Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Goood Mooornninggg Trailmixers!

Have a happy day!

The New Yorker cover was inartfully done. They didn't really mean it that way. Yep.

Craig -- Ah-Nold is a convenient republican. In Virginia we'd call him a Democrat.

Does John McCain have a MySpace? Is he on Facebook? In this time when our technology infrastructure is also in danger of lagging behind other developed nations, I really want to have a leader who understands at least the basics. He should at least surround himself with people who do.

Comparing Barack Obama to Vanna White -- Hah!

Here's one idea for a New Yorket re-do....

http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/000711.html

Hey Patsi! But then it would have been tooo obvious. I guess I just can't get too worked up over it -- given the months-long extreme roughing of Hillary Clinton, I'm a bit inured to the way MSM engages in negative portrayal based on narrow stereotypes.

You're so right, Alicia. I think this whole thing is so overblown. And The New Yorker must be loving the fact that at book stores, people are putting their names in for the first copies. The same people who think adding Hussein to their own names is making the statement that they are a cut above the great unwashed, will buy them to frame.

I thought the best touch was having Mr Obama dressed in that silly outfit he wore on his African visit. That was really a Dukakis moment.

I don't think the point was to ridicule right-wing smears; I thought it was to ridicule the abject stupidity of the fear mongering racists amongst us.

Speaking of irony....

One of my favorite framed photographs is that of a Klan march in Pulaski, Tennessee. A photographer that I later got to know took the shot. The Klan members are out in the street, but the focal point of the photo is the black police officer standing watch in the foreground.

I remember that particular Klan event, and that the town had to put double guards on the Klan because they were getting death threats.

The look on the cop's face is priceless -- an expression of perfect disgust -- "God a' mighty...how did I get picked to keep these clowns safe?"

People who see it are sometimes taken aback for a second, then they take a second look and get hysterical.

"I thought it was to ridicule the abject stupidity of the fear mongering racists amongst us."

I think you're right, Flatus.

On the audacity of ego:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07132008/news/nationalnews/ego_bama__swallow_some_of_that_pride_119709.htm?page=0

I think craig´s post of today says one obvious thing that is allready highlighted by Alicia but definitely worth reating:

Comparing BO to Vanna White. The way that Craig has done this is ...is....is...well....it is....Not so flattering!
But then again,
...
Truth hurts.....

I would quote Siskel & Ebert on this one: Two thumps up!

On the audacity of ego:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07132008/news/nationalnews/ego_bama__swallow_some_of_that_pride_119709.htm?page=0

Posted by: Alicia Knight | July 15, 2008 7:00 AM

EXCELLENT piece. This one goes on the records as excellent.

The New Yorker has been doing satire for years and years--It is interesting that because it is Obama it is suddenly off-limits! Have you seen some of the covers on the Clintons? There is such a fear of "touching" a black man-- which to me is true racism.

Nero new yorker cover:

http://amrep.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/bush_nero_web.jpg

I'm working on very little sleep today and it's all Craig's fault. I stayed up to watch "Generation Kill" On-Demand. Then I watched all the feature stories about the mini-series -- how all the characters are real people, how some of the real Marines in the book played themselves in the movie, how the actors went through a boot camp conducted by the Marines, how the Humvees are characters in their own right.

Craig you compared this show to MASH, and it has some of those elements, but it also has the esprit de corps of "Band of Brothers." At any rate, it is a fascinating true story. Can't wait for the second installment.

If the show had nothing else going for it-- it has the uber-hawt hero Rudy Reyes.

http://www.deferomedia.com/freedomisnotfree/enews/august/current_tv.html

cover

http://tingilinde.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/ibroke.jpg

Hitchcock on how he would have ended gone with the wind:

Rhett says "Frankly, I dont give a damn."

and then Scarlett pulls out a revolver and puts one between his eyeballs.......

read that in esquire long ago.......

good morning gang....

Craig.... nice appearance on Abrams last night.....
re: crying over the Mazda.....are you sure it's because you're scotch-irish or because men tend to fall in love with their cars..... Rick still reminisces over the 72 Beetle he owned when we got married...... and he said that Maximas are really nice cars..... good choice.....

BTW.... have you seen the movie mentioned in your title "Notes on a Scandal"?
I loved the movie so much I had my book club read the book..... nothing's better than a Judi Dench movie.....

oh yeah...... politics..... ummmmmm.....

I have a recurring dream from time to time about a car I owned once.......the dream always takes place in the present and somehow I get the old 56 chevy convertible back into shape and running again (quite a feat since it wound up wrapped around an oak tree) and then adventure ensues........

Thank goodness those having an adverse reaction to the New Yorker cover have not gone to the extremes of those opposing Danish ‘toons of Muhammad. If it had just been a drawing of BO in Muslim dress, I could understand some concern; then it would’ve been a true caricature. But, the fist bump, an armed MO, etc.; clearly, this was satire.

Would the outrage have been equal to a cover with every old-age joke and McCain as the centerpiece? Nope, just more keep-your-hands-off-our-golden-child attitude. “Has another candidate been treated so horribly this late in the season”? Yes, of course. It’s becoming politics-lite for wusses.

With his war injury, it seems that web surfing might not be physically comfortable for McCain. Does he need to learn how to use a computer since he has a staff to handle things for him? I would argue that he no more needs to learn to get online than he does to learn how to iron his own shirts.

With regard to the continuing New Yorker cover flap.

Sturge, thanks for finding some other New Yorker covers, that some may find just as offensive as the Obama supporters find the current issue.

Would most Americans even be minimally aware of the cover if the Obama camps' media contingent didn't take its cue & keep claiming outrage about it.

Each of the major national news (as well as the local news--at least in the NY metropolitan area) mentioned & showed the cover last night & the morning shows continue to day with the discussion.

Give the Obama camp credit--they immediately set the parameters of discussion--tasteless & outrageous and then let their media contingent run with the message--diffusing any negative content that may be attempted in the forseeable future--the ultimate condemnation as mouthed by the woman (Tanya ?)on with Craig last night--"it's racist".

Regarding falling in love with a car--I once had a Karman Ghia that I adored. I guess it was the closest thing to a sports car for me. It was pale blue---Don't think they make them any more. I do always feel sad when I sell a car. There are so many memories attached and they( the cars ) almost seem human after a while---But then I too am Irish--

This would be funny --if it weren't so dangerous

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/14/BAOS11P1M5.DTL&tsp=1

(07-14) 19:23 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Also, I'd like to associate myself with BlueinDallas remarks on the NewYorker cover.

"Nero new yorker cover:

http://amrep.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/bush_nero_web.jpg"

Sturge -- those covers are great. It makes me want a book of New Yorker covers. Maybe that's what's really behind this hoopla....the New Yorker is getting ready to hawk a book.

But the covers also make me wonder about Jane's point. And there's a story about comics and Obama in the Times today, I believe. If he's president, is he going to be considered untouchable?

You know, after 9/11 the Bush supporters got almost militant about people making fun of him.

Very interesting stuff on Morning Joe! Evidently the O-team is now after Mika! Calling her a liar etc for saying O changed positions....goes around, comes around.

RR

""Notes on a Scandal"?" was such a great movie. Judi Dench is remarkable. That character was so shaded. It would have been so easy to go over the top and turn it into cheesy melodrama. Instead it maintained a level of suspense where the audience learns what is happening but the characters don't. know Very well done.

blueINdallas posted: Thank goodness those having an adverse reaction to the New Yorker cover have not gone to the extremes of those opposing Danish ‘toons of Muhammad.
closest that the NYr has come to that phenom was one of the recent cartoon contest captions obliquely referring to the absence of he-who-shall-not-be-depicted in a line-up of religious iconic persons. too bad the artist didn't try a "where's waldo" with hwsnbd hidden on the cover. what an uproar that would be!

Senator Obama needs to get Senator Clinton onboard asap as his running mate. Perhaps this will counter the negative deluge resulting from The New Yorker front cover. I think you are right Craig, that it looks like the Far Left somehow crept into TNYorker offices and took over for a day.

If John Cleese and Monty Python had done the cover I would have know immediately it was satire, but the only American I can think of ofhand who could do satire is Mark Twain. Leave satire to the English and you won't leave it in doubt what you meant!

The only objection I had to the cover was our Flag burning in the fireplace. Otherwise, what I took from it is that it is good for the world if we do have a President whose father was a Muslim and who has Hussein as his middle name, a common name in the Islamic world. Perhap he will be able to effect worldwide politics in a way we have not seen for a long time, and with a Democratic congress, effect tremendous domestic ones, particularly in Medicare and Social Security.

Completely agree on the McCain/computer thing. Two of the smartest and most successful businessmen I know never "surf the web." They have people who check things out for them, to be sure. And their assistants bring them pertinent emails and phone messages.

I was having lunch with one of those guys during the primary -- who is voting for Obama by the way -- and telling him how pissed I was at the sexism I read in messages from O-supporters. He shook his head and said, "I knew there was a reason to stay away from computers."

As I unfolded my NYT today, naturally an article about Obama and comics not making jokes about him.

I see Patsi mentioned it. It continues the idea that Obama apparently is off-limits to any ridicule, satire, humor, etc.

"Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, find a Joke.

"But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/politics/15humor.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Worth repeating Coreen's comment....so true:

"Give the Obama camp credit--they immediately set the parameters of discussion--tasteless & outrageous and then let their media contingent run with the message--diffusing any negative content that may be attempted in the forseeable future--the ultimate condemnation as mouthed by the woman (Tanya ?)on with Craig last night--"it's racist".

on second thought, that portrait over the fireplace may not be osama bin afterall.... could it be hwsnbd?

Morning read

"D-Day Dakotas Grounded for Aviators by EU Wants of Radar, Masks "

``It's bureaucracy gone mad,'' said Trevor Cherrington, 49, a civil servant who paid 90 pounds ($179) for one of the 64-year- old planes' last joyrides. `

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=atafWiVmFhy0&refer=home

Jack

ROFL on the Gone With the Wind ending, sturge....

I'm sure that if McCain learns how to use e-mail he can just as easily learn how to delete them en masse, as the Bush Administration seems to have done. Or trot out the all-purpose "executive privilege" excuse.

As for cars, my first one was a red 1984 Honda CRX. I was 19, and it was the cutest car ever. And it regularly got over 50 mpg. That's not a typo, either. I had that wonderful car for seven years, until I pulled out in front of an invisible car and totaled it. I still occasionally dream about driving that car.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115435

Blue, how painful is it to learn to use a mouse? When was the last time you had to raise your arms over your head to make a normal computer related move?

My dad was 72 when he died and before that he used a very slow computer daily because that was about all that was around 10 or 12 years ago. This is just another thing that ties McCain to Bush. The intellectually and technically incurious.

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

For those keeping track of polling: Latest Quinnipiac Univ. poll:

Obama 50%; McCain 41%

Independents split 44-44%

McCain slight 47-44% edge among male voters & a larger 49-42% lead among white voters

But black voters back Obama 94-1%, while women support him 55-36%.

Obama leads 63-31% voters 18 to 34 years; 44% voters 35 to 54.

Voters over 55 split McCain 45%; Obama 44%

As to those recalcitrant Hillary supporters---about 1/5 of those who voted for Hillary decline (so far) to come home to their party.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1192

Correction: Quinnipiac poll

Obama leads 48-44% voters 35 to 54

Peggy Noonan usually rubs me the wrong way, but she did say something sensible about the Obama cartoon dust up. So many of his supporters are young and have never been involved in politics before that they can't tell an unreasonable attack from a snarky satire or a legitimate criticism. Everything even mildly negative gets an over the top reaction.

Mika getting the "liar" emails is as much an example of this as the New Yorker cover not to mention the 12 page article inside. Everything is equal to everything else.

the next NYr cover will depict mccain the manchurian candidate hacking into the mag with another inflamatory cartoon cover and muttering "bomb bomb obom"....
but seriously, folks, i think this week's cover was a plant by the bo campaign to get all the rumors out in the open, discussed ad nauseum, and put to rest before the convention and GE.

As to those recalcitrant Hillary supporters---about 1/5 of those who voted for Hillary decline (so far) to come home to their party.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1192

Posted by: Coreen | July 15, 2008 9:19 AM

so that is 20% ... What does it mean for further campaign electioneering? Are the 20% going to eventually support the Dem nominee? While it's a minority of the Clinton supporters, it is still quite a chunk. I predict that many more will eventually come to the Obama side. And I think if Hillary is the VP nominee, at least 95% of Clinton supporters will support Obama.

"My dad was 72 when he died and before that he used a very slow computer daily because that was about all that was around 10 or 12 years ago. This is just
another thing that ties McCain to Bush. The intellectually and technically incurious."

Several comments about this:

1. Doots, I assume your father was retired and had time to screw around with the web.

2. As I said in my earlier post -- two of the most successful men I know consider it something for their assistants to keep up with. In fact, a LOT of management type people I know say they simply don't have time to mess with it.

3. There are many, many things to criticize McCain on -- this one just seems silly.

Somehow I don't think Obama spends much of his time checking out what's up on the web. He has people doing that.

ET

"Are the 20% going to eventually support the Dem nominee? "

It's not the vote that should concern them. It's the grunt work. The free labor. The loyalty factor. I would bet that these are hard core campaign workers who feel they have been insulted as much as their candidate.

Tom,

No relation to discussion but thought of you when I
saw this article about Doris Day (I think you have said
she was a fav & had no way to get it to you). If I'm wrong, just ignore.

Doris Day: Why She left Hollywood

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/14/sunday/main4261283.shtml

revelations about McCain's lack of experience about the Internet is nothing more than push back spin. Is it luck or planning that this information comes out the day after the New Yorker cover. There must be a great pool of Gaff potential at the Obama campaign.

Politics. At least this Campaign is reacting and fighting better than Kerry's. Someone learned from the last. Axelrod is great.

Tom -- I don't know what most of the H-people will be doing. I know several who are sitting out the election and several who are writing in Hillary. Most of the rest are voting Democrat.

Those are the "Democratic" people, though. Many of the center-leaning independents and more liberal-leaning Republicans who supported her are now voting McCain. I think they don't see the difference in McCain 2000 and 2008.

My only argument to those people has been this: "Yeah, I agree that Obama is a phony. But McCain is mentally ill."

And for me, McCain's mental condition is a much bigger concern than whether he surfs the web.

The story about McCain's lack of computer skills is over a month old...

McCain Admits He Doesn't Know How To Use A Computer (VIDEO)
stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust Mother Jones | June 11, 2008 08:42 AM
Read More: John McCain, John McCain Computers, McCain And Computers, Politics News Show your

Coreen thanks for the link to the CBS news article on Doris! Good stuff...

Patsi ageed so much with your post.

Tom

You've hit the nail regarding the grunt work, Jamie. None of the women I know have volunteered this time around. Maybe the netroots crowd can tear themselves away from their computers long enough to deliver yard signs.

I am really surprised that I still don't see any signs, bumper stickers -- nothing that signals an election. In 2004 I had Kerry st

It eventually provided fodder for one of CNN's regular off-beat stories done by its national correspondent Jeanne Moos, who took to the streets to conduct an unscientific survey of what Americans both young and old thought of McCain's computer illiteracy.

Everyone but one person interviewed agreed that McCain should know how to use a computer.

One woman exclaimed: "Oh, that's absolutely ridiculous."

Even Hu Jintao, China's president, surfs the web.

To be fair, what this online branding obscures is the fact that McCain is probably more familiar with, and better versed than most of the roster of the 2008 presidential candidates on the nuances of telecommunications and internet policy because of his work as a longtime member and former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation -- work for which he has received frequent praise from consumer advocacy groups and think tanks.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/mccain-reps-com.html

wow -- it grabbed that before I finished...just was saying that I had Kerry stickers and signs up EARLY in the season.

Crime fiction writer,JD Rhoades latest newspaper column.

"The Return of Sluice Tundra, Private Eye: The Case of the Missing Maverick"

http://jdrhoades.blogspot.com/2008/07/return-of-sluice-tundra-private-eye.html

It is always a fun read

Jack

Patsi

~~~~~Yard signs?
That is sooooooo, 20th century~~~~~~~~

;-)

Jack

A friend just sent me a whole bunch of bumper stickers. This one seems very applicable to the internet:

We have enough youth.
How about a fountain of 'smart'?

Coreen, I'll add my thanks for that Doris Day link. Like Tom, I am a HUGE fan...and have been since I was a kid. You gotta admit -- nobody dressed better than Doris in those comedies she made! What a wardrobe! And I loved her staunch friendship with Rock Hudson....still my girlhood fantasy, gay or not! He's the kind of man you wouldn't even care if you had sex with anyway -- all you'd need to do is sit and admire his gorgeousness.

We have enough youth.
How about a fountain of 'smart'?

I really did laugh out loud! Could thing I finished my coffee.

"~~~~~Yard signs?
That is sooooooo, 20th century~~~~~~~~"

Ha -- and I still have my Harold Ford stickers on the car.....

"We have enough youth.
How about a fountain of 'smart'?"

That's fantastic!

Even Hu Jintao, China's president, surfs the web.

Queen Elizabeth II is over 80. She surfs under an assumed name and enjoys it. The Royalty Channel is on You Tube. The web page for the Monarchy is one of the best designed on the web with all sorts of fascinating info.

Johnny Mac needs to do some catching up. Of course it is more serious that he didn't know that Czechoslovakia was no longer a single country.

July 15, 2008 9:15 AM

Re: McCain and PCs

As if all of us use computers in a noble fashion, chatting on blogs all day.

Would you rather McCain be sitting in the Oval Office playing solitaire all day?

I know, I know, you don't want McCain in the Oval Office...

Does the Queen post here? Kidding. Family drama here again. Trying to reason with my Dad. It's damn near impossible. Is it 5:00 somewhere?

Maybe McCain would keep having the secret service check the mailbox outside the White House because his computer said he had mail?

" Family drama here again. Trying to reason with my Dad. It's damn near impossible.'

Really sorry to hear this, Corey. It's likely to get harder and harder on your mother. There's no easy answer, either.

"He's the kind of man you wouldn't even care if you had sex with anyway -- all you'd need to do is sit and admire his gorgeousness. "

Way back when studios still did sneak premiers complete with audience opinion cards (OMG that was soooooooooo long ago), I was a cashier at the Paradise Theater in Westchester when "Come September" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054759/ had a midnight showing (what student labor laws?).

It was only up close that you were really aware of how tall he was. Even though most people with any relation to the movies knew the "secret", he was really protected simply because he was a truly nice guy and definitely a gorgeous man.

Oh God, Bush about to speak. I could puke. I have spent eight years scrambling to turn the channel from news to an old movie every time he comes on. I can't stand to hear his voice.

Not looking up for the next eight, either. May have to re-enroll in Netflix.

If it makes you feel any better Corey, today's my dead father's birthday, so count your blessings.

Oh God, Bush about to speak. I could puke. I have spent eight years scrambling to turn the channel from news to an old movie every time he comes on. I can't stand to hear his voice.

Not looking up for the next eight, either. May have to re-enroll in Netflix.

Posted by: Patsi | July 15, 2008 10:19 AM

I will not be liked for this comment but.......I have grown accustomed to his voice and his style. I rather stick with him than have any one of the two candidates that I have to choose between in november!

The man is a dim witted robot. His answer to the financial crisis is more oil drilling!!!!! How long until January? Wake me when he's over.

Is it 5:00 somewhere?

Posted by: Corey | July 15, 2008 10:14 AM

Yes!

I wrote a quick post on my blog.

Craig
I posted this on yesterday's page, but I'm putting it here as well because I think this topic is intriguing enough to warrant an attention span that exceeds 24 hours. What are we, the media?

You told us yesterday that "at most conventions, there's a cursory roll call for all candidates and then a motion on the floor to unanimously back the winner by acclamation.'

OK. Here's a hypothetical for you. (Pay attention Geek Esq. This is how they do it in law school.) What if, during the acclamation, at the call for "all opposed" 1636.5 voices hooted, and hollered, and caused a general ruckus. What would happen next?

Here's another hypothetical. (After all, the unity narrative has been so convincing.) How is the DC going to avoid this spectacle?

Patsi, Jamie, Again off the discussion grid, but it is summer.

Enjoyed those Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies, but truth be told--my absolute fav was Robert Wagner, followed by Don Johnson--who my friends still tease me about.

Jamie, that may be because I am a product of the TV generation.

Jamie, I noticed you are looking forward to the Mama Mia movie. I've added that to my "select" movies to actually go to see (Sex in the City was in that category-enjoyable if you were a fan of the series)

Any specific reason you are looking forward to Mama Mia. I did see the play in NYC, it was very light & entertaining, creativity in setting a play entirely around
ABBA music.

Coreen

I actually make the effort to see any Broadway play or musical that is brought to the screen. Whether good or bad, I want to encourage the practice. Currently Sondheim is one of the few that allows the stage version of his musicals to be released on DVD so now it is possible to compare the stage presentation to the Johnny Depp movie. Plays can even be rarer except for TV presentations. I guess great acting doesn't sell.

I buy cast recordings both original and revivals. Just something I love. The majority of people can never get to Broadway. Most don't even live close enough to see a B touring company. I think encouraging theater is part of our cultural heritage.

Anyway I love Streep and Abba music is fun, so it should be a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Nah, my old man was a major-league asshole. Abusive, narcissistic, all of that. I still miss him, and wouldn't mind having him back for a few minutes at least, just to ask a few questions. "Assholes" are people, too.

I used to scoff at all his postulations and admonishments. As I've gotten older, I realize he really did know what he was talking about. Insert Mark Twain quote here.

Not knowing your situation, and not wanting to know Corey; I'll spare all of you any further details of mine. Though if you wanted any advice, I'd be happy to give it privately. I'm not so arrogant as to assume you need it. Good luck.

Does anybody have a Bush to English dictionary handy?

Corey

I understand, My wife and I spent the day Sunday dealing with my Fatherinlaws Dirty house and cockroach problem. He has blown close to $10000 dollars on lottery tickets since his wife died 9 months ago. Mean while he is all piss at us because my wife won't transfer money out of a trust into his account.
So we spent the Sunday with crawling cockroaches and a pissed of old man.
Needless to say we got pissy faced drunk that evening.

A idea or two for you. First off protect your mother and the rest of your family. If you haven't been to a lawyer do so and get the family assets seperated so you mom will have some assets for her emergencies. Also, if you can find one, your mom, you and your siblings who are providing support, might benefit from a support group. Just being able to talk to people that are in the same situation is a great benefit. A great many of us are going through what you and your mother are. They might give you leads and advise you can use also.

You and your mom are in my thoughts and prayers.

Jack

Why does it seem like Bush is inventing new words when he speaks on camera? I find myself wondering...is that even a word?

Well, here is something a wee bit more pertinent than a New Yorker cover:

"After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November. "

I wouldn't call that a scandal... just the first four bars of Axelrod's Disaster Symphony.

Anyone want to read this and sing yet another chorus of "He's Got The Party's Yarbles In His Hands"?

(If you don't know the words... just sing "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" over and over and over. Same thing!)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11750.html

Jamie,

Quick followup, Mama Mia may be touring, the play is going to be presented at the Schubert, New Haven, CT the beginning of December, 2008 (May even go again). So it's possible you might have the opportunity to see it in WA in the not to distant future.

I''m still trying to see "Jersey Boys" in NYC, but the wait for orchestra seats continues to be about 1 year & its hard to get anyone to commit to such a far out date (unless you want to pay triple the face value of the ticket--then you can go the next day!).

Corey

Inventing new words is a great Texas pastime. GWB has always wanted to be a great Texan. But like everything he has doen in his life, he is not too good at it. In fact calling him average would be a stretch.

Jack

LOL@ 911

Jack

Jack,

I wonder...

Is the convention going to revive that vital public willingness to believe in Barack?

Or will whatever's revealed change what is left of Obamamania into the Dem's Obama-ammergau?

Coreen,

Try broadwaybox.com...

mornin' all.

Quick pop in, then gone.

Dumya just doesn't recognize all those little things on the paper in front of him, so he makes it up when he can't read it.

Corey, your Dad sounds like my mom did before she passed away. But I'd like to have her back, uninformed opinions and all. Take Jack's advice to heart.

I see Bernanke has done the unimaginable - given a clear eyed and sober assessment of the economy to Congress. And it combined with the news from GM (to say nothing of the continued fall of the dollar against the Euro) has the Dow doing swan dives.

Another thought , Corey.

GWB has been educated in the best private schools in the nation.
Doesn't say too much for a private school education does it.

Oh and thanks for listening to Bush for me, let me know if he says anything would you.
Your a brave man Corey;-)

Jack

Jack

Another just because. Might make you feel better, believe it or not.

Black Sabbath- War Pigs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg

YEAH!

Alert, Alert!

Presumptive Nominee Obama about to start an 8-Flag, Surmounted with Eagles, complete with Soviet Ceremonial Fold, Major Address on Iraq and Afghanistan!

Ah, all the trappings of High Office. Let's see if he has a message to match. Or will it be the same old "I was against..."

"Is the convention going to revive that vital public willingness to believe in Barack?"

Thinking about GWB, makes me think that almost all of us are so desperate for any type of leadership that we will convince ourselves of anything.

We are in a crises of confidence in the basic structures of this nation and our current president is unaware. It is New Orleans all over again, only it is the whole nation.
No matter how bad either McCain Or Obama ( and I think both have major flaws) both would be better than what we've got.

Thanks for allowing me to rant.

Jack

Speaking of Mama Mia,

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-britain-boxoffice.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Never was a big fan of ABBA - (Hendrix and SRV were more my tastes) - but they were phenomenal.

9/11

Thanks, I will try that outlet. I've only tried the "official"
ticketmaster or ticketron (forget which it is at the moment).

And now I need to leave & go earn a living.

Jack, just goes to show that when the bar is set very low, it's not hard to jump over it.

....LOL At least Obama knows about Czechoslovakia breaking in half. What was that?

flatus, I assume you're standing at attention with hand over heart and a tear in your eye?

Well, gots to go to work again. Later, chillun.

Jack,

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

Won't get fooled again. No no.

Duty calls, peace.

Pogo

LOL, ain't that the truth

Jack

Obama was against Czechoslavakia breaking in half from the beginning.

mccain's little computer chat reminded me of antiquated bush's opportunities to look manly and tach savvy for photo ops in '92. His image guy told him to get into the car (a jeep? a racing car?) he was supposed to drive. The upper class twit climbed into the passenger seat. There were also pics of the President rushing across a bay in a cigar boat, but again, he was just a passenger. While buying sox for the 1st time in his life, old bush remarked that the bar code scanner was the wave of the future, unaware that he was the last person on earth to encounter scanners. mccain's opportunity to look computer savvy, like retired bush's attempts to look like Buckaroo Bonzai both end up displaying the products as upper class twits.

These daily gaffes are comedic. It is as if mccain is a character in a screwball political comedy who is trying desperately to avoid being elected, without appearing to be avoiding it. Picture Bob Hope as the hapless and zany candidate.

Btw, wasn't it Senator ted stevens who gave a long incomprehensible lecture on the vital internet tubes? republicans don't need to be tech savvy, that's what the servants are for. ( :>D )

Sounds groovy.

I'm sticking for now with "Obama Not Paying Attention to Reid & Pelosi..."

“--Coordination between the Obama campaign and the House and Senate leadership is so weak that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who will chair the Democrats’ convention in August — didn’t know of Obama’s decision to move his final-night acceptance speech from the Pepsi Center to Invesco Field until the campaign announced it on a conference call with reporters".

With great power comes great irresponsibility...

" "Assholes" are people, too."

ROFL! Well said, champ!

Speaking of McCain and computers...I often wonder about candidates and computers. When Dick DeVos ran for governor in Michigan a few years ago, he was often asked what were his plans for Michigan's economy. He always declined to give specifics when answering questions in interviews. He simply told people that his business plan was posted on the internet and that if people wanted specifics to visit his webpage. What about people who don't have a computer or internet access? My parents have never owned a computer. How do they become informed nowadays. Yes, there are newspapers, but it's not nearly the same as the internet.

"Les Crane, Talk Show Host, Dies At 74"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/arts/television/15crane.html

'The Crane show was canceled just a few months later, in spite of Mr. Crane’s interview with Bob Dylan, during which Mr. Crane asked Mr. Dylan, then 23, about the songwriters who influenced him and about the overall message of his songs. Hank Williams and Cole Porter were the answers to the first question. To the second, Mr. Dylan said: “Eat?”'

As this good obituary declined to mention his "shotgun mike"...

I will. Just amazed I can't find that once infamous promotional pic of him aiming it at his studio audience.

He's been using that one since 2007.

The Economist has been using it since after the WTC attacks.

"Thinking about GWB, makes me think that almost all of us are so desperate for any type of leadership that we will convince ourselves of anything.

We are in a crises of confidence in the basic structures of this nation and our current president is unaware. It is New Orleans all over again, only it is the whole nation."

Yep.....

That's the problem with great lines. Some one else has already used them. That is why I believe in creative thievery.

Jack

The New Yorker cover is always a chuckle and thats about it. I prefer the ones that require a little more viewer participation but this one was okay.
There has been a lot of good humor in the campaign from comics. The John Stewart bit on the Presidential looking emblom was good. The comments here have been witty too. Mccain has also tried in his way to lighten things up--he's not funny but he tries. What will worry me until I see it is the lack of humor in the Obama Campaign. Not even an attempt. That's what made the Stewart piece so funny; after telling the joke he wonders how it will be taken by "the campaign" with his childlike fearful look. "Are my ears really that big?" would have been so much better than: "I have no comment on that".

"Hillary Isn’t Paying Attention To PUMA, Why Should You? by Chef Sheila"

How many tut-tut's are involved?

From Real Clear Politics this morning:

"-- Earlier, we mentioned that McCain, by focusing on Iraq, has the chance to "score the upset." That's how the race feels, like Obama is ahead by a wide margin and McCain is desperate for media oxygen. But, as The Fix wrote yesterday, the race is surprisingly close. Take a look at different measures and come up with different explanations: The latest RCP National Average shows Obama leading by just four points; the latest RCP Electoral Count has Obama leading by a wider 255-163, just fifteen votes short of a majority. The truth lies in the long run: It doesn't matter who's ahead now (Al Gore and John Kerry both led at approximately this point, while Bill Clinton, in 1992, trailed both the incumbent President Bush and Ross Perot). It only matters that it's a close race."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2008/07/strategy_memo_war_peace_and_po.html

Janis Joplin- Try (Live at Woodstock, 1969)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBJnoMP1Uyc

Also... for those with nephews, nieces, sons and daughters...

"Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time."

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

Creative thievery? Kinda like when I was 18-19 and my best friend and I got the idea to have some tennis shirts screenprinted for ourselves. My idea was to have a tennis racquet on the t-shirt and unerneath the tennis racquet have the phrase "Speak softly and carry a big stick!" printed. My friend thought that was the greatest line I'd ever come up with. Apparently, he wasn't a big Teddy Roosevelt historian. LOL!

"Apparently, he wasn't a big Teddy Roosevelt historian."

Ha...good idea for a t-shirt!

Patsi,

Tsk Tsk

Lede stories on the NYT online just after noon..

Bernanke: Economy will stay sluggish.

GM: Dividend suspended .

Stocks recovering as oil prices fall.

Other stories are covered, too.

The Obama speech only quasi-appears in a tiny type link under the story from last night about the Obama joke deficit... and runs in The Caucus blog.

Inneresting...

Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-g7Q7hXn7o

Our daily prayer

My sister pointed out to me that my neices and nephews aren't sure how to take me.

I smiled and said "Yep and I'm gonna keep it that way"

Jack

Jack

From Jack Shafer at Slate.com...

"Rather than appreciating the joke—The New Yorker was cataloging and sending up the most extreme and common of the anti-Obama smears—the Obama campaign issued a roar of indignation ("tasteless and offensive"). The opportunistic McCain campaign wasted not a minute in echoing with its own protest. In their denunciations, both campaigns continued on the path Slate's John Dickerson described back in February, when he identified taking umbrage as "this year's hottest campaign tactic." As Dickerson noted in his piece and in a follow-up, the candidates have professionalized the business of taking umbrage, capitalizing on the offenses—perceived or imagined—to issue a new round of fundraising letters."

http://www.slate.com/id/2195317/

McCain really can't compete on the speaking front. He must be so hoping to get past the conventions and get him in front of a town hall audience where at least he will stand a chance.

Patsi,

About the PUMA article

Some stories just write themselves. I'm a bit like the NYtimes, as pointed out by 911. I'm more interested with our current problems then in reading some old rehash of a tiresome argument.

Jack

In my opinion the Tyranny of Oil (Big Oil) is what the bushcheney White House was all about. Everything else was mere busy work - 'pro-life', anti-gay marriage, Public Television, OSHA, SEC, VA, FDA, DoT, State, DoJ, Afghanistan, FBI, NSA, et al, were all suborned to, or subverted by, the main project of making Big Oil richer and more powerful. Mission Accomplished.

We are all New Orleans now.

Oh BTW, wake me up when the convention is over. Then it is time to start paying attention again.

Jack

911

To steal a phrase from someone on use net.

Both campaigns are becomeing good at offense Cleptomania.

If there is an offense laying around not being used they both will make sure it has a home.
It gets boring after a while.

Jack

McCain is coming to East Grand Rapids for a fundraiser on Thursday. He will then speak at a private function at GM's tech center in Warren on Friday.

The Obamas and many of their disciples are eextremely thin skinned.

This is ironic since they are pros at dishing out the dirt.

If Barack and Michelle can't take the heat, perhaps they should get out of the kitchen..

I've tried and can't come up with anything funny to say about the cover in a spontaneous way. But I always enjoy Janis. My point though was that humor is something I look for in people and candidates. It is sorely lacking in this cycle. If connecting with the people is important to a campaign then humor is the easiest, if not surest, way of getting there. No, seriously, thats what I believe.

Didn't see this posted yet, thought everyone (including our own Fearless Leader) would find it amusing:

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/news_notes/separated_at_birth_craig_crawford_and_barney_fife_89234.asp#email

h'dooty - How painful is it to use a mouse? Well, for someone like me with cubital tunnel syndrome, painful and makes the pinkie go numb. Possibly the same kind of problem for folks with carpal tunnel, etc. We haven't walked a mile in McCain's shoes, but his range of motion looks pretty limited.

I still argue that he has no need to learn how to use a computer when he has a support staff...unless this is the equivalent of being someone you could have a beer with & people need to think he's "one of them." Otherwise, why learn now when he's busy campaigning & why mention it at all?

Filed under "its an ill wind"
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/604924.html

"Hard times a boon for repo men"

