Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Helen Thomas rocks big time.

give em hell, helen

Wonderful,wish there were more like Helen..

Craig, I'd be pleased to pony-up the cash for copies of the book for the Prez and for Gibbs if Miss Helen could get the books to them.

uh oh. another headache for holder.

"US paid reward to Lockerbie witness, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi papers claim
Scottish detectives discussed secret payments of up to $3m made to witness and his brother, documents claim"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/02/lockerbie-documents-witness-megrahi

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/graham-slams-beck.html#comment-264302

Bethy,
It was a pleasure reading you again.I'm so glad your back,place hasn't been the same.I agree regarding KO.I watch every time Craig is on and his arrogant self is always evident.For me its still about his treatment of Hillary,no apologies here.I will say Tweety has said some nice things about Hillary since the primaries,but he still loves ole Bill to kick around..

H1N1 flu death at our local military establishment:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCIlEQZJ-PI4LMWChBeCSeSQovVgD9B2EOGG1

From what I've seen of the public facilities at Ft Jackson, places like the hospital, PX and commissary, preventive efforts are lackluster at best and pathetic at worst.

flatus, your comment and a quote from your link ("The military installation was one of many hit hard by the 1918 global flu pandemic") makes me think that things haven't changed all that much since 1918. is ft jax an exception or the rule among base hospitals?

Looked at some of the Letteman posts from last night.

My (very strong) opinion is that sex in the workplace is a despicable practice made worse if one of the participants is in a position of authority over the other.

In the military it's often a career destroyer.

And, Tony, adultery in the military is also really, really frowned upon. There's no way that the military will tolerate a soldier messing around with another soldier's spouse while that soldier is overseas.

Helen - Front Row Center getting it done...

Wish I could make the Oct event -- When is she coming to O-Town Home Town?

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-c.cgi#comment-264354

No, Pat, in recent years almost all except the most basic services have been referred either to local hospitals or to regional military treatment centers.

I think this is happening throughout the military.

It's human nature that lessons of the past are ignored as today's people are the smartest ever. As an example, sleeping head-to-foot had been the standard practice in barracks forever. But now recruits are so smart that there's little need to follow that practice.

Question - If Helen represents true Journalism and thus the American People - Why the disrespect from Gibbs and Obama and no answer to her very fair and important question?
This new Government that promised open and transparant is as big a game player as ever.. Opps but did not get the Chi Town Game...

Flatus,

How do you view the fact that President Clinton got a blowjob from Monica? Isn't that frowned on in the Military? He is CIC after all. In the Letterman case, at least no one was married at the time. And he owned up to it.

Doots, as the President was not subject to the UCMJ, and because Ms L had no military connection, it was simply a relationship that really sucked.

But, of course, it presented many life-lessons to people willing to learn from them.

Gibbs needs to keep in mind Helens voice is our voice. When he laughs at her questions hes laughing at us. Keep on them & thanks for doing so. You have all our support.

The Kid: (about the guy he just shot in the outhouse) " I guess he had it coming."

Bill Munny: "We've all got it coming, Kid....."

More on William Munny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SO5VO2ixWY

My $0.02 worth re Letterman... full disclosure; I really like Letterman. Always have.

Here's the really hilarious part to all the media coverage.. every place I've worked... in media.. radio stations, tv stations, newspapers, there have been so many work-place relationships going on I lost count. I used to think it was just broadcasting/newspapers, but I started to work for senior management at a courier company and was amazed to find out that there were many MANY in-office relationships going on. I think it has to do with spending so much time together, being in the same industry so all your conversations revolve around THAT industry, and you're either gonna meet people at work or in a bar. It makes me laugh out loud to hear these news anchors going on and on about what a shameful thing this is when I KNOW that most of them MET their significant others at work.

None of the women Letterman was involved with were minors or interns. It seems to have been years ago, and it seems to me the focus should be on the schmuck who tried to extort TWO million dollars from the guy (and threatened his child indirectly).

Good on him for going to the authorities! If he'd have settled, like some lawyers would have advised, THEN what would the chattering classes be saying????

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264353

Flatus

The H1N1 vaccine hasn't been released yet and there will still be a 10 day lag time after the shot before protected

Those over 65 may have some residual protection due to relationship to the 1918 flu. If your mother was born after 1917 go get the shot.

Thought for the day :
" It is Fortune, not wisdom that rules man`s life. "

Can we PUH-LEEZE get over Clinton's blow job? The woman was 24 years old, bragged that she was going after him, and did. As far as I'm concerned....that ain't harrassment. Letterman has always been a sexist pig, at least Clinton isn't.

Letterman's larger offense was using his first girlfriend to write his jokes and establish his show before dumping her.

1938 Eddie Cochran Okla City, rocker (C'Mon Everybody)

1955 "Captain Kangaroo" premieres, Good Morning, Captain!

Manfred the Wonder Dog.......

Great Adventure Lover, Tom Terrific:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyI-BT5OOY4

water skiing villain:

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

please to now get out your magic crayon:

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

Patsi,

your beloved Big Dawg is a pig. She may have bragged that she could get him but the fact remains he went along with it and CHEATED on your beloved HRC. Double standards are your stock and trade Ms Womens Rights Advocate.

Craig,

You couldn't have picked a better, courageous, neutral, example of what a news person is supposed to do: She is still asking all the pertinent questions for us all; regardless of which party is in power. I think that her example, is partially why you are so much more balanced than the other news people.......You would think that a lot more of the reporters in that room would stand up and take notice, and try to emulate a real news professional.!

david letterman..deserves to get what he dishes out...nothing but poor taste jokes. Defending him cos he was/is a big Obama supporter is all that is happening. Stupid politicians gave him the power to dumb the country down with his no news..... I still say that if he said-what he said about Pallins kids , about my kid...he would have a busted jaw; and would make no diff. if I paraded my kid in a campaign to be president.....lets see how many late night comics, make jokes about him for this....and for how long..

Rupert to Internet: It’s War!

By Michael Wolff

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/michael-wolff-200911?currentPage=1

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264375

Looks like you been talking to Brian, or his influence will show up now and then.....

solar,

cheap shot! I have not spoken or read anything by your favorite Brian in a very long time. As Patsi said, get over it.

Harvest Moon This Weekend: Late But Still Gorgeous

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20091002/sc_space/harvestmoonthisweekendlatebutstillgorgeous

Ok, D-

I will say that I have been enjoying your post a lot as of late....but you also have to admit that what U said to Patsi, is a lot of what went on before. There has to be a better way to tell her that you don't agree with her...or maybe your comment will bring back the old Patsi back...the no holds barred one.......if that happens...thanks

Solar,

Patsi is a big girl. She is perfectly capable of defending herself I suspect. I can speak with some authority on that as I have been taken to task by her several times.

Yes and you still aint learn't how to speak to her.....

Looks like we are going to put the pressure on Iran: The ne-con Israeli's asked us to ..so we will do it. Regardless of the truths....Itls been said that Iran will stike at Isreal, it's neighbors , or the U. S.

Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history...unlike the US or Israel, and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.

19 Chocolatiers Prep for Scrumdidlyumptious Show

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/03/us/AP-US-Competitive-Chocolate.html?ref=global-home

Dooty -- if there isany subject in the world that I would NOT listen to you about it is feminism. You don't even have a clue. And you are too old to teach now. In your little world view it's all about "sancity of marriage." Trust me, pal -- real feminists see that as way down the list.

And my beloved HRC doesn't need me moralizing and agonizing about her marriage.

Dooty, you would be one of the last men I'd listen to about feminism. With you and the rest of the "sancity of marriage" crowd, it's all about dicks.

That would be "sanctity"

...and you don't realize how it's sexist, Patsi, that you dismiss a perspective because of the gender of its source? Silly.

Inter-urterian warfare breaks out in outer gonadia .

sturge.. capn kangaroo.. I used to quote tom terrific to my kids (poor things had no idea what I was talking about)

'i hate you crabby appleton, you're rotten to THE core!, hehehe

Report Cites Firefight as Lesson on Afghan War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/world/asia/03battle.html?hp

That firefight, a debacle that cost nine American lives in July 2008, has become the new template for how not to win in Afghanistan. The calamity and its roots have been described in bitter, painstaking detail in an unreleased Army history, a devastating narrative that has begun to circulate in an initial form even as the military opened a formal review this week of decisions made up and down the chain of command.

