bush weeks to go.

From: Pansypoo's personal poetry post

Dear Anti-Christ,

America's Constitution is founded on the right and wrong of the Holy Scriptures. The worship of "other gods" is judged by God to be immoral. ("If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nation, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to another..blah blah... kill him. Deut. 13: 7-10) Therefore, killing your entire family and everyone in your neighborhood or apartment building because they worship "other gods" is a moral issue.

Since before the founding of America and the writing of our Constitution and laws, the worship of "other gods" has been judged immoral by nature, societies and nations. Therefore, it is on all counts, immoral. It is not just a new "discrimination" as Osama bin Laden might have you believe. Previously, Anabaptists and Anglicans and Quakers and Jews and Native Americans and labor union activists and immigrants beholden to a foreign beast and modern medicine and decorating Christmas trees and getting married to people with different skin color and allowing women to vote and attending movie shows on Sunday and dancing and drinking alcoholic beverages and wearing skirts above the knee and riding kitty cats through the moonlight on Easter morning had not been accepted as normal, moral or legal, but are now being strongly promoted in our country. Look at nature! Do you see creatures, other than man, decorating Christmas trees or attending movie shows on Sunday or riding kitty cats through the moonlight on Easter morning? Of course not.

We are not humans, we are animals!

Yours in the hot spotlight of Christ,
Pastor Smitty Bellows
First Church of the Prairie Loon
Bozeman, Montana

ed note: Yeeks, huh? Continuing coverage (and further explanation) from Jeff at Speedkill. Or see specific links below.

See: more gems from the Bozeman public

See: so it begins

Recording industry corporate weasels harrassing the parents of children who download music from the internet? Might lawsuits aimed at the parents of these children have some negative financial impact on the welfare of those children? Toss some RIAA geek into the hoosegow for a couple of months for endangering the welfare of a child. Let em think of it as an "educational" experience. They can learn a couple of Blues tunes while they're at it.

I have mixed feelings about the whole music download thing, for the same reason I have problems with the cheap bozo who purchases a book from a bookstore, reads it, and returns it for a full refund inside the thirty day return limit. But in this case we're talking kids, who don't understand the pros and cons and intricacies of such trade. So leave the kids alone RIAA. Go pick on someone your own size you greedy playground stalking bullies.

The industry blames illegal downloading of music for slumping sales of CDs.

Maybe the "music" industry should stop churning out oceans of mindless mass marketed tweeny-pop garbage that they market to 13 year olds at 18 bucks per CD. Did it ever occur to these music industry vermin that most of the children they aggressively target aren't running around with $18 burning a hole in their pocket, and that might account to some extent for "slumping sales" and internet downloads. I'm no economics genius, thats for sure, but maybe they should try selling their shitty products to people who actually have some money.

Kick the Leftist offers more on the subject.

I'm feel sorry for the music industry. They've now sued the family of a 13-year old who downloaded songs off the Internet. It's unfortunate that so many of these suits are aimed at poverty-stricken families.

Thats all. I gotta go video-record twenty hours of I Married a Sleazy Corporate Music Industry Executive and a hundred hours of hideous Classic Rock radio programming which I intend to hand out as Christmas presents to people I dislike. If the RIAA or the VCR-police or whoever the hell else is out there prowling around in the webbery, doesn't like it, too bad for them. Come and get me you dirty bastards!

And thats my 2 cent download on that.

Since Ted Koppel and the rest of our betters have decided that "boring" stuff like Medicare is barely worth covering, it's left to folks like Rivka of the new blog Respectful of Otters to help us understand the screwing over we're getting on so many levels. Check out Rivka's post on the ramifications of Medicare "reform" on HIV treatment here.

What all of this means, in the end, is that the cost of prescription drugs for people with HIV will be pushed back onto state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. And ADAPs are already so overloaded and underfunded that many states arerationing access to AIDS drugs - including, thanks to Gov. Schwarzenegger, California. From now on, in California as in poorer states such as West Virginia, new HIV patients won't be able to get their drugs paid for by the state until an existing patient dies or gets private health insurance. And that'sbefore all the Medicare/Medicaid patients get kicked back into ADAP.

It's an unmitigated disaster.

Another unmitigated disaster from a miserable failure. Did I mention that Bush is unelectable?

Seems that even the "winners" in Bush's game of Musical Chairs are finding out what a Bush promise is worth:

Though the [Iraq contract] policy was intended to reward allies, officials from some key coalition countries say they are unhappy because the business they thought they were promised in return for support has failed to materialize and they do not expect the decision to change that.

