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Heroes: Shoes, Ships, Sealing Wax, Cabbages, Kings
Somewhere there's a guy in Iraq getting the bejeezus tortured out of him because he threw a couple of shoes at a visiting invader. If only that visiting king's citizens had the responsibility to chuck a shoe or two at him at home, perhaps the awful veil of respect for atrocity would have been banished.
An airship went down in New York harbor and thanks to the pilot and crew and the surrounding ships and dinghies that frequent these sea lanes, the passengers made a successful, unharmed exit. Wall Street is studying the actions carefully. Unfortunately for all while they talk about "the market", the actions of normal people with no preparation and no coaching exceeds the expectations of stupid greedy fuckers by 1000% every time. Read it and weep.
With a seal pressed in wax we will sign over to the new government in the next few days, but already it has been blessed with $350 billion to hand out as it feels. Where improvement of infrastructure was all the rage a few weeks ago, tax cuts to the mighty has now replaced these priorities. Oh, one of his new picks didn't pay taxes for a few years? Quaint, we'll gloss over that little faux pas. A new change is coming. $9.95 at Circuit City near you.
Bob Woodward has a new brief out on the 10 lessons to learn from the Bush years, and Shakesville weighs in on its favorite, but the Desi Digest Condensed Version is "don't let Cabbage Patch village idiots convince you to view an armed robbery as if it were a checkout lane at Safeway". Bob = Washington self-adoring suckup, Bush = war and political criminal extraordinaire. Washington Post readers thus = abettors to a crime. Sounds funny till you think about it.
And another King thinks it's strange that Obama would use his middle name finally on inauguration day. Aside from the fact that every inauguree uses his (God, one day I'll have to write his/her) middle name, it's an in-your-face alley-oop. Elections have consequences, motherfucker. You lost, Obama won. Back to your conservative cubby-hole, chew on your disappointment for a few years. Perhaps we'll rechristen it the "Hussein key" on our QHusseinERTY keyboards, right before we switch to Dvorak and voice recognition. As Bill Cosby would say, "Riiight".
"'O Scribesters,' said the Cheney,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."
The silence is daunting. He won, we lost. The Constitution is in tatters and no one dares repair it, only clean up the pieces. A bit. If this was a bulldozer, next time they'll bring a battleship. We've only encouraged them. Loose lips sink ships, tightened ones abet them. Goodnight Irene. See you in my dreams.
An airship went down in New York harbor and thanks to the pilot and crew and the surrounding ships and dinghies that frequent these sea lanes, the passengers made a successful, unharmed exit. Wall Street is studying the actions carefully. Unfortunately for all while they talk about "the market", the actions of normal people with no preparation and no coaching exceeds the expectations of stupid greedy fuckers by 1000% every time. Read it and weep.
With a seal pressed in wax we will sign over to the new government in the next few days, but already it has been blessed with $350 billion to hand out as it feels. Where improvement of infrastructure was all the rage a few weeks ago, tax cuts to the mighty has now replaced these priorities. Oh, one of his new picks didn't pay taxes for a few years? Quaint, we'll gloss over that little faux pas. A new change is coming. $9.95 at Circuit City near you.
Bob Woodward has a new brief out on the 10 lessons to learn from the Bush years, and Shakesville weighs in on its favorite, but the Desi Digest Condensed Version is "don't let Cabbage Patch village idiots convince you to view an armed robbery as if it were a checkout lane at Safeway". Bob = Washington self-adoring suckup, Bush = war and political criminal extraordinaire. Washington Post readers thus = abettors to a crime. Sounds funny till you think about it.
And another King thinks it's strange that Obama would use his middle name finally on inauguration day. Aside from the fact that every inauguree uses his (God, one day I'll have to write his/her) middle name, it's an in-your-face alley-oop. Elections have consequences, motherfucker. You lost, Obama won. Back to your conservative cubby-hole, chew on your disappointment for a few years. Perhaps we'll rechristen it the "Hussein key" on our QHusseinERTY keyboards, right before we switch to Dvorak and voice recognition. As Bill Cosby would say, "Riiight".
"'O Scribesters,' said the Cheney,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."
The silence is daunting. He won, we lost. The Constitution is in tatters and no one dares repair it, only clean up the pieces. A bit. If this was a bulldozer, next time they'll bring a battleship. We've only encouraged them. Loose lips sink ships, tightened ones abet them. Goodnight Irene. See you in my dreams.
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Thinking happy thoughts, I see? ;)
January 16, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Waxing in optimism and good will. You're always the most perceptive one around here, shame you've gone into hiding. That ship will come in though.