The 248-page draft history, obtained by The New York Times, helps explain why the new commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, is pressing so hard for a full-fledged commitment to a style of counterinsurgency that rests on winning over the people of Afghanistan even more than killing militants.

You are an idiot, dark lord. I didn't dismiss Dooty because of his gender. I was referring to the fact that the sanctity of marriage crowd is about dicks. It's"if these men will just take care of their poor little women..."

There are women who think the same. Feminism is at its core about economics. Name calling, ugly jokes, all that BS causes women AS WORKERS to be marginalized. Whining about people's marriages and whether someone has a "cheating" husband also marginalizes.

see Dark Lord, I would have warned you but my intertube crapped out.

So, Patsi, sanctity of marriage is not a tenant of feminism? It is ok for everyone to fuck anyone they choose without consequences?

I never knew it was about my dick. I always thought it was about respect for the mate you at one time professed to love and honer by not fucking everything in your path.

learn something new every day.

honer = honor

London Evening Standard to become free newspaper

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev is to make the London Evening Standard a free newspaper later this month, after more than 180 years as a paid-for title.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/02/london-evening-standard-free-newspaper

Well off to the spark lab to help Larry paint Flamingo Mountain .

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264390

Bob, you bad!

The October number of Vanity Fare has a fascinating article about William Manchester and the writing of The Death of a President. A particularly striking paragraph with current resonance is:

“In that third year of the Kennedy presidency,” Manchester wrote, “a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed, ‘Impeach Earl Warren.’ Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas.…Radical Right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kennedy’s name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars.” A retired major general ran the American flag upside down, deriding it as “the Democrat flag.” A wanted poster with J.F.K.’s face on it was circulated, announcing “this man is Wanted” for—among other things—“turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations” and appointing “anti-Christians … aliens and known Communists” to federal offices. And a full-page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in The Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party; when it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, “Oh, you know, we’re heading into nut country today.”

The entire article is worth reading at:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/death-of-a-president200910

Vanity FAIR

Flatus -
The chocolate story headline made me start thinking about weird looking words.

Patsi..My take is that Letterman didn't use Merril Markoe (spelling of her name uncertain).

They worked together, created the shows, broke up after many years, and she continued to work for him for a few years after.

The 2nd woman that has been in the news this week was no secret.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264387

Patsi,
I just lov you!!! With a lot of men,gay, straight or otherwise its always about their dicks..I don't believe a word from the "sanctity of marriage"on the issue of fidelity...Some folks just love to feel superior to those who have fallen short..

"Whining about people's marriages and whether someone has a "cheating" husband also marginalizes.'

So true,Grace was feeling no sympathy for Mrs. Edwards the other day because she stays with John..I say its none of are damn business!! Marginalizes,oh ya...

"And, Tony, adultery in the military is also really, really frowned upon. There's no way that the military will tolerate a soldier messing around with another soldier's spouse while that soldier is overseas."

Flatus,
I thank you for your valuable info on the military.I think under those circumstances they would have to be tough as not to disrupt the whole unit or group.I just wish they could look upon gay people kindly.If a gay person does something wrong fine, but just being punished for who you are is terrible..

"your beloved Big Dawg is a pig"

Dooty
And you said, i think last week we Hillary supporters hadn't moved on!! Take a page from your own post,move on...

and do you dispute the fact that Big Dawg is a pig, Tony?

Do you think it is ok for someone in a committed relationship to get a blowjob or two?

Clinton was a good president. He has had a past that involves infidelity. Monica, Jennifer Flowers to name a few.

USF just beat Syracuse 34-20. This makes South Florida 5-0 with 185 points taken vs 47 given. Go Bulls!

"and do you dispute the fact that Big Dawg is a pig, Tony?"

Dooty'
I do. I know infidelity hurts a lot of people.It is not up to me to judge President Clinton or John Edwards or anyone else.I do judge folks for this and many other things,i'm human.I try however not verbalize it.I have had many judgements thrown at me for being a deviant gay man,so pardon me if I'm not the first in line to do it to others..

"...but just being punished for who you are is terrible."

Tony, I agree.

I think the military leadership recognizes that there are many gay people serving with distinction, and that without those people, the military would be worse off.

I think acceptance of gay people is less likely in the lower ranks where soldiers, many still adolescents, are trying to come to grips with their own sexuality and how to react to it.

Yes, it is bad. And, I don't see any real change until young gay people are totally accepted for their worth as human beings by straight people in the same age groups. I'm talking about kids in the middle and high school ages.

Once that occurs, full rights to serve will become a matter of course for all Americans.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264409

Flatus,
I tell you,you are a visionary and such a kind man!!

"I think acceptance of gay people is less likely in the lower ranks where soldiers, many still adolescents, are trying to come to grips with their own sexuality and how to react to it."

I met a young man (20) Jake the other day,or i should say he insisted he was going to meet me, but that's another story,ha ha.Jake like so many gay young men, seek out older gay men to help them figure things out.I was struck by a comment from him and it makes me feel so bad,he said "I just hope no one ever finds out"!! I told him give yourself time to figure out your sexuality before worrying what others will think,impossible..

So, Tony, then by your statement that it is not your place to judge you, then, condone infidelity. Is that true?

Doots, I love ya man, but I too try not to judge. Life is too friggin short, and we (all) only get one kick at the can. Some people (both genders) get in a bit of a panic when they realize they are mortal afterall, and go a little nuts thinking it's the same damn boring thing day after day. It's a human condition, and I try not to judge people on their human foibles. And those who are the most pious generally end up being pointed at and singled out for their own human failings sooner or later. It's also none of my business, in general, what other people do with their lives. Particularly stand up comedians. (Well, I really feel the same way regarding politicians too, I didn't think it was such a big deal with Clinton, I don't think so with recent repubs either, it's just the pious hypocrasy that makes me laugh.)

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264411

Dooty,
I'll try again.Do I want infidelity in my own committed relationships NO.I think its up to people involved in those said relationships to figure out.Do i judge people who have committed infidelity, sometimes,but it is not up to me to call folks who have cheated PIGS!! I didn't like it the few times i was called a deviant fag...I otherwise enjoy your posts and of course realize, you are entitled to your opinion...

(Well, I really feel the same way regarding politicians too, I didn't think it was such a big deal with Clinton, I don't think so with recent repubs either, it's just the pious hypocrasy that makes me laugh.)

Ty
Your a hit with me,this is what i'm sayin...

dooty, just curious but where on that continuum of human interaction do you draw the line? infidelity could be (as jimmy might say) the lust in one's heart or when one chooses to spend more time, money, compassion, respect on someone other than their committed partner
or the unwarranted hug, kiss on the cheek, pat on the rear
or flirting
or sensuous dancing
or ?????

LOL

"He who is with out sin cast the first stone"

Doots seems to be the agreived party here, didn't realize he , the big dawg and HRC had a three some going on.

Me, I'm too busy dealing with my mairrage to worry about yours.

That includes spending my weekend at work because my wife wants to play by helping me. But she does have great ideas for landscaping the house. $20 worth of landscaping done by her may make $1000 or more.

Jack

Dooty,

I think you are being too harsh. It isn't a matter of condoning or not condoning. People are a composit of good and bad qualities. It is up to the parties involved to decide what they value most.

Given a choice between an absolutely faithful but coldly manipulative man and a guy who couldn't keep it zipped if his life depended on it but treated me with loving kindness, I would probably ditch Mr. Fidelity in a heartbeat.

No relationship is perfect and at some point there will be rough and even painful patches for a whole variety of reasons. The couple might weather the storm or it might destroy them as a couple.

The RW obsession with Clinton's sex life injured the country and I blame him for being arrogant enough to think he wouldn't get caught or it wouldn't matter, but I blame the RW for the damage done. From that point on it was up to Hillary not me. If she doesn't think he is a pig, he's not a pig.

I opened up my suitcase that I haven't used since my trip to Las Vegas 3 years and I found a unopened pack of Trident gum in it. LOL! I know people who have cheated and I know people at work who have cheated. It's not as if what Letterman did never happens. Doesn't make it right, but Dave's not the only one guilty of that.

"I didn't like it the few times i was called a deviant fag..."

I don't believe I have ever said that to you and if I did I am terribly sorry.

man oh man, gotta love Helen Thomas!

ok the series of events goes like this.

1. I asked Flatus if Clinton getting a blowjob after he said sex in the work place was a bad deal.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264355

then he answered and I was satisfied.

2. Patsi said this: http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264369

3. when Patsi said Letterman was always a sexist pig and that is when I brought the big dawg into the conversation. People seem to give Clinton a pass and not the others and I was trying to find out why. I admit to not being a very good interrogator but this is the best I can do.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264415

Patd,

not sure what I think is infidelity. Probably a moot point now as I am too old to act on any desires anyway. Too broke also.

dooty, if you are talking about sexual harassment in the workplace, the thing one considers is the financial power/authority the harasser has over the harassed (and this doesn't mean just the object d'amour as such actions can affect others who can claim unfair favoritism). letterman could fire, promote, and increase salary of said harassee but the dawg may just be a dog and not a sexual harasser since monica was an unpaid volunteer, temporarily lending a hand (so to speak).

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264419

Oh Dooty,
I'm sorry! I didn't mean you said that to me.Its happened before from so-called Christians in my work place of GM..I could tell you stories of the little effeminate Madonna wantabe Blake.Poor Blake couldn't hide who he was ever,such a nice man,quit GM because he couldn't take all the abuse..I have never in my life seen such injustice done to a person in the work place!! Guess what,not even the UAW looked out for him...Homophobia rules,no surprise...

If Bill had managed to keep his pants zipped, or at least if he had not lied about it so blatantly, it's likely Al Gore would have beaten Shrub, and a whole other alternative history tread would have ensued.

Oh well.

CJ,

I think what you just said would make an interesting book on what could have happened.

I'm not convinced that it was Bill that harmed Al Gore's run. Poll after poll indicated that Bill himself would have won if he'd been able to run again. The Gore campaign RAN from Bill Clinton like he had swine flu, when in reality he COULD have gone on the campaign trail and reminded everyone just how well things had gone under his presidency. Granted, it would have driven the 'morals first' crowd mad, but that's always kinda fun.

BTW, I loved what Craig pointed out on Facebook a couple of weeks back.. those Values Voters who chose to have their big meeting on Rosh Hoshana didn't value religious holidays very highly did they???

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264423

patd,

I don't think sexual harassment in the workplace is going to apply to the Letterman case. From what little that has been said in the news about such, it appears to me that the relationships were entered consensually.

"unpaid volunteer, temporarily lending a hand (so to speak)."
LOL very clever.

guess who's book is amazon's no 1 seller

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/02/sarah-palin-going-rogue-memoir

"the relationships were entered consensually"

dooty, evenso others in the workplace can cry "favoritism" and point to an unhealthy atmosphere that harmed them. his legal bills could pile up as he nosedives into regulatory hell if a complaint is filed with the appropriate state eeo authority before the statutory limit has run. he might win in the end, but a whole lot of lawyers, comics and pundits will be a lot richer in the meantime.

could be that is why my daddy always told me never to get my lovin' and paycheck in the same place. Have always maintained that rule.

there are many cases of the "boss" marrying his assistant.

patd

It doesn't take a whole lot to send a book to number one, and when you have an obsessed mob like the far right buying blocks of books, then that is what happens.

My copy of Craig's book is shipping on Monday. I'll have a full set of the author's work. :-)

jamie, we need to put a spur under imus saddle. this is the kind of race to no. 1 that he's good at and imo he would rather see our gracious host beat her out of that honored position. imus of course will get all the credit.

Tylenol,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264412

I couldn't have said it better myself...not even close. and you too Tony your comment at the same time is right on. What some do over look, is that it is part of what makes us. part of evolution. Fidelity to ones mate for life, is rare.....and lots of personal circumstances that are not know to others.....science now has proof of even most of the animals that they thought never strayed....they do...they have their fling...and go back to the nest.......

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264434

Solarman,
Good comment from you also.OMG,what I have seen at GM from married friends of mine.Damn,if i would have started calling them out for cheating,i wouldn't have had any friends to speak of..Gay men too,we are not the most faithful to say the least..

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264435

Tony, thanks that is the exact reason I was on this jag today. Clinton did and so did Letterman. So what?

Al Gore should have used Clinton to win by a landslide...he did win without him, but was to weak to go after what he won...he let the bully take his lunch money from him...........so did Kerry...D's are just to damn nice when it comes to losing the white house...and this is proven even in today's congress where they should be the fkn bullys...they are still running scares of the R;s

In my bar hopping day's I used to ask the women bartenders.....When does sex happen: Mentally, or physically....most said the latter...me I said give my a cig and a drink im tired already...its mentally........thats where it all starts....the rest is physical relief...but the mental.....

On a completely different topic (cos I think we've talked Letterman to death -- Was just counting up the 'creepy' moments that he's had to deal with: woman stalker who invaded his home for years, a seriously-dangerous contract construction worker who was planning to KIDNAP Letterman's son and nanny, and now this IDIOT who not only tried to extort 2 million from him, but also threatened his son... I'm GLAD he went to the cops!)

Anyway, on a completely different topic, I was reading Thomas Friedman's weekend column, and the similarities to the pre-Rabin assasination days is ..indeed..creepy. If it's already been linked here I apologize. I've heard some chin-waggers complaining that Friedman ..yadda yadda yadda..usual 'elitist' bullshit.. nevertheless, a great column, and one that we should take seriously

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264436

Hi Dooty.
I don't like Letterman,never have..It has nothing to do with his personal sexual life..I do try and not judge,its hard.I have worked hard at not judging, especially about sexual matters, because so many have judged me for sexual matters..I like President Clinton faithful or not..

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264438

Ty
Thanks for that,yes very scary...

Patty Loveless is on "Prairie Home Companion" this evening, performing from her new album.

http://www.pattyloveless.com/

Wilco is there too.

http://www.wilcoworld.net/

yesterday we were discussing "Lonesome Rhodes" and "A Face In The Crowd". This is an excellent Salon article about the state of political communication While stirring up the ghosts of Bud Schulberg and Larry Gelbart

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/03/gelbart_schulberg/index.html

I can't remember now where I read it cos I've really made the 'elitist media' rounds today, but someone else was drawing comparisons between the rhetoric thrown at Obama and that which was thrown at JFK. We live in scary times, my friends.

Tylenol

You read it right here courtesy of Cajun Joe. You could just stay here, all roads lead to Craig. :-)

He was citing the Vanity Fair article at

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/death-of-a-president200910

i KNEW I saw it somewhere Jamie.. lol

Hey Patsi,

It aint all about d----ks as you said, here:

"The body consists of three parts - the branium, the borax, and the abominable cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o, and u."

the race what's been on......live george and pickers galore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9b2zB3HwOM&feature=PlayList&p=71481F7EAB173E88&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11

Dang,

I can't even spell blank words right:

d----ks= d--ks HA!

XR,

Come out of hiding. I don't care what anyone say's...that there is funny.!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264449

“On every standard metric we have for quality, the VA continues to outperform the private sector"

A good article from Bloomberg on real government run healthcare at the VA

"Vets Loving Socialized Medicine Show Government Offers Savings "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aLIc5ABThjBk

Jack

See, Doots -- here's the problem. You don't even realize what you say. For example -- the comment about being too old to act on your outside-the-marriage desires. WTF? Does your wife know this? Oh ye of such sanctimony?

And Letterman has made sneering jokes about women for YEARS! I have yet to hear Clinton make one.

I said it before and I say it again: feminism is at its core about ECONOMICS! It is NOT about whether men keep their pants zipped. That's just in your dreams.

Pat Benatar with out the spandex
Singing Harry Chapin's Shooting Star

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

Jack,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264451

I have been in a union almost all of my life..the last one local 786. for 14 years......since I lost my insurance I signed up for the VA. So far I would say that they are much, much better than the insurance that I had before.

Today a pair of orthotic inserts for my shoes came in the mail...I wore them to go to take a walk to the library...excellent...has to cost around $300.00 bucks.....the VA is the best right now...and im still impressed by their professionalism....what did make me uncomfortable: When I went for my fitting....I saw a lot of women soldiers that were injured.....

When ever I talk about the VA to some one that knock government programs...they don't know what to say..cos they know that it is the best out there for our soldiers...and they can't knock them can they?..its all my team or nothing bs. out there imo.

Solar

I took my father in law for his physical at the VA he is an old WWII vet.
It was interesting they are way ahead with their record keeping when compared to the private sector hospitals.
The had a computer in the examining room and the doc pulled up all the info and entered new info right there as we talked. I was very impressed. No doctor with the big thick folder and they took time with him something my doc doesn't have time to do.

Jack

Tommy Chong's youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/citizenchong

Solar,

My VA experience mirrors your. I have been in the socialist system for about 5 years now. My pills come when I order them and I get to see my doctor about ever 3 months. Except for a telephone operator everyone I have been in contact with there has been most professional.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264456

Jack

I have the same thing with the Community Health Care system here in WA that services Medicare and low income. Very modern, all the computers connected to all of their clinics and the hospitals. Not that I expect it, but if I were found unconcious on a sidewalk somewhere, the little card in my wallet would allow them to bring up five years of medical information.

These non profit and government systems work very, very well.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264452

Patsi,
you are wasting your breath. I don't care what you think. You are the one that told me I was too old to learn. I said what I mean. The wife knows I am too old to act on any fantasies I might have.

the problem is all yours Patsi. Not mine.

i mentioned writing an anglo-saxon blues tune the other day.....and now i see that john d loudermilk wrote a blues tune about the normans about after they put the arrow in harold's eye.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-oRnVnGq5w

roni specter:

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

Here's one for the serious runners in the crowd. An amazing achievement for someone who does her training at 20-feet above sea level:
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/running/article1040716.ece

Jack,

Ditto, about the computers that the doctors use at the VA I was very impressed that there is hardly any paper work...by the time that the doctor has told you to go to a different department...
by the time you get there,,he/she has already passed on the information along...they just ask you what you last 4 numbers of your ss # is and , bam its all there, and people that are talking to you, blk, white, indian, hispanic, all of them seem to talk to you like a human beign , and not just some one to move along....

makes me want to stay and talk to them...but I don't want to keep the next guy from the same treatment...and ii is impossible to get lost...everyone asks you if you know where you are going...even had someone drop what they were doing, and walk me to the right place......the only complaint that I have is that Im not covered for dental, vision, or the cabeza, lots of little green men talk to me. HA.!

Dooty, its a good thing that we can go to the VA. Im going to take your suggestion about dropping the past..do the same with Patsi will you cousin, those squabbles are from the past...

The spark lab lives.

Makes you want to think: If the politicians really wanted us to have single payer...which is the only thing that makes any sense to me...all the other programs are examples of capitulation, to the corps. Why isn't the VA program talked about, put up as an example. etc, etc.

What kind of argument can someone against it have; when you tell them that both our soldiers that fight in our wars are R's and D;s and that they are both very satisfied with the government health program that all of the tax payers provide for them...and....etc, etc...

Flamingo Mountain is ready.

Flatus -

From way back up th thread .....

Missing Persons - Words

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cJDpTTppB0

" What are words for ? "

" I think I'll dye my hair blue."

" What are words for ? "

When no one listens anymore.

Humble Pie - Black Coffee

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

--------------
To everyone in the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Guam , this morning.

Everyone a salty dog I'm sure.

Molly Hatchet: Flirtin With Disaster

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

Green Grass and High Tides

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R82OM5tzcrk

--------------
Because we all love guitars.

1,026,201 views

Little Bill -
" You be William Muny out of Masurra .... killed women and children. "

William Muny -
" That's right, I killed just about everything that walks or crawls, and I'm here to kill you. "

Col. Stonehill -
" He's a notorious thumper,.......... man I would not want to share a bed with."

" I am Spartacus "

" We keep you alive to serve this ship, so row well and live. "

" Think ya used enough dynamite there Butch ? "

Glad y'all got everyones sex lives staightened out today. Guess there is such a thing as too much information

"the problem is all yours Patsi."

LMAO -- that's what they say when women want equal pay.

"Craig is scheduled to appear in studio on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8:30 AM ET to talk about his new book, "Listen Up, Mr. President"

hip hip hurray craig's on imus!

hope the i-man takes up the challenge of whose book stays at no. one on amazon

"Will California become America's first failed state?Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state staff are being paid in IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike. So what has gone so catastrophically wrong?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debt

tony, good thing you just got 'dillos to worry about. it could be worse.

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=tallahassee&sParam=31735305.story

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264461

Mr. Fish

You reminded me of Cleo Laine and John Dankworth doing jazz versons of Shakespeare Sonnets. I have "Shakespeare and all that Jazz".

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264483

patd

We should have put up a wall on the EASTERN border and never televised the Rose Parade. It was a great place until the invasion starting in the late 50s and early 60s. If they had asked we would have just kept shipping the oranges and raisins, they didn't have to move in.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264484

Hi Pat
Yes,I'll take the dillos any day...My sub-division is 5 miles from town in the country,we have been having troubles with wild hogs,but bears,OMG i hope not..Oh ya,we keep having to have gators removed from the lakes surrounding us..Oh Nature...

GIVE me women, wine, and snuff
Untill I cry out "hold, enough!"
You may do so sans objection
Till the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.

---John Keats

I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance
with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

--Langston Hughes

whoa.. i need more coffee.. cudda sworn tony said 'I'll take the dildos any day' ...

Harlem Sweetiesby Langston Hughes

Have you dug the spill
Of Sugar Hill?
Cast your gims
On this sepia thrill:
Brown sugar lassie,
Caramel treat,
Honey-gold baby
Sweet enough to eat.
Peach-skinned girlie,
Coffee and cream,
Chocolate darling
Out of a dream.
Walnut tinted
Or cocoa brown,
Pomegranate-lipped
Pride of the town.
Rich cream-colored
To plum-tinted black,
Feminine sweetness
In Harlem’s no lack.
Glow of the quince
To blush of the rose.
Persimmon bronze
To cinnamon toes.
Blackberry cordial,
Virginia Dare wine—
All those sweet colors
Flavor Harlem of mine!
Walnut or cocoa,
Let me repeat:
Caramel, brown sugar,
A chocolate treat.
Molasses taffy,
Coffee and cream,
Licorice, clove, cinnamon
To a honey-brown dream.
Ginger, wine-gold,
Persimmon, blackberry,
All through the spectrum
Harlem girls vary—
So if you want to know beauty’s
Rainbow-sweet thrill,
Stroll down luscious,
Delicious, fine Sugar Hill.

Good article on some of the "whys" behind surging health care costs

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20091004_What_s_behind_rising_health_costs__Lots.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYZazW9Ja1k

plunk your magic twanger, froggy...........

Univac.......the giant electronic brain......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd63MHGQygQ

VERY good article, Jamie -- thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs&feature=related

the long version with a bit of history.......

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264490

Ty
Ha,i know,never seen that coming! Maybe, Ive had to much iced tea...ha ha..

A Psalm of Labouring Life

Tell me not, in doctored numbers,
Life is but a name for work!
For the labour that encumbers
Me I wish that I could shirk.

Life is phony! Life is rotten!
And the wealthy have no soul;
Why should you be picking cotton,
Why should I be mining coal?

Not employment and not sorrow
Is my destined end or way;
But to act that each tomorrow
Finds me idler than today.

Work is long, and plutes are lunching;
Money is the thing I crave;
But my heart continues punching
Funeral time-clocks to the grave.

In the world's uneven battle,
In the swindle known as life,
Be not like the stockyard's cattle--
Stick your partner with the knife!

Trust no boss, however pleasant!
Capital is but a curse!
Strike,--strike in the living present!
Fill, oh fill the bulging purse.!

Lives of strikers all remind us
We can make our lives a crime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Bills for double overtime.

Charges that, perhaps another,
Working for a stingy ten
Bucks a day, some mining brother
Seeing, shall walk out again.

Let us, then, be up and striking,
Discontent with all of it;
Still undoing, still disliking,
Learn to labour--and to quit.

--Franklin P. Adams

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/opinion/04sun2.html?th&emc=th

"The Damage of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"

"Sixteen years after passage of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, there is reason to hope that the military is edging away from its destructive opposition to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly. At the very least, a prize-winning essay in a prominent military journal suggests that the issue is open to debate and even dissent.