Elena Poptodorova, Bulgaria's ambassador to the United States, said that her country has received no subcontracts for work in Iraq. Romania, the Baltic nations, Slovakia and others in Eastern Europe share the disappointment, she said.

Take a number and get in line, lady.

"A party with a plan and a ferocious will to win?"

I hope citizens are giving the Dems an earful over the holiday recess. So far as I can tell—resisting the worst of Bush's winger court-packing aside—the Dems roll over, put their paws in the air, and start wriggling whenever Bush tickles their belly with the tip of his boot.

What was Teddy thinking, that he could work with Bush on Medicare?

What was Daschle doing, that the AARP fucks over its own members on Medicare and hands Bush a "victory" giveaway to big pharma that doesn't allow people to buy cheaper drugs today and doesn't kick in 'til 2006?

What's Pelosi doing? The Thugs try to arrest Dems right on Capitol Hill, hold fifteen minute votes open for three hours so members can get their arms twisted (or get bribed) and we don't hear about this every day? Barney Frank says in WaPo that this means the end of partliamentary democracy—as it does—and so he does what? Goes home to his Mom!

Can't the Dems running for President that are are on the Hill (Lieberman, Kerry, Edwards, and whoever else) get out of circular firing squad mode? Couldn't they get together and compete on how Bush sucks, and how they'll fix it? Wouldn't they look better, wouldn't the party look better?

And where's the ridicule? President Flight Suit stages another stunt on Turkey Day, everything about it is fake—from the flight plan to the turkey itself to the troops who have to eat MREs because Chimpy's fluffers thought they were security risks—and the Dems don't call him on it! Where are the jokes? Heck, where are the attack ads? People get this stuff, since they're smart enough to read between the lines. Do the Dems? Are there signs of intelligent life in their universe?

The Pennsylvania Tourism Board has a new slogan (or so I hear): "Philly: What the @#$&#%!"

That's how I feel about the Dems.

I've got to drink coffee with a FUX news logo on it cause the winger's had a good idea to propagandize on that medium. Where's the guerilla marketing to substitute cups 60% of the city's voters could vote for? For that matter, where's that liberal radio station I keep hearing about?

Dems: What the @#$&#%!

Get it together, guys! Haven't you figured out there's something more at stake besides your offices and perks?

Not that W the Pooh's Lunar Expotition would be Yet Another Bait and Switch operation, or anything. Oh no.

The headline: aWol serves up a platter of streaming crap

The image:



And now the steamy story comes out. In today's WaPo:

Stars and Stripes is blowing the whistle on President Bush's Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad, saying the cheering soldiers who met him were pre-screened and others showing up for a turkey dinner were turned away.

The paper also published a letter to the editor from Sgt. Loren Russell, who wrote of the heroism of his soldiers and then added: "[I]magine their dismay when they walked 15 minutes to the Bob Hope Dining Facility, only to find that they were turned away from their evening meal because they were in the wrong unit. . . . They understand that President Bush ate there and that upgraded security was required. But why were only certain units turned away?"

Russell added that his soldiers "chose to complain amongst themselves and eat MREs, even after the chow hall was reopened for 'usual business' at 9 p.m. As a leader myself, I'd guess that other measures could have been taken to allow for proper security and still let the soldiers have their meal."

Phew! What's that smell?

Everything is Beautiful!

Dixon Boardman, New York socialite and CEO of the Optima Fund of New York and Bermuda was in Washington last week. Boardman and his stunning wife, Princess Arriana von Hohenlohe, were guests of Lea and Wayne Berman at their Whitehaven home for a small dinner party.

Dixon married the beautiful Arriana — whose father, Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe, developed the stunningly beautiful resort at Marbella, Spain — at a big wedding on the Costa del Sol this summer. Dixon was married for years to Pauline Boardman, pretty darn beautiful herself. (Their daughters Samantha and Serena are immensely popular in New York’s young social set.) Pauline and Dixon divorced in 1999, and Dixon rewrapped himself in his almost legendary mantle as a lady killer.

[...]

Lea Berman has left as Lynne Cheney’s aide and is quietly working on the Bush - Cheney reelection team.

[...]

Wayne has been a successful lobbyist and international business consultant who was an assistant secretary of commerce and close to Commerce Secretary Bob Mosbacher in the first Bush administration. ~ Boardman’s charmed life

Typical snooty pampered Hollywood elitist liberals. They ain't like the rest of us small business owner reg'ler workin' folks you know.

---

Freedom French Club

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who, as chairman of the Committee on Administration, ordered the three House cafeterias to change french fries to "freedom fries" and French toast to "freedom toast," has joined the caucus....

The "French Caucus" that is.