~~~~~Nice to see some one prospering~~~~~~~

Jack

Good afternoon, folks.

NYT article this morning: Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/politics/15humor.html?em&ex=1216267200&en=eb5806c4fae3982b&ei=5087%0A&exprod=myyahoo

From the article:

Jokes have been made about what Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton really thought about Mr. Obama during the primaries, and about the vulgar comments the Rev. Jesse Jackson made about him last week. But anything approaching a joke about Mr. Obama himself has fallen flat.

When Mr. Stewart on “The Daily Show” recently tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him.” Mr. Stewart said in a telephone interview on Monday, “People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them.”

Oregon Democrat,

Perhaps you too would be thin skinned when you realized that the only people who would get a bit of satire are members of the educated elite.

Republicans think that Obama is a black militant because of his crazy Protestant pastor yet they are still able to convince people he's a muslim terrorist...that's the like saying that the draft dodger is a tougher guy than the decorated military service member...

Then again, that describes every election for the 40 years...

Craig,

Question for you, if the singular theme from the McCain campaign is going to be that he puts country before self all the time, at what point do you thing that his involvement with the Keating 5 will resurface?

Also, he pledged to go to the gates of hell to capture Bin Laden and instead he's run to lap of the current President in letting him live out his days in comfort. When do you think he will be taken to task for it?

Lastly, considering that the Republicans politicized 9/11 ad nauseum, do you think that the clusterfuck known as the Freedom Tower and the embarrassing fact that New York Republicans chose financial gain over an expediant rebuilding of the building there will also be an issue?

Jack,

The laddies (Prince Hamlet and Old Polonius) doth protest too much, me thinks, just to get themselves to a money-ry.

Renee,

Here for awhile until I forget the addy. Happy to see and hear from you.

blue,

You're right.

The more abuse a body has received, the greater a reservoir of inflammatory pain rises in it over time.

Relative to computers -- Bill Clinton doesn't use 'em either. Well, perhaps he does now, but he didn't when he was President and it was common knowledge that he was basically computer-illiterate from a personal standpoint. Al Gore, on the other hand, used to be an object of ridicule because he was so wired at a time when so many were not.
On the subject of speeches...having seen our current President, Sen McCain, Sen Obama, and former President Clinton all deliver speeches in the past two days, I'd simply like to say that I really, really miss Bill. He actually makes policy details sound interesting. He was never a great orator, but I always have the feeling he really understands what he is talking about.

jeejee,

From Andy Borowitz --

Winner Of The First-Ever National Press Club Award For Humor. July 15, 2008

Breaking News
Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself
Bid to Help Late Night Comics

Saying he is "sympathetic to late night comedians' struggle to find jokes to make about me," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) today issued a list of official campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes.

The five jokes, which Sen. Obama said he is making available to all comedians free of charge, are as follows:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos here." Barack Obama replies, "At these prices, I'm not surprised. That's why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, "I was expecting the farmer's daughter." Barack Obama replies, "She's not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream."

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Barack Obama replies, "His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans."

Q: What's black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

Minnesota - More votes for Sale on Ebay
http://www.electionjournal.org/

I think it's great that McCain is trying to use a computer. That proves that he is willing to adapt & learn, unlike GWB, who has never even tried to learn the english language.

9/11 - love it. You are such a source of subtle wit ... and I miss it when you're not here.

maggisd...

Found a new...and quite good treat for you NOT to eat! But I have to tell you about it anyway...maybe someone else will try them. Terra now sells bags of chips called Sweets and Beets...sweet potato and beet chips. Really...they're good! Had some yesterday for lunch with a chicken salad sandwich. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

. Doots, I assume your father was retired and had time to screw around with the web.

yes he was retired. so maybe the answer is for McCain to retire since he is really beyond the retirement age. The point remains that He could learn if he wanted to. It seems to me that he doesn't want to. What does he do all day? Sit there in his leather chair and look for the remote control?

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

Well, before Obama even goes to Iraq on a "fact finding mission" he has already reached more supreme conclusions.

1. Our military is worn thin, so send them to Afghanistan.....LOL

2. Blame the problems in Afghanistan on Iraq, but then what Obama supporter would visit Slate to read Hitchens or No Quarter to read Johnson both who lay out rational reasons why Obama has it all wrong?

a. The moderates in Pakistan and poor international help have caused the recent gains by the Taliban. I mentioned this last night.

3. Obama has now changed "the surge is not working" on his website to "security has improved at the cost of US lives". And yet Obama argues he hasn't changed his position at all....LOL

4. Fine judgment to make conclusions before going to Iraq and again demanding 16 month wirhdrawal before visiting the General who will tell Obama when he can remove US troops. Obama is just putting his foot in his mouth again. He will not reject Patraous

5. Our security and the situation in the Middle East is not more stable without Saddam? The surge and replanning our ground game is not going to yield us a victory? The American voters are alreaady at a 50/50 split on this topic and by election day more Americans will favor winning to rettreating. Bad news for Obama. And victory in Iraq should be frowned upon because AQ and other militants are being forced to go back to Afghanistan? It is not the case they were pushed out of Afghanistan by our invasion? And if Afghanistan IS an international affair, why, Obama, is it OUR fight to win and not the world's?

6. Obama's take on Pakistan is now completely confused. He predicted that without Musharraf, Pakistan would curb the militants. He called for MORE strikes on Pakistan targets. Then when Bush did so, he remained silent as moderates warned the US not to strike again. Obama said nothing as moderates cut sweeter deals than Musharraf causing bloodshed in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

7. After saying he would listen to the generals and then getting slapped by the Left, Obama now flips back to write 16 months in stone, justifying redeployment to Afghanistan as

a. fixing our tired army
b. winning a war that is ours alone to win
c. ignoring the problems in Pakistan though declaring he will get the militants and AQ in Pakistan.

Both feet in the mouth as Obama's arrogance prevents him from seeing how silly he looks.

8. He talks about using all means to stop Iran, but fails to see Iran wants us out of Iraq, our struggling in Afghanistan, retreating from the Middle East and cutting defense in general. They want to procrastinate until they have the bomb. They hail Obama as the next Gorby, destined to destroy the US from within.

9. Obama's advisors Malley and Power are out and he relies on Zbig, Rice and McPeak with Clark hoping to get VP by acting the attack dog. Of course as Obama goes to Germany and Iraq, one must wonder why this Senator didn't hold a single meeting of the committee he chairs which covers NATO and Eastern Europe. I guess Obama has no standing now to discuss such matters. Instead of having met European leaders anytime in the past, Obama wants to turn Europe into his campaign grounds. Seems Obama has a listening problem unless it is his advisors like the one who was a culprit in the sub prime fiasco.

Just some points for the day....

What does he do all day? Sit there in his leather chair and look for the remote control?

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

Dooty , you just described my Dad!

"I invented the internet." -Al Gore

"What the hell is the internet?" -John McCain

Bear: You said -- Perhaps you too would be thin skinned when you realized that the only people who would get a bit of satire are members of the educated elite.
I resist thinking of myself as a member of the educated elite, but I got that cover, and never thought it was meant as anything other than a jab at that small group of people who believe all the Obama rumors.
On the other hand, I have subscribed to the New Yorker for a very long time and am used to their cryptic covers and odd cartoons. I was actually pleased that I "got" this one, as that's not always the case with me.

9/11,

ROFLMAO - (psst, the boss is here, you'll get me in trouble)

It's great to see you back, I was wondering about you.

maggisd,

I've been much too busy setting up a counterblog... as my sole lifelong quest has been to exploit what another has worked so hard to establish and scrawl a name me likee on it.

Wait.

That was a really k-ra-zy nightmare I had after way, way, way too much prednisone during treatment last week.

I think -- though it may have been those wacky drugs that inspired such a thought -- I called the blog "The Clisterf*ck".

That works, yes?

The New Yorker is a commercial enterprise. It makes money through the sales of copy, but more importantly, through the sale of ads, the prices of which are affected by the circulation numbers. The latest issue hit the jackpot.

Look for a similar cover for mccain, coming soon to a newsstand near you. I shoulda bought stock....

harborwoman,

Absolutely my fave Terra bag of all. Also... sweet patooties are a very good source of progestogen...

And I am a very good source of typos.

xrepublican: You got it in one.

9/11: Perhaps a title that would be understood only by an elite few ... wait, you're trying to be the New Yorker of the blog world.

9/11....

on those jokes.....

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

sincerely, RebelliousthedeadenderRenee

Hill Democrats Miffed At Obama

Uh oh.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11750.html

I was also surprised to be called an "elite."

Dooty - you are assuming McCain knows what a remote control is.

9/11 Here is a little thing I ran across this morning.

It is from a guy named Ron Thomason when he was asked the question that follows below. Ron is a Bluegrass musician, storyteller (oops, satirist) and leader of Dry Branch Fire Squad the host band of the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival.

What advice would you give to young people in their late teens or early twenties?

Are you kidding (why would anyone that age want advice from an old gomer like me?) But here goes: Treat your body like you’re going to be using it for a long time: Don’t do drugs. Consume everything in moderation, especially food. Work out; get into good arobic shape and stay there. Make your health your first priority, and always make what’s good for yourself you’re number one task to get done. Be a good friend. And accept this: Life is mostly hard work, so the best thing you can do is to work hard for as long as you can at jobs that you really enjoy. Don’t be “bought off.”

http://www.greyfoxbluegrass.com/general/home.php

maggisd,

Remnick's a first rate journalist but The New Yorker became very much a product of Conde Nasty world once Tina Brown arrived.

The New Yorker's real problem now is a pretty onerous one: how Conde Nast is financially mistreating Steve Florio's widow. He was the TNY publisher who converted TNY into Conde Nast sod and gardens. After that he became the company's president, CEO and vice-chairman until his death from a heart attack.

What's particularly strange is that his brother is Vogue's publisher.

9/11 -- Love, love, love those Obama-approved jokes! I sent them off to some people and would you believe that some of my friends thought is was serious?! That's even funnier!

I would be interested to know how many people here think that Colin Powell would be too old to run for President? Or have ever thought of that.
My own impression is that it's not so much Sen McCain's age as the fact -- propounded by Peggy Noonan this morning -- that he is very pale. That his range of motion is limited (and has been for 30 years). He is, however, really quite a vigorous person...and I actually like the fact that he never felt he needed to get hairplugs (a la Joe Biden) or color his hair (a la both Senators Nelson, Sen Rockefeller and I am sure several others).

9/11: That is something I did not know. Perhaps it explains the several gigantic issues each year devoted entirely to fashion, food, and travel. I find most of these issues worthless...but they do allow me to skip ahead and catch up on the rest of the issues....I am so far behind now that I am beginning to feel anxious.

If McCain and GWB were training to be jet jocks today they would know their way around a game console and a computer. The DOD even has a development department for video games.

I talk to parents all the time that limiting the use of video games is like limiting books. Video games are actually highly effective platforms for learning.

Maggisd,

I got the cover to...I thought it was good artwork but I thought that the satire would be lost on the millions of nimrods who don't read that magazine nor realize they relish the satire.

Were that the cover of Mad Magazine, or Cracked Magazine, then their "joke premise" would have appeared as such to the unwashed masses of this country...

Now I wonder what that cover would look like if Don Adams drew it...or the guy who does spy vs. spy?

Bowmanc,

Only thing I'd add to that is...

If you hear something can be bad for you and you intensely want to deny that's true...

Pause -- seriously -- and wonder what good denial ever does.

Maggisd

There are times when I look at McCain's pasty white head and want to send him some of the suntan in a bottle that my wife uses.
Take a couple of days off go to Arizona. pour it on his head and reappear with a nice healthy looking tan.
Talk about how relaxed and refreshed he is from his weekend off, then hit the trail.

Jack

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807151145DOWJONESDJONLINE000456_FORTUNE5.htm

SEC Chairman Cox's remarks...

Investigations of manipulation underway, more stringent access to the Fed's discount window...

Has anyone heard, read or seen anyone in the media hopping mad about the Freddie and Fannie taxpayer bailout?

jack,

I think he should get a spray tan and hang with his blogging daughter at the Ivy for a few days.

It's time to turn all campaign coverage over to TMZ. I mean, what are they gonna do now that Britney's not on a stretcher?

The family crisis has been resolved. A new meeting has been scheduled for August 1st. Concerning drug use, when my step-grandma died in 1994, my uncles Allen and Lloyd recalled the time in the late 1970's when they took my step-grandma to Hawaii to visit my uncle John. My uncle John was sort of a beach bum back then. My 3 uncles took my step-grandma camping. Later in the night, my 3 uncles snuck away to smoke a big doobie in the woods. They came back awhile later and were laughing like crazy. They tried making popcorn in the dark. Apparently it was quite funny. My step-grandma did not know why they were all acting so crazy. They did not tell her why until many years later.

jack, 9/11: Course the problem McCain has with the complexion is the melanoma thing ... he uses a really strong sunscreen and he always wears a hat.
You may have noted that he does not campaign on Sundays...he likes to hang out at their home in Sedona, have friends over and barbecue...all the while protecting himself from the sun.
And I really can't see Sen McCain slathering himself with fake suntan cream...I mean, pale may not be good, but orange would be far worse.

Maggisd

The fake tan looks good on Joe Biden.

Jack

maggisd,

Well, that was baby's first cancer here... dating back from the early sixties when parents were doing the best thing possibly by telling their kiddies to get as naked as possible and go play in the sun.

Now my face looks like a wall plastered with titanium... just like John McC's.

Corey,

I hope that brings relief to your mom and you... and everyone else who is getting stripmined by all of this.

(I know -- what else is family for? Surprisingly LOTS more... well, sometimes.)

Jack,

Shh.

Someone will accuse him of plagiarizing his tan... an issue too deep for Americans to tolerate... thus denying a nation a potentially good Secretary of State.

dog's -- To me the most interesting thing about the New Yorker cover (and the story inside detailing Obama's rise through Chicago politics) is that the feature writers for the New Yorker have been largely supportive of Sen Obama throughout the campaign. I cannot imagine that they had any intent to damage him ...
And, do we really think that those people who actually ever believed any of these misrepresentations were ever going to vote for Sen Obama anyway?
I personally think it's a fool's errand to keep stressing religion in a vain attempt to win over people who found all the internet rumors persuasive. IMHO it has the opposite effect of turning off a certain category of progressive voters who don't like mixing religion and politics.

" When do you think he will be taken to task for it?"

I'm more interested in whether Obama is going to aggressively go after Bush/Cheney when he takes office. Or would that be too partisan?

I heard a program on NPR this afternoon about the fact that Justice Dept. officians looking into the torture issue were afraid for their lives, not to mention their careers.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115595

good point UB I jumped to an unknown conculsion

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

" What does he do all day? Sit there in his leather chair and look for the remote control?"

I don't know. The Senate might take a bit of time.

But it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to retire.

Actually, the only time I've heard much about Obama himself and the "net" is when he was having the little email flirtation with Scarlett Johansson.

9/11,

The problems with Fannie and Freddie are more based on perception than bad lending practices...

The point being missed is that the Sub Prime mortgage market was created to originate loans that were non conforming loans. They were non conforming to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines. If they did conform, they would have been done conventionally then.

The riskiest loans in their portfolios were community lending loans that were 100% LTV with closing costs on top, but they had reduced PMI and they were fixed rate loans. From what I've seen, they have performed well.

I personally am trying to accumulate shares in both companies because I expect significant growth in the share prices in the next 18 months.

dogs - I got that. I was agreeing with you and making the additional observation that I doubt it did damage him, in reality.
It's possible that the reaction of some of his surrogates may have caused damage with some on-the-fence voters, but I doubt even that is very likely.

"dead enders" with no humor...

....and the name calling never enders....

dog's eye,

Well...

I read the Ghana story. (Actually my girlfriend rubbed my face in it as I will take off my shoes prior to washing my hands. But if I didn't take off my shoes, her rugs... well...)

The reason why these issues are up with Obama is great part due to his running on two memoirs, a convention speech and a greatly unknown public record.

That was his campaign's call from the start.

Other candidates... even ones who are less publicized (forget exalted) than Obama have less glossy records in public life... of all sorts, positive and negative.

When someone is marketing themselves as something to BELIEVE in rather than know...

Belief will meet disbelief and not knowing will reveal itself as ignorance.

Stuff like that -- underdeveloped and overstated -- happens night and day in the media whether in printed columns and political cartoons to blogs to television and radio.

It's the consequence of running on a vision.

There is a limit to the vision any candidate can either inspire or dictate...

Just as there is a limit to the expression they can decry.

So who really reacted?

Did the media react to the cover itself?

It does not seem that way.

It appears the Obama campaign was the nuclear reactor of the bunch, far more than those on the right.

I would have to say in a country where there is a miserable lack of a protest movement... Obama has a big one on his side.

But instead of being about Wall Street and subprimes and taxpayer bailouts...

It's about who's unfair to him.

I think it's time for him to do that Jay-Z dust-off again.

And again. And again.

It was charming and so politically deft and mature.

(But did it raise any money???)

9/11 -- Yer killin' me...

Posted by: 9/11 survivor (sort of) | July 15, 2008 1:29 PM

ROTFLMAO

Just realized that I'd kill for a lemon milk shake to top off my lunch...fettucini alfredo and meatballs.

Bear,

I wish you well.

I've got a former SEC chairman in the family who figured out I'm at home a lot... so my ear gets telephonically bent by him more than I ever expected it would

I don't know. But I really think you are an astute man on every level visible (not risible) here.

Here's hoping you make that money.

I hope you're right.

"Gramm was an avidly active investor in soft-core pornography movies."

Old, old news. Gramm has been the butt of jokes for years.

Patsi,

Which made him the standard bearer for The Most Expensive Petite Collection Of Delegates Ever.

Doesn't matter what the announcers are saying... everytime that man appears on TV the old Mister Magoo theme music blares and Jim Backus cackles, "Oh, Magoo -- you've done it again!"

Just got back from tire replacement.

9/11

Shall we take a poll of how many people thought this was a typo?

"Lede stories on the NYT online just after noon"

Patsi,

Actually...

Maybe that was why former Republican Kevin Costner actually cited soft porn in that much vaunted speech in Bull Durham.

I mean... who ever before or since praised the virtues of SOFT porn????

But that may answer the question of where McCain gets his...

*feels the love*

Don't do that in front of your computer. The feds are recording you.

Bear: I think a lot of the financial market problems right now are based on perception.

jamie,

It's from my years of drinking unleded gas...

I think the New Yorker dust-up will work mainly to his advantage. As a mob boss yesterday on on GH put it - remember, righteous indignation is your best friend.

Old, old news. Gramm has been the butt of jokes for years. -- Patsi

Is being the butt of jokes anything like being an a**hole?

I remember seeing an exhibition of political cartoons from Hearst's era: bombastic, harsh, lying, manipulative and par for the course.

And the Thomas Nast cartoons were even more effective at defining by demeaning candidates of office holders than even those.

And what about Walter Winchell's mouth on a nightly basis?

jeejee: Personally, I'm about up to year with all the righteous indignation from all sides ... even my own. I want to find something to laugh about ... to keep me from crying.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115635

Patsi, you are wicked. LOL

I meant to type up to here .... do you suppose typing year for here is a sign of encroaching senility? It's certainly more than a typo .....

Jack

"Hard times a boon for repo men""

Another group that is doing very well (in case there are those out there with a talent for maintenance and construction) is the home rehabbing services.

A lot of these repossed homes are left trashed or need someone to just maintain them (lawns, pools, minor repairs0 until such time as the bank can resell.

My son in law has had his own business for years caring for small office properties and the bank the property owner deals with is now calling him ... more work than he can handle.

9/11: Walter Winchell was featured regularly on the radio in my home when I was a child. I disliked the sound of his voice so much that I was actually pleased when I learned what a creep he really was ...

"...or the guy who does spy vs. spy?"

Great idea, Bear....they should do a whole issue of spy v spy on Cheney and Rumsfeld....

dog,

That trope is yours, not mine.

I am allowed to find someone less than credible or substantial without it being a character or intellectual failing on my part.

Jon Stewart: Obama supporters have no sense of humor.

"When Mr. Stewart on “The Daily Show” recently tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him.” Mr. Stewart said in a telephone interview on Monday, “People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them"

Gotta go folks ....

"On a subliminal level, that could do some damage."

dog -- I'm trying to recall your umbrage at the Hillary nutcracker being for sale in airports across the country. And that didn't even make a pretense at satire.

If they do one of those for Michelle, I fear you mig

"On a subliminal level, that could do some damage."

dog -- I'm trying to recall your umbrage at the Hillary nutcracker being for sale in airports across the country. And that didn't even make a pretense at satire.

If they do one of those for Michelle, I fear you mig

"On a subliminal level, that could do some damage."

dog -- I'm trying to remember similar umbrage taken over the Hillary nutcracker.

maggisd,

My father's parents had ears that swallowed him whole nightly.

He ceased to be nostalgia for me when I was 17 and learned about how he screamed that the maritime unions (which represented the merchant marines who made up the greatest sealift in history (and who had their own Pearl Harbor in Bari) to be made of overpaid German and Japanese sympathizers who refused to support troops during landings.

He got slammed in court for it... and kept at it because the power was his to bluster about everything.

If Gramm was an astute investor, he would have realized that after the dot com bubble in 2000, the only segment that made any kind of profit on the internet was Hard Core pornography.

"Is being the butt of jokes anything like being an a**hole? "

Ha! maggi shoots and scores!

Awhile back I posted that we printed an Obama picture book and that we had several more imprints scheduled. I am hearing that this has been dialed back dramatically. Apparently the book is not selling nearly the volume predicted.

Does this mean anything? Probably not, except the publisher may have had unrealistic sales projections.

Mr. Colbert said in a telephone interview that a running joke on his show has been that Mr. Obama is a “secret Muslim”; the New Yorker cover, he said, was consistent with that. “It’s a completely valid satirical point to make — and it’s perfectly valid for Obama not to like it,” he said.

"The only thing putting fake tan on McCain would do would be to make him look like the victim of a bad mortician. "

ROFL -- true.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115599

Peggy Noonan's looking a little old an pale herself. Far cry from her "shining city on the hill days."

But thin again, who isn't?

then again. Doh!

Oh well -- off to take the kiddos to play mini golf and the driving range.

Jamie

Got a small job just today off my internet ad. They need new doors hung on a condo that they had to repo.
Seems the doors are all gone. My wife instructed me not to wear my paint covered shorts , look respectful, it could lead to more business.

Jack

Jack,

There's a movie in theaters here called Days and Clouds.

I saw it on Sunday: your post reminded me of key elements of it.

It's the story of an upper middle class marriage doing its yank by yank descent into financial catastrophe.

I won't say anymore. It's on DVD, too, and it is very much worth renting and staying with.

I think this would be a good place to talk about what people find in it.

By the way -- it won over 10 Italian "Oscars".

Think what you want, but Laura Bush has 100 times the sense of humor than Michelle Obama ever will! I mean, look who Laura Bush married!

Corey,

There are about a dozen set ups that could lead only to the words "I'd have to say the joke's on her".

I guess my computer decided it needed repeating...

Laura Bush and Obama from 2006

"Obama is not the only smoker to gain authenticity points by copping to this most déclassé of American vices. News that Laura Bush was a smoker – and speculation that the she still puffs away while immersed in the occasional Dostoyevsky tome – is a staple of the glowing press coverage that celebrates the first lady's uncalculated, unpretentious, unpolitical style: Upon being introduced to her future mother-in-law, Laura Bush allegedly showed her non-Washingtonian chops by responding to a question about what she did for a living by saying "I read, I smoke, and I admire."
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Laura_to_future_motherinlaw_I_read_1120.html

"drinking unleded gas..."

It just struck me as interesting given it is one of those words that is esoteric to a singler profession

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115670

Patsi, my computer just went funky also. This place has got gremlins, and not the cute furry kind.

Jack

Design some sort of flyer of what you can do, and then dress up a bit and take the day to set up interviews or just drop in on bank, mortgage companies, and real estate agents. It really is a lucrative field.

Another good if strange contact are the folks who clean up crime scenes. They know properties that may need maintenance work and can provide good leads or call you in themselves as a sub contractor.

I talk to parents all the time that limiting the use of video games is like limiting books. Video games are actually highly effective platforms for learning.

Posted by: Alicia Knight | July 15, 2008 1:47 PM

Yeah, they are great for learning how to kill people and stomp on mushrooms. Valuable skills indeed.

I'll admit, though, Rock Band is fun as hell.

' "Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory." '

Posted by: 9/11 survivor (sort of) | July 15, 2008 12:00 PM

Uh, that's kind of the point, dude. It's called getting ****** up for a reason. Like Chris Rock said, "they don't want you doing your drugs, they want you doing THEIR drugs". Legalize it.

Since Craig's theme was scandals, I thought I'd pass along this small article about our attorney general investigating two wind farm companies. Apparently, in New York State even clean energy is dirty.

But please notice that the accused companies are from Connecticut and Massachusetts. That's what NY communities get for doing business with Red Sox Nation. (Just kidding RR.)

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/07/14/daily16.html?f=et55&ana=e_du

The final round in the MSNBC Democratic Veepstakes is up

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24764369/

Clinton vs. Biden

Now I wonder what that cover would look like if Don Adams drew it...or the guy who does spy vs. spy?

Posted by: Bear | July 15, 2008 1:48 PM

.--. .-. --- .... .. .- ... .. ... -.. . .- -..

--- -.- --..-- .. .-- .. .-.. ... .... ..- - ..- .--. -. --- .--

"But please notice that the accused companies are from Connecticut and Massachusetts. "

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. -- John Heywood

Champ said..."Yeah, they are great for learning how to kill people and stomp on mushrooms. Valuable skills indeed."

Once, in the grocery store, I made a similar comment to a young male checker. His reply..."Well, it would take a special person to be stupid enough to try that in real life"....or words to that effect. He has an excellent point.

One of my degrees is in teaching remedial and developmental reading. When it became clear to me that the school would not be teaching my son to read, I began working on it myself. He reads beautifully today, and is never without a book that he's currently reading. (Just finished Michener's The Drifters yesterday, and has now moved on to a Bradbury book.) One of the best things I ever did was buy him a video game system. It helped immensely with his tracking ability, which is essential to reading.

Maxtrue,

1. republicans have lost every war since 1898. Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Iraq Fiasco I, Somalia, and Iraq Fiasco II. Lately, mccainbushcheney has developed a cowardly policy of appeasing north korea. This is not a record to inspire confidence. If we don't start using some common sense, we will also lose in Afghanistan.
2. republicans armed Ayatollah khomeini, saddam hussein, and armed and trained bin laden and the taliban. US citizens should not have to keep shelling out to correct the disasters brought about by republican insistence on arming America's enemies.
3. In his 2000 campaign, bush claimed the US couldn't win a 2 front war. "Hang on!" he told the military, "help is on the way!" He also said help was on the way to New Orleans.
4. bush chose to make a 2 front war, despite his campaign rhetoric. Due to his, cheney's and rumsfeld's failures of sanity, sobriety, and integrity, respectively, we have lost all our armed forces' original hard won gains. The troops were too few, too ill-equipped, and were made to implement one cockeyed 'plan' after another. Now the troops are tired and short of working equipment. In 5 years, republicans squandered over $1 TRILLION in Iraq, and have nothing to show for it but al Malaki and a half million graves. $1TRILLION is enough to give 4 Million kids free Ivy League educations, give away 40 Million e85 hybrids, give away 2 Billion (20 per American household) 4'X8' solar panels, or give 3,333 prizes to inventors of better batteries.
5. We know from several of bush's speeches that his military strategies are given to him by Jesus in the middle of the night. There are names for people who have those sorts of experiences. 'republican' is only one of them.
6. Now, the republican's Great Iraqi Hope, al Malaki, demands a timetable for US withdrawal - rather like Obama. Apparently, republicans believe al Maliki doesn't understand Iraq any better than Obama does. So, what are republicans going to do, now that your precious, democratically-elected leader has said he wants us gone? Replace al Maliki with Nguyen Van Thieu?
7. The fundamental problem in Iraq is the republican insistence that Iraq remain a single polity populated with three ethnic groups that hate each other. Until the US recognizes that trying to force the Kurds, Shi'ites, and Sunnis to WANT to live together is futile, the republican Iraq Fiasco can only lead to bankruptcy.
The surge is a farce, because the Iraqis will restart their civil war as soon as we leave, whether that is tomorrow or in a century.
8. The fundamental problem with the Afghanistan operation has been US inattention, an ongoing poor understanding of the the country and its peoples, and a failure to address the astonishingly high level and effectiveness of corruption within Karzai's government. That and the fact that republicans let al qaeda and taliban leaders get away combine to make our continued presence in the country a matter of conjecture.
9. The Administration has changed its own stories so often: on the origins of the conflicts, what we intend, how the plans are working, armor for the soldiers and marines, vets medical care, ToraBora, the role of Musharef's Intel Service, halliburton, yellowcake, the 2 ice cream trucks, disappearances, the gulag, torture, spying on Americans, friendly fire, the missing billions, al Malaki's other ally, Iran, the importance of bin laden, al qaedda, and the taliban, and who Chalabi is, that republicans just can't be trusted anymore on any topic. republicans never tell the truth.
10. Meanwhile, for practical purposes, US borders and ports were left unguarded by the republican experts on national security.
11. If Big Oil and republicans want more of the same, they should buy their own army, send it over to Iraq under the leadership of hand-picked buffoons like rumdumb, and see if any ever come back alive. But, don't make the American people, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren pay for republican delusions, DTs, and mendacity.
13. 2 years ago, republican Senate Majority Leader bill frist talked about power sharing with the taliban. Where was your 'patriotic' indignation then?
14. republicans trashed President Clinton for being soft on north korea. By comparison, the recent, sissified mccainbushcheney appeasement of north korea makes Bill Clinton look like a tower of power.
Summary: republicans combine dishonesty with incompetence to such a high degree that it is dangerous to elect them to positions of responsibility. You never know who they are arming or who they are detaining. The only thing we can say with certainty is that the country will go under the bus whenever a republican gets into the White House.

"Clinton vs. Biden"

Biden simply for the comic relief an Obama administration will need.

So now i'm worried that I came down too hard on Nick, especially in deleting all of his comments. Was that too harsh? What's the group-think on this?

So when exactly when were you a republican, xrep? 1860-1897?

And yeah, harbor, maybe you're right. I've seen some pretty sick video games, though, and they are the most popular ones. Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, Gears of War, Rainbow Six, Hitman... some really sick ****. Supervision is the key, I suppose. What's the saying? Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public?

OH NO-
Is Craig flip-flopping ? : )
(maybe it's contagious)
-g

Was that too harsh? What's the group-think on this?

Posted by: Craig Crawford | July 15, 2008 4:00 PM

No, it was extreme yesterday. You didn't block him all together right? You are a very nice man Craig. Lighten up on yourself and thanks for calming the situation down. ;0)

A cooling down period is preferable to a total Fritzing.

I am sorry, everyone, for my attack of prolix. Once it started I just couldn't quit.

Stop me before I do it again!

Someone asked if McCain has a facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/johnmccain

Republicans suck (but I don't think the Democrats are much better.)

Too bad the Green Party squandered so much capital with the dreadful Mr. Nadir, especially the second run.

Craig

He was out of control and needed an intervention. I hope he takes the opportunity to calm down and return. He was a bit hard edged and always walks the line but I also like some of the contributions he made.

Jack

It's your house, Craig... house rules.

It's a tough call, I don't envy your position. I wouldn't sweat it too much. It speaks to your character that you're concerned. You got a job(s) and what-not, you can't police the forum all day. I wouldn't want a whole load of venom on my blog either, but in an open anonymous internet forum, what can you do?

Last time someone talked like that to me in my house, the actual physical house I live in, I grabbed him by the shirt collar and threw his ass out. Something to be said for respect.

It seemed as if the were other factors influencing his behavior, and hey, we all have tough days, me included lately, but Jack and I and maybe a few others tried to talk him down, and he didn't want to have any of it. Hopefully he's doing OK.

Hope you feel better Nick. You just have to take a deep breath sometimes. I'd recommend smoking a joint and/or going for a bike ride, though some may disagree, law enforcement at the forefront. Sometimes impaired memory and reduced coordination are the least of your/my problems.

However, Craig, with exrepublican, maybe...........

;-0

Jack

What Jack and Champ said on the Nick issue.
Like them, I hope he takes a deep breath, gets back his sense of humor and returns.

Champ...I totally agree with your 4:01 post. There are some dreadful games available...but not in this house. Supervision and the teaching of family values to your children is important, methinks....

You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously. EFF has fought for your right to speak anonymously on the Internet, establishing legal protections in several states and federal jurisdictions, and developing technologies to help you protect you identity. With your support, EFF can continue to defend this right, conducting impact litigation to establish strict standards to unmask an anonymous critic in more jurisdictions.

You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential. In Apple v. Does, EFF is fighting to establish the reporter's privilege for online journalists before the California courts. With your support, EFF can defend news bloggers from subpoenas seeking the identity of confidential sources in more jurisdictions.

http://w2.eff.org/br/

Electronic Freedom Foundation

Yes, I think it was too harsh. As a non-participant in the fireworks, it seemed as if people were talking past each other--there was simply no communication. The result was the ugliness that we all wished we hadn't seen.

Afterwards, the comments from other participants seemed sanctimonious in that they told Nick everything was going to be fine if he simply changed his behavior. That set things off again. It would have been much better if people had just let things die a natural death without all the accompanying drama.

Nick had worthwhile comments; I miss his presence.

Craig,

I never let people into my place of business if they called me a nazi or said FiretrUCK YOU!

There is a wide world out there for him to befoul. Alternatively, there are psychologists or psychiatrists who might be able to give him assistance.

You really don't need the custom of abusive people, do you?

Flautus makes a good point, there was the original dustup between Nick and Jamie and then much piling on from people whose only interest is to inflate themselves.

KGC,

Don't make me remind you of the Nader legacy again! He's an American hero...

Champ

I agee with you he accomplished many things but he stayed too long at the dance and this third run with Matt Gonzales is turning him into Harold Stassen.
Plus did you read his book on parenting???????

All the innuendo really gets to me. If I have said something in here that affronts one's sensibilities or is inappropriate or self-aggrandizing from your perspective, I would like to know. I have pretty thick skin and I want to be a better person.

Thanks.

Lucky for you all, it's nap time. Siesta! (Siesta means 'nap', right?)

Yes, it was too harsh, as others here have done the same or worse..

as dog says.. just saying

ok completly ignorant but who is Don Adams ?

Bear,

In a question to Craig at 1:06 you said:

"the embarrassing fact that New York Republicans chose financial gain over an expediant rebuilding of the building there will also be an issue?"

I know the rebuilding has been poorly handled and I have no idea of all the facts in this case, but I'd submit to you that anything that gets slowed down in New York City probably has both Democrats and Republicans who can share the blame. NYC occasionally elects Republican mayors, but I'd still say it's a Democratic stronghold. It's hard to believe it was only Republicans choosing to enrich themselves, but some of our NYC brethren may be able to reinforce either your statement or mine.

So now i'm worried that I came down too hard on Nick, especially in deleting all of his comments. Was that too harsh? What's the group-think on this?

Posted by: Craig Crawford | July 15, 2008 4:00 PM

Ok before I reply I want to make it clear that I have had a horrible day, basically went ballistic at work and really hate what I do and where I live...

Having said that....

Hell no Craig... I would have ripped him a new one. People who are being so rude do not need to be coddled. If they cannot offer anything positive at all, but insults and personal attacks, it only demeans the blog and the participants.

On a calmer day I would say "it's sad, but it was necessary. But I hope Nick relaxes and comes back with a new approach because he contributes to the discussion" TOMORROW this would be my answer.

Having said that, when we are acting like petulant little brats we can expect to get a virtual "trip to the woodshed". If this blog disintegrates into "drive by postings" the community and the participates suffer.

I could say more, but I don't want to... I wouldn't have wasted time editing anything... if it was overboard I would have tossed the messages.

Cheers,

One CRANKY EuroTom who is starting wonder just how "European" he really is... but that's another story.

my latest honey do project

http://showyourgarden.blogspot.com/

Ah, whskyjack,

I'll bet you are still angry about my 14 point rant. Or, maybe it is my occasional use of acerbic diction.

I've always tried to be a nice boy, but sometimes I fall short of the mark. I'm never actually bad, just sometimes, uh...not nice.

I like to think of myself as a lovable rascal rather than as a disgusting nutjob blowhard, or a miserable howling ninnihammer. I always try to leave those offices to others with more experience.

Anyway, I like YOU. ( :>( ]

I came here from a blog where any sort of criticism of Barack Obama, no matter whether it was offensive or not, was blocked. So the idea of censorship really bothers me. The fact is, people these days are too easily offended; and once you draw a line, it doesn't always tend to stay in the same place.

LOL@ xrepublican

jeejee it wasn't anything to do with criticism of candidates. It was about abusive tirades against others here, myself included.

I like dog's comment. I don't like enabling abuse...

It's just not right.

Anyway, here is a video that I think really shows the level of intelligence many of my customers have at my gas station in Belgium...

http://www.wnwo.com/news/video.aspx?id=159180

I think people should be able to post under whatever name they want or anonymously or under 100 different names.

People only want a name so they can label the poster and pass over what they say "o never mind it's just another deadender or whatever."

As for attacks --just saying -- take a look closer to home.

I respectfully disagree...

Most of the abuse comes from posters with names

ET, were you talking about the pit bull video? If so, I didn't know they had rednecks in Europe...

And, Dog, it was that jerk Olbermann's blog. No one really said anything other than question Obama's experience, & a few objected to their remarks about Hillary & Chelsea. Now, nothing gets through unless it's praising either Obama or Himself.

That's actually how I found this place. I noticed that Craig hadn't been on in a while, & I remembered he was from CQ politics. I like it so much better here, it's better maintained, & the people are more informed, seems like.

Craig....
it's your blog..... you can do what you want.... I do think Nick got way out of line and as other's have pointed out..... the ensuing "piling on" was almost as equally tasteless......
I do hope he comes back.....

as for posting anonymously..... if I recall.... Craig said he would no longer allow anonymous posts that gave a fake email address...... I read that to mean as long as you give a valid email address, post as whomever you wish to be....

Seriously, this time. I don't want to hurt fellow commentator's feelings. Not even Nick's, although he's been fairly mean-spirited to me and it had nothing to do with his family. And, his attacks on others were uncalled for and rude in the extreme.

Many years ago I cut out and saved a New Yorker cartoon in which 2 men sat at a bar and i said to 2,
"I was no match for his keen acerbic wit, so I socked him one."

If I get too 'colorful' in my diction, or out of line in the way I address people, you can just say so. I think I can change. I don't need to be socked, I don't think.

Anyway, I first came here because it was a blog where comments appeared written primarily by literate people with thinking capacity, rather than by fbomb-tossing louts, who taunt each other as baby murderers and nazis, or spread race or religious hate. It took some time for me to adjust to such civility. And, even before I finally came on, I'd lurked for months. It's nice to be here. Let's all be controversial, kind, and happy.

ETom..... sorry you had such a bad day.....
I remember you posted that you might be getting another business very shortly.... what happened?..... sorry if it didn't work out.....

KGC.... abuse coming from posters with names...... you mean like dog just not being able to help herself with doing ad hominem attacks on at least one of us if not all of us collectively every day......

RebelliousthedeadenderRenee

I am off to bed... About Nick... I think Jamie, Sheila and myself were very conciliatory... trying to offer some advice to cool down and don't take everything personally. Suddenly we became the bad guys and that just wasn't the tone or message that was being offered. I've had to be told to "calm down" before.. good ness knows I could have used such advice when I was in dispute at work today. Nonetheless, I accepted criticism that was offered in a kind way, and I believe we were kind. I was taken aback by Nick's response because we were trying to help.

I am VERY tired and need to sleep... I hope tomorrow is not as horrible as today has been

Goodnight.

"Flautus makes a good point, there was the original dustup between Nick and Jamie and then much piling on from people whose only interest is to inflate themselves."

That's exactly what happened, KGC.

Hey RR
Here's a glass of Gnarley Head old vine zin

It's minor because for the most part I skip over the endless posts about who should be posting what -but I find that much more annoying then tthe so-call attacks.

Sweet dreams EuroTom.

I've gotta feed the Sweetie, now.

'Night all!

" like dog's comment. I don't like enabling abuse...

It's just not right."

ROFL -- been paying attention to who is enabling abuse, Tom?

9/11

"There are about a dozen set ups that could lead only to the words "I'd have to say the joke's on her".

Lost my heart but what of it?
My mistake I agree.
he's a joke, but I love it
because the joke's on me.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115731

What exrepublican said.

plus
I like the dialogue and the exchange in ideas. This is not an ordinary blog where a post is made and that is the conversation of the day. Off topic seems to be more on topic than the post of the day. I like that because it means I have all of these eyes and ears that bring me interesting things.

Jack

Well, as far as the Nick war goes, here's what I think. I'm not voting Nick off the island even if he calls me an ugly, old, bitter, hag, rethuglican bitch. Of course, others have done just that. And I never asked that they or their posts be removed.

Nor would I ask to have him kicked off if he starts half his posts with how "you people just don't get it" and "you people need to...." Comments which I find more insidiously personal that the straight ahead f-you. Although others do so frequently and I don't ask that their posts be removed.

And if someone is offended by anything I say, be my guest to say "screw you." It will slide right off my back as easily as a FISA question off Obama's.

You know why? because Obama doesn't give a damn what his critics think and neither do I.

And that's it in a nutshell.

Face book McCain Supporter : 167,897

Face book Obama Supporters : 1,146,436

That is a very striking delta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDSh5wUtXt4

What happened???

What did I miss?

jeejee,

Question for you. if a crime fighter fights crime and a fire fighter fights fires, what does a freedom fighter fight?

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

Obama has to "care" when the criticisms gains traction...can't lose the election due to innuendo and misunderstanding.

EdVb,

On behalf of Red Sox Nation, with regards to this post,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115678

F#@#$ you!!! I would type in a middle finger but I failed typing class...lol

Odds are, those are the same Republican crooks that messed up the big dig, or who have been working on the same stretch of I 95 in CT, (between Bridgeport and NY) for the last 20 years...

And if someone is offended by anything I say, be my guest to say "screw you." It will slide right off my back as easily as a FISA question off Obama's.

What if they said, "Bend over, this is your future President?"

Craig,

As the one who unintentionally lit the fuse, I appreciated your stepping in with a "Time Out". You have created a very special blog here where we can agree to disagree and most of the time the conversation reflects that standard.

I hope that Nick will come back. He does provide excellent imput. I was shocked by his over the top reaction, language, and extending it to others who tried to settle him down, not to mention his attack on you.

Now I don't like the "one trick name" as it is impossible to have a conversation with someone when you don't even know if the name changes are the same person. There is enough disguise in the established unusual names.

Now if he and I were just sitting somewhere talking, I would tell him that whatever his trials, I can almost guarantee that most people have had some rotten event tossed their way to handle and that he shouldn't assume that his particular trials are worse than those of anyone else. Hauling around resentment and anger gets to be a darn heavy load, and he might consider dispensing with it because there is sure to be someone else who will make his load look like a tiny over night bag.

well said, Jamie.

Where Nick "went wrong" is that he didn't understand that Jamie was in no way being meanspirited in her earlier comments. It's not in her.

"What did I miss?"

Bear, Craig asked for comments re: what happened with Nick.

Xrepublican, answered point by point……

1. While Democrats have been great wartime Presidents, your generalization overlooks the fact Eisenhower, an winning force in WW2 was Republican, Bush 1 achieved his goal in the first Gulf War and Reagan is often quoted by Obama. You simply cannot find a recent President who was very victorious and your attempt to generalize misses the point. I could go on about what the Democrats have done since JFK and Clinton giving the green light for the Russians to arm and transfer dangerous technology to Iran would be one point. If you are suggesting your generalization means we lose in Iraq, you are wrong and the failure in Afghanistan is directly related to lack of international sup[port and Pakistan.

2. Republicans also armed Israel and this thread would be too long to go into what positive things Republicans have done. Though I am not a Republican, to lay the blame on them is pretty funny. Carter armed OBL. I can play that game too xrepublican.

3. This point is confused so I won’t respond. If you think Democrats would expand the military more than Republicans dream on.

4. First Flatus can tell you how we went from fighting one major war and a holding action on the other side of the world. And Reagan built up the potential. Democrats were quite happy to reduce our force to get that “peace dividend”. Your history lesson is lacking, dude. Oh yeah, a half a million dead and nothing to show for it. Proof of your facts? One reason polls show Americans do not think Democrats are as strong on national defense is because of suggestions like yours. Yes take taxpayers money and redistribute it away from defense spending. We certainly didn’t win any wars doing that. But I will let your slanted history alone for now..

5. Absurd BS.

6. What garbage. If Maliki asked for the US to stay in Iraq for a decade you would blast him. You cherry pick rumors to support your position. The simple truth is that Bush stood by Maliki and Iraq is turning the corner. If you had your way, US deaths would have already been in vain. Try and talk your way out of that fact. The idea was to bring stability to Iraq despite the fantasy of the Left that we went to steal oil and put in place a puppet government. Maliki lives because US soldiers died. You don’t think he knows that?

7. Wrong, the world and Iraqi nationalists do not want Iraq broken up. Juan Coles said the Sunnis would never work with the Kurds. Wrong. Then the Left said Maliki would never go after militant Shia. Wrong. We are far from finished but even dear BO has taken off the slogan “surge isn’t working” from his website. Until the Us recognizes your position you will rant as well as your predictions. Funny, Obama refutes you by saying that IF WE LEAVE IRAQIS WILL COME TOGETHER. Now who is right, you Obama or me? LOL

8. You are wrong again about Afghanistan. Our inattention? .You obviously have not read the Hitchens article. Afghanistan is an international affair and NATO promised far more troops. You miss the events in Pakistan just like Obama. You simplify to promulgate your myths. The base for the Taliban and AQ is now in Pakistan. France and the Brits have been begging the West to put more effort in Afghanistan. If you look at the history, you would see that. The Democrats hailed the 4G warfare that routed the Taliban. They loved not sending lots of troops. They said little when NATO didn’t live up to their promises and many nations refused to be near combat

9. Republicans never tell the truth. Like Democrats keep their story straight. Sanctions against Saddam are killing Iraqis. Don’t invade, the sanctions were working. I can point out the litany of Democratic contradictions if you want. Both Parties can’t keep their story straight, but you are simply partisan.

10. LOL, Democrats aren’t big on Northern and Southern border security. Have we been attacked? Again you make a sweeping generalization as though the Democrats would be doing such a fine job.

11. Now you’re just silly. If you understood the history, you would know BIG OIL didn’t want an invasion of Iraq. They thought it would destabilize the market. You are just ranting like a high schooler. Clinton started the push for regime change and Zinni prepared the military to do it. You started with how tough the Democrats are and end with the very reasons their national security resume is thin these days. Bush removed the Taliban and AQ from Afghanistan. That they are returning to an extent is an international failure. Bush got India and Pakistan to back off confrontation and Musharraf got more bad guys than anyone else. Democrats supported the present regime that makes Musharraf look very tough against militants. Bush got Gaddafi to blink and is working to prevent escalation in Korea. Even Obama has commended Bush on that one. The Adminsitration lead the push for sanctions against Iran which the NIE has singled out as the main reason Iran has slowed or stopped their quest for nukes. It has been the prospect of retreat that has made them move out of the box. Bush has fought pirates and terrorists in Somalia and pushed hard for intervention in the Sudan. He removed Saddam and although blowing the upper hand which I deplored, at least he talks about victory rather than those on the Left that said IRAQ IS LOST. Yes? Iraq is lost? I could go on, but time forbids it.

12. Frist echoed what Musharraf was talking about. He tried some deals which brought sharp criticism from Democrats. Now Dems champion talking to the enemy. What crap. Musharraf was blasted for making deals. Remember? The new government makes far more deals. They are hurting us in Afghanistan. So the lesson? Talking and deals often produce shit. Negotiations must be backed up by resolve, strength and cleverness. Even then a deal is often hard to achieve.

13. Clinton almost bombed NK. He made a deal which lasted for awhile and then the NK broke it. You now rant about NK. What do you want to do, invade NK? And you’re calling Republicans sissies? You have lost your mind. You ought to cheer Bolto, he’s your man on NK..

Thus your summation, foolish and unsupported. Whatever points the Republicans are worthy of being criticized for goes under the bus in your bizarre Kossian rant. Next time try using some facts. Obama wants to send Iraqi forces into Afghanistan, cut defense spending and missile defense. He wants to talk to the Mullahs as they race towards the bomb. He flips and flops and flips again, He is an empty suit looking to influence today’s polls. The Democrats are confused on national security and foreign policy. They run on NOT BUSH and Pelosi/Obama is likely to hurt our resolve far more than Bush hurt our reputation. One incompetent, does not deserve another. It is time to defend the center and reject the political extremes. Unfortunately, Obama’s pivot to center is about as genuine as his mother was conservative.

maxtrue,

check please!

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

I'd like a table in a non- sensor area

XREPUBLICAN left me a post with many comments. I took the time (and I have been quite busy) to answer every one of them.

While Champ might be the only one at the moment to appreciate my responses, I think those taking facts seriously can find much truth. Did a single Democrat call for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan at the start? Has one Democrat blast international efforts and NATO in Afghanistan?

Don't worry, this will become clear as November approaches. The media will be forced to come clean with many facts they presently filter.

If I could hand you the check I would......

"The media will be forced to come clean with many facts they presently filter."

Don't hold your breath for that, Max.

Max

As one of two people I have used in appropriate language on, let me say this post as you wish.

I understand your need to answer point for point but I must admit That post had me going cross eyed after the first paragraph.

But more power to ya. It would take me several days to write such a piece.
*chuckle*

Jack

Lacy J Dalton ~ 16th Avenue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbmrqfQDco

16th Avenue -- excellent choice, Jack.

Ray Price ~ Better Class of Losers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg5tnlVeOP4

KGC....
Gnarley Head is one of favorites old vine zins..... and one of the cheaper ones in these parts....

Bear..... in a post waaaaay up above..... you mentioned buying stock in companies such as Fannie Mae and Mack because you thought it would turn around in 18 months....... that is excellent news!... it means you plan on still being with us then.....

well..... I say....... Patsi For President!

Craig,

I might have disqualified myself to weigh-in on your Nick-decision because I zoomed past when I saw the tone and tenor of the discussion. Seemed like it was an "off day" for him and I assumed there was something "going on" that didn't meet the eye. That said, your management of this site is superb. It's completely within your purview to keep our discourse at a level which represents you and reflects your professionalism... it is your name and photo on the masthead, after all.

Craig.......from what I've seen of you on television and here on this blog I have utmost confidence in the ultimate "fairness" of your actions concerning this blog.

what does not kill the blog makes it stronger.

--Wilhelm Friedrich Geechee

Most of the abuse comes from posters with names

Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker Author Profile Page | July 15, 2008 5:14 PM

Thank you KGC.
It's about time someone said that.

Another Obama lie: The Pile on continues

"The man is incapable of telling us a true thing about himself. Lie after lie after lie.

Did Obama Really Work His Way Through College And Harvard Law School?

But "worked his way" through college and law school? The only back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" having to do with a construction job he had one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm.

Unless Obama had a good bit more employment than his spokesman was able to describe for us, it's a real stretch to claim he "worked his way" through school."

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/another-obama-l.html

I wasn't going to say something. This is about Nick and I don't think he should be "Fritzed" either.