January 16, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
For the record, you and Hilary have been missed :)
January 16, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dija, I wrote you a reply on my blog but I pushed the wrong button I think.
January 16, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not hiding. Just trying to stay afloat amidst that always rushing stream of life. And you've been missed yourself. ;)
January 16, 2009 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Somewhere there's a guy in Iraq getting the bejeezus tortured out of him because he threw a couple of shoes at a visiting invader.
I'll believe it when I see his scarred, pulpy face. There's a fair chance that claim was just made for public consumption. I'd like to think he and his guards will share a toast on Tuesday out of complimentary champagne flutes (complete with Obama inaugural seal) sent to them by American GIs.
January 16, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope you're right. If he is getting rough treatment it is probably only because the shoe came so close to Maliki.
I wonder what would happen if someone managed to throw a couple of Air Jordans at David Gregory? Man, would I love to see that!
January 16, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to do a blog on bush's address. So we can all send shoes. Even if I'm watching my pennies these days... I'll gladly spend the money at the Post Office to mail old shoes. I might even put them in separate packages. But I'm hoping that when he moves to the city, drive-by shoe-donations will appear on the curb overnight, in front of the big bush mansion - where he can hide out, counting the shoes.
January 16, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw on Huffpo that some guy got a $10,000 brick of marijuana delivered to him by mistake. It was intended for an address in Dallas! Can you imagine how pissed George and Laura will be when their "delivery" doesn't show up?
January 16, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is great! I love your humor!
January 16, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about shoe-fly pie made with marijuana delivered to them?
January 16, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant! Meet me in my kitchen with your smelliest sneakers!
January 16, 2009 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I vow to do it!
Indeed I may go out to a dairy farm first and walk around in them in the right places!
January 16, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait! Who is bringing the grass...er marijuana. Oh! My cousin -- never mind!
January 16, 2009 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well... that is a bit of a problem on my end, but... I do have a grown son... and I suspect he might be of assistance - somehow - with the cooking. He really knows how to cook!
January 16, 2009 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares? It's only shoe-fly marijuana pie! I'm sure the recipe is pretty easy. Meantime, I'll make a great stir-fry for you, me, and your son (and anyone else who wants to come to C'Ville!)
Did you know that Charlottesville is the city with the most letters in its name in the whole country? Between that and our albino deer population, we might just get on the map!
January 16, 2009 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Harry Truman didn't feel the need to get in our good hard-working decent faces with his middle name, so why should Obama?
January 16, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The CEO who pays himself 68 million dollars is in it for himself.
Woodward was in it for himself. Where was any outrage during the time he wrote his first book? He did not even start criticizing w and dicky until his third book. He is and was in it for himself.
Scores of journalists and pundits did not start being independent critics until 06 when they saw which way the winds were blowing.
That is why I follow those who were making real points earlier like Keith O and Alter and Rich.
January 16, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahem... Well, then again... What I'm trying to say here, is that Harry Truman did indeed go about getting his middle name into things. "S" was his full middle name.
And to Desidero, I say "Good night, Irene" backatchya. Excellent post, and the sarcasm is incredibly poignant and funny.
Great stuff, all of it! Keep it coming. I re-read this three times just for the joy of laughing. ThankS!
January 16, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're dumber that a box of rocks, as well as profane.
January 16, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the fuck is wrong with being profane? If the times we live in don't inspire some righteous profanity-laced indignation then clearly you have not been paying close attention.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
January 16, 2009 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
The times we live in are a product of profanity. Why do you people so welcome the coarsening of our culture? Bad manners are the siblings of ignorance.
January 17, 2009 7:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I thought George's sibling was Jeb!
January 17, 2009 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Risking an attack for being uninformed, I learned only yesterday W has three siblings in addition to Jeb. We've endured these spoiled Bush SOBs over a 28 year span if you count the Reagan years. I was under the mistaken impression we only had to worry about Jeb.
January 17, 2009 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you only found out yesterday that Bush has more than one sibling, I wonder where you get your information. Didn't you hear about Barbara Bush's "generous" donation to New Orleans after Katrina; she donated money that could ONLY be spent on her son, Neil's software program. So she gets a tax deduction for supporting her son's business, and her son gets someone to pay big bucks for what no one else wants. Go here and learn: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/3742329.html
(My comment mentioning only Jeb was meant as an amusing ripost to the previous one in which the sibling of ignorance was described as bad manners. To name all the Bushies and their nefarious ways would have diluted it.)
January 17, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fine with me, they can take their money and spend it where they want as long as they all just leave DC. For good.
January 17, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Bad manners are the siblings of ignorance"
That's not really a problem for me. I hate my sister.