...35 members have signed on, including Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) 'French Caucus' is in full effect

---

Santorum Sanatorium

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum, who has decided to move the annual GOP legislative retreat from previous sites at the exclusive Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia and in historic Williamsburg, Va., to his home state’s largest city.

All Republican House and Senate members are expected to attend the multiday event, which begins Jan. 29 at the luxurious Loews Hotel in downtown Philly, along with spouses, top staffers and administration officials.

[...]

The hotel where lawmakers will plan their legislative agenda boasts Cartier clocks and bank-vault upcoming doors, as well as "sleek polished black granite, carved glass, and rich rare woods," according to its website.

Days naturally will be packed with strategy sessions, though members will surely find time in the evenings to relax and explore the City of Brotherly Love.

But let's hope they don't make the same mistake Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) did when he ordered one of Philly’s famed cheese steaks with Swiss cheese instead of the locally preferred Cheez Whiz. ~ Santorum: in Philadelphia

John Kerry, where does he think he is, Costa del Sol? Next thing you know he'll be wantin' a ginger ale in one of them fancy carved glasses like they have at that Hotel with all them carts full of clocks. You know, that place where that Rich Rare Woods fella works. Stupid elitist liberals can't even eat the same food as the rest of us.

Kerry says, "Dean also supported war in Iraq! See, he's as gullible as I was! Vote for me!"

Problem is, despite AP's best efforts to convince readers otherwise, the difference between Biden-Lugar and the one ultimately approved by Congress was significant, significant enough in fact that the Bushies determined to sink the former, with the help of Kerry, Lieberman and Gephardt. As Seth Ackerman writes in The New Republic, a magazine not known for its pro-Dean sympathies:

[T]he Biden-Lugar resolution was an attempt by the eponymous senators last fall to tether the war authorization to some form of multilateral cooperation. Most importantly, it required President Bush to return to Congress and argue that war was immediately necessary if he considered U.S. security hopelessly mired in fruitless U.N. diplomacy. Gephardt instead endorsed Bush's preferred resolution, which contained no such encumbrances. And with Gephardt's support, Bush was able to hold up his resolution as a true product of bipartisan compromise, effectively killing Biden-Lugar.

Although Dean hasn't made this argument yet, Bush's refusal to accept even Biden-Lugar's mild fetters should have signaled to anyone with half a brain what the Administration's real agenda was, and why any further cooperation with the White House was a sucker's bet. Dean apparently got that; the others didn't.

Jim P, the heart and mind that has given us The Rittenhouse Review, as well as TRR, "the lighter side of Rittenhouse," which together, over the years, has put out as much copy as a lot of weekly magazines, and of much higher quality, got mugged Monday night. Maybe you've heard. I hadn't. I just realized this morning that I hadn't checked in on The Review this week, and one click brought me face to face with Jim's quiet, steely description of what happened.

No, he wasn't mugged by "reality," as Jim is careful to point out, he was mugged by a mugger.

Jim downplays the loss; thankfully, he didn't sustain any bad physical injuries. But all muggings are injurious. To be subject to the physical force of another who has undoubtedly had to dehumanize you in order to assert that force is an awful experience. One of the worst things about it is the sense of isolation it can leave one with; irony of ironies, as if the mugger has, for a moment, discharged his own isolation onto his victim. Nor are bright assurances that we all know and understand "what you're going through," necessarily either true, or helpful.

So, I'm not sure what to do to let Jim know he's not alone, or that we don't want him to feel that he is, even if he is...except perhaps to say that a bad thing happened to a very good man, who is also a damn fine writer and a wonderful wit, and whose moral compass is always worth consulting.

The Rittenhouse Review is a wonderful enterprise; an example of personal journalism that would have brought a smile to IF Stone's sly puss. But one paid for IF Stone's Weekly, so I'm glad to see that Jim has finally installed a PayPal button, to allow devoted readers to help defray costs whenever they can. A better bargain than that doesn't exist.

Marriage, scandal, sex, "unusual acts done with love motive."
War and heroes and sports and conquests, phony flight suits, cakewalks, millionaires & billionaires, power and privilege and greed and fashion and gossip and innuendo and Hollywood celebrity pop, and Nokia phones, dot.com bubbles, and murder and mayhem, designer drugs, fat ballerinas, shark attacks, freeway car chases, blowjobs, terror, fear..... "primitive emotions".

All bright, snappy, interesting stories delivered up by perky snappy well dressed go-getters. Young clean and athletic. Movers and shakers. The dippity-doo news gigglers @ MSNBCNNFOX.con and elsewhere are on the job 24/7. Yes siree. You betcha'. A fountain of babble gurgled up by a handful of pasty old white conservative geezers and company men, the occasional hunky guy, and the omnipresent gaggle of bubbly wide-eyed TV-News dollybirds who all look and act like they were plucked fresh each moring from the sales floor at Abercrombie and Fitch. Like totally.