But what Patsi said? Is misrepresenting a situation that was out of control. And as Jack has said in the last week, conversational posting is the hardest to understand.

So Patsi, since you always have a habit of making me seem evil, I'll clear this one up.

I stepped into a crazy situation on defense of Jamie, who I have known for years now. Since she is not my enemy and despite what some think here, I am a member of this blog, I made a very humane plea for Nick to calm down. Anyone wants to revisit, be my guest.

My "meltdown and this is hilarious" was after I was called something "Hugely" derogatory and simply so over the top I was blown into the next country.

Now I never piled on Nick. I DID however try and defend my Friend Jamie,.

So Patsi and others, I would again and I will again. Nothing so over the top would keep me from defending friends. Even your at disapproval.

Jamie didn't deserve it, Tom didn't and I was blown away by His attack on Jack....wow. Nick needed a time out.

I really care about anyone like Nick. I have a history of inclusion here and have proven it add nauseum for even Patsi. I don't need to be vilified by Patsi or Flatus or anyone here.

That is all

shut up, bonehead.

ROFL Renee -- I'm afraid public office is something I have never aspired to....and figure my candidacy would be something equivalent to the Titanic in search of an iceberg!

LOL

God,
what a place!

lol

Jack

Wow - a veritable smorgasbord of comments to comment on!!!!!Goody goody!!!!!!!!

Max and xrep - i really enjoyed your back-and-forth. Interesting and no nasty asides. That's what makes this a great blog. Max, I am also a little perturbed at Obama's foreign speechifying and not paying attention to his work here. I DO understand why he's doing it and understand the rationale and agree it makes sense. I'm just not sure it shouldn't wait till after he's elected. The voters are here and he should be talking here - maybe I feel as if he's avoiding us. That's just
my opinion, not an accusation.

Jeejee - I can just imagine what KO's blog is like and prefer to not think about it any more. He is a very unstable man.

Re Nick - I don't think anybody piled on Nick. So far I haven't noticed anybody here, except for the driver-byers, who try to inflate their importrance. I think everyone wanted to calm Nick down by not ignoring him and showing concern that he was so upset.

Most of us know little about each other. My reaction to the first angry retort was that it might blow over. When it didn't, I wondered if Nick had just too much to drink. After that, I decided it was booze or a horribly painful emotional problem. I think I shut up then because I frankly felt incapable of helping. I noticed others still responding and was glad of it. You guys who have been here a while know more about each other and I trusted your judgement. I still do.

Craig - I thimk it's your call. You deleted the other stuff Nick wrote before I could read it, but I'm very sorry he wanted to keep it up , as he apparently did. I hope Nick is lurking and reading all this today so he will at least read that no hurt or harm was meant to him, altho he may not believe it. I think basically we were flummoxed and felt helpless - we didn't know what he was trying to tell us.

I fully believe everyone here could tell that Nick was
experiencing great pain, and hoped we could help him. He was fun to communicate with most of the time, but
his sarcasm could be off-putting AND THAT'S TRUE OF US ALL. In other words, he is missed and I hope he'll come back.

Craig - if your actions in deleting all his comments keep him from returning, so be it. Maybe you could have left some of the old ones on the blog, but I won't fault you for it. If you have his email address, or anybody does, maybe he can be contacted.

Well, I think I've been pontificating long enough, don't you? Hope I didn't go so far as to be santimonious -ugh.

I don't remember who it was who asked for something funny - think it might have been Alicia. Try this:

www.angryalien.com (NO, it's not about immigrants-
my reccomendation is 'Jaws.

Really can be a fun place Jack.

Patsi you just made my night. Now THAT was hilarious.

Craig -- I've been in your shoes. For what ever reason, sometimes people just don't know how to behave, then you need to take an action that helps them regain self-control.

As the moderator of about 15 different yahoo groups, I tend to take the hands-off approach most of the time. Once in a while, it is necessary to be more pro-active. Yahoo allows for moderating certain members so they can't post anything without approval from a moderator. There is also the option to ban members who still won't follow the rules. I've had to do this a couple of times and in each case I was able to un-ban the person after a cooling off period.

It's not fun, and I know you take no pleasure in it. I saw just a bit of your dialog with Nick as you kept deleting his comments. I've had to do the same and sometimes I have questioned my own decisions about banning people. I don't like being the cop. However, you need to remember that it is your blog and you don't want it to turn into a place where people do not feel safe to hold a lively discussion. We want to have dissenting views, respectfully shared with good will to all. I don't mind a little snarkyness and the occasional withering insult.

When the discussion gets heated to the point of f-bombing fellow posters and making threatening personal attacks, then it's time to cool it down.

You can let Nick know that he can come back when he feels better.

Wow, the Trail Mix Council is wise as ever. Thanks so much for your input. My conclusions: A) I was wrong to delete all of Nick's comments. I've never done that before and I apologize to you Nick; B) I am absolutely determined to keep the option for anonymous posting; C) I do want the good Nick to come back.

Meeting adjourned.

Hey Craig
I don't think i can tell you about what is right or wrong in the matter regarding Nick.It is your Blog and your name here!!!I will say that i very much like what Nick contributes here.Some of the links and info he has posted have been wonderful.I will say it was very hard watching Jamie being talked to to like that without jumping in,hated it.It was A-ok though because Jamie showed herself to be the person i first commented to on this blog,I told her how respectful she was of others especially of those who treat her with disrespect.Oh if their was more folks like her in the world.......Please come back Nick your needed here too..

Well there you go Craig.

Nick hope you come back soon and feeling better. There are friends here.

HAWKSHAW HAWKINS-DOG HOUSE BOOGIE

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

Tony,

Just wanted to send my appreciation of your comment on my piece over aT Baby Blog. Thanks!

Whoa - when I said the back-and-forth was interesting, I hadn't read Max's nex comment.

Max - I guess I'll just have to make a commitment to not reading your comments. I know that's making you shiver in your boots - just setting my record straight. I really don't like your personal comments to whomever you're answering. Names like "pussy" are tiresome to me. What really bothers me is that I enjoy your comments when you are talking from your brain, but when you speak from a different part, you wear me down immediately.

MEDIA ALERT: That's just my opinion and I'm entitled to it. I used no harsh or abusive language, but realize I might get some in return. It is what it is.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115781

Yea! Hate speech lives! Nick please come back!

Crawford uber alles!

june carter cash with homer and jethro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLe2cPYwRv0

blog running is probably a piece of cake...........try being a bandleader sometime for a pack of drunken ne'er-do-wells, misfits, cranks and drug-addled crackpots who all hate each other and are only together because they all happen to be able to manipulate a musical instrument and think the world owes them a living............sartre wrote a beauteous play about that situation......"No Exit"

(lol)

Craig, I haven't been able to read all the posts today so forgive me for repeating a compliment so late in the day re: your very insightfulness: "If the point was to ridicule right wing smears, why not do cover art depicting Rush Limbaugh painting the cartoon." After reading your comment, all I think about today was the Norman Rockwell painting where he's sitting in front of the easel and painting himself from a mirror. Have a good day everyone -- enjoy the ball game tonight as comic relief!

busted.

lol

june carter and hank williams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLFfHRTA9mc

June does a great job as a clown in this one.

Jack

I said, " Sebelious and McCaskill are examples of the future women of the Democratic Party. We have a great future indeed!

Yeah, Shelia, great future, my comment stands. I am sorry however, I did not make myself clearer. There has been talk about Sebilious for VP. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. I stand corrected if I implied you were gung ho for Selbilious for VP.

Anyone confused about who Tiller is? And after that remark by Sebilious, I wouldn't be surprised to see her re-election problematic considering the state she hails from.

Boop, not sure I could be comfortable with the FLipping and flooping going back to 2004. At this point

a. It is the low political road, confusing at best and often wrong from waxing hawk to waxing dove.

b. It is insulting to HRC supporters who had to listen to BO call her untrustworthy for such positions and calculations. SECRET: Hillary thought Iraq would stabilize by GE and did not want to ever select an option that would have made our losses in vain. She is the true center/Left, not Obama and his tactic was foul as he claimed the honest high road.

c. He can't stop from putting his foot in his mouth. He will over rule Patraeus? Yeah, right. By November, he can't say Iraq is lost and despite Pats disbelief (I understand why) media will be forced to examine Obama's position on Afghanistan and Pakistan. His policy papers and writing things in stome will come back to roost. He will not win military support with the ideas he is spouting.

Craig, good call. I wish you would make a stand however, on the Fairness Doctrine and the Freedom of Press bill. Until we all take on the elitie media and how they have distorted public debate, Americans will remain ill informed.

Boop

The bunnies are wonderful.

Casablanca by the bunny troup

http://www.angryalien.com/0506/casabunca.asp

thanks Max,

Biden Forever! ;0)

Mongo

That sounds like most of the bar bands out there. Just get enough money to make it through the week until next friday. Play for money and drinks.
Had a friend that did that for years,
Ran of the road one night after playing and that was that.

Jack

Craig, I am only responding in a general sense about Nick but it is hard to enforce anything on a blog without making it seem personal since everything is so public. The best method would be a warning, Which you did and then consequences if it happens again; in this case a day off would be good.
Deleting the posts was not neccesary--an edit would have done the job.
You do a great job considering the high number of responses and that we are talking about politics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDSN1F72QU4

how much time does editing take?

Allright boop, you asked for it, here you go:

You already told Max you were ignoring him. Do it or don't; the declarations are unnecessary.

And Viva la 'Hate Speech', mommy. The First Amendment wasn't designed to protect warm, fuzzy, inoffensive speech. Move to France where they throw your ass in jail if someone is offended by what you say.

I guess it took me a while to write that.

Bethy......

dammit..... now I'm hooked on that angryalien site........ ROFL!

here's my favorite....... so far.....

http://www.angryalien.com/0705/rhpsbuns.asp

sturgeone

You are the best!

Don't forget to vote in the MSNBC veepstakes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24672458/

"And after that remark by Sebilious, I wouldn't be surprised to see her re-election problematic considering the state she hails from."

Max
Winning by 60% ain't bad for a Democrat in Kansas.

You had better learn more about Kansas politics Max.
The former AG decided to procecute Teller, note he is now the former procecutor. He lost the election to a Democrat by around 20 points.

Kansas Republican Party is controlled by the RR. they have told all the moderates in the party to sit down and shut up. Instead they got up and walked out. They took over the Democratic party. It's not like the Democrats were using it anyway.
Things they are a changing.

Jack

KGC......if so, only when you leave the room...........

Boo -- Thanks for posting the angry alien site, That's very funny!

I see old Ilya Kilyarkin is handling dead body parts and bones on tv now........

Sturgeone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbdSnVOc9ew

"They took over the Democratic party. It's not like the Democrats were using it anyway.

Jack"

lol-g1

take two: Toody and Muldoon........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsSAysEEug&feature=related

Boop

Those caablanca bunnies are just great. Thanks much.

Maybe we should all be "rank sentimentalists".

Jack.....
RR?...... oh.... you mean the Religious Right...... never mind.....

sturg..... as a teenager I was IN LOVE with Illya Kuryakin......
and I say bring back Mongo.....

candy gram for Mongo.....

Excuse me "Casablanca"

Illya Kuryakin--Me Too! Napoleon Solo may have been the lead, but it was Ilya who stole our hearts.

You think we have problems here? I just spent time around my nieces. A friend of my 9 year-old niece named Britney is having a birthday party on Friday. She invited all of my niece's friends, but she didn't invite my niece! The reason? Brittany is friends with a girl named Ashley. Ashley and my niece are also good friends. Brittany doesn't want my niece to be at the party because Ashley will be there. She wants Ashley to herself. Then the neighbor girls tonight got mad at my niece because she wanted to play with another friend named Claire, instead of them. My niece called one of the girls a jerk and the little girl came running up to the door crying. She said to me, "Cristina called me a jerk!" Who knew being a kid was so rough?

Illya Sings!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJh5Ed944AE

being a kid can be one of the toughest things someone can ever be......not every kid, but some kids....

Whatever our differences, politically, regarding who could best achieve it -- I think we all agree on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS6HQbfOE1Q&feature=related

everyone's favourite russian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NiIHtbvpLM

Champ - I reiterated my plan to not read Max's comments only because I had earlier in this blog stated I enjoyed one he wrote at the beginning of this blog. I read the first one today accidentally and was surprised to find at the end that it was from Max -- so I told him I had enjoyed it.

I felt it was justified for me to say that, altho I had enjoyed his earlier post, the next one was just another attack on the person he was responding to. We all seem to want to let each other know where we stand, and that's what I did. That's all. I don't expect him to care, or you to care. As I said, it was my opinion and I'm entitled to it and to express it.

Your post seems to suggest that you think I was wrong to say that. Who's denying whose freedom of speech?

The fourth amendment protects all speech, even warm, fuzzy, and inoffensive speech, as well as hate speech. All I said was that I personally don't like the personal attacks. I wouldn't even call them 'hate' speech. I don't like it, tho, and suspect a few other people here don't care for it, and feel it pollutes otherwise very interesting comment.

I'm really unclear re the remarks re France - are you saying there is no freedom of speech there?Are you
saying that I was offended by what Max wrote? I wasn't offended - I just didn't enjoy it. I didn't tell him to shut up, and wouldn't say such a thing.

You sounded a little bit as if you were telling me to shut up, however

As for mommy.....did your mom talk to you the way I wrote to Max? I certainly don't feel like a mom to anyone here. I suspectmany here are too old for that, even you.

I hope the mommy crack wasn't meant to be an insult, since you've never insulted me - what a shame if it was.
But as I've said before, one has to really work at it to insult me. The few I've had puzzled me, and even amused me.

Well, whatever. None of us is required to read what others have written, so I imagine no harm, not foul.

Well Thanks Jack, greatly appreciate your efforts.

I knew I liked Ilya, you just provided the video to
remind me why. Great stroll down memory lane.

Ok This is the last one, maybe.
Jack

The Man from U.N.C.L.E: The YouTube Affair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEcFQ1e4H9o

Editorial cartoon with a picture of McCain holding signs saying "Iraq" and "Tax Cuts" and labeled "Bush's Third Term". Standing next to him was a picture of Obama holding signs saying "FISA" and "Faith Based Programs". He was labeled "Bush's First Term".

Corey - I have a feeling your niece should watch out for Brittany.

no, boop, the 'mommy' reference was to another poster, 'Nick's Mommy" to be specific. Sorry for the confusion.

Allright, too much drama up in hyah. peace.

Bethy

Corey has talked about his niece before and I think Brittany is the one who needs to watch out.

Jack, You are the best.

You're really tugging at the heart strings. But it
made me smile. Memories are a great thing to share.

Coreen
I can get lost in youtube. Thanks for the ideas, I wouldn't have thought to do that search and there are a bunch of videos with the Man from Uncle as the theme.
It was a lot of fun to look and share.

Jack

I've got a couple of nieces that are 9 and 10. LOL
It is always a lot of high drama around them.

Jack

Jack....

those Uncle videos are great! thanks....

much better than watching the baseball All Star game........ which is boring as usual....

STurgeone

He's been a major character on NCIS for ages. Is this the first time it registered?

Elvin Bishop - Travelin' Shoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn43E7GXHwY

What a day it's been. My favorite strip club burned down to the ground in a fire this morning. Makes you realize how fragile life is sometimes.

Damn , Corey,

I hate it when that happens.

LOL

Jack

A little Blues to lighten the mood

Elvin Bishop - Don't Let The Bossman Get You Down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBCIeFta66Y

Barack Does Not Understand Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

"Absolutely pathetic. Rhetoric instead of understanding. His major address on Iraq today was a flop. It is bad enough that George Bush (and John McCain) has played politics with Iraq, touting the surge as the fix instead of admitting that a change in U.S. tactics on the ground achieved the progress we are witnessing in Iraq. McCain is hooking his fortunes to Petraeus, which appears to be a pretty good bet. But Barack demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding about the military and how they are being used."

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/15/barack-does-not-understand-iraq-afghanistan-and-iran/

Ilya is wonderful, but not my favorite Russian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8__iRsxG_A

Guitar solo paul butterfield blues band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gchIPjvIx6k

was channel surfing to re-inforce my lack of interest in general television fare and there he was.......

Elvin Bishop - Travelin' Shoes

EXCELLENT!!!!

General Obama

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/images/2008/07/15/obamapatton.jpg

A very good and balanced article about the posturing of both candidates on Afganistan. It is put in the context of what is happening over there.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/44372.html

Jack

KGC - yeah, the niece seemed pretty tough, too, but the territoriality of Brittany seems kinda scary. Maybe it'll be the clash of the titans in high school, huh?

My theme song - truly - is "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" - Maurice Chevalier - 'the longing to end that dull affair until you find out he doesn't care' - I know some would love to be young again, but not this woman. I wasn't very good at it last time around as it was.

Ilya Kuyakin - yet another fascinatin' man.

Any of you PBS people seen 'One Foot in The Grave'?
I'm liking it, but don't remember seeing Richard Wilson in anythin before. He's good, and Annette Crosbie is darling.

Champ - I still don't get the mommy bit - my first reaction was re Nick also.

Here is an interesting post.

http://stubbornfacts.us/politics/obama_must_be_defeated_in_order_to_take_back_the_party_and_redefine_what_it_means_to_be_a_democrat_going_forward#comment-15442

Raf is a friend and torn between McCain and Obama. Care to show him the light?

In any case, switching to Afghanistan is not the good move for Obama many think. Wait until the reasons for the trouble there are highlighted. It will shed light on Obama's bombastic predictions and prescriptions on Pakistan, his failure to identify the real cause of Afghanistan's woes and solutions as well as his checkered declarations on foreign policy. Ob=nce again, like Iraq, Obama's pretense of knowledge will give way to the pandering stances that have led him all along.

Where's NATO Obama? Where's that international funding? Where's that help from your principled moderates in Pakistan? Where's the Northern Alliance? Care to telegraph the strikes you are planning as President? Why are soldiers dying near the Iranian border? Care to applied the lesson learned in Iraq to Afghanistan. Oh, yeah, we lost Iraq and didn't learn any lessons.

Good one Barak

Have fun with that.

PAUL BUTTERFIELD / Foghat

Shake your money maker.

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

Corey

Just for those poor out of work girls

Bethy
Champ is referring to a poster who signed in as "Nick's Mother"

Posted by: Nick's Mother | July 15, 2008 7:41 PM

For those wondering why all the youtubes, the wife is out of town, I can party late and loud for the rest of the week.

Jack

Yeah Gordo. After Democrats accused Bush of playing politics with Iraq, Obama now plays politics with Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Columbia.

And after accusing Bush of not having a plan for Iraq, Obama's predictions and plans for Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq remain in fantasy land.

That is what's so distrubing. Eight years of Bush and the best the Democrats come up with is their version of Bush. To seem credible, Obama has to imitate Hillary having insulted her through the primary. How can Hillary supporters accept that? And the Democrats use the very fear mongering they loath when the Republicans use it, to drive their campaign.

What a bunch of turds. Turds to the Right of me, turds to the Left. The partisanism is simply ruining America and good people don't have the common sense to step back and stand front and center.

Boop,

Love that Chevalier song, but here's one along the same theme that is my favorite: Unfortunately the only You Tube recording is a really bad amateur performance.

Thank God I'm Old from Barnum

When you see the shape the world is in
When the way it is ain't what it's been
When folks just care for gold,
Thank God, I'm old
When you take a gander at the news
When you hear the language people use
When no sweet songs are sung
I don't wanna be young

Daddy time he
Doesn't fret me
Should he spy me
That don't upset me
Let him eye me
Come and get me
That's fine by me
Age don't worry me

When you see the way folks misbehave
When it's only good times that they crave
When kids are much too bold
Thank God, I'm old
When there ain't no He-Men left alive
When they tell you three men out of five
End up locked up or hung
I don't wanna be young.

(Dance Break)

Gonna get me dressed and powdered down
Call myself a hack and go to town
See every shady street
These feet once strolled.
Then I'm gonna slip back on the shelf
Have myself a nip and tell myself
Though my back buckles and bends
My hair's got silvery ends
When I see all of my friends
Laid out and cold
Thank God, I'm Old!

Humble Pie - I Don't Need No Doctor - 1971

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZMmV6xXYFw

The Plot Thickens: Obama's Birth Certificate

"I have previously requested a copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate. Janice Okubo, Public Information Office of the Communications office of the State of Hawaii, responding on July 3, has chosen to refuse to provide a copy of the birth certificate.

The statute specifically permits divulging birth certificate information to anyone who has a vital interest in the information."

http://mitchell-langbert.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-hawaii-manipulating-obama-related.html

jamie,

Fifty years later... the original cast of West Side Story reunites at a Gypsy of the Year rehearsal to perform live... Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera, Mickey Calin/Michael Callan, the original surviving Jets/Sharks (and girls) and Reri Grist singing Somewhere...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6gok589fVg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGPCwr2WXig&NR=1

Here it is live and onstage... poorly shot but wonderful...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjCsDezrrM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGPCwr2WXig&NR=1

jamie,

A more professionally edited take... with posts from "groverd"... the original Snowball and George Chakiris' carny partner from The Young Girls of Rochefort, Grover Dale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tO-rxHoqII&feature=related

New Yorker correspondent Jane Mayer on Cheney's Gang and America's Torture Policies
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/07/streaming_live_7/

Great interview by Steve Clemons over on the Washington Note.

Jack

You fans of reading comprehension will get a kickerino out of reading what actually is reported in both the piece and in the correction.

Little Feat Apolitical Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRSDzG5oOgc

The meanest blues of all
nite all

Jack

Jon Stewart is hysterical tonight.

OBAMA’S FAKE BIRTH CERTIFICATE

"OK, it’s time to let the genie out of the bottle., and prove, once and for all time, that the images posted on the Internet are NOT true, original copies of Obama’s birth certificate (rather “Certification of Live Birth”, or COLB), that they NEVER WERE true, original copies ...

I have also shown that all of the images on the internet are directly related to the Kos image, so if the Kos image is a fake, then all of them are fake.

It is time to stop the fraud being perpetrated on the American public. It is time to demand that Obama produce a paper record of his birth instead of carrying on this charade."

http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/obama%e2%80%99s-fake-birth-certificate-why-i%e2%80%99m-right-and-they%e2%80%99re-wrong/

Nick was over the top. There's civil and then there's Nick. This is not a shrink's office that deals with negativity.

Saw 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' tonight. Thought of you, Craig.

Watched the stock ticker for a long time. It's a blood bath out there.

Grim.

Even I can use the internet. McCain should move into the 20th Century at least. ;-) We're not asking him to write code, have a blog or do maintenance on his computer. But he doesn't know how to log in? There're 4th graders who make really nice PowerPoint presentations and send them over the tubes of the internets.

tt

tt

"Nick was over the top. There's civil and then there's Nick. "

I agree tiptoe -- but he was goaded into that over a period of time. I watched that one play out. And unfortunately, it came to a head over something that didn't warrant it.

"now we here from the queen of the Gordoites, *yawn*. "

Assume you mean "hear." Don't even try to say that was a typo.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/notes-on-a-few-scandals.html#comment-115482
==============
Jamie: When I was 10, my Dad's Boss gave him free tickets to see Doris Day & Rod Taylor in "The Glass Bottom Boat" .. we didn't have a car,. so remember us walking from Newport over the bridge to downtown Cinti, to a theater to see it ... Loved it .. went around the house singing her songs from thwe movie, until my sister complained, lol

I have her book she wrote in the late 70's I think .. telling about her life .. I hope she is truely happy now ... can understand her wanting to me left alone now ...

viv

Viv -- and don't you love the work she's done on behalf of animals? A great lady.

Rasmussen Reports: Hillary Fares Better Against McCain

"The Superdelegates at the national convention in Denver will have an opportunity to deliberate, and decide which candidate offers the best experience and knowledge (particularly in national security and the economy), as well as the best chance of prevailing against John McCain."

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/15/rasmussen-reports-hillary-fares-better-against-mccain/

"Rasmussen Reports: Hillary Fares Better Against McCain"

Gordo my shoe would do well against Mccain at this point. In fact I bet my shoe could break out of margin of error territory, unlike certain presidential candidates we could name.

Jack

Obama Alienating and Ignoring Down Ticket Democrats Already

"It's all about HIM. Obama promised superdelegates the world to back him, including large sums of cash he now seems incapable of raising. He also promised Dean/Brazile/Pelosi/Reid, he'd be a boon for down-ticket Democrats in the fall, but Politico.com is running a story that Obama's alienating and ignoring the down-ticket Democrats he claimed he'd be an incredible asset to ..."
http://hillbuzz.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-alienating-and-ignoring-down.html

Gordo

Glad to see you branching out but you need to read the comments The original story was posted this morning.

Jack

Well to the head witch and all the menopause babes, You lovely ladies in waiting. (just kidding patsi, come on girl put that pistol down, you know I love you)

Just for you

AL DEXTER-PISTOL PACKING MAMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2my6C_yIOXc

Jack

Oh well, Time to head for bed. Everyone have a great rest of your evening.

I know. HillBuzz adds to the story:

"His campaign is structured not to help the Democratic Party win, well, anything, but to help Obama and Obama only. Dean/Brazile/Pelosi/Reid's whole purpose in advancing Obama's candidacy since 2004 was to, allegedly, help down-ticket Democrats by driving a blank-slate, young candidate for president to increase voter turnout and excitement at the polls on election day. Well, if Obama isn't using his field organization to help down-ticket Democrats, as he promised, and he's not raising enormous sums of money for the DNC and down-ticket Democrats, as he promised, then why exactly, again, is he the DNC's selected nominee in 2008?"

I believe the kids like to say this when they argue with someone:

"Don't make me snap my fingers in a "Z" formation....head rotation....hip circulation...elbow, elbow......wrist, wrist.....you got DISSED!"

Thanks, KGC - I had seen that other poster and completely forgot about it.

I'm not good at figuring out the trolls etc, and am not even sure who posted that one. I do hope this works out with Nick. When someone gets as upset as Nick was, I feel very unqualified and afraid I'll make matters worse if I try to help.

KGC - it's getting downright cold at night - neat, huh?

Dyeeeeeezzzzzzz

Again outburtsts.
I must say...I love the morning crowd. Easier to handle. The camaraderie is big even if the differences are there..

Wake up everyone (inclusing strong women and weak men), I am allready here...LOL

I just read the line up for the BO denver concert...Very nice. Have to say I am impressed..... The good thing is that three major artists (all of which are my favourites) declined the invitation.......

Also heard that the Denver appearance will be the last with HRC seen as BO wants to show that he can do it (win the election) without the Clinton´s...LOVE IT!
That makes me happy. Stay out of it Hill. Take a holiday with Bill and let the man play his campaign. Lord knows what the end will be.....LOL

Do yall recall the song. "My Way" by Frank Sinatra?

The Rasmussen Poll is very interesting.

Perhaps our best chance for victory is once again..

Clinton-Gore

OD,

Saying that ticket is the best chance for winning is like saying Grady Little was right to bring Pedro back in the 8th inning of game 7 in 2003 ALCS...

hillary should distance herself as much
as possible from obama''''as for bill i don't
think he will ever forgive or forget the back stabbing
he got from dnc

hillary should distance herself as much
as possible from obama''''as for bill i don't
think he will ever forgive or forget the back stabbing
he got from dnc

Posted by: mqw | July 16, 2008 2:41 AM

AMEN!

My thoughts exactly......

Any brains to be picked re money?

A friend has a cd at Indymac - insured, but just.

He doesn't seem to be in a hurry to take the money out or take any steps since it's insured. I'm a little uneasy about that. Is that foolish?

economist say it will take a one trillion bailout to
keep the banking system solvent over the next
year. that would be taxpayer money'' mine and yours
the ceo's will probably get multi million dollar
bonuses out of the deal.

GM and ford will also be looking for a bailout
because they can't figure out to make a
fuel efficient car that people will buy

"economist say it will take a one trillion bailout to
keep the banking system solvent over the next
year."

Which economist mqw?

Some economists (and I do not mean this specific one) have the tendency to misuse their title to create or stir up negative emotions.
I am an economist and I whole heartedly disagree with this theory. In economics the most important factor is trust. That needs to be build and that cannot be measured in trillions in a span of time. And I am only talking about this specific sector.

mad money kramer said 1.2 trillion
conservative estimate
maybe he's shorting banking stocks

economist must work long hours to be up
this time of night''
how many zero's are there in a trillion

economist must work long hours to be up
this time of night''
how many zero's are there in a trillion

Posted by: mqw | July 16, 2008 4:57 AM

LOL....hahaahahha

I don´t buy the 1.2 trillion. But beofre I criticize I should read his arguments first.

Q: Why is Obama like commercials?
A: You can't believe a word he says.

Q: Why is Obama like popcorn?
A: He'll satisfy you, but only for a little while.

Q: Why is Obama like a blender?
A: You have one, but you're not quite sure why.