-AF
January 17, 2009 9:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bulldozers & Battleships. Yup. They screwed up by getting carried away with their dozing, hitting a gas line, and now we've got explosions & wreckage everywhere. Next Q - how to play this next round? The GOP's game's gonna be, blame Obama (blame anyone else actually), and next time... bring on the Battleship. (Forget them going kinder, gentler.)
So what's our game? Obama wins, that's good. But he doesn't have nearly enough power to deal with the explosions & the rebuilding, AND take on their people & power centers. Hell, he can;t afford to fail in the basic emergency tasks.
Which means he has to maneuver, build allies, get reconstruction going, and set the stage for a full-glare beat-down on some one/group of the GOP freaks that did this. But he's gonna have to pick the right time, place, opponent - and take them right out. A public beat-down.
The GOP always reminds me of goon teams in hockey. They just come at you hard, ALL of them, and every single step you get something dirty. Having one or two tough guys of your own isn't enough. You need power across your line-up, and have the whole team stand up. And you need the referees & the fans to have feel that its the OTHER guys who are out-of-control. Only then can you take out their main guy & send them home.
Right now, we're not READY. We don't have strength across the line-up, not enough to take out their money & media & corporate power & churches. But one thing's for sure, we damn well need to stop looking to Obama as the sole guy who's gonna singlehandedly whip a dozen goons of theirs. FDR didn't take their top 10,000 crooks & toss 'em in the clink.
They're gonna be back. Meaner, and madder. So the question is - how do we change right across our line-up? Where do we get our people in? Who do we fund? Where prepare the ground? And then, who do we send into the ring, and - not a small thing - how do we make SURE we take this beast down? Because when they step in next time, the lipstick will be off.
January 16, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, just remember that Bush (according to him) came in on a recession; so he obviously had to return the favor. Yeah. I remember how desperate everyone felt at the beginning of his term, don't you?
Only the desperation was over having a president who lost the election and was appointed; who was a known fuck-up; and didn't have a whit's worth of a world view, or even an idea in his vacant little head.
Because as far the economy was concerned, we were all feeling pretty darned relaxed!
January 16, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, that's EXACTLY how I recall it too!
January 16, 2009 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm relaxed right now CVille Dem. But you're right, this is the worst recession since Jimmy Carter.
January 16, 2009 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Considering the time you spend here taking jabs at everyone, you don't seem too relaxed to me.
January 17, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
No jabs, just vigorous exchange in a matrix of good manners.
January 17, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I completely agree. The Lion of the Senate is losing his fangs. Harry Reid is as clumsy as they come. Biden just got promoted. HRC is out of the Sentate. Who do we have left? Webb? Boxer? Wyden? But more importantly, who in business deserves our support? I, for one, suggest everyone move over to Quest, the only entity not to fold over eabvesdropping. Whatever else they may have done wrong over the years, this was right. How do we reward them?
January 16, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could we be so fortunate as to get CK?
January 16, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
After watching her in "action" I am not yet impressed with Caroline Kennedy. She can prove me wrong, but right now I do not see the right stuff.
That being said, my girlfriend challenges me to consider that the fuss about her lacking aggressiveness is only suggestive of the fallacy that aggressiveness is required to get things done. Perhaps she will have another way to achieve what she wishes. As for her direction, however, I agree it is a good one.
Then again, I'm not impressed by people simply because they are someone's offspring. What have they done in their own right? That's where she falls short, IMHO. She does not fall short in accomplishments, but in deeds that relate to politics. I'll await the governor's decision and then we shal see if the other Senators will find her as possessing the leadership they are seeking.
Either Harry Reid really needs to get out of the way for someone more vocal or I'm still deluded by that aggressiveness-required fallacy.
January 17, 2009 2:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aggression is overrated. Timing is underrated. More often than not actions must be measured. What passes for passivity is often pragmatism, prioritization, compromise or some combination thereof.
I'm from NY too. The same concerns you voice re: Caroline Kennedy recall those raised over Hillary Clinton's candidacy. Overall Hillary represented NY well.
It boils down to this. We need more bright, compassionate and reasonable people in the Democratic Party and less politicians. But when push comes to shove, I don't think you'll find anyone pushing Caroline Kennedy around.
-AF
January 17, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hockey analogies rule. Accurate and insightful as always, sir.
January 17, 2009 3:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
SPRIC? Spric Palin? Is that you?
January 16, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most of us just call him pric for short.
January 16, 2009 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just more gratuitous nastiness.
