July 7, 2007

So I am sitting home watching the hearings on CSPAN. It is two years ago, almost to the day. I had no internet or even a computer that worked. So, it was my only entertainment at the time besides NYT crosswords I copied at the library and my books. Besides, the good guys had taken over Congress again, and I had been looking forward to some real ass kicking.

The 2006 elections were like Christmas to me as a child. I mean, there would be presents every day for the next year. So I would settle down to a good day of hearings.

Next up, Sara Taylor: Sara Marie Taylor (born September 15, 1974 in Dubuque, Iowa) was Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs at the White House, making her one of George W. Bush's top political aides until her resignation in 2007. She reported directly to Karl Rove.

I remember watching Senator Leahy discussing things with Sara Taylor at one of those hearings. Sara said something and I stood up, losing the crossword, the book and my coffee from my lap, along with my composure. (Not that anyone was watching my composure anyway) Did I hear this right?

Sara Taylor had said that she had taken an oath to her President of the United States quite seriously.

Leahy: And then you said, I took an oath to the President, and I take that oath very seriously. Did you mean, perhaps, you took an oath to the Constitution?

Taylor: Uh, I, uh, yes, you're correct, I took an oath to the Constitution. Uh, but, what--

Leahy:  Did you take a second oath to the President?

Taylor: I did not. I--

Leahy:  So the answer was incorrect.

Taylor: The answer was incorrect. What I should have said is that, I took an oath, I took that oath seriously. And I believe that taking that oath means that I need to respect, and do respect, my service to the President.

Leahy:  No, the oath says that you take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States. That is your paramount duty. I know that the President refers to the government being his government -- it's not. It's the government of the people of America. Your oath is not to uphold the President, nor is mine to uphold the Senate. My oath, like your oath, is to uphold the Constitution.

And TPM was right there and you can see this idiot lose all face in her confrontation with Leahy right here. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003656.php

LOYALTY OATH. The reason these words ring so much for me, is that I recall when I first began hearing about them.  When George Bush first took office. If w or cheney were going to speak in front of some audience, you could not get into the auditorium unless you took a loyalty oath. You were screened so that 'they' had the opportunity to discover if you were the kind of person 'they' wanted to witness the grandeur of their presence.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, I had never heard of this in my life. But I digress...

Monica Goodling was a lot of fun to listen to during her cross examinations:

MS. GOODLING: I chose them because I had a faith system, and in some cases -- I went to American University for my first year of law school and then I transferred. And I enjoyed studying with people that shared the similar belief system that I did. It didn't mean that there wasn't a lot of diversity of discussion, because in some cases I actually found that the debate at Regent was much more vigorous than it was at American University my first year of law school. But I enjoyed being surrounded by people that had the same belief system.31

REP. COHEN: The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is to bring bear -- "is to bring to bear upon legal education and the legal profession the will of Almighty God, our Creator." What is "the will of Almighty God, our Creator" on the legal profession?31

Earlier Ms. Goodling had been cross examined by Representative Jackson Lee:

I noticed that you were described as a loyal person or with extreme loyalty or deep loyalty to the president, President Bush. And certainly we welcome young people into this system of government, of public service, as you've indicated. But you might have been better served if you were loyal to the American people, and I give you counsel whether you're willing to accept it or not. You have been described by Bruce Fein, a former senior Justice official during the Reagan administration, both you and Mr. Goodling -- excuse me, you and Mr. Sampson, that you knew politics and not the law. And I think that's the challenge that we face here today.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/us/24mfulltext.html p24

So we have loyalty oaths to God, to our religion and to our president. After those oaths are taken, well we are on our way.

Jason Linkins at Huffpo caught this gem from rover:

Via Think Progress:

ROVE: This White House has carried prepackaged, organized, controlled, scripted events to a new height, and they're getting away with things that in any previous White House, the media would have eviscerated the press secretary and the White House for it.

Rover is referring to the town meeting Our President just attended regarding health care. Rover. The king of loyalty oaths. Nobody and I mean nobody, had carried a more prepackaged, organized, controlled and scripted event than w. and it was all set up by rover.

Linkins just picks a few examples of prepackaging in w's administration:

- In April 2005, Bush's security detail threw three people out of an event in Colorado, citing a bumper sticker on their car that read "No More Blood For Oil." White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that if there's any evidence people might "disrupt the president," they "have the right to exclude those people from those events.

- In early 2005, North Dakota residents were refused entry to a Bush event after their names appeared on a "blacklist" of people banned from the event.

- In March 2005, people seeking tickets to a Social Security event were quizzed about their support of Bush and his Social Security plan ahead of time.

Boston.Com reported on Aug 9, 2004 that -- A Republican National Committee practice of having people sign a form endorsing President Bush or pledging to vote for him in November before being issued tickets for RNC-sponsored rallies is raising concern among voters.

When Vice President Dick Cheney spoke July 31 to a crowd of 2,000 in Rio Rancho, a city of 45,000 near Albuquerque, several people who showed up at the event complained about being asked to sign endorsement forms in order to receive a ticket to hear Cheney.

''Whose vice president is he?" said 72-year-old retiree John Wade of Albuquerque, who was asked to sign the form when he picked up his tickets. ''I just wanted to hear what my vice president had to say, and they make me sign a loyalty oath."

''They want to make sure people can hear the president and vice president's vision for the next four years," he said. ''There are thousands of volunteers who sacrifice and work hard on the campaign and who deserve to see and hear their president without being disrupted and disrespected."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/09/bush_backers_only_policy_riles_voters_at_rnc_rallies/

Dana Milbank  at WashPo (2004-8/1) added this gem:

The Albuquerque Journal reported on Friday that people seeking tickets to the Cheney event who could not be identified as GOP partisans -- contributors or volunteers -- were told they could not receive tickets unless they signed an endorsement form saying "I, (full name) . . . do herby (sic) endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States." The form warns that signers "are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush."

The paper quoted a Republican official saying a "Democrat operative group" was trying to infiltrate the limited-seating event -- although the party apparently turned away uncommitted voters who simply wanted to hear Cheney speak. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31019-2004Jul31.html 

Extenz at Dayly Kos showed us how much w respected our men and women in uniform, citing this loyalty form you had to fill out in order to have Thanksgiving Dinner with w in 2004:

What did you think about President Bush's Thanksgiving visit to Iraq?

I was there when President Bush came to the [Baghdad] airport. The day before, you had to fill out a questionnaire and answer questions, that would determine whether they would allow you in the room with the President.

What was on the questionnaire?

"Do you support the president?"

Really!

Yes.

Members of the military were asked whether they support the president politically?

Yes. And if the answer was not a gung-ho, A-1, 100 percent yes, then you were not allowed into the cafeteria. You were not allowed to eat the Thanksgiving meal that day. You had an MRE. . http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/15/145147/184

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004, at 1:44 AM ET Slate--Chris Suellentrop gave us even a better example of oaths:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.--"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

I know the Bush-Cheney campaign occasionally requires the people who attend its events to sign loyalty oaths, but this was the first time I have ever seen an audience actually stand and utter one. Maybe they've replaced the written oath with a verbal one.  http://www.slate.com/id/2108852 (Oh and a certain Mark Foley figures in this article back in 04 and it is hilarious)

If you wanted a job in the DOJ or any other Federal agency, you had to take a number of oaths. You had to be for w, for repubs, against abortion, for guns, for biblical literalists.....

At least we do not have to pledge allegiance to our elected officials anymore before we can attend their functions.

  Al Franken

Josh posted a squib the other day. He wanted readers to give their opinion of Al Franken and the election mess in Minnesota. I made a comment but it was too late, really. So I thought I would give my views of our new Senator in my own blog.

But I must begin with a little historical background. In the 1970's I actually examined real estate transfer documents; deeds, contracts for deeds, foreclosure orders...

I grew up in Richfield, Minnesota. In examining deeds for this suburb abutting Minneapolis, I saw the actual restrictive covenants contained in the transfer documents from the 1940's on.

When you purchase real estate, you are given the impression that you will own the property outright, assuming you pay off your mortgage. But you only own the property:

Subject to zoning laws that may proscribe the selling Chinese take-out from your basement.

Subject to usually large property taxes assessed upon you for every year  of ownership.

Subject to public easements including streets, sidewalks, alleys, sewage pipes, electrical hook ups, etc.

And, in the old days, subject to other restrictions contained in your deed. 

Some of these restrictions were a little harsh for ordinarily good Christian People. The deed would actually keep you from ever selling your property to 'colored people' or to people 'of the Jewish race or faith.'  No kidding. Our good activist Supreme Courts of the old days, looked askance at these directives after honoring them for a couple hundred years and made these restrictive covenants unenforceable sometime in the 1950's.

So the documents I examined blacked out all this evidence of racial segregation. However, you could still read the old wording. Ha!

Well, Al grew up in a primarily Jewish community in this state known as St. Louis Park. The same  community that brought us Tom Friedman. Back in high school, my more racist friends called it 'St. Jewish Park.'

So Al certainly grew up in a 'liberal' state, but racial bias was not a thing of the past as he was growing up.

In the midst of my own depression years ago, I was given Al Franken's book: Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Liar.

That really was my introduction to him after SNL of course. I mean who could forget the line:

AND ME, I'M AL FRANKEN.

I read that book and I went nuts. He grabs some Harvard students and puts together a book. He was sick and tired of the lies being perpetrated on the radio and on TV by the right.

I read his next two books and followed him when I could while he had his radio show. I know he had a history of working with Wellstone, campaigning with him. Paul Wellstone is a hero in Minnesota. A God. No kidding.

Wellstone would get on the Senate floor and just lambaste Bush and the repub majority. Just raise holy hell at a time when the Dems had very little going for them.

And WE LOSE WELLSTONE in a small plane crash. I was devastated. Minnesota was devastated and there is not time here to recount how the repubs twisted events taking place at the Senator's funeral that led to the Norm Coleman win.

Then Coleman, who has the opportunity to be Harry S. Truman; to research and hold hearings on the graft in the w administration and the hand-outs to cheney's company............

Nothing, He does nothing but rubber stamp the entire debacle.

Few of us will be sorry to see the back of Coleman, who managed to earn a place on CREW's list of most corrupt members of Congress, which is no easy task. (Also, he used to have a really bad haircut, even compared with today's.) Eric Alterman, Daily Beast

The State of Minnesota, the home of the Humphreys, the McCarthy's, the Frazers, the Mondales, and, alas, Paul Wellstone, was once again represented by a repub front for the rich and powerful.

And of all people, Al steps up to the plate. Gives up his radio show two and a half years ago.
He proceeds to put his money and his time and his career on the line for what I perceived as a lost cause.

So how does a friend of his describe the decision of one of our best comedians to run for the United States Senate? Well Eric Alterman writes:

Franken was just thinking about running back then. He had been inspired by the loss of his friend, Paul Wellstone--perhaps the most progressive senator of all time--and the fact that though he lived off Riverside Drive, he retained a deep connection to Minnesota.

When I asked Franken how he planned to handle the carpetbagger issue, he said he could argue that, unlike Coleman, he was the New York Jew in the race who had actually grown up as a Minnesotan. He also confided that when Alan Keyes made his Illinois Senate race against a fellow with the funny name of Barack Hussein Obama, Franken got a tip that Coleman would be appearing on The Daily Show, so he called Jon Stewart and asked him to ask Coleman if he would vote for Keyes, whose carpetbaggery was so shameless as to be transparent. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-01/how-cool-is-franken/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL4

Alterman also gives us a little insight into my new Senator:

How cool is Al Franken? Five years ago, I drove to Jones Beach to see the post-Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead in the pouring rain. It was idiotic, except that I ran into Franken and his wife, Frannie, and their daughter. We went backstage to talk to the band and they got us out of the rain and put us on the stage instead.

I am a boomer and I cannot tell you how great it is to find out my new representative is a dead head. Ha!

I thought I would type an excerpt from Al Franken's The Truth in order to demonstrate why I might like this guy:

Or as Dick Cheney had put it more succinctly seven and a half weeks earlier:

It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2 (2004), we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we will be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre 9/11 mindset, if you will that in fact these terrorists attacks are just criminal acts and that we are not really at war.

As obnoxious as that was, I thought his next comments, which were no so widely reported, were even worse:

Further, we have very credible intelligence that tells us that if Kerry wins, the following states will be hit: Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania , Wisconsin and New Mexico. What's more, terrorists are also threatening to attack any state in which the Democrats pick up a senate seat.

Now Franken adds this footnote:

After my last book, some of the younger and/or less bright readers complained that they could not tell when I was joking....The quote from Cheney about 'making the right choice,' while cartoonishly inflammatory, is real. The quote about terrorists attacking swing states, is, to my knowledge, just something I made up.

Ha!

How can you not like a guy who writes like this?

TPM gave us this note By Eric Kleefeld :

Sen.-elect Al Franken (D-MN) appeared on the Bill Press Show this morning, and responded to Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-OK) remarks about the recent election victory by "the clown from Minnesota."

"I don't know how Sen. Inhofe regards clowns, but it might be an incredible compliment," said Franken.

To many of us in Minnesota Al is our NEW hero. And we feel that he will demonstrate what a good liberal can do for our state and our country.

UPDATE: 4:30pm cdt:

By Eric Kleefeld - July 2, 2009, 4:15PM TPM

Sen.-elect Al Franken (D-MN) will be sworn into his new position on Tuesday, July 7, CNN reports.

Fun fact: This means Franken will be sworn in exactly six months plus one day after when he would have been sworn in along with all the other folks elected to the Senate in 2008, if not for the legal battle that kept his super-narrow election victory in limbo.

 

So many fruits ripe for the pickin' and all I got is two hands and a keyboard. Where to start?

While everybody else appears to be on My President's case I would like to talk about the repubs. It is soooooo much more fun.

The dems need some pushin' and some shovin' and some hard evidence that the peasants are revolting.

On the other side of the disillusion problem among the factions of the left, I do see one clear agreement among all. Or most anyway, even though I do love hyperbole. That is, there is no reason to deal with the repubs any longer. I mean they never dealt with us.

I told Miguel that Pelosi and Reid should simply paint the word 'republican' on a wall and negotiate with the wall for fifteen minutes and then get down to business. Ha!!!

To be fair folks, Grandma Pelosi has been doing just that. This woman who fell into community organizing while raising her children and now is the second most powerful woman in the world, is nobody to fool with. And I love her dearly. 44 dems abandoned her recently on an important piece of legislation...well kind of...and she got the legislation through anyway. Without Rahm on the floor; although I have the feeling that four letter words were flying on the telephone for some time. The vote was too close to believe that all stops were not pulled on this legislation. I am telling you those 44 were GIVEN LEAVE to do so; For political reasons in order to allow them to answer to their respective constituencies.

On the Senate side, one of my favorite pols is going to be sworn in as the 58th Democratic Senator. There are two independents. Bernie Sanders, an unrepentant socialist, like myself, is an independent. Bernie has been sending me the best of the newsletters by the by.

Lieberman was forgiven and wooed and he has committee status. People railed against this. Because of what some people thought were weak knees on the part of the WH and Reid, Lieberman is OURS. This man is not going to join in any filibuster. That is my opinion and we will see how prescient I am.

Dems are NOT GOING TO JOIN IN ANY SENATE FILIBUSTER. There I said it. We shall see if I am correct.

There are 536 people who run this country. Putting aside the oligarchy of the .1% who own everything. Ha. It takes smart politics in any atmosphere to run this country.  Now the Dems are in control.

Frankly I could care less whether legislation is passed in the Senate by a vote of fifty-fifty with Vice President Biden breaking the tie, or whether that legislation is passed 60 to 40. As long as it is passed and signed by My President. By the by, some repubs will break ranks, as they did in the House anyway. THEY HAVE TO ANSWER TO THEIR CONSTITUENCIES TOO. HA!

Enough said.

Now let's have some fun.

How are the repubs doin?

I must start with 'the rush.' Few repubs have challenged this fascist demagogue. And when they have, they take back their words WITHIN AN HOUR AFTER THEY UTTER THEM. And that means that the dems can use words spat out by the demagogue against all repubs. There are so many gems here recently that I must cherry pick. The cherries are all ripe but I must watch my caloric intake.

First, the rush is ranting lately about 2016. Anybody who thinks Obama is going away in 2016 is nuts.  He will single handedly change the constitution. Forget the idiocy involved in this charge. This is an indication. And this is an indication that the repubs see no chance of winning back the executive branch until 2016. I love this kind of message. It heartens me greatly. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906300022

Second, the rush was only pining about his lack of feminine ratings in the last month or so. I blogged on this issue. Take a look at this gem from the big fat liar (as branded by good old Al Franken):

LIMBAUGH: All right, if there are any liberal newswomen in this audience, stop what you're doing. I have more Mark Sanford news. This guy is amazing. He's already being heralded by liberal infobabes for being really great at love letter writing, and he's really in love with the babe down in Argentina, and he just ought to go for it. I mean, they're schmaltzy, they're embarrassing, but, man, how romantic. Oh, it's just wonderful.

Remember when I said last week this guy could've been our JFK, still to this day, educated liberal reporters do not understand this. They think that I'm saying that Mark Sanford has some sort of great political reputation, image, charisma that could cause him to win a landslide -- no.

If you have to explain -- well, no, I'm not going to explain it. You people understand it -- the drive-bys do not. But here are the two AP alerts: First, South Carolina governor tells AP that the mistress down in Argentina is his soul mate, but he will try to fall back in love with his wife. AP alert number two: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tells AP he crossed lines with women other than the mistress but never had sex with them.

This guy is loyal to the mistress. This guy does not cheat on the mistress. Do you realize how the liberal women are going to eat this up? The liberal infobabes, oh, they're swooning, folks. I will guarantee you they are having to excuse themselves and run to the bathroom here to control themselves.

The repubs are really attempting to shut out women completely from the republican party.  I mean who could ask for more? Yeah, this is the way to lure the fairer sex into your party. Attack them for bathroom breaks. When all the while, any decent reasoning citizen, EVERY SINGLE TIME HE OR SHE TURNS ON THE RADIO AND HEARS RUSH MUST TAKE A BATHROOM BREAK. Ha!!!

Ok. Now how is the rove coalition doing? You remember the corporate hogs and the religious right? Oh and the minority haters. The repubs would remain in power for generations. How is that going for ya now, rover?

Those wonderful Oklahomans, led by the likes of Imhofe would like to be the center of the discussion in the repub party. The legislature, in that great state recently passed a  resolution that specifically cites President Obama's policies as well as his celebration of LGBT Pride month and his decision to end the National Prayer Day service at the White House as key causes of the current recession.

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion,
pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and
many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking
the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused
to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of
Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States
disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/oklahoma-republicans-read_n_223074.html

Yeah that is going to work. Maybe for right wing evangelists who still have a job.

Oklahoma, where the bullshit comes sweepin down the plains,
Where the wavin'  cheats,
Do not smell so sweet,
When the bullshit falls behind the rain,

Oklahoma, every night the repubs and the insane,
Sit alone and talk,
And watch the  hawks,
Makin' lazy circles in the sky,

We know we're amakin a last stand
and the old party aint so grand

And when we say, hey! a yippy-i-o-ey
We're only sayin' You're doin' fine Oklahoma,
Oklahoma, O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A,
Oklahoma.

Now recall the eight repubs who broke ranks in the House, allowing some dems to appease their constituents?

Sam Stein at Huffpo: Michelle Malkin, the prominent conservative commentator and writer, mocked the those Republicans who "helped the Democrats pass a junk science-based, massive national energy tax." Another conservative blogger, Stacy McCain, demanded that the movement cut off donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee in retaliation for the betrayal. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/gop-poised-to-eat-its-own_n_223164.html

I wish to examine this statement more closely. From my parsing of this rather ridiculous statement, I perceive that the bill is detested because it is science-based. Get it? Look at the hyphen between 'science' and 'based'. Junk would appear to describe the entire bill. In other words, the bill is junk AND it is science based. ha!!!

My point here is that the repubs are now on record as being against science-based anything. I mean read in the context of the resolution passed by the Oklahoma Legislature and taken with the solemn oaths of  most of the repub candidates for the presidency (who swear they do not believe in 'evilution', the repub party is against anything that is science based. Ha!!! IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

How to wrap all this up. As eclectic as I choose to be today?

The next indication that the repubs are permanently on the run is provided at Plumline, Greg Sargent tells us:

OP leaders have a new complaint about President Obama: He's not reaching out to them nearly as much as he did earlier this year, when he road-tested his pledge of post-partisanship, only to get uniformly rebuffed on his first big legislative initiative.

Here's GOP Rep. Eric Cantor, giving voice to the new GOP gripe:

GOP leaders complain that the phone calls and White House invitations have slacked off -- perhaps because Obama's early efforts to woo Republicans yielded few votes.

"I think that in the beginning they seemed a lot more willing to go in and engage with us," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor.

Of course, Democrats respond that Obama's initial outreach efforts weren't exactly reciprocated. House Republicans unanimously opposed his stimulus and his budget, and almost all of them opposed the big war spending bill. Many refused to condemn Rush Limbaugh for saying he hopes Obama fails.http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/uncategorized/gop-leadership-to-obama-you-never-call-you-never-write/

The repubs have reached a conclusion here that is hard to miss. I actually agree with them.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS NO LONGER TAKING THEIR CALLS.

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"Mr. Madoff is 71 years old, your Honor. Based upon his health, which is in the PSR, his family history, his life expectancy, that is why we ask for a sentence of 12 years, just short, based upon the statistics that we have, of a life sentence." Quote at sentencing by the attorney for Bernie Madoff just prior to the Judge sentencing his client to 150 years in prison.

AP Wired Services (A US Corporate Personage)

July 1, 2147, Washington DC

Today Bernie Madoff was released from prison. At 211 years of age, Bernie was not looking at his best, so to speak. Lying in a gurney with seventeen intravenous tubes invading what was left of his body, he managed a smile. At least they think it was a smile. Dr. Gothami, the treating physician had opined it was probably gas.

I was given the opportunity to speak with the giant of the old Wall Street we now all read about in our criminal law classes, as he was once known, at his condominium only a few hours following his release. I worked up to this by putting in over one hundred hours of research on this financial expert.

It seems that Madoff had made off, so to speak, with some fifty billion dollars of his investors' money back at the beginning of the last century. It may not seem like a lot of money now, I mean fifty billion dollars is a monthly allotment of food stamps for a family of four in this day and age.

But back then, that kind of money could buy a lot of stuff, as they used to say. Huge mansions and islands were at his disposal. I Googledorfed the Webbensoft to take me back to the days before computer implants  and when average life expectancies were well under a century.

I spoke with Tomasu Terlacki, the head of prisons in DC to get some idea as to why Mr. Madoff only was released today. He told me:

Well the best we can figure, people were really mad at Madoff in those days. Hahahahahah. Get it? Mad at Madoff. And he was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Well, I can tell you, we would have let him out decades ago, but we plum forgot he was even in prison. As a matter of fact, Mr. Madoff should have been released in '87 following the Universal Amnesty Edict. There was some kind of computer screw up. The prison in which he was located had become an animal shelter in '07. The proprietors thought he was one of those extinct forest animals.

Well an intern, fresh out of Oral Roberts School of Veterinary Medicine, was doing some research and wandered into his 'cell'.  While she was checking out Madoff's vital signs, he suddenly sat up and said something like: Hey hot stuff, how about a bj to go.

The intern was taken aback over that one, let me tell you. Well one thing led to another and we procured an order from High Command to release him to his great great grand son, a certain Sabitu Khomani.

Mr. Khomani let me into Mr. Madoff's room and greeted my quarry in his bed. Bernie was a mere shadow of the great man he had once been. Sitting up he appeared pale and so emaciated. The doctors had told me this one captain of Wall Street weighed only 45.7 pounds when he was finally released. His intravenous tubes were now 7 in number with all sorts of bags containing different solutions hung by specially placed poles around his bed.

Hello Mr. Madoff, I am Banji Ganhini from the AP, we had an appointment?

Oh sweet cheeks, I remember. How are you. Quite a rack you have there honey.

Well thank you Mr. Madoff for the complements, but I am here.........

Oh please, call me Bernie, all my friends do. And how might I address you sweet cheeks?

Bonny will be just fine Bernie. All my friends call me Bonny. Now Bernie, while it is still fresh in your mind, what was most memorable about your stay in prison?

Well a couple things Bonny. First was the smell; I mean about twenty or thirty years ago there was this smell that never went away. They tell me that that was about the time that my prison had become an animal shelter. I actually got kind of used to it. My cell door had even been left open for the last fifteen years and all sorts of critters would come visit me. It was strange but it was good to have friends again.

Oh and May 7, 2122.

May 2122? What happened then?

It was the last time I took a good crap. Really, hard to forget that day. I mean I could tell the sun was out because of the shadows on the floor and everything. What a great relief it was!!!

I have something here to read to you Bernie. I really would like your reaction. Is that OK?

Sure Bonny. Just read slowly. I have not heard a woman's voice in so long. Except for that intern. Oh and Lassie one of my friends at the shelter.

This is from Nancy Smithsonian back in '67:

I remember Bernie Madoff. Sure I do. My Grandfather, Thomas Smithsonian lost everything in this Ponzerini Scheme at the turn of the century. Something over 100 million dollars. A lot of money in those days.  I learned that if this had not happened I would never have ended up in waitress school. I could have chosen any University in the world. I would have attended the great Bombay University of Science & Technology. I COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER.

Well Bonny, those years are gone. I mean it is time for all of us to look forward to the future. Besides that was all one hundred and forty some years ago. Things were different then. There was a stock market where people would gamble all day, kind of like those Indian Casinos. Everybody wished to make as much money as fast as possible so that they would not have to rub elbows with those street people and so they could live in gated communities and send their children to the best schools.

We had control, those with the money or the pretend money like me, and the politicians would do our bidding without even a blink.

There was this president back then when we still had presidents. George W. Bush, as I recall. He appointed the same people who had been gambling in the Market (as we used to call it) to the regulatory agencies that were supposed to police the Market. Can you imagine? Right in the middle of my schemes, I would get calls from his appointees--the same people I had been bribing for years--and they would ask me to sign on as a consultant to their agencies. Well, how could I turn something like that down? I mean I would show up for a few months, erase my files and a few months after that I would start receiving government checks in the mail. I mean who could top that, really? OH THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND:

 

Once upon a time there was a Wall Street
Where we used to raise so much money
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And think of all the great things we could be

Chorus:

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Then the people rose up against us
We began to lose our sway
Pitchforks held so high it was really mass confusion
We'd run and hope to fight another day

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days
Oh, yes, those were the days
La la la la la la
La la la la la la

We would just do what we wanted
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely investor really me?

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days
Oh, yes, those were the days
La la la la la la
La la la la la la

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5pkkAhETYg

 

 

 

With that Bernie Madoff fell off into a deep sleep.

There is a delightful movie starring Stan & Ollie called: The Perfect Day. (1929)

Stanley & Ollie have been working all day to prepare their food so that they might go on a family picnic. They enter their car with their wives, their dog and Uncle Edgar who is in a cast. The movie is hilarious.

I first saw it about noon in a frathouse a hundred years ago. I had the single worst hangover I ever experienced. But I could not stop laughing at this movie.

All I could remember was watching all these neighbors yelling "goodbye" to our friends as they attempted to leave the area in their automobile. And our friends keep yelling goodbye. The car wont start. Then Ollie experiences a flat tire. Nothing seems to go right--except the film of course.

Ultimately the car sinks into the road with scores of goodbyes. And I was in front of the TV yelling: GOODBYE, GOODBYE!!!

My take at the time was something along the lines of What About Bob. At least in the mind of Richard Dreyfus. Everybody not only wished to say goodbye. They wished our friends to be gone, finally. It not only seemed Laurel & Hardy would never leave. They will never finally leave.

 

http://www.youtube.com/v/27RVOkGXYd8

GOODBYE

 

Dick Cheney told us six long years ago that the Iraqis would greet us with flowers. They would dance in the street. They would celebrate US as we destroy the greatest tyranny in history; and eventually cheer us for bringing these poor down trodden people democracy.

Instead, almost as soon as we got there, things began going wrong. We  took away their weapons after we dismissed their police force. We threw money at the Iraqis like it was toilet tissue on All Hallows Eve.

Once we even dropped 12 billion dollars in hundred dollar bills on the streets of Bagdad. To this day we still have no receipts for that money.

There followed a civil war that we depicted as a minor conflict initiated by Al Qaeda or the Taliban or foreign terrorists or........

We lost 4,500 soldiers over there. We welcomed back home, tens of thousands of soldiers permanently maimed as a result of their service over there.

We saw, several times, the President of Iraq holding, hugging and kissing the President of Iran--a man detested by this country.

The Iraqis have wanted us to leave ever since the first day we ever got there. Laws were passed by the Iraqi government telling us to leave. Polls were telling us that 80% of the Iraqis wanted us out of there a year or two after we arrived.

The Guardian (UK) has reported that:

Iraq has declared tomorrow a national holiday and is planning festivals to mark the end of the US presence on the streets of its towns and cities, more than six years after Saddam Hussein was ousted

The much-anticipated milestone has been hailed as a return to sovereignty by Iraqi officials, who have maintained sometimes difficult relations with the US military throughout the years of occupation.

But the celebratory mood has angered some senior US officials and military commanders, who believe intensive training efforts with Iraqi forces have been forsaken, along with combat operations that have cost at least several thousand American lives since the fall of Baghdad.

The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, fuelled US anger at the weekend by describing the withdrawal as the result of Iraq's successful bid to "repulse" the invaders. "We are on the threshold of a new phase that will bolster Iraq's sovereignty. It is a message to the world that we are now able to safeguard our security and administer our own affairs," Maliki said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/28/iraq-holiday-us-withdrawal

So we finally got our dancing in the streets. We finally witness the jubilation of Iraqis.

And that jubilation is a result of our getting out of their goddamn cities. 

Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

At last, the Iraqis are experiencing a perfect day.

Where is the money going to come from? ask the repubs when presented with health care legislation.

Where is the money going to come from? ask the repubs when presented with new education legislation.

Where is the money going to come from? ask the repubs when presented with other budget considerations.

Just the other day, someone on cable was discussing the problems with SEC enforcement. The enforcement division is short on help and there is no money to bring on more staff, was the reply.

In bankruptcy court, there is a trustee appointed. The trustee and the court are paid out of the proceeds--the assets of the bankrupt estate that must be distributed among various creditors--after costs.

Court costs and attorney's fees are oft times awarded in a civil action.

The SEC and the DOJ could make billions of dollars prosecuting the thieves that run our capitalist structure today. Billions. The taxpayers would make money off of these prosecutions. Who is kidding whom?  Somebody is caught in a one billion dollar scheme of some sort, I do not care what you call it. You fine the bastard one billion dollars and put him in prison. Today.

A tax of one percent on all stock and bond trades would take care of half our national budget. Today. They all ready do this in Europe.

Americans are idiots.

Our leaders are idiots. Or are they?

 

THE CASTE SYSTEM

Aryans migrated from Central Europe and settled in the very fertile Indus Valley. Aryans were very clever. They implemented division of labor in their society. The most clever members of society were selected and given the task to teach others. The bravest people were selected and given the task to protect society. The dullest types of individuals who were able to tolerate a heavy workload were selected and given the task of supplying labor to others whenever needed. The rest of the people of the society were given the tasks to grow food, produce materials, trade, and supply the goods to others.

In Nepal however, there are truly only three categories of caste: Tagadhari (twice born), Matwali (liquor drinking) and Pani Nachalne. The Tagadharis include Nepal�s highest castes: Brahmins, Thakuris, and Chetris. The mid-ranking Matwalis include most of Nepal�s Tibeto-Burman and Indo-European tribal groups. The Pani Nachalne are untouchables associated with specific traditional occupations. These castes are ranked along an axiom of purity and pollution This caste system was codified in Nepal by the National Legal Code (Muluki Ain) of 1853 by Nepal�s Rana rulers. It lasted until 1951 when the Ranas were overthrown. It heavily favored the Brahmins and brought ruling against them when violating caste rules.

http://internet.cybermesa.com/~rotto/caste1.html

 

Several characteristics distinguish a caste system. The first is the tendency toward endogamy, meaning that people marry within the same caste exclusively. Caste mobility is also extremely rare; one cannot transform from a laborer to a scholar except in very rare circumstances, for example. Higher castes traditionally hold all of the political power, and the castes may be divided further through language, culture, and economics. Within a caste system, each member generally knows his or her place, and your social status is usually apparently to others as well. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-caste-system.htm

Late Friday, Ruth Madoff reached an agreement with prosecutors that forfeits all but $2.5 million.

Saul and Sara Alpern also figure in another way in the ongoing investigation of Ruth Madoff. She had been claiming--as her own money not related to Bernie's fraud--nearly $85 million. That's $84.6 million, including $40 million in cash and securities in bank accounts, $22 million in real estate, and the remainder in boats and personal property, including $2.6 million in jewelry. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-27/the-madoff-family-splinters/3/

Can you really picture some wife of a convicted drug dealer reaching an agreement with the prosecutor and ending up with three million bucks?

And what happens to the CEO's who fail? 

The sweetest sound on Wall Street these days? "You're fired."

The latest example is the $161.5 million retirement package collected by former Merrill Lynch (MER, news, msgs) chief Stanley O'Neal on his way out the doors of the troubled brokerage last month.

On O'Neal's watch, Merrill cranked out risky debt instruments backed by dodgy subprime mortgages. Then last month, O'Neal left the brokerage amid revelations of Merrill's heavy exposure to the imploding mortgage  market.

.http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/The5RichestPayoffsForFiredCEOs.aspx

It's been more than two years since Procter & Gamble (PG, news, msgs) took over Gillette, putting Gillette CEO James Kilts out of a job. A lot of CEOs have left their corner offices since then, but Kilts' golden goodbye was so huge it still takes the No. 4 slot for the all-time biggest retirement payouts this millennium. His take: $165 million,

The sheer size of former Home Depot (HD, news, msgs) CEO Robert Nardelli's golden goodbye sparked outrage on many fronts when he left the company in early 2007. First, Home Depot stock declined nearly 8% under his six-year watch. Next, he got all the loot even though he had already collected huge sums in annual pay -- including $219.7 million in the two years before leaving the company, according to The Corporate Library.

Under Henry McKinnell's watch from early 2001 through 2006, the shares of Pfizer (PFE, news, msgs) declined 40%. That cost shareholders $140 billion. No matter. He still left the CEO slot in July 2006 with a $213 million golden goodbye, thanks to an extremely generous board.

Given the strength in energy stocks since 2000, it probably comes as no surprise that the richest golden goodbye this millennium went to Lee Raymond, who retired as CEO of ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs) in 2006. He got $351 million. That's a lot for a guy who earned $70 million in his last year of work, or $34,457 an hour, according to The Corporate Library. His cash-out included a $98.4 million lump-sum pension payment.

Time reported in October of last year:

In the first half of the year, which is the latest available data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the total fees that the investment banks and brokerage firms collected were nearly $166 billion. That's more than triple the $55.5 billion the firms had in revenue back in the first half of 2002. But the big difference is that in 2002, Wall Street was making money -- nearly $8 billion in the first half of that year. This year financial firms are deeply in the red. They lost more than $15 billion in the first half of the year alone, and that was before the market's big plunge in the past few months. Says Frank Bruconi, chief economist in the New York City comptroller's office: "Had the federal government not stepped in with a bailout plan and other moves, the pay and the employment situation on Wall Street would be much worse."

Three times what was collected in fees from 6 years prior.  Think about this. All made in a LOSING year.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson discusses the latest news in bailouts and banking -- including the recent revelation that insurance giant AIG plans to pay $450 million in executive bonuses to the employees who work in the unit that crippled the company and contributed to its $40.5 billion loss. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101936770

Just think what $450 million might do for road construction or a special medical coverage law.

What are some measures that we might consider in an effort to break down the walls of the current caste system?

I WANT ALL THESE CROOKS IN PRISON AND ALL THEIR MONIES CONFISCATED AS WELL AS THE ENTIRE WEALTH OF THEIR FAMILIES. NOW!!!

Instead we tax them between 5 and 15%--when we are lucky. Most of their taxes are 'deferred' anyway. Do not defer anything, ever. I want my money now.

And when the corporation ends up firing 'the help' way down on the ladder because of management's mismanagement of assets, when the administrative assistant loses his only visible means of support and commits suicide, CHARGE MANAGEMENT WITH MURDER. And fine the individuals involved one billion dollars.

When a janitor loses his job because of management's mismanagement of company assets; and the janitor's daughter dies because lack of access to medical care; CHARGE MANAGEMENT WITH MANSLAUGHTER. And fine the individuals involved on billion dollars.

When an insurer denies coverage to an insured based on some hidden 'clause', and that insured dies, CHARGE THE INSURER WITH MURDER. And fine the individuals involved one billion dollars.

Oh but you say, the great minds, those great achievers of MBA's....they will go elsewhere.

Good, send them to Haiti or Argentina. Who the f....are they kidding.

There are brilliant men and women smuggling drugs into this country every hour of every day. Brilliant. They do not 'go elsewhere' even though they face losing everything and finding themselves in prison for eternity.

(Just saw this after my post from June 6th, a blog I missed: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/problem_is/2009/06/ruth-madoff-forfeits-assets-le.php)

Jean Arp, where are you when we need you most?

Joe the plumber shows up again this week. But he's still a star in conservative circles -- and still saying some odd, hostile things. At an event Thursday for the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity (one of the lead organizations behind the Tax Day Tea Parties), Wurzelbacher suggested Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) should be lynched.

"I'm here for one reason and one reason only: It's 'I love America,'" Wurzelbacher told the crowd. "Mainstream media wants to paint us as a bunch of extremists, right? We're in search of liberty and our freedoms. What's so extreme about that?" [...]

"Let me give you another extremist view, 'In God We Trust,'" he said to wild applause. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/26/joe-the-plumber-suggests_n_221631.html

Michelle Bachmann now has won her own comic book. She will never shut up. She insists she will refuse to fill out a census form for 2010. Paraphrasing Nixon I guess she actually said "I'm not a kook" She went on an on about how the Census is run by the likes of Acorn.

On Fox News this morning, Bachmann repeated her determination to break the law. She also suggested that the Obama administration could use the Census data for nefarious purposes -- including the imprisonment of Americans in concentration camps:

BACHMANN: If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I'm not saying that's what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/25/bachmann-fox-census/

On Saturday, Pat Buchanan hosted a conference to discuss how Republicans can regain a majority in America. During one discussion, panelists suggested supporting English-only initiatives as a prime way of attracting "working class white Democrats." The discussion ridiculed Judge Sotomayor for the fact that she studied children's classics to improve her grammar while attending college. The panelists also suggested that, without English as the official language, President Obama would force Americans to speak Spanish. http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/22/misspelled-english-buchanan/

s. The word conference was spelled "Conferenece." View it here:

Media Matters has rush blaming Obama for the Sanford affair. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260037

 

MM also has Beck demonstrating that cap and trade is like a watermelon, green on the outside and red on the inside and therefore a communist plot. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260032

But that was not good enough so:

MM included Beck's rant on "some" cap and trade supporters: "dumbest people" to walk Earth, "greedy," "wicked," "treasonous" http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260020

 Oh and as far as Savage, just follow Bill Bowman, he has that under control here at TPM and on his own web site. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/wfb812/

Oh and the guy who burned down the barn, killed the neighbor's dog and ran over the sheriff, Stratofrog has w all documented without any help from me. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/stratofrog/2009/06/widdledub-engages-in-thinkery.php

Keith O had it in for some state senator all week who was giving speeches about how important it was to refrain from giving free lunches to poor kids during the summer because hunger could be a great inspiration to change your station in life.

DADAISM

According to Wiki:

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922.[1] The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature--poetry, art manifestoes, art theory--theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.

At the first public soiree at the cabaret on July 14, 1916, Ball recited the first manifesto (see text). Tzara, in 1918, wrote a Dada manifesto considered one of the most important of the Dada writings. Other manifestos followed.

Marcel Janco recalled,

We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the "tabula rasa". At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.

Jean Arp was one of those courageous leaders of this movement. He told a story about his experience with the draft for WW1:

Arp later told the story of how, when he was notified to report to the German embassy, he avoided being drafted into the army: he took the paperwork he had been given and, in the first blank, wrote the date. He then wrote the date in every other space as well, then drew a line beneath them and carefully added them up. He then took off all his clothes and went to hand in his paperwork. He was told to go home.

I related another story about Arp and a publisher. I cannot confirm it right now but the story goes that he was supposed to write a book. So in order to comply with the contract he wrote two hundred and some pages. Each page ended with a period. He then SHUFFLED the pages like a deck of cards and handed the tome in to the publisher.

Now, what has all this to do with the cost of gasoline and health care in this country?

Well first, Main Stream Media would have you think that the repubs are in 'DISARRAY'.  That they need to find a SPOKESMAN for their party. (I love this, spokesman, what a bunch of idiots)

That somehow something has changed.

I watched the 'SPOKESPEOPLE' for the repubs give out the same Dadaistic crap for eight goddamnable years. (blesses himself) Nothing has changed. They just are not in power anymore. They never once came out and spoke any truth. They never once came out and communicated logical reasons for their actions. They even lied about what their actions were most of the time.

There are weapons of mass destruction.

No there are not.

Just wait, we have not found them yet.

It has been two years and there are no weapons of mass destruction.

Yeah but there is a definite connection between Saddam and 1) the Taliban or 2) Terrorists or 3) Al Qaida or 4) totalitarian communists.

There was a nuclear arms program in Iraq.

No there was not.

We know that there was a link between Iraq and obtaining nuclear 1) bombs or 2) a missile deliver system or 3) aluminum tubes for...4) enriched uranium cheerios.........

No there was not, ever.

Well we wished to make America safe for Democracy.

Cheney, w, rummy, condi, rove, ....just take your pick. They all once did or still do make these claims.

Regulation is strangling this country and loosening regulation will help with the economy and....

Lack of regulation is killing this country you doofus or doofuses or...

We had full employment and good numbers for 46 months or 48 months or whatever.

What about the rest of the term, what about the last year of your administration? What about the worst economy in 75 - 80 years? What about the mire you left all of us in as far as wars in the Middle East? What about........

You see, this is all a waste of time and energy. At least when the third grader says my dog ate my homework, I mean, he could be right. Make a call, does the kid have a dog and does the dog like to eat paper?  I dunno.

We, the left, the Dems, the Progressives, the Educated.....we are doing this all wrong. We are responding incorrectly to this drivel. We cannot change the arena for discussion. MSM will continue to let cheney or w or rove or whoever get on tv and say this drivel. They are interested in ratings and money and advertisers who are all repubs anyway.

So we need an Arp out there or a Janco or even a Quinn to respond properly. For me the Q & A might go like this:

Cheney:  We have not had any further attacks on this country since 9/11 because of policies we instituted in our administration...blah blah blah blah

Arp:  Mr. Dick sir, you and yours have made the Muslim terrorists stronger and stronger and I would personally like to thank you for that since it means that my company, MISSILES GALORE will make more money than any two third world countries now in existence. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Bachmann:  This country is drifting, nay falling into communism faster and faster every day. The government has too much power over individual lives....blah blah blah

Janco:  I really wish to thank you, whatever the fu.. your name is for giving our side the opportunity to confront this woman about certain statements she has made recently.  But my God, here she is filling her pants again and I told you before michelle, my belle, you have to put the depends on first and then your pants suit. My god, the smell in here.

Beck:  Family values are the values that make families and families that make the values that we value at all times and if the homos have their way with themselves and then, naturally with me because I will be defenseless......

Quinn:  thank you for that mr. glenn and just for this purpose I have brought along a recording from Queen (my favorite cut used in Highlander) and here it is (pulls out a miniature recorder) and now let us all sing along:

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye everybody - I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooo - (anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro - magnifico

But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go - will you let me go
Bismillah! No - we will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let me go
Will not let you go - let me go (never)
Never let you go - let me go
Never let me go - ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no -
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me
for me

 

Rush:  I really believe that the sins of the republicans of late are directly tied to the realization that the socialist dems have taken over the government in a bloodless coupe and that THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO RETAIN POWER and that they will stop at nothing to level the playing field and redistribute wealth.....

Dickon: If I had a hammer (and a sickle) I'd hammer in the morning (an sickle too) I'd hammer in the evening all over this land. I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warnin', I'd hammer out the love between my brother and my sister (and be sickling too) all over this land.

Rummy: We now know some things we did not know but at the same time we still do not know what we did not know, at least to some extent...........

Dester:  We do know that you do not know the difference between making war profitable and making hundreds of millions of dollars on drug stocks......have you taken your meds today? I mean seriously, a man of your age and with obvious behavioral issues should be under the care and guidance of a group of mental health care providers.....

Palin:  You know we do not even have taxes in Alaska. I was just reading one of those New York Elite papers and it was sayin that only through more taxes can you be happy. Well I disagree with that, I mean less taxes is better and no taxes is even better. You know someone said that everytime you lower taxes the government makes more money. Think of how much money this country would have if we just ended all federal taxes forever. You betcha

Little Eva: Well Mrs. Governess, Do you not see, Everybody's doin a brand new dance. I know you will like it if you give it a chance. Do the locomotion with me-- come on baby jump up, jump back well I think you have the knack.  Move around the floor in a locomotion. Do it holding hands if you do get the notion. It even makes you happy when you're feelin blue. Oooh you're lookin good.

We really know so little about the ancients. I mean the real ancients.

You will oft times hear of the 'missing link'. That is so 19th century. Silly really.

I mean Homo Erectus arose, so to speak, amidst several simians 1.8 million years ago. He then discovered fire. He dug a hole, laid some rocks in it, and made fire. Hearth & Home eight hundred thousand years ago. Then he/she took off out of Africa and settled in Europe, Indonesia, China.... At least that is the story line of Western Anthropologists and has been so for well over fifty years of research.

The Homo Erectus of 1.8 Million years ago was different from Homo Erectus eight hundred thousand years ago.  And it certainly is agreed that he/she were floating upon the waters way back when in some sort of fashioned craft. Traveling thousands of miles on land and on sea--by island hopping as other mammals have.

Anthropologists have great difficulty agreeing on whether Homo Erectus in Asia just morphed into the Asian or if 200,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens Sapiens (because many feel HE was part and parcel Homo Sapiens with smaller brains) came once again out of Africa and traversed the world.

Regardless, as I have attempted to point out in earlier blogs, forty thousand years ago SOMETHING HAPPENED.  There was a giant leap forward.  If there is indeed a god, he/she/it reached down and touch a few 'humans' and they changed forever. Magically.

When I become bored with the hum-drum news sites I retire to the magic place known as National Geographic. I would become entranced by NG as a child as I leafed through it. Today I found this:

A vulture-bone flute discovered in a European cave is likely the world's oldest recognizable musical instrument and pushes back humanity's musical roots, a new study says.

Found with fragments of mammoth-ivory flutes, the 40,000-year-old artifact also adds to evidence that music may have given the first European modern humans a strategic advantage over Neanderthals,

The bone-flute pieces were found in 2008 at Hohle Fels, a Stone Age cave in southern Germany, according to the study, led by archaeologist Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen in Germany.

With five finger holes and a V-shaped mouthpiece, the almost complete bird-bone flute--made from the naturally hollow wing bone of a griffon vulture--is just 0.3 inch (8 millimeters) wide and was originally about 13 inches (34 centimeters) long.

Flute fragments found earlier at the nearby site of Geissenklösterle have been dated to around 35,000 years ago.

The newfound flutes, though, "date to the very period of settlement in the region by modern humans ... about 40,000 years ago," Conard said.

 The mammoth-ivory flutes would have been especially challenging to make, the team said.

Using only stone tools, the flute maker would have had to split a section of curved ivory along its natural grain. The two halves would then have been hollowed out, carved, and fitted together with an airtight seal.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090624-bone-flute-oldest-instrument.html

This find, these flutes really blew me away--pun intended. You see the first cave paintings are 40,000 years old.  Now 'man' had been residing in caves for some time. 100,000 years ago Homo Sapiens Sapiens was residing in caves in the Middle East near groups of Neandertals living in their own caves.

But no paintings.  And wouldn't you know it that NG has another separate article about cave drawings and cave RESONANCE in the same issue:

Prehistoric peoples chose places of natural resonant sound to draw their famed cave sketches, according to new analyses of paleolithic caves in France.

In at least ten locations, drawings of horses, bison, and mammoths seem to match locations that focus, amplify, and transform the sounds of human voices and musical instruments

For example, "maybe horses are related to spaces that sound a certain way," he said.

Reznikoff will present his latest findings this week at the annual meeting of the Acoustics Society of America in Paris.

Strategic Placement

An expert in the acoustics of 11th- and 12th-century European churches, Reznikoff often hums to himself when entering a room for the first time so he can "feel its sounds."

He was surprised to discover that in some of the rooms in Le Portel decorated with painted animals, his humming became noticeably louder and clearer.

"Immediately the idea came," he told National Geographic News. "Would there be a relationship between the location of the painting and the quality of the resonance in these locations?"

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080702-cave-paintings.html

June 16, 2009--Inside France's 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave, hand stencils surround the famed "Spotted Horses" mural.

For about as long as humans have created works of art, they've also left behind handprints. People began stenciling, painting, or chipping imprints of their hands onto rock walls at least 30,000 years ago.

Until recently, most scientists assumed these prehistoric handprints were male. But "even a superficial examination of published photos suggested to me that there were lots of female hands there," Pennsylvania State University archaeologist Dean Snow said of European cave art. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/index.html

This is yet a third story about the first signatures. A copyright of sorts.  And it appears that the ladies were in on this new wave, as it were. ha!

This juncture in time, forty thousand years ago, is a wonder to me. Paintings. Beautiful paintings ARISE OUT OF NOWHERE. Nothing like it before. Oh you will see movies and documentaries about fire. FORGET IT. WE HAD FIRE FOR A MILLION YEARS.

 

But not painting. And AT THE SAME TIME WE FIND MUSIC. And then we see the great central 'hall' of  the cave as a kind of church. A HOLY PLACE.

 

Something happened to the human brain. Synapses fired. Some chemical reaction took place. Our brains had expanded over that sixty thousand year period. Do not kid yourself. The Homo Sapiens Sapiens of the ME caves was different from us.  But the Homo Sapiens Sapiens of forty thousand years ago did not have any difference in brain capacity than us, really.

The reason I write of this, and that I write of this with a huge degree of reverence is that it fits so well into another theme I have touched on in other blogs, including my recent biblical study posts.

Homer did not sit down one day in 750BC and write the Iliad and the Odyssey like King wrote his hundred novels.  Homer was writing down songs. He was redacting them to a story line. These songs came from different tribes over different times. And his two epics were redacted, probably by some Homeric School over the centuries. 

Homer begins the Epic Iliad with, I sing.... Which is why eight hundred years later Virgil begins the Aeneid:

I sing of arms and the man....

Genesis is a song.......a series of songs written down by at least four authors (or schools of authors) and set down eventually into some order over centuries.

But these National Geographic articles tell me that the human being has been singing sacred songs in his church for forty thousand years. Imagine that!!!

The fire would be lit and the shadows would dance upon the walls making the visages painted on those walls by human hands, dance and change shapes. A truly mystical experience.

The bison, the deer, the mammoth........all moving.

And at the same time, the members of the cave clan would be dancing while flutes were played. (And I would surmise some sort of drum accompaniment) And members were chanting, singing to the music. Carried into a religious trance of community.

 

THESE WERE TRULY THE ANCIENT ONES.

Why take the time for bible studies?

Well for me it is easy, I have no life. But for others who do have a life, think about this:

A 2005 poll suggested that 63% of Americans believe that every line in the bible is true. http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43957

Americans' views on the Bible have not changed materially over the past 16 years. Gallup has asked this question about personal views of the Bible nine times since 1991. The percentage saying the Bible is the actual, literal word of God has remained in a relatively narrow range between 27% and 35% across this time period, with the average being 31%.

Prior to that point, however, the data suggest that Americans' belief in a literal Bible was slightly higher. Gallup asked the question seven times between 1976 and 1984, during which time an average of 38% said that the Bible is the actual word of God. At two points during this time period, 40% of Americans agreed with the literal interpretation view of the Bible. http://www.gallup.com/poll/27682/onethird-americans-believe-bible-literally-true.aspx

And let us not forget the Fred Flintstone Museums. http://creationmuseum.org/whats-here/exhibits/

First, I guess I would like to know how many Americans even know what the word 'literal' means. I mean have you seen some of those 'man on the street' interviews by Leno? A lot of idiots out there.

Second, I would like to know how many Americans have actually read Bereshit...I mean the entire Book.

Third, what is the exact percentage of Americans residing in mental institutions? It seems to me that this figure might be easily cross checked with the other polls.

We should be frightened by these polls. Remember, all but three repubs during the early debates in 2008 stated that they did not believe in evolution.  And most of these gentlemen went to college and everything.

Chapter Two of Bereshit begins with a recap:

Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed (G ch2, V 1)

Whew. That was a lot of work.

At least the second chapter of Bereshit begins with some consistency. God took a nap and rested after his six day workweek and declared the seventh day to be a day of rest.

Now for our Jewish friends, the Sabbath would be Saturday.  For the Christians that would be Sunday. For the Muslims that would be Friday. Some quasi-Christian sects even chose Thursday for their Sabbath--I assume because the other religions had already taken the weekend.

I do not recall any controversies in my youth concerning Thursday Closing Laws.

I would underline here that these religions are in basic agreement with the chronology described in Bereshit through Abraham--and that makes this entire analysis scarier for anyone that hopes for some sort of advancement in Human Knowledge.

But the actual Sabbath day and the differences between the religions in recognizing what the proper day should be to recognize the majesty of the Creator, should not be an issue.

Man is always getting his calendar screwed up anyway. I figure it's much like our daylight savings time or problems with the Gregorian Calendar.

I mean, the Russians actually celebrated the Octobrist Revolution on November 3rd. I mean who is counting anyway?

A more important point is that the bible, written by the actual pen of God, would have us believe that the entire planet earth was somehow created in six days. But it gets worse, The sun, our planetary partners in this solar system, another 100-200 billion solar systems (every sun in the Milky Way is a solar system by the by, they all have something orbiting them) in our Milky Way (depending upon your sources) as well as another 100 billion galaxies were supposedly created in only three days.

Our entire known universe was created inside a week's time since God's employment contract provided for a day off for good behavior. At least He thought it was goooooood.

But one problem remains. If light travels at 186,000 miles per second, and the earth is 6000 years old, we would not have much of a night sky.

But wait. There appears to be a revision early on in this Book.

At the time when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens--while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the Lord God sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and watering the surface of the ground--the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life and so man became a living being. (Gen. C2, V 5-7)

Why would Chapter 2 begin with the proposition that the heavens and the earth and their entire array were completed and immediately go into a new description of how man was created?

According to the chronology contained in Bereshit 1, man had already been created on the sixth day. Now, all of a sudden, we are told that we were created sometime between the third day and the fifth day.  That is, the plants had been created on the third day and Chapter 2 tells us that Adam was created before the first plant sprouted.

It would appear that Bereshit contains a rather strong contradiction in its first two pages. Be mindful though that there are fundamentalists that are fervent in their belief that there is nothing inconsistent in the first two chapters of this tome.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made various ress grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the three of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond these it divides and become four branches.  The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of that land is excellent: bdellium and lapis lazuli are also there, the name name of the second river is Ghun, it is the one that winds all through the land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it is the on that flows east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen. C2, V 8-14)

This is a fun description of Eden. Like Heinrich Schliemann seeking Troy by reading descriptions contained in the Iliad, one biblical archeologist looked at this geographical description to see if he could actually find Eden. He presented his conclusions on the National Geographic Network. It seems that anybody can find the Euphrates and the Tigris by looking at a map of Iraq. After finding the two rivers it was easy to figure out what the Bereshit author was describing the investigator finally concluded that the Garden of Eden actually sits a the site of a present day nuclear power plant:

 

Pave paradise

Put up a nuclear power plant

 

Now 'experts' disagree as to the 'real location' of this ephemeral place. I mean finding heaven is no easy task. I always thought they would someday locate Eden in the same place as Shangri-La.

Bereshit goes on to having God tell Adam he can eat anything except the fruit from the forbidden tree and God then goes ahead and creates Eve out of Adam's Rib. (Gen. Ch 2, V 21-22) This is recounted in a Tracy /Hepburn flick. Except I think they both end up in law school...er something like that. 

The forbidden fruit cannot be an apple because they had no apples available in the area and there were isolationist statutes at the time that really put a crimp in the import/export business.

Chapter three describes how Adam and Eve fall out of favor as a result of taking advice from a snake--I experienced a similar problem in the 1999-2000 market when I took advice from a snake. (Gen. Ch 3, V 8-14)

But it is the next verse that really warms my heart:

Because you have done this

You shall be banned from all the animals

And from the wild creatures

On your belly shall you crawl

And dirt shall you eat

All the days of your life 

This is supposed to be God talking to a snake. He is not speaking to Satan, He is speaking to a snake. Why he made a snake that could speak is beyond me.

Now as far as I can tell, snakes are not banned from all the other animals. I mean they are not good card players like some dogs I have seen, not real mixers so to speak. Oh well...

The next verse is one that rush's feminazis do not particularly appreciate:

 

I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing

In pain shall you bring forth children

Yet your urge shall be for your husband

And he shall be your master

 

Now think about this verse. First it appears to put women in a similar place as some nations in the Middle East.  Second, our fabulous duo did not have sex yet and had no children.  So it would be hard to exacerbate childbearing difficulties, SINCE NOBODY HAS BORE ANY CHILDREN YET.

But the next lines really demonstrate the best in a loving, caring god:

Cursed be the ground because of you

In toil shall you eat its yield

All the days of your life

Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you

As you eat the plants of the field

By the sweat of your face

Shall you get bread to eat

Until you return to the ground

From which you were taken

For you are dirt

And to dirt you shall return (Gen. Ch 2, V 17-19)

 

What a fun deity. As far as Bereshit is concerned, man is nothing but dirt. This theme comes into play later on in this examination. But what a fun view of the universe. What a fun view of humanity. What a fun view of the earth.

Chapter three finally ends:

The lord God therefore banished him from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. When he expelled man, he settled him east of the Garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the firey revolving sword to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. Ch 2, Verse 24)

You know, when you look at it this way, Eden begins to look more and more like a nuclear power plant.

Lisbee, the Lady of the Forest checked in on Sir Boner to make sure he was not doing something...er....that seemed to be in his very nature.

He seemed to be half awake as his fever broke and he was hallucinating:

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, the British Aristocratic economy needs help.  Our neighbors, our friends, our constituents, they're hurting and there's not a member at this Roundish Table on either side of the aisle that doesn't understand that.  And I think everyone in this chamber on both sides of the aisle understands that Congress needs to act and act now to help British Aristocratic families and small businesses and help bring confidence back into our economy. 

"How about the family who called me about the fact that the bread winner's hours are going to be cut from 40 hours to 20 hours?  He can hardly make his payment.  What does it do for him?  Absolutely nothing.  And so, my concern about this is that we have to have a plan that will work for the British Aristocratse, work for families, work for small businesses and help get our economy going again.  I don't think this bill does it.  I hope this bill works.  I really do, for the good of our country.  But my concern is that the plan that's outlined will not do what we want it to do.  That's why Aristocrats came to the table with what we thought was a better idea, a plan that will create twice as many jobs as the bill that we're dating and at exactly half the cost.

"But our ideas weren't considered.  We weren't allowed in the room.  We weren't allowed to participate at all.  And all the talk about bipartisanship that we have heard over the last several months went down the drain.  Now my Plebian colleagues know that I know how to be bipartisan, even when we were in the majority.  I have worked with many members on the other side of the aisle to bring bills to this floor that truly were done together.  But we would usually start at the beginning of the process.  Not only were we not included in the beginning of the process, we weren't included at the end f the process. 

"I'd suggest that you vote no."

It is a good thing I did not vote no when I found you in a pile of deer leavings, do you not think?

Boner awake from his hallucinations and stared at the beautiful Lisbee.  Who are you?

Well, a fancy thanks I gets for savin the likes of you unfair knight. Ha!

Where am I, how do I find myself here?

Well we met just a few days ago and you have, evidently recovered from an infection that came from a break in your leg. As a matter of fact we had several conversations before I found you again in never never land!  You do not recall me at all unfair knight?

You are Lisbee. Now I remember. But I went into a dream, I was at the Roundish Table once again, making my pleas on behalf of Sir Cheney. What happened to Sir Cheney.

Oh he was done away with by a girl.

What?

Sir Cheney was done away with, as you so eloquently put it, by a fourteen year old girl, Flower d'Arc.

How doest thee knoweth this.

I knoweth this because when I found you the Grand Tree of the Forest told me so you idiot. Ha!

You talk to trees?

I speak with all creations of our Lord & Savior dunce. (Blesses herself carefully)

But how could a mere girl destroy the most vibrant and powerful man of our age? It makes no sense. Sir Boner swoons again.

Lisbee cradled him. She always liked to cradle the sick, regardless of their political leanings. It was part of her make up so to speak. As he slowly responded, the Lady of the Forest began to feed him some soup with special herbs, it was not exactly Cambells or Liptons, but it was all she could muster so to speak, even though she really had not yet discovered mustard yet but it had a distinct tang due to the roots she had found decades ago in the forest.

Slowly he sipped from the sustenance he had been offered and came to his senses. Sort of, I mean how many of the British Aristocracy ever came to his senses except Churchill from time to time but then again, he was half American and had a sense of humor.

In a few days, Sir Boner was able to sit erect, so to speak, no puns intended...well kind of intended but come on, I am attempting to create some interest in this drivel for chrissakes. (Blesses himself just in case)

 

Oh thank the Lord (blesses herself) you are up and about, so to speak. Now you can carry your own waste out of here.

What? Oh my lord, I am so embarrassed, I.....

Oh my lead boar takes care of such thing. Has an RN you know from one of those web universities. But he has potential and for some reason he really likes your waste. Which is more than your compadres at the Roundish Table I gather.

Oh, goooooooooood. How did you know come to know about my experiences with the Roundish Table of late? Did we speak of such things?

Sort of unfair knight. You were pontificating in your hallucinatory state, ranting and raving that no one would listen to you anymore. It was rather humorous you know. Ha!

Why doest thou continue in referring to me as unfair knight. What did I ever do to you.

Well you kept filling the bucket underneath your cot. Hahahahahahahaha

Just then there was a knock at the door.

As she opened the door, the Lady of the Forest beheld a rather strange and wondrous sight. A naked man had appeared carrying a satchel of sorts. He was slim and good looking but pale, even with his sunburn. His hair, what was left of it was askew. And she did not even have to ask him his shoe size. Ha!

He promptly collapsed on the floor of her home. Get up and help me with this Sir Bones or whatever they call you.

Boner immediately arose, slightly light headed but proceeded to the door and helped Lisbee load the new visitor onto the cot.

Time to change buckets, Lisbee said as she placed a clean bucket under the cot. What the hell am I running here, some sort of treatment center?

Quickly the Lady of the Forest covered the stranger's privates as well as his publics. It appeared that the vagrant had some chills. Oh my God, another one with the ague. What is a mother to do?

Madam, if I may intervene...

Madam? What the hell is that. I do not run a brother ye unfair scoundrel. I am a Lady...

All right!! All right. I am dense, all us repubs are, but I hear you. Lady, I mean to say Lady....I know this man. He is a magistrate of one of our most Western Counties, adjacent to that strange and despicable place known as Wales... Give me room Woman!!!

Lisbee was to taken aback by Boner's tone. She thought: I thought him less than a man until he showed me some spunk. At last, a man in the house. But then again this new guy, even with no surety as to his shoe size......

Sir Boner examined the knight on the cot and saw that he had no wounds. He appeared to be breathing all right and there was a light on his countenance that caused him to.........

He is one of those girls who seems to come in the spring

One look in his eyes and you forget everything
You had ready to say
And I saw her today, yeah...

Chorus:

A younger girl keeps a-rollin' 'cross my mind
No matter how much I try, I can't seem to leave his memory behind
I remember his eyes, soft dark and brown
I'll bet he'd never been in trouble, or even in town
A younger girl keeps a-rollin' 'cross my mind

And  I shouldn't  hang around, acting like his brother
In a few more years, they'd call us right for each other
And why
If I wait I'll just die, yeah...

A younger girl keeps a-rollin' 'cross my mind
No matter how much I try, I can't seem to leave his memory behind
I remember his eyes, soft dark and brown
I'll bet he'd never been in trouble, or even in town
A younger girl keeps a-rollin' 'cross my mind

What the hell is this all about? the Lady of the Forest thought.

First I find a boy who ends up being a man, then I come across a man who needs my help and the first man turns out to be.......No wonder I never find my way out of this goddamnable forest. (Blesses herself, kind of)

The next day the second transient appeared to have gathered his wings, so to speak. He was up and about and after awhile, actually remembered who he was and where he had been.

Where am I? How did I come to be here?

Geeeeeeeeeez, this is the same dialogue over and over again for chrissakes. Cannot you do better than this Dickon? Thought our Lady of the chatroom...er...Forest.

But you are the Governor of Wallshop County. You are the venerable Sir Sanford. You used to run a hardware near London called: Sanford and Sons.

Oh, I remember that. That was me dad's and mine. Then I was recruited by that Chinky guy. And I entered the Aristocratic Party and they accepted me, even though I had this Southern Drawl.

Where have you been Sir Sanford?

Well, the terrible onus of governance became such a terrible....I could not take it anymore. And then that herald found out I had been boinking this broad in ...where that Evita broad was....and then my wife took quite umbrance from all of this hullabaloo and she was in her menstral cycle and all that....

Are you well enough to travel my favorite governor who has the closest thing to my own tan and countenance I can remember?

Why yes I am, as he looked at the cool blue yes of his patrician partner.

Sir Sanford did not even bother to get dressed. He and Sir Boner bid their respective adieus, leaving some silver and some gold the governor still had in his teeth.

As she watched the two flitting down the forest path she heard Boner singing:

 

At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
At last the skies above are blue
And my heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I can speak to
A dream that I could call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
You smiled, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
And you are mine at last

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8FHwsATN0E

I have had it with repubs and aristocrats the Lady of the Forest called out. I mean and they did not even play Queen. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

ENSIGN, GET IN HERE AND CLEAN UP THIS BUCKET

 

The boar promptly returned to do his duty.

 

a⋅plomb

-noun

1.	imperturbable self-possession, poise, or assurance.

 

2.	the perpendicular, or vertical, position.

Origin:
1820-30; < F à plomb according to the plummet, i.e., straight up and down, vertical position

 

Synonyms:
1. composure, equanimity, imperturbability.

Antonyms:
1. confusion, discomposure; doubt, uncertainty.

 

MCCLATCHY: Thank you, Mr. President. As a former smoker, I understand the frustration and the fear that comes with quitting, but with the new law that you signed yesterday regulating the tobacco industry, I would like to ask you a few questions, how many cigarettes a day --

OBAMA: A few questions?

MCCLATCHY: Well -- how many cigarettes a day do you smoke? Do you smoke alone or in the presence of other people? And do you believe the new law would help you to quit and why?

OBAMA: Well, first of all the new law that was put in place is not about me, it's about the next generation of kids coming up. So I think it's fair, Margaret, to just say that you just think it's neat to ask me about my smoking as opposed to if -- being relevant to my new law. But that's fine. I understand. It's an interesting human interest story. Look. I've said before that as a former smoker, I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No. I don't do it in front of my kids. I don't do it in front of my family. You know, I would say that I am 95 percent cured, but there are times where -- there are times when I mess up. And I've said this before. I get this question about once every month or so. And I don't know what to tell you other than the fact that, you know, like folks who go to AA, you know, once you've gone down this path, then it's something you continually struggle with. Which is precisely why the legislation we signed was so important. Because what we don't want is kids going down that path in the first place. Okay? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/23/obamas-smoking-questioned_n_219707.html

I just marvel at this. Clinton could do this. Remembering of course that with a few weeks notice, Willie would never have mustered 250,000 Germans to listen to a speech. I remember when Obama gave that speech, he walked out in front of that mass of humanity like he was born to lead them.  He was only a candidate. It pissed off the repubs sooooooo bad that Fox at first was reporting numbers approaching some tea bag gathering months later and then, our repub shills did a one eighty and accused Barack of pandering and seeking some world government. Ha!

But Willie could answer the meanest, rottenest question given to him by the likes of evil perpetrators of doom like Hume.  He needed no teleprompter to answer inane questions and he never walked away perturbed like Nixon or w.

Back to the press conference. Our New President did not have notes. He did not have a teleprompter. He just courteously slapped the idiot down.  Did he say:

I did not have sex with that cigarette?

No. He looked right into the accuser's eyes and answered him directly.

Am I a sinner?  You betcha, but like every godfearing man, I seek redemption. How about you?

When Barry gives the speech of a lifetime, Fox is yelling about the teleprompter. Ha! Their favorite son could not even pronounce half the words on a teleprompter.

 

When Barry responds to meaningless inquiries from the press, he is eloquent and yet he can be disparaging without being that disparaging. You know what I mean?

When Barry is set to give a speech and throngs of people show up on a moment's notice, ten or twenty times the number Palin could ever muster, Fox will accuse him of being a celebrity. Ha!  They are accusing him of being popular. BRING IT ON!!!

When Barry chooses not to hide in some stronghold euphemistically called a ranch but instead comes out fighting EVERY SINGLE DAY, Fox would accuse him of pandering or some such.

I watched a tape of him exiting a plane and doing a 'half stumble' with his first step. No cable news pundit said a word. You know why? Because even when he stumbles he does it with aplomb.

Mathews is still ribbed about his comment after one of Barry's early speeches:

I felt an electrical charge going up my leg.

To be honest I only feel like that when I am chatting with Bwak or LisB. Hahahahahaha.

But I feel a tingling up my spine at times. I feel a lightening in my head. Maybe lightning is a better metaphor. Whatever happens, I am so proud to have this man representing my country.

My favorite professor here is Amike.  If you have time go back and read some of his recent blogs about parsing and such. When he listens to Barry or reads Barry he is not comparing him to w, he is comparing him to great writers and speakers. The professor is the only one here who spends any time on Cicero--except for me. Ha! Anyway Amike made the following comment on one of my blogs:

The clarity and the ambiguity of words make human life possible, which may be a gift or a curse, depending on what side of the bed I wake up on.

The right is certainly wrong about our New President.  And so cruel and so libelous. And Barry is getting a lot of pressure from the left nowadays. Which is to be expected and I believe, righteous.  It is a good thing that the 'base' attempts to keep our Leader honest.

People are getting angry at him. And as time goes on, they are getting angrier and angrier.

Me?  I am more than proud to call Barack Obama my President. I have only felt that way recently.

I am out of my mind in Carolina

Cant you find any sign of me

Cant you just find my SUV

Aint it just like a friend of mine

To stop coverin' my behind

Crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind

 

Aint gonna take no stimulus

Yet solid citizens are now screamin

When is their ship a gonna come in

Silver tears appear, now I'm cryin

Yes, crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind

Yes I used to be the Govna' of Carolina

There aint no doubt in no one's mind

No whispers for me, warm and kind

And I left no note, no proof of dyin

Crazy lost in Carolina, outta my mind

 

I am out of my mind in South Carolina

Cant you find any sign of me

Cant you just find my SUV

Aint it just like a friend of mine

To stop coverin' my behind

Yes crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind

Dark and silent last night

I think I might have heard the highway calling

Geese in flight and dogs that bite

Signs that might be omens say I going, going

Crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind

 

Supposed to run for president

With a whole host of others standing round me

Still I'm on the dark side of the moon

And it seems like it goes on like this forever

You must forgive me

Crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind

 

I am out of my mind in Carolina

Cant you find any sign of me

Cant you just find my SUV

Aint it just like a friend of mine

To stop coverin' my behind

Crazy lost in Carolina outta my mind*

Real sorry about this James Taylor, I could not help it.

 

Genesis is the name we use for the first book of the Old Testament. It literally means: IN THE BEGINNING.

But the stories in the first book of the Old Testament were not originally recounted in Greek, but in an ancient Hebrew dialect. And the Hebrew word for "In the beginning" is "Bereshit". It is no wonder that English speaking Christians all over the world refer to the first book of their sacred two part Bible as "Genesis". And not Bereshit.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.  The God said, Let there be light. And there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. Thus evening came and morning followed--the first day. (Gen. C1, Verse 1-5)

So far, so good. What may one glean from this beginning?

In the beginning, God started with something.  Not nothing.  An abyss, a wasteland, a mighty wind and some water.

If there was something (that is at the time of creation and before God had begun to create the heavens and the earth) then at some other time prior to all of this, the abyss, the wasteland, the mighty wind and some water must also have been created at some point. There simply is no attempt to delve into this issue by the authors.

Whoever wrote Bereshit had little interest in the questions surrounding the origins of the universe that intrigue theoretical physicists and theoretical mathematicians today.

Prior to this first day of creation, there had been no night and day and there had been no light. Although when there is no light, there must have been darkness. Of course no one could see the darkness anyway, so what is the difference?

Of course, no God had not yet created the sun, the moon or the stars. He would not get around to this until the fourth day. The obvious question would be:

Where did this light come from without the sun, the moon and the stars and how could there have been a day or an evening?

This analysis may seem trite, but there are people in the world that are literalists. That is, they profess to believe in every single word written in the Bereshit and that every word was literally written by God.

And yet, by the time on briefly scans the first paragraph of this mighty tome, the only conclusions to be drawn from it would be that the opening lines are not only philosophically inconsistent, but fly in the face of truths that were known by the ancient Greeks over 2500 years ago.

Because there are literalists who content that an actual omnipotent being of some kind wrote the Bereshit, the obvious must never be taken for granted.

Aside from the fact that the earth was not created before the heavens--however formless at the time, there certainly could be no day or night or any way of discerning the day from the night.

A more interesting query to me involves the necessity of God speaking during the creation of this fairy tale universe. To whom is He speaking? I think it may be relevant to skip over to the New Testament at this point and take a look at the first lines contained in the Gospel of John:

 

In the beginning was the Word

The Word was in God's presence,

And the Word was God.

He was present to God in the beginning.

Through him all things came into being

And apart from him nothing came to be.

Whatever came to be in him, found life,

Life for the light of men,

The light shines on in the darkness

A darkness that did not overcome it.

(John 1, 1-5)

 

Thus John, whoever he was or whoever they were, began this gospel with a song. But why a song?

The Prologue is a hymn, formally poetic in style, perhaps an independent composition and only later adapted and edited as an overture to the gospel...The Roman writer Pliny mentions the Christians in Asia Minor as singing hymns to Christ as a God. Commentators are divided on whether the initial reference to the early ministry of Jesus Christ is I, 9 or I, 14.

In the beginning; these the first words of Bereshit 1, 1 serve as the Hebrew title of that book. Here however, they introduce the two verses describing the situation before creation. Was: three times in the first verse this verb is used of the Word. First it indicates timeless existence; next relationship to the Father; finally identity with God. (NAB 1169 f. 1 & 2)

In other words, John wished to bring his followers back to the concept of Bereshit. In the beginning.

But John also may be demonstrating something else here.  He seems to be shedding light upon some facets of the original Bereshit. He starts his entire testament with a song. This may give us a clue as to the origins of Bereshit. That is, the original Bereshit as well as the so-called Prologue of John, was meant to be sung. Not read. Not simply recited. But sung.

He also provides an explanation as to why God has to keep saying things while He is involved in the six days of creation.

I will reexamine this later but the opening lines of Bereshit have always struck me as having something to do with man's need to personify language itself.

Why do we put our hand on a text while making a vow?

Why do we always stress that the Bible is the Word of God?

What is so important about the word Word?

Why are we not more interested in the aims or intentions of God? Words can be defined in so many different ways in terms of context, in terms of multiple meanings, in terms of argument. Just as the ancient sophists or the modern day spinners.

After all, a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Actions speak louder than words.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Even the Nixon Administration would contend that they wished the public to take more note of what it did than what it said.

When we are in argument over some issue, we may look at our foe and state firmly: Those are mere words. I cannot believe you are serious.

And what type of words are we really talking about?

Songs?

Oral pronouncements?

The written word?

To me anyway, words are more than just thoughts. Words represent the communication, the translation of thoughts.

Which brings me back to the original question: Who is God supposed to be communicating to while he pronounces that everything he has accomplished is good?

Then God said, Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate on body of water from the other. And so it happened. God made the dome and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. God called the dome the sky. Evening came and morning followed...the second day. (Gen C1, Verse 6-8)

Now I spent a lot of time in Minneapolis and I am more than just familiar with the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome where the Twins play baseball and the Vikings pretend to play football. (I know, we are destroying this landmark that everybody hated when it was first built, at least in this state)

Whatever the author thought God was creating, I can assure you that He was not creating a dome. At the least a dome is:

A hemispherical roof or vault or a structure or other object resembling a dome.

Anyone should be able to discern that whoever wrote this opus thought the world was flat and not a globe.

And the writer was most surely wrong about his flat world. (No apologies due that asshat Friedman)

Even many Greeks knew the world was round.

Aristarchus or Aristarch (Greek: Ἀρίσταρχος; 310 BC - ca. 230 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born on the island of Samos, in Greece. He was the first person to present an explicit argument for a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe. He was influenced by the Pythagorean Philolaus of Kroton, but, in contrast to Philolaus, he had both identified the central fire with the Sun, as well as putting other planets in correct order from the Sun. His astronomical ideas were rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy until they were successfully revived nearly 1800 years later by Copernicus and extensively developed and built upon by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. The crater Aristarchus on the Moon is named in his honor.

So we had a solar system, in theory, 2200 years ago. Ha. If you wade through some Aristotle you will find certain chapters depicting the earth as an orb.

And Ptolemy, the second century Egyptian astronomer even went so far as to make a globe to represent our planet and it was used by scholar for over a thousand years. Columbus actually used a Ptolemic globe. Since Ptolemy was off on his scale model of the earth, Columbus really did think he was going to Asia in 1492. And no sailor really believed the world was flat. You could see the curve on the horizon when traveling out to sea.

Besides this, any idiot could see that the Moon was an orb. And any idiot could discern that the moon was round even when it was crescent because the moon that is not lit still manages to block out the stars.  We have such strange views on what the so-called ancients thought!!!

Back to the Bereshit.  How anyone could discern the second day from night, even God, is beyond me.

Then God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land might appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land the earth and the basin of water he called the sea. God saw how good it was. Then God said, let the earth bear forth vegetation, every kind of plant that bears seeds and every kind of fruit tree on earth that be as fruit with its seed in it. And so it happened; the earth brought...God saw how good it was, Evening came and morning followed---the third day. (Gen. C1, Verse 9-13)

Then God said: let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth. And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day and the lesser one to govern the night and he made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to shed light upon the earth to govern the day and the night and to separate light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed--the fourth day. (Gen C1, Verse 14-19)

The third and fourth day have to be read together in order to see how absolutely idiotic the entire first chapter of Bereshit is. How could there have been any vegetation without the sun?  What the hell separated the day from the night without the sun, moon or the stars? And how would you measure the first three days?

Then God said, Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky. And so it happened. God created the great sea monsters and all kind of swimming creatures with which the water teems and all kinds of winged birds. God saw how good it was and God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the water of the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth. Evening came and morning followed the fifth day. (Gen. C1, Verse 20-23)

There is not much to add here. Except that birds were not created before a least some of the creatures enumerated in the next stanza of the poem. That is, fish did not evolve  into birds. Fish had to evolve into land creatures first. Most likely birds evolved from dinosaurs.  I bring this up because some 'intellectuals' have said that at least the bible got the order right in terms of stages in the evolutionary process.

Absolutely nothing is 'correct' from either a scientific perspective or any sane man's perspective.

Then god said, let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures; cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds. And so it happened; God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and the cattle and all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground....

Thus we end the first chapter of Bereshit .

We will see if my Bereshit study continues depending upon who decides to read this.

(I actually wrote a 60 page essay on Bereshit on an old computer when I was not on line some four years ago. I lost it all except 40 pages I just found today that I must have printed. Ha. I have alluded to some of the stuff in this piece in other posts. The purpose of the essay was to point out the actual language that is being used to attack the Theory of Evolution. Do not be fooled. When 'they' say they are not saying the earth is 6000 (or 8000, some do claim 8,000) years old, they are lying. They are all, and I mean all, literalists as far as bible study goes. And it pisses me off.  'They' will also claim that I am not a biblical scholar. Bullshit. They are supposed to be good protestants--no Catholics believe this crap and if they do they are ignoring Rome and their own bishopric in this country.  And protestants claimed that no pope, no bishop, no scholar knows the bible better than a good old religious guy who reads his own family bible. HA!!!)

Now I grew up in a home with a mom, a dad (for awhile anyway) and fourteen or fifteen siblings.  It is hard to give you the exact number really.  I mean, one day Joey just showed up and nobody really said anything. I mean he sure looked more like Dad than Franklin. 

 

Joey, of course, ended up in Levenworth. Something to do with a disagreement over a shot glass or some such.

 

At any rate, I do not think that fathers today are being properly trained. I mean there are certain rules to all of this and they must be followed except in extraordinary circumstances, of course. And I felt that it might be good to go over them for some of the younger Dads out there.

 

RULES FOR FATHERS

 

 

1.               Count your children and write a number on the bottom of each of their feet. Then keep a spread sheet in a safe place.  I always kept it with my bookie's spread sheet; that way I would always know where it was. Now, you might ask:  Why put this important information on the feet and how does that work exactly?  Well, in conjunction with this you have an important household rule. ALWAYS LEAVE YOUR SHOES AND SOCKS AT THE DOOR.

2.               Give each of your children a name.  This is extremely important. Women, make sure the last last name of your child is the same as the husband's. I mean, there are hospital records available to prove your genetic contribution. I underline the fact that your hubby might not even have been present at the glorious event due to his green fees and his commitment to comradrey at the golf course.

3.               Whenever possible, acknowledge your children by their individual's name.  Sometimes you will get mixed up but you always have the spread sheet and the bare feet to work with.  You see, proper preparation becomes the gift that keeps on giving. If the spread sheet is currently unavailable, your son is 'son' and your daughter is 'sweetie'.

4.               Never pass out drunk in front of your children.  That is what 'the den' is for.  Where's Daddy, they will ask. He's in 'the den' will be the proper answer.

5.               Upon the arrival of your first born, you will immediately realize what you must do. You must lock up all your porn in 'the den' along with your liquor and your weed.

6.               Fairy Tales may not come true, they sure never happened to you, but you must read fairy tales to your children.  These tales, if you choose the right ones will make your life much easier.  You see, children, especially the younger ones, are very gullible.  They will tend to believe your every word up until the age of four or five nowadays. The older among us remember the day when there was only the tv.  Well, we did not and could not 'catch on' as to what was happening in the real world until we were sixteen or seventeen.  That was because there was only 22 minutes of national news on per day, delivered by older white men with deep voices most of which was written by the government anyway. And with Leave it to Beaver and Donna Reed and the Naked City as the main tv fare, I mean it was tougher to catch on. But in this day and age you should lose any credibility you now have by the time the tots are sent to preschool.  Back to the tales.  Always go with Grimm fairy tales and relate them the way the Grimm Brothers originally related them. NOBODY EVER LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. This lowers the cherubs' expectations and they are less likely to become disillusioned at a young age.  And when the wolf eats grandma, MAKE SURE HE DOES IT IN THE DEN.

7.               Speaking of fairy tales, my parents were very clever.  They oft times spoke of the communist menace. And they would add the word 'Totalitarian' to that. And then they would add the word 'Chinese' to that. Okay, you tell these children, every day, that in totalitarian communist China, there is no freedom and children turn their own parents into the authorities for no reason. In America we are free and we never trust the authorities. Authorities here take children away from their parents for no reason and put them on cots in basements without tvs or ipods. Make sure that the children begin receiving this message by age two. The earlier the better so you can get a handle on this important message: WHAT GOES ON AT HOME, ESPECIALLY IN THE DEN, STAYS  IN THE HOME AND THE DEN. Otherwise the totalitarian communist Chinese will take over America and we will all lose our cable tv and ipods.

8.               Now life can become confusing and depending how many children you have, you might have your doubts from time to time.  The little one really does not look much like you at all and has freckles and neither you nor your beloved have freckles.  CHECK THEIR FEET. The tot may just be a visitor.  That is, one of your own children may have just brought the little bugger home with her. No big deal. Happens all the time.  For some reason children make 'friends' and they wish to show these 'friends' where they live and everything. I know, I know, you are thinking, my God, I never bring 'friends' over to the place where I live. I mean, that is why God made pubs. Well children think on a different level.  So do not accuse your wife of anything without proper substantiation.  Besides she lets you have the den and everything and who is going to watch the little buggers if she is not around? Right?

9.               Always have a 'nap time'. That is, everybody has to go to their room and have a nap on Saturday and Sunday. That way you can work in some good nooky during the weekends. Your wife will smile more, assuming you are doing it right and I can only assume that if you have five to fifteen children you must be doing something right, and you will probably find yourself with more free time in the den.

10.            Always tell your children that it is a jungle out there, that your job is not going well and that times will be hard with so little money.  Even when things are going well you must report this during dinner time every day.  That way your children will grow up knowing you have no money and will not ever ask you for any.  And fewer tots will inquire as to why you eat macaroni and cheese all the time.

11.            Stick with plastic toys. They are cheaper. And when Kenny hits Johnny over the head with the plastic truck it hurts less and there will be fewer consequences. Oh I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that children who are raised properly will not hit each other over the head with trucks. Well, that works fine with child psychologists who go on tv and everything. But come on, think about your own life.  How many times at work or in the pub, if you had a truck available I mean, would you have enjoyed hitting someone over the head with a truck? Children are really adults with no visible means of support.

12.            Never permit your children to throw food at each other at the table.  If you have followed my rules this would never happen in the first place. I mean, by age two, you continually relate that in totalitarian Communist China, there is very little food and most people starve to death.  You must implant a good quality of guilt into the little buggers at an early age.

13.            When your children have a question about the world, about life or about conservative politics do not ignore them.  They are in need of an answer. And do not put them off. You must have stock answers at the get go. Answers that really say nothing but denote concern on your part.  For instance:

 

 

When I was your age, I had to live in the garage. My father was always worried about his car and it was my job to make sure it was not stolen or that any of its accoutrements were not removed.

 

It is a jungle out there and life is unfair.

 

Republicans only care about the rich and the powerful and Democrats are the party of the people

 

Did you do your homework?  (This works on most questions actually and it puts the burden on them. I mean who really does their homework anyway? I never did and that is how I became the man I am today!)

 

They changed the law in this state so that you cannot drive until you are twenty five.

 

Now times change. And the above items  above are incorporated lore, the lore handed down to me was the same lore handed down to my parents. But there is one way you might get out of the rut you find yourself in.

 

The next time your company orders in new computers, get access to the old computers and bring them home. These kids are masters at the computer by the first grade.  Then get them trained to be AMWAY distributors. You will make a mint. Now you will be fair to your children of course, especially the money makers.  You give them ten percent of the profits related to their labor and you put away another ten percent in an educational fund. The rest of the money can be used for rent and to stock up things in your den.  Remember what that great philosopher Doolittle said:

 

The Lord above made man to support his children

Cause it's the right and proper thing to do

The Lord above made man to help his children,

BUT

With a little bit of luck

With a little bit of luck

They'll go out and start supporting you.

Edwin Meese III

 

 

Firedoglake informs us as of June 10, 2009 that the repubs are receiving a 34% approval rating among the American People.  Now mind you, less than 25% of those polled call themselves repubs.  But FDL goes on to say:

 

34% is lower than Americans rate many countries we're constantly told by wingnuts that we're about to go to war with any minute, including Putin's Russia, Chavez's Venezuela and Communist China.

But the silver lining for the GOP is they're still slightly more popular (34%-27%) than the Palestinian Authority. http://firedoglake.com/2009/06/10/new-gallup-poll-finds-republican-party-less-popular-than-russia-china-venezuela/

So what is a mother to do?  This is the party that was going to stay in control for generations according to karl the rover.

Here rover, here rover, speak rover, lay down and die rover.

But now it appears that new geniuses have taken the reins of the new party of despair and desperation?  Yes, new titans of politics that will firmly guide the  propaganda machine for the capitalist oligarchy that either owns or controls everything, everywhere in this country.  And new strategies for attacking the Party of the People; not just the same ole 'Democrat Party' rap.

Prey upon the underdog heartstrings of the voters.

John Stewart reported last night that:

Earlier this week Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) tweeted:

"Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

John Culberson (R-Tex.) did the same, referencing an appropriations bill debate:

"Oppressed minorities includeHouseRepubs: We are using social media to expose repression such as last night's D clampdown shutting off amends"

And David Dreier (R-Calif.) (who apparently doesn't know that Twitter is the place to make inappropriate analogies) said out loud:

"I wonder if there isn't more freedom on the streets of Tehran right now than we are seeing here."   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/19/daily-show-mocks-republic_n_217833.html

 

Iran is a country of seventy million people living under the tyranny of a religious oligarchy with half that population relegated to a semi human status; most living in the most abject of poverty.  Of course this status had a great deal to do with the actions of the West including the good ole USA.  And tens of thousands of people are attempting to stand up to this oligarchy under threat of death.

 

And the repubs have decided to compare their minority status in both Houses of Congress to the plight of these freedom loving protesters. 

 

Yeah that ought to work!!

 

When all else fails attack the media.

 

Huffpo reports:

Fox News has been full of complaints over ABC's plan to air a news special entitled "Questions for the President: Prescription for America," during which President Barack Obama will field questions on his plans for health care reform. Various Fox personalities have complained that the access ABC is getting is "unprecedented" and that "journalism is dead." But yesterday, objectively demonstrating the fatuousness and hypocrisy of Fox's claims was done so effortlessly and completely, that they'd have been well-advised to reconsider whining about it.

As Keith O. reported last night, karl the rover (here rover, here rover, jump through the hoop rover--oh and quit looking like your about to kiss me everytime you open that fascist mouth of yours) has set up the same type of exclusive interview at the White House for Fox when w the idiot reigned.

Send out the best spokesman you can find to represent your interests.

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

Government does not create wealth," Bush said. "The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States."

In a recent speech in Michigan, Bush defended his actions in office but did not reference the current administration's policy. I didn't like it when a former president criticized me, so therefore I am not going to criticize my successor," he said at the time. "I wish him all the best."  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/18/bush-breaks-silence-goes_n_217271.html

That's right. They sent out their favorite son once again. The kid who burned down the barn, broke the irrigation system, spent all the reserved savings, killed the neighbor's dog and ran over the sheriff. Yeah, the people are thirsty for the tainted water that motherf....er is selling.

 

Make sure that the Party of Lincoln looks more and more like the Dixiecrats in the forties.

 

So who does the party of hope for Wall Street, Insurance Companies and racists send out to attack the first Hispanic Nominee to the United States Supreme Court?

 

In their battle against Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Republicans in Congress have turned to an old hand. Ed Meese, the Reagan-era attorney general and conservative firebrand, has been playing a behind-the-scenes role in organizing GOP opposition to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

Meese was hired before Sotomayor was chosen. According to the Washington Post, which broke the story, he coordinated with Republican Senators on how best to plan for the nomination.

Policy tilted heavily conservative under Meese's influence as well. In January 1982, he helped guide the Reagan administration's decision to reverse a policy that removed tax exemptions from schools that discriminated on the basis of race. "We do not want IRS bureaucrats setting social policy," he reportedly said.

But Meese was known above all for his unbending belief that the conservative movement needed to change the culture of the Supreme Court. He famously declared in 1985 that judges should be "expected to resist any political effort to depart from the literal provisions of the Constitution." Later, he would suggest that it was within the power of the president to circumvent Supreme Court decisions.

"Such decisions," Meese said, "do not of themselves establish the supreme law of the land, as that phrase is known, that is binding on all persons and parts of government henceforth and forever more. HuffPo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/19/ed-meese-far-right-reagan_n_217954.html

Another old white racist prick. That's who!!!

This new party of the wealthy and powerful has finally found its legs.