The essay, which won this year’s Secretary of Defense essay contest and was reviewed in advance of publication by the office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was published in Joint Force Quarterly. It was written by an Air Force colonel who researched the impact of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The law was enacted in 1993 after President Bill Clinton tried to lift an existing policy against homosexuals serving in the military and met strong resistance from military and Congressional leaders."

if you get your magic wish lamp
you might find yourself with fish camp

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/opinion/04rich.html?th&emc=th

"The Rabbit Ragu Democrats'

"The public is not wrong. The administration’s legislative deals with the pharmaceutical companies were made in back rooms. Business Week reported in early August that the UnitedHealth Group and its fellow insurance giants had already quietly rounded up moderate Democrats in the House to block any public health care option that would compete with them for business. UnitedHealth’s hired Beltway gunslingers include both Elmendorf Strategies and Daschle, a public supporter of the public option who nonetheless does some of his “wink, wink” counseling for UnitedHealth. The company’s in-house lobbyist is a former chief of staff to Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader. Gephardt consults there too."

"if you get your magic wish lamp
you might find yourself with fish camp"

and a sultry, sexy vamp
who on hearts will sweetly tamp

not quite keats, huh, sturge.

perhaps not.....but that "sexy vamp" has a nice ring to it......

ms ella singing about that vamp from savannah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdb--NSa_kA&feature=fvw

KABUL – Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The U.S. has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers.--------NO we do not want to go population centers....
Is this why the need for more soldiers to go into the more populated areas? Keep on task!http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091004/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

What is the task?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/04/snl-obama_n_308979.html

"SNL Vs. Obama: Sketch Details All The President's Failures Since Taking Office (VIDEO)"

"Saturday Night Live" opened its show with a particularly harsh send-up of President Obama last night. The critique focused on failed promises, as a checklist repeatedly appeared to the right of the screen that had "NOT DONE" checked off next to the following categories: global warming, immigration reform, gays in the military, limits on executive powers, torture prosecutions, closing Gitmo, withdrawing from Iraq, improving the status of the fight in Afghanistan, health care reform, etc."

upping the -amps, here's miz ella again and some guy named frank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwRhMn6D2U&feature=related

it seems that the eternal task
might be to peer behind the mask
oft propelled by brimming cask
or turkey carried in a flask

being i am just a lass
of what of me do ye ask

when in the glow of lass i bask
there's but one question will i ask
it's not, my darling, "what's your sign?"
it's only "did you bring the wine?"

how oft i've heard in my time
that gently proffered glowy line
it's not the wine i mine
but the meters of the whine

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/your-money/03money.html?_r=1&hp

"The High Price of Being a Gay Couple"

"Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection.

Two-year-old Evan plays with his dads, Kevin Yoder, right, and Harvey Hurdle at their Philadelphia home.

But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number — a couple’s lifetime cost of being gay.

It was much more complicated than we initially imagined, and that’s probably why we’ve never seen similar efforts. We looked at benefits that routinely go to married heterosexual couples but not to gay couples, like certain Social Security payments. We plotted out the cost of health insurance for couples whose employers don’t offer it to domestic partners. Even tax preparation can cost more, since gay couples have to file two sets of returns. Still, many couples may come out ahead in one area: they owe less in income taxes because they’re not hit with the so-called marriage penalty."

I'll let mr congreve have this one:

prithee fill up my glass till it laughs in my face
with ale that is potent and mellow
he that whines for a lass is an ignorant ass
for a bumper of wine has not its fellow.....

thoroughly abashed
by your poetic panache
that silly plume oer cyrano's tomb
is swept aside, makes room
for words magically merged
at the whimsey of the next urge of sturge

when i wish to atone for my transgressions
i seek no church to spout confessions
it's not i find church pronouncements murky
but I'd just rather go to worky......

and so......i go

The affordability of any health care reform continues to be an unresolved issue & perhaps an issue that can not be satisfactorily resolved.

'The issue of affordability has been lurking in the background & is nowhere near resolved yet..... It's tricky because it doesn't take a lot of people to make affordability a political problem. It just takes some very visible & understandable cases."

A family of 4 headed by a 45 year old making $63,000/year is in the middle of the middle class. But
that family would pay $7,110 to buy its own health insurance under the Baucus plan. The family would
get a tax credit of $3,970 to help pay for a $11,080 policy, but the balance due---$7,110 is real money.

Most of the uninsured are in households headed by someone who's self-employed or works at a business
that doesn't provide coverage.

The legislation provides the most generous subsidies to those at or near the poverty line.

But as income rises, the subsidies taper off. A family
making $45,000, would have federal subsidies that
would pick up 71% of the premium, but for the family
with an income of $63,000, the subsidies would only cover 36% of the premium.

Another problem is that people won't be able to get the insurance tax credits immediately after thebill passes.

To hold down costs ,the assistance won't come until 2013, after the next presidential election.

To accomodate the affordability problem, Baucus' committee voted to exempt millions of people from the
requirement to buy insurance & reduce penalties for those who fail to do so.

But that would mean leaving at least 2 million more uninsured--not very satisfying to Dems who started out with goal of coverage for all.

"Health care bills may be hardship for many"--- Middle
class Americans would still struggle to pay insurance

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33161911/ns/politics-health_care_reform//

This time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKiyoQwiYDc&feature=related

Green Span is on cnn. He says that " unemployment will likely go beyond 10%" I wish that he would just go away...I put a large part of what we are going thru, on his doorstep. Can't these people just take the money they robbed and go away??

Super Typhoon Melor -

Winds at 161 mph gusting to 195 mph.

http://metocph.nmci.navy.mil/jtwc/satshots/20W_041130sair.jpg

If you like hamburgers, you may want to invest in a meat grinder

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1&hp

Buford,

Maybe not this time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJoi2QpbiF4

Sarah Palin Has Some Relatives In Australia

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/sarah-palin-has-some-relatives-in-australia.html

C-Bob,

Thanks for what you wrote the other day.

No one needs to be bothered by my local inner fun. All that needs to be said is that it's been the sort of year which anyone is absolutely required to not take personally ever, at all, for one second.

Like everyone else I'm unhappy with this absurd carnival in the Congress and The White House. I agree with Dooty and Flatus about there more than one working model for general healthcare reform in the Federal government.

I'm sure all the parties mentioned know this.

So here's my suggestion. They are all acting the way they are because exploitation replaced public service some time ago. The only way to stop them from exploiting the public is for the public to make a threat that will overtake their own excessive comfort and luxury -- and act on it legally.

Why does the public put together a class action suit that would strip higher ranking elected and appointed Federal officials of their "platinum coverage" and replace it with something on a truly modest scale?

That would be a real public option.

Hello 9/11

Glad you spoke up again. We miss you around here. How are you and Miss Birdie doing?

And while the health care turmoil continues, there is not much attention to the efforts to 'regulate' Wall Street.

Frank Rich: "The Rabbit Ragu Democrats"

"Next up will be the overhaul of financial regulations.

In his speech marking the anniversary of Lehman Bro. failure, Obama chastised Wall Street for having taken irresponsbible risks.

But of course it is already back doing exactly that.

Meanwhile we're hearing of behind-the-scenes Cong.
softening of perhaps the most promising component of the White House's modest financial regulatory package, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Real estate brokerages are being exempted from its purview & banks will not be required to offer 'plain vanilla' mortgages.

As in health care, the question of what the White House will really fight for in financial reform remains open."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/opinion/04rich.html

She's doing very well. Her artwork is doing at least as well, maybe even better.

As for me... here's an exchange my mom started with me this week:

Her: I know that these last seven years have been like dog years for you.

Me: And we both know that this one's made up of not just one dog but a whole pack.

Oh, I'm glad to see you're a Dodger fan. I can't tell you how much I miss Walter Alston's teeth.

Why is Senator John McCain referring to the "Democrat Party" in that disrespectful and derogatory manner of the right-wing (as I just heard him do in a CNN-played clip)? I wince every time one of them says that. I thought he would be above such pettiness. I guess not.

"....strip higher ranking elected and appointed Federal officials of their "platinum coverage" and replace it with something on a truly modest scale?"

9/11, would you consider a modification based on the conflict of interest concept? strip just those who have the power to give and receive benefits thru legislation and veto of that legislation or executive order..... the house, senate and president and their staff.

perhaps then we would see an expansion of medicare to cover all citizens.

Mister Crawford,

I am so glad you got a hall pass of some kind to show up on FBN on Imus.

Afterwards we can all watch your book's sales status on Amazon take its ride up Numbers Mountain.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264528

9/11

I was a Dodger fan before they left Brooklyn. When I learned they werevery intelligently joining me in Los Angeles, I started bleeding that shade of blue for life. :-)

patd,

That is nicely nuanced and effective.

I tend to work with a guillotine. It's fun but American politicians are built just like hydras so headchopping doesn't really accomplish much.

All of the news channels are talking about Afghanistan, and Pakistan...and as usual...too late in talking about it,,,the harm has been done already...but later is better than never...40k more troops..

If we had the draft, we could give them a lot more, some of them the sons and daughters of the privileged congress ,and senators..some have them,,but very few, serve now, ...if we go to war...they should be the first to go...lets see if Obama's kids will go if he keeps up these wars..in a few years his kids will be old enough to be able to go.....are there any Bushes in the Military today?. The fighting and dying is just for the unimportant ones..

I have never bought into the thinking that an all volunteer military is that much better than the draftees...they are all trained. Another example of bipartisanship when it suites the two party's, they passed the laws in order to protect their own children........Charlie Rangel had this one right.....If the sons and daughters of the overfull were drafted we would have the troops home, and would not have so many wars...imo

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264531

And his will be honest numbers rather than the block buys of political operatives.

Jamie,

Did you ever go to see them play at the Coliseum?

It was THE most bizarre placement of a ballfield in a stadium EVER.

My neck muscles never really recovered (though I had a particularly fine view of a classic Moon shot).

How lousy was it? It felt more comforting sitting inside the ever crumbling Wrigley Field watching the L.A. Angels play.

9/11, the threat that needs to be made, but is beyond fantasy, is for a boycott of insurance companies. consumer strike. go comando, get their attention.
at least by those whose premiums are outrageous, only enhancing business profits rather than promoting or paying for healthcare.
who knows, that extra third more in one's pocket that's not being paid to the greedy cos may instead be used to pay for the healthy food on the table or the home that's being lost.

Solar

In the lower ranks an all volunteer army tends to come from the lowest economic rungs. It amounts to drafting cannon fodder that the US considers unnecessary economically. If they manage to survive and can take advantage of the schooling gained, it is a good thing. If not, too bad so sad sorry if anybody misses them.

It also means there is no real pressure to end a war, because nobody near the top is feeling the pain.

jamie,

That's the ugly thing. Do you remember who started that on a major scale?

Dave Pelzer who wrote the feverishly worshiped and fervently doubted "It" books.

overfull=powerful.

Coreen, Last week a family down the block moved out of the house that they lost....they had a moving tuck move them: Late at night, probably was embarrassed to death...we never heard a word about them being in trouble.....very sad.! this is happening all of the time now...and while the banks have their hands out for monies from the tax payers....

Jamie,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264538

Agreed 100%. I don't like this 40k more troops, could pivot right into Iran..

US Officials Hope to Spin IAEA Inspection Timetable as Threat
US Grudgingly Concedes Yesterday's Talks Were Positive, Issues Same Demands Over Again

As every other participant in yesterday’s talks touted them as a significant step forward, US officials have continued to maintain as skeptical a tone as they possibly could, maintaining that their patience remains limited and issuing the same demands for IAEA access that Iran had promised days ago.

Despite the Administration’s false claims of having “uncovered” the facility, the revelation of the still under construction facility and the talks following it to arrange for inspections have been pretty routine, if mysteriously punctuated by repeated international demands for Iran to agree to arrange such inspections and repeated Iranian insistances that they already were doing so.

Still, the timetable has provided plenty of excuse to speculate, including claims by David Albright that the few weeks of time before the IAEA arrives will give Iran time to conceal all the scary covert things the hawks can only assume they are doing in a facility that isn’t even close to built and hasn’t had any nuclear material added to it.

This speculation about what Iran could possibly do with a partially built underground facility has led to insistances that, despite the concessions given by Iran yesterday, they are merely “stalling,” and has led to US vows that they won’t allow such stalling to continue much longer.

In rural areas of Indonesia, weddings are communal, open-air affairs. Some 400 people attended the nuptials of a couple in Pulau Aiya, a village outside Padang, last Wednesday. Then the ground shook and swallowed everyone up.

"They were sucked 30m deep into the earth," Rustam Pakaya, head of the Indonesian Health Ministry's crisis centre, said yesterday. "Even the mosque's minaret, more than 20m tall, disappeared."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/indonesian-earthquake-they-were-sucked-deep-into-the-earth-1797309.html

"Argentine folk singer and activist Mercedes Sosa has died aged 74 after suffering kidney problems.
Sosa's popularity in Latin America spanned four decades, but she fell foul of the Argentine junta in the 1970s.
Her latest album has been nominated for three Latin Grammy awards, which are due to be announced in November.
Dubbed "the voice of the silent majority"......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8289370.stm

one of her songs "gracias a la vida"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOJ-A5iv5I

patd,

The most dangerous thing I feel that may come out of this All Drama Obama chaos is one that MANY Republicans have advocated for years... which is the canard that opening enrollment nationally in out of state insurance programs is the best solution to the premium crisis.

Which means that employers will simply go to the states that have the fewest regulations and controls over what insurers must provide and produce to get the cheapest, weakest group insurance packages.

This would be the healthcare equivalent to Congress destroying the Glass-Steagle Act.

And if that does happen it will be due to Obama's super cute refusal to set the rules and standards for how Congress will formulate health care reform.

Who knew there was such a thing as bi-in-the-sky-partisanship until the glorious age of hope and change began?

Starting a conversation here about Congress. It seems to me that having life a little too easy living a life of power and influence courtesy of other people's money has blinded members to economic realities.

If you are wealthy you could buy a great piece of art that is likely to increase in value, buy land, build a house, or invest in long term assets. Instead you choose to head for the race track and do nothing but drop money on horses who couldn't win if they were the only equine in the race.

Congress seems to be betting on an awful lot of horses rather than investing in assets for the nation for the long term. The money is going in at the top to spread around those who broke the bank in the first place rather than directing funds towards infrastructure, education, and job developmet that will build a solid tax base for the fture.

An all to familiar occurence Solar and while foreclosures continue, personal bankruptcies are expected to be 1.5 million this year.

Some relevant points about Wall Street:

"The Coming Bank Bust"by Nomi Prins (Daily Beast)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-03/the-coming-bigger-bank-bust/?cid=hp:mainpromo3

Off to the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze.

Can't think of a nicer way to spend a Sunday afternoon
Jamie, have fun.

As the pendulum has swung since the VietNam debacle it is now 'unpatriotic' to criticize our military. But much of the blame for the failures in Afghanistan can be laid to military strategy. As General McChrystal pursues his political agenda, pushing his preferred outcome in London even as the civilian leadership debates it at the highest levels (and bordering on insubordination) the failures of our military in Afghanistan continues to play out.

We still do not have a clearly articulated definition of 'victory' in Afghanistan, and lacking thatwe are only throwing more resources into, yes, a quagmire.

Suggest you read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/03/AR2009100303048.html?nav=rss_email/components

Coreen,

Thanks for that Link:

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264546

From that article, and why we it all ties into my thinking that the Single payer , and other things that this or any other beneficial program for the public would never take place..it is the fn GREED of the two party s: I am not against corps make money, even a lot of it so trickle down could work...but against the kind of greed that enslaves us all.....

.Why are our religious institutions exempt from feeling the pain...tax them as everyone else..and we could have HC. or more cash for them to steal...never mind.......I give up....shoot me now.!

Bernanke chose to approve the banks for marriage, rather than send them to therapy.

This is the same Fed that didn’t think big banks were big enough going into last fall’s crisis, so decided to make them even bigger. Here J.P. Morgan Chase, you take Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. Bank of America, you take Merrill Lynch. And Wells Fargo, you take Wachovia. Bernanke chose to approve them for marriage, rather than send them to therapy.

There are several members of Congress skeptical about the notion of leaving the keys to the kingdom with the king who didn’t protect it, notably Ron Paul (R-TX) and Alan Grayson (D-FL), leading the march to adopt HR1207, a bill to audit the Fed. Yet, the Obama administration has backed the Fed for chief big-bank watchdog from the get-go.