January 17, 2009 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of gratuitous nastiness - if, like me, you've been wondering what is driving the steady stream of hate emanating from S-Prick, check out his horribly racist rant on LisB's thread:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/lisb/2009/01/hail-to-the-captain.php
January 17, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mmm... I don't know about gratuitous, but I gotta admit there's always been a certain amount of self-indulgence on the site and I guess there's no harm in that. One of the reasons I visit this TPM is to read articulate people vent. It's both educational and fun.
But I wonder how much this makes it out into the real world. How many posters here write letters, under their own names, to Bush, Cheney and Co. calling them war criminals and promising to do anything in your power to see them rot in jail or dangle from a noose? If you have a right-wing congressman, do you regularly show up and curse him/her to his/her face? Do you lobby the Democratic Congress that the most important thing now is payback for the last eight years and that if precedence,procedure and the rule of law is in the way, then so be it?
If you personally know a Repug/rightwinger/neocon/asshat, do you openly treat them with hostility and let him/her know you will do what you can to ruin his/her life? If you'd caught someone setting fire to your Obama yard sign, would you have beat him bloody?
I guess my point is that emotions,like ideas, have consequences. And how far are the angry posters here willing to go to back up their anger? For example, I agree with you Quinn that we need more aggressiveness, but how far are you willing to go? Having our own goon squad is nice to think about, but if we actually go that route, ultimately, the goon that wins is the most violent one.
Who here is willing to have blood on their hands, not just metaphorically but maybe literally?
January 17, 2009 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't see people here threatening other people. Disagree? Yes. Vehemently? Yes. Some name-calling? Yes. Hashing out things and learning from others? Yes. But if you can show me where people, including Quinn, have advocated violence, I'd like to see it. Quinn was using sports analogies (a favorite around here), to describe the way we cannot depend on Obama to save the day; we all have to step up to the plate and fight for our beliefs. That does not indicate hand-to-hand and bloody combat, but grass-roots work from all of us.
All the comments about the Bush regime having to answer for their crimes have been centered around impeachment (too late now), and congressional investigations (lawful; not the kangaroo courts that we sponsored in Iraq).
So I'm not sure what your beef is, but I really don't know what you mean by saying emotions and ideas have consequences. Would you prefer that we didn't have ideas or emotions?
Did anyone except you bring up "goon squads" as a suggestion? Can you cite anyone talking about Pay-Back for 8 years? No, the discussion has been about repairing the damage done. Is there anger about that damage? Yes. First that it shouldn't have been done by an illegally appointed loser, and second that through fear he managed to do more.
If you are trying to instill a guilt trip, forget it. We are not culpable, and we do not advocate violence to undo the damage and to finally be able to do the right thing for the common good of this country.
January 17, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just so. Krugman was pretty angry yesterday, too. With very good reasons for going forward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/opinion/16krugman.html
The least of which is that if we hadn't merely "looked forward" after Iran/Contra, Dick Cheney may very well never have been available to put the vice into the office of vice-prez, and Rumsfeld wouldn't have been in the department of defense, at all.
Yes, decisions have consequences, sometimes far reaching ones.
January 17, 2009 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Hoosier-T. Nope, not into the application of physical violence to people (outside rinks.) Been engaged pretty much 24/7 x 25 years now, and none of that's transpired.
The image that was more in my mind was one of a court case, or major issue, or event that galvanized people. And you do sometimes get those events, or chains of events, that - when they crest - everybody knows, in their gut, that things have changed. Where one way of seeing the world, and one set of economic/social forces, is so thoroughly & publicly shown to be wrong or out-of-touch, that they have to slink away and rethink.
A Watergate, perhaps. Though that image has been overused.
Just, it's important that the gains made not be allowed to quietly slip back into the hands of the lobbyists, the media, the big boys, who can then quietly re-extend their hold. It happened before, when Clinton beat Bush-Reagan, but then the machine crept back in. Cheers, Hoosier-T.
January 17, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
3rd sentence should be, "... Been engaged POLITICALLY..." Argh.
January 17, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hoosiertransplant,
If you're serious, you sound combative, almost revolutionary. I feel anger now and again at the way things go. But if anyone ever does the things you're talking about, they'll wind up with an FBI dossier about an inch thick regardless of what political side they're on.
I got investigated for some drunken remarks I made about Waco coming through customs about ten years ago. I've had little things happen to me since which makes me feel it's still following me. There's a line you don't want to cross.
January 17, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed, Desidero, that next time the will come back not only fully mobilized, but meaner -- although at the moment that seems impossible to impossible to envision.
So the teamwork of hockey works for me as an image of how we must prepare, as would any other team sport or collaborative effort.
The question I have is this: how do we, as individuals, contribute to the team? Yes, we are entirely focused on the goal and pulling for our team, but most of us are sitting on the bench. How does one contribute from there?
January 17, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink