corrente

Make of it what you will.

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Behold upon the swelling seas
With streaming pennants gay
Our gallant ship invites the waves,
While glory leads the way


What's up with the smiley guy in the tangerine necktie (second from the left)? He looks like he spent the afternoon laying around on a deck chair smoking toad venom. But anyway... K-Lo says:

But here’s what you need to know: The reason we do these cruises is they bring in money. It’s another fundraiser. And rather than tanning in the Bahamas, we do work — panels, interviews, dinner, lunch, and other discussions.

Yes, we do panels. That's toilsome unmerciful work. Just ask Joe the Paneler. Hmmm, I see. Although, most panelers eat lunch first and then dinner later. At least that is what I have been told. With interviews and other discussions scheduled post-desert and/or during drunken trailer sailor gunkhole couch rafting time.

Ya don't say. And real Americans do this? Oh yes. Especially while cruising above the equator. If you cruise below the equator you eat dinner first and then lunch and then "other" stuff and then you smoke some toad venom in the corner or on a deck chair and then you throw up in the stateroom toilet and it's all flushed away backwards. Because that's just the way it goes. Doh, wait till I tell mother about this! Hahaha [chuckles all around].

I can't wait until we drop anchor in Oblivion.

full salty hilarity at Sadly, No

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This is fun: KPFT Notes / WTF Was That?
KPFT is a Pacifica radio network station in Houston, Texas.

Some of the contributions in comment thread are classics. Case in point

I have listened to many of the online PUMA “blogcasts,” as a kind of sick, masochistic hobby. For the most part, they are disorganized, technically inept yak-fests that leave the listener feeling as though he or she is a teleptahic voyeur in an asylum filled with aging, disappointed cast-offs from the high school Prom Committee.

This show was different, though, in that it was the first time the PUMAs ever faced an audience that wasn’t drawn from their own insular, hermetically sealed, tail-chasing community of political conspiracy addicts and Aggrieved Warrior Women. Worse (for them) the audience was composed of politically-aware listeners who were expecting slick, snarky satire or — at least — some semblance of informed dialogue. Regular KPFT tuners, I’m sure, were shocked to find their regular programming replaced with the audio equivalent of “The Blair Witch Project,” as performed by Alex Jones and the ghost of John Birch in drag, under the direction of Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn and channeled by Madame Blavatsky.

Drowning-from-the-outset host “Jennifer” opened the show with a quavering nonsense declaration that sounded for all the world as though it were being read at gunpoint by a bank-robbery hostage. She somehow maintained that verge-of-panic tone through the remainder of the hour, although — thankfully — she was able to avoid blurting out some of her more fiery online rhetoric, as in her recent post at Lynette Long’s blog declaring that she would like to “shoot the cock off” any man who lays a hand on a woman.

The rest is history, and pure comedy gold. “Jennifer” and her guest (the nominal “leader” of the PUMA movement, as if such a thing were possible) relentlessly stonewalled a legion of polite, knowledgeable callers with rapid-fire overtalk, breathless call-dumps and the blanket insistence that anyone who disagreed with them — man or woman, and regardless of their own intimate knowledge of issues or the mechanics of the Texas caucuses — was a dumb dootie-head.

I laughed my butt off. And I would only caution the staff of The Other Side that they could face serious competition should KPFT decide to run a weekly “PUMA-Toon Amateur Crazy Hour.” When reality becomes parody, why pay for it? PUMAs will humiliate themselves for free, and you don’t have to fill out the AFTRA paperwork.

OneWithLandru 17 Nov 08 at 1:28 pm

UPDATE

Uh oh! Some guy named "goofsdad" (who, presumably, had the good sense to name his child "goof") is on the radio with someone who said someone has spied Barack Obama's "original" birth certificate in "the vault" in Hawaii. And it's from Mombassa (with two s's) Kenya!



Probably "the vault" in Hawaii where they keep Captain Cook's skull and the secrets of the Seven Bridges of Manoa and the powdery remains of the hula goddess Hi'iaka's oviparous birth egg (which was originally carried from Tahiti, with two t's, by sister Pele and had only Haumea's signiture on it since Kane Milohai, Pele's goofy dad, threw her out of Tahiti, along with the unhatched egg with Hi'iaka riding inside). Haumea, Hi'iaka and Pele's mom, was eventually killed by some swindler named Kaulu - who is no relation to - and should not be confused with - Kahlua the god of Mexican coffee flavored liqueur.

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I think it's pretty amusing that suddenly this boldly shrill oh so principled "true progressive" purity league scoldpottle is bouncing up and down on the fainting couch once again because someone is being - OMG! - critical of the Clintons. leave the Clinton's aloooone! (via the Cuckoowire Cult)

And among all the handwringing and heavy breathing over Obama appointments there apparently isn't any concern that Obama might appoint someone who (dragging the party rightward) voted for the war in Iraq - Hillary Clinton - to the job of Secretary of State.

Principles are funny fungible things ain't they?

Hey, I know... Why not Bill Clinton for SofS?

Sure, why not. Give the SoS job to the guy who approved the use of extrordinary renditions in 1995.

Via fas.org, a copy of the Presidential Decision Directive of July, 21, 1995 which gives authorization for exralegal rendition: fas.org/pdd

presidential directive july 21, 1995

[...]

SUBJECT: U.S. Policy on Counterterrorism (U)

[...]

Within the United States, we shall vigorously apply U.S. laws and seek new legislation to prevent terrorist groups from operating in the United States or using it as a base for recruitment, training, fund raising or other related activities. (U)

o Return of Indicted Terrorists to the U.S. for Prosecution: We shall vigorously apply extraterritorial statutes to counter acts of terrorism and apprehend terrorists outside of the United States. When terrorists wanted for violation of U.S. law are at large overseas, their return for prosecution shall be a matter of the highest priority and shall be a continuing central issue in bilateral relations with any state that harbors or assists them. Where we do not have adequate arrangements, the Departments of State and Justice shall work to resolve the problem, where possible and appropriate, through negotiation and conclusion of new extradition treaties. (U)

If we do not receive adequate cooperation from a state that harbors a terrorist whose extradition we are seeking, we shall take appropriate measures to induce cooperation. Return of suspects by force may be effected without the cooperation of the host government, consistent with the procedures outlined in NSD-77, which shall remain in effect. (S)

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Wiki:

According to Clinton administration official Richard Clarke:

[>>] " 'extraordinary renditions', were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgment of the host government…. The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: "Lloyd says this. Dick says that. Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'" [15] ”

Both the Reagan and Clinton cases involved apprehending known terrorists abroad, by covert means if necessary. Neither involved handing over detainees to foreign countries. The policy later expanded.

In a New Yorker interview with CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, an author of the rendition program under the Clinton administration, writer Jane Mayer noted, "In 1995, American agents proposed the rendition program to Egypt, making clear that it had the resources to track, capture, and transport terrorist suspects globally — including access to a small fleet of aircraft. Egypt embraced the idea... 'What was clever was that some of the senior people in Al Qaeda were Egyptian,' Scheuer said. 'It served American purposes to get these people arrested, and Egyptian purposes to get these people back, where they could be interrogated.' Technically, U.S. law requires the CIA to seek 'assurances' from foreign governments that rendered suspects won’t be tortured. Scheuer told me that this was done, but he was 'not sure' if any documents confirming the arrangement were signed."[16] However, Scheuer testified before Congress that no such assurances were received.[17] He further acknowledged that treatment of prisoners may not have been "up to U.S. standards." However, he stated,

[>>] This is a matter of no concern as the Rendition Program’s goal was to protect America, and the rendered fighters delivered to Middle Eastern governments are now either dead or in places from which they cannot harm America. Mission accomplished, as the saying goes.[18]

Thereafter, with the approval of President Clinton and a presidential directive (PDD 39), the CIA instead elected to send suspects to Egypt, where they were turned over to the Egyptian Mukhabarat.

oh, snap.

For the record: I don't care if Hillary is the Sec of State or not.

update: Guardian UK reporting:

Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.

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SBL open thread

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