Formulated stuff for sure. So where did all this shallow-end pool-splasher journalism come from? And who is buying this collective junk?

Perhaps it's not so much different from dangling cheap costume jewlery in front of a throng of teengae girls or instigating a towel snapping fight in a boys locker room following a wrestling match. Who knows. I don't want to think about it to be honest but I did run across the item below. Let me know if the formula sounds familiar. (bold emphasis mine)

The principles of Hearst Journalism, as set forth in a memorandum for the reporters of the Washington Times.

[--- begin memorandum ---]

The Washington Times should be full of bright, snappy, interesting local stories.

We have a natural tendency to place emphasis on matters which are ponderous, dull and uninteresting. We must resist this tendency.

We must consider the COMPOSITE newspaper reader does not care a hang about tax rates, budgets, insurance, disarmament, naval appropriations, public utilities policies, municipal improvements, or scores of other subjects which may appear to be important.

Newspaper readers are most interested in stories which contain the elements most dominant in the primitive emotions of themselves, namely:

1. Self-Preservation.
2. Love, or Reproduction.
3. Ambition.

Stories containing one of these elements are good; those which contain two of the elements are better; those which contain all three elements form first-class newspaper material.

Self-Preservation - Under this heading come stories of murder, suicide, rescues, accidents, fights, facts as to health, food, liquor, etc.

Love, or Reproduction - This element is contained in stories of marriage, scandal, divorce, human triangles, romances, unusual acts done with love motive, jealousy, sex attraction, etc.

Ambition - The ambition element is contained in articles tending to stimulate the reader to emulate the activity of a character in a story. Sports come under this classification.

The ambition element is aroused, also, by the mystery factor in a story. Mystery forms a challenge to the intelligence, and it thus stimulates the reader to buy further editions to note whether his solution, perhaps unconsciously made, is verified.

For example: The Hall-Mills story contained all three major-interest elements. The killings provided the self-preservation element. The intimacy of the preacher with Mrs. Mills introduced the love element. The mystery of who did the killings, why and how, challenged the intelligence and fired the reader's ambition to solve the problem.

Let us write stories for the COMPOSITE reader.

Let us minimize stories which do not carry the major-interest elements. Let us disregard, or cover perfunctorily, subjects which are merely important, but not interesting.

Let the same principals apply to headline writing, selection and editing of telegraph news and departmental features.

A bonus of $5 will be paid for the best written local story each week, until further notice. The city editor will be the judge.

A bonus of $5 will be paid the copy desk for the best headline of the week. This will be awarded by a vote of the copy editors, the head of the desk to cast two votes if necessary to break a tie.

- Avery C. Marks, Jr.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?
The "memorandum" above, issued to employees of the Washington Times (a Hearst newspaper at the time), was reprinted, 76 years ago, in the December 1927 issue of the American Mercury.

Just goes to show ya....the more things change the more they stay the same. Or history is condemned to repeat itself - or some people never learn. Or whatever the hell it is they say.

---

"This is a commercial enterprise. This is not PBS. We're not here as a public service. We're here to make money. We sell advertising, and we do it on the premise that people are going to watch. If you don't cover the miners because you want to do a story about a debt crisis in Brazil at the time everybody else is covering the miners, then Citibank calls up and says, 'You know what? We're not renewing the commercial contract.' I mean it's a business." ~ CNN anchor Jack Cafferty, on "American Morning", [Published January 3, 2002 by FAIR's Media Beat

Gore's endorsement of Dean is bound to send the press Heathers into paroxysms of facile comparisons, all of them designed to resurrect their Golden Oldie smears. It's not as if they have been waiting for Gore to trot them out:

* Crazy? Check.
* Liar? Check.
* Elitist faux populist? Check.
* Doesn't know who he is? Check.
* Extremist? Check.

I actually hope they try; it will make them bigger targets. Not only does Bush need to go down, so, too, do the lazy lying liars who've degraded journalism and made Bushism possible. Dean shows he's willing to take the fight to the enemy, and Gore seems to have belatedly recognized it too. Millions of decent people have gotten wise to this crap. This is a fight that needs to happen eventually. Bring it on.

I just revisited the Pledge, and it doesn't appear to preclude my pointing out this loathesome remark by Lieberman yesterday:

Clinton made our party once again fiscally responsible, pro-growth, strong on, on values, for middle class tax cuts; and Howard Dean is against all of those. (emphasis added)

I really don't want to think we're sinking to code words about civil unions, since Lieberman actually has a halfway decent track record on gay rights. (So, of course, did Clinton, DOMA aside.) But what else are we supposed to think? That Dean is soft on Eminem?