What they and Bernanke are really saying is, let’s watch over the really big Lego towers and hope they don’t fall. What they should be saying is—cue 5 year old—let’s divide up the tower into mini-towers, which will reduce the possibility of a fall. Meanwhile, the trillions of dollars in bailout support that the big banks have received this year confirms the notion that whoever is watching, they will be protected from failure—with public money and lots of Fed backing.

A violin made of wood treated with a fungus just bested the real McCoy — a Stradivarius crafted by the great master himself in 1711 — in a sound test in front of 180 people.

The fungi-infested violins were created by Francis Schwarze of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research and the Swiss violin maker Michael Rhonheimer.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/etc/091001-fungi-infested-violin-beats-strad.html

Good one Joe,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264549

Maybe im too simplistic. But thats they reasons (wars) that I see why we can't have single payer or anything else..they want all of the money for these wars...and my fear is that we are to heavily invested in them, (oil) to stop now??

I haven't watched cable news for weeks....Fareed Z. is on now...I thought that he was on a 2 o'clock.

We still want to liberate Columbia it looks like.....some guy named Uribe is running on the platform on the war on drugs...he says that him and Obama are on the same page....he is running a Change campaign HA!

I thing that we better give Mexico a hand on the war on drugs...before its too late...they are the new Columbia...and is effecting all of our cities.....OH, and legalize drugs..all of em...will be a lot less people dying from them,,,,then from bullets......

Amanpour- is on cnn now......later

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264528

9/11,
You should share that wonderful comment with Lard. Today's post is his last for awhile as he takes a well deserved R&R.
http://seanholton.wordpress.com/

How about a new middle east policy. Energy independence for America whatever it takes. Disengage from the region altogether

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264533

I wonder what happened to Hydramatic Drives.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264552

eeww, must feel icky putting that violin under your chin.

btw, how did they get small enough sheet music for the little critters to play?

And, what a pain, having hazmat driving you to and from all your concerts.

Sandwich Price Calculator

Behold! Thanks to extensive ingredient price data gathered while compiling How Much is Inside a Sandwich? I am now intimately familiar with the financial resources required to build a sandwich. To share this knowledge with the world, I present to you the Cockeyed.com Sandwich Cost Calculator!

http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/sandwich/sandwich_calculator.shtml

flatus, can you imagine what would happen if the health dept shows up to disinfect the concert house premises from h1n1?

meanwhile, back on the thread of the day, when will we know when gibbs' conscience begins to bother him? and do we know for certain he has one?

what's the usual shelf life for a potus spokesperson? anyone interested in a pool as to how long he hangs in or will he go the whole distance

They would just report it as being a new strad of the old one.

I like the dedication to The Book. There are lots and lots of those devoted people.

You'll have to buy a copy to find out.

Flatus,

Please feel free to do that. A chemosabe with whom I share a lot has developed what LL is fighting: his fight is almost over. That shadow's all over me and I don't want it to touch anyone else.

patd,

It's all an episode of Entourage to me.

In it Gibbs is Turtle (to whom nothing is more important than serving Vince)...

Johnny Drama is Joey Biden...

Obama, of course, is specious ol' Vince...

E(ric) is D(avid) Axelrod...

And the agent Ari Gold... don't ask me why... but somehow he strikes me as being Rahm Emmanuel.

9/11

It's been done. Cancer sucks so bad. And it's with you until you die of something else.

So, what keeps people going? Clearly, it's the human spirit that people around here have in abundance. Same with Lard's group.

WPost's Dana Milbank on Helen Thomas: "Her backbone has proved stronger than that of the president she covers".. http://bit.ly/418ly1

Helen Thomas is great. I wish the President had even half of the strength of this woman.

You will all be pleased to know that we solved the mystery of the maze. Poor Clucky Unlucky was slain with the Sickle in the hen house by Ma Kettle. Home made chicken noodle is on the menu tonight.

The new batch of kittens were very affectionate. The goats and sheep obediently ate out of our hands. The calf and piglets were appropriately livestock looking.

In addition, I picked up blackberry jam, apple butter, fresh picked corn, squash, beautiful baking apples, and a couple of sugar pumpkins for home made pies.

Sick of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck bogus books topping the charts? Buy Helen Thomas' new book.. http://bit.ly/Fsl4b

How Effective is American Healthcare?

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/08/how_effective_is_american_heal.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE

I'm on my way to the movies. I'll stop at Border's and see if they have the Helen Thomas book. If so, I'll buy it.

Craig,

My copy should arrive next week. Save me an autograph card unless Seattle gets scheduled in which case I'll do it in person. I really want Helen's John Hancock.

Reminder. C-SPAN's documentary on the Supreme Court starts tonight

http://c-span.org/

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264567

9/11 S(so),

Jeremy Piven's character in "Entourage" is based on Ari Emmanuel, Rahm Emmanuels' brother, who is a high-powered talent agent in LA.

Yup. And he was Piven's hated agent and Piven has his hated client --

Until the Los Angeles Department of Environmental Control had to physically separate the two to detoxify much of Beverly Hills and all of Brentwood

How toxic was the combination?

I believe it led to Piven's hairplugs. Wait. That may have come from the month that Emmanuel used Piven's head as his buttplug.

Flatus,

At the moment I am taking five chemos (one for each finger! or maybe one for each remaining working braincell!), one of which has the first sweetiepie nickname for a treatment I've known -- "the red death".

The point is that it is a way of life like any other. And life is a generous thing... even in ways no one may want. You just have to learn to see (not rationalize) the generosity.

At any time it can be an adventure, a privately tempering development, a monthly commute or a step into a world made only of broken funhouse mirrors whose shards shred you every moment.

One of the reasons my year has been grotesque is the famous, dirty, cash over the table incompetence of the FDA cancer committee which approved a treatment as "remarkable" for my exact condition as something new when it had been around in a too similar form since the days of WWI when doctors operating on wounded or dying soldiers exposed to mustard gas observed that undiagnosed cancer tumors were shrinking in front of them.

But I had a very swollen node in a dangerous place. And I was officially inured to all chemos that treat my condition.

My mustard gas variation moved metaphors up one war... as it turned my once impassable immune system into a Maginot line. I took a walk to the hospital's ER, they put me in the resuscitation ward. About five doctors believed I was going to die. But I wasn't going to put my daughter through that over a ridiculous chemo.

After than came another experience as living fable.

As my platelets had finally hit zero, my options for treatment were even more limited until/unless they restored to around 60K.

So my doctor (who I respect immensely) did what she would never do. She pursued a very hard to get approved experimental treatment with virtually NO real research (just six cases in Israel and Greece similar to mine except -- as I kept stating -- these refractory cases had been in treatment at the most for all of two years where as mine started as a featured attraction at the St. Louis Exposition).

And she got it.

And I took it. In it I took in three months as much Rituxan (made from mouse genes so it's GOT to be good!) as I had in the previous year... along with lots of fresh frozen plasma and everyone's favorite IV equivalent of peanut butter, gamma globulin.

From the first week I knew it would do nothing.

I also knew that if I stopped I would quite possibly never be granted another shot at another experimental treatment.

It was a mess. But the plan was to give me three months off to take on a new hobby of restoring my GI tract. (There is a huge rah-rah for Rituxan out there and in large part it deserves it, particularly for people with NHL and RA. But by now there should be real studies about its long term harm. Just not what the industry will do... or even the major cancer institutes pursue except for M.D. Anderson.)

However four weeks ago a large fruit basket of nodes erupted on the already distended left side of my neck. (It exceeded my jawline by well over an inch.) The right finally got jealous and began to emulate it.

Now, Flatus... here is a punchline that people with cancer learn.

This may be a good thing. A refractory moderate condition that goes suddenly aggressive may become response to treatments.

The first week of it (which featured only two of the five in total) was the only good first week of treatment I've known in seven years. In truth, it may have been the only good week ever as all those new nodes were very much reduced.

But the costs of it to my body keep rising. And the sweetiepie chemo which is the star of the show hearts the human heart muscles, num num num.

So I do what I do. I look at things as both adventure and practical things to solve in simple, disciplined ways.

One thing which certainly is helping my not having any of the predictable cancer/chemo/post-prednisone pain is my figuring out a workable dose of turmeric capsules. As it happens, a number of growing studies have explored it as a method of reducing nodal tumors or supporting chemos.

I also figured out a way to keep my once prednisone maddened blood sugar levels in the normal range with kefir, kombucha and herbs.

That's another thing we like.... that wonderful cliche of turning the wheel and feeling the car move.

I know that my having a combination of a chronic incurable condition that's also a nasty cancer is an impossible thing for people to wrap their lives around. Which means my life in relationship despite many good attempts and some talent is over.

But the real thing cancer teaches you is not redemption (doesn't exist in this world except for cans and bottles) or revenge (chasing your DNA with a knife or peeing in your gene pool) --

Restoration. The thing that oppresses, cripples and even destroys people in all manner of life is the horrid sense that so many things have been taken from us... or lost by us... or even destroyed by us... that will never be known again.

Oh, but they will and they are.

You just realize that the form in which they're known is not one in which you knew or sought it before.

A little over a year ago I spent so much time with a brilliant, harried teenager from LA who was sent to MSK here in NYC with a case of one of the most daunting cancers, Ewing's sarcoma.

I knew his mom, dad and stepdad. Which made me know someone had to be there for real.

The bond was remarkable. One piece of mine changed his life, he felt, because it changed his understanding of life. And he began to write.

I'd turn up there even when I was falling forward out of my own chemo rounds.

It was great.

He's now at a major Ivy League school and contrary to his damn LA doctors 100% cancer free.

We had the most beautiful farewell day in Central Park. It was my turn to be wiped out. But that day's life buzzes in me still.

I never heard from him again. I understood: he's 17, I'm 3000. His cancer is gone, mine is here. We existed in our time. The goal was that he exit into his own.

Nothing could be lost there, Flatus.

I hate the walk through time this year the same way soldiers hate long wars that may take them lives but give them... what?

Yet... yet... yet...

So many things which are experienced at first as curses are revealed in the fullness of time as blessings.

Why wait 'til the last minute?

And with that... it's never about the outcome.... just about the music and the dance.

"The thing that oppresses, cripples and even destroys people in all manner of life is the horrid sense that so many things have been taken from us... or lost by us... or even destroyed by us... that will never be known again."

9/11, I am so disappointed that I wasn't here today when you were. I've been wondering how your experimental treatment was going. I've only read your last post, and it is so beautiful. I'm glad to hear that your teenaged friend is cancer free, and has become a writer.

And this: "... it's never about the outcome.... just about the music and the dance." is so much like you. I would give any ting to be able to think just the way you do. Your writing takes my breath away.

I hope you're being here means that you're feeling ok today. Now I'm going to catch up on the rest of the posts.

(made from mouse genes so it's GOT to be good!)

Maybe you had the blessings of Walt and sundry fair Prince Charmings and Princesses in waiting for same.

Unless your last name is Sondheim, fairy tales always end with "They lived happily ever after".

Hi Chloe..

jamie,

Well... his second act finale of Into The Woods lets you know that knowledge is never enough...

The penultimate lyric's heart is here --

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
Co learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen

Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen

He is SO careful to expose that the power of a wish goes beyond any person's imagined outcome.

Yet he makes sure that these characters who have been through just about every challenge and loss over two acts sing this final chorus --

Into the woods
And out of the woods
And happily ever after!

And the one who perhaps was learning the most from moment to moment still cannot help herself --

Cinderella calls out, "I wish!"

jamie,

Perrault's fairy tales did.

Andersen's... rarely.

Oscar Wilde's... never. (Say "The Happy Prince" and I will start bawling.)

And the Grimm stories... those are the greatest things EVER.

chloe,

I'm still here.

If anyone here is a Mad Men fan.... I figured out why Matt Weiner named Sally's teacher of all things "Suzanne Farrell".

Wanna know?

Hi Tony! It's going to take me a while to catch up, as I'm very scattered today. Too much going on,

They were talking about missing you over at Carols a little earlier. Did you cook today?

Wanna know.

chloe,

Farrell taught Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) ballet.

I love Weiner.

jamie,

You probably saw Moss years ago as Baby Louise in the Bette Midler version of Gypsy.

Here's a lost wonder.

In the mid-forties Decca took Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and combined four truly great talents to record it.

Orson Welles and Bing Crosby to perform the text.

Bernard Herrmann to conduct the score (which I never read any mention of when I used to hang out on the Bernard Herrmann Society site).

Victor Young to conduct it.

Someone made this exquisite video to match the soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIPaS10r-T0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JApl4-mgZ0&feature=related

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264584

Into the Woods is my favorite Sondheim just because of the unexpected places where the wishes take you. Of course before all of that happens, one of the great comic lines for all Princes.

"I was raised to be charming, not sincere"

Met him and like the Baker's wife said, "What was that?"

jamie,

And Lapine screwed so with his own libretto when he restaged it (with tricornered hats!) this decade.

Why????

9/11

Have no idea since I didn't see it except that lapine can go off on totally unfathomable tagents.

I have the Bernadette Peters version on DVD and watch it at regular intervals.

9/11

Reading your description of the series of events that have plagued you reminded me of a similar string of tribulations that were heaped on another fellow.

Finally, he dropped on his knees and cried, 'Dear Lord, why is all this happening to me?"

And, the skies opened and the voice of God descended, "There's something about you that pisses me off."

More simply, gallows humor is better than no humor at all and whatever that presents.

And, Chimeric mice! I'm approaching my 100th infliximab infusion. Without those little mice, my RA would be crippling, and my Crohn's, well, who knows what that would be like. The only side effect is this craving for Vermont Cheddar.

And, Stinky, she's the one with cancer, worries about me. Go figure.

Flatus,

It is kind of wonderful that the mabs can do so many things to different elements of our GI tracts.

A friend with Crohn's suggested I take two artichoke extract pills with both breakfast and dinner: it has helped immensely with that mess.

But that's love, Flatus. The secret of love seems to be twofold.

1) That a person can see the other person's well-being as being at least as important as their own (and often more)... and

2) That the person who gives in that way never uses such giving to stop themselves from receiving that other person's love.

Vermont cheddar, huh?

Flatus,

Here's something I just remembered.

One of my chemosabes is a lovely guy in his seventies, a doctor who is the co-head of rheumatology at Mt. Sinai here in Manhattan. (Truly lovely man.)

From the time he was in med school he became a passionate believer in biological meds.

It was this man working with my hematologist (his lifelong best friend) who worked out the Rituxan protocol for RA.

And here he was... sitting... taking a biological med to successfuly treat his own NHL.

Hey -- do a little reading on turmeric and cell wall inflammation if you'd like. That matters with RA, Crohn's and cancer.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/10/play-of-the-week.html#comment-264578

9s-so,

I thought you might not have known that and would be blown away by the revelation. Foiled again!

dark-lord,

You're just too good for the sake of your own evil.

"Hey -- do a little reading on turmeric and cell wall inflammation if you'd like. That matters with RA, Crohn's and cancer."

Thank you, 9/11, I will. Hope I can understand those big words.

9/11........very pleasant to read your write-a-graphs again........

Jack: I once sailed with a geezer who lost both of his arms and part of his eye.

Gibbs: What you call him?

Jack: ...Larry

It's that adinamycin chemo, Sturge.

Makes you lose all your hair. (ALL your hair.) Pee red for days. And have to put up with months of both diarrhea and logorrhea.

the logorrhea would be well received here, by golly.....not sure about the red pee........

little johnny went to school and told them he'd seen about the butt-bomber on katie couric's news show last monday night......said that the bomber had stuffed a pound of C-4 up his ass and set it off with a telephone......

the teacher said: "Dont say ass....say rectum."

johnny said, "Rectum hell.....it blew him to pieces."

Drove by the wind generator farm near Indio today. The number of generators has maybe quadrupled, but they still only have about 20% running at a time.

I wonder if they're like nuclear centrifuges, you can't pack too many together without causing problems?

I declare HAT WAR on Sturgeone! I challenge that I have a better lookin' hat than my pal Sturgeone!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/dexter.friend

that's a mighty powerful opening salvo there, Dex......I shall return fire before the sun rises twice over this edge of america....

new thread, sturge

had to answer the challenge from my friend in the ohio regulars........How he's going to wage war with a plastic hat is beyond me, but if it's war then it's "To the Barricades"

NEW THREAD