The rest of the comment isn't much better.

Being squirreled away in the snowy northeast liberal occupation zone I almost forgot that there was another election rolling up the beach in California.

Mayoral runoff bigger than S.F. / RACE OUTCOME COULD AFFECT PENINSULA, OTHER CITIES WITH COMMON INTERESTS / By Renee Koury / Mercury News.

Shystee should have more on this SF race but I've not been able to access the blog this morning. So keep trying. Somethings gotta give eventually, and it can't hurt to keep trying. Know what I mean?

Slacktivist can tell you why the bigger picture matters with respect to the corrosive nature of fundamentalist Christian end-timer prophecy story-time hucksterism. And why there is more to the message than meets the easy reader eye.

I have, as a kind of antidote, been re-reading Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities. This is a whipsmart book that I hope will serve as a prophylactic against the potential intellect-eroding effects of LaHaye and Jenkins' stupefying work.

But why take the risk at all? Why expose myself and the readers of this blog to the potentially toxic foolishness of Left Behind?

Because LB is more than simply a wretched novel. It is a wretched novel with serious consequences.

[...]

At a very basic level, this worldview opposes and undermines any long-term thinking, any sustained effort to make the world a better place -- replacing the hope of redemption with a perverse longing for apocalypse.

LaHaye's Left Behind series is of course colorable nonsense.
But colorable nonsense has never been an obstacle to the wowsers who bow on knee in the shadow of the Great Crayon. Just ask Hal Lindsey. Better yet, just go read: L.B.: Welcome to the Hellmouth

James O. Goldsborough on the Brooks mutiny and the leaky "conservative" ship of fools.

In our quest to understand, to give the word "conservative" meaning, we return to the roots. Edmund Burke is recognized as the first conservative, whose pro-monarchist, anti-democratic views in England would give birth to the Conservative Party. Whigs, by contrast, were progressives who sought to weaken the monarchy.

To be conservative in Burke's time was to defend traditional things – values, institutions, above all the pound sterling, for society's stability was built on bonds. Change was the enemy, which led to unrest, even revolt, the enemy of tradition, of conservatism.

[...]

Our distillation of conservatism leaves the vat almost empty. Economic conservatism is gone, and social conservatism under attack. What's left to bind together the fraying brotherhood, to keep government halls filled with dyspeptic fulminators and the airwaves with angry ranters?

Even robbed of doctrine, conservatives have a unique glue to bind them together. It is the thing that identifies them in every setting and separates them from others. It is the one thing left in the vat when all else is boiled away, disappeared into the ether.

It is their anger, anger at a world that doesn't fit their ideas of it, that will evolve as it sees fit.

Read full article, mirrored here -- What's Left of Conservative Values?
by James O. Goldsborough

Grassroots documentary filmmaking in America. The American Consensus Project rolls on.....

Filmmakers from around the US are interviewing people from their communities. The result will be a documentary film detailing the answers we heard.

Seeking Volunteers

We need volunteers. Less than a month after the outreach began, the project has attracted interest from filmmakers across the country. We still need more. Anyone is invited to help out, but we particularly need filmmakers from the Midwest and Mountain West. Have a look around the site; if this is something you're interested in, let us know.

The American Consensus Project
http://americanconsenus.genfoods.net

"They were going to look at war, the red animal - war, the blood swollen god." ~ Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Tipton, Iowa is planning the largest funeral the town has ever witnessed.

[...]

We've been given so many reasons why this war was so necessary. The goalpost have moved so many times that I don't know what the objective is anymore. Weapons of mass destruction, Al Quida connections, enforcement of UN sanctions human rights violations, the freedom of the Iraqi people...they all read like a mission statement in the Halliburton quarterly report. What I do know is the price is too high. And not just for Tipton.

Please, continue reading entire post: What is the point?

Also featured this week via The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase

Who will nominate Max Cleland's replacement on that 9/11 Commission?

Guess what? It's none other than Tom Daschle. A usually reliable friend just emailed me this information.

Who better for Sen. Daschle to nominate than someone from the 9/11 Families' Steering Committee, which, I believe, is the group that has refused to stop asking questions about precisely what it is the Commission is supposed to be investigating.

Why not one of those four "battling" moms Gail Sheehy profiled in the NY Observer back in August?

There's still another five months or so to go before the Commission report will be produced.

Call Daschle's office and let him know what a terrific idea this is, on every possible level, not least, politically. What could be wrong about inviting one of those American citizens most profoundly affected by 9/11 to take a place at the table?

Follow up with an email that includes the url to the Sheehy article.

Here are the numbers: (800) 839-5276 or (800) 648-3516 or Fax
(202) 224-6603

And once again, here's the link to Juan's Contacting Congress, which will allow you to find the webpage of any member of congress, where you will find instructions on how to email.

If you like this suggestion, by all means, let others know, including other bloggers.

Hi, its farmer family Monday again and this Monday is all about feeding wild birds.

Many of you survived the massive weekend snowstorm that dumped nearly 65 inches of snow on parts of the Northeast. Many of you didn't. If you didn't, then just ignore this post. But if you did, then you are probably wondering how you can attract wild nuthatches and woodpeckers and chickadees to your backyard bird feeder stations. Thats why I'm endorsing the GW Bush Nutroll SuetCake* feeder. The birds will love it and if you're one of the few folks out there who have never experienced the awesome power of a downy woodpecker as it batters away at your forehead for hours upon hours at a time then you are in for a real treat! And so are the downy woodpeckers. So get your George W Bush Suetcake Nutroll today and enjoy the savage brutal feeding frenzy that ensues.

Note: The GW Bush Nutcake Suethead WeevilRoll may attract squirrels. If your George W Bush suetcake nut-head is attacked by squirrels I suggest that you do not interfere. Viscious squirrel attacks can prove to be educational and entertaining experiences, but hungry squirrels are dangerous and can turn ugly when provoked. I personally was attacked by a half a dozen squirrels while hiking the Appalachian Trail, in 1977, in search of my hermetic nomadic grandparents. I never did find my grandparents but the memories and physical scars of the attack will live with me forever.

So. Just dangle your GW nutroll outside your window and stand back and let nature take it's toll.

suitable for year round use in any climate

I'm still waiting for my Hiller Hornet "fly-bug" to be delivered, so, another sack race sprint to the moon doesn't really interest me much. Whats more, considering the characters who would be poking their fingers into this pie, I'm apt to think that any kind of "space race" to anywhere, at least at this point, under this administration, would be turned into little more than a clever PR gimmick by the current administration and their fellow travelers to tweak the public's sleepy romanticized notions of some lost retro-atomic America, while simultaneously shoveling money out the back door to Defense Contractors and National Missle Defense initiative boosteroos. Lets not forget that space cadet Rumsfeld is the guy who chaired the right-wing defense hawk Committe for the Free World (CFW) in the late 80's. CFW's purpose was, in part, to pimp Reagan's SDI programs. By 1996 Rummy was back at it again, this time the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missle Threat to the United States. Rumsfeld's Commission eventually produced the "Rumsfeld Report" which earned, in 1998, Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy (CSP) "Keeper of the Flame" Award. The award given to Rumsfeld by the CSP was a salute to his efforts to renew interest in the old Reagan SDI, and later renamed NMD, programs. For more on CFW, CSP, the "Rumsfeld Report" etc... see: The American Prospect, February 26, 2001, "Darth Rumsfeld", by Jason Vest.

That aside, I'm still not sure why a space race to the moon is really necessary. And why does it have to be to the moon? Why not stick a big space pylon out there and race around the pylon and back? You know, like some kind of cosmic catamaran dash. Probably be more cable-tv friendly too. If we hurry up we can kick it off by early next Summer. Load up a rocketship with Rummy, W, Dick, Rove, and a dozen Bush Ranger fundraiser clodhoppers and a couple of cases of bourbon and let em whoop it up while chasing a handful of Chinamen around the pylon. Maybe if we're lucky they'll miss the post and go hurdling of into deep space and be sucked into a space worm hole. Hey, I'm entitled to my sci-fi fantasies too! Maybe I'm just being to cynical on this one. I dunno. In any case, i'm still waiting for my fly-bug, where the hell is my "Hiller Hornet" fly-bug! And while I'm waiting for that thing to show up in my driveway why not have a race to build a better public elementary school. Right here on earth! What a futuristic concept.

NTodd at Dohiyi Mir also has some thoughts on the back to the moon subject:

But then I think: why the hell is Bush talking about going to the Moon? Is he trying to cloak himself in comparisons to JFK? Is he trying to distract us from Iraq? Domestic trouble? I'm sorry, but I'm so cynical at this point that I must consider "what political gain would Bush get from this?" I can't imagine any other reason for Bush to consider a renewed mission. --- Read full post here: A Little Closer To Earth

Likewise Keith at Invisible Library offers his unique take: Be careful though, hes playin' with your mind, man.

Everyone in the Blogosphere is talking about President Gore?s announcement this week to start a new Space Race with China but I want to add my two cents worth to the aether.--- See: Dispatches From an Alternate America: President Gore?s Mission to the Moon

ITEM Feminism. Jeff at Speedkill makes this point and asks this question:

"The objectification of women just seems to come from a drive to sell more shampoo or whatever, so why did it get dumped on feminism."

Yeah, good question. Probably for the same reason that feminism took the fall for Heffner's Playboy bunnies and swinging bachelor pads. I suppose in part this "objectification" charge got dumped into the lap of feminism (at least in the case Speedkill points too) because feminism is a hot button heads we win tails you loose gambit for so many conservatives. A bastardized characterization conservatives like to apply as a cartooned generalization of the entire feminist movement. (As Speedkill also noted.)

The conservative's have our cake and eat it too cartoon suggests that the feminist movement somehow unleashed legions of unholy sex crazed sirens upon the land and therefore it should be no wonder that female sexuality is used to sell everything from chainsaws to cheap beer. Despite many feminist groups outward criticism of such practice. While at the same time these same titilation-fearin' conservatives don't seem to have any problem with nubile seventeen year old cheerleaders in mini-skirts bending over and hopping around on a high school football field in Texas like so many crotch crickets in a summer meadow. And when was the last time you were subjected to some mind-numbing harangue from some NASCAR daddio declaring he will no longer attend the ClusterFuck 5000, or whatever it is, because all them Daisy Duke feminazis with bodacious ta-tas, wearing sunglasses and shorty shorts, like to get uppity and pour Coors Light all down the front of their sheer nipple hugging t-shirts. Yes siree, thats just the thing that'll send your average Republican voting angry white guy gear-head dood scurrying for the saftey of the nearest Southern Baptist Convention sanctuary. Those damn feminist sluts are destroying family value NASCAR driving to no-where events!

Uh oh.......via Lilith at A Rational Animal --- World Nut Daily has this newsflash.

ELECTION 2004 - Bush faces new enemy: Sexy American babes -Scantily clad women join forces to strip president from office. [...] If there's any truth to the belief "Sex sells," then President Bush could have an additional political enemy to deal with in the upcoming election year: American babes. 'Babes Against Bush' seeking regime change
A group of scantily clad Michigan women calling themselves "Babes Against Bush" is joining forces to strip the commander in chief from office and have some fun in the process. "We figured that this was a good, fun way to make people aware of the damage George Bush is doing to America," says spokeswoman Eleanor Vast-Binder. "Guys like hot girls. So maybe they wouldn't mind getting the message from us."

I hope these feminist tarts don't infect NASCAR racing and Country Music with their tawdry commercialized ass wiggling filth. What will we tell the children then? Next thing you know our daughters will be turned into foul mouthed no-nonsense danger thugs sneaking out of the house at night in search of international "hotspots"!

As Oracle, she was even a member of the Justice League. In Birds of Prey, she sends agents to hotspots to fix problems before they become too massive. She's efficient, intelligent, and the fact that she happens to be stuck in a wheelchair is secondary to the strength of the character.

Continuing in the vein of folks I wouldn't really want to hang out with, but love to read, would be Deena Pilgrim from Powers. A tough, no-nonsense cop who's in way over her head but keeps up anyway. Foul-mouthed and angry, she's the right person to handle the giant Christian Walker. Petite and powerful, Deena proves that big things do come in small packages... even confronting a being with the power of a god in her last (as of this writing) appearance in the book.

Jabberin' jumpin' Jeezis! What'd I tell ya. Elayne Riggs has more superhero horrors.

ITEM: BlogAmy notes: "Hey folks, I just saw that our Coalition friend Pen-Elayne is up for a vote! - Blog Awards 2003"

ITEM: Upyernoz at Rubber Hose has a message for every one of those loopy TV weather persons who announce that some kind of end-timer prophecy is about to be unleashed upon Christendom whenever a snowflake flutters down from above or the sun sneaks away behind a cloud for a couple of days or the temperature dives into the nether regions of the mercury pool.

whenever i wake up and look out the window to see snow on the ground part of me screams "snow day! no school!" (i don't actually scream, i just do in my head). this happens even when the snow comes over the weekend and there would have been no school anyway (the voices in my head apparently don't look at a calendar, just as they never got word about my graduation), and dispite the fact that i usually have to go to work anyway when it snows. but even when i have to work, it puts me in a good mood all day.

ITEM: And speaking of mercury. Mercury at MercuryX23 has a link to the "Which historical lunatic are you"/ "Loon Me Up! examination.

I admit I really enjoyed this questionaire and was delighted to learn that I was a cinch for Caligula.

You are Gaius Caesar Germanicus - better known as Caligula! [...] Although you only reigned for four years, brief even by Roman standards, you still managed to garner a reputation as a cruel, extravagant and downright insane despot.

See, can't make up stuff like that. Which is just fine by me just so long as those Superhero feminists leave me alone and busy themselves instead with hounding NASCAR goobers.

Next ITEM: edward pig, who, if you ask me (Caligula), has the best blogger name in the blogger world and has more details on the Ernest Gallet Elementary School situation concerning Marcus.

Upon hearing this, Marcus's teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, telling him that "gay" is a bad word and he should never say it at school, then sent him to the principal?s office instead of letting him go to recess. The following week the school required Marcus to attend a special behavioral clinic at 6:45 in the morning, where he was forced to repeatedly write "I will never use the word 'gay' in school again."

Ay yi yi. I suppose the Ernest G Elementary School will purge their shelves of any reference to Gay Georgia, Gay Michigan, Gay Oklahoma, Gay West Virginia, Gaylord Michigan - Virginia - Oregon - Kansas and Minnesota. Gaylordsville CT, Gayly PA, Gays IL, Gays Mills WI, Gaysport OH, Gays River NS, Gaysville VT, and Gayville SD. (those places are clearly a slap in the face of every living Christian, if not God hisself) And if that hain't enough how about Gay Talese, Gaylord Perry's ERA averages, Gay Paris, Annamese fishing boats, and the Florida Gaytors. Heave the dictionary overboard too. Morans.

ITEM: And Then... Scout has the "student behavior contract" (via the ACLU) sent home with Marcus. Check it out. EG Elementary is also apparently in need of a spelling teacher.

ITEM: Back to Keith at the Invisible Library (thanks for the "purty" art review K.) for the Democratic Republic of Dohiyi Mir See: "Traveling Without Moving" link to the Commonwealth of Blogosphere. I, Farmer Caligula, don't have a place in the DRD or the CofB at this time but if I ever decide to "build" I believe I will settle upon the isthmus just east of SpiceSasstopool on the Sea of Attila. I will also ban the word "isthmus" from the language while I'm at it. Say "isthmus" ten times as fast as you can. Go ahead, do it.

Jesus huh? See what I mean? That has to be the gayest word ever muttered. It's even more gay than gay. Someone alert the earnest busy body scoldpottles at Ernest G Elementary.

ITEM: Peter at Kick the Leftist (see: "Playing with the big kids") notes the John Kerry "F-Word" flapdoodle and reminds us of other past public poopymouth eruptions.

What is this, second grade? Suck it up, gentlemen, it's a word. Note how Hess has to use "public interview" because Bush was caught calling Adam Clymer an asshole in the 2000 campaign as a side comment to Cheney.

ITEM: Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof adds the Key West Citizen to his newspaper links. The KWC ain't the greatest paper in the land but the KW Crime Report can sure be fun and somewhere I have one of em which descibes the harrowing late night rescue of a Key West Citizen who was being visciously tormented by a demonic talking gecko. Or sumpin' like that. I'll have to dig that one up and show it to you one day.

ITEM: Craptastic comments on the Cult of Reagan's recent attempt to redecortate the common dime and Nancy Reagan's reaction to such frippery.

Hera makes this announcement from Olympus: Nancy Reagan opposes replacing FDR with Reagan on dimes

And how come nobody ever named anything after Spiro Agnew? I propose they rename Agnew Washington, Spiro Agnew Washington. Its a start. Email me if you'd like to join my fight.

ITEM: CCC&G. Via T. Rex's Guide to Life

This Is What's Wrong With America and Capitalism.
Consumerism, conspicuous consumption and greed:

Self explanatory.

ITEM: Says it All Quote Award goes to Charles2 at The Fulcrum (see: Friday, December 05, 2003, Small Lies and Big

This administration has to put some kind of spin on everything they do. No statement can contain the complete truth. No utterance can be taken at face value. Not the small turkey, nor the large.

ITEM: Again, and this one has been linked to many times, anyone who hasn't already read Stradiotto's piece on "Morality" should do so. This is just one of those posts that is always relevant.

ITEM: No more items for now. Although I'm sure hundreds more were created in the time it took me to write up this post. Doesn't matter though. I'm Caligula and I have a talking horse and a fer-de-lance to feed. I'm also drunk and tired and I haven't brushed my teeth in three weeks. Although I always splash the whiskey around in my mouth before I swallow it, so that should provide some degree of dental hygiene protection. One would think.

Please don't leave any comments because I don't want to spend my quality Caligula time reading them.